In the book “The Tipping Point”, Gladwell explains:
The Tipping Point is that magic moment when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.

Social Media Marketing is the gasoline adding to this wildfire. It enables ideas, products and messages to go on steroid. They are like viruses spreading across the web sphere traveling across the globe. Countries and borders are no longer the boundaries.

Social media and social networks are taking over the world and bringing everyone closer.

• Your new press release from a minute ago is already viewed by Chi Ling in Beijing China.
• Your new product from couple days ago is already ordered and shipped to Sanjay in Bangalore India.

But sometimes it could be too close?

Your product malfunction (e.g. Dell laptop explodes in flames) if not handled properly could cause the biggest product safety recalls in history of consumer electronics ever.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081400881.html

With the power of internet and social media, anyone (big companies, small companies, entrepreneurs, Uncle Bob from next door and your teenage cousin Suzie) can spread their ideas in lighting speed and reach their tipping points faster than epidemic viruses.

Here is another example:

Watch comedian Judson’s Evolution of Dance. This YouTube video was viewed over 66,147,544 times with over 83330 comments.

I am sure what Judson’s comedy career was like before this video. But since this video release in 2006, it became:
#1 Most Viewed All Time YouTube Video
#1 Top Rated YouTube Video
#3 Most Discussed YouTube Video
Judson was also invited to multiple television appearances including Good Morning America, Today Show and the CNN News.

If you are a comedian, wouldn’t you want to be Judson?

SMMReport is going to show you how.

Kaboodle
http://www.kaboodle.com/
(Google Page Rank: 6 / Alexa: 6045)

this next
http://www.thisnext.com/
(Google Page Rank: 6 / Alexa: 12314)

Deals Plus
http://dealspl.us/
(Google Page Rank: 6 / Alexa: 19126)

Wists
http://www.wists.com/
(Google Page Rank: 6 / Alexa: 26931)

ClipFire
http://www.clipfire.com/
(Google Page Rank: 6 / Alexa: 89381)

StyleFeeder
http://www.stylefeeder.com/
(Google Page Rank: 5 / Alexa: 33245)

boxedup
http://www.boxedup.com/
(Google Page Rank: 5 / Alexa: 148527)

Stylehive
http://www.stylehive.com/
(Google Page Rank: 4 / Alexa: 14459)

Shoppers base
http://www.shoppersbase.com/
(Google Page Rank: 4 / Alexa: 126225)

Deal Comet
http://www.dealcomet.com/
(Google Page Rank: 4 / Alexa: 918040)

Complore
http://complore.com/
(Google Page Rank: 3 / Alexa: 91267)

Desiresin
http://www.desiresin.com/shop/
(Google Page Rank: 3 / Alexa: 566112)

Pricetrim
http://pricetrim.com/
(Google Page Rank: 3 / Alexa: 2799666

Crowdstorm
http://www.crowdstorm.co.uk/
(Google Page Rank: 0 / Alexa: 523655)

I really believe Niche is the way to go!

Ball Hype
http://ballhype.com/
(Google Page Rank: 6 / Alexa: 25195)

Talk Soccer (for Soccer only)
http://talksoccer.net/
(Google Page Rank: 4 / Alexa: 201443)

Chaamp
http://www.chaamp.com
(Google Page Rank: 3 / Alexa: 337864)

Score Guru
http://www.scoreguru.com/
(Google Page Rank: 3 / Alexa: 697713)

Euro Goal News (for Soccer only)
http://www.eurogoalnews.com/
(Google Page Rank: 3 / Alexa: 1368222)

We Dig Sports
http://www.wedigsports.com/
(Google Page Rank: 3 / Alexa: 1680426)

Sports Flip
http://sportsflip.com/
(Google Page Rank: 3 / Alexa: 1826728)

Smarkwire (for Pro-Wrestling)
http://www.smarkwire.com/
(Google Page Rank: 2 / Alexa: N/A)

Sports Blink
http://www.sportsblink.com/
(Google Page Rank: 2 / Alexa: 1661332)

Naughty Power (for Pro-Wrestling)
http://naughtypower.com/
(Google Page Rank: 1 / Alexa: 2662849)

Sport Sag
http://www.sportsag.com/
(Google Page Rank: 0 / Alexa: 4843151)

Please feel free to add on to this list. I am not a sport fan.

