There is no doubt about it, social media is all around us, many of us connect through this medium on a daily basis to keep in touch with friends and family, spread value through the net and/or market to others.

Some may not realize what this phenomenon is, some may want to find out more and some are considered experts – in some shape or form.

Whether you a new to the world of Social Media, a marketer trying to get their feet wet, or a seasoned pro – at some point in your journey, research and understanding will be your greatest ally.

The following post consists of 27 of the most Comprehensively Compiled Social Media Guides, it should be noted that many of the documents are in pdf form and may take a short while to download.

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1. An Executive Guide to Social Media

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2. Social Media 101 Covering the basics of Social Media

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3. The Essential Guide to Social Media

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4. Getting Started with Social Media – A Guide and Resource List

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5. AN EXECUTIVE GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA – Business Week

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6. A Beginner’s Guide to Social News Websites

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7. Social media Tips – Sharing lessons learned to help your business grow from Kodak

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8. Mashable’s Social Media Guide for Small Businesses

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9. Let’s talk – Social Media for Small Business

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10. Social Media or, “How I learned to stop worrying and love communication”

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    What The F**K is Social Media?

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    A Pocket Guide to Social Media and Kids

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13. Guide: Social Media and Your Business

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    A Social Media Guide from the Edge – Brink

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15. Twitter Jump Start – The First Guide For Small Non-Profits

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16. OPEN BOOK – A Practical Guide to Business Growth

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17. A journalist’s guide to the ethics of social media

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18. How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses

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19. Guide to Social Media – Peer Marketing Group

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20. Social Media 101: A Beginner’s Guide

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21. Guide to Social Networking: Risks

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22. Build Your Own Opportunity Network – Getting Started in Social Networking

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23. A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA – Simply Zesty

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24. The Use of Social Media in Higher Education for Marketing and Communications: A Guide for Professionals in Higher Education

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25. Engaging through social media A guide for civil servants

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26. Connecting With Your Customers: A guide to Social Media

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27. Social Media Ad Metrics Definitions – iab

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Inforgraphics, “extensively [used] as tools by computer scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians” , have exploded onto the internet in the last few years. What’s so great about these aesthetic pieces of ‘data reinforced gems’, is their ability to paint a larger picture of what it is the creator is trying to express.

With the complexity and explosive growth of social media over the last few years, it’s not hard to see why so many have looked to express this information in a visually appealing manner – not to mention the benefits they provide when putting on a group presentation.

The following 25 social media infographics have been reduced in size to allow you to quickly scroll down the page. Each one has been linked to the original and it is highly encouraged that you visit the links to see them in their full size.

2. Building a Company with Social Media

3. The World Map of Social Networks

4. Social Media Statistics

7. Gender Balance on Social Networking Sites (Chic’s Rule)

8. The Story (so far) of Twitter

9. A Day in the Internet

10. The Web Before Twitter

11. The Web After Twitter

12. Le Twitter Hack

13. The Journey of a Tweet

14. TrendStream Social Web Involvement

15. Facebook Vs Twitter

16. Donut Marketing

23. Inside the Political Twittersphere

24. Inside the Political Twittersphere II

source: Information graphics

With so many travelers in the world, it is no wonder that several social media sites have popped up all around the internet.
In this brief write up, you will find some of those, which have been rated the best by several social fanatics around the globe.

Dopplr is a traveler’s media site that is easy to navigate. You are able to create itineraries and read tips from other users. It is a great place to share your trips with others and find connections with other people. You can combine your other sites with Dopplr such as Facebook and twitter. This site integrates many features in an easy manner.

Trip Wolf is a fairly new travel site. People say it is very personal and in some ways resembles Facebook. It has features for travelers and friends. The traveler’s section helps you connect with people who can help you plan a trip and offer suggestions. You can also just find great friends who have the same thing in common.

Trip Hub is a social media site that is different in focus. This site is focused around people who want to plan trips as groups. It is said to be the best group planning tool and website. You can share itineraries, invite travelers, create a plan layout, and utilize travel blogs.

Driftr is a social media site set up similar to Facebook. You can have friends, create trips and profiles, and do research on trips that other people have taken. This site’s only downfall is that it is very new and small. With some growing, it has a lot of potential.

World66 is a community that is based on travel articles. There is not as much networking with others. You will find some forums and blogs.

There are other travel sites that don’t quite fall under the above mentioned. This is due to their design and age. These sites are still useful with more content to offer, while maintaining a unique social vibe.

Virtual Tourist is a great site with over one million members. This is said to be the web’s largest community when it comes to traveling networks. You will find many tips, photos and guides of just about anywhere you can imagine. The relevancy of the site is said to be amazing.

BootsnAll is a travel site that is made up of message boards. You can gain a lot of valuable advice and tips from a very wide user base. You can contact individual travelers very easily through this site.

Lonely Planet is a very large traveling site. It is said to have some of the best forums and communities out there. It is a very active site. You will find a lot of helpful traveling information to assist you.

Trip Advisor focuses on free travel guides. It does not have the same sense of community as other sites.

Twitters, Facebooks, Wikis and blogs!!!! Just when you think you have it all down, along comes another website, or blog, or buzz word that you’ve never heard of. If you are a social media fanatic, you are able to stay up on everything that is going on, but for anyone who has just joined us, here is a basic run through Social Media.

What exactly is social media? How do you use it? What are the benefits? Even if you have heard about MySpace, started your own FaceBook site and entertained the thought of twittering, you may not know everything about social media.

At its best, social media is the ability to reach out and connect with your friends and family to whatever degree you desire. You can use a few sentences on Twitter, or you can keep your FaceBook page updated with photos and the latest events in your life. It seems that we want to know everything about the people we like – what are they doing (right now!), what restaurants do they like to eat at, have they seen any good movies lately?

