Here’s how it works. In order to be milked by the robotic milking machine, each cows wears an electronic tag around her neck (pictured on the right) that tells the robot when she was last milked and tracks how much milk she produces etc. The tags on 12 of Chris’ cows are connected to Twitter, sending a tweet when they interact with the robot.

For example, here’s what “Attention Please”, the most popular bovine Tweeter with 19 followers, had to say on her Twitter feed over several hours recently:“9.2 kg of frothy deliciousness for the humans.” (5:38 pm)
“I said “please” but the robot just doesn’t go for manners. All business all the time.” (8:40 pm)
“Tried to get into the pen. No such luck.” (8:48 pm)
“Tried again. Wish I could read that robot’s mind.” (10:32 pm)
“It took me 5:35 secs, to give 11.4 kgs. Feel good.” (1:41 am)

The project, launched last December, is the brain child of Marcel O’Gorman, head of the University of Waterloo’s critical media lab, and Ron Broglio, an English professor from Georgia Gwinnett College. Their goal was to link farmers and technology in the minds of consumers by putting a spotlight on the highly technological nature of farming through social media.

If you have been tracking conversations around social media for business, you have undoubtedly come across people talking about Social CRM. If you are anything like me, the first time you heard it, you probably rolled your eyes and said, “Ugh, another social media buzzword!” And while I do take issue with the jargon itself (and will discuss that later), Social CRM is a central concept that businesses need to understand deeply and integrate fully, in order to serve the social customer.

From a marketing standpoint, it’s a great time to own or start a business. The social web makes it more cost-effective than ever to get the word out about your products and services, no matter what industry you’re in. Most social media accounts are free to set up, and many targeted online ad platforms are inexpensive. The most it will cost you to get your marketing campaign rolling, at least in the beginning, is time.

In fact, the toughest challenge facing small business marketers these days is not cost, but finding a strategy to get your message heard over the din of a noisy Internet.

Follow the ‘via’ link for 4 great ideas…

If you ever want to get a rise out of a social media expert, call her one. Seriously, try it. Do it on Twitter or their blog or in person… and what you’ll get will range from mild “oh please!” to downright frustration verging on anger. In fact, it’s quite en vogue to practice humility when tagged as a social media expert. If you Google the phrase “I’m not a social media expert” you’ll get over 4,800 results. Now, not all of them are blog posts about how “I don’t think I’m a social media expert” but a quick sampling of hits will show you that a good many are about this topic.

At first, you might think that it’s just humility. I mean, boastfulness isn’t really liked in the Social Media World and Social Media strategy consultants are quick to discount those that practice the art of self-spin. But I think it goes deeper than just humility.

I wonder if maybe, just maybe social media consultants deplore being tagged as social media experts because in the words of Nicholas Murray Butler, an expert is defined as one who knows more and more about less and less. Or maybe it is because to become an expert, one has to master the past. After all, we deem humans an expert in something usually because they have studied it to a point of mastery.

Yet, as we all know, communications change. The art of communication, the manner of communication and lastly, the technology of communication changes constantly. Therefore, to be deemed a social media expert would seem to suggest that you have mastered all that there is to know about the subject today.

And that is what I’m thinking rubs the social media expert the wrong way. They don’t want to be experts.

Social media is reinventing marketing, communications, and the dissemination of information. While businesses now have access to these rich channels, the true promise of social media lies in the direct connections between people who represent companies and the people who define markets of interest.

Today, many businesses approach this with the establishment of social media guidelines and policies. This is indeed an important step, and not one worth economizing. But it’s also not enough. I highly recommend establishing official procedures that remind representatives of the importance and privilege of engagement.

The openness of popular networks is trivial. Any business can join and create a profile. It’s the devices we employ, the intentions that motivate engagement, and the value we offer that dictate the significance of the brand-specific social graphs we weave. It’s a simple investment in either visibility or presence. In social media, just like in the real world, presence is felt.

It’s evident that the evolution of social media has a clear impact on marketing. However, a major issue is that too much misinformation and propaganda exists about social media adoption, usage and its business applications. While we have written at length about social media and inbound marketing on this blog for the past several years, we are also huge fans of data here at HubSpot. This post is a homage to all of the awesome data that exists on the web about social media, though is by no means even close to all of it.

Recently, Social Media Examiner released a really interesting research report packed full of social media related data and statistics.  That report was the inspiration for this post, so we’ll start off with a video from Social Media Examiner that summerizes its newly released research.

Follow the ‘via’ link to get the goods…

Community management is not new. People have been managing communities since communities and user groups were first created. Someone has always had to make sure that the community or user group is humming along like a well-oiled machine. The fast spread of social media has changed the role of a community manager, and has created a profession of a social media manager (or social media director – I use the two interchangeably). 

I am social. I am geeky. I am connected… all the time.

I can’t get through the day without someone asking me how I am able to be omnipresent on the web. It’s simple. I am co-dependent on my online life just as much as I am on my offline one. Nah… not really. Kind of.

For a while now, I’ve been tossing the idea of what makes me such a social media addict, and have decided to confess some of the few things that qualify me as such. Most people who know me already know these things, but I don’t mind making myself vulnerable by putting pen to paper and listing them out for all to see. You can take them as confessions… or you can take it as a way to confirm your own addiction — and I KNOW there are those of you out there who are just like me — don’t worry, I won’t make you stand up. Anyway, here goes… (please … no judging!!)