A strong referral network is imperative for small businesses. Thanks to social networking, businesses can now connect directly with customers, enabling them to market in new more cost-effective ways. MarketingProfs guest blogger Pamela Springer provides some tips to Build a Strong Referral Network to Boost Your Business and parlay those social networks into business opportunities.

Pinterest isn’t only for women – despite its heavy concentration on all things girlie, it’s for guys, too! Pinterest has a growing audience of men who like the site – for many of the same reasons women do explains Jennifer Waters in her latest MarketWatch article Why men like social-media site Pinterest.

Doug Schumacher takes a look at some numbers around Facebook content and what kind is the most shared, and finds that video and photo posts are far more likely to be shared than status updates or links. Find out more of What consumers share on Facebook – and why in his iMediaConnection post.

Forrester Recommends Caution with LBS
Mike Schneider challenges Forrester‘s stance on Location Based Services they published in a recent report, and he provides an alternate point of view that should definitely be considered.

B-Schools All A-Twitter Over Social Media
Brace youself for a new wave of Social Media experts. This Bloomberg Business post from Sommer Saadi explores the new trend where business schools are starting to offer MBA courses on Internet Marketing and Social Media Strategy.

Altimeter Report Provides Facebook Page Guidelines, Benchmarks
Dave Fleet provides a brief overview and commentary on the Altimeter Group’s free report entitled The 8 Success Criteria for Facebook Page Marketing.

To Block or Not to Block Facebook and Social Media in the Workplace
Klint Finley shares highlights from Cisco’s Mid-Year Security Report that recommends “better security education and social media policies in the work place instead of technical restrictions” based on its findings on end-users accessing social media tools at work.

A need for social media etiquette
So you’ve made that first step into the world of social media and it’s beginning to get exciting. AP business writer Barbara Ortutay shares this post on The Tenessean.com that advises readers to use a little restraint and put more thought into what they share on social networks.

Social media – PR’s new BFF
Do PR and Social Media go together like chocolate and peanut butter? The results of a recent study posted on bizcommunity.com seems to point in that direction. Read on for more.

The 10 Myths of Social Media
This post by Mikal Belicove on the Entrepreneur.com blog reiterates “10 Social Media Myths” by Eric T. Bradlow, co-director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Interactive Media Initiative. Bradlow recently presented these myths to B2B marketing and advertising professionals at the Lift Summit.

Why B2B Companies Have a Distinct Advantage Online
Another great post from Valeria Maltoni that includes additional links to helpful information for B2B’s.

Before Consistency in Social Media Marketing
Bryan Eisenberg from the FutureNow blog contributes his Social Media Marketing best practices to Mitch Joel’s writing project – in the form of transparency, being social and communicating values. Make the jump to read more!

Three tips for “company blogging”
Google’s Matt Cutts shares three tips for those who blog for their company. Be sure to read through the 60+ comments for additional tips and points of view.

Community Manager Salary Report
Community Strategist Connie Bensen has touched on the subject of Community Manager salaries for almost a year now. This post is her latest entry on the subject and is a great starting point for companies looking to fill such a role in their organization.

Use Ning to Build a Community Around Your Personal Brand
Personal Branding expert Dan Schawbel expands on the power of using Ning to build an online community around your personal brand – and backs it up by highlighting two “big name personal brands” who are doing it successfully.

John Moore, Senior Vice President and Director of Ideas and Innovation at Mullen Media Hub, got the evening started with a statistics-packed keynote presentation that covered the basics of social media and social networks. John did a good job getting everyone up to speed on the social networking landscape and provided some detailed examples of how XM Satellite Radio has used social networks to engage with their target audience.

John’s presentation laid the proper groundwork for the panel discussion led by Chris Brogan, VP Strategy & Technology for CrossTech Media. Panel members included Todd VanHoosear, Social Media Practice Leader from Topaz Partners, Tom Arrix, VP of Sales, East from Facebook and Dale Durrett, Eastern Region Sales Manager at LinkedIn. The panelists provided solid answers to Chris’s questions and they each provided their own perspectives on how get started and be successful in the social networking space.

The Takeaway

It’s not uncommon for a company to want to build their own social networking community. However, it’s important to remember that just because you build it, doesn’t mean the community will come. Yes, it’s fine to consider building your own, but it needs to be part of a larger, more diverse plan that also includes going out and interacting with the existing communities that align with your target market. Tom Arrix provided a takeaway that resonates this idea. He urged the attendees to first figure out if they want to engage with people who are like them or with people who are not like them, but who would benefit from their expertise.

The drive behind Tom’s advice is to help people decide what social networks they should join and interact with first. Existing customers and people who are familiar with your brand probably already congregate in similar online communities. Those who are not familiar with your brand, but would benefit from your expertise, might congregate in different social platforms. The objectives in your social networking strategy should help indicate which of these groups should get your attention first. After spending a good amount of time inside the existing communities, you’ll have a better understanding of how to build your own social networking community and increase its chance for success.

Unfortunately, video recording was not allowed during the panel portion of the evening, but John Moore’s keynote presentation should be available in the AMA Boston website in the near future.

What You Should Know Before you Switch from BlackBerry to iPhone
Unless you’ve been living under a rock without any form of mainstream media coverage for the last few months, you’ve already heard plenty of things about the new Apple iPhone 3G. If you’re a Blackberry user and have been thinking about making the switch, Judi Sohn of WebWorkerDaily.com lists some pros and cons to help you out with the decision. While I’m writing this week’s picks, there are over 400 comments on Judi’s post for you to digest!

Why Most Online Communities Fail
Ben Worthen from the Wall Street Journal blog addresses some of the challenges and hurdles that businesses are facing when creating online communities to support their brand(s).

Why Should I Join Your Network?
While on the topic of building communities, Bill Rice of the BetterCloser.com blog gives tips for businesses to consider when trying to build a successful online community.

Do Startups Need Community Managers?
This past week Marshall Kirkpatrick asked the Twitter and Friendfeed communities if start-ups need community managers. He got a plethora of responses that covered a variety of opinions. Several people who participated provided links to supporting blog posts, so get ready to settle down for a good amount of reading!

10 Green Social Networks You Should Know
With all sorts of people and businesses jumping on the “Go Green” bandwagon, it was only a matter of time until “Green” oriented social networks started popping up. This post lists 10 such sites that will let you connect with fellow environmentally-minded individuals.

5 Quick Tips on Pitching Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists
PerkettPR’s attendance at multiple TechCrunch, TechCockTail and PopSignal events definitely brought to light that there’s certainly no shortage of start-up companies looking for money. This post from Ben Yokosvitz’s Insigator Blog gives some good advice on successful pitching during your fund raising efforts.

Robert Scoble Joins Up with Revision3
There aren’t many details available about Robert Scoble’s newly announced show (called WorkFast.TV) on Revision3, so we’ll just have to wait and see what comes out in the upcoming weeks. However, this post includes an interesting speech from Scoble about his use of Twitter during the recent Chinese Earthquake.

Celebrity tipping point on Seesmic
Video conversation platform Seesmic created a big buzz earlier this week when several celebrities appeared in interviews on the service. Famous names included Harrison Ford, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg to name a few.

Thanks for checking out this week’s Persuasive Picks and for those in the United States – have a great Memorial Day weekend!