Still more ways to benefit from social media (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – May 22, 2009)

What? You think I’d let the Friday of a long holiday weekend pass without a dose of juicy link goodness? Not on your life. Here are some good reads to hold you over ’til Tuesday:

• This Twitter thing – I’m fairly bullish, you know – might have some legs after all. TechCrunch reports Twitter has more visitors than Digg, LinkedIn and the New York Times.
• Some clown steal your brand name on a social network? Bummer. The Wall Street Journal offers some ways to fix that. Spoiler alert: You don’t have many options. But these are a start, at least.
• OK. So you’ve got your name back? Good. Now, do you need more followers on Twitter? Don’t want to use really sleazy tactics to do it? NewsPaperGrl offers some helpful tips.
• Obviously, I think Twitter offers loads of value to businesses (oh… and here, too). SearchEngineWatch ups the ante with this set of tips to gain more value from Twitter.
• Of course, the big question is whether you can use social networks to build your brand. And the answer is “Yes.” Forbes has one possible answer on how to build your brand using Twitter and Facebook.
• Finally, in the interest of being, for lack of a better term, fair and balanced, you should check out Media Post’s critique of social media. As you might imagine, I disagree. Strongly. Because, y’know, friends talking to one another never recommend a favorite restaurant, suggest a solution to friend’s problem or talk about their upcoming vacation. But, give it a read all the same. I’ll have a more detailed smackdown… um… I mean counterpoint, next week.

Hope you have a great weekend, Big Thinkers. See you next week right back here at thinks.

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