Before last week’s launch of SmartBrief on Social Media, we beta tested a prototype of the brief with a group of 200 SmartBrief readers. About 1/3 of them have been following social media for some time, 1/2 understand the basics but want to get smarter on how social media might help their business, and the remainder are getting up to speed as quickly as possible.

The five most-clicked stories during the beta test were:

  1. Twitter backlash sinks Motrin ad
  2. Who’s on LinkedIn?
  3. The Internet’s next 6,500 days
  4. Social marketing pitfalls
  5. Finding success amid an “ocean of blog mediocrity”

The general feedback we received is that SmartBrief on Social Media provides “a thorough feel for the subject matter” and is “a valuable source of new ideas and concepts.” But still, our test group told us, “primers on social media would be hugely helpful…although most people who get this probably won’t admit it.”

We’ve turned to our friends at the Interactive Advertising Bureau for help. (read more…)