B2B social media is one of the most nettlesome of all social media marketing topics. There are plenty of half-truths and misunderstandings about what, where, why, and how B2B social media works (or doesn’t). I tried to dispel the most common B2B social media myths in this Webinar for Genius.com and Focus. Destroying the 7 [...]
Digital Sharecropping – Why Most Facebook Customization is Wasted Effort
Part 3 of a 3-Part Rant The time, money, and overall exertion being spent on customizing Facebook fan pages is largely misspent. Just because you CAN replicate much of your corporate website functionality on Facebook, doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Your Facebook fan page is not a collectible automobile. You do not get extra brand advocacy [...]
Mistake Math – Why We’re Valuing Facebook Fans All Wrong
Part 2 of a 3-Part Rant Brands are shouting from the rooftops about how many Facebook fans they have – and the number of “likes” does help you spread your message through the news feeds of your fans (more on that tomorrow). But let’s recognize it takes literally one click of one finger to “like” [...]
Ra Ra Wrong. How Facebook’s Cheerleaders Are Blowing Smoke
Part 1 of a 3-Part Rant I realize it’s in the best interests of Facebook, the media, application developers, and sometimes even brands themselves to concoct pseudo-science that “proves” that people that “like” your company are instantly turned into a zombie army of influential advocates. But it’s simply not true. Despite a pile of coverage [...]
The 7 New Roles Agencies Must Play to Survive Real-Time Business
Change is all around us, in many shapes and guises. Yet the nucleus of most of the shifts that have us feeling like we’re in a transformational maelstrom is speed. Everything happens faster now. Awareness can be captured more quickly than ever before. Sales can be closed instantly online. Customer service issues can be resolved [...]
3 Reasons To Dig Deeper In Social Listening
Guest post by Connie Bensen, the Director of Community Strategy and Social Media at Alterian, which provides leading marketing products for the enterprise. She also blogs at http://communitystrategist.com. Brands have realized that social networks offer an opportunity to interact directly with consumers. They create pockets of communities where like-minded people share information and seek advice. [...]
Humanizing a Critically Important Industry, From the Ground Up
The public dialog about agriculture in California and beyond is largely negative, with tales of agribusiness nefariousness commonplace. This is despite the fact that 98% of America’s farms are still owned by families. Farmers are literally feeding us every day, but are routinely pilloried in social media and elsewhere by a very vocal minority. This [...]
Is It Time for The NOW Revolution?
At long last, I’m delighted to announce that The NOW Revolution is complete and available for pre-order. My new book, written with my uber-talented co-author Amber Naslund, is subtitled “7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social“. (big thanks to many of you for helping us pick a title a few months [...]
How Size Matters in the Social Media ROI Debate
Guest post by Simon Gornick, a content consultant specializing in short form slogans, and owner of The Tagline Machine. ROI in social media is a luxury. And the only brands that can accept that are likely to be big ones with multi-platform marketing budgets. The larger the brand, the more likely they are to use [...]
Is Facebook Suffocating the Rest of Social Media?
Forrester Research recently released a 2010 update to its Social Technographics® data that analyzes the social behaviors of global Internet users. For the first time, the percentage of U.S. consumers engaged in certain social behaviors actually went down, not up. Is the bloom off the rose? Is this the long-promised social media backlash? Overall, social media [...]
