People say social media is unicorn, but it’s really just a horse. Sure, social media empowers customers like nothing before it. And of course, social media creates a new level of real-time accountability for companies previously accustomed to asynchronous communication. These are the ways social media is different. But in other ways, it’s largely the [...]
6 Critically Undervalued Social Media Success Metrics
People who say social media isn’t measurable aren’t looking very hard. The truth is that there are at least 25 viable metrics you can use to evaluate the success of your social media efforts. The challenge isn’t measurability, it’s knowing which measures are meaningful. Here are the 6 critically undervalued social media success metrics. Daily [...]
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” [...]
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 Our Addiction to ROI Killing Social Media?
Guest post by Matt Ridings, founder of MSR Consulting, a Digital Relationship Marketing Agency in St. Louis. He’s @techguerilla on Twitter. I had an interesting phone call with a prospective client. I didn’t know him, and hadn’t worked with his (large) company. He was looking for a social media vendor, and was referred to me [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
