Open up your mind and say, ahh...

After a month of testing the new alpha version to invite-only users, Digg’s redesigned site is live for everyone. The new interface and functionality of the social news network focuses on the personalized news stream, “My News,” which shows stories dugg by users you choose to follow (similar to Twitter), rather than the most popular news (note: at press time, the new site is still experiencing some downtime issues).

The company has had a turbulent year. In April, Founder Kevin Rose became CEO after Jay Adelson stepped down, reportedly in part because Digg’s venture capitalists were frustrated that they had yet to see a return on the $40 million invested in the company despite staff cuts in 2009 to improve profitability.

The site has also been struggling with a decline in traffic, according to Compete.com, only further increasing the pressure to reinvent itself. Is this redesign really the re-imagining of a social platform or just a band-aid that will only stop the bleeding temporarily?

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A New Digg Experience

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This site also has an improved content submission process. The “Digg It” submission bar appears prominently at the top center of the page. Users no longer have to navigate to a separate page to submit content, and users can also easily share submissions via Twitter, Facebook or e-mail. Digg also has a range of new, unique features, such as saving stories to read for later.

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The SUL and Working with Publishers

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Taking more cues from Twitter, the new Digg makes it easier to discover users to follow with its own version of the Suggested User List, which includes media publishers and celebrity figures like Ashton Kutcher, who, by the way, doesn’t have nearly as many followers (4,000+) as he does on Twitter.

The SUL and Digg’s initiative to recruit big brands to follow seems to be paying off. Some of the accounts listed, including Mashable, have grown from a few hundred followers to thousands in just a month. In an e-mail sent to publishers this week, Digg’s new Product Manager Mike Cieri highlighted Digg’s help page for new publishers and its plans to “help publishers drive traffic and revenue, including improved analytics and reporting, additional incoming feed capabilities, and improving the discovery process to ensure all publishers are being found and followed on Digg.” Working with brands and publishers has helped generate user interest and revenue for sites like Foursquare and Twitter, and Digg will likely try to do the same.

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Too Much or Too Little Too Late?

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Despite the many improvements to the interface and overall experience on the site, only time will tell as to whether the redesign is too much or too little too late. First, the redesign may be too much of a shift for Digg’s core users, who have traditionally have driven much of the activity on the site, even after the “Top Digger” list was removed. Because the emphasis is now on a self-curated stream, its top diggers may be alienated. However, if the new functionality works to attract a more mainstream userbase, then Digg still wins.

Alternatively, the changes may not be enough. Digg is clearly taking lessons from the likes of Twitter and Facebook in regards to how content is being shared on those platforms. But is this new redesign enough? After all, content submission is still largely automated through a link submission process or an RSS feed, and the comments, opinions and conversation is mostly secondary part of the experience. This is still far from Facebook and Twitter, where the opinion and commentary of the user sharing the content is nearly as important as the content itself, featured prominently on in the Twitter stream or Facebook News Feed with the link or content blurb below.

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Conclusion

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What Digg may benefit from is the new seamlessness of the submission and consumption processes. Users that are looking for a curated stream alongside the popular content can do it on Digg. The majority of Digg’s userbase will likely find the new design refreshing and it very well may gain some traction among users that feel overwhelmed with the real-time news stream or the pontifications in their news feed. Better yet, Digg may attract a whole new audience looking for a place to discover news through curated sources.

What are your thoughts? Do you like the new Digg? Will the new version attract more users to the struggling social news site or is it taking its last breaths?

“I’ll be out of bed in five minutes,” is not a true statement because it’s a promise not meant to be kept. It actually means, “go away, I’m sleeping, I’ll say what I need to get rid of you.”

“Your call is very important to us,” is not a true statement either. The truth is self-evident.

“I promise I’ll tell the manager about this,” is of course not a real promise either. It might be uttered with good intent, or might be designed to get an annoying customer to go away, but still…

You can already guess the problem with little lies. They blur the line, and they lead (pretty quickly) to big lies. The worst kind of little lies are the ones you make to yourself. Once you’re willing to lie to yourself, you’re also willing to cheat at golf, and after that, it’s all downhill.

