How Turkish Airlines United International Fans [Infographic]
These days, with so many new media platforms, companies can end up having a hard time staying on brand across channels. So, it’s nice to see when a company is executing a strategy that engages their target audience while still being able to stay true to their core brand message. One of the companies doing […]
The 3 Rock Solid Questions To Guide 2013 Social Media Success

There is an almost infinite variety of minor circumstances that can occupy your attention and create frustration for social media and content marketing professionals. The pace of change is breathtaking, and the feedback loop is instantaneous. This creates a culture of disproportionate attention to detail. So much has been written about the mechanics of social […]
4 Ways to Thump Your Competition with Better Facebook Analysis

Managing a Facebook page is a major part of many companies’ marketing and communication programs, but the data we use to measure the effectiveness of those efforts is sorely lacking. Facebook consistently changes what’s measured and how, adding complexity and incongruence to an already squirrely data scenario. For example, People Talking About This is the […]
The Most Overrated Social Media Metric

Do you sell advertising on your website? No? Then why are you so excited about your website traffic? The most overrated social media metric is traffic from social outposts. This blog post is symptomatic of this problem, although there have been hundreds (thousands?) like it. Here’s the highlight: With only 1% of Facebook’s user count, […]
New Research Finds the Curation vs Creation Sweet Spot
Whether you’re on a first date, meeting new people at a dinner party, or making it rain on Twitter, it’s just not a good idea to go on and on about yourself. It’s just awkward. Conventional social media marketing wisdom suggests that brands should avoid being overly self-promotional. Thus, brands seek to “be a part […]
Social Media Optimization 3 Steps to Tweeting with a Purpose

Social media optimization gives you the ability to not waste bullets. Every tweet and status update has a cost associated with it. Perhaps not a direct financial cost, but a real, and at times considerable labor cost. The time you spend tweeting and Facebooking and Google Plussing on behalf of yourself or your company is […]
5 Reasons Social Media Measurement is Making You Lie to Yourself

Social media measurement causes unsavory (and ineffective) marketing behavior because unlike the rest of our marketing key performance indicators, social media metrics are out there for anyone to see. Was it a surprise last week when Presidential wannabe Newt Gingrich was (allegedly) busted for having 1.3 million followers on Twitter, most of which were bots […]
Social Media Measurement – A 6 Step Process

Can you measure social media? Of course you can. But social media measurement is not always easy. For a full and very specific account of how to measure social media in your company, pick up a copy of The Now Revolution, or Social Media ROI (by Olivier Blanchard). However, here are the basics to consider, […]
5 Search and Social Trends for 2011

Recently, I participated in a Webinar with my friend and client Chris Baggott of Compendium. We talked about the convergence of search and social media, and how content marketing is bridging both areas. We settled on 5 trends that we think will be especially important in 2011 (read or print yourself via Scribd, or see […]
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” […]
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 […]
A Social Media Scoreboard That Works

Clearly, there’s no shortage of data and possible social media success metrics. Advanced social media analytics and ROI calculations often require tying together disparate systems, and looking for causation (or at least correlation) between social media success and business outcome. At the most granular, day-to-day level, this necessitates visiting your various outposts and your social […]
Olivier Blanchard – The Twitter 20 Interview on Social Media ROI

A passionate advocate for the ability of social media to fundamentally transform brands, Olivier Blanchard is on a mission. Based (like @spikejones also a Twitter 20 subject) in Greenville, South Carolina, Olivier has moved his Brand Builder consultancy into the social media realm, with a focus on smart strategies and sharp measurement. His series of […]
Are You Cherishing the Wrong Trophy?

I have been the champion of my fantasy football league two of the past four years, and while I’ve had a rough start to this season, I’m still the defending champion. And while I appreciate the winner’s check, having the trophy on my desk for a year is much, much sweeter. Trophies are important. They […]