Peter Kim is a Senior Partner at Dachis Corporation.  He blogs about social computing and marketing at Being Peter Kim.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been curating a list of social media marketing examples.  The list started with 100 examples (including 35+ from Mashable) and has since tripled in size with the participation of over a hundred contributors with examples from companies around the world.

We could probably come up with 3,000 examples instead of 300 - but the current set already gives us a pretty good sample to think about.  One takeaway: for now, those neurotic about missing “what’s next” can relax a bit.  Consumers still use a broader set of social tools than corporations, but new categories of tools aren’t emerging rapidly today, giving brands a chance to catch up.  It’s time to master the last big thing while you have a chance to catch a breath.

As corporate adoption emerges, there’s nothing wrong with learning lessons from others and making them your own.  Start by making sure you have all of your bases covered with the major tools.  In other words, copy and paste the items below, then fill in the blanks with your own company-driven effort.

Here’s a framework of 22 tools to consider with notable brand examples:

1. Blogs (Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines)

2. Bookmarking/Tagging (Adobe, Kodak)

3. Brand monitoring (Dell, MINI)

4. Content aggregation (Alltop, EMC)

5. Crowdsourcing/Voting (Oracle, Starbucks)

6. Discussion boards and forums (IBM, Mountain Dew)

7. Events and meetups (Molson, Pampers)

8. Mashups (Fidelity Investments, Nike)

9. Microblogging (method, Whole Foods)

10. Online video (Eukanuba, Home Depot)

11. Organization and staffing (Ford, Pepsi)

12. Outreach programs (Nokia, Yum Brands)

13. Photosharing (Rubbermaid, UK Government)

14. Podcasting (Ericsson, McDonalds)

15. Presentation sharing (CapGemini, Daimler AG)

16. Public Relations - social media releases (Avon, Intel)

17. Ratings and reviews (Loblaws, TurboTax)

18. Social networks: applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities (British Airways, Saturn)

19. Sponsorships (Coca-Cola, Whirlpool)

20. Virtual worlds (National Geographic, Toyota)

21. Widgets (Southwest Airlines, Target)

22. Wikis (Second Life, T-Mobile Sidekick)

And use this username check tool to see if your brands/preferred handles are still available.

I haven’t found a single company doing all of these today. Forget divining a big, meaningful business objective before getting started - you’ll end up in analysis paralysis. Just make sure you’re making an existing business function better and get started.  Today.

Image courtesy of iStockPhoto, cmcderm1

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Source:Mashable!

This article is part of the Open Web Awards, an open, international contest for the best websites and services.

There’s no shortage of startups hoping to be the next Google – or at least (for the ones with humility) trying to grab a small slice of the search engine pie. This year’s loudest debut was probably Cuil, which saw huge interest upon launch but has since gone quiet. Powerset, a search engine that lets users query using “natural language” was scooped up by Microsoft before it had much of a chance to prove itself.

In addition to the big names, there are hundreds of search engines designed for specific verticals like real estate and travel, as well as tools like Mahalo and Wikia that use human manpower to improve their results. Which are doing the best job at innovating in search? Make your nominations using the widget below:

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—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Enter the Search Engine Marketing Scholarship ContestLexxe - Natural Language Search EngineAsk.com Partners with Blinkx for Video SearchCodase: The Source Code Search EngineMicrosoft Live Search to Become Default on HP ComputersYahoo to Update Search IndexQuintura Signs with Blinkx

Postcards can be found at nearly every tourist destination around the world. And while they’re always a popular and cheap way to keep in touch with friends, they also suffer from being incredibly generic - every shop seems to sell the same dozen postcards, no matter where in a city you go.

A new startup called Hazel Mail is looking to give postcards a more personal touch, by helping users design and send custom cards. The process is simple: after uploading an image to the site, users add a brief message and the recipient’s address. Hazelmail then prints and ships the card from one of its globally distributed printers.
Source:TechCrunch
photos into works of art that Monet would be envious of, check out iGolf, a minutes-old app created by Palo Alto-based Social Gaming Network.

The application uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to detect a golf-swing like motion with the phone. Choose a club and swing the iPhone just like a golf club. Save your high scores and challenge your friends to beat your distance. Our best score with the driver so far is 406 yards.

The app is free, which will be appreciated by those of us who’ve spent untold numbers of quarters playing Golden Tee at the local bar. TechCrunch writer Jason Kincaid tests the app - see the video below.

Try not to throw your iPhone through the window while playing. But if you do throw your iPhone through a window, please send us a video of you doing it.Source:TechCrunch
integration with the recently acquired Powerset, but incorporating better Wikipedia clips into Live Search is a far cry from the original promise of the next generation search startup: true natural language search.

Instead we have more Live Search results with dedicated answers (not sure why Powerset was needed for this), and better Wikipedia results (“Since Wikipedia articles show up in a large percentage of Live Search queries, it’s important that the captions are top notch.”).

In addition to conventional text and banner ads, publishers can now make money on everything from in-line text ads (highlighting specific words that link to advertisers) to pop-up previews (i.e. – Snap). AdCamo, the online advertising platform for web page backgrounds, has added yet another unique ad format to its mix: the cursor.

While custom cursors are nothing new – you’ve probably noticed them on countless MySpace profiles – monetizing them is, and represents the growing trend of selling ads on virtually every conceivable piece of web real estate. AdCamo’s “brandable cursor” ads work alongside the service’s existing background ads, so for example, if you see an ad for Budweiser, you cursor may in turn become a can of Bud when you mouseover the background ad. Some examples are available here.

