links for 2009-12-16

"The Mirror.co.uk’s online team asked me to put a list of Twitter tips together, so I thought I’d open it up to the floor. Make sure you check out a similar list “What is Twitter?” that I made for Channel 4 News. Here’s what I have so far. Please add tips in the comments or @Coneee!"

A comprehensive and wide reaching article about creating a social media strategy

"The best way to avoid a similar backlash today is for social media's practitioners, including thousands of consultants, to shift the focus from promises to results. It may be the only way to convert the skeptics—and flush out the snake oil. "

Interactive map allowing users to search road deaths by year and postcode, with results including links (where available) to stories, gender, age, and mode of transport.

"The feature appends the contributor’s username to the tweet byline, making the business to consumer communication more personal; e.g. if @Twitter invites @Biz to tweet on its behalf, then a tweet from @Twitter would include @Biz in the byline so that users know more about the real people behind organizations.”

Developing an effective online engagement strategy is not a short-term, tactical exercise. Nor is it easy. You need to commit to it long term to gain real business value and you must really put the effort in to planning, executing and measuring if you want it to pay real dividends.

Monitors twitter for tweets rating the snowfall from 1-10 and containing a postcode then plots the snowfall on a map. Clever!