First off, I want to point out how excited I am to be writing this blog. For those who haven’t noticed, I’m new here at Canyon and this is my first post. I am super-excited to be a part of this great and talented team, and I look forward to posting more in the future.

There has never been any real doubt that social media is big. However, recent valuations of some of the social media giants provide us some insight as to just how big they really are. While it does not come as a shock to most to see the values of social media bigs like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Groupon to be substantial, the fact these companies have annual revenues that are a small fraction of what they are worth is intriguing.

Facebook received a recent valuation of $75 billion, making it more valuable than Disney. This is despite the fact that Facebook only has an annual revenue of $2 billion, while Disney on the other hand has pulled in over $38 billion in 2010.

To see these companies valued at so much more than their revenue is confusing for some. Marketers however, should be enthused by this. The valuation of these social media giants is reflecting their utility. Facebook may only gross $2 billion a year, but how many other mediums allow you to engage, interact, and network with over 700 million people?

The fact that these social networking mediums are growing not only by users but also by value, is testament to the fact that marketers are on to something when then invest in social media marketing. They have recognized that social networks have extreme value and potential in regards to connecting with consumers on multiple levels, and it appears that financial investors have jumped onboard as well.

These extremely high valuations and bubble margins exemplify the effectiveness of social media, and represent just how much potential they have (an apparent potential that is worth about 50 times the annual revenue).

So what are you waiting for? Social media is booming, you don’t want to be left out. While some of these companies like LinkedIn are publicly traded (and trading for a solid $100/share), I don’t mean join into a piece of shareholders pie, but rather, become active in the extremely successful, scalable, and ever-catchy social media world that nearly 10 percent of the world’s population is already involved in.

For some B2B marketers, social media can be a new and unfamiliar, so they have been avoiding it, or afraid to try it. However, there is so much material and guidance available, than anyone can dive into it and with a little research and effort, become effective at it.

The beauty of social media is that there is plenty of room around the fire for whoever wants to join in.

There is so much opportunity and room for growth. This is why investors recognize the immense power and potential that social media has, and why they are willing to place such a large price tag on it. Is your latest B2B campaign tapping into the power social media? Can 700 million people be wrong?

It’s time to start thinking about your new year’s resolution (cliché, I know), that promise to yourself that you’re going to change something in your life for the better. If you’re having a hard time deciding on what your resolution is going to be, I’m here to help. I have two great articles to share with you on why you should consider resolving to be more social in 2011, not only personally but professionally.

1. One of my favorite business-leaders, Harvey Mackay, recently wrote about the Perils of Being Anti-Social, presenting some amazing statistics and analysis of Erik Qualman’s book Socialnomics. Hearing that Facebook holds the third largest population behind China and India alone should make you want to become more social, especially for your business.
2. If that wasn’t reason enough, consider these 11 B2B Marketing Predictions for 2011, 8 of which are “social” communications, including mobile tactics. Advocate marketing especially peaks my interest because in B2B, advocates are so much more than brand-builders, they’re profit-drivers. And how do you find advocates? You listen to your customers and socialize with them.

Mackay writes that if you want to have the world at your fingertips, brush up on your “social” skills. In other words, if you want more market share at your fingertips, brush up on your social skills to strengthen your B2B strategy.

And maybe you’re already a B2B social butterfly. Maybe I’m preaching to the choir. If not, make 2011 the year you become social. Or the world will continue to shift, and you won’t reap the ‘real-time’ benefits!

Expanding on first steps in social media for B2B marketing, are you now ready to move from simply having a LinkedIn profile to optimizing your profile? Then this post is for you – literally! These techniques are extensions to the LinkedIn New User Guide and are focused on turning your profile into an engagement portal and digitally marketing your business.

Today there are two types of LinkedIn Profiles – personal and company; company profiles were introduced mid-year 2010 and are now gaining critical mass.  But this is post is for you, and so the following tips are for optimizing your personal profile.

1. Showcase You (aka Rock What You’ve Got)

• Consider your Experience ‘Title(s)’ and Specialties are prime real-estate for your professional value proposition.  Use the space wisely with keyword considerations driving your descriptive word choice.
• Demonstrate skills by providing Answers to other LinkedIn users.  Access Answers through the ‘More’ selection on the LinkedIn toolbar shown here.

• Link to Supporting Web Assets. Your profile allows 3 customizable links. While LinkedIn provides suggested links such as your company site and blog,  you can get even more SEO mojo from those same links by describing them using keywords and selecting the ‘Other’ tag as shown.

2. Get Engaged

• One enormous benefit of LinkedIn is as using it as an engagement portal.  Don’t miss opportunities to engage with prospects thru:
  • Incorporating your twitter handle in your profile and publishing updates to twitter automatically.
  • Highlighting events on your professional calendar where prospects can interact with you.
  • Sharing presentations which have value to a larger audience.
  • Automate the publishing of blog posts to your network.

3. Don’t Hide

• Enable SEO value by making your full profile ‘index-able’ to search engines.  Get full credit for the depth of your professional experience by letting the Google (and other) bots crawl, index and promote your accomplishments in search engine results pages (SERPS). In the ‘Edit Profile’ view, select ‘Change Public Profile Settings’ from the options featured in the upper right navigation box.  Next, ensure all (or at least the majority) of the options are checked to allow full indexing, as seen in this photo.
• Include your public (and customizable) profile URL in your email signature line, if acceptable in your corporate structure, on outgoing messages.
• Participate in LinkedIn Groups and/or start your own centered around an industry topic that aligns with your target value proposition.
• Accurately build your profile history segment to allow LinkedIn to scan other members in background, and serve up results for your review in order to reconnect with lost contacts and prospects.

And for anyone still asking ‘why should I care?’, the answer is illustrated nicely by the demographic profile of users.  If you market to corporate decision-makers and are not optimizing your LinkedIn profile to attract and engage prospects, then you are making my job much easier.  Thank you.  For the ‘smarketers’ still reading, keep an eye out for my next post where we dive into the newer Company profiles on LinkedIn.

One of the first questions I ask fellow B2B marketers today is if they are using social media for business. Most frequently the answer—if given honestly—is a sheepish no or even a question as to if social media has business application. It’s always fun to be among the first to share the power and promise of social media’s evolution and development into a promising business marketing tool. If you’ve been nose-to-the-grindstone focused on growing your business that you’ve not been tweeting, have no fear. You are not alone, a reported 66.5% of companies have adopted social media within the past 18 months. But now is the time to look at the maturing value of social B2B media and consider adding it to your 2011 marketing mix.

As with most new skills we learn—as people and marketers—recognize it may be better to start small. If you are taking first steps in social media, a smart place to begin is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is an international professional network with 85 million members in more than 200 countries. LinkedIn has been around since 2002 and is built on the very human principal that relationships matter. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members and new members join every second. Will you be the next? Take those first social media steps and join today.  Then follow along as we share proven tips on how your professional network can drive revenue for your business. You’ll see, it’s not just for job hunters and recruiters, and you can’t afford to be left behind.

Already LinkedIn? Let’s connect today and take the next steps of optimizing your LinkedIn profiles—personal and corporate—to expand your social media footprint and ROI.