1. Digg – Vote Blog Posts
http://digg.com
(Google Page Rank: 9 / Alexa: 115)

2. BlogLine – Share favorites, Subscribe & Search & Publish
http://www.bloglines.com/
(Google Page Rank: 9 / Alexa: 848)

3. StumbleUpon – Now bought by Google. Stumblers discover new sites by clicking the toolbar
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
(Google Page Rank: 8 / Alexa: 273)

4. Del.icio.us- Comment/Tag Favorites
http://del.icio.us/
(Google Page Rank: 8 / Alexa: 298)

5. Reddit – Comment/Tag Favorites
http://reddit.com/
(Google Page Rank: 8 / Alexa: 912)

6. Ma.gnolia – Comment/Tag Favorites
http://ma.gnolia.com/
(Google Page Rank: 8 / Alexa: 8638)

7. Connotea Free Online Reference management for all researchers, clinician and scientists
http://www.connotea.org/
(Google Page Rank: 8 / Alexa: 35373)

8. eSnips – 5 GB for storing & sharing file, photo, video and music
http://www.esnips.com/
(Google Page Rank: 7 / Alexa: 323)

9. Fark –News
http://www.fark.com/
(Google Page Rank: 7 / Alexa: 2317)

10. Furl – Personal Site
http://www.furl.net/
(Google Page Rank: 7 / Alexa: 4645)

11 Icerocket - BlogSearch
http://www.icerocket.com/
(Google Page Rank: 7 / Alexa: 10143)

12 Folkd – Digg like
http://www.folkd.com
(Google Page Rank: 7 / Alexa: 35613)

13. CiteuLIke - A free online service to organize your academic papers
http://www.citeulike.org/
(Google Page Rank: 7 / Alexa: 35999)

14 My Yahoo Web
http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/
(Google Page Rank: 6 / Alexa: 1)

15 H2O Playlist - by Harvard Law School Berkman Center for Internet & Society
http://h2obeta.law.harvard.edu/home.do;jsessionid=2274748CD7095436AF37E0AFB3E0FB76
(Google PR 6 / Alexa 1855)

16 Blinklist– Store & Share Favorite
http://www.blinklist.com/
(Google PR 6 / Alexa 5,413)

17 Clipmarks – Store & Share Favorite
http://www.clipmarks.com/
(Google PR 6 / Alexa 6133)

18 Kaboodle – Shopping
http://www.kaboodle.com/
(Google PR 6 / Alexa 6152)

19. Boxxet– Store & Share Favorite
http://boxxet.com/
(Google PR 6 / Alexa 8405)

20 Simpy – Looks like Reddit
http://www.simpy.com/
(Google PR 6 / Alexa 10001)

If you go to Google and type “social media marketing”, the following results would come up:

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So I click the link to Wikipedia and found a surprisingly weak definition of social media marketing.

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I am sure this page will improve six months down the road. In the meantime, I have decided to take charge and give social media marketing a real definition.

Here you go…

Social Media Marketing is an ongoing marketing effort to communicate with potential or existing customers through the use of internet technologies including:

•Blogs
•Emails
•Social Booking Websites (e.g. Digg.com)
•Social Citation & References (e.g. Wikipedia)
•Social Networking Websites (e.g. Facebook)
•Media Sharing (e.g. Youtube, iTune)
•Internet forum (e.g. Yahoo! Group)
•Instant Messaging & Internet Phone (e.g. Skpye)

The goal of a social media marketer is to create positive conversations with potential or existing customers about the company, products and services.

Social Media Marketing is not just Social Networking

Why not?

Well… because conversations are happening everywhere! Not just on Facebook. You can find conversations about your company and products in blogs, emails, video, forum, instant messaging, etc.

Basically everywhere!

Social Media Marketing is scary

Big companies and traditional marketers are really afraid of Social Media Marketing because these conversations are not *controlled* by the marketers anymore and they are happening everywhere. It could be positive or negative and it could be initiated virtually by anyone anywhere anytime and in any language.

Social Media Marketing has basically leveled the playing field between big companies and little Johnny from Kentucky High school. The voice of Johnny could be equally valuable compared to the highly paid marketing executive sitting in New York City.

