Lara Kretler’s Blog

I spend a fair amount of my time these days sharing the good news about social media and what it can mean for individuals and organizations. In these economic times, social networking and web 2.0 are more critical than ever - both for employees who need to be prepared for any possibility, and for businesses who need to do more marketing with less money.

These conversations usually start with people asking about specific tools - LinkedIn or Twitter, for example. Once I’ve got the individual or group comfortable with one social site, they are usually eager to learn about others. And in teaching social media best practices over and over, using multiple sites and communities as examples, it occurred to me that there are certain themes or guidelines which apply across the board.

Here are my four social media fundamentals for any and all social networking sites. Keep these principles in mind and you’ll be ready to explore whatever new web 2.0 wonder comes our way.

1. Profile. No matter which social networking site you’re on, or even if you someday join communities that haven’t been invented yet, you’ll need to set up a profile. Be as complete as you can be here - include more than your name and what you do for a living. List your purpose and passions. Be professional, yet also memorable. Positively represent your personal brand as well as your company or industry. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who doesn’t know you yet - maybe even someone who’s interviewing you. Why would I want to read your blog, add you as a friend or contact, hire you or come back to your page or profile again to see what you have to say? Your profile should do all this in as few words as possible. In a nutshell: make me care.

2. Content. Another common denominator across social networks is the need for creative, interesting and distinctive content. Think of it as the meat (or hummus, for you vegetarians and vegans out there) in the social media sandwich. Whether you’re creating and uploading unique content such as a blog or video post - or tagging and sharing content such as articles or links - you need to have a voice. You must have something to say and an interesting way in which to say it. Find a way to share or do something in a way that has never been done before - on Delicious, for example, save only the best and most useful blog posts and article links in your particular field of expertise - and you’ll have content that keeps people coming back for more.

3. Contacts. On Facebook we’re called friends, on Twitter we’re followers and on Plurk we’re fans. Regardless of the socnet in question, our contacts put the social in social media. Let’s face it, all this would be pretty lonely and boring without other like-minded - or even better, different-minded - souls with whom to share it. But be smart about how much and with whom you’re sharing. Whether on LinkedIn, Plaxo or Myspace, don’t just add contacts for the sake of adding. Be strategic and sensible about your connections. Are these people you’d like to get together with over coffee, tea, beer or wine in “real life”? If not, ask yourself why you’re collecting them. It’s smart to have a strong, diverse professional network, but adding random strangers can backfire. Do a little checking before you blindly add contacts, or you could end up getting spammed or worse - seeing your friends get spammed and knowing it’s your fault.

4. Search. How do you find new, relevant contacts on all of these sites? How do you find the latest articles in your niche or industry? How do you figure out whether you, your brand or your company are being talked about in the social network du jour? Easy - accomplish all of the above by doing keyword searches. These searches vary from site to site, but there’s a common theme: you can strike gold if you search just right. Figure out your search terms - your name, your brand, your company or organization, industry terms, your interests, hobbies, area of specialization, or even types of people you want to meet (e.g., journalists or reporters). The key is knowing where to search - on most sites you use the search form right there on the site, but Twitter is a little tricky - you search on a different site.

With a good grasp on these four fundamentals, you can make yourself at home on a myriad of social sites. Their purpose and functionality may differ from here, but knowing how to embrace these basics will give you a good starting point.

What have I missed - are there other commonalities that social media beginners should keep in mind?

Mack Collier had a great post this week about using social media to form online connections you can then take offline and cement into real friendships. I’m a huge proponent of this, but the birth of my niece on 10/24 has me thinking about the opposite - how to use technology and social media to enhance and deepen relationships I have with family far away.

When I was a kid, my parents and brother and I lived on Long Island but the rest of our family was in England. We saw our grandparents and distant cousins once or twice each year, but it wasn’t enough to build and keep up super close relationships. We only talked to them on the phone occasionally, and never for long because it was pretty expensive. There was no email or Internet yet, so we were limited to writing letters and cards which seemed to take weeks to get there. I often think about how different it is now - we have so many more ways to keep in touch with people far away, to connect in real time and share photos, videos and more.

The birth of my niece Madison has inspired me to find new ways to connect with family and feel close to them. I have bonded with my husband’s nieces and nephews over Webkinz World and I look forward to introducing Maddie to that as well. But there’s so much more! I already share tons of photos online with my family, but Maddie’s arrival has inspired me to take more videos too. Madison is growing up in LA so I’ll want to share our seasons and especially our winters with her.

