It’s Friday. It’s Link Love Roundup Time! This week’s links are dedicated to one of the biggest marketing plays of the year. Super Bowl!

Pepsi know what time it is: Redirecting the millions it has spent annually to the Internet. Pepsi has chosen to give away over $20 million in a social media play it is calling The Pepsi Refresh Project, debuting in 2010. ABCNews

Coca-Cola Drafts 'The Simpsons' for Game Day: Through Coke's Facebook fan page, members can send friends virtual gifts of Coke -- a bottle image that appears on their profile pages and newsfeeds. In return, senders get 20-second previews of the new commercials the beverage giant plans to air during the Super Bowl. AdWeek

Audi adds social media to Super Bowl 'Green Police' spot: Audi produced a series of videos for its Green Police YouTube channel, as well as a Twitter page. DMNews

Brand names are going straight to the crowds this Super Bowl seasons in an effort to directly account for ROI. As social marketing matures and progresses big businesses are starting to understand the effects of inviting customers to become active participants in their brand's marketing strategy.

Love it or hate it, The iPad has burst into our lives and has paved the way for endless imitations. Although in my opinion, the real beauty of the iPad is the social marketing aspect of it.

I’m introducing a new trend here on Seovice.com. Every Friday I’ll be sharing a few of the hottest, smartest, most useful and inspiring posts I’ve read. So Without further ado…

Transparency and the Art of the Happy Ending – 1938media

New York Times to social media: Drop dead - VentureBeat

Autopsy of a Cult Brand - Pluggd.in

Must check out blogger – Casie Stewart (for doing things her way)

Last but not least, this was the soundtrack to my week:

Wu Tang vs The Beatles – Free Download

Enjoy your weekend friends!

The previous installment of “Max Your Brand With 4 Social Media Optimization Tips” proved to be widely important to many readers, with reposts coming from; Socialmediatoday, Alltop.com, Kleerstreem and countless ReTweets. I thank each and every one of you who connected with the tips and shared them through your social network, at the end of the day no matter what tactics you choose to follow, it really comes does down to the power of people media.

Before we proceed, I want to make absolutely sure that we’re all on the same page when it comes to social media optimization. Simply being involved and participating on a social network whether it’s mobile or web related is not social media optimization. It’s a nice start but certainly doesn’t utilize its full potential. Let’s expand on the concept of what social media optimization really means with a whole new set of tactics to strengthen your presence and maximize your brand’s online reach.

Listening Beyond Boarders with Boardtracker

One of the most important points I focus on when teaching my social media workshops is; listening. The advantage you’ll gain from understanding what people are saying about your brand, your industry, competitors or about you is unmatched. The problem is that most social media monitoring tools such as Addictomatic, Socialmention, Google Alerts and so on only dig down to the blog level. With forums and message boards still accounting for a lot of user generated content published online, you need a service that completes the picture while manages make sense of it all. That’s where Boardtracker “AKA Boardtracker V.2010” comes in.

Boardtracker is the most powerful forum search engine, message tracking and instant alerts system available. BoardTracker 2010 has already crawled nearly 2 BILLION message threads with millions more added every day. Boardtracker’s strength stems from its richness of data, allowing you to filter your searches down to specific boards, authors and dates. In short, if you’re settling for the same information everyone available to everyone else, you’re missing a world of essential information.

Multiply Your Message with Slideshare

Bloggers, here’s a question for you. How many list type posts have you published over the last few months? You know the one’s I’m talking about; The top 5 best mobile apps, 6 must-know social media tools, 10 things you absolutely need to know about [insert anything here]. By now it’s no secret that readers relate to short concise posts supplying them with the information they need within relatively short reading time. On that note;

1. Take one or two of your best “list” type posts and break it down into a powerpoint presentation format. Don’t forget hyperlinks within your presentation linking back to your blog or website.
2. Create an account on Slideshare.net
3. Upload your fresh new presentation and post it almost anywhere you choose!
4. Why stop there? Offer consulting services? Make sure people know about them with Slideshare.
   Oren Todoros New Media Consulting

   View more presentations from seovice.

