Jason Falls is CEO of Social Media Explorer, an education and information products company focused on social media and other forms of digital marketing. A public relations professional by trade, Falls has advised Fortune 100 brands, regional corporations and technology startups since the “early days” of social media marketing in the mid-2000s. He spoke to eMarketer’s Dan Marcec about what real engagement means in the context of social media marketing strategy.

via Engagement Is Not a Goal, It’s a Result – eMarketer.

B2B companies lag behind their B2C counterparts when it comes to using social media to track what customers are saying about their brands and following up on that feedback.

In January 2012, customer experience management software company Satmetrix surveyed over 1,000 B2B and B2C companies worldwide and found that more than half of B2C companies (53%) both tracked mentions and followed up on them, while an additional 25% only tracked and 4% only followed up. This is compared to only 27% of B2B companies that both tracked mentions and followed up on them. Almost half of B2B companies (47%) did not track or follow up on brand mentions on social media.

via Companies Use Social to Track and Follow Up on Brand Mentions – eMarketer.

To the uninitiated, Reddit looks like a mess — text links, comment threads, points, upvotes, downvotes. At best, posts seem contextless — at worst, totally random.But spend some quality time with “The Front Page of the Internet,” and you’ll find it’s an essential resource, a self-correcting marketplace of ideas that’s nearly impervious to marketers.Simply put, Reddit is a message board wherein users submit links. What differentiates it from a real-time information network like Twitter is that the stream of content is curated by the community. Items of value are “upvoted,” and those deemed unworthy are “downvoted.” This determines a post’s position on the site, and items that hit the front page are seen by hundreds of thousands of people consequently, sending boatloads of traffic to the linked website.

via Reddit: A Beginner’s Guide.

Almost half of online customers expect brands to provide customer service on Facebook

via Social Media Customer Service Faces a High Bar – eMarketer.

There are some new social commerce opportunities for retailers on the horizon. Not only are consumers spending more and more time with image-sharing social networks like Pinterest and Polyvore, they are clicking through to product websites quite frequently.

via Is Pinterest Really Leading to Product Purchases? – eMarketer.

Whether you have a blog, you post photos on photo sharing sites, or you’re a YouTube star you probably wonder when and how your media is getting used by other people. Regardless of whether it’s free-to-use media or copyrighted material the process of tracking it down is the same.

via How to Keep Track of How Other People Are Using Your Media Online.

Here’s some lunch-time fodder to consider. How reliant are you on social media to keep up on the latest news? How has this changed for you in the past decade?

via Infographic: How Social Media Wins At Breaking News – 10,000 Words.

This is the most extensive guide to data journalism I’ve seen to date but the editors are clear that it is not meant to be a “comprehensive repertoire of all if the knowledge and skills you need to become a data journalist.”

Welcome – The Data Journalism Handbook.

This flowchart from The Extreme Presentation Method can help you select the best type of chart for the message you want to send. Juice Analytics’ Chart Chooser tool takes the process a step further: The tool automatically picks chart types for you based on your selections, and offers Excel and PowerPoint templates to download that help showcase your data properly.

via How to Choose the Best Chart for Your Data.

The .net strip #25: Time spent on a new social network | Feature | .net magazine.