I think the Tripit example is really interesting. On one hand, I think there’s a good case to be made for the Tripit LinkedIn app adding value to other peoples’ experiences. That, of course, begs the question of why an individual would actually install it in the first place, if it’s adding value for everyone but them. Narcissism aside, I don’t really know the answer to that question. Maybe that’s what you’re saying. I can get behind the idea that without a purely selfish goal in sight for the user, any marketing strategy is suspect at best, but evidence from places like Facebook and Twitter (probably FB moreso) seems to indicate that people do go through a lot of tasks that end up benefiting others more than themselves.

Maybe I’m overthinking all of this. To be honest, I completely agree with you re: Tripit. I added some connections on it because it was easy and I was bored, but I don’t have the LinkedIn app installed. For me, it’s an organizational tool.

I don’t think I’ll dive into any of these social media cookbooks any time soon, and I doubt that at this point there are a lot of reliable, cost-effective strategies with a short term focus–at least not to be found in books by people claiming to be social media gurus.

It’s interesting that you mention Tripit. Despite all the social elements they build into the service, for me the true value is a super convenient way to organize and access my travel details. Most of the social angles just clutter this experience for me. However, because of the real benefits that I receive, I’ve recommended the service to many – both verbally and through social media channels. While I have the Tripit App on LinkedIn, I really haven’t received much value from it. Of course I may be in a minority here. If I was responsible for their customer development, I’d spend a lot of time finding out who the service is really resonating with and why it is resonating with them. Getting this experience right for these people will boost the impact of social media more than any single social tactic. Then afterwards, they can add relevant tactics to boost it further.

Just my thoughts – I could be missing something here. Hopefully you’ll take the time to read through one of those thick books and come back and share the useful nuggets with us.

I don’t have any data to back this up, but I’d be surprised if there were really significant gains being made by the “share this on xyz” buttons or”twitter this” links. I’d imagine something like Tripit’s (which I’m guessing is the service you’re talking about) LinkedIn app is extremely successful.

Obviously some of these are going to be due to idiosyncratic factors–Tripit’s service is of far more value to my average LinkedIn contact than a random blog post is to my Twitter followers–but among the randomness I’d expect some reliable patterns. Maybe you haven’t been able to parse (m)any of those out reliably yet, hence the <10 page book, but if you have I’d be curious in hearing more about what’s been successful and what’s not.