Resources

This is at present an unstructured set of social media resources: suggestions for inclusions welcome.

Videos

A plain English introduction to Social Media – by Lee Lefever

Downloadable Delights: Reports, White Papers, free e-books

The Long Tail – key positioning document for understanding social media

Cluetrain Manifesto – still a must-read after all these years

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants – seminal paper by Marc Prensky

“What should we call these ‘new’ students of today? Some refer to them as the N-[for Net]-gen or D-[for digital]-gen. But the most useful designation I have forund ro them is Digital Natives.Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet.

“So what does that make of the rest of us? Those of us who were not born into the digital world but have, at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology are, and always will be compared to them, Digital Immigrants.” pages 1-2 (emphases and italics in original)

And see the speech by Rupert Murdoch to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 2005

“I do not underestimate the tests before us. We may never become true digital natives, but we can and must begin to assimilate to their culture and way of thinking.” (Note, Rupert is 78 in 2009 and he says “we” need to adapt, not the young ones.)

Brian Solis: The Essential Guide to Social Media – a free e-book by a social media and PR master

Brian Solis: Brink – A Social Media Guide from the Edge – amazingly rich content and a free download

Trevor Cook & Lee Hopkins: Social Media White Paper - 3rd edition: a practical guide in plain English

Social Media in the Inc. 500: The First Longitudinal Study – how fast-moving companies “get it”

Apposite Articles

NYT Article on marketing to boomers
The Older Audience Is Looking Better Than Ever

That appeal is because of the size of the boomer market and because, as Mr. Donchin put it, “50 isn’t what it used to be.”And the boomers are even “comfortable with digital media,” he added.

The boomers offer advertisers “an audience — and here’s your quotable quote — that has assets, not allowances,” said Henry Schleiff, president and chief executive at Hallmark Channels, composed of the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel cable TV networks.

Illuminating Blog Posts, Podcasts

ReadWriteWeb: Fake Viral Videos

Duncan Riley: NAB Spams Blogs – how a big bank showed it doesn’t get it about the conversation

Conversational Media Marketing: Social media isn’t a “channel”: it’s an environment – blog post by industry leader Paul Chaney

Learning and Sharing – Online Locales

Social Media Classroom and Collaboratory

Books

Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff: Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Deborah Micek & Warren Whitlock: Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online

Organizations and Groups

International Blogging and New Media Association – for the emerging industry of blogging & new media

Social Media Club – for those who get it and want to share it with others