Attacking the Social Media Lynch Mob

Can we put down the pitchforks? For most of the past year, there’s been a barrage of blog posts bemoaning the social media gold rush, and the number of self-proclaimed experts that seem to propagate like pink eye in a kindergarten class. In fact, there was much hand-wringing a couple weeks ago when Mashable breathlessly […]
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 […]
Trey Pennington – The Twitter 20 Interview About Social Media and Humanity

Dr. Trey Pennington has a full plate. He has an active consulting practice, a forthcoming book called “Spitball Marketing”, a blog, an online radio show (the must-listen “Social Media Professor“), and a Facebook page. He’s also founded several Social Media Clubs world-wide, and is active in a bunch of local and South Carolina organizations. (He’s […]
Don’t Lose Your Social Media Joy

Watching the mini-mites play hockey at today’s tournament in Durango, Colorado, it struck me that these kids play for the pure joy of it. They don’t care who wins, who scores goals, who gets to be goalie. They care about having fun, and what the post-game snack might be. And as social media matures, I […]
Get More Bait in the Water

How can you catch more fish? By using more poles. If you’re going to create social media content to establish or perpetuate thought leadership for you, your company, or your clients, you can’t silo your ideas. The old method of thought leadership was to create a white paper. A carefully crafted, highly edited, incredibly boring, […]
How to Balance Your Personal and Professional Lives in Social Media

Does social media make you more comfortable, or less comfortable? For me, it’s both. As my friend Amber Naslund said when I interviewed her on Twitter, social media enables her to have friends that are not dictated by geography or circumstance. And to me, the ability to find people with whom you have a kinship, […]
Crushing the Myth of B2B Social Media

In nearly every speech or Webinar I conduct, someone in the audience asks “But all this social media stuff doesn’t apply to B2B right?” Yes, social media applies to B2B. In fact, social media can be MORE transformative for a B2B company than a B2C company. This is because B2B has a smaller potential customer […]
Trident Integrates Social Media with Print Ads

I promised you a couple weeks ago that in 2010 I would focus on social media integration and real business. Well, I’m starting a little early. Trident has released a new gum called Trident layers, which appears to be some sort of neapolitan ice cream-type multi-flavor concoction. (Personally, I’m okay with my gum tasting like […]
The Colossal Ultimate List of 2010 Social Media Predictions

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s social media. Do you feel like the world is shifting under your feet? I know I do. Marketing, communications, and customer service are changing and morphing like Joan Rivers’ face, and social media is the most-frequent agent of that change. Guessing what’s next in social media is everyone’s […]
A Pinch of Social Media Makes a Helluva Broth

Guest post by Scott Severson (@scottseverson), President of ARAnet, Inc. in Minneapolis. He is widely published on the subject of digital marketing, and has been a driving force in the development of Adfusion, an article-based advertising solution that utilizes a two-click model to drive qualified and motivated consumers to its clients’ Web destinations. Do you […]
What Brett Favre Can Teach You About Social Media Strategy

I went to the Arizona Cardinals vs. Minnesota Vikings game last Sunday. In addition to pitting two strong NFC teams against one another, the game included an interesting milestone – Brett Favre’s NFL record-tying 283rd consecutive game. 283 NFL games. In a row. Except for sleep and breathe, I’ve never done anything 283 times in […]
The Death of Sexy – Social Media, Integration and Real Business

Maybe we’ve gotten a little ahead of ourselves? In our zeal for YouTube videos, and Facebook apps, and iphone wizardry, and augmented reality we’ve in many cases neglected the many ways we can socially enable the marketing we’ve been doing all along. Sure it’s exciting to play with all the shiny new social media toys […]
Diane Hessan – The Twitter 20 Interview About Brand Communities

Diane Hessan knows the wisdom of crowds first-hand. As the CEO of Communispace, a fast-growing major player in the brand community creation and management industry, she’s helped drive consumer insight and product innovation for dozens of Fortune 100 companies. Co-author of the book Customer Centered Growth, Diane was recently named Entrepreneur of the Year by […]
Curing Social Media Burnout

I get it, I really do. Keeping up with social media is like keeping pace with the latest Brangelina saga – you know you want to, but it’s hard to devote the time. I’m here to help. I’ve launched a email newsletter that will help you stay on top of what’s really important in social […]
Social Media Marketing Case Study – More is More

The last social media case study in a 3-part series this week. Sometimes, your customers should be the star of your social media show, not the brand. That notion is at the heart of this social media case study featuring Spellbinders Paper Arts, a five year-old manufacturer of tools for the paper crafting enthusiast. If […]
The Art of Social Media – Crowd Sourced Photography

Part 2 of this week’s 3 post series about social media case studies. Tyson Crosbie is not your ordinary photographer. Since stumbling upon Twitter nearly two years ago, he’s ignored the norms and customs of commercial photography, and found a way to incorporate social media into every element of his work. As a food photography […]