Box Scores: Feb. 9-15 – “How YOU can be a Ninja (in business)”

It’s Box Score time, folks! Want to catch up on some of the previous week’s best posts? Then get in here for the real thing and read the pearls of wisdom the online community had to offer this week. 

-“Reinventing the Customer Relationship to Drive Growth”

Although we post quite a few “Why you should be utilizing Web 2.0” posts, this Conversation Agent post by Valeria Maltoni is too good to pass up. She focuses not on the logistics of a company’s Web 2.0 efforts, but rather the logic behind a social media (and more importantly, a customer-focused and engaged) strategy. Worth giving a read, whether you’ve already got a great social media presence or still have none whatsoever.

-“HOW TO: Live Inside Twitter and Still Stay Productive”

This Mashable post discusses some ways to include Twitter in your work life rather than allowing it to distract you from your work life. If you’re anything like us here at Deep Bench, then you know how distracting Twitter can be. Of course, we tend to justify it as building relationships and sharing thoughts and knowledge with a community of intelligent and interesting people from all walks of life.

-“How To Win In a Recession Like a Ninja”

This guest post on Chris Brogan’s blog by Christopher S. Penn provides some insight in a unique format. Ninjas have to win against incredible odds, often using targeted strategies to take down bigger, stronger enemies. The takeaway: “Get out from inside the battle and see the conflict from a different perspective.” Now, if you’re struggling to see the conflict from a different perspective, there are organizations like Deep Bench who will make a targeted analysis of the battle itself, the combatants, and how to best resolve the conflict. And that takes a heavy load off of your agile ninja shoulders.

-“STOP LOOKING FOR EASY ANSWERS WHEN IT COMES TO SOCIAL MEDIA”

Shannon Paul takes a very direct approach to answering the questions companies have about social media. It’s ok to be tentative about it. Just don’t expect it to be as easy as flipping on a light switch. Shannon discusses it in an abrupt (albeit very accurate) fashion. And we here at Deep Bench are all about getting to the point.

BONUS SECTION

                These next two posts are pretty thick and heavy posts with lots of information in them. If you take the time to go through them, they’re certainly beneficial. However, they don’t exactly fall under the “quick read” category of blog posts.

-“Best and Worst Practices Social Media Marketing”

Lee Odden posts a pretty in-depth list on Best Practices and Worst Practices regarding social media. The summary? “DO: Listen, be transparent about your intentions, “Give to Get,” and have a plan. DON’T: Be fake, interruptive, and only focus on short-term sales.” But, if you want to get a little bit more out of it than that summary, give the post a read.

-“Personal Branding 102: How to Communicate and Maintain Your Brand”

Mashable gives a second lesson in personal branding via social media tools and proven marketing tactics. PLENTY of tips and pointers comprise this in-depth post, and if you have any interest in maintaining your personal brand, this post is worth a read.

And there we are. Another Monday, another week to change the world. Hopefully some of these blog posts give you some help in how you might go about changing it. We here at Deep Bench going to start changing the world by voraciously devouring every opportunity the online community can offer us.

Well…we’re going to start with breakfast first. But THEN we’ll be voraciously devouring every opportunity the online community can offer us. Also…this is awesome.

By the way, did we miss anything? Did you get any great insight from these posts? Let us know by leaving a comment in the Comments section below.