Companies that refuse to break small promises have a much easier time keeping big promises. And they earn a reputation, one that makes their handshake worth more.

Given that expectation and trust are just about all we have left to sell, it seems to me that little lies and small promises are at the very heart of the matter. And they’re a simple choice, nothing requiring an MBA or a spreadsheet.

It all depends on what you want to stand for.

RIM, the company behind the BlackBerry, has acquired mobile storefront operator Cellmania.

Cellmania has extensive experience in developing, managing and distributing mobile application storefronts for handset operators. Its mFinder white label system counts Telstra, Telus, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Sprint, Airtel, AT&T, Boost Mobile, Optus, Orange and others among its clientele.

On its website, Cellmania says that it will continue to support its existing client base even after joining RIM.

The Cellmania acquisition shows that RIM is willing to invest in a solid infrastructure for its platform. The BlackBerry App World just received a major overhaul, however, despite RIM’s large device penetration, available apps in App World pale in comparison to both the iPhone and Android’s offerings.

Still, it’s important to remember that there is a lot more to a robust application store — especially on the mobile front — than just having a large quantity of applications.

For instance, despite its soaring growth, paid app support in the Android Market is still limited to a handful of countries, as compared to the much wider international presence of Nokia’s Ovi Store and the iOS App Store. Google has also faced challenges with its mobile payment options.

This is where a company like Cellmania can give RIM a real advantage. Because it powers the individual app stores that mobile phone carriers tie to many of their feature phones, the company already has vast infrastructure in place for working with various carriers, collecting payments from multiple sources and accepting application submissions from developers all over the world.

Having a streamlined system for both delivering apps to users and collecting app submissions from developers will only become more important as smartphone usage continues to grow and other mobile devices like tablets become more prominent.

This forward-looking move may just give RIM some backend advantages as it continues to face tough competition from many different manufacturers and platforms.

I’m kind of weirded out by the Evesham Police use of Facebook to post mugshots and surveillance video of alleged criminals. On the one hand, I think it’s a potentially useful way to reach people, as Facebook is home to over 500 million users. On the other hand, there seems like a lot of opportunity to get this one wrong. I mean, most of these people are in the “suspected” and “alleged” category.

I’m curious as to your take. Is this where we’re headed, or is this a scary use of the technology. Again, I haven’t made up my mind. I’m just a bit fascinated by the usage. What say you?

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Shuffler.fm

Quick Pitch: Shuffler.fm is like Pandora mixed with StumbleUpon — a music and blog discovery service.

Genius Idea: Music fans, prepare to geek out. If you’re really into checking out new music blogs/always knowing about the latest music discovery and Internet radio services, Shuffler.fm was tailor-made for you. It’s basically Pandora for music blogs — shuffling through thousands of sites to display both blog content and new jams.

The site, which launched in alpha last week, is the brainchild of the Tone collective, an interactive media and entertainment agency. The first version is pretty simple; merely surf over to Shuffler.fm, choose a channel — anything from Alt-country to Dubstep — and let the music listening/blog-reading begin.

When the first blog pops up, the most recently loaded MP3 will begin playing (a la Pandora). You can choose to skip said blog and song and go to the next, or let it play out. Once one song ends, you’re taken to a new blog site, where another jam takes over. You can also pause a song and finish exploring the site in question. At present, you can’t browse a blog whilst listening to the entirety of the featured MP3s, but that feature is coming in the next iteration.

Some of you might be wondering how this service differs from ExtensionFM, a Chrome add-on we featured in a past Spark of Genius. Well, that extension functions more as a music scraper than a discovery system. After installing the plugin, you can surf to various music blogs, where ExtensionFM yoinks all available songs and transfers them to a playlist. A lot of my music blogger friends were not too keen on this plugin, actually, since they felt like it detracted from the content of the blog. Not so with Shuffler.fm.

“We take users page by page,” Co-Founder Tim Heineke tells us. “We give bloggers page views, and help users experience [new blogs]. The next flip of thumb  could open a hidden door with music gems on a cool music blog.” Currently, the service includes 1,600 blogs, but more are being added every day (you can even submit yours, if you so desire). Actually, Heineke tells us Shuffler.fm and ExtensionFM work quite well together — simply use Chrome to play with Shuffler, and lift songs that you enjoy for later listening via ExtensionFM.

Shuffler.fm plans to add more features as it continues to grow, including premium accounts and iPhone and iPad apps (in case you were wondering how the Tone dudes plan on making money). Currently, the free service is a great way to learn more about music via blogs, while also discovering some new tunes. You can also share selections with friends via Facebook, Twitterand e-mail. Now, if you would excuse me, a really awesome Thermals song just popped up and this blog looks rather rad… Goodbye, productivity.

[img credit: The Cleveland Kid]

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Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

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BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

When Gerald Roush died in late May, he left behind the Ferrari Market Letter. This newsletter, which he started and ran, had nearly 5,000 subscribers, paying him $130 a year for a subscription. Do the math! It’s a good living–even without a fancy website.

The newsletter, it appears, was not just lucrative, it was a bargain. It chronicled the pricing, whereabouts and details of just about every Ferrari ever made. If you were a buyer or a seller, you subscribed. If you wanted to run an ad, you were required to include the car’s VIN, which added to Roush’s voluminous database.

The Roush effect involves extraordinary domain knowledge, a market small enough to understand and diligently earning the role of data middleman. The players in the market want there to be one clearinghouse, one authority who can connect the data, see the trends and publish the conventional wisdom.

It might be a newsletter, a conference or an online database. The tactics don’t matter, but the role is indispensable. If you need examples to persuade you to try this, they won’t be hard to find. One of my favorites is my friend Michael’s role in the book industry. He’s bigger and more important than the famous (but failing) trade journal.

Just about every tribe needs a Gerald Roush. And in many markets, they can afford to pay someone like him very handsomely.

Every now and then, I draw comparisons between the things that inspire me offline in order to help spark creativity and evolution in the all that I do online. Inception served as a catalyst for rethinking social media and how we use it to socialize not just our marketing efforts, but our business overall. Weeks later, ideas germinated and here I am today, sharing my thoughts and observations with you. Indeed, Inception is the genesis for creativity and innovation.

If you have yet to see the movie, don’t worry, I won’t include any spoilers here. I will say that it is worth your time. For those who have experienced Chris Nolan’s masterpiece, perhaps you will share this vision and time with me to explore ways in which we can bend the realities we know to construct new paradigms for social business.

In the film, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Dom Cobb, sets the stage for the movie and subsequent analysis through poignant monologue that continues to resonate with me…

What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm?

An idea. Resilient… highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate.

The premise of the movie begins with extraction, but the moral of the story is underscored by inception.

If you’ve read Seth Godin’s best-selling book IdeaVirus, the power of ideas may already sound familiar.

Godin shows, the now-familiar idea of viral marketing is one very specific form of ideavirus marketing. Most businesses will not be able to engage in true viral marketing, but all can use the ideavirus approach

While my mind was already spinning with ideas and questions regarding the applications of extraction and inception in social media, it wasn’t until I read a review of the movie by Devin Faraci of chud.com that crystallized my thoughts into ideas. Faraci concludes that in addition to many things, the movie is Nolan’s homage to the catharsis of art and bringing ideas to life. As Farci observed…

The film is a metaphor for the way that Nolan as a director works, and what he’s ultimately saying is that the catharsis found in a dream is as real as the catharsis found in a movie is as real as the catharsis found in life. Inception is about making movies, and cinema is the shared dream that truly interests the director.

Faraci draws parallels between the cast of Inception, Cobb’s team, and how each role represents key players in the movie making process.

