Sadly my newfound popularity cannot be attributed to increase in wealth or influence or in deed cosmetic surgery but a recent resurgence of the business networking website.

Usually, when LinkedIn informs me someone has updated their profile, I assume they are looking for a new job, but now it seems people are discovered the wealth of business opportunity LinkedIn can provide and have other reasons for optimising their profiles.

LinkedIn has actually been around longer than Facebook and Twitter but never made it big until now.

This, in part, is due to a raft of new features that mirror the most popular functions of the other big social networks.  For instance you can now “post” statuses, like you can on Facebook  and  “follow” people and companies like you can on Twitter.

It could be that the current surge in LinkedIn usage is down to the publicity surrounding its successful float last May or perhaps LinkedIn has finally managed to appeal to a the raft of diehard tie wearing social media marketing sceptics.

Most business people are now convinced that social media marketing can work for brands targeting consumers (B2C), but few consider it as an effective B2B marketing channel – until now that is.

However “in-bound” marketing strategies are now all the rage (as is the term) and being found on LinkedIn is central to most of them.

Interestingly, as LinkedIn usage rockets Facebook usage is plateauing. Which should come as a surprise given saturation had to come sooner or later in the US and UK, but Facebook wouldn’t be the first social network to have its bubble burst by mass migration.

It could be that social networkers have just matured or perhaps it just my peers and I that are getting too old for Facebook. Its often been said that cool kids don’t want to be on the same social networks as their parents. Perhaps it parents now, who don’t want that either!

Resisting the temptation to explain why they are not and possibly send this column down an un-publishable route, I must clarify that it is Facebook ‘likes’, for their clients fan pages, they are after.

According to the poll, undertaken by digital media pundit Mashable, an overwhelming number of marketers consider social media to be integral to their strategies and 70% plan to increase their social media budget by more than 10% this year.

The primary social media marketing objective, amongst the top US brands that took part, was is to increase Facebook “likes”.

Given that, thanks to mass media, politics is now just a popularity pole, perhaps the UK could setup a much more cost effective alternative voting (AV) system than currently being proposed by the Liberals.

Whichever local candidate has the most Facebook ‘likes’ on Election Day get to the seat in Westminster?

You may be interested (as you’re still reading this) to note that currently the Labour Party Page have 99K likes, the Liberal’s 93K and Conservative a whopping 136K which, in my opinion giving them a clear mandate to govern!

But I digress, if only to illustrate that ‘likes’ are no real measure of approval or real brand engagement.  Facebook now provide many more sophisticated insights such as  ‘interactions’ and ‘active users’ to indicate if you’re really getting through to your audiences.

Recently Facebook improved the capability of brands to interact with their consumers on its social network. Yet it also reduced the chance of fans reading their messages.  Now, by default, users only see posts from brands and people for that matter, who they regularly interact with. (Many are campaign to get this changed!)

So soliciting input from ‘fans’ is more important the building large database of ‘likes’.

Like real life, counting the number of likes/friends you have on Facebook, is not a real measure of success, or so I keep telling myself!

I have recently noticed a worrying phenomenon – the less I tweet the more followers I get.

I’ll admit, my profile picture, like everyone else, is a tad flattering and taken a long time ago, but I’m pretty sure it’s not my aesthetics that is pulling in followers.

Yet it can’t be my wisdom because whenever I actually open my mouth and tweet unfollows seem to result.

There are of course more traditional techniques to build your following, other than not tweeting.

The main three are:

• The ‘Follow-backs’ approach. Find people you want to follow you, follow them and hope they return the compliment.

Targets can be selected by geography, their interests or indeed the size of their own following.

• Using Twitter widgets on your other online asserts (websites, blogs and fan pages) to point existing audiences towards your twitter feed.
• By referral – getting mentioned or retweeted by those more famous than yourself. This mandates having an opinion that others value and indeed creating content of worth.

And it helps if you’re especially witty, attractive or are already famous.

But sadly I cannot attribute my success to any of the above.

It is, in fact, the increasing relighting of brands on follow-backs to boost their followers, rather than having anything interesting to say, that is the cause of the phenomenon.

Essentially I’m being followed by those who would wish me to read their tweets yet have no intention of ever reading mine.

I have therefore decided to only follow people I have met in real life (or are especially witty, or attractive or play international cricket) as a protest.

In return the #PIMIRFs (People I Met in Real-life First) usually follow me back but often get bored if I over tweet or meander from my specialism and unfollow.

The solution is to tweet only when you have something truly interesting to say – advice which I often fail to follow.

Or maybe you do, if your brand has successfully built significant Facebook, Twitter and YouTube audiences and you don’t know how to keep them under control.

If so, CrowdcontrolHQ, ( invented in Birmingham no less) might be for you.

Read Chris Tomlinson latest column in the Birmingham Post to find out why.

Well in the case of a Facebook fan page this can literally be true!

Read Chris Tomlinson’s latest Birmingham Post column to find out why.

The Brindleyplace-based consultancy has been commissioned to conduct research and devise a social media strategy for the University Hospitals Birmingham. The aim is to engage with users of the newly opened Queen Elizabeth super hospital in Selly Oak, and to keep Birmingham citizens informed as services, such as A&E, are migrated to the new building.

