A report by IDC pointed to a survey of workers that showed 57% of them used social media at least once per week for business purposes. It only makes sense that these tools, which have been optimized for usability and customization, are the tools of choice for business purposes. Workers find sites such as Facebook and Twitter much more user-friendly when it comes to communicating both internally and externally than some systems implemented by the companies themselves.

Workers are doing more promotion as well, regardless of whether they work in marketing, accounting, IT, or any other department. Sure, there are plenty of reasons to argue against allowing workers to use social networking sites while on the job (see Farmville) but the benefits can potentially outweigh the risks if the company takes the right stance on social media. Creating a Fan page and Twitter account for your company and then giving permission to employees to post to those social media portals periodically throughout the week can bring invaluable brand recognition, improved customer relationships, and can make consumers more likely to view your brand as a person rather than as a corporation. By connecting with people on a more personal level company’s can more successfully use their social media portals to promote sales, new products, and events without seeming like a robotic spam machine.

Some companies still see social media as a fad, but they will be playing catch-up with those companies which are “socially aware” – a term used by ChannelInsider.com to describe businesses who use social media to their advantage. Choosing to ignore social media can be a death sentence to companies, especially if they are part of an industry full of socially aware competition.

Creativity and ingenuity usually lead to success in Social Media campaigns, but sometimes you can be creative and successful by going old school. Volkswagen is doing just that by bringing back the old “Punch Buggy” game. Remember it? Every time you passed a VW Beetle on those long family road trips you and your little brother would exchange punches. It’s a game that pretty much everybody can remember being a part of at some point, which is why it makes for a great social media campaign. People can relate to it and get a tingly feeling of reminiscence.

So, starting with an ad during the 3rd quarter of this year’s Super Bowl, VW is reinventing the game and calling it “Punch Dub”, referring to their nickname “Vee Dub”. The new game allows punches whenever any VW is spotted, not just a Beetle. The modern version of the classic game will feature celebrity comedian Tracy Morgan (from SNL and 30 Rock). Fans of Volkswagen will be able to share their excitement over the reemergence of the game by going to VW’s Facebook page where they can become “Punch Dubbers” and dole out punches of their own and also get a chance to win a new VW CC.

The combination of bringing back a classic game with a chance to win a car and a popular comedian is something that will almost surely turn into a successful campaign. While most companies can’t afford Tracy Morgan, or a Super Bowl ad, the formula can still be followed by small businesses. Connect with your fans on a personal level by inviting them to get involved with a fun and quirky activity and offer them incentives to do so. Chances are, if you remind people of something from their past that they enjoyed, even something small like the “Punch Buggy” game, they will see your brand as more human and more fun. While it might not last long, such a campaign can leave a lasting impression on people and can leave them seeing your company as more Social Media-friendly.

According to B2B Social Media Benchmarking, a report from BtoBonline.com, the five most popular resources people turn to at work to get the information they need for their day-to-day jobs are:

• Webinars and podcasts
• Online ratings and reviews of business products or services
• Company pages on social networking sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn
• Company blogs
• Searches of business-related information on social media sites

Company size, job role, and industry all play roles in how much each of these resources is used. Larger companies are more likely to see success from social media marketing when reaching out to other businesses, but smaller companies can benefit as well, especially from online ratings sites. While Twitter is used less than podcasts and webinars it is still used for B2B by 41% of those businesses that use social media. Companies in industries such as marketing and advertising, computers and software, and the internet all are more likely to use and see results from social media than other industries such as legal or accounting.

A good rule to get the best results out of a B2B social media marketing campaign is to continually test different channels and keep an eye on what other competing companies are doing with social media and with what effect. Also, don’t spread yourself too thin. Focus on the most important channels for your company and maximize your results in that channel. This will be the year that more companies use social media for B2B but it will take some time and research before a solid formula can be developed for any company.

Best Buy's Twelpforce offers real-time customer service through Twitter.

The low-cost and efficient marketing efforts being driven by social media are targeting companies’ best and most loyal customers and also lower the overall ad spending budget. While the 14.7% drop in total U.S. ad spending in the first 9 months of the year was in large part due to the state of the economy, social media also played a small role in causing that drop.

