Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up-to-date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.What’s New This Week?Social Network Launches for Social Media Industry: Social Media Examiner’s Networking Clubs just went public. “It’s a social water cooler for social media marketers,” says Michael Stelzner, CEO of Social Media Examiner. The free network has rich discussion and networking taking place. There are three active clubs: The Facebook Club, the Blogging Club and the Small…
Social Media
-
Most Topular Stories
-
Social Network for Social Media Marketers: This Week in Social Media
Social Media Examiner11 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am -
Elevate: Launching and Leading A Social Media Practice
Social Fresh9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amOn June 7, 2010 the late Steve Jobs took the stage at the World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco to announce Apple’s latest break through release, the iPhone 4. The tag line read “This changes everything. Again.” He wasn’t lying. I was 6 months into my newly... [Click the above headline to read the Full Article] -
Infographic: 5 Companies That Are Rocking Social Media
The Social Media Marketing Blog29 Nov 2011 | 10:47 amThis infographic was created by Voltier Digital, a content marketing agency based in Florida, specializing on the creation and promotion of impactful content marketing campaigns for businesses of all sizes.We all know the usual names of companies that are doing well in social media. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the lesser-knowns and why they've had success, either on an ongoing basis or with some one-off efforts that stood out.And since infographics are all the rage, what better way to look at them? Of course, for SEO purposes, I've listed them here as… -
How Pinterest is Making Money
ReadWriteWeb13 Feb 2012 | 7:00 pmLike a certain social network that came before it, Pinterest already appears to be doing a few things behind the scenes. CNN reports that the popular virtual pinboard social network site has been "appending affiliate links to some pins," particularly those featuring goods from Amazon, eBay, Target and thousands more merchants. If someone clicks on one of those affiliate links and buys a product featured in one of the pins, Pinterest makes money. But no one would have known this if the following blog post on LLSocial.com had not appeared. Sponsor Shortly after LLSocial.com's original post,… -
My Dirty Valentine
Collective Thoughts8 Feb 2012 | 12:50 pmValentine’s day can be awful for a respectable single – bring on the mushy lovers and the despair of the singleton articles, let’s get it over with. This is why I particularly love Keeping It Kleen’s new infographic – it is hilarious, disgusting, and someone finally thought outside of the box on this one. If you are single, it will make you happy that you don’t have a boyfriend who doesn’t brush his teeth, or a girlfriend who wears the same underwear two days in a row. If you are attached, I suggest you invest in some powerful hand sanitizer. © 2012…
-
Social Media Examiner
-
How Content Turns Prospects Into Customers
13 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amHow do you attract passionate customers?What can you do to cut through the noise and get people to notice what you have to say?The answer is CONTENT—interesting and compelling information that helps solve your customers’ problems.Why Content?It’s interesting content that drives people to push that Share button or say to themselves, “Wow! This is a great article! I think I’ll subscribe.”Here’s an analogy: If a big-time investor invited you to pitch your business idea to him, how much effort would you make to impress him?I’m guessing that you… -
Social Network for Social Media Marketers: This Week in Social Media
11 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amWelcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up-to-date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.What’s New This Week?Social Network Launches for Social Media Industry: Social Media Examiner’s Networking Clubs just went public. “It’s a social water cooler for social media marketers,” says Michael Stelzner, CEO of Social Media Examiner. The free network has rich discussion and networking taking place. There are three active clubs: The Facebook Club, the Blogging Club and the Small… -
Blogging Trends for 2012: What You Need to Know
10 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amIn this video I interview Shani Higgins, CEO of Technorati.Shani shares information on the business of blogging and current blogging trends. Discover how much money bloggers make and learn more about the opportunities brands now offer bloggers.Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:How blogging is intertwined with social mediaCurrent trends in who is blogging and where there is growthThe state of corporate blogsThe average number of blogs bloggers have todayHow brands are bloggingHow brands are… -
10 Tips for Creating a Social Media Policy for Your Business
9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amPolicy. It can be a dirty word, especially in social media communities.Why? Poorly written social media policies restrict, deter and deaden social media engagement–the exact opposite of what businesses want.However, great social media policies support, protect and empower high-quality engagement. It is about empowerment and trust.As Beth Kanter writes, “Trust is cheaper than control.”This article will explain how social media policies differ from other policies and give you 10 tips to help create an effective social media policy.Why Social Media Policies?Social media… -
8 Brands That Benefit From Guest Blogging
8 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amGuest blogging is one of the most efficient, yet misunderstood, social media marketing tactics.It’s not new. In fact, it’s almost as old as blogging itself. It started becoming a standout tactic just a few years ago.This post answers one of the most frequently asked questions: Is guest blogging good for “big guys?”By the way, “guest posting, the time waster” is one of the myths I busted in my previous post for Social Media Examiner. Today’s article is one more argument in favor of guest blogging.Guest blogging is about placing your content for free…
-
TechCrunch
-
Online Payments Startup WePay Grows Revenue By Ten-Fold In 2011; Will Launch Mobile Apps This Year
13 Feb 2012 | 10:59 pmOnline payments platform and PayPal competitor WePay is announcing its growth data for 2011, and revealing details on the startup’s product strategy for 2012. In case you aren’t familiar, WePay is a Y Combinator backed startup that launched in 2009 to take the hassle out of group paying. Unlike some of its competitors, the service was able to dead simple way to collect, manage and spend money for groups. On WePay, you can create a unique, FDIC insured account for each group. While the account is still associated with your name, but you can keep each group account totally separate… -
After Zynga Settlement, Layoffs Hit Brazilian Social Gaming Company Vostu
13 Feb 2012 | 10:45 pmBrazilian social gaming giant Vostu is laying off an undisclosed number of employees, we’ve learned. Vostu, which has raised $46 million from Intel Capital, Accel Partners, General Catalyst, and Tiger Technology Global Management; is one largest social gaming companies in Latin America. The gaming company was founded in 2007 by three Harvard classmates: CEO Daniel Kafie, chief scientist Mario Schlosser, and Joshua Kushner. It’s unclear what’s caused the layoffs but Vostu is fresh off of a settlement with Zynga over copyright issues. As we’ve reported in the past, Zynga… -
BitTorrent Live: Cheap, Real-Time P2P Video Streaming That Will Kill TV
13 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pmTelevision is going the way of the dinosaur, and the deadly comet is called BitTorrent Live. Today, Bram Cohen, the author of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer sharing protocol, demoed his latest creation at the SF MusicTech Summit. BitTorrent Live lets any content owner or publisher stream video to millions of people at good quality and with just a few seconds of latency…for free or cheap. Sports, news events, simulcast TV shows, education, video conferencing, or uncensored war zone broadcasts — this technology will power the future of video. “My goal is to kill off… -
Samsung Not Worried About Apple’s TV: “TVs are ultimately about picture quality”
13 Feb 2012 | 5:51 pmIn what may, in a couple years, be remembered as a telltale remark of overconfidence, Samsung’s AV product manager said today in an interview “TVs are ultimately about picture quality. Ultimately. How smart they are…great, but let’s face it that’s a secondary consideration.” Pride goeth before a fall, Samsung! It’s true in a way. But only in the dumbest possible way. Yes, TVs are about picture quality. Because that’s all Samsung and Sony and Sharp have been willing to improve for the last half a century. As soon as someone comes along and… -
Drum Roll, Please. Apple’s Stock Closes Above $500
13 Feb 2012 | 5:13 pmShares of Apple (AAPL) closed above $500 today for the first time, ending the day at $502.60. Apple, the world’s most valuable company, now boasts a market capitalization of almost $470 billion. That is up 9 points from yesterday’s close, and up more than 80 from where the stock was the day Apple announced its impressive quarter on January 24th. Everybody was blown away by the numbers. The $500 mark is a psychological milestone. But many Apple bulls have been predicting it. What you need to look at really is the market cap. And while $470 billion is astounding, it is not…
-
ReadWriteWeb
-
Why Talent Management Tech is Super Hot and Bound to Get Hotter
13 Feb 2012 | 9:17 pmSkill building, tracking and optimization, knowledge retention and measurement of workplace effectiveness - those are the aims of some of the software industry's hottest companies. SuccessFactors got bought last year for $3.4 billion by SAP. Taleo got bought by Oracle for $1.9 billion last week. Salesforce bought Rypple and Workday is one of the hottest companies in the world. Why is this sector so on fire? I presumed it's not just because everyone is suddenly excited about personal professional development, so I asked a few experts in the field. This is what they said. Sponsor The… -
Daily Wrap: Social Media Salaries, Stats and more
13 Feb 2012 | 8:03 pmOnWardSearch releases an infographic showing the typical salaries for social media professionals. This and more in today's Daily Wrap. Sometimes it's difficult to catch everything that hits tech media in a day, so we wrap up some of the most talked about stories. We give you a daily recap of what you missed in the ReadWriteWeb Community, including a link to some of the most popular discussions in our offsite communities on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ as well. Sponsor [INFOGRAPHIC] How Much Are Your Social Media Skills Worth? From the top 20 markets for social media professionals… -
How Pinterest is Making Money
13 Feb 2012 | 7:00 pmLike a certain social network that came before it, Pinterest already appears to be doing a few things behind the scenes. CNN reports that the popular virtual pinboard social network site has been "appending affiliate links to some pins," particularly those featuring goods from Amazon, eBay, Target and thousands more merchants. If someone clicks on one of those affiliate links and buys a product featured in one of the pins, Pinterest makes money. But no one would have known this if the following blog post on LLSocial.com had not appeared. Sponsor Shortly after LLSocial.com's original post,… -
Jux: Photo Albums Are No Longer Enough
13 Feb 2012 | 6:50 pmI took a business trip recently, and it was a big deal. Even if it was nothing major for anyone else, it was a big deal for me. The trip was full of promise and opportunity. I made sure to capture all its key moments with my phone. When I got back, I didn't want to stick all those photos into a bland, blue Facebook album. I used Jux, because it lets me design the whole experience out to every edge of every screen. Jux just launched crop control for photos, so the Jux album of my trip looks just right on every device. A Jux isn't a blog. It's more like a portfolio. Each piece stands on its… -
Paris Lemon and the No Good, Very Bad Day
13 Feb 2012 | 6:00 pmSometimes we have bad days. It's a part of being human, part of working in a stressful time and place. Among the problems of being a blogger are that it exposes one's weaknesses, magnifies the limits of one's personal perspective, and often amplifies our feelings beyond what we might have intended. I have avoided being a blogger in the traditional sense partly because I'm fairly certain that you don't care - nor should you - about these things as they pertain to me. Andy Rooney was among the greatest news writers of his generation. But during the latter stages of his life, he complained about…
-
Mashable!
-
Social Media Helps Grammys Achieve Huge Ratings in Broadcast and Social TV
13 Feb 2012 | 10:40 pmThe 54th Annual Grammy Awards was a huge hit across social, digital and broadcast platforms. Excitement for the return of Adele, as well as the tribute to the late Whitney Houston kept viewers engaged online and off. CBS reported that 39.9 million viewers tuned in to Sunday’s award show, the second-largest Grammy audience ever and the best ratings since 1984. New Social TV Records Of course, broadcast is only part of the story. This year’s Grammy Awards were a hugely social and digital affair. Even with the tape delay (which prevented a real-time social conversation from taking… -
Dashboard for Online Publishers Predicts Trending Content
13 Feb 2012 | 9:54 pmThe Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Parse.ly Dash Quick Pitch: Parse.ly Dash puts online publishers in the driver’s seat by showing them how their content is reaching readers and being shared. Genius Idea: Looking into the future of online trends by analyzing billions of page views across millions of URLs, pointing publishers to what will trend on the Internet. Pop your website’s content into Parse.ly Dash… -
Hotmail Top Spam-Stopping Email, Hotmail-Commissioned Study Says [VIDEO]
13 Feb 2012 | 8:47 pmHotmail is the top spam-stopping major email service, says a study commissioned by Hotmail. According to findings released on Monday by Cascade Insights, Hotmail ranked ahead of Gmail by a hair in spam percentage. Hotmail inboxes used in the study were 48.57% spam, while Gmail inboxes were 48.88% spam. Yahoo Mail inboxes were more than 58% spam. If those numbers seems high, it’s because they don’t reflect the average spam percentage of a typical email inbox. But the numbers do reflect what Cascade Insights found to be each service’s spam-deflecting capability. Cascade… -
‘Baseball Boyfriend’ App Lets You ‘Date’ The Players
13 Feb 2012 | 7:59 pmIf you’ve ever been interested in participating in fantasy sports but also wanted to combine a teenage-like element of crushing on professional athlete, Baseball Boyfriend is just the app for you. For $2.99 you can create your own “BBBF” (that’s Baseball Boyfriend) through CBS Sports, then follow his stats or dump him when his team does poorly. Anyone who has a CBS Sports fantasy sports account can access Baseball Boyfriend. The app has received a lot of online criticism since it launched about one week ago. Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an… -
A Teenage Jeremy Lin Imitates NBA Players on His Xanga Blog [PICS]
13 Feb 2012 | 7:33 pm1. “this is what a regular headband looks like on a sexy guy” Click here to view this gallery. As if Jeremy Lin’s status as an underdog everyman living out the dream of basketball fans the world over wasn’t already appealing enough. Now we can see photos he took of himself and posted to the social networking site Xanga as a young high schooler. In the shots, Lin imitates the headband-wearing styles of a number of NBA players including Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers, whom he torched for 38 points on Friday in his true breakout performance. He reportedly captioned each…
-
Charlene Li
-
New Report: “Make An App For That: Mobile Strategies For Retailers”
7 Feb 2012 | 12:16 pmWhen it comes to shopping, I have a love/hate relationship with my iPhone. Some apps are actually helpful, letting me explore products or buy something immediate. But the vast majority of the retailer apps litter my screens, sitting unused after an initial, disappointing whirl. My frustration is reflected in the findings of my colleague Chris Silva‘s new report, entitled “Make An App For That: Mobile Strategies For Retailers“. Of particular value is that Chris pivots the report around two major strategies retails can use when it comes to mobile: Enrich: These strategies are… -
Jerry Yang’s departure signals a New Day for Yahoo!, the passing of an era for Tech
17 Jan 2012 | 6:30 pmMy first reaction to the news that Jerry Yang is leaving Yahoo! was that this was the passing of an era. I first met Jerry in 1994 when he was still a PhD student at Stanford, before he and David Filo left to run Yahoo! full time. Through bubbles and two economic downturns, Jerry has always been omnipresent in Silicon Valley. But all good things come to pass. With the arrival of Scott Thompson as the new CEO of Yahoo!, it makes sense that Scott be given a clean slate upon which to write the future of Yahoo!. This is very much the norm for incoming CEOs, where founders are asked to take a… -
Predictions Social Business in 2012, Part III: Transforming Your Organization
9 Jan 2012 | 12:26 pmThis is the last of three posts I’m writing on predictions and priorities for Social Business in 2012. You can read the first and second prediction posts for more context. Prediction #3: Connected leaders and employees will create sustained competitive advantages through a culture of sharing. This year will see some companies pull ahead of others because they are able to collaborate, innovate and execute better and faster thanks to an ingrained culture of sharing. This is the year that companies get serious about investing in their internal social business capabilities, simply because it… -
Predictions for Social Business in 2012, Part II: Knowing Your Customer
3 Jan 2012 | 6:26 pmRather than simply make prognostications, I wanted to give actionable advice based on these trends. This is the second of my three predictions and priorities for Social Business in 2012 (read the first prediction). Prediction #2: Your customers want to be known. Your customers don’t merely want you to understand their needs or pain points. They want you to know them as individuals anywhere and anytime they engage with you. Companies sure know a lot about us, without knowing much. For example, I’m classified for marketing purposes as a Gen X, 35-45 years old, graduate degree holding, Real… -
Predictions and Priorities for Social Business in 2012 – Part I
2 Jan 2012 | 11:57 amMy pet peeve about the annual predictions ritual is that they lack context for action. It’s nice to know that tablets and big data are important — but what should you do about it? So here’s my attempt at not only forecasting but also to provide actions that companies should be prioritizing in 2012. The Process: I went through my speaking and client engagements in 2011 and looked at which topics and themes I kept referring to over and over again, especially toward the end of the year. I also analyzed which of the tweets from these events were most retweeted to verify where the heat…
-
SmartBrief on Social Media
-
Dad goes ballistic over daughter's Facebook complaint
13 Feb 2012 | 12:03 pmAfter stumbling upon a Facebook post in which his daughter complained about her household chores, a North Carolina father dec -More- -
Could copyright complaints bring down Pinterest?
13 Feb 2012 | 12:03 pmPinterest's rise could be slowed by photographers and other content owners who say the site's users are illegally repurposing -More- -
How to leverage Pinterest for restaurants
13 Feb 2012 | 12:03 pmPinterest is a virtual pin board that lets users organize and share their favorite online visuals, and while brands are quick -More- -
Academic social network helps researchers share their findings
13 Feb 2012 | 12:03 pmResearchGate, a social network for academic researchers, has attracted 1.4 million members and is growing. -More- -
CRM and social media tools are hard to integrate, marketers say
13 Feb 2012 | 12:03 pmMarketers love the idea of bringing together their customer-relationship-management databases and their social media followin -More- Going to SXSWi? Get VIP Access to The Most Exclusive Party. The can’t miss party of SXSW 2011 is back! We’ve reserved 25 spots for SmartBrief readers. Join Crowdtap and marketers from brands and agencies for the must attend event of SXSW. Live music, VJ, food trucks, and much more at Austin’s hottest new venue. Request an invite to Crowdtap’s VIP party!
-
Social Media Today - The world's best thinkers on social media
-
Social TV: Social Marketing Practices that Translate Beyond Television
13 Feb 2012 | 4:51 pmFor us marketers engaging in a dialogue with your key audience and cultivating that ongoing relationship is crucial to maintaining brand awareness and loyalty. Social TV is no exception. In the largely uncharted waters of social media, Social TV is an arena marketers can no longer afford to ignore. People are using this space at a rapidly growing rate, and certain television networks, like Discovery Communications LLC and USA Networks, are reaping the benefits. In this post, I’ll discuss what Social TV is reviving an industry, pronounced by many pundits as slowly dying. What can we as brand… -
Is That Social Media Firm Worth Their Salt?
13 Feb 2012 | 2:19 pmAnyone can slap up a website in a few hours and call themselves an expert. But those who do their due diligence in research won’t get suckered into the hype. Here are 7 ways to find out if a social media firm is really worth their salt or if they’re just pulling your leg so they can take your money and run. -
Bringing Sexy Back: How LinkedIn Groups Can Revitalize Your Industry
13 Feb 2012 | 1:03 pmJust about everyone is doing something on their mattress other than sleeping on it – I think you know where I’m going here. How many mattress companies have used advertising to overtly extol their mattresses’ virtues between the sheets, if you will? Not many! -
Twitter Powers Jeremy Lin’s Rise to NBA – and Social Media – Superstar
13 Feb 2012 | 12:42 pmLin’s story is not just about follower count, it’s also about the conversation. And Lin dominates the talk on Twitter every time he suits up. According to Trendistic, “Jeremy Lin” was included in as much as 1.69 percent of tweets worldwide on Friday, Feb. 10 (9 p.m. CST). In his previous three games, he garnered 0.12, 0.17 and 0.19 percent of the Twitter conversation, respectively. -
An In-Depth Perspective of Facebook EdgeRank
13 Feb 2012 | 12:08 pmYou might be wondering why there are many posts made by you and your friends but why only a few of them are seen in the News Feed? In order for your post to be seen on the feed, there are three components you have to remember: affinity, weight, and recency. Each of these components plays an important role in the edge rank algorithm. Therefore, edges seen on your News Feed are not randomly selected.
-
@ProBlogger
-
Why My Blog’s Doing Okay: 3 Unexpected Answers
13 Feb 2012 | 2:07 pmYesterday we were talking about how benchmarking your blog and your performance against those of others only goes so far to give ou an idea of “how your blog’s going.” As I said then, looking at others—other people, other blogs—even subconsciously for an indication of where you and your blog sit isn’t usually very helpful. I said then that today I’d give you some examples of areas where I think my blogging’s doing okay—things that have less to do with stats and revenues than they do with how blogging fits into my life. Here are a few of those things. -
How to Systematically Build a Mountain of Links
13 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amThis guest post is by Neil Patel of Quick Sprout. We’ve all been taught to create high-quality content to attract links. This argument is usually stated in the context of a blog that basically becomes an authority where you start to build a following around consistent, fresh content—think big sites like Problogger or Boing Boing. This is not the technique I’m talking about. Today, I’m talking about a link-building technique that’s bigger, better and quite possibly able to put you on the map faster than you would ever imagine. I’m talking about building a linkable… -
Is Your Blog Doing Okay?
12 Feb 2012 | 2:03 pmLast week, I told the story of how I achieved my best month ever on DPS. While I used that post as a case study to present some ideas that I hoped you may be able to use on your own blogs, there’s a hidden hitch with that kind of post: it can give you the impression that you should be aiming to triple your revenue each time you hone a promotion on your site. We could take that a step or two further—a post like that could give you the expectation that you should be selling products, or even that you should be monetizing your blog. Neither of those ideas is necessarily appropriate for… -
How to Set Up an Email Account that Uses Your Domain Name
12 Feb 2012 | 8:09 amThis guest post is written by Kashish Jain of digiupdates Most of the people who are new to web design and blogging don’t understand the capabilities that come free with their domain, so they don’t take advantage of them. How many times have you visited a site for www.something.com and on the Contact Us page, you find that the sales or customer service personnel have email addresses like username@gmail.com? It certainly is not the main measure of business quality, but the average person usually thinks, “Geez, what is that, their personal email address?” I, too, began… -
How I Expanded the Demographic of My Niche Blog to Include Every Person Online
11 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amThis guest post is by Sonal Pandey of Tap Easy. Some things don’t get better with time. This was going to be one such case. Here I was, sharing an awesome technique capable of changing lives, but not many were paying attention. My niche had the perfect demographic—open-minded, receptive, and suitably educated, with interests ranging from psychology to health and fitness. And yet… I had over 35 solid posts on the blog. I had a video up on the sidebar demonstrating exactly how to use the revolutionary technique. I also had a newsletter opt-in with a desirable giveaway. Three…
-
The Social Media Marketing Blog
-
Foursquare in Context
29 Jan 2012 | 10:11 pmIf you're a regular user of services like Twitter or Foursquare, you've undoubtedly been met with skeptics and naysayers who wonder aloud, "Why would I want to tell anyone what I'm having for lunch?" or "Why would I care if someone is having a ham sandwich?"Fair enough, but the inquisitors fail to take into account the all-important factor in any conversation, whether it's in person or online: context.Context is what allows us to make sense of much of the world around us. "He's so bad!" could have two very different meanings, depending on the the rest of the conversation surrounding it. With… -
Social Media and Travel
26 Jan 2012 | 11:37 pmIf you're like me, you spend a good deal of time on the road. Whether it's at an airport, on a train or in a car, you're mobile and your digital life is mobile too.The pervasiveness of tablets and smartphones (in addition to the already ubiquitous laptop) is growing daily. Just this week, Apple announced that it sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone. It means that more of us are doing things on the web (or mobile web, as the case may be) while we're on the go, and there are certain things those of us in the digital world look for when we travel -… -
Revealing a New Ford in a New Way
13 Dec 2011 | 8:00 pmFord Motor Company has been at the forefront of social media for some time. The Fiesta Movement, the Explorer reveal on Facebook, Doug the Spokespuppet, Ford Social (formerly known as The Ford Story) and being the first brand on Google+ all stand as examples of Ford's success that spans from clever campaigns to a daily commitment to engage.Ford played a significant part in how the automotive industry thinks about social media (and in some cases how large companies think about social media) and now, as we near the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), at Ford we have an… -
Infographic: 5 Companies That Are Rocking Social Media
29 Nov 2011 | 10:47 amThis infographic was created by Voltier Digital, a content marketing agency based in Florida, specializing on the creation and promotion of impactful content marketing campaigns for businesses of all sizes.We all know the usual names of companies that are doing well in social media. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the lesser-knowns and why they've had success, either on an ongoing basis or with some one-off efforts that stood out.And since infographics are all the rage, what better way to look at them? Of course, for SEO purposes, I've listed them here as… -
Twitter Business Guide
7 Oct 2011 | 10:53 pmI was recently introduced to a compact guidebook for businesses trying to get a sense of Twitter. The microblogging site that allows you to update in no more than 140 characters at at time is deceptively complex and nuanced - especially for a newcomer.This short guide, entitled Twitter Business Guide: Communication and Marketing was written by Jean-Christophe Barré and Dr. Andreas Schroeter and in just 32 pages covers some of the things that may be keeping you and your business away from this platform. For someone who is new to Twitter, this e-book will prove a helpful compass as you…
-
CenterNetworks
-
Web Jobs – February 12
12 Feb 2012 | 6:55 pmCheck out some of the latest web technology and business jobs posted for February 12, 2012 on the CenterNetworks Job Board. Subscribe to the CN Jobs feed and get all of the latest Web industry jobs delivered directly to you. Featured Jobs: Lead PHP and Javascript developer at Indiewalls Information Systems Developer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Senior User Experience Architect Technician at Allstate Insurance More Jobs: Vice President/Director, Digital Services at LipmanHearne Web/Interface Designer at Garmin International Application Developer (Programmer/Analyst III) at University of… -
Shark Tank Recap – February 10 “The Snuggie is Dead”
10 Feb 2012 | 8:00 pmBelow is a recap of the February 10, 2012 episode of the ABC show Shark Tank (episode 302). If you are unfamiliar with Shark Tank, the concept is simple – entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of investors and the investors have to provide at least the amount the entrepreneur is seeking for a deal to be completed. Tonight Barbara Corcoran was replaced by QVC product creator Lori Greiner. Pitch #1 – The Swilt Ivori Tennelle pitched her product called, “The Swilt” which she describes as a sweater and blanket together. She was seeking $30k for 35% investment and wanted… -
Why I Am Selling CenterNetworks
9 Feb 2012 | 7:50 pmSeveral friends and colleagues have noticed the HelloBar on CN noting that I am looking to sell the site and they have asked me why. It’s simple…I am focused on my startup now and just don’t have the time to put a real effort into CN anymore. I’d like to sell the site either as a domain name sale or the full site including all of the content. Here’s part of what is included in the sale: – centernetworks.com domain (domain age 1999) – over 5,600 posts (CN uses WordPress as the blogging platform) – other domains not being used today:… -
NYC Tech Incubator Showcase (video)
9 Feb 2012 | 10:57 amThe New York Technology Council held an incubator showcase for several NYC-based incubators last summer. Joly MacFie from WWWhatsup NYC posted a video of the event – you can watch the 90 minute event below. Here’s the presenter list: Bruce Niswander, Director, Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship, NYU-Poly Daria Siegel, Director of the Alliance for Downtown New York’s Hive at 55 Natalia Arguello, Director, NYDesigns Matthew Shampine, Co-Founder, WeWork Labs Charles Kemper, Managing Director, ER Accelerator From what I can tell, Hive and 55 and WeWork Labs are more… -
Deal Site Smackdown: The Valentine’s Day Edition
8 Feb 2012 | 8:06 amNext Tuesday is the annual holiday known as Valentine’s Day. The day is named after St. Valentine and over 150 million cards are exchanged – here’s the full history of this very special day. This year the new deal sites are holding a cage match with each site offering a deal with a national floral delivery service. Most of these deals expire asap so you should be quick if you want to grab some flowers for your sweetie. Also note that the delivery fees are higher for a delivery on Valentine’s day. Lastly, I see some of the local cities within the deal sites are also…
-
Social Fresh
-
State Of The Social Media Agency [INFOGRAPHIC]
13 Feb 2012 | 7:24 amWe created a social media directory named InvestInSocial.com in February 2011. It’s been one year since we launched the site. Today there are over 920 social media companies listed on the directory. 555 of those companies are agencies. As Invest In Social has grown... [Click the above headline to read the Full Article] -
4 Core Tools In The Social Publishing Toolbox
9 Feb 2012 | 12:26 pmTo do a job well, you have to use the right tool. Bob Ross knows exactly which brush makes his trees the happiest. Emily Post would never dream of using the outside fork on her cornish hen. And Bob Vila knows when to turn on the hammer option of his industrial- strength... [Click the above headline to read the Full Article] -
Elevate: Launching and Leading A Social Media Practice
9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amOn June 7, 2010 the late Steve Jobs took the stage at the World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco to announce Apple’s latest break through release, the iPhone 4. The tag line read “This changes everything. Again.” He wasn’t lying. I was 6 months into my newly... [Click the above headline to read the Full Article] -
Everything CNN got Wrong about Newt Gingrich’s Wikipedia Polishing
8 Feb 2012 | 10:18 amIf you haven’t read about the CNN story on Newt Gringrich’s communications director Joe DeSantis polishing Wikipedia entries, go take a look (but don’t believe anything you read). As one user on Wikipedia stated “CNN’s understanding of how... [Click the above headline to read the Full Article] -
Making Listening Data Work for the Entire Organization
6 Feb 2012 | 10:36 amRaise your hand if you are listening to conversations online about your brand, competitors or industry? Over the course of the last several years the number of people who would raise their hand after getting such a question has gone up considerably. Whether it’s using free... [Click the above headline to read the Full Article]
-
SocialMouths
-
The Rise Of Content Marketing [Infographic]
8 Feb 2012 | 4:05 pmTweet According to the Content Marketing Institute, Content is one of the fastest growing segments in Marketing and an increasing number of marketers are relying more and more on their strategies to achieve success online. Is this a surprise to you? Because if it is, you have probably been living under a rock for the last couple of years. With the amount of content that goes left and right in front of you, on your screen, there are content creators, curators, users that share and consume on a minute to minute basis. Now, that doesn’t mean all that content is successful in reaching its… -
LinkedIn Or Facebook For Better B2B Marketing Results? [Includes Infographic]
6 Feb 2012 | 11:41 amTweet I know what you’re thinking just by reading the headline of this post: Of course LinkedIn is better for B2B marketing and Facebook for B2C. But wait, that is not necessarily the case. I have to admit I’m not as active on LinkedIn as I am on Facebook, or even Google+. That’s probably because my focus on this blog is to talk to entrepreneurs and small business. But when it comes to approach Corporate America, I automatically think I need to get out of these networks and go to LinkedIn. Some of you probably don’t know I’m also a partner at Plural and Partners,… -
Pinterest: Everything You Need To Know Is In This Massive Post
2 Feb 2012 | 12:30 pmTweet Let me guess, you heard about Pinterest. Or more like, you can’t spend 15 minutes online without hearing about it… And now you’re thinking, “should I jump on the wagon too?” or “another social network to keep up with?” and on top of that, everybody is talking about using it for marketing and getting tons of traffic and, you just don’t see it. Alright, I hear you. I’ll give you everything you need to know about Pinterest and a bunch of resources so you can decide if you or your business are ready to join the hottest trend online. -
Social Proof, Shameless Self-Promotion, and Gratitude
1 Feb 2012 | 2:13 pmTweet This week started on a high note. The results for the Top 10 Social Media Blogs 2012 from Social Media Examiner arrived on my iPhone while I was getting my first coffee on Monday. SocialMouths was named #1. The afternoon wasn’t that fun when my server crashed welcoming all the traffic from the post, even though SocialMouths does not live in a shared $5 server at GoDaddy… still crashed. But that’s a whole different story. Then today my friend Jessica Northey pointed out that I was also included in the Top 100 Influencers in Social Media from Social Technology Review… -
How To Increase Clicks On Your Tweets [Infographic]
26 Jan 2012 | 10:40 amTweet If you are an entrepreneur using Twitter as part of the marketing strategy for your business or you are a blogger trying to improve your traffic, one of the most important metrics you look at is how many clicks your tweets are getting, specially when those tweets are containing links to your own site. One thing I’ll tell you right off the bat is that, marketing in general works different for each one of us and it delivers different kinds of results too. Twitter is no different and, while I always say that you should not rely on anybody’s advice but instead run several tests…
-
The Bazaarvoice Social Commerce Blog
-
Interview: Kate Spade NY wins Top Innovator at Fashion 2.0 Awards (part 2)
13 Feb 2012 | 11:47 amScreen shot of Kate Spade New York's YouTube videos The day after we ran part one of our interview with Kate Spade’s Johanna Murphy and Marissa Kraxberger, the famously-hip brand was named Top Innovator at the Fashion 2.0 Awards. After reading part two of our interview, below, you’ll see why Kate Spade deserved it! I love the way your posts are thematically divided into “columns” (in the editorial sense of the word). How do you decide which columns to run, and how often do they change? Marissa: That was a really long process, actually. Our lead copywriter worked with us on this,… -
Mobile mediocrity? How retailers can avoid "hitting turbulence"
9 Feb 2012 | 10:10 amChris Silva Note: The following is a guest post from Chris Silva, Mobile Industry Analyst with Altimeter Group. We'll periodically feature guest posts from the people behind research we think you should know about. Are retailers doing enough to serve their mobile customers? Many are not. While nearly 50% of mobile phone owners in the US are carrying app-laden smartphones, 77% of smartphone buyers use them while shopping. With such rapid adoption, it's hard to understand why major brands aren't doing more to cater to these customers. The report lays out a decision process… -
Interview: How Kate Spade uses social to “live colorfully” (part 1)
7 Feb 2012 | 2:22 pmScreenshot of the Kate Spade NY Pinterest I am delighted to congratulate one of our most successful clients, Kate Spade, on receiving two nominations in the Fashion 2.0 Awards. The awards honor the most innovative fashion brands for their leadership in developing online communities. It only takes one quick glance at Kate Spade’s Pinterest, Facebook, blog or Tumblr to see that this is a brand that truly loves sharing and receiving inspiration from their customers. I sat down with Johanna Murphy, VP eCommerce, and Marissa Kraxberger, Web Art Director, to learn more about Kate Spade’s social… -
Is the iPad the new cookbook?
3 Feb 2012 | 8:31 amThe iPad, displaying the latest recipe creation on the kitchen counter, has replaced the traditional cookbook, provided one can avoid spilling spaghetti sauce or splattering it with oil. Even just weeks after its release in April 2010, the New York Times saw it “poised to be an indispensable tool” for the kitchen. And now, augmented reality apps like Blippar allow consumers to create interactive recipe books by scanning products while in the store aisle. From the first release of Betty Crocker’s Big Red in 1950, and thousands since, recipe-sharing has gone digital and… -
Finally, augmented reality with real utility: meet Blippar
30 Jan 2012 | 9:39 amIt seems like we’ve been talking about augmented reality for years now. It’s perpetually the next big thing in mobile, and is still at the very beginning of the technology adoption curve. Honestly, I had kind of checked out of the AR conversation—unfairly—after waiting for it to move from flashy demos to actual utility. AR’s utility has only been realized in a few apps, like Yelp’s Monocle, but the wow factor has overshadowed the practical applications of this technology. And then I met the guys from Blippar at CES. Blippar is an app from the UK that succeeds where most…
-
JasonKeath.com
-
5 Great Ways to Use Pinterest
26 Jan 2012 | 11:01 amOriginally published at Social Web Daily What do sculptors, jet setters, philosophers, foodies, and collectors have in common? They can all make great use of Pinterest, the pinboard-channeling new social network. With a stream-lined interface, and plenty of opportunity to engage with and get inspiration from other Pinterest users, there are an endless number of creative ways to use the new site. Here are five of our favorites: 1. Collector’s Showcase Hobbyists and special-interest enthusiasts can put Pinterest to good use by uploading pictures from your personal collection, or collecting… -
Checking out the downtown NYC coworking space @Hiveat55 today
10 Jan 2012 | 1:31 pmIt is across from the NY stock exchange. Nice quiet space. And I got a free day pass thanks to my Foursquare checkin. -
How to Spot a Yelp User, The Definitive Chart
5 Jan 2012 | 6:36 pmvia flowtown.com -
Pinterest Is Perfect For Your Dear Santa Letter
21 Dec 2011 | 11:55 amSocial image bookmarking site Pinterest is very hot right now, even though the site is still invite only. If you have not tested it out, Pinterest is simply a place to save and share images from around the web. You “pin” images to a “board” and anyone that follows you or that board sees it. Even better, all images on Pinterest are links to whereever you found them, by default. So if you want to buy that cool pair of shoes your friend pinned, click through. If you want to see more info on an inspirational poster or what beach your friend took a photo of, click through. -
How Not To Provide Customer Service, A JCPenney Story
20 Dec 2011 | 7:02 pmSo, maybe I am spoiled by Amazon and Zappos, but the last few days, I have been trying to buy a couch from JCPenney.com and have failed on 3 occasions. The couch in question: Here’s the thing, this is an awesome couch and it was on sale. But we need the chaise portion of the couch to be on the left when you are sitting down. But it was unclear to me how to order it. I either had to order LAF (left facing arm) or RAF (right facing arm). I had no idea what those two terms meant. Did LAF mean the chaise was on the left when facing it or when sitting on the couch? I was also curious about…
-
Liz Strauss at Successful Blog
-
Do You “Get” How Important Your World View Is?
13 Feb 2012 | 7:37 amWhat You See Is What You Are Once I thought other people had a better view of the world than I ever could … I suppose that’s reasonable the people around me were worldly, experienced, and smart. I great parents, great teachers, and outstanding friends. When it came to some of my bosses and boyfriends, perhaps I thought ideas through before I bought in. It was as if he were a prince with insight beyond my own and for a moment I believed in his view of the world. He always thought that only mountains could be beautiful. I heard him proclaim it. Yes, proclaim is exactly what he did… -
This is the secret to success
12 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amWhat is the secret to success? That’s the $64,000 question, isn’t it? (BTW, adjusted for inflation, that’s actually closer to the $498,134.81 question). From the dawn of time, people have been trying to figure out how to succeed, and usually in the quickest and most painless way possible. For example, depending on the source cited, Americans spend between $18 and 40 billion (that’s with a B) on diet and weight loss aids. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is playing on Broadway and every day, new digital charlatans pop up on the internet to explain how people can make… -
Where to Find Me During Social Media Week Toronto
11 Feb 2012 | 12:22 pmThanks for Asking It started with a question, “Liz, are you coming to Toronto for Social Media Week?” The question led to a conversation and a few introductions and the next thing you know I’m making reservations. Yes, I’ll be there! As it turns out I’ll be there, and there, and there. Here’s where you’ll find me. Monday, February 13 at 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM Creating Wildfires, Focus like a Sensei, Be Irresistible Location: MaRS | Event Page @SeanMoffitt, @SamFiorella and I (@LizStrauss) are coming together for an interactive debate on the myths and… -
Thanks to Week 330 SOBs
11 Feb 2012 | 9:07 amSuccessful and Outstanding Bloggers Let me introduce the bloggers who have earned this official badge of achievement, and the right to call themselves Successful Blog SOBs. I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs. They take the conversation to their readers, contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger. I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on. Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community. Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award… -
How to Reset Your Brain When You’re Burnt Out
10 Feb 2012 | 7:29 amEverything in Moderation Whenever my grandmother used to visit, she always brought the same advice. “Everything in moderation,” she’d say, and it would apply to basically anything I was doing at the time. Whether it was stuffing my gourd with mom’s superb cooking, or it was playing games with my friends, or it was rocking out on my guitar, she’d always advise me to take it easy. That advice works on two levels, though I didn’t realize that until later in life. When I was younger I took her advice to mean that I shouldn’t overindulge in anything.
-
12 Most
-
12 Most Emerald Reasons to Visit Dublin, Ireland By Ali Handscomb
13 Feb 2012 | 3:00 pmBy Ali Handscomb Dublin is a wonderful and homey city, combining a cosy feel with great energy and heart. I worked there for 18 months and loved the timekeeping (always late), laughter, and laid back vibe that surrounded a city with a modern feel and an ancient heritage. I would go back any time — [...] -
12 Most Wished-For Gifts for Travelers By Hitha Palepu
13 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pmBy Hitha Palepu It is always a challenge to find those special gifts for the people in your life. While sweaters, blankets, and DVDs are always appreciated, I’ve put together some sought-after selections for the frequent flier in your life. Give your road warrior more reasons to miss you with this list of must-haves for [...] -
12 Most Sensational Songs by Frank Sinatra By Sharon Greenthal
13 Feb 2012 | 1:00 pmBy Sharon Greenthal I fell in love with Sinatra at the age of 20, and it’s been a life-long romance for me. He’s kept me company during the tough moments and helped me celebrate the wonderful ones. His catalog of music is staggering, his range is remarkable, and there’s no one, but no one who [...] -
12 Most Mouthwatering Chocolate Treats By Peggy Fitzpatrick
13 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amBy Peggy Fitzpatrick The first chocolate factory was established in 1765 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and we haven’t stopped making it since! Many people crave chocolate everyday and this could be due to the more than 300 chemicals that chocolate contains. A combination of sugar and caffeine as well as theobomine, a weak stimulant, [...] -
12 Most Simple Deeds to Show Your Love By Jeremy Powers
13 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amBy Jeremy Powers You show your love in big ways. You give to charity. You drop everything to help your ill-stricken parents. You probably even volunteer to help with fundraisers for organizations you will never receive benefits from. You are too focused on the big moments. Every day you neglect the little moments to show [...]
-
chrisbrogan.com
-
Three Minutes On Social Media
12 Feb 2012 | 10:30 amI had the pleasure of talking to deputy editor Teri Evans at Entrepreneur Magazine after keynoting their Growth Conference in Long Beach. This ends up being a few tips about small business and social media. Hopefully there’s something useful in here. (Oh, and for a behind-the-scenes detail, check out what I shared with people on Google+ about the day we shot this.) Can’t see the video? CLICK HERE To see more from the series, click here. -
The Connection Will Carry You – or What Skrillex Taught Me About Platform
11 Feb 2012 | 7:09 amI’m currently a little too obsessed with the musician/DJ Skrillex, as he’s known (real name Sonny Moore). He’s become the “from out of nowhere” face of a movement. Interestingly, he’s not the face of dubstep itself, exactly, but instead, I’d offer that he’s the face of “the mainstream’s introduction to dubstep.” The distinction is huge. ( If you want even more on dubstep, Spin produced this primer.) It also means that Sonny Moore has a lot in common with Tony Robbins, Run DMC, Banksy, and Sir Richard Branson. And, quite… -
Throw Away the Maps
6 Feb 2012 | 3:30 amPeople judge us by the path they’ve seen us walk before. They can’t anticipate our future steps. We, ourselves, look to how things have been, what seems to be the lay of the land, without realizing that the maps are not the territory. Want to succeed at work? Then don’t try to do your job. Instead, work towards something larger, more meaningful, and something that blends your convictions internally with your best ability to help others externally. Want to create something new? Then throw away the old, or maybe join two disparate old things together into something new. The… -
The Next Social Networks
5 Feb 2012 | 3:30 amThe rage in social networks right now is Pinterest, partly because it’s probably the first social network that has a much higher adoption rate by females than males, and partly because it’s an interesting concept: somewhere between visual social bookmarking and scrapbooking. What also might not be immediately obvious is that it’s just “easier” to interact there. In that way, Pinterest has something in common with Instagram, which is community around photos. What I’m interested in, though, is Gentlemint, which I keep calling “Pinterest for… -
Learn From Adele – Build Your Platform
3 Feb 2012 | 3:30 amJacq and I just watched Adele Live At The Royal Albert Hall (amazon affiliate link), and though every song was just wonderfully done, I found myself fascinated by what Adele was doing in between each song. Because even though most people would be interested in hearing her belt out her amazing repertoire of hits, what I took away from the performance was Adele’s real magical ability: the ability to resonate with her audience. What Adele Could Teach You About Impact I’m writing something about this right now for my upcoming book with Julien Smith, but I had to share some of the…
-
Logic+Emotion
-
Permission To Fail
9 Feb 2012 | 12:15 pmI love my job. Seriously. The skeptical among you may read this as shameless corporate cheer-leading, or a PR ploy (given I work at a PR firm). It's not. You have to understand that I work for a very unique company—in fact, it's been the most unique career experience in my life. A sixty year old company—technically family owned (not public) with over four thousand employees globally and the CEO of the company wears the last name of the founder, his father. Which brings me to the video above. I had the opportunity to interview our CEO, Richard Edelman on the topic of trust as it relates to… -
Will The Real Social Business Experts Please Stand Up?
7 Feb 2012 | 12:23 pmStop what you're doing and check out this thread (on Google Plus of all places) started by Francine Hardaway. She started it off with a simple question. "Who are the best experts in social business?"What followed was a robust discussion on what social business is, isn't and who's driving the agenda forward in the space both in thought and action. If you're interested in the emerging definition of social business (aka the convergence of enterprise 2.0 and social media) I highly recommend you taking a look. Some of my favorite thoughts:"the thread that social business is not the same as social… -
People, Places & Events
3 Feb 2012 | 1:01 pmA few significant events happening over the next few months—here's where I'll be: Chicago: February 6th, Social Media Club, An Interview With Richard EdelmanOur I'll be interviewing Richard Edelman our CEO in our new office space as we host the Chicago Social Media Club. We will be discussing this Year's Trust Barometer findings. If you can't make it to Chicago, we will be live streaming video the interview at 5:00 CST. London & New York: February 13-16, Social Media Week Our London office is hosting a panel titled "Social Business In Action". A topic I'm very passionate about—then… -
How To Be A Social Media Self-Righteous Jerk
1 Feb 2012 | 6:28 pmThe scale above shows the many stages one has to go through in order to become a bona fide self-righteous jerk in social media. Still, there are many people who aspire to reach this peak, but fall short in executing against it. Given this observation, I thought it would be worthwhile to piece together a few best practices which will ensure your status as a social media self-righteous jerk (or SMSRJ). In no particular order: 1. Join The Klout GestapoAll social media SMSRJ's know that Klout is simply evil incarnate and requires a organized force to take on this evil axis of influence wherever… -
Launching a Social Command Center (Without The Center)
27 Jan 2012 | 10:05 am"Social command centers" are all the rage today and it's not without some merit. Many organizations now find themselves in a real-time business environment where news travels faster than sound, and information is set free. As a result, some forward thinking companies have put "monitoring" in place either in-house or in combination with partners. This isn't enough. And to make matters worse, I've seen companies make the classic mistake of buying a tool BEFORE putting any thought into the design that goes into effective monitoring and response, forgetting the 3P's (People, Process, Platforms).
-
Spiral16
-
Social Media Agency Stats for 2012 [INFOGRAPHIC]
13 Feb 2012 | 11:45 amSocial media agencies are one of the fastest growing verticals in marketing today. We work with a lot of agencies to provide them with high-quality data and insight from all across the web about the digital presence of their clients. This helps them calculate the success of specific campaigns, gives them strategic information for marketing ideas, and helps them keep a watchful eye on their competitors in realtime. But what are the differences between the average traditional agency and the average social media agency? The traditional agencies are evolving fast to keep up with the changing face… -
How to Refocus Your Business in the Social Age: Video Interview with Valeria Maltoni
10 Feb 2012 | 10:30 amHow important is it to start re-thinking about your business from a social perspective? Yesterday at the Social:IRL conference “Rethinking Business in the Age of the Social Consumer.” Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge on Twitter) explained to Kansas City’s best and brightest why its important to re-think your business and some of the ways that businesses can challenge themselves in this age of social media. Valeria blogs about this kind of stuff all the time at Conversation Agent. She is a big-picture thinker, and she specializes in helping companies focus their promise and… -
Valeria Maltoni brings Unique Social Business Workshop to KC
7 Feb 2012 | 1:19 pmSo your company is engaging with its customers via social media. Or maybe you are running Internet brand audits to help plan digital campaign strategies. Or maybe you’re developing a wealth of web-based business intelligence to get an advantage over your competition. What’s next? Businesses, organizations and agencies already active on the social web can take their social media strategy and execution to a deeper level this Thursday when Social: IRL brings thought leader and business strategist Valeria Maltoni to Kansas City for a workshop entitled “Rethinking Business in the Age… -
Madonna vs. Ferris Bueller: Who Won the Super Bowl Battle of 80s Icons?
6 Feb 2012 | 11:38 amWe all know that the New York Giants won the Super Bowl last night in Indianapolis, but who won the battle of 80s pop icons? Madonna performed at the Super Bowl halftime show, brought on the field like an Egyptian Queen with her muscle-bound subjects pulling her in a giant throne, and danced and lip-synced through an energetic and entertaining four-song set. Matthew Broderick, on the other hand, appeared in a much-hyped Honda ad as his most well-known movie character, Ferris Bueller. Which one generated more Super Bowl online buzz? Madonna had a whopping 52% more people talking about her… -
How To Make A Viral Video – We Are KU Video
3 Feb 2012 | 3:39 pmIs There a Way to Make a Video Go Viral? First off, let me explain something: There is never a guarantee that a video that follows these steps exactly will go viral. But these tips will certainly help your chances of creating and sharing a viral video. In looking at the success this week of the viral videos in the Kansas University – Missouri University Border War, it’s obvious that an emotionally charged event like the upcoming last basketball games between 100-year college rivals is a good place to start. (Missouri plays host to the Jayhawks on Saturday night at Mizzou Arena,…
-
trendsspotting blog
-
“Trends and Innovations in Mobile Accessories” Research Report
1 Feb 2012 | 10:03 amWe are happy to announce the release of a new TrendsSpotting research report uncovering major trends in Mobile Accessories. Based on exploration of over 2000 new accessories released since 2011 + CES 2012 and a market analysis of major market trends characterizing this growing market, TrendsSpotting has identified about 150 recently released products that reflect new emerging trends in mobile accessories. The innovations analyzed in this report are profiled according to … -
LEADING DIGITAL WOMEN PREDICT 2012
11 Jan 2012 | 8:20 pmFor the last five years TrendsSpotting trends research company has published prediction reports covering trends in tech, mobile and social media, suggested by leading technology and business experts. TrendsSpotting’s Influencers Prediction Reports 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 are read by thousands of readers and are used by leading companies to plan their future (viewership at Slideshare/TrendsSpotting). As TrendsSpotting is involved in re-placing the role of women in the digital world (see us at Microsoft’s Women Think Next and WIFT), we have decided that this year we will dedicate this… -
Emerging market for mobile health products
9 Nov 2011 | 5:15 amIn the past year, products using mobile devices to monitor health conditions are becoming more popular with the first ones now getting accepted by the Food and Drug Administration. Among health care apps entering the market are blood pressure monitoring cuffs, CT-scan viewers, and pocket ultrasound machines. The market is still at its first steps but rapid growth is expected: according to mobile market consultancy research2guidance, by 2015 30 percent of the world’s smartphone users will be using mobile health products, up from 5 percent today. The big promise for consumers are… -
2020 Predictions -Model for Future Innovations
14 Oct 2011 | 4:12 amBased on the concept of “The Internet of Things” TrendsSpotting has developed a working model for NPD. ”The ANA Model” was developed and implemented while working with tech companies, and allows us to predict future products and services. The “ANA Model” identifies the process where data is collected from reported “Actions”, then delivered to predefined monitor systems or professionals by “Notifications”. The outcomes can “Alert” people through a visualized system. Few daily activities are presented to reflect the… -
How crowdsourcing games help solve scientific problems: Review of current projects
6 Oct 2011 | 9:09 amIt has been shown that the human capacity has still important advantages over computers. Scientists have learned to use crowd sourcing tools to improve their research. To achieve cooperation, they present models of the problems in a game like display and challenge the partipants to find solutions. Scientists in Carnegie Mellon University (look up Luis von Ahn) were the first to use human brains to help them solve problems associated with searching for images on the web (computers are not very good at distinguishing images from each other using visual cues). This lead to the development…
-
BlogWorld & New Media Expo Blog
-
How to Lose a Reader in Ten Seconds
11 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amI’ll admit it. I can be a completely girl-girl sometimes. I like dressing up and doing my hair. I like a good shopping trip, especially if shoes or purses are involved. And yes, I like the occasional chick flick. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is one of my favorites. In the movie, the main character writes for a women’s magazine decides to write an article about everything women do wrong when trying to snag a boyfriend. Of course, hilarity ensues when she puts her theories to the test and tries to drive a new guy away (who has unbeknownst to her recently made a bet that he can make… -
30 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Bounce Rate
10 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amBrilliant Bloggers is a weekly series here at BlogWorld where we look at the best posts from around the web all surrounding a specific topic. Every week, we’ll feature three of the most brilliant bloggers out there, along with a huge list of more resources where you can learn about the topic. You can see more Brilliant Blogger posts or learn how to submit your link for an upcoming edition here. This Week’s Topic: Bounce Rate Bounce rate is that pesky statistic that tells you how many people click through to other pages on your blog after reading whatever page they landed on in the first… -
Smart Sidebar Strategies: How to Optimize Your Blog’s ‘Boardwalk’
9 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amIf you have looked at lots of blogs, you have probably noticed something. Very few of them use the full page feature. There is a good reason for this. Your blog’s sidebar is prime real estate because it catches the attention of your reader immediately. We all love those sidebars. As bloggers, they are calling to us to fill them with good stuff. But since most people are distracted by too many shiny objects, we must be careful with our choices. Sure, we want people to subscribe to our blog or newsletter. And yes, it’s great when they click on an ad and the affiliate bucks roll in,… -
Are You Cheating on Your Blog?
8 Feb 2012 | 3:19 pmDo you make time for your blog? Twitter. Facebook. Google+. LinkedIn. Pinterest. Email. Sometimes it feels that by the time I’ve checked all my social networks, I don’t have any time left to actually visit my own blog. It’s only a matter of time before I’m caught with lipstick on my collar, so to speak. I love my blog, but sometimes I feel like I’m cheating on it. There are only so many hours in a day, and most of us suffer from shiny ball syndrome. I should really write some new posts today. Ooo, look at all those new pins. Ooo, someone sent me a funny email. -
#BWENY 2012 Registration Opens Now
8 Feb 2012 | 1:39 pmOpening registration is always exciting. It means the journey to the show is just beginning. Where we get to learn from new speakers, find amazing new tools and technology that can help us all create, distribute and monetize our content, and maybe most importantly we get to reconnect with our old friends as well as meet lots of new ones. We are all part of a hard-working community, helping one another grow in a challenging economy, and when we get together, simply great things happen. Today we are particularly excited because all of those things are well underway. You can see the first round…
-
News from SMP
-
Technology and antivirus company AVG prices IPO
1 Feb 2012 | 6:00 pmTechnology and antivirus company AVG prices IPOWith the world focused on Facebook’s IPO, technology company AVG Technologies N.V., more widely known as an antivirus software maker couldn’t of picked a more volatile time to press release details of... -
Can The X Factor muster another number one?
8 Jan 2012 | 6:00 pmCan The X Factor muster another number one?UK X Factor 2011 winners Little Mix (covering Damian Rice’s Cannonball) were beaten to the Christmas number one by the Military Wives Choir (Wherever You Are composed by Paul Melor). The girl band (... -
Integrated Social Media Marketing Event touches down in Asia February 2012
4 Jan 2012 | 6:00 pmIntegrated Social Media Marketing Event touches down in Asia February 2012Integrated approach leverages social media for enhanced engagement and brandingPacific Conferences’ Integrated Social Media Marketing Conference offers actionable insights i... -
Weight Watchers kicks off 2012 TV ad and social media campaign
2 Jan 2012 | 6:00 pmWeight Watchers kicks off 2012 TV ad and social media campaignWeight Watchers UK kicks off its first TV and social media campaign of 2012, and the timing couldn't have been better as we see in the New Year. Marketing magazine reported ... -
Social media analysis for the UK X Factor finale
23 Dec 2011 | 6:00 pmSocial media analysis for the UK X Factor finaleThe X Factor social media infographic week 10 from the live shows finale 2011 for series 8Elemental's UK X Factor social media analysis and infographic for the Week 10 finale. The grap...
-
idaconcpts
-
Amazon Get Serious About Book Publishing
13 Feb 2012 | 1:14 amWhile this headline may not appear as groundbreaking news to you, it really should because it may affect the way you consume books, again. Back in April 2011, the company announced that for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. E-book sales continue to increase and to contribute to Amazon’s ever-growing sales. However, Jeff Bezos and his team believe that the book publishing industry can still make money, but not by running business as usual. Getting Serious About Book Publishing Laurence J. Kirshbaum In May 2011, Amazon recruited Laurence J. -
Make Your Team Social-Media-Educated with ProProfs
12 Feb 2012 | 12:20 pmEverywhere one looks, technological advances are changing the ways that we communicate and do business. When training for your team of employees includes the need to have them possess savvy when it comes to social media and its utilization, you can count on ProProfs Training Maker suite to create online training courses aimed at making your team a social media educated one! First, organize your ideas. The first step in creating your social media online training course is to determine your goals, assess your current use of social media and then decide how you want your team to move forward. -
CPA: A Viable Alternative to CPC
11 Feb 2012 | 3:24 pmWhen a business starts investing in online media for the first time, the first step for its digital media specialist is to educate company management in cost per click (CPC, also known as pay per click or PPC) as a benchmark to establish the effectiveness of purchased media channels. A common challenge for first-time-online-media buyers is to evaluate media with CPC rather than a conversion metric. The Usual Scenario I have seen this happen over and over: a first-time media buyer at the management level is very skeptic about investing, say for example, $1.40 per click on an ad that may or may… -
The Advantage of Static HTML Links over Temporary Links
7 Feb 2012 | 1:44 amUnlike traditional temporary text link placement that charge a monthly fee for placement, static HTML links work in the best interest of online advertisers and webmasters. The main advantage of static HTML links over temporary links (e.g. month-to-month backlinks) is that static HTML links are followed by crawlers from all major search engines such as Google and Bing without raising any red flags. Static HTML Links Static HTML links are the most natural paid link in the market because they are placed unobtrusively within existing content. This is a strategy that not only provides steady… -
Facebook’s $5 billion IPO: By the numbers
2 Feb 2012 | 4:54 pm$5 billion Initial funding sought by Facebook, in one of the largest IPOs ever filed by a technology company $75 to $100 billion Estimated overall value of the social network — which may command “a valuation more than five times higher than Google Inc.,” says Bloomberg Businessweek $3.71 billion Facebook’s annual revenue 85 Percentage of annual revenue in 2011 accounted for by advertising 12 Percentage of annual revenue in 2011 accounted for by Zynga, the third-party company responsible for the game FarmVille $30.9 million COO Sheryl Sandberg’s compensation for 2011…
-
Scobleizer
-
Hacker News vs. Google+
5 Feb 2012 | 12:20 pmI might as well have titled this “Hacker News vs Marketers.” Or “Hacker News vs Bloggers.” Or “jerks vs nice people.” But I never participate in Hacker News for a few reasons and I just was faced with these reasons again when I read the responses there to my blog post yesterday. 1. Programmers often have an attitude of “I can code, you can’t, so I am defacto better than you.” This often comes out in Hacker News comments. 2. Programmers love to bash people anonymously and then, in real life, they will come begging for PR for their companies… -
It’s too late for Dave Winer and John Battelle to save the common web
4 Feb 2012 | 7:02 pmThe date was January 3, 2008. Facebook had kicked me off for running a script to try to save the common web. See, I worked with Plaxo to run a simple script. One that would have taken my contacts out of Facebook and put them back into the common web. The script did some very simple things: 1. It grabbed all my friends names. 2. It grabbed all their phone numbers. 3. It grabbed all their email addresses. 4. It gave me a simple CSV file with all that data so I could bring them back to Google, or Microsoft, or anywhere else I wanted to put them. Facebook’s answer was predictable. They shut… -
HTML 5 pushback in San Francisco? Best mobile app designers say yes
1 Feb 2012 | 5:39 pmThe new Path? The one that won a Crunchie last night for great design? It’s not done in HTML 5. This morning I saw something new coming soon from Storify. Not done in HTML 5. This morning I visited Foodspotting, which just shipped hot new apps on iOS, Android, and Blackberry. Not done in HTML 5. More and more I’m hearing that designers and developers are ignoring HTML 5, especially for the high end of apps. Why? Well, Path’s founders told me it just isn’t possible to build a great user interface, the way they did it in HTML 5. Storify’s founder told me it… -
Why Facebook will be worth a half trillion by 2015: the mobile and open graph revenue it’s leaving on the table
1 Feb 2012 | 4:48 pmLots of people think Facebook is overvalued, at about $100 billion (it just released their S1, announcing its IPO). But in talking with developers, like I did with Foodspotting’s founder, Alexa Andrzejewski, and in reading the S1 I see that Facebook has left most of the potential revenue on the table. That makes me think that the folks crying “overvalued” are nuts. Check that interview out, Foodspotting is one of the hottest San Francisco startups, aimed at people who are looking for better places to eat. Here it is from just this morning: See, Mark Zuckerberg is sandbagging… -
2012 brings a pause in the disruption
31 Jan 2012 | 6:58 pmOK, I’ve been talking with hundreds of geeks from around the world this year at three conferences, CES, DLD, and World Economic Forum. I’m seeing a trend that is worth talking about. What is it? We’re seeing the end of one of the most disruptive ages in human history. I believe that we’re seeing a pause in the disruption. More on that a little later. Just think about all the changes humans have been asked to adopt in the past eight years. Most of us, back then, didn’t carry mobile computers in our pockets. If we did use tablets, like I did, they were expensive,…
-
Social Media Explorer
-
The Most Important Thing In Your Marketing
13 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amWe’re in the stretch run before Explore Dallas-Fort Worth on Friday. And over the past month or so we’ve interviewed several of the speakers who will share their knowledge and expertise with the audience in Dallas. But there’s one speaker I haven’t been able to interview: Me. I’ll present a new talk on Friday at Explore, one that I’ve been working on for a bit now. It’s focused on the most important thing in your marketing. Sure, we’ll have a day full of awesome advice on listening, engagement, strategy, measurement, optimization and more. And… -
More Goodness For Explore Dallas-Fort Worth Attendees
10 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amGetting ready for Explore Dallas-Fort Worth on Feb. 17 has been a lot of fun. Probably one of the best parts of the experience for me is finding great sponsors to bring something to the table for participants. We don’t just want vendors who come in, sell-sell-sell and then follow up with more sales emails and the like. We tried hard to identify companies that were going to bring value to you, not just them. It was easy to turn to SME clients and partners like Expion and NetBase. We knew them and knew they’d know what we were shooting for. Expion, one of our two Captain Sponsors,… -
Boosting the Content Quality on Your Blog or Website
9 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pmEditor’s Note: This is a guest post written by Samantha Peters, an avid blogger who writes about social media, digital marketing, and online communications. When we talk about blogs and websites these days we often use phrases like “SEO,” “page rank,” and “web statistics.” We pay close attention to our click-throughs, our inbound links, and the way we incorporate advertisers. In short, we approach our sites from a marketing angle and take every opportunity we can to increase and maximize our exposure. Amidst all this positioning, many bloggers and site managers overlook the… -
In Social Media, The Fine Line Between Nimble And Fickle
9 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amA study by The Center For Marketing Research declared, “blogging declines as new media rules.” Based on results of a survey sent to the Inc 500, the article states, “there is clearly a shift in how these nimble companies are communicating.” If it is true that blogging is on the decline, then I’d say these companies are more fickle than nimble. Throwing over — or not starting a blog because it’s easier to use Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest is short-sighted and risky. A blog may be an “old” form of social media but it has five benefits that the newer platforms can’t touch. -
What Happened To Saying Something Nice?
8 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amSocial media has certainly given the power back to the consumer. But sometimes the consumer doesn’t do nice things with that power. While it could be a matter of perception (the overwhelming sentiment of most brands in online conversational analysis is positive), it certainly seems like the only time we take note of brand mentions online is when someone is whining or bitching about them. AT&T is one brand that gets unnecessarily beaten about its head and face a lot online. I’ve never quite understood this, perhaps because I’m A) Practical in nature and understand…
-
NowSourcing.Com » Blog
-
This Week In Infographics: Dirty Valentines and The Walking Debt
9 Feb 2012 | 10:17 amWhile there is no underlying theme to this week’s list, we feel that the best way to describe these would be: just cool. First of all, Keeping It Kleen wins the award for most creative way of incorporating love and hygiene for Valentine’s day. The funny and disgusting stats are a refreshing break from the lovey dovey or single ready to mingle infographics. Next, for those of you out there who are trying to figure out how in the world you are going to pay off your student loans – good luck with that. Luckily, we have a rundown of social media jobs and salaries that may help… -
Evolution of Flash Memory
1 Feb 2012 | 1:14 pm -
Patriotic and Protest Songs
1 Feb 2012 | 1:12 pm -
Buyer Beware: BBB Highlights Top 10 Online Scams
1 Feb 2012 | 1:10 pm -
The 5 Types of People You Look Up Online
1 Feb 2012 | 1:09 pm
-
Social Media Marketing
-
How a 7 Year Old Girl Scout Sold 353 Cookies in 2 Weeks & What That Means In Your Business
9 Feb 2012 | 1:02 pmMany people thought this story would be about my daughter and although she is a fiesty rockstar, this is about another fiery little red-haired gal that is in my daughter’s girl scout troop. We all know that this gal will eventually be a powerhouse CEO or a super Real Estate mogul one day. So you would think that her parents took her girl scout brochure to their workplace & sold like crazy for her… **WRONG** She took the majority of the initiative by herself with her sales. Here are the key components to her success and how it relates to your business. Innovative New Product… -
Free Webinar: 2012 Social Media Strategies For Real Estate & Mortgage
19 Jan 2012 | 11:41 pmClick Here for Full View Social Media Strategies in 2012 for Mortgage and Real Estate Professionals– Tuesday, January 24, 2012 Discover How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Make More Money in 2012 Social media can be an inexpensive – yet lucrative means– to generate leads and grow your business. Join us for an in-depth look at how to implement Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media to excel in a “people-driven” economy this year. Join us for a free webinar hosted by Trevor Hammond, Founder and CEO of MFIC Pro:Social Media Strategies in 2012 for Mortgage… -
6 Most Popular Real Estate Social Media Posts
1 Jan 2012 | 9:09 amI hope 2012 brings you much success in all of your endeavors. I want to share with you the top blog posts that received the most shares, interactions and comments throughout the past year along with a few of my favorite new year pictures. photo credit: Shutterstock 12 Essential iPad Apps For Your Small Biz 10 Rockin’ Real Estate iPad Apps photo credit: Shutterstock HOW TO: Setup a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog Top 10 Real Estate Social Media Resources photo credit: Shutterstock Top 7 Famous Failures 7 Tips To Market Your Real Estate Biz w/Social Media in 30 min / Day Here’s… -
7 Tips To Market Your Real Estate Business with Social Media in 30 min / Day
9 Dec 2011 | 12:06 pmI know your story…As a real estate or mortgage professional you just don’t have the time to deal with social media. I hear this every day – in fact I’m receiving many requests to start a company that manages social media profiles specifically for real estate and mortgage professionals. Here are 7 Tips To Market Your Real Estate Business with Social Media in 30 Minutes / Day Tip #1 Find Your Clients Favorite Social Media Sites As you attend events or meet new clients be sure to look them up on social networks to connect with them. This will allow you to maintain… -
3 Mistakes To Avoid Using Social Media For Real Estate
5 Sep 2011 | 8:57 pmThis is a great video from Scott Stratten author of Unmarketing. He focuses on things to avoid for Real Estate Agents. Be sure to implement these changes NOW! These sites Santa Clarita Breaking News Twitter & Santa Clarita Breaking News Facebook are a few examples of how to use community based events to draw people to your website. Naomi Trower Real Estate Broker Social Media Strategist Social Media Real Estate Marketing Are you a FAN? http://fb.com/RealEstateSocialMediaMarketing Share this on del.icio.us Digg this! Share this on Facebook Add this to Google Bookmarks Add this to Google…
-
Jessica Randazza
-
A Page Turns, and a Chapter Ends
9 Feb 2012 | 4:49 pmIt was more than two years ago when I took the step to pack up my life in Seattle, and pursue a position within Digitas Social. And in my 2+ years here, I learned from the smartest folks in the business, worked on incredible brands, and helped build award winning campaigns.The support [...] -
Site Under Construction
9 Feb 2012 | 9:40 amI think you’re all very deserving of an update, which I’ll be giving you in less than 24 hours, but before then I wanted to let you know that I’ve had some challenges with my site as of late (as if that wasn’t obvious). About six months ago, I had some massive life changes both [...] -
What’s the face of your brand?
24 Sep 2010 | 2:23 pmSo, first thing is first. I want to apologize for neglecting you all for so long. There has been a lot of moving parts in my life (both professional and personal), that have prevented me from checking in with you all. While I would like to say the dust clouds have settled, there is still [...]
-
ManagingCommunities.com
-
You Should Care About Community Building, Even if You Have No Interest in Being a “Community Manager”
9 Feb 2012 | 4:28 pmphoto credit: marc falardeau I spoke to a small group of staff members at the CNN offices in Atlanta on Tuesday. One of the things that we discussed is why they should, individually, care about building community online, even if they have no interest in being a community manager or working in digital. As part [...] -
What Can You Do When Information Leaks from a Private Forum?
6 Feb 2012 | 8:58 pmphoto credit: Vivian Chen [陳培雯] Private forums are meant to be private – the information contained within is supposed to only be for the people who have access to that forum. But, people don’t always respect this fact and eventually, you may have someone leaking private information to people who shouldn’t have it. The question [...] -
Social Media and Online Community Platform Usage by Inc. 500 Companies Detailed in Study
2 Feb 2012 | 9:10 pmDr. Nora Ganim Barnes, a Chancellor Professor of Marketing and the Director of the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, has released the results of the center’s fifth annual study into the usage of social media by Inc. 500 companies. The survey asked participants about thirteen particular types of social media: [...] -
Good Online Community Management is Censorship
30 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amOne of the reasons that words matter so much is that different words prompt different emotional reactions from people. If you call someone a spammer, they are more likely to react defensively than if you said that they were advertising. Even though, when it comes to the action, these are the same thing. Let’s take [...] -
ManagingCommunities.com is 4 Years Old!
26 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amphoto credit: barbourians Friday will mark 4 years since the launch of ManagingCommunities.com. In honor of this occasion, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has been supportive of this site and me. Thank you to those that read this blog, subscribe to it and spread the word by passing along my [...]
-
Collective Thoughts
-
My Dirty Valentine
8 Feb 2012 | 12:50 pmValentine’s day can be awful for a respectable single – bring on the mushy lovers and the despair of the singleton articles, let’s get it over with. This is why I particularly love Keeping It Kleen’s new infographic – it is hilarious, disgusting, and someone finally thought outside of the box on this one. If you are single, it will make you happy that you don’t have a boyfriend who doesn’t brush his teeth, or a girlfriend who wears the same underwear two days in a row. If you are attached, I suggest you invest in some powerful hand sanitizer. © 2012… -
History of the Businessmen [Infographic]
30 Jan 2012 | 4:40 pmWhat do cavemen, William Shakespear, Christopher Columbus, and Mark Zuckerberg have in common? They were all shrewd businessmen in their time. Whether they were carving sticks, promoting plays, or trying to get funding to sail the world – these men have set the stage for where business is today, and where it will go. Business MBA’s new infographic does a wonderful job of putting these great men and their skills in order, and giving us an idea of where Generation Y will take us next. From: Business MBA -
Where Did Google Make Their Money In 2011?
23 Jan 2012 | 1:00 pmThe number is out there, Google made 37.9 billion dollars last year. About 96 percent of this came from advertising. WordStream’s impressive new infographic explores which keywords were the most popular and whose ads made the search engine so much money. © WordStream, a Google AdWords partner company. -
The Infographic That Makes Me Want To Marry Mark Zuckerberg
11 Jan 2012 | 3:34 pmIt is no secret that so many of us want to have Mark Zuckerberg’s genius babies, and for the men out there, and the select few women who dont understand – this infographic will tell you why. Created by: Accounting Degree Online -
Apple To Apples: How The Tech Giant Stacks Up Against America’s Favorite Fruit
11 Jan 2012 | 10:25 amThe first thing I learned from this infographic, is that Russia really likes apples, and the US really likes Apple. Okay, I already knew the latter. MBA Online’s new infographic is a wonderfully interesting way to explore Apple further, and quite humorous. For instance: did you know that for the price of the iPhone 4S, you can buy almost 2,000 apples? Hey, if nothing else, it is fun and chalked full of interesting statistics. Created by: MBA Online
-
123 Social Media
-
Social Media Training, a guide to no nonsense education
13 Feb 2012 | 1:21 pmTo help some of our readers I’ve collected a list of training articles that I have written over at BarryHurd.com that detail some of the core elements around types of media and how the interact in both the offline and online world. I typically add an additional article about once a month to this list in an effort to create a holistic resource to raise the common understanding of what ‘social media’ is and is not. This series of social media training documents is also a go-to list of ideas when I am researching client projects or developing tactical plans. If a ‘social… -
Social Media Training – 40 Questions for the Corporate Team
6 Feb 2012 | 8:26 pmThere are a lot of questions regarding social media training and how it ties into a larger organization. To help with that I’ve collected some of my thoughts in a free whitepaper that highlights some of the critical areas of impact you should be thinking about. You can read through the list of questions I’ve covered below… but will need to download the whitepaper to get some of my value-added thoughts. Some questions to think about… How much does this cost? What forms of social media will reach our business goals? Are there any “low cost” benefits? What are… -
Mobile Media Training – basic questions to think about
16 Jan 2012 | 5:07 pmA day doesn’t go by without someone asking me about mobile media. At first glance it sounds like a relatively simple problem and is usually summarized by a question like “what is the best mobile app for us?” If only it were that simple for a company. The mobile trend is accelerating faster and faster. It isn’t a question of if someone is connected, but how, why, and when they are connected. As a business professional there are dozens of reasons to use different mobile technologies ranging from 3g/4g wireless access, tablet applications, QR codes, GPS services, photo… -
Social Media Policy & Employee Communication
3 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pmOur team has been detailing an on-going list of questions clients at 123 have regarding the functional models of employee communication. One of the core elements we continue to discuss is the social media policy frameworks for what is acceptable behavior for different types of industry communications. As part of the social media policy goes, there are A LOT of areas that management and workforce personnel should give some thought to. It boils down to questions… Rather than focus on where we see market trends a going, sometimes the most effective way to figure out where the boat is… -
Social Media Training @ barryhurd.com
18 Nov 2011 | 3:45 pmAs an impromptu weekend post I wanted to share some additional social media training articles I’ve been posting elsewhere. These are some of the most recent social media training articles I’ve written on my personal blog over at BarryHurd.com Some of them are a little more casual than articles I write here on 123socialmedia, but they all have some great tidbits you can learn from and apply to your own business challenges. So without further wait, here are four articles from this month at BarryHurd.com. 40+ Social Media Dashboard Tools for Tracking Stuff Social Media for Sales (why…
-
Brian Solis
-
A Critical Path for Customer Relevance, Part 1
13 Feb 2012 | 7:30 amA key objective for senior executives over the next several years is to use disruptive technology to get closer to customers, to improve relationships, and enhance experiences. It is a considerable move and the result will usher in a new era of adaptive and empathetic business models. However, this is a move that is easier said than done., especially when vision and execution are two sides of different coins. This is a critical path where businesses must not only commit to new technology and goals, but also invest in the methodologies, systems, processes, and people to bring about change from… -
The GRAMMY Awards 2012: How social media changed the DNA of the Recording Academy
10 Feb 2012 | 10:10 amIn celebration of the 54th GRAMMY Awards, we are debuting a special edition of (R)evolution. Shot on location in Los Angeles, Evan Green, CMO of the Recording Academy discusses the fusion of two worlds, the social explosion and the increasingly sophisticated expectations of consumers. In this fascinating discussion, we learn how a 54 year old industry body adapted to the change in how people interact with television, music and one another, shifting from watching the conversation to engaging and helping facilitate shared experiences. More importantly, you’ll hear what it took to get… -
Meet the Mother of All Processes
8 Feb 2012 | 12:32 pmGuest post by John M. Bernard, author of the new book, Business at the Speed of Now, and Chairman and Founder of Mass Ingenuity. Imagine going to work in one of Henry Ford’s factories a century ago, proud that management referred to you a “hand” or a “hammer” or maybe even a “wrench.” The labels reflected Ford’s emphasis on automation and management’s view of laborers as mere cogs in the machine. Screw this nut onto that bolt; weld this strap to that frame; do it over and over and over again until your brain froze with boredom. Of course, management needed workers to get the… -
2011 Was the Year of the Mobile Consumer, What’s in Store for 2012? Value.
7 Feb 2012 | 12:10 pmChris Silva, my colleague at Altimeter Group, released a useful report today that I wanted to share with you here. Mobile is important and I believe you know this. However, when we consider mobile, we often think about the experience when and where it begins. But, we often miss the opportunity to lead a more meaningful journey as it may travel from small screen to larger screens across laptops, desktops and beyond. And along the way, we must now determine our role in this journey to provide information, shape decisions, and influence behavior. In Chris’ report, he reminds us that 2011… -
Season 2 Finale: How Yamaha invests in new customer experiences
3 Feb 2012 | 12:52 pmThis is it…the Season Finale! And, what a way to end Season 2 of (R)evolution…. In this episode, Yamaha shares what is by far the most expansive view of disruptive technology’s impact on business infrastructure and culture on the show to date. What you’ll see is a genuine discussion with Jeff Hawley and Rick Williams of Yamaha explore how an already successful business is exploring new opportunities to better define the customer experience before, during and after transactions. It comes down to workflow. Nowadays, it either works for you or works against you. Here,…
-
Social Business Advisor: Social CRM and Enterprise 2.0
-
Collaboration by Design
13 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pmCollaborating is one of those things we all do every day. We don’t think about every interaction we have and then wonder, “hey, did I just collaborate?” It’s just a part of how many of us work and behave; we’re social creatures. This is why it’s always amusing to have discussions on the value of collaboration because we are essentially trying to value something that we are already doing and have been doing for many many years. Why don’t we try NOT collaborating and see what happens? The issue doesn’t become why should we collaborate… -
Emergent Collaboration Vendor Review: Xwiki
10 Feb 2012 | 2:08 amEvery Friday, I’ll be reviewing a vendor in the emergent collaboration space and will provide an overview on that vendor which includes aspects from leadership and vision to technology and market focus. If you are vendor and would like to participate, please contact me (my email address is in the sidebar as is my Twitter link). The goal of these posts is not to bash or praise vendors but to simply offer an objective view on what various vendors offer so that YOU can decide if they are a good fit for your business. Every post will cover the same elements for each vendors. If you have ideas… -
Do Organizations Need a Chief Collaboration Officer?
8 Feb 2012 | 6:06 pmMore organizations are starting to deploy new collaborative tools and strategies as a core part of their business evolution to connect and engage employees. It’s becoming increasingly difficult (especially at large companies) to oversee these initiatives as typically there isn’t a role devoted to collaboration. Usually collaboration falls on the shoulders of employees (such as the CIO) with an existing full plate of things that need to get done. So is it about time for organizations to create the role of the CCO (Chief Collaboration Officer)? In 2010 Morten Hansen and Scott… -
Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Pt 4: Financial Impact, Future Changes, and Lessons Learned
6 Feb 2012 | 2:08 amThis is the fourth and final post in a series of posts on how the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (The Foundation), is implementing emergent collaboration strategies and technologies within its organization. You can read part 1 on Business Drivers, part 2 on Organizational and Culture shifts, and part 3 on Technology Adoption and Operational Impact. The Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing pediatric HIV infection and eliminating pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention, care, and treatment programs. The Foundation, currently working in 17… -
Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Pt 3: Technology Adoption and Operational Impact
3 Feb 2012 | 2:08 amThis is the third in a series of posts on how the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (The Foundation), is implementing emergent collaboration strategies and technologies within its organization. You can read part 1 on Business Drivers and part 2 on organizational and culture shifts. The Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing pediatric HIV infection and eliminating pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention, care, and treatment programs. The Foundation, currently working in 17 countries, was founded in 1988 and experienced significant growth…
-
GeekGirlfriends.com
-
I Want This in My Next Phone
1 Feb 2012 | 12:30 pmHzO has invented a nanotechnology that coats the inside of electronics, making them impervious to water. I have pulled useless electronics out of toilets, the garden after a rainstorm, a bathtub, and the rinse cycle in the washing machine. There are cases that will do this but they never seem to be on the phone [...] -
Want a New Home Office?
23 Jan 2012 | 5:32 pmDo you have to clear spilled orange juice, dirty laundry, and someone else’s craft project away every time you sit down to work? Not me. I have a big monitor, ergonomic keyboard, and two work surfaces — all in a room with a spectacular view and a door that locks. If you aren’t taking your [...] -
This Makes Me Want More Babies
19 Jan 2012 | 10:10 amThere is nothing cooler than watching a baby go from incapable of sitting up to reading, doing advance math, repairing broken computers, and driving the car. But this stroller is almost enough to make a geek girl want to start over again with one of those stroller-riding sized babies. -
Hacking Your Router to Control Your Kids
13 Jan 2012 | 5:50 pmA version of this ran in my Family Tech column in Family Circle some time ago. Cowry shells were once a common currency worldwide. Spanish doubloons, too, were once much-traded as legal tender. Today we American’s favor the dollar – buck, greenback, moolah, scratch, cabbage, loot, bread, bacon, or dosh. But in my house, [...] -
Clean Tech Giveaway
12 Dec 2011 | 3:46 pmIt’s been an exciting few weeks over here in GeekGirlfriends land. You may have noticed that I completely redesigned this site. Hard work! Also, my annual tech gift guide is out in print in Family Circle magazine and online at FamilyCircle.com. And that means that I’ve been cleaning up the mess – boxes, tangled cables, chargers – left [...]
-
Dan Zarrella
-
[Infographic] How to Get More Clicks on Twitter
24 Jan 2012 | 11:18 pmI’ve often said that the best use of Twitter is as a broadcast medium. You should be creating a ton of interesting content and sharing it with your followers. To that end I’ve done a bunch of research on how to optimize the clickthrough rate (CTR) of the links you’re tweeting. For the purposes of this data, I’ve calculated CTR as the number of clicks on a tweeted link divided by the number of followers the account had when it tweeted that link. Below is an infographic presenting some of my past findings as well as some entirely new data I’ve found about… -
[Infographic] What are the Best Times to Blog?
23 Jan 2012 | 12:54 amOne of the most popular webinars I’ve ever worked on, The Science of Timing was also one of my favorite. If you haven’t seen it, go check out the on-demand recording now. In it, I present data I’ve collected over three years about the effect timing has on a variety of online marketing activities, including blogging. Below is an infographic that represents a collection of the three most important stats I have about when to publish blog posts. In the webinar, I also make the point that my results are based on huge aggregates of thousands, millions, or even in some cases,… -
[Infographic] The 2012 Republican Candidates by the Twitter Numbers
17 Jan 2012 | 11:59 pmI’ve studied the relationship between Twitter success and politics before, and since this year is a big year in elections, I figured I’d do it again. This time I looked at how the 4 front-running republican presidential candidates are doing on Twitter. I analyzed the obvious numbers, followers, retweets and mentions, but I also looked at a few of my favorite, deeper metrics: retweets-per-follower, link-percentage and reply-percentage. I also looked at Twitter “penetration” in two upcoming primary states: South Carolina and Florida. Notice anything that surprises you in… -
[Infographic] How To Use Contra-Competitive Timing for More ReTweets, Likes, Comments and Clicks
17 Jan 2012 | 1:44 amOne of the most interesting patterns I’ve found while studying social media and marketing data is what I call in my book “contra-competitive timing.” I’ve found in numerous cases that the most successful times and days to publish new content are off-peak times. It’s like when you’re at a noisy party and it’s hard to hear the person talking to you 2 feet away, but suddenly you say something awkward and the room quiets down. Now everyone can hear you. The same is true with the internet. When there is less other noise to compete with (ie fewer Tweets,… -
[New Data] What Percentage of your Tweets Should be Links or Replies
10 Jan 2012 | 11:25 pmIf you like myth busting social media data like this, be sure to buy my newest book, Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness. One of the social media questions I’m most interested in is about whether Twitter is best suited for conversation or broadcasting. To many people’s surprise, I generally find myself on the broadcast side, and most of the data I’ve analyzed seems to back me up. Just yesterday, I started a little informal Twitter poll and found that respondents were pretty evenly split between broadcasting and conversation. This time, I looked at more than 100k…
-
Emily Chang - Designer
-
SOPA Strike
18 Jan 2012 | 9:34 pmToday was the internet’s SOPA strike day. Netizens, websites and tech companies rallied to stop the internet censorship bills, SOPA and PIPA. From the EFF‘s post, Thank You, Internet! And the Fight Continues: The numbers are pretty amazing. More than 1 million messages (and counting!) were sent to Congress today via the EFF action center. More than 4.5 million people signed Google’s petition registering their opposition to the bills. And that’s just the beginning. Many lawmakers abandoned the legislation (at least 13 senators today alone!) and we expect to see… -
Last Sunset of 2011
31 Dec 2011 | 7:07 pmHappy new year! -
3:22pm
26 Dec 2011 | 10:49 pm -
Ocean Beach
22 Dec 2011 | 10:50 pm -
4s
22 Dec 2011 | 12:06 am
-
The Bazaarvoice Social Commerce Blog
-
Interview: Kate Spade NY wins Top Innovator at Fashion 2.0 Awards (part 2)
13 Feb 2012 | 11:47 amScreen shot of Kate Spade New York's YouTube videos The day after we ran part one of our interview with Kate Spade’s Johanna Murphy and Marissa Kraxberger, the famously-hip brand was named Top Innovator at the Fashion 2.0 Awards. After reading part two of our interview, below, you’ll see why Kate Spade deserved it! I love the way your posts are thematically divided into “columns” (in the editorial sense of the word). How do you decide which columns to run, and how often do they change? Marissa: That was a really long process, actually. Our lead copywriter worked with us on this,… -
Mobile mediocrity? How retailers can avoid "hitting turbulence"
9 Feb 2012 | 10:10 amChris Silva Note: The following is a guest post from Chris Silva, Mobile Industry Analyst with Altimeter Group. We'll periodically feature guest posts from the people behind research we think you should know about. Are retailers doing enough to serve their mobile customers? Many are not. While nearly 50% of mobile phone owners in the US are carrying app-laden smartphones, 77% of smartphone buyers use them while shopping. With such rapid adoption, it's hard to understand why major brands aren't doing more to cater to these customers. The report lays out a decision process… -
Interview: How Kate Spade uses social to “live colorfully” (part 1)
7 Feb 2012 | 2:22 pmScreenshot of the Kate Spade NY Pinterest I am delighted to congratulate one of our most successful clients, Kate Spade, on receiving two nominations in the Fashion 2.0 Awards. The awards honor the most innovative fashion brands for their leadership in developing online communities. It only takes one quick glance at Kate Spade’s Pinterest, Facebook, blog or Tumblr to see that this is a brand that truly loves sharing and receiving inspiration from their customers. I sat down with Johanna Murphy, VP eCommerce, and Marissa Kraxberger, Web Art Director, to learn more about Kate Spade’s social… -
Is the iPad the new cookbook?
3 Feb 2012 | 8:31 amThe iPad, displaying the latest recipe creation on the kitchen counter, has replaced the traditional cookbook, provided one can avoid spilling spaghetti sauce or splattering it with oil. Even just weeks after its release in April 2010, the New York Times saw it “poised to be an indispensable tool” for the kitchen. And now, augmented reality apps like Blippar allow consumers to create interactive recipe books by scanning products while in the store aisle. From the first release of Betty Crocker’s Big Red in 1950, and thousands since, recipe-sharing has gone digital and… -
Finally, augmented reality with real utility: meet Blippar
30 Jan 2012 | 9:39 amIt seems like we’ve been talking about augmented reality for years now. It’s perpetually the next big thing in mobile, and is still at the very beginning of the technology adoption curve. Honestly, I had kind of checked out of the AR conversation—unfairly—after waiting for it to move from flashy demos to actual utility. AR’s utility has only been realized in a few apps, like Yelp’s Monocle, but the wow factor has overshadowed the practical applications of this technology. And then I met the guys from Blippar at CES. Blippar is an app from the UK that succeeds where most…
-
Beth’s Blog
-
How After Action Reviews Can Improve Your Social Media Strategy
13 Feb 2012 | 10:28 amSource: nwlink.com via Beth on Pinterest The After Action Review is a reflective practice that can be used for anything, but I find it especially valuable for social media pilots and experiments. The After Action Review (AAR) is a structured way to capture the lessons learned from any project, with the intent of improving future performance. It is an opportunity for a group to reflect on a project, activity, event or task so that they can do it better the next time. It can also be used in the middle of a project or strategy to learn while doing. The process is simple. -
What are News Discovery Tools? Why Use Them?
10 Feb 2012 | 11:17 amLast month, I had the pleasure of doing a session on Content Curation called “What Can Nonprofits Learn from the Best Content Curator on the Planet: Robin Good?” Robin joined me on Skype all the way from Rome. One of the points he made during our planning call is that in order to curate, you need two sets of tools – news discovery and curation tools. News discovery tools select and aggregate content based on keyword searches, but give a higher signal to noise ratio than general keywords searches or general news sites. You need to feed your audience a healthy… -
How Generosity Day Is Building A Movement
9 Feb 2012 | 9:33 amGenerosity Day is an effort to rebrand Valentine’s Day – and make it about love, connection, and well generosity. We’re rebooting Valentine’s Day as Generosity Day: one day of sharing love with everyone, of being generous to everyone, to see how it feels and to practice saying “Yes.” Let’s make the day about love, action and human connection – because we can do better than smarmy greeting cards, overpriced roses, and stressed-out couples trying to create romantic meals on the fly. You can join Generosity Day over at their Causes page and invite your friends. -
What does monitoring your brand on social media channels really mean?
8 Feb 2012 | 10:49 amSource: journalism.org via Lucy on Pinterest “Listening” or tracking what people are saying about your brand or issue has always been hailed at the first most important step in building your social media or network strategy. Listening is the process tracking brand mentions or related key words and transforming a “river of noise” into insights that allow you to make decisions. Listening can help your organization craft messages/content, keep your finger on how your network thinks about your issue or brand, help with curation of content, identify influencers… -
The Five Stages of A Social Media PR Disaster
7 Feb 2012 | 9:43 amSource: tomfishburne.com via Beth on Pinterest Update: Just as I hit the publish button on this post, I got news that Komen’s Karen Handel resigned. Perhaps the sixth stage is fire the staff person who was primarily responsible for the mess. Now that we’ve had a few days to let the dust settle from the Komen-Planned Parenthood firestorm, it is time to think about takeaways for other nonprofits. Deanna Zandt presents an analysis of what made this particular pr crisis different from others and the teachable moments that are useful other nonprofits. The bottom line is:…
-
The Foush » Blog
-
Facebook and the end of social decay?
29 Jan 2012 | 12:49 pmThanks to social-networking sites like Facebook, many of the people that otherwise would have drifted out of our lives can now be linked to us indefinitely online, keeping track of us in the virtual world even if we no longer have any contact with them in “real life.” It’s a peculiar situation, evidenced by the introduction of terms like “Facebook Creeping” and FOMO (fear of missing out) into our vocabularies. But what are the wider implications of these changes? Social networks enable us to cheat the natural order of things. In our ability to pore over photo albums and… -
My 5 Favorite Moments of 2011
9 Jan 2012 | 2:55 pmHi friends! Happy 2012! I hope you enjoyed your holidays! I surprised Jesse with plane tickets home to Toronto for Christmas and it was so wonderful to spend time with our family and friends. The end of the year is always a time for reflection, if for no other reason than to remind yourself of all the things you did in the past 12 months! One of my favorite things to do is to share my love of technology and innovation with others, and I was so lucky to be able to do that all around the world in 2011. I had a chance to speak in Mexico, Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Canada and the United…
-
Debbie Weil's Blog
-
Why a Short Book? Hint: Quicker to Write and Delivers Same Business Benefits
8 Feb 2012 | 12:30 pmThe cool thing about writing a short book and self-publishing it on Amazon Kindle is that you can think of yourself as a Beta Author. Why Beta? Think of it as an Agile Book Launch. Your short book will be provocative, smart and well-written. It will have a sizzling title and a click-inducing cover. But it may be the first in a series of books. You may want to write a longer book later. You may want to revise it. No problem. As an entrepreneurial author, you're in charge. You don't need permission from a big New York publisher. The theory beyond agile software development and lean… -
My Three Words for 2012: Alignment, Quiet and Compassion
1 Feb 2012 | 3:17 amInspired by a number of other bloggers and authors, including Chris Brogan (Temple, Untangle, Practice), Jonathan Fields (Serve, Inspire, Transcend) and Chris Guillebeau (Finishing), I am starting 2012 with three words. I was tempted to say "launching" 2012 because that's what it feels like. More about that in a minute. First, my words: Alignment Quiet Compassion Alignment 2012 is going to be a year of adventure, excitement and hard work. Oh, and lots of unknowns. Why? Because I have launched a new company, Voxie Media. Voxie Media is a new hybrid. It's a next-generation publishing… -
Wake Up and Write For Your Existing Readers (Don’t Look for Readers Later)
27 Jan 2012 | 2:22 pmSeth Godin reminds us - again - of the new way to think about writing a business book. You are writing for the fans and followers you already have. Your tribe. They are the ones who will celebrate with you and kick off word-of-mouth sales if you set your launch price on Kindle at $0.00. As Seth puts it: "Wake up in the morning thinking about what (you) can write for (your) readers." Not the other way around. The old mindset went like this: write your book, get it edited, get blurbs from big names, design a great cover, print, distribute, launch and hold your breath for sales. In other words,… -
Is Publishing a Kick-ass eBook for Kindle One of Your Goals for 2012?
29 Dec 2011 | 2:44 pmWe're betting it is. And there are one spot no spots left to pre-register for the next Beta Author Boost, starting in March 2012. Beta Author Boost is a unique writing workshop that enables up-and-coming business authors to write and publish a short, kick-ass eBook for Amazon Kindle in 8 weeks. The first Beta Author Boost sold out in less than 12 hours. The program is currently in full swing with 10 subject matter experts working on a wide variety of book topics. We are having a blast. Writing a book, even a short book, is hard. What if a drop-dead deadline propelled you to finish your… -
Context vs. Content: What Sells Your Book?
21 Dec 2011 | 7:12 amContext is one of those words that sparks a multidimensional image in your head. That is key to understanding why context (who, where, how, what, why) has as much to do with the success or popularity of a new book as does the actual content of that book. Who recommended the book to you? That counts for a lot. You tend to trust recommendations from friends who are discerning and on top of what's new. Where did you hear about the book? Were you online, on a social network like Facebook or Twitter, where it required no more than a couple of clicks to download the book in digital format to…
-
Blogworks: Social Media India, Brand, Marketing and Communication Consulting.
-
Irreverence and candidness greet @PMOIndia on Twitter.
27 Jan 2012 | 10:53 pm“Time to unfollow the PMO on Twitter.” proclaims Anant Rangaswami on Firstpost @PMOIndia, the Official Twitter account of the Indian Prime Minister’s office, has been live all of 24 hours on Twitter. “…few days on Twitter, do you think the Government’s been effective?” asks Sunetra Choudhry on NDTV It’s just been a few ‘hours’ more... Read more » -
#McDstories – Are they loving it ?
26 Jan 2012 | 1:12 amWhat began as an attempt to bring out the positive stories of McDonalds, turned into a marketing nightmare for McDonalds. They seeded the hashtag #meetthefarmers and #McDstories so as to showcase their commitment to deliver fresh produce. McDonald’s promoted video interviews with farmers that supply their lettuce, beef, and potatoes. Following which came the tweet... Read more » -
Entering the 6th year today is @blogworks: scaling it up.
25 Dec 2011 | 9:16 pmBlogworks completes 5 years today! It has been an intense year – moving to the next orbit requires perseverance, will, and far greater energy. We have as a team shown that we have the will and the skills. Year 5 This is the year that we became a ‘business and an organisation’. We started the... Read more »
-
gapingvoid
-
Best Twelve (or fewer) Words Wins a Signed Cube Grenade
13 Feb 2012 | 4:51 pmDaily Email Promo from Gapingvoid on Vimeo.Hola, Jason here… ( CEO of gapingvoid etc etc) For all you gapingvoid newbies, you may not know that we publish a daily email every Tuesday – Saturday. It always contains one of Hugh’s cartoons with a little narrative and sometimes an exclusive deal on gapingvoid goodies. We’ve been playing around with animation and the one above is a little eight-second promo that we want to use to call attention to the daily email. Although it works great as is, we’d like to add some copy to it, and so, Fearless Readers, we are going to have a little… -
Isn’t marketing much nicer, when people treat each other like grownups?
13 Feb 2012 | 1:02 pm[A screenshot from the video: a Rackspace banner, in my handwriting etc.] I love this Rackspace video. No thespian voiceover. No pompous top-down message yak yak yak about how great they are. In this video, they’re not saying it, they’re SHOWING it. What are they showing? Well, that’s for us to figure out, all by ourselves. Isn’t marketing much nicer, when people treat each other like grownups? [Disclosure: Rackspace is a gapingvoid client. And a damn good one, I might add. Check out our work here etc.] -
Good corporate social media is WAY harder than it looks
13 Feb 2012 | 12:41 pmGood corporate social media is REALLY, REALLY hard… WAY harder than it looks. A few people like my good friend, Brian Solis, make it look easy, but they’re the exception, BY FAR. My prediction for social media in 2012, is that A LOT of people will finally figure that out, the hard way. So be careful what you wish for etc. -
Inspire, or die trying.
