It’s true the buzz phrase of the year is “social media marketing.”

Recently there has even been a new term coined called “social influence marketing.”

Are you still at a loss of what social media it is and why it may be important to your business? I understand, so let me see if I can bring some clarity and demystify the phrase that often causes business owners to get a headache.

Think of social medial like this — you enter a bar and there are conversations going on at each table. You hear one conversation about work, another about a brand new vehicle someone purchased and perhaps the other is a business meeting where co-workers are discussing the latest strategy in their industry. Are you with me? If so, good — let’s continue.

Think of the sphere of social media has this bar. All of these conversations are floating around. There is a lot of information sharing, opinions being broadcasts and relationships being created. Does that help?

Now, I want to show you how big these spheres are growing by sharing with you some recent statistics that were reported by Econsultancy. These statistics are recent, it will give you a glimpse of how quickly social media is growing and the impact it is having on businesses today.

• There are over 20 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.
• One half of YouTube users visit the site at least once a week.
• There are over 250 million users on Facebook and 120 million of them log onto Facebook once a day.
• At least 30 million of the Facebook users access Facebook via their mobile phones.
• Over the last twelve months Twitter has broken the 1000% barrier of year-over-year growth.
• It’s estimated that there are 6 — 10 million global users on Twitter.
• Tuesday is the most active day on Twitter, followed by Wednesday and then Friday.

Do you still think you can afford to ignore social media marketing?

This is a question I hear a lot, so I spent some time writing an article on About.com regarding the benefits that social media offers to nonprofit organization. I wanted to expand on that article by sharing how social media has proven successful for nonprofit organizations by using specific statistics. If you are a nonprofit organization and you are debating the use of social media, I think the this post will help you in your decision. It will also help if you need something to present to your board members on the validity of social media when it comes nonprofit organizations.

A report in Convio, The Wired Wealthy, published in March of 2008 showed that 2007 online giving for nonprofit organizations in the United States reached 10 billion, this was a 52% increase over the previous year 2006.

Why the increase?

It is shown that 51% of wealthy doners actually prefer to give online.

These donors can be found in various venues of social media. Consider the following statistics:

• 52% use YouTube
• 14% use Myspace
• 12% use Flickr
• 9% use Facebook

If that’s not enough convince you, perhaps naming a few of the nonprofit organizations that utilize social media might help. A few include:

• American Red Cross
• National Wildlife Federation
• The Humane Society
• GreenPeace
• American Cancer Society

Does that help? Hmmmm, ok want proof it works?

Epic Change used Twitter to raise over $11,000 in just 48 hours. This money was raised to build a classroom in Tanzania.

Think about that — $11,000 in just 48 hours!

Over 98% of those who donated had never donated to Epic Change before.

Another success story is the 12for12k Tweet-a-Thon campaign that also used Twitter to raise funds. This campaign started by Scott Stratten,raised $13,000 in 12 hours. This money was raised to combat child hunger in the United States and obviously it works — $13,000 in 12 hours.

Would you like to know why social media worked for them in attracting new donors — after all isn’t that what you want?

It worked because:

• There was a clear and achievable goal that was set and then broadcast
• There was an urgency that was created by having a short deadline
• They were able to leverage existing networks
• They made giving easy and they made it clear what they planned to do with the money
• They recognized top donors that gave.

If you are a nonprofit who still doesn’t think it will work for your organization, then there is not much I can do for you. I’ve given you statistics, references of those that are doing it successfully and proof that it works.

If you are a nonprofit organization that wants to get started in social media, but you are not sure where to start I understand and I can help. I can help you create a social media policy as well as a strategy that can help you in seeing success in social media marketing. Feel free to contact me to discuss these options — I’m always happy to help.

Times are changing. I read another article today that by the end of the year The New York Times will cut 100 newsroom positions. I write for About.com, which is a company owned by The New York Times, so this news saddened me.

I’m fortunate that I started in the online industry in 1997. As such, I’ve always adopted new media easily, but I think it’s because that’s where I began my career.

I’ve met with general managers of newspapers, editors and writers — our discussions always end up around the lack of adoption of new media when it was introduced by traditional newspapers. Unfortunately, those same newspapers are feeling the pinch during this time.

I’m not saying that traditional media is a dead-end, but let’s think about it. When was the last time you went out into the driveway to pick up your daily newspaper? When was the last time you pulled out the yellow pages to look up a telephone number?

