11 Whys I’m a Social Media Addict
Connectivity Social media brings me closer to people with whom I ordinarily would seldom interact. Family, friends, colleagues. As my co-author Amber Naslund put it once “with social media, my relationships aren’t bound by geography or circumstance.” Exactly. Humanity People always slam Twitter for people talking about “what they had for lunch” but the blending […]
Do You Have the Guts to Expect Social Media Failure
The fastest way to get your company to be on the social media sidelines is to get your company involved in social media. There’s a huge gap between the perception of social media as an instant, free, can’t miss marketing opportunity and the reality of social media as a long-term, time-intensive customer loyalty and brand […]
Is Social Conversation a Myth?
Mitch Joel, whose blog and work I greatly admire, wrote a very interesting blog post recently that bemoaned the lack of conversation in social media. As coined by Joseph Jaffe (another good guy who was incidentally the very first guest on my series of live Twitter interviews), businesses have been trying to Join the Conversation […]
Social Listening and Analysis for the DIY Inclined
If you are conducting any level of online reputation management or campaign tracking using social media data sources, you have to get beyond the obvious. The point of tracking software isn’t to determine how many tweets were sent mentioning a company, it’s to figure out what those tweets say, and what the business ramifications are. […]
Is Starbucks the Most Dangerous Competitor to Facebook?
Today’s post is a collaboration with Clinton Bonner, community connectivity expert, futurist, and blogger at Everything to Everything. Starbucks is not only offering free Wi-Fi in all stores come this fall, but also unveiling their Starbucks Digital Network that all in-store web and mobile users will have the opportunity to enjoy (it’s a partnership with […]
Please Help Me Support Make-A-Wish Foundation
I need your help please. For every vote you cast for the keynote at South by Southwest featuring me and Amber Naslund, we’ll donate $1 of our book advance to Make-A-Wish Foundation®. Go to http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ If you don’t have an account, please make one. It will take just a few seconds Click the link that […]
The 3 Amigos: Email, Blogging, Social Sharing
For a while now, there’s been too much talk about social media vs. email vs. search. All of these tactics can work together seamlessly to create a robust, optimized content marketing engine that pays real dividends in increased website traffic, and conversions. A collaboration between RESMARK Systems (a provider of hospitality software), Western River Expeditions […]
The 8 Wrong Questions PR Firms Are Asking About Social Media
The enthusiasm about social media among public relations professionals is rampant, and encouraging. Wanting to be at the center of a new way to communicate to customers and prospects is a worthy objective. But, under pressure from digital and advertising agencies each looking to be the driver of the social media express, PR firms are […]
Blastoff for My New Social Media Newsletter
Last Monday was the world premier of my new social media newsletter, the 3-2-1. 3 must-read articles about social media (plus a bonus from the Convince & Convert vault) Sent twice per week (usually Monday and Friday) Sent at 1pm pacific time 3-2-1: it’s the greatest newsletter in the history of social media newsletters. If […]
Is Twitter for Business Even Worth the Trouble?
We built our own Frankenstein. We are spending countless employee hours tweeting, retweeting, responding to tweets, figuring out whom to follow, secretly following celebs and athletes, and designing custom Twitter backgrounds. Nobody forced companies to get involved with their customers in this way. There was no law, edict, or pitchfork-wielding band of angry citizens. We […]
7 Reasons I’m Moving to Bloomington Indiana
Top 7 Reasons I’m Moving to Bloomington, Indiana: Skin too dry. No idea what a Hoosier is. Decided to find out first-hand. Want to cheer for a historically mediocre college football team. Living near Sedona, AZ for 6 years is giving me vortex poisoning. Need to upgrade quality of locally grown corn. All these pine […]
Why Influence Mining is the Next Gold Rush
Inherently, we understand influence. It’s in our DNA. We know that a grizzly bear has a marked impact on its surroundings, and can change behavior in ways that even the fiercest badger cannot. The tsunami of data being created, collected and parsed every second of every day now makes influence identification instantaneous, and possible from […]
You’re Pissed Off at the Wrong Guy
Of course it’s upsetting when a customer slams you via tweet, status message, blog comment or humorous video. But it’s not like social media created negativity, it just puts a magnifying glass to it. Do you know why you don’t get angry when customers call customer service and say all kinds of crazy, depressing stuff […]
R.I.P. 3 Ways Facebook is Killing Your Website
Subscribe to our new Definitive newsletter: High grade digital marketing guidance, topically sorted, and curated to the max. You pick the categories, we deliver the content. The best content from around the web, on topics you care about and need to be an expert in. The game used to be relatively simple. Build a website. […]
Facebook Success Summit – 22 Sessions on Everything Facebook
Is Facebook important to you and your business? If it’s not now, it will be soon (see my post tomorrow for more on that). Now with more than 500 million global members, Facebook is changing the way we interact, communicate, share, and shop. Despite Facebook’s apparent addiction to public relations missteps and half-baked schemes, they […]
5 Ways to Turn Helpfulness Into Marketing Greatness
We’ve talked in the past about helping vs. selling, and that the former approach takes you a lot further in the realm of social media and word of mouth marketing. When I discuss this concept with companies, however, too often I hear something in the realm of “we don’t know what to provide our customers […]