Seth Godin’s latest attempt to make me hurt myself cognitively features 70 big thinkers on what they think you should be mulling over as we head into the new year. Lots of people I follow and respect are included, including Alan Webber, Tom Peters, the Heath bros. and many others. You can either hang out here and read it above or get the PDF here.

Thank you, Twitter. Olivier Blanchard tweeted a link to his new preso on the basics of social media ROI, and I’ve gotta say it’s one of the clearest (and most entertaining) explanations of how to justify your investment in social media from a business perspective. Required viewing for all the social media “experts” who talk about how social media helps engage customers, build awareness for pennies on the dollar and blah de blah blah blah but never get around to explaining how to make sure it’s improving the bottom line.

Valeria Maltoni has posted a fantastic slide deck over on Conversation Agent. It’s simply a series of thoughtful quotes on the state of marketing and the promise of social media from some of the profession’s top thinkers. But any one of these slides could serve as the starting point for a lengthy conversation that could lead to your changing the way you do business (or pursue your mission, for nonprofits).

I suggest you check it out.

photo by terwilliger911

Last month’s most popular tweets focused on everything from social media for nonprofits to Twitter trends to innovation. Here they are in order of popularity:

Twitter’s 10 Rules for Radical Innovators (Umair Haque on one of the Harvard Business blogs)

Social Media for Nonprofits (Wild Apricot’s great compilation of Slideshare presentations)

Their Right. Its True. Your Stupid. (my subtle reminder that things like spelling and grammar do count, even on the internet)

5 Biggest Things I’ve Learned About Using Social Media (public info officer Kelly Huston’s thoughtful advice from what he’s learned on the job)

Only 22% of 18-24-Year-Olds Use Twitter (kinda shocking, given that 99% of them use social media)

LinkedIn Drives More Direct Blog Traffic Thank Facebook, Google or Twitter (interesting info for business pros wondering where to invest their social media time)

Content Marketing Cheat Sheet (another great resource, this time from Ambal Balakrishnan)

New Twitter Research: Men Follow Men and Nobody Tweets (a real conversation starter from the Harvard Business blog)

Tweeting the Bookstore (thoughts on how one retailer might use Twitter)

Great Communicators Are Great Explainers (great advice from leadership consultant John Baldoni)

If you missed any of these the first time I posted them on Twitter, check them out now. There’s a lot of valuable advice and information contained in these 10 links.

I had such a good response on Twitter to the link I posted on social media presentations for nonprofits that I’ve decided to post it here for anyone not following me on Twitter. Above is an example of just one of 26 great presentations to choose from.

(By the way, why aren’t you following me? I share a lot of good info like this on a daily basis. Click here if you’re interested.)

Whether you’re trying to sell your organization on the virtues of social media or just bring people up to speed, these presentations are a great resource. Thanks to Wild Apricot’s nonprofit technology blog for compiling them.