Corporations and political groups have long ago understood the power of social media for marketing and public relations purposes. That’s why so many political candidates and companies maintain blogs and twitter feeds, or make a point to advertise on places like Facebook. They know that social media outlets are a great way to get buzz and recognition for their accomplishments and they want to make sure that they aren’t missing out on those opportunities.

But the problem with social media is that you never really know who anyone is. Just as a guy living in his mom’s basement can pretend to have a PhD in history when he’s editing articles on Wikipedia, a major corporation can pretend to be a disinterested bystander while writing blog posts or forming web initiatives. With the anonymity of the internet, it would be very easy for a company to post to digg or twitter or to comment on someone’s blog while pretending to be just a regular citizen.

As it turns out, this sort of thing happens and it happens a lot. In fact, it happens so much that it’s gained a name – astroturfing. Wikipedia defines astroturfing as “a form of advocacy often in support of a political or corporate agenda designed to give the appearance of a ‘grassroots’ movement.” In reference to social media, it refers to a corporation or political organization accessing social media outlets while posing as a normal citizen, intending to generate support for their product or cause.

One example of this is Real Networks’ “Hey Apple, Don’t Break My iPod” campaign, in which they launched what appeared to be a grassroots petition against Apple’s FairPlay DRM. What looked to consumers like a website started by some concerned individuals was actually a marketing ploy created by Real Networks to get consumers to ditch iTunes and the iPod in favor of their products. When consumers found out, they weren’t happy.

Not to be outdone by corporations, the US Government has also gotten involved in astroturfing. A study done using “wikiscanner” technology found that thousands of edits to Wikipedia articles on US government policies and agents had been edited by usernames tied to government IP addresses. In many cases, it seems that the government was trying to change popular opinion of various individuals or causes by editing the relevant Wikipedia pages.

For a more in-depth look at astroturfing campaigns on and off of the internet, check out the Wikipedia article on astroturfing.

Kompoz is a site for music artists to collaborate on original pieces of music together. It unites artists from all around the world of varying talents to help each other in their musical ventures. Personally, I have used this site to post some of my own original projects to share with people like my high school choir and band teachers. Many artists are singing of its praises. You can really get an awesome sound with professional recordings coming from professional musicians from all around the world! Your original pieces can really be elaborated and brought to their full potential with all of these different perspectives. However, if You’re like me and want to keep your projects private, you can just share them with a select group of individuals. A cool find, and an awesome idea!

Facebook has grown tremendously since its creation, but they are not the only social network to be thriving.  Facebook only should the world the power of social networks and there potential.  Just like the internet has many unfilled niches people are starting to think that facebook cannot fill the need for social networks.  There are new nichified social networks being created all the time.  These social networks feel there is an entrepreneurial potential for these markets and that they can make money and exist even with facebook. In 2010 a new social network called Audimated was launched and it is a social network that focuses on that coffeehouse feel and for musicians.  It has been doing well and is a place were people can promote independent music and find good music.  Will this social network squash facebook?  Absolutely not, but it shows an important point that there niches left in the market that can be exploited.  It is the entrepreneur’s job to find them and fill them.  You may not be able to be better than facebook, but you can be different then facebook and being that the web is for the world you can find enough people that will like those differences.

As Johnny McEntee, quarterback from UConn, shows us, social media provides a great opportunity for athletes to promote themselves in the eyes of the public.  By compiling  5 minutes of impressive “trick shots” into a video, and posting this video on the web, the otherwise virtually unknown quarterback has made a name for himself.  His video has almost 5 million views Youtube.

Another case in point – Blake Griffin.  Griffin has his own website, complete with a fan blog, video’s of his famous dunks, training regimen, bio, and links to his Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace accounts. Clearly this all-star understands the power of social media – a website such as this can only serve to increase his fan base which will earn him more money.

www.socialmediamarketing.com

Thats all you need. End of blog post.

Just kidding. This website has everything you need to help develop a successful marketing and media campaign. As quoted from the site,

“SocialMediaMarketing.com creates and leads powerful social media campaigns that will intelligently rocket your traffic, promote your brand and grow leads and sales with maximize ROI to give you a feeling of power and importance in the marketplace.”

They are quoted to having helped Levi jeans, LG, facebook applications, and more. They talk about how, using facebook, twitter, and feedburner, they can help develop traffic to your website and interest in whatever you want people to be interested in.

Seems like a cool website for people to check out if they are starting a business.