The SMB Tech Report

Social Yo Announces Partnership with Nimble

Social Yo had partnered with Nimble, a social business platform that combines relationship management and social engagement. Under the partnership, Social Yo will offer its customers access to the Nimble service, which provides contacts, calendar, communications, and collaboration for business professionals in a single integrated online platform. more

Buckaroo Announces Social Media Marketing Service for SMBs

Buckaroo, a new e-couponing service, has announced a social media promotion for merchants to run custom e-mail marketing campaigns with coordinated Facebook and Twitter activities. Unlike daily deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, Buckaroo lets users run their own promotions with full control over promotional terms, transactions, and list management. The addition of social media allows them to reach new, potential customers they do not yet know. Buckaroo is free during its beta development period. more

Business Social Media Site Plaxo Adds Blackbery App

Business and career building social media site Plaxo has added an app for the Blackberry to its apps library. The app allow access to the user’s address book for single-sourcing business contacts. It features two-way synchronization, browsing and management with auto-dialing and e-mail. more

Mint Social Founder Discusses Five Ways to Measure Social Media Marketing Results

Mint Social has published a blog by its founder, Matt O'Brien outlining five basic ways to measure ROI from social media marketing and online branding. They are:

1. Increased mentions online,
2. Improved overall keyword rankings,
3. Increased Web site traffic,
4. Increased membership in an online community,
5. Increased inquiries and awareness of the online brand.

more

Mint Social Announces Social Media Content Engine

Mint Social's new content engine facilitates syndication of articles, videos, blog posts, and presentations across the Web. The service makes repurposing existing content including PowerPoint slide decks, Webinars, articles, and images and to capture content opportunities such as customer testimonials and publish them on the Web to increase their PR presence. more

Gartner Predicts Rapid Growth in Business Use of Social Media for Business Communications

Gartner has published five predictions for the growth of social media use in business for 2010 and beyond, including that "by 2014 social networking sites will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20% of business users." These social media services include both public systems such as LinkedIn and internal, private systems. One reason for this growth is social media systems provide background information on the individuals at both ends of the conversation. more

Study Says Social Networking Proliferating in Companies

A global study of how organizations use consumer social networking tools, conducted by a third party for Cisco Systems, has shown employees are using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to connect organizations of all sizes in many ways. But, most organizations lack policies and governance and overall business strategies for using these communications networks. more

McAfee Predicts Emergence of Social Networking Systems as Major Computer Security Threat Potential

McAfee Inc. predicts Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites, which increasingly are being used by businesses as well as consumers, will become major avenues for computer security attacks by increasingly sophisticated botnets, Trojans and other malware in 2010. The predictions both of the emergence of social media as a threat source and of the increasing complexity of the malware being delivered, are highlights of its recently released 2010 Threat Predictions report. more