Cobb is the director. Arthur, who does the research, is the producer. Ariadne, the architect, is the screenwriter. Eames is the actor. Yusuf is the technical expert. Saito is the studio chief. Fischer is the audience.

Such is the framework necessary to lead the socialization of business. While today social media is led by a champion or team of evangelists that “get it,” its path remains a bottom-up process of forcing transformation through evangelism and experimentation. Eventually social media will lose momentum before its promise can be fully realized however. A team consisting of a visionary leader supported by capable specialists across the fabric of the organization is imperative to fully realize the opportunities and responsibilities that unfold with social immersion.

The Production of Social Media Requires a Dedicated Cast

Penrose Stairs illustrate the impossible objects that can be created in lucid dream worlds

Like the motion picture industry, we can also adapt the Inception team to the world of social engagement. As such, a successful social media team could (should) consist of the following cast members:

Cobb, The Extractor: Executive or management team responsible for the brand in large. This person or team is also required to not only extract ideas to adapt products, processes and services, but also introduce the new ideas that empower consumers to excel.

Director: The digital brand or marketing manager leading teams or individuals into each social dive

Ariadne, the Architect: Designers build and define the online experience as well as the bridges (and Penrose stairs) that connect the dots.

Arthur, the Point Man: Data and research analysts who gather information and intelligence and present it to the various teams for incorporation into strategies and supporting tactics.

Yusuf, the Chemist: Social technicians and alchemists who bring architecture to life through apps, landing pages, interactive media platforms, custom tabs and the like.

Eames, the Forger: Brand representatives who serve as the personalities and voices on the front lines in communities

Mr. Saito, the Tourist: Symbolic of the influencers who serve online communities as overseers and moderators.

Miles, Cobb’s mentor: The ethics that serve as the inspiration for meaningful social media programs and engagement

Fischer, the Mark: The audiences and people with whom brands hope to connect and convince.

In the movie, all of the other cast members in each dream are essentially projections of our own subconscious. Their actions and words are extensions of our interpretations and perceptions and are only as relevant as our pre-existing opinions, thoughts, and notions. It’s a metaphor for operating within a comfort zone, hearing and seeing only what we choose rather than opening our minds to the collaboration.

Inception and Extraction

While the movie is entitled inception, it begins with the idea of extraction – the ability to enter the dreams of others in order to “steal” secrets hidden away deep within our subconscious. But the film’s premise and its significance is rooted in something much more meaningful, the ability to seed ideas that come to life when we awake – inception versus extraction.

As discussed in Engage and also Charlene Li’s new book Open Leadership, it is this listening, really listening, that opens leadership to change and ultimately true collaboration and co-creation. It is through this unique understanding of the cultures, landscapes and the themes that fuel connections and communication. This incredible insight inspires relevant engagement and supporting constructs that galvanizes and empowers customers and peers to become stakeholders in all you do.

The extraction is the research and listening. It’s not enough to monitor conversations through keyword searches. It’s not enough to measure “automated” and mostly inaccurate sentiment. It’s not enough to track activity in terms of mentions, followers, likes, and comments. Extraction is the guiding light to relevance, resonance, and significance (RRS), social media’s critical path. And, it’s through extraction where we uncover opportunities for inception.

Important ideas are transformative, stimulating, and motivating. They change our outlook and perspectives and send us on new paths. It’s our responsibility to not only react with relevant engagement, participation, and programming based on extractions, but also lead communities through influence and the inception of impassioned, inspirational, and constructive ideas.

As Godin preaches, “Ideas that spread, win.”

Or as Cobb observes, “The seeds we plant…may change everything.”

By Brian Solis: www.briansolis.com

Did you know you can undo a sent e-mail in Gmail? It’s a lesser known feature, but Google just made it even better than it was before. When it first launched, you were given a 5-second window during which you could hit “undo.”

Now that’s up to 30 seconds, Google Operating System discovered.

