SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER — For Microsoft’s Xbox support team, there’s no such thing as unwanted messages on Twitter – no matter how vulgar they may be. So why is a $58 billion company spending time listening to off-color tweets? Because "foul-mouthed tweens" just might be the first tip-off of a major service outage. Before any calls or emails come in, the support team can catch a tweet and get technical folks on the task. This article reveals how the Xbox team relies on Twitter to reduce support costs...

VISINSIGHTS — I’ve been reading and participating in Forrester "Wave" reports for years and it’s always interesting to see how people react to the vendor technology evaluations in these reports. Sure, it’s always great to be selected as one of the companies to participate and we are certainly thrilled to continue to be ranked as one of the top providers in the industry, but for me the real value of the Wave Report goes far beyond which companies were named "Leaders" and "Strong Performers." The inside information and trend data collected and synthesized by the lead analyst, in this case the extremely knowledgeable Zach Hofer-Shall, is usually as valuable, if not more, than designated vendor bragging rights for the next 12 months...

E-CONSULTANCY.COM — While many companies are now seeing the social light and jumping on board with Twitter, Facebook et al, there’s still a temptation to set up your account and start pumping out updates straight away. While there is a need for some of this as you grow an initial audience, the thing that will really make a social media presence successful is your ability to listen and take on board what people are saying about your brand. In order to do this properly you’ll need to set aside time for detailed monitoring. Unfortunately one of social media’s biggest bonuses is immediacy, something which can make knowing how and what to monitor confusing. There’s an awful lot of electronic chatter out there so how do you listen?...

READWRITEWEB — Has your company spent seemingly countless hours tweeting on Twitter, networking on Facebook and writing the company blog? Have you found yourself wondering if it's all a waste of time? Maybe that last Facebook fan page contest saw fewer entries than you'd hoped for, or that last Twitter-only coupon had fewer redemptions than you'd expected, but perhaps that's not all that matters. According to the the latest report by analyst firm Forrester, many people are looking at the face value dollars and cents of social media marketing and, put simply, they're doing it wrong. Beyond clicks and coupon redemptions, there lies a case for social media marketing that shows its value is well beyond what we see on the surface...

SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER — In this video I interview Michael Brito, a former social media manager at Intel (he is now a VP at Edelman Digital). Michael shares how Intel uses Twitter and video to connect with consumers. You’ll learn Michael’s unique technique of leveraging his personal and company Twitter accounts. Here are some key takeaways: Intel was an early adopter on Twitter, Intel’s Social Media Center of Excellence filters Twitter chatter and dispatches tweets to the right experts within Intel...