You answered and we culled your responses from Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook, and used Storify to present it back to you. If you have additional responses, please leave them in the comments.

Social media is just a tool. Tools aren't inherently good or bad - they're just used to aid someone's efforts. Social media can make your voice reach more people. Unfortunately, it can't improve upon your character.

What does it mean to be "famous" on social media?

We asked and culled your responses from Facebook, Google+ and Twitter and presented them back to you with Storify. If you have additional responses, please leave them in the comments.

How or why do you use social media in your job?

We asked and culled your responses from Facebook, Google+ and Twitter and presented them back to you with Storify. If you have additional responses, please leave them in the comments.

- 83% watch video clips, up from 62% in the last study in June 2007
- 78% read blogs, up from 66%
- 57% of internet users are now members of a social network
- RSS consumption is growing rapidly up from 15% to 39%
- Podcasts are now mainstream digital content, listened to by 48%

Social networks have been "a key driver for the growth of social media":

- 22% of social network users have installed a widget or applications
- 55% have shared photos
- 22% have shared their videos
- 31% have started a blog
- The world’s biggest social network is MySpace with 32% weekly reach followed by Facebook on 23%

The report also states that social media is a global phenomenon:

- Top markets for blogging – China 70% of internet users write a blog, Philippines 66% and Mexico 60%
- Top markets for social networking – Philippines 83%, Hungary 76% and Poland 76%
- China is the world's largest blogging market with 42m bloggers versus 26m in the US

Those last stats will be an eye opener for many, because the US web tech market gets most of the attention of the blogosphere and mainstream media. But with China having 42m bloggers compared to the US's 26m, there is large scope for social media to flourish there - even despite China's political issues with social media.

From time to time you'll see us ask you how we are doing. That's because, despite great analytics, nothing beats just asking your audience how you're doing and what you could do better. And, almost as valuable, is knowing who to emulate. Which brands are impressing you? Which ones aren't? This quest to deliver you the best social experience is always foremost in a community manager's mind, and it inspired today's Big Question.

Which brand does the best job in social media?

We asked and culled your responses from Facebook, Google+ and Twitter and presented them back to you with Storify. If you have additional responses, please leave them in the comments.

Social media is the one job sector in which recent college grads are having luck, reports Newsweek, and universities are adding social media classes in response.

Universities have started adding social media classes such as the Internet marketing class, "Social Media" at Columbia or the second-year elective course at Harvard, "Competing with Social Networks." Birmingham City University even offers a one year master's degree in social media.

In recent history, companies were so desperate for help understanding the social Web that they seemed ready to hire anyone who could string buzzwords together. The term "social media guru" - a euphemism for person who knows how to tweet - became somewhat of a joke.

But at least the field has gotten more defined. "Gurus" have stratified into analysts, community managers, editors, product developers, marketers and even social media executives (although there are still plenty of companies hiring for gurus).

Social media jobs don't pay as well as similar positions in public relations, according to SocialMediaInfluence.com. But it's nice to hear that those recent graduates have some options when it comes to a job. A liberal arts major who graduated in 2010 may not have many prospects in business, government, education, and so on - but she definitely knows how to use Facebook.

Tools like VarsityMonitor could be used as ways to spot viral content related to a player - but they could also become rather invasive. And besides, not all students are trying to become Internet celebrities. It's possible to make oneself nearly unfindable on Facebook, and Twitter users can protect their tweets if they don't want anyone discovering them.

In a sense, however, athletes are their own type of brand on social media. As such, they are representative of the larger brand. Instead of using social media monitoring sites like VarsityMonitor, why doesn't the NCAA just revise its social media guidelines?

Image via DukeHoopBlog.

As Michael Chin points out on the KickApps blog, social media first changed how we interacted with friends, family, and customers. Now, as consumers are getting more familiar with these tools, they also expect them to be a way to interact with companies - and based on this data from Cone, they want this to be a two-way conversation.