The feature is hidden from most users who don’t know where to look, so here’s a quick guide to avoiding social and workplace faux pas with the click of a button. Be aware that the feature is part of Gmail Labs, though. That means it’s still in testing and it might not always work as intended.

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Go to Gmail Labs

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Since the Undo Send feature is part of Gmail Labs, you’ll have to navigate to the Gmail Labs page to activate it. Load up Gmail and look in the top-right corner of the page. Between your e-mail address and Settings you’ll see the green Labs icon. Give it a click.

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Enable “Undo Send” and Save Your Changes

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You’ll be presented with a list of features Google is testing in Gmail. Some are very useful and some are just fun. We’ve gone into more depth on all Gmail Labs has to offer in previous articles, but this time we’re here just for the Undo Send feature.

You’ll usually find it close to the bottom of the list. We’ve included a picture of it above so you know what you’re looking for. Just select Enable then scroll down and save your changes.

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Customize Undo Send’s Duration

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By default, Gmail gives you a 10-second window of time in which you may undo a sent e-mail. You can change that to five, 20 or 30 seconds by going to Settings (in the top right corner of the main Gmail page, right next to the Labs icon) and finding the Undo Send section inside the “General” tab.

There you can enable or disable Undo Send and change the duration with a drop-down selection box as pictured above.

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Write and Send Your E-mail

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Now that Undo Send is enabled, it works each time you send a new e-mail. You don’t have to do anything unusual beforehand to make it possible to use Undo Send with that e-mail.

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Click the “Undo” Button After You Send

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Now you have either five, 10, 20 or 30 seconds to undo your sent e-mail, depending on what you selected under Settings.

As soon as you hit Send, a subtle line of text will appear above your Inbox saying “Your message has been sent.” It will be accompanied by a few extra options. Among them is “Undo.” Click that within the allotted time and your faux pas will be prevented.

Note that you can hit “Z” on your keyboard, the Gmail shortcut for undo. Just don’t navigate away from or close this page, because once you do, you’ll lose the opportunity to undo your sent message forever.

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“Sending Has Been Undone”

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You’ll immediately be taken back to the e-mail composition page, and your e-mail will be in draft form, unsent and ready for further editing — or deletion, if writing it was ill-advised to begin with!

Image courtesy of iStockphoto , budgetstockphoto

It’s been a busy week here at Mashable HQ with the launch of Facebook Places. This round-up of resources from the past week or so comes jam-packed with tips and analysis, including a field guide to using (or disabling) Facebook’s new tool.

As always, there are some interesting entries across all of our coverage areas. In Social Media, check out five of the biggest emerging trends, some geeky web comics, and seven services for reserving your favorite username across the web.

Tech and Mobile offers 10 essential e-books for designers, some keyboard shortcuts for your iPhone , and an infographic on the rise of text messaging.

Business closes the round-up with a list of corporate blogs to learn from and great tips for aspiring copywriters and art directors.

Looking for even more social media resources? You can find this guide every weekend, where you can check out all of the lists-gone-by.

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Social Media

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• 5 Huge Trends in Social Media Right Now
  Social media is no longer just about status updates. It’s connected to our location, shopping habits, entertainment preferences, and nearly everything we do.
• The WikiLeaks Debate: Journalists Weigh In
  For better or worse, WikiLeaks has had important ramifications for journalism. We spoke to four pros for their opinions on the age of Internet whistle blowing.
• A Closer Look at the Privacy Features of Facebook Places [PICS]
  In addition to talk of what the arrival of Facebook Places means for startups like Foursquare , the aftermath of last night’s launch has given rise to a number of questions about privacy.
• A Field Guide to Using Facebook Places
  If you’re ready to start playing, here’s what you’ll need to know about Places.
• HOW TO/NOT TO: Ask Someone Out Online
  We’ve reached that point, folks: the zenith of awkwardness whereby the cables of communication are so plentiful that we are wound in a web of our own making.
• 5 Useful Facebook Trend and Search Services
  Want to know what people are saying on Facebook right now? Search the open data of the world’s largest social network with these 5 handy web apps.
• 7 Services to Find and Reserve Your Name Across the Web
  If you choose a different username for every site you’re on, it can be hard to create a consistent identity across the web. These 7 services can help streamline the process.
• 5 Trends Affecting How We Connect Through Social Media
  Social media is constantly evolving, and the conventions we use to interact and connect change all the time. Here’s a look at where we’re headed.
• The Future of Public Relations and Social Media
  We interviewed 14 PR pros on the future of public relations and how they see social media changing the industry.
• Why Location-Based Social Media Needs to Get “Passive” Aggressive
  Dropping whatever you’re doing to check-in at a new location is just lame. Here’s why the automatic, or “passive” checkin is crucial for the next level of geosocial services.
• 15 Great Geeky Web Comic Strips [PICS]
  Want to dive into the world of web comics? Here are 15 fabulous online cartoon sites and series that are perfect for geeks.