Businesses can do more with less by using social media. Companies, like Best Buy and Domino’s, are using social media for customer service, promotions, and interactions not only because it is easy, but also because it is dirt-cheap, efficient, and effective. Advertising can be supplemented with social media without raising the overall marketing budget.

Best Buy uses Twelpforce -  a set of Twitter-connected customer service representatives – to answer customers’ questions in a timely manner through Twitter. Domino’s announced Monday that Facebook, Twitter and other social media will be a cornerstone of its campaign to promote a revamped pizza pie.

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Fast forward to the present and you’ll see the complete opposite is in effect. There is an all-out blitz on social media by companies wanting more customer-brand interaction. It’s not just feedback they’re looking for, but actual interactions and interest. Brands want to become more a part of their customers’ lives by becoming more involved with their daily social media activities. And it really is no surprise businesses would want to jump on the social media bandwagon. Over 350 million people use Facebook and it is one of the most visited sites on the web. It would be a huge mistake for a business to overlook the marketing benefits it could gain by tapping into that giant audience.

A brand can’t simply create a fan page and expect results, though. The user-generated content will never appear and people will never follow a brand that has nothing interesting to get people involved. So, brands are constantly soliciting responses out of the social media users by posting announcements, questions, updates, sales, polls, games, and anything else you can think of. The game now is for the company to get you talking about them. Good or bad they’ll let you speak your mind and leave your mark (they’d much rather have the good). The control is no longer entirely in the hands of the brand as they have given in to democracy where any person can voice their opinions. Sure, they could just delete the negative comments, but that is frowned upon in the social media world and defeats the purpose of the system.

In a time when user-generated content is constantly updating and flowing onto our smart phones, PCs and TVs, brands have become aware of the power of social media and have just one thing on their mind: What do you to have to say?

At TheBrewCrew.com you can check out the recommended beers of the week, find an event happening near you, and see the faces behind The Brew Crew. While you’re there you should take a minute to view their YouTube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/thebrewcrewteam) which offers up an array of entertaining videos hosted at local bars and starring delicious craft beers.

Become a fan of TheBrewCrew on facebook and you’ll get updates on the latest happenings, beer reviews and more. Following The Brew Crew on Twitter proves to be quite entertaining as this active twitter account tweets about events, local bars, and of course, brews. A recent tweet read, “Its getting cooler! What warms you up? Dogfish Chicory, Terrapin Wake n Bake, Bells Double Cream, Oskar Blues Ten Fidy. Cheers to stouts!” The Brew Crew really gets you thinking when you go to the store – “hmmmm should I stick with my regular beer or should I be a little adventurous and festive and try out that Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale I read the review about?”.

Have a question or want a beer suggestion? Tweet @thebrewcrewteam and you’re sure to get a speedy response. These guys really know what they’re doing with Social Media – they always respond  to tweets, direct messages, and RT others.

Probably the coolest thing about TheBrewCrew.com is the Beer Tracker which helps you locate your favorite beers in Central Florida (check it out here). Select a brewery, a product, enter your location and voila! An interactive map displays all the local places that carry the brew – so convenient.

One thing is for sure – The Brew Crew has successfully launched into the world of Social Media. They’ve covered all the major Social Networks, provided fun and entertaining content, and created a place for beer lovers to interact & discover good brews!

Although Social Media is all the craze, how effectively does it really work? Many companies care strictly about the one thing they’ve been trained to speculate – results – how can we measure the success of this campaign?

It’s easy with Search Engine Optimization, you can simply pop in a little bit of code to your website and a day later – voila! This many people visited your site yesterday, these are the pages they looked at, etc. Social Media isn’t so and it has been much debated online at how we can best measure it’s effectiveness.

It is stressed heavily by Social Media Marketers that the success of your campaign relies primarily on the interactions with your clients – your fans, your customers – developing a better relationship with them and understanding their needs so that your company can provide that for them. Social Media promotes your brand and keeps it fresh in the audience’s mind so that even if they don’t require your services now, if they do in the future they might just think of you.