10 Feb 2012 | 3:12 pm[Originally sent out in today’s newsletter etc. Buy the print here etc etc.] Like I said on Twitter earlier today, the people who REALLY taught me “How To” do anything worthwhile, didn’t write a big ol’ list of instructions, didn’t hold my hand, they just led by example. The great British advertising man, Dave Trott once did that for me, back in the day… THIS is what REAL leadership means. THIS is what REAL inspiration means. And you’d better get used to it. Because in the world we now live in, there are no more jobs. There are no more bosses. There are only clients and… -
Why “Only connect” is my favorite marketing strategy.
9 Feb 2012 | 4:44 pmThanks to Chris for sending me this photo, via Twitter. The gapingvoid Valentine print he ordered, just as he was opening the box. A delighted customer, so it seems. Hurrah! I love getting stuff like this from people, and not just because “Social Proof is the new marketing” yada, yada, yada. As artists and/or marketers and/or business people, it’s not enough to just think about the money and the ROI. We need to know that we “connected”, somehow. Deeply so, sometimes. Or else we just become very dull, making very dull stuff for very dull people, living very dull lives. Which except…
-
Social Media Dudes
-
13 Great Ways To Repurpose Your Content!
17 Jan 2012 | 6:59 amI think you would agree that valuable content on your website or that was authored by you and hosted on other sites is critical to your success to drive traffic and ultimately make sales. At the end of the day, it separates a good blog from a great blog! So creating great content is job [...] Related posts: Best Ways to Drive Traffic To Your Blog! The following article was written by Dorothy J Bellisario who... Content Marketing Principles: 3 Highly Effective Things to Incorporate Into Your Blog Posts! One of the things that I learned from my attendance... Related posts brought to you by… -
3 FREE Ways to Increase Your FaceBook Fans – Often Overlooked
11 Jan 2012 | 7:40 am3 FREE Ways to Increase Your FaceBook Fans – Often Overlooked In my opinion more fans are better than fewer fans. You can talk about “quality” all you want but you will not change my mind on this one. The more fans you have the more likely you will develop new business or even create [...] Related posts: 5 Ways Our Family Uses Social Media 5 Ways Our Family Uses Social Media Much is made... Get Better Engagement From Your Facebook Page! Dennis and I have had several people come up to... 20 Helpful Facebook Fan Page Tips! Strategy 1. Life is short! So have some fun from... -
Why Your Blog Didn’t Take Off in 2011 and How You Fix It for 2012!
7 Jan 2012 | 7:36 amFair warning! This blog post is not for the meek or the faint hearted! About this time last year, you were like a lot of folks who decided that they were going to follow Gary Vaynerchuk’s advice and “Crush It” (no slam on Gary…if you do what he says, you are going to be farther [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. -
LinkedIn Profile Essentials – Part 2
5 Jan 2012 | 7:02 amThis is part 2 of a 2 part series written by Janet Slack. See Part 1 by clicking here. Today we are looking at strategies that will make your LinkedIn (LI) profile a true asset for your business. You want it to be a great place for people to learn more about you and we [...] Related posts: LinkedIn Profile Essentials – Part 1 You need a great LinkedIn profile. It really is no... Getting Setup On LinkedIn! Social media is gaining massive popularity these days due to... 10 Ways To Promote Your Business With LinkedIn! LinkedIn in many regards is the forgotten member of what... Related… -
What is “The Cloud” and should I be using it?
15 Dec 2011 | 12:45 pmWhat is “The Cloud” and should I be using it? So what is this cloud thing I keep hearing about? It sounds kind of scary to have my data and information stored somewhere other than my computer. Couldn’t someone get it? Isn’t it more at risk? Think of the cloud as water. You turn on [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
-
Soshable | Social Media Blog
-
The Potential of Pinterest
11 Feb 2012 | 5:41 amMake no mistake. Pinterest may be a pretty interface full of recipes, do-it-yourself tips, and pictures of cuddly animals (what social site doesn’t have cute animals anymore?), but the end game is all business. Unlike most who try to get into social media, Pinterest has a real chance of making it happen even with their late entry into the social race. Take a look at the infographic below. A few things are clear. They hit at the right time They have an amazing target audience from a business-targeting perspective The site drives traffic The users are passionate It’s a great recipe… -
Social Media has a Friend in Fitness: Greatist
10 Feb 2012 | 1:17 amAs social media continues to expand and enter more areas of our lives, the health and fitness segment has been dominated by a handful of major companies and publications. Nike was a trendsetter. Men’s Health made a splash early on. For the pure healthy lifestyle enthusiast who also enjoys a good Tweet or Facebook update, there’s an up-and-coming site that has the right mix of substance and social: Greatist. A quick look at their Facebook page reveals two things: they stay active and they’re not just your standard blog RSS-fed page. They have real engagement and ask real… -
8 Years of Facebook Has Our Heads Spinning
7 Feb 2012 | 6:00 pmFacebook celebrated its 8th birthday this month. How much has it changed? How much has it changed us? Are we all a little more batty now that Facebook has become a prominent part of so many of our lives, giving us insights into friends and family that we never had before and offering a venue through which we can exclaim the nuances of our lives for the world (or simply our world) to see? This fun and somewhat creepy video by Daniel Koren, a NY based musician, touches a little too close to the truth for most to bear. Search your feelings. You know it to be true. -
The Advantage of Google’s New Search Plus Your World: Indexing Your Content Faster
7 Feb 2012 | 2:39 pmA Google+ update sent out by internet entrepreneur and FamilyLink.com founder Paul Allen hints there may be another reason to keep an eye on the recently launched Search Plus Your World. According to the post, Google looks to be indexing web content faster for users who are logged in to its social network than those who are not. Allen says that while signed into the site, his post was indexed and already displayed in the search results within less than a minute. This was versus about 20 minutes for the post to appear for users who were not logged in. Google’s new Search Plus Your World… -
Is Social Media Bringing the World Together or Pulling Us Apart?
7 Feb 2012 | 5:30 amEvery few months I take a serious look at my chosen profession and wonder if it’s really a tool for good or if it’s real “use” is to promote the negative in the world. There are many examples of good happening through social media whether through revolutions that weren’t possible a few years ago from oppressive regimes or the simple connection of people with others who they need to meet. I normally come to the same conclusion every time: Social media is neutral Most who use it are indifferent Some use it for good Some use it for bad. My final disposition at the…
-
Brains On Fire Blog
-
A Kinder, Gentler Capitalism.
13 Feb 2012 | 8:50 amPhoto from Libby William’s wonderful, heartfelt photoblog. The other day I received an email from someone who had recently read our book and often reads our blog. He wanted to see if I would help him re-frame his background and past experiences to ignite his next career adventure. I agreed to coffee. As he sat down, he said he had come to believe, after getting to know us through our writings, that we were cheerleaders for a “kinder, gentler capitalism.” What a gift he gave me. I’ve been thinking about those three simple little words since our brief meeting that cold, rainy… -
I Watched, I Purchased, My Problem was Solved
9 Feb 2012 | 8:42 amI recently remembered a story about advertising that worked wonders in introducing me to a product that I purchased and loved. Being somewhat of a music and technology nerd, I follow several blogs that keep pace with what’s happening in the industry. I can’t remember exactly where, but in browsing one of those sites a few years ago I ran across this marketing video from a company called Tune Up Media (1): They happened to be running a discount promotion at the time, so in an extremely rare instance for me, I acted on their message, went to the website, and purchased their product. -
Get Your WOM Notebook Ready… Chapter One: Believe
8 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amSo, here you are… a friend of WOM or maybe you are just starting to explore. Word of Mouth Marketing is a passion for me, and I’m lucky enough to have a career in it. But this didn’t happen by accident. My career took root organically, as a result of my belief in the power of WOM, not because I set out to do it. Back in 2001, Brains on Fire partnered with the Department of Health and Environmental Control of South Carolina. We were tasked with the challenge of tackling teen smoking in our state. If you are at all familiar with South Carolina, you probably know tobacco plays a… -
Airport Conversations and The Secret Sauce of Success
7 Feb 2012 | 8:59 amEvery once in awhile someone will ask me what I do for a living. These conversations usually occur in the kinds of places where strangers feel compelled to carry on polite chitchat. In line at the grocery store. Doctor’s office waiting rooms. Airplanes waiting to be cleared for take-off. When I tell people I am a writer, they often respond in the same way I imagine I would respond if someone told me they traveled with the circus or roadied for Def Leppard in the 80s. An incredulous mix of shock and awe, with undertones of questioning my sanity. “That’s…brave,” they… -
Inspiration.
6 Feb 2012 | 9:28 amThe Erics, looking for inspiration. Hello! Hope you’re excited about the week ahead of you. I am. About a year or so ago, I posted a blog asking YOU a simple question. And since I LOVED the answers and they all inspired me, I am asking again… I really need you guys today. I love writing. Think I have shared this before, but I believe writing inspires thinking and exploring and sharing. And thinking and exploring and sharing are good things. If you are reading this and hanging out with us, I have to believe you think we add value in your life. So, I have a question for you: If you…
-
McBuzz Communications | Mark McLaren
-
WordPress Developer and Contributing Author Jeremy Green of Endo Creative
10 Feb 2012 | 4:13 pmJeremy Green WordPress Enthusiast Owner of Endo Creative Custom Website Designs NOTE FROM MCBUZZ: Jeremy Green will be answering WordPress questions on our Free WordPress Help pages. I began hand coding websites in my bedroom back when Geocities and Angelfire were cool. Thankfully the web has come a long way since then. A couple years ago I began diving into the wonderful world of WordPress and now I use it everyday, whether on my own sites or on my client’s sites at Endo Creative. We are a Fort Collins based company specializing in custom web design and development, utilizing WordPress… -
Even More Free WordPress Help
8 Feb 2012 | 12:07 pmLooking for Free WordPress Help? This is the place! You can ask a question about WordPress in the comments on this page, and we will answer as soon as we can. For FREE! Remember, this service is free. If we can’t get to your question right away, please be patient, or try the WordPress support forums. Mark McLaren and McBuzz Communications have been offering Free WordPress Help and Free and Easy WordPress Tutorials for many years. (Please note that McBuzz Communications, McBuzz.com and Mark McLaren are not affiliated with Automattic, WordPress.com or the WordPress.org website.)… -
Online Marketing & Gamification by Design
21 Dec 2011 | 5:02 pmHow Important is Marketing Gamification to a Robust Online Marketing Plan? The following is an interview with Gabe Zichermann, author of the new book Gamification by Design. Every marketer needs to stay on top of trends. Gamification is a trend in web and mobile design that is big and getting bigger. My sincere thanks to Gabe for the opportunity to conduct this interview. Mark McLaren: When I first read the title of your book, Gamification by Design, my reaction was, “Won’t be reading that!” I associated it with online games, “gamers”, massively multiplayer… -
Is a Listing in Yahoo Directory a Valuable Link? Yes. Worth the Cost? It Depends
7 Nov 2011 | 11:53 pmYahoo Directory - Should you pay to list your site here? One way to improve your site’s search engine optimization is to submit it to online directories. Some directories are more respected than others. One of the most widely respected online directories is Yahoo. Should you pay $300 – $450 a year to list your website in the Yahoo Directory? Probably not. Just as there is debate about the value of being listed in another well-established, old-school directory called dmoz.org, there is debate among veteran search engine optimization pros about the value of a listing in the Yahoo… -
Using Footer Links for Search Engine Optimization
28 Oct 2011 | 1:30 amExample of Footer Links on McBuzz.com: an easy way to boost Search Engine Opimization Can you use links in the footer of your website to improve search engine rankings? If those footer links go to internal pages on your own website, the answer is absolutely yes. I have read on some SEO sites that footer links are not as helpful to SEO as they once were. This is probably true, given that Google has become more adept at determining when links are being used as navigation on every page as opposed to an “editorial” link that appears in the body of a page and is being used by the…
-
Tantek Çelik
-
just spoke on "Open Standards Stories & Practices" at #mozvision 2012: tantek.com/presentations/2012/01/open-web
21 Jan 2012 | 1:25 amjust spoke on "Open Standards Stories & Practices" at #mozvision 2012: tantek.com/presentations/2012/01/open-web -
no frontend JS, just backend @cassisjs and a simple black position:fixed on tantek.com. STOP #SOPA
18 Jan 2012 | 3:54 amno frontend JS, just backend @cassisjs and a simple black position:fixed <a href> on tantek.com. STOP #SOPA -
2+ yrs of self-hosted tweets with nav: http://ttk.me/t43W1. Make it a 2012 goal to join the #indieweb and #ownyourdata
3 Jan 2012 | 1:59 am2+ yrs of self-hosted tweets with nav: http://ttk.me/t43W1. Make it a 2012 goal to join the #indieweb and #ownyourdata -
Another fire in SF. This one a bit too close. Port Zero intact, though evac was ordered while we were out at dinner.
2 Jan 2012 | 1:33 amAnother fire in SF. This one a bit too close. Port Zero intact, though evac was ordered while we were out at dinner. -
2011: Remembering, Reflecting, And Appreciating
1 Jan 2012 | 1:54 am2011 has been quite the year. It's been a year of both meeting incredible people, and unfortunately losing some as well. I feel fortunate for having friends old and new. A full year working with and now at Mozilla and the numerous smart and passionate folks there. The broader open web, open source, and indie web communities. And lastly and most lovingly my girlfriend Erin. We lost far too many greats in the tech world this year. Steve Jobs. Dennis Ritchie. John McCarthy. And lastly and most tragically, Ilya Zhitomirskiy. I briefly met Steve Jobs over ten years ago in an Apple Retailer in…
-
Studio Notes by Shai Coggins
-
Strictly Personal (Sorta’)
6 Feb 2012 | 4:01 amFor years I have resisted the idea of separating my personal and professional sides on this blog. I started off as a personal blogger over 12 years ago via shaicoggins.com. Then, I went “pro” shortly after on other blogs and sites. But, I have always had a place to put my professional blogging. As in, a place where I can talk about what people seem to want me to share the most about on a professional level: social media tips, content ideas, community guidelines… I always have had a place to blog about them outside of my personal blog. And, those times when I didn’t… -
POSSIBILITY – My 2012 Word of the Year
29 Jan 2012 | 4:47 am“We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.” – Thich Nhat Hanh It is always a challenge, choosing That One Word. You know, the word that I will look in to reflecting a lot for a full year. A focus word of sorts. Since 2008, I have been doing this practice. At the end of the year, I spend some time reflecting and considering the year that has passed and the year that is to come. And, at the beginning of the year, I choose a word that I wish to embrace for a full year. And this year, for me, is The Year of Possibility. Frankly, I nearly chose three… -
One Line a Day
6 Jan 2012 | 6:09 amI love keeping records and journals. I’ve got a huge collection of notebooks, sketchbooks, and other types of handmade books that prove my lifelong dedication to record-keeping. Over the last few years, however, I’ve slowly slipped from this beloved habit. The last couple of years were particularly bad. So bad, in fact, that last year, I decided NOT to keep any journals at all. At least no handwritten ones. Just my blogs and digital scribbles. A first, after so many years. So, this year, part of my goal is to get back to it. Keeping journals and records. I now have my traditional… -
Well, Hello 2012!
1 Jan 2012 | 6:31 amIt’s the first day of a new year, and I love being able to blog today. Why? It’s because it gives me the chance to start the year like how I want to spend the rest of it — doing things I enjoy. Blogging here at Studio Notes is one of those things. And, it’s a practice that I hope to continue with much more ardour, frequency, and tenacity. It’s also a great way to clear the “first post of the year jitters” away and just get on with it. With my first 2012 blog post out of the way, I can just write about the rest of the things that I wish to post here. -
A World of Good: My 2011 in Review
31 Dec 2011 | 8:54 amIf I were to describe my 2011 in one word, it would have to be: EPIC. How can any other word suffice when I’ve managed to pack so much more than I would ever hope to pack in one year? Life has changed so much for me within 12 months – both personally and professionally. The people I met, the places I’ve been, the things I’ve experienced… From stories I’ve shared all over the web to those I can’t even begin to write about. I’m just here to do a round-up of memories, as part of my annual tradition here at Studio Notes. Since I’ve done a semi…
-
terrainnova.org
-
Why cigars symbolize success
23 Jan 2012 | 5:37 am(credit) It’s been ages since I last wrote here but a lot has happened in the past couple of years. I co-founded a startup which didn’t go so well (a story to be told, for sure), I have been contributing to another which is moving on strong, I changed over to the industry described by the dreaded term of ‘social media consulting‘ (Greek) and last but definitely not least got married and became a father. Why come back to this blog after so long then? Well, the blog was never really abandoned in the back of my mind and all it needed was a bit of free time and an excuse. -
Respect, fame & money
11 Nov 2009 | 6:22 amImage by Sara Golemon via Flickr These days everyone seems to be making an app store. I think it all started (or at least became popular) with the iPhone releasing their SDK or – or was it with Twitter opening up their API? And then Android, Facebook of course, Yahoo, MySpace as well as any startup with a few miles behind them are opening up their platform so that 3rd party developers can create value for whatever it is they are making. And soon after that even more mainstream companies like Nokia and Vodafone weigh in by making their own platforms (more) available – something… -
Large followings’ advantage
8 Nov 2009 | 5:43 amImage by National Library NZ on The Commons via Flickr In a previous post I mentioned that most of the Greek TV channels main asset is live content: sports and music events is content that cannot be found elsewhere (neither online nor in competitors) so it keeps viewers faithful to their brand. But that’s not entirely true: live content is not their only remaining major asset much as TV channels like to think so. They have something else – the effect you get when many people start and keep following a source of information (in whatever medium). It doesn’t matter how bad or… -
Commoditizing live content
5 Nov 2009 | 5:46 amImage by Monica’s Dad via Flickr As I said in my previous post, Greek TV channels most sought-after content is live events (sports, music etc) which cannot be found elsewhere (neither in competitors nor online). Securing licenses for such content turns out as a major asset for such providers – and I can imagine that this holds not just for Greece but any and all countries. So what would it take for this last castle, which offers possibilities of monopoly to a single (or a few) providers, to fall? What would allow even live events to escape from the stranglehold of large, existing… -
Live content matters
2 Nov 2009 | 9:30 amA few months back I was talking to a guy who works at the Greek subscription channel Nova and he was telling me that the content most sought after by TV channels is none other than the coverage of live events. In Greece this means mostly football and basketball games and perhaps to a lesser extent other sports and music concerts. Image via Wikipedia And there’s good reason for that. As broadband use and torrents’ downloading increases any type of content other than live offered by the provider can be found online. Films can be downloaded, news and information can be found in many…
-
Bare Feet Blog
-
Can Social Media Save Hawaii’s Beaches and Land?
24 Jan 2012 | 2:02 amSaving Hawaii’s beaches and open space is a widely shared commitment – not just among those of us who live here but even more so perhaps for the millions of visitors to Hawaii! Everyone is invited, as even those of you who may never visit have likely experienced calm and inspiration from looking a Maui sunset or listening to the rhythm of the waves while watching an episode of Beachwalks.tv. I am part of the social media team that is helping raise funds for the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust (HILT) on January 28, 2012 and their annual fundraiser. We are putting social media to a… -
Summary of New Media Artist-in-Residence Program
1 Jan 2012 | 4:01 amIt is the last day of 2011 and I want to add an exclamation point of gratitude on each of my blogs – most of which suffer from neglect from me. It was my friend and Maui blogger Liza Pierce’s idea: let’s all write a blog post for January 1st! So, I’ve set this to post just one minute in to the new year. Happy New Year! I am starting on this blog, as this is the easy one! (I have at least three more I am aiming for.) This past year, I was hired by the Lānaʻi Visitors Bureau (LVB) to run a social media marketing campaign for them, based on a very original… -
How to Contribute to an Open Playlist on Spotify
11 Dec 2011 | 7:12 pmMy colleague and brilliant marketer, Tara Coomans, created an open playlist on the music sharing service Spotify, and has invited anyone to help beef up the party mix for our annual Hawaii Social Media Year in Review partee. Yes, of course you are invited! But about the Spotify Playlist: Great idea! I thought. But it is easier said than done. So here is a quick cheat sheet. Of course, you will require a Spotify account before you can add any songs to the playlist. Visit Spotify and set up your account. Then navigate to Tara’s playlist. Then click the “I have Spotify” button… -
The Social Cost of Unpaid Tweetup Teams
23 Nov 2011 | 6:28 pmAs the founder of the Social Media Club Hawaii chapter and a very active social media consultant here in Hawaii, I am often invited to attend events and receive services for free in exchange for social media buzz – aka tweeting, facebooking, photographing, and videoing about my experiences. Though I thoroughly enjoy myself when I am on site and do pour myself into the activities at hand, I have this persistent nag of discomfort. I’ve been letting it percolate as I gather information and sort out all of the energies that are in play – just what my “systems… -
Thank You Steve
5 Oct 2011 | 11:08 pmFirst, mahalo to Apple for giving us such a stunning home page in honor of Steve’s passing from this world. I am bursting with feelings tonight as I write this post. Which could go in so many directions. What I take from him and the way he lived his life is the feverish attachment to being who he was. He was a perfectionist, and not afraid of it. He was odd, and not afraid of it. He was brilliant, and not afraid if it. He was emotional, even tyrannical, and not afraid of it. Many will suggest that more companies should be perfectionistic, or cultivate oddness, or confuse brilliance with…
-
Social Media Marketing
-
Foursquare in Context
29 Jan 2012 | 10:11 pmIf you're a regular user of services like Twitter or Foursquare, you've undoubtedly been met with skeptics and naysayers who wonder aloud, "Why would I want to tell anyone what I'm having for lunch?" or "Why would I care if someone is having a ham sandwich?"Fair enough, but the inquisitors fail to take into account the all-important factor in any conversation, whether it's in person or online: context.Context is what allows us to make sense of much of the world around us. "He's so bad!" could have two very different meanings, depending on the the rest of the conversation surrounding it. With… -
Social Media and Travel
26 Jan 2012 | 11:37 pmIf you're like me, you spend a good deal of time on the road. Whether it's at an airport, on a train or in a car, you're mobile and your digital life is mobile too.The pervasiveness of tablets and smartphones (in addition to the already ubiquitous laptop) is growing daily. Just this week, Apple announced that it sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone. It means that more of us are doing things on the web (or mobile web, as the case may be) while we're on the go, and there are certain things those of us in the digital world look for when we travel -… -
Revealing a New Ford in a New Way
13 Dec 2011 | 8:00 pmFord Motor Company has been at the forefront of social media for some time. The Fiesta Movement, the Explorer reveal on Facebook, Doug the Spokespuppet, Ford Social (formerly known as The Ford Story) and being the first brand on Google+ all stand as examples of Ford's success that spans from clever campaigns to a daily commitment to engage.Ford played a significant part in how the automotive industry thinks about social media (and in some cases how large companies think about social media) and now, as we near the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), at Ford we have an… -
Infographic: 5 Companies That Are Rocking Social Media
29 Nov 2011 | 10:47 amThis infographic was created by Voltier Digital, a content marketing agency based in Florida, specializing on the creation and promotion of impactful content marketing campaigns for businesses of all sizes.We all know the usual names of companies that are doing well in social media. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the lesser-knowns and why they've had success, either on an ongoing basis or with some one-off efforts that stood out.And since infographics are all the rage, what better way to look at them? Of course, for SEO purposes, I've listed them here as… -
Twitter Business Guide
7 Oct 2011 | 10:53 pmI was recently introduced to a compact guidebook for businesses trying to get a sense of Twitter. The microblogging site that allows you to update in no more than 140 characters at at time is deceptively complex and nuanced - especially for a newcomer.This short guide, entitled Twitter Business Guide: Communication and Marketing was written by Jean-Christophe Barré and Dr. Andreas Schroeter and in just 32 pages covers some of the things that may be keeping you and your business away from this platform. For someone who is new to Twitter, this e-book will prove a helpful compass as you…
-
EveryJoe » Work
-
Newt Gingrich Doesn’t Have Eye of the Tiger
30 Jan 2012 | 5:51 pmNewt Gingrich is in trouble. And this time, it doesn’t involve an ex-wife or the polls. Gingrich is in trouble for allegedly using the song “Eye of the Tiger” without permission. He’s being sued for unspecified damages in an Illinois federal court. “Eye of the Tiger” is owned by Rude Music Inc. and was made famous in Rocky III. Rude Music Inc. says that Gingrich has used the song ever since 2009. They reportedly have evidence that he used the song in 2009, 2010 and 2011. In addition to unspecified damages, Rude Music Inc. also wants the judge to order Newt… -
Fox Morning Show Co-Anchor Greg Kelly Accused of Rape
26 Jan 2012 | 4:46 pmGreg Kelly, the co-host of FOX’s “Good Day New York” and the son of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, has been accused of rape. Not only does the 30-year-old paralegal claim the sexual assault occurred, she also says that she got pregnant and subsequently had an abortion as a result of the attack. The Manhattan district attorney’s office is investigating the allegation, and Kelly has not been charged with any crime as of yet. However, he has “strenuously” denied the charge through his lawyer. The alleged rape occurred back on Oct 8 when the two allegedly met on… -
Could Facebook Shut Down Over SOPA & PIPA?
17 Jan 2012 | 1:30 pmIf you are like many people, you are reading a lot about SOPA and PIPA right now. To get the lowdown, check out this post about how SOPA/PIPA can affect you. Also, watch this video about understanding SOPA and PIPA, and find out if Facebook could actually shut down. Though Wikipedia is going dark over SOPA/PIPA tomorrow. Many companies actually support SOPA, from ABC to Visa. Allison Boyer of BlogWorld has a good piece about Why SOPA Scares the You-Know-What Out of Me that talks about a lot of worrisome loopholes. You should also read this article from Daily Kos about the repeated blows SOPA… -
Wikipedia to Go Dark on Wednesday to Protest SOPA & PIPA
17 Jan 2012 | 10:13 amThe U.S. government is currently considering to bills that are causing quite a stir — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). According to TechCrunch, “Websites found to offer pirated content, along with the services that they use, could be hidden from US internet users by being delisted on search engines and potentially on DNS servers themselves.” Many people believe with these bills, we’d be heading down a slippery slope and the legislation could threaten free speech. Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales has decided to send a message by going dark for… -
How Twitter Can Backfire
17 Jan 2012 | 9:08 amIf you own a business, you might rush out and put your business on Twitter. While this is a good idea most of the time, you should also be aware of how Twitter can backfire and hurt your business. Check out our list below to see if your company is in danger. Lack of Updates If you have a Twitter page for your business that isn’t updated regularly, people may think your business is unreliable. Or they may think your business is out of business. Sounding Like Spam If all you use Twitter for is to talk about your products without any other sort of interaction, your company may get a…
-
Ignite Social Media
-
Pinterest and Threadless, Japan, Top Chef, Foodie.com – Topics That Are Igniting
13 Feb 2012 | 12:33 pmThreadless Launches a Valentine’s-themed Pinterest Contest Last week, the folks over at Threadless announced a fun Pinterest contest just in time for Valentine’s Day. To enter, contestants needed to make a board titled “Threadless Vday challenge” specifically for the person they have in mind. They then had to add 10 pins to the board that would make great gifts for their special person, with at least 5 being Threadless products. One lucky pinner will get $100 in Threadless cash and a $100 Amazon gift card so they can get their special someone something special. Japan… -
Starburst: Facebook Fan Page Example #14
9 Feb 2012 | 7:47 amThe next stop in our Facebook Fan Page Example series is Starburst. This brand has built a sizable following of about 10.4 million fans but has it taken full advantage of this opportunity to engage them? Let’s take a closer look to find out. Starburst Landing Tab: Wall When users come to the Starburst fan page for the first time, they land on the wall. The numerous fan postings on this tab show the positive sentiment consumers have for the product. However, the wall lacks a call to action and does little to share brand messaging with page visitors. Starburst has long established itself as… -
Disney Parks Prove to be Big on Magic, Short on Social Media
8 Feb 2012 | 7:48 amRecently, my family and I went to Orlando to escape the arctic tundra that is the North Carolina winter and go to the happiest place on Earth. While there, I figured I’d see what kind of social media efforts were present within the Disney parks. As the Disney Corporation is one of the great marketing forces on the planet, I figured it would be a time for me to take notes and learn from the great masters behind the Mouse. However, what I found was quite to the contrary. My first stop was at Epcot (my personal favorite). I whipped out my smartphone and started looking for @Epcot so that I… -
NASA, Reuters, NASCAR, Social Media Project – Topics That Are Igniting
7 Feb 2012 | 12:08 pmNASA Releases First Multiplayer Facebook Game NASA recently launched its first online game for the social media age, Space Race Blastoff. Available through NASA’s Facebook page, the multiplayer game challenges players with trivia of NASA history, technology, science, and pop culture. Players who correctly answer questions earn virtual badges depicting astronauts, spacecraft, and astronomical objects. David Weaver, NASA’s associate administrator for communications hopes the game opens up NASA to a wide new audience of people accustomed to using social media. Reuters Debuts… -
Social Media Marketing Examples from Super Bowl XLVI
6 Feb 2012 | 1:54 pmLast year, I made a few predictions about this year’s Super Bowl 46. And most of them actually came true. This year we saw the first ever QR code integration into a Super Bowl ad, over 20 ad leaks on YouTube before the big game and a better use of hashtags in commercials. While I still think improvements can be made building more integration into traditional advertisements with social campaigns, here are a few examples from this year: Jumping on the ‘Volkswagen’ Last year, Volkswagen broke ground by releasing their ‘The Force‘ Super Bowl commercial early on YouTube…
-
SocialButterfly
-
What’s In A Campaign? That Which We Call Change
8 Feb 2012 | 9:08 pmAs the science behind social change evolves, how we approach our work must too. And sometimes, it is just symantics. But sometimes, it’s not. It’s a difference in mentality. Take the idea of a “campaign” for example. The word campaign itself brings with it assumed processes, methods and associations. It also ranks up there with “awareness” as one of the most overused and over-relied upon words in public health. We can do better. The word-of-mouth company, Brains on Fire, wrote a brilliant manifesto on the inherent differences between a campaign and a… -
Is Talking About Spirituality and Social Change Taboo?
23 Jan 2012 | 10:44 pmWhat shapes your world view? How does your world view influence your work to change the world for the better? Growing up, we’re told we shouldn’t talk about two things: politics and religion. Yet these two things often help set the foundation of one’s world view. How do we go about changing the world for the better if we can’t talk about either? It’s not realistic--Is it? www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXfD5SJgPqo “If I hear one more politician croak out the words that his or her faith is a private matter, I may just have to go smack them. That is so not reality. -
Passion Meets Purpose – Let’s #Rock2012
13 Jan 2012 | 10:24 pmHow are you applying purpose to your passion? Between blogging with Razoo and working at IQ Solutions on fun projects such as launching Healthy People 2020 and our Nation’s Leading Health Indicators, it’s been awhile. There are two announcements I want to share: Evolving Beyond the Free Agent Fundraiser Jo Rampy crossing the finish line at the inaugural TRI 2 Encourage with her family. My family and I (pictured above) have launched a nonprofit foundation to help advance multiple sclerosis research called the Rampy MS Research Foundation. Our vision? Find a cure for MS within our… -
Social Media Is Not a Marketing Strategy
20 Nov 2011 | 8:40 pmThere, I said it. Social media in and of itself is not a strategy (gasp). It does not replace a solid marketing approach or even a communications plan. To be successful, it must be integrated into a larger strategic framework. This applies to organizations as well as programs, initiatives and (my dreaded word) campaigns. Harvard Business Review recently published an article titled “Separate Social Media From Marketing:” …we need to break out social media and talk about more than marketing and technology. Instead, we need to talk about what social media enables: the ability… -
Reading Up On Social Determinants of Health
10 Oct 2011 | 9:29 pmOctober may be Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but a number of articles came out last week focusing on social determinants of health. The phrase “social determinants of health” refers to health where we live, learn, work, play (and pray). In short, Health with a capital H. U.S. Life Expectancy Rises, Health Disparities Increase Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shared its review of Healthy People 2010. The report shared that as a Nation, we had met or were moving toward meeting, 71% of the disease prevention and health promotion objectives we set in…
-
Technosailor.com
-
TUTORIAL: Using WordPress’ Ajax API
8 Feb 2012 | 11:46 amWordPress has tons of APIs to do tons of things. It really does. One of the cool ones that I’ve been using a lot lately, has been around for a bit. It’s the Ajax API. Sure, you could write your own Ajaxy thing but why do that when WordPress lets you do it all very simply. This tutorial will show you how to replicate the functionality that is presented in the “Like” button at Facebook. It assumes that you have WordPress set to require users to be logged in to take such actions. It wouldn’t make much sense for someone to not be logged in for such functionality. -
Blackouts, Boycotts and Regressing From Progress
30 Jan 2012 | 3:54 pmA couple of weeks ago, the United States, and in fact, the world saw the internet grow up. Namely, through the use of blackouts – a previously unused tactic of protest and grassroots organizing – we saw the evil Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and it’s evil twin Protect IP (PIPA) anti-piracy legislation fail in what seemed like an instant. Back in December, it became clear that Congress would hearken to their corporate sugar daddys and shove these two pieces of legislation through the Congress without so much as a minimal amount of input from the technology world that would… -
Congratulations, Internet. We Won the Day.
19 Jan 2012 | 2:05 pmToday, I feel like a proud poppa. I don’t want to get too celebratory and put out some kind of aura that our battle against SOPA and PIPA are over. In fact, neither are over. But I’ll get to that in a minute, because yesterday was AMAZING! Yesterday, we saw the Internet come of age. We’ve seen the trend. The Internet has played a crucial role in the Arab Spring, political activism and fundraising as seen in the Obama election campaign in 2008, news reporting as seen in the incident of the US Airways jet in the Hudson River. We’ve seen a definite maturation process on… -
Open Letter to Congressman Lamar Smith Regarding SOPA Championing
18 Jan 2012 | 1:55 pmAn email sent to the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who insists on pushing the SOPA bill through committee. Dear Mr. Smith- This is an open letter which will be published online, and promoted on Facebook, Twitter and other networks. As a Texas resident, I find it egregious that you have decided to sell out so uniformly to the entertainment industry. It is so transparent, in fact, that federal records show that your biggest donor are from the holding company for Clear Channel and your biggest campaign contributions come from the entertainment industry itself. -
Your Fiefdom Doesn’t Matter (Or Get your Head out of Your Regional Startup Ass)
5 Jan 2012 | 2:58 pmPhoto used under Creative Commons. Taken by Fellowship of the Rich There’s this thing called Protectionism. Protectionism is largely a political word used to describe the retreat to self-isolationism for the sake of preserving well-being. It was a word tossed around in late 2008 and 2009 after the market crash when the international community joined together to try to stave off a global economic failure. There were some who believed the United States had their own issues and shouldn’t be worrying about bailing out Europe. This mentality still exists, for better or for worse. But…
-
Marketing Roadmaps
-
Brief report on blog monetization panel at Family Travel Conference
11 Feb 2012 | 1:12 pmImage by Getty Images via @daylife Last week, I was privileged to participate on a panel about blog monetization at the inaugural Family Travel Conference . In my presentation I talked a bit about the different ways to make money with your blog as well as some of the considerations if you decide to go the advertising route, including the advantages of working with an ad network. My fellow panelists were Steve Bookbinder of Digital Media Training, Tim Springstead of Travora (formerly the Travel Ad Network), and moderator Michael Theodore of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. In the… -
Is Facebook the new website?
31 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pmThis weekend is the Super Bowl, and while I will be paying slightly more attention to the game because the Patriots are playing, my main interest is in the advertising. This year, I will be watching closely to see how many commercials drive to Facebook pages, in addition to or instead of, a website. Because Facebook is clearly where so many brands are going these days. It reminds me a little of the “web rush” in the mid/late 90s when mainstream brands realized what many tech companies had grokked since the first browser in 1993, that the browser had changed the marketing equation… -
Facebook just wants “to be a real boy”
10 Jan 2012 | 10:03 pmThis is the time of year when some folks trot out the tarot cards and crystal balls, and attempt to predict the coming year. And others wax eloquent (mostly) on what transpired in the year just past. Over the 7 years I have been writing this blog, I have generally tried to stay away from this sort of post. This year, however, that is pretty much what you are going to get. There are a few trends that I have been watching for a while now, always intending to post about them but never quite having the time. Here’s the first. Facebook just wants “to be a real boy” and… -
Should you work for free?
21 Oct 2011 | 3:15 pmThe social media “industry” is built on the back of people doing “stuff” for free. The business models of most social networks — Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Flickr, YouTube etc. etc. — depend on consumers using the free/”freemium” services and thereby creating both the free content that attracts and retains users, and more importantly, a mine-able database. People. Topics. Linkages (who are your friends, what do you like, where do you go). Marketing gold. And the companies are reaping the benefits of our “work” in potentially… -
BlogHer Visionaries
1 Oct 2011 | 2:44 pmFor the past few weeks, I’ve been working on the launch of BlogHer’s new consumer panel, Visionaries. I’m very excited about the possibilities we have with the panel to connect the BlogHer audience with brands. Once or twice a month, we’ll be sending panel members a survey or perhaps even an offer to try a free product. The first trial offer is in the field — sign up for Visionaries now and get a full 12-ounce bottle of Dove® Body Wash with NutriumMoisture™. Click here to join.
-
The Social Customer Manifesto
-
Counting “Fans” And “Followers” Is The HFCS Of Social Engagement
13 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pmEarlier this month, the NYTimes took a deeper dive into the idea of “good attention vs. bad attention.” I wanted to keep the ball rolling on this idea, as it’s fundamental to thinking about social engagement with (and as) customers. Although many of us are working in or with enterprises in a role related to connecting with customers, we need to do a shift in perspective. For right now, put on your “customer” hat; we all are customers, in addition to trying to connect with them. Through that lens, ”good attention” is the type of attention you pay… -
Good Attention vs. Bad Attention
5 Feb 2012 | 4:44 pmThe confluence of the Super Bowl and its focus on immense ad spend, coupled with speaking at last week’s NetPromoter conference triggered a thought. Are there two kinds of attention (let’s call them “Good Attention” and “Bad Attention”), in the same way that there are two kinds of profits? We know that there are two kinds of profits. Good profits are profits that fuel growth, and come from serving customers in such a way that they are willing to recommend your organization to others. Bad profits, conversely, are the types of profits where the customer feels… -
Social Engagement Journey Video
15 Jan 2012 | 1:39 pmCheck out this fun little video on the Social Engagement Journey that our team in Seattle just put together. -
Social Business 2012 Presentation
29 Nov 2011 | 4:08 pmI’ll be speaking about social business strategy at the ASAE Technology Conference and Expo CIO Summit next week in Washington, DC. There are three key components to the conversation. 1) The Social Engagement Journey The Journey is the recognizable progression of social engagement capabilities that a large enterprise goes through on its way to becoming a social businesses. 2) The Relationship Progression While the “purchase funnel” has been well understood for years, there is a comparative dearth of conversation around how business relationships progress over time. A… -
This Week’s Social Business Jam
11 Nov 2011 | 12:48 pmA number of luminaries participated on this week’s W3C Social Business Jam, including Doc Searls (pictured), Alex “Sandy” Pentland and the inventor of the web itself, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. A jam is “an online conversation among leaders in business, government and technology about the current state of social business, the future role that social technologies can play in improving the bottom line, and how social technology should evolve in order to support business objectives.” There were a number of deep conversations, which generated over 1,100 posts on the…
-
The Blogging Times
-
5 Mini SEO Tips to Help You Get an Edge on the Competition
22 Jan 2012 | 10:09 am -
Jeremy Wright: Making it easier for people to do all the hard crap around blogging
16 Jan 2012 | 11:36 amWhat have you been up to lately? I assume by “lately” you mean since leaving b5media a couple of years ago? If so, I’ve spent the last few years figuring out what I love, simplifying my life and balancing my career between agency life (PR/Marketing), startup life and book writing/speaking. These days that means I’m VP, Digital at OSL Marketing (a large agency in Toronto), as well as CEO at 23press and working on a book (Networking for Introverts). I’ve also recently become a big biker, my baby is a Yamaha FJR-1300 and she’s so pretty! What is 23Press? -
Turn your WordPress site to a mobile app via Appifier
15 Jan 2012 | 9:46 amIf you want to turn your WordPress site into a mobile app, then Appifier is your solution. The new service creates actual mobile applications with push notifications, offline access, social media sharing, and of course, the look and feel of an app. This is not a free service though, so be ready to shell out the $39.99 monthly fee. [via Techcrunch] -
Websites to protest against SOPA with a blackout
14 Jan 2012 | 9:25 amOn January 18, that’s a Wednesday, websites like Reddit, Mozilla, MoveOn, Tucows, Cheezburger, Fail Blog, Dailywh.at, Good.is, Twitpic, Free Software Foundation, will go dark to protest the Internet censorship bills. If you run a website or would like to urge others to do so, pass the word here Strike Against SOPA. -
WordPress wants you to help in stopping SOPA/PIPA
11 Jan 2012 | 9:43 pmWordPress has officially released its stand regarding the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act (SOPA/PIPA). In stressing their strength in opposing SOPA/PIPA and calling on others to oppose, WordPress said: We are not a small group. More than 60 million people use WordPress — it’s said to power about 15% of the web. We can make an impact, and you can be an agent of change. Go to Stop American Censorship for more information and a bunch of ways you can take action quickly, easily, and painlessly. The Senate votes in two weeks, and we need to help at least 41 more senators see…
-
Koka Sexton dot Com
-
3 Social Media Apps Every Marketer Should Use
13 Feb 2012 | 7:09 amIf you are responsible for monitoring and engaging with your Twitter community, here are a few applications that you should be using. These applications and some elbow grease from you and your team will provide results like what I posted earlier on how social media engagement drives new followers. I wish there was one app that could do all of the great things these can do collectively but I have not found one yet. These are the top social media applications I use on a regular basis and what I find most valuable about them. Sprout Social Hands down one of the best applications for a team… -
Social Media Engagement Drives More Followers
21 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pmA few weeks ago I tasked the team to pay closer attention to the community we have developed on Twitter. The goal was to see if being more engaged with our community would drive more fans and followers. It seems like common sense but I wanted to test it out just to make sure the extra time spent would result in an increase. I’ll be the first to say that the number of followers you have is not the most important metric. In fact companies that think that numbers are the most important metric, miss the point of what social media is all about. The metric should be based around the amount of… -
My iPad is the Hottest
21 Jan 2012 | 12:21 pmThis is a first for me. I guess my iPad gets just as worked up over Twitter and Facebook as I do. -
Too busy to blog?
22 Dec 2011 | 12:11 amInterrupting our regularly scheduled program of sorting through work emails and other social marketing tasks to actually right a blog post here on my blog that I have been neglecting. I haven’t been slacking. It’s been an exciting ride at InsideView this year. I just read my post from my first week at InsideView for the first time since I wrote it. Damn, we’ve accomplished alot since then. Complete social marketing / engagement plans, new websites, 153 blog posts, the launch of Social Selling University, roadshows, and learning more than I can express. But I’ve… -
Heading to Social Media Plus
14 Nov 2011 | 1:23 pmThis week I’m going to be in Philadelphia speaking at the Social Media Plus business summit. I was accepted as a speaker and will talking about Leveraging Social Media for B2B Sales Teams. SocialMediaPlus will consist of 21 seminars on real-world topics that will help you walk away with an understanding of how to effectively implement Social Media strategies inside your company. You will hear from marketing directors, technology professionals, and social media experts, telling you how they have used social media to build brand, interact with customers and generate revenue. I’m…
-
MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog
-
The Evolution of Social Business [Infographic]
13 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amA guest post by Haydn Shaughnessy. People are saying that 2012 is the year of social business—making social sound like one more passing fad. In fact, when you look into the background of what goes into the “social business movement,” the threads reach back a long way, giving social business far more momentum and much deeper roots than many people realize. There are three major strands in this infographic I helped produce for social business platform Global Dawn: Technology—which has been pushing businesses towards greater openness and collaboration for a decade. It has… -
Free Friday: Attend DMW to Broaden Your Content Marketing World
10 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amThe content universe is wider and broader than many folks imagine. Find out how to expand your content marketing by attending our free Digital Marketing World: Content Marketing virtual conference on March 9, 2012. This free virtual conference features three sessions to help you extend your definition of content marketing and learn more about: How to develop conversational content for your brand in social media. You can’t have a monologue in social media (and if you do, you will suffer a serious backlash from your followers). But how can you use this online conversation for your brand? -
Has Pinterest Broken a Golden Rule?
9 Feb 2012 | 1:26 pmWhy are we so concerned about a report by LL Social that popular online pinboard Pinterest is making money off our interactions when Facebook has been doing it for years—but with our much more personal information? Is it because more people understand affiliate marketing—and have experienced the spammy nature of its content? Or is it that most people just don’t understand how Facebook makes money from them? The interesting or perhaps biggest risk I see Pinterest facing is in the relationships it will now have (or perhaps, not have) with brands. The launch of Google + brand… -
The Biggest Challenge for Marketers: Engagement
9 Feb 2012 | 1:17 pmA recent McKinsey Quarterly study revealed that having the ability to engage their customers and leverage those relationships is the No. 1 digitally related challenge facing marketers today. The survey, which was conducted over a two-week period, queried nearly 800 marketing executives representing a wide range of industries from business-to-business marketing and business-to-consumer marketing. The results of the survey were quite fascinating insomuch as over 50% of the respondents indicated that engaging their customers and gleaning deep insights from those engagements is their most… -
How to Find ROI in the Multichannel Marketing Haystack
9 Feb 2012 | 8:51 amA guest post by Irv Shapiro of Ifbyphone. Admit it: Sometimes, you get knots in your stomach when you think about trying to attach measurable outcomes to all of your company’s multichannel marketing campaigns. The (sort of) good news is that you’re not alone. Even veteran marketers are having a tough time finding ROI in the ever-expanding haystack that is today’s multichannel marketing environment. But the unsettling news is that easy, online tracking tools and a shaky economy have created a C-suite expectation that every dollar spent must be connected to a quantifiable and measurable…
-
Digital Trends
-
Paralysed woman to walk London Marathon using robotic exoskeleton
13 Feb 2012 | 11:26 pmA British woman who was paralysed in an accident five years ago is planning to use a robotic exoskeleton to help her complete the London marathon in April. Claire Lomas, who will be raising money for charity by taking part, thinks it may take her up to three weeks to finish. -
Study: Apple beats Google as most likable company in the US
13 Feb 2012 | 11:22 pmApple makes America smile more than Google according to a new study from Harris Interactive. The tech industry overall has been perceived as aiding the ailing US economy. Is Apple the economic catalyst the public believes it is? -
iPad 3 launch date of March 7 looking likely
13 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pmRumors surrounding the next iteration of Apple's iPad have an altogether calmer feel about them following last year's iPhone speculation frenzy. Perhaps that means they'll actually be right this time. Well, we should all know soon, as the tablet is expected to be unveiled on March 7. -
Mattel plans to make ‘Back to the Future’ hover boards
13 Feb 2012 | 8:42 pmWith the popularity of the Back to the Future franchise spawning new video games and products, Mattel is the latest company to jump in the Delorean and race up to 88 miles per hour. -
New study: Users take tablets on a honeymoon, and into the bathroom
13 Feb 2012 | 8:23 pmA new study finds that tablet owners experience a "honeymoon," and take their mobile devices with them to some pretty intimate places.
-
Janet Fouts - Social Media Coach
-
Social Media Doesn’t Make Sales – People Do
8 Feb 2012 | 12:40 pmThere’s a deep, dark secret that the social media marketers don’t want you to know. It doesn’t matter what your social media strategy is unless it includes what you expect the prospect to do after they find you through social media. You can have the biggest following on Twitter and Facebook and Google+, the best videos on Youtube and a constant flow of repins on Pinterest and still not make a single sale. Whaaat? I know, social media is what I do, and I love it, but in the end it’s a tool. Just one of the tools you should have as part of your online marketing. -
#TakeBackthePink – @Komenforthecure’s social media nightmare
4 Feb 2012 | 12:59 pmI doubt you could have missed it by now, but just in case; Tuesday evening the story broke that the Susan G Komen fund pulled support from Planned Parenthood across the US. Rumors abound as to why they did it.Some say it was politically motivated. Komen says it was because their policies changed and because Planned Parenthood is under investigation. After a couple of days of sticking their head in the sand and hoping it would all blow over, Nancy Brinker, the founder of Susan G. Komen made this announcement: “We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned… -
Are Google+ Business Pages Replacing Facebook Pages?
19 Jan 2012 | 6:22 pmI speak a lot about Google+ as a tool for business. In fact I’ve just written a book called “Google+ for Business Tweet” and I’m presenting a second Focus.com Roundtable in February. So you might think my position would be that Google+ is the be-all end-all social media network for business and people should be pitching their blogs and Facebook pages out the window in favor of Google+. And there you’d be mistaken. Here’s the thing. Google+ is a social network with huge potential for businesses, but it’s best value is as an individual user, not a… -
Am I participating in the SOPA strike? You betcha!
18 Jan 2012 | 1:16 amOn January 18 websites all over the net will go dark from 8AM to 8 PM, and this will be one of them. Why? Well for one, because I still can. One of the most powerful things about the internet is that it is largely not controlled by government. Sure, I’m against piracy, but not if it means DNS filtering that could actually penalize lawful businesses. Not if it means messing with the Domain Name System and push users towards unreliable, less secure DNS servers just to avoid frivolous lawsuits, block “suspicions Foreign websites”, and squash the entrepreneurial spirit of the… -
How are you going to change the world in 2012?
4 Jan 2012 | 1:13 amMaddie Grant threw down a glove challenging a number of people to participate in a meme answering the question “How are you going to change the world in 2012?” It’s a great question. I love the chaos theory metaphor called the butterfly effect. The idea is that a small, relatively insignificant act can created marked and sometimes unexpected change. The flap of a butterfly’s wing can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world. Small business that we are at Tatu Digital Media, we have been fortunate to impact corporations and individuals and show them how to be…
-
SocialTimes.com
-
The Hyp Replacement: Multimedia Storytelling On Twitter, Tumblr, Blogspot and YouTube
13 Feb 2012 | 10:11 amSocial media has changed the face of storytelling. Characters, real and fictional, tell their stories in 140 characters or less on Twitter; filmmakers have found storytelling outlets in YouTube and Vimeo; stories are told on blogs, through all sorts of media from text to photos to news clippings, on Facebook walls and beyond. E.A Marciano, a Brooklyn-based writer, has turned to these channels to tell the story of four Brooklynites in The Hyp Replacement, an experimental literary project told through Twitter, Tumblr, Blogspot and YouTube. I had the opportunity to speak with Marciano to… -
Police Pay A Visit To The Dad That Shot His Daughter’s Laptop In YouTube Video
13 Feb 2012 | 9:17 amUnless you live under a rock you’ve probably seen the video of the dad shooting his daughter’s laptop that went viral last week. In the ‘Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen,’ which has been viewed over 21.1 million times since it hit YouTube last Wednesday, Tommy Jordan fires 9 rounds into his daughter’s laptop with his .45 after discovering a rant she wrote on Facebook about her parents. Wondering what’s happening with the family since the video has gone viral? Jordan shares it all on his Facebook page. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in… -
How Thrillist, JackThreads Use Facebook, Oink and Pinterest
13 Feb 2012 | 8:27 amFor online publishers who want more subscribers, it helps to think outside the inbox. There are now 100,000 Facebook fans of JackThreads, the members-only fashion site for men; and Thrillist, a free daily email offering tips on local food, shopping, and entertainment. Social media manager David Pessah told Social Times he’s always looking for new ways to repackage content on Facebook and emerging platforms like Pinterest and Oink. Here are some of his best strategies. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media. -
Parenting & Social Media Part 1 — 5 Tips to Keep Your Children Safe
13 Feb 2012 | 7:45 amAs a social media professional and as parent of a 12 year old girl and 10 year old boy I have a different perspective on the use of social media by my kids than the average parent. I am all too knowledgeable on the pluses of my kids using it and of the risks and dangers. I know the difference between hype and reality when it comes to my kids’ safety. As with all things, sometimes it’s best that kids learn things on their own and at other times we need protect them. We don’t leave dangerous drugs on the kitchen table when toddlers are around and so we need to approach social media the… -
Top 10 Whitney Houston Songs on Spotify
13 Feb 2012 | 6:19 amWhitney Houston, a recording artist, actress, producer, and model of incomparable talent died this past weekend in a Beverly Hills hotel. The singer has many qualities we’ll miss: her regal beauty, the way she kind of scrunches up her nose when she sings, but most of all, her voice. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
-
Biz Growth News - branding, business development and new media tips to attract more clients in less time
-
14 tips to help you be more productive ‘getting things done’ in 2012
30 Jan 2012 | 2:10 amNOTE: If you are based in Ireland and are looking for expert guidance and support in development of systems to enhance your productivity, you will find a special offer at the bottom of this article to access a 15% discountor a coming workshop on productivity. As we approach the end of the first month of the year how are you progressing with your objectives and goals? The chances are you started off the year with great expectations of all the things you wanted to achieve in the first quarter of the year, but one or two things have not gone to plan. Many of us find ourselves in the situation… -
Marketing To Women: research about digital influence and the female Irish consumer
11 Oct 2011 | 7:47 amI was delighted to be invited to deliver a presentation at the conference ‘Purse Power: How to Engage and Influence the New Irish Female Consumer’ hosted by RD Communications recently. It has been some time since I have been asked to specifically speak about marketing to a female audience but with around 300 attendees at the conference there is clearly an interest in this topic. As part of the preparation I also had the opportunity to get involved in Irish research developed for the conference and in collaboration with Rachel Dalton of RD Communications and Oisin Byrne of iReach. Here… -
Book Review: Twitter for Good – Change the world one tweet at a time, an essential guide to Twitter for non profits
6 Sep 2011 | 2:08 pmAre you still trying to get to grips using Twitter and are unsure how it can support your organisations goals, especially if you are a non profit? Then here is a book I highly recommend that you read – and make sure that you read to end of this article as for today only you can access the book at NO COST. The book is called “Twitter for Good: Change the world one Tweet at a Time” and is authored by Twitter’s own Claire Diaz-Ortiz who leads social innovation and philanthropy. I was delighted to receive access to”Twitter for Good” from Claire’s publisher Jossey-Bass… -
Using Twylah to attract more traffic from Twitter to your website or blog
18 Aug 2011 | 8:00 amAre you using Twitter to attract more traffic to your website or blog and boost your online visibility? Tweets don't have a long shelf life – just take a look at the analytics of your Tweets is you are using a tool to track the number of click’s on your links in Twitter and you will no doubt see a sharp spike on ‘click throughs’ around the time you send out the Tweet. Research has been done that demonstrates that you can get additional traffic by sending out your Tweets multiple times – in fact Guy Kawasaki talked about this on American Express open Forum… -
Book review: Business Networking – how to use the power of networking for business success by Heather Townsend
31 Jul 2011 | 1:22 pmThis is a first in a series of reviews of books that I have read recently and think you might enjoy over the Summer. Last week I ran a full day workshop about using Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook in your business and we had over 100 people attend. At the end of the session I hosted a break out group specifically about using these tools to help the delegates in their job search and one of the key themes I covered was the importance of integrating your networking plan across online and offline groups and associations. Many of us spend our time in the ‘real world’ not the…
-
Techipedia | Tamar Weinberg
-
How to Select an Interactive Marketing Agency
31 Jan 2012 | 7:42 amThis is a guest post by Brad Shorr. Check out his earlier posts on How to Hire Your Social Media Marketing Partner and How to Hire Your SEO Partner. It’s very difficult for small and mid-size firms to select the right interactive marketing agency — as evidenced by how often agencies get fired, and how frequently client-agency relationships subsist at a low level of productivity and mutual satisfaction. The best way to prevent agency angst is to select the right agency to begin with. Here are 25 selection criteria to help you do this. I’ve listed the most important ones first,… -
5 Things I’ve Learned from Running BizSugar
24 Jan 2012 | 7:03 amThis is a guest post by Anita Campbell. When my company, Small Business Trends, LLC, first purchased BizSugar in the summer of 2009, the best way I could describe it was as a miniature version of Digg, except that BizSugar focused soley on sharing information geared toward small and mid-sized businesses. This is still true. But as BizSugar has grown over the last couple of years, it’s also become a small business networking site where business owners can discuss issues, get and give advice, and gain insight into the ins and outs of running a small business. As the site has changed and… -
Attack of the Consumer! The Many Ways Consumers Can Put You Out of Business Online
17 Jan 2012 | 8:04 amThis is a guest post by David Rodnitzky. Having the best prices and largest selection of products means nothing on the Internet if you don’t back it up with incredible customer service. Treat customers badly and you will be out of business – period! Bad customer service will get you banned from major advertising networks, skewered in organic results, and ridiculed on social networks. Here are the top ways consumers can crush your business online. Advertising Bans If consumers complain about your business, your money won’t be green enough to buy advertising online. Both eBay and Amazon… -
How to Hire Your Social Media Marketing Partner
11 Jan 2012 | 7:51 amThis is a guest post by Brad Shorr. Want more? See How to Hire Your SEO Partner from November. After taking the social media plunge, companies quickly discover that it is vastly more complicated and time-consuming than they thought. The normal response is, HELP! But companies must avoid a panicky response, because hiring a social media marketing (SMM) partner requires careful study. As I’ll run down in a minute, SMM involves a wide range of activities that require totally different skills. So, First, we’ll take a look at what the activities are, to help clarify the type of support you… -
Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2011
5 Jan 2012 | 7:19 amIt’s my birthday and I have some great news! In January of 2011, I said that I’d make our Internet Marketing Posts of 2011 subscriber only. And I did. Many loyal readers have checked in on the newsletter throughout 2011 to get both evergreen content, the content that typically embraces these monthly updates, in addition to something completely new, monthly digital trends – the stuff you use for presentations and proposals, for arguing that social media and online marketing does have a firm place in today’s landscape. The newsletter, which was sent within the first…
-
Stay N Alive
-
Xydo Pivots to a New, Targeted B2B Content Model for Your Business Newsletter
8 Feb 2012 | 7:24 pmIf you're reading this, there's a good chance you clicked on a link from my newsletter to get it. If you didn't, go over to the right column of my blog and subscribe now! (or just click here) One thing I haven't been able to divulge until now is that there's an innovative company that I've been using to provide these weekly emails that provide customized news from my social news streams, and -
Path's Privacy Problems Aren't Path's - They're Apple's
8 Feb 2012 | 3:05 amThe world is up in arms about how the mobile application Path, which I covered here as one of the next social networks to watch, has been sending users' phone directory data back to the service. As someone that knows the founders and trusts what they'll do with the data, I didn't give it a second thought, but the concern is valid. I'd like to suggest that the problem isn't Path's though. In -
The Solution to Offshore Manufacturing is Technology, Not Politics
24 Jan 2012 | 10:56 pmIn The Biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, it talked about a meeting Steve Jobs had with President Obama. Jobs was quoted saying, '“You’re headed for a one-term presidency,” Jobs told Obama at the outset. To prevent that, he said, the administration needed to be a lot more business-friendly. He described how easy it was to build a factory in China, and said that it was almost impossible -
Defining Social Product Strategy Within the Organization - a New Role I Think Companies Should Pursue
11 Jan 2012 | 2:35 pmOver the last several years, as we've seen Social Media grow and mature within organizations, I've been in a bit of a struggle as I've tried to define my role at each organization. As a software developer and entrepreneur interested in product design and growth, I've been forced into this world of marketing, a world where developers typically avoid. I've grown to enjoy it, and I think I've -
There's Plenty of Room to Grow for Enterprise Social
7 Jan 2012 | 6:34 pmOn Thursday Altimeter Group released a report, titled "A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation", on the state of social media strategy in global corporations with over 1,000 employees. The report is quite telling, suggesting that most organizations in this category simply aren't properly aligning business values with social media strategy and lack the proper tools to manage their
-
Colin Walker - Social Thoughts
-
Social groupthink, or following the herd?
27 Jan 2012 | 9:07 amIn a new post over at Media Tapper Grace O’Malley poses some interesting questions: Is a social network, or other closed forum, bound to become self-serving to the point where its participants resent having to follow external links and is this hurting conversation? She asks if it has reached the point where we should not even bother posting those links as people will not follow the call to action. In essence, have we forgotten how to be social? Is social becoming a paradox where our behaviour is affected to the point that we can no longer truly converse? Are we suffering because the… -
Building Google’s beautiful new world.
26 Jan 2012 | 3:58 pmNow that all the pieces are in place and we know when the new privacy policy takes effect do we have a time-scale for the building of the Google+ social layer and, with it, Google’s beautiful new world? As has been reported, Google is seeking to create “services that people in the world will use twice a day just like a toothbrush” and “make those services beautiful, simple and easy to use” I posted earlier that the new Google+ naming policy allowing pseudonyms and Google’s single privacy policy were tying up the loose ends with regards to enabling full… -
Pseudonyms: paving the way to better Google+ integration.
26 Jan 2012 | 4:00 amThe integration of the Google+ “social layer” with other services has been slow but the recent policy changes could indicate we are in for some significant changes. You might also like to read the follow-up post Building Google’s beautiful new world. When Google+ launched its real names policy caused a stir but, as Google is vying to become an identity service, this was not unexpected. The key to identity is trust and Google would not have wanted to be involved with users creating “throwaway accounts” and hiding behind the anonymity they afford. Social on its… -
Google+ – meeting or managing expectations?
25 Jan 2012 | 5:12 amPeople Will Overlook Google Plus In Favour Of Other Networks. Shortly after Google+ launched as an invite only beta, I asked if Google+ met the expectations set for it after months and months of speculation as to what Google’s next social offering would be. This new post at Media Tapper follows on from this now that the service has been up and running for more than 6 months. Great expectations Our expectations were initially formed from our time using the existing social networks at the time – Facebook and Twitter taught us how these services should run so we combined this experience… -
Social search: protectionism and semantics.
23 Jan 2012 | 6:12 pmNow that Google+ is gaining popularity is there a conflict of interest between the social network and search? Is Google right to focus on promoting its own content? Just when you thought the furore over Search Plus was abating pending the antitrust investigation by the FTC then we get engineers from Facebook, Twitter and MySpace providing a proof of concept bookmarklet which reworks Google’s personalised results to include sources other than Google+ in an attempt to better “Focus on the user“. By way of debate, Jon Mitchell throws an interesting argument in to the pot saying…
-
Social Media Mom
-
The History and Evolution of the Businessman
30 Jan 2012 | 4:15 pmReading time: < 1 minute Sometimes it is hard to imagine a time before the internet and social networks - even as new as they are. These avenues of communication have completely changed the course of business, and thus, the businessman. Business MBA recently launched an infographic that takes us back to a time when prehistoric man made survival his business, we meet the poets of the renaissance, the discoverers of new worlds, and eventually a generation with the world at their fingertips who has proven to be unlike any other. From: Business MBA -
Win Free Tickets To ABC’s, The Revolution
25 Jan 2012 | 8:39 amReading time: 1 – 2 minutes If you are a fan of Ty Pennington, or of daytime talk shows, or of living a better life – this is your chance to be front and center. ABC is offering free tickets to be a part of their new show’s live studio audience. This is a wonderful opportunity. I am very impressed with the entire premise of the show. Here on Social Media Mom, we often talk about living a better and more balanced life, which is the idea behind The Revolution. When it comes to style, adventure, health, and fitness – The Revolution is doing its part to make people happy… -
A Guide To Travel Therapy Jobs
18 Jan 2012 | 12:15 pmReading time: < 1 minute Many of us spend our lives looking for that dream job, and in this economy, we are forced to take what we can get. This is part of the reason Onward Healthcare's new infographic resonated with me. It is always reassuring to see industries that help job creation. This particular career track is interesting because: you can live comfortably off of it, you have the resources to help others, and you get to travel the country. Check out the following infographic for more information on this career, and let us know if you know anyone in this field or are interested in… -
Faces iMake App. Stimulates Creativity
16 Jan 2012 | 9:36 amReading time: 2 – 2 minutes The new app. for your iPhone and iPad, is an award winning activity for your kids. Your child will take everyday objects and make faces out of them. It helps your child to be more creative and stimulates right brain activity. The application was created by children’s book author, Hanoch Piven, and is loved by parents just as much as kids. Many parents have called it addicting, and say it even makes them feel they are being more creative. The game is easy and intuitive for your children, and has been said to be very helpful to children with… -
Apple To Apples: Tech vs. Fruit
11 Jan 2012 | 10:41 amReading time: < 1 minute I came across a great infographic, by MBA Online, that I thought was so clever. This was a very interesting way of getting cool stats on America's favorite technology, and Russia's favorite fruit. It should also be no surprise that most of our apples, and all of our Apples come from China. I hope this brings some joy to your wednesday! Created by: MBA Online
-
Quick Online Tips
-
How to Create Resource Pages for Your Blog
11 Feb 2012 | 9:31 amResource pages can help show your visitors the best your blog has to offer. A resource page is basically a collection of internal links to posts you made revolving around a given topic. A visitor looking for specific information on that topic can find it quickly and more easily in a well-organized resource page than normal blog navigation aids such as categories and archives could. The Benefits of Resource Pages Creating resource pages is beneficial for the blog owner for several reasons. It can help to: increase average visit lengths encourage people to come back to your blog showcase… -
How to Fix Feedburner Feeds That Do Not Update
9 Feb 2012 | 11:32 amWe use the Google Feedburner to distribute our RSS feeds, but how to fix Feedburner feeds which do not update? When you update your blog, the RSS feed updates, then pings Feedburner, syncs your feeds and Feedburner grabs the latest content. But what if the feed does not update? … and we had a chance to experience this today as Feedburner feed would simply not sync, and not update. Here is what I did… Feedburner Feeds Not Updating 1. Check original source feed – has it updated? When you use caching plugins, there is a high chance your feed is cached and when pinged bots… -
Switched WP Super Cache to Quick Cache
9 Feb 2012 | 2:03 amWe have switched over from WP-SuperCache to QuickCache as the primary WordPress caching plugin for our site. We have used WP-SuperCache for over 5 years now and it is one of the best caching plugins out there. WP-Super Cache However, since the release of the latest version, there were some buggy issues and we were unable to delete the cache. It was getting tedious to FTP inside the server and manually delete the cache. Then repeatedly reinstalling the plugin, some strange kind of 403 errors occured. It was time to try a new caching plugin… Kindly note these are isolated issues… -
How to Find Thin Content on Your Site
7 Feb 2012 | 9:36 amSite traffic hit by Google Panda? It is essential to find thin content on your site and remove it to avoid being slapped by Google algorithm penalties like Google Panda, which specifically target to reduce search engine rankings to sites with thin content. What is Thin Content? Simply put it is poor content, low quality content, few words of content which is classified as ‘low quality’ by search engines and fails to generate any significant search engine traffic. So basically it adds to the site bloat and reduces your link equity value. Note that low pageviews does not necessarily… -
Highlight Tumblr Posts for More Site Traffic
5 Feb 2012 | 12:10 pmNow you can highlight Tumblr posts for $1 only and feature your outstanding content to your followers. By just spending $1, your blog post will get highlighted and stand out in the dashboards of all your Tumblr followers, neatly set apart with a custom sticker to add to the extra visibility. Highlight Tumblr Posts I noticed a new option has appeared when you post a new article at the bottom right corner, titled “Highlight this post”. This gives you a choice of text across various categories and also allows you to choose from various logos (besides the default Bolt) and colors.
-
PR-Squared - Social Media Marketing and Public Relations
-
Wikipedia for Marketers: The Last Word
13 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amThis is a guest post by David King, a Wikipedia expert who respectfully disagrees with our agency’s policies, and asked if he could make his case. Since I am a lifelong student, a mensch (and looking for some fresh blog content), I agreed. Take it away, David… SHIFT Communications gets Wikipedia. The holy waters of neutrality. The feverish protection against marketers. The religious fanaticism for verification. They even acknowledge a history of misbehavior by marketers, something not many are willing to swallow. And it’s true that as an industry we’ve done terrible… -
Open Letter to Havas CEO David Jones
8 Feb 2012 | 10:12 amHi Mr. Jones. I caught your MSNBC interview this morning with Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski re: your new book, Who Cares Wins: Why Good Business is Better Business. You made some excellent points re: how transparency, authenticity and speed will win the day for corporations; about how companies who expect to do well must increasingly expect to do good, as it is becomes ever easier for consumers to suss out egregious behavior and punish bad actors (from un-friending to public humiliation). This is all well-worn territory for Social Media geeks, of course, but it’s always good… -
Facebook IPO is Good for Everybody
6 Feb 2012 | 8:35 amDepending on who you ask, the Facebook IPO will result in boundless glory or is destined to be remembered as the final pinprick in an impending burst of the current tech bubble. For my part, whereas in the past I likened Facebook to previous Walled Garden successes like AOL (the AOL of the early 90′s, not the AOL of today – which is a SHIFT client!), in the past 18 months or so I’ve only been impressed by Facebook’s ability to embed itself across the larger, open expanses of the Web. It “rides alongside” us as we surf, versus dictating how and where we experience the… -
Susan G. Komen PR Disaster: Lessons Learned
3 Feb 2012 | 1:27 pmWow. It’s been nearly two weeks since my last blog post. Sorry about that. I was out sick. And wow, what a crazy time to sit on the sidelines… Facebook IPO. Hello! More on that in a future post. Susan G. Komen vs. Planned Parenthood. Sheesh! Let’s talk about that! (Caveat: I am a Blue State progressive; whose mother died of breast cancer; who marched on Washington as a college student in support of women’s rights; and whose dear-departed grandmother spoke with horror of the days prior to Roe v. Wade. Got all that? You’ve been warned.) Just as I started… -
It’s the End of the Web as We Know It … or, Speed Kills
23 Jan 2012 | 11:46 amThose of you who follow me on other social nets like Twitter or Facebook know that I am pretty opinionated when it comes to politics. Suffice to say that I am a card-carrying member of the “Liberal Coastal Elites.” (I try not to over-indulge or bore folks with it; and I certainly can play nice with my right-leaning friends.) I bring it all up only as a segue to the fact that I am a big fan of Andrew Sullivan’s Dish blog. Sullivan’s one of the big dogs in blogging; he’s been freshly-empowered by his move to the Daily Beast to experiment…
-
The Responsible Marketing Blog
-
Your name + your picture = LinkedIn ad
31 Jan 2012 | 12:01 pmI received the following message over the weekend from LinkedIn friend David Quinn that you definitely need to read: I really like LinkedIn, but as a person concerned about privacy and social networks, I believe that I have to point out a change to you. Without attracting too much publicity, LinkedIn has updated their privacy conditions and has now granted itself permission to use YOUR NAME AND PICTURE in any of their advertisements. Yes: Your name + your picture = A LinkedIn ad. Some simple actions to be considered by you: 1. Place the cursor on your name at the top right corner of the… -
It worked with Darth Vader. Why not Ferris Bueller?
30 Jan 2012 | 3:11 amVolkswagen’s “The Force” Volkswagen commercial was a huge hit with nearly 50 million views since its Super Bowl release last year. Here it is, in the unlikely event you haven’t seen it: Now, a 10 second trailer featuring Matthew Broderick has the internets abuzz wondering if a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off sequel in the works. With over four million views in three days, the video has gone viral. Rumor has it there’s no sequel, but instead it’s teasing an ad for the new Honda CR-V. Some enraged Ferris fans are dropping f-bombs, threatening to key Hondas,… -
Responsible Marketing LinkedIn group is heating up
28 Nov 2011 | 7:51 pmDid you know there’s a Responsible Marketing Group on LinkedIn? Yep, it currently has an international membership of 866 members, and the conversation has recently heated up recently. Check out a great conversation we’re having about Denny’s Maple Bacon Sundae, and feel free to join us as we discuss where commerce and conscience collide and/or come together. -
How, when and where we share on the web
4 Nov 2011 | 1:37 pmTake a few minutes to review these enlightening statistics from AddThis representing sharing trends over the last five years. A few highlights: Most active day for sharing: Wednesdays Most active time of day: 9:30 A.M. EST Most users click within the first two minutes 75% of clicks happen within the first day Interestingly, most shares are happening via good ol’ cut and paste. Who’d a thunk it? via Mashable -
Tums commercials gone wrong
14 Sep 2011 | 7:28 pmIn commercials, funny is money. So is sex. So when combined, sexually suggestive, funny commercials are usually bank. And the more sophomoric the humor, the more I usually like them. But these new spots for Tums antacid are just wrong — specifically these three: Inappropriately suggestive is funny when it makes sense, and is relevant to the product. But this is Tums antacid they’re selling, not condoms or 4-hour-erection Cialis. The production values for the spots are top notch, so Grey (Worldwide) obviously spent some bucks making them. But what does phallic food and orally fixated…
-
Web Strategy by Jeremiah
-
List of Corporate Social Strategist 2012 (Buyer/Brand Side, 1000+ Employees)
10 Feb 2012 | 7:33 pmSince 2008, I’ve been managing this important list for the industry. Yet again, it’s time for the annual publication of the list of Corporate Social Strategists at companies with over 1000 employees (enterprise class) that are spearheading, leading, and carving out social business at today’s modern corporation. The Corporate Social Strategist Defined Is the business decision maker for social media programs – who provides leadership, roadmap definition, and governance; and directly influences the spending on technology vendors and service agencies. While this position… -
Google+ Has a Perception Problem
9 Feb 2012 | 7:36 amRemember that smart kid who sat in the front of the class, but was ignored by the cool kids? That’s a good metaphor for what Google+ is going through. I’ve heard from corporate social strategists I should be cautious about how much time and how frequently I discuss this nascent social newtork, and I spoke to media from a Tier 1 this week who said “does anyone even go there anymore? It seems like a wasteland”. Furthermore take this damning image which has been viewed 11k times suggests Google+ is filled with Google employees –and that’s about it. In fact, in our data on Super bowl… -
Altimeter Webinar Recording: State of Social Media Management Industry
8 Feb 2012 | 12:08 pmThis week, Altimeter (myself and Andrew Jones, researcher) hosted a webinar stemming from the the recent report on Social Media Proliferation, which you can download the full report on this blog post. In the embedded slides and video below, you’ll be able to get additional insights on how we perceive how this market will change in the coming years: We’ll see a vendor shakeout, although expect pure play vendors of each of the five uses cases to remain Consolidation will occur from market forces of email marketing, web analytics, CMS, marketing automation, brand monitoring, support… -
Hey Retailers! Refine That Mobile Marketing Strategy (Altimeter Report)
7 Feb 2012 | 12:01 pmThis latest Altimeter Report, by my colleague Industry Analyst Chris Silva, focuses on how companies must develop a mobile marketing strategy. It sources research from 26 ecosystem contributors including brands, agencies, and technology providers. To learn more about this report, please register for the webinar in which Chris will provide deeper knowledge from the report. This report is powerful in a few ways, it indicates the growth the in space, referencing that 45% of all mobile phone users are carrying a smart phone, and the growth rate for tablets is 23% annually. The report also… -
Five Trends: How Brands Integrated Social, Mobile, and Web into 2012 Super Bowl Advertisements
6 Feb 2012 | 10:39 amBy Altimeter’s Jeremiah Owyang, Brian Solis, and Zak Kirchner Findings: Five Trends Indicate Cross Channel Integration a Mainstay. Super Bowl ads, while only representing the nation’s largest consumer facing ads are a bellwether for advertising trends for the remainder of the year. To best understand these trends, Altimeter Group’s research team analyzed each Ad in real time, and conducted analysis to best understand the advertising trends for 2012. Using Chicago as a middle ground, we reviewed all ads from kickoff till the game clock expired and found that trends out of 87…
-
Jon Burg's Future Visions
-
Making The Angry Hordes Work For You: Lessons From Ellen and JC Penney
8 Feb 2012 | 3:01 pmEarlier today the always insightful Geoff Livingston share a post highlighting the fear major corporations have of the angry mobs unfortunately common to social media. While this point is certainly valid, I have long believed that there is tremendous opportunity in utilizing advocacy and common sense to redirect that angry energy away from the brand and towards a common goal. For example, a few years back when one of my clients faced charges of customer abuse, I challenged them with creating an industry-wide customer bill of rights, raising the standard for their competition while inviting… -
The International Market Is The Next Great Piracy Frontier
6 Feb 2012 | 5:45 amDigital piracy thrives when there are no normative alternatives. We as a society will only accept the risk and bother of illegally downloading content when the legal alternative fails to deliver an equally accessible and reasonable priced in an acceptable format. For the past 15 years, digital content piracy thrived because legal options were not viable. It was too hard to get to legal content in the formats we wanted. Streaming and downloadable options were not available. Content was being bucketed into bulk purchases (albums) whereby we were forced to pay for content we did not want… -
Lessons Learned: Susan G Komen Vs Their Public
3 Feb 2012 | 12:10 amThere has been a bit of a social media/public policy kerfuffle over the past week regarding the Susan G Komen non-profit. SGK has done an incredible amount of good and is an organization I generally hold in high regard. Earlier this week word got out that SGK would not longer be offering cooperative services with Planned Parenthood. And then things went south. The public was concerned. They took to social media. They leveled accusations, highly charged political accusations. They posted on Facebook and Twitter. They swarmed the SGK Facebook page. They demanded answers. And… -
Should Brands Be Allowed To Filter Their Facebook Timelines?
29 Jan 2012 | 5:26 amFacebook's Timeline offers a summary of the user's FB life based on an algorithm that is in my experience, pretty reliable. Recent rumors suggest that brands may be getting their own Facebook Timelines as soon as the end of February. This unique platform would pose a number of challenges for a number of major brands, many of whom have invested a good deal of human and financial capital marketing on Facebook. Many brands would not be thrilled with a summary of their most engaging or active periods on Facebook. Any brand that has faced a crises or two knows the veracity and volume of… -
Digital Piracy Explained
22 Jan 2012 | 7:28 amnote: hardness includes cost.
-
Chris Saad
-
The Open Web Is Dead – Long live the Open Web
5 Feb 2012 | 7:54 amYesterday Robert Scoble once again declared that the Open Web was dead. His argument was that Apps and proprietary black holes like Facebook are absorbing all the light (read: users, attention, value, investment) and taking our beloved open platform right along with it. In his post, he kindly (but incorrectly) named me as the only person who really cares about the Open Web. While that’s flattering, I think he’s wrong about me being the only one who cares. But he is right about the Open Web. It’s in real danger. URLs are fading into the background, native Mobile apps are… -
You don’t need to ask permission to change the world
11 Nov 2011 | 11:41 amI was just watching a great TED video about the guy who runs ‘Improv Everywhere’. If you don’t know what that is I strongly suggest you google it and watch the video. His TED talk had some great themes and some funny videos showing the result of their work, however my key takeaway was from a small innocuous line that he kept repeating as a one of his throw away comments… “and we didn’t even ask permission”. His final summary in his talk speaks to our collective need to, as adults, remember to play and have fun. But I think that his statement about… -
Analysis of F8, Timeline, Ticker and Open Graph
24 Sep 2011 | 11:28 amSo at F8 last week Facebook announced Ticker, Timeline and extensions to the Open Graph API to allow for new verbs and nouns. Here’s what really happened. They split their single ‘News Feed’ into 3 levels of filtering. Now (Ticker), Relevant (News Feed), Historical (Timeline). (Side note, we’ve had a ‘Ticker’ style product at Echo that we called ‘Community Stream’ for a long time now – and most of our customers and partners said to us ‘why would we want to show all that data it’s just noisy’. Maybe now they will take a… -
WSJ Outsources its business to Facebook
20 Sep 2011 | 11:47 amToday WSJ announced that it has built a news publishing platform that lives inside Facebook - effectively outsourcing their core website to the Social Networking Giant. The number of reasons this is a bad idea is staggering. I’ve tried to summarize them in a spreadsheet comparing a FB approach verses an Open Web approach. Please feel free to contribute -
Real Names getting Real Attention
21 Aug 2011 | 11:00 amThere’s a lot of fury on the web right now about ‘Real Names’. FB is trying to use it as a unique feature of their comments system claiming it reduces trolling and low value comments. Of course that isn’t really true. For one, any commenting system could force FB login. Two, users will troll with or without their name attached and, worse yet, many legitimate users won’t participate for any number of reasons if they can’t use a pseudonym. There are plenty of better ways to increase quality in your comments including participation from the content creators,…
-
The Social Concept
-
Your Conversations, And A Little Systems Theory
10 Feb 2012 | 11:02 amHow Visible Are Your Conversations? Here’s another example on the visibility of the conversation when your brand manages the social customer. (See Table 3.1.) Let’s say you’re selling mobile phone service and an unhappy AT&T customer, who we’ll call Jane, is frustrated because her Apple iPhone contract ended in June 2010 and she thought AT&T would simply stop billing her. She went to the store, purchased a new Droid phone, and began using a new carrier, Verizon Wireless. She then receives a $150 bill from AT&T and calls customer service to complain. -
The Social CRM Process, And How Tropicana OJ Didn't Use It
9 Feb 2012 | 11:02 amCase Study: Tropicana Orange Juice Tropicana Orange Juice, part of the PepsiCo brand family, learned the hard way, in January 2009, that not engaging the social customer could be very costly. The brand launched a full-scale package redesign, replacing their decades-old “straw in an orange” packaging with a minimalist, sans-serif design. Customer complaints ensued to the point where Tropicana eventually reverted to the original packaging the next month, in February 2009. The New York Times called the incident Pepsi’s “New Coke,” referring to Coke’s… -
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF SOCIAL CRM
8 Feb 2012 | 11:02 amTHE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF SOCIAL CRM I was reading a blog post the other day by Radian6’s Lauren Vargas (Director of Community) that gave a few solid best practices, and I realized that no one had yet written the 10 commandments of Social CRM. So, I’d like to run through them so you get a better idea of Social CRM best practices. 1. Executive-level shared vision of what defines “customer relationships” shall be more than “understood” universally through your organization. You should be able to ask any employee what a customer relationship is, and what… -
A Definition Of Social CRM That You'll Actually Understand
7 Feb 2012 | 11:02 amSocial Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) is something that the “godfather of CRM,” Paul Greenberg, first defined in his groundbreaking book, CRM at the Speed of Light, a few years ago. The way he wrote the definition was true to the social Web: he gathered a bunch of CRM consultants to write it, collaboratively, on a wiki (a Web site that allows for easy collaboration through interlinked Web pages). The resulting definition is completely accurate, but also consultantese (a language spoken only by management consultants): Social CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy,… -
Why You're Still Not A Successful Social Object
6 Feb 2012 | 11:02 amEd. note: This is part of a series of excerpts from The Social Customer, the new guide to social customer acquisition, monetization, and retention by Adam Metz. For the first entry, go here. This installment continues Chapter 2: The “How” and “Where” of Engagement and the Four Social Customer Scenarios. Adam discusses the brand as a social object. SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL OBJECTS Before we wrap up we’ll want to spend a bit of time examining what makes a brand a good “social object,” and what, honestly, makes a brand ill-suited to be a social…
-
Des Walsh dot Com
-
Practical Social Media Strategy for Financial Advisers – Keynote
5 Feb 2012 | 8:04 pmWhen I stood up in Canberra a couple of weeks ago to deliver the keynote for the last day of the Hillross Financial Services annual conference 2012 I was a tad nervous. Not shaking nervous, but neither just the usual pre-presentation edginess I usually feel on the basis that I want to make sure I’m focused on my presentation being as helpful as possible. The topic for my keynote was Practical Social Media Strategy and the bit of extra nervousness I put down to my being aware that some of the audience might see the whole idea of social media engagement as just one more reason to feel… -
Social Media Not an Easy Call for Financial Advisors
16 Jan 2012 | 12:21 amWhen I accepted the invitation to keynote the Hillross Annual Conference 2012 in Canberra, Australia, focusing on practical strategies for social media, I was pretty sure that one of my main challenges would be finding examples of successful engagement via social media by financial advisers. Part of the problem is that financial advisers operate in a highly regulated environment and have a justifiable concern that engaging with clients and the general public via social media might bring problems in terms of reputational risk or even put their whole business at risk. My presentation is in the… -
Starting LinkedIn Guide Updated
20 Dec 2011 | 10:35 pmThis morning I updated my free downloadable guide, 5 Simple Steps for Getting Started on LinkedIn. The biggest challenge of the updating process was restricting myself to the basics of getting started. There is so much more to LinkedIn than is in this brief guide but I am convinced that those of us who have been using LinkedIn for a long time can easily underestimate how complex the platform can appear to people who have not had that experience. Apart from anything else, LinkedIn does not have the most intuitive of user interfaces. So the guide provides just five basic steps for getting up… -
Smart Business Owners Don’t Leave Blog Design to Designers
11 Dec 2011 | 5:10 pmGeorges Clemenceau I make no claim to be good, let alone excellent, at blog design or the more general field of web design. And I have great respect for good and great designers. But what I know is that, as a business owner, the design of my blog or other web site is my responsibility and not one to be passed completely on to others, no matter how brilliant the designers and no matter how many prize-winning sites they have to boast of. To borrow from the great French statesman, Georges Clemenceau, who is said to have remarked that war is too important to be left to generals, web design is… -
Not Everyone Loves Change
6 Dec 2011 | 2:09 amCoaches and trainers need to recognize that not everyone will respond positively to the prospect of change and some will resist. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” is a well worn phrase. And useful in its place. But there are times when, even though something might not be broken, it might have passed its “use by” date, so to speak. Milking cows by hand, for example. Coming from a long line of dairy farmers, I can imagine some farmers resisting for a long time the introduction of milking machines, even though they had been around since the 19th century.
-
Social Gears
-
Follr Releases Digital Identity Management Business Platform
25 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amSoftware product extends use of Follr Digital Identity Websites to corporations. Emeryville, CA (January 24th, 2012) Follr, Inc., today announced the release of “Follr Business”, a Web based SaaS (Software as a Service) product aimed at helping corporations leverage employees and staff to protect their brand. The software simultaneously drives online traffic to official marketing channels like Facebook business pages and Twitter, addresses human resource and compliance issues and becomes Follr’s second product alongside their initial consumer platform. Follr’s digital identity… -
Follr Announces Strategic Partnership with WiseStamp
18 Jan 2012 | 11:00 amDeal increases exposure of Follr Digital Identity Websites through seamless and automated email signature integration. Emeryville, CA (January 18th, 2012) Follr, Inc., today announced a partnership with WiseStamp, creator of the leading social email signature builder. The partnership allows Follr users to share their Digital Identity Website link through WiseStamp Email Apps transforming every email into a powerful self expression and promotional tool. Follr’s Digital Identity Websites organize and aggregate an individual’s online information making it accessible via one memorable Website… -
Follr.com Now Supports BranchOut
5 Jan 2012 | 11:00 amYou can now link your BranchOut profile to Follr. Follr’s Digital Identity Websites organize all your online information into one memorable address. Use your Follr address as THE place for people to find your profiles, links, content and contact information. BranchOut is the largest professional network on Facebook with millions of users in 60 countries and 15 languages. On BranchOut, users leverage their Facebook friend network to find jobs, source sales leads, recruit talent, and foster relationships with professional contacts. BranchOut also operates the largest job board on Facebook… -
Social Media Data – LOADS of Social Media Data Continued!
4 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amSo, following on from yesterday’s post (See: ‘Social Media Data – LOADS of Social Media Data!’) here is infographic # 3 and # 4 which leads to a question: is social media any clearer now? -
Social Media Data – LOADS of Social Media Data!
3 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amIt seems hard to believe but we formed a social application development company more than four years ago and still (dare I say the majority of?) people have a huge problem trying to come to terms with how to use social media, social networks and social marketing (yes, they are three distinct and separate things). So as we start 2012 here’s some data that might help, brought to you from AdAge. But there’s a problem: there’s so much data I’m going to spread this over two posts. Here’s infographic’s # 1 and # 2. Enjoy Come back tomorrow for # 3 and # 4.
-
The Jeff Pulver Blog
-
#140conf Cocktail Party at SXSW on March 9th
11 Feb 2012 | 6:15 pmFriends of the #140conf community attending SXSW are invited to join our 3rd annual cocktail party taking place on March 9th. To RSVP visit: http://140confsxsw.eventbrite.com/ ---- Tags: 140conf, social media, SXSW,State of NOW, twitter, Jeff Keni Pulver, meetup -
On my way to Tel Aviv.
11 Feb 2012 | 6:09 pmTonight I'm flying to TLV and will be spending the week of February 12, 2012 in Tel Aviv. Two events taking place during my visit include: - Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Tel Aviv. I am looking forward to hosting my next Tel Aviv breakfast, this time in Holon on February 14, 2012. The breakfast is open to anyone who wishes to attend. For details and to RSVP please visit: https://www.facebook.com/events/179677922139142/. - Cyber UnConference. Taking place on Friday, February 17, 2012. I'm only attending this new event. Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/282478908472343/. -
Synchronicity happens
30 Jan 2012 | 9:48 pmAfter hearing the magical Rebecca Ferguson perform at #DLD12, first by accident during her pre-DLD opening sound check (I wasn't invited to it but somehow managed to be on-site and in the right place an hour before DLD started), and then during her scheduled spot in the conference, what were the odds we would also briefly chat on our flight to London from Munich three days later? There is synchronicity around all of us. Try to identify the moments when the improbable and the impossible start to sync up. Enjoy the magic of synchronicity. Enjoy every moment. :) Tags: Rebecca Ferguson, DLD12,… -
Event: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Holon on February 14th
29 Jan 2012 | 10:00 pmOn Tuesday, February 14, 2012 I will be back in the greater Tel Aviv area and will be hosting my first Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends) in Holon, this time from 0830 to 1030. This breakfast will be taking place at the Holon Institute of Technology I am looking forward to catching up with my friends. To RSVP, please visit this event on Facebook. Tags: breakfast, Holon, social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Keni Pulver -
#140conf Music Event: The Jessie Rose Trip in NYC
29 Jan 2012 | 9:34 pmMembers of the State of NOW / #140conf Community are invited to join #140conf Alumn, Steve Greenberg, and S-Curve Records recording artist: The Jessie Rose Trip when they perform at 6:45 PM on Tuesday, Jan 31, 2012 at Pianos. Pianos is located at: 158 Ludlow @ Stanton St in Manhattan. (Please try to get to Pianos by 6:30 pm) The Jessie Road Trip are visiting NYC from Manchester, UK and will be one of the artists at State of NOW / #140conf in June. To get a feel of their sound, you can listen here. If you are going to be in Manhattan on Tuesday evening, I hope you can join us. This is a free…
-
brandflakesforbreakfast
-
iOS '86
13 Feb 2012 | 9:38 amAttention people who make themes for Jailbroken iPhones, can you please make this a reality? And while I'm asking for things, could someone make a beige iPhone case with the old rainbow Apple logo on the back. K thx! -
the c++ night
12 Feb 2012 | 3:25 pmA stunning look at Vincent Van Gogh's masterpiece recreated by Greek artist Petros Vrellis using openFrameworks, an open source C++ toolkit for creative coding. Would Van Gogh have given his right ear to have seen his painting come to life? -
where all our money went in :30
12 Feb 2012 | 3:00 pmBoing Boing's Rob Beschizza was nice enough to cram every Apple product, well almost every, into a neat little :30 clip. Scary, but I think owned at least 25% of the products that flashed by.Bonus feature, Rob also toiled over this clip featuring all the products put out by NeXT Computers. This time he didn't miss any.VIA Laughing Squid. -
F@%K your cliche decor
10 Feb 2012 | 7:10 amAh Tumblr, how you bring such joy into our lives! This latest one getting some buzz, called Fuck Your Noguchi Coffee Table, is a simple but brilliant statement on overused, cliche interior design elements. Couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks @benkunz! -
stuff blowing up... in slow-mo
10 Feb 2012 | 7:09 amLots of people (like me) love Moe's Southwestern Grill. I mean, how can you not love having "Welcome to Moe's" enthusiastically shout at you when you walk in the door? Not to mention the food's yummy and fresh because they never use a microwave like some fast food joints. To drive home that point, they created this awesome video of all sorts of stuff blowing up in slow motion (heck yes) in a microwave. Because a microwave ruins everything of course. Fun!
-
David Binkowski.com
-
So Close, Yet So Far Away: Foursquare's Super Swarm Sunday Promotion
3 Feb 2012 | 9:48 pmThis week Foursquare announced their new Super Swarm Sunday Superbowl promotion (Well, unofficial as the naming rights cost money) whereby checking in on Superbowl Sunday will get you $5 off at Pizza Hut. A few people on Twitter and Facebook were saying it was a great promotion, but after a few second analysis this falls under the category of "So Close (Yet So Far Away)". Here's why: After -
Checking Out of Foursquare
3 Feb 2012 | 2:34 pmI've been using Foursquare for several years now. For those unaware, it's a location based "game" whereby you use your phone's GPS to "check in" at locations; some are real, like a restaurant, and some are virtual, such as "Snowpocalypse". At first, it was exciting to see all of the early adopters you know from the Twitter- and Blogosphere checking in. A lot of people asked "What's the point?" -
A Look At Facebook's Ponzi Scheme
25 Jan 2012 | 11:35 amI posted something yesterday on Twitter and on Facebook was favorited and Liked by senior executive at one of the world's largest retailers, an executive at a massive, global CPG and senior executives at agencies, respectively, so I'm going to repost it here to share it with you. A little background, first: A lot of folks in the industry had been creating fan hubs long before Facebook went from -
Facebook's Changes Means Digital Agencies Should Thrive
24 Sep 2011 | 6:08 amThursday the bomb was dropped at f8 that Facebook is going to be ditching the Like in favor of user actions and passive updates, meaning that when you engage with apps and have the "Add to Timeline" feature enabled it will automatically update your Timeline with what you're doing (for an example of this, check out the Washington Post Social app). It's mildly reminiscent of the auto-checkin app -
Get Me To The Schmoo
29 Aug 2011 | 4:00 amUnfortunately this happens all too often at companies: We need to prove that social media delivers a return before we can invest budget in these sort of programs. Pretty chicken and egg, right? The fortunate part is that it's easily correctible; if you set up your social media programs and measurement properly you can determine the ROI.
-
ComMetrics: on infographics, social media measurement, best practice
-
Facebook: Why is nobody listening?
5 Feb 2012 | 1:32 amUpdate 2012-02-08 – this original blog post has been cross-posted on “socialmediatoday – the world’s best thinkers on social media,” as well as “SmartData Collective – the world’s best thinkers on business intelligence and analytics.” Summary One headline this week read, Procter & Gamble would lay off 1,600 after discovering that advertising on Facebook is free. But how many of your 2000 fans bother to take part in the conversation? Less than half a percent. Learn from Red Bull, Coca-Cola and Nike! Or maybe NOT. I just got back from… -
Storied infographics: Why do they fail?
29 Jan 2012 | 2:20 amSummary Infographics can be educational, humorous, controversial, or newsworthy. Not every infographic should tell a story, or needs to. But sometimes it should. Why? Because it can help promote a cause or point of view, and motivate readers to action. Infographics are increasingly popular but more often than not it is a matter of lies, infographics, and unverified numbers. However, even if numbers can be verified and the infographic tells you more than 1,000 words, you need a good story to go with it. As this guest post by Karen Dietz explains, one method to improve the impact of your… -
Luxury brands: Does sin-free equal failure?
22 Jan 2012 | 5:18 pmSummary Bentley, Bugatti, Chloé, Hermès and Vertu are masters in best-of-both-worlds marketing. We outline how to have your cake and eat it, too. Who does not love sin-free seduction that allows someone to consume luxury goods without guilt, since part of the purchase price is donated to charity. The parvenus (from the Latin perveniō, meaning arrive or reach) – those affluent people who crave status – may use Vuitton’s distinctive LV monogram, since the more subtle details of a Hermès bag’s price tag may not be recognized by all. What sets these luxury brands apart is… -
What satisfies your customer?
15 Jan 2012 | 1:13 amSummary Have you joined HSBC and IBM in using sentiment analysis? We discuss people’s 4 biggest mistakes. Some time ago, I posted Sentiment analysis for online content: Honest?, and moderated a discussion about it in our Xing Social Media Monitoring group. This is another update in our 2012 marketing trend series. 1. Mother tongue – what mother tongue? The biggest challenge for marketers is that people’s mother tongue is increasingly something other than the locally spoken language, and people also increasingly learn English as a second or third language to facilitate… -
Commercials: What ROI?
