In today’s business world, it is impossible to compete without a strong web presence to support you. Author Steve Nicholls offers 10 Essential Social Media Tips for Senior Executives in order to effectively implement social media into their businesses via IndustryWeek.

Measuring the return on investment of your social media strategy is something that still frustrates a lot of brands and marketers. Shea Bennett posts Is Social Media ROI A Reality (Or A Myth)? [INFOGRAPHIC] that takes a closer look at how we are slowly but surely getting to the ROI of social media. via AllTwitter.

Social media platforms are crucial to building customer engagement, but the vast majority of marketers haven’t incorporated that reality into their daily workflow. Marketing consultant Ernan Roman writes that Failure to Engage with Social Media Will Reduce Revenue and Increase Risk on The Huffington Post.

Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post looks at the impact of  Social Media in the media. Has the viral nature of news accomplished anything? Read more in her piece Virality Uber Alles: What the Fetishization of Social Media Is Costing Us All

This week also brings us a creative picture painting of  The Beauty of Social Media, an infographic posted by Shea Bennett that takes a closer look at how the beauty industry has embraced Social Media, and the innovative ways the top brands are using Social Media channels in this post by AllTwitter.

For most, Social Media brings to mind Facebook or Twitter. Krista Neher points out that there are more opportunities beyond the obvious to grow brand presence in her recent post 6 Effective but Ignored Social Media Marketing Sites on ClickZ.

15-year-old freshman blogger, Susannah Meyer ponders The Social Media Bubble via the Huffington Post

Think About Developing A Social Media Plan says Martin Bishop in his latest post on MediaPost – which provides 10 tips on planning social media programs.

As the social business meme is very much on the rise, Forbes contributor Hadyn Shaughnessy asks readers, Is Social Business the Same as Social Media?

IT Web journalist Kathryn McConnachie reports on Google’s video sharing platform unveiling a new homepage, channel design and user interface in YouTube Gets a Makeover

Huffington Post blogger Philip Keightley provides ringside commentary in Let’s Get Ready to Rumble: Facebook versus Google+ in the Battle for Social Media Hearts and Minds

Who Are the Top 10 Influencers in Social Media? Forbes contributor Haydn Shaughnessy shows how some influencers have the reach and pull as media outlets.

Ed Lundquist gives 10 Social Networking Tips For CIOs on InformationWeek as he explains why adding a robust enterprise social network to your priority agenda is a must, and how to get going.

Armondo Roggio provides insight on how the continued growth of social networking and blog sites have an effect on brand marketing, consumer shopping behavior and innovation  - 3 Ways Social Media Affects Brands via Practical eCommerce.

The first ”Persuasive Woman”  we are featuring in this series is none other than the fabulous and witty, Melanie Notkin, otherwise known as “SavvyAuntie.”  Melanie is the founder of SavvyAuntie.com, an online community for aunts (Aunties by Relation, Aunties by Choice, Great-Aunts, Godmothers, and all women who love kids) and author of the best-selling book Savvy Auntie: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers, and All Women Who Love Kids.  Melanie has over 17,000 followers on Twitter and is known as one of the most powerful women in social media.  Her site is on the Forbes Top 100 Sites for Women list and Melanie’s column over at Huffington Post is both entertaining and thought provoking.

You can follow Melanie on Twitter (@savvyauntie), check out her site SavvyAuntie, or join in the fun on Facebook at Facebook.com/SavvyAuntie. We hope you enjoy this new series and please feel free to share your comments below.

You recently celebrated three years of SavvyAuntie.com.  Has it turned out to be what you expected? Is it what you envisioned many years ago?

Savvy Auntie has turned out even better than I expected. I had always envisioned Savvy Auntie to be a multiplatform media company, and with the addition of popular social media platforms, TV appearances, spokesperson gigs and a national best-selling book – that it is! But the journey I’ve been on is most wonderfully surprising. Finding potential I hadn’t realized until now has been the best reward.

A lot of us have ideas from time to time and many of us sit idle waiting to find the time to commit to the new project or idea. How did you push yourself to move forward with this concept?

