Social media – especially Twitter – is all the rage these days among the marketing cognoscenti. As one of the wannabe cognoscenti, I often get spammed with the various free webinars being offered to the community. For my own blog readers, here are some links to an upcoming series I strongly encourage you to attend.

Social Media – Random Thoughts

Social Media – Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Delicious, MySpace, etc. – are all the rage these days among marketers. At the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, for example, I attended an excellent panel on social media. Big wigs from IBM, H&R Block and other major companies expounded on how they use (or do not use) social media. Everyone was very overwhelmed, and if you weren’t Tweeting during the event – well, you felt, left out.

I tweet for eg3.com, but that account is focused on the needs of engineers. I have to admit I am rather skeptical of the whole social media phenomenon when it comes to corporations. Beyond Taco Trucks, I haven’t seen a killer ap yet from Twitter for a business, and I am sick and tired of hearing big companies expound about how they use social media to get close to their customers. The next time my bag is lost on United Airlines, you can be sure I will be the one with the killer Youtube video on United Breaks Guitars so that those knuckleheads get my bag back! (Hey, what’s with the Mexican dudes?). But I digress…

Social media. It’s important, duh. What I learned from the big wigs at Search Engine Strategies, especially the H&R Block Lady, was that the big corporations are using it mainly to monitor their customers. Translation: monitor their unhappy customers. It’s not clear that everyone (or anyone) really wants to "friend" Johnson & Johnson on Facebook. And the cheesy plugs by companies to friend some fake spokesperson in exchange for a free burger – well, hopefully, those are just a passing phase.

Social Media – Free Upcoming Webinars

That said, my friends at Cision are having some free webinars on Social Media. So go ahead folks and sign up. Nothing is better than free!

Cision Free Social Media Webinars:

Understanding Social Media
If you’re a newcomer or even a skeptic, this webinar will introduce you to the social media universe and show you how to get in on the action—and get results— quickly, easily and authentically.
Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009 @ 1:00pm CT

Monitoring Social Media
If you’re an interested observer, this webinar will discuss 10 reasons why it’s important to monitor social media and a demonstration of how to effectively monitor when something is said about you, understand its impact, and be able to act quickly.
Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009 @ 1:00pm CT

Engaging Social Media
If you’re already sold on the importance of Social Media but need strategies on how to effectively engage, this webinar will show you how to improve your social media campaigns with new strategies for more targeted, results-driven engagement.
Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009 @ 1:00pm CT

Twitter 101
Join us at this complimentary Cision webinar for an insider’s introduction to the “Twitterverse” and how you can get in on the action.
Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009 @ 1:00pm CT

Twitter 201
You have followers, you retweet great links and you know what a hashtag is. But what’s the real value of your Twitter activity—and how can you leverage it for better communication results? Join us at the follow-up to our popular “Twitter 101” intro session to take a deeper look at this revolutionary tool and how to maximize its value to your business.
Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009 @ 1:00pm CT

Afterwards, tell me what you think!