8 Jan 2012 | 11:37 pmSummary 60 years ago some thought TV commercials were a waste of time and money. Is history repeating itself with social media? I know comparing commercials to social media is not apples to apples but it’s close enough for my purposes. Flash forward to 2011: with over 300 million Twitter users, it offers an even bigger audience than TV did back in the day. So why isn’t everyone advertising on social media? The reasons range from lack of staff or time to lack of analysis or return on investment (ROI). This guest post by Carly Gentry addresses the social media advertising issue and…
-
Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Insights - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image
-
The Modern Marketing Agency
13 Feb 2012 | 2:17 pmGive credit where credit is due. If I was the publisher of Advertising Age and/or AdWeek, I would be paying very close attention to the quality of content that the folks over at DigiDay have been producing in the past short while. It feels like over the past six months that DigiDay has really found both a groove and unique voice in the marketing industry by churning out some great content coupled with killer headlines (you just know I'm going to click on articles with titles like, Should Agencies Act Like Software Startups?, Brands Want Content Curator Jobs and Web is Dead, It's All About… -
Nick Morgan Explains How To Give A Presentation That Changes The World
12 Feb 2012 | 9:54 pmEpisode #292 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to. When I got my first offer to speak in front of a large audience, I wasn't sure where to turn for more professional public speaking and presentation skills training. Many names of individuals and organizations were fed my way, but one name that kept rising to the top was Nick Morgan. I immediately purchased his book, Give Your Speech, Change The World, and it did - in fact - change my world and perception of what a presentation is really all about. I eagerly bought his other book,… -
Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #86
11 Feb 2012 | 5:53 amIs there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see? My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see". Check out these six links that we're… -
Get Lost On YouTube
10 Feb 2012 | 8:48 pmIt's one of my favorite past-times and guilty pleasures. After all of the work is done and the house is quiet, instead of sitting back and letting the television waft over me, I go and get lost on YouTube. I usually start with some cheesy hair metal bands from the eighties, but it quickly devolves into this amazing world of acoustic music discovery that traipses across genres and generations. It takes me back, it pushes me forward and it moves me into directions I could have never imagined possible back when I was much younger and much more interested in music. Long live serendipity. Many… -
Endless Aisles
9 Feb 2012 | 3:40 pmWhat has your shopping experiences been like lately? I was recently in New York City giving a presentation at the National Retail Federation's Big Show 2012 event. I was part of the Shop.org First Look series and talked about the massive changes that retail will face as technology, Social Media and mobile collides at the retail level. We have more and more consumers who are connected with highly powerful smartphones at the store level and they're doing a lot more than just price comparison shopping. When you think of the potential and the opportunity to bring those different worlds…
-
Chris Pirillo
-
Who Thinks Three-Day Weekends Should Happen Every Week?
13 Feb 2012 | 6:30 pmPlease don’t take it personally when I say that I wish the weekends could be just a tiny bit longer. I’m always happy to be here, and my energy level usually fluctuates somewhere between that of a truckload of frijoles saltarines and a couple of puppies just before feeding time (not... Read the full article on http://chris.pirillo.com/ -
How to Control a PC or Game Console with a Single Remote
13 Feb 2012 | 4:25 pmThis is a Sponsored guest post written by Matt Ryan on behalf of Lenovo for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% the writer’s own. Lenovo is known the world over as one of the leading PC manufacturers out there. From nettop systems to high-end servers, Lenovo has a firm grasp on the PC market.... Read the full article on http://chris.pirillo.com/ -
Social Media Updates for 2012-02-13
13 Feb 2012 | 11:05 amWelcome to Gnomies @ronknights! – http://t.co/qk6THULo # Is the Metro interface a blessing or a curse? Consider this. – http://t.co/6RO7CH7f # Welcome to Gnomies @nickelstarfilms! – http://t.co/G3kmShHr # Here is how you can map a network drive using Windows 7. –... Read the full article on http://chris.pirillo.com/ -
Maglev Choo Choos and Angry Facebook Dads
10 Feb 2012 | 7:00 pmSorry, everybody. I ran a little late in starting TLDR today because I had a last minute interview. Correction: I ran a lot late. And I apologize from the bottom of my geek heart — but I appreciate those of you who were able to hang out and wait for me. Heck, I even appreciate [...] Read the full article on http://chris.pirillo.com/ -
Of Good Intentions and Bad Questions
9 Feb 2012 | 6:48 pmYou know that I love you ladies and gents. I really do. But sometimes I think there are a few of you who never got the memo about the right ways and the wrong ways to go about asking questions that will get answers. I know that it’s in vogue to brush off just about [...] Read the full article on http://chris.pirillo.com/
-
Common Craft - Common Craft - Our Product is Explanation
-
This Week in Love: AeroPress Coffee Maker
10 Feb 2012 | 10:49 amThis Week in Love is a series of blog posts where Sachi and I share what we love. Browse the archives and follow @weekinlove on Twitter. This Week in Love: AeroPress Coffee Maker Remember those orange flying rings called Aerobies? They were a little like a Frisbee, but would fly (almost) forever. In fact, an Aerobie was used to break the Guiness World Record twice for "longest throw of an object without any velocity-aiding feature." The inventor of the Aerobie flying ring was an Alan Adler from Palo Alto, CA. While I loved my Aerobie as a kid, Mr. Adler invented something that gives… -
New Video: Copyright and Creative Commons
7 Feb 2012 | 12:04 pmToday we’re announcing a new video: Copyright and Creative Commons - Explained by Common Craft. Watch it now. One of the exciting things about having Common Craft members is working with them on ideas for future video titles. We provide them tools for suggesting and voting on future titles and this idea came directly from the members. Yaay! About the video: This video tells the story of a photographer who learns the basics of copyright law and creative commons licensing. Her story highlights the role each can play in helping creators protect and share their work. It teaches: •… -
This Week in Love: PEMCO Commercials
3 Feb 2012 | 12:07 pmThis Week in Love is a series of blog posts where Sachi and I share what we love. Browse the archives and follow @weekinlove on Twitter. This Week in Love: PEMCO Commercials It's not often that we're prepared to come out and say that we love a series of insurance commercials, but these are near and dear to our hearts. They're commercials for Seattle-based PEMCO Insurance (with DNA Seattle) and part of a campaign called "We're A Little Different. A Lot Like You." Why we love them: Wherever you're from, you know the things that make that region unique. You know how people think and what… -
This Week in Love: Radiolab Podcast
26 Jan 2012 | 1:09 pmThis Week in Love is a series of blog posts where Sachi and I share what we love. Browse the archives and follow @weekinlove on Twitter. This Week in Love: The Radiolab Podcast Over the last couple of years, podcasts have become a big part of our lives. We work from home and end up sharing our listening habits, for better or for worse. We've discovered a number of podcasts that we love. We play them while working (especially doing creative work), cooking dinner, working out, etc. They've become among our most frequently used types of media and we listen through iTunes and Stitcher… -
5 Trends Behind the Growing Shift to Video Explanations
23 Jan 2012 | 1:24 pmIt’s easy to look back at Internet history and spot the points of major change. A famous example is the Web 2.0 era which spawned products like Twitter, Facebook and other lasting features of the Web. Some would say we're in the cloud era now, with nearly everything we do on computers being moved to off-site servers. Within these big, tectonic shifts are smaller shifts that also make a difference. YouTube was a big shift that kicked off online video in 2005 and in the years since, we’ve seen the growth of viral videos and myriad artistic expressions in video form. How did we survive…
-
:Ben Metcalfe Blog
-
PaperKarma, Craigslist and unintentional disruption
10 Feb 2012 | 1:33 pmI study and write a lot about disruption caused directly or indirectly by the Internet. It’s actually the key tenant that matured my wonder and fascination with the Internet beyond just the technical/geeky aspect but into the socio-economic. Most disruption is intentional, and it’s now a well-weathered story to hear about a genius young entrepreneur out-smart an entire stalwart old-school industry in a way that the big guys didn’t see until it was too late. Yay the underdog! Go the little guy! Fuck the establishment! But some disruption is unintentional, and often with… -
From the notebook: musings about so-called ‘acqhire’ talent acquisitions
6 Feb 2012 | 5:22 pmSo-called “acq-hires” (when a company will buy a startup solely/mostly for the talent rather than the product itself) recently came up in a discussion amongst friends and industry peers. In my consultancy practice I tend to work with larger corporate/enterprise technology clients who want me to help inject a bit of ‘startup mentality’ into their innovation and engineering processes. Having the right execution team is often crucial to anything I do so getting like-minded employees on board is often one of the challenges to be faced as part of a project. And so… -
What visa type do you need, exactly, to legally participate in Y Combinator?
3 Feb 2012 | 3:27 pmHacker News has been buzzing with the story of Canadian citizen Zak Homuth, who was refused entry earlier in the week by US Customs and Border Protection to participate in Y Combinator with his new startup Upverter. His own account of what happened suggests that Zak made over-reaching assumptions as to his ‘rights’ to enter the US, that he didn’t have his paperwork in order and that he gave misleading answers to some of the questions the CPB offier asked him. Plenty of discussion on that in the HN comments. However, the issue does raise a question that I’ve been… -
Cease & Desist letter sent to Fotopedia, abuser of Creative Commons
21 Aug 2011 | 5:59 pmI was sad to discover that photos belonging to both Violet and I are being reproduced without our permission at ‘photo encyclopedia’ Fotopedia. I’m a firm believer in Creative Commons and copyright reform, and so I license practically all creative work I produce under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Use Share Alike license. This includes all photos I take (even with my pro equipment) and all blog posts I write, including this one… basically anything which isn’t otherwise covered under an existing agreement with a client/etc or a personal photo of a family… -
Weekend musings – BitCoin, PlayStation Network and Google IO
15 May 2011 | 8:46 pmBitCoin I’ve spent the last few months researching BitCoin, which for those who don’t know is a p2p currency system that is (sort of) de-centralized and certainly delineated from any government control or intervention. There’s some pretty sophisticated technology behind it which ensures true scarcity (the fundamental issue for any economic model) but it also enjoys some impressive security features and seems to be incredibly solid on the privacy front. What is particularly interesting is that you can essentially ‘mine’ BitCoins by running complicated algorithms…
-
Data Mining: Text Mining, Visualization and Social Media
-
Survivorship Bias in Twitter 'News'
13 Feb 2012 | 9:35 amMashable has a post getting excited about twitter 'breaking' news stories more immediately than main stream sources. This kind of article is misleading in that it gives no consideration to all the other 'news' first reported on twitter which turns out to be incorrect. The main stream media is responsible for fact checking and this idea that it is behind the times because it didn't 'report' something sooner rather than later is annoying. What is more irksome is the fact that Mashable wrote an article 2 days ago about the unsubstantiated rumour on twitter that the… -
The Mercurial Nature of Reuters News Articles
12 Feb 2012 | 10:34 pmThere were two big news stories that flowed through Reuters and many other media channels in the last 48 hours. The first was the death of singer Whitney Houston, the second was the election process in Venezuela. I noticed something interesting in both stories - the title and contributors attributed by the agency were altered at least once for the content pointed to by the URL. In the case of Whitney Houston, the first version, which was associated with the name Xavier Briand, was titled 'Singer Whitney Houston dies'. This was later changed to 'Whitney Houston found dead in hotel,… -
High Velocity News in Venezuela (Updated)
12 Feb 2012 | 7:49 pmInteresting to see how in the past 31 minutes, the news of the political situation in Venezuela has jumped up in terms of bit.ly clicks. This puts it in the super hot category on the d8taplex mobile news page. Update: this is the most interesting type of news event, when a change in exposure gives a story a second wind: -
Tweets and News - Some Observations
10 Feb 2012 | 11:24 pmThe current version of the d8taplex news site provides a mapping between news article authors and their Twitter accounts. In addition, I've been experimenting with mining all the tweets that link to a specific news article. This has lead to a couple of observations. Reuters contributors with Twitter accounts don't tweet very much. I can quantify this in a later post, but if you look on the d8taplex site at any time, you will rarely see the icon that indicates a journalist has recently tweeted (). Twitter users who post links to news articles rarely contribute any useful hashtags. The… -
Mobile News Page on d8taplex
5 Feb 2012 | 11:15 pmIn a fit of agility, I added a page for mobile devices to get some of the d8taplex news info: d8taplex.com/m/hapaxPage.html. This shows the articles crawled from Reuters which are getting a reasonable amount of bit.ly juice. Note that currently you have to navigate there explicitly. The page is extremely simple. Check out Jeremy Singer-Vine's page as well for top headlines. In comparison to using click data to determine 'top' articles, it uses the editorial position of articles on the news sources it crawls.
-
Drew's Marketing Minute
-
The psychology of color
13 Feb 2012 | 7:38 amColor (or the lack of color) triggers a very powerful emotional response in us. We can use insight as we select company colors, design logos, create ads, build websites and even create products. Check out this fascinating infographic on how we react to color. Bravo to CertaPro Painters for creating this and Cool Infographics for originally sharing it. Related articles The Psychology Of Color In Design | designrfix.com (designrfix.com) You might also like Pantone announces the 2011 color of the year Color trends for 2011 How/why we buy: Social commerce infographic -
Put your email auto response to work
11 Feb 2012 | 7:31 amWith the volume of emails we all get every day, we can’t afford to let our emails go unattended. We don’t want the people who email us to think we’re ignoring them, so if we’re going to be out of the office — most of us use some sort of an automated response system. You know what I’m talking about: “I will be out of the office until Tuesday, March 3rd. If you need assistance, please call my co-worker Biff at 555-123-4567.” And that does the trick. They don’t freak out if we don’t answer within an hour or two. But if… -
The 5 things that will derail your marketing in 2012
8 Feb 2012 | 8:37 amI don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade but the truth is — most organizations’ marketing efforts stink. And they stink for reasons well within the marketing department’s control. If you’re worried that your own efforts might fall short — beware of these five danger zones that can derail you in a blink! Inconsistency: Does your monthly newsletter go out 5 times a year? Does your copy tone/style fluctuate between somber and casual? Are your weekly sales calls happening every week? Inconsistency not only waters down your results but it also… -
Crisis communications – don’t wait to create a plan
6 Feb 2012 | 8:10 amDoes your organization have a crisis communications plan that you could actually put into action at this very moment? All of the hubub surrounding the Susan G. Komen decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood and then their reversal of that decision following a 72+ hour firestorm of public outrage should have scared the bejesus out of you. If an organization as large, powerful and well respected as Komen can get into that much hot water — and is that ill-prepared to handle it then what in the world would happen to you if there was an accident on your job site, if your CFO embezzled… -
Don’t add frill until your core is rock solid
2 Feb 2012 | 8:15 amA couple times a month a cleaning company comes into our house and does a deep clean. Every time I walk into the house after they’ve cleaned… the toilet paper rolls and tissues sticking out of the boxes are folded in some sort of origami art. Sometimes, they leave a truffle on the kitchen counter. I get what they’re trying to do. And it’s a lovely little extra. Unfortunately, I also find things like: Every waste basket in the wrong spot (they’ve been cleaning the house for over a year) The back door unlocked or a window left open A few lights left on…
-
Gravity7: Social Interaction Design By Adrian Chan
-
Principles of Social Interaction Design (pdf)
10 Feb 2012 | 12:41 pmImperfect and unfinished as any project on contemporary products will be, my Principles of Social Interaction Design is now available for free download. This project has taken a couple of years, and in places bears the marks of a theory worked out over time. Some of my core concepts appeared in my blog posts first. These include the idea of frames — for both conceptualizing interactions, as well as for design thinking. Concepts of mediation, of symbolic tokens, of realtime streams may also be familiar from topics I have blogged about over the years. I have developed these into simple… -
Big data, social data: which matters more?
12 Dec 2011 | 1:57 pmBy all accounts, there’s a big data revolution on its way, and soon. New, distributed, and increasingly real time database and data warehousing solutions have made big data storage and querying more viable. Data collection, of course, continues apace. And the number of data sources available, too, continues to grow. The big data problem and solution, as it stands today, is very simply a matter of: what to do with it. Data reveals insights only as good as the organization mining for them. Even patterns need to be coded into queries — and that has to be done by somebody interested… -
Lean UX and lean startups: is trial and error the best way forward?
9 Dec 2011 | 12:01 pmLean UX is meant to be the user experience design approach best suited to the lean startup. Lean startups are meant to be the best business approach suited to the startup industry. And agile development, it goes without saying, the best development model. It’s hard to contest these on the basis of budgets, market conditions, and even to some extent the needs of social tools early in development. Developers need users, not just to test out product stability and functionality, but to provide feedback also. By starting small, startups get to test out their designs for MVP. But I… -
The secret sauce of social
8 Dec 2011 | 3:13 pmThis is for anyone who enjoys thinking about what makes social media what it is, how it works, and why. In particular, it’s for user experience and interaction designers. But there are some morsels in here that should be helpful for those of you professionally committed to the social media industry, in whatever form or manner. In old school philosophical style, I will begin with my proximate enemy. My proximate enemy is the concept of “feedback loops.” Patina’d with a touch of the de riguer, “feedback loops” are often referenced as an accounting of social… -
When should you think about social interaction design?
7 Dec 2011 | 5:46 pmSocial interaction design is not just and strictly “design.” There’s no designing social, insofar as designed social interactions and experiences would be nothing shy of the nefarious and misguided efforts of past European social engineers. To say nothing more of the matter. (Don’t mention the war. I did, but I think I got away with it.) Social outcomes aren’t for the designing: social outcomes happen. They’re events: live, and as easily affected as the proverbial typhoon by the far-away butterfly. But designed they must be. For all online experiences are…
-
Social Media Clubhouse
-
6 Tips That Will Take Your Infographics from Chartjunk to Valuable Content
13 Feb 2012 | 10:28 amFrom saber-tooth tiger-bait to link-bait, infographics have come a long way. Here’s a guide to their invention, how to use them effectively, and how to avoid infographics that add to the “contentification” of social media rather than offering real insight. A Brief History of Infographics read more -
Is your Mobile Device a Toy or a Tool? [SURVEY]
10 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pmMobile devices seem to be the new trend in 2012. Having received an iPad 2 and all the accessories from my wonderful family at Christmas, my interest in mobile devices has increased exponentially. James Bucki, a former About.com Guide defines mobiles devices as “generic term used to refer to a variety of devices that allow people to access data and information from where ever they are.” read more -
When Objects Go Social
9 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amObjects now become kind of chatterbox and the world shifts as an huge connected information system” Yes we must now consider objects as a real part of social movement, even if social genuinely means « interaction between two human beings », they can enter the game of socialization…How far, when, for which uses/features? Future will tell… 2020: 20 Billions of connected objets; which ones, which services behind and for which uses? What might we face in organizations, skills, value chains and industries? read more -
Deep Lessons About Shallow Conclusions
8 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amTo my great chagrin, I find I am as guilty as anyone of drawing shallow conclusions about the role and value or social media in a marketing plan. I read this article in Ad Age about an Australian study whose research proved that no more than 1% of fans actually engage with brands on Facebook. In other words, fans may "like" your page, but it's pretty meaningless, because they don't talk about you. So, I concluded, why spend a lot of time on Facebook, especially if you are a small business with limited resources. And I wrote that on Google+, home of the serious conversation. read more -
The Evolution of Super Bowl Advertising
7 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amEveryone loves the Super Bowl. Even if you’re not crazy about watching football, you can stick around the watch clever advertising at its best. But you probably noticed that Super Bowl XLVI was a little different from its predecessors. Social media helped brands change the rules of Super Bowl ads. On average, a 30 second spot during the game of the year put a company back about $3.5 million so it makes sense that they would want to get as much value as possible from this enormous expense. This year, brands came up with creative tactics to get plenty of bang for their buck(s).
-
Webinar Marketing & Marketing Success With Webinars for Business
-
How to Have Your Best Year Ever
1 Feb 2012 | 9:19 amWould you like to finally become as productive, happy, healthy and successful as you know you are capable of? Silly question right? I mean… who wouldn’t? Well this webinar training was put together to help you achieve exactly this… Oh, and it also contains sock-based tips, and amusing photos of cats (what mire can you [...] -
What Worked BEST in 2011?
2 Jan 2012 | 9:59 amIt is that time where everyone is looking forward and planning for the year ahead, but to plan for the future, you MUST first learn from the past. So this is a look back at SOME of the things that worked best for me in 2011. So let’s activate “list mode”. #1 – Filtering [...] -
Paralysis by Analysis
30 Nov 2011 | 12:00 pmIf you have ever struggled to complete a project, failed to follow through on your goals, or felt completely stuck, then read on…. I have but one rule in life… “if it rhymes, then it must be true”. So imagine my glee when I heard the term “Paralysis by analysis”. Let’s kick this thing off [...] -
WTF is Brand Against the Machine?
29 Nov 2011 | 11:05 amWhat on this big blue sphere that we call “earth” is ‘Brand Against the Machine”? If that is the question you had in your head when you turned on your computer today… then wow, you are in luck… for the other 100% of you, I am going to shed some light on my [...] -
The Dangers of Turning a Loss Leader into a Bait and Switch
23 Nov 2011 | 1:47 pmHave you ever heard of the terms “Loss leader”, or “Bait and Switch”? If you would like to know the down and dirty on these two… or my recent story of seeing the dangers of pulling a “bait and switch” on a “loss leader”… then read on dear reader…. Ok, it seems to little old [...]
-
The Buzz Bin
-
Swapping Swag??
10 Feb 2012 | 3:13 pmBy Maliya Rooney Finding a piece of our Vibrant Rioja branded materials for sale on ebay the other day got me thinking. How can we measure the value of our swag? Marketing your brand takes many forms but by using promotional items you have the opportunity to make a personal, daily impression on the consumer. That’s why when choosing a promotional item you should consider it carefully. Keep in mind that the item could be representing your brand long after they walk away from your event. It should have some kind of value to the consumer so that they want to keep it, use it and display it,… -
Follow the yellow brick road: Hospitals in search of the Wizard
9 Feb 2012 | 10:13 amby Lisa Kersey When Dorothy was lost in unfamiliar territory, the Wizard helped her find her way home. Today, hospitals find themselves in a similar place – but not for the reasons you might think. Yes, hospitals have room for improvement when it comes to quality and patient safety. They have opportunities to decrease waste and duplication to help decrease the cost of healthcare. And it’s also true that hospitals need to improve the overall patient experience. But those things alone will not differentiate one hospital from another; health reform is requiring all hospitals to improve… -
3 Wine Social Media Tools Worth Sipping
8 Feb 2012 | 10:22 amTHE BOOZE BIN By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara) This is my last Booze Bin post before Baby Finkell joins the party, so I thought I’d leave you with some of my favorite wine social media tools and platforms for 2012. Don’t worry though, my much smarter and wittier colleagues will be pinch hitting for me while I’m on maternity leave. The Booze Bin lives on! Now on to those hot tools for grapey greatness. The first applies to much more than wine, the second saves you time and keeps you engaged (for free) and the third offers a good solution to small business owners trying to get on the… -
Ready, Set, Closer to Go
7 Feb 2012 | 6:34 amBy Mike Mulvihill While Super Bowl fanfare dominated last week’s news, the Interior Department announced the conclusion of a study that sets the stage for the equivalent of a Bowl Championship Series for offshore wind development. The environmental study found there would be “no significant environmental and socioeconomic impacts” from offshore development. This brings the department a step closer to actually selling leases for waters off Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey. Right now, not a single turbine spins off these shores. In addition to moving a step closer to selling… -
Nation’s Capital Hosts First Ever Social Media Week (Feb 13th-17th)
6 Feb 2012 | 11:52 amThree Must-Attend Sessions for Advanced Digital Marketers By Priya Ramesh (@newpr) I don’t know about you but I am really, really excited about DC’s first ever Social Media Week starting next Mon, Feb 13th. It’s about time the DC, Virginia, Maryland tri-state area joined the global during Social Media Week activities. Social Media Week offers a series of interconnected activities and conversations around the world on emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries. In just under three years, Social Media Week has expanded to 21 cities, including New York,…
-
Serial Oversharer
-
Paying good money for free television
8 Feb 2012 | 10:10 amCompletely amusing: At my house, we recently upgraded to the Netflix plan that involves both DVDs and unlimited streaming. We also picked up a new DVD player (Blu-Ray, bluray, Boo Boo Ray, what is this I don’t even) with built in wireless Internets, too, so we can hook up the machines to the Netflix and watch the shows on the old 4:3 TV in the living room. OK, that’s not the amusing part; this is: We’re doing this to watch Downton Abbey (grown ups) and Sesame Street (kids, mostly). Honest question: Do PBS and related organizations get a cut of what we’re paying Netflix? -
While Gunfire Echoes Inside Syria, A Cry For Help From A City Under Attack
7 Feb 2012 | 10:21 amWhile Gunfire Echoes Inside Syria, A Cry For Help From A City Under Attack: Did you hear this on Morning Edition today? I’m sure I’ve heard reporters introduced as “citizen journalist and blogger” before, but (maybe) not as the sole reporter on the ground. It’s the natural progression of things, but that attribution caught my ear today. Felt like a milestone. -
We’ll just leave this giant white canvas here for you,...
7 Feb 2012 | 8:46 amWe’ll just leave this giant white canvas here for you, street artists… (via Mad Men Falling Man Street Posters Humorously Altered) -
Related to the last
3 Feb 2012 | 6:42 amOLD FRIEND YESTERDAY: i'm enjoying your new teenage girl blog persona ME: OMG. ME: great. -
This is what happens when you browse your alma mater's Tumblr tag
3 Feb 2012 | 6:31 amA series of events last night: Was messing around on Tumblr for a few minutes before watching an episode of Downton Abbey on Netflix. Clicked on the “steenbeck” tag I had saved previously They all reminded me of editing rooms back in college at NYU. Clicked on the first NYU tag I see. Scrolled through a series of posts most often authored by high school kids dreaming of going to NYU. Including at least one screenshot of — not an admission letter, but a “your application is complete” response screen on what appears to be an Internet. Saw someone claiming their roommate’s TA was…
-
SocialFish
-
Social Media, Journalism and “The News Will Find Me”
13 Feb 2012 | 11:53 amThe awesome Debra Askanase of Community Organizer 2.0 just posted a great slide deck of a presentation she gave recently on the impact of social media on journalism to the New England Press and Newspaper Association‘s Winter Conference. She says, ”during the presentation, I identified four areas impacted by social media: the changing definition of an authoritative news source, the concept of news participators, how news is shared, and the changing news cycle.” In the presentation, she discusses how social networks are the new trusted authority for news; how several papers… -
Technology and the New Workplace Currency [Infographic]
12 Feb 2012 | 9:29 amCisco has recently come out with a new study, the 2011 World Technology report, that looks at the [internet] habits of college students and young professionals entering the workforce. The report asks specifically whether ”their demands for information access are changing business communications and the future of work”. According to the report, The Cisco Connected World Technology Report provides insight into challenges that companies face as they strive to balance current and future employee and business needs amid expanding mobility capabilities, security risks, and… -
Nonprofits: Win up to $30,000 of pro bono PR services!
10 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amC.Fox Communications, a small, woman-owned strategic communications agency, is accepting applications for its third annual inspired thought Award. The it Award is worth up to $30,000 of pro bono public relations services, which can include strategy, writing/messaging, media relations, branding and social media. All US-based nonprofit organizations of 10 employees or more are eligible to apply. To win the award, an organization must demonstrate a mission-driven nature to its work and a particular need for PR services. Application deadline is February 29, 2012 and there is no fee to apply. -
How Some Big Brands Manage Social Media
9 Feb 2012 | 9:44 amI watched an Altimeter webinar the other day that I thought was worth sharing from a “the state of corporate social media” perspective. Here’s Jeremiah Owyang’s post with more details. As always, there’s lots of data, but much more importantly, this video/slide deck includes several case studies showing how companies are handling social media management at scale. This also includes some discussion of social media management systems. The video is about an hour long – go grab some lunch and watch it with your colleagues. It’s good. Altimeter… -
The state of association technology?
9 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amListen to this 12-minute interview of Richard Davis, CEO of Avectra, talking to Wes Trochlil, data management consultant extraordinaire. I’m fascinated by Richard’s take on the association industry’s use of technology and social media, as he’s only recently (within a couple of years) come from the corporate world. (Fun fact: in a former life, Richard was once a roadie for The Who.) In this interview, he gives us his take on the state of association technology from his unique perspective (not specifically related to rock n’ roll, just to be clear.) Listen to the…
-
Global Neighbourhoods
-
How Social Media Helps Me Write & Sell Books
9 Feb 2012 | 4:18 pmI have often felt that publishing a book is the closest I–as a male–can come to experience what it’s like to have a baby. Earlier this week, I delivered my fourth, but you would think it was my first because the experience has made me jittery to say the least. So yesterday, when someone on Twitter pointed me to Jane Friedman’s Please Don’t Blog Your Book and I was , I was crankier in my tweet response than I should have been. I apologize for the argumentative tone I adopted, but at the core of it, I believe her advice was really bad. I think… -
Announcing my new book ‘Stellar Presentations’
7 Feb 2012 | 11:01 amI am thrilled to announce that my fourth book, Stellar Presentations: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Giving Great Talks has gone live on Kindle. A paperback version should be available by Feb. 22. It is not a social media book. Stellar Presentations is a brief but deep look at the craft and strategy of presentation. While I focus on startups and conferences, I believe that the book contains useful content for anyone who needs to speak in public. It is based on my many years experience as a presentation coach, a conference reporter and as a keynote speaker. It is a very brief book–I… -
Newt Gingrich and the Moon Colony
4 Feb 2012 | 12:27 pmDon’t get me wrong. Hell will freeze over before I would ever vote for Newt Gingrich. First, off the man was named for a lizard. Secondly–and more seriously–you can directly track the origins of the current polarization between the two major US political parties on Gingrich’s tenure as Speaker of the House. And like every candidate in this the most mud-slinging president primary campaign in history, he has been made to look bad in a great many ways. It is hard for me and others to recognize what sometimes happens and that is good ideas come from bad people. A few weeks… -
Yahoo CEOs: less vision than Ray Charles
4 Jan 2012 | 3:34 pmYahoo! has announced appointment of a new CEO: Scott Thompson. Who, you might ask? Well he’s a guy who lifted PayPal from a billion-dollar subsidiary of eBay into a multibillion dollar entity. What does he plan to do, you might ask. Well, he doesn’t yet. In a conference call with press and analysts he kept emphasizing that he just got there and he needs time. That’s precisely what Carol Bartz said for the years during which she was at the helm, watching the Yahoo ship slowly and steadily sink below the sea of change that the company has ignored for more than a decade. How… -
My Favorite Books of 2011
31 Dec 2011 | 12:41 pmIt’s the last day of an odd year and many people are reflecting on life. Some of my friends are using blogs to write about the death of the blog. Others are reviewing the great moments in technology or social media in 2011. But too me, there were very few truly great moments in technology. We have as an industry evolved from a period of great disruption and are now focused on refinement. This may be good for users and business, but it is pretty boring for writers, or so it seems to me. So, I thought I would dedicate my last post of the old year to one of my great passions: books. I read…
-
Christopher S. Penn : Awaken Your Superhero
-
How to bring old content back to life
13 Feb 2012 | 7:20 amWant to get some easy wins under your belt? One of the easiest opportunities to increase your site’s traffic and conversion is to look for neglected things that you’re already ranking for and take advantage of them. For the purposes of this post, I will assume that you already have a Google Analytics account, a Google Webmaster Tools account, and that you have bound the two of them together. I also assume you are familiar with Google Docs spreadsheets, have a free Bit.ly account and API key, and have a free Buffer account. That’s a lot of prerequisites, but I hope… -
The zero resilience Warcraft PvP marketer
10 Feb 2012 | 9:15 amIn World of Warcraft, player vs. player combat (PvP) is one of the most engaging, frustrating, and defining aspects of the game. You match up with other players in battlegrounds, arenas, and out in the virtual world, looking to gain honor and rewards for defeating the opposing faction. One of the greatest advantages a player can have is proper PvP gear loaded with resilience, a property that reduces the damage you take from other players. Players with high resilience gear are extremely difficult to kill. Players with no resilience gear can be crushed relatively easily. Getting resilience gear… -
Get the first cup on the table as fast as possible
9 Feb 2012 | 7:41 amThis morning, John Wall and I were discussing the merits and drawbacks of the diner in which we do Marketing Over Coffee each week. One of the hallmarks of good service at a restaurant is that things initially happen at a rapid pace. You get seated quickly and your first order of drinks or appetizers is taken quickly. If you run a tight shop with great service, you get that first cup of coffee/drink/appetizer on the table as soon as possible. Why? Because up until the point that goods and services are actually delivered, it’s really easy for the customer to walk out. There’s no… -
Twitter favorites power tips
8 Feb 2012 | 5:07 amWhen I first started working with Blue Sky Factory, I noticed something peculiar about the company’s Twitter favorites. It wasn’t actual favorite tweets at all – it was instead a collection of praise the company had received online. This was the brainchild of DJ Waldow, the community manager, and what started effectively as a content management system (because Twitter doesn’t provide search outside of a 2 week window) has become one of my favorite sales and marketing tools. Here’s why this is powerful. In many ways, it’s just like recommendations on… -
Performance Based Social Media at Social Fresh East
7 Feb 2012 | 11:12 amI have the pleasure of speaking to the Social Fresh East crowd today. For those interested, here’s the slides that I’m speaking about. If you enjoyed this, please click here and share it with your network! Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? If so, please subscribe right now! Click here to read my blog on Google Currents on your mobile! Marketing White Belt Basics for Digital Marketers is now on Amazon & B&N Watch me speak: Attend virtually! I recommend: for Twitter audience building. Related posts: Social+Email Integration from Social Fresh Charlotte Social Media…
-
Socialmedia.biz
-
Why Timeline is a colossal blunder for Facebook
13 Feb 2012 | 7:30 amIn September when Facebook introduced Timeline, its new profile interface designed to “tell your life story,” many of us scratched our heads and wondered whether this would turn out to be a serious misstep — a blunder significant enough to knock Facebook from its throne of power. While the long-term consequences remain to be seen, the short-term verdict is in, and Facebook’s members give Timeline a decided thumbs down. A full 70 percent of people polled by opinion site SodaHead said they want to see the new feature bite the dust. Only 20 percent of respondents said they… -
Taste everything well before serving up your social media offerings
8 Feb 2012 | 7:09 amIf you want to succeed in running a kitchen for the homeless in Washington, DC, or have wildly successful social media marketing campaigns, it all comes down to one thing: do you respect and appreciate your guests? Do you cut-corners and just serve slop or do you prepare organic, healthy, and delicious meals with an obsession for presentation and taste? I volunteer as sous chef at a Washington, DC, homeless kitchen. They serve fresh, organic dinners to folks who really need a healthy meal. Miriam’s Kitchen treats everyone who dines there as respected and honored guests. I have learned a… -
TaskRabbit: Crowdsourcing comes to your neighborhood
6 Feb 2012 | 7:11 amA mobile marketplace for getting stuff done from JD Lasica on Vimeo. Start-up offers location-aware marketplace for getting stuff done One of my favorite new iPhone apps and online services is TaskRabbit, a platform that allows people to hire other people to complete tasks in their own towns or neighborhoods. The concept is drop-dead simple but difficult to pull off. Founder Leah Busque says TaskRabbit lets folks “outsource small jobs and tasks to other people in their neighborhood” — say, if you need dry cleaning or groceries picked up, house cleaning or yard work done,… -
Why you should care about the mobile Web
3 Feb 2012 | 7:22 amImage by BigStock Photo Ready or not, the mobile revolution is upon us! There is a lot of hype out there about how many people own mobile devices and how much time people spend on them. Over the past two years, I’ve been charting and chronicling the rise of the mobile Web and the changes that it is unleashing on American society. Let’s look at some overall numbers: Today there are 5.3 billion mobile device subscribers in the world. There will be nearly as many mobile devices as there are people in the world by 2015. There are 48 million people in the world who have mobile… -
Social media, tech & marketing events: February
1 Feb 2012 | 8:02 amThe Social Enterprise Conference will be held Feb. 25-26 at Harvard. Guide to events & conferences for the coming month Who would have guessed that February has become one of the busiest months of the year for social media, technology and marketing conferences? Look at the list of conferences below, which run the gamut from Women 2.0 Pitch to Vator Splash to Lift, Strata, TED, SMX West, Wisdom 2.0, the first SOBCon Europe and the year’s first Social Media Strategies Summit. And don’t forget Social Media Week, the multi-city global conference running Feb. 13-17. For the…
-
GigaOM
-
JTS.tv launches Netflix-like subscriptions for indie web series
13 Feb 2012 | 11:05 pmJTS.tv is launching a subscription video service for independent web series. That will bring ad-free versions of a number popular web series online for the first time ever, with plans to make them available on multiple mobile and other connected device platforms. JTS.tv, which stands for Just the Story, differs from other independent web series sites such as Blip and Koldcast in that its plan is to offer ad-free access to content. The site is opening its subscription-based service Tuesday, with episodes from 13 different independent web series. The plan is to split revenues with the content… -
Why is startup compensation so mysterious?
13 Feb 2012 | 10:30 pmIf you are an entrepreneur, then it is fairly easy for you to use a general rule of thumb to come up with the valuation you are likely to get for your startup — depending on the stage of the company (seed, series A and later stages) and the scale of success or the merit of your idea. And that is possible, thanks to numerous blog posts, tattling tongues and other new sources of information. However when it comes to hiring employees at the early stages of a company, no one really has a clue about how they should be compensated — cash, equity or what combination of both? Why is that? -
When does sharing become stealing?
13 Feb 2012 | 7:25 pmI have a confession to make: Over the past two years, I’ve been watching HBO content without paying for it. I’m not actually pirating it. Instead, I have benevolent family members who subscribe to the channel and have gifted me with a password that they get from their local cable provider. Of course, I’m hardly the average consumer: I’ve been covering cable’s TV Everywhere initiative since launch, and got my first taste of the services available as soon as they first started coming available. Nor am I wholly dependent on my family connection for streaming video… -
How Tumblr went from wee to webscale
13 Feb 2012 | 4:23 pmTumblr, the popular microblogging service is hitting 500 million page views a day, deals with 40,000 requests per second and sends more than a terabyte of data into its Hadoop cluster per day. But it wasn’t always a superhot startup that needed to serve 15 billion page views a month, and the story of how it morphed from wee to webscale makes a great case study over at High Scalability. The biggest takeaways from the study, which is a must-read for developers and a must-skim for entrepreneurs building consumer-facing startups (seriously, the section on lessons learned and how to hire… -
Bram Cohen: My goal is to kill off television
13 Feb 2012 | 3:41 pmBitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen demoed his P2P live streaming protocol at the San Francisco MusicTech Summit on Monday, which he said could potentially stream live video to millions of computers with no central infrastructure. Cohen said that the protocol could potentially be used for video conferencing, live streams of video game tournaments or even live sports events. “My goal here is to kill off television,” he joked. Cohen has worked on P2P live streaming for a number of years, and told us a while back that he completely had to start from scratch because traditional P2P algorithms…
-
Brent Csutoras
-
Foundation.kr : Kevin Rose’s Entrepreneur Interview Project
13 Feb 2012 | 2:16 pmI think there is very few people in the tech industry who do not know who Kevin Rose is, but just in case you don’t… He created Digg.com, Pounce, WeFollow, Revision3, and most recently Milk, which appears to be a web app company. Not to mention being an investor and/or adviser to About.me, Six Apart, Chomp, [...] -
How Can Social Media Get You Fired? (Infographic)
6 Feb 2012 | 12:03 pmThis is another, in what will likely be a long line of Infographics, which I found interesting and wanted to share. I am a little torn on this graphic, because I love the concept and some of the implementation, like the 8 Ways To Get Fired by Social Media, near the bottom of the graphic. [...] -
Infographic about Infographics
26 Jan 2012 | 10:02 amInfographics continue to rise in popular, buy hey… why shouldn’t they? Infographics embody everything we want from content. They are highly visual, with easy to digest information, in most cases teach us something interesting we did not know, and do it all in a matter of minutes. Additionally, it is much harder to just duplicate or resuse [...] -
SMX West and Back to the Brain Share
25 Jan 2012 | 1:39 pmI took the entire year off from conferences in 2011, so that I could focus exclusively on improving and expanding our content promotion capabilities and offerings. During that time, there have been some pretty massive changes in the social media space, specifically around content marketing (aka social promotion). You have probably noticed that I am [...] -
2012: A New Year and A New Direction
16 Jan 2012 | 12:43 pmI have spent a lot of time thinking over the last 6 months… …about how I got into online marketing to begin with, how it evolved quickly to a focus on social media marketing, and how much I love it. …about starting my own company, then co-founding Alpha Brand Media and later also co-founding BlueGlass. [...]
-
Marketing Land - Internet Marketing News, Strategies & Tips
-
Not Surprisingly, Twitter Is The Most Popular Brand Page On Twitter
13 Feb 2012 | 9:20 pmThe most popular Twitter brand pages are out and the results are a mixed bag. Thanks to ZoomSphere, a social statistics firm, all of the Twitter brand pages can be tracked by popularity. Out of the top 20 pages 8 are bands/artists, 6 brands, 4 celebrities, 1 news source and 1 Government entity... Please visit Marketing Land for the full article. -
Google Gets US & EU Approval To Purchase Motorola Mobility
13 Feb 2012 | 4:42 pmIt looks like Google’s going to be in the hardware game. Both the European Union and the US Department Of Justice have cleared Google to go ahead with its planned purchase of Motorola Mobility, which makes cellphones, tablets and set-top boxes. Google Looking For Patent Protections Google... Please visit Marketing Land for the full article. -
Marketing Day: February 13, 2012
13 Feb 2012 | 3:59 pmHere’s our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: 21 Percent Of Ads On News Sites Are House Ads: Pew Study Online news sites are struggling to get advertisers to move from their traditional... Please visit Marketing Land for the full article. -
21 Percent Of Ads On News Sites Are House Ads: Pew Study
13 Feb 2012 | 2:17 pmOnline news sites are struggling to get advertisers to move from their traditional platforms to online outlets. One of the effects of that, according to a new report from Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, is that more than one in five ads on news websites are house ads. The... Please visit Marketing Land for the full article. -
Apple Takes Google’s Spot As “Most Reputable Company” In US
13 Feb 2012 | 12:51 pmFor the past 13 years polling firm Harris has been asking US consumers about companies they admire and those they don’t. The firm packages that information up into a corporate reputation score for the “60 most visible companies in the country.” A cousin of the American Consumer... Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.
-
Posts about Social Media from the Econsultancy blog
-
Do consumers need "data lockers" for their personal information?
13 Feb 2012 | 1:47 pmEvery day, copious amounts of information about individuals is created and exchanged in some fashion on the internet. Much of the time, the creation of that information is voluntary, and the exchange of that information helps support a universe of services that many consumers couldn't do without. The volume of personal information out there and the ease with which it can be shared, often opaquely, has raised privacy concerns that could be the biggest stumbling block for the evolution of the web. So what's the solution?Many privacy advocates believe that companies need to become better… -
MySpace attracts 1m new users
13 Feb 2012 | 1:17 pmWith Facebook going public and expecting to receive a valuation of up to $100bn when its shares hit the market, it's easy to forget that just a handful of years ago, Facebook wasn't the only game in town in the social networking space. And for a time actually, there was actually another leader: MySpace.Purchased by News Corp. for a then-whopping $580m in 2005, MySpace was more than just a "place for friends"; it was the social network. Of course, we all know what happened next: it basically collapsed. MySpace's traffic didn't just disappear overnight, but as far as internet properties are… -
Don Tapscott on privacy and the new web
13 Feb 2012 | 11:33 amAs most of us are aware, we are in a huge age of change. The technology genie is now out of the bottle and it is changing the way the next generation is interacting and shaping our world.Don Tapscott, author of Macrowikinomics, opened Social Media Week in New York with his thoughts on emerging trends. The biggest takeaway? We need a new set of institutions that fit a digital age. The future as Tapscott sees it, is not to be predicted. It’s to be achieved.When the internet was created it was about presentation and content was king. This is no different than the invention of the… -
What drives innovation in business?
13 Feb 2012 | 7:47 amEvery business wants to be seen as innovative, as a company that leads and creates new trends, , but what are the solid business imperatives and values behind maintaining an inventive, creative culture? Are businesses aimlessly chasing ‘The Next Big Thing’ when they should be concentrating on the day to day running of the company? Even if you do decide to chase those ideas that make the cut, is innovation something you can really ‘plan’? Or should you put your faith in an agile working environment and leap on the ad-hoc opportunities? We asked a range of… -
Seven tools that sort social networks by size
13 Feb 2012 | 7:16 amBefore we start, let's just get one thing straight. Size isn’t everything. Hear that social media ‘gurus’? It’s about quality not quantity, so if your follower count is in the tens of thousands but works out at a ratio of 1:1 - that doesn’t make you an influencer. But sometimes, looking at the most followed/liked/loved on various networks is an interesting exercise. It often reflects the demographic of a network, shows the most popular content – and highlights at least some of the brands getting it right. I’ve compiled some of the tools you can use to…
-
Convince and Convert Blog: Social Media Strategy and Social Media Consulting
-
The 6 Lifelong Laws of Content Marketing for Agencies
12 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pmLast week I wrote about the 4 (and only 4) possible rationales for agencies to get deep into content marketing. Clearly understanding these rationales is important because content marketing isn’t free. The opportunity costs are significant, which is what we’ll explore in this post. Can agencies truly benefit from a commitment to content (which often carries with it the bonus of getting sharper about their positioning)? Absolutely. Agencies like BlissPR (NYC, and a client), Bailey Gardiner (San Diego, and a former client), MLT Creative (Atlanta), White Horse (Portland), and even… -
Social Pros Podcast – Scott Monty, Ford Motor Company
9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amThis is Episode 2 of the Social Pros Podcast : Real People Doing Real Work in Social Media. This episode features Scott Monty, the global head of social media for Ford Motor Company. Read on for insights from Scott, our “Work It Out” advice segment, and Eric’s Social Media Stat of the Week (this week: do brands use free or paid social media tools?). Next week’s guest is Justin Levy from Citrix Online. Listen Now Click the play button to listen here: Download the audio file: http://socialpros.podbean.com/mf/play/ndijyu/SocialProsEpisode2.mp3 The RSS feed is:… -
Activation, Comfort, and Other Secrets of Online Community Management
8 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amVideo production by my friends at Candidio. Fast, inexpensive, great service. (Abbreviated transcript below. Please watch video for entire interview. Somehow, my side of the video got cut out, so it’s only audio for me!) Jay: Welcome everybody to Convince & Convert. It is Jay Baer joined today by a very special guest, my friend who is the Director of Community and all things fabulous at BlogWorld and also the author of Online Community Management For Dummies, Ms. Deb Ng. Deb, how are you? Deb: I am terrific, Jay. How are you? Jay: I am marvelous. I love your festive red background… -
What Do You Know? Examining the Big 4 Online Answer Sites
7 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amArnie Kuenn is the president of Vertical Measures, a search, social & content marketing company . He is author of Accelerate! Moving Your Business Forward Through the Convergence of Search, Social & Content Marketing. An ideal connection between social media and search might just be “Answer” sites. The essential concept behind an answer site is that visitors can post a question eager to get it answered by someone considered an expert, who is knowledgeable in the subject matter. The response could also be powered by public knowledge with consensus determining the… -
The Only 4 Reasons Agencies Should Care About Their Own Content Marketing
5 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amMimicry is not a strategy. Compulsion is not a strategy. Yet, far too many agencies are devoting resources to content marketing and social media solely because they feel they have to do so. Other agencies have a blog, and Webinars, and an active Twitter feed, so we need some of that too! To what end? What are you really trying to accomplish – as an agency – with all of this content and social media? You’re not selling ads, so website traffic isn’t inherently valuable. Do clicks and retweets or Facebook fans really build your business? Not in a linear way. There are…
-
Elevator View
-
Crowd Gathers in the Sun Outside Citi Pond, Bryant Park, 12:45PM
13 Feb 2012 | 6:45 amPhotographed from the 24th floor of 1065 Avenue of the Americas (Bryant Park Corporation). -
Towers on 40th Street from Madison to Sixth Avenues, 1:00PM
8 Feb 2012 | 9:49 amBryant Park Hotel is housed in the gold-topped American Radiator Building. The Mercantile Building at 10 West 40th Street (with sloped green roof) was previously known as Chase Tower. Photographed from the 24th floor of 1065 Avenue of the Americas (Bryant Park Corporation). -
Entrance Pavilion, 9/11 Memorial Museum, 9:00AM
6 Feb 2012 | 12:18 pmPhotographed from the fifth floor of 123 Washington Street (W New York – Downtown). -
Citi Pond at Bryant Park, and New York Public Library, 1:00PM
3 Feb 2012 | 9:13 amPhotographed from the 24th floor of 1065 Avenue of the Americas (Bryant Park Corporation). -
Skybridge Connecting Chelsea Market and 85 Tenth Avenue, 4:30PM
1 Feb 2012 | 10:04 amPhotographed from the Rooftop of The Standard, New York.
-
The Online Community Guide
-
Understanding Conceptualization: The Process You Go Through Before You Launch An Online Community
13 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amEverything between the moment you establish the objectives and the moment you begin doing outreach to your members is the conceptualization phase. This is when you decide who you're targeting, what the community will be about, what type of community it will be, and how you get it going. If you get the community concept wrong, nothing else you do matters. A community can't overcome a terrible concept. A community about something that isn't a really strong interest can't possibly succeed. Too many communities are created for by organizations for customers to talk about… -
Too Much Activity
12 Feb 2012 | 9:35 amLet's go back to WarriorCats for a second. 17.6m posts. 14m of them are in off-topic discussions. These discussions range from "I have a headache" to "do you have imaginary friends?". If you look closely, you notice that the majority of these discussions are no more than a sentence or two. The speed of response is a matter of seconds. The number of responses vary wildly. Why is this important? Because these discussion appear on the forum for no more than a few minutes. They get pushed down by even newer discussions the second they're… -
Free Video - Learn An Entirely New Way To Approach Community Management
11 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amThis week, I gave a webinar to 100 students on The Pillar Summit's Professional Community Management mailing list (you should join). The webinar was designed to change the way we approach community management. We covered: Why most community managers waste 80% of their day. A completely new approach to online community management that every community manager can embrace. Proven techniques that keep people engaged and participating. What you need to do at every stage of the community lifecycle. How to gain and measure the ROI of an online community. You can… -
Platforms And Younger Audiences
10 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amSome say that younger audiences wont use forums. Forums are old. Outdated. They don't look great. I disagree. Just look at communities like WarriorCats; a community for 8 to 14 year olds. It has 17.6m posts from 64,396 members. If you can find another platform that racks up these figures, then be sure to use it. Until you can, I'd look at forums as still the best, most cost-effective, and most popular platforms for developing successful communities for all audiences. If you're not using the best platform for developing a community, you should have… -
Case Study: Shoemocracy (A new online community about shoes)
8 Feb 2012 | 4:01 amShoemocracy recently launched an online community for shoe lovers. It makes for a good case study about the interplay between the elements of social psychology and platform design. So if Shoemocracy was a client, this is what we would tell them: The Concept A community for shoelovers is ok, but it's competitive. It's a community of interest. There are a LOT of communities about shoes out there. It's competing against fashion communities, sportswear communities and a variety of other shoe niches. Generalist sites will never beat the niches. They should apply…
-
FaceReviews: Facebook Applications Reviews and Facebook News
-
Facebook IPO Filing Coming Wednesday
31 Jan 2012 | 11:31 pmWhat a long time coming this has been. It appears that Facebook is going to file for its IPO on Wednesday. According to IFR It is looking like they are starting with raising approximately $5 billion in this offering. Indications are that they are going to start small and then move up with 5 Billion ($5B) Facebook is expected to file to raise $5bn in a preliminary IPO prospectus on Wednesday morning, which while less than anticipated could be increased to satisfy investor demand, according to sources close to the deal. Previous reports had put it seeking ~ $10 billion, so this initial 5… -
XGames Fail over DQ of Skier for Wearing Sarah Burke Armband
29 Jan 2012 | 7:24 pmXGames simply refuses to talk about the specific circumstances and reasons for why they chose to disqualify Womens Skier X Final participant Langely McNeal. According to what we have heard it was over the fact that she was wearing a tribute band to Sarah Burke. I am stunned by this on several levels. It appears to be the weakest DQ that I can ever remember and they are trying to silence controversy surrounding the decision. It all feels very hypocritical to me. Now they keep making bad social media decisons on top of an original bad event decision by simply trying to silence the issue and… -
7 Tech Trends to Watch for in 2012
4 Jan 2012 | 2:14 amWhats Next in Tech for 2012? This is a question that I have been kicking around with some of my peers for the past month or so. There are many trends occurring in the mobile space, in the social space and in the commerce space that are fundamentally changing how consumers and users interact, share and complete transactions. One thing to keep in mind is how both Apple IOS and Android are rapidly gaining in the number of handsets activated daily. As more and more consumers upgrade to smart phones and as technology costs drop, opportunity rises in the ways that new use cases can have huge… -
iPhone Drinking Game: Where’s Cuppy?
18 Jun 2011 | 11:33 amNew iPhone Social Game: Where’s Cuppy? The game is fun and simple. Download the iPhone app and snap a pic of you and your friends with you plastic red cup. Simple. Stupid. Pointless and Fun as hell. So grab a Sharpie marker… draw Cuppy’s face on the Cup and start taking pics. The photos of Cuppy can be shared on Twitter and Facebook. There are leader boards for 9 Categories of Cuppy Photos. The pics are funny and this game is a great icebreaker at parties, the beach, the dorm, bars and while playing beer pong. There is also a cool map that shows all the places that Cuppy has… -
Win this Cool Guitar on Plixi from Patrick Stump
1 Apr 2011 | 1:53 pmCheck out this Cool Guitar Giveaway on Plixi. It looks like a photo contest where you upload a photo with the hashtag #patrickstump to Plixi.com Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy has a new solo EP called Truant Wave. So upload your photo of you in your spotlight showing what you do best to be entered to win this Stump-O-Matic guitar. You can see all the cool photos that have been entered in this live photo stream here: www.plixi.com/live/patrickstump Details of the photo contest are here: Share this on:
-
Daily Blog Tips
-
One Simple Template for Crafting Great Titles
12 Feb 2012 | 10:30 pmYou know that blog post titles have to grab attention – but how exactly do you go about that, especially when you’ve got the rest of the post to write? Here’s one way to craft a great title in a hurry: #1: Use a Number List posts are popular for a reason: we’re intrigued by numbers. Putting a number in your title helps tell the reader that your post will be valuable. The exact number isn’t too important – but big numbers (think 25 or more) are great for social media attention. Don’t forget that “one” is a number, too! #2: Be Clear What You’re… -
Crafting A Proper Apology Policy When Your Blog Really Steps In It
10 Feb 2012 | 7:21 amYou really stepped in it this time. Perhaps you were late for your daily blog post and you ran it without obtaining double verification for a specific fact which turned out to be wrong; or maybe you went off on a tirade against an industry personality or a particularly grating commenter and crossed the line; or perhaps you typo’d your $100 prize for your email newsletter contest and set it at $100,000. No matter what you’ve done wrong, it’s now time to apologize: quickly, thoroughly, and profusely. Here’s how to do that. 1. Send the apology email to your entire list Your email… -
PHP Tutorial For Beginners – Part 1
9 Feb 2012 | 4:45 pmWhen I asked in the past if our readers would be interested in learning some programming concepts the vast majority said yes, especially if the concepts were focused around the PHP language. Recently I started playing around with PHP myself, so I decided to create a series of tutorials sharing the stuff. If you like this first part please let me know so I keep more coming. What’s PHP, and why should I care? PHP is a programming language that was developed to to produce dynamic web pages. Technically speaking it’s a server-side scripting language. Server-side means that it works on… -
New Backlink Analysis Tool
8 Feb 2012 | 5:56 amSince Yahoo! closed the Site Explorer service bloggers and webmasters (myself included) were left without any solid alternative. I have been looking for similar tools since then, and an interesting one I found recently is called ahrefs.com. It’s a paid service, but there are many free tools you can use on their website as well. For instance, right on the homepage you can type your domain name and click on “Explore Links” to get an overview of how your website is doing. As you can see from the screenshot above you get a lot of data back. For instance, you can see the total… -
Come Join the Social Media Club
7 Feb 2012 | 6:37 amBack in 2009 I created two clubs, one called “Retweet Club” and the other one called “Facebook Club”, where members would share each other’s content, with the goal of increasing social media traffic to their blogs and websites. The clubs worked as mailing lists (using Google Groups), but eventually the activity died down. The main reason was the following: sharing wasn’t fair. A member could be selfish and only send requests to the club, without ever sharing the content from other members. A couple of weeks ago I started thinking about what could be a…
-
Poetslife
-
Herman Samuel “B” Beck, Jr.
3 Feb 2012 | 5:49 am“B” Wise with Your Time (for Herman Samuel “B” Beck, Jr.)There is a clock above Town HallNear the old B&O station in Mt.Airy,Dependable, accurate, useful andtrue,Named after Herman Samuel “B” Beck,Jr.Mr. Beck, author of the Mt. Airy B&O Story,1936 graduate of Mt. Airy HighSchool,WWII radioman with the Army AirCorpsIn the European Theater ofOperations,“B” columnist of the Mt. AiryNewsOf the “Way We Were” column,Member of the Mt. Airy TownCouncil,Manager Coach of the Mt. AiryLittle League,Promoted citizenship as a Member,PresidentAnd District Governor of… -
It Was Nothing
2 Jan 2012 | 11:06 amHere are a few photos of the house fire we went through in 2003, along with a poem I just wrote that captures some of the reaction ten years later.I include some photos of the rebuilt house and us in it."It will get better." some told us after the event.And it has.It Was Nothing“It was nothing”Said my six-year oldIn a Thank You card To his first-grade classI discover a decade laterAmong family heirlooms.Except that it was something.It was a house fireThat but for secondsAlmost took his life,And my lifeAnd the life of his older brotherAnd burned my wifeSeverely enoughThat she was… -
In Support of the American Flag in Woodbine
28 Dec 2011 | 8:00 pmComing back from a drive on 12/26/2011, I saw this amazing flag at the Woodbine traffic circle. I pulled over and took this photo and 10-second video. I just thought it was pretty cool. Little did I know it was a symbol of patriotism, respect for the military, and resistance to heavy government tyranny. Read on... "Removal of American flag from Woodbine traffic circle sparks patriotic rallyState highway decision riles neighbors, leads to large showing of troop support Brian Loveless, 14, left, and Garrett Murray, 12, both of Woodbine, wave flags at the rally. (Photo Noah Scialom /… -
Earth from Space
16 Nov 2011 | 12:15 pmTime-lapsed photography of earth from space...unreal! Click this link and marvel. This is epic. While human life continues, as in these photos, the earth spins and the planets swirl and creation continues here and beyond. CREATION!!! It shows a time lapse sequences of photographs taken by the crew of expeditions 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011, who to my knowledge shot these pictures at an altitude of around 350 km. All credit goes to them. I intend to upload a FullHD-version presently.HD, refurbished, smoothed, retimed, denoised,… -
9/11 Vauk and Ruth Memorial and Celebration
18 Sep 2011 | 8:03 pmThis is the speech I wrote for Mayorof Mount Airy Patrick Rockingberg's Patriot’sDay Speech on September11, 2011 Click any photo to enlarge it.Thank you….And thank you all for coming to thePine Grove Chapel in Mount Airy for this Patriot’s Day 9/11 Ceremony. (PAUSE)We are here to honor all ofAmerica’s Patriots, and especially those who gave their last and full measureon September 11, 2001, Navy Lieutenant Commander Ronald J. Vaulk and Army ChiefWarrant William Ruth.As this is the 10th Anniversary ofthat fateful day, it is fitting that we pause to honor them, their…
-
louisgray.com
-
Dice.com: Louis Gray on Google and Job Hunting
7 Feb 2012 | 12:53 pmLast fall, shortly after I joined Google, Michelle Greenlee contacted me for a quick interview about the Google hiring experience, and what tech-savvy job seekers can do to leverage the influence of social media to influence hiring managers. The story was finally posted this morning.The biggest take-away is probably my last note in an answer to her final question: "The world is becoming social and the new world of business and hiring can find great candidates through how you present yourself online."See: Dice.com: Louis Gray on Google and Job Hunting/via My Google+ Profile.More:… -
50 Things a +1 Can Mean
7 Feb 2012 | 2:15 amA +1 is simple. It’s one of the easiest ways on the web to take an action that endorses the content and says you saw something. But it can mean many different things. That’s the beauty of +1. You can +1 things you like. You can +1 bad news. You can +1 things you love. You can +1 casual status updates or items that change the world.Often, we get asked what it means to +1. Here are some ideas. We’d love to see yours./via The Google+ Page (Which I maintain)1. A +1 can say you agree with the post.2. A +1 can say your photo is beautiful.3. A +1 can say your joke was funny.4. A +1 can mean… -
Two Numbers: 1 and 90 Million
7 Feb 2012 | 2:10 amBy now, you all have seen the dual bits of news today - first that Google+ has achieved 90 million users with at least one new feature every single day, over 1 million businesses and brand pages, and sign in of 60% daily, 80% weekly.Also, earlier today, Google was (for the 3rd time) named the best place to work by Fortune Magazine (see http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2012/snapshots/1.html). We're working on making Google+ the best place to be for you so you can be just as proud about these numbers and this news. To stay on top of all this great stuff,… -
Daria Musk Visits Google+ for Live Performance
7 Feb 2012 | 2:08 amLast Monday, I had the great pleasure of meeting Daria Musk and interviewing her on stage, to learn more about her story and rise from relative obscurity to becoming a Google+ sensation. As I told the Google+ team, assembled in the private concert, in my introduction, Daria epitomizes the community here as well as anyone I know.She is fully invested in this platform, is tireless, upbeat, and to boot, is incredibly talented. I'd heard her sing in many a hangout, but to hear her sing live at Google was transformative. Nothing beats a live performance by an artist with passion, energy… -
10 Great Ways to Get Discovered on Google+
7 Feb 2012 | 2:04 amAs social networks evolve, so to do your circles. Even in the few months since our launch, you’ve probably added a lot of people to your circles who you didn’t know before - people who share common interests, or came by recommendation of a trusted friend or expert. Some people have rocketed their way to high visibility, added to hundreds of thousands of circles, by virtue of their actions on Google+. So while I can’t promise you the big numbers, here are ten ways you can get found on Google+, and examples to boot.1. Embrace the Community While Doing Something Unique and Creative.Daria…
-
Discount Safari
-
Experience the Holiday Autos Discount Code Online
22 Jan 2012 | 12:21 pmThe Holiday Autos discount code is offering a grand car hire sale of 30% off. The promotion is destined to run in various stations across the globe until 31st October, 2011. If you are planning a family get away, honeymoon or romantic travel with your spouse this is the time to book for your transport. The discount code is available at different locations at different times. Determining when the discount will be available at your preferred destination will help you to schedule your travel at the right time. The booking for the car is a piece of cake. You can complete the application online… -
Hints On How To Use The Vertbaudet discount Code and Save Money
15 Dec 2011 | 7:15 amIf you want to acquire the best garments and clothing for your baby you should acquire the Vertbaudet promotional code. This promotional code enables you make some great bargains while shopping from www.vertbaudet.co.uk. Vertbaudet is the leading retail outlet for winter warmers, night wear, occasion wear, ski wear, and various other baby items. After spending £60 or more, the standard packing and postage will cost you only £3.99 per single order regardless of how big or small the order is. The retail outlet is also offering very exciting Christmas shopping promotions. You will benefit from… -
Quick Tips on How To Use the Ann Summers Free Delivery To Shop at The Ann Summers
16 Nov 2011 | 3:43 pmThe Ann Summers free delivery code is the open secret of how you can acquire those naughty items you love most at the best prices ever in the United Kingdom. The store offers that latest sex toys, seductive lingerie and various other raunchy items. With this code you can acquire these items at unbelievably low prices in which you have never imagined in your life. For those who are looking for the practical ways of acquiring special prize in order to surprise someone, Ann summers is the ideal place in which you will get all that you want plus the tips on how to choose the best. In addition to… -
Europcar Discount Code: Giving you the best transport deals
3 Nov 2011 | 3:40 pmThe Europcar discount code is an offer anyone looking for excellent car hire service in Europe should be on the lookout for. This service is dedicated to offering its clients first class transport solution ranging from vehicles updated with cutting edge technology such as portable Wi-Fi; prestigious vehicles for persons on holiday and courier vehicles to solve your transportation work. All the cars are in excellent condition to save you the hassle of unprecedented breakdowns. In addition, the car is delivered to your chosen pick up place free. You can also designate a place where it shall be… -
Tips On How You Can Use The Dorothy Perkins Promotional Code
23 Oct 2011 | 4:11 amThe Dorothy Perkins Promotional Code for 2011 is out and you can use it to make great saving for all your purchases from Dorothy Perkins. This is one of the leading clothing outlets in the United Kingdom. It has more than 600 retail outlets in the United Kingdom and thus you will get a store at you nearest high street. This promotional code will enable you make great savings on the already reduced prices of the items that are sold at Dorothy Perkins stores. This is not all; the Dorothy Perkins Free Delivery ensures that all purchases worth or more than £75 are delivered to you for free. Thus…
-
THINKing
-
Creativity 2012 – Week #7
13 Feb 2012 | 7:50 am5 Genius Examples Of QR Codes – QR code creation jumped a whopping 1,253% in 2011, with two million of them created in less than three months. Let’s look at some examples of how they are being used effectively. Why Being Drunk Or Sleepy Improves Creativity - The stupor of alcohol, like the haze of the early morning, makes it harder for us to ignore those unlikely thoughts and remote associations that are such important elements of the imagination. How To Boost Creativity – Here are some tips on how to boost your creativity, whether that be on days where your mind is… -
Creativity 2012 – Week #6
6 Feb 2012 | 9:20 amPhoto credit: kevin_p from morguefile.com The Surprising Path To Innovation – The path to innovation is rarely a direct line, but that circuitous route is often necessary for true innovation. Think Like A Child To Achieve More – Kids often have a clarity to their goal setting that adults can learn from. Three CEOs Who Get Innovation – A handful of CEOs aren’t solely focused on next quarters numbers. Meet three of them. Six Questions That Lead To Innovation - How do true innovators actually make the leap from status quo to full-on disruption? Asking questions. How… -
Creativity 2012 – Week #5
30 Jan 2012 | 8:22 amPhoto credit: mconnors from morguefile.com Klout & Pinterest: Time Wasters Or Creativity Tools? – Are these social media sites a total time and energy suck, or is there some redeeming value? Three People Who Never Belong In A Brainstorm Room – Hold on there, Negative Nancy. You can’t come in. Screen Typography Is Falling Behind – iPads and other tablets are calling for screen typography evolution. It is not happening. I’ll Never Fall In Love (With Ideas) Again – Every good new idea means an old idea must die. Do you have the heart for that? The Three… -
Creativity 2012 – Week #4
23 Jan 2012 | 8:37 amPhoto credit: ajaxserix from morguefile.com It Takes Two In The Innovation Tango – Which is better for innovation – a lone creative or a group of creatives? Innovation And The Art Of The Story – The art of storytelling is nothing new. Storify co-founder and Hacks/Hackers founder Burt Herman discusses the next generation of the centuries-old craft. A Running Shoe Inventor Shoots Himself In The Foot - How hard is it for an independent inventor to sell an idea to a multinational? Try running a mile in Lenn Hann’s shoes. Social Technologies Speed Innovation –… -
Creativity 2012 – Week #3
16 Jan 2012 | 8:49 amPhoto credit: cohdra from morguefile.com The Rise Of The New Groupthink – Creativity happens to a single person working alone, not in a group. January Brainstorm – A few ideas to get your little gray cells percolating as we jump into 2012. How To Maintain A Creative, Healthy Perspective – A change of perspective is what invokes new ideas. Culture And The Climate For Creativity – Organizations that invest in a climate of creativity create conditions for dealing with risk and develop an environment of trust. 10 Creative Ways To Use QR Codes – Here are some of…
-
Firebelly Marketing
-
Valentine’s Day and Social Media: 5 Must-Reads
13 Feb 2012 | 11:53 amBelow are 5 must-reads on Valentine’s Day and social media that we wouldn’t want you to miss. Social Media Moms Choose Sex Over Facebook This Valentine’s Day By Megan Calhoun Given the choice to go without one thing for Valentine’s Day, about 76% of social media savvy women choose to give up Facebook over sex with their spouse or partner, according to a new survey by SocialMoms.com, a network of 35,000 influential moms who are active in social media. Target pulls “stalker” Valentine’s Day cards in response to social media outrage By Aaron Rupar Target first… -
Heineken Helps You Serenade Your Valentine on Facebook
8 Feb 2012 | 8:41 pmHeineken is using Facebook in a fun way this Valentine season with their new app – Serenade. How it works 1. Pick a Facebook friend that you want to ask out. 2. Using the app, you can ask that person out on a date in just four clicks. 3. A personalized serenade video (created based on information you provide) is posted on your love interest’s wall. 4. He or she can then respond “yes” or “no” (which results in a video being posted on your wall). Happy serenading! -
Facebook Page Management Tip #5: Offer Incentives
7 Feb 2012 | 11:58 amYou scratch my back, I'll scratch yours Facebook fans love incentives–you scratch my back, I’ll scratch your back. Think about your personal page and the feeling you get when you start getting likes or comments on a post about finding your new favorite restaurant or a photo of you at the Super Bowl. When you receive those interactions you are more inclined to like or comment on that person’s posts too (you got to give love to get love). The same goes for business pages—your fans get that same feeling when they receive engagement from your brand. The majority of people on… -
The Super Bowl & Social Media: 5 Must-Reads
6 Feb 2012 | 12:40 pmIt’s been an exciting week for sports (and social media) enthusiasts here in Indianapolis! Below are 5 must-reads on Super Bowl XLVI and social media that we wouldn’t want you to miss. Who Won the Social Media #SuperBowl? (Infographic) By Kyle Lacy At the ExactTarget Social Media Lab we looked at the nexus between the game, advertisers, and consumer social activity to see which brands made the most of the opportunity and here is what we found. Why the Super Bowl’s Social Media Command Center Scores a Winning Touchdown By Elizabeth Lupfer An exclusive, in-depth look into the… -
Is Jeremy Epstein The Yoda Of Community Marketing?
5 Feb 2012 | 5:09 pmWhat Henry Ford, Espresso, And Community Have In Common A little over two years ago, I spoke on a panel with Jason Falls and Jeremy Epstein at GrowSmartBiz Conference in Washington D.C. (Thanks to Shashi Bellamkonda for making that happen). It was my first interaction with Jeremy – I started reading and following his work. Now I read his blog more often than any other marketing blog. Why? Because he’s sincere, passionate, inspiring, and extremely insightful. I love his approach – he thinks aloud and collaborates in the open with the members of his community, shares best…
-
ConverStations
-
Tired of LOLcats, Animated GIFs, and Th*ngs People Say?
13 Feb 2012 | 5:45 amAre there times you grow a bit weary of the memes of Th*ings People Say, Funny Cat posters and looping mini-movies in your social streams? Don’t Be. It’s a learning process. And we’re all in beta. Some of these messages are probably not intended to entertain or inform you – but they don’t have to be a complete waste of time either. As you see these items scroll by over and over again, recognize patterns of popularity and sharing and SCAMPER your findings into your own content. In many ways, these creations of clatter can be an example. Allow these experiments of… -
Why There is Always Room for One More Good One
7 Feb 2012 | 8:37 amFans are Fanatics. Searchers Find. Shoppers Discover. Trekkies Trek Ask the sports fans … the crafting hobbyist … the thrift store shopper. Watch the Trekkies. Is there just one place, one site, one convention? Or is it all of them? There’s always room for one more good one. That baseball fan getting ready for her fantasy league draft? She’s not looking at just one site or one magazine. She’s got them all. That quilters in your life? They don’t just go to one store, they know them all. Before you doubt yourself or change what you’re good at because… -
My Facebook: Business Page Public and Personal Profile Private
6 Feb 2012 | 3:03 pmThis weekend, I turned my Facebook profile into a Business page. Most of the connections I had on Facebook were from business contacts, most of what I shared was about business. I was most of the way to a business page already. I had been thinking about making the move for awhile. When Tracy Sestili said Bye-Bye to Facebook, I started making my move by following her lead. (By the way, Tracy is a solid-state, straight-shooting social media strategist – one to follow). Tracy’s steps and reasons are sound. While Facebook is a closed system in many ways, it remains a confusingly open… -
Slide Sunday: Blog Posts are Part of Your Inventory
5 Feb 2012 | 6:50 am“If we must claim an ROI for social media, it will be found in the very fuzzy edges of the inventory we place with care and craft on our social media shelves” - Gerard McLean in Stocking Your Social Media Shelves Slide Sunday: Blog Posts are Part of Your Inventory is a post from: ConverStations Find Your Social Media ROI I hear it from a lot of business owners: "Where is the ROI with all this Social Media?" If this is a question you've asked, maybe we should work together a bit more. We can work together solo, or via a professional learning community. Find and increase your ROI. -
Blogging Like Jerome Bettis Drives
4 Feb 2012 | 6:51 amThe greatest running backs in the NFL seem to have one element in common. It’s a practice rarely seen on highlight reels or still shots. It’s not so much the fancy stuff. Not the stiff arm, the high-leg, or the spin. The one trait all the greats share is one that does NOT stand out. But it’s the one that kept moving them forward. Even when they hit a brick wall of defense, the greatest running backs keep pumping their legs. Short steps. Rapid pace. One after the other. They keep their legs moving. Jerome Bettis was one of the best at this, especially near the goal line.
-
RyanSpoon.com
-
Amazon Super Bowl Ad – A Week Later
13 Feb 2012 | 11:59 amLeading up to the Super Bowl, Amazon ran some clever sponsored story ads on Facebook asking fans to engage around the Super Bowl (will you be watching?). That of course leads to indirect transactions (clicking through takes users to a Super Bowl merchandising page)… but that is a different message than merely displaying product. And it leads to interactions: - 12,000 Facebook users liked the ad - 1,200 commented (10%) - 150 reshared it (1%) That’s unique and rather compelling. But: the ad is still running – a week later. So it’s no longer relevant or even logical… -
6 Reasons to Be Bullish on Facebook
12 Feb 2012 | 11:06 amI am late to the game on publicly dissecting Facebook’s S-1 filing and the business data they shared. There are many good reviews (two here: Dan Fromer and Bill Gurley). I wanted to throw my bullish opinions in from a very high business level, rather than from a valuation / financial / data perspective… sure it’s a simplistic way to view it, but I think it is helpful. 1. They have a real business and they aren’t even trying. Simply put: Facebook is a great business today… and they haven’t really focused on it. Examples of that are in the below bullets, but… -
Amazon Prime Instant Video Catalog Grows
8 Feb 2012 | 5:06 pmSuch is the online video content war: catalogs grow, compete and find their way into the homes / devices of as many eyeballs as possible…. after all, content wants to be seen and ultimately the economics for all are dictated on content being seen by as many eyeballs as possible. It’s why I believe that over time libraries will exist and overlap on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, web, app stores, etc. It’s inevitable… And here is: - continued proof of that trend - and yet another reason to be bullish on Amazon, Amazon Prime and Amazon Instant Video And most importantly: Yo Gabba… -
Vacationist & Facebook: Great Progressive Registration Example
8 Feb 2012 | 12:58 pmI write a lot about Facebook as more than an acquisition tool – it’s a conversions tool, particularly through registration and activation. I bill it the “progressive registration” (read more here). Here is a terrific example from Vacationist. First, the registration box is done in a visually clever way: it hangs atop the background image and has six key fields (First Name, Last Name, etc). When the Facebook Connect button is clicked, the fields change, are all prepopulated except for zip code and the title changes from “Become a Vacationist today” to… -
Designing for Mobile: 7 Guidelines for Mobile Apps & Mobile Web
6 Feb 2012 | 2:30 pmNote: this article originally appeared on TechCrunch: Designing for Mobile: 7 Guidelines for Startups to Follow As an investor, I’ve seen hundreds of mobile application pitches. And as a consumer, I’ve downloaded hundreds more – some out of curiosity and others in the hope that I’ll find something so useful and exciting that I’ll make room for it on my iPhone’s home screen. From both perspectives, I am rarely excited by download numbers. What gets my attention is engagement: how frequently an application is used and how engaged those users are. This ultimately is the barometer for…
-
New Marketing and Interactive
-
The golden age of user experience has arrived
11 Feb 2012 | 7:08 pmThere was once a successful entrepreneur who would spend excessive amounts of time and resources on the minute details and aesthetics of his products. He didn’t care if the result was a huge... An early pioneer in interactive media, sought after speaker and leading expert on search and social media marketing, Dean Whitney is the Founder of Dean Whitney Interactive. -
Creating effective landing pages for social lead generation
31 Jan 2012 | 3:12 amSocial media marketing and social lead generation are the most effective ways to drive visitors and potential customers to your site. However, you can only take advantage of these visitors if you... An early pioneer in interactive media, sought after speaker and leading expert on search and social media marketing, Dean Whitney is the Founder of Dean Whitney Interactive. -
SOPA Threatens Internet Freedoms, Innovation and the Economy
16 Jan 2012 | 1:43 pmCongress goes head to head with tech-giants and the average Internet Joe in fight over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Everyone from Obama to your local start-up thinks SOPA will paralyze... An early pioneer in interactive media, sought after speaker and leading expert on search and social media marketing, Dean Whitney is the Founder of Dean Whitney Interactive. -
Driving Business with Affiliate Programs
9 Jan 2012 | 3:15 pmThe popularization of social networks transformed us from a society of passive media consumers into a highly segmented culture of content generators and on-demand end-users. An early pioneer in interactive media, sought after speaker and leading expert on search and social media marketing, Dean Whitney is the Founder of Dean Whitney Interactive. -
Finding Balance in the Age of Digital Overload
1 Jan 2012 | 1:17 pmIts a new year and a great time to talk about goals and balance. If you are like me your work is always with you. You wake up and check email on the computer, if you are not near the computer the... An early pioneer in interactive media, sought after speaker and leading expert on search and social media marketing, Dean Whitney is the Founder of Dean Whitney Interactive.
-
Direct Marketing Observations
-
Some Handy Social Networking Statistics and Trends
11 Feb 2012 | 7:58 amInfographic by – Conversion Rate Optimization Company Invesp -
Where Are the Jobs and What Can You Make In Social Media?
9 Feb 2012 | 8:12 amAs I’ve said many times, I love a good infograph, thus, let’s introduce the Onward Search Social Media Jobs Salary Guide. Some interesting things to note here. One, there are a lot of good paying jobs out there in the social media space. Two, I’m surprised that some of the positions and locations are not paying more. Given what is on the line for some companies, I would have expected more from some of the locations for the strategist and marketing manager positions. What do you think? © 2012 Onward Search -
The 3 Levels Of Change Needed To Integrate Social Media
6 Feb 2012 | 3:30 pmIf You have not visited the blog site for the agency, We are Social, make sure you do. It’s a great resource of information. In particular, I was struck by an infograph that was up recently titled, Social Business-Social Media Integration. Within that infograph, I found this: Which one do you think is the hardest? Which is the easiest? Which takes the least amount of time? -
Why Should You Comment On A Blog Post?
3 Feb 2012 | 9:37 amI was reading an article today titled, Behind the Wheels: An all-too-real Cinderella story it had 12 comments. The piece was beautifully written and it was interesting to see what those 12 people had to say. Which got me to wondering: How come useless throw away blog posts and articles have tons and tons of comments and the good stuff gets next to nothing? Part of the question also emenated from this post, Why Your Networking Sucks — And the Secret to Doing it Right which had 30 comments, but also sucked people in, including me, because it held the promise of revealing… -
It’s Time For Retailers To Raise Their Games-Five Quick Reminders
30 Jan 2012 | 2:04 pmThe static website is dead long live the static website According to a study from Accenture, comScore, and dunnhumbyUSA aimed at helping consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers, visitors to CPG brand websites buy 37% more in retail stores than non-visitors to the brand site. The study also concluded, that to maximize impact, website content needs to be updated regularly and contain brand value messaging that both engages visitors while also providing compelling reasons for them to purchase the brand at retail. Without sounding too much like Captain Obvious, here’s what retailers need…
-
The Engaging Brand
-
What I learned from George Clooney!
13 Feb 2012 | 8:09 amGeorge Clooney in an interview on The Andrew Marr Show this weekend commented on how film can never lead public opinion as it takes too long for an idea to go from concept to production. Therefore it can only reflect public opinion. In the past media it has been left to the papers to both reflect and lead public opinion. It strikes me that social media is changing the way society forms opinion. In the past the opinion lead the public...now the public leads opinion. However, when you recognise the role of social media. it illustrates the need to keep changing your RSS feeds, changing who you… -
Show 372 - Effect of 3D Printing on Marketing and Business
10 Feb 2012 | 8:06 amThis weeks The Engaging Brand business and marketing podcast is ready! - Talking about social media, leadership and marketing and sponsored today by MozyPro Online Backup: Simple, Automatic & Secure Backup - for special offer try today! Today Paul Armand from Inition joins Anna Farmery to discuss the growing concept of 3D printing and the effect on the future business model. We discuss What is 3D printing and what can it achieve now Are there boundaries to what you can print out in 3D How close are we to replacing production lines with 3D printers Is 3D printing in the future for… -
Cat Stroking, Not Facebook Poking, Satisfies Needs For Real Interaction
9 Feb 2012 | 11:55 amMartin Lindstrom is one of my favourite authors as he combines brain science with marketing - you might have listened to Show 208 when I interviewed him about The Truth and Lies About How We Buy - great listen if you haven't! Anyway, with a new book out called Brandwashed Martin wanted to share with The Engaging Brand Podcast listeners an insight....so from Martin! "Forget poking on Facebook or IMing people, shaking a hand or putting an arm on someone else's shoulder is where social interaction really begins. In Japan, this need for touch has extended to a focus on pets, including cafes for… -
How Memories are Made and Unmade
8 Feb 2012 | 1:47 pmIt strikes me as odd that we see the future as unmade and the past as made, because in a sense I think it works the other way! I was coaching a leadership team today and when they started to talk about an acquisition, it was really interesting to compare how people perceived what had happened. This is so often true. We imagine that the past fixed and yet as we talk about the past we preserve it, but we also slightly evolve it based on our emotional investment. Memories are made, unmade..... Ironically, we also make the future with the decisions we take today. We decide our future by what we… -
How to Optimize Your Resume with Social Media
7 Feb 2012 | 11:35 amThere are two things we know for certain about today’s economy. 1) Finding jobs is getting more and more difficult, for both college educated and non-college educated people. 2) Social media has made job hunting and job candidate hunting trickier. Social media brings a degree of transparency - for better or worse - to the application and interview process that wasn’t there before.In the old world, before the heavy use of LinkedIn and Facebook, employers relied on personal networks to find great candidates. Now, they combine that with these impressive social networks, not just for fact…
-
Going Social Now
-
Super Bowl Digital Advertising Madness
31 Jan 2012 | 10:11 pmSuper Bowl is upon us as is the advertising madness around. There are a few key themes that will hold true this year for sure and are already surfacing:1. Releasing ads online early is becoming table-stakes. Nearly everyone seems to be doing this and with good reason. It's about building momentum into the Super Bowl typically done with a mixture of paid and organic promotions of the TV ads online.2. The smarter advertisers are constructing narratives around teasers, the TV commercial and what should happen after the ad airs. Some are even focusing on second screen social TV experiences (we… -
Two steps forward, One step back
11 Jan 2012 | 5:36 amWorking with very large brands in large organizations means not knowing whether you're taking two steps forward, one step back or one step forward and two steps back in any given moment. We all like to say that there's light at the end of the tunnel but working within a marketing organization versus in an agency, the tunnel is much longer and sometimes the light can seem much further away. You're thinking about how decisions you'll make today will effect your brand three or four years hence.Yes, we absolutely live in a real-time world and we have to be hyper-quick. But at the same time… -
TV Ads' New Digital Role, HBR Piece
12 Nov 2011 | 3:38 pmTelevision advertising has undergone significant changes in the last 30 years. However, it is arguably on the verge of its greatest changes ever. From where I sit as the Global Head of Digital at PepsiCo Beverages, charged with navigating our brand's foray into the digital world, I see three big changes:The value we put on an advertisement will change as we seek to account for engagement metrics in the pricing.The narrative arch will change as we think of the advertisement as a trailer versus the whole story.Location-aware technologies will force a greater degree of engagement on a format… -
Physio-Digital + Cause + Shopper Marketing
27 Oct 2011 | 10:29 pmProbably one of the most exciting parts of working at PepsiCo Beverages is in seeing the physical and digital worlds come together especially as the whole cause marketing space gets more directly integrated with brand marketing. This PepsiCo 7-Eleven program is a perfect example of that and one that I find to be awesome. For every 20 oz. Pepsi product bought from 7-Eleven, we will donate five cents to the good cause. If the person also checks in using Facebook Places, we will double that donation. Feeding America provides emergency food assistance to those who are food insecure. Its network… -
A Love Letter from Brand Marketers to Silicon Valley (republished from Ad Age)
26 Oct 2011 | 8:40 pmFor too long, the digital industry has looked at brands like Pepsi simply as a monetization strategy. What's worse is that sometimes our digital friends view us as being uninformed members of the digital ecosystem - something akin to prey. Not only is that perception misinformed, its going to start impacting the bottom-line of many companies in the digital ecosystem.On the brand side, marketers cannot afford to play that role anymore. We need to show a much stronger return on all our marketing investments just as we recognize that traditional forms of marketing (ie banner ads) aren't as…
-
Brass Tack Thinking
-
Curation Saturation, and Why We Might Need Information Friction After All
13 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amFrictionless. It’s a word that’s taking root in some places to describe the ease of sharing things on the web, specifically through social technologies. I’m not entirely sure it’s a good thing. Lately, I’ve been in a bit of a writing rut. Well, not so much a rut, really as contemplating what’s motivating and driving me these days. As we continue to build SideraWorks and frame out plans for that business, it’s clear that my blog here will need its own focus, separate from that of the work we’re doing in social business. I have a few ideas about… -
The Great Irony of Social Velocity
26 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amI had a brilliant conversation with Justin Kozuch last evening on Twitter. If you don’t know Justin, you should. Smart, introspective, determined to find more in all of this, just like I am. I really like talking with him because he’s always looking more closely at something, which is a rare and wonderful quality in humans and it delights me when I find it. We were talking about feeling the need to “push the envelope” more in social conversations. I’ve even said this myself, many times, about needing to step into more uncomfortable territory. But as we were… -
The Power of Slow Thinking
21 Jan 2012 | 4:29 pmI had a bit of an epiphany this last year. Contentious discussions can be stressful for the best of us. Some people are formally schooled in the art of debate, and I am not one of them, so often I blamed my discomfort in confrontation or extended debate on the fact that I really wasn’t sure how to do it properly. Even watching debates online between other people makes me cringe. (At some point I realized that it was more because those ended up being mud-slinging, juvenile name calling fests more often than actual discussions or intelligent debates about valuable topics. But I digress.)…
-
NTEN
-
What Goes into a Social Media Strategic Plan?
13 Feb 2012 | 6:14 pmJ. D. Lasica Founder Socialbrite A social media strategy should support the overall organization, not just a single department. It is your blueprint, the animating force that connects goals to actions. How many nonprofits do you know that have incorporated social as part of their overall strategy, or even their communications strategy? Let's go further: How many nonprofits really have a strategy? Apart from the largest nonprofits, the list is painfully small. That’s too bad, because here's what happens when strategy is not at the heart of your organization’s actions: on a good day, you… -
Love your Techies: Send Them to the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conferenece
13 Feb 2012 | 12:15 pmEvery February, with Valentine's day just around the corner, we take some time to appreciate all the nonprofit techies out there working to connect the organizations we love with the technology they need. This year, as you may have heard, the NTEN staff is stepping everything up a notch – we like to call it "amping up the awesome" – and February is no different. We love our techies. We also love the Nonprofit Technology Conference. As it turns out, lots of you feel the same way. Today and tomorrow, we'll be sharing video valentines from some of this year's NTC speakers, each of them… -
Member Round Up: Fundraising, Conferences, Newspapers, and Penguins
10 Feb 2012 | 6:05 pmThis week, our members are hosting conferences, requesting session proposals, writing for the Huffington Post, and using video to fundraise! Don’t just stand there, let's get to it: check out all the ways to get involved with nonprofits and technology. It’s weeks like this that warm our nptechie hearts. Have more news to share? Drop us a line or include your links in the comments!Share your knowledge with the community at the CivicCom Conference! CiviCom is accepting session proposals through February 15th for their April 2nd conference in San Francisco. If you design,… -
A 12NTC Update from the Penguins of NTEN World HQ
10 Feb 2012 | 6:03 pmNTEN has been hard at work for weeks trying to raise money for scholarships to send representatives from small nonprofits to the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference. After several failed attempts, the membership team resorted to something we aren't exactly proud of: In the process, we inadvertently offended penguins everywhere. Earlier today, the penguins enlisted their spokesman, Phil Penn Gwynn, to be the voice of a breaking news bulletin: This afternoon, the penguins at NTEN World Headquarters have released their desperate message: Find out how you can help the penguins, NTEN,… -
Join 1,700 Nonprofit Professionals in San Francisco for the 2012 NTC
10 Feb 2012 | 11:59 amWe're less than 2 months away from the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference, NTEN's signature three-day gathering that brings together nonprofit professionals – like you! –from around the world to collaborate, innovate, and maximize effectiveness. Nearly 1,700 nonprofit professionals will gather in San Francisco at the beginning of April. We want you to be one of them. Save $100: Register for the 2012 NTC by February 17 >> We're serious about our mission: helping you use technology effectively to meet your mission. The NTC is one of the primary ways we do that. Instead of going on…
-
PsyBlog
-
Multiple-Choice Tests: Why Sticking With Your First Answer is (Probably) Wrong
7 Feb 2012 | 8:34 amWhat's the best strategy for taking a multiple-choice test? The standard advice for multiple-choice tests is: if in doubt, stick with your first answer. College students believe it: about 75% agree that changing your first choice will lower your score overall (Kruger et al., 2005). Instructors believe it as well: in one study 55% believed it would lower students' scores while only 16% believed it would improve them. And yet this is wrong. One survey of 33 different studies conducted over 70 years found that, on average, people who change their answers do better than those who don't (Benjamin… -
Duck/Rabbit Illusion Provides a Simple Test of Creativity
31 Jan 2012 | 12:06 pmAre you creative? Try this simple test... The well-known known illusion above can be seen in two ways: as both a duck and a rabbit. Which do you see first? And if you see one, can you also see the other? Most people see the duck first and can flip between the two representations, but the question is: how easy is it for you to flip between them? Does it require real mental strain, or can you do it at will? Wiseman et al. (2011) had a hunch that the ability to flip between representations is related to creativity. To test this participants were given a simple test of creativity which involves… -
Powerful People Feel Taller Than They Really Are
24 Jan 2012 | 11:05 amExperiment demonstrates how a powerful feeling feeds back into self-perception of height. Language can reveal all kinds of truths about our psychology. Take these expressions: He's the big man on this project. We look up to her. Lady Gaga is huge. He puts her on a pedestal. It's not hard to see the strong association here between size and power that's embedded in the way we talk about the relations between people. The reason why is almost too obvious to bother stating: larger people quite often do have more power. As children our parents, teachers and all our authority figures are taller than… -
Why Stories Sell: Transportation Leads to Persuasion
18 Jan 2012 | 12:10 pmPsychological research on persuasion suggests that stories which transport people are more likely to be persuasive. Marketers have known for years that stories are a powerful tool for persuading people. That's partly because stories (unlike statistics) are easy to understand. That's why politicians try to persuade us by telling stories about their vision of the world. They do spout statistics as well, but normally only in support of some kind of grand narrative. We instinctively understand that people resist being told what to do, but will respond to the moral of a story. So we try to… -
The Amazing Power of Regret to Shape Our Future
12 Jan 2012 | 10:41 amWhy people are reluctant to exchange lottery tickets, but will happily exchange pens. Regret might not make a list of the most powerful emotions. It would probably include things like anger, happiness, jealousy, sadness and especially for us English, embarrassment. We tend to think of regret as essentially a backward-looking emotion. We regret things in the past, like not trying hard enough in school, how we treated a friend or the things we said to our partner in the heat of an argument. In this sense you might argue that it's useless: why regret something you can't change? But regret isn't…
-
Usability Counts
-
Adam Colson: What an API Product Manager does
13 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pmAdam Colson is a product manager I’ve worked with, and he works as a product manager that manages mostly APIs. Great User Experience designers should understand how APIs work and how to consume them. I personally love them, because once I understand an API I want to think of great ways to use it. Great technical companies now create APIs for all of their data so front end engineers can consume it. It requires foresight, but enables much more flexibility. There was a famous post about Amazon’s services on this that’s also worth reading. He wrote this post to describe what… -
Shit Interaction Designers Say
9 Feb 2012 | 10:24 amPosted over at Johnny Holland. Brandon Stephens, Axure? Really? -
Social Media Explained in Donuts
8 Feb 2012 | 4:56 pmCourtesy of Douglas Wray. Very funny. And true. -
Ghost in the Pixel: Intimacy and Arrogance in UX
8 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pmReputation and trust is essential in a world where we don’t meet the people we do business or trust our information with. The reality of this world is that many companies have much more information about us that we prefer to have (or, what does VISA know about your buying habits online or at a physical adult bookstore?). But that’s different, because we’re making a conscious choice to share information by making that purchase. Only when companies don’t disclose their intentions (like downloading our entire address book, for example, and then explaining that since it… -
UX Booth: Usability Fact vs. Fiction
7 Feb 2012 | 10:34 amThat’s about right: Usability is user experience The fundamental difference is “Can easily use” vs. “Want to use”. Let’s take the best possible example here – the usability guru: Jakob Nielsen’s website. Usability guru that he is, his site is very functional and easy to use. But how do you think it scores on user experience? Would visitors love to browse the site for better experience? The answer is no. Again, there are some practitioners who believe building a good user experience is all that’s needed for making the site usable. That had led to the myth in…
-
Blonde 2.0's Blog
-
With One Day Left Before Valentine’s Day, EasyHi Has a Great Social Ecard for You.
13 Feb 2012 | 10:56 amSo maybe you’re sitting in front of your computer saying “Oh crap, Valentine’s Day is tomorrow and I don’t have a card yet!!” Well I want to reassure you that all is not lost. You can send your sweetheart a super-cool, amazingly personal Valentine’s ecard, and you only need a few minutes to put it together. Let me introduce you to EasyHi, a Facebook app that taps into the social web and lets you create personalized ecards featuring your favorite photos and videos from YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and more. Since EasyHi lets you connect to the social web to… -
Interview with Casey Fenton, CEO of CouchSurfing at DLD 2012
9 Feb 2012 | 8:59 amThe DLD 2012 conference in Munich was a great place to mingle and network with social media super stars and online entrepreneurs. At the conference I had the opportunity to speak with Casey Fenton, CEO and Co-founder of CouchSurfing, who sat with me and discussed his company’s completely unique business model. The idea of CouchSurfing was fueled by Casey’s own experiences while traveling the world. Casey found that by networking with people all over the world, he could rely on their hospitality and vice versa. CouchSurfing is a community, and as such it focuses on… -
My Interview with Robert Scoble at DLD 2012
31 Jan 2012 | 11:06 amThis year’s DLD conference in Munich Germany was great. With all the amazing speakers and great networking opportunities, I barely had a minute to rest. However, amid all the excitement, I was able to take a moment and sit down with my good friend and tech superstar, Robert Scoble. Watch my interview with Robert where he discusses what he likes best about this year’s DLD conference. Don’t miss Robert showing off his fancy new shirt! -
Stop SOPA! Support SOBA!