Instead of boring phone calls, we can do free live videoconferencing through ooVoo, plus the usual webcam chat capabilities through most instant messaging services. Maddie’s folks and I already text each other and send pics to each other’s phones. And although I do most of my scrapbooking the traditional, old fashioned paper-and-scissors way, I can also make and share beautiful digital scrapbooks with Maddie online via ScrapBlog or Creative Memories Storybooks.

Then there are all the social networks and other online resources dedicated to families. I am especially excited about SavvyAuntie, a community for cool “PANKs” (professional aunt, no kids). Babies are new territory for me, but fortunately there are tons of blogs and family-focused sites I can explore to get ideas, share stories and learn more. There are even oodles of dad blogs, including Chris Brogan’s new Dad-o-matic, which I can send to my brother for ideas and inspiration (I still can’t believe he’s a dad!).

Speaking of social networks, how cool would it be to start a new Ning community just for Maddie and our family as a way to keep in touch, share photos and videos and stories, and even chat live. Imagine if Maddie could log onto her own social network every day after school to see which aunt, uncle or grandparent was there posting info for her or waiting for her to join them in the chat room. The possibilities are practically endless. I want Madison to feel that her family is close to her always, no matter how far apart we may live.

Social media makes it so much easier to reach out and touch someone. Are you using social media to stay connected with family or friends far away? Got any other ideas to share?

Central Ohio bloggers, PR pros and Twitter fans, it’s good to be us. Tomorrow night, Wednesday, October 22, is our next official Columbus Tweetup. This one’s being held at Opera Columbus and the food sounds terrific. We even have out of town VIP guests driving down just for the Tweetup. Have you RSVPd yet? If not, you can do that here. I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow night.

In November, the central Ohio chapter of PRSA (the Public Relations Society of America) is hosting two blogger-centric events. On Thursday, November 13 over the lunch hour, meet the biggest local influencers you don’t know yet - top Columbus-based bloggers - at a panel moderated by yours truly. I’m very excited by the line-up of bloggers for this event - Walker Evans, Advergirl and Ms. Single Mama. Get ready to find out how bloggers and PR folks can work together. This is a very hot topic, considering the most valuable tip I heard on today’s HARO “how to pitch a reporter” teleseminar was to pitch bloggers as a way to reach top mainstream journalists.

Then, on Wednesday, November 19, local bloggers and PR pros will meet and mingle over free appetizers and happy hour drink specials at Gordon Biersch in the Arena District. This event is free - and so fresh it’s not even posted to the site yet, but you can RSVP here by leaving a comment. It’s our first official PR pros & bloggers mixer, and hopefully the first of many.

If all that’s not enough, check out the new Columbus TechLife wiki. What a cool tool for corralling tech and social media folks in one place. Between that, Majelly and The Central Ohio Network, there’s certainly no shortage of excellent resources for new media information and events here in Columbus.

And if you’re just to the north and west of Columbus? Then check out the new Irish is an Attitude blog from the Dublin CVB, where with the luck of the Irish, you can win a gift basket of local sweets by posting a limerick or Irish proverb.

Have I missed any other cool news or happenings in the social media world of central Ohio? Let me know by leaving a comment below. Thanks!

There are so many cool events and happenings in Columbus right now that I can scarcely catch my breath to tell you about all of them. In fact, my next post will be about some upcoming November highlights to mark on your calendar.

For now though, my imagination has been captivated by an event taking place tomorrow in Minneapolis. I read about it at Fabulously in the City and I am so in love with the idea that I have to pass it along.

The Minneapolis Art Hunt is the brain child of a young artist, William Hessian, whose goal is to bring “art to the people and people to the parks.” He has hidden 35 tiny original works of art - each a unique little octopus drawn and painted by him - around the public parks of Minneapolis. On Friday, October 17, residents get the fun job of exploring the parks and searching for these miniature artworks hidden in plain sight. William’s story about why he chose octopi, why he creates art hunts and why he chose the number 35 can be seen in this video.

I adore everything about this idea. It’s so social - it’s being spread by bloggers and William’s video can be re-mixed, mashed up, personalized and shared. The event itself is social because it encourages octopus seekers to go with friends; only one piece of art can be kept by each family, so if you want to keep hunting and finding more, you need to have a group with you. The idea of any kind of treasure hunt is so simple and wonderful that it appeals to everyone, from kids to the young at heart. At its core, this event is all about art, but it’s also about nature and being active outdoors. Let’s face it, there’s a metaphor here too - there’s already art all around us outside in our parks if we only take the time to walk around, explore and look closely.

