Since so many of our followers enjoy the 26 Social Media Marketing Examples that was started by our very own Lisa Braziel and later joined by Anne Brannon, who recently wrote Social Media Marketing Example #13: Miller Brewing Company, I thought I’d jump in and help keep the examples going.

In this example, I will cover the online reservation site OpenTable where you can find restaurants, make reservations and receive confirmation online in a matter of seconds.

At first glance I was not impressed with the Web site in the least, but one mention of the name and my colleague, Brian Friedlander, yelled out “I LOVE that site!” So I decided there must be much more to this and thought I’d further investigate. Since Brian was so enthusiastic about the site, I was curious as to why he loved the site so much so I asked. Apparently, one of the Top 50 U.S. Restaurants, The French Laundry, is a location that takes reservations only two months in advance (no more than, no less) and getting a reservation via phone is nearly impossible as you’ll consistently hear only a busy signal coming from their line. But thanks to OpenTable’s online reservation element, he was able to skip the busy signal and book a reservation at The French Laundry, via OpenTable.com, with ease.

Social media sites, by their very definition, are ephemeral creatures. Their mercurial nature is part of what makes them so intriguing. What is here today can be gone, or even worse, obsolete tomorrow. Just ask Friendster.

Tattoos, on the other hand, are permanent. They are the indelible result of a momentary decision, which is why I found the fusion of these two seemingly diametrically opposed concepts to be worth exploring.

Twitter Ink

There have been a couple of interesting Twitter campaigns that have ended with someone getting inked. One that sparked quite a bit of buzz was done by MGH, Inc. for their client, the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association. There was a push to see if @baltimoremd could beat out @visitchicago and @travelportland to hit 3,000 followers in a matter of hours, so to sweeten up the deal, they offered up the flesh of their Strategy Director. He wound up with a Fail Whale, suspended by little Natty Boh birds, in a nod to the Bal’more way.

I'll be the first to say that I love baby animals. Whether they are playing in TV, cuddling with their moms in a magazine photo or doing funny tricks on "I Can Has Cheezburger", I'm a sucker for those tiny furry bundles of joy. Like most people, this is just one of the reasons that I love National Geographic. With all of their TV shows, beautiful magazine spreads and online information, I thought they might be an interesting addition to our series: 26 Social Media Marketing Examples in Detail.

Let's check out how National Geographic is optimizing social media:

Facebook

I was immediately impressed by National Geographic's robust Facebook Fan page, touting an impressive 470,555 fans.  National Geographic wisely updates the page's status one to three times a week and provides a lot of engaging content in the Facebook tabs, met by lots of interaction by their fans.  With most brand to fan interaction happening on the wall, thousands have fans have "Liked" content or commented positively even when branded content is shared straight from nationalgeographic.com.  Taking a closer look, it appears that National Geographic isn't just sharing this content, but actively promoting fan activity and interaction.  For instance, instead of sharing a survey that lives on their site, they posted the link to the wall and commented, "Post your score and challenge your friends". Tailoring this content in this way is a great way to welcome and jump start involvement. 

Forrester's recent report on The Future of The Social Web made some interesting predictions about where social media marketing is heading, and how major brands will need to respond. We've clearly moved beyond Social Relationships and into Social Functionality, and the early signs of Social Colonization are clearly upon us. If they have it right, and we end up in an era of Social Commerce, the brands getting involved today will be at a tremendous advantage. And brands that don't seriously get involved will be watching from the sidelines in less than five years.

Nothing quite encapsulates the feeling of the weekend like a nice, cold beer. So, in honor of the many few cold cans I emptied this weekend, I am going to continue with our series of 26 Social Media Marketing Examples in Detail by examining the second most popular beverage on college campuses across the US: Miller Lite. Now if I could just get this headache to go away…

We all know that this golden purveyor of thirst quenching deliciousness is triple hops brewed, but what is the “original lite beer” doing in the world of social media? Let’s take a moment to examine:

Last fall, after planning a 3-week trip, I was attempting to sublease my prime location of a Brooklyn apartment on Craigslist. While attempting to dodge the typical sketchy Craigslist behavior, I got an email from someone promoting a site called Air Bed & Breakfast.

Air B&B is a listing site for people who have spare rooms or empty apartments they’re looking to rent out. It builds on the concept of Craigslist, but adds a humanized touch that created a pretty profound sense of relief in me. I’d personally rather rent to or from someone whose photo and stats I can see, however, I guess some people like to live on the edge.

Air B&B is one of those sites that had the foresight to build a social element right into their business concept. Creating a holistic social media approach is always going to produce better results than adding it after the fact. Lisa calls that concept of last-minute addition “social media as a condiment.”

Creative writing has made me a better copywriter, and copy writing has made me a better creative writer. You might be asking, “what’s the difference?” and believe me, there are plenty of similarities, as both require creativity— but they are very different beasts altogether. Nonetheless, the skills you use to be creative and the ones you use in order to effectively communicate ideas often go hand-in-hand, and there are ways to develop both at the same time.

One social media tool that has taught me about writing more than others is Twitter. Twitter is a great resource for writers as far as finding content is concerned, but it can also be a wonderful way to hone your craft and creativity. Here are some of the ways you can use Twitter to become a better writer.

This post may cause internal upheaval at Ignite Social Media, but we needed some outside input. We just couldn't decide which Ignite guy looked the best in gold spandex. We know it's a difficult choice, but please try and help us out by making your selection.

There are a ton of Twitter sites aiming to attach a Twitter rank to a user profile, and frankly most of them are spotty at best. Follower count in my opinion is one of the worst metrics to go by with Twitter, and unfortunately that is a main cornerstone to many of the Twitter ranking systems out there.

Many of the Twitter grader tools pull in specific information that the API provides, and there is one major count that is not currently being passed through in an easily digestible format.

Favorites As An Indication Of Quality

Favorites is a way for users to bookmark tweets from their Followers. Twitter users who have had a large amount of people favorite their tweets can be a great indication of authoritativeness and quality.

I have attempted to create a DIY way to decide which twitter users in a given sector are beneficial to follow, engage etc. The following 4 steps will show you how to set this up on your own and allow you to target key influencers and twitter users likely to add to the conversation.

Twitter is on the rise. There’s no doubt about it, and it will continue to rise. One of the things about Twitter that makes it such an attractive service is the variable nature of ways it can be used. So you’re on Twitter, you’re starting to follow some people you’re interested in, and now you’re getting a few followers of your own. So what’s it worth? Who is out there? Well, I’ve found in my various endeavors with the Twitterati that there are only a handful of different kinds of users. Who are you reaching? Which ones are going to do anything for you or your brand?