19 Jan 2012 | 8:53 amWith the Internet revolt over SOPA and PIPA in full swing, we at Blonde 2.0 could not stand idly by and let this critical moment in the history of the Internet pass with adding our voice to those defending free expression on the web. We have decided to take action, and to that end we are responding to SOPA and PIPA with a proposed legislative initiative of our own: the Stop Online Boredom Act (SOBA). This is a new law that calls for harsh punishment for those responsible for mindless, boring content that is posted to the Internet. After all, if SOPA passes, everyone will be so terrified of… -
The Golden Age of Gaming Addiction
17 Jan 2012 | 7:34 amHow I feel about being a gamer in our society up until the past year can be summed up in 2 words: It sucks. I started out gaming at the early age of 5, but soon enough most of my friends gamed in one form or another, it’s the most regular thing in the world, right? A kid playing around with videogames, back then it felt like the most natural thing in the world, but even then I felt like something was amiss. I was always more dedicated, more emotional and more addicted (some would say) to gaming. My gaming addiction became clear around 11th grade. It was obvious that gaming…
-
Media Culpa
-
Whitney Houston is dead – Twitter user beats media with the scoop
12 Feb 2012 | 2:24 amSo I wake up to hear the tragic news that the fantastic singer Whitney Houston is dead. As often happens these days, I found out via social media, this time via comments on Facebook. When the story broke, the news spread on Twitter at the speed of over 1,000 tweets per second. The first hour there were almost 2.5 million tweets about her death, according to Topsy.com. And once again we find an example of how Twitter beat traditional media with the scoop. Twitter user @chilemasgrande tweeted this 27 minutes before the first news outlet tweeted. Here is the first confirmed tweet from AP about… -
Facebook is driving more traffic to Pinterest than to Instagram
10 Feb 2012 | 6:20 amThere’s been a lot of buzz lately about the new social media darling Pinterest. The online pinboard is growing quickly and according to a new report from Compete, Pinterest is also driving a lot of traffic to other social networks. People are sharing images and videos on Pinterest which in turn drive traffic to sites like Facebook. According to the State of Social Media report from Compete, Pinterest delivered 1.7 million visits to Facebook in November 2011, an increase by 62%. As a comparison, that is almost double the amount of referrals from an established site like Yellowpages.com. -
The Telegraph can see into the future
5 Feb 2012 | 3:04 pmWhat type of journalism could be more up to date than live broadcast or real time reporting? The UK paper the Telegraph may have come up with a solution – publishing articles from the future. Today, Feb 5, 2012, the Telegraph has published an article from March 4, 2012. I knew the Brits were smart, but to see one month into the future was even more than I expected. Of course, there could be another explanation. That the Education Editor dropped out of math in school… Related Posts:Spotify founder named “Elk” by ReutersFacebook is driving more traffic to… -
Spotify founder named “Elk” by Reuters
3 Feb 2012 | 9:19 amSwedish names might be a challenge for foreign journalists, but to misspell the last name of Spotify’s founder Daniel Ek is quite an achievement. In a list of the most social CEO’s, Reuters calls him Daniel Elk. What a moostake… Related Posts:Reuters launches software generated podcastsBenkow admits – Gates interview was fakeSix Swedish companies among the Top 100 Global InnovatorsThe Telegraph can see into the futureResistance to RSS if futile -
Socialbakers Facebook report for Sweden – Jan 2012
30 Jan 2012 | 4:16 amJust like in the last report (Nov 2011) from Socialbakers, the Body Shop is the brand page in Sweden with the highest level of engagement. OKQ8 is the page with the highes response rate, followed by two Telia pages. In fact, half of the top 10 pages in regards to response rate, are telecom operators. Vakna! med the Voice is the media page with most fans. In case you are missing a page that would qualify in the top 10 lists above, please suggest it here. Related Posts:Socialbakers Facebook report for Sweden – Nov 20112.5 million LinkedIn members in the Nordic countriesThe brands on…
-
Regular Geek
-
Traditional Programming Language Job Trends – February 2012
10 Feb 2012 | 7:47 amOnce again, it is time for the job trends for traditional programming languages. Just like the most recent trends updates, we are only looking at Java, C++, C#, Objective C, Perl and Visual Basic. This list has stayed fairly stable during the past few updates and I am always looking to see if something else should be added. Please let me know if you think some other language deserves to be in this group. Also, please review some of the other job trends posts to see if your favorite language is already in one of these posts. First, here is a look at the job trends from Indeed.com: Most of… -
The Benefits and Challenges of Internal Social Networking
30 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amThis is a guest post from Samantha Peters. When we talk about social networking, even from a corporate and business angle, we are almost always talking about public social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. These networks allow people and businesses to join freely and interact freely. For a company, the public nature of social networking exposure is a highly desirable one, as a business’ Facebook profile can act as a brochure, marketing source, communications outlet, and white pages guide all rolled into one. But, increasingly, companies are turning to a different kind of social… -
Will Anyone Notice The New Windows Phone?
23 Jan 2012 | 7:39 amThis is a guest post from Jane Smith. One of the biggest questions for the tech industry in 2012 is the fate of the Windows-powered smartphones produced by Nokia, one of the latest entries into the ever-diversifying smartphone field. I say the fate of the Nokia Windows Phones is uncertain because most American consumers have given their phones a big “meh” thus far. To put things in perspective, let me give you an idea of how little pull the Nokia Windows Phone currently has in the U.S. smartphone market. Right now you can get a Nokia Lumia 710 Windows Phone at a Wal-Mart for free. -
Is The Web Really Just Links Or Is It Evolving?
8 Jan 2012 | 8:02 amLately, Dave Winer has been doing a lot of thinking. Dave has been around for a while, so when he starts thinking about interesting questions, we should all be listening. However, I am not saying that we should be agreeing with him, just reading and forming opinions. First, Dave complains about mobile apps and how they are not what the web is about: And all this business about apps is a real spoiler for suspension of disbelief. I’m clicking a link, expecting to learn more about what I was reading (that was certainly the author’s intent) but instead I get an ad for an app. If I… -
Why Should You Become A Software Engineer
1 Jan 2012 | 7:25 amLike any normal blogger, I obsess about my blog. How much traffic am I getting? Where is the traffic coming from? What search terms are leading people here? The search terms are most interesting when it comes to thinking about new content to write. Today, I am writing about a question I saw in the search terms, why should you become a software engineer? First, some background about my own journey into software development. When I went to college, my plan was to become a civil engineer. I took two semesters of physics and realized that the plan was not going to work. I found out that I really…
-
Metrica
-
The Friday PR and Social Media Cheat Sheet #023
10 Feb 2012 | 4:21 amIf you work in PR and are interested in the latest thinking on media monitoring, PR planning, media analysis and social media measurement, these are the must read stories from the last week. This week’s top PR and social media picks: Gorkana met Charlie Parrish, editor of Askmen.com, who discussed bringing a British voice to the site, the mutual relationship between journos and PRs and why Twitter is his primary source of news. Soon after announcing plans for a $5billion IPO, The Financial Times reported that Facebook is about to begin showing advertisements to users of mobile devices. -
The Friday PR and Social Media Cheat Sheet #022
3 Feb 2012 | 4:54 amIf you work in PR and are interested in the latest thinking on media monitoring, PR planning, media analysis and social media measurement, these are the must read stories from the last week. This week’s top PR and social media picks: Gorkana hosted a breakfast briefing with the new editorial team at FHM. Deputy editor Dan Jude reveals what the future holds for the reinvented mens’ magazine below. Can’t see the video? Click here Metrica director Kristin Wadge spoke at the PRmoment.com conference, ‘How Should Brands Prepare for a Social Media Crisis? Follow the… -
The anti-SOPA/PIPA campaign and social media strategy
31 Jan 2012 | 5:21 amUnless you’ve been hiding under a rock recently, you will have seen mention of the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills on Twitter or Facebook, or noticed your most visited sites ‘blacked out’ in protest. On 18th January 2012, 30 million US citizens saw Mozilla’s blackout Firefox start-up page; 1.8 million visited its SOPA information page, and 360,000 people emailed congress about the issue. Other internet giants participating in the anti-SOPA camapign boast similarly impressive figures: 13 million people viewed Google’s… -
Charity buzz – Gorkana’s Annual Charity Barometer
27 Jan 2012 | 6:36 amGorkana Group’s Annual Charity Barometer has just been published showing what an interesting year 2011 was! Sophie Hudson’s great piece in Third Sector highlights some key takeaways from the year. With over 620,000 press, broadcast and online pieces of coverage analysed The Red Cross came out top with the highest volume of coverage for the entire year with a whopping 38,590 pieces. Major world events helped to drive these volumes with news in March of the organisation withdrawing its workers from Benghazi, Libya over concerns of their safety due to the ongoing civil unrest. … -
The Friday PR and Social Media Cheat Sheet #021
27 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amIf you work in PR and are interested in the latest thinking on media monitoring, PR planning, media analysis and social media measurement, these are the must read stories from the last week. This week’s top PR and social media picks: Studies from the US and UK on the prospects for the PR industry confirmed what we already knew: us Brits are more pessimistic. More than a third of firms surveyed by the CPRF in the US anticipated higher budgets for 2012, buoyed by increased staff numbers and improved revenues. Across the pond, the PRCA‘S quarterly trends barometer reported that economic…
-
Mizz Information
-
Pinterest Can Monetize My Links All They Want
8 Feb 2012 | 9:16 amThe big news of the week is that Pinterest is apparently monetizing links without disclosing the practice to users. I was going to write a post about why I'm ok with that, but Allison at BlogWorld already wrote basically the exact thing I was going to write so I'll save myself the trouble and just link to her post. In short--Pinterest making money in a way that costs me nothing? Have at it...but a little transparency and disclosure would serve you well in the long run. Then again, maybe not--god knows Facebook doesn't do it and it doesn't seem to be hurting them any. Path, the darling of… -
Want Traffic? You Need Images
1 Feb 2012 | 8:56 amSource: Uploaded by user via Maggie on Pinterest While checking out Google Voice I landed on their blog and was intrigued by the Dynamic View theme, so I'm trying it here on Mizz Information. See those tabs across the top of the blog now--"Classic" "Flipcard" "Magazine" etc? You can click on those to view this blog in those formats. Granted, it doesn't look very great because I seldom use images--something which, if I am serious about optimizing traffic, I need to start doing more because images are the new sharing vehicle--just look at how much traffic Pinterest is driving. I'm conflicted… -
Why Having Staff Be Facebook Emissaries Is a Bad Idea
27 Jan 2012 | 11:24 amLately I've been seeing social media pros suggesting that, in light of recent changes to Facebook's algorithm, organizations start focusing less on Facebook Pages and more on having staff members use their own Facebook profiles to promote the organization's agenda. Call me cranky, but I think this is a terrible idea. The rationale behind this suggestion is that, as Facebook changed its news feed algorithm last fall, admins began to notice that posts from pages were appearing in fans news feeds less frequently than posts from individuals to whom people were subscribed. What does that mean,… -
Community Manager Appreciation Day
23 Jan 2012 | 10:56 amPhoto by elkokoparrilla, on Flickr Unless you are a community manager (and maybe not even then) you probably don't know that today is Community Manager Appreciation Day (CMAD). Well, guess what? It is! Two years ago Jeremiah Owyang suggested that the fourth Monday of January be a day to "take the time to pause, recognize, and celebrate the efforts community managers around the world to improve customer experiences." Three and a half years into my career as a community/social media manager, I can attest to the fact that it's a demanding, exhilarating, exciting, and life-encompassing job. It's… -
Movie Recap 2011
15 Jan 2012 | 1:59 pmPhoto by ToastyKen (I originally posted this on my other blog but am reposting here) It's that time of year again...time for my movie recap. In case you don't know this about me, I'm obsessed with going to movies. Not watching movies at home--too many distractions. But going to the movie theater. In 2008 I saw 50 movies. In 2009, I saw 53. Last year I made it to 57. So my number to beat this year was 57. Did I make it? Of course I did! This year's total? 64 movies. Gulp. Next year is going to be a bitch having to top that. Let me just preface this by saying that if you didn't go to a…
-
THE BLOGGER'S BULLETIN
-
Three Steps to Improving Your Article Marketing Efforts
1 Feb 2012 | 1:08 pmWhen you are using article marketing for your business, it is easy to become frustrated quickly. You may not be reaching goals you had set and that can leave you feeling disappointed with your plan. That doesn’t mean you should wave the white flag and give in! In order to cross the line from failure to success in article marketing, you need to have a plan. To improve your marketing strategy, there are three important steps you need to take: Step 1: Figure out Your Message What are you trying to tell customers? They are looking for solutions to their problems. They have a need and want to… -
How to Choose Your Best Keywords Without a Search Tool
23 Jan 2012 | 10:08 amWhen you begin working on an online marketing campaign, you will immediately recognize the importance of using the right keywords to boost your content’s search engine optimization. Choosing the wrong keywords can lead to lackluster results for your website. So how do you find the ideal keywords for your business? Many people turn to online keyword search tools for help. These can be very helpful, however, there are a few things that you need to do before turning to one of these suggestion tools for your keyword research. Describe your business in simplified terms. When you sit down to… -
Work Motivation Tips to Help You Succeed
29 Dec 2011 | 3:47 pmIn order to succeed and be happy in our work lives as well as our personal lives, it is important to get motivated and stay motivated. Typically, being happy in one life will lead to happiness in the other. For some, though, it is hard to maintain the right balance needed to achieve this goal. There are people who view their work as a means of escape from discontent at home. Others are so miserable at work that home is seen as their refuge. This kind of imbalance can have a negative effect on both your home life and work life. This is why it is important to strike the perfect balance of… -
The Silver Linings of Hopeless Situations
29 Dec 2011 | 3:09 pmThere is a saying that you have probably heard or said that goes: For every cloud, there is a silver lining. It can be hard to give this quote much credence, however, when your own personal dark cloud is hovering above you, pouring cold rain down your back. We have all faced hopeless situations in our lives, whether it’s a failing marriage, a failing business, a failing poker hand, or countless other failures. Each unique situation seems dire, and the last thing you are willing to believe is that on the other side, there is a silver lining. It is hard for us to look at these situations in a… -
Methods to Finding the Source of Your Motivation
14 Dec 2011 | 11:28 amWe all suffer from a lack of motivation from time to time. Whether it is a project that needs to be done for work, a chore to do at home, or a personal goal that needs to be accomplished, it takes a boost of motivation to get your started on the path to completion. Without the proper motivation, success cannot be achieved in any task. Every person is different, so finding the source of inspiration is different for all of us. Once you know how to get yourself motivated, you can accomplish the things that need to be done. Visualizing your achievement can be a great way to motivate yourself. If…
-
SiteFox
-
Politics, Small Businesses, and You…
24 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amWe don’t often talk about politics here, but we came across this awesome infographic that is definitely useful for all small business owners. If you’re not sure who you’re voting for this year, check out the infographic below to see how each candidate stands on small business issues. I’m sure it will change and hopefully we’ll get some updates. In the mean time check it out and let me know what you think. How much of an impact does the candidate’s stance on small business issues impact your choice? Credit: FastUpFront – Business Loans Made Easy. -
The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Guide [Free Download]
9 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amLet’s face it. Online marketing is difficult to understand and even harder to execute successfully. There’s so much talk about using Facebook and Twitter or having a conversation with your customers. How are you, a small business owner, supposed to find the time to learn all the in’s and out’s of online marketing? That’s why we put together the SiteFox Marketing Guide. It’s a 99-page guide that explains exactly what you need to know about marketing your business online. It also includes a set of action plans to help you execute a successful online marketing… -
Definitive Guide to Word of Mouth Marketing
22 Dec 2011 | 11:16 amThink back to a time you had a problem you needed solved. How’d you find the business you’re using now? Most likely you did one of two things: searched a business directory (maybe online) OR you asked a friend for a recommendation. Having people recommend your business is the basis of word of mouth marketing. It’s doing something so memorable that people talk about you; it’s tied to customer service, viral marketing, and just being a business people like working with. How are you maximizing your word of mouth marketing? What are you doing to make sure people talk about… -
Our Marketing Tracking Document [Free Download]
20 Dec 2011 | 1:00 amWhen we first started marketing SiteFox, we realized that it wasn’t all about big marketing campaigns or messaging programs. We quickly learned that it was really about maximizing our returns from each channel. One of the things we did early on was setup a document to track each channel and gauge its efficiency for registering new clients. The efficiency is based off a number we derived after deciding on how much of our revenue we wanted to invest in marketing. We’ve been using the spreadsheet for a while now and it’s really helped us strategically invest money in ways that… -
Dos and Don’ts for Your Small Business Newsletter
15 Dec 2011 | 6:00 amAlthough social media gets all the buzz, email marketing still continues to be an extremely lucrative marketing channel. Businesses are continuing to grow their email lists and connecting with consumers through their newsletters. Making sure you’re creating an active newsletter list directly effects your revenue from your emails. Following a few core rules will make sure you get the most from your list and keep your subscribers happy and opening your emails. Do: Use a Professional Template The first tip is to use a professional template. You’ll notice that a lot of people use the plain…
-
Weber Media Partners | Impressions Through Media
-
Pinterest: The Power of Images
27 Jan 2012 | 11:47 amOver the past few years, there have been a mind-boggling number of technology innovations. So many, that it has our heads spinning. As for social networks this past year, the launch of Google+ was big. But, by all reports, the next big thing is Pinterest. Pinterest has over 4 million registered users as of this week and is growing rapidly. 1.5 million of the predominately female audience visit Pinterest every day – spending 14 minutes on the site on average. Alexa.com reports “Pinterest.com is ranked #133 in the world according to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings… The… -
The SOPA Debate
13 Jan 2012 | 10:59 amOn the surface, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP (PIPA) sounds like a good idea – to punish those who pirate intellectual property. As an writer and artist, I am all too aware of the dangers of posting your work and then finding it elsewhere, without your permission. Imagine the cost implications for movie studios, record labels, and of course the individual who has few resources to go after the culprit. The idea behind this bill, according to those who have followed the debate, was sound. The result, however, has been described as a threat to free speech, web-related… -
The Pluses and Minuses of Google+ Pages
28 Nov 2011 | 12:08 pmGoogle+ business pages went public on November 7, and they are already making an impact on the social media landscape. The number of visitors to Google’s latest social media venture is up 25% this month, compared to October. Much of this traffic is a result of organizations looking to stake their claim in this new social sphere, even if they are not quite sure how this newest channel will fit into their existing social media plan. We here at Weber Media Partners excitedly dove into Google+ two weeks ago. The hard work came in the days after. This month, we are working on our plan to… -
An Explanation of Recent Facebook Enhancements
28 Sep 2011 | 2:01 pmWhether you use Facebook for personal reasons or as a business tool, you have probably noticed a lot of changes on the site since last Thursday, when founder Mark Zuckerberg unveiled them. (NOTES and WARNING: This is 1 hour and 40 minutes long. Fast forward to minute 7.5 if you want to avoid the stand up comedian pretending to be Zuckerberg). There has been an uproar from some users, but there always is. Change is hard for some, but it is inevitable, especially if Facebook wants to remain in the top spot as a social networking destination. User complaints abound. “Too cluttered and… -
The Real Cost of Social Media Info Graphic
15 Aug 2011 | 12:54 pmAt Weber Media Partners, we love info graphics. This one is so interesting we are going to post it even thought it is enormous. Thank you to Focus.com for putting this together.
-
Community Building
-
How independent is your online community?
19 Jan 2012 | 3:37 pmA great community manager can build a great online community. That being said, a community shouldn’t be reliant on one person for its success. Yes, it needs a leader – but it shouldn’t depend on that leader for its daily survival. Here’s a quick and easy way you can determine just how independent your community is – find your community’s total post count, and figure out how many of those posts were made by you. When you’re building a new community from scratch, it will be largely reliant on its manager – you need to encourage the development of… -
Don’t draw attention to your community’s weaknesses
11 Jan 2012 | 6:40 pmMovie-Vault does a great job at highlighting its weaknesses. Take a look at the homepage; as of Wednesday January 11th, in the left column we see 67 RSS readers and 55 Twitter followers. In the articles section, we are repeatedly reminded that nobody is commenting on the articles -there are four articles all with a large button proclaiming ’0 Comments’ (apart from one article lucky enough to attract the attention of a spammer). Furthermore, on every article we have the opportunity to be the first to ‘Like’ the content on Facebook. Not all online communities have the… -
Online communities should highlight quality, not quantity
22 Nov 2011 | 3:33 pmWoot does a great job with its online community. Not only does the community content appear prominently on the homepage, the site highlights what it considers ‘quality posts’ – only posts it deems to be useful, interesting or otherwise valuable to the community make it to the homepage. Click to enlarge Furthermore, when you delve into a product discussion thread, things look a little different. Before you even see the discussion thread, you see the quality posts. Click to enlarge If you scroll down further, you get to the actual discussion thread. In a typical forum… -
Creating a mission statement for your online community
5 Oct 2011 | 5:07 pmIt’s impossible to be a great community manager if the community you manage doesn’t have a mission statement. Without a mission statement, how do you know what kind of culture you’re trying to develop? How do you know what kind of content should be encouraged? How do you know what kind of members you want to attract? A mission statement is critical if you want to build a successful online community. The mission statement will influence your community’s rules and guidelines. It will determine how you grow and it will remind you (and your members) of the… -
Hold your horses, community manager!
17 Aug 2011 | 1:23 pmOne of the most important traits of a good community manager is patience. You need to be patient with members, you need to be patient when encouraging relationship building and you need to be patient waiting for conversations to develop. Unfortunately, patience is rarely seen on the list of desirable skills for a community manager (normally because employers want quick results). Consequently, I come across a large number of online communities where the community manager is effectively running the show. As a community manager, you shouldn’t be at the top of the ‘Top Posters’…
-
Social News Watch
-
What’s Up with Bloggers?
29 Jan 2012 | 11:01 pmSource: visual.ly via J.D. on Pinterest -
StumbleBait
25 Aug 2011 | 8:52 amThis comprehensive guide is as true as can be. What does it take to be successful on StumbleUpon? Pictures. That’s it. -
Social Business and How it is Used Today
8 Aug 2011 | 5:03 pmIf there’s anything we’ve learned about social media over the last few years, it’s that most businesses aren’t doing it right, but those who “get it” are hitting home runs. There’s no other way to say it. This infographic by our friends at GetSatisfaction brings it into perspective nicely for us. Click to enlarge. Via: Automotive Internet Marketing and Automotive Social Networks -
Social Media as a Business Communication Tool
7 Aug 2011 | 4:01 pmBetween Google+ and every other social network created this year, the choices have expanded dramatically for businesses to be able to communicate with their customers and clients. Email is still valid and probably will be for a while despite challenges facing the medium, but social media is the one that’s on the rise. We can assume that most businesses should focus their efforts on the big 5 – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and blogs – and as a result this infographic below by our friends at SocialCast does a nice job of breaking it down for us. Click to enlarge. -
What is Facebook Selling?
24 Jul 2011 | 6:56 pmVia: Soshable
-
Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog
-
How to Get More Blog Readers By Having Your Content Syndicated
11 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amFor most (if not all) bloggers, one of the key metrics on how their blog has grown comes from how many readers it has. These don’t necessarily have to be subscribers, either, although I’m a fan of subscribers being more a metric than readers for success, since these are folks that are investing their inboxes with you. But I digress… But as any blogger knows, wanting more readers and getting more readers can be two wildly separate entities. It’s a big blogging world out there, and people can be sparing with their time and where to invest it. The good news is, there is a way you can… -
It Isn’t Always the Brands to Blame for Social Media Screw Ups
9 Feb 2012 | 10:49 amIf you follow any brand news in social media, you’re probably aware of the criticism Toyota has been receiving over its Superbowl Twitter campaign. If you haven’t heard about it, Toyota wanted to promote its new Camry range, so it started numerous Twitter accounts to send tweets to people about the car. Now, there’s no doubt that having multiple accounts sending out random messages into hashtag conversations is spam. Heck, I’ve written about that here before, and it’s always a big no-no in any of our campaigns at Jugnoo. It’s pre-Permission Marketing at… -
Something Old, Something New, Something Blue
6 Feb 2012 | 11:04 amHey there! So I really wanted to add the Something Borrowed option too, but couldn’t think of anything, so the three in the title will have to do. So… It’s been a little quiet here last week, since Kevin Green’s great guest post about LinkedIn (and if you haven’t read it yet, you’re missing a great ongoing discussion in the comments). But there’s a good reason for that, which is where the Something New and Something Old part comes in. And yes, I’m the something old part in the image at the start of this post… Last Thursday, February 2nd at… -
If LinkedIn.com Fails in the Social Network Forest, Will It Make a Sound?
30 Jan 2012 | 5:31 pmThis is a guest post by Kevin Green. Would anyone be really upset if LinkedIn’s .com destination up and disappeared tomorrow? It’s safe to assume that recruiters scouring the site for new talent and current shareholders would be pretty peeved, even if the stock (LNKD) is trading at half price from the IPO. But how would the lack of an online destination really impact everyday users? Users that are tethered to their mobile phones and enamored by the promise of applications, innovation and integration? Of the top 10 most trafficked social networking sites, LinkedIn is a bit of an… -
Because We Never Failed
28 Jan 2012 | 9:45 pmAs children, we have unbridled aspirations. We dream to be astronauts. We dream to be explorers. We dream to be princesses. We dream to be the world’s greatest sports star. We dream. Looking back at our childhood dreams, we rarely feel we failed because we didn’t become the astronaut. Or marry the prince. Or found new lands. Or had stadiums cheering our name. Instead, we look back and remember a time when dreams had no limits, and anything was possible, even if (in reality) it never was. Yet we never use the fail word. Because, in truth, we never failed. Just because something…
-
WebGuild
-
Social, Referral Traffic And Connections
10 Feb 2012 | 12:16 pmAs second-tier social media sites become more popular with consumers, these sites are finding their place within the social media ecosystem, referring traffic to larger social networks, as well as seeing traffic arrive from Facebook and Twitter. In November 2011, Compete analyzed referrals of US traffic to Facebook, and found that, in addition to retail sites bolstered by holiday traffic, Meebo and Pinterest were two social sites increasing in influence. Meebo’s US referral traffic to Facebook grew 314.48% in November 2011 compared to the previous month; Pinterest’s referrals rose 57.22%. -
Fiesta.cc, An Idiot-Proof Way To Send Group Emails, Closes Up Shop
10 Feb 2012 | 10:24 amMike Dirolf, the young founder of an idiot-proof way to send group emails, is shutting down his startup Fiesta.cc. Fiesta.cc allowed users to create group email lists from the carbon copy field without ever having to visit another web page. Dirolf says he lost interest in what he was building. Though everything was going well from a numbers perspective, he decided “life is too short to spend time on something that I’m not 100% passionate about.” Dirolf was bootstrapping the startup and says it’s too expensive to keep the service running. Dirolf will move out of Dogpatch… -
Couple Killed For Unfriending Somebody On Facebook
10 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amA Nashville couple were shot dead in their home allegedly because they “unfriended” someone on Facebook, police say, according to Reuters. The victims, Billy Clay Payne Jr. and Billie Jean Hayworth, had recently unfriended Jenelle Potter on Facebook. Potter’s father and cousin shot both victims in the head and slit Payne Jr.’s throat. It gets worse. Hayworth was apparently holding her baby when the men murdered her. They left the couple’s eight month old baby alive in Hayworth’s arms, according to Reuters’ report. Potter lives at home with her parents… -
Google’s Number 3 Employee Quit Today (GOOG)
10 Feb 2012 | 5:09 amCraig Silverstein, the first Google employee after Larry Page and Sergey Brin, is leaving to join Khan Academy, reports All Things D. Silverstein has had a variety of responsibilities at the company since it was founded in 1998, but his first was to actually help create the Google search engine itself. Silverstein has literally been with Google since it was operating out of a dorm room at Stanford. His new position will see him working as a developer for high-profile education startup Khan Academy. Today is his final day at Google. From his goodbye email: When I write my massive 4-volume… -
Oracle Buys Cloud HR Company Taleo For $1.9 Billion
9 Feb 2012 | 1:09 pmOracle is acquiring Taleo, a cloud based human resource recruiting and management company for $1.9 billion. The acquisition comes on the heels of SAP’s purchase of SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion in December. Taleo’s technology is used by 5,000 organizations for human resource management. Both companies are rushing to catch up in the fast-growing cloud-computing market. Oracle is using acquisitions to build its cloud business as part of efforts to help blunt the impact of a possible slowdown in software sales growth. Cloud services are meant to appeal to customers seeking to save…
-
Connect - Digital Marketing Expertise from iCrossing
-
AdWords Developments in 2012…
7 Feb 2012 | 4:42 amLast year I posted on elements which I’d like to see Google incorporate into AdWords during 2011. Google claim to have tested over 100 new ad formats in 2011, along with a bunch of new features, so unsurprisingly a couple of my predictions came up. There are still some omissions which I feel are no brainers, but given the progress made this year I’m pretty optimistic about them. How I did before… Ad scheduling was resolved by automated rules, which opened up to all advertisers in February. Not only that, it allows for some reasonably advanced automation at most levels of the… -
2012 Mobile Market Share [Infographic]
2 Feb 2012 | 10:39 amAs has become tradition in February we’ve taken a fresh look at the state of the mobile web and who are the main players with respects to Mobile Operating System (Mobile OS) market share. We looked at 15 countries from all corners of the globe to see what the predominant mobile platforms are in that country and how the situation has changed in the last year. 2011 has been a big year for Android, with the platform seeing massive growth in many countries, growing from 17% to 47% in Spain in the last year and from 6% to 45% in Peru. In the UK Android has grown by 10% which has mostly been at… -
Google privacy announcement: “will benefit us…I mean users”*
26 Jan 2012 | 9:47 am[*not an actual Google quote] On Tuesday Google announced via its blog that from 1st March, more than 60 of its privacy policies will be helpfully consolidated into one, easy to read document. What a fantastic idea! We all know how sensitive the issue of internet privacy has become and anything that provides transparency in a simple way has to be of great benefit to internet users. But before we shake Google by the hand for doing the honourable thing and distinguishing themselves from privacy flouters like Facebook, let’s investigate what this privacy update actually means…are Google… -
Is Google using gamification to increase engagement on Google+?
23 Jan 2012 | 8:54 amA new game of Google maps will be available for Google+ customers next month. Below is a screenshot of the video called “Play Your World with Google Maps” released by Google a few days ago. It is not a surprise that Google and other large companies such as Nike, McDonalds or eBay amongst others are taking the online gamer community very seriously. Let’s take a look at the numbers: Gamer community stats According to Jane McGonigal, author of the book ‘Reality is broken’ the online gamer community –including console, PC and mobile phone gaming – counts for: More than 4m gamers… -
The BIG Fight – Internet Privacy vs Google Analytics 5
20 Jan 2012 | 6:14 amFollowing the connect post on the content battle by Jeremy Head there is another head-to-head brewing in 2012… With the old Google Analytics (GA) interface being phased out later this month, I take a look at the duel between Internet Privacy and Google Analytics that is likely to be more heated than ever in the coming year. Analysts like myself are preparing to wrestle with reduced data samples and doubts over the reliability of tracking data in Google Analytics. [The purpose of this blog post is to inject an element of humour whilst identifying some of the new GA5 features and…
-
Herd - the hidden truth about who we are
-
I'll have what she's having - with John Kearon
12 Feb 2012 | 12:52 pmDId this little interview a couple of weeks agowith John Kearon (Founder & Chief Juicer) at Brainjuicer, whom I managed to persuade to keep his trousers on... Enjoy! -
V for Vendetta and IHWSH
10 Feb 2012 | 11:03 amNice piece here by the great Alan Moore here about how the film's iconic Guy Fawkes mask has got woven in to contemporary protest movements. Now the question is: do you think this was an example of independent choice or a socially-shaped one? -
How DOES advertising work then?
8 Feb 2012 | 10:22 amFor adplanners and the like: In the pre Christmas (holidays to you, Gareth) rush, you might have missed this major U-turn by the lovely folks at Millward Brown research (the people who brought you the "awareness index" a key metric that assumes that advertising achieves its effect primarily by impacting memory - awareness and recall). Suddenly - after years of dissing those like my chums at Brainjuicer - who dared to suggest that emotions were the key to advertising effectiveness, the folk we used to know as The Leamington Spa Gang have turned 180 degrees. Apparently, emotion… -
Neurononsense revisited: a new dawn?
8 Feb 2012 | 10:05 amLast night at a reception in memory of the late and great Ginny Valentine, an old buddy of mine asked me what I thought about the proliferation of neuromarketing techniques and the general air of "brain is best" in market research communities. Perhaps I should have just referred him to David Penn of Conquest who is delighting in being the continuing scourge of snake-oil neuro-research sales persons: his "neuromania" schtick is coming to the MRS in March. Always good value. Regular readers will know that - like David - I'm deeply suspicious of the willing… -
Do this for you
7 Feb 2012 | 1:35 pmI speak at a lot of conferences and gatherings and such like. Undoubtedly the best of these are the Do Lectures, held in a field in "a small clever country called Wales". This is my picture from my visit a couple of years ago as a speaker (I went back last year as an audience member) and this is the speech I gave. You should go, too. Not because of what your ticket does for other people (it helps pay for the free-to-air archive of 200 going on 1000 videos of Do Lectures and it also makes sure that there's another interesting person to spend the days and evenings…
-
C R U C E S
-
Hurdles for Social Commerce (infographic)
11 Feb 2012 | 6:44 pmI don’t classify selling items on social networks as social commerce – it’s more distribution – but there are some good suggestions in here to get us over the issues (some that look like old Internet qualms). If you’re wondering, I think of social commerce as this. -
A new app called Cheers let’s you share what you love (video)
10 Feb 2012 | 12:31 pmVery simple yet powerful concept from @cheers_app. Try it out! -
Prius concept bike from Deeplocal (video)
8 Feb 2012 | 6:23 amCheck out this great example of the marriage between man (or woman) and machine from @deeplocal. They refer to themselves as a “post-digital shop” creating remarkable experiences that bridge the online and physical worlds. Just like the Likebelt post below, we are seeing a #COLLISION between the physical world and the digital world. Very exciting! -
LinkedIn or Facebook for B2B? (infographic)
7 Feb 2012 | 6:32 amThis is an interesting infographic and there are two things that really stand out as critical to the argument. People do not shut off business thinking when on Facebook. Uh . . . maybe . . . Why do B2B businesses advertise during sporting events? Good point but I’m not sure that watching TV and interacting with ... -
EpicMix 2012 (video)
6 Feb 2012 | 6:12 amI’ve finally go this configured and I’m geeking OUT!!
-
Ben Werdmuller von Elgg
-
Bootstraps
10 Feb 2012 | 4:51 pmIn the comments to this 37signals blog post (which is excellent), dhh and commenter Dave Christiansen collaboratively coined a term for startup companies that aim to go into the black as soon as possible and grow under their own steam: bootstraps. I’m in love with this. Bootstraps give entrepreneurs full control over their businesses, without interference from venture capitalists or other interests, and put the onus on finding an actual business model that works on day one. To me, it seems like a responsible, autonomous way to create a product and grow a business. Right now, startups… -
Profile: a serialized novel for email, web, Kindle and ePub
3 Feb 2012 | 4:24 pmThis is an excerpt from a new kind of project for me. Profile is a serial thriller about identity, the Internet and what happens when we trust companies to tell us what is and isn’t true. I’m going to treat the whole process – from writing through promotion – like a lean startup; more on that later. Interested? Subscribe to receive news updates via email. It should go without saying that your email address is safe and won’t be shared with any third parties. I huddled in the dark, under the wooden stairs leading out to the backyard, the metal of my… -
Private, easy, affordable enterprise video management. Hi.
1 Feb 2012 | 9:44 pmWe spent a lot of time testing the upcoming latakoo iPhone app today. It’s neat: you record video footage using the app of your choice, then click into the latakoo app to send it. Optionally enter a description, tags, destination groups and anyone you want to send it directly to, and the app shrinks the video to a fraction of its original size without losing visible or audible quality, and uploads it over your phone’s connection. The result is a faster upload, and because latakoo is designed around privacy, the video is seen by only the people you’ve given access to. They… -
How Europe can save the Internet
30 Jan 2012 | 12:12 pmI wrote a piece about ACTA for Imperica: When the French MEP Kader Arif stepped down last week from scrutinizing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, declaring that he “would not participate in this charade”, it was the culmination of eight years of political lobbying, back-room deals and undemocratic conniving that now threatens to undermine the entire global Internet economy. [...] Despite declaring an intention to prevent piracy, the agreements once again represent a significant infringement of civil liberties and undermine the principles by which the Internet works. The… -
Die, Hollywood, die!
22 Jan 2012 | 5:23 pmPaul Graham’s Y-Combinator request for startups that will kill Hollywood has opened up a can of exploding radioactive mega-worms – and this time, they’re angry. In the wake of the Internet industry’s fight against SOPA and PIPA, he posed the problem: The main reason we want to fund such startups is not to protect the world from more SOPAs, but because SOPA brought it to our attention that Hollywood is dying. They must be dying if they’re resorting to such tactics. [...] How do you kill the movie and TV industries? Or more precisely (since at this level,…
-
Suzemuse - Create. Share. Learn. Be Brilliant. Personal Blog of Susan Murphy.
-
A Kick in the Pants for New Bloggers
9 Feb 2012 | 8:04 amYou’ve got the itch to blog, congratulations! It’s a wondrous thing. I started my first blog in 2006, and I have reaped rich rewards both personally and professionally. I use this blog as a bit of a sandbox – it’s where I experiment with new ideas and play around with features. Blogging helps me to sort out things in my head, and I love the opportunity to be able to publish in a public way. I may not have the most subscribers. I may not get a tonne of comments on every post. The number of views I get on my posts is probably pretty average (with the occasional spike). -
Tips for Managing Your Online Time You May Not Want To Hear
8 Feb 2012 | 8:49 amIt’s no secret that social media can be one of the best ways to generate new business leads, especially for small business owners. I’m living proof of that; at Jester Creative, many of our clients have come from connections we’ve made through blogging, and via social networks like Twitter and LinkedIN. I am a huge proponent of small business owners participating in social networks, and I encourage it whenever I can. Leveraging social media in small business is a very effective approach, but it’s not without its challenges. Lots of entrepreneurs jump into social media… -
You Are Not What You Do For a Living
5 Feb 2012 | 7:42 amI went out with a friend last night that I hadn’t seen in a while. We met up downtown, went to a jazz club, had a bite to eat and “caught up”. We yakked about all sorts of things…music, mutual friends, and our respective neighbourhoods. But there was one topic that came up only briefly…work. And you know what? It was refreshing. People who know me might not believe this, but I’m not always the most sociable person in the world. I don’t particularly care for big social events, which is why you’ll only ever see me at a handful of them. One… -
The Experimentation Experiment
27 Jan 2012 | 6:07 amBack in 1998, I had just graduated from a multimedia production program at Algonquin College. In that 6 month, post-graduate course, we learned all about design and development of interactive CD-ROMs, which was still a great skill in those days. The Internet was just starting to become popular, but nobody really knew where it was going at that point. As a result, we had a grand total of 1 day of HTML training in our program. The moment I had my diploma in hand, I realized that the Web was probably going to be a big deal. I headed to the bookstore and spent what little money I had on a… -
3 Ways to Reduce Online Noise and Get More Done
23 Jan 2012 | 7:40 amThe world is a noisy place, and it’s only getting noisier. If you’re like me, you remember a time when there were only a couple of TV stations (in fact, when I lived in the Arctic as a kid, we only had ONE channel!). You remember a time when you had one telephone, and if it rang, and you weren’t home, it just kept ringing. The caller would just have to call back later. There were no answering machines. If you were on the phone, and someone tried to call you, it didn’t go to voicemail – the caller got a busy signal. Because you were…busy. The mail…
-
Citizen L. aka Laurent François on Social Media
-
Pinterest: when curation becomes mainstream
6 Feb 2012 | 8:36 amIf you want to know what I think about Pinterest, well, you can either follow me there or read my post on SocialMediaToday. Ha! -
3 simple things more important than Social Media skills
18 Jan 2012 | 12:29 pmThis week, I had the pleasure to discover again 3 simple things that were far more impactful on my consumer journey than Social Media skills: a service provider (plumber) called to inform me that he was on his way to my apartment: how come delivery guys for e-business never tell you when they’re in? I’ve been looking for hours a bloody serial number on a bloody heater: I still don’t understand how it’s possible that a missing number drives a whole value chain down, as the sales I had on the line could not tell me what to do. Non-sense. I gave tips to a pizza delivery… -
TV, Social Media, and the reasons why we should watch TV
12 Jan 2012 | 3:39 amAnother article for Social Media Today on the reasons why TV is the main crossroad for Social Media. Check this out! -
Social Media & Suicide
9 Jan 2012 | 12:00 amI wrote a post on Social Media hopes to fight against the very first social fact, suicide. And it’s on Social Media Today, of course! -
2012 Sarkozy campaign weakness: digital communication
4 Jan 2012 | 7:33 amThis morning, the French political party UMP (they run for President Sarkozy) tried to generate a buzz as François Hollande (his main opponent for 2012 – at least we hope it’s not Marine Le Pen- a socialist) was supposed to have declared that Sarkozy is a “dirty guy” (sale mec in French).UMP politicians tried to widen the rumor and generated some appearances in front of TV teams. What’s interesting is that in France, in order to make a news BIG, you still need to wait 8pm, and our TV prime-time for news (we only have one time zone, remember ). But even…
-
sassholes
-
Don't Quit (And Why Giving Up Is An Oxymoron)
10 Feb 2012 | 12:08 pmDon't quit. Sometimes it is the overused, trite and true cliche that still says it best. Don't quit. Never quit. Don't give up. Never give up. It's all the same, and it is all the truth. The real truth. You can't quit. We can't quit. You can't let your kids quit, or your friends quit, or your family quit. Lead them by example. Don't quit. Never quit. "Giving up" is an oxymoron. If you give up, you are not giving anything at all... you are taking away. You are taking away opportunity. You are taking away dreams. -
Everything I Know About Business I Learned From THE TOXIC AVENGER!
22 Jan 2012 | 7:57 pmLights, Camera, Action! Early in my career I spent 7 years working for Troma, the low budget film studio probably best known for the cult Classic, The Toxic Avenger… As I am sure you know, The Toxic Avenger is the heartwarming story of Melvin, a lowly mop-boy, who, teased and taunted, falls into a vat of radioactive waste and emerges as… The Toxic Avenger - The First Superhero from New Jersey! (And affectionately called "Toxie.") Making movies is hard work, especially making movies on a shoestring budget… (OK, eventually we were able to advance from shoestrings… -
Zen and the Art of Ultrabooks...
19 Dec 2011 | 10:08 pm(Note: this is a sponsored post that originally appeared at Dadomatic.com, but the words and opinions are all mine.) It is fitting that Asus calls their new Ultrabook line "Zenbooks." Just one look and you can see that it is a device that exudes a sense of calm and balance, purity and power. An early entrant in the Intel Ultrabook category, the Zenbook is thin and sleek, capable and fast. It is the Ying and Yang of portable computing: thin and light enough to take with you everywhere, yet powerful and feature rich enough to function as a primary computer. Actually,… -
A Hollywood Tale: From Screenplay to Podcast to...
27 Nov 2011 | 11:32 am(Disclosure: This post is a shameless plug to ask you to consider subscribing to my new podcast, Wunderkind! and, if you are so inclined, help me to spread the word about it. Wunderkind! is the podcast of an original comic-adventure screenplay, written and performed by me.) If you've enjoyed my posts here at over the years, I'd greatly appreciate your help in spreading the word about my new fiction podcast, Wunderkind! Since it was originally written for the screen, I am performing Wunderkind! as a screenplay and generally retain the protocols of a screenplay format, with… -
Feeling Full After A Half-Marathon
8 Nov 2011 | 9:24 pmThere is something incredibly human about running. According to many articles, books and talks, we are made for running. Our erect biped being makes running as natural for homo sapiens as flying is for birds. We used to run as a tribe, chasing our prey over vast distances until it collapsed from exhaustion and the running man conquered the savage beast without a blow. Whole villages ran to follow the hunters to the fallen spoil. Perhaps that is why I found running in a race to be such a deeply satisfying experience, and a deeply emotional one...it is in our DNA...
-
Social Networking for Newbies
-
How to Back Up Your LinkedIn Profile and Recommendations
27 Jan 2012 | 7:51 pmThis is another one best practice to do on a regular basis. I had the misfortune of losing my original LinkedIn account and I lost over 180 recommendations. I had backed up my contacts and my summary but not my recommendations. The reason I hadn’t done that is because I wasn’t aware that you could do that. So one silver lining in my losing my original LinkedIn account is that I learned that you CAN back up your recommendations and I can now share that with you Please watch this short video on how to back up your profile and your recommendations. -
Changing Ownership of a LinkedIn Group
23 Jan 2012 | 8:22 pmI received the following question today: There is a group on LinkedIn that I would like to “take over” It is an Alumni group in San Diego. I am the current President and we want to use to promote alumni events. The person who set it up has not posted in over a year and they probably won’t care. Is there a way I can find out who set it up or who is the admin and contact them? Can they add me as an admin like you can on FB? Or, can they just give me ownership of the group so I can post, grow it, etc? The answer to all three questions is YES, YES & YES. This video shows… -
Tagging your LinkedIn Contacts
17 Jan 2012 | 11:00 amOne reason why LinkedIn is a place where many executives have a presence is because it is relatively more difficult for spammers to send their pitches. This is because you’re limited to sending messages to 50 people at one time. So if you have a large number of contacts, sending a message to all of them is very time intensive. While the 50 people limitation is great for reducing spam, it is also a major hindrance when you have legitimate messages that you would like to send to your contacts. One way to make it easier for you to send RELEVANT messages to large numbers of contacts is to… -
Making it easy for people to invite you to connect on LinkedIn
12 Jan 2012 | 11:23 pmI recently invited a large number of offline connections to connect with me on LinkedIn. Since I wanted to personalize the invitation, I chose to send the message from my contact manager as opposed to LinkedIn. Using this method allowed me to send multiple invitations at once and using the mail merge feature, personalize each one with the person’s name. In order to make it easier for people to connect with me, I created a link that took them directly to my invite page – click here to see it in action. In the video below I show you exactly how to create your own link so that you… -
Using the LinkedIn Status Update Effectively
6 Jan 2012 | 8:24 pmUpdating your status on LinkedIn can both help and hurt you on LinkedIn. Used properly, they can be a very powerful component of your LinkedIn strategy. On this post I’ll focus on how they can help you. Your updates should be used to increase your and/or your network’s Visibility / Credibility. You can also use the updates to promote – as long as they are subtle! Remember that people on LinkedIn want primarily relevant information and connections. They don’t want to be sold! I recently posted that I had booked a presentation while traveling abroad to the U.K. (I live…
-
GROWMAP.COM
-
Top Small Business Books – My Picks for SmallBizTrends 2012 #BizBookAwards
10 Feb 2012 | 4:13 pmRemember: You can vote every 24 hours for as many books as you wish but only ONE vote per book. I have provided voting links to each of my top picks to make voting easier. Voting ends Feb 16, 2012 The fourth annual Small Business Book Awards highlights the best new Small Business books specifically beneficial for small businesses rather than applicable only or primarily to enterprise or corporate level businesses. SMALL BUSINESS RESOURCES: Instrumental in bringing us this valuable awareness of books that can make a difference are: Anita Campbell Anita Campell, Founder of the Small Business… -
Effect of Hashtag Usage in Super Bowl Advertising: Social Media Monitoring Future Of Engagement: #SoLongVampires Audi Super Bowl Ad
8 Feb 2012 | 4:08 pmThis is a guest post from Murray’s new video project The Future of Engagement showing the impact of Audi including a hashtag for their new commercial about LED headlights being as “close to daylight” as you can get. In the video, Murray says he chose Audi because they were very creative last year and they were the first advertiser to include a hashtag in their ads. This past weekend was the Super Bowl, which can be as much an advertising event as a football game. Audi’s commercial shows an Audi pulling up to a vampire party at a bonfire and accidentally vaporizing the… -
Guest Posting: Guest Blogging Tips ~ My Guest Posts
7 Feb 2012 | 4:51 pmGuest Blogging eBook Guest Blogging has many benefits including guest posting for networking and exposure to guest blogging for greater reach to geo-targeted blog outreach. When you want to guest post, it is critical to include a few simple things in your guest posting requests. Guest Blogging Requests What to Include: Two or three examples of posts you’re written – ideally on topics related to the one you’re pitching – any writing if you don’t have some specific to that niche. A few title or suggested topics for your guest post. Any sites you wish to link to… -
How YOUR Small Business Can Get Totally Free Advertising on Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing and Hundreds of Local Directories and Niche Sites
5 Feb 2012 | 10:45 pmClick image to see 168 Business Directories Even if your small business could afford a Super Bowl ad – at $3.5 million – there is another form of advertising that would benefit you more and consistently bring you far more business. And the good news is you only have to pay to have it submitted ONCE to get free advertising on Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing, Superpages and hundreds of other local directories indefinitely*. Completely Free Advertising You can do it yourself manually, or create your own listings through Universal Business Listings (UBL – what I use), but… -
Future of Engagement: Monitoring Social Media: Facebook IPO Launch Delayed
1 Feb 2012 | 4:36 pmClick image to read Facebook IPO to Create Jobs Future of Engagement – Monitoring Social Media on the Eve of the Facebook IPO Launch Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook could be going public within seven days. Murray Newlands’ series The Future of Engagement analyzes how this story spread across social media: TRACKING TRENDS Highlights: The term “Facebook IPO” was a trend on Twitter less than a day after the WSJ Facebook IPO story went live Over half of “Facebook IPO” social media mentions were on Twitter, showing how important the microblogging site is…
-
TheWayoftheWeb
-
Apologise like everyone is watching…
12 Feb 2012 | 4:14 pmHow do you apologise when you’ve made a serious mistake? I wrote about how brands can actually be more successful by admitting imperfections and mistakes last week – and tonight I happened to read a jaw-dropping example of a mistake by a newspaper (via Newspaper Death Watch). The summary is the photo of an innocent 40-year-old man named Angel Ortiz was used in a front page story about a horrific crime comitted by a 20-year-old with the same, and apparently very common, Spanish name. As a result, the innocent party has lost work, been persecuted and is effectively reduced to hiding… -
Fighting for the internet, and for my son…
10 Feb 2012 | 8:53 pmIf you read my blog regularly, or follow me on Twitter, you’ll doubtless have an idea of my views on SOPA, PIPA, ACTA etc. I’m one of over 2 million people who have signed a petition to try and get ACTA rejected, and I support the hundreds of protests taking place later today in cities across the UK and the globe. I’m against these measures for 2 reasons, and it’s not about being able to pirate films, music or books. In all honesty, I can’t remember the last time I consciously attempted to download pirated content – I’m too busy to spend time worrying… -
Quick heads up for Peterborough people who work in digital…
10 Feb 2012 | 1:55 pmThe next DPiP meetup is being planed for March 1st, 2012, including a meal at the Imperial Bento restaurant in Peterborough. So if you’re interested in attending, send a tweet to @DPiPboro or add the event on Facebook to give us an idea of numbers, please. Oh, and DPiP is also on Google+ if you’d prefer to keep up with events and news there instead. Buffer -
What brands need to learn about true fans
5 Feb 2012 | 1:57 pmAre you watching the Super Bowl tonight between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants? I’ll be watching at least some of it, but my main interest in the NFL was in the in 90′s, watching Troy Aikman and the Dallas Cowboys in whatever coverage was available in the UK. By contrast, I was on the edge of my seat during the Ireland – Wales match in the Six Nations Rugby today. And [spoiler alert] being a passionate Ireland supporter (The two manifestations of my Irish ancestry are in rugby and whiskey), the end result was a bit of a kick in the teeth. Chatting with a… -
The book that inspired my career…
4 Feb 2012 | 10:50 amI don’t know about you, but I’ve always been fascinated by surfing. Something about the elegance of seeing someone balancing on a board floating over the forces of nature manages to be both inspiring and relaxing to watch. But despite a period of trying to conquer skateboarding, I knew I’d never be a surfer. Partly it was down to geography – Kent in England is not necessarily a hotbed of surfing talent. More importantly, I combined a lack of balance with a dislike of swimming. But around the age of 11 or so, I read the amazing Walking on Water by Andy Martin. Like me,…
-
Connection Agent
-
Is Your Sky Blue?
11 Feb 2012 | 1:48 pmWhy is the Dilbert comic strip so popular? One reason is because there seems to be a thousand kill switches on awesome in workplace (go ahead, click on the link. I’ll wait…). It’s very likely that you have some major awesome locked up in your mind and heart and character and abilities – and, if you’re like most people in the workforce, it’s being inhibited more than expressed. That, and the general economic instability, has forced many more people to look at traditional work within traditional organizations and ask, “Why am I doing this?” Why,… -
Are You Having A Nice Conflict?
10 Feb 2012 | 9:07 amFor a long while, I held off buying a much-desired iPad2 – I finally gave in over the Christmas holidays and bought one. I also held off on becoming an e-reader until that time – and now, I’m glad to say, I have finally read my first book cover-to-cover on a tablet! What can I say – sometimes I break with the past slowwwwly… The book: Have A Nice Conflict, put out by Jossey-Bass. Disclosure: this group has also stepped up to be a sponsor for LeadershipChat last week, in our chat with Angela Maiers, and also this coming Tuesday, when the smart team of HANC… -
Passion Matters
7 Feb 2012 | 6:30 amWhen I think of Angela Maiers, I think of one word. Passion. She’s a passionate educator. A passionate blogger. And, this Tuesday night (Feb 7th) on LeadershipChat, Angela will be talking about a core passion of hers. #YouMatter. Simply put, YouMatter is Angela’s summary of a conviction deep in her DNA – that a sense of significance is central to our well-being and growth. Since it’s really not possible to replicate Angela’s passion in a second-hand blog post, I’d urge you to watch this video – or if you can’t afford the 20 minutes to watch,… -
Caribbean Connections
6 Feb 2012 | 9:21 amEver heard of Digicel? Yeah, me neither – until a few weeks ago. When my eyeballs were saturated with their branding. Upon landing in Haiti, I was surrounded, not only by a sea of people, but by an ocean of red Digicel signs. They are a company run by an Irish entrepreneur, who targeted Jamaica and other Caribbean islands (and has now expanded outward). You will look in vain to find much reference to AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint in Haiti. But you can hardly look anywhere without seeing Digicel branding. Day or night. Digicel painted on walls. Digicel T-shirts. Digicel sun-umbrellas… -
Out of my Comfort Zone: Haiti
3 Feb 2012 | 5:47 amAs many of you know, I recently went on a mission trip to Haiti (small team from my local church). My role was to help one of my long-time friends with a building project – topping off the walls of a partially-constructed church building and putting up a roof on it. The trip was an amazing privilege, and the whole adventure was WAY outside my comfort zone! Nonetheless, it was a fulfilling and eye-opening experience. I thought I’d share some of the pictures I took of the country, its people, and the project. Here is the photo set on Flickr. If you scroll through, you’ll see…
-
onetrouser.com
-
Childrens Furniture Guide
10 Feb 2012 | 5:30 pmDecorating a childs room can be quite a stressful time and trying to keep to a budget can also be quite hard. You may also be slightly over whelmed by the massive choice of childrens furniture available online and from furniture stores. The main tip to remember is to keep things simple. Some childrens furniture -
Secrets of Getting Better Service When Dining Out Alone
10 Feb 2012 | 4:18 amPeople often dine out in groups. Whether it’s family, a group of friends, or a cluster of office workers, eating out is often as much a social experience as it is one to try out new flavors and dishes. Nonetheless, there are many reasons one may eschew the group experience and dine alone. Perhaps you -
Fashion Goes Vintage – A Guide to Vintage Clothing
9 Feb 2012 | 6:38 amEveryone’s wearing vintage style from the girl on the high street to A list celebrities. Even high street shops are now following suit with their own ranges of vintage inspired clothes. But why is vintage clothing so popular and how can you get the vintage look? Vintage clothing is described by Trudie Bamford, author of -
Tennis Rackets – A Selection Guide
7 Feb 2012 | 12:57 pmThe single most important piece of equipment a tennis player will purchase is a tennis racket. With the wide variety of tennis racket brands, models, types, and specifications on the market, selecting a tennis racket can be a daunting task. Prospective tennis racket buyers should consider several important criteria. These criteria are brand, racket weight, -
Dog/Child Interaction: How to Develop a Safe Relationship
5 Feb 2012 | 6:17 amDog-child interaction is the single most important issue to deal with if you have a child and a dog. Children love dogs but dogs don’t always love children. When you bring home a new puppy, your child should be trained together with your dog. Dog owners need to remember that it takes two to tango.
-
Mike's Lifestream
-
The Social Brand Value of the World’s Leading Brands
13 Feb 2012 | 4:45 pmvia coolinfographics.com Tweet -
5 companies that are “rocking” social media
12 Feb 2012 | 2:35 pmTweet via briansolis.posterous.com Smart infographic by Voltier Digital illustrating some of the top companies using social media to improve customer (and employee) relationships and experiences. Some food for thought hopefully. -
The Rise Of Content Marketing
12 Feb 2012 | 2:34 pmTweet -
5 trends for luxury brands in 2012
12 Feb 2012 | 2:22 pmTweet via youtube.com -
Overmedicated America
12 Feb 2012 | 2:19 pmTweet via holykaw.alltop.com
-
Jennifer Maggiore
-
What Our Children Know
7 Feb 2012 | 4:59 pmI wish I could just relax and be more like my kids. They are so intuitive and they live in the moment. I run around freaking out like a crazy person, regretting the past and fearing the future. I waste much of my energy trying to think of every scenario and how to prepare for the worst. We’re looking for a daycare for our one year. The thought of him being cared for by someone else kills me, I wish I could clone myself and work and be with him, but its not my reality. I know the day will come, just like with his older brother, that Jo Jo will realize he is being dropped off and cry his… -
This is Who I Am. Nobody Said You Had to Like It.
1 Feb 2012 | 8:26 pmFor those of you who have been regular readers of my posts over the years, you know that I am a passionate, creative person, who also happens to love the occasional four letter word. I figure that being almost 34 years old, a responsible mother, successful business owner, and loving wife have earned me the right to use any language I so desire, at home or in the office. I understand that sometimes this might be offensive, there are a lot of things about me, well anyone really, that people may find offensive. If a potty mouth turns you off, we were never well suited to working together. Now,… -
Reflecting on 5 Fucking Years
10 Jan 2012 | 11:29 pmTwo days ago I went to pick up Matteo and the owner of his school came out to see me at carpool- “So, since Matteo is turning 5 tomorrow, he told us he wanted to start using ‘big boy’ language — he used the word ‘fucking’ today.” She handed me the incident report and I waffled between being defensive (well he clearly didn’t learn that from me) and… realistic. He even used it the right way, “I don’t care about your fucking toy.” Ouch. Yep, my fucking bad. We had the obligatory conversation: Me How did it make you feel to… -
Will Work For Group Health Insurance
28 Nov 2011 | 11:11 pmThis blog title is not a joke. (Attention Big Companies, will trade brilliant consulting in exchange for paying my premium on your stellar group plan :D <—- charming, sexy smile. Calll meeee….). Want to hear something disgusting? My health insurance premiums through Cigna are rising 44% starting in January (yes, as in just over a month away, thanks for all the advance notice Cigna, and right after the holidays, SO SUPER CONVENIENT). I’m fucked. My rate is going from $395.55 a month to $569.59 a month. And, don’t forget the $20/month administrative fee. Oh, and one… -
What I Want You to Know About My Sister
7 Oct 2011 | 7:12 pmMy sister Ziba, 1988-2011 It’s hard to know where to begin when talking about my sister, her life and her death, my relationship with her. She somehow managed to be both one of the most complicated and one of the most simple people I’ve ever known. She got caught up in a lot of problems early in life, some were circumstances that were put upon her, some were situations brought on by her own choice. At the same time, she genuinely cared for her family and the people around her, she asked for her nephews and niece every time my brother and I spoke with her and she’d give you…
-
Social Media Bird Brain
-
All Hat, No Cattle in Social Media
8 Feb 2012 | 1:21 amBuck Jones With Big Hat via Fine Art America I've got several articles whirling round in my head. One of them about how Social Media 1.0 is over, one about how being average will send you to the bottom of the pile, one about knowing your brand. I've been thinking of them in relation to being an introvert, and I'm also thinking about the way the Planned Parenthood/Susan G. Komen debacle played -
The Right Tool May Be in Your Head
1 Feb 2012 | 12:25 am46 and 2 Tool Head by Justin Roberts In its younger days, social media was full of conversations related to tools - tools for using social media, tools for managing social media, tools for measuring social media... Tool Overload New platforms and tools were coming out like water from a broken pipe and I imagine that a lot of people either threw their hands up in disgust and walked away or -
Re-Viewing and a Review
25 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amImage via Alfred Hitchcock Geek One reason I have thought about ending this blog is because I didn't think I had anything in particular to add to the cacophony of advice and insight from people who have made giving advice and insight a profession (and do damn well at it). My own insight has never seemed to me to be particularly... insightful. Maybe it's because I live in my head that I -
Pin It! Pinterest & Your Small Nonprofit
19 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amI thought it was time to tell you how much I like Pinterest and why I think it's good for your small nonprofit, but I was late off the mark and more than a few folks beat me to it. Over at Nonprofit Tech 2.0 there's a great tutorial for how to get your not-for-profit set up on the site as well as a bit about how Pinterest is being used by savvy nonprofits. Then skip over to Frogloop where -
Protest Against Censorship
18 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amThe internet has been a 'place' where we have all be free to share our ideas. Some of them haven't been good and there's no doubting that there are some pretty freaky people doing things they shouldn't be doing. But making Google, Yahoo, or YouTube and other companies responsible for policing and then deciding FOR us what is fair use and what isn't, won't make the bad people go away
-
Freelance Social Media
-
Google+ for Tourism, CVBs, and Cities
3 Feb 2012 | 3:00 pmWe’ve created a short how-to guide on using Google+ pages for destination marketing. We hope that convention and visitors bureaus, cities, and others in the tourism industry will find it useful. You can download the guide here: Google+ for tourism, CVBs, and cities Best, Jacinta Langford Hoyt LangfordMedia This content from: Freelance Social Media Google+ for Tourism, CVBs, and Cities ShareThis -
Zarco 66 Pumping Out Foursquare Deals
28 Jun 2011 | 2:58 pmTIME FOR A SMOOTHIE! That’s what you may hear over the speakers at Zarco 66 when you go fill up your gas tank at five o’clock in the morning. You’ll be going there that early in the day because if you are one of the first five people to check in to a Zarco 66 on Foursquare, you will get ten cents off per gallon of gas that you purchase. Not many better ways to entice customers to your gas station than giving discounts on an expensive necessity like gas. There are five Zarco locations offering the special, three of them in Lawrence. The Facebook page mentions that there will be… -
Big East: Goodbye Reese’s, Hello Twitter?
10 Mar 2011 | 10:00 amOn Tuesday night the Big East Men’s Basketball Championship began. This is a five day tournament played in New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Usually the court is adorned with the Big East Conference logo, the tournament logo and some advertising logos (and if you see an advertising logo on a basketball court, more than likely it will be for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups). However, I noticed something else on the court while watching the games on television Tuesday night. The conference decided to paint the name of the Big East Basketball Twitter account on the sideline near both… -
Rename app tabs in Facebook Page
21 Feb 2011 | 12:06 pmIt’s hard keeping up with all the Facebook Page updates lately! The latest one I came across involved being able to rename the app on your page sidebar. Click “Edit Page”>Apps>”edit settings” in the app of your choosing. Happy editing! *As noted by @bailann below, you cannot edit “basic pages” like Notes, Photos, etc. This content from: Freelance Social Media Rename app tabs in Facebook Page ShareThis -
Customizing the new Facebook profile
29 Dec 2010 | 10:42 amI’m sure over the last few weeks you’ve noticed Facebook has been rolling out a new look for profiles. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when it comes to the new profile: Photos at the top. The photos at the top display the last five recent photos you’ve been tagged in. In case you’re not happy with what is displayed, you can simply hover over the photo you’d like to remove at the top and click on the little ‘x’. Featured Friends. You can now highlight your closest friends by clicking on “Featured Friends” when editing…
-
Corporate Eye
-
The one in which I click on the link in an email
9 Feb 2012 | 7:07 amThe one in which I click on the link in an emailI know it was a marketing email from a stranger, but when I received 3 emails last week with a subject line of ‘Bet you’ve never seen a law firm website like this!’ I couldn’t resist clicking through. After all, looking at corporate websites is what I do. And at the other end of the link was an interesting site. Quite a long way from my usual website diet, but worth noting for the following reasons: the background image and welcome message change depending on the time of day. Not unusual across the web, but it is an… -
Magazines See Big Jump in QR Codes in 2011
2 Feb 2012 | 9:54 pmMagazines See Big Jump in QR Codes in 2011Quick response codes (QR codes) are becoming the norm in print advertising, and according to a report by mobile marketing firm Nellymoser, approximately 4,500 QR codes appeared in the top 100 magazines during 2011. Those QR codes appeared in a mix of ads and editorial pages, but advertisers are definitely the ones leading the print magazine QR code trend. Nellymoser found that women’s magazines are the most popular place for QR codes with the top magazine titles for QR code use ranking as follows: InStyle = 141 QR codes ESPN The Magazine = 136… -
How Brands Are Connecting Outdoor Advertising to Facebook
30 Jan 2012 | 9:51 pmHow Brands Are Connecting Outdoor Advertising to FacebookTo many old school marketers, making the leap from traditional marketing to social media marketing is still a challenge they’re having trouble with. Brand managers find themselves investing time and energy into proving that traditional marketing and social media marketing can be successfully integrated, and in fact, they should be integrated at every opportunity. Some brands are providing great examples to learn from and use as a launch point for strategic planning meetings. Let’s take a look at two brands that are… -
PETA Targets CareerBuilder Ads with Angelica Huston’s Help
27 Jan 2012 | 10:16 pmPETA Targets CareerBuilder Ads with Angelica Huston’s HelpCareerBuilder has gotten positive feedback from consumers on its humorous television commercials featuring chimpanzees that debuted in 2005. The ads were a viewer favorite during the 2011 Super Bowl, so the company plans to feature the apes again in its upcoming 2012 Super Bowl commercials. As AdAge reports, the ads scored well in terms of likability, but not as well in terms of persuasion. Despite those results from Ace Metrix, CareerBuilder announced the chimpanzees would return for the 2012 Super Bowl and posted an ad spot… -
The Great 2012 CSR Revolution
27 Jan 2012 | 3:03 amThe Great 2012 CSR RevolutionSo let’s do another little survey here. Hands up anyone who’s crossed Gypsy Rose’s palm with silver in the hope of having their fortune told? No-one? Oh, maybe one person at the back. Well, it doesn’t surprise me, we’re not really into such superstitious claptrap these days. Nevertheless, every year every CSR practitioner seems to feel they too can be Gypsy Rose. Crystal balls get polished and predictions made. If you’re lucky, there may even be a waft of incense in the air .. or is that just over-ripe pot-pourri?
-
Marketing Conversation
-
Video Book Review of Getting Past No By William Ury
13 Feb 2012 | 11:28 pmI recently finished reading “Getting Past No” by William Ury and decided to create a video review about the book. Great book! Check out what I have to say in the video below: Transcript: Hi I’m HowToPhil and I’m going to be reviewing “Getting Past No” by William Ury. William Ury is the director of [...] I recently finished reading “Getting Past No” by William Ury and decided to create a video review about the book. Great book! Check out what I have to say in the video below: Transcript: Hi I’m HowToPhil and I’m going to be reviewing… -
Social Network Announcement Page (SNAP) Template
11 Feb 2012 | 5:49 pmIn an effort to make a lighter weight Social Media News Release Template I created the SNAP (Social Network Announcement Page) template: Social Network Announcement Page (SNAP) was created by leveraging the Bootstrap from Twitter framework and my previous Clean And Simple Social Media News Release Template You can download SNAP (Social Network Announcement Page) [...] In an effort to make a lighter weight Social Media News Release Template I created the SNAP (Social Network Announcement Page) template: Social Network Announcement Page (SNAP) was created by leveraging the Bootstrap from… -
Make sure everything you serve tastes delicious
10 Feb 2012 | 5:35 pmIf you want to succeed in running a kitchen for the homeless in Washington, DC, or have wildly successful social media marketing campaigns, it all comes down to one thing: do you respect and appreciate your guests? Do you cut-corners and just serve slop or do you prepare organic, healthy, and delicious meals with an [...] If you want to succeed in running a kitchen for the homeless in Washington, DC, or have wildly successful social media marketing campaigns, it all comes down to one thing: do you respect and appreciate your guests? Do you cut-corners and just serve slop or do you prepare… -
Free Clean And Simple Social Media News/Press Release By HowToPhil
9 Feb 2012 | 2:43 pmIt’s been a long time since I’ve posted on Marketing Conversation, but I return bearing a gift! I was setting up a social media news release for HowToPhil and decided to try out Bootstrap from Twitter as a framework. After a few hours I constructed my SMNR and then also stripped out all the HowToPhil [...] It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on Marketing Conversation, but I return bearing a gift! I was setting up a social media news release for HowToPhil and decided to try out Bootstrap from Twitter as a framework. After a few hours I constructed my SMNR and then… -
Online PR Infographic from PRMarketing.com
7 Feb 2012 | 4:51 pmSixty percent of Americans will judge your company based on your online presence, think about that for a moment. Though your website plays an important role in your online presence, there is more to it. People search for your brand and judge your company based on what comes up on search engines as well. Investing [...] Sixty percent of Americans will judge your company based on your online presence, think about that for a moment. Though your website plays an important role in your online presence, there is more to it. People search for your brand and judge your company based on what comes up…
-
ChrisKenton.com
-
Coincidence: When Real is Better than Real
25 Jan 2012 | 1:50 amTo me, coincidence is like magic. It makes you see the world in a way that is slightly unreal. Better than real. Like real could be a whole lot better than you think. A good coincidence makes you think, makes you look for the unseen thread that strings a strand of random events together like pearls. Like ghost stories, there’s a time for telling stories of coincidence, and they never seem to lose their magic with the telling. Recently my wife and I have been talking about the need to encourage my son to write. My wife is a librarian, I’m a writer, so we kind of figure our son… -
What it Means to Fall
2 Sep 2011 | 1:54 pmA couple of weeks ago I took a spectacular fall while mountain biking. I was pushing the limits on one of my favorite trails, riding full speed through a forest of redwoods, when my front wheel lost traction and I hit the deck. I slid about 20 feet through roots and rocks before rolling over the side of the trail and down a steep hill. I wound up with deep gashes on both arms and one knee, a wide swath of trail rash from shoulder to ankle, and what would later turn out to be a couple of fractures to the bones that make up my left shoulder. It now ranks among the top 5 falls since I started… -
Remembering Maya
20 Aug 2010 | 7:53 pmMaya Machnicova I attended the memorial last Saturday of a former employee, a young woman named Maya Machnicova. Memorials are always a reminder of basic truths we tend to ignore, or simply forget, and Maya’s passing in particular has made me think a lot about the subtle ways people impact my life. The push and pull of primary relationships is obvious—parents, spouses, children, business partners—they’re like heavy planets that shift our trajectory whenever they come into orbit. But what about the coworkers we spend a few hours with each day? There are hundreds of people in my life… -
Facebook’s Engineered Privacy Loopholes
14 May 2010 | 4:51 pmFacebook is getting a lot of attention over its privacy policies for a variety of reasons. Depending on who’s offering up the criticism, the complaints include: They change the rules too often. The rules are too convoluted and too hard to figure out. The rules err on the side of sharing private information without permission, so Facebook can profit. So far, Facebook seems to be Teflon. The fun and attraction of engaging on Facebook outweighs most people’s concern about privacy–assuming they understand the privacy risks. But I, for one, am starting to get creeped out. And my… -
iForce
29 Apr 2010 | 2:08 pm
-
Steve Kayser's Riffs, Tiffs and What Ifs
-
The Heroes Journey for Sales … Sorta
3 Feb 2012 | 9:36 pmCan you tell your story - or the story of your business? Tell it so it moves someone - moves them to action? Tell your story so it treads well-worn neural pathways achingly familiar to the human mind and spirit? Time-tested pathways ... open, and indeed looking for, great stories? Stories populated with saints, sinners, sorry sad sacks, winners - all, at the core - fighting for their space and place in time? -
Are You Still Relevant?
27 Jan 2012 | 2:41 pm“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” - Alvin Toffler I heard a couple of acquaintances talk about a person they work with that was "older" and no longer contributing to their business. This person apparently couldn't, or wouldn't, learn new skills. Or, for that matter, even keep up with the skill-set needed for the job. Age was mentioned, and not favorably. They thought this person should be "put out to pasture." -
Building Yourself a Better Brain
24 Jan 2012 | 12:09 amAn interview with Dr. Rick Hanson, neuropsychologist and author of the bestselling Buddha’ Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom. It has been translated to 21 languages and spent over 300 days on Amazon’s list of top 100 best-selling non-fiction books. Dr. Rick has a new book out called Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time. He has taught at Oxford, Stanford and Harvard and his work has been featured in BBC, NPR,, US News and World Report.. -
Best of STORY and Storyteller Interviews 2011
4 Jan 2012 | 12:35 pmRobin Hood, Batman, Hoop Dreams, Zanskar, Bagger Vance - they're all here. Learn from best-selling authors, screenwriters, storytellers and movie-makers Steven Pressfield, Pen Densham, Michael Uslan, Frederick Marx and Robert McKee. -
Good Intentions Gone Bad!
1 Jan 2012 | 5:42 pmFeaturing an interview with Lynne McTaggart, author of "The Intention Experiment." I fully intended to keep my 2012 New Year's resolutions. I knew it would be hard. But I had good intentions. I had good intentions. Really. I lasted ...
-
Uber.la - tech reviews, opinion and wit
-
Is Pinterest More Than Shoes, Skirts, and Happy Kitty Pictures? < But Is It A Social Network?
13 Feb 2012 | 12:28 pmPinterest has a few problems that you should know about as well. You might think that Pinterest is the greatest thing since Facebook. It's not. It's good. It's fun. It is continuing to capture the hearts and minds of consumers and social media pundits alike. -
Little Blog Marketing Metrics: Insights & Recommendations – Google Analytics Numbers
13 Feb 2012 | 9:36 amPassion and emotion can fuel action, but numbers drive revenue. // Each month I try and give some insight into what's working and what's not working in the sub-10,000 per/month blog. I'm sure I work as hard as the big boys, but of course I have to work harder to get traffic and optimize what I do have. -
Just Click It: Feb 13, Social Media as Community, iPad 3, Career Mistakes, Writing Solutions
13 Feb 2012 | 7:31 amJust Click It: Feb 13, Social Media as Community, iPad 3, Career Mistakes, Writing Solutions, Grammys, Twitter's Social Influence -
The RIP Storm: Whitney Houston's Death Shows the Agility of Social Networks
12 Feb 2012 | 11:26 am"How would I know…" she sang. Sure she was a huge icon when I was in high school. She had a voice, beauty, poise, and then a way-messed-up boy friend. Sometimes the most beautiful are the least self-confident. In the end we will find out that Whitney Houston was killed by her own fame and [...] -
Crazy Little Thing Called Love: If You Can't Say Something Nice… Well, Shout It
12 Feb 2012 | 7:05 amNow I am not saying I'm right, or that my techniques and linguistic dexterity is always ON or appropriate. What I am saying, is that if you say something back it up with Passion AND Facts. If you attack, be prepared to meet the social media ninja.
-
Digital Marketing Blog // Digital Operative
-
DanandDave.com featured on The Served from Behance
8 Feb 2012 | 1:18 pmAnother win for both the design team at DO and the client, Dan and Dave. We spend a lot of time at DO trying to create user experiences that are truly unique, simple and well-planned. DanandDave.com is not just a result of great UX planning, but also a cross functional team of designers and developers working together to make the best balance of content and ecommerce. Being featured on The Served (The Served Sites feature top projects from the Behance Network, filtered by industry) means a lot because its peers from your industry recognizing the solid work that your team is doing. Thanks to… -
Why SOPA Sucks and Why You Should Care
18 Jan 2012 | 1:52 pmToday is a new day for the color black. Today it drapes itself across some of the most visited websites across internet to oppose something called SOPA. According to EFF.org, it states “The Internet blacklist legislation—known as PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House—invites Internet security risks, threatens online speech, and hampers innovation on the Web.” What companies went black today? Google Wordpress Wikipedia Mozilla Firefox Amazon – supporting with black banner to right Boing Boing Nicekicks – I like this site… -
Big three stories of the week!
13 Jan 2012 | 8:14 pmThough Friday the 13th is generally considered an unlucky day, it is Friday and it can’t really be that bad. Here is the weekly round up of the top tech stories that you can’t miss this week. One story will affect your search engine optimization plans, one will effect your holiday shopping next year, and the final will make you rethink about mobile marketing. 1. Google launches “search plus your world” Google continues its move to social networking dominance by launching “Google search plus your world”. Now, we all know that Google is the undisputed king when it… -
Once Upon A Timeline
27 Dec 2011 | 12:56 pmWhat to do about the Facebook Timeline The Facebook Timeline is coming and there is not too much you can do about it. I don’t mean coming in the sense that it will soon be released (it already is), I mean it is coming in the sense that you are soon going to have one – like it or not. Facebook has made it clear that Timelines are the way Facebook is going and these will basically be the story of your life. Are you ready for the story of your life to be displayed? Is your company ready for the story of its existence to be displayed? How will this affect your digital marketing plan? What… -
Retargeting is Coming to Get You!
22 Dec 2011 | 4:22 pmWhat is Retargeting? Overview Retargeting is one of the hottest trends in online marketing right now and at DO we use it to help businesses grow. This online marketing technique combines many of the strengths that online marketing offers and puts them into one package. In the hands of a savvy digital marketer retargeting can: • Hypertarget customers on a product level • Keep your business in the customer’s mind after they have left the site • Target just the customers who have shown interest • Increase conversion and click-through-rates of your ads Many companies offer this…
-
Seldom Seen Kid
-
5 New startups to look out for – February
11 Feb 2012 | 5:49 amI am believer in supporting startups, so every month i’m going to cover 5 that have real potential. Jux is a wonderful photo sharing site. It’s simplicity lies in a single module that presents a little information on your image, designed to fit your screen, allowing your images to speak for themselves – wonderful. LIVE! Kuuala looks to share sustainable products to encourage you to live a lifestyle that’s better for the planet. Whether it’s tech or office supplies, Kuuala has it covered. LIVE! Mistash is much like Provord, in so much as it looks to create a… -
Path hits 2 million users
6 Feb 2012 | 2:25 pmPath, the so-far-brandless mobile social network, announced over the last few days that it has reached 2 million users worldwide. Path is, in a sense, the ‘perfect’ social network, uncluttered by ads, facilitatory to content sharing cross-network and has a beautifully simple UI – It’s person to person exchange friendly. You share thoughts, location and imagery with no unhelpful content as an unimaginative border and background, allowing you to have a personal digital connection with friends. It is yet to adopt a brand-focused offering, however, and this is the greatest… -
Wikipedia Blackout Wednesday
17 Jan 2012 | 2:17 pmWednesday will see Wikipedia, joined by a host of other websites including search giant Google, ‘blackout’ or protest against SOPA, the anti-priacy bill that is currently going through the US legislative system. The aim of the exercise is to highlight how the bill will hinder consumers online. Interestingly though, Twitter will not be taking part in the initiative. Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO said: @digiphile @jayrosen_nyu that's just silly. Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish.— dick costolo (@dickc) January 16, 2012 However,… -
How To Create The Perfect Foursquare List
13 Dec 2011 | 2:02 amElliot Pearson was recently featured on Foursquare’s Follow Friday for his list of London’s indepdendent coffee shops. Here, he shares his advice on how to make the perfect Foursquare List. The much-requested list feature is now rolled out across the Foursquare platform and has opened up much of what Foursquare aims to encourage and provide. While there are many uses for which this feature excels, from recommending places you’ve visited to friends right through to ordered guided tours and treasure hunts, it is easy to neglect key aspects that make a list a worthwhile experience… -
Top 10 Music Blogs of 2011
9 Dec 2011 | 2:34 amWhat are the top ten music blogs of 2011, I hear you ask? Well, I’ve had a think about all of those that I’ve read regularly and listened music from avidly and whittled down to a little list that I hope you find time to investigate further! Aquarium Drunkard – everything you need to know about music you’ve never heard of. Awesome. yvynyl – simply, pick the best stuff, share. Great. Abeano – award winning music blog, it wins awards for a reason… Pinglewood – primarily video based, highly under rated Off Modern – great collection of new…
-
Don't drink the koolaid
-
Why Choose a Marketing Agency and Why Make it an Integrated One
13 Feb 2012 | 5:39 pmAn in-house Marketing Manager position is not what it used to be. The discipline of marketing has grown leaps and bounds in the past few years, requiring marketing managers to have knowledge of, and the time to manage, SEO, SEM and social media on top of all the traditional marketing. To stand out – without pulling your hair out – in today’s landscape, a marketing manager can no longer be a one-person show. So the question is: Hire more people? Outsource a consultant? Or hire an agency? Cost is, of course, a factor. Concerns about being treated like the little guy amidst an… -
Digital Innovation: The Wynn Las Vegas Website
9 Feb 2012 | 3:28 pm“Terrific thing the internet, it gives us the chance to show you our hotels.” – Steve Wynn Two words for the new Wynn Las Vegas Website: Nailed it! Sure it is stuck in the 80s, most of the pages do not function properly, the quality of video is wickedly awesome and the buttons on the sidebar hurt your eyeballs, but that’s a small price to pay to show off your Vegas digs in a way no one else does. What I really like about the website is that it challenges most everything we believe in regarding web design, and then again it doesn’t. The design is painfully simple… -
What we’re reading this week: Pinterest
3 Feb 2012 | 11:32 amYou may have heard a thing or two about Pinterest in the last few months. The social bookmarking site that allows brides, party planners, hoarders and marketers alike to collect and share things online is now making its way into the mainstream and causing businesses to pay attention to this oh-so-addicting thing we call pinning. I’ve read a number of blog posts within the past week contributing to my thoughts on why consumer marketers should quickly pay attention to Pinterest. Here are a few of the best reads: Pinterest Drives More Traffic Than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn Combined Zoe… -
Google – The Thread to Success in Tourism Search
30 Jan 2012 | 11:59 amBrett Barash, VP at Digital Edelman, presented some interesting statistics at the recent ONE Travel Conference in Orlando, Florida. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that 66% of US leisure travelers use the Internet to research upcoming trips. But if this doesn’t convince every business that relies in any way on tourists for revenue that a relevant and compelling presence on the Internet is important to survival, I don’t know what will. What really caught my attention in his presentation was the life cycle of a travel seeker online. People seeking information about a… -
Coopertition and the State of US Travel Tourism
26 Jan 2012 | 11:26 amLast week I attended the ONE Travel Conference for Shopping, Dining and Cultural Tourism in Orlando. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but the speaker line up looked good and I thought the conference’s focus on shopping, dining and cultural heritage made sense; it certainly hit our agency’s sweet spot in consumer marketing. The women who co-presented the conference Rosemary McCormick, President of Shop America Alliance and Sheila Armstrong, Executive Director of U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Marketing Council are a formidable pair with surprising energy, a…
-
Technology & Marketing Law Blog
-
Employee Wins Harassment Claim Based in Part on Co-Workers' Offsite Blog Posts
13 Feb 2012 | 2:35 pmBy Eric Goldman Espinoza v. County of Orange, 2012 WL 420149 (Cal. App. Ct. February 9, 2012) Espinoza was born... -
Roommates.com Isn't Dealing in Illegal Content, Even Though the Ninth Circuit Denied Section 230 Immunity Because It Was
6 Feb 2012 | 1:37 pmBy Eric Goldman Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommate.com, LLC, 2012 WL 310849 (9th Cir. February 2,... -
Are You Kinning Me? Microsoft Beats Trademark Lawsuit Over Kinect--Kinbook v. Microsoft
3 Feb 2012 | 10:52 amBy Eric Goldman Kinbook LLC v. Microsoft Corp., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8570 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 25, 2012) Microsoft makes... -
Comments on Twitter's Country-by-Country Tweet Removal Announcement
2 Feb 2012 | 3:14 pmBy Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric. Twitter recently announced its decision to censor tweets on a country-by-country basis. People... -
Vendor Fails to Form Either an Online or Paper Contract With Customers--Kwan v. Clearwire
1 Feb 2012 | 12:07 pm[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] Kwan v. Clearwire Corp., C09-1392JLR (W.D.Wash.; Jan. 3, 2012) Professor Goldman blogged recently about a case...
-
Nashville SEO Social Media | Web Marketing
-
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-02-12
12 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am@path is blog post being sorry even enough to compensate for the lack of judgment? just like Facebook…. # @djofficialdj Mars Ill's Backbreakanomics, Tedashi's Kingdom People, and anything by Deepspace 5 # @MadysonDesigns I would say very bad… trust me :P # Looking for CHH artists to do websites for. Interested? Holla back or get at me at http://t.co/0Ge75hsq # RT @designnewz: Simple Icons for download – http://t.co/eSSXczrk # Haha! Awesome: Larry Bird wants to team up with Kobe to W.I.N., Lebron for "fun" http://t.co/dvsQrlHX #nba # RT @jshuey: It's… -
Twitter Updates for 2012-02-12
12 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amR.I.P. #whitneyhouston we will always love you (for the most part) # -
Twitter Updates for 2012-02-11
11 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amResponsive Design in 3 Steps via @nickla #WebDesignerWall http://t.co/WHorMaT1 #design #responsivedesign # RT @peterpollock: The Peter Pollock Daily is out! http://t.co/mXIET4M2 ?Top stories today via @JoLynneS @katdish @zioneyemedia @LisaLFlowers # Safari for iPhone sucks major. Thank goodness for dolphin and other browsers… # @infoition I def think it can when twitter and social media evolves at a higher level and higher, broader interaction # When Social Media goes wrong and awry: http://t.co/OWcgCjZH Tennessee Couple gets murdered for "defriending" # #FF love to @caspergrl… -
Twitter Updates for 2012-02-10
10 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amRT @designnewz: Simple Icons for download – http://t.co/eSSXczrk # Haha! Awesome: Larry Bird wants to team up with Kobe to W.I.N., Lebron for "fun" http://t.co/dvsQrlHX #nba # RT @jshuey: It's Pay It Forward Thursday @Tullys_Shops – buy coffee or croissant 4 the person in front (or behind) you. It's EZ & Fun. #pift # RT @thegrok: 5 Reasons Pinterest Works and 4 Weaknesses That May Kill It http://t.co/CnMogGIV via @monetate by @jaybaer ^ZM # UGH… iphone just all of a sudden crashes. No warning. No nothing. #FAIL # RT @caspergrl: Designing for… -
Twitter Updates for 2012-02-09
9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am@path is blog post being sorry even enough to compensate for the lack of judgment? just like Facebook…. # @djofficialdj Mars Ill's Backbreakanomics, Tedashi's Kingdom People, and anything by Deepspace 5 # @MadysonDesigns I would say very bad… trust me :P # Looking for CHH artists to do websites for. Interested? Holla back or get at me at http://t.co/0Ge75hsq #
-
FreshNetworks Blog
-
What the social graph is and why it matters to brands
13 Feb 2012 | 6:49 amTweetA simple social graph The social graph is not a new thing. The concept has been spoken about since at least the 1960s and is simply a way of representing (drawing) all the connections between people. Imagine a small island community of three people with no links to the outside world; you could represent this community as a social graph – showing all three connected to each other. As well as people we might add on other things – places, events, animals – and so use a social graph to show the connections between all of these objects rather than just between people. The… -
Should your brand be on Pinterest?
9 Feb 2012 | 11:01 amTweetOver the past few months, activity on the social network Pinterest has exploded. Pinterest is focused on the lifestyles of its members and encourages them to create different virtual pinboards onto which they can ‘pin’ things they like. From September to December 2011, unique visitors to pinterest.com increased by a staggering 429% and over 3.3.million people have signed up to the website so far. In fact, it’s recently been announced that Pinterest has more than 11 million monthly visitors, making it the fastest website to surpass the 10 million mark. The value of Pinterest to… -
Research claims that 25% of tweets are not worth reading. So what?
6 Feb 2012 | 4:55 amTweetImage via Wikipedia According to research from a team at Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Georgia Institute of Technology, we think that 25% of tweets are not worth reading. The study found that, when asked to rate tweets by people they follow, only 36% of tweets were marked favourably, 25% were marked less favourably and the balance (39%) received no strong feeling either way. Press coverage of this study has invariably interpreted this to mean that up to a quarter of what we say on Twitter is a waste of time (see the Daily Mail and the Daily… -
What’s hot in social media – January 2012 round up
31 Jan 2012 | 6:46 amTweetWith seven in ten brands saying they plan to increase their presence across social media in 2012 (according to a recent survey by Awareness) we thought it would be a good idea to take a regular look at the current social media landscape. So here’s a quick run down of what we think has been hot in social media this January: 1. Farfetch.com – the future of social retail? 2012 looks set to be the year of the social online retailer. Luxury retailer farfetch.com announced that it saw a 73% rise in traffic from Facebook in the second half of 2011 and it recently raised a second… -
Instagram and the growing power of photography in social media
30 Jan 2012 | 5:18 amTweetInto the valley of Death The Crimean War of the 1850s was a revolution in communication. For the first time reports from the battlefield were returned in what felt like near-real-time thanks to the electric telegraph transmitting messages in just hours rather than them having to be sent by horse across Europe. Many people complained about the impact of this real-time news, and the harm that it did reporting on the events tragedies of the war as they happened. Perhaps more contentious, however, than this written word reporting was the use, for the first time, of war photography with…
-
LJ Jones's Blog
-
Agencies: How to land new business.
9 Feb 2012 | 2:54 pmAs a marketing manager, I am the gate keeper. The person that holds the keys to the budget and the person who decides what campaigns we run. As the gate keeper, everyone wants to talk to me. I'm a popular guy. (But only because I have money).So here's a little bit of advice when you pitch me a campaign. Help me grow my business. Don't help me grow yours.They don't say it out loud, but when a person is pitching me, in the back of their mind I can hear them thinking: "He's got money. If we could just get him to sign this one year contract, it will help grow our business."Before they pitch me,… -
Ze Frank is my Hero
2 Feb 2012 | 10:34 amThe guy is a creative genius. These are a bit old, but here are both of the TED talks he has given.TED 20442010 When I grow up, I want to be like Ze. -
Online Checkout - In Real Life
7 Nov 2011 | 1:16 pmThis is just a great video for anyone who has ever bought something online. -
Improving the iPad
2 Oct 2011 | 10:50 pmMore and more people at the office have been carrying around iPads.But they don't like typing on them, so they also carry around this nice little keyboard.You also have to carry around the little stand to make it all work. But carrying around three different pieces seems like a hassle.You know what would make it all easier and more convenient to use? Put a hinge on the bottom of the iPad and attach it to the keyboard so that it is one convenient bundle. Sorta like this. -
Free Marketing and Free Cats
30 Sep 2011 | 1:34 pmThere is no such thing as a free cat and there is no such thing as free marketing. Both require something.Someone might give you a cat for free, but then you realize that you have to pay to take it to the vet to get immunizations and buy all of the stuff that a cat needs. $200 later you have a free cat.Some people think SEO is free. Its not. I once had someone tell me that with a little "Creativity" I could appear in the top results for some very competitive terms. I am not sure what they meant by "Creativity" but unless they meant time, money and lots of effort, then…
-
shesgotclients.com
-
4 Set it and Forget it Ways to Build Your List
9 Feb 2012 | 9:25 amBuilding a list of ideal prospects is key to growing your income because the people on your list are the ones who will become your clients and customers. And it’s important to stay in touch with and nurture that list once you begin building it. But many people get stuck at square one: which is, how do I build my list in the first place? The truth is, there are hundreds of ways, but today I want to give you a few methods that are “set it and forget it”…because list-building should be something that is going on 24-7 in your business. Here are four simple strategies you… -
How to Formulate a Rockin’ Social Media Strategy
2 Feb 2012 | 6:20 pmIn this week’s video tip I’m sharing 5 questions to ask to formulate a rockin’ social media strategy. Social media is still hot, but one of the biggest mistakes I see over and over with entrepreneurs is that they have NO strategy. And no strategy means wasted time, wasted effort, and worst of all–lots of missed opportunities. To avoid that, start smart: here are 5 questions you can ask yourself to begin with: 1) What would you like to accomplish? Build your reputation, get more speaking gigs, connect with more JV partners, some combination of all of the above? 2) What… -
Email Marketing With a Purpose
29 Jan 2012 | 2:02 pmThis is a guest post by Jesse Langley. Email marketing isn’t cut and dried. You don’t just offer something in exchange for an email address and then never follow through. You also don’t over-deliver and essentially just start spamming your subscribers. Seth Godin wrote an entire book on permission marketing, and it’s well worth a read. The basics, though, hinge on the fact that when your subscribers hit the button that submits their email address, it’s for a reason. They agreed to sign up for your updates and your promotions. Unlike a retail store, you don’t have goods to… -
5 Failproof Tips to a Kick-Butt Preview Call
26 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amOne of the absolute best ways to launch a new product, program or service is to hold what’s known as a “preview call”–a content-rich call “previewing” your upcoming offering and enticing your listeners to invest with you. Initially, your job is to get as many people as possible to show up on the call–but that’s just the start. Once you’ve got their attention, there are several very specific AND strategic things you can do to ensure your call brings in the maximum number of sales. Where do you begin? It all starts with telling your story. -
The 5 Characteristics of Your Juiciest, Most Ideal Clients
19 Jan 2012 | 8:30 amIn marketing, business owners hear over and over that they should only be working with their best, most ideal clients. It sounds great in theory…and the word “ideal” sure sounds nice. But what does it really mean? Depending on what kind of business you are in, the answer can vary of course. But when you really get down to it, some common characteristics apply–whether you’re in dog grooming or high-end fashion design. It’s really a matter of upstream versus downstream. Take a look at these 5 characteristics and see if you know what I mean by that: 1) They…
-
Online Marketing Blog
-
Essential Resources on Social Business for Online Marketing
13 Feb 2012 | 9:04 amAttributes of a Socially Optimized Business - Dachis Group Add “social” to just about anything and you’ll boost interest in your topic by at least 50%. While many consultants appear to be employing that tactic to boost their interesting-ness, it’s not the case with the topic of social business. As companies work to figure out what role social media will play with external marketing and communications, there’s a rapidly growing trend with progressive companies that are also viewing social media internally. By that I mean, they’re looking at social… -
Online Marketing News: Pinterest’s Sneaky Tactics, Keeping Leaders Honest, 100 Million Videos Watched Per Day
10 Feb 2012 | 7:51 amHow Social Media Keeps Leaders Honest David Jones of Havas and Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore recently sat down to talk about the responsibilities of the leaders of today to respond to social media, and how it holds them accountable. “Google Clarifies: No, Ads Shouldn’t Help Rankings & No, SEO Isn’t Bad” Recent comments made by a new Google employee have some SEO’s up in arms. Apparently his comments included “SEO isn’t good for users” and “It’s a bug that you could rank highly in Google without buying ads.” Curious to know what else he has to say and what reaction… -
Good Content Marketing vs. Great Content Marketing: Learn the Difference From Joe Pulizzi #OMS12
9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amIf you are part of the online marketing or content marketing industry you have undoubtably heard of Joe Pulizzi (@juntajoe) and his company the Content Marketing Institute (CMI). Joe has been a member of the content marketing community for over a decade, and has made it his mission to help brands create quality content and distribute that content through multiple online channels. This was my first time seeing Joe speak and he made it a great interactive experience, and was of course wearing his trademark Orange. I enjoyed the history that Joe shared with the audience as well as his… -
Innovative Search Features Drive Engagement – Paul Vallez #OMS12
8 Feb 2012 | 5:30 am"Google taught us how to search." - Paul Vallez Paul Vallez admits that when he started at HP less than a year ago he had just come from Ask.com and was pretty cocky about what he knew. Vallez also shares that he wasn’t very open to new ideas and wanted to step into his new position at a big brand and immediately demonstrate value. What was his approach? 75% Cocky 25% Open to new ideas In Vallez’s presentation he identified what he called “3 Key Learnings” that he shared with the audience for improving the way that your search strategy is implemented for… -
#Optimize This: Online Marketing Summit 2012 Presentation
6 Feb 2012 | 9:21 amI’m headed to (hopefully) sunny San Diego today for the annual Online Marketing Summit conference where I’ll get to present on one of my favorite topics: Optimization. Of course, if you read Online Marketing Blog very often, you’ll know my definition of optimization is a bit different than traditional SEO. My post last Thursday “Are You Optimized?” touched on this. The competition for attendance during the breakout sessions at OMS is really tough during the time slot I’m scheduled for. SAP, Wider Funnel and SAP are all presenting at the same time as…
-
Platform Wars
-
How Do The Payas Make Their Money?
5 Feb 2012 | 2:53 pmMicrosoft, Apple, Google? -
What Pinterest Is Doing That Facebook Isn't
31 Jan 2012 | 2:27 amPinteresting. -
The Amazon Playbook
7 Jan 2012 | 1:47 pmVenkatesh Rao has a very good overview of Amazon's strategy focussing on the coherence and long-term thinking of Jeff Bezos.Interestingly he discounts Apple as a similarly strategic player, which I think undersells Jobs somewhat. (Though I also suspect this may be a rhetorical trick of Rao's to get a rise out of his readers.) Meanwhile Robert Cringely highlights the parallels, casting Bezos as the natural heir to Saint Steve. -
What Is Google+ Really About?
4 Jan 2012 | 10:17 pmVincent Wong's presentation is entertaining and plausibly right.tl;dr : Applications socialised -
Why Do Professional Programmers Use Macs?