I wish I could be in Minneapolis tomorrow to join the art hunt. Since I can’t, I’ll enjoy it virtually by watching for media and blog coverage. I’d also like to hire William Hessian to put on a miniature art hunt here in Columbus. He’s done them in several cities now and I think it’s time for us to have an art hunt of our own. This is a far better idea than those tired old giant street art sculpture installations that have gotten so popular in the last decade or so.

What do you think - could we get local businesses interested in sponsoring William to hide some tiny paintings in our wonderful central Ohio Metro Parks?

And in the meantime, what wonderful miniature art or hidden treasures have you found lately, right here at home?

Editor’s note: Earlier this week, I blogged over at CONet about a free public tech event called Ohio 2.0 and a subsequent private VIP reception known as 2.Ohio, both put on by the Columbus tech community. I was invited to cover the events via my blog and Twitter. What follows are my live-blogged observations edited only for typos or grammatical errors. I’ve included a few editorial asides where I felt they were appropriate. The entire Twitterstream from the event, including live Tweets from several central Ohio Tweeps as well as yours truly, can be found here.

The Ohio 2.0 event has just kicked off and one thing is clear: this is not your father’s tech crowd. This is a hot event with nary a pocket protector in sight. The cool kids are definitely here - and some of them are actually making fun of me for live-Tweeting the event!

(Sidenote: it was odd checking in at an event’s media/press table instead of being the PR flack sitting behind the table, checking guests off a list. I am enjoying this unique perspective of being both a PR person and a citizen journalist.)

Organizers Ben Blanquera and Angela Siefer opened tonight’s session by saying that this event came to fruition within the last four weeks and that its success can be attributed entirely to volunteers and to the power of social media. Pretty impressive considering I’m sitting in a major hotel ballroom right now with several hundred people who all fought Polaris rush-hour traffic on a Friday to get here. Nice job, Ben and Angela and team!

Ben just called attention to a college student in the audience who drove eight hours to be at this event (I later met him - his name is Ben, too). I feel so fortunate right now to live and work in Columbus so I can experience this top-notch tech event, with first-rate national speakers, not only close to home but also free. Ben just said it himself - Columbus is pretty cool!

Nancy Kramer from Resource Interactive is up now and she echoed Ben’s words about Columbus, offering stats about how tech savvy we are, the fact that we’re still hiring and adding jobs - and something I didn’t know, that we have the second highest percent of college students, following right behind Boston. She’s now introducing Judy Estrin, author of Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy, to speak about sustainable innovation.

Judy says the reason we have social media is because of innovation. But innovation doesn’t just happen, it needs to be nurtured. Innovation drives economic growth quality of life and is the only hope of addressing the major challenges that we face as a nation. Innovation means having the capacity for change.

(Sidenote: Right now I’m trying to live Tweet, live blog, and also simultaneously read the Tweetstream for #2ohio. It’s challenging but fun!)

Judy says the fundamentals of innovation are trying and testing, assessing and learning. It’s a messy, iterative process. You need to be willing to invest without knowing the outcome. And talent matters - a combination of skill, aptitude, passion and drive. Diverse perspectives are critical to innovation.

Innovation builds on innovation. Sustainable innovation requires a healthy, well-balanced innovation ecosystem. Three communities - research, development and application - intersect to make innovation happen. You must have all three.

Our core values determine our capacity for change. Questioning, risk, openness, patience and trust need to be values we have in balance. You can’t have just a few, must have all five. Innovation is a lot like gardening and requires a green thumb. It needs instinct - you need to nurture the plants, have the right soil and be able to transplant those seedlings into your mainstream business.

Everything Judy is talking about applies on small and large scales - to people, businesses, to the country. She says our innovation ecosystem as a country has been in decline since the 70s. We need next generation business leadership and country leadership. One key is leading through inspiration rather than leading through fear. Instead of leading through threats, competition - turn it into a challenge to motivate. Fear creates helplessness. Instead, inspire involvement and engagement, collaboration.

