Looking back on an exhilarating 2010, I wanted to take a second to just say thank you. No frills, no flourishes. Just thanks. There’s a LOT of places you could go to get you social media and digital marketing fix, and I’m incredibly honored that you choose to spend time here.

As part of my look back at the ~150 posts that appeared here this year, I sifted the top 10 that received the most page views. To me, it’s an interesting combination of tools recommendations and bigger picture trend coverage – just what I’m shooting for here.

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David Siteman Garland is the author of the new book Smarter, Faster, Cheaper and is proprietor of the RISE To The Top video blog.

The book is chock full of specific, useful advice for marketing and business ninjas, and is based on David’s interviews with modern marketing legends like Seth Godin and Tim Ferris.

I turned the table on David and interviewed him about social media, personal branding, how to build your business without the fluff, and the commonalities between

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We can’t believe The NOW Revolution is almost here. Less than a month until it debuts, and we couldn’t be more excited.

The hardest part is wondering whether all of you will like it as much as we liked it when we wrote it. So, let’s find out.

If you have a blog (and not just a social media blog, we want to

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One of the continuous discussions and questions surfacing in the social media chatterbox is that of “who owns social media?” Is it marketing? Public relations (PR)? Customer service?

The answer is . . . yes. For the long-term, anyway.

You’re not likely at the point yet where you have social media wired into everything. Right now, you may just be trying to figure out where to get started and deciding who is responsible for managing it and accountable for the results that grow from it. That’s perfectly okay, and it’s where a lot of organizations begin.

As social media adoption expands in an

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People who say social media isn’t measurable aren’t looking very hard.

The truth is that there are at least 25 viable metrics you can use to evaluate the success of your social media efforts. The challenge isn’t measurability, it’s knowing which measures are meaningful.

Here are the 6 critically undervalued social media success metrics.

Daily Story Feedback

Instead of just counting the number of Facebook “likes” you accrue – which signifies nothing more than digital bumper stickering, instead track how often your fans click “like” and comment upon the status updates you post.

The more fans that click “like” and comment,

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Our new book The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social debuts February 1 (a few days later in stores). We want to make sure we get as many copies sold in advance as possible, as it helps convince the physical bookstores to order and promote the book. Plus, nothing says Happy Valentine’s Day like a book on social media’s transformative impact on modern business!

So, to sweeten the

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“Once upon a time, customer contact was centralized around the switchboard, and the phone was the preferred method for communication between companies and customers. When it rang, you answered, because it was likely a customer or a potential customer on the other end of the line. Now, the calls are coming through online, via the social phone.”

That’s wisdom from Radian6 CEO Marcel Lebrun (disclosure: Amber’s employer) about the changing dynamics of communication

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“Once upon a time, customer contact was centralized around the switchboard, and the phone was the preferred method for communication between companies and customers. When it rang, you answered, because it was likely a customer or a potential customer on the other end of the line. Now, the calls are coming through online, via the social phone.”

That’s wisdom from Radian6 CEO Marcel Lebrun (disclosure: Amber’s employer) about the changing dynamics of

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Phil Simon is a technology cupid. Whatever your company’s issues or objectives, he can recommend the optimal platform, rollout strategy, and operational considerations. In his work as a tech consultant, he’s realized the days of “big iron” – solving problems with huge, expensive systems are gone. Now, it’s the nimble, inexpensive technology that rules. So much so, he wrote a new book (his third) about it called The New Small: How a New Breed of Small Businesses

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