Friday Marketing Links

All About LinkedIn
This post from the Emerson Direct Marketing Observations Blog cited some very interesting stats about LinkedIn, and how powerful this social network is. To whet your interest--23 million people participate in LinkedIn! A new user is added every 2 seconds! Overall, LinkedIn is THE place to network, especially for professionals.

Measuring Social Marketing
Last week I blogged on how direct marketers really need to figure out how to measure and track social marketing investments. This well thought-out post from Chris Brogan provides an expert perspective on this very topic. He brings up some interesting ways to look at developing a social media strategy, by including clear-cut goals AND results measurement.

And, for more on this very topic, check out Lewis Green's post on the Marketing Prof's Daily Fix blog. The title says it all: The Real ROI of Blogging.

Word-of-Mouth-Marketing--Explained
I usually find something useful at the popular Duct Tape Marketing Blog. This week, it was a link to the Word of Mouth Manual written by Dave Balter, creater of BuzzAgent. It's free and promises to be not only informative, but a good read, too.

I love Starbucks!
And, just because I love how Starbucks is harnessing the power and the brilliance of their customers by soliciting new ideas (and then actually acting on these ideas!), I had to link to this post from the Damn! I wish I'd Thought of That! blog. Anytime our customers can give us ideas, we need to listen.

Thanks to all the bloggers out there who make my life so much more interesting. I mean that! Have great weekends, everyone.