Here are some other interesting data points from the study:

• 60% of Americans regularly interact with companies on a social media site
• 43% of consumers say that companies should use social networks to solve the consumers' problems
• 41% believe that companies should use social media tools to solicit feedback on products and services
• Men are more likely to use social media tools to interact with a company than women (33% vs. 17%)
• 33% of younger consumers (18-34) and those with household incomes over $75,000 believe that companies should try to market to them through social networks

It would be nice to see Cone break these numbers down a bit more. What types of social media sites, for example, do users prefer? Are there any specific categories of companies and brands that they want to see on these sites? How exactly do they want to be marketed to? What do they think about implications for their privacy?

What is clear, however, is that social media is quickly becoming an important means for companies to reach consumers - and that consumer are also quickly changing their expectations about how, when, and where they want to be marketed to. As more users are embracing social media (and often to the detriment of traditional media), companies have no choice but to follow them.

Introducing Social Media To Businesses

If this were a course, JustMeans would be the teacher of social media for businesses. JustMeans provides a way for businesses to use various tools associated with social media from blogging to podcasting with ease. To make businesses feel comfortable in early adopter territory, traditional medias such as press releases are also provided. With these tools, users, or "stakeholders", can easily engage with businesses on JustMeans via the company's profile.

Social Responsibility

JustMeans rides the economic "green wave" of corporate social responsibility. This is also one of the key focuses of the JustMeans site and the businesses that engage with it. Businesses can post about the "social responsibilities" that they are upholding to keep users and fans of a businesses network up-to-date on their goals and outreach programs. The site includes a forum for businesses and consumers to collectively brainstorm about ideas for change. This way, users are actually heard, while companies can receive better feedback about what they can do better.

Connecting For A Collective Change

JustMeans is a great platform for connecting businesses that are socially responsible with users that appreciate being informed not only about a company's ethics, but what a company is doing to insure that they are upholding the standards they've set and obligations they've committed to from a social standpoint. JustMeans is not only a network to help introduce businesses to social media, but a platform for collective social change.

That did get me to thinking so I polled our writers and they too agreed it was probably more frequent that we might think. Your responses tell me that they were right.

Does Your Company Require You to Participate in Social Media?

We asked and culled your responses from Facebook, Google+, Twitter and the original post and we used Storify to present it all back to you. If you have additional responses, please leave them in the comments.

His thoughts might surprise you. Is the firehose of social data further killing our attention spans? Are drunken Facebook party pictures necessarily a bad thing? How do n00bs help refresh the echo chamber? Spend eight minutes of your life with one of social media's friendliest thought leaders; you're guaranteed to hear something new.

Heuer's Social Media Camp is taking place today at the Roger Smith Hotel, a highly social media-friendly venue in Manhattan. They're famous in the bacon-obsessed tech scene for their daily bacon happy hours.

"Companies in general don't value social media marketing as much as they should," said Noff. "They're afraid of it; they don't understand it; and therefore, they just don't do it. Yet it's the most cost-efficient way of marketing there is."

We also talked to Noff about the infinite measurement possibilities inherent in social media and the kinds of tools marketers should be using to optimize their online campaigns. She also spoke about the occasional difficulty of measuring specific conversion metrics for social media marketing campaigns, and she gave a good word to consultants in the social space.

In light of recent comments on video posts and out of respect for Ms. Noff, commenters are particularly requested to omit the words "hot" and "chick" and other terms of that general timbre from their musings below. Thanks for doing your part to keep ReadWriteWeb classy.

One such expert, Howard Greenstein, has a mile-long rap sheet in social media and web work that reaches back into the mid-nineties. He is known for his unique blend of experience and enthusiam, both of which he brings to this video conversation about how businesses and brands can use social media.

Howard Greenstein on Social Media for Brands and Businesses from ReadWriteWeb on Vimeo.

Image by Peachtree Media Advisors

Social Media Influencers Predictions 2009 By Trendsspotting
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