I woke up one day in June 2007 and decided I was an entrepreneur. That morning I went to a class on how to write a business plan. It wasn’t the right class for me – but I was determined to do something that day to move forward. It was about momentum. I started to invest time and money in the business. And I never looked back. I knew if I did, my idea would turn into a statue of salt and I’d never move forward. You just have to keep going.

What was the biggest hurdle as you worked on growing the business?

I’m self-funded so what I earn goes back into growing the business. Bandwidth suffers from that but I felt if I took investment dollars, I’d be following someone else’s vision for my brand. That’s not why I became an entrepreneur.

Who was your biggest supporter?

Me.

If you could name one thing that truly made a difference in bringing your business to the next level, what was it?

Unconditional belief in myself and my business.

You recently published your first book which has become a best seller.  Will there be another book and if so, what can we expect?

I’m working on what that will be now! It’s very exciting. If it happens, it will be much more personal and closer to the voice I have in my Huffington Post column.

What TV or movie character are you most like?

If I had to pick one, I’d have to say Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City - but I have more faults, fewer shoes, and bigger ambitions.

If you could have dinner with one big celebrity, who would it be and why?

Jennifer Aniston. We’re the same age. No kids – and I think she handles the pressure about that extraordinarily well. I think we’d be friends… No point just having dinner if it can’t lead to Sunday brunch one day soon after.

What’s next for SavvyAuntie.com. Are there any new features to be added or new partnerships you would like our audience to know about?

Well, I just launched SMITTEN by Savvy Auntie: Deals Curated with Love by Melanie Notkin. It’s a partnership with Saveology so I can bring the Auntourage deals designed just for them and their lifestyle. https://www.saveology.com/offers/savvyauntie. There’s more to come but I can’t talk about it just yet. Needless to say, I’m thrilled and excited for what’s next.

photo credit: Ana Schechter

Study: Marketers Reporting Social Media ROI of 100, 200, Even 1,000 Percent
Aprimo CMO Lisa Arthur highlights four key findings from MarketingSherpa‘s 2011 Social Marketing Benchmark Report via this post on Forbes.com.

6 Ways to Boost Return on Twitter
So you’ve found your groove on Twitter, but are your efforts as effective as they could be? Riverside Marketing Strategies President, Heidi Cohen provides “Six strategies to boost your Twitter return” via this post on Clickz.com.

7 Guidelines To Taking Your Global Brand Local Via Social Media. And Vice Versa
Enjoy some great nuggets of advice on how to make your big company more personable, or how to make your small company look bigger, via this post on MarketingVox.com.

Unfollow, Unfriend, Retweet: AP Stylebook Adds Another 21 Words
Keep your writing in check by getting a quick brush-up on the latest social media-oriented additions to the AP Stylebook via this post from Ann Handley on MPDailyFix.com.

Digg Updates Design to Draw Users Back
Remember the days when part of your social strategy was to try and get your articles voted to the front page of Digg? Those days are long gone and Digg almost is as well. Mashable‘s Ben Parr highlights Digg’s recent user interface change in order to regain some of the popularity it once had.

Why Social Media Hasn’t Killed The Super Bowl For Advertisers
Seems like big brands are still willing to pay big bucks for ad spots on the one day that viewers won’t fast forward their DVRs through the commercials. Find out why, in this post from Antony Young on Forbes.com.

Digital Divide: Segregation Is Alive and Well in Social Media
Pepper Miller provides an eye-opening and very interesting look into how ethnic Internet users congregate in the online social space via this post on AdAge.com.

What to Consider When Executing Your Social Media Strategy
Fiorella Alvarado from MoreVisibility.com shares four tips to help you take advantage of opportunities and avoid pitfalls when executing your new social strategy.

Mattel Launches Digital Campaign Aiming To Reunite Barbie & Ken
Erica Swallow shares details from Mattel‘s new massive online (and offline) social campaign to reunite Ken and Barbie. This should definitely be a fun one to keep an eye on.

Online News Overtakes Print Media. The Future Has Arrived.
Kristen Nicole shares her take on the recent survey results from the Pew Internet and American Life Project that online news sources have surpassed print as they primary way people get their daily news fix.

