A social business could be most simply defined as a business which engages with it’s customer base socially. It used to be all businesses were social. You made friends in the neighborhood and responded to their interests or you failed. Today we may think it has to mean they use social media, but there’s more to it than that. Just having millions of followers, fans and “interactions” on social networks doesn’t make you social. Talking to your customers, listening to what their concerns and ideas are and responding to them is what being a social business is about. MORE >>

Long time power users of Linkedin have been using Linkedin Applications to enhance their profiles with deeper information and sharing opportunities. Now some of those applications are being replaced and the site is slowly moving accounts to the new system. You’ll still be able to add content through their new rich media feature. Mine updated  yesterday with some unexpected (mostly positive) results. Take a look at my profile here to see how Slideshare incorporates in the new profiles (halfway down). While I had only added a few presentations on social media Linkedin imported them all. MORE >>

The popularity of Instagram is clear, and if you are inclined to snap photos and share them with your friends and customers on social networks you can make your business more social and build a powerful sharing community on Instagram quickly. Why does Instagram work so well? Because we humans are most inspired by visuals. According to our friends at Hubspot , 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text. How to use Instagram to grow your visibility. Learn from some successful Instagram campaigns. The win. Comodo . Jaguar. MORE >>

Pinterest has become a running joke to many. Still, the traffic reported coming from this site cannot be ignored, and  the ways people are leveraging it’s popularity to market their businesses is very interesting.Here are just a few. It’s not about you. You don’t need to be blatant about what you offer your customers. Be subtle. Post pins that are interesting and tangentially related to your product. Best example? Oreck on Pinterest. They barely mention vacuum cleaners or air filters but when you visit their page and see all the pins you can’t help but think of them. Collaborate. MORE >>

Yesterday was a momentous event in advertising history. Felix Baumgartner achieved the world record for his jump from 120,000 feet and broke the sound barrier with speeds recorded over 800 MPH, all backed by Red Bull. Certainly in this case RedBull can say it #Givesyouwings! The event was broadcast live over 40 networks in 50 countries and according to the Telegraph , “more than 3 million tweets were sent about the jump including those from people encouraged by Red Bull to send their questions for Baumgartner’s post-jump press conference.” ” The jump itself is truly amazing. MORE >>