Alcester-based Helping Hands Home Care, which provides live-in carers for the elderly and disabled around the UK, has also turned to Friend to help it promote its services. Those responsible for making the decisions on care for their relatives are increasingly looking to social networks for help and advice on looking after their loved ones.

Chris Tomlinson, director and co-founder of Friend, said: “Over the last year Friend has gained a great deal of experience in finding relevant online communities and helping organisations engage with their key influencers to turn them into advocates on social networks.

“The continued growth of our client list is proof that social media is now an established marketing channel and, increasingly, a first choice marketing tool.”

It’s a well-known fact that during austere times, the sillier or more self-deluding your job title is, the more likely you are to be made redundant.

Post-recession, the new boy on the marketing job title block is: ‘social media manager’

But is this is a silly job title or not ?

Read Chris Tomlinson’s article about flamboyant job titles in last Thursday’s Birmingham Post

The past year has literally flown by, full of the thrills and spills you’d expect from starting a small consultancy specialising in a relatively ‘niche’ area like social media and in the middle of a recession!

But life, and business, are about taking risks – and the risk paid off!

The fact is that social media marketing should not be sidelined as “niche”.

It has the potential for ROI like any other marketing discipline – and this has been our most consistent finding over the last 12 months.

For our clients, it’s been about understanding what social media can do by exploring its specific potential for their businesses.

Importantly, understanding where social media fits into a marketing strategy, its role alongside other marketing disciplines and how best to execute and measure it is crucial to its success.

And putting it simply, this is what Friend does.

Our experience over the past 20 years in both traditional and digital marketing means that we have been able to help many clients truly understand social media and its potential for their organisation, in both B2C and B2B arenas.

In the past twelve months, we have helped a range of clients and agencies navigate the social media landscape.

Our clients include:

• NHS
• Nynas Oil / European Road Initiative
• Property Match
• Argent / Brindleyplace
• Masshouse Developments
• Rider Levett Bucknall
• Huntingdonshire County Council
• Gas Street Works
• University College Birmingham

We have also helped lots of marketing and PR agencies with digital marketing and social media research, strategy and training.

So we’re chuffed and, in true social media style, thought we’d share!

Find out more about our social media and online PR services.

Read Chris Tomlinson’s latest musing on the subject in Thursday’s Birmingham Post

With election campaigns getting under way I still believe this. If only the political parties did.

It’s not that they’re ignoring social media but at the moment it’s all a bit style over substance.

They appear to be falling into the trap currently occupied by a lot of businesses and organisations who have also “done” social media in recent times but not really got anywhere with it.

The problem is that like others who complain that social media isn’t working, they are focusing more on the channel rather than REALLY thinking about the content.

A common problem with a lot of social media marketing at the moment is that there is too much focus on the channel – the technology and the means of distribution like Facebook, Twitter, iPhone app and so on.

This is probably because the very genre is defined by the channel – the media.

Which is why a lot of organisations think they’ve “done” social media just because they have a Twitter account or an iPhone app.

But the channel is only a conduit. It’s what is sent and distributed via that channel that holds the key to success. Content, purpose, targeting and resource must be well planned to maximise engagement.

For example, last week the Tory party launched its very own Conservative Party iPhone app.

So cool.

Well actually not quite so much. It’s really a mini-brochure with a few little questionable tools built in, like its swing-o-meter showing election results as they come in. Which will be useful for about 12 hours tops on the night.

The detail on its policies is informative but it’s basically their manifesto in condensed, digital format. For more comment, read Mobsessed’s opinion about the Tory app, it’s good stuff.

And this week we saw the launch of the Labour Party’s social media campaign.

This is much more interesting, using opinions expressed through social media and on the doorstep to “inform” their social media activity. I have no idea what “inform” actually means here though. There’s no clue as to what they will do with all this content.

They’ve also given social media training to key campaign staff. The problem again is that it all feels very token-like. Time will tell.

It’s not all negative. There are some great examples of local and national party activists, party members, MP’s and councillors who really do understand it.

But so far no party has an obvious centralised social media strategy bringing together and mobilising all campaigners to truly listen to and engage with the public and key influencers.

What I’m really talking about here is online PR, and as far as I can see it’s here they are missing an opportunity.

Where is their online PR strategy? How are they creating and resourcing active social media engagement on a daily basis with online citizens: individuals, communities, influencers, bloggers, tweeters, publications and so on?

I can’t see any of that happening on a scale akin to Obama in the US for example.

Maybe it’s coming, or already happening. But I can’t see it, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Online PR is a great way of approaching the task in hand because it diverts attention from the channel, Twitter, the iPhone app or whatever to the meat of the matter – the content, community engagement and the direct conversation.

When the main parties get their head around the fact that this is what social media is about then they may see some success from it in terms of influencing opinion and voting intention.

As things stand, the general public are likely to see through token gestures and do what they normally do when it comes to politics – switch off.

Just as it should in other areas of politics, with social media it’s substance, not style, which holds the key to success.