Since AdCamo is a platform, this essentially means that any Web publisher that uses the service for managing their ad inventory can now sell the new format. Additionally, since AdCamo teams up with ad agencies to sell its publisher’s ad space, they can sell the brandable cursor to their clients. Will anyone bite on this format, or is it a step too far into annoying? Let us know what you think in the comments.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:ShowYourself - MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and More in One WidgetUserplane Offers Web Publishers Desktop Apps with Adobe AIRSiteKreator Launches Aurora for Business Site CreationDivShare Direct Goes Free, For Now6 Really Un-Awesome Things About Chrome (Video)A Web 2.0 Christmas Fairy TaleZwinky Launches

Source:Mashable!

In late June, Microsoft was said to be prepping an acquisition of the semantic search startup Powerset. On August 1st, the two were officially bound. Forward to today, and we see Powerset deliver a short memo noting that it has pieced together some improvements to Microsoft’s Live Search service, making its parent extra smart relative to its standard self.

At least in part. As Mark Johnson, senior program manager at Microsoft, notes on the Powerset blog, the first projects in collaboration between acquirer and acquired “are currently being ‘flighted’ on Live Search, which means that they are being shown only to a small percentage of users.” Resulting data from the experiments will “decide what features will eventually roll into the product.”

The efforts being made by Powerset and Microsoft are 1) to expand on the Live Search results with Freebase Answers, 2) parse semantic queries for Wikipedia results, 3) involve Powerset’s Factz “to generate a list of related searches for a set of queries.” Some of these may not catch the immediate interest of Web users everywhere. As Johnson writes, the alterations are “transparent.” But the visual cues Powerset provides offer a window into what one might expect to see in coming months as a result of the collaboration, and what they amount to is smarter. Perhaps more natural and intuitive, too. The following screenshots are good indication of where things are headed:

Of course, it’s difficult to say what impact this integration of forces may have. For many years Web users have conditioned themselves to function the Google way, to put it loosely. Habits die hard. Yet progress at Microsoft is a must if it is to positively impact its share of the market anytime soon. If nothing else, existing users will gradually become more and more reliant on Live Search what it will be able to do both for information aggregation and semantic analysis with Powerset’s help.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Report: Microsoft to Acquire Powerset Natural Language Search for $100M+Will Natural Language Supplant Keywords In Advertising?Farecast Live Search: Officially Part of the Microsoft FamilyUse Live Search, Get Paid (in Tickets)Is the new Microsoft Live Search Up and Running?Free Passes to Early Screening of “The Dark Knight”Microsoft Live Search Launches New Features for Mobiles

Powerset, the company that was acquired by Microsoft in an attempt to shore up its search, may be more lucrative than originally thought.  According to reports, Microsoft may be tapping Powerset’s technology to improve advertising in search results and in the process, change the way advertising is done.

Right now, advertisers bid to display their ads on search results pages containing specific keywords pertaining to the product or service they’re advertising.  For certain, niche products, that’s not so bad — fewer keywords mean more chances of targeting the right audience.  But for larger companies like Dell, which need to worry about countless keywords, the process can be far more taxing.  But Powerset believes that its natural language processing could change the way ads are displayed and enhance the profitability for all parties involved.

I think Powerset is totally wrong.

If a particular company sells sneakers, they can bid for placement on search results pages pertaining to “sneakers,” “shoes,” “footwear,” “socks,” “feet,” and the company’s and its competitors’ names.  But with natural language processing, as Powerset proposes, that company would need to bid on search concepts where people ostensibly ask for the best kinds of sneakers or where to find sneakers.

Powerset’s belief that this new type of ad-placement mechanism is game-changing may be true, but it’s wrong in believing that it would work better for advertisers.  How could it?

Keywords may not be fool-proof and may tend to make things more difficult for advertisers, but we can’t forget that bidding on them works for one reason: it simplifies a process that is extremely hard to gauge.  More often than not, people that search for sneakers will use some of the keywords listed above.  And while they may use others, a company is almost guaranteed that anyone even remotely fond of shoes will see their ad.

But in Powerset’s scheme, companies need to rely upon the intention of those same people and how well it can guess how they interact with a search engine, regardless of the keywords used.  In other words, they have to hope that a large portion of users will look for the same thing within the same basic parameters: “where to find sneakers at an affordable price.”

Trying to guess what people will say, as opposed to what people will include in their query, is extremely difficult.  Why try to guess a whole sentence or a structured query when you can pick one word and hope people use it?

Natural language is too subjective.  Sure, it might help return better results at times, but I think it will fail to make advertising any easier for the advertisers.  Keywords simplify things and help companies increase the chances of their ads being placed on the right pages at the right time.  But when they need to guess based on “natural language”, they’re forced to guess what each individual would say at any given time.  In the process, things become too complicated and the chances of engaging the highest number of people in the right market is limited.

Let’s not forget that Powerset worked with Wikipedia and there is currently no indication that it will work with Web search, let alone search results advertising.  This idea sounds too much like straw grasping from a company, in Microsoft, that’s desperately trying to pull one over on Google.  And if it goes through with this idea, that certainly won’t happen.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Report: Microsoft to Acquire Powerset Natural Language Search for $100M+Online Ad Network Raises $8.2M for Cryptic Start PageFree Passes to Early Screening of “The Dark Knight”Mobile Advertising Set To Go Big This Year?Australian Ad It Last Comes To AmericaAOL Acquires Third Screen Media, Broadening Mobile Ad PlatformsAdMob Launching Unit Just for iPhone Campaigns