When I had started this blog roughly one year ago I had discussed how my focus has been on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin – as to me these tools seemed the most professional, had the best user experience, and drew a higher caliber crowd. I had also mentioned since that point that the Internet elite are likely seeking out new social media tools as these become crowded and competition becomes more fierce. For those early and basic discussions on social media refer to my past articles titled Social Media Part I, Social Media Part II, and Social Media Part III.

While reading “Crush It,” the author Gary Vaynerchuk reinforces this point and provides five tools he is watching – some that I were aware of and others I were not. In any event I thought I would share them here:

1. Plaxo
2. hi5
3. Bebo
4. FriendFeed
5. Orkut

This has made me consider placing more of my attention on emerging social media within my own business. This makes sense to me – the trend did happen as people left other social media and flocked to Facebook, it seems rational that the next evolution will be others flocking to another tool.

What I hadn’t thought of is the idea that the other social media tools are smaller ponds, with less competition. This makes these yet untapped tools ripe for individuals to establish themselves there.

In addition, with “Crush It” the author provides some compelling reasons to use more of Twitter – a tool that I had long ago abandoned due to ever increasing amounts of spam.

In addition to Facebook and Twitter, here are some other tools that Gary Vaynerchuk references – some well known, others not so much. I’ve made notes next to some tools which I have learned new information about after reading “Crush It,” others I either know well or have not yet used – I just wanted to list them for completeness and for anyone else who may want to check them out:

1. WordPress
2. Tumblr – This is blog publishing software similar to WordPress which I was previously unaware.
3. flickr – Photo sharing software, I have dabbled with this, but Vaynerchuk asserts that the main value of this tool is the community. Perhaps this is worth revisiting.
4. YouTube
5. Viddler – Similar to YouTube, however instead of the Viddler logo appearing on your video, this tool allows you to place your own logo – good for branding!
6. Ustream
7. Justin.tv
8. jaiku
9. Ping.fm
10. TubeMogul
11. Break.com

If you have a couple hours to spare and are interested in learning more about the Internet, social media (particularly video), and doing business check out “Crush It.”

“Now may be the time to explore some of the lesser known social media!”

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding

1. User Community And ROI by Passionate. I have often been asked what the return on investment (ROI) is for social media and user communities in general are. This article provides some good insight. Although the discussion has some good points – it is a bit lengthy. The two graphs provide a great summary of the content.

2. Fortune 100 Companies Embracing Social Media; Especially Twitter by The Viral Garden. It looks as if the adoption of social media is growing, especially among larger companies. Also provides some good criteria of who should use social media.

3. How Can Anyone Follow 10,000 Or More? by Scobleizer. A good argument for limiting the number of people you follow on Twitter. However, I did find the tips on how to follow more people to be a bit contradictory to the theme of the article!

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding

1. Malware, Oversharing Lead Marines To Ban Social Networks by Ars Technica. What is the proper balance between information sharing and security? The Marine Corps is struggling to find the answer.

2. Google Using Billboards To Lure IT Into Google Apps Embrace by Ars Technica. With all the talk of old vs. new marketing, it appears that Google is experimenting with a combination of the two. It will be interesting to see how this turns out!

3. The Death Of Paid WiFi by TechDirt. Is fee based WiFi becoming a thing of the past? There are a few holdouts, however this appears to be the way the WiFi trend is heading.

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding