SocialFishing...: Top Ten Must Read links of the week

I'm kinda losing the plot lately, with all my recent travel and getting ready for Buzz2009, but I can't not share a few really fantastic recent posts I've read / conversations I've been following. I've shared most of these via Twitter/Friendfeed but I wanted to make sure you didn't miss them. Truly MUST READs - this will keep y'all busy for a while! In no particular order:

1. Dare to be weak: When it comes to engagement, social media is the art of the possible - by Rob Cottingham on Social Signal. All about starting small. Killer quote (of many):

"Understanding what you want to achieve - even if it's just to experiment and learn more about the platform and what you can do there - doesn't just help you shape your initiative at the outset; it's the only way of gauging whether you're succeeding."

2. Tweeting With Your Twitter Community: How To Participate In A Twitter Chat - Jeff Hurt on Twitip (again!). Fantastic "how to" about chats on Twitter, including a handy list of tools and existing chats by topic.

"With some practice, hashtags and one of these third party Twitter applications listed below, even beginners can tune-in and participate in a robust Twitter discussion."

3. Reflections on Social Business - by Peter Kim. Just the start of developing the construct for "social business design". Check out the links he mentions in particular. Killer quote:

"Social business design is a mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive way of considering how a corporation, business unit, or project can create and capture value from today's emerging technologies and evolving operating environment. The social business design framework captures ecosystem (community), hivemind (culture), dynamic signal (collaboration), and metafilter (content). Putting these into play creates improved business outcomes as well as emergent outcomes. Measurement provides the backbone to the entire framework, as driving change requires proof."

4. Online Community - 25 Motivations and Incentives For Getting Involved - By Buzz Canuck. Killer quote:

"Having too few incentives for participation is a recipe for building a ghost town of community. Tapping too many motivations in one platform and you get a bouillabaisse of confusion."

5. Community Alone Isn’t Enough - by Dave Fleet. See the comments too - see what you think! Killer quote:

"For companies, however, you can’t only give back. You need to withdraw push for yourself, too. Community alone doesn’t pay the bills. Revenue and growth does."

6. What about the other Social Media ROI? - by Douglas Karr on The Marketing Technology Blog. Great list of things that can be considered ancillary ROI for social media efforts.

7. Death By Association: Do Association Leaders Consider Social Media Their Competitor, Partner Or Neither? - by Jeff Hurt on Midcourse Corrections. Great recap of a serious discussion a few days ago on Twitter about whether social media poses a threat to associations.

8. What Tyler Durden Can Teach You About Twitter And Social Media - by Shea Bennett on Twittercism. This is just truly awesome, and not just because Fight Club is one of my all-time favorite movies. :)

9. Clues to Authenticity - by Deirdre Reid on Reid All About It. Deirdre asks us, what does it mean for an organization to be authentic? Please do comment, I know you have thoughts on this. I do too of course, as do others, and I will as soon as I get the chance! Killer quote:

"We learn to listen to criticism and dissent and not overlook the uncomfortable. We face up to reality. This is not always easy, but the right thing to do usually isn’t. Does your organization go through this process? Is it listening to all its constituent voices, including those that usually go unheard?"

10. Is relevance enough? By Lisa Junker on Acronym. Whoa. Great argument raging. Is it all semantics? Killer quote by Jeff De Cagna (though I'm very much on this side of the fence):