Next generation innovators need a different education system and culture. These are currently working against innovation. 21st century talent needs to embody core values - collaborative, adaptive, interdisciplinary, best of both the baby boomers and gen x/y, scientific and technologic literacy. We each have a role to play - courage, commitment, collaboration, core values. She closed by stating that before she wrote her book, she did not have strong feelings for any one candidate or party. Since researching and writing her book, she is now a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama.

The next speaker is being introduced and Reid Hoffman’s bio is unbelievable - this guy is connected to just about every social network site you can name in some way, either as a contributor, developer or investor. Most notably, he’s founder of LinkedIn. Not surprisingly, he’s talking about the importance of powerful networks to innovation - as well as to good leadership.

Three things come together for innovation. First, the germ of an idea - which must then be refined through other people. This is why networks are so important - the application of expertise of those around you. The other two elements are capital and execution. The process of how you execute your ideas has to continually improve and adapt.

(Sidenote: Reid had some great things to say but he was a bit more soft-spoken and less high-energy than Judy and the other speakers, so I may not have captured as many of his key points. Definitely check the Tweetstream for more from him.)

Mike Nelson is up next - he is, among other things, Sen. Obama’s chief tech advisor, a PhD in microphysics from MIT and a visiting professor of Internet Studies at Georgetown. He also served Sen. Al Gore and helped create the Internet. Seriously people, I’m not kidding, he really did. Also, he recently participated in a Twebate (debate over Twitter). He’s here to talk about the Obama campaign’s technology policies and says he’s bilingual in technology and policy.

Mike tells us he’s here from Washington to listen to us. He wants to hear what we think about how technology can help create jobs and innovation for this country. He gave us his email address so we can contact him with ideas (email me if you want it) and says he will gladly share our suggestions with the Obama campaign.

He says he’s with Sen. Obama because he’s “an incredibly smart dude with vision, commitment and the ability to synthesize really great ideas into action.” He also says Obama has surrounded himself with brilliant people, and judging from this guy I’d have to agree. He then gives the best quote of the night:

“First rate people surround themselves with first rate people - second rate people surround themselves with third rate people.”

Mike Nelson believes the Obama administration can harness the power of cloud computing in ever more powerful ways - and that cloud computing will be as big as the Internet was during the Clinton administration. He recommended that we read an article that just came out in an MIT publication called Technology Review - the article is “How Obama really did it.”

(Sidenote: Mike Nelson is so brilliant there is literally electricity crackling around this room at this point - I am too excited to take good notes right now as I am literally riveted, like everyone else - sorry folks! Will have to check out the notes from my Tweeps who are still live Tweeting. My fingers are shaking!)

Nelson began to talk more specifically about Barack, calling him by his first name. Up until now, this evening has not been overtly political in nature, but now we’re getting a very cool inside look at his campaign and priorities. Nelson says Barack is committed to science and technology, and to filling those offices with the right, smart people. He compared this to the Bush administration and how long it took to fill key scientific advisor positions. Nelson says again, with a wry grin, that the quality of the advisor is directly proportional to the ability of the advisee to listen.

He goes on to say this isn’t just about Web 2.0, cloud computing or leading edge information technology. It’s about using the technology tools we have to make our country better - make healthcare more efficient, make government more open and better, make taxi cab companies more fuel-efficient and productive. He is not just clearly a genius (have I already said that too many times? Clearly, I have a serious brain crush at this point), but he’s a tremendous speaker too. Mike was my favorite presenter of the evening.

Angela came back up and said we’re out of time so Craig Newmark, founder of Craiglist, will ask one question. Craig asked the panel how we can use social networking to improve the lot of midwestern states like Ohio and Michigan.

Reid says online personal branding and blogging, can help everyone - he said people should be using the Internet to find information, discuss with others, deliver business solutions online, find customers, develop better practices, and above all market and brand yourself.

Judy says it’s not just about using social networking to make Columbus talent available to Silicon Valley, but also about creating clusters around the country - regions of innovation excellence. Universities, businesses, entrepreneurs and local school system working together for technology, green technology, community and to become an innovation cluster.

Mike Nelson mentioned again the “brain trust” of the Obama campaign - LinkedIn is a great way to surround yourself with exceptional people as well. Mike searched his network for “Internet…Ohio…” prior to this trip to see who he knows. Mike also plugged Dopplr as a way to get in touch with others while traveling (at which point Reid said he’s an investor in Dopplr - no big surprise there!).