Cram More Into Your Tweets, Say it with Images

One of the biggest misconceptions you can have online is that simply because you posted something, people saw it. On average 5-10% of followers see any one tweet. Not staggering numbers by any means. Grab your follower’s attention by including some visual stimulation to your tweets. Chances are your followers are reading your tweets using one of the dozens of twitter-based services such as such as Tweetie for the iPhone or Twitgoo on web which displays your pictures alongside your tweets. Utilize images to give your tweets the extra attention they deserve. Where you were once seeing a handful of clicks, you’ll now be seeing dozens of views and clicks for each post. Another big plus is the fact that Google has already started including real-time content in search results, giving you prime opportunity to soak up SEO Juice.


Business + Social = Social Media Press Release

Love them or hate them, press releases have maintained a healthy lifeline from the pre-internet days. The biggest change is the fact that journalists are now very active on social networks and are keen on following news, links, images or videos anywhere they break out. Add that to the fact that they’re hit with dozens of PR submissions a day. Social media strategists who are unfamiliar with traditional media won’t know what they’re in for. Managing your social media strategy? It’s your job to make journalists care!

Present your next blog posts with an angle that creates real value. If you’re writing about an event, product or service within your industry, make it matter enough for readers or journalists to pick up and share. A well-written and insightful blog post offers benefits both through your social media presence as well as optimizing your site or blog within search engine rankings. Save the $200 distribution costs and focus on delivering news people are genuinely interested in.

There you have it. 4 more social media optimization tips to max your brand. I'd share a few more with you, but then I'd be out of business! As always, the table turns to you. Share your thoughts, ideas or tips with the Seovice.com community and make sure to sign-up for direct to email updates!

It's the beginning of a beautiful

strategic friendship.

nascent provides the following services

- brand strategy & identity design

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- competitor brand analysis

- website design & development

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I am embarking with them on big upcoming projects.

Reach out to them if your needs match any of the services they offer.

It’s 2010, simply understanding social media is no longer enough. We’re now at the final stages before most businesses create and maintain their online presence. An increasing number of business owners understand that engaging with their existing and potential clients though is as important as being in the “increasingly obsolete” yellow pages was just a few short years ago.

One of the most important questions you need to ask yourself right now is: How are you going to maintain your competitive edge? Stats show over 15 thousand social media experts on Twitter alone. What are you going to offer that the countless social media strategist currently don’t? You’re going to really have to sharpen your skills and focus on your added value. Setting you’re clients up with social profiles, writing content and simple social participation just isn’t going to fly in 2010. Most think it’s about talking and engaging, but it’s also about taking a back seat. I’ve met too many social strategists who still haven’t fully understood the power of competitive intelligence. Learn to listen, gather and assess the information available in the industry you’re focusing on. Are competing offering a free trials, contests, downloads or invites to their service? At worst you’ll find out that no one’s really in on the action, giving you prime opportunity to step in and make an impact.

Sharpening Your Competitive Edges

Personally, 2010 is a year where I’m fully focused on 2 major aspects of increasing my brand and business. The first is by being available to offer hands on workshops. The size of the crowd doesn't matter. 5, 10, 30 attendees or packed auditoriums, it’s really about connecting with as people in a direct situation and making sure they leave knowing a lot more than they started with. Remember my motto, Happy people don’t complain.

The second area I’ve set as a main focus point is on-site training. The one thing that experience has taught me is that I’ll never know a client’s businesses as well as they do. I would much rather give them the tools and training to succeed online as opposed to spending countless hours understanding every feature they’re product has to offer.

Knowing and sticking to my offering allows me to establish a reputation in our rapidly expanding industry and more importantly, solidifying Oren Todoros New Media Consulting as key brand within the new media marketing industry.

1-UP Your Offering

So it’s clear that prioritizing your offering as a social marketer is a must. Next time you’re in a situation where you need to pitch a client, try a targeted approach by choosing 1 or 2 points you excel at; video, email, newsletters, social, PR, whatever you know is your forte rather than the “full menu” approach. Integrate you’re targeted offerings into every aspect of your business.

Social media marketers need to understand that within the next few years, the industry we’ve labeled as “social media” will be known as just “good business”.

We're moving into 2010 in less than a few hours. Have you planned ahead for the things you want to accomplish? I don't mean resolutions, I mean making every move possible to really place your life in the position on want to be in!? You have about 7 Hours Left. GO!