Here are my best discoveries for fourth quarter 2009 in social media for business. Not every discovery necessarily originated during the quarter; that’s just when each hit my radar…

Best Employee Training Program for Social Media

Telstra, the 40,000 employee Australian telecom company has definitely set the bar for training its employees in social media. If you don’t have the resources to go this far, at least visit SocialMediaGovernance.com and develop a policy for your company based on your favorite model (click image to read):

Best Example of Twitter IRL (In Real Life)

Very funny but if this approximates your company’s Twitter strategy, you’re on the wrong track. FYI, this video is not embeddable (yes, that’s a YouTube option); just click the image to view it there.

Best Measurement / Analysis of a Social Media Initiative

C3Presents (the folks behind Lollapalooza) worked with the team at WebShare to write the book on measuring and tracking a multifaceted social media campaign. Among other findings, visitors who engaged in social media spent twice as much as those who didn’t. Now that will motivate a CEO (click image to read):

Best Collection of Social Media Resources for Business

There’s something here for every company (click image to read):

Best Collection of Social Media Case Studies

J. Paul Duplantis, cofounder of Quired.com asked our LinkedIn Group, Social Media Today, for “case studies on the successful use of social media to grow a business”. He posted the best ones here (click image to read):

Best Collection of Social Media Examples (1,000+)

If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas for social media initiatives, here are more than a thousand examples. Find one that works for your company and become a fast follower down a proven path (click image to read):

That’s it for the “BEST of Social Media for Biz” for 4Q 2009. If you’d like to nominate a “Best of 1Q 2010” entry, leave a comment or send email to the evaluation committee (me) at [email protected]!