Mike says government needs to lead by example - the Clinton administration broke through cultural boundaries to using new technologies. He said social networking opens up government, makes it more transparent and more open to a real two-way dialogue.

At that point, the public event concluded. People mingled and networked for a while - I chatted with and met several Twitter peeps including @cclaypoole, @michaelbowers, @nickseguin, @selicker, @timjeby and @cherylharrison - and then @GaryMoneysmith and I went into the small, private VIP event with fewer than 40 others. 

It’s worth noting that I was unable to Tweet or blog from the VIP event because G-Money hijacked my laptop for his own blogging purposes (Fahlgren folks will be amused to know that our crusty old floater laptop worked just fine, while Gary’s sleek Macbook Pro couldn’t pick up a wireless signal to save his life).

Fortunately, I was also packing an old school notepad so the rest of this is from my handwritten notes. Craig Newmark is a very personable speaker who describes himself rather humbly as a customer service representative for Craig’s List. He said he’s been doing customer service for 14 years and is committed to doing it as long as he lives, though no longer full-time. He said aside from customer service, he sees his job as one of community organizer. He joked that as a geek, he prefers to do his community organizing online so “he doesn’t have to get off his backside.” 

Craig talked about using his community organizing skills to help Iraq and Iran veterans and the grassroots organizations dedicated to getting them the educational and medical benefits they deserve. He said it sounds mundane, but it’s things like that which make a big difference. He also does a lot of work in voter registration and getting young people, especially college students, out to vote. Craig said he does a lot of this on a non-partisan basis, because this year it’s simply too important to American history and to “human history.”

Craig noted that the Internet allows for networked grassroots democracy - what he called true or direct democracy. He said it’s making the dreams of our country’s founders a reality that we’ve moved to direct democracy from representative democracy. In addition, he talked about spending time in Israel and seeing the importance of green technology and innovation, not just for their own sake but also because they create jobs. He said sometimes the most important thing you can do for someone who is suffering is just to give them a job.

After Craig’s brief talk, there was a bit more networking and mingling. I had the opportunity to shake hands with and meet my new hero, Mike Nelson. G-Money was smirking and saying I had a tech crush, but as we both walked away after speaking with Mike, he reluctantly admitted he had one too. The other very cool person I got to meet was Craig Newmark’s PR rep, Mike Smith, who runs a firm out of the DC area. It was nice meeting a fellow PR person in the sea of techsperts at the VIP soiree.

All in all, it was a fabulous night - one that left me feeling really good about Columbus, the future of technology and innovation, and even our country. And now you’ll have to go over to G Money’s blog to read the work of wonder he whipped up on the laptop he whisked away from me earlier this evening!

The online marketing gurus at Webbed Marketing have done it again. How’s this for a super cool social and SEO experiment to get the bloggers blogging and online buzz-meters buzzing?

This definitely falls into the category of “I wish I’d thought of that.” I’m so glad I get to work with the WM folks and I can’t wait to see who wins this trip to the New Marketing Summit.

And hey, while I’m at it… Webbed Marketing, Please Send me to the New Marketing Summit! Because, you know, it never hurts to ask.

Recently I discovered the best toothbrush ever, the Colgate 360. Think all toothbrushes are alike? Think again. This thing rocks. It’s got the perfect hand shape and the ideal mouth feel, plus it gets your choppers - and everything else in there - feeling super clean. It has this cool, rubbery, sandpapery, velcro-like area to scrub your tongue and other mouth parts as you brush - but that sounds worse than it really is, trust me on this. It’s quite pleasant.

Why am I blogging about this? Because I’m excited about it. I discovered it by accident (mistakenly grabbed the husband’s toothbrush instead of mine - hey, it happens) and fell in love with it. I went right out to the store and got one of my own (they didn’t have purple but I can live with turquoise blue).

If you’re wondering what this has do with social media and PR, my blog’s usual sweet spot, here it comes. Once I figured out that I wanted to blog about this awesome toothbrush, I Tweeted about it. Instantly I got a response back from someone asking if I was talking about his favorite toothbrush (nope, different one). Apparently toothbrushes inspire deep emotions in quite a few people.

Then, I Googled the 360 and found that other bloggers had fallen in love with it too - although a few were less enthused (not to mention slightly off-color, though still amusing). Delving further into my findings, I even discovered a goofy little Youtube ad that explains this darn newfangled toothbrush and why I like it so much. Had I seen this TV spot while watching my usual shows, would it have gotten my attention or convinced me to buy a new toothbrush? Highly doubtful. But now that I’ve already fallen head over heels with the Colgate 360, I find it cute.

