Since 2006, forward-thinking companies like Apple, JetBlue, Whole Foods, and GM have discovered the instant benefits of leveraging the social media phenomenon known as Twitter to reach consumers directly, build their brand, and increase sales.

Twitter is at the leading edge of the social media movement, allowing members to connect with one another in real time via short text messages–called "tweets"–that can be received either via the Twitter site or by e-mail, instant messenger, or cell phone.

Many companies have started building entire teams within their organization dedicated solely to responding to tweets from consumers about their brand. And this is just the beginning.

This is the definitive guide to measuring your public relationships including social media, corporate reputation, trust and transparency, internal communications, community relations and media relations.

A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have been seeking out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It's our nature.

Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helping existing tribes get bigger. But more important, they're enabling countless new tribes to be born—groups of ten or ten thousand or ten million who care about their iPhones, or a political campaign, or a new way to fight global warming. And so the key question: Who is going to lead us? –Seth Godin

Organizations are under a microscope as never before, and thanks to the Internet and the growing use of high-speed connections, word of misdeeds and mistakes can spread to millions with unprecedented speed, causing untold damage to an organization's reputation and share price. No longer just a "nice-to-know" concept, transparency has become a state of mind for thousands of CEOs, managers, employees, and customers around the globe. The flood of social media has brought in an age of digital transparency that is?

There's no question that the Internet has changed the way we do business—especially when it comes to marketing. Consumer environments are short on trust and populated by consumers who are cynical, savvy, and informed. Though it's easier than ever to reach your customers, it's less likely that they'll listen. Today, the most valuable online currency isn't the dollar, but trust itself.

Forget the pitch: Yesterday’s PR techniques just don’t work anymore. That’s the bad news. Here’s the great news: Social Media and Web 2.0 offer you an unprecedented opportunity to make PR succeed more powerfully than ever before. This book shows how to reinvent PR around two-way conversations with traditional and new influencers, bring the “public” back into public relations—and earn a new level of results that just wasn’t possible before now.

Social media success is not about numbers. It's about conversations and relationships. It's about getting to know you customers, your friends and neighbors and yes, even your competitors! Build good strong relationships, have lots of conversations, and your social media efforts will be successful. This book is a launch pad for successful social media engagement. It shows how to identify the right networks, find the influencers, the people you want to talk to and which tools will work the best for you.

Twitterville, How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods [Portfolio, September 2009] is Israel’s newest book. It tells the stories of more than 100 people Israel has interviewed in all aspects of business ranging from home office to global enterprise. It tells you about accidental citizen journalists who happened to be present when a plane landed on the Hudson River; when an earthquake devastated...

Creating triggers that get millions of people to spread your ideas and share your stories A WORLD WIDE RAVE What the heck is that? A World Wide Rave is when people around the world are talking about you, your company, and your products-whether you're located in San Francisco, Dubai, or Reykjavík. It's when global communities eagerly link to your stuff on the Web. It's when online buzz drives buyers to your virtual doorstep. And it's when tons of fans visit your Web site and your blog because they genuinely want to be there.

This book is not a step-by-step guide on how to use LinkedIn or network. No, this is more of a “let’s sit down and talk” story. A way to help you realize the power of Linking in and Paying it Forward by showing you how I’ve made it happen. It is an exploration of how once I started asking “how can I be of service to you,” instead of wanting to know “what can you do for me,” when I connected with people on LinkedIn, the value proposition of social media changed for me – for the better.

Secrets of Social Media Marketing is a handbook for marketers and business owners to use in deciding how to employ the new social media for online marketing. Social media has quickly moved from the periphery of marketing into the forefront, but this is a new and quickly-evolving field and there are few established formulas for success. Building on the lessons set out in Gillin’s acclaimed and oft-reviewed The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media, this book provides practical advice on strategy, tools, and tactics. It is a hands-on manual that will educate marketers on how to extend their brands, generate leads, and engage customer communities using online tools.

Twitter, the simple-to-use microblogging service, offers immense benefits for businesses and organizations. Fire departments, political candidates, and C0EOs have used Twitter to share up-to-the-minute information. Laura Fitton, maybe better known by her Twitter handle - @Pistachio, has more than 10,000 followers on Twitter, and gives presentations on how to use Twitter to build business and personal opportunity.