Previously Nadia Thompson had put together a short guide to LinkedIn for small businesses and independent consultants which has been very popular and we thought it would be useful to re-publish it here. As an added-bonus also included is a similar guide to Facebook for the same audience!

I am pleased to announce the development of a unique Business Social Media Impact Forecasting Simulator which provides a simple but scientific approach to developing clear and credible forecasts of the impact including financial benefits of social media campaigns before they are undertaken.

With the explosion in social software and the recognition that these types of systems need to reach critical mass to survive and prosper it is amazing that so few people are applying the well-established philosophical principles of living systems (autopoiesis) to design for sustainability.

RepKnight is an exciting Belfast-based software start-up in the reputation monitoring, crowd-sourced news and public opinion space. Even though they have only been going 12 months and without any external funding they are already in profit and fast becoming the "go-to" company for major private and public enterprises who need high volume real-time social media tracking.

I have been amazed at how many people have asked me for a really simple and very short guide to LinkedIN for small businesses and independent consultants. So here it is:

Bioteams.com has previously published a number of articles on Social Networking which have addressed the Analysis perspective. I am delighted to round out the coverage of this crucial area with an excellent guest article by business networking guru Tony Altham which offers ten practical tips for creating, building and sustaining profitable business relationships.

These days lots of businesses are trying to use social media to enhance their online presence. Unfortunately only a minority are really succeeding. Many of these are businesses that are highly digital or naturally global. However many businesses do not fit this model and are working in local markets with non-digital services/products. Can "normal enterprises" exploit social media too or does it only really benefit the global digital elite?

Based on hard-won experience I have pulled together a comprehensive model to help enterprises health-check/audit whether they are fully exploiting the many great tools available (mostly free) to turbo-charge their outbound, inbound and two-way sales and marketing communications. Download the full model for free here!

A recent research report by University of Queensland Business School (Australia) academics Tim Kastelle and John Steen suggests that large enterprises can make major gains in productivity by investing in their internal communication networks. This resonates strongly with the concepts of bioteaming according to practitioner Max Bhanabhai.

Way back in the social networking Dark Ages, OK - October 2005, I published a "A Virtual Community Development Model" with sports metaphors for each stage. Looking back today I think some of it still applies to the development of those social networks driven primarily by shared interests/knowledge (rather than by relationship building). But see what you think?