18 Dec 2011 | 3:28 pmSomeone just asked this question on Quora. My answer ballooned somewhat :1) Historically, Macs were the preferred machines of desktop publishing and graphic designers, then web designers. As the web became an increasingly important platform (relative to "client-server" on Windows et al) individuals and companies who had started in web-design area became more prominent - think of the rise of 37 Signals and Ruby on Rails - and brought their Mac-ness with them. 2) When Apple shifted to OSX they made it a real Unix. In the late 90s, one of the attractions of Linux was that it was the only…
-
Content Matters
-
GigaOm Acquires PaidContent Creating Premier Digital Media Brand
8 Feb 2012 | 1:37 pmTech blog GigaOm has acquired Content Next Media, parent of PaidContent and related blogs. Content Next, first acquired by Guardian Media in 2008, has been on the shopping block in recent months, as GMG looks to focus its operations. Of all the rumored buyers (including AOL, Vox Media, WebMediaBrands, Dow Jones, SAY Media) this is likely the best possible result, both for readers and the Content Next team. From the outside, it looks as though the two companies have very similar cultures. Both founded around the same time as independent blogs (by Om Malik and Rafat Ali), GigaOm has been able… -
Going Native: Deciding between HTML5 and Native Apps
2 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amAlmost every publisher I speak with these days is in the midst of developing, implementing or revising their mobile and tablet strategy. With technology changes coming faster than most can keep up, the mobile strategy you developed six months ago (post iPad 2 but pre-Kindle Fire) is most likely out of date. And with the news that there were more iPads than desktop computers sold in the fourth quarter of 2011, it’s no surprise that mobile strategy is on the top of everyone’s mind. Yet when speaking to publishers, I find lots of confusion. And the one topic that seems to cause the most… -
Innovate, Don’t Legislate
23 Jan 2012 | 10:08 amIt’s an oft-repeated tale. An industry gets disrupted by upstarts with new technologies and business models. The incumbents act quickly – turning to their legal team for advice. Litigate and legislate and the typical responses that come back. The approach to SOPA and PIPA is hardly new. We’ve seen this play out many times in many industries, most notably in the music recording industry. But in each case, the approach ultimately fails. Sure, it may slow the erosion of your business, but in the end a broken business model is still broken. And all of those efforts to solve the problem… -
Blackout SOPA
11 Jan 2012 | 8:29 amIf you're like me, your twitter stream for the past few days has become a sea of avatars all with the #BlackoutSOPA banner at the bottom. At last count, nearly 5,000 users have updated their avatar with the message. To show your support, simply click the BlackoutSOPA link to update your avatar with a single click. Of course, showing support for the BlackoutSOPA project is simply a gesture. Your Senators and Representatives, even those who are on Twitter, are unlikely to see you in their stream. That said, a number of major web companies (including some little companies like Google, PayPal,… -
Bandwidth Usage is not an Occupy Issue
6 Jan 2012 | 9:21 amThe New York Times today has gotten lots of attention for a ridiculous headline on a poorly written story: Top 1% of Mobile Users Consume Half of World’s Bandwidth, and Gap Is Growing The story itself is kind of silly. Yes, it's a fact that a minority of users utilize significant amounts of bandwidth on mobile devices. That's not new - in fact, it's why AT&T, Verizon and others have put caps on what were previously unlimited data plans. Yet in the story, the writer compares consumption of bandwidth to consumption of oil: The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world’s…
-
Kneale Mann
-
Work Won’t Make You Happy
11 Feb 2012 | 7:29 amWe are stressed and overwhelmed. Information and deadlines are coming at us faster than our minds can comprehend them. Multitasking has become the new badge of honour. And being busy is apparently a good thing. The reason why unhappiness in the workplace has become an epidemic may not be about the work. The cause could be something other than the economy. It may not be those around us. It may be the attitudes we bring to our work. Shawn Achor is a psychologist who shares his experience with happiness, work, people and the magic of unicorns. Find time in your busy day to watch this. -
Leadership: I Don't Know
8 Feb 2012 | 5:27 amIf you’ve spent enough time in the enterprise, you've met the type of boss who seems compelled to always be right. When mistakes are made, they never seem to be her fault. Things go sideways and he is quick to blame others. But how much does that solve the issues at hand? How much damage is created when that continues to occur? Think about your participation in group activities. You offer ideas as much as you can. You suggest solutions to the challenges in front of the team. But how much do you continue to do so if the “boss” shoots down your ideas or doesn’t acknowledge your ideas in… -
Brand Bowl: The Morning After
6 Feb 2012 | 6:59 amThe morning after the night before and millions are chiming in about their favorite commercials on last night’s Super Bowl. NBC charged $3.5 to $4 Million for 30 seconds of real estate on the U.S. broadcast while the estimate of online value is still being calculated. The pontificating continues but the real question will be in a few months when those paying close attention to those pesky bottom lines have their breakdown. If you haven’t seen them all, Ad Age has compiled them for our online enjoyment. If the boss catches you watching at the office, tell her you’re doing market… -
Passion Is No Ordinary Word
3 Feb 2012 | 5:15 amThe title is borrowed from a musician named Graham Parker who released a song of the same name on an album entitled Squeezing Out Sparks in 1979. Passion is not easily measured and often misread. Since I was a kid, I was always called hyper and only when I met someone who became a key mentor in my career did I find a better explanation and it was passion for the work and the people around me. Defining Your Passion Synonyms include enthusiasm or obsession, zeal or excitement, fervor or infatuation but it can be crushed like a bug on a windshield in seconds. I see it in the… -
What Inspires You?
31 Jan 2012 | 5:15 amWe all find our places to get inspiration. It can come from books, quotes, colleagues, family or friends. We may see something in passing, overhear a conversation or connect with something online. Inspiration may not at first look like much but percolate and re-emerge later. I started doing something on Twitter late last year and continued it into 2012. It was a simple tweet to begin each day with something inspirational and at times funny or silly. This began as a personal kick in the butt. Some days need a bigger kick than others. List from January 2012 1. First day of the rest of…
-
Social Networking Watch: News on the Social Networking and Social Media Industry
-
Myspace Gains 1 Million Users
13 Feb 2012 | 3:02 pmCNN - Feb 13 - Maybe Justin Timberlake and friends weren't so crazy after all. Myspace added 1M new users over the past month, according to the company. A team of investors bought out Myspace in June for the fire-sale price of $35M. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. paid $580M for it in 2005. The new owners, most notably pop star/actor Timberlake, have effectively stopped trying to compete with Facebook and other social sites, instead focusing on Myspace's superior platform for posting and listening to music. Monday's release from Specific Media credited the site's new music player, with access to… -
LinkedIn Set To Introduce Mobile Advertising
13 Feb 2012 | 1:54 pmECONOMIC TIMES - Feb 12 - LinkedIn has planned to introduce mobile advertising through its apps across the Apple's and Android's operating systems. Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn, gave no indication of timing for launching mobile ads. The news comes soon after Facebook announced that it would introduce mobile adverts as soon as next month. See full article at The Economic Times See all posts on LinkedIn -
The Top Viral Video Campaign, Updated February 2nd, 2012
12 Feb 2012 | 7:59 amBrand: Biore / Ford / Revlon / SchickCampaign: Dating Rules From My Future SelfAgency: -Source: VisibleMeasures.com -
LinkedIn Hits 150 Million Members
10 Feb 2012 | 3:07 pmMASHABLE - Feb 10 - LinkedIn has now 150M members in its network, a 20M increase over November. The company posted revenues of $167.7M, beating the analysts’ consensus of $160M for Q4. Adjusted profit was $0.12 cents per share, which beat analysts’ projections of 7c a share. LinkedIn’s stock was up more than 5% in after-hours trading. by Todd WassermanSee full article at Mashable See all posts on LinkedIn -
Facebook Teams Up With Bango For Mobile Payments
10 Feb 2012 | 1:48 pmPC WORLD - Feb 9 - UK-based mobile billing and analytics company Bango has signed an agreement to provide payment services to Facebook. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion already uses Bango to enable customers to pay for apps through their operator contracts, saving them the trouble of typing in their credit card details each time they buy an app. Bango also struck a deal with Amazon in December. by Sophie CurtisSee full article at PC World See all posts on Facebook
-
HighTalk
-
Facebook is NEVER Private
13 Feb 2012 | 12:37 pm“Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” - Benjamin Franklin, statesman Facebook gives users the illusion of privacy. You get to choose your friends and have the ability to regulate your content. Some people can see this. Others can see that. But regardless of how you direct traffic on Facebook remember [...] -
Pawngo Stunt is an Example of “Vile” Marketing
7 Feb 2012 | 4:41 pmToday most of New England is still bruised from the Patriots loss in the Super Bowl on Sunday. For the last 48-hours the city that has been spoiled by championships in football, baseball, basketball and hockey in the last decade was numb at the sudden and heart-breaking loss by the Patriots. You can feel it [...] -
The End of Channel Media
6 Feb 2012 | 1:07 pmCNN used to be a cable news network. The New York Times used to be a newspaper. The Huffington Post used to be a blog. But that’s not the case anymore. CNN, New York Times and the Huffington Post (like almost every other major news organization) are no longer defined by their channels. This is [...] -
Agencies Can Add a Rocket Boost of Social Know-how
2 Feb 2012 | 8:57 amWhat do you think sets apart a gold-medal effort in social media from a mediocre one? Is it ideas? Passion? Knowledge? Creativity? Likely those are factors, but most often the difference is more pedestrian: Resources. Most marketing and communications departments continue to be underfunded and understaffed when it comes to social media programs. It’s difficult [...] -
Facebook Timeline is the New Tombstone
30 Jan 2012 | 9:29 am“There are more dead people than living. And their numbers are increasing. The living are getting rarer.” - Eugene Ionesco, playwright People hate the Facebook Timeline. While many of Facebook’s most prominent changes over the years have caused a lot of hand wringing, none of them have caused as visceral a response as the Timeline. [...]
-
Sydney: Unfiltered.
-
Pitching sucks. AKA I suck at pitching.
3 Feb 2012 | 3:58 pmI suck at pitching in the “here let me tell you all about myself (or this client) and PS I don’t give a shit about what you do or who you are” kind of way. In my first agency job, I was groomed to establish relationships, to get to know the people I was contacting, and, most importantly to start a conversation. And I was really fucking good at it. It’s super easy to just draft up a form letter and do a mail merge, but I didn’t like that. And because I didn’t like that, I got results. Bloggers would email me back all “holy shit thank you for obviously… -
Tacos? Pizza? Or Taco Pizza!
31 Jan 2012 | 10:51 pmTuesday is our Saturday here in California. We spent all day in bed like total bums and it was absolutely glorious. Come dinner time, I knew I wanted to make something but I didn’t know what. I was kind of at a loss for inspiration, even after spending an inordinate amount of time looking at FoodGawker. So, I asked Facebook what I should make for dinner. Good lord I love the Internet. One of the boy’s students, Katherine, is the executive chef at some super sweet restaurant in San Diego, so when I got the notification that she commented, I was super pumped. “Build your own… -
Spinachy Garlicky Artichokey Super Bowl Dip
30 Jan 2012 | 7:49 pmThat’s right, kiddos. I made a spinach artichoke dip for a wine/appetizer night at the boss’s house last night. The verdict? Totally delicious. It went a little something like this: I made the dip, then baked it at the boss’s house. Then I did quality control on it before anyone tasted it. It was so good I told everyone it was awful in hopes to derail the masses from attacking the dip. Yes, I wanted it for myself. Then everyone tried it. One by one, they were all “yes, this is terrible, nobody else should try it” – they were on to my strategy. And then most… -
Badass Asparagus and Garlic Linguine
24 Jan 2012 | 7:06 pmOn our weekly trip to Plowboys Market, I found some gorgeous asparagus, but it was a bit on the skinny side. Having been craving it lately, I picked it up anyway. Now, I guess I should preface “skinny asparagus” with a story. Back in the day, I was a bartender at Charley’s Steak House in Tampa, Florida. It was a DiRona award-winning restaurant, one of the top ten independently-owned steakhouses in the nation, blah blah blah. We had asparagus. And it was huge. I’m talking asparagus that was as thick as a Crayola marker sometimes. Think about it. That’s a big stalk… -
From Cutaway to 3Ring
24 Jan 2012 | 5:17 pmFor those of you outside of the skydiving world, there are, to my knowledge, two publications that are dedicated to all things air sports: the USPA’s Parachutist magazine, as well as the super-funky, uncensored Blue Skies Magazine. While I haven’t been published in the former, I am pleased to share with you my third installment in my “The Beginning of the End of My Flourishing Career” column for Blue Skies. While they do have an online presence, Blue Skies saves the good stuff for the magazine. You can (and should) subscribe here. Seriously – even if you aren’t a skydiver,…
-
Jeff Korhan - New Media and Small Business Marketing
-
Give Up Control of Your Brand
13 Feb 2012 | 1:08 pmThe customer may not always right, but they will always have a voice – and that gives them influence over your brand. Traditional marketing and advertising was a process in which the enterprise controlled the brand. They had the facts, the expertise, and the resources with which to shape the brand identity. Now customers can communicate their message equally well. It doesn’t matter if they are right or wrong in their beliefs, they will still be heard. Who Really Controls Your Brand? The answer is the one with the most influence. Since you are only one business, and your customers… -
Practice and The Need to Fail
8 Feb 2012 | 10:41 pmGetting results in business not only involves failure – it demands it. The Only True Failure is Inaction If you are going to succeed at anything you have to take action. The only true failure is the failure to act – one that is often the result of fear. If you take action and fail, you produce a result that may be painful, but is nevertheless something that you can then build on. Failure is something we can even laugh about after it happens, because it’s out in the open for all to see. After all, do you really have a choice? Indeed, you can even be proud of your… -
Facebook Facts and Your Business
6 Feb 2012 | 1:13 pmPew Internet recently completed a study of Facebook user behaviors that provides valuable insights that can help you more effectively use Facebook to grow your circle of influence – and business opportunities. Facebook Friends are Not Real Friends Men and women especially, and all of us in general, differ on who we consider to be our real friends. Of course, social networking complicates this further. Most of us would agree that our real friends are a small percentage of our Facebook friends, and the Pew study validates this. How does Facebook make this determination? From your social… -
Social Business by Design
1 Feb 2012 | 9:40 pmAs Facebook approaches its public offering, CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg is making one thing very clear. “The world’s information infrastructure should resemble the social graph.” In other words, your business needs to be social by design. Virtually every business in every industry needs to redefine itself around social to be relevant with the changing behaviors of consumers. Define the Purpose of Your Company Every business has a purpose – what some refer to as a higher purpose. It is your mission. It’s something that transcends profits – while also… -
Ambiance for Writers
31 Jan 2012 | 11:55 pmWriting is a skill – one that is highly sought after these days when there is such a thirst for quality online content. If you are a writer you know the challenges – including the distractions. Writers know that getting into and staying within “the zone” (or whatever you want to call it) is essential if you are to accomplish your writing objectives – and meet your deadlines. Think of the times when your writing is marching along to amazing levels of accomplishment, only to be pulled out of your zone. Also consider the circumstances when you are faced with an…
-
Michael Durwin
-
Product Review: 8x Zoom Lens
6 Feb 2012 | 9:12 amI recently ordered an 8x zoom lens for my iPhone. Digital zoom on an iPhone looks pretty terrible and of course you can’t zoom the video camera at all. This seriously limits potential video shots and needed to be remedied. I already have a 2x zoom which doesn’t do much so a greater zoom was necessary. I happened across a blog post on GeekSugar that reviewed an iPhone lens wallet that showed a telephoto lens. I followed the link and ta da: PhotoJoJo. I placed my order very easily, something most ecommerce stores could learn from. I received my new lens on Friday. Here it is:… -
Product Review: Hague Mini Motion-Cam Stabilizer
25 Jan 2012 | 9:41 pmI did a little research on camera stabilizers because I found any moving footage was every choppy. I’ve known about Steadicam for years, they were used in both the MTV and Pantene commercials I worked on. I needed a Steadicam for my iPhone! I had no idea if such a thing existed but lo and behold it did! Sort of. Most stabilizer manufacturers make a prosumer device for small, light weight consumer cameras, perfect for an iPhone. I checked out reviews, specs and videos for stabilizers from Steadicam, Hague, Lensse and some great DIY stabilizer videos. Seeing as how I don’t have a… -
Review of Splice and SlowMo
23 Jan 2012 | 1:28 pmWhile working on my iPhone film, I’ve been testing various editing applications, many of which I’ve mentioned already. I wanted to share more detailed info on a few of them. Tis post covered SlowMo and Splice. The former is strictly for slow motion, the later handles editing and slow motion. I won’t be reviewing Splice as an editing tool, you’ll see why soon. SlowMo SlowMo is pretty basic; shoot or load video, slow it down, purview and export the final footage. Splice Cool opening page and easy interface for an app that handles editing, cropping, slow motion. As you… -
A New England Love Story Documentary Part 5
22 Jan 2012 | 1:07 pmI finally got a chance to do some lighting tests using my SIMA (SL-10HD) LED light. It connects via cold shoe to my AR-4i, OWLE, or my iPhone via its connector arm and iPhone tripod adaptor. The SIMA uses 2 AA batteries, has no DC input. It comes with an arm that allows you to attach it to a tripod, or tripod adaptor-equipped iPhone. It provides 600 lumens for 45-60 minutes. Here are some test photos and a test video. Share and Enjoy: -
A New England Love Story Documentary Part 4
16 Jan 2012 | 7:44 pmI spent the day working on my script. I had been using Evernote for writing until it became useless. When typing the app froze, when saving it crashed. Apparently users have been having this problem for months with no resolution. So, I switched to Pages, Apples version of Word. Unfortunately there is no movie script app and formatting in the iPad was seriously slowing me down. I spent some time today checking out script writing apps on the iTunes store. There weren’t many, only 2-3 of the apps below are for film script writing, and I found one other under “script”, but that…
-
Web 2.0 - Articles - Zimbio
-
Website Hacking Tutorials
30 Jan 2012 | 10:57 amWebsite Hacking Tutorials "Encodable" ~ another Deface and shell upload Vulnerablity"Portail Dokeos" deface and Shell Upload vulnerability"QuiXplorer 2.3 <= Bugtraq File Upload Vulnerability" Upload shell and deface easily"Shell Jumping" Hacking wordpress websites Based on same server "Simple Upload 53" : Shell Upload VulnerabilityAjax File Manager ~ Shell and Files Upload VulnerabilityAnother Eeasy Method of wordpress Blog Hacking (Wordpress Easy Comment)BSQL Hacker : automated SQL Injection Framework ToolBlind SQLi TutorialCrash Small Websites with rDosEasy way of hacking… -
Latest social media course covers all 4 major websites.
3 Jan 2012 | 11:34 pmHere is one comprehensive course that covers all you need to know about getting free traffic, leads, and increased sales from the 4 biggest social media sites: FaceBook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter. You’ll discover and learn PROVEN methods that work, including: Access to step-by-step video training on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter. “How to” guides for driving traffic and leads from all of the major social networks. Everything needed to master the user interfaces for all the major networks. The insider secrets of community building. Easy ways to track and measure Social Media… -
December 2011 Contest Sponsor For RHA - elearnSecurity
13 Dec 2011 | 10:22 pmWin 1400$ Worth Of Ethical Hacking Trainings - Contest For DecemberDue to a tremendous response of readers and huge number of participants of the last contest"Vote for RHA and Win Facebook Hacking Course", we decided to setup another contest for RHA readers. We have partnered with ElearnSecurity.net and arranged a contest for our readers, The winners will be handed over with prizes worth up to 1400$.RewardsBefore we inform you about the Contest participation details, We would like you to know about the rewards and prizes which the winners will get their hands On.[1ST PRIZE]… -
How Did Some Biggest site look in Past?
12 Dec 2011 | 10:53 amSince the rise of the Internet in the ’90s, the web has shown no signs of slowing down. We’ve watched the birth and evolution of social media, e-commerce and online video entertainment.It’s hard to imagine that the treasured websites we all use today were at one point just scribbles on a piece of paper, or the brainchild of a 19-year-old college student. With the help of the Wayback Machine, which provides screenshots of any website imaginable from its inception until now, we’re can view the original designs and content of the most visited websites in the world.1. GoogleWhile the… -
Ajax File Manager ~ Shell and Files Upload Vulnerability
12 Dec 2011 | 2:19 amOpen Google Search Engine, Type this dork : inurl:/plugins/ajaxfilemanager/For Example I got : http://www.ziaislamic.com/BOOK-CMS/interfaces/fckeditor/editor/plugins/ajaxfilemanager/session/ or http://lovegracia.com/tiny_mce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/ajaxfilemanager/jscripts/edit_area/reg_syntax/or any site else ...Now Put ajaxfilemanager/ajaxfilemanager.php after /plugins/ in url for example…
-
@miketrap
-
"Character is destiny."
11 Feb 2012 | 11:25 pm“Character is destiny.” - Heraclitus -
Love that dirty water…
9 Feb 2012 | 2:37 pmLove that dirty water… -
10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy
8 Feb 2012 | 3:53 pm10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy: This is so good, I had to share it. -
Finding, Ranking and Tracking the Online Influencers Important to Your Business
3 Feb 2012 | 6:22 pmFinding, Ranking and Tracking the Online Influencers Important to Your Business: Summary post for a speaking gig at a MassTLC event. Good panel, discussing the real nature of online influence, and how brands can take advantage of it. Links to presentations are included, including Traackr CEO Pierre-lois Assayag’s summary deck, which is excellent. Enjoy. -
Please Vote for Us!
2 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amWhile I feel a bit dorky asking… BostInno has just announced it’s Insider Award Nominees, and we’ve been nominated in 3 categories: Marketing/Advertising - Individual (miketrap.com) BostInno Guest Writer (Mike Troiano) BostInno Channel (Holland-Mark) If you like what you find here and there, please take a quick sec to visit this page, and vote for us on one or all three of these as you see fit. And if you REALLY love any of the above… please take a extra minute to help spread the word among your friends and followers. Winning a couple of these will give us and our content some nice…
-
Phil Gerbyshak
-
The Straight North Scoop on Social Media for Small Businesses – Introducing Brad Shorr
13 Feb 2012 | 12:45 pmOne of the most valuable things I can offer you dear reader is access to some of the smart people I come in contact with and learn from. Sometimes I interview them, sometimes I share their guest posts and other times I just refer to them. Never before have I offered a regular column to anyone, but now, I am doing just that. Brad Shorr and I have known each other for several years, since before he was working with his current employer Straight North. He’ll be writing small business social media tips 2 Mondays a month, and occasionally I may return the favor and write on the Straight… -
More tips on sending great email
7 Feb 2012 | 11:45 amWhen I posted my Ultimate Guide to Sending Business Email, I asked for your feedback on how I could improve upon it, and I offered 2 $50 Amazon gift cards for the best tips. And 7 of you responded with additional tips, making the guide TRULY an amazing resource for small businesses to use when they send email. Here are YOUR tips for sending great emails Jocelyn Wilhelm shared: I even go so far as removing the subject line when I respond if I’m still wavering on what I want to say, etc. You may be in the midst of thinking through the response and you can accidentally hit “send” before… -
5 Ways To Increase Your Online Business’ Visibility Offline
2 Feb 2012 | 11:30 amThose of us who manage an online business know that the virtual world provides us with more than enough challenges and opportunities, places where we can grow and problems that stand in our way. We can work to boost SEO, attempt to find the best online storage sites, and market our business across a wide variety of platforms. We can add interactive media to our sites, increase revenue by bringing in advertisers, and post content on other sites as a way of insuring our credibility. The possibilities are truly endless. Due to the never ending opportunities offered online to online enterprises,… -
How Great Leaders Create Innovation by Breaking Away
31 Jan 2012 | 9:30 amRecently I’ve been able to talk to Jane Stevenson and Bilal Kaafarani about their new book Breaking Away. It’s a fantastic book about how great leaders create innovation, and it’s filled with tips on how your business can be more innovative without breaking the bank. What follows are some questions that can help your business be more innovative and learn from all the research Jane and Bilaal did for this book. Phil: Let’s start by defining innovation. What is it – and why do so many get it wrong? Jane & Bilal: Innovation is a term that is often used, but… -
Ultimate Guide to Sending Business Email That Gets Results
30 Jan 2012 | 9:30 amI left my job as an IT manager in corporate America in June of 2010. I used to receive upwards of 2500 messages a day, and some days sent out 200 or so, most of which required a reply from someone on the other end. I wasn’t the perfect sender (or receiver for that matter) but the most important messages I sent typically got a response in the time frame I needed a response in. I believe it’s because I found a secret formula that I used each time I sent an important message. I’ve broken that down so you can use it to send important emails to your customers, whether…
-
Simon Mainwaring
-
Pics from the We First Social Branding Seminar
13 Feb 2012 | 9:15 amThe We First Social Branding Seminar was great fun and a huge success. We had the pleasure of spending two days in the rooftop ballroom with over 140 brands including folks from Coca-Cola, Disney, AOL/HuffPo, and TOMS. In so doing the sponsors, attendees and We First we able to support over 40 non-profits to be there as a small way to support their incredibly important work that covers everything from cancer research to child literacy to ocean clean up. We’ll be holding the Seminar again (date to be announced) and if you’re interested in attending, just visit… -
Why the future of your brand will be crowdsourced
7 Feb 2012 | 11:34 pmIceland's citizen assembly discussing the country's constitutional reform. Image credit: Everyaware In a truly dramatic demonstration of the power of citizen activism, Iceland drew up its new constitution using crowdsourcing in late 2011. Following Iceland’s complete economic collapse and bankruptcy due to irresponsible banking practices, the nation was eager to use social media to get its citizens involved in writing their own future. The initiative began with a national forum in which 950 people were randomly selected to spend a day discussing a new constitution. A council then… -
Why caring is now the key to your brand’s success
6 Feb 2012 | 9:34 amNo book could be more important or timely than Who Cares Wins by David Jones of Havas. There is a growing awareness that the business revolution brought about by social media is bringing with it an equally transformation in the way brands deal with their customers. And while the currency that marketers trade is still emotion, the relationship dynamics between brands and their customers has dramatically changed. Who Cares Wins explains in detail the drivers and best practices of this new dynamic. Jones does a masterful job of explaining in very clear terms, why business success in the future… -
Thanks to you the We First Social Branding Seminar is sold out
30 Jan 2012 | 10:47 amOn Wednesday, the first We First Social Branding Seminar begins. Our team has prepared an event that we believe will be truly unique and valuable to the success of the brands that are coming. But that would not have been possible without your help in spreading the message. There are so many people I want to thank for their continued support. From insightful thought leaders like Brian Solis, Beth Kanter, Mari Smith, Valeria Maltoni, and so many friends on twitter that kindly shared the information. I want to to thank the sponsors whose contributions have ensured that this will be a very… -
Why effective branding is about doing, not telling
26 Jan 2012 | 10:46 amImage: Absolut/Fader I had the pleasure of speaking at the San Diego Ad Club last week after Dan Burrier, the Chief Innovation Officer at Ogilvy and my former boss on the Motorola account. Not only is Dan a friend and someone I greatly admire, but he said something that evening that struck me very deeply. He said that branding is now more about the “doing” than the “telling.” I think Dan is absolutely right. For too long, branding as practiced by advertising agencies has been focused on the Big Idea that, well told, will connect emotionally with a customer and…
-
Social Media University, Global
-
An Aase State of Mind
2 Feb 2012 | 1:34 pmThat’s the headline from this story in today’s Austin Daily Herald about basketball in my hometown, and about our family’s history (and hopefully future) of participating in Minnesota’s state high school basketball tournament. Here’s an excerpt: Austin center Joe Aase knows all about his dad Lee’s history on the basketball court. He knows he went to the state basketball tournament in 1981 with the Packers and he knows he played in the title game. Joe also knows about his sister Rebekah. He knows she played in the state basketball tournament in 2008 because he… -
Teachers Tweeting for Support and Inspiration
21 Jan 2012 | 6:29 pmToday’s Washington Post has a nice story about how teachers are using Twitter to connect with each other and get just-in-time training. Here’s an excerpt: After her first year teaching history in a public high school in the District, Jamie Josephson was exhausted and plagued by self-doubt. Teaching had been more grueling than she ever expected. Law school began to sound appealing. Then she stumbled onto Twitter. In the vast social network on the Web, she discovered a community of mentors offering inspiration, commiseration and classroom-tested lesson plans. “Twitter essentially… -
Packers’ Highlights and an 80s Flashback
15 Jan 2012 | 8:17 pmThe red-and-white Packers from Austin had a better weekend than the green-and-gold ones from Wisconsin. The Austin boys traveled to Rochester for a game with Century High Friday night, and both team entered the game tied for first place in the Big Nine conference with just one loss. Here is the late Friday Sports Extra from the local TV station, KTTC, where one of my high school contemporaries, Pat Lund, is the sports anchor. Pat was a member of the Rochester Mayo high school team. He graduated in 1982, a year after I graduated from Austin. The segment starts with a recap of the… -
More Video Fun: The Alley Oop
11 Jan 2012 | 7:35 amIn follow-up Social Media 220: How to Customize Your YouTube Player, in which I showed how to tailor your users’ experience of the embedded YouTube player using this tool, here’s a fun personal video. Last night the Austin Packers basketball team, on which my son Joe and nephew Tom are starters, had the largest margin of victory for an Austin basketball team in at least the last decade, as they cruised to a 74-19 win against winless Faribault. The starters played less than half of the game, but here’s the highlight taken from the four-minute compilation, as Joe took a… -
Social Media 220: How to Customize Your YouTube Player
9 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amI have been interested in using a YouTube player to display some of our Mayo Clinic videos on our Mayo Web sites. One concern is that at the end of an embedded YouTube video, a list of related videos is automatically displayed at the end. Here’s an example of a brief video I did to document my newly cleaned office as I prepared to start fresh in 2012: With a quick Google search, I found this site, which makes it really easy to customize your player. Among the changes you can make are: Autoplay (have the video start automatically when the page is loaded) Hide the video title Hide the…
-
Are We Connected?
-
That Facebook Group isn’t really yours
1 Feb 2012 | 9:12 pmWe love Facebook and we really love the open dialogue that happens on our Profile, our Pages, and the Groups we partake in. The problem is that you really only have control over 2 of the 3. Huh? Groups are not yours. Technically speaking, a group belongs to Facebook. Duh! Technically, everything in Facebook belongs to Facebook. But beyond that, you might think a Group belongs to the People. Power to the People! – right? WRONG! The sad truth is that the Group doesn’t belong to the People. It doesn’t belong to the… -
Facebook’s Call Tracking Study
30 Jan 2012 | 3:56 pmIf you run a page and you happen to get one of these emails – LUCKY YOU! It’s NOT a scam. It’s for real. Want to learn more? Here is the page for that: http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=174527879312763 That said, if you are running a Facebook Ad Campaign and NOT driving them to a targeted landing Tab, it doesn’t matter if it’s your $500 or theirs – you are still throwing money away! Here’s how to fix that. “How to Run an Ad on Facebook”
-
Wilder In HD
-
From The VAR Guy: Juniper Rebrands Channel Program Juniper Partner Advantage
18 Jan 2012 | 2:22 pmI really admire what I'm hearing about Juniper, and it's revamped channel program. Rather than just pushing their products and certifications down their VARs' throats, they appear to genuinely want to help them develop their businesses and help with their overall success. Juniper appears to be behaving more like a partner than a vendor. Juniper Rebrands Channel Program Juniper Partner Advantage: I’m at the first-ever Juniper Networks Global Partner Conference here at the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino in Las Vegas, where the networking company is laying out its channel strategies for the… -
LifeSize Tweetup showcases use of social media and video collaboration
12 Jan 2012 | 11:41 amLifeSize hosted a Tweetup today to field questions about its new Connections product. The audience submitted questions via Twitter using the hashtag #AskLifeSize, and the questions were answered on a live video stream via LifeSize Video Center. Excellent use case for both social media and video collaboration. Click the link below to check it out.LifeSize Social MediaThanks for subscribing to my feed. Please feel free to contact me any time at sean.wilder@gmail.com with any feedback. -
Five Steps to Overcoming SMB Objections in the Cloud
9 Jan 2012 | 1:12 pmNice post on The VAR Guy about how to position the cloud to SMB clients. It reminds me of the long road to widespread adoption of voice over IP. It didn't really take off until we stopped talking about the technology and started talking more about the benefits. The same goes with video. It's not about 1080p or 60 frames per second. It's about richer collaboration and ROI.Five Steps to Overcoming SMB Objections in the Cloud: As a VAR, you know it makes sense to offer cloud-based services to your small and mid-sized business (SMB) clients. The cloud allows you to provide SMBs with… -
WilderInHD on LifeSize Corporate Blog
9 Jan 2012 | 10:17 amI was honored today with a guest post on LifeSize's corporate blog at VideoConferencingSpot.com. Check it out: http://www.lifesize.com/videoconferencingspot.com/?p=3250Thanks for subscribing to my feed. Please feel free to contact me any time at sean.wilder@gmail.com with any feedback. -
For Telecommuters (which means everyone): No VPN? No problem for LifeSize
14 Oct 2011 | 2:17 pmGreat feature about how we are all telecommuters now. Whether we go to a physical office or not, many of us do a lot of work from home or while mobile and use devices that would have been banned by IT just a few years ago. The article also discusses how VPN connections are starting to go out of fashion. One challenge not having a VPN connection presents is the ability to communicate via video back to the home office. Very few companies are comfortable with forwarding ports to permit video traffic to traverse their firewall. Fortunately, LifeSize has two great solutions to meet this…
-
The Social Media Guide
-
How to Protect your Brand from a Social Media Crisis
9 Feb 2012 | 4:58 amBrands are continuously finding themselves, unexpectedly, being thrown into social media attacks.What would you do if a disgruntled employee, or follower/subscriber started attacking and discrediting your brand publicly using social media?How would you react and respond to this social media crisis?I recently invested in a program called Social Media Crisis Academy. This is an essential investment for all business owners who have an online presence.Social Media Crisis Academy comes with over 3 hours of video content (with downloadable audio and transcripts), resources and bonus extras, all… -
4 Plugins to Monetize WordPress
2 Feb 2012 | 4:59 amSo you have your WordPress site up and running, and you reckon you know your way around it.. now what?How about you put some strategies in place to start earning some income from your blog?Here are four plugins that will help you achieve just that.Datafeedr Random AdsDatafeedr is a very simple and easy to use ad rotator. It’ll take your ad code from any ad network, such as Google AdWords, Amazon Affiliates, ClickBank, eBay Partner Program and so on and rotate them randomly.You can place the code in either your page template, which would add the ads to your pages and/or posts, or you can add… -
How to Host Professional Webinars
31 Jan 2012 | 2:31 pmThe term webinar is short for Web-based Seminar, a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is transmitted over the internet.Sign Up for the Trial & Setting Up the SoftwareGoToWebinar is one of the most popular online conference programs available today. You can host a number of different speakers, send invitations, password protect your conferences and a whole lot more.Here’s how to sign up for GoToWebinar and setup the software.Step 1: Click Try it FreeGo to http://www.gotowebinar.com and click “Try it Free.”Step 2: Create Your AccountFill out the form to create your… -
How to Really Make Money with Clickbank
23 Jan 2012 | 5:10 am(This post follows on from an earlier post of mine – Earning Money with Clickbank).The following is the business model I use to make decent money every week with Clickbank.I encourage you to read though the whole thing because this model works and has been proven over and over by myself and other affiliate marketers. While this model shows how to make money with Clickbank, the model can be applied to any other affiliate network or product (even a blog). I just happen to like Clickbank because information is one of the easiest products to promote and sell on the Internet.Hit And Run… -
4 Free Twitter Tools You Should Be Using
22 Jan 2012 | 4:05 amThere are tons of Twitter tools out there, you’ve used some while others you’ve never even heard of before.Some you have to download and some cost money but what are the best free browser based Twitter tools out there?Here are a list of four:Twilert:If you’re interested in who is tweeting about your product or website, or just want to know who is tweeting a specific word, Twilert is perfect for you.This very simple but useful tool alerts you via email when that word or hashtag is used.Twilert allows you to decide how often you want to receive these emails. So if you want to…
-
The Tyler Hayes
-
10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy
12 Feb 2012 | 4:11 pm10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy: Read this to write better. -
'When You Love Doing Something, Nobody Can Stop You from Doing It'
12 Feb 2012 | 12:36 am'When You Love Doing Something, Nobody Can Stop You from Doing It': Just discovered this year-old Japan Times interview with Yoshitaka Amano, the man responsible for some of the most unforgettable art in video game history. Exhibit A. Exhibit B. -
A History of Backups
11 Feb 2012 | 6:26 pmIn twenty years I went from not understanding the value of backups to evangelizing backups to never needing to back up my data again. Let me explain. Twenty years ago I never backed up my data. Fifteen years ago I was making weekly backups of my data. I had gotten the hacker bug — I was building computers and enrolling in every technology course available. As with most hackers I desired absolute control over hardware and software. I didn’t backup because it was smart; backing up was fundamental to my cause. Five years ago I started Tyler the Techie. I often advised my customers and… -
Not-So-Hidden Costs
11 Feb 2012 | 1:27 pmNot-So-Hidden Costs: Yearly Comcast subscription: $1030.92. Yearly Netflix + Hulu subscriptions: $191.76. Difference: $839.16. So the question is: how much will you miss that $840? (Via the Future Journalism Project.) -
First Lady Michelle Obama Plays Tug of War with Jimmy Fallon
11 Feb 2012 | 2:34 amFirst Lady Michelle Obama Plays Tug of War with Jimmy Fallon: I’m pro-tug of war.
-
SociableBlog : Social Media Blog
-
SprinkleBit : The Future of Investing, Powered by Crowdsourcing
13 Feb 2012 | 7:31 amMore and more nowadays it seems as though our generation (25-35 year old) is becoming increasingly wary of the financial markets due to the economic challenges we are still facing from the crash back in 2008. We twenty and thirty something’s seem to feel it the most being that us Generation Y Millennials are still [...] -
LetsLunch.com : Meet Local Professionals for Business Networking
13 Feb 2012 | 12:31 amLetsLunch.com was founded by Syed Shuttari over a year ago. The idea for this site came about while in a corporate job for four years and observing that around noon time San Francisco downtown came alive with men and women in smart business attire, running out to have lunch, either alone or with the same [...] -
Facebook: Fake Profiles Vs. Real Users [INFOGRAPHICS]
9 Feb 2012 | 10:45 amBarracuda Labs’ most recent study, Facebook: Fake Profiles vs. Real Users. The study analyzes a random sampling of 2,884 active Facebook accounts to identify key differences between average real user accounts and fake accounts created by attackers and spammers. The results of the study are being presented today at the 2012 Kaspersky Threatpost Security Analyst [...] -
How To Utilized Social Media in Education [INFOGRAPHICS]
9 Feb 2012 | 10:21 amSocial media is growing and not going anywhere. Many schools are now embracing the move. By understanding this movement, schools can make better choices on how to utilized social media in education. In the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s latest Social Media Adoption study, 100% of colleges and universities studied are using some form of social [...] -
Top Social Media Questions For The Coming Year
9 Feb 2012 | 6:46 amSocial media firmly arrived in prime time in 2011, as people and businesses across the world increasingly embraced the platform’s possibilities and popularities. Facebook welcomed its 800 millionth user, Twitter helped organized revolutions across the Arab world, and businesses used social media to integrate their advertising, SEO, and public relations efforts. Whether they sell online [...]
-
Social Networking Watch: News on the Social Networking and Social Media Industry
-
Myspace Gains 1 Million Users
13 Feb 2012 | 3:02 pmCNN - Feb 13 - Maybe Justin Timberlake and friends weren't so crazy after all. Myspace added 1M new users over the past month, according to the company. A team of investors bought out Myspace in June for the fire-sale price of $35M. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. paid $580M for it in 2005. The new owners, most notably pop star/actor Timberlake, have effectively stopped trying to compete with Facebook and other social sites, instead focusing on Myspace's superior platform for posting and listening to music. Monday's release from Specific Media credited the site's new music player, with access to… -
LinkedIn Set To Introduce Mobile Advertising
13 Feb 2012 | 1:54 pmECONOMIC TIMES - Feb 12 - LinkedIn has planned to introduce mobile advertising through its apps across the Apple's and Android's operating systems. Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn, gave no indication of timing for launching mobile ads. The news comes soon after Facebook announced that it would introduce mobile adverts as soon as next month. See full article at The Economic Times See all posts on LinkedIn -
The Top Viral Video Campaign, Updated February 2nd, 2012
12 Feb 2012 | 7:59 amBrand: Biore / Ford / Revlon / SchickCampaign: Dating Rules From My Future SelfAgency: -Source: VisibleMeasures.com -
LinkedIn Hits 150 Million Members
10 Feb 2012 | 3:07 pmMASHABLE - Feb 10 - LinkedIn has now 150M members in its network, a 20M increase over November. The company posted revenues of $167.7M, beating the analysts’ consensus of $160M for Q4. Adjusted profit was $0.12 cents per share, which beat analysts’ projections of 7c a share. LinkedIn’s stock was up more than 5% in after-hours trading. by Todd WassermanSee full article at Mashable See all posts on LinkedIn -
Facebook Teams Up With Bango For Mobile Payments
10 Feb 2012 | 1:48 pmPC WORLD - Feb 9 - UK-based mobile billing and analytics company Bango has signed an agreement to provide payment services to Facebook. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion already uses Bango to enable customers to pay for apps through their operator contracts, saving them the trouble of typing in their credit card details each time they buy an app. Bango also struck a deal with Amazon in December. by Sophie CurtisSee full article at PC World See all posts on Facebook
-
Costa DeVault
-
It Takes Tangerine to Tango
13 Feb 2012 | 8:55 amI could not be more excited about this year’s newest Pantone color – Tangerine Tango. As a matter of fact, I was ahead of the curve on this one – catching a lot of flak for wearing this color from my Florida State University friends and colleagues. What used to be classified as a borderline “Gator Nation” color is now the hippest color out there. Besides the color appealing to my personal tastes … just look around. You’ll start to see this “sophisticated,” “seductive” and “energizing” color pop up in many designers’ spring collections, home accessories and… -
A Confession of an Extrovert with Brainstorm Aversion
6 Feb 2012 | 1:06 pmI’m definitely an extrovert. But as an extrovert, I wholeheartedly support many introverts’ aversion to constant group collaboration. Introverts have been in the news a lot lately because there’s a new book by Susan Cain titled Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. The author explores how our society thinks extroversion is the ideal and how this lopsidedness is selling us short in the creativity department … and a lot of it relates to how we collaborate at work. Cain’s recent opinion article in the New York Times discussed how “Groupthink” has… -
Go Red for Women!
3 Feb 2012 | 2:55 pmAccording to the American Heart Association (AHA), heart disease kills more women than all cancers combined. But, only one out of every six women believes heart disease is the greatest threat to their health. The Costa DeVault ladies are sporting red today in support of the Go Red for Women campaign, which aims to raise awareness about the dangers of heart disease. Thanks to the AHA, the following are “Life’s Simple 7,” tips that will help you live a healthier life. Get active Control cholesterol Eat better Manage blood pressure Lose weight Reduce blood sugar Stop smoking -
The Super Bowl’s Pre-Game Advertising Blitz
3 Feb 2012 | 8:06 amMillions of Americans will gather around their TVs this Sunday to watch the Super Bowl, and although most people enjoy watching the actual game, many viewers (like me!) are also looking forward to the commercials. With an average of $3.5 million for a 30-second ad, big game advertisers like Coca-Cola and Volkswagen are working to build momentum for their marketing investment. This year, many companies are actually advertising their Super Bowl advertisements, and USA Today even published an article about this trend. Coca-Cola recently launched billboard and bus shelter ads with its famous… -
#TheDownSideofPromotedHashtags
31 Jan 2012 | 8:35 amMcDonald’s fell into some hot grease water recently when the company’s foray into promoted hashtags was met with much negativity. Their #MeetTheFarmers push caught my eye and I thought it was a genius idea. With the focus on local everything nowadays, it seemed the perfect medium to share the short YouTube videos introducing consumers to the farmers behind the lettuce, tomatoes and beef on the ever-popular Big Mac. The idea was focused and used the buzz of a timely topic. However, a few days later, McDonald’s went back for seconds with the promoted hashtag #McDStories – which sounds…
-
Social Media Minute with @EHayen
-
Sad news. #ripwhitneyhouston
11 Feb 2012 | 7:31 pmTaken at iPhone 4s Posted via email from Social Media Made -
Sad news. #ripwhitneyhouston
11 Feb 2012 | 7:30 pmTaken at iPhone 4s Posted via email from Social Media Made -
Columbia Cityscape #famouslyhot #columbiasc #iphonography
11 Feb 2012 | 5:20 pmTaken at iPhone 4s Posted via email from Social Media Made -
And so it begins.. #calgon #killmenow #photoshop
10 Feb 2012 | 9:34 amPosted via email from Social Media Made -
My boy, Mr Kee #catsofinstagram #kitteh #kitty #kee
8 Feb 2012 | 7:57 pmTaken at iPhone 4s Posted via email from Social Media Made
-
prTini
-
In the Doghouse: The Tale of a Super Bowl Showdown Between Skechers and 122,000 Dog Lovers
10 Feb 2012 | 9:28 amSay hello to Amy Taylor, lead copywriter for Brains on Fire and this week’s Follow Friday pick. Amy and I first met at a conference a few years ago, when she was working for a local municipality. Even then, her creative side clearly was itching to escape. Not long after, Amy was scooped up by Geno Church and the BoF team. While I was sad to see her leave Ohio, I love watching her blossom in this new role. Amy is one of the most talented, creative people I know. Plus, she’s a staunch animal rights advocate, which leads us to the topic of today’s guest post. Read on to learn… -
5 Steps to Build a Better Blogger Outreach List
7 Feb 2012 | 9:45 amWay back in the day, when a PR person was charged with getting media coverage for their client, that typically meant securing editorial in one of three mediums: print, radio or TV. In the past decade, our media coverage goals have evolved, as enewsletters, online news sites, blogs, podcasts, and videos became part of consumers’ regular content consumption habits. The best pitch in the world won’t matter if you’re not sending it to the right contact at the right outlet. When we develop and implement blogger outreach campaigns, I always tell clients that success is based on a… -
Thank You for Commenting
3 Feb 2012 | 2:00 amContinuing this year’s “Follow Friday” series, I’d like to introduce you to Betsy Decillis. I met Betsy through Twitter and she’s turned into one of my absolute favorites. She’s one of those people who is super smart, but doesn’t realize it. And certainly doesn’t give herself enough credit for her smartness. Betsy’s blog is an incredible mix of tourism-related social media smartness, and an honest, raw look at what it’s like living with depression. I wish I could be as open as Betsy. It’s really amazing. She has an obsession… -
Twitter for PR Pros
2 Feb 2012 | 11:29 amEarlier this week, I was asked to speak at Ohio State about how PR pros can effectively use Twitter. My thoughts are in this presentation, but I’d love to hear from you: What’s your best “Twitter for PR” example or anecdote? Twitter for PR Pros Additional resource: The PR Pro’s Guide to Twitter, an article I wrote for Mashable. -
The Super Bowl and Social Media: What to Watch For
31 Jan 2012 | 7:36 amDid you catch Honda’s Matthew Broderick-Ferris Bueller Super Bowl commercial? Some people believe Broderick sold out, while others see the commercial as a hilarious update on an iconic movie character. Either way, with more than 3 million views on YouTube in less than 24 hours, Honda has kickstarted the online conversation and sparked early buzz — around the water cooler and the internet. This is just one way social media is impacting the Super Bowl watching experience. In fact, according to Shiv Singh, global head of digital for Pepsico Beverages, “Social TV is a massive…
-
Tech in Asia
-
Experian Hitwise Says Singaporeans Are Facebook, Apple, and Groupon Lovers
13 Feb 2012 | 11:18 pmWhere do Singaporeans go on the web? For social networking it is Facebook. For gadgets, Apple. And for deals, it’s Groupon. Experian Hitwise has released a list of very interesting (and detailed) findings about Singapore’s web behavior ranging from online shopping, news, to lifestyle. The sites Singaporeans frequent are mainly American. There were handful of local sites that were featured in the findings, such as Hardware zone (forum), Love Bonito (blogshop), and Deal.com.sg (group-buy). The rest are mostly U.S-based websites. One interesting finding is that Google+ is actually a more… -
Apple Gets $150 For Every iPad Sold, Chinese Workers Get $8
13 Feb 2012 | 10:00 pmApple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is getting it from all angles right now in China. Concerns about working conditions at Apple suppliers has led to the company requesting a Fair Labor investigation, the lost court case with Proview means iPads are being taken off store shelves and the import and export of iPads from China may be banned, and now Sina Tech is reporting that of the $500 sale price of an iPad, the people who actually made it — the Chinese workers — only get $8. Of course, the hardware in an iPad isn’t cheap, but it turns out that after hardware costs, Apple gets about $150… -
Local Chinese Government Bureau Decrees No More Pay-Per-Minute Calls, Telecoms Say “Whaa?”
13 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pmI REFUSE TO PAY FOR SECONDS I HAVEN'T USED! Are you sick of paying for a full minute of phone time when your call lasted only a few seconds? Probably not. But if you are, the Harbin Industry and Commerce Bureau feels for you. In fact, the bureau has called for an end to “irrational” payment schemes that force customers to pay a per-minute rate even when their calls don’t last a minute. It holds that calls should be counted and billed by the second, not by the minute. Perhaps unsurprisingly, telecom operators aren’t too excited about this, and the result is an… -
Valentine’s Day Advice from China: Video Game Marriages Last Longer
13 Feb 2012 | 8:00 pmIs Cupid more active in video games than he is in real life these days? That’d be sad news to release on Valentine’s Day, but in China, it looks like it could be the case. Yesterday, Giant Interactive (NYSE:GA) released some very interesting statistics in a report about in-game marriages in its popular massively-multiplayer game Long Journey 2. Although it’s admittedly an unfair comparison — the game has only been around a few years — it turns out the in-game divorce rate is lower than the real divorce rate in most of China’s first-tier cities. 32.71… -
With Facebook Blocked, The Sims Social Goes to China Via Tencent
13 Feb 2012 | 7:15 pmEA (NASDAQ:ERTS) announced today that its popular gaming franchise, The Sims, is going to make its way into China via the Tencent (HKG:0700) Open Platform. EA says that The Sims Social is in development at its Beijing Playfish studio, and it will be known as Mo Ni Shi Guang in Chinese, which literally translates into ‘Simulation Time.’ Of course, The Sims Social launched on Facebook last year, but as most of our readers know, Facebook is blocked in China. So instead Chinese fans will be able to access the game via Tencent’s social gaming network QZone. Closed beta testing is…
-
Capture the Conversation
-
Top 5 of the Best Facebook and Sweepstakes Applications
3 Feb 2012 | 9:51 amEverybody loves a good contest or sweepstakes; we can all agree free stuff is awesome. Not only do we love running contests and sweeps, but fans and customers love them as well. The best contests and sweepstakes are a fantastic way to grow a social community, excitement for a product, and reward loyal fans of a brand. Room 214 has run a number of successful sweepstakes and promotions for clients. We have developed custom applications to run contest and sweepstakes for brands and explored a number of different tools that can run them as well. The choice of a developing a custom system versus… -
We Need Illustrators!
31 Jan 2012 | 5:58 pmWe’ve been heading up a new service offering called Video Scribing. It’s similar to what you have seen from a few other folks, but different in that we use this unique visual storytelling style to support brand and product stories. Here are a few quick examples: We currently work with a small queue of artists on a project-by-project basis, and are looking to add some more folks to our team. If you find the above videos intriguing and are interested in some freelance work, please shoot Tim Hill an email and set up a time to meet. -
Why Instagram is Perfect for Brands
16 Jan 2012 | 10:51 amA question that is often asked of those who work in social media is, “what’s next?” Nowadays, it seems that if you don’t have a Facebook and Twitter presence you are among the minority. Most companies have adopted the major networks as their social platforms, but once those networks are saturated where should we turn to make an impact? While there are many social networks that would fit into this conversation (Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr), there is one in particular who’s growth and engagement is already attracting brands. Instagram is now the world’s… -
Get Facebook Parent-Child Features
6 Jan 2012 | 2:50 pmIf you work for a company that has dozens or even hundreds of locations, it’s been a nightmare to figure out how to best use Facebook places to your advantage. Sure you want to try some check-in deals, but you have no idea how to claim/admin/manage all of the individual locations. Luckily for you, Facebook is rolling out a new functionality called Parent-Child. It allows you easily claim, administrate, and manage places pages and check-in deals for brands with more than five locations. There are a few huge benefits to Parent-Child: Locations Tab: As seen on pages like Sanrio… -
How Tablets Will Change Social Networking
20 Dec 2011 | 11:06 amDespite their relatively short time in the marketplace, tablets are gaining in popularity and gearing up to become major competitors to e-readers, netbooks and even laptops. This holiday season has seen a particularly heated battle between a variety of manufacturers and models, and sales are expected to soar. As more people begin to access online content through these new mobile devices, businesses will have to rethink their marketing and social-networking strategies to adapt to new ways this information is accessed. Here are a few ways that tablets will likely change social networking and…
-
Digigen & The TinMan
-
The Agile Publishing Model
7 Feb 2012 | 4:43 amI’m doing research into modern publishing models and how they can affect the way magazine brands distribute content. Although there isn’t alot of exciting stuff apart from the standard – treat digital as its own publishing channel, I did find this interesting piece from Sourcebooks. They refer to what they are trying to do as The Agile Publishing Model and it is quite new, although actually I think Guy Kawasaki tried to do this with his recent books. The Agile Publishing Model is based on Dominique Raccah’s theory that: “building audience participation… -
Art and Computer Science: A Google Obsession
17 Jan 2012 | 3:42 amAlthough Google have gone way beyond challenger status into a market leader across all their products, they still remain incredibly obsessed at the core of their business. Obsessed with delivering technology which enables users to use the web more effectively and efficiently. Obsessed with uniting up all their platforms to give seamless consumer movement across all of them. This obsession runs deep. I found an interesting article on the Daily Mail which showed Eric Schmidt’s obsession with things which are sadly way beyond his control. (yes – interesting + Daily Mail together in… -
Obsession – A starting point from Steve Jobs
16 Jan 2012 | 7:46 amI don’t think you can start any understanding of obsession without looking at the people that are driven by it. Although it may seem obvious to some, it is also completely right to start this theme of obsession with a quote from a man that was driven by it, Steve Jobs. -
New Monthly Theme – Obsession
16 Jan 2012 | 7:28 amDigigen & The TinMan is going to take on a new format. Over the next few months you will see the blog evolve into a magazine blog. Although look and feel won’t change drastically, what I will be doing is focusing on a monthly theme which will help guide content throughout the period. Each monthly theme will be dictated by three things: - Being Topical. It might not be a subject people are talking about, but it may be a trait that has been shown through someone or something. For example, I chose “obsession” for January, because it feels like having found myself deep into… -
Creating Great Work: Willem Van der Hoven
12 Jan 2012 | 5:54 amFound this interesting video on the eatbigfish.com website. If you haven’t read the book by Adam Morgan and are interested in setting up your own brand, which I am, then you should read it. It is packed with great ideas and examples of how to build a better, more exciting brand. The video from Willem Van der Hoven talks about the creation of great work, which he believes can be broken down into three areas; 1) Surround yourself with great consumer planners 2) Create a team who live the brand journey 3) Be courageous and work for courageous people Creating Great Work – 3 Bits of…
-
Position² Blog
-
Social Media and Super Bowl XLVI, B2B Marketing and much more… | Best of the Week
10 Feb 2012 | 4:35 amThis week’s hot news, events and videos from the online marketing and social media world. From the Position² Blog This Week: Super Bowl XLVI Turns Social Media Savvy Position² analyzed the social media buzz around Super Bowl XLVI. The research shows Twitter and Facebook together accounted for almost 50% of the total conversations. Continue reading for further analysis on volume, sentiment, heat map and demography. Infographic: The Future of Customer Service and Social Media. Research: How Pinterest Is Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media for Business. Tips: 4 Ways to… -
Position2 Brand Monitor Acquired by thismoment, Inc
9 Feb 2012 | 9:42 amSocial Monitoring and Engagement platform to add new capabilities to the Market Leading Social Content Management System for Brands SAN FRANCISCO, CA (February 8, 2012) – thismoment, Inc., a provider of social content management software for brands that want to rapidly and effectively engage consumers across social and mobile platforms, today announced that it has acquired Position² Brand Monitor, a leading social media monitoring and engagement platform. Position² Brand Monitor will rebrand as thismoment Brand Monitor. Highlights Thismoment Brand Monitor’s technology… -
Super Bowl XLVI Turns Social Media Savvy
8 Feb 2012 | 6:04 amBuilding Momentum Online In what can be called one of this year’s biggest sporting events in the USA, Super Bowl XLVI generated tremendous buzz even before the kick-off on 5th February 2012. Super Bowl Sunday, when the New York Giants took on New England Patriots, saw fans thronging networking channels like Facebook and Twitter to post game updates, talk about their favorite teams, and guess the winners. Unlike before, when people were glued to their television sets in anticipation, in the age of social media, Super Bowl fans: a) are constantly posting updates on Twitter, Facebook and… -
Social Consumers In 2012, Paid Search Tips and much more… | Best of the Week
3 Feb 2012 | 5:47 amThis week’s hot news, events and videos from the online marketing and social media world. From the Position² Blog This Week: What To Expect From The Social Consumer In 2012 Part One: The Power of User GeneratedContent and Social Mobile Usage. Part Two: Social E-Commerce Influencers, Daily Deals and Special Offers. Facebook 101: Is Your Brand Worth a Like? Infographic: Pinterest’s Role As A Referrer For Retailers Grows. Twitter CEO: Google Has All The Data They Need. Survey Report: Women’s Influence On Purchase Decisions On The Rise. Social Media Strategy: How Small… -
Paid Search (PPC) In 2012: 7 Key Areas To Focus
2 Feb 2012 | 10:12 amIf you are reading this you are probably a digital marketer, and that too one in the Search space. Have you made any resolutions for your PPC campaigns yet? Have you committed to doing something different from what you did last year? At Position² we have compiled a list of 7 PPC resolutions to abide by this year. We strongly believe that you will benefit from this information, a compilation of our focus areas, driven by our experiences, learning, strategies and best practices. Wishing you the best for a fantastic and a profitable 2012! Let’s get started with the PPC’s 7 key…
-
social media blog
-
What is SOPA?
18 Jan 2012 | 9:23 amSOPA is the Stop Online Piracy Act bill. If the bill is passed, the US government will be able to go after any foreign site hosting unauthorized copyrighted material. This could include asking ISP (internet service providers), credit card companies and online advertisers to cut all ties with the sites. The bill would cause problems [...] Related posts:MSN Microsoft tries to buy Yahoo Google voices concern over Microsoft deal StumbleUpon shoots past the 1 billion mark! -
Social Media Marketing Basics 1
16 Jan 2012 | 6:48 amA disaster that’s waiting to happen Many medium and large sized companies have left their social media marketing with their IT department, a junior executive or a self proclaimed social media marketing guru. Other companies have given the task to a member of the team that is frequently using a social network such as Facebook [...] Related posts:Happy Birthday Facebook! Are you listening to your customers online? The King of Social Networking! A story about Facebooks Reign -
Google Buzz Obituary
28 Nov 2011 | 5:26 amGoogle Buzz, the awkward offspring of Google inc. was put to rest on October 14th at 10:03am EST. The site was an attempt at combining social media interaction with emails yet it never caught the public’s full attention. Throughout its short lived life Buzz was criticised for being too open and it always lived in [...] Related posts:Google Adwords Dutch it again Google voices concern over Microsoft deal Google News teams up with news agencies -
Timeline = The new Facebook profile design
14 Oct 2011 | 10:29 amFacebook will release its new Facebook profile designs to the public over the next few days. The update which offer a range of new features. As the video above shows, users profile pages will be transformed into online scrapbooks known as “Timelines”. The pages will allow people to view their friends life stories, showing images [...] Related posts:Happy Birthday Facebook! LinkedIn profile photos controversy Social media more popular than email -
The King of Social Networking! A story about Facebooks Reign
29 Jul 2011 | 6:01 amThe press have been using the term “Facebook killer” since the site hit the mainstream. In the past few years social networks have come and gone, with Myspace being the most famous networks to lose its crown in recent years. The idea of a social site being the most popular for a long period of [...] Related posts:75% of European web users into social networking Should your business market through Twitter? What is Google +?
-
New Media News
-
Marco Rubio at Tampa Tax Day event
6 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pmIPN attended the Tax Day rally and one of the featured speakers was Sen. Marco Rubio (R) from Florida. Check out this video, and leave your comments below. Marco Rubio at Tampa Tea Party Tax Event Get the Flash Player to see this player. Html5 Not support This video Format. -
Tampa Mayor’s Food Truck Festival
2 Feb 2012 | 3:36 pmChuck Palm interviews Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn as he samples some of the gourmet food offered by many of the area’s local food trucks. This gathering is on the first Wed. of each month, and so far has met with fabulous success! We hope the downtown area of Tampa will continue to support these local vendors as they prepare for large events like the Republican National Convention in August of 2012. Way to go Mayor Bob! Tampa Mayor Food Truck Festival Get the Flash Player to see this player. Html5 Not support This video Format. Download -
Victor Padilla from Latin Times Magazine
1 Feb 2012 | 1:14 pmJoin us as we talk to Victor from Latin Times about their upcoming events, the Latin Chamber of Commerce, and some new programming at IPN! Don’t miss this special look at Tampa’s Latin community. Victor fm Latin Times Magazine Get the Flash Player to see this player. Html5 Not support This video Format. -
WE WANT YOU! – Looking for Reporters
2 Jan 2012 | 9:37 amAre you a frustrated cubbie social media news reporter? Can you record audio or video segments about your favorite new media news topic? Maybe you’re a Facebook-worm or Twitter-head? Contact US! We want your news submissions! Not only will you have a voice here at New Media News, but you’ll be on your way to fame and fortune! (Ok, well, maybe small notoriety and no fortune, but we will tell all our friends what a great sport you are!) Submit your stories today, and you could be our next feature host on New Media News! -
Episode 5 – The End of the Ad
4 Oct 2011 | 8:25 pmEpisode 5 Show Site = NewMediaPodcast.com ChuckPalm.com Twitter.com/chuckpalm Facebook.com/Chuckpalm NEWS@NewMediaPodcast.com ==================================== Links: New Media News Fan Page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Tampa-FL/New-Media-News-Podcast/161496586977?ref=ts Sep 30, 2009 LINKS SocialMediaToday IBM End of Advertising http://www.socialmediatoday.com/smc/127366 Techdirt @NHL Legalese http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090930/0032286363.shtml Wired Gadges Labs http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/apple-tablet-everything/ UK The Register FB translation…
-
The Next Web
-
The iPad 3 will launch with LTE on AT&T and Verizon, says WSJ
13 Feb 2012 | 10:15 pmAmong many details that have been coming to light regarding the iPad 3 of late, one that is still very much in the air is its support of 4G LTE networks. Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that it will indeed come in versions that support the faster networks. The publication says that person who have been briefed on carrier plans have told it that AT&T and Verizon will both be carrying the LTE version of the new Apple tablet. Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. will sell a version of the coming iPad that runs on their newest fourth-generation wireless networks, according… -
This Turntable.fm Chrome extension will show you concert listings and suggested tracks
13 Feb 2012 | 7:56 pmAs mentioned earlier today, we attended SF Music Hack Day this past weekend and saw some amazing demos. One of the more popular hacks came from a Chrome extension called Turntable.fm Extended which adds concert listings along the left-hand side of the screen for each artist currently playing in a Turntable.fm room. The hack itself, along with the rest of the Chrome extension, is absolutely brilliant and makes the Turntable.fm experience into a more useful one, rather than purely for your listening and chatting enjoyment. The hack comes from developer Mark Reeder and uses SongKick’s API… -
Intel’s Ultrabook campaign: Focusing on things you’ll never do with your computer
13 Feb 2012 | 6:10 pmAnd so the Ultrabook advertising begins. Intel has rolled out one of the first of its campaigns, in which it does a flash-mob style “pop-up theater”. While entertaining, I don’t think that focusing on things that will never happen in the real world is the right idea for competing against the MacBook Air. Let’s face it, the Ultrabook push is exactly that – something to compete against the Air. The sad reality is that Ultrabooks should have happened a few years ago and never did, so now Windows-based PC manufacturers are trying to catch up to a market where Apple… -
What happens when geeks have kids? They create shopping sites like Wittlebee
13 Feb 2012 | 5:48 pmThere are new trends in technology seemingly popping up every few weeks and one that has caught our attention are super-focused subscription shopping sites that fit a very narrow niche. We told you about one such company a few weeks ago called Love With Food that sends you a basket of snacks every month. Another service called GuyHaus lets men set up a simple shopping list to ship directly to their doorstep. But what happens when tech entrepreneurs “grow up” and have families? They start sites like Wittlebee, which comes to you via former MySpace employee and current CEO and… -
HTML5 Boilerplate 3.0 is a rock-solid default that’s leaner than ever
13 Feb 2012 | 5:08 pmThe HTML5 Boilerplate has been around for quite a while now. In fact, it has a history with more than three years of iterative development. Just this past week, the HTML/CSS/JS template hit version 3.0 and is smaller and more useful than ever. For those not in the developer circle, a boilerplate is simply an easy place to start the coding process. It’s a jumping off point for developers to use when they are starting projects, and the HTML5 Boilerplate in particular encourages standards compliant, cross-browser compatible code. Certainly, one template can’t and will not work…
-
Atomthought.com, Social Media India, Digital Marketing India, Internet Marketing India
-
Word of Mouth? Viral? Social ? What’s the difference?
8 Feb 2012 | 11:25 amYesterday while discussing on org structure with a colleague, I came across a topic which propelled me to write this post. While the discussion hovered around social media and viral/ word of mouth marketing-this led to an interesting thought- is viral different than word of mouth and also if viral marketing is a superset of social media marketing. I very clear understand that social media is not just about distributing content but goes further towards, listening, engagement and collaboration, and that with the leverage of social objects one has an opportunity to make the content interactive… -
Online Classifieds-Is It A Winner Takes All Market?
5 Oct 2011 | 1:45 pmI discussed this question with a few people in the industry (internet) and frankly I was dissapointed because many of them without any concrete logic expressed their agreement with Online classifieds being a winner takes all market. It’s easy to describe a market as ‘Winner Takes All’. It’s easy because it gives one an easy way out of many questions. When the market is ‘winner takes all’- then you only have one option and that is to grow largest in the quickest possible time-leveraging network effect to the fullest. However, somewhere I am not convinced… -
ebay X.Commerce & If Indian eCommerce has Missed the Bus?
17 Sep 2011 | 1:27 amebay is gradually but steadily& seriously working towards becoming the dominant ecommerce player if the world. After having been beaten by Taobao in China and observing the surge of Amazon as a cloud-marketplace, it’s not unnatural for ebay to initiate what it calls X.Commerce. ebay realises that to win this battle, it has to play the end-to-end game; meaning ebay wants to control, payments, logistics & supply chain, multichannel customer experience & transaction, enabling hosted shopfronts, and providing scale & targetd reach to SMBs, large enterprises or C2C… -
Online Classifieds in India & The Bottom of Pyramid
7 Aug 2011 | 1:56 amAt first we thought it was a joke! A buffalo listed on our classifieds portal-tradusAds.in We decided to do a telephonic check. (Each ad on tradusads.in passes through a moderation check, and a few also go through telephonic check even after they appear on the site.) The results were even more surprising! The lister was genuine. He is a driver with MCD and had just sold his buffalo as well! My immediate reaction was-that these are the people who will make classifieds portals click in India. If the bottom of the pyramid starts using our portal- then we can claim real and genuine success. We… -
Social Media and the New Workplace!
16 Apr 2011 | 11:42 amSome time back I wrote an article in The CTOForum Magazine about how social media is impacting the next generation enterprises. Based on the feedback and interest that this article generated in the CIO/CTO community, I was invited by the editor of the magazine Rahul Mani to delve further into this topic and speak at the 2nd South Asia CIO Summit, on how social media is impacting today’s enterprises and creating the new enterprise, I was seldomely aware that my research (in creating the presentation deck for my talk) would lead me to some very interesting findings which would then…
-
Jennings Social Media
-
Jennings Social Media Marketing Announces Motostew Plus as a New Client
9 Feb 2012 | 12:17 pmPosted by: Megan Spreer, social media marketing manger at JSMM Jennings Social Media Marketing recently added automotive company Motostew Plus to its client roster. The JSMM team will provide comprehensive social media marketing to drive customer engagment, website traffic and overall sales growth for the company. Valerie Jennings, CEO of JSMM, said, “Motostew Plus and Motostew offer tremendous opportunities to automotive fans. We are extremely excited to be working alongside their team in Kansas City and Las Vegas.” Motostew Plus is a Las Vegas-based automotive company that… -
Congratulations to Service Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. for Winning the Jennings Social Media Marketing Facebook Contest
3 Feb 2012 | 11:09 amPosted by: Valerie Jennings, CEO of JSMM Jennings Social Media Marketing wrapped up the Social Media Sweeps contest held last month and is happy to announce that the winner is Service Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc.! As the grand prize winner, Lenny Delius of Service Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. is the recipient of a boutique-style campaign which includes a social media evaluation, channel branding and designs, channel updates to social media sites and organic search engine optimization analysis. Jennings Social Media Marketing held the contest after polling Facebook fans to… -
YouTube Reaches Four Billion Daily Video Views
25 Jan 2012 | 9:17 pmPosted by: Valerie Jennings, CEO of JSMM The game has changed again for online videos and this time, it’s in the favor of video marketers. YouTube, the most popular video website, has seen a 25 percent increase in streaming video in just eight months. What has changed? The huge increase is a result of Google (the owner of YouTube) pushing to roll out mobile versions of the site and versions that play directly on televisions. Consumers now have even more access to the video website and therefore can watch more hours of video everyday. The increase in tablet users and smartphone owners this… -
Facebook IPO Expected to be $100 Billion, Largest of Any Tech Company in History
18 Jan 2012 | 3:32 pmPosted by: Valerie Jennings, CEO of JSMM While it hasn’t been confirmed, reports are circulating that Facebook Inc. will go public this year. Facebook has kept quiet about the move, but many anticipate the IPO to hit this May. If and when this happens, it will be huge. This article and infographic posted by Joann Pan of Mashable, projects Facebook’s IPO to be six times larger than Google’s and will be the largest of any tech company in history. How Facebook’s Expected $100 Billion IPO Breaks Down [INFOGRAPHIC] Rumors are flying about Facebook Inc. going public this year. So, just how… -
Is MySpace Worth Saving?
12 Jan 2012 | 1:07 pmPosted by: Valerie Jennings, CEO of JSMM Is MySpace worth saving: Justin Timberlake thinks so. In this new campaign to save the dying social network, Timberlake joined with MySpace and Panasonic to propose a new way to draw users back. I think there could be some potential still on MySpace, but it will need to be more aggressive than Facebook to catch up. It might be worth a campaign to understand the user-base that Timberlake will attract. The new approach to integrate TV with MySpace is a good way to go. This article from Mashable outlines just what Justin Timberlake and MySpace have in the…
-
Relationship Economy
-
The Age of Social Wisdom
13 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amIs anyone learning anything from all these online social interactions? Some say we are headed for an era of information overload. Others say this is the dawning of a new era of big data. There are indications that we are moving from information, knowledge to wisdom, the new social era appearing on the horizon. The Data Impact A new York Times article titled “Big Data’s Impact In The World” states: The impact of data abundance extends well beyond business. Justin Grimmer, for example, is one of the new breed of political scientists. A 28-year-old assistant professor at… -
Have You Crossed The Social Chasm?
6 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amThere are those who believe that social technology presents significant opportunities for improving business dynamics and relations. Then there are those who are skeptics and don’t believe nor see any value in this thing we call social media. The difference between the two beliefs represents the “social chasm“. The “social chasm” represents the pronounced difference of opinion, interests, and loyalty to an idea or belief. The challenge is helping leaders “cross the social chasm” is to convince them to believe in something they don’t… -
Social Tactics Vs. Strategies
3 Feb 2012 | 4:01 amThe right strategy makes any social tactic work better. The right strategy puts less pressure on executing your social tactics perfectly. If you are tired of not having results from all things social, or that your organization is struggling to measure social ROI, it doesn’t mean you’re a loser. It means you’ve got the wrong strategy. It takes real guts to abandon a social strategy, especially if you don’t even have one. Tactics are more about process improvement using all things social. The problem is that most companies don’t improve processes instead they keep creating… -
What Is Required To Lead Change Successfully?
2 Feb 2012 | 9:25 amSomeone once said “The world doesn’t fear a new idea, what it fears is a new experience.” Business as usual is no longer possible. Business as unusual is now the norm in every market globally. Why? Because change is accelerating daily and much of the changes are being fueled by communications. Communications is the foundation of every business and the right of every individual. But now communications is fluid, transparent and exploding at the click of a mouse on-line and off. Numerous studies have shown that many businesses fail at to make necessary changes that are critical… -
Cycles Of Social Transformation
31 Jan 2012 | 2:25 pmMy brain isn’t always the sharpest and it takes time for me to grasp information and its relative meaning. Words carry lots of meaning and unless we really “read and listen to comprehend” we can miss the true value of someone’s work. If you’ve ever listen to or read something from someone smarter than you then you know what I mean. Three years ago I read Doc Searls work and in particular The Cluetrain Manifesto. The theme of the Cluetrain is “Markets are Conversations” and the book discussed how the internet was propagating conversations at…
-
jasonyormark.com
-
League Of Awesomeness, Volume 1
13 Feb 2012 | 5:47 pmFor awhile I’ve been wanting to leverage the blog I’ve built up to recognize folks I come across that for whatever are reason, are awesome in who they are or what they do. It’s hard enough to find great talent, service, or resources in a day and age where we are overwhelmed with information. Good people are hard to come by, and I feel compelled to share the ones I come across here and there if for no other reason to promote them as they certainly deserve it. Consider this volume 1 of an ongoing series I plan to use to highlight some of these amazing folks. Cheryl… -
Pinterest For Dudes
10 Feb 2012 | 1:30 pmOkay, okay, guilty as charged for jumping on the blogging about Pinterest bandwagon this week, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t chime in right? But at least I’m taking a unique angle by trying to be a little more helpful for the gents out there as it pertains to the most recent social darling, Pinterest. I’ve been kicking the tires a bit on Pinterest the past few weeks, and it’s definitely something I’m finding more and more pinteresting (that just happened). I do find myself spending time just browsing through all kinds of stuff, looking for… -
Fight Or Flight: Which Path Do You Typically Take?
8 Feb 2012 | 1:52 pmOne of the things I love about having a blog is how everyday life experiences often motivate me to write certain blog articles. This is yet another one of those examples. This year I decided to step up and manage my older son’s little league team. It’s a big commitment, but I’ve always intended on stepping up to do so as I love the game, my son, and cherish the opportunity to coach my son and manage a little league team. It was a bit last minute, so I scrambled to prepare myself, handling a variety of tryouts and a draft last night. I did the best I could, but it was… -
February Facebook Page Music Package Giveaway
31 Jan 2012 | 10:32 amFor quite awhile I’ve been wanting to do another giveaway on my blog. With my recent addition to the Forbes Social Media Power Influencers list, I figured now was as good of a time as any to do so. That and I had a few cool things to giveaway that were simply sitting around my office. At my agency Strategies 360, we’ve had quite a bit of success in running contests using social media channels. In most instances we’ve seen tremendous growth in reach and engagement, and in just about all those cases, very minimal loss in those gains post contest. I’ve always wondered if… -
Thoughts On Making The Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers
26 Jan 2012 | 1:00 pmIt can be easy to get caught up in being named to top lists on the web. Quite frankly anyone can create a list of top anything and include those people or things that they find worthy of the list based on a variety of factors. But I can’t help but feel honored to be included on the Who Are The Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers? list by Forbes. I mean…it is Forbes right? Regardless of the circumstances, algorithms, or opinions, I’m flattered and it’s just another feel good moment knowing that the time I spend on my blog means something to others. So many…
-
Richard Edelman - 6 A.M.
-
The Conundrum of Democracy
9 Feb 2012 | 6:53 pmI have been on tour, presenting the results of the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer to groups in London, Davos, Toronto, New York City, Washington DC, and Chicago. As you recall from my post last week, the key finding of the 2012 study is the massive decline in trust in government. In fact, in all but one of the countries we survey, government leaders are less trusted than their business counterparts to tell the truth. At Davos, Rick Levin, president of Yale University, said that he was interested in the “superior trust in government in countries that are not democratic.” He attributed this… -
Down from the Mountain
3 Feb 2012 | 10:17 amI just returned from the World Economic Forum’s 2012 meeting in Davos. These nine issues were the focus of discussion and attention. 1. The European Crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel talked about a coordinated Europe having more power. “We need more steps of integration in the interests of competitiveness… We need structural reforms leading to new jobs…We should have a common foreign policy and binding agreements on the debt levels allowed... Just because we have been at the top for the past 50 years, we cannot take competitiveness for granted.” Mrs. Merkel’s vision of a… -
2012 Trust Barometer: Business Can Earn the License to Lead
25 Jan 2012 | 10:18 amIn 2008-2009, in the wake of a recession that saw large, global companies such as Lehman Brothers and AIG collapse, trust in business imploded. Government stepped in with bailouts and new regulations. But in 2011, government became paralyzed by the politics of extremism and endless haggling – and the public lost confidence. The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer sees an unprec¬edented nine-point global decline in trust in government. In twelve countries, it trails business, media, and non-governmental organizations as the least trusted institution. This has pushed more countries into the… -
Media Cloverleaf Comes to Life
20 Jan 2012 | 12:14 pmI met with senior management of two of the best emerging media companies this week. I come away even more impressed with their ambition and willingness to experiment within the boundaries of quality and integrity. Mike Allen of Politico addressed our global public affairs team in Washington on Wednesday. He said that there are 225 people working at the company. They have gone beyond their digital roots to offer a print product. He joked that Politico is now available in vending machines along Park Avenue in New York City (4,000 print copies are distributed every day in NYC). He noted that the… -
Implementation Science
13 Jan 2012 | 11:50 amI went to a breakfast Wednesday hosted by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health at the World Economic Forum offices in NYC. It was a terrific panel, with five professors and senior members of the corporate healthcare community from important companies such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi and BD. The Dean of Mailman School, Linda Fried, started the conversation by challenging the group to come up with new healthcare modalities to offer better quality and broader access within the present level of spending. The first big idea was Implementation Science, based on customer…
-
Adam Sherk
-
The Best Free Tools for Twitter Analytics
8 Feb 2012 | 9:23 amWhat are the best free tools for analyzing a Twitter profile? During a social media audit I like to run a company’s Twitter profiles through some basic analysis tools to set benchmarks and compare them to competitors. I got good response to my post on Facebook analytics tools so I thought I’d do something similar for Twitter. But this time I’m going to highlight free tools that anyone can use. I’m focusing specifically on profile analysis as opposed to Twitter tools for other purposes. For a list of trend tools see the Twitter section in Free Tools for Monitoring Hot Search… -
Publisher Survey: Reddit Traffic Way Up, Digg Way Down
25 Jan 2012 | 7:06 amThe rise of Reddit and the steady decline of Digg have been well documented. Just recently Reddit announced that its traffic has more than doubled in less than a year (to 2.07 billion pageviews in December), an impressive feat. Has this translated into a significant change in social news referrals for publishers? Anecdotally we’ve all seen Reddit gain in prominence at a time when Digg has struggled to maintain its relevancy. Adam Singer summed up the general sentiment in recent conversation we had on Twitter: “Reddit / Stumble won.” I wanted to get a better idea of just how much… -
News Organizations on Google+: Which Pages Get the Most Engagement?
10 Jan 2012 | 8:40 amNews organizations (along with businesses of all kinds) have been able to create official Google+ pages for a couple months now so I thought I’d check in and see how their pages are doing. I’m going to forgo looking at which media outlets have attracted the largest following since that data becomes quickly outdated. Instead I’ll focus on some basic signals of user activity and engagement: the number of 1+’s, shares and comments on each page. To pull the activity and engagement figures I used All my +, an interesting tool created by Gerwin Sturm. Submitting the profile ID for a… -
My Top Posts of 2011 on SEO, PR and Social Media for Publishers
21 Dec 2011 | 7:15 amAs another year comes to a close I thought I’d finish off with a roundup of this year’s most popular posts. Original idea! Nevertheless, here are my top 10 posts of 2011 by pageviews: Which NBA Teams Have Seen the Most Growth on Twitter and Facebook? PRFilter Shows Press Release Buzzword Abuse Still Prevalent Google Expanded Sitelinks: Optimize Opening Text in META Description Tag Is LinkedIn the New Old Boys Network? Editorial SEO Tactics for the Newsroom Beyond Facebook Insights: Useful Facebook Analytics Tools Press Release Optimization Checklist and Tips eHow and Mahalo: How Many… -
Beyond Facebook Insights: Useful Facebook Analytics Tools
12 Dec 2011 | 9:57 amWhat are the best third-party tools for advanced Facebook analytics? It’s a question I’m asked fairly often so I thought I’d do a round-up of options that are worth checking out. It is fair to say that Facebook is getting better at providing this data itself; the latest version of Facebook Insights offers a wider range of information than ever before. But many still find it lacking so a number of companies have stepped in to try to fulfill this need. In this post I’m purposely leaving out comprehensive suites like Radian6 or Lithium and focusing on solutions that are specifically (or…
-
Tippingpoint Labs
-
Do We Care about McDonald’s Suppliers?
9 Feb 2012 | 10:20 amMcDonald's is running a campaign about their suppliers - potato, lettuce and beef so far. What is it about the McDonald's campaign that seems so disingenuous? -
Build On Your Real-life Networks
2 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amWe are just seeing the beginning of a marketing revolution. Forward thinkers like Chef Jody Adams who already see the value of a rising tide lifting all ships have unique opportunities ahead. -
The right partners can make or break a campaign
26 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amGoogle worked with their agency GOOD/CORPS to create a series of videos that promote small business. Not unlike the American Express Plum campaign, the idea is to showcase how Google properties enhance a business and allow it to grow. The challenge, and where the campaign seemingly differs from the American Express campaign and specifically the one with Pink Berry, is do all the partners in the campaign stand united? -
Why Your Brand Should Fight SOPA-like Legislation
24 Jan 2012 | 11:41 amThe old guard don't want to innovate. They would rather attack your ability to connect meaningfully with your audience. -
Is the Elle and Van Cleef & Arpels campaign one to remember?
19 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amPresented as an attempt to recreate the magic felt when falling in love, The Van Cleef & Arpels Love Stories campaign doesn’t evoke a modern day love affair feel. I am lost within it's beautiful scapes and models but wonder what would make a young urban female (audience as defined for this campaign effort) to share the video with friends. By rethinking luxury marketing and opening up the campaign to a wider content creation and brand distribution approach, both Van Cleef & Arpels and Elle Magazine may have garnered a larger return.
-
The Blog of Matthew Loop | Chiropractic Internet Marketing
-
How to Set-up a Google Adwords Express Ad
12 Feb 2012 | 12:27 pmHere’s a step-by-step video training on how to create a Google Adwords Express ad and the powerful benefits associated. Very few local businesses have set these campaigns up, yet they can position your office as the obvious choice in no time. - Click the play button below to watch - – Did you like this video? Click the Facebook “like” button below and share it with your friends. Related Blog Posts 12 Keywords Chiropractors MUST Rank #1 For on Google Chiropractic Marketing SEO Case Study How Social Media Transformed My Life Google’s MOST Radical Transformation Ever! -
How to ALWAYS Stay 2 Steps Ahead of Competitors
7 Feb 2012 | 10:35 amOver the years, I’ve received a tremendous amount of feedback from chiropractors and other professionals about how I always seem to be two steps ahead of the other social media consultants. In lieu of this, I thought I’d share some personal insight and tips so you can ALWAYS be ahead of every competitor in your marketplace, too. When I refer to “ahead,” I’m not talking about sharing the newest tactic or gimmick either. I’m speaking about how you can strategically be known as the unrivaled authority in your local market, which creates dramatic practice /… -
How Social Media Transformed My Life
4 Feb 2012 | 5:24 pmThis is the most raw, uncut, and personal video I’ve ever created. A lot of doctors and entrepreneurs make the assumption that I’ve always been successful in business and in life. Nothing could be further from the truth, though. Behind most great successes, there’s usually a surprising tale of adversity. I was reluctant to share my personal story at first because it still gets me rather emotional. However, if it inspires just one person to take-hold of their dreams and create the life of abundance they’ve always imagined, it’s worth it. Click the play button… -
7 Secrets of Self-Made Multimillionaires
2 Feb 2012 | 8:11 pmThis was such a kick-ass article in Entrepreneur Magazine by Grant Cardone, I had to re-post it here. Highly successful business owners exhibit the same characteristics referenced below. Time to take an inventory. Are you modeling the top 1%? — First, understand that you no longer want to be just a millionaire. You want to become a multimillionaire. While you may think a million dollars will give you financial security, it will not. Given the volatility in economies, governments and financial markets around the world, it’s no longer safe to assume a million dollars will provide… -
12 Keywords Chiropractors MUST Rank #1 For on Google
30 Jan 2012 | 8:01 amWhen chiropractors talk about ranking #1 on Google, they usually think there’s one magic keyword that will send them endless amounts of traffic and patients. Over the years, speaking with a few thousand doctors, I can tell you that the overwhelming majority feel they only need to rank for one or two keywords, too. If you’re in that boat or not getting the results you want from the internet, listen-up. The harsh reality is, in order to absolutely own, dominate, and saturate a local market to become the “go-to” and most recognized chiropractor, you MUST be everywhere a…
-
Musings of An Evil Genius
-
RIM’s SuperHero Strategy Doesn’t Build Confidence
31 Jan 2012 | 12:54 pmRIM has been through a lot in the past year. A major international outage. Stock prices dropping (to $17.02/share at the moment). Major PR damage when 2 of their VP’s were de-planed (and barred from all airlines) after causing a drunken ruckus. Co-CEO’s stepping down. What to do? What to do? Apparently the answer is… Super Heroes. Don’t get me wrong, I love RIM’s products. I’m a huge supporter. In fact, I have a new Blackberry Bold 9900 and think it’s the greatest device ever. It’s sleek, it’s functional, I love the keyboard. I… -
The 3 Reasons #Radio #FAILS #Social Media
22 Sep 2009 | 11:09 amA couple of weeks ago I read a post by brilliant radio consultant Jaye Albright of Albright & O’Malley – it was about a Twitter promotion a station in Texas was doing and how it’s only a matter of time before you see more Social Media contesting. Which makes sense.. it’s ALL media.. radio, television, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter.. it’s about connecting with others. It’s a win/win. Except for the fact that the majority of Radio fails miserably at Social Media. Very few radio stations are using social media well. Most aren’t using it at all. In this economy and the… -
Is Bad Publicity better than NO Publicity? (What a 3 year old, Kanye and Joe Wilson have in Common…)
14 Sep 2009 | 3:04 pm“The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” — Oscar Wilde When my son was about 3 he had a horribly annoying habit of swearing. I refuse to post a picture of Kanye. Plus, Taylor Swift is much prettier. He unfortunately learned the “F word” from his father (not to say that I’m not known for being a bit of a potty mouth myself..) and once my boy realized the power he had with this word, he proceeded to use it whenever possible to get the biggest possible reaction. He specifically enjoyed using it to torment his father, who would FREAK… -
The Secret to 1000′s of Followers….
31 Aug 2009 | 10:15 pmI was re-tweeted multiple times the other day after posting the following: “How to gain 1000s of twitter followers! Just be real, stay cool, & stop using BS widgets to make yourself popular!” I have to say that this wasn’t MY original tweet.. I RT’d my friend Robert Casanova (@theh2hproject) .. but the message was such that many many people agreed and passed it along. Definitely struck a chord. Apparently there are still some that think whoever has the most followers wins (*cough* Ashton Kutcher *cough*) But here’s the thing that some people really don’t… -
Wanna See My Trucks?
31 Jul 2009 | 8:57 pm“Hi neighbour!” said the little kid next door. “What are you doing?” The daughter answered that we were just hanging out, enjoying the patio. And what was he doing? “I’m playing trucks! Wanna see my trucks?” Earlier we could hear him on the other side of the fence dancing around and singing “I’m five years old! I’m five years old!” in that sing songy voice that little kids do so well. Of course, we looked at his trucks.. they were very impressive. He was happy we liked his “diggers”. The whole interchange made me…
-
Diva Marketing (Blog)
-
Life Without Facebook ~ A View From Gen Y #3
8 Feb 2012 | 11:16 amIt's 2004. You're a college freshman. You and your friends sign up for a new internet platform called Facebook. It becomes an interactive scrapbook of your life. Flash forward 7 years. You disengage from Facebook. Why?? This is a special Diva Marketing quasi social media reality series with Gen Y Jessica Robyn who takes us into her world of Life Without Facebook .. and offers her insights into the question Why? Part #1 Part #2 Diva Marketing/Toby: Jessica, you disengaged from Facebook on January 13th. It's been about 4 weeks without the Big F. What are you missing the most? Jessica Robyn: I… -
Social Media: Winds of Change
30 Jan 2012 | 3:55 pmDo you ever get a line from a film or a song or even a conversation playing over and over in your your mind? Some times for me it's not the exact words but the rhythm of the concept. Today the words were "winds of change" as it is portayed in the award winning film Chocolat (a def must see!) These are the opening lines from the Storyteller of Chocolat: Once upon a time, there was a quiet little village ... So through good times and bad, famine and feast, the villagers held fast to their traditions. Until, one winter day, a sly wind blew in from the North... I've been doing more work… -
Life Without Facebook ~ A View From Gen Y #2
26 Jan 2012 | 7:36 amThis is a special interview series on what life is like for Jessica Robyn, a Gen Y-er, who disabled her 7 year old Facebook Page. We're calling it quasi social media reality! Part #1 Part #3 Diva/Marketing/Toby: The big question I've been asked is, "What were the reactions from Jessica's Facebook friends?" By the way, how many friends did you have? Jessica Robyn: I had a few of my friends talking to me (through phone calls, texts, and of course facebook messages or comments) who could not believe that Jessica, voted biggest facebook stalker junior year, the addict, and social media… -
Managing Your Brand & Personal Social Media "Friends"
23 Jan 2012 | 11:14 amFor the most part, social networks and social media were never really intended for business communications. Expect for LinkedIn of course. Think about it. Facebook, Twitter and even Google+ began life helping people connect to family and friends. In that context it made total sense that you would "friend" someone you wanted to invite into your digitial world. When savvy brand managers saw their customers were congregating aroiund these virtual water coolers, ah ha moments began. Before we knew it enterprises were stepping into the game. Some smartly. Some like a bull in a china… -
Life Without Facebook ~ A View From Gen Y #1
16 Jan 2012 | 8:02 amMore than 800 million active users has given Facebook the enviable status of the golden child of social networks. With multiple generations sharing photos, updates and videos Facebook might even be considered the biggest digital family reunion ever! However, as with any 'family' sometimes you need a bit of a break. That's what's happening for the people who 'grew-up' on Facebook .. the Gen Y or the Millennial Generation. They're signing off from Facebook. Some for forever. Others for a few months. One of the 20-somethings who disabled her (7 year) Facebook page is my niece Jessica Robyn.
-
Magnitude Media
-
The Rise of Mobile in Retail
11 Feb 2012 | 3:02 pmMobile apps can be the door to happy customers and more retail sales, but they can also have drawbacks if not researched well and done correctly. Altimeter released a great report on where Mobile Retail stands right now, and reviews a few of the missteps as well as the inroads companies have made trying out mobile in retail. Some successes include Starbucks, a mobile pay and use-tracking solution I personally use often because it works so well (though I don’t tend to use their mobile play app to animate their cups – it suffers from accuracy and lag issues). I also liked the notes… -
WMUR 9 Tech Talk Transcript from Wednesday February 8, 2012
8 Feb 2012 | 7:06 amHere are the questions I answered this morning (read from bottom up). Tune in next week (and every Wednesday in February) to ask me your questions! OK everyone thanks for all the questions, and thanks to Leslie Poston for answering them! by Kevin Clay/WMUR Staff 7:53 AM There is no certain way of knowing how much info sites like Facebook have about you. There are many lawsuits in effect right now all over the world where people are trying to force Facebook, in particular, to disclose that information.A safe assumption is that any info you type in (e.g. voluntarily give out) has been… -
Early Riser With A Social Tech Question?
7 Feb 2012 | 3:57 pmIf that’s you, I’ll be on WMUR’s online Tech Talk as their “Ask an Expert” every Wednesday morning from 7AM – 8AM Eastern this month doing my best to help you out of your social tech jams. Note: my answers will feed out to my Magnitude Media business Twitter (not to @Leslie – that account is noisy enough already!). Questions I will answer: social media, marketing and general business tips and questions about social media and emerging media issues and tools. Wondering what the heck Pinterest is or have questions about Google Plus? Want to know about… -
Metrics Snapshot Tool
16 Jan 2012 | 11:33 amConsidering I’m writing Social Media Metrics for Dummies, I don’t talk about metrics often on this blog. Mainly that’s because I’m too busy helping clients figure metrics out in real life. I did want to take a minute to mention the Social Metrics plug in for you. It’s not a tool for deep metrics analysis but it is a great tool for quick content analysis – seeing what’s working for you as a social network, as well as what’s emerging as sharable topics on your blog. For example, you can see that Digg, as a whole, is not a social network where we… -
Pinterest and the Power of Play, Google Plus and Search Changes
11 Jan 2012 | 12:03 pmI didn’t have time to write a post today, finishing the next book is my main focus this afternoon, but I did quickly chat about Pinterest and Google’s new social search. I’m interested in your thoughts: Video inspired by this post on Facebook today and this post on Google Plus
-
Weber Shandwick Social Studies Blog
-
Social Media Week: We got it goin’ on
10 Feb 2012 | 2:52 pmNext week sees the return of Social Media Week to cities around the world. What’s it all about? The blurb: Reflecting the global impact of social media – and its role as a catalyst in driving cultural, economic, political and social change in developed and emerging markets – Social Media Week is one of the world’s most unique global platforms, offering a series of interconnected activities and conversations around the world on emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries. Weber Shandwick will be taking part in several of this cycle’s participating… -
Social Commerce Summit: ROI & Content Tightly Linked
9 Feb 2012 | 1:23 pmEarlier this week, I attended Business Insider‘s Social Commerce Summit, where Allyson Hugley, Weber Shandwick’s EVP of Measurement, Analytics & Insights, took part in a panel on social commerce ROI. (I live-tweeted the best comments from the entire day at @webershandwick, where they are archived.) Allyson spoke about catalyzing sales through social sharing, along with Dave Thomas of Radian6, Kip Levin of TicketMaster, and Tim Mahlman from Klout. Some key points that Allyson (second left in the picture at right) made: Social commerce requires compelling, relevant content… -
Social Amplification an Oversight for Super Bowl Advertisers?