Bottom line, I have no stock or vested interest of any kind in Colgate or this toothbrush. In fact, I have stock in a major Colgate competitor! But I’m still blogging about the 360 because I liked it that much. This is the power of social media, folks - I am not the only person doing this. Every day, people are falling in love with brands, products, companies and causes. Every day, these people are blogging and Tweeting and creating videos and posting photos and being online brand advocates, brand ambassadors. These people love nothing more than generating excited, passionate, authentic, honest, credible word of mouth about the brands they like and feel good about.

So tell me, what are you doing about this phenomenon? Is your product or company - or at least your customer service - worthy of inspiring that much passion and devotion? And if so, are you making it easy for your consumers to share content about you? I had to “steal” this screen grab from Colgate. I’m hoping they won’t mind. Imagine if, instead, they had posted lots of pretty pictures of the 360 to Flickr and then linked to them from their site so that I could find and grab the one I like best. Note to CPG companies: make your websites blogger friendly - we like that.

I guess my only point here, aside from the fact that you may want to seriously consider the Colgate 360 next time your mouth is feeling less than fresh, is that social and consumer generated media are here to stay and you have every reason in the world to embrace them. Whatever your business, department or role, I’d bet there’s a way social media and web 2.0 can help you do your job better, build or enhance relationships with your customers, tap into fans and advocates you didn’t even know you had, and open the door to new relationships with prospects.

What do you have to lose?

I talk a lot about the power of social search, and today I’ve experienced a perfect example. On my way back from a late, quick lunch errand, I found myself facing a dilemma and needing quick answers. I posted a query to my knowledgeable and enlightened Twitter network, knowing I’d benefit from instant expertise.

Note: I also could have posed the question on LinkedIn’s Answers forum or searched by keyword on Delicious, but I was in need of immediate assistance. Twitter did not let me down. Before mere minutes had ticked by, I was in luck - informed, educated and helpful souls were sharing their advice and experiences.

Is this a silly example? Sure. Does it illustrate the power of social search? Absolutely. Because I follow - and seek to be followed by - people who are knowledgeable about PR, marketing, social media, tech topics and central Ohio, I could have just as easily posed a serious query on any number of topics. I know my Twitter network would have come through with answers in those instances as freely as they did in the case of the dropped cookie.

Would you rather get answers from a nameless, faceless, personality-less seach engine (no offense Google et al) or from an intelligent, informed network of experts who can understand the nuances of context, uncover hidden wealths of information and still get back to you instantly?

The lesson here, for me, is to surround youself online with the kinds of people you most want to be with in person - as well as those whom you most want to be like. Are you “friending” and following anyone and everyone on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn? Or are you strategically cultivating a network of expert sources and people for whom you, in turn, can be an informed and knowledgeable source?

These are important questions to ask. As important as, say, wondering whether you can still pick up and eat a cookie after inadvertently dropping it. Not that I would ever do such a thing.

I must mention Chris Brogan a lot in my house, because anytime I’m faced with a challenge related to my blog or social media work in general, my husband gets a mock-serious look on his face and asks “what would Chris Brogan do?!” CB really is that influential when it comes to web 2.0 stuff. Now, he has released an excellent e-book about personal branding and online reputation management.

I’m often amazed by how much the true gurus in social media share for free. It’s almost a measure of a person’s expertise in social media - if they’re giving away so much, they must know even more. Brian Solis of PR 2.0 has some great free e-books (just scroll down the right side of his blog to peruse the selection). Dave Fleet has one about strategic communications planning. I found one on Twitter for business and another on business blogs. Here’s a list of many more free e-books compiled by, you guessed it, Chris Brogan. I’ve not read them all yet, but the ones I have read are phenomenal.

If you can’t travel to the big ticket conferences, don’t despair. Read these e-books to illuminate the dark mysteries of web 2.0. Also, if social media isn’t your bag but you’d like to find some free e-books in your subject area, visit PDF Geni to search the Web’s PDF treasure trove by keyword.

Found any other cool e-books or other great web 2.0 reference sites? I’d love to hear about them.

If you’re connected to me on Plaxo, Friendfeed or Facebook or you’ve subscribed to this blog’s RSS feed, you probably already know that I’m a huge fan of Delicious. I use this social bookmarking site in place of my Internet favorites to save sites, articles, videos, blogs and other links I like so I can refer back to them at a later date from any computer.

