Social Media Plus Sucking Equals Success

Sometimes being wrong feels so right. Truth and candor are in short supply these days. Perhaps it’s always been this way, but it sure seems like there’s an awful lot of politicians, celebrities, and athletes that have been unmasked as liars and losers. Soon we’ll have someone taking steroids while cavorting with hookers and debating [...]

Social Media Makes Everything Marketing

It’s truly fantastic that so many companies are starting to monitor the social media conversations around their brands and their industry at large. But what’s not fantastic is the reflexive apoplexy when some of those conversations inexorably are less than complementary. I have seen corporate marketers (and even PR firm folks who should know better) [...]

4 Ways to Increase Share of Voice

The concept of “listening to the conversation” which is at the core of most social media programs, and is the foundation for many companies that sell listening tools, is really just a pseudonym for tracking content your customers create based on their satisfaction, or dissatisfaction. It’s often described as “share of voice” – the percentage [...]

Why Twitter Needs Its Bottom Spanked

I see Twitter being in real danger of becoming MySpace and SecondLife. Do you? If Twitter doesn’t get it’s act together and improve customer experience for the masses of new users signing on, it’s going to end up as an irrelevant, niche community for a self-referential subculture. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that [...]

Why Social Media Helps the Rich Get Richer

Do you accept the premise that “social media” has expanded well beyond its consumer-generated content roots to encompass a much larger trend of customer-centrism and candor? Do you believe that the core of a successful social media strategy is making your company more like a person and less like a machine? Do you believe that [...]