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This episode, Bob and Chris talk about the business applications of social media: promotion, networking, community and lead generation.

The social media scene is so big that there’s no way we can touch on everything, but we can definitely talk about some of the more relevant types of tools available, and we can certainly list a bunch of them below. The categories below are very general guidelines, especially when you consider that many of the tools really blur the lines and could easily fit into more than one.

Broadcast Media:
If you’re looking to broadcast your ideas or message, its a 1-to-many conversation. Even though your audience can communicate with you through comments and trackbacks, for the most part its a one way medium.

Video

YouTube
Blip.TV
Vimeo
UStream
Seesmic

Audio

Utterli (formerly utterz)

Text

WordPress
Blogger

Professional Networking:

Linked In

Personal Networking:

Facebook
MySpace
Plaxo

Water Cooler/Chat

Twitter

Image Sharing Communities:

Flickr
Picasa
SmugMug
Photobucket

Start Your Own Community:

WordPress MU
Ning
KickApps

Aggregators:

Google Profiles
Chi.mp

Also mentioned specifically is Dani Jones “Dani Draws Live” UStream channel.
http://danidraws.com/danidrawslive/

Homework Assignments

1. Go sign up for accounts at:
   • Linked In
   • Facebook
   • Twitter
   • MySpace
2. Friend Bob and Chris on Twitter:
   • Bob: http://twitter.com/bobostromstudio
   • Chris: http://twitter.com/aithene
3. Start thinking about our visual branding. We’re going to start implementing visual elements within the next 2 shows, so it would be nice if its ready to go.