Real Result: I created a Social Media Marketing campaign for a local 5K race that focused on Twitter and Facebook as the main portals for promotion. On twitter, I posted tweets not only about when the race was & where you could register online, but also tips on how to prepare for your first 5k, how to improve your running style, songs to add to your ipod, and other related current news. I followed local businesses, groups, and individuals using a geographic locater for twitter profiles and ended up acquiring a hefty following. Every week I received ReTweets and Direct Messages – no, not the auto-reply DM’s, but actual messages from people interested in the event. I made sure to always reply back and be gracious to those who RT’d and in turn, I developed a sort of fan base of runners on twitter. From that,  many people offered to sponsor or donate goods to the event and from Google Analytics and HootSuite I was able to see that Twitter and Facebook appeared in the top 5 traffic sources not only to the event’s website, but also to the online registration. That’s what a little tweeting can get you.

According to digital analyst comScore social media continues to have a big impact on holiday spending. Online spending has been hitting record highs this holiday season as more people are taking advantage of the convenience it offers and the discount promotions they find through social media. Between

December 4th and 7th 13% of respondants to comScore’s survey said that they read a consumer review of a product on a social media portal that influenced their buying decisions. 11% said that they took the advice of expert reviews found on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter before making their purchase and 7% revealed that they are fans of a company’s Facebook page so that they can get updated on deals. Twitter was used slightly less, with 5% saying that they follow a company on Twitter to get special offers. In all, 28% of U.S. consumers’ holiday shopping was influenced in some way by social media.

Many companies are tying promotions between their online e-store and their social media portals. Fans of companies on Facebook and followers on Twitter are being given exclusive access to specials, such as discount codes to use on the company’s web site. This is a great way for companies to maximize their ROI from social media. By giving people a reason to follow them on sites like Facebook and Twitter they are gaining a perfect target audience to which they can promote special offers and see, and track, almost immediate online sales resulting from those promotions.

E-commerce spending in in general has seen an increase, with nearly $16 Billion being spent online in the first 36 days of the holiday season, 3% higher than last year’s figures. The week ending December 6th had $4.6 Billion spent on the web making it busier than any online shopping week from 2008 or 2009. Even more impressive is that December 7th was likely they busiest online shopping day ever in the UK, although official numbers havn’t been reported yet.

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This is great news for all of us that use social media for marketing. Once the integration begins companies, and individuals, will be able to update their status on Facebook and have those updates, which could be carrying information on upcoming events or promotions, appear to the large audience searching the web. Along with Twitter feeds, RSS feeds, and blogs, the world of social media marketing is becoming more versatile and powerful by the minute.

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“Paranormal Activity”, a low budget horror film, used a grassroots internet campaign including a “Tweet Your Scream” promotion and became a surprise box office hit. The film about a young couple dealing with a demonic presence in their suburban home generated $7.1 million in gross box office revenue last weekend, an eye-opening figure considering it screened in just 160 theaters and was reportedly produced on an $11,000 budget. Many people tweeted things such as “Just got back from seein Paranormal Activity & I’m still LITERALLY shaking. Sleepin w/ the lights on tonight” and interest in the movie mounted quickly.

More big-budget films are also using the social media sites. The Warner Bros film “Where the Wild Things Are” grew from just 72,000 fans on Facebook at the beginning of October to over 1.5 million fans before the movie hits the big screen today. “Twilight” went live on Twitter Monday to promote its new sequel and grabbed more than 79,000 followers by Thursday. Its Facebook page already had 3.8 million fans.

The power of Facebook and Twitter, as well as many other social media outlets, is being utilized by more and more companies as they begin to realize the potential for growth and exposure that they offer. Raving about a new movie on Twitter will likely get a lot of that person’s followers to become interested in the movie as well, which is exactly what happened with “Paranormal Activity”. Internet word-of-mouth is a powerful and largely untapped tool. It is only a matter of time before more people, and more movie studios, catch on.

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