CIOs: Stop Ignoring Social Media
In this Forbes.com post, Mike Schaffner provides commentary on IT’s slow adoption of social media, both internally and allowing access to it throughout the rest of the company.

Employees as an Overlooked Resource: 5 Ways to Equip Employees to Help with Marketing
Shel Holtz his thoughts on how some companies are missing the boat when it comes to leveraging employees to assist in marketing efforts and shares several helpful tips for enabling them to do so.

Women dominate mobile social networking scene
While most of us think that today’s kids are the ones who are obsessed about all things in the mobile device scene, BizReport’s Helen Leggatt shares the results from a recent Nielsen Interactive report that found women are the real group who are mobile obsessed.

Social Climbing: Luxury Fashion Brands Must Embrace Social Media
This Forbes piece by Dana Gers shares her view of how luxury brands are still stuck in older traditional media modes and have yet to make the leap into social media and social marketing. She also provides a few points for brands to consider before rolling out their social media strategies.

The Average American is Gone – and so are Demographics
This post from Paull Young suggests that standard lines of demographics are blurred on the playing field of online social communication. Research results from Ad Age are included to back up his point of view.

7 Reasons Why People Comment on Blogs
Bloggers love when readers comment on their blogs, but what actually triggers a reader to make that response? George F. Snell III from the Hightalk blog suggests seven potential reasons that might send readers to the keyboard after reading a post.

Twitter Sputters Over Spammers and Spitters
If utilized properly, Twitter can be a powerful networking and communications tool, but at the same time it has become a new channel for spammers to run with their mind-numbing messages. This post from Renay San Miguel explains the state of spam (or “spit”) on Twitter and how SPAM legislation might need to be tweaked as result of this new annoyance.

Still not convinced of the business value of Twitter? Forbes understands your concern and did some research for you – canvassing scads of businesses and pricey social-networking gurus looking for honest answers on how to make money – if you can make money – with the microblogging service. Their answers may surprise you, as they share 21 ways Twitter can have an impact, and not just as a marginal marketing tool.

College Optional?

Larry Cheng, Partner at Fidelity Ventures wonders aloud if college is necessary for a true entrepreneur. “Sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher every day for four years in so many ways is exactly the opposite of what someone with an entrepreneurial DNA should want to do.” In this post, he outlines what he sees as a “blueprint to success” for those with no degree. First lesson? Take $1.00 and turn into $1.10 by this time next week.

Use Teamwork to Tackle Problems

Of course you know that teamwork is important, but in this Marketing Profs Daily Fix post, Paul Williams outlines in detail – complete with instruction template – how to create a GroupChallenge. Beyond basic brainstorming, a GroupChallenge is a simple and inexpensive way to―on an ongoing basis―inspire creativity and teamwork to generate ideas and solve problems.

Group Challenge Setup - Image from Marketing Profs Daily Fix

Why Waltham Doesn’t Matter

For those on the East Coast, this piece by Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe has created quite a stir. Will it be the new turf war? Kirsner claims, “The new core of Boston venture capital has moved in closer to the city, toward Copley Square and Harvard Square,” and that “as a group, they [Waltham venture capitalists] represent the worst of the old-school business culture.” He has some great viewpoints on risk taking, the innovation economy and what he terms “the vibrant new culture of entrepreneurship.”

Should PR Professionals Use Social Media to Build Their Personal Brand?

PR Week takes a look at two opinions on one of the hottest debated topics in our office. How do you balance personal brand with your corporate brand? Should you? Two PR professionals weigh in.

CEOs Say: How To Be An Executive Blogger
Good stories and advice for CEOs looking to blog or just to become better bloggers.

10 Ways to Archive Your Tweets
Did you know that your Tweets aren’t really searchable forever? ReadWriteWeb’s Sarah Perez shares 10 ways to back them up.

Five ways to help your CEO embrace social media
A little post from “down-under” that gives some advice on how to get the top brass on board with your social media strategy.

Why Facebook Wants FriendFeed
Om Malik shares his point of view on why Facebook’s acquisition of Friendfeed is not about Twitter but more about Google.