From fans to followers, brands are actively working to engage their current and future customers via social media — and online reputation management is quickly becoming a vital part of doing business. Social media monitoring helps brands discover, in real time, who is saying what online and where the conversations are happening so they can respond in a timely fashion. Businesses also need to measure, analyze, and report on their social media efforts. Looxii is a social media analytics platform. Marketo B2B Social Marketing. MORE >>

WaveMetrix have published their review of Q4 2010 social media trends and it highlights some interesting moves for fashion brands using social media, especially Facebook. Burberry and Lascoste joined Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton and Gucci with a greater focus on brand-related content, such as music and sport which positively affected engagement, brand sentiment and purchase consideration. Lascoste use a mix of fashion and non fashion content, such as their ATP Tour sponsorship to engage consumers and positively affect sentiment, as this pie chart shows. MORE >>

Just want to mention that I’ll be at the Sentiment Analysis Symposium this Tuesday, all day, and blogging/tweeting from it. … … On May 15th, I’ll be  speaking at La Boule de Cristal  on May 15th in Montreal (this is the specific session – looking at The Future of Social Media Analytics  with focus on Recorded Future’s solutions, and others I’ll present). One of my students at Rutgers came up with some interesting ideas on how she used Pinterest to forecast current and future trends regarding to fashion. Upcoming Events. MORE >>

Is that really the goal of Social Media. No – the object of Social Media is quality over quantity. Build your base the old-fashioned way – one person at a time. While his math cannot be proven – especially with 1964 technology – the sentiment is solid. It takes time and effort to build a solid base in Social Media. In the end, the goal of Social Media for any business or non-profit is to make money. Social Media helps nurture that interest. Steve Allan, Social Media Specialist. MORE >>

Covering social media business strategy and personal power. 100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media. Track things like audience/community sentiment (positive/negative) if you want to map effort to results. really nice layout doesn’t have to cost a lot, but shows you’re more than a social media dabbler. Passports are accounts on other social networks and social media platforms. Twitter.com is a must if you have a social media audience. account for social bookmarking. media. MORE >>