Unlike your browser-based favorites, Delicious is easily searchable if you tag things accurately and won’t crash if your computer does. Plus, there are many other uses for Delicious as well, besides social bookmarking. I’ll share a few I’ve discovered and I think you’ll soon see why this site has become one of my absolute favorite PR 2.0 tools.

If you haven’t checked out Delicious in a while, it’s worth a second look. Founded in 2003 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005, the site was ann.oy.ing.ly known as Del.icio.us until its recent upgrade at the end of July 2008. Delicious 2.0 is faster, sleeker and has some new search functions which make it even easier to use. Here are some of the ways I use the site:

Social search. Google and the other search engines, while incredibly useful tools, only search the surface of the Web. If you want to search the “deep Web” and find better stuff faster, social search will help you tap into the power of community. I equate social search with going to the library and asking an incredibly helpful reference librarian for help rather than toughing it out yourself. With social search, you’re not just asking one helpful expert, you may be asking dozens or even hundreds. Try asking your informed and knowledgeable Twitter or LinkedIn network when you need an answer - or search for your keywords on Delicious, where countless other users may have bookmarked and tagged the precise links you’re looking for. You can subscribe to the RSS feed for your favorite tags on Delicious too, so any new links or articles in your subject area will be sent right to you.

Media relations. I credit Todd Defren with the idea of using Delicious to pitch media. At my agency, we’ve had success developing topic-specific research pages on Delicious for various clients, then sharing one simple link with reporters or bloggers. It saves time if you’re often sending the same information and links to multiple contacts. Your pitch can be tailored and customized for each writer, while your core content is delivered in a way that’s easy for you plus ultra user friendly for the recipient. These topic-specific Delicious pages can serve as online media kits, media briefing pages or even rudimentary online press rooms. Best of all, if media like what you’ve shared, they can subscribe to the RSS feed for your page so anytime you add content, they’ll get it. Smart, right?

Sharing results. Long gone are the days of delivering a huge binder of news articles to clients at the end of each month… okay, I’m dreaming, many clients do still want hard copy clips in a printed report with “thud power” as it lands on their desk. However, we’re also using Delicious as a great way to collect and share media placements and links with clients. You can tag the links so they’re easily searchable, plus you can use the notes field to position the article so readers know why it’s important or worthwhile. If you’re not in PR, you can still use Delicious to save and merchandise good reviews, customer testimonials, accolades or other positive mentions of your brand or company on the Web. Put a link to your positive Delicious page in your sig file and you’ve got a nice way to showcase your good work.

Trendspotting. As PR pros, we have to stay out in front of trends and know what issues are hot. The main page of Delicious or delicious.com/popular/ will show you which links are most popular right now. You can also go to delicious.com/recent/ to see what people are saving at that exact moment. You’ll see a number in a small light blue bar if something has only been saved a few times, or a number in a larger dark blue bar if something’s been saved hundreds or thousands of times. Wouldn’t you want to know if crowds of people were saving links related to your company, brand or industry?

Blogger lists. If you’re keeping lists of targeted bloggers for your company or clients, I highly recommend keeping those lists completely separate from traditional media lists. Having a “bloggers” tab on your media list means you’re just one step away from someone making a bad beginners’ blunder and mass-mailing a news release to your key bloggers. We all know better, right? But to avoid that from ever happening, use Delicious to collect all of the blogs you want to get to know for your clients. You can check your Delicious page every day to read the blogs, then click through when you want to comment or reach out to the blogger. Using Delicious this way means you’re basically using it as an RSS reader, only without having to click on those little orange chicklets.

Blog promotion. Are you saving your blog posts or online articles to Delicious, using great titles, accurate tags and interesting descriptions? If not, you’re missing out on an opportunity to promote your blog and drive traffic to your site.

Direct outreach. I absolutely love Todd Defren’s take on using Delicious for “edgework” - reaching out directly to influencers or consumers using social bookmarking. Notice a lot of people on Delicious saving links in your specific area of expertise? You might try reaching out to those folks and building relationships by sending them links that will be of interest to them. Just be sure you’re truly sharing something of value and not just peddling your company or client’s commercial interests.

If you’re hungry for more deliciousness, here’s a list of additional Delicious tips and tools. Am I forgetting anything? What’s your favorite way to use Delicious?