Marketers are no longer in the driver seats. The communities are now taking over. It is like an amoeba. It is like a virus. The best thing marketers can do is to monitor, facilitate, bucket up and go along with this fast ride.

Can you ignore it?

The answer is No.

Even you don’t participate in the conversations, these conversations are still happening.

You have to pay attention or it will be too late.

7:00 am: Wake up.

7:01 am: Pick up my Blackberry and start looking at messages from the night before.

7:02 am: Brush my teeth and wash my face

*Yes it only takes me one minute to skim through all my email

7:10 am: Take my daily vitamin (which I ordered from Vitamin.com)

7:15 am: Get ready for my morning run.

8:00 am: Come home, shower and get dressed for my morning blogging session.

*Yes I blog for at least 3 – 4 hours every day

11:00 am: Digging Time. I like to read blog posts and digg my favorite blog posts on Digg.com.

11:30 am: Trading Time. Check out my stock portfolio looking at Yahoo Finance.

12:00 pm: Have lunch. Meanwhile check out some new music videos on YouTube and read my latest FeedBlitz email from Seth Godin.

1:00 pm: Instant message my friends about dinner and simultaneously go to OpenTable.com and reserve a table at the latest hot spot in San Francisco.

1:30 pm: Leave home and head to my Podcast interview session.

2:30 pm: Done with interview and attend board meeting for a non profit that I support.
We talk about using Facebook, MySpace, Going.com and Craiglists to promote our next fundraising event. On top of that, we decide to use eBay Giving Work to help us raise more funds.

3:30 pm: Need help on my website and post a job on elance.com.

4:00 pm: Check voicemail using callwave.com. (Yes – I don’t even need to listen to it.) Accept Facebook invitation using my Blackberry.

4:30 pm: Get ready for dinner & happy hour while emailing my virtual assistant (Sunday.com) to find me the best happy hour spot in San Francisco.

5:00 pm. Email the happy hour selection to my friends while uploading all my weekend pictures to Flickr to share with my friends.

5:30 pm: Schedule another entrepreneur meeting using meetup.com and hit the button on Aweber.com to schedule my Tuesday newsletter.

6:00 pm: Out the door and enjoy my evening.

Yes. It’s true. That is my typical day.

Social media is ingrained in my typical daily life. My life is totally made up of social media websites and services.

Why?

Why?

Why?

You should care because Social Media is taking over the world! It is flattening the world (In “The World is Flat” term ). It is changing the way people do business. It is changing the role of consumers. It is driving the marketing people crazy and it is making all the geeks really happy.

Not only that…without you knowing.

Social Media Marketing is encouraging the conversations. The important conversations about you which you are dying to know. Whether you like it or not… the conversations are happening. People are talking.

You hear that right.

Whether you like it or not, it is happening.

Social Media is liberating all the information. It is transforming not only the college students or computer geeks. It is taking over the world of business. Your traditional customers are no longer the receivers. They are now your providers. Your publishers. Your public relation representatives. Your critics. Your analysts. Your marketers.

Yes. Your marketers.

The crowd has taken on a new role in this new world.

As your marketers, they are doing a fine job. Not only talking. They are aggregating, slicing and dicing your product, pricing and all the deal information. They are sharing everything with their friends and talking behind your back.

Imagine you used to be the shepherd. You get up early in the morning and perform your duty to keep your flock of sheep (your customers) intact. You know exactly what to do to protect them and keep them away from the wolves (your competitors)

Unfortunately, in the new world of social media marketing, your role has changed completely. The customers are now taken over. You are no longer the shepherd. They are the shepherd and you are now one of the sheep! You have no idea where your new shepherd is taking you and you also have no idea what the wolves are doing in this new world neither.

What have social media marketing have done so far?

• Wikipedia has *almost* eliminated Britannica
• YouTube was bought by Google for 1.6 billion dollars
• Justin Kan has been doing livecast 24X7 for about six months now
• MySpace & Facebook is now world number 6 & 7 most popular website
• According to Wikipedia, Second Life girls are rated #95 on the “Top 100 Hottest Females of 2007”
• Cragslist has *almost* eliminated traditional newspaper classified advertising.

And there are more to come…

So… should you care or not?