This post is by Joey Strawn from Social CRM Insider. There’s an old example many of my teachers used growing up to display a number of different points. My teacher would show a jar on a table surrounded by a plethora of different-sized rocks. The task is to get all of the rocks into the one jar. No matter how you try, the only way that works is to put all the big rocks in first, then the medium-sized rocks, then fill the rest of the space with the pebbles. The point of the exercise is to show the importance of priorities and how to organize your life. Building a Business That’s Social. MORE >>

A bout a month ago, I was introduced to Pinterest.com , the smorgasbord site that allows users to “pin” their favorite images. The typical post (or “pin”) ranges from Martha Stewart-esque recipes, to witty quotes, to pictures of fuzzy animals dressed up in mini outfits, sitting in baskets atop clouds raining sparkles. Okay, maybe the last example was slightly exaggerated, but you get the point. Pinterest is a series of online bulletin boards where users can share photos they find across the web with their friends. After signing up for Pinterest, I quickly became hooked. MORE >>

I like to keep on top of my Twitter profile maintenance. do this by reviewing who I’m following and unfollowing profiles that are no longer in use or of interest to me. What can I say? I’ve always been a sucker for a bit of organising and systematising. This can take time if you’re following loads of profiles so I use a nifty Twitter tool that speeds up my Twitter health checks. Twit Cleaner analyses the profiles and tweets of every person that you follow. tells you why they’ve been flagged in the report. let’s you decide who to unfollow from there. MORE >>

Evolution, not revolution. That is what I witnessed first-hand as I walked around South By Southwest (SXSW) , the festival and conference hailed as a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies. In 2010, the Next Big Thing was location-based social networking , a mobile-megatrend CNN reminds us was led by the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla. Last year it was all about group messaging services such as GroupMe or Beluga. We also learned that the group of must-watch geo-location apps allowing social  discovery has grown to include Highlight , Glancee , Banjo and Kismet — to name a few. MORE >>

Tweet Lady Gaga recently passed 20 million Twitter followers – breaking another Twitter record. For a while ago, I wrote about Lady Gaga’s social media strategy. Looking at her recent Twitter record, I thought it would be a good idea to share some of her strategies for using Twitter as an effective marketing tool and how they can inspire you to do the same. The chart below shows the growth of her followers on Twitter: These are some take-ways from Lady Gaga’s Twitter strategy that can help your brand. Reach out to people and build your base. Become a media personality. MORE >>