6 Feb 2012 | 7:03 pmSuper Bowl XLVI was supposed to contain the widest swath of social media in history, driving people to Facebook, to Twitter, and to YouTube non-stop. It had a social listening Command Center, staffed by 50+ people helping fans throughout Indianapolis and online with logistical as well as overall game questions. Advance media coverage of the in-game advertising covered everything from Tweeting polar bears (not referenced at all during the real ads) to follow-up spots to last year’s most talked-about spot, the Volkswagen Darth Vader kid. It was billed as the equivalent of a Fourth of July… -
Crisis Management Isn’t A Game
3 Feb 2012 | 9:59 amCrisis management is a big deal here at Weber Shandwick’s office in Minneapolis. We love creating and running FireBell drills to give our clients a chance to see what it’s like to be in a crisis situation (without the actual hordes of angry consumers). Today I wanted to take a look at a minor crisis – certainly didn’t make the news – that nonetheless is a great example of how to handle misinformation and improve consumer sentiment in a niche industry. Quick rundown. There’s an old and much beloved board game called Merchant of Venus. Monopoly in space, let’s say… -
Keeping Your App From Obscurity
2 Feb 2012 | 10:54 amThe world’s one millionth app went live in December 2011. A few well-known ones, such as Evernote or Angry Birds, have been downloaded tens or hundreds of thousands of times. Most of the others, though – the vast majority – languish in obscurity. According to a November 2011 Pew Research study, 86% of smartphone owners and 77% of tablet owners use 10 or fewer apps every week. Of course, we don’t all use the same apps. On a bus filled with smartphone-tappers, one person might be taking notes for a book and making calendar appointments, while another might have a selection of…
-
Erika Napoletano is Redhead Writing
-
Your Website + Pinterest (the thing no one’s talking about)
10 Feb 2012 | 10:02 amNot so long ago, I didn’t get what all of the hype was about Pinterest. In fact, I was militant about taking quite the opposite approach — eff Pinterest and all of the folks who were using this “4Chan for your mom” social site where you “pinned” things to “boards.” Sharing a twin bed with Sarah Palin sounded more appealing to me. But thanks to the likes of Francisco Rosales over at Social Mouths and Jason Falls over at Entrepreneur Magazine, I changed by tune. Especially when I was being bombarded by statistics like Pinterest driving more… -
Baby All Growed Up! Announcing the Launch of ErikaNapoletano.com
7 Feb 2012 | 1:07 pmOn occasion, I’m asked what the over/under is on when I’ll drop the first f-bomb when I’m at a speaking engagement. For the record, Las Vegas sports books generally set the line at 3 minutes, but I digress. But I kinda don’t. With two books coming out and more speaking engagements rolling in, it was decided not long ago that I needed a “me” website – something away from the grab-your-nads-and-make-you-sing-Yankee-Doodle-Dandy nature of RedheadWriting.com. Thusly, I am somewhat self-conscious to announce the launch of ErikaNapoletano.com, in all… -
Digital Scribbles – installment 1
1 Feb 2012 | 9:25 amNot long ago, I reluctantly enthusiastically went back to an iPhone after being stuck in a certain state of digital hell for well over a year with a Droid X. The best part of the switch? The ability to write notes directly on my phone. I can look at my home screen and right there, a beautiful icon smiles back at me: A gleaming pad of yellow ruled paper, ready for my must-remembers to be inscribed. It’s a gift, really. We’ve all fallen victim to the soul-shredding I HAD A BRILLIANT IDEA AND I CAN’T REMEMBER IT TO SAVE MY LIFE situations. Those are the moments where —… -
The Bitch Slap: Breeding a Culture of Lazy and Rude
27 Jan 2012 | 9:25 amI’m 39-years-old. I remember scratching-out writing practice exercises on Big Chief paper tablets that always seemed fit to rip out from under your pencil tip at the exact moment you could properly create a letter Q. I remember the day my mother came home with our first Atari computer (you know, the one without actual keys – it was a giant touch pad that never worked right after the first month). The brick that was our first modem? I remember getting reamed when it accidentally crashed to the floor while my brother and I were playing the classic text-based Hitchhiker’s Guide… -
My Entrepreneur Can Beat Up Your Politician
25 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm***Disclaimer: So, sometime on Tuesday afternoon, I forgot that I’d dropped an Aleve-D two hours prior and threw back two REAL Sudafed red devils. Having been plague-ridden for nearly a week, I just wanted the congestion to subside. What resulted, however, was a thorough understanding on why kids cook this shit down to create crystal meth and an evening filled with productivity on most offensive levels. And, this blog post. The setting is Houston, Texas. The subject, a certain then-bleached-blonde adolescent girl with oversized glasses (complete with purple tint) and a penchant for…
-
BlueGlass
-
11 Mistakes That Are Killing Your Blog’s Credibility
10 Feb 2012 | 1:32 pmHere’s the situation: Your buddy sends you a link to check out, you get to the blog post and after glancing at the layout you immediately question the validity of the blog (and your friend). On occasion I have left a post thinking it was created by some autoblogging process, and then realized it only looked that way and was actually written by a human. Text ads out of control, color combinations that hurt to look at, no social sharing links (or TOO many!) and images that barely have any connection to the text. These mistakes can make a visitor run for the proverbial hills. A visitor to… -
Understanding the Content Marketing Explosion [Infographic]
9 Feb 2012 | 12:47 pmThere’s no denying the rise of content marketing, and its emergence into the spotlight as a tactic that delivers results. While content marketing is nothing new, there are a variety of emerging mediums that expand the landscape, giving more tools to marketers who want to innovate. Businesses of all sizes are beginning to realize how integral a solid content strategy should be to their marketing plans. Even major corporations like Coca-Cola are betting everything on an integrated content strategy. In order to illustrate this growth in content marketing, our team created an… -
8 Ways Employees Can Improve Your Company’s LinkedIn Presence
7 Feb 2012 | 11:45 amLinkedIn looks a lot different than it did in recent years; it’s no longer just a place to post your professional history and never return. Recent features allow companies to be more social and have more control over their profiles. But still, a lot of your company’s LinkedIn success depends on how your employees use it. Fortunately, there are simple changes employees can make to their profiles that can immediately improve your company profile. Encouraging employee activity in certain areas of LinkedIn can also help grow your brand on this network. With a well-informed, active… -
Could Reddit Be the World’s Most Influential Website?
2 Feb 2012 | 3:31 pmStarted in 2005, and currently owned by Condé Nast, Reddit boasts more than 1 billion page views each month. Though Reddit was once considered fairly obscure, the site is now making waves and becoming quite well known. Reddit is a powerhouse, and has managed to maintain and build on its identity even with such massive growth. For many reasons it represents a new evolution we’ve yet to see in other online communities. What follows is an overview of just what makes this site so remarkable. Consider, as you read on, the potential of Reddit and sites similar to it that aggregate and… -
Raven Tools to Sponsor BlueGlass LA 2012
1 Feb 2012 | 5:33 pmBlueGlass LA 2012 will mark the most well thought out and prepared BlueGlass conference to date. The venue has been set, over half the tickets are sold already and we have solidified our speakers and agenda with a little less than 3 months to go. Our past conferences have always delivered on the content, speaking and experience side of things, but in the whirlwind of lining up everything at the last minute (literally, sometimes at the very last minute). BlueGlass LA & Raven Tools One thing I’ve learned about event sponsorship is that companies tend to plan out their marketing…
-
3net Search Engine Marketing Blog by Social Media Systems
-
2012 WordPress | Enterprise Level Social Network | Google Maps Navigation
30 Jan 2012 | 6:50 am2012 WordPress | Enterprise Level Social Network | Google Maps Navigation The above is an example of how we use our site at UpLog.org to do article marketing for clients like this Hotel Motel Listing Service in Boerne Texas Enterprise level social media communities can be easily and quickly created in 2012 using WordPress and the new plugin we created: The free version of the plugin can be downloaded here for free at WordPress , or from your WordPress dashboard...the pro version is a $20 per year subscription with additional features and it builds taxonomies and cleans up MapPress… -
179 Dollar Website Becoming the Local Newspaper Radio Station and TV Station
16 Jan 2012 | 7:15 amIf you think that is a value statement, you need a regular job. A good Real Estate broker is a hired gun, a marketing professional, licensed adviser, a psychologist, and salesperson and most of all a trusted consultant. The more resources that Broker spends on promotion, staying ahead of the curve, online marketing, and advertising in general – and the more experience int eh area and profession that Broker has, the better qualified that person is to help you, to advise you, and to buy and sell Real Estate with clients. One way for a new or younger realtor to establish a value… -
Create Posts for Map Navigation for a geographical taxonomy using MapPress Google Maps in WordPress.
8 Jan 2012 | 1:47 pmCreate Posts for Map Navigation for a geographical taxonomy using MapPress Google Maps in WordPress. This plugin imports a Map Navigation file into your WordPress blog. The Map Navigation file defines one or more Continents, Countries, Regions, States and Cities. The plugin creates Posts that each contain a MapPress map or mashup that provide a linked navigation of the geography using your organization’s name, image file and icon in the Post’s Post, Excerpt and on the Map markers. The Map Navigation hierarchy can then be added to your themes header or provided as a link so that… -
We feed, promote and rank on Google and Google maps a Realtor for each town
7 Jan 2012 | 7:49 amDirect Buy Luxury Foreclosure Properties and Houses in San Antonio, TX, 78216 – Texas Foreclosure Listings, Services, Licensed Expert Realtor Consultant Our new sponsor of the San Antonio Community News and Google maps, Michelle Doerr, is an expert marketer and Real Estate consultant in San Antonio, and now she sponsors the San Antonio Community News and Links! This is the way we feed, promote and rank on Google and Google maps a Realtor for each town and sell advertising to other local business – advertising that can actually create positive cash-flow for the advertiser in… -
2012 Statistics Politics, Religion and Social Media Marketing
4 Jan 2012 | 9:45 am“Be Ye hot or Be Ye cold…” In the seldom quoted and controversial book of Revelations, this scripture, in almost every translation of what some call “the living word”, seems to encourage “zeal” as apposed to political hedging as a strategy for spreading the truth. I am here to tell you that this is still excellent advice for marketing today in the “Book of Life” – otherwise known as social media! Here are some numbers I found this morning: look at this article from the Christian Post quoting Reed and others… The FFC reports that 29 percent of the conservative movement…
-
Oneupweb : StraightUpSearch Blog
-
Oneupweb : This Is Achieving Your Dream
10 Feb 2012 | 12:30 pmHere at Oneupweb, we know that those fancy ol’ internets are full of wondrous things! Within the web slung through the wide world one can find success, fans, popularity, followers, stalkers, money, and an avenue down which to grow a business that has never before been available. A small town mom and pop can finally take on the world, thanks to .com, .net, .org, etc. Ladies and gentlemen, fellas and fellets, the internet is a success making machine. Being the sort of guy who has made a living based exclusively around one particular talent, I am a HUGE fan of the online artist’s … -
Oneupweb : Avoid These 5-PPC Pitfalls
9 Feb 2012 | 1:29 pmWhen implemented correctly Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising can be one of the most powerful marketing channels available. It’s deceptively easy for most companies to sign-up for a PPC account, but managing these campaigns is another story. That being said, I felt the need to discuss a few common mistakes that often hamper the performance of your PPC campaigns. 1.) Not Having Clear Goals & Objectives: This seems simple enough, right? The reality is that there are many small business owners and CMO’s that don’t pin down how to measure the success of their PPC initiatives. And… -
Oneupweb : Hacked Email Accounts – A Lesson In Email Security
8 Feb 2012 | 3:02 pmI’m sure you’ve all heard about the hacking of Email accounts belonging to celebrities such as Sarah Palin and Miley Cyrus, but have you heard about the recent hacking of a personal Email account belonging to a member of the FBI? No kidding, a member of the FBI. “The Anonymous hacktivist group was apparently able to listen in on a conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard by hacking into a participant’s email account and obtaining the conference call number and access code, according to security analysts.” – Infosecurity Although no specifics regarding the unauthorized… -
Oneupweb : He Was the “MAN” NING of the Hour
7 Feb 2012 | 12:56 pmMany woke up Monday morning only to crawl out of bed, start their cars and sort out those last few plays of the 2012 Super Bowl game. The play of the evening was incredibly strange. It was one where the runner, Ahmad Bradshaw didn’t want to score. Bradshaw going in from the 6 yard line hadn’t planned to score nor did he want that 21-17 lead with only 57 second left on the clock! Teetering on the goal line, he unintentionally falls backward for the game winning touchdown giving the Patriots time enough for one pass into the end zone by none other than Tom Brady, the… -
Oneupweb : Facebook’s New Business Units
6 Feb 2012 | 12:34 pmYes, I know, everyone is talking about the Facebook IPO and the instant millionaires and billionaires. Well done, congratulations on your big pay day. But what are you doing for an encore? If you expect me to buy shares in the publicly traded Facebook, I need to see big-time growth in revenue before I pull the trigger. To that end, I have some ideas for new business units for Facebook. I nominate Justin Timberlake for VP of Business Development to help launch these new initiatives. First up is Facebook Dating. This is a no brainer. With very detailed information on 800 million plus users and…
-
SocialTimes.com
-
The Hyp Replacement: Multimedia Storytelling On Twitter, Tumblr, Blogspot and YouTube
13 Feb 2012 | 10:11 amSocial media has changed the face of storytelling. Characters, real and fictional, tell their stories in 140 characters or less on Twitter; filmmakers have found storytelling outlets in YouTube and Vimeo; stories are told on blogs, through all sorts of media from text to photos to news clippings, on Facebook walls and beyond. E.A Marciano, a Brooklyn-based writer, has turned to these channels to tell the story of four Brooklynites in The Hyp Replacement, an experimental literary project told through Twitter, Tumblr, Blogspot and YouTube. I had the opportunity to speak with Marciano to… -
Police Pay A Visit To The Dad That Shot His Daughter’s Laptop In YouTube Video
13 Feb 2012 | 9:17 amUnless you live under a rock you’ve probably seen the video of the dad shooting his daughter’s laptop that went viral last week. In the ‘Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen,’ which has been viewed over 21.1 million times since it hit YouTube last Wednesday, Tommy Jordan fires 9 rounds into his daughter’s laptop with his .45 after discovering a rant she wrote on Facebook about her parents. Wondering what’s happening with the family since the video has gone viral? Jordan shares it all on his Facebook page. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in… -
How Thrillist, JackThreads Use Facebook, Oink and Pinterest
13 Feb 2012 | 8:27 amFor online publishers who want more subscribers, it helps to think outside the inbox. There are now 100,000 Facebook fans of JackThreads, the members-only fashion site for men; and Thrillist, a free daily email offering tips on local food, shopping, and entertainment. Social media manager David Pessah told Social Times he’s always looking for new ways to repackage content on Facebook and emerging platforms like Pinterest and Oink. Here are some of his best strategies. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media. -
Parenting & Social Media Part 1 — 5 Tips to Keep Your Children Safe
13 Feb 2012 | 7:45 amAs a social media professional and as parent of a 12 year old girl and 10 year old boy I have a different perspective on the use of social media by my kids than the average parent. I am all too knowledgeable on the pluses of my kids using it and of the risks and dangers. I know the difference between hype and reality when it comes to my kids’ safety. As with all things, sometimes it’s best that kids learn things on their own and at other times we need protect them. We don’t leave dangerous drugs on the kitchen table when toddlers are around and so we need to approach social media the… -
Top 10 Whitney Houston Songs on Spotify
13 Feb 2012 | 6:19 amWhitney Houston, a recording artist, actress, producer, and model of incomparable talent died this past weekend in a Beverly Hills hotel. The singer has many qualities we’ll miss: her regal beauty, the way she kind of scrunches up her nose when she sings, but most of all, her voice. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
-
VIRALBLOG.COM » Viral ideas.Trends. Inspiration
-
The Social Web Trends Of 2012
13 Feb 2012 | 7:48 pmSocial changed the web forever. With the inclusion of social, users were empowered and gained the ability to share on a global level instantaneously. Social gave consumers a voice brands could no longer ignore. The social web is maturing and showing drastic changes in the near future. What kind of changes and trends are we talking about? Last week research and intelligence provider the Global Web Index released their findings of a wide scale research on the consumer adoption of the internet. The survey was held among 80.000 people across 27 markets. Within this research there are some… -
Weekly Recap #6
13 Feb 2012 | 5:09 amTime flies and since it’s not easy to follow, read and catch-up with everything, we bring you a Weekly Recap from ViralBlog: all of the past week in one place. Last week on ViralBlog among others “All Super Bowl 2012 Commercials”, “Measuring The ROI Of Social Media” and “Get Your KPIs In Order”. All Super Bowl 2012 Commercials If you checked one of your favourite social media during the Super Bowl, you could notice that there was another battle besides the Giants vs the Patriots. Check out the list of all commercials of Super Bowl Sunday and let us know… -
Why Is Customer Loyalty Important
12 Feb 2012 | 10:23 amCustomers are the most important, or they should be. With a proper approach they may naturally turn into clients and later into brand ambassadors and advocates. When speaking about loyal customers, these are the most valuable assets of a business and should be approached in a special way. So why is customer loyalty important and some businesses forget or does not care really about it? It has been said and written many times – it’s important to keep loyal customers happy and make them at least feel pampered as they repeat purchase, spend more and refer to your business, products… -
Get Your KPIs In Order
11 Feb 2012 | 11:01 amSocial Media and the new way of marketing that has evolved from it is thriving. Business are placing it higher op their marketing calender and in the mix. I get the feeling now more then ever businesses are focussing on getting a return on their marketing budgets spent. But social marketing is not a miracle cure to acheive your brand and business objectives… well it can be; if aligned correctly. Growth in Share of Market, increased sales, decreased costs for R&D and webcare are objectives that can be obtained though implementing your social mix within your daily marketing… -
Viral Friday: OK Go – Needing/Getting
10 Feb 2012 | 5:48 amViral Friday is the weekly viral video chart of ViralBlog, showing the 5 most popular viral videos, commercials, games or user-generated videos, carefully selected and ranked by popularity, viral impact & spread. On the #1 position of Viral Friday is for OK Go – Needing / Getting, an awesome music video featuring Chevy. The #2 goes to a powerful Old Spice – Bounce, that basically takes over other commercials. And Flash Fans completes this week’s top 3, bringing a surprising support and cheering to recreational hockey teams. Do you want to see this week’s list from 1…
-
pamorama
-
The Social Media Lifecycle [Infographic]
11 Feb 2012 | 6:52 pmThe purpose of any piece of data you use in your business is to help you make better decisions. These decisions can be very simple, such as replying to someone’s tweet about your brand or to a comment a customer posts on your Facebook page. Or they can be very complex, such as launching a new product. Whatever the case, data is supposed to help you make those decisions faster while getting better results, If you really want to get results from social media, it begins with creating a process. The process is based on setting a goal, and then aligning the resources and activities that you… -
Social Media Co-Opts the Super Bowl
4 Feb 2012 | 7:13 pmWith more than 100 million tuning in to watch each year, the Super Bowl has long been a mecca for advertisers. Brands have historically unveiled some of the best commercial spots of the year during the game, which they’ve kept under wraps for months. These ads are pricey; not only are production values high (read costly), but the average expense for broadcasting an ad this year is $3.5 million per 30 seconds. Watching the Super Bowl used to mean hanging out with your friends, eating lots of fattening appetizers, and being glued to the widescreen TV to not only watch the game, but to… -
Social Media in Higher Education
4 Feb 2012 | 4:14 pmThere’s an ongoing debate about the role social media should play in K-12 education. As a result, schools have been especially slow to adopt social technologies. Advocates point to the benefits social media offers students, and critics want to remove social media from classrooms, insisting that there be more regulation. Finding a happy medium has become a challenge. For higher education, the story is different. When used as an educational tool, colleges and universities have found that social media enhances the learning experience by enabling students and teachers to connect and interact in… -
20 Social Media Blogs You Should Read in 2012
28 Jan 2012 | 5:56 pmSocial media is now an essential component of doing business. It’s important for marketers to keep up with the ever-changing social media landscape so they can align their strategies and achieve the results they’re looking for. Here’s a list (in alphabetical order) of some great social media blogs to read in 2012. They all have unique voices that cover a wide range of social-media-related topics, news, and trends. From tips to tactics to measurement, there’s something for everybody. 1. The Brand Builder (Olivier Blanchard): For businesses looking to dive deep into… -
Timing Your Social Media Marketing
20 Jan 2012 | 3:14 pmSocial media marketers always wonder when the best time is to post on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and the myriad of other social platforms for optimum customer engagement. Is it in the morning, since many people check their Facebook page before they go to work? Is midday better because users look at their Twitter stream while they’re eating lunch? Is evening best? Which days of the week generate the most engagement? And what about B2B versus B2C — are the dynamics different? Eric Boggs, CEO of Argyle Social and Jay Baer, CEO of Convince and Convert, recently teamed up for a…
-
Exploring Conversational Media
-
Social Media Saves Valentine’s Day…Kinda
13 Feb 2012 | 11:32 pm -
Cartoon of the day
12 Feb 2012 | 11:54 pm -
Four social applications worth keeping an eye on
12 Feb 2012 | 11:53 pmIs it me or does it seem like there is a new social network or application that is going to be the next big thing in 2012? For every “surefire hit” like a Pinterest there are two or three Google Waves or Empire Avenues. It is always hard to read the tea leaves when deciding whether or not to jump in with two feet or sit on the sidelines and let the audiences figure it out. If you are like me, you’ve probably played around with a number of these new networks and had to decide whether or not they are right for you or your business. Don’t try to quantify the amount of time that you… -
Cartoon of the day
9 Feb 2012 | 11:59 pm -
Viral, cash for dirty rats and Twitter spam
9 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pmOk I am not going to lie, but last night was the first night that my parents’ warning of payback or karma being a bitch when you have kids actually came true. I was not an easy child and last night Baby Espo proved that he really is my son. After we had a problem with the deadbolt on our condo and my key was stuck in it, I was on the other side of the door and boom he crawls and slams it shut on me. Did I mention that he’s not even 10 months old yet? So 162 bucks later and our door works again after I had to kick it in to make sure he didn’t hurt himself hanging in the house by himself.
-
Social Media B2B
-
The B2B Social Media Book as a Social Network
7 Feb 2012 | 6:26 amNow that the Kindle version of The B2B Social Media Book has been out for about six weeks, we’ve noticed something interesting. One feature of the Kindle is that highlighted passages not only show up in everyone’s version of the electronic version, but the most popular ones show on the Amazon website. This tells us (as authors of the book) which ideas most resonate with readers. But it also tells readers which ideas were noted by other readers. This builds some social proof for the ideas (“I can like this passage because others did”), but it also starts a community, or… -
Drive B2B Channel Sales With Social Media Content
6 Feb 2012 | 7:03 amSocial media works best for B2B companies when people connect directly around topics they are passionate about. Connections work even better when no one in the group is pushing a particular agenda. This allows the focus of the communications to be around joint learning, which draws crowds, versus thinly disguised sales pitches, which drives everyone toward the metaphorical door. There is no group better to foster these learning discussions than a company’s channel partners, especially for those companies lucky enough to have built out strong channel partner programs. Channel partners know… -
5 B2B Social Media Tactics Inspired by Facebook’s IPO
3 Feb 2012 | 7:34 amNow that Facebook has officially filed for their initial public offering, what does that mean for B2B marketers? Many IPOs bring a needed infusion of cash to companies, but according to their submitted documents, Facebook already has profits to the tune of $1 billion. 85% of their revenue comes from advertising. That means they encourage users to share information about themselves and Facebook uses the data to target users with advertising. Here are some ways you can better leverage the platform to reach your B2B prospects and customers now that Facebook will have to answer to public… -
Social Media Supports Changing B2B Buying Landscape
31 Jan 2012 | 6:58 amB2B marketers understand that they are operating in a different environment for a variety of reasons. These include a tighter economy, more rigor around business decision-making and the growing importance of social media in all B2B industries. Two recent charts with survey data from Marketing Sherpa show a changing landscape of B2B transactions. The first shows the change in average deal size from 2010 to 2011. More than half of the deals closed by B2B companies are under $10,000, with the largest number of them (32%) between $1,001 and $10,000. This indicates that many of the larger deals,… -
12 Revealing Stats About B2B Social Media Marketing
26 Jan 2012 | 7:30 amArticles about B2B social media marketing adoption often paint a rosy picture of the current landscape, but when you dig in deeper, there are many challenges in effectiveness and understanding the results. In a recent survey of 5,000 B2B marketers from all industries, Penton Marketing Services found some pretty revealing statistics. Click the link for the full report (registration form required). 1. 81% of B2B Marketers find online marketing moderately to extremely challenging. 2. 77% of B2B Marketers said their websites are not that effective at generating leads. 3. 60% of B2B Marketers have…
-
Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow} » Have You Hugged Your Blogger Today?
-
Have You Hugged Your Blogger Today?
12 Feb 2012 | 7:58 amOver the past few years I have had the pleasure to get to know many of the great marketing bloggers I admire so much. And it is amazing how similar we are. We seem to thrive on the relentless pace and challenge of producing consistently great content. Most bloggers do the work out of love, passion, and a drive to make a difference … not for money. In fact, it is very, very difficult to directly monetize a blog. I love blogging, but as you can imagine, it’s a ton of work. And we might plow hours of work into a piece we’re proud of only to have it considered… -
Facebook: The Happiest Place on Earth?
10 Feb 2012 | 2:49 pmOK, OK, so I read this report this week that a guy up the road from me killed his neighbor because his daughter was un-friended on Facebook. And then this story is buzzing around about the guy who shot his daughter’s computer and posted it on YouTube because she whined about doing her chores in a status update. Sure … there is just a little bit of anger that can show up on the interwebs! But despite this weirdness and angst, the data would suggest that people who frequent social networks are a pretty happy bunch. I recently had a post that showed the emotional boost from… -
Frankenstrategy. A {growtoon}.
9 Feb 2012 | 11:02 pmJoin the growtoonists each Friday for a humorous take on marketing, social media, and current business events. Joey Strawn is a social media strategist that loves enjoying a good book and then drawing in it. Check him out on Twitter: @joey_strawn -
Is social media contributing to political paralysis?
8 Feb 2012 | 11:02 pmI’m a student of history … probably half the books I read are biographies or something to do with a past era. So today I’d like you to oblige me while I connect the dots between the social media revolution and what appears to be increasing political paralysis in the U.S., India, Greece, and other nations. My impression is that political leaders of past decades were no less competitive, egotistical, or power-hungry than the politicians of today. They were probably less demographically-diverse, less educated, and less in tune with constituents because of the lag time in… -
The evolution of a blogger
7 Feb 2012 | 11:02 pmBy Srinivas Rao, Contributing {grow} Columnist As I’ve observed bloggers from all walks of life, writing about every subject imaginable, and as I’ve taken the journey myself, I’ve found that there is an evolution that takes place. In each phase of the evolution we develop essential skills, but without the courage to stay the course and go through all the phases of the evolution, we’re unlikely to unleash the creative genius within all of us. While it’s tempting to see ourselves as marketers, what we’re really doing is creating art. Through our digital footprints…
-
AdamVincenzini.com
-
2012's best social media stats and insights (so far)
12 Feb 2012 | 6:26 am2012 has already seen a number of big changes to the social media scene. The Pinterest explosion has been well documented and Google+ continues to add to its user base. I'm not sure about you, but keeping up with the all the updates to usage stats is hard work so I've tried to compile some of 2012's best resources. Here are some of he better ones I've located this year... 2012's most useful posts, inforgraphics and round-ups: User number of the 15 most popular global social networks / platforms (Feb 2021 Update) via The Realtime Report 12 revealing stats about B2B social media… -
5 new ways to monetize your content in 2012
9 Feb 2012 | 4:54 pmThis week's Pinterest content monetization 'scandal' has taught us a lot about the naivety the modern-day web user. Yes, platforms like Pinterest (and Pocket-Lint and WIWT) use a tool called Skimlinks to generate revenue from subtle referral links. As Skimlinks CEO Alicia Navarro so aptly explained: "It's not a secret. We do monetize social discovery, and it's great". For those of you about to fall off your high horse, how else can these sites exist without such revenue streams? Banner ads are ugly, un-engaging and hated by users, so solutions like Skimlinks are a win/win/win/win… -
10 new ways to discover, share and listen to music online
7 Feb 2012 | 1:58 am"Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed." - Irene Peter I'm not going to argue with Irene here, music is still music. But, the ways in which we discover, consume and share music online has changed. Big time. In fact, some of the new online music services, tools and apps I'm about to mention may seem to good to be true. But, thanks to a combination of timing, technology and people-powered media, they are all at our disposal. Now. Here are 10 new online toys I have been playing with which you may want to check out too... 10 new ways to discover, share and listen… -
10 tips for brands who want to generate more online mentions
31 Jan 2012 | 11:38 amLast week, I wrote a post entitled 'How easy / hard are you making it for bloggers to talk about you?' My argument was simple: Some brands and organisations get carried away with wanting to activate high impact digitally-led campaigns often at the expense of establishing solid foundations e.g. arranging your digital assets in a way the encourages re-purposing / re-publishing. I shared a few of my own thoughts as to the practical steps brands can take to make things easier for people to mention them online in that original post, but I wanted to get the opinions of some industry peers as a… -
How easy / hard are you making it for bloggers to talk about you?
28 Jan 2012 | 2:26 amI have been asking myself and my clients this question a lot lately: How easy (or hard) are you making it for bloggers (and general social media participants) to talk about you? It's a really important question, and one that I think is often ignored (and perhaps not even on the radar enough to be ignored / noticed). What EXACTLY do I mean? Let me show you... Access issues: Bringing the challenge to life The simplest way for me to put this issue in context is as follows: I'm a hobbyist blogger When I have an idea for a post I'll use as many free research tools as possible to populate that post…
-
Digital Connections - 360i Blog, Digital Marketing Agency
-
7 Things We Learned in ‘The Mobile-Social Living Room’ at #SMW12
13 Feb 2012 | 3:58 pmToday marks day one of Social Media Week, a global conference taking place simultaneously in 12 cities worldwide. We’re excited to participate once again this year through five events taking place in New York over the course of the week. Our first event, held at the Hearst Tower, centered on the much-buzzed about topic of social TV, and more specifically, how emerging media is changing the live viewing experience. David Berkowitz, VP of Emerging Media at 360i, moderated a lineup of panelists from leading networks, platforms and second-screen applications. Participants included: Johnsie… -
Navigating Where There Are No Roads: 360i CEO Bryan Wiener Addresses Newhouse School
9 Feb 2012 | 1:05 pmBryan Wiener, CEO of 360i, addressed students at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications on Feb. 8. The talk centered on how today’s rapidly evolving landscape requires marketers to “navigate where there are no roads” and seize opportunity out of chaos. Earlier this week the Newhouse School and 360i announced a partnership to create a digital advertising program at the University. In his talk, Wiener told students that this is the best time ever to be entering the advertising industry. “The pace of change is accelerating,” he said. “With change comes… -
Hanging Out with the (World Champion) New York Giants, On Google+
6 Feb 2012 | 9:08 amIn the wake of the New York Giants’ Super Bowl XLVI victory, 360i Social Publicist Megan Conley describes her experience as a participant in Giants Social Media Night on Feb. 3. Immediately after reading that the New York Giants were hosting a Google+ hangout for Giants Social Media Night, I entered my plea to participate. The opportunity to chat one-on-one with a Giants player live from Indianapolis (site of Super Bowl XLVI) was absolutely not something I was going to miss out on. I’d used the Google+ Hangout feature before, and wasn’t ashamed to let the Giants know in the… -
360i Report on Twitter’s Enhanced Brand Pages
2 Feb 2012 | 12:17 pmYesterday, Twitter launched an interface redesign with enhanced Brand Pages. The update provides a more dynamic environment in which brands can form meaningful connections with their audience and emphasize unique brand identity within the platform. Enhanced Brand Pages are now available to brands that are spending the required $25,000 a month on Twitter media. Brands who meet the spend threshold can enjoy a streamlined interface focused on follower acquisition, engagement and two-way communication. The update provides a more visual sorting of brand tweets, creating a cleaner, more efficient… -
5 Places to Find 360i at Social Media Week 2012 [Updated]
2 Feb 2012 | 8:37 amSocial Media Week 2012 is fast approaching and will present social media inspired events in 12 different cities from Feb.13-17. We’re thrilled to be participating once again, and have crafted a stellar line up of events for social media professionals and enthusiasts. Join us! *The Mobile-Social Living Room: How Emerging Media is Reviving the Live Television Experience We kick off #SMW12 with a panel discussion entitled, “The Mobile-Social Living Room: How Emerging Media is Reviving the Live Television Experience.” This session will uncover how networks are using social to breathe new…
-
Mindjumpers
-
The Content Marketing Explosion [infographic]
9 Feb 2012 | 3:19 amTweetContent marketing is on the rise and many people say that “content is king”. It seems that more and more people are becoming aware of the importance of great content since ‘content marketing’ has expanded at an exponential rate in 2011 alone on Google. The people at BlueGlass made this infographic illustrating how content marketing is gaining a foothold and how it is used by brands. For brands, content marketing is mostly about creating brand awareness, generating leads and acquiring customers. This can by done though content on blogs, in social media, newsletters… -
How Will Timeline Work on Facebook Pages?
7 Feb 2012 | 2:13 amTweetAs Facebook Timeline has been rolled out for individual profiles, there has been much talk about whether Timeline will also be a reality for brand Pages and when this will happen. Usually whenever new features have been rolled out for Profiles, this will eventually also be adapted to Pages, as they are of course similar in many ways. According to Facebook (via Mashable), Timeline for Pages will NOT become a reality in the near future, as they are more focused on adjusting Timeline for profiles at the moment. However, As Facebook also wishes to make a consistent experience in both… -
How Can Brands Manage Facebook Comment Overload
1 Feb 2012 | 2:59 amTweetRecent comment count on Facebook brand pages is going up, just proving that now, people accept social media as an effective method of communicating with their brand and entering a conversation. These comments can obviously be both positive and negative and can suddenly spring up in quantities if your update has a viral potential. A lot of brands on Facebook, like Coca-Cola or Disney, have a very large user base of loyal fans and in recent past they have received up to 2000 comments per post. Often in these situations, a community manager will find herself in a fix, unable to answer and… -
Social Design for Social Success
31 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amTweetDid you know that the number 1 reason why people love Facebook is that it enables us to show our personality? To create an identity shows the human need for sense of community belonging and self-esteem. Social Design takes these facts into consideration, in order to bring true value to the community you aim to build. This blog post explains what social design means for your brand’s social media presence and why it is essential when you develop applications on Facebook to increase attention and engagement among people. The value of trust and personal relevance With technology today, we… -
How Social Media Can Work Wonders For Banks
30 Jan 2012 | 2:41 amTweet(R)evolution, is a series that connects you to the people, trends, and ideas defining the future of business, culture, and media. It features head honchos, who share their experiences and stories related to social media in their interview with Brian Solis. Currently the series is in its second season. A recent episode of Revolution, which I found especially interesting, is with Bianca Buckridee, AVP of Social Media Engagement at SunTrust. Bianca answers some very common questions, which any financial services organization operating in social media is bound to face- why would a bank need…
-
Digitaria Blogs
-
Alternative Press Can’t Think So Traditionally When It Comes to Advertising
10 Feb 2012 | 2:48 pmSarah Kotlova Recently Centro’s Ben Pashman (@benpashman) and I were invited to the Association of Alternative Media’s Web and Mobile conference (#AANWeb) in San Francisco, to speak on Trends in Digital Ads. --> read more -
Digi@themovies - W.E., The Vow, Safe House, Journey 2
10 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amDigitaria Staff W.E. Ads for W.E. sell the film as a historical drama based on "the greatest love story of the 20th Century": King Edward VIII of England and the American ex-pat and divorcee Mrs. Wallis Simpson. --> read more -
Enough with the Phluff Part 2
9 Feb 2012 | 1:34 pmDigitaria Staff As Brittany explained in yesterday’s DigiThoughts post, everyone has had enough with the Phluff, not just statisticians or analysts. Edward Tufte, in his workshop, shared examples of good data visualization from sports, music, art and design, politics, and astronomy. In each case, the information conveyed was interesting, engaging and -- most importantly -- tailored to the data. Today, Laura, Victoria... -
Enough with the Phluff Part 1
8 Feb 2012 | 1:43 pmBrittany Dameron A look into Edward Tufte’s “Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within” Steve Jobs once said, “It isn’t the job of the consumer to know what they want.” Well in that case, it must be the job of inventors, politicians, and marketers to shape the minds of the masses, right? Wrong. Nowadays, all too often, even the brilliant minds behind corporations and agencies like IBM and NASA don’t... -
Super Bowl Ads Not So Super
6 Feb 2012 | 1:45 pmTom Siebert I can’t recall a year since I joined the advertising community in 1999 that the Super Bowl was so much more about the game than the commercials. Last night’s last-minute thriller between the Giants and Patriots was one of the best contests ever, but I can’t recall a year when the accompanying high-priced commercials were so….blah. --> read more
-
Social Media Citizens - Interviews with social media influencers from around the world
-
Interview with Community Manager: Will Long
9 Feb 2012 | 3:30 amWill Long currently works as a Freelance Community Manager across a range of clients. He started his career in PR, working for a number of music clients before progressing to work on the Virgin Media and Sony accounts at Mark Borkowski’s agency in London. You can follow Will on his blog, Twitter and LinkedIn. G: How did you build your experience as community manager? W: I started out working in PR. Initially through music then on to consumer brands such as Sony and Virgin Media. I’d always had an eye on Social Media, managing communities at uni and for other project I was involved in. -
Interview with Social Media Manager: Hristina Hristova from Acronis
7 Feb 2012 | 4:07 amHristina Hristova is currently working for Acronis as a global social media manager for consumer products. Hristina’s background is in social media and publishing – Hristina was a founding member of Groupon UK, and worked for the social buying giant as a social media strategist. Hristina’s interests include all things digital, web and graphic design, as well as typography. You can follow Hristina on TwitterLinkedin and Pinterest . G: What are the key ingredients of successful social media strategy? H: Just three words: creativity, communication and collaboration. The first… -
Interview with Community Manager: Lizzie Gold from The Social Practice
30 Jan 2012 | 11:32 pmLizzie Gold currently works for The Social Practice as their Community Manager for a range of clients. She started her career as an Online Producer for GCap Media. Later, she went on to be the in-house CM for Global Radio before moving to Yelp UK, as their Community Manager for London. You can follow Lizzie on her blogTwitter and Linkedin. G: What are your top resources for community management? L: The community itself should never be underestimated as a resource. From motivation to content, no one knows more than the people who take part. What can I say? I’m a purist! G: Who are your… -
Interview with Community Manager: Philip Wride at Zmags
26 Jan 2012 | 3:35 amPhilip is Community Manager at Zmags. Previously, he was community manager of FIFA UK at Electronic Arts and Digital Producer at The Walt Disney Company. You can Follow Phil on Twitter and his blog. G: How did you build your experience as community manager/strategist? P: I started at an early age (16), first as a member of forums and then rapidly moving on to contributing content and managing environments. Special interest fan sites and smaller communities with a core following were the order of the day for several years. I did however take a break to focus on the strategy side rather than… -
Interview with Community Manager: Morgan Clark from Channel 4
24 Jan 2012 | 3:42 amMorgan is a Community and Social Media producer with Channel 4 who also works on community and social media strategies at Mondo Management who represent talents like Orbital, David Gray, Lisa Hannigan, Ruarri Joseph and Pixie Carnation. Previously he was Assistant Communities Editor at Associated Northcliffe Digital. You can follow Morgan on Twitter and Linkedin. G: How did you build your experience as community manager? M: It was a lot of trial and error. I was put in a job where all of a sudden I was dealing with quite a vocal community which needed calming down, diplomacy and…
-
The Next Web » Social Media
-
Google+ rolling out granular control for “What’s Hot”, aiming for more relevant content
13 Feb 2012 | 9:27 amIf you’ve been wanting a bit more granular control over the “what’s hot” section of your Google+ stream, there’s good news for you today. Googler Scott Zuccarino tells us that the what’s hot and content sliders are merging in order to give you better access to the content that you want to see: “Whenever hot posts do appear in your stream, we’ll label them accordingly. And if you’re ever in the mood to only see hot posts, you can always click on “What’s hot” in the left-hand navigation menu.” The hope, of course,… -
Angry Birds crashes onto Facebook a day early, available to play now
13 Feb 2012 | 8:32 amRovio’s smash hit game Angry Birds has finally landed on Facebook, becoming available on the world’s biggest social network with a number of unique features one day before Valentine’s Day, when it was officially scheduled to launch. The Flash-based game debuts on Facebook with a selection of in-game options that make it easier for players, effectively allowing them to cheat and bypass more difficult levels by shaking the game screen or selectively targeting a pig. Rovio describes the power-ups: Power-ups are unique to Angry Birds on Facebook. There are 4 different types of… -
Middle East channel MBC4 partners with Google to bring viewers a new form of entertainment
13 Feb 2012 | 6:41 amFacebook is clearly the dominant social network in the Middle East, with over 34 million users in the region and UAE Facebook penetration rates among the highest in the world. Despite that, in an interesting move, Middle Eastern network, MBC has announced a partnership with Google. In it, the search giant’s social network Google+ is playing a prominent role, so to speak, in its experimental show, 04 (zero-four). 04, which premiered in January on MBC4, has set itself apart from other regional TV shows, focusing on social media interaction with its fans, with a presence on Google products… -
Re-energised MySpace just grabbed 1 million new users. Should Spotify be worried?
13 Feb 2012 | 3:51 amLast month we took a look at how how many unique visitors social networks receive, and we came across the surprising statistic that MySpace gets more hits than either Google+, Tumblr and Pinterest. A new report from The New York Times shows that, not only is MySpace holding its ground in terms of hits, it’s still managing to grow its user base. That’s quite a turn around on the same time last year. In March 2011, MySpace made the headlines when it lost a whopping 10 million users in the space of just one month. This year, MySpace is adding users, but at a much slower rate, with… -
Book publisher Penguin takes to Twitter for unique book club experience
10 Feb 2012 | 4:33 pmSince Twitter launched in 2006, there have been tons of unique uses of the platform, including fundraising, live tweeting the State of the Union, and now thanks to Penguin, a book club. I’ve seen some corners of Twitter take to using hashtags to create a conversation on the platform. While it can be difficult to follow a conversation on the service, especially in real-time, Penguin thinks that the time-shifted hobby of reading books is a perfect way to bring people together. The publisher will be picking a book each month, and suggests that its followers tweet their thoughts about it…
-
Huddle Productions
-
How to use Social Media for Non-Profits
2 Feb 2012 | 11:59 amExodus Ministries exists to break the cycle of generational crime. They assist previously incarcerated females from all ethnic backgrounds that are re-entering society. Exodus Ministries helps them and their families to become productive members of society by serving their spiritual and physical needs and sharing the love of Christ with them. This is Latoya’s beautiful story of Grace. Here is a great article on How Non-Profits are using Social Media. -
IBM Celebrates 100 Years
2 Feb 2012 | 11:34 amIBM has evolved from a small business that made scales, time clocks and tabulating machines to a globally integrated enterprise with more than 400,000 employees and a strong vision for the future. The stories that have emerged throughout our history are complex tales of big risks, lessons learned and discoveries that have transformed the way we work and live. These 100 iconic moments—these Icons of Progress—demonstrate our faith in science, our pursuit of knowledge and our belief that together we can make the world work better. The Holistic Imperative,” Dana Arnett, Partner &… -
AT&T Creating Customer Advocacy
26 Jan 2012 | 4:51 pmAT&T invited 3 fans called “AT&T Wolfpack” to CES to video the events taking place. Christopher Baccus the Executive Director of Digital & Social Media spoke at Freeman Leonard Social Media Breakfast in Dallas about this campaign and creating Customer Advocacy. Chris Yates from Huddle Productions did this video interview with his iPhone. -
Create Viral Videos
13 Jan 2012 | 1:54 pmI love it when someone comes to me and says “Will you create a Viral Video for me?” Sure! Let me just go to my secret viral video formula and produce that. There’s no such thing! Anyone that tells you they create Viral Videos is full of Baloney. Viral Videos just happen. Just tell great stories and if they go viral that’s added bonus. Even after 25 years of producing video I am still surprised by what videos get more views over others. Below are two examples of videos that I’ve created that were totally opposite of my expectations. Maybe I should just create… -
Video helps Michaels connect to customers
8 Dec 2011 | 8:27 amPaula Puleo the CMO of Michaels talks about the importance of video. Why video is effective. 1) Personal connection to customers. Michaels is one of the largest crafts company in the nation and it can be difficult to connect to customers. Video allows that one to one connection to their customers. 2) Focus on Customer. Doing videos on customers and their stories shows that Michaels puts the customer first. Featuring your customers in a video shows you care about them and makes them feel special. It really does create loyalty. 3) Michaels doesn’t sell crafts. It sells memories. Video…
-
Social @ Blogging Tracker
-
15 Twitter Tools to Boost Your Online Presence and Productivity
1 Feb 2012 | 10:23 amTwitter is a valuable source of news updates. Without proper management, it can be a real time suck! There’s only so much time in a day, you need to make each tweet, each following count for something. Why not utilize some free Twitter tools to lighten your load so you can focus more on building relationship with your tweeps? Twitter News Aggregators: These apps summarize the most relevant and popular updates from your Twitter stream with very simple setup procedures. Best of all, you can subscribe to your friends’ to find out what is hot in their Twitter network too. #1 The… -
7 Killer Facebook Applications to Create Impressive Custom Tabs
12 Jan 2012 | 8:42 amHave you ever felt troubled when trying to add a stunning custom tab to your page but don’t know how? Since last year, I had found several that works great in providing sub-tabs and some with fan gate options. Today, it’s all about templates and widgets! Wouldn’t it be great if you can add one of these facebook applications together with some from 23+ Facebook Page applications to improve fans engagement? After all, it’s all about trial and error. Let’s head right to the facebook apps: 7 Killer Tab Customizers for Facebook Pages #1 GroSocial Requirement of Coding Knowledge: No… -
23+ Essential Facebook Page Applications to Improve Fans Engagement in 2012
2 Jan 2012 | 11:23 amUpdate: Don’t forget to check out 7 Killer Facebook Applications to Create Impressive Custom Tabs too! Greetings and Happy New Year! To kick off 2012, some of you may think of giving your Facebook Page a facelift. There may be some features you wish to add such as custom iframe tabs with fan gate option or ideas to encourage fans engagement on your Page. If you do, you’ve come to the right place! Every year I will compile a list of cost-effective facebook apps you can use not only to improve your fans engagement but hopefully enhance your brand visibility at the same time. Without… -
How to Track (Manage) Your Pending Friend Requests on Facebook
29 Nov 2011 | 10:46 pmIf you’re on Facebook then you are well aware of this problem. Remember how we used to be able to check pending friend requests in our friends list as indicated below? Not anymore with the new personal profile. If you think there may be a hidden feature for this then sorry to disappoint you again. Here’s how Facebook responded about tracking pending friend requests: Unable to check pending friend requests is a huge disadvantage for Facebook users, especially if you are warned for overusing the feature (sent too many requests in a short period of time), reducing the request quantity may be… -
How to Add Pages You Like in Your (Updated) Facebook News Feed?
27 Sep 2011 | 4:46 amRecently a lot of Facebook users are asking the same question: “I can no longer view page updates in my newsfeed. How do I add pages I like into my Newsfeed? ” Technically, the page updates are still there in your news feed, just not as easily spotted comparing to before. We all know Facebook has their very own algorithm in deciding which updates to appear in our news feed based on our recent activities and how popular is the post/page according to our interests. Even so, we still might miss out a whole lot more information from the pages we love even Facebook thinks they had it all…
-
Courtney Engle
-
iBooks Author reviewed
19 Jan 2012 | 11:28 amThis morning Apple announced three new tools for educational users: iBooks Author, iTunesU app, and iBooks 2. iBooks Author is in the OS X App Store now, so I did a quick review: iBooks Author reviewed -
Social Media Account Dilemma: Personal Account vs. Brand Account
17 Jan 2012 | 2:13 pmWhen creating a social media account, people still get confused if they should use a personal account or a brand account. The social networks where you must have a company profile and where to create: Facebook: http://facebook.com/pages Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/pages/create LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/add/show If you violate these terms of service, your profile can be taken down without notice. It would benefit you greatly to straighten out these issues as soon as possible. You can’t necessarily move your followers automatically from personal profiles to… -
Mobile Site vs Mobile App vs. Mobile Landing Page
16 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amDo you need a mobile site or a mobile app, and landing page, all of the above, or none of these? It really depends upon your business, but most likely you need at least to make your website mobile ready. Earlier, I shared how to check your website on mobile devices and how to make your WordPress website mobile friendly. If you are using Google Analytics to track your website traffic, you can see how many of your existing visitors are using mobile devices. At the very least, you need to make your website display well on mobile devices. However, if you have some unique value in mind,… -
Google changes Search Engine Results – What it means for you
13 Jan 2012 | 1:13 pmGoogle has introduced a new feature on search engine results pages called “Search, plus Your World“. These features may have significant impact on how you view search results and how your website displays for others. Look at the two images below. The first is a typic search result for “WordCamp“: Compare that with the new search results page with the social features enabled (like to full-size here): What does this mean for you? First, as a person browsing the web, you may choose to turn results off if you find that it results in better quality. I’d suggest… -
How to Brainstorm, Project Manage, and GTD
10 Jan 2012 | 4:13 pmI love when creativity strikes, leading my into a time to brainstorm, project manage, and get things done. To get those ideas drafted out and implemented, I use a variety of tools. First, I brainstorm ideas in a mindmap, like MindJet Mindmanager. Then, I schedule out tasks in Things. Finally, I review the calendar using BusyCal. Best of all, all of these things work from my Mac and iPhone. Related articles GTD Times: Cool GTD tip for tracking Waiting For items in Outlook (gtdtimes.com) Mindjet’s 7-Step Process for Effective Team Collaboration (mindmapblog.com) Mindjet…
-
The Social Workplace
-
Become an Employer of Choice by Recruiting from the Inside Out
10 Feb 2012 | 7:57 amOriginal source: Inside Out Recruiting, Recruiter.com The job of the recruiting department today has become somewhat of a business generalist role. They are measured in terms of typical recruiting metrics, but they really have to be astute in every facet of the business. Marketing is one of those skill sets that a progressive recruiting department must add to their list of skill sets. You’re no longer just recruiting for the marketing department, but you are literally doing marketing for your company in order to attract and retain top talent. Marketing you ask? Yes, you must become… -
What Does Your Employer Branding Fishbowl Look Like?
9 Feb 2012 | 3:18 pmEvery company has two distinct brands, its employer brand and its consumer brand. With the rise of social networking, your company, how you run it and your culture has become a fishbowl — everything you do is on display for all to see. And like it or not, your employees have an abundance of channels for broadcasting their opinions — both negative and positive. Company branding and employer branding aren’t the same, but they intersect to fuel each other. Many of the same characteristics that motivate consumers also motivate job seekers. Successful companies foster a culture where… -
Why You Should Attend The 2012 Social Media in HR Seminar
8 Feb 2012 | 11:09 amThe 2012 Social Media in HR Seminar Tapping into the Power of Social Networks April 17-18, 2012 NYSSA Conference Center New York, NY Some argue that human resources professionals are late-adopters when it comes to anything technology related, including social media. But the popularity and possibilities that social recruiting have brought to the profession are causing HR pros to take notice. While part of HR’s role is to mitigate legal risks, another very large component is to help support and cultivate the corporate culture. As social media becomes more defined in the business world, human… -
Why the Super Bowl’s Social Media Command Center Scores a Winning Touchdown
5 Feb 2012 | 11:32 pmAn exclusive, in-depth look into the Super Bowl’s first ever social media command center, the folks who ran it, and how the convergence of technology and people created the ultimate online Super Bowl experience. Me with Taulbee Jackson, CEO of Raidious You would think that, the day before the biggest sporting event of the year, the people in charge of the Super Bowl’s Social Media Command Center would be frantic, running around and putting out last minute fires. So imagine my surprise when I walked in and found it to be quite the opposite. Entering the offices of Raidious — the… -
Online Privacy and Why Pinterest Should “Binterested”
30 Jan 2012 | 11:41 pmFor once in my life I’m skeptical. And for you die-hard Pinterest fans, I hope you’ll bear with me as I explain my current disinterest in Pinterest. I can’t get my sister-in-law to interact with me on Facebook. But she freaking LOVES Pinterest. And has been trying to get me to use it for a couple of months. And given the recent chatter on Social Media Today, I finally broke down this past Saturday and joined using my Facebook account to establish my Pinterest profile. Over the course of the weekend, I noticed that I was receiving e-mails that “so and so” was now…
-
Free Social Media Help for Solopreneurs | Social Media Marketing Help | Social Networking for Small Businesses
-
What is Social Media? Why Should I Care?
25 Jan 2012 | 6:52 amWhat Is Social Media? Why Should You Care? View more presentations from Mande White. -
Facebook Tips: How to Put Your Friends into Lists
15 Jun 2011 | 6:57 pmVideo is best viewed full screen. So hit play on the video and then click the button in the bottom right hand corner of the video that has all the arrows going all different ways. That’ll show the video the size of your entire screen. -
Facebook Tips: How to Filter Your NewsFeeds Via Your Friends List
15 Jun 2011 | 6:41 pm -
How to Make Posting Status Updates A Cinch!
29 Mar 2011 | 8:12 amWhen I start working with clients who want help with their social media management I usually ask them if they are writers or talkers and it never fails that people are either one or the other. Personally, I’m a talker and writing feels very painful for me so I often don’t write up these blogs as often as I would like but with this new tool-all that is going to change! I’d like you to meet my new best friend…CINCH! Cinch allows you to record an audio from your phone or computer. If you’ve got an iPhone they have an awesome app you can use to record your… -
Facebook Overtakes Google
16 Mar 2011 | 7:29 amWith Facebook overtaking Google as most visited website it stands to reason that we should all be paying a bit more attention to optimizing our presence on Facebook. With that comes updating our Fan pages to stay current with the recent elimination of FBML and the adoption of iFrames for page customization. 3 quick short cuts to get you up to speed: To get oriented on what’s new regarding the layout of your Fan Page read Mari Smith’s post To understand iFrames read HyperArts’ post If you’d just like to purchase a Do-It-Yourself program including videos, webinars and plug-n-play…
-
NotEasyToForget.com
-
Social Networking – What Was Old Is Shiny Again
7 Feb 2012 | 4:49 amI’m certainly not insinuating by the title that social networking being old is a bad thing, quite the contrary. Social networking is firmly established into our lifestyles anymore. I almost can’t imagine a world without the available uber-connectedness and real-time stream of information…can you? Social media marketing for business is quickly coming of age as well. I think it’s safe to say that there aren’t too many out there still screaming from their soapboxes that social media is either a fad or dead, or both. I’m not here to post about social networking memory lane, or even… -
Happy Community Manager Appreciation Day…An Infographic In Your Honor!
23 Jan 2012 | 6:15 amToday is YOUR day Community Managers! Celebrate, dance…call in sick and treat yourself to a spa day! Whatever you do with yourself today, know that you are an appreciated and vital component of how business gets done in 2012. Your role is more inportant each year as you bravely carve out and define your place in the professional ecosystem. Started in 2010 by Jerimiah Owyang, Community Manager Appreciation Day is a day where the world is called upon to acknowledge who you are and what you do. I personally want to applaud your bravery and your passion. Now, more than ever the world is… -
Updated 2011 World of Social Media Video Infographic
24 Dec 2011 | 12:43 pm2011 has been yet another banner year for social media. As marketers, it is necessary for us to keep tabs on developing trends as well as the past. The metrics that got us here are our chronicle. This video-Infographic is an excellent visual representation of where we are and from whence we came. I’m pretty much just parking this here as a year-end reference. Some of you may not have already seen the video. If this is the case, enjoy! I hope that all of you and yours are enjoying a pleasant Christmas Eve today! +James Ball No related posts. -
Social Media, Work Dynamics, & Life – The Two Score and Five Year Lens
28 Sep 2011 | 9:25 amSo yeah, this is the first day of my 45th year on the planet…of course I’m reflecting! I really just wanted to jot down a few things to keep you in the loop and as an archive of sorts. Remember the “Social Media Case Study Starting Today” I wrote back in May of 2010? I am supposing that this post will serve as an official update about all of that, and then some. If you’ve been following for any length of time, then you know that there has been a steep decline in the frequency of my posts here on this blog since that very same May of 2010. Only part of that is because I’ve been so… -
Need A Website In Like, 30 Minutes? (1/2 Of All Small Businesses Don’t Have One!) Quick Fix:
25 Aug 2011 | 4:56 amI love it when something turns out to be exactly “as advertised”, don’t you? I love it even more when a product or a service makes something a little bit easier for struggling small businesses. Today I am super-pleased to introduce you to Onepager. Onepager is a service that allows you to create a dandy little one page website in minutes. Seriously, I built a website using Onepager in 30 minutes last night (I even cropped a pic for the background and made a little logo). Click the image below and check it out. The videos below pretty much explain everything you’ll need to know about…
-
CompuKol Connection » Blog
-
The Success of Social Commerce
11 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amSocial commerce is using social media to conduct online business. Just as all things that surround social media have taken off in a giant way, so has social commerce. It’s just as easy to conduct business online as in person. The end of the year is when the most business is conducted and conducting it online is easier than ever and the advantages of doing so are many. When you are involved with social commerce, it is essential that you use online collaborative tools so that you can sell your products and/or services to customers. There are so many different companies that are selling… -
Hot Selling Online in a Cold Economy
9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amWhen it comes to stimulating sales, there are several “hot buttons” or motivators that influence how successful your business is at selling your goods and/or services online. Identifying and using them in this difficult economy will lead to business success. Presumably, at this point, you have a well-established marketing strategy, which should include at least some of those hot buttons. Those hot buttons will ultimately be responsible for your success. They will be the element that brings your clients and prospective clients to the point of making a decision about whether to buy… -
Strategies for Growing Twitter
6 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pmAt this point in the social media game, you understand how impactful Twitter is for your business. It is important to remember that growing your Twitter presence doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, effort, and persistence to succeed with Twitter. The first thing that is very important to understand is that Twitter (like other social media channels) is a living, breathing, growing community of which you and your business are a very important part. With that in mind, there are certain steps that you need to follow (in a specific order) in order to grow your Twitter community and to… -
Use SEO as a Tool to Satisfy Clients
4 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amSearch Engine Optimization (SEO) is an extremely valuable tool to give to your clients so that their business capabilities are enhanced and so that they have a greater chance of succeeding through their online business capabilities and interactions. Please forgive the constant repetition of the phrase “Content Is King”; however, truer words were never written. The way that you and your business will succeed through your social media interactions is with your content. Of course, it goes without saying that your content has to be well written, exciting, and informative. The fact is… -
The Power of Google Circles
2 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amMost people are familiar with Google at this point. It is a very popular search engine. Google’s social platform, Google+, has a tool called Google Circles, which enables the users to categorize people into different groups or lists. The purpose of Google Circles The intended purpose of Google Circles is to allow people to share their content with the most appropriate people. It also allows people to follow other people’s content if it is deemed interesting and valuable. The privacy aspect of Google Circles Whoever is a member of one of your Google Circles is not able to see any…
-
DaveandDawnCook.com
-
Victim Of Identity Theft!
3 Feb 2012 | 9:23 amIf you were a Victim Of Identity Theft, What Would You Do? I read an article titled “To Catch an Identity Thief” and it got me thinking what people would do if this happened to them. After reading this post, ask yourself if you were a victim of identity theft like the lady mentioned below, what would you do? The article was about a lady named Karen Lodrick and her life was a living hell after becoming a victim of identity theft. Because of our business I hear a lot of people say stupid things like “they can have my identity.” Really? This has to be one of the dumbest… -
Seventeen Dollars
4 Jan 2012 | 1:27 pmNow days Seventeen Dollars ($17) doesn’t buy you a whole lot in this weak economy. Seventeen dollars can buy you and your spouse two tickets to a movie theater, one good steak at a nice restaurant (not including the tip) or about 5 gallons of gasoline for your car. The above are just a few examples of what seventeen dollars ($17) can buy you and they may be great, but they do not provide you peace of mind for you and/or your family. Okay, I know what you are thinking and that’s fine. You are probably asking yourself what is Dave trying to sell me now, right? Well, how about peace of mind… -
How The Grinch Stole Your Identity During Christmas!
9 Dec 2011 | 1:36 pmAlmost everyone has seen how the Grinch Stole Christmas, but have you ever thought about how the Grinch might steal your identity during Christmas? Many times when we think about Identity Theft (IDT) being financial identity theft, but just remember that there are other forms of IDT and financial IDT only makes up about 24% of these cases. AnyWho, (Get it? You know the Who’s in the movie from Whoville?) I crack myself up! Seriously, it is once again that time of year when you are making plans to visit relatives, host festive get-togethers, and, of course, hit the stores (or computer)… -
Are You Living Life?
1 Dec 2011 | 10:01 pmAs I write this post today I was just informed that a good old high school buddy was tragically killed in a car accident last night. So this post is dedicated to my good friend Terry Richert (1964 – 2011). Life can be blessing or life can be miserable, but only you can decide what life you want to live! The first thing that came to my mind when I heard the news was that we are the same age and in the blink of an eye, everything we know as reality can be taken away from us at anytime. I truly believe that most of us really think we are going to live forever and we don’t want to imagine… -
Financial Crisis Creates More Greed!
30 Oct 2011 | 3:40 pmYes the current financial crisis is creating more greed! If you follow our blog, you know that we specialize in helping you personally protect your life and assets now and in the future. With so many people out of work, foreclosures still devastating families (200,000 – 300,000 properties/mo.), banks are still not lending money, the governments spending is totally out of control and etc…, people are looking at other options in order to survive. These methods that people are turning to for possible solutions may have a major impact on you or your family. I’m not only…
-
One Social Media
-
Friday Clicks [Volume 12] | The Best of the Social Web
10 Feb 2012 | 10:11 amTweetIs it Friday already? I don’t know about you, but this week has flown by. Not a whole lot going on in the social sphere this week, so I figured we’d have a little bit of fun, and not be entirely newsy about it. Samuel Adams did something really cool and crowd-sourced a new beer. Unfortunately, the voting period is over, but Facebook fans were given the chance to vote on flavors, colors, aromas, etc. As a lover of craft beer, this was awesome to see. (Click here) The most watched uStream channel of all time is back on air – and it’s right here in our lovely home… -
Pick 3 Books for the First Quarter of 2012
6 Feb 2012 | 1:29 amTweetDid you miss the Social Truth last week? Joe, Rob and myself talked about a few of the books we are currently reading and recommend. The three of us are all big readers, and firm believers in reading about as much as you can handle to keep you on top of your game. And you don’t just have to stick to strictly marketing or business books. Personally, those often look so familiar to me with numbers and strategies and bullet points that I end up preferring stories where I can learn one or two key points and not be bogged down trying to learn a million new skills. Watch the video below… -
Friday Click [Volume 11] | The Best of the Social Web
3 Feb 2012 | 11:03 amTweetThis week was incredibly significant for one reason: The social media giant that really started this whole industry filed for their Initial Public Offering (they are going public and will be selling stock). The marks a momentous occasion, even if it doesn’t have much of an effect for the general public, or even folks like us here in the marketing world. What it really marks is that these internet giants are not to be taken lightly. They are much more careful about going public than the companies that saw their bubble burst 10 years ago. In the last six months or so LinkedIn,… -
Friday Clicks [Volume 10] | The Best of the Social Web
27 Jan 2012 | 10:32 amTweetThe theme of the first month of 2012 in the social world has largely involved privacy and ethics – something we aren’t quite used to here in the social space. Is this a sign of a lasting trend? I think so. In the past, we’ve just been all about new networks and getting our message – both personally and professionally – on as many channels as possible. Many experts, though, are saying that 2012 is going to be a year of scaling back that attitude and thinking through the implications of our world being inherently more social. Quite interesting! The links: This… -
Friday Clicks [Volume 9] | The Best of the Social Web
20 Jan 2012 | 11:08 amTweetThe web was aflutter with #SOPA this week. Thankfully, Congress has decided to table the bill (for now) and do some further research about its far-reaching implications. Facebook also made the news this week, as did the continued opinions coming out about Google+ being integrated into search. Oh, and Apple found a way to sneak in as well. Are we really surprised? Onto the links: Here’s a nice SOPA article – specifically about how Blackout Wednesday was the Internet’s coming of age to be a voice in politics. (Click here) Stephen Levy, a renowned tech writer, voices his…
-
Finger Candy Media from Jessica Northey
-
XM Radio Pioneer Lee Abrams Launches ‘Think’ TeleVisual Network
2 Feb 2012 | 5:55 amTHINK TELEVISUAL NETWORK, “a dramatic reinvention of Television News” to be Launched by Industry Change Agents STEVEN SASLOW, LEE ABRAMS, and BRANDON DAVIS. THINK TELEVISUAL... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Whats Your Social Media Game Plan for 2012?
24 Jan 2012 | 6:15 amThis was originally written for a Broadcasting/Music community I have a column in, but change a couple job titles/adjectives and this could be any industry. Hat tip and big thanks to Guy Kawaksaki,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Music Icon @CharlieDaniels Joins #CMchat on Monday, January 23 at 8pm CT
18 Jan 2012 | 6:07 am“Few individuals have symbolized the South in popular culture as directly and indelibly as Charlie Daniels.” From the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. The Music industry has seen a lot of changes... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Emotional Tweeting
12 Jan 2012 | 7:30 amIt happens. Emotional tweeting, posting, texting, emailing….we are all *mostly * humans, having a human experience, both online and in REAL time. In my opinion, some of the best content comes... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Hidden Birthright: The Story of Jett Williams, Daughter of Hank #CMchat
23 Dec 2011 | 10:30 amIf Jett Williams had made up the story of her life, she says, "it wouldn’t compare to the real thing," and I am sure you will agree. Her bio reads like a sinister plot from a Lifetime movie, that... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
-
Steel on Sales
-
One thing at a time
31 Jan 2012 | 7:23 amBuilding a sales force that will provide your business success for years to come doesn't have to be a difficult process. Instead of trying to do everything at once, it's highly recommended that you try one thing at a time. Focusing on different areas and giving them your attention is much more productive. The Priority What is the priority of your business? You already know yourself, but making sure the team knows is just as important. This allows them to understand exactly what needs to be done in order for success to shine. Once you get there, they can be rewarded for their hard… -
Top 5%- How does a Sales Professional get there?
17 Jan 2012 | 7:21 amAnyone in sales more than a year has probably come across the top 5% conversation. This usually occurs in the first 2 months on a consistent basis and during meetings when accolades are given out. The top 5% sales person is well above the rest when it comes to knowledge, understanding, technique, and the amount of money they make. How do you get there? Reaching the top 5% isn't an easy task. If you know anyone who is considered to be in the top 5%, you probably think they have a different personality than you. Whether they seem rude, cocky, arrogant, polite, or anything else, you just… -
Don't Fail Your Highly Aggressive Salespeople.
29 Dec 2011 | 7:11 amWhether you have an existing sales force that has become stagnant, or you are a start-up ready to hire your first salesperson, the goal is the same: you want to grow your company. Growth is the underlying reason why most companies go out and find “Hunters,” those highly aggressive salespeople that make things happen. Unfortunately, more often than not, companies abandon theses highly aggressive salespeople soon after they come on board. The reasons are two-fold: they become too much to handle and need constant change and stimulation to stay fresh in the field. Eventually those people are… -
Become a Standout
13 Dec 2011 | 10:31 amSo you want to stand out from the rest of the other millions of people using social media and become a success but don't know exactly where to start? I came across something recently that might just get you thinking a bit, and perhaps a bit differently than you normally would. Someone was asked how to stand out from the crowd and an internet marketer paused and thought to himself how easy that truly is-just look around and see what everyone else is doing and don't do it! Or I would add to that or do it, but find a way to do it differently that sets you apart from the crowd in… -
Social Media the New Normal
6 Dec 2011 | 10:30 amThere are definitely a lot of different opinions floating around out there particularly on the internet these days regarding if social media is the new normal as far as is it considered part of one's work, a distraction from it or could it be a combination of the two? Obviously it makes a difference who you are asking these questions of. If you ask an internet marketer they are more than likely going to tell you that indeed it is a crucial part of their work that they could not do without and that it helps their business grow immensely. However, if you asked a dental assistant he…
-
KaneCo Conversations
-
Just a Little Peek: Social Savvy Employers Get Creepy
8 Feb 2012 | 12:15 pmLast week, at a local Java Meet Up on the topic of Ethics and Social Media, I learned about a new trend of employers asking applicants for their social media passwords (or peeks behind the privacy curtain of their social accounts) as part of the interview process. According to Minnesota headhunter, Paul DeBettignies, this is... -
The Rise of Social Schadenfreude
31 Jan 2012 | 4:31 pmMedia coverage about companies who use social media is generally divided into two categories — stories about those who are using it well, and cautionary tales of those who have had horrible failures. The latter seem to get the lion’s share of headlines. And, from what I see in my social feeds, that’s because we,... -
It’s Alive! Creating Your Social Media Frankenpolicies
25 Jan 2012 | 6:48 amSocial media policies are kind of like health insurance…you can get away with not having any, but if a train wreck occurs, you going to be screwed. So make sure your business is safe, not sorry, and draft some. By taking some inspiration from Frankenstein and cobbling together information you have on hand and find... -
Branding for the Social Brain
17 Jan 2012 | 8:17 pmBranding is all about making an impression. And, making an impression is all about doing two things– making an impact at the moment in time in which a person interacts with your brand, and making that impact in such a way that the person will remember it. Marketers tend to invest a lot of energy... -
Do You Know How to Report Suicidal Posts on Facebook?
11 Jan 2012 | 7:42 amKnowing how to report suicidal content that you see on Facebook can ensure people get the help that they need. It might even save a life.
-
all the news that's fit to blog, tweet & post
-
Keeping Email Marketing Alive
3 Feb 2012 | 9:20 amThis week’s post on GigCoin is about Email Marketing and the good news from the findings is that email marketing is very much alive and well. And if you’re wondering whether social media will push email marketing out of the arena, Forrester Research believes that social and mobile campaigns will actually help you send more emails since “email tethers together customer experiences across channels.” You can read the full post on GigCoin’s blog. -
Restaurants and Contests
26 Jan 2012 | 9:07 amThis week I researched and wrote about restaurants and contests for a post for Gigcoin’s blog. Our goal for the post was to demonstrate some successful, unique and clever contests. I put a query out on Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and through the query we heard from a number of businesses around the United States. We selected four to profile in the post: Ling and Louie’s Asian Bar and Grill, Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria, The Bistro Group, and Mia’s Pizza and Eats. I was very impressed with the creativity of each of these contests and it really drove home the point that businesses need to… -
Two for Two
23 Jan 2012 | 11:57 amI’m having a nice day today on the blogosphere with two new posts published, one on Social Media Examiner (SME) and the other on The Content Marketeer. The 26 tips post is an A-Z guide providing assorted tips for writing great blog posts. The second post is an article about Dr. Patsi Krakoff and her experiences with content marketing. I enjoyed working on these posts immensely! You can read the posts on their respective sites. -
Fun Finds this Week, January 22, 2012
22 Jan 2012 | 8:21 amEvery week is a treasure trove of finds online and offline. Here are some of my favorite fun finds this week: Tools & Applications Photo Pin PhotoPin helps bloggers find photos for their blog and makes adding them to their post fast and easy created by Markus Urban. This is a great tool. Makes finding photos easy and Markus even provides the code for attribution! Pinterest I discovered Pinterest more than a week ago but have started building more of my boards this week. I’ve been researching Pinterest for an upcoming article. In particular, I’ve loved having a place where I can… -
Social Media Marketing: 3 Themes to Start Off the New Year
17 Jan 2012 | 10:57 amThe new year has gotten off to a terrific start with three new themed social media articles I’ve published on GigCoin’s blog. One about the real estate profession, how to use games-based marketing, and tips for local marketing. You can see the posts here: A Closer Look at Real Estate and Social Media Marketing Gamification & Marketing: How to Get Your Head in the Game Local Marketing: 10 Tips for Getting Found Locally photo credit: cosmonautirussi via photopin cc
-
The Anti-Social Media
-
Porn on Twitter
31 Jan 2012 | 6:15 amTwitter made a big stink last year by creating their own photo service. Here’s something you probably didn’t notice though (unless you’re a dirty pervert), Twitter allows people to post porn. Finally, you can share all your nasty, 140 character fantasies with all of your followers. Want to show your crappy cell phone pic of wang all over town? Twitter’s got you covered. Want the world to see your ta-tas? Tweet them out. This is different from other image services, which had policies in place so we didn’t have to see your nasty junk. They would take down your… -
Trending Topics on Twitter
30 Jan 2012 | 5:55 amI recently started paying more attention to the trending topics section on Twitter. Somehow, I forgot how awful the trending topics are. Trending topics have all the benefits of giving yourself a lobotomy. However, they come without the high price or inherent danger of performing a clumsy self-surgery on your brain. They somehow manage to combine the absolute worst in ideas, writing, and respect for other human beings in less than 140 characters. It takes serious effort to be that consistently bad. Let’s take a trend from last week and use it as an example: #iusetothink This trend… -
Nobody Will Hangout With Me On Google+
25 Jan 2012 | 6:56 amI’m a loser. A total, epic, mega loser. I’ve been on Google+ since it launched in June, and only one person has hung out with me. And that was for work. Hangouts are supposed to be fun and friendly. They’re supposed to bring your intimate circles together. They’re supposed to be impromptu and spontaneous. Instead, they just make me jealous. Why do other people get to hang out with The Muppets, President Obama, and William Shatner? Why am I stuck alone in my apartment with my cat? She doesn’t want to hang out on Google+. She just wants to sleep and eat cat food… -
Don’t Spam Your LinkedIn Connections
24 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amI’m pretty open to connecting with people on LinkedIn because connecting on LinkedIn is the best way to stalk someone. In fact, I typically will connect with anyone who requests to connect with me, so long as they don’t seem like a complete sociopath. But people have begun to abuse my willingness to connect. These people who I’ve been connected with for months and years have suddenly decided that it’s OK to use LinkedIn to send me weird pitches. Instead of using it to cultivate a relationship, they just decide to send me a demo of weird tool I’ll never use. -
Community Manager Appreciation Day
23 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amToday is Community Manager Appreciation Day. Yes, it’s time for another weird social media “holiday.” Seriously, who knows or cares about this so-called holiday besides community managers? Most people don’t even know that community managers exist in their online lives. They think that crap just automatically comes out on Facebook and Twitter from brands. Given the sheer number of comments and madness on some Facebook walls, you’d be hard pressed to think they was any actual moderation there. But community managers deserve a holiday. Hell, they deserve a whole…
-
Pushing Social
-
Seth Godin, The Dip, and How to Really Succeed at Social Media
13 Feb 2012 | 9:41 amI am expecting a lot from you. I suspect you already know this. I believe content marketing (AKA Storytelling) and social media can transform you and your business. The only thing you have to do is decide to be the best, not average, not good-enough, but the best. There’s a widening influence gap in the social media space. The people with the influence are quickly attracting a dominant share of their market. Everyone else is scrambling for the influential crumbs that are left behind. The only way to compete is to invest the time to be the best. The top tier thinkers, executers,… -
More Blogging “How-To” Stuff That Works
10 Feb 2012 | 11:00 amThis week we tackled email opt-in forms, spying on your readers, The Force, and dealing with doubt. You also stepped up and offered some incredibly insightful comments this week. Thank you! Ok, here’s the wrap-up. Blog Spotlight: Spectacular Blog Reviews are a great way for me to learn about bloggers outside of the “social media” niche. Here’s one blog that made me smile this week: This Week’s Spotlight is on: AuPairMom This Week In PS 7 Simple Ways to Tweak Your Blog Email Opt-in and Get More Reader Sign-ups I’m obsessed with email list building. -
7 Simple Ways to Tweak Your Blog Email Opt-in and Get More Reader Sign-ups
9 Feb 2012 | 8:57 amIt’s frustrating that one of the most important blog success elements is so often ignored. I’m talking about the email opt-in for getting blog updates or an offer. I think deep down most people feel “icky” about asking for a person’s email address. They put it off until the last minute, then throw something up there as an afterthought. I’m not going to go into all of the reasons why you should have an email opt-in. I’ve already written a novel’s worth of posts on the topic . What I will tackle is how to give that lonely and forlorn email opt-in form a makeover. I get… -
Quick and Easy Tips for Learning More About Your Readers
8 Feb 2012 | 9:09 amI have a quick litmus test for evaluating a blogger’s chances of success. I ask them to describe their target customer. If the person uses data to craft a clear picture of their reader then they are on the right path. If they use their so-called “gut” or “intuition”, then I head to their About Us page. I look to see if they work at Apple or have “Jobs” as a last name. If not, they are automatically put in the “needs improvement” category. There is one iron-clad law than bloggers can’t ignore. It’s simple –… -
How George Lucas Would Write a Blog Post
7 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amYou need an edge. You can’t simply blog and hope for the best. Competition is too intense, and attention is too scarce. The most enduring competitive advantage is a deep understanding of what makes your readers tick – specifically, how they build rapport with experts and mentors in their lives. As a professional blogger, you are trying to position yourself as your readers’ mentor; to do this, you need to insert yourself into their day-to-day story. Here’s an interesting strategy for doing just that. The Hero’s Journey It seems that George Lucas had a secret template for…
-
The Semacraft Blog
-
Convenience as a service
6 Feb 2012 | 4:58 amShredded cabbage for sale, Wote, Kenya 3rd February 2012 Convenience can mean different things to the household consumer, depending on their location. In urban Chicago, its stocking up the freezer and pantry with a trip to a megastore like Costco while in Singapore it might be the ubiquitous neighbourhood hawker stand where rice, meat, two veg can be had for as little as $2.50 per person. Here in the mostly rural, arid Makueni district of Kenya where the concept of leftovers is moot and only bars and restaurants tend to have a refrigerator, convenience means stopping by the cabbage lady for… -
Immersion in rural Kenya
29 Jan 2012 | 2:58 amNext week's office We start the immersion phase of our project tomorrow and leave for our first location in rural Kenya today. Our focus is to better understand household consumer behaviour and our methodology is inspired by the early stage of the human centered design process. Ukambani has been the traditional homeland of the Kamba people for at least the last four or five centuries. Although oral history acknowledges that the Kamba came from the south, in the region of Mount Kilimanjaro, the creation myth which is most popularly cited places their origins in the heart of Ukambani:… -
Why so much “BoP” marketing fails in the developing world
26 Jan 2012 | 5:36 amConsumer electronics stall in informal market, Nairobi Kenya 23 January 2012 Increasingly I have been getting the sense that there are some fundamental issues with the way BoP focused organizations are developing, creating and implementing their market entry strategies. Here are four of the most obvious errors that I’m seeing: Assuming there’s no competition Most of these firms, particularly those coming in from the outside and seeking to serve the ‘poor’ in the developing world seem to be operating in a vacuum. Observing their market entry actions point to an… -
“This is wealth in Wote”
23 Jan 2012 | 12:42 pmSweet, fresh water, Ukambani Kenya 18th January 2012 The owner of this shamba specially asked his man to remove the pipe so that he could proudly share his ‘wealth’ – sweet, fresh water piped in from a submersed pump with pipe and power laid down under the dry river bed and his fields. Value is always contextual. -
Fuel, Food and Fone – The necessities of modern life
23 Jan 2012 | 12:34 pmHighway stands, Kirinyaga, Kenya 19th January 2012
-
HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
-
How Marketers Can Capitalize on the Sharing Revolution
13 Feb 2012 | 1:00 pmA few weeks ago, I saw AOL co-founder Steve Case give an interview on The Colbert Report about his company Revolution, which is investing in people and businesses that disrupt the traditional concept of consumer ownership with a more practical and efficient consumer-sharing model. The consumer-sharing concept as a revolution that will impact the way we do business in the future (and now) has been mulling around in my mind ever since. Then on Feb 9, Cynthia Boris at Marketing Pilgrim wrote an interesting piece called The Sharing Economy: Could It Be the Next Big Thing? Well, I think that yes,… -
How to Master the Design of Compelling Calls-to-Action
13 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amCalls-to-action (CTAs) are one of the most important elements of lead generation, and they should be used in each and every one of your marketing tactics: emails, social media updates, press releases, trade shows ... the list goes on. In fact, whenever you want to ensure your team is moving in the right direction, pose the question, “What’s the call-to-action we're using to drive people's behavior?” Once you have a strategy in mind for which calls-to-action you'll feature on your website, you'll probably start obsessing over their design. In this blog post, we present you… -
Blogging Trumps Traditional Advertising in ROI Head-to-Head (Case Study)
10 Feb 2012 | 4:00 pmAs a follow up to last week's post about things a marketer could buy with a Super Bowl ad budget, we wanted to share this real life story of a Super Bowl ad buyer's remorse. This week, we discovered that a HubSpot customer ran commercials for his business during last weekend's Super Bowl. Turns out that customer learned a tough lesson about the cost and value of outbound marketing as a result. Truth be told, this company has made great progress implementing an inbound marketing strategy using HubSpot software, but it also hired a PR agency that wanted to help them make a big splash. The… -
The Laws Marketers Need to Know to Avoid Legal Backlash
10 Feb 2012 | 12:19 pmLaw has been all over the marketing news lately. First, there was all the SOPA/PIPA drama. And you might have also noticed that privacy has been quite a hot button issue recently, with the launch of Google's new one-size-fits-all privacy policy as well as the latest debacle with the up and coming (or maybe not?) social network, Path. With so much talk about laws governing the internet, as a marketer, you may be wondering how it could affect the way you do your job. So if you want to make sure you're not being a marketing outlaw, here's what you need to know to comply with the major laws that… -
Before & After: The Optimization of a Flawed Landing Page
10 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amMarketers talk a lot about advanced techniques for working with their leads: lead flow, lead management, lead nurturing. But all of that is meaningless without consistent lead generation, and landing pages are the strongest tools in a marketer's arsenal to meet that looming monthly lead goal. Because landing pages are so important to lead generation, attention to detail is in order to ensure you have the highest conversion rate possible. And as it turns out, landing page visitors are pretty darn fickle about which pages they'll convert on. To show you how to prevent landing page abandonment,…
-
33 Charts
-
Defining Social Standards for Doctors
9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amThere’s lots of discussion about how doctors should carry themselves online. I think it’s simpler than we make it out to be. Consider that we all live and work in communities. We’re are shaped by those around us. None of us do what we do alone. And what I do and how I behave affects the way my community feels about me. There are benefits and consequences to what I do. I can blast fireworks in my yard 2 am, speed in my neighborhood, or get drunk and disorderly at the local Mexican restaurant. I can volunteer as a scout leader or lead a food drive for a local… -
Lockstep Physicians
8 Feb 2012 | 6:31 pmI had lunch with a colleague who is finishing his MBA in May. We talked about what he planned to do going forward. The conversation then turned to doctors and the way they see themselves and their options. In medicine we’re used to having the way paved for us. We do what’s been done before. When you’re training to be a doctor you’re always looking to the next thing. When you’re a student, your endpoint is getting into medical school. In medical school you see residency as the goal. During residency you count the days to completion or look to do a fellowship. In… -
Microstyle Microreview
7 Feb 2012 | 6:01 pmIf you have a chance, pick up a copy of Microstyle – The Art of Writing Little by naming consultant Christopher Johnson. It’s about our new expressive economy in language: getting a lot of idea out of a little message. Johnson calls this the era of microstyle, a new era of verbal communication that technology made possible. Microstyle is part of a broader cultural phenomenon trending toward brevity. Here’s a teaser: So, how do you pack a lot of meaning into a little message? You don’t. That’s the first lesson of microstyle. A message isn’t a treasure chest full of meaning. -
Big Doctor Data
31 Jan 2012 | 11:22 amI recently gave Grand Rounds to the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. Here’s what was going through my head as I looked out over the podium: ‘Just imagine what’s out there.’ Not the people, necessarily, but what they know. Imagine if we could harness that knowledge and wisdom. And what would it be like if we could package, tag, and archive all of that understanding on the web. Clinical wisdom, procedural pearls, solutions, opinions, unusual patterns, unique cases, hard-learned lessons, and even simple stories. It could take the form of video, audio,… -
What Would Osler Think?
30 Jan 2012 | 1:48 pmMedicine is changing quickly. In the context of these changes I hear this question occasionally: ‘What would Osler think?’ What would he think of imaging before examination? How would he feel about medical residents rounding with one eye on the EHR? It’s an interesting question and one that highlights the fact that we’re a profession preoccupied with our past. We like to quote iconic figures of medical history. Their pictures hang in the lecture halls that shape the youngest minds in medicine. We’re trained from early on to keep pace with the past. We cross-check where…
-
Talk It Up!
-
How brands are using Pinterest
9 Feb 2012 | 6:20 pmPinterest, the visual bookmarking site, has exploded over the last three weeks. And while many users' pinned content is focused on fashion and home decor, consumer brands are using the site for far more. Pinterest is all the rage, the hottest, newest blossoming social networking site. Pinners are creating pinboards of home decor, lush food items, wedding designs and fashion combinations. Since I'm don't spend a huge portion of my time on any of those topics, I've been wondering: who are Pinterest's power users and why is it catching on so quickly? What are they using it for? More importantly,… -
How to use Storify to curate, compile and compose a kick-ass blog post
31 Jan 2012 | 1:47 pmA quick tutorial in how to use Storify to curate, compile and compose a research-based blog post for those of us without a journalism degree When a story hits my news feed more than once, I tend to want to look at it from a few different angles before forming an opinion. Check the Twitter stream for a hashtag. Do a Google search to see which mainstream news outlets have something to say on the matter and which bloggers have researched and weighed in. Then I'll form my own opinion and construct a blog post with links to relevant content and curated photos and Tweets to support my opinion. And… -
Free PowerCam app brings live instant filters to the iPhone
29 Jan 2012 | 10:30 pmThis weekend, I was totally obsessed with playing with a new iPhone camera app. Hopefully, the pix are so nifty that I can be forgiven for spending all my social time looking at my phone and squeeing. Full disclosure: this is a compensated review without expectation of favorability. I don't often do app reviews, except for the occasions in which I can't help but make a list of the coolest apps I've discovered of late. And I think that now that Shiny New App syndrome has worn off, a lot of us are simply returning to our favorite apps and not constantly seeking out the latest and greatest. So… -
Three best videos explaining why SOPA is bad
23 Jan 2012 | 7:34 pmNot sure why SOPA is bad but too lazy to skim the articles? My fave videos explaining the ramifications of SOPA. Video #1: The Oatmeal My personal favorite, an absolutely hysterical take on what SOPA would mean for content creators like you and me if enacted as currently written by comic genius Matt Inman of The Oatmeal: Video #2: Clay Shirkey Clay Shirkey, Internet activist, NYU professor and author of Here Comes Everybody, giving his TEDsalon talk in New York on the history of music, image and video copyright rights. The real threat to the enactment of PIPA and SOPA is our ability to share… -
Did it work? The results of the SOPA/PIPA blackout
19 Jan 2012 | 9:32 pmOn January 18, some of the internet's most popular sites went black to protest the SOPA and PIPA bills currently making their ways through Congress. What was the result of a day without Wikipedia and Craigslist? SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act and PIPA, the Protect Intellectual Property Act, are Congress' attempt to curtail websites that illegally publish copyrighted materials. However, the provisions of the bills are written such that one copyrighted image could lead an entire site to be shut down without due process. If you're not familiar with SOPA, this video featuring Ben Huh, the CEO…
-
Wave: "tracking how people and brands use social media"
-
Old Spice guy hijacks the adverts of fellow P&G brands in “powerful” new viral campaign
9 Feb 2012 | 5:08 amOld Spice front man, Terry Crews, crashes the adverts of Charmin and Bounce, exclaiming "Old Spice Body Spray is too powerful to stay in its own commercial!” The series of in-your-face adverts has driven a surge of positive online discussion and demonstrated an original way for multi-brand companies to get dual exposure for their products. Old Spice has recently undergone a series of changes to its brand image- only last year replacing much-loved Old Spice guy, Isaiah, with Fabio, and now calling on former American football player, Terry Crews, to be the face of the brand. In the… -
Escada boost brand heritage by re-launching 90s perfumes on Facebook
8 Feb 2012 | 5:02 amEscada show that social media can be used to re-launch past flagship products before a new audience, helping to build brand awareness and strengthen values of heritage. Many brands such as Nike, Ford and Nespresso have used social media as the stage for product “come-backs”, allowing them to target a wider and often younger audience. Escada have recently used a similar approach by re-launching their three flagship fragrances from the 90s: Sexy Graffiti, Island Kiss and Rockin’ Rio. Fans can fill in the 'Which Escada Girl Are You?' quiz to find out which of the re-launched… -
Super Bowl movie trailer insights: Avengers drives most intent to view
7 Feb 2012 | 7:03 amAnalysis of immediate consumer Twitter reaction to the latest Super Bowl movie trailers reveals the Avengers as the out and out winner, driving more positivity, higher reach, more intent to view and a larger growth in Facebook likes than its rivals. With an audience of over 100 million, the Super Bowl is always an event that attracts big ad spend and a lot of interest, but with the advent of social media it is now possible to track ad impact in real time. WaveMetrix analysed immediate consumer reaction as the Super Bowl aired to establish which movie trailers were the most well… -
Heineken’s Valentine's Day campaign lets consumers ‘serenade’ a date online- proving to be a hit with both men and women
2 Feb 2012 | 5:21 amHeineken’s new Valentine’s Day campaign, “The Serenade”, shows how to build a sense of fun and excitement around a brand, while appealing to a wide audience and encouraging consumer-to-consumer engagement. This Valentine’s Day, Heineken is giving consumers the chance to personalize video-serenades to send out to their Facebook friends. Cyril Charzat, Senior Director of the Global Heineken Brand, explains, “The Serenade is designed to take some of the stress out of asking a partner to go on a date. It’s fun, interactive and guaranteed to make an… -
Namco shows how to drive different types of consumer engagement on YouTube
1 Feb 2012 | 5:11 amNamco Bandai Games’ graffiti based YouTube video for SoulCalibur V shows how brands can increase engagement by appealing to broader audiences, though resulting buzz may not necessarily focus on the brand’s products. On January 30 Namco Bandai Games released two videos via their official YouTube channel promoting upcoming ‘beat ‘em up’ SoulCalibur V. One video features footage of graffiti artists painting a mural of the game’s characters, while the other is a more traditional trailer, focusing on footage of the game itself. The graffiti video has received…
-
Social-Media
-
There Are No Shortcuts to a Good Reputation
9 Feb 2012 | 7:12 amThere’s an old riddle about a town with only two barbers. A businessman arrives in town for the day, and needs a haircut. He visits both shops, and notices the first shop is very neat, the barber is clean shaven, wears polished shoes, a pressed white coat, and sports a great haircut. Across town, the second shop is a mess, the barber wears scruffy clothes, doesn’t shave, and his haircut is a complete disaster. Why does the businessman choose to have his hair cut by the scruffy barber? Because the scruffy barber must have been the one who did such a great job on the clean-shaven barber’s… -
Dear Mr. Zuckerberg: Where Are the Women?
3 Feb 2012 | 2:14 pmDear Mr. Zuckerberg, Congratulations are definitely in order. That S-1 filing for Facebook’s IPO was filled with impressive numbers: $3.7 billion in revenue last year, $1 billion in earnings, and $3.9 billion in the bank account. There was one number that really caught my eye though: Zero. Zero is the number of women listed on Facebook’s Board of Directors. What I want to know is why? Many studies show that companies with high percentages of women on the Board perform far better than companies without women on the Board. In fact, the Fortune 500 companies with the highest… -
What Online Marketers Need to Know About Personal Assistant Apps
27 Jan 2012 | 10:32 amEven if you only casually keep up with tech news, you’ve by now surely heard a thing or two about Siri, the personal assistant app that comes with the iPhone 4S. While by no means ideal, Siri speaks volumes about the future of the Internet search. By 2015 mobile traffic is projected to quadruple as more people exclusively use their smartphones to connect to the web, and thus web searches themselves will be more likely to be conducted via mobile device. Combined with the fact that personal assistant apps, such as Siri, are certain to become base features for all smartphones, the… -
I Love Buying Twitter and Facebook Friends
26 Jan 2012 | 7:15 amOf course I don’t. I find it completely ridiculous. I do receive emails from vendors, suppliers, and marketers requesting a sponsored blog post, link, or guest post. There are times when money is offered and other times when they would prefer something free. However, I experienced something different last night while reading new emails. Ready? I hope this message finds you well. I’d like to advertise on your site kylelacy.com for our WEBSITE. It wouldn’t be anything obtrusive; I’d like to get either a mention & link in a post leading to our site. If you help me out we’d be… -
Why LinkedIn Events matters more Now
23 Jan 2012 | 1:04 pmThink of every event or conference you’ve ever attended. Think of the two questions that’s been foremost on your mind in finding value from the right events, besides avoiding these guys or worse still running into these guys: 1. Which of my friends are attending this event? This is probably the #1 question that bugs conference organizers and event attendees. Think of the last time you’ve attended an event or a conference? Your first thought that helped you decide should you spend that extra few hours after work, driving all the way to an event was – are my peers, colleagues or former…
-
NotEasyToForget.com
-
Social Networking – What Was Old Is Shiny Again
7 Feb 2012 | 4:49 amI’m certainly not insinuating by the title that social networking being old is a bad thing, quite the contrary. Social networking is firmly established into our lifestyles anymore. I almost can’t imagine a world without the available uber-connectedness and real-time stream of information…can you? Social media marketing for business is quickly coming of age as well. I think it’s safe to say that there aren’t too many out there still screaming from their soapboxes that social media is either a fad or dead, or both. I’m not here to post about social networking memory lane, or even… -
Happy Community Manager Appreciation Day…An Infographic In Your Honor!
23 Jan 2012 | 6:15 amToday is YOUR day Community Managers! Celebrate, dance…call in sick and treat yourself to a spa day! Whatever you do with yourself today, know that you are an appreciated and vital component of how business gets done in 2012. Your role is more inportant each year as you bravely carve out and define your place in the professional ecosystem. Started in 2010 by Jerimiah Owyang, Community Manager Appreciation Day is a day where the world is called upon to acknowledge who you are and what you do. I personally want to applaud your bravery and your passion. Now, more than ever the world is… -
Updated 2011 World of Social Media Video Infographic
24 Dec 2011 | 12:43 pm2011 has been yet another banner year for social media. As marketers, it is necessary for us to keep tabs on developing trends as well as the past. The metrics that got us here are our chronicle. This video-Infographic is an excellent visual representation of where we are and from whence we came. I’m pretty much just parking this here as a year-end reference. Some of you may not have already seen the video. If this is the case, enjoy! I hope that all of you and yours are enjoying a pleasant Christmas Eve today! +James Ball No related posts. -
Social Media, Work Dynamics, & Life – The Two Score and Five Year Lens
28 Sep 2011 | 9:25 amSo yeah, this is the first day of my 45th year on the planet…of course I’m reflecting! I really just wanted to jot down a few things to keep you in the loop and as an archive of sorts. Remember the “Social Media Case Study Starting Today” I wrote back in May of 2010? I am supposing that this post will serve as an official update about all of that, and then some. If you’ve been following for any length of time, then you know that there has been a steep decline in the frequency of my posts here on this blog since that very same May of 2010. Only part of that is because I’ve been so… -
Need A Website In Like, 30 Minutes? (1/2 Of All Small Businesses Don’t Have One!) Quick Fix:
25 Aug 2011 | 4:56 amI love it when something turns out to be exactly “as advertised”, don’t you? I love it even more when a product or a service makes something a little bit easier for struggling small businesses. Today I am super-pleased to introduce you to Onepager. Onepager is a service that allows you to create a dandy little one page website in minutes. Seriously, I built a website using Onepager in 30 minutes last night (I even cropped a pic for the background and made a little logo). Click the image below and check it out. The videos below pretty much explain everything you’ll need to know about…
-
Channelship's Video Blog
-
6 Creative Online Calls To Action For Your B2B Documents
2 Feb 2012 | 4:10 amVery often we send or receive all kinds of different documents online and offline, such as proposals, branded presentations, training packets, etc. All those papers have a purpose. We would like people to do X when they read it, right? Here are a few things you can try: 1. Complement with video All proposals we send have a customised video that points to a branded page on our website where the prospect can learn more about the service and what they can expect. Video provides a full different taste about what you offer. Think about your training material or anything that’s been delivered… -
4 B2B Content Marketing Ideas From A TV Cooking Show
18 Jan 2012 | 3:21 amI’m a big fan of home made food and for many years I’ve been learning tones from TV cooking shows. One of my favourites is “River Cottage”, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, a chef well known for less dependence on the outside world, food integrity, and the consumption of local, seasonal produce. In the latest episode, Huge came up with a few creative ideas that immediately made me think about content opportunities for B2B companies to better market their products and services. 1. Pick a Theme This chef is constantly exploring all the angles of seasonal food. He… -
Social Media Marketing: How To Work Smarter In 2012
5 Jan 2012 | 5:30 amYou’ve probably read many times how social media changed our lives, provided us with a voice and made everyone a publisher. However, millions of people and companies have jumped on the wagon since the early days. Do you already see a big problem for 2012? Noise. A few weeks ago, we wrote a post about how cluttered Twitter is. It doesn’t matter any more how many followers you have since your message barely gets seen. On Tuesday, I read this other post where Niall Harbison from Simply Zesty, wrote about how difficult it is for brands and companies to get exposure on Facebook unless… -
Will You Open Your Vaults In 2012?