FaceBook and MySpace allow you to incorporate photos and build your own little bio with whatever personal information you would like to share. It’s not there for the world to see, you must be invited.

And almost everyone seems to have a blog anymore. This is where you can write about anything you want for anyone to see. A lot of people use it in conjunction with their website as it can be updated regularly. Anyone who reads your blog can post their comments and it is this feedback that helps a lot of companies gauge the products and services that they provide. This direct feedback is not available through almost any other type of media.

But it is not only blogs that provide this feedback on the internet. There are plenty of social media sites that are devoted to following the latest current events. These sites provide an important forum for like-minded people to compare information, thoughts, and insights on topical issues.

Social media is being recognized for its most important feature – social marketing. Companies can reach across the country and find out immediately what the response is to their product or product line. This range of feedback is second to none. Companies can make better decisions on what real consumers like or dislike. It’s like having the entire country as your focus group.

Social media has joined hands with social networking to create the ultimate forum – a place where if people like something, they will share it for all to see. This is truly word of mouth at the highest level. By the same token, when the people speak they are usually honest and you have to take the good with the bad. If a product doesn’t live up to its hype, the company will be aware of it right away.

The power of the internet and the wide span that encompasses social media still boggles the mind. Your responses can help a company create or better their products on a national level, or you can just get online and see what your friends are doing later…

It used to be that social networking was the way to promote your business or services. You passed your business cards out to everyone and anyone you were able to speak to about your business. You went to trade shows to be in front of like-minded people who might be interested in your services. And you joined leads groups so that you could stand in front of the group and deliver a presentation so that the people in your group would use your services and/or pass along your information to friends, family members or their own clients who might possibly be interested in your company’s services.

Even though those practices are still in place, they seem archaic compared to the massive audience that the social media scene provides. The amount of people that can be reached through the likes of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and others boggles the mind. And the speed at which the information travels is even more incredible. It’s like the difference between a horse and buggy or the Concorde.

So how exactly do you use social media to promote your business? Major companies (one coffee company in particular) uses their Facebook page to directly reach their customers and ask their opinions regarding their products. They get immediate reactions that may result in bringing a product back due to popular demand, helping decide between two new products, or getting feedback on improving customer service in general.

Polls and surveys taken through social media sites are direct and immediate. Companies don’t have to pay big bucks for any type of media demographics profiles that take time to tally responses and provide results. Responses are directly from the very people that they are trying to reach.

And the best part is part of the protocol from the old networking days is still at hand here. The only difference is when someone shares their likes or dislikes regarding a specific company, it can be through a blog that will instantly reach hundreds of people as soon as the send button is pushed, as opposed to telling a couple of your friends over dinner.

The impact that social media has had on businesses today is immeasurable. The branding alone is solid and the control of the marketing is directly lead by the company itself. It is as easy as building a following on Twitter, or promoting a new product line ahead of schedule on your Facebook page. Direct click throughs and hits on links provide companies with instant feedback that used to take months to compile.

Probably the best part of joining the social media scene is that you can reach a massive audience with one touch of a button, it is a free medium, and you have your choice of sites to choose from – one or all. Each one just reinforces the other providing you with an even larger audience to market to.

Even though this is still a relatively new way of promoting your company, it is an equal opportunity forum. With the number of telecommuting positions available today, you can be an independent contractor or a major corporation and still realize the benefits of social media marketing.

Coffee and work just seem to go together, as a way to start the workday and catch a break and recharge. Coffee is also a social drink as we gather with others for a chat over coffee, or linger after a nice meal. It is not surprising that social media sites about coffee would start popping up. There are all kinds of sites, by individuals and companies, and some are even dedicated to specific ethic and cultural groups.

Here is a list of ten Social Media sites about coffee:

1. Starbucks -
It is not surprising that the name that has become synonymous with coffee would put together their own social media site. In addition to the regular aspects of an e-commerce site such as product and stores, this site is linked with Twitter and Facebook, and they stress their commitment to bigger social causes.

2. Dunkin Donuts
– While they may not be as trendy, they do sell a lot of coffee and so they too have a standard e-commerce site and a Facebook page. Here they have polls and videos, online discussions, and even pictures of the coffee fan of the week.

3. Green Mountain Coffee -
Green Mountain Coffee is committed to fair trade coffees and it has a huge selection of coffee, roasters, grinders, and brewers.

4. Bruegger’s Bakery -
This business offers kettle-boiled bagels as well as brewing coffee all day. They also have a Facebook page that includes fans’ photos and open discussions.

5. McDonalds McCafe -
McCafe is McDonald’s attempt to move into the market that is lead by Starbucks. This site is set up as a virtual coffee break room and is filled with all kinds of information. They also have mini sites which are geared toward specific cultural areas of the market including 365 Black (African American), MeEncanta (Hispanic) and, MyInspirAsian (Asian).

6. San Marco Coffee -
This coffee site is one of the first online sites selling coffee and they offer over 270 flavors of coffee including espressos.

7. CoffeeSnobs -
This is the largest coffee forum in Australia. These are serious coffee drinkers who gather to discuss blends, grinders and home roasting techniques.

8. TheCoffeeIndex -
TheCoffeeIndex claims to be the place to find any kind of coffee related information. They have over nine hundred different links including publications, recipes, and miscellaneous facts.

9. CoffeeHits.com -
CoffeeHits.com is a site that is a compiled list of the best coffee websites. There is regular ranking based on the sites traffic, and this can change daily. They have links to all the shops and other sites about coffee.

10. Coffee & Social Media, Naples, FL
This is an informal group in Naples, FL that meets the second Tuesday of the month to discuss social media. They have their own Facebook page and also Twitter. Their goal is to learn new ways to use social media, meeting over coffee.