Observations on Day 365
This week makes it one year since I started writing this blog, and I wanted to take a moment to say a sincere thanks to every one of you that occupies even a minute of their increasingly precious time by reading Convince & Convert. The volume of high quality, free, online content (especially about marketing) […]
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 […]
Twitterati Says Email Isn’t Dead Yet – 6 Findings
Every conference I’ve been at, and at least 10 blog posts I’ve read this year have proclaimed the death of email. Social network messaging, and its 1:1 relevancy and real-time immediacy will inexorably make email the Edsel of digital communication, goes the theory. It’s not true. Firstly, this isn’t a zero sum game. The notion […]
CC Chapman – The Twitter 20 Interview on Telling Stories and Humanizing Brands
CC Chapman is a lot of desirable things. A legendary podcaster that embraced that medium from its very earliest days. A grizzled blogger, with entries dating back to 2001. A co-founder of the buzzlicious non-traditional marketing agency The Advance Guard. A devoted father that doesn’t let the digital tsunami swamp his boat. Between conference speaking […]
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 […]
Why Can’t PR Do Digital?
Why aren’t PR firms offering digital marketing services to their clients? On Sunday, David Anderson from Off Madison Ave and I presented this roundtable at the PRSA Counselor’s Academy conference in Palm Desert. The title is: Revenue.com: Launching Digital Marketing Services to Grow Retainers. Note we only had ~30 minutes, so this isn’t as comprehensive […]
Closing the Gap with Social Media
I moved to a smallish town (60,000) from a big city (3 million) nearly 5 years ago. I used to work in an office with 50 people. Now, when I’m not traveling to conferences or to see clients, I work from home. Usually half-dressed. Staring out at a forest. Other than our cat that I […]
5 Steps to Setting Social Media Limits
Feeling overwhelmed by social media and social networks? Does it occasionally seem that all this connectivity comes at the expense of your free time? Struggling to decide whether to follow back or friend up that guy you met at the local Chamber of Commerce event whom you don’t really know, but might be a useful […]
Amber Naslund – The Twitter 20 Interview on Making Friends and Listening to People
Amber Naslund is like the post-modern, social media version of that girl in high school that everyone loved. The geeks. the stoners. The jocks. The auto-shop dudes. The home economics apron-wearers. The goths. The teachers. Social media is about people and connections, and like Chris Brogan and Gary Vaynerchuk, Amber’s passion for people shines through […]
5 Ways to be a Social Networking Smash
1. Be Helpful Distribute what you know. Make people smarter. 2. Share It’s not all about you. For every time you talk about your own stuff, talk about other people’s great content 8 times. 3. Be Personal People gravitate toward people, not robots. Show what you’re really like. Just don’t be a freak. 4. Ask […]
8 Ingredients of Intoxicating Blog Posts
Is there a method to your blogging madness? Blogging isn’t new, but the notion of blog authorship contributing to marketing effectiveness is very much gaining favor in the U.S., resulting in a flood of new bloggers, especially B2B. Encouraged by inbound marketing proponents like Hubspot, Chris Brogan, Michael Gass, (and me), organizations are jumping on […]
3 Key Twitter Changes Lost in the Hysteria
As it grows up, is Twitter taking the fun out of it? Lost in the hysteria over changes to Twitter’s reply handling scheme are several other adjustments that were more quietly unveiled/discussed in recent days that are likely to prove much more important. 1. Follower Notices in HTML Notifications that you have been followed by […]
Why Blogs Will Kill Dissent
While newspapers and magazines make increasingly Draconian decisions to try to escape their inexorable spiral of decline, the very future of publishing comes into question. Will life as we know it stop once the Grey Lady and her sisters cease to exist in their historical form? No. Even without papers and mags, Britney will still […]
David Armano – The Twitter 20 Interview on Visual Thinking and Social Business
David Armano may very well be the best writer of any graphic designer in America. He writes about social business, visual communication, and micro-interactions on his own blog, and for AdAge and BusinessWeek. (He also makes insanely great presentations). David has worked with some of the world’s largest brands, creating successful online experiences that make […]
Tweeting from the Tractor – 7 Secrets to Successful Social Media Farming
Farming may very well be the second-oldest profession. This will not come as a surprise, but I’ve never farmed personally. However, my family is from Nebraska (Go Big Red) and both sets of grandparents owned farms. So, I’ve spent more than my share of time in a corn field (terrible Wi-Fi). And while farming has […]