Everything a beginner needs to know about social media

I found this fantastic blog post a while ago filled with resources about social media. Arun Rajagopal challenged himself to a 10-hour investigation of the blogosphere to find as much information as he could that would be useful to those who are beginners in the subject. The result is a really, really long post overflowing with definitions, summaries and many, many links to a whole bunch of other posts explaining different takes on and aspects of social media. It will take you a while to get through all of the resources, but there is some great information there.

I’ll also add the link to Arun’s post in the Beginner’s resources for interactive media post, where you will find a lot of stuff as well, and hopefully the list will keep growing. Check it out!

UPDATE 11/25/2007: Arun also directed me to yet another excellent guide to social media, on CK’s Blog which you should definitely check out! It is absolutely filled with great resources.

UPDATE 12/12/2007: Check out Chris Brogan’s Social Media 100,  a series of posts (he started Dec. 4, only 6 posts so far) that are meant to “help you grow the value of your social media and social networking efforts.”

Also check out the following blogs and posts. They are loaded with fantastic information:

The Social Media Marketing Blog

Marketing Pilgrim: The Five Pillars of Social Media Marketing

SEOmoz: Social Media Marketing, eh? Let’s See What’s in Our Bag o’ Goodies.

SEOmoz: How to Leverage Web 2.0 & Social Media Sites to Market Your Brand & Control Your Message

Influential Marketing: 5 Rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Social Media Marketing category on “Ben Willis – New Media Marketer”

Image credit: The Elusive Fish Creative Services