22 Dec 2011 | 5:53 amBefore I proceed with this post and to avoid any misinterpretation, I will not be talking about your company’s money vault. Other more qualified professionals can advise you how to manage your funds There are two vaults we need to open (or improve) in 2012 and more importantly, use wisely: Open your knowledge vault If there’s one major mistake that companies and brands keep making year by year is to keep betting most of the chips on “interruption marketing”. I still see loads of organisations delivering “we’ve been 20 years in business” as their… -
Your Business Contacts Closer Than Ever
7 Dec 2011 | 7:02 amThe year is about to finish and again, we managed to accumulate another big pile of business cards. There are several solutions to tackle that problem such as CRMs, business diaries, even card scanners. However, do you know what was missing until now? A smart integration with our LinkedIn contacts! Yesterday I started using the free Cardmunch app, built by the LinkedIn team. Here’s how it saves you time: * Scan the business card (like in the picture) and if you’re happy, upload it. * The app will process the data on the card and match it with the same person’s LinkedIn…
-
Web Ink Now
-
Content Marketing and Brand Journalism at Boeing
10 Feb 2012 | 10:26 amBack in May, 2010 when Boeing embarked on a fledgling brand journalism program, I interviewed Todd Blecher, Communications Director, for a blog post I titled The Plane Truth: Brand journalism and the new Boeing site. Since then, I've been using Boeing as an example of an organization that is creating great content but until yesterday I had never met Todd in person. We both spoke at the Purina Digital Summit "Feeding the Beast" event in St. Louis. What a perfect tag-team: I talked about how companies can create excellent content and how journalists make excellent content creators (print… -
MYTH: "My buyers are not on the Web"
5 Feb 2012 | 10:20 amI frequently hear from people that their buyers are not on the Web. This myth is used an excuse not to create a valuable Web site and to avoid creating content. Sorry to deliver a reality check, but the truth is that very few people are offline, particularly when you include lower cost mobile technology. In fact, there are more mobile phones in the world than toothbrushes. Of the 6 billion people on the planet, 4.8 billion have access to a mobile phone. I saw this phenomenon in action this week while on a one-week expedition in the Panamanian jungle. Together with seven other international… -
The advertising arms race now going to the edge of space
31 Jan 2012 | 5:17 amPerhaps you've seen the video Lego Man in Space that’s gone around recently. It's an interesting time-lapse sequence of a ride on a weather balloon and has generated two million views in five days. Whenever there is a new technology like this, it is inevitable that somebody will use it as a place to sell ads. Enter JP Aerospace, a company that flies a high altitude balloon, carrying ads, to the edge of space and returns photos for the sponsor to use. The JP Aerospace site says: "Creates impact! Gives customers a lasting impression of your logo or message! Provides a dramatic image for your… -
Thinking Right (and Left) about Content Marketing
27 Jan 2012 | 3:11 pmAs I evaluate Web marketing such as blogs and websites, one thing I look for is evidence of both left-brain and right-brain thinking in the creation of the content. This obsession might seem trivial, but I guess my right-brain outlook on life causes me to take a holistic view of content. The right-/left-brain concept is widely credited to have developed from the thinking of American psychobiologist Roger Sperry in the late 1960s. Sperry's Nobel Prize-winning work opened whole fields of psychological and philosophical debate including the idea that there are two different sides of the brain,… -
Playing for Change
23 Jan 2012 | 9:28 amWhen I first saw the original Playing for Change video Stand By Me on YouTube I was moved and fascinated and jumped for joy. Wow. As a music lover and collector of social media success stories, here was both music and social media triumphantly on display and coming together to support a good cause. I talked up the videos via social and in person to everyone I saw. Stand By Me now has 37 million views on YouTube and has sparked a movement. Now, Playing for Change has 15 videos in the Songs Around the World series with a combined 140 million views. If you haven't seen a Playing for Change video…
-
Subtle Nuances
-
#DX3Canada Part1: Social Media Integration
3 Feb 2012 | 8:04 amWhat do you get when you combine almost 3,500 digital marketers, a handful of digital thought leaders and a wrestling ring full of Red Bull-fuelled developers? Dx3 Canada, Canada’s first major tradeshow serving digital marketers, advertisers, and retailers. I was lucky enough to attend on behalf of Tribal DDB Toronto to get my hands on some of the latest gadgets in digital marketing, and pick the brains of industry leaders. Find out on my full post Here, on the DDB Canada Blog -
Dinner Party Diary: Centro Toronto
2 Feb 2012 | 9:52 amLast week, Dave and I were able to celebrate the launch of Centro Toronto’s Facebook page [click here] with a fantastic dinner at this amazing five-star restaurant. Enjoy! -
Canadian Tire Lights Up Union Station with Holiday Spirit
21 Dec 2011 | 1:19 pmTribal DDB (my workplace) has helped Canadian Tire launch this amazing social media driven Holiday initiative. Watch the video for all the details. Want more Easter eggs to light up the tree? Go to www.ChristmasSpiritTree.ca or text 70734 #Volcano #Santa #Candycane #Christmas #Barber #Magic #Polkadots -
Giveaway: If You Had One Week With Marilyn
14 Nov 2011 | 8:24 amIf you had the chance to meet the infamous Marilyn Monroe, what would you do? If you could ask her one question, what would it be? One man, Colin Clarke, had the opportunity to spend a week with Monroe, desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of work, and show her some of the pleasures of British life in an idyllic week. He shares his story in a novel-turned-film My Week With Marilyn. The film is being released this week and Alliance Films are sharing the excitement of the release by gifting 8 pairs of free, advanced screening passes to you, awesome… -
Surprise! GenY Can’t Live Without The Internet
8 Nov 2011 | 8:41 amCisco released its 2011 Connected World Technology Report which surveyed approx. 3,000 college students and recent graduates about priorities in their job-search. Not surprisingly, the study revealed one in three college students and young professionals consider the Internet to be as important as air, water, food, and shelter. “More than half of the study’s respondents could not live without the Internet and cite it as an ‘integral part’ of their lives. In some cases, they call it more essential than owning a car, dating, and going to parties. Also, one in three…
-
We Are Social
-
We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #106
13 Feb 2012 | 1:13 pmLiking a brand has a positive purchase intent Interesting news from eMarketer: 54% of those who like a brand on Facebook are then more likely to purchase the product. For realz. From social media to word of mouth Promoting a brand on Facebook means more than just buying up thousands of fans and, right on cue, Unilever have announced that it is shifting away from using social media for getting fans and instead wants to move towards engagement to drive advocacy and word of mouth. The dinosaur in the room Is it brands that are having a hard time evolving, or is it agencies? Just 9% of senior… -
We Are Social 3 – Razorfish 4
10 Feb 2012 | 12:27 pmIt was a first for me. All day the banter and morale was high. Anticipation was ripe all day, the skipper finally declaring himself fit after a few days under the weather. A lot of players declared their intent to proudly put on the famous “white strip”. In the end, the manager had a few difficult tough calls for the final 8. Both homegrown January transfers, Tom and myself were handed debuts in a desperate quest to stop the rot, and pick up our first points of 2012. Right from kickoff, We Are Social applied pressure high up the pitch, and with Ollie and Jaime passing the ball around like… -
The UK’s top Facebook pages, Jan 2012
9 Feb 2012 | 5:37 amThe latest data from Socialbakers, looking at the UK’s top Facebook pages in January by different criteria: -
The growth of social: GlobalWebIndex 6
8 Feb 2012 | 5:52 amEvery wave of research tells us something new but each one has also shown that social media is deepening its reach month-by-month and year-by-year. GlobalWebIndex founder Tom Smith exclusively explains the implications of their latest research. Social networking is the fastest-growing active social media behaviour online, increasing from 36% of global internet users in GWI.1 to 59% managing their profile on a monthly basis. This is followed by updating a micro-blog, which increased from 13% to 24% and uploading video, which increased from 21% to 27%. The most social engaged internet market in… -
We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #105
6 Feb 2012 | 3:33 pmCompanies boosting digital marketing budgets According to Econsultancy’s Marketing Budgets 2012 Report, companies are looking to boost budgets for their 2012 digital marketing strategies. The growth is fairly significant with 68% are increasing their digital budgets in 2012 compared to compared to 45% of companies increasing overall marketing budgets. Corporate blogging declines as newer tools rule A study on the usage of social media in Inc. 500 corporations shows fewer of them are using blogging, message/bulletin boards, online video, podcasting and MySpace and more are using…
-
tcapushnpull.com
-
The Next Big Thing In Social Media – Pinterest (Part 2)
9 Feb 2012 | 1:51 pmPart 2 of 3 in a series! Earlier I blogged about our newest fascination on the web, Pinterest. Today, I want to answer the question I left you with: Why should this social networking website, addictive and beautiful as it may be, really matter to businesses? Social Media’s Next Big Star I think I made it clear in my last post how fun Pinterest can be. I’m not alone in feeling that way. The site is shaping up to be a big player in the digital game. Mashable recently wrote that Pinterest drives more traffic to websites than Google+, Youtube and LinkedIn combined. Those are not… -
The Next Big Thing In Social Media – Pinterest (Part 1)
9 Feb 2012 | 12:47 pmPart 1 of 3 in a series! A seemingly innocent, but dangerous, addiction has been spreading like wildfire at The Cyphers Agency. Many of our lady employees, and a couple brave men, began dabbling in a tempting activity, just for occasional fun. Soon, we realized we were in too deep. Rather than try to escape the clutches of this dependency, we encouraged others in the office to join us on the dark side and also become hopelessly addicted… to Pinterest. Pinning 101: Intro to Pinterest Maybe you’re familiar with this irresistible website and know all too well about it’s… -
Finding Organic Search Results
7 Feb 2012 | 12:45 pmThe best things in life are often free. This includes search results. Organic search results are kind of like organic food, harder to find and potentially better for you. Now, no chemicals are used to grow organic search results but there are farmers, (I mean Search Engine Optimization pros) who specialize in getting their search terms to the top of the organic results. As always, it’s caveat emptor. As a searcher, you should realize that people are paying to get their search terms to the top in the paid results and the organic results so click wisely. Pick the search engine that suits… -
5 Quick(ish) Tips for Better Facebook Content
24 Jan 2012 | 8:24 amYou scream, I scream, we all scream… for Facebook. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best intro to this blog post. For that, I apologize. But obviously, today I am going to talk to you about Facebook content ideas and how to make your Facebook statuses (statii?) way more awesome. Since a majority of our clients are active on the ‘Book, we’re pretty familiar with what people love, hate, and share with their friends. We’re also pretty familiar with what doesn’t work. So without further ado (and even more bad jokes), here are 5 Quick(ish) Tips for Better Facebook… -
Tubalr: Totally Awesome Music Playing Thingy
17 Jan 2012 | 10:13 amA friend suggested Tubalr to me yesterday and I’ve been telling everyone about it since. It’s an app that plays high quality videos back to back based on a search term or phrase. For example, “The Rolling Stones” entry brings up an endless stream of tunes and videos of Mick Jagger, his lips, and Stones’ concerts (see below). You can choose to listen to only the Stones, or similar artists as well. You can register to star your favorites if you are one who loves a customized listening experience. Sure, it’s kind of like Pandora. Sure, it’s kind of…
-
Millionaire Marketing Classroom.com
-
4 Brand Building Strategies to Zigged Zagged Your Competitions
23 Jan 2012 | 3:45 amBrand building is no longer involves big companies. Every brand has a unique voice and they use it wherever and whenever they communicate the message to the market. When brand ubiquity occurs, people find brands even when they aren’t looking. The brand’s reputation precedes its presence. There are 4 strategies involved in building a brand value. Strategy 1: Innovation Innovations means doing what no one else would dare going. You have to understand and changes behaviors in the market. Start humanizing the technology to create simple solutions to complex problems. For instance, mp3… -
The Importance of Branding – Why Your Company Won’t Succeed Without One
11 Jan 2012 | 10:14 amMost companies think that their brand building efforts should be focused on designing a fancy logo for their corporate image and then advertise their big fancy logo everywhere so that customers will notice and remembers it. A brand is not a logo. It isn’t about your trademark because this serves as legal property. What’s more a brand is not merely the same as a product or services because these are the tangibles. So now what exactly is a brand? It is a person’s gut feelings about a product, a service or an organization. It is because people are emotional intuitive beings. Branding… -
How to Get Keywords For Your Content Marketing Strategy
10 Jan 2012 | 7:26 amThe secret to Internet Marketing’s success is how to get the right keywords at the right time so that searches can easily find you. You must connect with your visitors by providing a relevant result in response to their search. Always think in the terms of delivering a good user experience to your visitors. Even though these principles are important most often they are overlooked. You cannot just put up some content on your websites waiting to be found and ranked by the search engines. With the abundant of information on the internet, search engine rank the results relevant to the keyword… -
I Feel Like Giving Up
20 Dec 2011 | 12:51 amI feel like giving up. Not all day, of course. But there are moments in my life where I feel like giving up. I bet that you have those days, too. Especially, if you’re the type of the high-achieving and goal-oriented person. You’re probably used to running into obstacles-be it the challenges in your professional career, personal life or even related to the commitment of finish reading the book that you have bought a month ago. Most of the time, we deal with these obstacles by preserving-keeping the spirit of moving on forward. Sometimes, there are times when we get discouraged so we turn… -
Viral Marketing-The Seed to Spread
18 Dec 2011 | 9:42 pmThe internet has become the new way of life for many people to get the jobs, book airline tickets, do research for school projects, check out the weather condition and seek out potential love partners. Viral marketing typically starts out with the marketer creating an electronic content (such as a video or a mini-site) for the purpose of brand building. If the users pass on the content, it has the potential to reach large group of Internet users at exponential rate.Understanding user’s motivation in forwarding an online content is extremely important as the decision to pass it is completely…
-
Simply Zesty » – Simply Zesty
-
The Daily Digest – The Social Media Stories You Need To Know
13 Feb 2012 | 4:00 pmIn the Daily Digest, we round up the ten most important social media and technology articles from the last 24 hours that are worth your attention. 1# Grooveshark Payments: Grooveshark has abandoned its free model and is now charging users $4/month to use its service. The move comes after it’s faced legal battles against numerous record labels as well as being shut down in Germany. 2# Groupon Goes Social: Groupon is planning a redesign of its site to include more user feedback Bloomberg report. The site is introducing ‘thumbs up’ and ‘thumbs down’ buttons to help… -
Why Does Wikipedia Rank So Highly in Google Search?
13 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pmWikipedia often pops up in search results and we normally put this down to its popularity, but a new study shows just how highly Wikipedia ranks in Google search results, and prompts some questions as to why this is. Intelligent Positioning Blog has released the results of research they did into the relationship between Google and Wikipedia. They conducted an experiment into how often Google brings ups a Wikipedia entry in its search results, by typing in 1,000 different nouns and seeing what came up. The bloggers found that Wikipedia comes up on the first page of results of 99 per cent of… -
3 New Media Industries Piggybacking On Old Media To Increase Profits
13 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pmTechnology and social media in particular is changing business models all over the world and traditional media is caught in the cross hairs at the moment. The pace of change is frightening. We all know that some business models are flipping completely, but I wanted to highlight some of the new media companies that are actively feasting off old media and letting them do all the hard work for them while they take the profits. With the advent of tablet computing, free software and lower costs it is a hard time for many companies and the shrewd technologies companies know exactly what they are… -
How social media turned life into a game
13 Feb 2012 | 10:16 amGaming essentially hinges on the central tenet of receiving a reward or feedback in return for completing a task. The rewards can come in a number of forms: points, money, badges, in-game mechanics etc. but they must be sufficient for the effort exerted in the task. Gamification succeeds because we are psychologically predisposed to seek feedback and rewards. This predates the technology that allowed gaming to succeed as an industry, but more importantly, it is becoming more prevalent in a society in which we are involved in an infinite feedback loop. Now that social media technology has… -
Why Venture Capitalists Can’t Be Bloggers In Disguise
13 Feb 2012 | 8:17 amSo we all know about the whole Techcrunch mess and half their writers leaving to set up a competitor while Arrington and MG Seigler moved into the world of venture capitalism. They’ve backed a number of great companies, but the big issue is they can’t fully take their blogging caps off with both having active personal blogs and contributing to PandoDaily (a new Techcrunch competitor which they backed financially and is mostly staffed by ex Techcrunch writers). The whole messy affair has cranked up another notch today though with posts by Arrington and MG Seigler defending one of…
-
Social Media & SEO - A Business View | Charlotte Britton
-
Impact of Google+ Integration into Search Results
20 Jan 2012 | 4:56 amLast week Google announced the launch of "Search, plus your world", which delivers search results with Google+ content included.This breaks down into 3 features:Personal results - which will find information shared by people who you're connected with (mainly on Google)Profile searches - in Google instant autocomplete and results which will deliver people who might be interested in followingPeople and pages - deliver results which include people and Google+ pages you might be interested inImpact on other networksIs Google's monopoly power one step to far as they have excluded Twitter or… -
Northern Rail - case study on why reputation management is important
9 Jan 2012 | 2:30 amLast week as my role of Chairman IoD West Yorkshire I was asked to comment in the Yorkshire Post about Northern Rail profits up by 34%.Bernard Ginns, Business Editor then tweeted out promoting the article.As part of my role within the IoD, I am the champion for regional social media and have been piloting the IoD Yorkshire social media campaign. So I RT Bernard to increase coverage of the comments in the article.Eating my breakfast on Friday and checking the IoD Yorkshire Twitter feed I saw these 2 tweets.From a quick glance I saw that it was Northern Rail and promptly was… -
Call yourself a social media expert?
3 Jan 2012 | 4:12 amYou may have noticed that I haven't blogged for 3 months. To be honest I got tongue tied and overwhelmed.I've been blogging for 8 years now and on this blog for 2 years. In that time the world of SEO and social media has become a very crowded place. So what differentiates the experienced social marketeers compared to the new comers in the industry?The barriers to entry are very low to the SEO and Social media industry. Anyone can read a few books and then set themselves up as a social media expert.It's the new fad that everyone is jumping on the band wagon and flying the… -
How ready is your business for social media?
25 Oct 2011 | 4:46 am57% enterprises are making some investment into social media in 2011 (based on data from Forresters)Social media is a disruptive technology as it changes how a company operates. No organisation can adopt social media unless the underlying business processes, workflow and resources are aligned with the social media strategy and tools to manage this.Altimer Group recently released a report based on research they have done into the social readiness of businesses.Social Readiness: How Advanced Companies Prepare View more documents from Jeremiah Owyang There are four areas to focus on:Governance… -
Community Management - gardeners or managers?
20 Sep 2011 | 4:00 pmI've recently been having a discussion with some friends at the RSA Digital Engagement team about how to moderate a community. The main thrust of the discussions have been around cultivating or managing.Cultivating a communityCultivating a community should be about building knowledge and experience within the community, so it builds as a knowledge community. The word 'manager' creates the sense that as an organisation you are building the community on your terms, not the advocated and enthusiasts. It should formulaic, rigid, and flexible.The reason online communities thrive is because…
-
FutureComms
-
An Appeal: Please Make Your Point
10 Feb 2012 | 6:06 amDid you know that there are 1.4 billion people in the world who still have no access to electricity? Or that 2.5 billion people have to rely on collecting firewood for cooking and heating? Or that smoke from cooking in the home on open fires kills more people in the developing world than malaria? Neither did I until I started doing some work with the charitable organisation Practical Action in January. So why mention it on FutureComms? Because I firmly believe that we (the tech, comms, social media and PR community) are in a unique position to make a real difference just by doing the stuff we… -
THE UNDER-UTILISATION OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS I spotted this...
6 Feb 2012 | 3:45 amTHE UNDER-UTILISATION OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS I spotted this infographic today on The Wall blog (it’s part of a larger infographic that you can view via the source link below) that highlights the primary reasons marketers are using social media platforms. I was surprised that ‘customer retention and support’ didn’t have a higher share, especially given what CONSUMERS want to use Twitter and Facebook for, not what business wants. That would point towards somewhat of a disconnect. And while it’s no surprise that ‘brand awareness and reputation’ comes out top, I’m amazed that… -
"If you expect to represent anything, spend a significant proportion of your time figuring out why it..."
6 Feb 2012 | 3:16 am“If you expect to represent anything, spend a significant proportion of your time figuring out why it matters to people - in your own time. This is the difference between PR and good PR.” - Deirdre Breakendridge & Brian Solis from ‘Putting the Public Back in Public Relations’ Tweet -
Apparently Twitter is More Addictive than Tobacco...
2 Feb 2012 | 5:22 amA new study from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and reported in the Daily Telegraph has looked at the often-reported addictive nature of social media. And it says that, wait for it, Twitter and Facebook are more addictive than both cigarettes and alcohol. Which has got to be bollocks, surely? The researchers said that the urge to keep on top of social networks and work are harder to resist than the urge for a pint or a fag. They reported that alcohol and tobacco prompt much lower levels of desire, despite their reputation for being addictive. Now I’m no… -
On Being Human
1 Feb 2012 | 3:01 amI contributed to a piece on Adam Vincenzini’s blog today on the topic of how to get more interaction from bloggers. I responded to Adam’s question with advice on making relevant content easy to find online so that, after you carry out the initial outreach, a blogger can dig deeper and easily find supporting information and resources such as images, videos, biographies etc (you can read that piece via the source link at the bottom of this post). But it got me thinking. What is the key characteristic that will define the successful communicators of the future? And I came up with one word:…
-
Invisible//Ink//Digital » Invisible // Ink // Digital – Making Sense of Digital Account Planning and Social Media
-
Kodak Moment Fades
23 Jan 2012 | 3:03 pmPhoto Courtesy of Brian Littmann (Flickr)In my last post, I wrote about how good product design bends technology to it’s will to create something that is both functional and beautiful. The counter argument to that is what happens when form and function ceases to be relevant in the modern age?In the recent case of Kodak the answer appears to be the death of an industry giant, unable to get to grips with the digitisation of it’s business. However, rather than simply putting the blame at the door of digital technology, I believe that it’s malaise was symptomatic of a… -
Digital meets Design
17 Jan 2012 | 3:20 pmIf you’re in London over the next few weeks there are some wonderful examples of design meets digital at the Design Museum. Curating a number of different product examples it’s fascinating to see that despite the advancement in technology, the design principles that underpin them have remained constant. Take for example the image below of one of the first examples of the calculator. Now compare… -
The Top Trends for 2012 will be…Why the Crystal Ball Has Cracked on Future Thinking
9 Jan 2012 | 5:39 amCourtesy of Svenstorm via Flickr For a child who grew up in the 80s, with the obligatory bad taste in hair, music and clothes, I remember reading these fantastical books on tomorrow’s world. They were full of vivid illustrations of moon bases, of flying cars, and mega cities. The future that was illustrated was bright, full optimism, with unlimited resources and boundless imagination.Over the past few days I’ve been collating and evaluating future trends for 2012, with a view to providing a curated service for clients at work. There are number of findings that were uncovered… -
Curated Crumbs #3
18 Dec 2011 | 1:55 pmAs another year comes to an end I thought I would compile a round up of stuff that’s floated my way over the past few days.A truly fascinating post by Luke Wroblewski on how tablets and other mobile devices impacts our reading patterns. The twice daily commute contributes to a significant spike in online news consumption. The secondly trend is how mobile consumers of LinkedIn peak at the end of the working day as they contemplate moving on after a tough day at work.Simple ideas can be obscured by bigger more expensive ideas according to Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland in this… -
Long Term Digital Planning vs Agile
12 Dec 2011 | 12:02 amI’ve spoken before on the need for agencies to become more agile in developing digital solutions for clients. As the velocity of change continues to accelerate, clients are going to insist that their agencies rise to the occasion. A second consideration is that, in the main, client’s expect the agencies they appoint to be unencumbered by internal corporate governanence that slows innovation down.Earlier this week my agency had an external talker put forward the view that there is will no longer be a need for long term strategic thinking by planners because the world will have…
-
The Sociable
-
Nick McGivney: Content is still king when engaging with your followers & building your brand
13 Feb 2012 | 3:17 pmOn February 15th the people behind some of the country’s most popular and influential digital brands will be brought together as part of DoneDeal’s Measurement.ie conference (@measurementconf | #donedealsocial). Founded by Damien Mulley (@damienmulley), the conference will show businesses and start-ups how to use the social web more effectively. Since 2003 io (@thisisio | Facebook | LinkedIn | Google+ | Vimeo ) has developed one of the most impressive portfolios in the Irish advertising and brand creation industry. Chances are you’ll recognise their creative work for companies such… -
Dare to be Digital games development competition launches in Ireland
13 Feb 2012 | 8:52 amThe Irish leg of the global Dare to be Digital games development competition has been launched today in Ireland by the Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA). Successful applicants will spend nine weeks in Dundee, Scotland this summer receiving mentoring from games experts like Sega, Sony and Rockstar while developing a prototype video game. The competition offers students “a foot in the door of the gaming industry” according to DHDA Director of Marketing and Strategy Stephen Brennan. The games industry in Ireland is described as “exciting and booming” and is set to double in size over… -
Maxroam launches its own virtual mobile network in the UK
12 Feb 2012 | 11:11 pmMaxroam has launched its own virtual mobile network in the United Kingdom, after reportedly signing an operator agreement with Vodafone UK. As a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), Maxroam can offer its global customers domestic rates while in the UK. Maxroam’s current service is based around special global data SIM cards, allowing customers to enjoy standardised and cheaper roaming rates across 230+ countries. Now, customers based in the UK (or visiting the UK) will be able to enjoy domestic data, voice and text message rates, while having the benefits of Maxroam’s competitive… -
iQ Content’s Laurence Veale on the common analytics mistakes we all make
12 Feb 2012 | 10:55 amOn February 15th the people behind some of the country’s most popular and influential digital brands will be brought together as part of DoneDeal’s Measurement.ie conference (@measurementconf | #donedealsocial). Founded by Damien Mulley (@damienmulley), the conference will show businesses and start-ups how to use the social web more effectively. iQ Content (@iqcontent | LinkedIn) is one of the leading digital agencies in Ireland providing their talents to clients such as Vodafone, Trinity College, NUI Galway, Zurich, Oxfam, and Permanent TSB, amongst many others. The company’s… -
Apple mobile web traffic eclipses that of desktop for the first time
12 Feb 2012 | 9:35 amOverall internet usage on Apple’s mobile products may have exceeded that of its desktop products for the first time, that’s according to web market share data from analytics firm Chitika. The overall percentage of internet usage on iOS devices – the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch – may have actually eclipsed that of Apple products running its desktop operating system, OS X – namely all forms of MacBook, Mac mini, iMac and Mac Pro. In 2011, Apple sold around 93.2 million iPhones and over 40 million iPads. In the fourth quarter alone, Apple sold 17 million iPhones and…
-
The Marketing Nut
-
Social Media Consultant Gone Bad… Real Bad!
11 Feb 2012 | 5:21 amThere are some things in life and business that don’t need a long introduction or fancy brand story before cutting to the chase. This blog post is one of them. This week I received an email from a self proclaimed “social media expert.” I’ve been subscribed to her email list for quite some time. To be honest I am not sure why I haven’t unsubscribed before now. I think it is because she always bugs me when I am at dinner and I forget about it until the next spam mail pops in my inbox. On with the story… I opened the email and my eyeballs literally almost… -
What Has Your Blog Done For Me Lately? 11 Tips to Provide More Value!
10 Feb 2012 | 7:46 amTweet this, retweet this, check out this blog post, click here, act now, subscribe for free updates, watch this, share this, like me, follow me, act now. Whoa! There sure isn’t a shortage of folks telling us what to do in the social world. From bloggers, internet marketing experts, social media gurus, social rockstars, twitterati, to a-listers someone has something that is going to rock your world with a click, like, follow and tweet. Do you remember why you created your blog? It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of the buttons, gadgets, shares, pages, videos, widgets, gidgets… -
Want Facebook Business Results? Get Off of Facebook!
3 Feb 2012 | 9:53 amSo you have a Facebook business page. You may have had it for months or even years. Or for you it might be a new shiny object you just started playing with. Many have big hopes and dreams when it comes to social media and Facebook business pages. They dream of a blue and white platform that is going to solve all of their business problems. They dream of ROI and maybe even being the most popular kid on the block. You know the one. The one who has all the likes, comments and highest edge rank. However, for most business leaders, it isn’t long after you setup the Facebook business page… -
Social Media Tools & Tech – 15 Tips to Not Lose Your Mind!
29 Jan 2012 | 3:52 amI spent some time this evening cruising around Facebook, LinkedIn, Goolge+, Pinterest, and a few hundred other platforms. I had high hopes for finishing a couple blog posts but instead got lured in by the latest social news. You know how it is. Just as we get use to something it changes, a ticker is added, more of our activity gets shared, a new social network is born, mobile app launched and the list goes on. As I wasted my night away in social slacker land with all my fellow slacker geeks I was amazed at how many people are simply losing their mind. I guess I am so close to all of it that I… -
The Heartbeat of Social Media
26 Jan 2012 | 12:28 pmIt is human nature to want to connect, feel needed, be acknowledged, be understood, appreciated for what we accomplish and contribute to our small circles and ecosystem as a whole. It’s no wonder that social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have taken off as a force to be reckoned with. What makes Facebook and Twitter sticky? What are the successful social networks doing better than other networks? Why do people gravitate to one social network over the other? What makes them stick around? Why is Facebook able to attract everything from my 70 year old mother-in-law to my 7…
-
MachoArts | Design, Social Media, Blogging tips
-
10 Photography Tricks Used by The Pros
13 Feb 2012 | 5:12 amProfessional photographers utilize multiple different tricks to both capture and edit images. The following list will showcase some of the tricks which allow photographers to spend less time creating the perfect image. Editing Photoshop Filters – Although there are many small editing actions that professional photographers will perform manually, there are just as many editing steps which a photographer repeats on such a regular basis that they’ll turn to a [...] -
How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog with Images
11 Feb 2012 | 1:50 am“Blogging is great! Just put up a few new articles every week, and watch your readership and sponsorship grow exponentially.” If only it were so easy. The truth is blogging is a difficult pursuit which requires creativity, persistence, and patience. One thing pro bloggers have learned of over the years is the importance of including high quality images in their blog articles. They have learned images aren’t just for aesthetics. [...] -
Friday Photography Inspiration #45
10 Feb 2012 | 4:48 amThis post is a part of our weekly photography inspiration series, each Friday we showcase some of the most beautiful photographs captured by talented photographers from all around the wold. Here are 27 latest amazing photographs for your ispiraiton. If you like this post feel free to share it on Facebook and Twitter. Valentine’s day is coming near, you might like to see these 25 amazing examples of Love photography. [...] -
How To Get Topics For Your Upcoming Blog Posts?
8 Feb 2012 | 2:32 amWhen I started my blogging career it seemed a lot tougher for me to write articles in a consistent pattern which look great for the readers. If you belong to blogging and writing arena, you may also have experienced the same situation of what I had. It definitely makes you to start thinking about nice topics, but it is not that much easy to get better results. In this article, lets [...] -
17 Must Have Free Fonts for Designers
6 Feb 2012 | 11:55 pmFinding proper font for graphics and web design is very important task. But choosing right font is not easy, designers must take extreme caution at the time of selecting font. Thousands of fonts available on the internet, but there are few fonts out there which are extremely high quality as well as free to download. Here I have collected 17 beautiful free fonts for you. Download them and expand your [...]
-
Jessica Malnik
-
5 Hilariously Bad Valentine’s Day Marketing Promotions
12 Feb 2012 | 8:55 pmNow, I’ve never been a huge fan of Valentine’s Day. It’s mostly because we should be telling our loved ones and significant others we love them everyday and not just on February 14th. But, it’s also because its an excuse for every greeting card store, flower shop, jewelry store and candy place to jack up their prices and run sappy, lovey-dovey TV ads from January-Valentine’s Day. Most of the promotions are your standard lovey-dovey types. However, this year, I’ve came across a lot of strange Valentine’s Day marketing promotions. These are the kinds… -
4 Things Kids Can Teach Us About Marketing
31 Jan 2012 | 11:34 pmThere’s a video that’s been making the rounds this week with a little kid’s commentary on brand logos. This seems like a fluffy, feel-good, cute video, which it is. But, there’s some nuggets of wisdom that marketers and advertisers can get from watching this video. 1. First impressions matter. First impressions matter a great deal. The best logos are the ones that are simple, easily recognizable, and keep true to the brand’s core culture and/or values. The Apple Store, McDonalds, Starbucks, Nike, etc: What do these logos all have in common? They are highly… -
5 Reasons That Infographic Is Making You Lie To Yourself
29 Jan 2012 | 9:49 pmIn this day and age, we consume more statistics, numbers and raw data than ever before. We share it all the time via social media, presentations and the almighty infographic. However, are we becoming too trustworthy about taking the data we consume at face value? Do we really know where all these stats are coming from? Stats can lie. Infographics can be very, very misleading. Percentages don’t always add up. The data could be plain wrong. Yet, most times we assume and read it at face value without questioning where the data came from. In this day and age, it’s more important than… -
The Perils Of Getting Lucky
25 Jan 2012 | 10:37 pmI had a conversation about luck awhile ago with a mentor. One point he said stuck with me. He said he didn’t believe in luck. At first, I thought this was a little strange. I mean, everyone gets lucky at some point. Maybe you found a $20 bill on the sidewalk? Or you won the lottery. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Then, I started thinking about it. Most of the lucky scenarios I thought about weren’t one-in-a-million things, like winning the lottery. That’s just chalked up to chance and probabilities. Instead, most of these scenarios, that I perceived as lucky, were really… -
The Next Big, Shiny Game-Changer?
17 Jan 2012 | 10:39 pm<Read this article. For the sake of the Internet as we know and love it. SOPA/PIPA explained, and why it should matter to you.> WARNING: This post is coming at you with a whole lot of snark, attitude, and a whee bit of Dayquil-infused fluff. Maybe, I just get an extra bit snarky when I’m under the weather? But, I can’t help but notice the sheer volume of posts about Pinterest lately. In case you have been living under a rock, Pinterest is a site which lets you create boards where you can pin and share interesting photos. It’s clustered where you can easily…
-
Pi Social Media Marketing Blog posts and comments
-
How Firms Are Utilizing Social Media To Save Capital And Reach Out To A Wider Market
30 Jan 2012 | 5:46 amFirms can use social media to conduct a conference with potential clients and also save on travel expenses. They can hire new employees by conducting interviews and demonstrate their product to potential clients by using video conferencing. For a new firm which is looking to enter into a competing market, improved technology helps them to minimize expenses and increase profit and productivity. Along with social media, video conferencing can be used as an effective business tool to get in touch with customers and employees living beyond their geographical zones. This not only saves money but… -
Social Media In 2012: Three Major Predictions
24 Jan 2012 | 5:17 amThe field of social media is constantly changing, and as such it is quite difficult to make any predictions about it, and expect it to hold true for a long time to come. Still, by observing prevailing trends on social media in the last quarter of 2011, we have made three predictions, which we believe could hold true for at least the first half of 2012. Here they are: Mobile users will outshine PC users in terms of social media usage Even in Q4 2011, mobile users were almost on the verge of taking over PC users in terms of social media usage. In 2012, the former are bound to finish the job. It… -
Clever Use of Internet Memes Can Give Your Business Promotions A Humorous Touch
19 Jan 2012 | 7:08 amDid you know that just a few days ago, a man in Malaysia has used Internet memes like “Victory Baby”, “Socially Awkward Penguin”, and “Y U No Put Ring On It” to propose to his long term girlfriend? Indeed, it is just another use for these delightful little combinations of pictures and texts that have been gaining popularity at exponential rates ever since those were first made up, not too long ago. Can you think of some ways, in which you could entertain people, and get them interested in your business at the same time? Well, how about using these in your social media marketing… -
How You Can Use Social Networking Sites To Boost Your Business
9 Jan 2012 | 5:05 amEach day holds a new record for each of the networking sites, who are constantly competing with each other to increase their popularity. Inclusion into a circle of friends having similar aims in life can be mutually beneficial. You will find ones who will have similar interests as yours, with whom you can soon start a conversation. Interacting with a new person in the real world is not very easy for a few of us, but the virtual world of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ can be used with full potential to increase popularity of your business. Interaction with people from various… -
Social Media: ROI vs. Correlation
2 Jan 2012 | 9:28 amDo you regularly run social media campaigns for various clients? Then maintaining proper ROI for all those clients must be a major headache for you. Well, there certainly is a fine balance that you have to maintain in every single social media marketing campaign that you may run, between correlation and ROI. So, what is this correlation, you ask? Well, simply put, it is the relationship between business success achieved by the company, and the ties of social media to that success. It can never be proved with 100% certainty, unless you are able to show that the profit margins soared as the…
-
Smedio
-
How to Get Publicity for Your Blogs from Old Media
13 Feb 2012 | 2:58 amA blog needs to be promoted like a product. While blogging itself represents one of the most popular forms of new media, old media techniques play a key role in publicizing blogs. While it’s true that media industry has been completely transformed in the last decade, there’s no denial that print, TV and radio are evergreen publicity channels. So, should you use old-school techniques for promoting your blog? If so, how do you get publicity for your blogs from old media? Let’s find out. Concept The underlying concept of your blog is extremely important. If you plan to start another… -
How And Why To Prepare Your Business For Facebook Mobile Ads
10 Feb 2012 | 3:16 amEven as the dust is yet to settle on Facebook’s much-hyped IPO, it’s taught the world a much-needed business lesson – It doesn’t matter whether you are a small business or the world’s most popular social network, you need to make revenue out of your mobile user base. While Facebook has nearly 425 million mobile users, it’s not making any money out of them. Recent reports suggest that could change in March as Facebook plans to start rolling out ads within its mobile apps. It is believed that Facebook is already talking to several top notch ad agencies regarding its mobile ad… -
The 7 Fundamentals of Successful Blogs
8 Feb 2012 | 1:05 amWhat makes a blog successful? Is it the content? Is it the readers? Or is it the niche? How often should one post? What narrative should you use? Should you publish a RSS feed for your blog? These are some of the questions I’m asked as the Founder and Executive Editor of Smedio. In that context, I strongly believe that you must adhere to the following 7 fundamentals for establishing a successful blog. Quality Content is king and blogging is no exception to that rule. If your blog lacks quality content, it will never be successful – period. There is no substitute to quality content and I… -
How to Blog
6 Feb 2012 | 2:26 amHow to blog? Blogging isn’t rocket science. However, it does require a methodical approach right from the moment when you decide to setup a blog. In this post, I explain the key factors that would help you overcome the newbie blues and find a comprehensive answer to the “How to blog” question. Do you need a blog? Before you learn how to blog, the first step is to determine if you really need a blog. Whether you are an individual or a business, a blog must have a purpose. There’s no point in maintaining a blog just for the sake of it. In fact, dormant and stale blogs are worse than not… -
Everything You Need to Know About Facebook IPO [Infographic]
2 Feb 2012 | 12:41 pmFacebook on Wednesday filed for its Initial Public Offering with the intention to raise around $5 billion. This is expected to increase due to great demand for a piece of the social networking giant. This IPO is considered the largest out of Silicon Valley, topping Google’s $2 billion IPO in 2004. Here’s a prior infographic I find interesting: Source: Accounting Degree Online
-
ReelSEO Online Video Marketing Digest
-
TubeMogul Spins Off OneLoad Into Its Own Video Distribution Destination
13 Feb 2012 | 6:36 pmOneLoad, Tubemogul's video distribution platform, has long been the premier platform for distributing web video assets to multiple video destinations with one upload. In fact, in the beginning, it was just called TubeMogul instead of “OneLoad” because it was the company’s main focus. But as TubeMogul’s branding emphasis has evolved with the rapid growth of their real-time media buying platform for video advertising, OneLoad may have gotten lost in the shuffle for some users. So how to continue TubeMogul’s emphasis on real-time media buying while also giving OneLoad the room and… -
Ed Begley, Jr. Looks To Fund Green-Living Web Series Through Kickstarter
13 Feb 2012 | 11:30 amBack when I was growing up, Ed Begley, Jr. was best known as Dr. Victor Ehrlich on St. Elsewhere. But now, he's best known as a true green-living individual who rides his bike everywhere, a somewhat viral video on YouTube where he and Fox anchor Stuart Varney argue over global warming, and to Spinal Tap completists who remember his great drumming on "Gimme Some Money." Begley, along with his wife and daughter, are looking for funding through Kickstarter for a web series about the trials and tribulations of building an LEED-certified home. "On Begley Street" To Feature DIY… -
Is YouTube Trying To Erase The Past? Browse Page Eliminates Date Filter
13 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amYouTube is trying really hard to make YouTube.com your new TV. Instead of turning on the television and flipping through the 338 channels, they're hoping in the near future you'll just open a browser and go to YouTube... and surf their millions of "channels" instead. That's what the most recent redesign was all about--helping you find channels and videos more easily that are of interest to you. And along with the push for lean-back viewing comes also a push to completely forget the past. To YouTube, there is only today... no yesterday, no last week, and definitely no last year. Don't believe… -
The Piracy Police Get Caught With Their Pants Down
10 Feb 2012 | 3:07 pmThe RIAA and MPAA have been complaining about piracy of music and movies for years. They've sued individual users for exorbitant amounts of money and were a huge part of the driving force of SOPA & PIPA (some would say they were the only driving force). Their profits have been cut into and that's stealing, and they're going to make sure that anyone caught pirating content will end up receiving as much punishment as possible. Unless, of course, the piracy culprit happens to be the record labels themselves. Yesterday, TechCrunch's Jason Kincaid published a fantastic piece exposing the… -
Online Movie Trailers For Friday, February 10: Denzel, Amnesia, and 3D Star Wars
10 Feb 2012 | 1:19 pmChronicle's high view count for its various trailers online did not translate into a super-huge hit, but the movie performed well above expectations, as did the view-deprived Woman in Black. Those movies each made over $20 million last weekend and continued a winning streak for the Hollywood box office. The movies could not have been more different in how they used online marketing and yet, they were neck-and-neck this past weekend. This week, we see the return of Denzel Washington, George Lucas gives us a 3D Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, the Journey to the Center of the Earth is now…
-
TemboSocial
-
Two For One(Room)
6 Feb 2012 | 11:36 amThere are now two great reasons to attend our February 8 Real Engagement Event with Intranet 2.0 guru Toby Ward. First, join your peers in conversation about how to smartly integrate social tools into your intranet. We’ve already received several questions for Toby including: What internal metrics best demonstrate the value of a social intranet? How do you engage top leadership in social media and get them to use it to communicate? How do I leverage social media to reach offline employees, like delivery drivers, who don’t work at computers? Can you please discuss/share… -
The Social Enterprise
3 Feb 2012 | 9:22 amThe focus of your organization might be selling financial services, developing pharmaceuticals, or manufacturing photo sensors, but at its foundation your business depends entirely upon employee relationships. Social interactions are what it takes to get your product or service out the door of your business and into the hands of your customers. The fact is that many companies make far less of a commitment to building and maintaining these relationships than they do to maintaining the landscaping at their facilities. It’s my pleasure to chair an exciting panel discussion, The Social… -
The Culture Club
30 Jan 2012 | 9:46 amThere’s a great article in the latest edition of Fast Company about how culture will always trump strategy when it comes what truly drives a high-performance organization. Author Shawn Parr cites Zappos, Southwest Airlines, Whole Foods and Starbucks as examples of organizations that live and breath this daily, noting their “employees are actively and passionately engaged in the business, operating from a sense of confidence and empowerment rather than navigating their days through miserably extensive procedures and mind-numbing bureaucracy.” I couldn’t agree more. -
Hey! Engagement Matters.
26 Jan 2012 | 7:56 amWe all know that engagement matters. When individual employees are engaged in the workplace, everyone benefits. By encouraging feedback, collecting peer-generated success stories, sharing them across corporate and departmental boundaries, you cultivate your greatest competitive advantage – social capital – to earn discretionary effort, attract talent and win loyalty. Join us today for HR.com’s Virtual Conference on Rewards & Recognition where we’ll share 9 tactics for engaging your employees online this year. -
What analytics should an enterprise use for a social intranet?
25 Jan 2012 | 8:36 amIt’s a question I hear asked a lot and one that has surfaced again in anticipation of our February 8 Real Engagement Event with Intranet guru Toby Ward. According to Toby’s study, The Social Intranet, while 61% of organizations have introduced at least one social tool on their intranet most executives are less than satisfied with their functionality. So what in your opinion are the key metrics to ensure that your tools are performing as they should? I encourage you to join our conversation on February 8 @ 2PM EST. Come prepared with your questions for Toby Ward on transforming…
-
gabycastellanos.com
-
Madonna nos enseña Social Media: Give Me All Your Luvin’.
4 Feb 2012 | 3:51 amAmo a Madonna, creo que es la mejor Directora de Marketing del mundo. Tuve la oportunidad de conocerla y trabajar para ella hace muchos años atras cuando para el lanzamiento de MSN produjimos su y el 1er concierto en streaming del mundo, desde una abadia en UK y luego de nuevo en la gira de conciertos de “Music”. Es una tia super exigente, hasta llegar al extremo y es de esas personas que cada cosa que hace en su vida tiene una razon de ser, un concepto. Mola mucho, mucho. Y viendo su nuevo video: “Give Me All Your Luvin’ (Feat. M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj) ” he… -
Carly Fleischmann: La Voz de Carly
4 Feb 2012 | 3:38 amA veces no tengo palabras para explicar las cosas. Mirad primero el video, dura menos de 10 minutos pero vale la pena. Aun lloro de verlo, se me caen las lagrimas. A que es muy heavy? Espectacular que la tecnologia no solo sirva para conectarnos y comunicarnos. Me mori cuando pudo hablar con su padre. Tengo aun el corazon hecho un papelito. Ufff. Amo lo que hago y amo que a veces las cosas que hacemos puedan ayudar tanto. -
Hello de Lionel Richie en version de Matthijs Vlot.
24 Jan 2012 | 6:56 amUna de mis canciones preferidas de la vida, en una version que es casi mejor que la original, os presento Hello: Y la version original de Lionel Richie: -
Change for a dollar: Social Media es una gran cadena de favores.
3 Jan 2012 | 8:28 amAmo cuando las cosas se han desde el corazon, desde eso que te hace sentir esas mariposas en el estomago y te genera una energia bestial que te hace movilizarte sin razon alguna por los demas. Este video que acabo de ver (que me saco para variar unas lagrimitas), me hizo pensar en lo que ha logrado y hace cada dia el Social Media en mi. Yo no se si es lo que logra en vosotr@s, pero en mi produce una cantidad de sentimientos tan positivos, tan guays, que uff me hacen sentir de puta madre. Social Media para mi, no es otra cosa que una GRAN cadena de favores. Unas palabras, unos 140 caracteres,… -
¿Que aprendi en el 2011?
20 Dec 2011 | 7:03 amUn año mas, vuelvo a hacer recuento de lo que fue esta año y todo lo que aprendi gracias a vosotr@s. Nada de predicciones, nada de ositos, nada de mariposas (chiste solo para los chicos/as del 2000), solo un resumen de lo bueno, y lo no tan bueno que fue este año. - Aprendi, que a pesar de la crisis, de la dura situacion que vivimos, la gente es capaz de hacer cosas maravillosas. No importan los presupuestos, no valen nos “no” por sentado, nada de eso importa. Importa lo que tenemos en la cabeza y lo que queremos conseguir. Y cada dia desde hace un mes los chic@s de la…
-
Social CRM Blog | CRMSocialMedia.com
-
How to Promote Your Article in 10 Minutes or Less
31 Jan 2012 | 3:35 pmWe all know that “time is money” so we need to promote our articles as fast as possible.In this article I will present the fastest way to promote your fresh article in just 10 minutes. 1. Share your article on Twitter . Twitter is one of the most powerfull social networking and microblogging where you can share tips or other informations with your followers. After each article posted I tweet it so my followers can read it immediatly. 2. Share your article on Facebook . Facebook is less important than Twitter in my oppinion, but also is very important in getting traffic and loyal… -
5 Restaurant CRM Tips in Time for Valentine’s Day
30 Jan 2012 | 4:27 pmValentine’s Day is almost here and, of course, that’s one of the most important nights in a restaurant’s calendar. Couples will be taking to the streets and looking for a perfect night out to top off (or possibly to just begin) their evening of romance. Your wait staff, of course, should be in their best form, ready to make every couple’s dinner their best dinner ever. However, if you’re still trying to think of the right ‘hook’ to make sure every table is booked all evening & guests come back for more, here are a few tips to make this… -
5 Social Media Ideas for Your Small Business
22 Jan 2012 | 11:22 amThere are millions of small businesses in the United States competing with each other for attention online. After all, most small business owners know the power of the Internet to reach and attract potential customers. You’re probably aware that a solid social media and online marketing strategy is essential to beat your competition. Here is a list of the top 10 simplest things you can do to improve your social media presence and help build affinity with your potential and current clients: Claim your business name across all platforms. This may seem like a no brainer, but you’d be… -
Improve Your Customer Service Online With 15 Easy Steps
31 Oct 2011 | 3:22 amIf your business isn’t taking advantage of social media platforms, this begs the question – why not? Social media is the simplest, best form of customer service available online today. It not only allows your clients and customers to keep in direct contact with you, but allows your business to actually benefit from the interaction in a number of ways. It is a win-win situation for customers and business owners alike. Instead of just viewing social media from a marketing perspective, here are 15 ways to improve your customer service using social media. 1) Being… -
3 Businesses Using Social CRM Today
27 Oct 2011 | 4:23 pmSocial media is a powerful marketing tool that any business would be wise to take advantage of. Millions of people use social media everyday for everything from sharing photos to voicing complaints. To keep in touch and stay on the same level as their customers businesses need to follow suit and embrace social media as a way to communicate with their customers. Many businesses have already started to utilize the benefits of social media to assist with their customer relationship management. By using social media businesses are better able to maintain an active dialogue with their target…
-
mysocialmediava.com
-
One Twitter account or Two?
30 Jan 2012 | 8:43 amSomeone tweeted me a question the other day… Kathy, do you have one twitter account that you mix personal and business or do you have two accounts? My answer? ONE! Now, it will always go back to your reason for being ‘on Twitter’, your strategy for using this network – and for some [...] -
Not Everyone Follows the Same Rules on Twitter
17 Jan 2012 | 9:59 amIn all my social media training sessions… I always add in a slide or talk about how Twitter is really a place where you can make Connections, but should not have any expectations on how other people will network with you. It is something I teach primarily because everyone has different reasons for being ‘on Twitter’. [...] -
Mixing Business with Pleasure on Facebook
6 Jan 2012 | 9:28 pmOver and over again I hear clients and colleagues saying how they don’t want their personal facebook mixed with their business: “I want my Personal and Business Facebook kept separate”. They fear sharing too much information. Some think unliking your own Facebook Business Page is the answer. I truly do not recommend this [...] -
Why Creative Facebook Page Names don’t always Work
3 Jan 2012 | 9:47 pmIf you have recently started a Facebook page – I encourage you to check your page name. This is the title of your page, not your username (which is your unique Facebook link if you have created one). I want you to think about the words in the name as you read this [...] -
Lesson from the Top Social Media Blunders of 2011
30 Dec 2011 | 9:10 amSocial Media Blunders can happen to anyone – I have made some mistakes myself, the trick is learning from them and gaining the lessons needed so you do not repeat the same action in the future. Inc Magazine has posted a collection of the Top 12 – there are some excellent lessons to [...]
-
FastGush
-
SocialFlow Takes Scientific Approach To Optimize Social Media Activity For Brands
8 Feb 2012 | 11:06 amThe biggest challenge for any social media marketer out there is to decide when and what to share on social networks. Marketers often have to rely on their gut or on surveys to come up with a predetermined timing. Most of these surveys though have a very small sample size and do not take into consideration the sheer size and diversity of either Facebook or Twitter. But the fact is, sharing at the right moment has its obvious benefits — users are far more receptive and the posts often generate higher engagement levels. But above all, sharing the right kind of content is what drives fan… -
Next Big Thing For Facebook — Mobile Ads Coming In March
6 Feb 2012 | 11:17 amAfter its rapid rise to the top, Facebook next challenge is to monetize its mobile platform. Barring Facebook Credits, the company does not gain anything from its mobile app as its main source of revenue — advertisements — is not served on the platform. But news reports suggests things are about to change soon. But First…Mobile Traffic Is Growing According to StatCounter’s latest released data, global Internet usage through mobile devices, not including tablets, has almost doubled to 8.5% in January 2012 from 4.3% last year. In 2009, mobile traffic accounted 0.7% of… -
Pure Genius Or Privacy’s Nightmare? KLM Uses Facebook And Linkedin To Find An Airline Seatmate
4 Feb 2012 | 11:51 amThe Airline industry has always been ahead in social media, with companies now using Twitter and Facebook to interact with customers, offer discounts to frequent fliers and handle customer queries on an everyday basis. But KLM has ventured beyond the basic definitions of social media usage and is now allowing fliers an opportunity to connect Facebook and Linkedin profiles to find a perfect seatmate for their next trip. This is how it works: You go their site, select ‘Seating’ tab and click ‘Meet & Seat’ on the right, Log in to your Facebook or LinkedIn account and then select the… -
Interview With Social Media Expert Ben Fowler
31 Jan 2012 | 11:22 amWhat better way to learn Social media marketing than meet the people who are captaining a company’s social media efforts — and so, as a part of this initiative to meet the people who have deep understanding of the industry and have spent a considerable amount of their time on the subject, I interviewed Ben Fowler over the email to really understand how he handles social media and the learning he’s acquired over the years. He was kind enough to take some time off and answer the questions I put forward to him. If you like this post, do share it with your friends and leave… -
FAIL: McDonald’s Hashtag #McDStories Goes Terribly Wrong
24 Jan 2012 | 11:27 amThis is perhaps one of the biggest social media fail stories ever recorded. McDonalds has managed to embarrass itself on Twitter after its latest Twitter campaign went horribly wrong. The company’s social media director, Rick Wion told PaidContent that as part of their Promoted tweet ad-campaign, the company switched from #MeetTheFarmers to #McDStories in their tweet, soon after which few detractors hijacked the hashtag and started tweeting tales about animal cruelty. Users soon added additional topics like unemployment and stomach problems. The company’s problem was…
-
Prepare 1
-
32 Social Media Tools used by the Pros
11 Feb 2012 | 12:52 pmTweet Social Media tools are constantly changing, and for the better. Here is a quick list of 32 Social Media Tools Used by the Pros to help you as well as your business. Facebook Contest Apps used by the Pros Vertigo Social Media Promotions Wildfire, SnapApp, Wizehive, Strutta For easy to use apps that include templates, check out these options for Facebook: PageLever SplashTab FaceItPages These sites offer suites of apps, including custom Landing tabs. Some apps are free, some have a fee: Appbistro Involver MiproApps Tabfusion NorthSocial Momentus Media Friend2Friend ShortStack Lab… -
Google Plus Your World Launched a Real Game Changer
17 Jan 2012 | 6:45 amTweet Social Media and the Internet has fundamentally changed the way people find, discover, share, shop, & connect. Social networking was the most popular online content category in the world as of October 2011, accounting for 19% of all time spent online, or one out of every five minutes, according to a whitepaper by comScore. Did you know that 34,000 searches are conducted on Google EVERY SECOND? 75% of Internet users never scroll past the first page of search results? US Internet users spend 3x more time on blogs and social networks than they do on email? Websites with a blog… -
12 Steps to Goal Mastery in 2012
30 Dec 2011 | 7:00 amTweet What is a goal? Goal Target Simply a goal is a target, a point of completion for a pre-determined desire or want, a place where we can see if our intentions are being realized. It is extremely difficult for us to get motivated about making any progress towards an unknown target. Without the target, we tend to stop progressing and just exist. We drift aimlessly, just what comes our way. Goals are… Truly personal. Wants. Desires. Dreams Vital part of who we are. The fuel for a satisfying life. Things we’d like to see in ourselves Things we’d like to see in our lives Things we’d… -
[New] Facebook Timeline Guide
9 Dec 2011 | 6:30 amTweet FACEBOOK TIMELINE Facebook anticipated to roll this out Oct 1st, but delayed it. Officially started the roll out in New Zealand Wednesday night. Canada, Germany, Holland and India have reported on Thursday showing up in their countries. Facebook Timeline That means it’s only a matter of days before it comes to you, so brace your News Feed, because the fans and protestors are coming in full-force. In the meantime, here’s everything you need to know about Facebook Timeline. Timeline presents a way to digitally document your entire life, from birth to present, via… -
Facebook Revamps Page Insights
30 Nov 2011 | 6:45 amTweet Facebook Insights is an analytics tool which you can use to see how people are interacting with your fan page, much like Google Analytics. It’s a powerful and free tool which is provided by Facebook to give you a better insight into your following, and with the release of the new version, it’s better than ever before. Facebook page admins now have a new improved FacebookInsights tool for better Facebook marketing. Facebook Insights Admins can find this new Insights tool in the left navigation sidebar once they opt in. A link to the old Insights features is still found in the…
-
RevMediaMarketing
-
Social Media Week Starts With A Warning
13 Feb 2012 | 1:56 pmSocial Media Marketing Is Not (Quite) Free To kick off Social Media Week JWT North America CEO David Eastman warned marketers that they are on the verge of being made obsolete by companies seeking a less expensive, do-it-yourself approach. According to Eastman, who spoke this morning at the JWT event in New York City, said some companies are taking the approach that all they need is a Facebook Fan Page to successfully market via social media. As social media marketers, we know it’s not quite that easy. In order to be effective, social media marketing must be adequately managed,… -
The Future Of Social Media Is ‘Boutique’
10 Feb 2012 | 6:05 pmWherever You Hang Your Hat… We’re all familiar with the social media giants: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Now we’re beginning to realize that while mega-social media sites can be fun, smaller, niche sites offer more benefit because they focus on our individual (and very specific) interests. You wouldn’t go to a big chain store to buy your wedding dress, right? Of course not. You would want to visit a boutique, a specialty store where they will cater to you, as the individual, and deliver exactly what you want; let you try on different dresses; provide a host of… -
Lady Gaga Does Social For ‘Monsters’
9 Feb 2012 | 9:28 pmLeave It To Gaga Lady Gaga regards herself as part performer, all promoter. Everything she does is geared toward making herself more famous, more well-known, so she can sell more CD’s, more merchandise, more concert tickets to her adoring fans. Or, as she likes to call them, her “Little Monsters“. Now she is reaching out to the Social Web to make full use of her fan base. A fan base which pushed her Twitter Following and Facebook Fans to eclipse 1,000,000 faster than any previous human being. She now has more than 19 million Twitter Followers and more than a billion views on… -
Find Work With Social Media
8 Feb 2012 | 6:11 pmNeed A Job? Go Online! The unemployment rate has been slowly dropping, but there are still millions of people out of work; unemployed or under employed. For the unemployed there are numerous traditional ways to find a new job. Job fairs, job boards, recruiters, employment agencies and trade organizations all provide some assistance to people in need of employment, but that’s hardly the end of their options. With so many people out of work it is little wonder people are turning to new tools to find work, expand their professional networks and improve their working conditions. Chief among… -
Social Media Scammers Target Investors
7 Feb 2012 | 3:17 pmSocial Media Gets A Bad Rap Undeservedly Scammers exist everywhere. No matter where you are or what you do you have likely found yourself at the mercy of unscrupulous people trying to sell you something you don’t need and don’t want, but that they try to dress up as an opportunity you would be a fool to miss. This happens in the workplace; within your circle of friends; even at church socials and PTA meetings Social media networks are no exception to this. This is likely due to the fact that with social media it is now possible to reach more than one billion; a marketplace full of…
-
Leader Networks blog
-
Don't Ask Community Managers To Be Strategists
13 Feb 2012 | 6:46 amThe enterprise community manager position is sometimes termed a "jack of all trades" role. I know -- I've said it myself. But I think we're starting to take it a bit too far. Over the past few weeks I have participated in a suite of webinars and talks about online communities and their growing role in functional areas such as customer care. I have listened to, and debated with, countless community management specialists about community management best practices. I've heard a lot about keeping business strategy and community management aligned. There's no question this is a critical success… -
Does Your Company Inspire Trust? How Online Communities Can Help!
1 Feb 2012 | 6:35 amJust the other day, I said to my 10 year old daughter ‘trust is hard to win and easy to lose.’ She was having a tough time with a good friend who had done something jerky, and she wanted to know if she should trust her friend again just because she was being nice. Once trust is broken, it takes time and evidence to repair the damage. That’s why it’s always best to behave in an honest and trustworthy manner, rather than endeavor to rebuild bridges. While school girl antics usually come and go, life lessons about the formation and maintenance of trust are the foundations on which… -
Community Managers, Unite!
23 Jan 2012 | 9:22 amHappy Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD)! As I sat down to write a blog post dedicated to celebrating community managers - this fantastic, rewarding and often misunderstood profession, I realized that there are few professions (and professionals) as impassioned as a Community Manager. Left-brain, right-brain, artist, scientist, pioneer, organizational change agent - the job is all that, and more. So, in lieu of trying to write about my appreciative thoughts today, I have gathered a few of my favorite blog posts about being a Community Manager from my blog… -
The Social Mind: A New Research Project
13 Jan 2012 | 7:32 amInterrelationships between individuals, organizations, thought leaders and influencers are evolving in new and previously unforeseen ways thanks to the advent of social media networks. This paradigm shift represents a major communications innovation in all markets, and is radically changing the way people and organizations engage and behave online. In order to explore this topic, and give back to the industry, Don Bulmer and Peter Auditore and I are conducting a new study as Fellows of the Society of NewCommunications Research (SNCR) . The Social Mind research project is… -
Online Community Decision: Public, Private or Hybrid?
11 Jan 2012 | 8:21 amYour organization has decided to develop an online community to serve your customers. Congratulations! This is an important step towards building a social business. As the team gathers in the conference room with whiteboards, markers and lots of coffee, you start by talking about other online community examples the organization might want to emulate, or those that have caught your fancy. Features, content, look and feel are usually a major part of this discussion. But chances are you haven’t considered a fundamental but critical question: will the online community be public, gated or a…
-
The Wakeman Agency Blog
-
PR Trends In 2012
10 Feb 2012 | 9:09 amBy Jessica Epperly Being an avid trend watcher in any sector of business can be the deciding factor in the sink-or-swim of success – and PR, of course, is no different. So what’s the buzz in trends for 2012? read more -
What I Can't Live Without
8 Feb 2012 | 3:33 pmBy Katherine Turiano Lately I have been on a big kick to simplify, to drop the weight of what is not essential to my happiness and productivity inevent planning. I have studied the works of well-known organizing professionals—well, if studying is allowed to be defined as listening to audio books in my car while stuck in traffic. I listened to Julie Morgenstern and Peter Walsh so much that the CDs scratched, but blessedly by then their message had sunk in: get back to basics and leave everything that doesn’t help your productivity behind. read more -
Tips for Nonprofit Newbies
3 Feb 2012 | 1:01 amBy Katie Cray Launching a nonprofit? Just teamed up with a group that just received 501(c)3 status? New nonprofits have a lot to tackle, and usually are limited in resources and manpower to do so. If you’ve just started your own nonprofit, here are a few things to keep in mind. read more -
How to Score PR for Your Special Event
2 Feb 2012 | 6:55 amBy Mason Burnham If you’re trying to score PR for your special event, the first thing you need to strive for is to make sure that your event is actually a special event. But let me tell you, it is not easy to get media (especially in a major market like New York City) interested in an event. read more -
Media Attention – Quick Tips to Help You Get More
27 Jan 2012 | 5:57 amBy Jessica Epperly There are many ways to get media attention for your story. One of the best ways is to hire a public relations specialist with strong connections to the media. Journalists are notoriously hard to reach, but there are a few tricks of the trade that can help get their attention. read more
-
thebrainchildgroup.com
-
Landing a Big Social Media Marketing Contract: Think Shoes
10 Feb 2012 | 12:50 pmThere are times in life when even though you're the absolute best, you still don't succeed. When it comes to landing a big social media marketing contract, or any contract for that matter, it's not only about what you know, but how you present yourself. Related posts:Zappos Social Media Customer Service = Superb Social Media Marketing: The Right Way & The Wrong Way Sonic Boom in Los Angeles From Space Shuttle Discovery | WOW! -
PR Agencies Increasingly Use Social Media & SEO Consultants
9 Feb 2012 | 1:36 amAfter many years in the business, I've recently noticed an influx of PR agencies that are in desperate need of social media and search engine optimization consulting. The days of relying on print, television and radio are gone with the wind, and many old school PR folks need a fresh perspective. Related posts:Social Media Press Release Writing Service is Born Social Media & Press Releases: A Heavenly Combination Cost of Social Media Marketing Consultants – Inflated or Not? -
Social Media Strategy: Finding the Right Balance
25 Jan 2012 | 2:08 amIf you were sitting on a seesaw across from one of the world’s largest sumo wrestlers, the one thing you’d wish for is balance. Social media marketing requires the same mindset. It’s important for companies to solidify their social media strategy and determine the correct balance. In essence, what should be shared and how often? The goal [...] Related posts:Reactive Social Media Strategy (RSMS): What The Heck Is It? Social Media Monitoring Tools: My 3 Favorites Social Media Marketing: The Right Way & The Wrong Way -
Scrum Master Certification Course in San Francisco, CA
17 Jan 2012 | 8:33 pmPlatinum Edge, Inc. will be conducting a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) course in San Francisco, CA from January 30, 2012 to January 31, 2012, which will be taught by industry-recognized expert Mark C. Layton. Related posts:Scrum Master Certification Course in Oklahoma City, OK Agile ScrumMaster Certification Course by Mark Layton of Platinum Edge Newport Beach Certified ScrumMaster Training Course -
Had a Realization: Social Media Marketing is Like Fishing
16 Jan 2012 | 3:50 pmAfter many years of working with social media including sleepless nights thinking about what it truly is, I recently had a realization that social media marketing is very similar to fishing. Sounds crazy, I know, but hear me out. Related posts:Social Media Provides Huge Marketing Opportunities for Dentists Bacon of the Month Club: Yes, It’s Real Social Media Marketing: Are You Setting Obtainable Goals?
-
Garious Blog
-
On Ramp: Looking For Problems To Solve
11 Feb 2012 | 11:33 amWe fell behind on our plan to release a new section of the book each week, but we will now continue our journey of helping real estate agents utilize the lean canvas to determine if they have a viable business model and create a social media marketing strategy through the same process. Below is a section from our new “On-Ramp: Your Social Media Roadmap” book. You can read the other sections of the book as well. Looking For Problems To Solve What problem does your target customer have that you can solve well? Just like the customer segments box, we would like for you to… -
The Magnificent Obsession: How to Give Your Brand a “Sacred” Value!
9 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amHave you ever wondered why most people make purchasing decisions based on friends’ recommendations and product reviews? Because friends and reviews are neutral third parties, so when the say: “this brand rocks”, they are sincere about it. They are speaking from the heart without any hidden agendas or personal gain. That’s what makes the whole idea of creating and nurturing brand advocates so appealing to many businesses. My bold claim today is that YOU, as a brand owner, can become equally credible to your potential customers. In other words, you have the capacity of… -
How To Create “Smart Trust” On Social Media The Stephen M. R. Covey Way?
7 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amAs I was following up on the smashing success of Smart Trust book co-authored by Stephen M.R. Covey (son of the legendary Dr. Stephen R. Covey) and his partner Greg Link, I couldn’t help but think: Like father like son! To get a feel of his latest masterpiece, I encourage you to listen attentively to Stephen’s interview with Bob Burg. You will be glad you did! As I read through some of the book reviews on Amazon, they got me thinking about how businesses can apply the same principles to social media. What People Are Saying About Smart Trust According to Rodger Dean Duncan This… -
Targeting + Soft Selling = Massive SM Success. Thanks @PhxREGuy!
2 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amLast week, we shed light on Jay Thompson’s (@PhxREGuy) Twitter success story and I was impressed by how he fully grasped the unwritten rules of social media and used them to attract clients on Twitter. Today, I will be sharing precious lessons, tips and insights inspired by his story. They can be summed up in the following equation: Targeting + Soft Selling = Massive Social Media Success This article is in built on Jay’s success story. Please make sure to read it before proceeding. You will be glad you did! How Does “Phoenix Real Estate Guy” Attract Clients On Twitter? Are you… -
Garious List: Top 20 Social Media Posts – January 2012
31 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amI am very excited to present our first top 20 picks for 2012. January’s social scene is brimming with great content that we assimilated from several resources (including but not limited to Business Insider, Customer Think, Mashable, SME, SoftwareAdvise) for your reading pleasure. ~*~ Feel free to nominate your favorite posts for our February top picks by commenting below. Also, you can reach us on Twitter (@garious1 (Posts are presented in descending chronological order) 1. Online Marketing News: Women Dominate Community Management, Google Privacy, FBI Social, Twitter Censorship, McD…
-
Myrland Marketing Minutes
-
MOMMY, WE LOVE YOU FOREVER
12 Feb 2012 | 10:59 pmThe newest angel was welcomed to Heaven at 4:35 a.m. on January 15, 2012, when my dear Mom passed away. My sister and I were Blessed to be holding each of her hands as God took those hands from us, and welcomed her to her forever home. I wasn’t sure I was going to write and [...] -
3 EASY WAYS TO GET A HEAD START ON 2012
20 Dec 2011 | 4:15 amI have them. You have them. Those nagging items on your marketing and business development T0-Do list that you know you should have accomplished this year. Perhaps you didn’t get to them because: You were just too busy. You didn’t know where to start. You had too many choices, and became overwhelmed. You were afraid of failing. You didn’t want to hear “no.” You let administrative [...] -
PUBLIC SPEAKERS, TAKE NOTE…I DID!
29 Nov 2011 | 6:52 amDo you give presentations as a part of your business? Do you want to give presentations as a part of your business? If you answered yes to either of these questions, one of these thoughts has probably come to mind: I love to speak. I hate to speak. I want to love to speak. I want to learn how to speak [...] -
ONE SOCIAL MEDIA PREDICTION FOR 2011…YES, 2011
15 Nov 2011 | 7:17 amAbout a year ago, Twitterville author Shel Israel wrote a blog post titled “My Predictions for 2011″ on his blog Global Neighbourhoods. One of his predictions that resonated with me at the time was Number 9. Shel wrote: “The Chinese government will accelerate its suppression of free speech on the Internet. Simultaneously, more Chinese people will bypass the government [...] -
MYRLAND MARKETING MOMENT
14 Nov 2011 | 9:44 amMyrland Marketing Moment: Blog posts don’t always have to be keynote-worthy. Sometimes short is better! Related articles Should Social Media Be in the Hands of Interns? (myrlandmarketing.com) Social Media: No One Starts in the Middle (myrlandmarketing.com) Social Media: Who Should Lead the Charge? (myrlandmarketing.com)
-
Pixable Blog
-
Pixable is featured in the app store!
27 Jan 2012 | 2:28 pmGreat news Pixable fans! Pixable is currently featured in the app store. That’s right, millions of people from around the world will see Pixable in the featured section of their iPhones and on iTunes this weekend. We just want to … keep reading >> -
Photos from your different Social Circles!
13 Jan 2012 | 1:29 pmYour Facebook friends are a motley crew. You have current co-workers, former co-workers, new friends from the other night, old friends from high school, your family and then some. Pixable sorts through all their photos for you and automatically pu -
Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!
27 Dec 2011 | 10:59 amHappy Holidays everyone! We hope you are enjoying the time with your family and loved ones this holiday season. We just wanted to take the time to thank you for all the love you have shown Pixable over the past … keep reading >> -
A better, faster, stronger Pixable!
12 Dec 2011 | 3:55 pmIf you have an iPhone make sure to check out our brand spanking new update, Pixable 2.2.2. This new version is a big performance upgrade from 2.0. We've spent time tweaking the innerworkings of Pixable to make it as fast … keep reading >> -
Pixable places as Runner Up at Disruptathon!
30 Sep 2011 | 5:19 pmThis past Monday I went down to Washington DC to participate in an event held at the Washington Post, called Disruptathon. Disruptathon was the first tech conference I've attended in DC and I must say I was impressed and had … keep reading >>
-
The North Blog
-
North Social Page Admin of the Week: Phil Pallen of Gordons Gold Jewellers
2 Feb 2012 | 1:41 pmWhat does your company do and what is your role there…besides running the Facebook page of course? I work with a range of companies and brands, including Gordons Gold Jewellers, my longest client. Gordons Gold is a local family jewelry store in London, Canada, which specializes in fine jewelry, diamonds and gem stones. For 4 years, I’ve handled the social media, graphic design, branding and online marketing. Why does your company have a Facebook page? Although my client values dedicated customer service in-person, they also recognize the importance of social media. Gordons Gold… -
North Social Page Admin of the Week: Jake Carpey of Love and Pride
19 Jan 2012 | 11:54 amFacebook Page:http://www.facebook.com/loveandpride What does your company do and what is your role there…besides running the Facebook page of course? Love and Pride is the first high-end designer jewelry online destination for people who believe in equality, diversity and tolerance. Our jewelry collections include engagement, commitment, wedding and anniversary rings, necklaces, pendants, earrings, watches and other accessories for women and men. Sometimes romantic, sometimes serious, sometimes whimsical…always captivating. Love and Pride works with some amazing organizations such as… -
North Social Page Admin of the Week: Irene Lee of X-Doria
12 Jan 2012 | 1:09 pmWhat does your company do and what is your role there…besides running the Facebook page of course? We make fashion-forward accessories for iPhones, iPads, iPod touch, and more. We are a global company, selling our products just about everywhere but we’ve recently upgraded our product line and online presence, so we’re very excited to get out there and connect with our fans. So my day is about connecting with media, bloggers, Facebook fans, and more. Spreading the word on our products, sending out products for review. We want to put X-Doria products in front of as many people… -
North Social Page Admin of the Week: Dianna Holland of Universal Technical Institute
4 Jan 2012 | 8:08 pmWhat does your company do and what is your role there…besides running the Facebook page of course? Universal Technical Institute Inc. (UTI) is a nationwide provider of technical education training for students seeking careers as professional automotive, diesel, collision repair, motorcycle and marine technicians. As the Social Media Specialist, it is my task to engage our audience through Facebook and YouTube, as well as, monitor our online reputation on a daily basis. Why does your company have a Facebook page? Our demographic grew up on Facebook! We MUST be there! What’s the most… -
10 Video Shorts To Watch Before The Ball Drops
29 Dec 2011 | 7:22 pmUnless you’ve been living under a rock for the latter half of 2011, you’ve probably met Jonny Like on at least one occasion. Jonny is the face of all Facebook Fan Page fails, which occur all too frequently in a social media world chock-full of interns-turned-page-admins and self-labeled gurus. There are 10 fail video shorts in all, each of which allude to various learnings of being on the front lines of managing a Facebook page. Will you post up on the street corner with your brand’s billboard? We’ll bet not, but chances are you’ve mimicked the page of another…
-
ProMovieBlogger
-
Contest: $100 Google AdWords Promotional Coupon Code: March 2012
11 Feb 2012 | 3:11 pm$100 Google AdWords Promotional Coupon Codes have been released. We have a contest for one of those promotional $100 Coupon Codes for Google AdWords. The Google AdWords promotional code in this giveaway expires on March 31, 2012. Redemption of the Google AdWord coupon code occurs by going to Google.com/adwords. Google AdWords “offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, cost-per-thousand (CPM) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for text, banner, and rich-media ads…Google’s text advertisements are short, consisting of one headline and two additional text lines. Image… -
How to Become Recognized as a Film Critic: eFilmcritic
9 Feb 2012 | 7:24 amEfilmcritic is film review website through which a person that writes movie reviews can become a recognized film critic. eFilmcritic allows skilled film reviewers (who have or have not ever published a movie review online, in a newspaper or magazine) to become part of its cadre of film critics and those broadcast their film reviews to a much larger audience. I have spoken earlier about Rotten Tomatoes here: Rotten Tomatoes, Your Movie Reviews, Recognition, and Website Traffic. Efilmcritic has its own Rotten Tomatoes page where all of the film critics that write for them are listed. Each film… -
PMB News: How to Start Movie Website Resources Page Launched
2 Feb 2012 | 3:25 pmHow to Start Movie Website Resources page launched, Make Money Online page updated. The Make Money Online page has been updated with new money makers and old, inactive, or deceased money makers have been deleted. Along with the new money makers are three ad networks you may or may not be aware of that have specific advertisement options for movie websites. Also brought online is the How to Start Movie Website Resources page. The Resources page is crammed with utilities, programs, and information on (to name a few of the sections) Website Building, Content Delivery Networks, Affiliation… -
BlueFur: Web Hosting Review, Bad Conduct, Content Wiped Out: Part 1
29 Jan 2012 | 9:29 pmBlueFur Web Hosting, BlueFur Dedicated Server, and BlueFur Personal Customer Service. Advertised and lauded on BlueFur.com home page, these were all things I unfortunately experienced from the Canadian web hosting company. This will be a long, sad story and the post about it will be lengthy and melancholy as well (though it will not begin that way), broken into multiple parts so they can be read in easily digestible segments. What I have to say is important to any webmaster seeking hosting or to one thinking of switching hosting companies. Underneath The Cover The reason for this series is… -
Interview: Reel Talk’s Candice Frederick: Moving Beyond the Blog
21 Jan 2012 | 4:31 amBuilding a movie website or blog is not the end of a movie webmaster’s journey when it comes to expressing themselves about film and the film world. It can be only the first step if they want it to be. There are other avenues such as podcasts, newsletters, video reviews or film commentaries on YouTube, newspaper, radio, and television opportunities. Candice Frederick of Reel Talk has availed herself of some of these options. What sparked the idea for Reel Talk? I’ve always been really passionate about movies and, after several extended movieanalyses with people I know, I decided…
-
Hudsonhorizons.com RSS Feed
-
3 Ways to Improve your Valentine’s Day with Social Media
10 Feb 2012 | 3:54 pmIt's coming down to the wire on one of the most important days of the year for some! February 14th can be stressful for some, depressing for others. Not to worry, the day honoring Saint Valentine will be a sure fire success if you follow one or all 3 of these steps towards affection perfection! Do you have a significant other? Are you single and looking for love? Regardless of what your Facebook status says these 3 social media suggestions can put your mind and heart at ease while getting you prepared for the loving holiday. It's not too late, I promise! You can read the full store at Hudson… -
5 Steps towards Creating a Successful QR Code Campaign
10 Feb 2012 | 11:55 amQuick Response Codes, or QR Codes, were created in 1994 by a Toyota subsidiary to track their vehicle manufacturing process. They have since been used all over the world as a marketing tool to get customers interacting with advertisements. In a sense, QR codes have brought print advertising to the Internet through mobile devices. QR codes can be tricky to maneuver through because it takes more than simply directing customers to a website to make for a successful QR code campaign. These 5 tips will get your business achieving your goals in no time. You can read the full store at Hudson… -
Social Media Enhances Public Safety
8 Feb 2012 | 4:16 pmSocial media has been a wonderful platform for connecting friends and family in a casual atmosphere for many years now. As the prevalence of this technology has increased among many age groups, social media has since been useful in more serious circumstances. It was just six months ago that the New York Police Department created a social media unit to fight crime, sometimes before it ever begins. For example, when rioters start to plan their mischievous acts via Twitter or -
How Pinterest Can Win with Men
6 Feb 2012 | 3:00 pmA social network for women? Yes. But men can benefit from Pinterest too. Pinterest just needs to tell them how to use it. Pinterest, the virtual pin board site that allows users to organize and share images of the things they love, has already become popular amongst women. Being that the network was actually created by two men, I was quite skeptical about the growing genderization - So I signed-up. It only took a few minutes to understand why so many women love it. How Pinterest became a utility for women The gendering of Pinterest has everything to do with the way people, b You can read the… -
FairSearch Calls Out Google; Exposes Truths About Search Giant
1 Feb 2012 | 10:44 amGoogle has made headlines yet again, but not for the right reasons. In fact, it seems that news involving Google this past week has been about another party who is opposed to the search giant's new features - features that allow Google to promote its own services while violating user privacy. FairSearch.org is the latest campaign against Google. The FairSearch message FairSearch.org was created to digitally expose You can read the full store at Hudson Horizons Web Development Blog FairSearch Calls Out Google; Exposes Truths About Search Giant
-
Other Side Group
-
Social Media Week NYC: Top Trends that will Shape Social in 2012 #SMWJWT #SMWNYC [Summary]
13 Feb 2012 | 9:24 amAnn Mack, Director of Trendspotting for JWT, shares details on some of the key trends that brands will need to understand in the years ahead. By outlining changes in the global zeitgeist, Ann will explore what’s driving them and detail how they’re beginning to play out both in society and in social media. This presentation hopes to inspire you to consider how to convert these shifts into compelling opportunities. A summary of tweets: [<a href="http://storify.com/just_kate/social-media-week-nyc-ann-mack-and-the-top-trends" target="_blank">View the story "Social Media Week NYC: Ann… -
9 Ways Students Can Use Social Media To Boost Their Careers [Mashable Post]
10 Feb 2012 | 1:46 pmI wrote a piece on Mashable today on how students can think about and use social media professionally as they’re preparing themselves for the real world…. If you’re a Generation X-er or older, you likely use social media to cut it in the real world. You may also use social networks for personal reasons, but it’s always with the understanding that you’re a professional. But newer generations of college graduates began their social media experience as a very personal one. And the shift to using social media for career development may seem optional. But it’s a necessary evil… -
Infographic of the Week: A History of Disruptive Innovations in B2B Marketing
3 Feb 2012 | 8:52 amAn excellent infographic by the team over at Eloqua looking at breakthrough technologies and processes that forever changed one segment of the world: B2B Marketing professionals. -
Infographic of the Week: Social Networking at Work
27 Jan 2012 | 7:55 pmA new set of stats show that two out of every three people agree that social media should be banned in the workplace. Simply Zesty brings us some interesting visuals on how social media is seen at work (in the UK…but let’s be honest, it’s probably similar in the US!) -
Infographic of the Week: How America Spends on Electronics
20 Jan 2012 | 9:46 amEver wonder the who, what, where of electronic lovers in the US? Bundle shows us some cool stats.
-
Digital Pivot RSS News Feed
-
Dear Google: Chrome Beta is Breaking My Heart
13 Feb 2012 | 6:36 amSummary: As a woman who considers herself a technology aficionado, I try to surround myself with friends who are equally interested in the changing shape of new media. So when two of my fellow techie geeks text messages, I knew something big was going on. -
Whitney Houston -- and Social Media -- Make Headlines
13 Feb 2012 | 6:35 amSummary: I found out about Whitney Houston's death from a New York Times push notification to my iPhone. Within a few hours, we began hearing about the outpouring of condolences and support on social media. Tweets were quoted and infographics were displayed on CNN and other news networks. As we watched a Twitter analysis on the news, my husband turned to me and asked, "How is this news? I really don't care that Whitney Houston is a trending topic." On one hand, I had to agree with him. But on the other hand... Social media became the story less than a couple of hours after Houston was… -
4 Incentives to Inspire Your Social Media Marketing Team
13 Feb 2012 | 6:34 amSummary: Social media marketing is a constant, ever-evolving enterprise. Marketing through content generation and community building can be draining; the engagement is never supposed to stop and networks, like plants, must be tended to on a daily, if not a minute-to-minute basis. Here are four incentives that can continually motivate your social media marketing team. -
What Star Wars Can Teach Us About Poisoning the Well
10 Feb 2012 | 6:45 amSummary: In case you haven't heard, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is out in 3-D this week. In fact, the first screenings have already aired as you read this. I'll be following movie news over the next few weeks to see how it performs -- not because I'm a huge Star Wars fan, but because all of the big fans I know say they are not going to see the The Phantom Menace in 3D. What made their statements especially notable to me is that just about all of them said they would pay to see all six of the movies on the big screen again, but in the original formats. When I asked if they were turned off by… -
Checking Out Foursquare's Explore, Radar, and Future
10 Feb 2012 | 6:36 amSummary: Last Wednesday Foursquare rolled out its latest update for iOS5 that, after dropping the web version of Explore on us just a few short weeks ago, optimizes the mobile version of Explore, plays with the serendipitous Radar extension, and brings us one step closer to travel and discovery nirvana. Innovation has been a trend as of late with the most widely utilized LBS service; Foursquare is traveling down a path that goes beyond scoreboards and badges. We're now talking experiences and bar tabs.
-
SocialSelf.Ca
-
Life Took A Pause
7 Feb 2012 | 7:12 amHi All. As you may have noticed I have taken a brief pause from updates and such. If you follow me on twitter you might know that my Father had a heart attack just before Christmas and I was home in Ottawa for just over a month. Updates: Dad is doing better, slow and steady improvement.Thank you for all your support and kind words. Edelman has been fantastic. Never had I imagined a company would take such good care of me when I needed it the most. Life is getting back on track. Back to work and rocking it out! Great clients, great learnings, great new projects! I promise to be back… -
Happy New Year!
31 Dec 2011 | 6:51 amHere’s to you you and a great year for us both! And here’s a link to a good hangover cure Much love from me to you. Afs -
The Computer Revolution as seen through a 1970′s creepy children’s cartoons
21 Dec 2011 | 7:42 amAn explanatory video in a style from before my time – works well! Charles and Ray Eames Explain the Computer Revolution -
If you search “useful” you might find this:
28 Nov 2011 | 7:13 pmI remember learning a few of these tricks back in my first year of PR school at Humber. I use them daily. Student take note, this is a treasured tool set to have. -
November / Movember Update
5 Nov 2011 | 7:03 amHow time flies! The winter season is coming (and fast), batten down the hatches and prepare the nation for some cozy and comforting hibernation! About a month ago next week I will have been at my new job at Edelman for a month. I’m settling in very nicely and making some awesome new friends. Ill keep it brief – I’m really enjoying my clients and the new work atmosphere, It’s dramatically different than my last job in many ways – all of them positive. I will update you with a grand tour and and some interesting co-worker cameos shortly but for now on to more…
-
Global Institute For Inspiration
-
31 Jan 2012 | 1:28 pm
31 Jan 2012 | 1:28 pmgoogle-site-verification: google561c9935f8f71622.html -
65% of Workers Rate Their Boss As Less Than Inspiring
6 Dec 2011 | 12:36 pmAtlanta, Georgia, December 6, 2011, The Global Institute for Inspiration (GII) commissioned a survey in the U.S. and the UK to determine how workers perceive bosses when it comes to inspiration. The survey was conducted by global digital market research specialist DigitalMR. A vast majority of 4,590 respondents in the U.S. and 4261 in the UK seem to share the same general impression of their bosses… NOT INSPIRING. 33% across the board thought of their boss as being neither inspiring nor uninspiring and worst, another 32% perceived their boss as being uninspiring to very uninspiring. In… -
Building Inspiring Employees, Teams & Leaders Builds Business
18 Nov 2011 | 5:00 pmTapping into Inspiration to Engage & Empower According to Gallup, 60% of American workers are actively disengaged. 40% of workers intend to leave their job this year and loyalty factor of customers is at an all time low of just 25%, down from 28% from just one year ago. In an effort to address this growing trend, U.S. businesses spent over $40 Billion in workplace training and another $14 Billion in various employee engagement initiatives. Factor in that traditional learning activities seem to be having little affect since research has now made it clear, 85% of workplace… -
Engage, Inspire, Act! Unilever’s Prescription For Success
12 Oct 2011 | 5:02 pmContributed by Nicos Rossides, MASMI Last month, I attended the annual ESOMAR Congress in Amsterdam. Whilst the need to create a deep connection with consumers was a theme that ran through several of the presentations, there was one that clearly identified inspiration as a key plank for a global leader’s brand strategy: that of Unilever. The speakers talked about Unilever’s recipe for brand success which involves three key steps: Engage, Inspire, Act. First comes engagement, which ideally happens on three levels: ‘Hearts’ of employees: establishing a culture of consumer centricity… -
It’s Here! 2011 Most Inspiring Companies List
27 Sep 2011 | 12:01 pmFind out what consumers from the U.S. and U.K. determine are the most inspiring companies and why! It was not long ago that the Balanced Scorecard changed the way businesses strategically focused on objectives and measures that drove short and long-term performance. That was a major step in management theory and practice. And now we have a case for adding ‘inspiration’ as a new metric. From a business perspective this might sound like a lot of fluff but when respondents in our survey were asked if they could name an inspiring company or brand, 58% answered in the affirmative. But, the…
-
Buzzom
-
Cyber Criminals to invade Facebook on Valentine’s Day
13 Feb 2012 | 10:48 amIt’s Valentine’s day tomorrow – a day filled with gifts, special Valentine’s day messages and loads of Facebook scams. According to the Trend Micro Researchers, cyber criminals are all set to invade social networking site Facebook, spreading viruses and malicious links, and users need to stay extra cautious. Researchers at Trend Micro came across a scam on Facebook that leverages the upcoming occasion. The attack begins with a post on affected users wall inviting other users to install a Valentine’s theme into their Facebook profile. Once users click on this post, they are… -
US Air Force to purchase up to 18,000 tablets to replace bulky flight manuals and navigation charts
13 Feb 2012 | 4:55 amThe U.S. Air Force plans to replace heavy manuals and navigations charts carried by pilots and navigators, weighing as much as 40 pounds, with the new age tablets. The Air Mobility Command (AMC), which works on support missions like airlifts and mid-air refueling, has made a proposal to purchase 63 to 18,000 tablets. Either an iPad 2 or an equivalent device would be used to lighten the load of flight crews, AMC points out. Apart from the Air Force, other military branches have also begun using iPhones and tablets running Apple’s iOS and Google Inc.’s Android operating systems. -
Chinese retailers remove iPads from the stores over the trademark infringement case
13 Feb 2012 | 3:40 amLast week we reported that Shenzhen-based company, Proview Technology has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the company owns the iPad trademark in China. Chinese authorities have begun to confiscate iPads from retail stores and electronic stores, and retailers are removing the devices from their stores in order to prevent their stocks from being seized, states a recent report from the China Daily. China.com.cn states that as of 5:00 PM yesterday authorities had seized 45 iPad 2 units from retailers, in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, but it’s not… -
Indian e-commerce site FirstCry.com raises $14 million in second round of funding
13 Feb 2012 | 1:57 amBrainBees Solutions owned e-commerce site FirstCry.com, that sells kids and baby products, has raised $14 million in a Series B funding from investors IDG Ventures and its existing investor SAIF Partners. The site earlier received $4 million funding from SAIF in May 2011. FirstCry.com offers a wide range of products including infant accessories (diapers, toiletries, baby food, strollers and furniture), apparel, footwear, books, toys, etc., for children up to the age of 15 years; and features products from renowned national and international brands including Chicco, Graco, BSA, Johnson &… -
Amazon gets a green signal from FIBP for setting up a logistics unit in India
13 Feb 2012 | 1:19 amOnline retail giant Amazon has got government’s permission to set up a logistics unit in India. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has allowed Amazon Asia-Pacific Resources to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary for courier services in India. The company will invest Rs 15 crore in the subsidiary, according to the reports. The move comes after Amazon launched its online shopping site Junglee.com catering to the Indian consumers and featuring products from some of India’s top online retailers(excluding India’s e-commerce giant Flipkart), offline retailers, and from…
-
Sean Clark
-
5 Ways To Use Twitter For Local Target Marketing
11 Feb 2012 | 5:28 amHitting the Target in your Local MarketHow local do you want to get? For some businesses the World Wide Web holds no interest, to them it is the local, or even the Hyper-Local web where the seams of gold lie. When I first started working online in the late ’90s the big draw was the ability for small businesses to be able to have a worldwide reach. No longer were they confined to local markets, constrained by advertising budgets or business location. In the East of England road networks did, and still do, present an issue for many businesses wishing to attract business from further… -
Create Your Own Social Media PR Machine
5 Feb 2012 | 5:29 pmCreate Your Own PR The aim of any modern business is to grow a community. An army of loyal followers that will not only buy it’s products but will also help spread “the word”. These advocates help to effectively multiply the reach of the companies marketing message. Apple are probably the prime example of this type of company with disciple like customers willing to promote and share the Apple way of life without question. What creates this type of loyal following? One explanation can be found in Simon Sinek’s book, Start with Why. The basic premise being that companies… -
Create Your Own Social Portfolio with the Timekiwi Timeline
30 Jan 2012 | 3:24 pmTimekiwi Timeline It seems there is a new social media platform launching every week. Staying focused becomes more difficult as you want to ensure you don’t miss the next “big thing”. Even when you do maintain focus you often find you have content spread all over the web on multiple platforms. Sure you have your blog as the hub of your activity but it doesn’t account for your photos on Instagram, Polls on Facebook, numerous interactions on Twitter and videos on YouTube. Services like Klout and Peer Index track your activity across the web gauging your influence, but… -
How To Connect Google+ To Twitter Using Hootsuite
29 Jan 2012 | 2:52 pmConnecting Google Plus and TwitterGoogle+ has a lot of potential as a social platform. It’s growth isn’t surprising considering the leverage Google has. 90 Millions users in under a year is a great achievement. It is likely to grow further and faster in coming months, especially as Google tie the platform more and more into it’s standard search product. The likely beneficial search engine effects of having a presence on Google+ is drawing even more to sign up. The problem for those using these platforms for business is justifying spending time on a platform with relatively… -
How To Create A QR Code [VIDEO TUTORIAL]
28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amFacebook Page QR Code They are appearing everywhere, on buildings, in magazines, on buses and trains. QR Codes are a growing phenomena. They can bridge the gap between off-line and online, enhancing user experience. There are not the best looking marketing devices, but the alternatives NFC – Near Field Communication, are technical to implement and limited to a few mobile handsets. Digimarc, another alternate, uses information hidden in an image and was originally invented as a digital watermark. The issue with Digimarc, how to easily tell people they should scan the image. QR Codes on…
-
SGB Media Group
-
YourBuzz.com Analytics
13 Feb 2012 | 3:37 amI've been testing out this personal analytics service out: Thank you for using YourBuzz to manage the online conversation around your business. Good news! You have social media activity in the past : Social Activity You have 165 mentions on Twitter. You have 10 mentions on LinkedIn. You have 231 new fans or followers. See who is following you We'll send you another e-mail about any social media activity you're monitoring with YourBuzz. Thank you again for your continued membership. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
My Video Ad Courtesy of Naymz.com
10 Feb 2012 | 1:18 amPermalink | Leave a comment » -
Google Apps
7 Feb 2012 | 12:11 pmgoogle-site-verification: google0491fd2dc09d43eb.html Permalink | Leave a comment » -
CMO's Year End Specials
19 Dec 2011 | 9:01 pmThe 2011 CMO's Guide To The Social Landscape (CMO.com)These days, marketing channels, platforms, and tools that lack a social component are probably doomed to failure. CMO.com's second annual downloadable guide will help you determine which ones are a must in your marketing strategy. 10 Great Expectations: What CEOs Want From Their CMOs (CMO.com)CEOs have always held their CMOs to high standards, but in this day and age, marketing accountability has never been more intense. What does it take to please the boss? 10 Tips For Building Your Next-Gen Marketing Team (CMO.com)From… -
iMedia Connection Weekly Picks
19 Dec 2011 | 8:55 pm8 reasons marketers can't trust Facebook By Douglas KarrIs your business or your clients' marketing heavily dependent on Facebook? If so, you have more to lose than you think. Here's why. Our industry's unethical, indefensible behavior By Eric PicardAs an industry, our methods of tracking consumer behavior online are wrong. See why all of the arguments to the contrary fall apart when logic is applied. Why clicks are the wrong metric By Jarvis MakClick-based analyses are fundamentally flawed. It's not just that clicks don't tell the whole story; they tell the wrong story. Here's why. Guy…
-
L2: A Think Tank for Digital Innovation
-
Custom-made Italian…riot-gear?
