The only way to exist today as an small agency is to be fast and efficient. Here are 2 videos I had to share.

“Noded“, a book about working with web powered teams, introduced me to this great video from Ryan Carson of Carsonified. Based on David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” philosophy, Ryan shows a simplified way to manage tasks using OmniOutliner.

Next is Paul Boag from the podcast Boagworld. The following video highlights how to manage tasks with OmniFocus another Omni tool.

If you like these methods I would recommend reading “Noded” as well as Paul’s other video “My Grand Mac Tour“. Both highlight great techniques and tools for today’s modern worker.

Below is a overview of key membership and usage statistics for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter from a great article on Social Media Today. The numbers support how these networks have grown and how influential they are in today’s business.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn has approximately 50 million users worldwide in 200 countries. The membership on LinkedIn is growing at roughly one new member per second. When LinkedIn launched in 2003, it took 477 days, almost a year and four months to reach the first million members. The last million took only 12 days. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.

Facebook: Facebook has over 300 million members with 150 million that log in at least once per day. The fastest growing demographic on Facebook are 35 years and older and according to Facebook more than 2 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared across the network, each week.

Twitter: Twitter has more than 32 million members with the segment of 45-54 year olds being the top demographic and 25-34 year olds following closely behind at second. It has been found in other studies that baby boomers and senior citizens are more likely to join Twitter than their grandchildren.

These findings are from The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks study. If you want to learn more I recommend reading the whole article:

The Big Three Social Networks Have Emerged as Professional Networks: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

I attended a great Social Media Marketing Seminar yesterday sponsored by the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Social media marketing can be hit or miss these days but I was surprised at the enthusiasm and the quality of attendees and speakers.

Below are links to the speakers and some other good stuff.

Special thanks to the speakers I saw:
Jessica Kizorek – Founder of The Viral Pulse
Jason Beukema- President of Whet Travel
Mande White- FreeSocialMediaHelp.com
Courtney Recht- Manager, Public Relations Norwegian Cruise Line

A few worthy links too!
Search Twitter Feeds- find who is tweeting in your zip code!
Tweetbeep – track conversations
Twitter Karma – manage friends

I have been doing a lot of research about the “Conversational Architect.” Ironically I was listening to LastFM and rediscovered an old Guru song “Respect The Architect.”

His lyrics grabbed me. Guru talks about going back to metaphors. “Lame-game, plain-Jane can’t approach these. The architect, selecting the blueprints to rid the game of nuisance. Your concept’s mediocre, plus you’re way too typical. Yeah, never ending, always building.”

So when designing conversations or planning social engagement metaphors work just like good storytelling. I also have seen and heard a ton of lame ideas and more disturbing are “experts” repurposing the same ideas but with different brands. Let’s rid the “game” of nuisance.

So if you consult, art direct or strategize about social media lets raise the bar, go for the fence and dismiss the fakes, cynics and non-believers!

New to Guru? Here you go, enjoy!