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Tech & Mobile

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• 12 Beginner Tutorials for Getting Started with Adobe Illustrator
  Illustrator is the industry-standard when it comes to vector art, but it can be incredibly intimidating to new users. Here are 12 tutorials to get you started.
• Top 5 Mobile Advertising Trends To Watch
  There’s no question that the mobile advertising market is expanding rapidly, but where’s the best value for your marketing dollars? These 5 trends may shed some light.
• 10 Useful iPhone Keyboard Shortcuts, Tips and Tricks
  Want to be faster and more productive with your iPhone’s virtual keyboard? Check out these handy hacks and features you may not even be aware of.
• HOW TO: Make Your Mobile Websites Act More Like Native Apps
  With all the different mobile platforms out there, it may be smarter to design one great mobile site that feels like a dedicated app on every device. These six frameworks can help.
• 10 Essential Free E-Books for Web Designers
  Looking to build your virtual reference shelf? Here are 10 of the best free e-books for designers, available as either PDFs or in HTML format, that will inspire and educate.
• The Rise of Text Messaging [INFOGRAPHIC]
  Did you know that 14-17 year-old girls in the U.S. send an average of 100 texts each day? Check out this infographic for more interesting SMS stats and facts.
• 10 Incredible iPhone Portrait Photographs
  These 10 gorgeous examples of mobile portraiture will change the way you think about cell phone pics.
• 10 Cool and Unusual Laptop Sleeves [PICS]
  Why not make a statement with your digital outerwear? We’ve found 10 unique laptop sleeves that will add some style and get people talking.
• 5 Open Data Apps That Are Improving Our Cities
  Here are five civic-minded apps based on the Open311 API that can help you help your city, one tweet at a time.

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Business

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• Why Social Media Monitoring Tools Are About to Get Smarter
  For a long time, social monitoring has been about tracking keywords. But recent advances have sparked an arms race in two fields: cluster analysis and semantic analysis.
• 5 Tips for Aspiring Copywriters and Art Directors
  We’ve interviewed some of the top creatives in the advertising industry to get their advice on how to break into the business.
• 5 Key Benefits of Monitoring Your Client’s Brand on Social Media
  If you’re wondering why you should invest in social media monitoring, consider these 5 advantages your business could glean from the process.
• 7 Steps to Measuring Your Brand’s Social Media Health
  Its not enough to have and execute a social media policy. You need to be able to gauge its success, measure it, and see that it remains healthy and vibrant.
• HOW TO: Make a Graceful Online Exit From Your Job
  When it comes time to kiss your cubicle goodbye, you can scamper away or you can tie up digital loose ends and depart with dignity.
• 15 Excellent Corporate Blogs to Learn From
  Although the act of blogging can be quite simple, forethought and planning must first go into the creation of a corporate blog in order to keep the processes running smoothly.

Unless you literally run your business with your ears plugged and your eyes covered, you are aware of the importance of social media and its impact on both brand and bottom line. However, while social media is the topic du jour in mainstream news, on blogs, in books, at conferences and at your local Starbucks, we may still underestimate its overall promise and potential.

