Gold Star Social Media Sites

Every few weeks I spend a couple of hours on a Sunday reviewing a myriad of Web 2.0 and social media sites that I’ve read about in trade press and blogs. My evaluation criteria include:

-Features and functionality
-Ease of use
-Integration with other social media offerings that have developed a following

Most important though I consider how a Web 2.0 offering could potentially help Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) accelerate the success of a client’s social media program.

Can we drive additional interest and attention to content? If it’s a community, does it present opportunities for lead generation and/or access to industry influencers? Does it bring a higher level of measurability to our program?

Here is a list of sites I reviewed this holiday weekend that our worth checking out:

Backtype: simple way to share your comments to blogs and in social bookmark sites with a network of contacts.

Mofuse: Easy-to-use platform to create a version of an existing Web site, microsite or blog that is accessible via a mobile phone. Check out the mobile version of the Strategic Guy blog.

Posterous: easy-to-use blog platform that allows you to post content by Email. Check out my new "personal" Strategic Guy blog.

Scribd: document sharing community and social network with group functionality organized by topic and areas for interest. Good way to share white papers, presentations, blog posts, etc.

Tip'd: social bookmark site for financial and investing news. Add this to digg, delicious, propeller, reddit, Stumbleupon and Mixx as social bookmark sites to use to virally spread the word about a client's business. You may also want to check out Diigo as a social bookmark site to virally spread content.

Viddler: similar to YouTube, a site to publish, tag and share videos.