We all knew that the Internet would change our daily lives — some of us slow to adopt, but now we can’t imagine living without it. There are many people who could handle a cable outage easier than an Internet outage. Need proof? Turn off your computer for 24 hours — cut off your access to the Internet. Did you just have a panic attack thinking about it? I did.

I find it amazing that companies still often depend upon the traditional means of marketing and look at the new media options as alternatives. They will pay more for a one time advertisement in a magazine than they will on their website design. They will seek out a radio spot before measuring the impact social media could have on their business. Do you see my point?

Put your business into check.

• How is your website? Does it reflect your business accurately? What message does it reflect when it comes to professionalism?
• Are you writing a blog and interacting with potential customers or is your website static and dull?
• Are you doing search engine marketing? How are you ranking when customers type in keywords? Are you showing up?
• What about social media? Have you dipped your toe in the water? If for no other reason than to monitor your online reputation and protect your brand?

Don’t abandon the traditional vehicles of marketing, but be sure to integrate it with online marketing and new media options; otherwise you may end up struggling like the newspapers are today.

Social media cliques exist.  Will you dare to be different?

I’m a huge proponent of social media and believe that it’s a fantastic way to not only create relationships with potential customers, but to also grow your personal relationship circle.

What I’ve noticed recently is the cliques that exist in social media. It’s almost as if we’ve entered high school again. The last few days I’ve taken some time to watch some of the most prominent “thought leaders” in social media — stalk them if you will.

There are a few that I watched that interact and engage with their followers and then there are others that seldom reply unless it benefits them. What’s even more interesting is watching the followers of these thought leaders. They often treat these thought leaders as celebrities, agreeing with everything that’s said, retweeting, praising, and almost doing a digital worship dance. If someone disagrees with a thought leader, they are nearly tackled in the digital stream, so very rarely do you see someone stand up and state their own thought or opinion due to the fear of being attacked personally.

What I think is missing is that we have so many people “trying” to be like established “thought leaders” that they in return are not being themselves. I hope in the upcoming year that more people will stand out with their own voice and worry less about being accepted and more about engagement and creating their own relationships as well as their own following.

I think it’s important to remember that the social media “thought leaders” ended up there because they took the time to engage and interact. They voiced opinions that may have not been popular and were willing to stand their ground when necessary. They’re informative and most of them have their own sense of humor that is reflected. A few of my favorites include Chris Brogan, Scott Stratten and of course Gary Vaynerchuk. They are “thought leaders” because they are not only willing to share information, but they are also willing to be authentic and real and put themselves out there. I think they will all agree that’s how they got started on the path that has lead them to where they are today.

I have a challenge for you when it comes to social media in 2010, be yourself. Don’t try to mimic the popular crowd but rather let your personality shine. That means that people may not always agree with you. It means that at first it might be a little scary to stand up for what you believe in, but in the long run it will be worth it. Be willing to step outside the cliques and conform less. You never know you just might be the next thought leader that thousands are following and listening to. Dare to stand out from the crowd.

Want the truth? Social media marketing is new, but social media is not new. That’s right — it’s been around for years, just not in a platform that was easy to access or use.

In 1998 I wrote for The Mining Company (you probably now known them as About.com) on the topic of Internet Conferencing, or what I like to call Internet communication.

We’ve been communicating online with other people for over a decade. I had even created a directory of acronym and I know it’s surprising but we used acronym like LOL, ROFL, ROFLMAPIMP, and even BRB — amazing isn’t it? We’ve used bulletin boards, chat rooms, and instant messaging.  However, back then when you used those tools you were considered to be a “geek.” After all who is going to chat online with people they don’t know — that’s just creepy, right?  Wrong, millions are doing it today and we’ve just called it “social media.”

I always find it rather humorous to see people react to this phenomenon of social media and in the back of my mind I think back of when I used to teach people how to use the tools to communicate online using tools other than email. Now social media has become “socially acceptable” and there are millions who use this medium daily — thinking it’s new.

We’ve even started creating lists and awards — lists of the most influential social media personalities, awards to those with the most tweet, and the media swarms these outlets to find new writers, speakers and even performers.

Now, I will admit that back in the day it was not easy for those who marketed to get in and share information about their products or services and new social media networks have made that possible. I will also admit that back in 1998 you couldn’t get “social” on your cell phone — but to say social media is new is to forget the history of where it came from — it has matured but it is not new.

I just wonder how many of you that use social media today would admit that truthfully you were intrigued by the geekdom of chat, bulletin boards and instant messaging a decade ago. Were you?