The socialization of business is comparable to the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland or the red pill in the Matrix. If ignorance is bliss, awareness is awakening. Where there’s insight, there’s opportunity – but with opportunity, there’s also a cost. In this case, that cost is financed through learning, change, adaptation and innovation.

Social media is deceptive. It appears easy, free and yours to own simply for the price of admission and engagement. If this post were to live up to an alternate headline, say the “5 Easy Steps to Managing Your Brand Online,” the list might look a bit like this:

1. Monitor and listen to conversations related to your brand and competitors

2. Start a blog, create a Twitter profile, set up a Facebook brand page and broadcast a YouTube channel

3. Draft social media guidelines

4. Be transparent and authentic

5. Ask questions, introduce polls, curate interesting content and have fun

It’s not that the list is untrue or menial. In fact it’s where many organizations begin their journey towards a new era of discovery, relevance, and earned prominence. Keep in mind however, that as social media matures, consumers are becoming increasingly discerning. The simplicity of “Top 10” posts disguise the significance of this incredible (r)evolution.

They are mastering their social domains and experiences and, as a result, their attention is not only thinning, it’s focusing on the relationships and information that’s most beneficial to their regiment.

Rather than looking at the easy ways to use social media to manage our brand, let’s examine five next-level steps for managing and ultimately defining your brand online.

1. Listen and learn – Listening, monitoring, and reporting are obligatory cogs in the social media machine. Gathering intelligence to inspire meaningful and actionable social programs is, on the other hand, priceless.

Measuring share of voice and frequency of mentions is helpful in understanding what is happening in and around us. But if you expand your horizons to surface the share of all conversations related to your market and position within the broader landscape, you also discover missed opportunities and inflection points – along with areas for improvement, innovation and expansion.

2. React to and lead conversations – While many organizations monitor conversations related to keywords or respond simply to those who invite participation, the prospect of social media lies beyond first-degree dialog. This is a chance to leapfrog conversations by learning what it takes to lead them and then embodying the position you wish to gain.

Responding to relevant commentary is only the beginning. Introducing social objects that address needs or direct actions in the form of posts, videos, imagery and other commentary to demonstrate passion, expertise and leadership ensures a comprehensive rotation of inbound and outbound marketing, service and communication.

3. Divide and conquer – What becomes clear in those first points is that no one department owns social media. Depending on the industry, conversations usually align with distinct facets of business including service, marketing, product/service, HR, finance, etc. This is the beginning of the socialization of business. As relevant conversations and the information present within them are scrutinized, it becomes clear that they feed and are fed by distinct information. Prioritize and assign inbound and outbound activity based on a conversational workflow that reflects the nature of organized and relevant long tail discussions.

4. Adapt – Reactions to negative experiences don’t scale. Identifying recurring patterns of negative experiences and connecting emerging themes to those responsible in order to develop targeted and sweeping fixes negates widespread negative sentiment and alleviates unfavorable publicity. But it also does something more.

The acts of listening, responding and solving make for an adaptive organization. The process transcends lip service to action. As we all know, actions speak louder than words.

5. Design metrics into campaigns and measure performance – One of the primary reasons discussions around metrics and return on investment in social media are hotly debated today is because many of the examples we hear and see are designed without an outcome or measurable success designed into the program. That’s not to say that they’re any less important, however.

Metrics, by nature, are devised to document movement. As such, KPIs and ROI should get factored into the planning process of all social media programs. Introduce clicks to action, conversion opportunities and experiences with desirable outcomes, then compare activity and results to other programs to learn, focus resources and evolve with the market.

Social media is as dynamic and expansive as it is simple and complex. At the very least, the socialization of business is aspirational. We are competing for attention, affinity and commerce in forums where quick start guides and instruction manuals are in process of development and may never in fact, materialize. What’s clear, however, is that we are competing for both the present – and the future.

Written for VentureBeat

By Brian Solis: www.briansolis.com

Image Credit: Shutterstock