10 Feb 2012 | 5:04 pmIt’s no secret that the Chinese are spending a lot of yuan right now. This year, in particular, the auspicious Year of the Dragon, will mean even more gift-giving, personal indulgences, even an uptick in entrepreneurial investing. Point in case, state-owned Chinese clothing manufacturer China Garments’ recent announcement to launch its own luxury menswear brand. The company’s experience in the fashion industry is limited to say the least–just military uniforms, Mao suits and riot-gear. Though the intended clientele of this new fashion house,… -
14 Days of Love at the Four Seasons
7 Feb 2012 | 3:08 pmHow incredible does a 14-day vacation sound right about now? Even better, a 14-day vacation at a Four Seasons resort in the Seychelles? Or maybe the Maldives? So incredible it’s really not even fun to pretend. But how about, instead of a 14-day vacation at a Four Seasons, you and your loved one got to enjoy 14 days’ worth of Valentine’s advice from the Four Seasons? And what if those ideas and tips came straight from the mouths of the hotel group’s finest concierges? Now through next Tuesday, fans and frequenters of Four Seasons resorts can visit any of the hotel… -
Michael Kors Falls in Love With…
6 Feb 2012 | 10:32 amIn anticipation of Valentine’s Day, Michael Kors is getting his social media effort in the mood with a new romance-themed campaign. Throughout February, the Kors brand will foster online discussions with consumers about the people and places–and let’s be honest, the things–they are in love with this year. The main component of the campaign is the hashtag #FallingInLoveWith, which can be used across platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. As part of the campaign, Kors is also launching special features on its “Destination Kors” blog and Pinterest page. The… -
Matthew Burns To Lead L2′s Efforts in Europe
3 Feb 2012 | 2:44 pmL2 is pleased to announce the hiring of Matthew Burns, who will serve as the lead for our rapidly expanding European business. Burns, who will be based in London, brings with him a decade of experience and industry expertise. “I joined L2 in part so I could return to the Prestige industry,” the Geneva native said. “But what really attracted me to the position was the chance to work for a firm that converts consumer love for brands into digital excellence that ultimately benefits shareholder value”. Prior to L2, Burns led global strategy for GlossyBox, the… -
Twitter Expands Its Expanded Profiles
2 Feb 2012 | 2:38 pmWhen Twitter launched expanded profile pages for brands at the end of last year, users adapted to the updated version almost without realizing it. Considering that a typical Facebook redesign often involves getting lost trying to navigate an entirely new set of options and functions, how did Twitter manage such a seamless transition? Because they only added two new features: a large header banner and the ability to pin a promoted tweet (for free) to the top of the feed. Twitter’s reasoning behind these enhanced profiles was to give brands an opportunity to highlight their most…
-
Joey Strawn
-
Business Strategy: ReBooted
8 Feb 2012 | 7:46 am -
Onboarding: Gamification Theories in the Blink of an Eye
6 Feb 2012 | 7:23 am -
[JoeToon] New From Warner Bros. Pictures…
3 Feb 2012 | 6:42 am -
Introducing Social CRM (and SocialCRMInfo.com)
1 Feb 2012 | 6:29 am -
Why Temple Run Is A Great Game (And Why It Matters To Your Business)
30 Jan 2012 | 6:47 am
-
Social media news today, Technology blog
-
Google removes offensive content in India
8 Feb 2012 | 11:36 amGoogle has removed reprehensible content from search result in india. Youtube, blogger and social media sites orkut and other 21 websites removed offensive content comply with a New Delhi court in a civil lawsuit. Spokesperson said in statement, “We only removed specific content that was identified or was the subject of the court's order from local domains of Search, YouTube, Blogger, and Orkut,” "This step is in accordance with Google's long standing policy of responding to court orders," Roy Chowdhury said, while adding, "this is consistent with our long term policy and we've been very… -
Smartphone proportions: find your mobile precise size
6 Feb 2012 | 11:32 amAre you fanatic man of latest Smartphone? Now a day’s more leading companies lunched new smart phone with slim and thin. However, that will be too large. Not possible to put in your pocket. You impressed and decided to buy one new ultra slim model mobile.You read the review about mobile in online. Nevertheless, how you know precise size of your new mobile exactly. You will get answer is contain through phone-size.com, when you go to web, asks aspect ratio and size on your screen. You can select your favorite model from dropdown options. Listed dozens of latest smartphones from apple,… -
Top 10 free antivirus software
3 Feb 2012 | 11:23 amAntivirus software’s is protecting your computer from virus, worms, and malware. Virus software is must you install on your machine. Here is listed top 10 free antivirus software. Microsoft Security Essentials: This is free antivirus software, MSE is protecting against malware such as computer virus, spyware, rootkits and Trojan horses. (Download) PC Tools Antivirus: just like Spyware Doctor, Protect your PC from basic cyber threats attempting to gain access to your PC. (Download) AVG Anti-virus Free edition 2012 : released in 2011. AVG claims some major performance enhancements in the 2012… -
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
1 Feb 2012 | 10:46 am -
Google blogspot url redirecting to country specific url
31 Jan 2012 | 7:59 pmGoogle is implementing a new system that automatically redirects users to country-specific URLs that match their IP address' location, like this blogspot.com to blogspot.in address. When view other countries as well. Blog like example.blogspot.com could redirect to example.blogspot.com.pk from a visitor pakistan and in singapore viewed example.blogspot.com.sg. Why specific url? Why is Google switching to country-specific url. Simple this gives them the ability to censor content hosted on Blogger country wise. Majority of BlogSpot blog owners would be worried about the SEO for their blogs;…
-
CKSyme.org
-
Blind Spots: Book Review
12 Feb 2012 | 4:44 pmBlind Spots is a fascinating look at the science behind why we fail to do what is right. Authors Max Bazerman and Ann Tenbrunsel have stellar pedigrees in the world of business, psychology, negotiation, and ethics. The book overflows with research and case studies on the ramifications of poor decision-making. The [...] -
“Look Away, I’m Hideous” – Is Social Media Getting Too Invasive
10 Feb 2012 | 12:37 pmRemember that great scene is Seinfeld where Kramer invited Jerry into his “smoking lounge” apartment for pipe night? After Jerry told Kramer his face was being disfigured by all the smoke, Kramer looked in a toaster (mirror), and said to Jerry, “look away…I’m hideous.” Kramer knew something about human nature we all [...] -
Listen Before You Speak: Using Social in Crisis
6 Feb 2012 | 3:21 pmWhen it comes to successful crisis communications, planning is the key. At CKSyme.org, we train organizations to plan, prepare, and practice for a crisis. To get you there, we have developed a new crisis communication curriculum called, “Listen, Engage, and Respond.” In addition to helping you develop an effective crisis communications strategy, it will [...] -
Another #Hashtag Gone Bad
3 Feb 2012 | 9:40 amBlackberry (RIM) became the second major brand to experience a thrashtag this week as the result of an ill-conceived Twitter campaign. The online anomaly, or “bashtag” as Mashable is calling it, is causing PR professionals and community managers to re-think the idea of fan engagement on Twitter. The 140-character giant has become a bullhorn [...] -
#FF for Good Social Media How-To Info
27 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amWhen it comes to “how-to” in the social media arena, there are five sites that consistently pump out the best information. There are lots of good thought leaders out there, and some of the best how-to people fit in that category as well. But if you’re looking for information on how to do something, or [...]
-
Digital Diva
-
[Infographic] What are the Best Times to Blog?
23 Jan 2012 | 9:18 am[Infographic] What are the Best Times to Blog?: By Dan Zarrella -
"Social media sites beyond Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are seeing significant boosts in usage,..."
23 Jan 2012 | 9:16 am“Social media sites beyond Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are seeing significant boosts in usage, both in the US and elsewhere in the world. And where users go, marketers will follow. Research from social marketing software firm Awareness Inc. indicates US marketers plan to do just that this year. The December 2011 survey found that the leading area for new social media marketing investments in 2012 would be increasing marketer presence across platforms, cited by 70% of respondents.” - Marketers Follow Users to More Social Sites - eMarketer -
Peer Index launches PeerPerks - exclusive rewards for the "influential"
5 Jan 2012 | 4:54 amI like Peer Index. They’re helpful, friendly, quick to respond and improve their system….and now they’ve given me a free book. Yay! I’m not sure what your PeerIndex score has to be to be considered influential for PeerPerks. Give it a try…see if you are eligible for a free copy by going to: http://www.peerindex.com/vip/pear-shaped …and fill in your Twitter or Facebook details. -
Social Media boosts Purchase Intent even after a year
4 Jan 2012 | 9:31 amLooking at the impact on brand metrics is a preoccupation of any social media manager or digital planner worth their salt. Likes and shares are great, but those interactions have to actually mean something! Trouble is, there isn’t much research around. BzzAgent (social media marketing arm of dunnhumby) are trying to rectify that. Beginning in summer 2010 they began studying the immediate and lingering results of several social media marketing campaigns involving consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands in the USA (or FMCG as we call them here in the UK) and brand advocates. Purchase Intent in… -
Google caught violating its own rules
4 Jan 2012 | 6:04 amGoogle caught violating its own rules: Whoops!
-
Techwarzone
-
Browser based Facebook Chat Application
19 Jan 2012 | 12:30 pmOur online Facebook chat doesn’t require you to “install” anything on your computer so is ideal for work or school. Wiltshire, England – Adding to its long list of successful Facebook applications for both Windows OS and BlackBerry mobiles, Athena IT Limited has released a browser-based version of Chit Chat for Facebook to bring cross-platform [...] -
Best 5 PHP Open Source Content Management System
10 Jan 2012 | 7:26 amJoomla is one of the best and most widely used CMS applications. It is suitable for creating corporate websites or intranets, online magazines, community-based portals and more. It has numerous build-in features as well as a large selection of extra modules and components which will enhance the value of your website and will enrich your [...] -
Twitter’s New Embeddable Tweets
6 Jan 2012 | 1:14 pmTwitter is going to launch of a brand new version of the site. It’s been available for a few weeks now, but not all users have it enabled yet. And new design is coming up with new features. Embedded tweets are part of the mix. While it’s been possible to embed tweets on blogs, websites [...] -
10 Best Open Source eCommerce Solutions
6 Dec 2011 | 12:23 pmThe best e-commerce solution is dependent on the type of data trading partners need to exchange to run their businesses effectively. 1- Magento Magento is a feature-rich eCommerce solution offering complete flexibility and control over the look, content, and functionality of an online store. Magento Features: Site Management Control multiple websites and stores from one [...] -
Add Facebook Like Box to Your Website
3 Dec 2011 | 2:26 pmFacebook pages are becoming more popular with brands, organisations and celebrities who want to boost their social exposure on the web. Facebook pages have become an important tool for expanding the reach of websites and blogs. The Like Box is a social plugin that enables Facebook Page owners to attract and gain Likes from their [...]
-
Social Poser
-
Social Media Failure by Super Bowl Advertisers
7 Feb 2012 | 6:27 amI admit that as a fan of the Minnesota Vikings I wasn’t very excited about the Super Bowl game this year. However, as a fan of social media marketing, I was excited about the commercials. As the game started, I decided to stay away from the social media sites, and instead started a spreadsheet so I could take notes as I watched the commercials. What I Expected Prior to the game, I was anticipating the Super Bowl ads to be heavy on hashtags and promotion of the Twitter and Facebook pages of the advertisers. Articles like this one on CanadianBusiness.com - Super Bowl advertising will be… -
How I Bought a Ford Explorer via Twitter and Email
17 Jan 2012 | 5:44 amIn an earlier post titled I’m Buying a 2011 Ford Explorer in Madison, WI. Who Wants my Business?, I noted that I was in the market for a 2011 Ford Explorer, and that I was turning it into a case study. I posted this on Twitter a couple hours prior to the blog post: I was able to find three local Ford dealerships on Twitter – @KayserFord, @MiddletonFord and @CapitolFordKia (which has since been sold). I expected one of them to earn my business, but only if they chose not to sit around the dealership on a Friday afternoon waiting for me to walk through the door. As Chris Brogan said… -
Social Media Bullying by So-Called Professional Photographers
8 Dec 2011 | 6:39 amMy first post on this blog, Is Groupon Killing the Photography Industry?, was actually less about Groupon than it was about experienced professional photographers and their attitudes toward less experienced professionals. These attitudes have reached a new level of absurdity and cruelty with the emergence of Missy Mwac on Facebook and MWACAttack on YouTube. Here’s how “Missy” describes herself on Facebook: I am a stay at home MWAC (Mom with a Camera) to two adorable children! I decided to become a professional photographer while my kids are at school and found it much easier… -
Stick a Fork in Klout – They Are Done
27 Oct 2011 | 10:55 pmAbout five months ago I wrote 5 Reasons Why Klout is Total BS. Since then, I haven’t paid them much attention until yesterday, when a friend informed me that my Klout score had dropped by nearly 20 points. Guess what? I don’t care! Klout is dead to me. After Klout’s announcement yesterday about A More Accurate, Transparent Klout Score, it should be dead to you too. First, how can anyone take their score seriously when Klout measures influence based on sites like Foursquare, Instagram and LastFM? Second, People don’t love Klout. They love their Klout scores. -
Paying the Marketing Department with Free WiFi at @AJBombersMSN – AJ Bombers Madison
7 Oct 2011 | 5:54 amA few weeks ago, I posted about a QR Code Done Right at AJ Bombers Madison. In that post, I praised Joe Sorge, the owner of AJ Bombers Madison, for posting a QR code in the window of the restaurant before it opened, allowing curious passers-by to get more information about the restaurant. AJ Bombers Madison is open now, and Joe has done it again! On a recent visit, I noted the presence of six posters just like this one scattered throughout the restaurant: (Click image to view full size.) Curious I was curious, so I scanned the code with my smartphone. Go ahead. Try it now if you must, but…
-
Abitha' blog
-
Common Mistakes to be Avoided in Petty Cash Maintenance
18 Jan 2012 | 5:11 amGenerally, managing the petty cash in a company is regarded as the simple bookkeeping task and it is given less importance. But unfortunately if these petty cash mishandled can lead to account bungling. The common mistakes range from missing or replacing small receipts to larger business audit. So bookkeeping should be given much importance in a company. As far as the petty cash account management is concerned, the first mistake that the petty cash custodians make is that they sometime ignore the small amount spent for the company. For example may be 5 to 10$ for buying stationeries like pen,… -
5 Amazing JQuery Photo Slideshow Effects
30 Dec 2011 | 5:06 amJQuery is very fast and concise Javascript library with amazing functionalities. With just a few lines of code, event handling and smooth animation effects can be produced. Nowadays, JQuery has become so popular that no web theme can be found without JQuery effects. It is for sure that the visitor can get unique experience with these image effects.Among the various striking effects of JQuery, image slideshows are the very interesting ones. Below are some of the most popular slideshows that can be used on the web sites. Itunes Image Slider: JQuery Itunes Image Slider is one of the most popular… -
Cloud hosting : Solution for Small Business
23 Dec 2011 | 7:14 amCloud hosting has become buzz word in the hosting industry today because this kind of hosting benefits the users from various angles. Unlike the traditional hosting where the site is hosted on a single server, in cloud hosting, the site will be hosted on multiple servers. This ensures the uninterrupted service even during any issues in any one of the server. Compared to other hosting techniques, cloud hosting is very economical because of the reason that we pay for what we use. Generally, the expensive shared and dedicated hosting best fits for stable and large and established companies… -
How to avoid downtime when we change the web hosting provider?
23 Dec 2011 | 4:21 amIt is very obvious for any customer to change the service when they are not satisfied. It is applicable to web hosting business too when the customer service is not satisfying,or if any diskspace and bandwidth related issues exist. During this process, if we don’t have enough experience and skills, it might lead to downtime. This can be avoided if we follow certain steps. We will discuss about it here. The very first step is to take a backup of all the files from the older server that has to be transferred to the new server. All the files such as images files, database files and text files… -
Benefits of using live chat for your websites
17 Oct 2011 | 5:31 amWith the arrival of Internet technology, everything has gone online. People want everything instantly with a few clicks on their computers. Online business has exploited this and measures are being taken to expand the business online rather than usual marketing techniques. Without even make a visit to the stores physically, people surf in the internet to find the products and services. This creates a dire necessity for the companies to launch a website that includes the details about their product with payment options and online chat support for solving queries. Especially when a customer has…
-
48 Dots
-
Vulnerability: Good for business?
19 Jan 2012 | 9:06 pmMy new boss was smart, vibrant and vulnerable. She was brilliant at her job, brought energy and enthusiasm to the office whilst being comfortable admitting the areas she struggled with. She even recognized her style of dress was a ‘work in progress’. Exercise, as far as she was concerned, despite being overweight, just wouldn’t happen because, as she said, she had no co-ordination. -
Read this and pass it on
3 Jan 2012 | 4:26 pmThis isn’t a prescriptive ‘how to’ guide to change your life for the better, but a message to help inspire your own journey. If you have the skills, confidence and motivation, with the right plan you can get to where you want to be. -
How to give the good gift these holidays
20 Dec 2011 | 8:57 pmI was recently asked to act as a Santa - hopefully, for my personality, rather than my body shape (I’d need the white beard, but not a pillow, unfortunately!). -
I learn, therefore I do
14 Nov 2011 | 11:30 pmI often wonder what the underlying reason is for why they really want to attend a course. Conceptually people may feel it will help them in their everyday roles or expand their resume but how do we measure the value of what we have learnt by attending such courses? -
…As good as a holiday?
7 Nov 2011 | 9:27 pmIt isn’t easy to change the way you have been functioning and running your life for years, though the true rewards of change are paid to those who can recognise that adapting to stay ahead of the game is essential.
-
Social Media Dudes
-
13 Great Ways To Repurpose Your Content!
17 Jan 2012 | 6:59 amI think you would agree that valuable content on your website or that was authored by you and hosted on other sites is critical to your success to drive traffic and ultimately make sales. At the end of the day, it separates a good blog from a great blog! So creating great content is job [...] Related posts: Best Ways to Drive Traffic To Your Blog! The following article was written by Dorothy J Bellisario who... Content Marketing Principles: 3 Highly Effective Things to Incorporate Into Your Blog Posts! One of the things that I learned from my attendance... Related posts brought to you by… -
3 FREE Ways to Increase Your FaceBook Fans – Often Overlooked
11 Jan 2012 | 7:40 am3 FREE Ways to Increase Your FaceBook Fans – Often Overlooked In my opinion more fans are better than fewer fans. You can talk about “quality” all you want but you will not change my mind on this one. The more fans you have the more likely you will develop new business or even create [...] Related posts: 5 Ways Our Family Uses Social Media 5 Ways Our Family Uses Social Media Much is made... Get Better Engagement From Your Facebook Page! Dennis and I have had several people come up to... 20 Helpful Facebook Fan Page Tips! Strategy 1. Life is short! So have some fun from... -
Why Your Blog Didn’t Take Off in 2011 and How You Fix It for 2012!
7 Jan 2012 | 7:36 amFair warning! This blog post is not for the meek or the faint hearted! About this time last year, you were like a lot of folks who decided that they were going to follow Gary Vaynerchuk’s advice and “Crush It” (no slam on Gary…if you do what he says, you are going to be farther [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. -
LinkedIn Profile Essentials – Part 2
5 Jan 2012 | 7:02 amThis is part 2 of a 2 part series written by Janet Slack. See Part 1 by clicking here. Today we are looking at strategies that will make your LinkedIn (LI) profile a true asset for your business. You want it to be a great place for people to learn more about you and we [...] Related posts: LinkedIn Profile Essentials – Part 1 You need a great LinkedIn profile. It really is no... Getting Setup On LinkedIn! Social media is gaining massive popularity these days due to... 10 Ways To Promote Your Business With LinkedIn! LinkedIn in many regards is the forgotten member of what... Related… -
What is “The Cloud” and should I be using it?
15 Dec 2011 | 12:45 pmWhat is “The Cloud” and should I be using it? So what is this cloud thing I keep hearing about? It sounds kind of scary to have my data and information stored somewhere other than my computer. Couldn’t someone get it? Isn’t it more at risk? Think of the cloud as water. You turn on [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
-
Being Cheryl: Social Media Marketing Strategist from Columbus, Ohio.
-
I bought a new car, OR Pints and Progressive
7 Feb 2012 | 1:20 pmI haven’t posted here so long that I couldn’t remember my WordPress username. It’s “Cheryl,” for the record. PRETTY TRICKY. Anyway, I bought a car! (Though according to my friend John, I won it in an Apples to Apples tournament.) The Cavalier - yes, the one that once had a family of squirrels take up residence - finally died. It’s just sitting in front of my house for now - I haven’t yet found a replacement family of squirrels to call it home. Also, I kind of like the redneck feng shui of an abandoned rusted car in front of my house. What can I say, I… -
Lessons learned from some douchebag on Yelp
12 Sep 2011 | 2:07 pmIn April 2010, I had a really bizarre experience. I was at a local pub (RIP O’Shaughnessy’s) with a friend. We were enjoying a pint on the patio when a stranger came over and asked us something random and hilarious. Entertained, we invited him to join us. After another pint, he straightforwardly pointed out that my roots were growing out and I desperately needed my hair colored. Which I knew. This was when he told me he was a hairstylist with his own newly-opened salon in Central Ohio that he was looking to promote. This was when I told HIM that I was someone who likes to help… -
3 More Things You Didn’t Know About Cheryl Harrison Version 21
11 Aug 2011 | 7:26 pmIt was nice outside and my husband was watching football. What else was I supposed to do? Catch up on the past 20 episodes. You can’t afford to miss these. Not because they lead to financial gain or anything. On second thought, you can afford to miss them. JUST DON’T. -
3 More Things You Didn’t Know About Cheryl Harrison Version 20
4 Aug 2011 | 12:08 pmI know, I know, I’m just as amazed as you to see that there is a new 3 Things video. But my friend The Naked Redhead called the series out today and I broke out in a cold sweat because all of a sudden millions of people were going to come to this site to find an ABANDONED VIDEO SERIES AND THEN THEY WERE GOING TO SHOW UP AT MY HOUSE WITH PITCHFORKS AND DEMAND MY HEAD ON A GOLD PLATE BECAUSE SILVER ISN’T AS VALUABLE IN THE CURRENT ECONOMIC CLIMATE AND THEY WANT A GOOD RE-SALE VALUE FOR THE PLATE AFTER MY HEAD STARTS TO DECAY. Or something like that. And yes, this is technically… -
Work harder
26 Jul 2011 | 7:50 amI see a lot of people complaining about other people who get more opportunities than they do. “Why did THAT blogger get the free stuff from the PR company?” “Why was HE asked to speak at the conference?” “Why do THEY always get to go to the private parties?” “Why does SHE have so many followers on Twitter?” “Why does the media always focus on HIM?” “Why didn’t I get the promotion?” Bitchityblabbityboo. Listen. The thing THOSE people have in common is that they work harder than you. They put more time into it than…
-
Social Media Blog
-
Explaining the MilkoSystem / Milk-o-system
3 Feb 2012 | 11:21 amBeing English I drink tea... Being a bit of a workaholic I drink coffee. I probably drink between half and three quarters of a pint of milk each day. Most of us Brits drink milk and buy milk according to our needs and the needs of those who we live with. Most families and cohabitating households roughly know how much milk they need to purchase and when to buy it. Milk is bought and drunk in accordance with a range of factors. These factors may include and range from who purchased the last pint, how long it's been in the fridge and how much milk each person normally drinks . -
BlackBerry Developer Conference 2012
1 Feb 2012 | 10:21 amI will be flying out to Amsterdam for the BlackBerry Developer Conference on Wednesday. This is going to be good prep for mobile world congress and Heroes of the Mobile Fringe Festival which I'm supporting this year. If anyone fancies finding more about the festival whist at the conference let me know. I have needed to broaden my knowledge of BlackBerry applications and the RIM platform for ages and this should be the perfect place to do so! BlackBerry have also very kindly announced that they will be giving a free PlayBook to each attendee. I will write a little review… -
Tuttle Nottingham
1 Feb 2012 | 7:39 amLast Friday I ventured up to Nottingham for "Tuttle Nottingham". This specific meetup was part of the "Tech on Trial" series investigating "Digital Legacy - No one lives for ever... do they?" I would like to say a belated (but big) THANK YOU to Caron (CJ) Lyon and everyone who who attended. It was well worth the journey up and I hope to see you all at some point again soon, x Photo by Caron (CJ) Lyon ( and used without even asking :) -
Mobile World Congress Meetings
25 Jan 2012 | 8:37 amI am currently scheduling meetings to be held during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. I offer a range of highend marketing services at a lower cost then digital marketing agencies. My low overheads (shared office in Camden) are reflected in my day rate (£280 per day). My clients range from Vodafone and Nokia to Shell, Channel 4 and a number of start-ups. If you are currently being overcharged by one of the many overpriced marketing agencies or need effective marketing services to increase sales, loyalty etc then get in touch. I will be in Barcelona and free for meetings between 25th… -
How do you plan to spend your 2012 marketing budget?
8 Jan 2012 | 5:18 amResearch recently carried out by StrongMail states that brands are planning to increase their marketing spend on Social Media in 2012. Huge increases in email marketing spend (60%), social media (55%) and mobile (37%) are forecast. Survey Statistics ✔ 92% plan to increase or maintain marketing spend in 2012 ✔ 60% plan to increase email marketing budget; 55% social media; 37% mobile/search (tied) ✔ 45% cite data integration as primary email marketing challenge in 2012; 43% lack of resources/staff; 40% content management ✔ 48% cite increasing subscriber engagement as top 2012 email…
-
Digital Marketing Inner Circle
-
The Future of Advertising - Arriving at the crossroads
13 Feb 2012 | 6:38 pmThere is a war taking place in online advertising, one that will determine what the industry will look like for years to come. This battle is being waged on multiple fronts, but the outcome will be based on a couple of questions: What is the strategic use of paid, earned and owned media within digital campaigns? Additionally, what is the technology will marketers use to create, target, deliver and measure their ads, Communities and search programs? The Agency that can provide a magic mix of media and software will become rich and powerful. The Agencies that fail will become losers will… -
Getting into the LEXUS CT200h Social Media Award Ceremony
13 Feb 2012 | 1:38 amOn Friday I got a chance to join in a fantastic Award Ceremony for the LEXUS CT200h - this highlighted the end to our 4 months social media competition where we our winner got the prize of a Lexus CT200h for a year. I was so wishing I also had this chance. This event did not just mark the end of the competition but was a great opportunity for me and my social media colleagues to let our hair down and have some fun. -
Digital Campaigns in the Chinese Auto Industry
10 Feb 2012 | 9:25 pmThe car market in China is understandably massive, with a population of around 1.4 Billion. To give you an idea around 15,000 new cars go on the road in Beijing each week, over 700,000 new cars hit the Beijing streets in 2010. The market is big and all carmakers want a slice of the action. All major car models are sold here, foreign car manufacturers like Mercedes Benz and BMW have large scale manufacturing plants outside of Beijing in a city called Shenzhen, to service the ever growing need for luxury cars in China and for export to other markets.{jcomments on} -
Online Community Management - Just bloody hard work!!
28 Jan 2012 | 8:08 pmWhen you start out developing an online Community you always underestimate the work effort required to build and maintain not just content but encouraging people to engage and participate. I wanted to reflect on this given my interest in maintaining and developing our own Community. What are some of the techniques being used on other Community sites that might help me in getting active, engaged members? What are some of the things that have failed? What seems to have worked? -
Infographic - Chinese Microblog
19 Jan 2012 | 11:27 pmSocial media has become an effective medium for influencing our ideas and views andhas drastically changed the rules of an effective Brand Marketing campaign. Due to the growing importance of e-commerce and online activities, reaching customers through digital means has become an essential part of marketing plans globally. In times when social media influence is flourishing, new technologies and ideas can be embraced and adopted with astonishing speed, instigating significant and often unpredictable consequences. Recent evidence of this is the unexpectant rise of…
-
Blue Media Boutique Blog
-
Knoxville’s Blue Media Boutique Merging with Efficience
26 Jan 2012 | 10:34 amInteractive Firm to Become Division of Knoxville’s Second-Largest Software Developer Knoxville, Tenn. – Efficience, Knoxville’s second-largest software development and consulting company, announced today its merger with Knoxville-based Blue Media Boutique, an interactive creative services firm. The Blue Media Boutique brand, established in Knoxville in 2008 and led by Tori W. Rose, will become a trademarked division of Efficience to provide user experience and interface design for Efficience’s custom application software. The two companies began working together in 2011, with projects… -
BlueOut Knoxville: a charity event you don’t want to miss!
9 Aug 2011 | 8:07 pmWant to give more than $5,000 to your favorite charity and have a great time doing it? On September 29th, 2011, Knoxville is going to be a BlueOut! Bluegrass, Blue Moon, Pabst Blue Ribbon, BBQ and Bleu Cheese Cole Slaw. BlueOut Knoxville was born out of a collaboration between two of Knoxville’s most involved social media creative marketing firms. During Social Slam ‘11, Tori Rose of Blue Media Boutique and Jeremy Floyd of Bluegill Creative discussed opportunities to break the traditionally competitive mold of local marketing firms and consider opportunities to work together for good. A… -
QR mistakes to avoid (from Mashable)
7 Aug 2011 | 10:26 amAlthough QR codes are becoming more and more popular with our clients, many are still learning, and some are actually learning from their mistakes. The following Mashable article outlines five big mistakes to avoid. The biggest takeaway—put yourself in your client’s shoes. Is your campaign message compelling enough that you would pull out your Smartphone? And, would you be happy with the the pay-off behind the code? Tell us what your QR campaign is doing. We want to hear from you! Mistake 1: Not Testing the Code Common sense right? Until you’re able to read a QR code just by looking… -
A Lawyers Take on Social Media
11 Jul 2011 | 11:05 amRecently, we have had numerous law firms contact us with an interest in social media. This is a fun challenge for us, given the clients do not know much about social media and wonder why they should have a social media presence in the first place. This article and video we ran across are very helpful in explaining why law firms should take social media into account. It is not common to find a previous Public Relations specialist working for a law firm; Vivienne Storey’s perspective is definitely something to take into account when faced with this issue. Tagged: Blue Media Boutique,… -
75 B2B Facebook Marketing Tips from Social Media B2B
10 Jun 2011 | 9:16 amOne of the blogs we follow and really enjoy, Social Media B2B, recently compiled a list of the top 75 Facebook tips for B2B marketers. We’ve blogged before about the importance of compelling content within the social media space and really engaging/interacting with your audience. We’ve also posted about the need to align your SEO efforts, driving traffic back to one spot (your Facebook page, your website, your blog). With those two things in mind, take a look at the list below for great ideas on how to get great results from your business Facebook page. Liking the Page 1. Ask your…
-
25 hours in a day
-
What Came First, The Ninja Turtle Or The Nose?
12 Feb 2012 | 2:00 amWho doesn't love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? When I was little I used to watch the TV show, play with the action figures, go see the movies, etc. Now as an adult, there are not as many ways to enjoy the greatness that is Leo, Raphael, Mikey, and Donny. Luckily, there is some good news! My friend, Roger, showed me a popular turtles meme that I missed. Ninja Turtle Noses. Yes, you read that correctly. If you google "ninja turtle noses" you won't be disappointed. Here are some of my favorites.One Less Lonely TurtleClooney/Gosling TurtleWinning Turtle You have to admit, the… -
Movie Trailer: The Amazing Spiderman
9 Feb 2012 | 5:30 amJust after I published my top 10 movies to see in 2012, a new trailer for #10 comes out! I know what you are thinking... how many times are we going to remake Spiderman?! I agree, but I am hoping this is the last time. Plus, I am a sucker for all things comic book and Emma Stone. Check out the second full length trailer for The Amazing Spiderman and let me know what you think!Are you excited to see this movie? Let me know in the comments!Follow me @Caraizzle! -
Best Super Bowl Commercials Of 2012
6 Feb 2012 | 8:03 amYesterday was the Super Bowl and in a riveting game, the Giants beat the Patriots 21 to 17. Yay! Okay, now to the important stuff... the commercials! As usual we got our taste of beer and car commercials as well as numerous showings from Doritos and Budweiser. Here are my favorites from yesterday and some of the flops.Doritos Sling Baby - That kid had it coming. I also love digitally altered babies.Matthew's Day Off - The shortened Super Bowl version doesn't do it justice. You need to see the full length commercial to really appreciate it.Audi #SoLongVampires - Okay, it was… -
Top 10 Movies I Can't Wait To See
4 Feb 2012 | 1:00 amLast year, the amount of buzzworthy movies was pretty slim (I know this because of all the terrible choices nominated for Oscars). This year however, I think we will have better luck in the movie department. Already there are a slew of movies I cannot wait to see. Here are the top ten movies (in order) that I am dying to see!10. The Amazing Spiderman. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone remake the Spiderman franchise.9. Brave. Pixar unleashes its newest soon-to-be classic.8. Mirror Mirror. Julia Roberts is the evil queen and Armie Hammer is Prince Charming in this comedic Snow White… -
He's Elmo And He Knows It
1 Feb 2012 | 2:30 amSesame Street is always on top of the trends. Whenever there is a meme or popular song floating around the web, they pounce on it and make it kid/family friendly. I thought they were pushing the envelope when Grover did a parody on the Old Spice Guy. And I thought it was cool when Katy Perry made a cameo on the show (even if it never aired). Although it seems like this would fall in the realm of parodies for them, I don't think it is legitimately from Sesame Street. It's still funny though! Check out this parody of LMFAO's I'm Sexy And I Know It.How does it compare to the original?What do you…
-
fingercandymedia.com
-
XM Radio Pioneer Lee Abrams Launches ‘Think’ TeleVisual Network
2 Feb 2012 | 5:55 amTHINK TELEVISUAL NETWORK, “a dramatic reinvention of Television News” to be Launched by Industry Change Agents STEVEN SASLOW, LEE ABRAMS, and BRANDON DAVIS. THINK TELEVISUAL NETWORK plans to “elevate the television news playbook into the digital age with a radical reinvention of the way news and information is produced and delivered.” A self-funded, joint venture from communications [...] -
Whats Your Social Media Game Plan for 2012?
24 Jan 2012 | 6:15 amThis was originally written for a Broadcasting/Music community I have a column in, but change a couple job titles/adjectives and this could be any industry. Hat tip and big thanks to Guy Kawaksaki, Jay Albright, Scott Stratten, Valerie Geller, Sarah Austin, Andie Lynne, Amy Howell, Adam Drake and Nick Schneck for their practical and relevant 2012 [...] -
Music Icon @CharlieDaniels Joins #CMchat on Monday, January 23 at 8pm CT
18 Jan 2012 | 6:07 am“Few individuals have symbolized the South in popular culture as directly and indelibly as Charlie Daniels.” From the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. The Music industry has seen a lot of changes over the years. Probably one of neatest to watch has been Artists/Musicians making the digital, and social media transition. Not so long ago, the only way [...] -
Emotional Tweeting
12 Jan 2012 | 7:30 amIt happens. Emotional tweeting, posting, texting, emailing….we are all *mostly * humans, having a human experience, both online and in REAL time. In my opinion, some of the best content comes from emotions that trigger passion. Passion has been the touchstone for inspiration for me from the beginning. Enthusiasm for music, that is contagious, is my signature. My love of Social [...] -
Hidden Birthright: The Story of Jett Williams, Daughter of Hank #CMchat
23 Dec 2011 | 10:30 amIf Jett Williams had made up the story of her life, she says, "it wouldn’t compare to the real thing," and I am sure you will agree. Her bio reads like a sinister plot from a Lifetime movie, that wouldn't have to be edited, or added to, for dramatic interpretation to make it more complicated or compelling, in fact it has made my head spin just trying to figure out how to interpret it to this blog post. Jett spent most of her life not knowing her real last name, or that her father was "The Hillbilly Shakespeare,"and Music Icon, Hank Williams Sr.
-
For Free Blog
-
Social Influence: 3 Questions for Marketing and PR Pros
10 Feb 2012 | 1:46 pmHow important is social influence and why should we care?Those two questions have been buzzing around my head like maddening bees for days now as I prepare a discussion for a Social Media for PR class at RIT.With the seeming boom in social influence measuring tools (Klout, PeerIndex, Empire Avenue, TwentyFeet, to name a few) in the end what do all of these scores mean if you are a marketer or a public relations professional?So to find out what the world thinks I’m simply going to ask three questions and see who responds.For this unscientific survey I will ask people active in social media… -
The NFL’s Looming Crisis with Symbols
3 Feb 2012 | 9:57 amSymbolism has a role in social media in ways not a lot of people seem to understand. Whether it’s your avatar picture or your social media account name it’s hard to deny that each individually and collectively carries some symbolism for those who see them.And in this Super Bowl Weekend if you want to understand the importance of thinking ahead when choosing symbols you need look no further than how the National Football League (NFL) uses numbers for each Super Bowl.You likely have noticed that this year’s NFL championship is Super Bowl XLVI. That would be the Roman numerals where "XL"… -
5 Ways to Undermine Your Linkedin Profile
31 Jan 2012 | 4:21 amAs Linkedin continues to grow (now close to 150 million members) it seems more and more people may be rushing to get their profiles published there.In their rush to be live on Linkedin (or maybe through a lack of thought earlier) they may be doing things that will make them look bad on this social network, specifically, and in social media generally.So if you’d like to deliberately waste your effort on the world’s leading social network for professionals, here are the 5 Ways to Undermine Your Linkedin Profile:1. Use a bad profile picture: By "bad" I mean any image that makes you look like… -
RIT on TV: SOPA Blackout Reaction
19 Jan 2012 | 11:13 am -
A New Year Checkup – Facebook: Step 4 - A Final Check
7 Jan 2012 | 3:46 pmIt’s a new year and it’s time for social media types to be more conscientious about their social outposts. As part of a focus on social media strategy this is the fourth in a series about Facebook.If you have followed this series then you’re ready to double-check that you’re done. A Final Checklist• Changed Facebook to Timeline Yes No• Checked each month and each year’s postings to hide anything inappropriate Yes No• Checked my Privacy Settings Yes No• Sorted my Friends into the…
-
Hypertext
-
Exploring Social Media in the U.S. – Focus on Silicon Valley
13 Feb 2012 | 11:45 amText 100 Account Director and Digital Strategist Melissa Chanslor sat down to give her perspective on how the social media landscape looks in Silicon Valley – and what more appropriate time to share this than right as we begin Social Media Week San Francisco! Check out the video below for some insight on what we’re hearing from clients in terms of social media and ROI – and an example of how one of our clients, Cisco, is getting it right.Have a question for Melissa or want to catch up with her during SMW this week? Tweet her @chanslor or leave a comment here. -
Social Media Week San Francisco is Coming – How to make the most of it
10 Feb 2012 | 1:54 pmPrepare to hear a lot about social media starting next Monday (I mean, more than usual!). Social Media Week, a full week of conferences and events taking place in several cities all over the world, is next week (Feb. 13-17). Text 100 is supporting the San Francisco edition in partnership with our good friend and sister agency, Beyond. It’s more than 80 panels, roundtables and events over five days. Oh, and did we mention that this opportunity to meet and connect with amazing people is all free?So here are our top five selections for panels not to be missed, and some tips for how to get… -
Ten Tips for Creating Dialogue in Your LinkedIn Group
10 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amThere is no doubt that LinkedIn has taken the position as one of the leading social platforms for B2B communications. LinkedIn currently has around 150 million users and the platform is used almost exclusively for business contacts and business communication, which makes it a very powerful tool for B2B communications. Further evidence of this is the report presented by HubSpot recently, which says that LinkedIn is almost 300 percent more effective when it comes to generating leads, compared with Facebook and Twitter.One of the most powerful tools to create and drive a community within… -
Five reasons why you want an entrepreneur on your team
9 Feb 2012 | 10:47 amEntrepreneurship is valuable in all workplaces. via Flickr.Everyone has that feeling sometimes where they think “but what if…?” Now imagine if you were asking yourself that question on a daily basis, perpetually seeking out new ways to innovate and improve on the world around you. That’s how entrepreneurs see the world. The word entrepreneur comes from the French entreprendre, meaning “to undertake” or literally bring something amongst others. Today, that involves many things including kick-starting business concepts, bringing new product ideas to market, and adding new… -
Tackling the Risks of Social Media
7 Feb 2012 | 9:49 amSpeak to any senior corporate comms exec about the barriers that prevent them from using social media more in their organization, and I guarantee that the issue of ‘risk’ will usually come close to the top of the list. This raises a couple of questions; what exactly are the risks posed by social media, and how can we negate, or at least mitigate, them?What if people say bad things about our brand?People often think that creating social media channels for the brand will add fuel to the fire of criticism, but that really doesn’t make any sense. Almost all brands have detractors, and…
-
Sprout Insights
-
Target the Right Audience With Groupon’s Thumbs Up Feature
13 Feb 2012 | 1:31 pmGroupon announced that it is testing a new version of its website and will soon introduce a thumbs up and thumbs down button to help customers filter results. The daily deals service is testing a new feature that will let customers rate deals through the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons. By doing so, Groupon can avoid showing certain deals to the wrong audience, making sure your business is reaching your target audience. Andrew Mason, Groupon’s CEO, told Bloomberg that the company plans to roll out the feature in the coming weeks. This is just part of Groupon’s effort to tailor… -
Control Trending Content in Your Google+ Streams
13 Feb 2012 | 10:31 amToday Google announced that it will merge the What’s Hot and volume sliders on Google+ to give people more control of their streams. The What’s Hot section was added to streams last year and helps you find the most talked about posts on Google+. The social network later introduced volume sliders that let you decide how much or how little individual Circles contribute to your stream. As these two features merge, you can now control how many What’s Hot posts appear in your main stream – from most or some, to none at all. Whenever a What’s Hot post appears, Google+ will… -
5 Brands Using Pinterest Brilliantly
13 Feb 2012 | 9:30 amMany brands are jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon, but which brands lead the way in visual social bookmarking? We already know you can use Pinterest for marketing, — whether you represent a retail business or pretty much any other — but some brands knock it out of the park. Here are five brands using Pinterest brilliantly in different ways. Note that not all of these brands are visually-based businesses. In other words, you can use Pinterest effectively in your social media marketing mix whether you sell subscriptions, soup, school books, or anything in between! Oh, and if you… -
6 Effective Strategies for Google+ Pages
13 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amIf your business relies on people finding you through search, or if you feel like your brand could benefit from deeper, more meaningful conversations with your target audience, then Google+ may very well be a successful platform for you to explore. We’re offering six strategies that will help make your efforts on Google+ more focused and successful. When you boil it all down, Google+ has two main benefits at this time. First, there’s its integration with Google search. It’s becoming increasingly evident that business Pages are receiving favorable placement in… -
This Week: 7 Helpful Social Media Resources for Business
12 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amThis week on Sprout Social Insights we tackled guides for Facebook, Twitter, and small business to help you better reach your customers with the social media tools that make a difference. Check out our articles below to find out more about each one and how they can help you with your social media goals. And check in every day to Sprout Social Insights for more how to guides and breaking social media news. How to Effectively Target Your Facebook Ads Click — there goes 50 cents. Click — that’s a dollar. In the online advertising world, every click can bring you new customers, but…
-
Social Media School: Social Media Tips
-
Affordable BlogWorld Conference New York
10 Feb 2012 | 11:01 pmSocial Media Tips: Attend Low Cost Conferences Register Early Pin It Most bloggers are interested in Networking but are not on Corporate Budgets or Company Credit Cards. Blogworld is for Bloggers, Podcasters, Web TV producers, and all content creators. Social Media means using Internet Technologies to Communicate, at least that is my meaning. Go to Blogworld if you have never been to a Social Media Conference. Go if you want to meet a ton of people from the Single Blogger to large companies jumping into learning about Social Media, some call it New Media, it is communication using the… -
SheCon New Media Expo Orlando
21 Jan 2012 | 1:32 amSocial Media Tips: Attend Low Cost Conferences Pin It SheCon Expo Orlando and Disney World Coronado Springs Resort Nice central location to bring back those VIP Founders from the first conference last spring in Miami with great benefits. Affordable conferences are usually better for networking with some of the best while not denting your travel budget for something that may be a hobby or an aspiring entrepreneur. We are not doing this on a Corporate account. We are real people with a great desire to pursue our passion looking for like-minded people. Hand massages last year SheCon Expo Miami… -
Make money blogging with Affiliate Associations
9 Oct 2011 | 11:36 pmWe are wide eye when we start a Website Photo by Eileen Ludwig Blogging is a great way to share information, teach others, and develop business relationships. Making money to pay for your time, knowledge, and resources is a good business model. Finding the right affiliates, advertising, products, services, and other methods is part of the Marketing Strategy. Marketing strategy is part of the Business plan for any viable business. We come to realize it is a business. A business that needs to generate income in order to survive. Affiliate ads market products or services for the same cost to the…
-
Carrot Communications
-
January 2012: The month in #FAIL
31 Jan 2012 | 5:11 amSocial media is a wonderful tool. Brands that understand social media are great at connecting with and engaging fans, and developing strong online communities that the brand can nurture and learn from. Sometimes, however, brands – and people – get it wrong. They misjudge a situation and forget that in the world of social media, no perceived injustice will go unpunished. That dispute you had with one customer? Who cares? It’s just one person; there are many more people out there that you can sell to, right? Well, with social media that one customer can broadcast their dissatisfaction for… -
Brands: engage your Facebook fans in five simple ways
18 Jan 2012 | 10:11 amIt’s all very well having a Facebook page bulging at the seams with “Likes”, but what does the brand do to keep those people coming back for more? Keeping informed about special offers may drive many to “Like” the brand, but it doesn’t mean that they will engage with the brand, or even visit the page occasionally. Brands have to invest more effort encouraging their fan base to participate than it took to get them there. A well timed competition from an already popular brand can create an impressive spike in “Like” numbers, but the effort must be made to keep these people… -
PR for start ups: why reputation management matters for start-up businesses
13 Jan 2012 | 4:27 amWe work a lot with fast-growth, often investor-backed businesses. So every few weeks we’ll be posting a blog on ‘PR for start ups’ that we hope will be useful to businesses looking to use PR to support their growth.We’re starting with the big one: why reputation matters to start-up businesses. “Our product is much better than anything else on the market, so how come no-one’s heard of us?” Sound familiar? When a business is in start-up, or fast-growth phase, it’s easy to forget how important it is to create, nurture and build your reputation… -
2011 in social: we went there, we got the T-Shirt
21 Dec 2011 | 10:50 amWhat we watched Until about 3 minutes ago I had managed to go the entire year without knowing, hearing or caring about who or what Rebecca Black is. I now know that she’s that teen who has the mum who paid for her song and music video to be released. The one with the video that became a viral hit earlier in the year. The one with the number one most viewed YouTube video of 2011. Let’s let that sink in for a moment. Maybe you’d like to watch it? Sorry. Anyway, the only positive thing that I can take from this is that the video has over 306,000 dislikes opposed to 80,708 likes. -
A Facebook sharing review of 2011
30 Nov 2011 | 10:42 amcredit: Master Isolated Images Facebook has just released its top 40 most shared articles on Facebook in 2011, and the top three most shared articles – about the Japanese Tsunami, parents vs teachers and star signs - provide an intriguing glimpse into the Facebook user’s mind. What’s more, there are some interesting omissions from the top 40. Nothing on the London riots. Nada on the Arab Spring. Zippo on the Conrad Murray trial. Odd. Of course, it could be because these are the top 40 articles, rather than the top 40 most discussed topics. Maybe people that are passionate…
-
SocialMouths
-
The Rise Of Content Marketing [Infographic]
8 Feb 2012 | 4:05 pmTweet According to the Content Marketing Institute, Content is one of the fastest growing segments in Marketing and an increasing number of marketers are relying more and more on their strategies to achieve success online. Is this a surprise to you? Because if it is, you have probably been living under a rock for the last couple of years. With the amount of content that goes left and right in front of you, on your screen, there are content creators, curators, users that share and consume on a minute to minute basis. Now, that doesn’t mean all that content is successful in reaching its… -
LinkedIn Or Facebook For Better B2B Marketing Results? [Includes Infographic]
6 Feb 2012 | 11:41 amTweet I know what you’re thinking just by reading the headline of this post: Of course LinkedIn is better for B2B marketing and Facebook for B2C. But wait, that is not necessarily the case. I have to admit I’m not as active on LinkedIn as I am on Facebook, or even Google+. That’s probably because my focus on this blog is to talk to entrepreneurs and small business. But when it comes to approach Corporate America, I automatically think I need to get out of these networks and go to LinkedIn. Some of you probably don’t know I’m also a partner at Plural and Partners,… -
Pinterest: Everything You Need To Know Is In This Massive Post
2 Feb 2012 | 12:30 pmTweet Let me guess, you heard about Pinterest. Or more like, you can’t spend 15 minutes online without hearing about it… And now you’re thinking, “should I jump on the wagon too?” or “another social network to keep up with?” and on top of that, everybody is talking about using it for marketing and getting tons of traffic and, you just don’t see it. Alright, I hear you. I’ll give you everything you need to know about Pinterest and a bunch of resources so you can decide if you or your business are ready to join the hottest trend online. -
Social Proof, Shameless Self-Promotion, and Gratitude
1 Feb 2012 | 2:13 pmTweet This week started on a high note. The results for the Top 10 Social Media Blogs 2012 from Social Media Examiner arrived on my iPhone while I was getting my first coffee on Monday. SocialMouths was named #1. The afternoon wasn’t that fun when my server crashed welcoming all the traffic from the post, even though SocialMouths does not live in a shared $5 server at GoDaddy… still crashed. But that’s a whole different story. Then today my friend Jessica Northey pointed out that I was also included in the Top 100 Influencers in Social Media from Social Technology Review… -
How To Increase Clicks On Your Tweets [Infographic]
26 Jan 2012 | 10:40 amTweet If you are an entrepreneur using Twitter as part of the marketing strategy for your business or you are a blogger trying to improve your traffic, one of the most important metrics you look at is how many clicks your tweets are getting, specially when those tweets are containing links to your own site. One thing I’ll tell you right off the bat is that, marketing in general works different for each one of us and it delivers different kinds of results too. Twitter is no different and, while I always say that you should not rely on anybody’s advice but instead run several tests…
-
A David Creation » Blog on: Marketing | Websites | Mobile & Business Solutions & More
-
Community Based Business Blog Managed by You
10 Feb 2012 | 4:05 pmWant to drive more qualified business your way on the web? Sure you do! What is one easy way to begin this process online without spending a lot of money? Start your own quality blog with a group of your preferred and trusted network. Here are some pointers: What To Do The blog should be geared to help the local community find answers to their household questions. It would include blogs about: painting, HVAC, plumbing, handyman, seasonal to-dos, roofing, electrical, interior design, real estate, remodeling, cabinetry, appliances, permits, fencing, decks, flooring, and much more. Each company… -
Base CRM by Future Simple
7 Feb 2012 | 1:57 pmI’ve been keeping an eye on Base CRM (formally Pipejump) for over a year now. The thing that attracted me to Base CRM originally was the design and User Interface (UI). It was a very simple UI. It should be, as it was developed by a company called, Future Simple. So far they seem to make simple, easy to use web and mobile apps. So what makes Base CRM special or worth checking out? I won’t go over all the details, just the key features I liked: iPhone & Android Native Apps: This is where Base CRM Shines more than most other Customer Relationship Management programs on the web. -
What is Google Apps as opposed to Regular Gmail?
31 Jan 2012 | 10:39 amI get the “deer and the headlight” look every time I ask someone if they are using Google Apps for their business. They typically respond with, “I think so. I have a gmail account. Is that what you mean?” My answer is, “No. Google Apps is a business product and is so much more than Gmail.” I’ll attempt to explain what Google Apps is and if you need it. Google Apps & How Did it Get Started Google has products both for personal and business uses, and while the products look almost identical, they are different. Google created Google Apps (G… -
Why Companies Fail At Implementing Change
23 Jan 2012 | 9:59 amThis week’s blog is a guest post from Brian Nolan, owner of Summit Services. Summit is a professional business consulting firm working with small and medium size businesses. This weekend I was reading a book called Leading Change, by John P. Kotter. A couple things jumped out at me as being very relevant for the Summit group. There was a chapter dedicated to why companies fail at implementing change. Two of the main reasons were: Under communicating the Vision by a factor of 10 (or even 100…. or even 1000) Failing to create short term wins Kotter spends a great deal of timing… -
Narrow Down Your Service Area
19 Jan 2012 | 2:12 pmMost service companies would love to be well known all over their city, even a large metropolitan area. In order for that to really happen, one would need a substantial marketing budget. Instead of trying to market all over your city, it is best to target your market closer into your key area. Take a look at where you do most of your work. Ask questions like, “Where do most of my leads come from?” and “Where do my most profitable jobs take place?” Look into the sizes of those cities or towns and see if there is enough work for a company of your size to dominate the…
-
Social Meteor
-
Two-Minute Tips: Creating & Managing Private Facebook Groups
18 Jan 2012 | 2:09 pmIt’s easy to create a private Facebook Group and invite individuals to participate in the group — even if they’re not your friend on Facebook. Learn the basics in this two-minute video. This video features Heather Maves (@heatherm17), blogger & social media content writer for Sentry Insurance — and a mighty fine archer. -
The real truth: What business owners need to know about social media
12 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amWhen you work in social media regularly, one of the best things to have on hand is a book that you can hand to business owners that don’t recognize the benefits of social media. One of my favorites Eric Harr’s recent book entitled The Real Truth About Social Media. Despite it’s modest size (about 100 pages), Real Truth is filled with actionable insights that are easily understood by traditional marketing executives and business leaders, without time-wasting jabber or hollow social media evangelism. Real Truth answers the most common question that business leaders have… -
Social Pro Files: an Interview with Sam Espinosa
9 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amWe recently had the opportunity to interview Sam Espinosa, Director of Marketing for stickK. Sam is a Social Pro, so we wanted to share this entire interview with everyone. Enjoy! Stickk.com is a tool to help people meet their life goals. Can you explain how stickk.com can help someone meet their goal? Espinosa: stickK.com helps you reach your goal by utilizing the fundamental tenants of behavioral economics. Put simply, money and reputation are powerful motivators, and we use both to positively influence your behavior. By combining incentives and third party accountability to… -
Get a free taste of financial responsibility with Mint.com
3 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amFor the first time in decades, in 2012, I’m starting the year with a complete understanding of my income, expenses, savings. I’ve also created financial plans for the year and identified steps to get there. These are things that don’t come naturally to me. It’s been more than 30 years since I’ve balanced a checkbook, created a formal household budget, or given adequate attention to my family’s personal finances. However, I’ve been able to restore financial responsibility almost overnight with help from Mint.com — a free web-based from Intuit… -
Auld Lang Syne: Old Friends and New Beginnings
31 Dec 2011 | 11:07 amI’m Resolute on New Year’s Eve, 2011. So much, in fact, that I offered to purchase a new house today — nearly 100 miles away. The offer to purchase a home on the Wisconsin River, near Stevens Point, WI, is part of a change that I triggered 60 days ago, when I accepted a great new job at Sentry Insurance. The new job is only 90 miles away– but its a whole new life for EVERYONE in my family: New home, new schools, new community, new friends, new opportunities — and a new cloud of uncertainty as we consider the good friends and the good life we’ll be…
-
Social Media NZ
-
The cyber sins of Facebook
10 Feb 2012 | 3:00 pmWhile they might not be in the same league as the Seven Deadly Sins (although pride, gluttony and lust play a part), Facebook users would do well to avoid these somewhat niggly cyber sins. To be fair, I really doubt anyone is entirely guilt-free when it comes to annoying Facebook habits. At some stage we’ve all posted a selfy (yes, yes you have), or been guilty of flooding our friends’ news feeds with bandwagon statuses (I mean, how many of you actually really cared it was 11 past 11 on the 11th last November?). When there’s an element of self-awareness, these phases on… -
Turning Lana Del Rey into flesh and blood
10 Feb 2012 | 2:44 pmThe Internet generated the momentum to send Lana Del Rey to the top of the charts. But is the YouTube star’s mercurial claim to fame born to die? Loving Lana Del Rey comes with baggage. When the Internet celebrity (real name Lizzie Grant) leapt off YouTube and MP3 downloads and into the brick and mortar venues of show business, her meteoric rise was scorned across the Internet. Her wobbly televised performance on Saturday Night Live, the bee stung collagen lips, her persona as an embodiment of doomed romance and an album that has underwhelmed many critics had many people… -
Brand personality vs your personality: an exercise in better judgement
8 Feb 2012 | 5:33 pmAfter a contentious online conversation, Fritha Hookway examines the potential repercussions when you blur the line between your brand’s personality and your own. Recently, a relatively new Auckland nightclub posted a caption competition on Facebook featuring a photograph of a high profile New Zealand celebrity couple. As you can imagine, the stream of comments/entries quickly disintegrated into what can only be described as cyber bullying of the couple. It’s one thing for a personal profile to play host to petty, insulting name-calling but I was shocked to see an… -
The Nikon 1 J1: small, perfectly formed and takes beautiful photos!
2 Feb 2012 | 4:44 pmThe new Nikon 1 J1 is a near perfect blend of clever, convenient and capable. It sets a new benchmark for those who want more out of a trusty point and shoot camera. Disclosure: I’m a Canon man by trade and choice but I thought the Nikon 1 J1 was, most definitely, something neat. It is hard to make a call on what kind of camera to purchase these days. Entry level SLRs (what you might consider a “professional” camera) are plummeting in price. All major camera brands now offer entry level SLR cameras that are high quality and offer the ability to upgrade by… -
Exhibit A: Me and Exhibit B: Me (again) at the Museum of Me
1 Feb 2012 | 8:45 pmIf Facebook isn’t already enough, Fritha Hookway takes us to the Museum of Me, a virtual museum where you are the star of your own hall of fame. Ah, sweet self indulgence at its best. I swear, ever since Facebook became a daily fixture in most of our lives, the number of self shots circulating the web (gawd forbid, the mirror ones) has absolutely sky rocketed. So really, it was only a matter of time before someone decided that creating an online museum that journeys through your life would get absolutely lapped up. Narcissism-esque and all. The Museum of Me website calls it…
-
Live.Learn.Love.Leave
-
On Turning 30, Reflections
11 Feb 2012 | 3:49 pmOn Turning 30 Turning 30 is a big deal. But oddly enough when I woke up the morning of my birthday I still felt like I was still 13. When I was younger I lived in the Karate school and was always looking for ways to test myself. I remember climbing a mountain at the Camp Friend summer camp in Maine . My friend Zeek and I though it would be a good idea to test ourselves by hoping up the mountain from rock to rock. To make it harder we wore a 20lb weights vest and tied our feet together with a bandana. In retrospect it wasn’t the wisest or safest thing to do, but in the end we made it up… -
Diego Rivera,Top 60 Paintings and Murals
31 Jan 2012 | 11:02 pmDiego Rivera,Top 60 Paintings and Murals Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato, Mexico in 1886 and is arguably the best Mexican painter of the 2oth century. Known for his passionate romance with Frida Kahlo , his beautiful frescos and his strong political views; Diego Rivera had a lasting effect on the international art world. He is credited with the reintroducing and popularizing of fresco painting in modern art and architecture. Early on Diego Rivera was inspired by the Cubism movement and the likes of painters like Pablo Picasso and Paul Cézanne‘s. Later on his style… -
Facebook Timeline, Are You Ready For It?
28 Jan 2012 | 10:10 amAre You Ready for Facebook Timeline? If you are one of the countless individuals that has been holding on to there traditional Facebook page, now may be the time to make the transition over to the Facebook Timeline. Whether you like it or not, everyone, as stated by Facebook, will be receiving the new Timeline profile in the next couple of weeks. So why is Facebook choosing to do this? Before all out panic occurs, you may want to stop and consider some of the perks to the new Facebook Timeline feature: Branding Running blogs and pages on multiple sites can be an expensive and timely endeavor… -
How to Download Music From YouTube, FREE
25 Jan 2012 | 10:49 pmDid you ever wish you could download that one song from You Tube? This post is probably one of the most useful post I have ever written. I must also add that it does come in poor timing since the SOPA Bill and fighting online piracy is a hot topic right now. But what if there was that one amazing cover that was not for sale on iTunes or available for download by the artist. How the hell are you going to get it? How are you going to play it on your phone and groove to it on your way to school or work? I buy my music online and believe you should too. However, if you are a person who sometimes… -
Motivation: Stay True to Your New Years Resolutions
14 Jan 2012 | 4:11 pmI found a great video that will help motivate you to achieve your goals for the New Year. UFC commentator Joe Rogan makes some very great points on what it takes to be successful at anything. Karate teach you the same principles.When you train in Karate your are suppose to put 100% effort and focus into whatever you are doing. So every kick, punch and block is done with absolute resolution. In the video Joe Rogan makes the point that in order to be successful in anything you have to give it your all. Time is something you will never get back, so if you waste it half-assing and being lazy you…
-
Eli Rose Social Media
-
10 Reasons to use MailChimp for your Newsletters
13 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amOne of the most common pieces of advice given to small business owners is to “build your email list” and to do so from the beginning. There are multiple electronic newsletter services to choose from, but for the 10 reasons below, MailChimp is our preferred choice. 10 Reasons to Use MailChimp for Newsletters 1. MailChimp is free! Store up to 2,000 subscribers and send up to 12,000 emails a month under the free plan. Paid options – including Pay As You Go – are available. 2. It’s easy to add a newsletter sign up to your website or Facebook fan page MailChimp… -
How to Search Twitter.com
10 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amIn order to get started on Twitter, you need to find others to follow. The best way to search for other Twitter users to follow is with Twitter.com. The video below will show you all the ways you can use Twitter’s search tools to locate people you’d like to connect with. Twitter search features highlighted in this video include: Where Twitter.com’s search function is located How to search via Twitter recommendations based on those you currently follow How to search for Twitter users you already know using your email contacts How to search Twitter by username How to search… -
A Penny for your Thoughts: What Makes your Customers Buy
8 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amWhen I was young, I enjoyed coin collecting. On an 11-year-old’s budget, my acquisitions were modest, but I wasn’t looking for investments. I enjoyed the artistry of the Walking Liberty half dollar, the history of the 1943 steel penny (when copper was needed for the war effort), the quirkiness of two-cent and three-cent pieces. I collected because I liked the coins. On occasion, when I did attempt to put some value on my collection by flipping through pricing guides, my father the pragmatist would remind me of a simple truth: a thing is only worth what someone will actually pay for it. So… -
19 Types of Blog Post Ideas
6 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amWhen you blog – whether it’s for yourself or your business – it’s important to vary the types of blog posts you write. It is more engaging for your readers if your post type and style varies. Plus, it gives you more creative freedom (along with an occasional break from lengthy, essay-like writing). Below is a list of 19 different blog post ideas: List post – Much like this one. “Top 10” – Your post could be “Top 5″, “8 Tips to…” or “14 Ways you can…”. It doesn’t matter the number, but posts… -
How to Edit your Facebook Fan Page Thumbnail Image
5 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amAre you unhappy with the thumbnail version of your brand’s logo as it appears next to your Facebook fan page’s status updates? It could be because your logo is circular or because you have taken full advantage of the pixels allowed, and a long, tall rectangle doesn’t fit nicely into a square avatar. If you need to adjust the view of your fan page’s thumbnail, click Edit Info –> Profile Picture –> Edit Thumbnail. A box will pop up giving you the option to “drag to adjust” the image or to check the box to “scale to fit”. Make…
-
AriHerzog.com
-
Introducing Stephen Tiano: Monday Muse #2
12 Feb 2012 | 11:30 pmStephen Tiano, a freelance book designer, page compositor, and layout artist, wrote a guest blog post here in February 2009 about his blogging and tweeting and how both contributed to his economic success. I introduced Mitch Joel last week and debuted the Monday Muse column. Here is Stephen for the second week. What is your background and how do you participate in the world of the web? I began writing fiction as a 4-year-old and gave it up in my early twenties having failed to write a great novel, but only two-and-a-half bad, unpublishable ones. Within that time I majored in English in… -
Looking for Guest Bloggers
10 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amPhoto by earl53. In his expose on why bloggers should write guest articles for other bloggers, Christopher Roberts opines the advertorial aspect: When you guest post on a popular blog, people get to know you. People look out for you in the comments. People follow your links and check out your other work. Some bloggers that I met on the blogosphere have a fantastic and unique style, and it’s often through guest posts that I find their blogs. If someone likes your content and/or writing style, they will research you. When I launched the Feature Friday series last year, I was unprepared for… -
From Internet Fake to Real Fame
6 Feb 2012 | 11:29 pmFake currency by jdurham. Fake Twitter accounts are nothing new. An entrepreneurial soul creates one, tweets content in contradiction to whatever is being parodied, and gains followers. Look at @NotZuckerberg and @BettyFckinWhite for instance, parodies of the Facebook founder and actress, respectively. Or @Jesus_M_Christ for a different perspective. You know they’re not real — and by their names alone you might be tempted to mouseover to view their latest tweets and maybe click to follow too. Then there are the Fake accounts. It’s always nice when the imposter adds the… -
Introducing Mitch Joel: Monday Muse #1
5 Feb 2012 | 11:30 pmAsk bloggers to list other bloggers they respect and Mitch Joel’s name usually comes up. He’s the president of digital marketing agency Twist Image, and the author of Six Pixels of Separation, the name of his book, podcast, and blog. I confess never listening to his podcast, but his blog is in my RSS reader for top-notch writing and a Canadian slant to controversial issues; and I’ve also read the book. He’s active all across the web including that little-known place called Twitter @MitchJoel. I introduce you to Mitch below and launch a new blog series called Monday… -
Why You Write Blog Comments
2 Feb 2012 | 1:37 pmPhoto by taliesin. I love reading your comments. But I’m not vain. I know you’re not writing for me. I know you don’t care whether or not I see it and whether or not I reply. I know you’re writing for you. Your personal brand and your wanting to share that social identity with the world is the primary motivation for you to take time out of your day and write a comment. It’s the same motivation for you to do whatever you do on Facebook. You want to add your comment to the continuing saga of who you are online. It’s not a bad approach. Any social media…
-
Oman Collective Intelligence - MPiRe
-
Local blogger detained
7 Feb 2012 | 2:00 amAs reported by several sites and blogs including Dhofari Gucci, Global Voices Advocacy and Digital Rights Watch, and many others in Arabic, I was shocked to hear that Omani blogger Muawiya Alrawahi, known for his controversial ideas, has been taken into custody because of blog posts and tweets. Now, I don’t read his blog (now closed) as it is in Arabic and most likely I wouldn't agree with what he writes BUT is this is the way to solve a problem? The news is rapidly expanding online...are we going to shut all those sites down too? What kind of image are we giving of ourselves? I could not… -
Online terms parents should know
4 Feb 2012 | 10:31 pmThere's an ever growing trend among teenagers using social media networks called l33tspeak, netspeak or just plain internet slang. Surely you must have came across at least some of them...lol, brb, 143 and many more. If you have kids this could be an area of concern. I'm sure all smart parents have set up filters on their kids' PCs to block certain words and/or sites but this is not enough any longer. Today's kids are lazy when it comes to writing and use single letter words to communicate with each other in ways that most adults wouldn't understand: U replaces you, R replaces are, o replaces… -
If my career fails...
30 Jan 2012 | 7:13 amI’m going to be an actor! Just kidding. Muscat has been selected as the Capital of Arab Tourism for the year 2012 due to its natural beauty, rich topographical and historical diversity, many remarkable tourism features and its strategic location. During the past decade the government has put a lot of efforts in promoting Oman which is now visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world every year. If you want to know more about what Oman has to offer click here otherwise just relax and enjoy the following short clip: PS: Thanks to the Ministry of Tourism and… -
H&M faces a Facebook backlash
27 Jan 2012 | 1:33 amRetailer H&M is facing criticism on Facebook after the company was accused of stealing an American artist's design.Artist Tori LaConsay back in 2008 painted a billboard in Atlanta with the message “You Look Nice Today” to make residents in her town feel good about themselves. A few days ago she realised that H&M were selling towels, pillows and doormats with a similar design. H&M's reply was that “We employ an independent team of over 100 designers. We can assure you that this design has not been influenced by your work and that no copyright has been infringed.”Of course… -
The unconventional burger
26 Jan 2012 | 12:07 amThe Wimpy fast food chain in South Africa came up with a great idea to target the visually impaired. The campaign, aimed at “letting people know that Wimpy is a place where everyone can feel at home”, used Braille, the international language of the blind, to deliver such message.15 “Braille Burgers” were prepared by a chef who meticulously arranged sesame seeds on balls of dough with the end result being a message baked right on the burger bun, customised for the diner who can read Braille. Wimpy then delivered the burgers to three organizations that help blind people.Cleverly…
-
Social Amateur
-
This Week’s Tweets Worth Repeating (#FF)
10 Feb 2012 | 7:34 amThis Week’s Tweets Worth Repeating (#FF)It’s Friday! If your week was as busy as mine was, you may have missed some great tweets and articles shared on Twitter. Here are a few of the ones that really stood out to me this week. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend! As many of you know, my “regular” job is as the communications manager at a professional trade association. This week I taught a class on LinkedIn, and so I was particularly drawn to LinkedIn tips and articles this week. TrueSmallBiz Tweeted: How To Build a Rockin’ LinkedIn… -
Is Facebook Subscribe Replacing Twitter?
7 Feb 2012 | 8:08 pmIs Facebook Subscribe Replacing Twitter?The biggest names in social media are Facebook and Twitter. Last year, the two were comfortably growing their user bases without much head-to-head competition due to the different nature of the services. Facebook has always been about connecting with friends and family, whereas Twitter has functioned more as a platform for shouting whatever is on your mind. This all changed last fall when Facebook launched its Subscribe feature, which seemed to be a strategic move that positioned Facebook and Twitter in direct battle. Subscribe, which was designed with… -
This Week’s Tweets Worth Repeating (#FF)
2 Feb 2012 | 7:17 pmThis Week’s Tweets Worth Repeating (#FF)For the past few Follow Fridays (#FF), I have tweeted a list of the people who sent out tweets that I saved during the week. All well and good to promote that these people are awesome (and they are!), but I thought perhaps you’d be interested in knowing exactly what I was saving and why. So here are a few of my favorites from this week: fabriziofaraco Tweeted: [INFOGRAPHIC] Blogging: 3 Secrets To An A-List Blog http://bit.ly/wb586x via @heidicohen I saved this tweet because the graphic presented 15 tips for things I should be doing as a… -
Social Amateur Has a New Look
31 Jan 2012 | 8:06 pmSocial Amateur Has a New LookSomething’s different around here… Yes, I finally got around to creating that new logo I wanted. And with it came a few color scheme changes on the blog. Nothing major, but at least it all kind of matches. Here’s the before: And here’s the new look: I liked the old logo, but it always seemed a bit dated to me… even when I first created it. I knew I wanted a speech bubble and a question mark, but could never seem to get it right. And then finally, it just kind of fell into place tonight. I also wanted to get away from the blue, which… -
The Pinterest Addiction
30 Jan 2012 | 8:21 pmThe Pinterest AddictionI admit it. I’m an addict. Pinterest has got me. I check it in the morning, I pin throughout the day, I spend evenings searching for photo ideas. I learn about social media, I drool over shoes, I plan home decor projects and I show my fiance funny things I’ve recently pinned. In case you’re not familiar with this “new” craze, Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Users create boards based on interests and share photos and videos (with or without links). Other people with common interests follow boards and/or people, and repin images they like…
-
Community Connect
-
Interesting Readings around building a community
11 Feb 2012 | 9:01 amThis week I got a lot of questions around building a community. I’ve listed below some resources I’ve found online. Community Building Ideas 1. http://blog.asmartbear.com/building-online-community.html (How David Garland built a community of 100,000 followers in 24 months) 2. http://thecommunitymanager.com/how-to-build-a-community-from-scratch – How to Build a Community From Scratch 3. http://www.feverbee.com/2010/10/startinganonlinecommunity.html – Building An Online Community: How To Start From 0 Members 4. -
How to determine the value of your community and brand advocates?
7 Feb 2012 | 6:07 amMost community managers fail to answer the question as they’ve never focussed on quantifying the value of their community. This leads to disenchantment and lack of support from corporate sponsors in the long term. I’m going to take you through a practical example showing you how Microsoft justifies the ROI of their community and brand advocates. Note: If you’re an independent user group, community leader who faces a hard time getting sponsors for your group activities you might want to jump down to the last part of this article and come back up to read the rest as I begin from the… -
Weekend Reading on Social Media Communities and Brand Advocacy
5 Feb 2012 | 1:49 pmThere’s just so much to read and learn when it comes to social media, communities and brand advocacy. Each week I create a list of interesting ideas I’ve read over the week, hope you find it useful. How to craft a Mission Statement for your Online Community – http://blaisegv.com/community-building/draft-a-mission-statement-online-community/ http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/split-testing-resources/ – 35 Headache-Free Split Testing Resources to Increase Your Conversions and Sales http://www.thesaleslion.com/how-to-network-online-superstar-grow-big/ – How to Network… -
The IBM CMO Study: Strengthened Visually
23 Jan 2012 | 9:04 amWhile I read the report, or rather re-read it, I realised some of the data could be better explained and hence this visualization. It’s only when I went thru this exercise of visualization, I realized that there are some areas which they need to highlight much more, well at least according to me, and I feel that’s the crucial part. More on that down below. IBM CMO Study(From Stretched to Strengthened: Insights from the Global Chief Marketing Officers Study). Firstly it’s a good report, however, I doubt most will be able to leverage it. Note: I think it’s a good report, however, it has… -
Social Media Enchantment: The Guy Kawasaki way
10 Jan 2012 | 3:54 amLast night I was enchanted and I couldn’t help but draw out Guy’s ideas on “how to make enchantment endure by building an ecosystem”. The idea applies to anything you wish to do. In today’s social world, it’s about building an ecosystem around your company and it’s social media, brand advocate and community program. Guy does an awesome job of explaining it. Check the visual below, before I dive into the details of applying it to your social media and community strategy. The components/key players of the ecosystem are visualized above the grey line and the part on how to…
-
Arekibo Digital Blog - Your resource for Social Media , Development ,Business and Trending articles
-
Why I don’t like the Facebook “Like” button
17 Jan 2012 | 11:30 amThe Facebook “Like” button has been hailed as one of those great, game changing inventions online and for a while it actually was. It did make an impact in the early days, giving the Facebook users a say regarding their friends’ posts and the likeability of a product or services.Nowadays however, the Like button is used to create the perception of a great service instead of indicating something you really like or enjoy. The “Like” has turned in to a key to open a door which stands between users and the greatness of the Facebook wall. This concept has turned the power of the… -
The fully automated Twitter Experiment
12 Jan 2012 | 3:46 amHere in Arekibo we love Twitter, really we do… But there is also a compulsion to over analyse what is going on with this Social Networking messaging system.What is the end value of having a successful twitter account? Are we fooling ourselves, investing a lot of time in tweeting?To answer this question we decided on a twitter experimentThe goal was simple; create a successful Twitter account,not Justin Bieber successful, but successful enough! One thousand followers was our target with only one condition, everything needs to be automated, from following, to twitter welcome messages and… -
Have you covered your business on the web yet?
3 Jan 2012 | 9:04 amIt’s the beginning of a new year and you might find a spare hour or two this week before the new business mayhem begins. So why not spend those hours in checking and maybe even adding your company profile, website and employees on some of the many different internet platforms available.Why? Well currently there are around 582,716,657 websites (source: http://news.netcraft.com/ ) and your business is one of them. Adding your profile on multiple platforms will give it an extra boost with a chance of more traffic, more clicks and hopefully more conversions.Social Bookmarking – Submit your… -
Did your profile get in the LinkedIn Top 100 for Ireland yet ?
19 Oct 2011 | 8:32 amWhile we researching LinkedIn for one of our clients we noticed something interesting we like to share. Searching for the keyword “LinkedIn” on Google Ireland, will give the main LinkedIn Ireland page with a few internal site links to actually LinkedIn User profiles.Searching for LinkedInGoogle bases it’s search result on Authority, Relevancy and many more factors so by changing the search string slightly we have a Top 100 LinkedIn users in Ireland ! What is your rating ?Top 1 – 10 of users profiles1.Krishna De – Ireland | LinkedIn2.Stephen Judge – Ireland… -
Steve
6 Oct 2011 | 3:23 amWhen Leonardo Da Vinci found a new pen, he would take a scrap of parchment and write “Dimmi” (talk to me) on it. It was Da Vinci’s word to test the pen, to see how it wrote or drew. It was his way of making sure it flowed on the parchment and sat well in his hand. The tool was important to him, and the art he created, is without question among the greatest we have ever found. But when we look at a Da Vinci drawing or painting, we don’t think about the pens or the parchment he used. We don’t question the tools. Their design was irrelevant to the finished work that we revel in today,…
-
Social Glitz
-
The power of words…
17 Jan 2012 | 5:25 pmI’m a numbers person. Numbers don’t lie. They tell you the truth and we don’t have to question them (that is if they aren’t skewed). And yet, all of us communicate with words. Sometimes I wish we didn’t because, quite frankly, life would be easier if we communicated in numbers. No lies. No questioning. No mind games. Simplicity would be at the heart of our lives. At the end of the day, however, that is a wishing game. Words accompany us at any given time and while most of us have the best of intentions when we use them, we often forget the real power of them. The… -
The one where I don’t have a title because airport santa distracts me with his bells..
18 Dec 2011 | 5:12 amIt’s been one hell of a year. Ups and downs mark my first year as an expat. It’s not been glorious but it has been important for me to make this change. At the end of last year, I wrote about my ambitions for this year. They were simple. All I wanted to do was embrace life. And embrace life, I did. While change, inevitably entails all sorts of emotions, I learned that in order to become whole again, I need to stop being self destructive. I also realised, that I’m not alone in my self destructiveness. All of us do it, most of us do it daily. We tell us we are not good enough,… -
This is why you should read “Shoot the damn dog” by @SallyBrampton
7 Dec 2011 | 10:58 amDisclaimer: I’m about to *totally* pimp a book. I used to be a book worm. I read and read and read. Bringing characters to life in my head, envisioning the story an author is telling or even imagining them outside of the story I was reading, seemed to be some sort of refuge. For a while however, I had lost my love for books. I’m not sure why but what I once loved turned into effort. It’s been a while since I picked up a book and this time round it isn’t a novel. It’s not fiction. It’s real. As real as it gets. It’s Sally Brampton’s book… -
Holy cow, apparently I’m running my first 10k race on March 4th and how working out taught me an important life lesson!
18 Nov 2011 | 8:56 amDisclaimer: Profanity ahead! People keep asking me, do you enjoy going to the gym? Seriously people? Who ENJOYS going to the gym? I don’t see many people with smiles on their faces. Practically none. Unless they are trainers and find pleasure in causing other people pain. I certainly don’t stand in front of the big fat gym mirror, lift weights and smile at myself thinking, woman, you are awesome. Instead I’m thinking something along the lines of ‘holy shit this is going to kill me.’ I’m starting to believe that all those people featured in fitness magazines… -
A little bit of happiness.
31 Oct 2011 | 2:54 pmYesterday, my dad, brother and I sat in a perfectly nice Italian restaurant. We got a table next to the window and while we were enjoying a jolly good time, my eyes started to wander and through the passing crowd I saw something I see ever so often. A homeless man, sitting on the floor with a coffee cup in front of him. No sign was propped up in front of him, he didn’t say anything either. There was no sob story. He just sat there. His dog was laying on his legs, sleeping. All the man did was stroke him. Over and over, at the same pace. A strange calm surrounded this man. He was…
-
eModeration Blog
-
The Vircomm2012 Summit - A community of community folk
13 Feb 2012 | 7:49 amLast Thursday I attended the first ever e-mint international event called Vircomm Summit 2012. For any who don't know, e-mint is a Yahoo group (old-fashioned, but it works remarkably well) for online community management professionals, and is a friendly and supportive source of news and information. The Vircomm Summit 2012 was a great opportunity to meet face-to-face and talk about the issues, trends and hot topics affecting community managers today. It was streamed live on the day so I know plenty of people not based in London on Thursday were able to hear some of the insights. For those of… -
eModeration LOTW: Hipsters from the future, Woody Harrelson, and Super stats
11 Feb 2012 | 9:06 amA social media links of the week list curated from a (mostly) US perspective. Enjoy! Future Hipsters In promotion of Social Media Week, digital agency Entrinsic brings us Social Media hipsters from the year 2062. More catchphrase fun can be found at the Future Hipsters' Tumblr, where Entrinsic promises a long cut of the viral video can be found soon. We will admit to watching the Future Hipsters vid almost as many times as the other viral favorite on Facebook this week, Facebook Parenting for the Troubled Teen, aka Dad Shooting Laptop. There's a mash-up in all this… -
The Complete Guide to Pinterest for Brands; eModeration e-book
8 Feb 2012 | 10:43 amPinterest is changing the way people communicate online. The popular visual bookmarking site has seen an impressive 11.7 million users join the community in the last nine months. Pinterest aims to connect people who share the same tastes by allowing them to share and “like” pictures which they have organised into categories. This combination of visual, categorisation and social hits a number of sweet spots and succeeds in pulling in visitors, who then want to share their own tastes with others. Our new e-book, ‘The Complete Pinterest Guide for Brands’ is designed to showcase how… -
How to Choose Safe Social Networking for Your Kids
7 Feb 2012 | 1:25 amAs you may already know, today is Safer Internet Day (SID) and this year's theme is ‘Connecting generations and educating each other’, with the slogan "Discover the digital World together…safely!" As a parent of primary school children, I'm very aware that we have a responsibility to not only keep our children safe online, but to ensure that they become responsible, enabled digital citizens. As tempting as it sometimes is, we really can't just bar our children from social networking altogether with the excuses that attempting to control it would ask too much of… -
Pinterest Part V: 100+ Brands on Pinterest
2 Feb 2012 | 10:00 pmEverything you ever wanted to know about Pinterest (but were afraid to ask) Pinterest is emerging to be one of the hottest social networks of 2012. You might be wondering if your brand is a fit with Pinterest. There is no harm is registering your brand's name, and that will help stake your claim against brandjackers. Some industries have obvious curation tie-ins that make joining Pinterest a natural fit (retail, design, beauty.) Other industries will need to be creative to find a way to make use of Pinterest's visual curation emphasis to benefit their overall community…
-
blog till you drop!
-
Obama and Social Media 2008 – 2012; a trip down memory lane
12 Feb 2012 | 3:10 pmA fundamental understanding of communication has always been at the center of a politician’s arsenal, but a firm grasp on the future of communication can be the secret weapon that wins the war. For Franklin D. Roosevelt, it was radio. For John F. Kennedy, it was television. And for Barack Obama, it is social media. Going… -
Cool Parisian Store Fronts
30 Jan 2012 | 3:39 pmHonoré de Balzac once wrote ‘Les devantures de boutiques sont devenues des poèmes commerciaux’ (1837) Store fronts have become commercial poems. I spotted these absolutely gorgeous store fronts in Paris, which immediately stood out from the mass-market world we’ve all become accustomed to. I’ll do my very best to translate their meaning in English. Louvre Bouteille… -
How the Sainsbury’s Customer Service Letter went viral; my theory
25 Jan 2012 | 5:43 pmI am sure you’ve all seen the lovely Sainsbury’s customer service letter that was doing the rounds in the social media world today. I’ve been doing a bit of digging around to try to understand how the story went viral; here’s my theory. If you Google ‘Sainsbury’s Customer Service Letter’ you’ll find 420,000 search results;… -
NFC Marker Spotted at Bus Stop
23 Jan 2012 | 4:12 pmI spotted this NFC marker at a bus stop a couple of days ago. NFC has been a bit of a buzzword since 2011, however there have been very few concrete examples of campaigns integrating the technology, in the UK anyway. What’s quite interesting here, is that they’re essentially prompting marketers to… -
Heinz Limited Edition tins
15 Jan 2012 | 3:10 pmI spotted those unusual tins of Heinz soup in Selfridges the other day, and whilst the packaging is iconic, the messaging is definitely unusual! Following their limited edition ketchup last year, Heinz are toying with social commerce again, by giving fans the opportunity to send a personalised tin of Heinz soup…
-
Useful Social Media Blog
-
The 5 best brands on social media – according to corporate social media practitioners
10 Feb 2012 | 10:57 amHi everyone, I’m in the midst of writing up this year’s State of Corporate Social Media briefing. One of the questions we ask is “Which 3 companies are best at using social media?”. I’ve just finished totting up the results, and I thought I would share them with you. So, without further ado – the top 5 (in order), according to 650+ social media practitioners are: Starbucks Coca Cola Dell Zappos Ford The most obvious point I’d draw from the list above is that I’d be willing to bet that – had I asked the same question this time last year… -
A celebration of brilliant corporate social media best practice
9 Feb 2012 | 5:54 amHi everyone, When we started Useful Social Media in late 2009, we did so in response to a gap in the market. After I started looking around at the opportunities companies had to learn social media best practice, I noticed the options for you were pretty limited. Pretty much every conference, every report, and every blog out there was dominated by self-proclaimed ‘social media gurus’. Every show I saw had about 25 contributing speakers, but only one or two were from big companies. The power of experience Having worked in the business intelligence space for about 5 years now,… -
This week’s Wednesday update with M&S on TV, video ads and Starbucks AR
8 Feb 2012 | 7:46 amHi all, Hope everyone is well? The social media news this week… Ford integrates dealers with Facebook Ford has been developing its customer services within the social space for a while now, but has recently turned its attention to its dealerships. As part of Ford’s FordDirect DealerConnection Vehicle Showroom (VSR), any of its potential customers can check on vehicle availability via their local dealer’s Facebook page. FordDirect is a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and its franchised dealers to create a comprehensive web presence for dealers and provide digital marketing… -
This week’s Wednesday update with bald Barbie, personalised soup and virtual currency
1 Feb 2012 | 10:04 amHi all, Hope everyone is well? Plenty of news across the social web this week… LinkedIn and Twitter ad revenue will slow According to a new report from eMarketer, the ad revenues of two of the largest networks will decline this year. Though the numbers are still impressive, with Twitter’s ad growth predicted to be up 83% with revenues of $540m. LinkedIn will see $226m in ad revenue through 2012, and by 2014 60% of the company’s income will come from US sources and top $405m. eMarketer forms it’s estimates of social network ad revenues through a meta-analysis of data, from… -
Buying Facebook fans: quantity or quality – both or neither?
27 Jan 2012 | 4:50 amA PR agency can deliver 50,000 new Facebook ‘likes’ but where did those potential customers come from? Can they be qualified? And can corporations base their marketing on this data? Facebook has more than 800 million members, and most of the active ones tell each other on a regular basis what they like and dislike. In theory, these individuals can be profiled: simply by age and gender, or in detail according to their buying habits and preferences. So the Facebook community is a potential goldmine for businesses, especially those in the B2C space. You can keep close to customers, telling…
-
Online PR Company
-
How to use and not abuse Pinterest
7 Feb 2012 | 7:31 amThere has been a lot of talk around Pinterest lately and how useful the social sharing site can be for marketing purposes. The online pin board has gained a huge result with unique visitors to the site growing by 400% between September and December 2011. Mashable I have been a member for 6 months and agree that it is a great place to share products, imagery and everything of personal interest. However to get the most out of it, you have to remember normal everyday people are using the website and a large percentage of them do not have the same interests as marketing experts. Since being a… -
WordPress Editorial Calender- 2012 Blogging Made Easier
22 Jan 2012 | 2:45 pmAs my work schedule has been busier than ever in 2012 my blog has taken a back seat and I haven’t had chance to write anything over the last four weeks. Whilst searching for blogging ideas, I came across this new plug in for wordpress which enables you to plan ahead and schedule in new posts. The Editorial calendar looks very similar to the Windows Outlook calendar with small boxes for each day of the week. There is an option to drag and drop information if you want to move content ideas around. If you are struggling to remember when to post or forget those genious ideas that pop into your… -
My love for Polyvore
4 Dec 2011 | 11:48 amI came across Polyvore a while ago and had lots of fun playing around with it. However, I recently discovered a way to use it effectively and incorporate it into a brands social media strategy. Since joining the team at Daniel Footwear I have been sourcing new ways to promote their products rather than blatant advertising. What is Polyvore? Polyvore is a social sharing website that is image based. People from all over the world are invited to create profiles and join the website to share their love of fashion. This website enables people to discover style and set their own trends to influence… -
An Encounter With a Greyhound- A PR Girls Worst Nightmare
13 Nov 2011 | 5:08 pmThis is the first time in 5 weeks that I have been able to blog again and I am bringing you a more personal post. Unfortunately I was left with one working hand due to a frightening experience involving a very angry greyhound. I was out in the park walking my elderly collie dog when we were unpleasantly faced with a large grizzly hound that was in ‘the red zone’ and definitely saw my dog as dinner. It was quite terrifying and in my attempt to stop the attack and save my dog, it appeared that I had been bitten along with acquiring broken bones in my right hand. As much as the horror story… -
The New Facebook Changes: From the Eyes of the Average User
6 Oct 2011 | 8:21 amI was delighted when I received this interesting guest post from enthusiastic Sophie Bratt (Psychology graduate from Cheshire). Sophie outlines the changes put in place for Facebook and how they can effect the standard user. A great way to ‘stay connected’: Facebook proves how credible it is with some astonishing figures: 1) Over 800 million active users, over 50 % of which log-in daily 2) Over 250 million photos are uploaded per day 3) More than 2 billion posts are ‘liked’ or commented on per day 4) And, the site is now available in more than 70 languages. So…
-
Liz King Events: Social Media Event Planning Specialists
-
The Untimely Death of PowerPoint
13 Feb 2012 | 8:10 amIn the past months, it seems that everyone is talking about how real speakers don't use PowerPoint. It's boring and it never engages the audience. It's text based and too many people use it as their personal cue card. In the midst of all that, a lot of people have been talking about Prezi. Their samples are so much more interesting and it seems that they solve the world's problems with PowerPoint. In the meeting world, people started looking down on you if you dare date yourself by using PowerPoint, but I'm not a hater. I think we're missing the message. I think the real message is this:… -
Event Tech of the Week: @Streampoint
10 Feb 2012 | 8:23 amI love, love, love all things events and technology. If you can't tell by my tweets, Facebook posts and all my other social media interactions, I love to talk about events and the tools that help us do what we do better. In June 2011, I partnered with an organization called imbookin to bring you PlannerTech - an event technology showcase. This weekly blog series is going to help continue to expose you to new tools you need to be aware of as an event planner. Also, in case you missed it, PlannerTech could be coming soon to your area! Today, we're talking about Streampoint Your Name: Dharmesh… -
NY Events February Meetup 2012
9 Feb 2012 | 9:23 amIn January of this year, LKE launched a new NYC-based networking group called NY Events. The purpose of the group was simple - bring together the very huge event industry in a way that allows us to authentically connect with one another on a regular basis. We began working with event rockstar Keisha Bolaji, sent out invitations, created an ice breaker and got the party started. In January we had about 15 people join us and we had over 30 come out for our February meetup. The community that is forming is already so dynamic and engaging, and I wanted to share a few images from the event. These… -
The Power of Thank You by @MallaHaridat
7 Feb 2012 | 8:07 amWhen was the last time you handwrote a thank you card? I will admit this is one of those tasks - or as I like to describe it "talents" - that I am still working on. Sitting down to write a thank you note in the midst of all of the business development activity I have going on - outreaching to new clients, networking, dinners, lunches, proposals...crap I forgot to write that proposal and send it out ...meetings, follow-up and reaching out to those in my follow-up file....that's often the last thing on my mind. But writing one is so powerful. I recently had a meeting where a friend is… -
3 Best Social Media Practices
6 Feb 2012 | 9:19 amAs much as I try to avoid it, everyone wants to know the formula for social media success. What are the three things they need to do to be successful on the tool? Well, I'm finally giving in and writing up the three best practices for all business (and people) to implement a successful social media strategy. Step One: Have a Strategy Especially in the beginning, it's okay to have no idea what you're doing. But if you're an event organizer planning on integrating social media into your events, you need to have a plan. What are you trying to achieve? Think about whether you're trying to drive…
-
Leonard Sipes.Com
-
Twenty-five percent dominate the internet. The Quality Web.
13 Feb 2012 | 8:33 amHttp://LeonardSipes.Com (Note that I write about the internet and PR experiences of government, associations and nonprofits). Pew states that 65 percent of Americans are involved in social media but what do we mean by “involved?” The research below from Pew suggests that power users constitute about 20%-30% of Facebook users. Only 5 percent of Facebook users were power users on all actions measured, 9 percent on three and 11 percent on two. There seems to be continuous research that indicates an active 20 to 25 percent of web users who dominate internet activity. They are the ones who… -
What if we were really good at social media?
8 Feb 2012 | 9:46 amHttp://leonardSipes.Com I recently wrote Newspapers and the internet; the lessons we share. The first article was based on The Story So Far, What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism from the Columbia Journalism School which may be the most insightful social media document of all time. The essence is the media’s attempt to master internet and social media based strategies “and” turn a profit at the same time. But the lessons apply to all of us engaged in web-based efforts. Newspapers record huge numbers of internet users “but” the problem is that they don’t stay very… -
Newspapers and the internet; the lessons we share
6 Feb 2012 | 8:45 amHttp://leonardSipes.Com The Story So Far, What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism from the Columbia Journalism School may be the most insightful social media document of all time. The essence is the media’s attempt to master internet and social media based strategies “and” turn a profit at the same time. But the lessons apply to all of us engaged in web based efforts. The decline in newspaper circulation and virtually all form of media engagement is down (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_circulation). Trust in the media has been declining (see… -
State election websites measured as to effectiveness
2 Feb 2012 | 8:47 amHttp://LeonardSipes.Com The research below from the Pew Center on the States measured every election website in the country as to services provided and the ability of people to locate the site. If one wonders how government websites are progressing, this research is a barometer. The data provides a comprehensive look at every variable measured; it should scare the dickens out of many government webmasters. If we cannot provide something as basic as information on registering and voting (the most fundamental service of government) than we should be ashamed of ourselves. Government websites… -
Describe your sex life with a movie title. The multiple uses of social media.
30 Jan 2012 | 8:33 amHttp://LeonardSipes.Com Question: Is it time to admit that social media has multiple definitions and uses? Assertion: There are two types of organizations using social media; those who simply push information out and those who depend on people interacting to survive. Article: “Describe your sex life with a movie title,” was a recent post on my Facebook profile from a friend. It received scads of comments. It was reposted several times and the reposts received lots of comments thus proving that social media is alive and well and that Mark Zuckenberg is a genius…
-
DreamGrow Social Media
-
Six Ways to Humanize Your Social Network Pages
13 Feb 2012 | 7:50 amSay you follow your favorite local coffee shop on Twitter. You probably do it because you feel a personal connection. There’s a person behind the account, and you enjoy hearing what he or she has to say. The coffee shop likely has made a deliberate effort to engage you so that you stick around. Establishing a personal presence on social networking sites takes some finesse if you’re ultimate goal is to generate business. You don’t want to seem like an automated Twittering robot, but you don’t want to come across as overly casual, either. Below, find a few tips to put a human face on… -
Compelling Reasons to Create a Business Profile on Google Plus
10 Feb 2012 | 6:26 amHave you created a business profile or are you about to create a business profile on Google plus. Before you knock it down and assume it’s just another social network page, let me give you some compelling reasons as to why there are many benefits to building and promoting your brand or business through Google Plus. What can Google Plus do for your business? Google plus allows business and brands to setup a business profile. You are probably comparing them to the other social network pages, but it goes beyond just being another business profile. Since Google is also the number one search… -
Using Twitter Hashtag to Gather Focus Groups
9 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amAs a growing small business, getting feedback on products or services you provide is integral to creating a thriving business. In a world where customer is king, reaching out to them will give you the most beneficial information. While there are a variety of ways to do this, Twitter has provided businesses with an easy and helpful platform for holding a focus group. “Focus group: A group of people brought together to give their opinions on a particular issue or product, often for the purpose of market research.” -Dictionary.com What better way to bring your customers together than by… -
Valentine’s Day for Marketers [INFOGRAPHIC]
9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amMarketers love the day of love, because it’s an opportunity to drive sales and engage customers. Read tips and tricks for inspiration. Sincerely. Valentine’s Day is a good opportunity to drive sales and engage customers. But it’s not often easy to find out what kind of promotion to run, and how to start thinking about it. Cash in A point is clear: it worth to run a promotion at Valentine’s Day, because men spends $158 at this occasion, and people spend not only to the significant other, but also on pets, classmates and coworkers. So small value products and services have a significant… -
Simple Tools For Managing Social Media Content
8 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amLooking at the way the Internet has been shaping the world around us, there is no doubt that it has changed the marketing game. Becoming a staple in business, there has been a huge jump in using Facebook ads, Twitter links, fan pages, blogs and viral content to advertise. Not only has this had major implications for large corporations, but for small businesses that are predominantly online, and even local features in communities. With this being the case, social media is one method of marketing you cannot afford not to utilize, especially given its low cost ability to be far reaching to…
-
EduTek n Social Media Advisor
-
Blended Mode of Learning using MyOpenCampus
19 Jan 2012 | 1:22 amI had already blogged about ‘SocialMediaLearning through MyOpenCampus’ at http://bit.ly/g8324F Now MyOpenCampus is available in the new version enabling you to Start a discussion, assign users and user groups and send notifications about them to users through email. Upload files and share them with users Create assessments, assign users to take them, announce the test results after deciding minimum passing %. This is simpler version of original MOC brought out earlier, enabling you to interact with users of your choice without using Twitter and blog. Hence when MOC (MyOpenCampus) is… -
NCHER Bill
10 Jan 2012 | 5:17 amI had already mentioned about Higher Education and Research Bill in my blog post titled ‘NCHER Bill’. The bill has been introduced in Rajya Sabha. The important details of the bill can be learnt by reading the article in Hindu titled ‘A mission to boost innovation, promote accountability in education’ The full text of the bill can be learnt by clicking here. As I had already mentioned, it really is a bold step in improving quality, research, innovation in Higher Education. As I talk about improving quality in Education, I recently read another interesting article in Hindu titled ‘A… -
Happy New Year 2012
31 Dec 2011 | 7:56 amWishing all my readers a 'Very Happy & Prosperous New Year 2012!'. My last 200 tweets in the form of PDF diary available at http://www.twitario.com/pdf?twitterUser=ELnSMediaExpert -
EduTek on Scoop.it
11 Nov 2011 | 11:30 pmWant to know the latest happenings in Educational Technology. I am curating content related to Educational Technology and scooping them on webpage EduTek You can view some of the articles I’ve scooped on the webpage EduTek below. Would like to keep yourself up-to-date with what is going on related to Educational Technology? Then follow me on EduTek and know the latest and important information related to Educational Technology. -
Educational Technology & Digital Marketing on Facebook
10 Nov 2011 | 11:27 pmThe following are some of the links and information I share on my Facebook page 'Advisor2U' related to Educational Technology and Digital Marketing / Social Media Marketing. Just visit the page ‘Advisor2U’ and like it, to update yourself with the information I share related to above mentioned topics.
-
Madras Geek
-
Create Bald Head Photo using Make Me Bald App
13 Feb 2012 | 8:36 pmThere are alot of Android camera effects app and this one lets you to make an bald image effect to a photo using an android app called Make me bald app. It lets you to make a man go bald ie; you can create a picture of bald man using this android app. You can easily make shaved head photos in android using make me bald app for android. Make me bald android app lets you to make a man go bald in few seconds. You can snap a photo and shave head photo using your finger as a razor to shave bald. Apart from that, you can add funny mustache to photos. Once you’ve installed the app, you can… -
7 Elements You Should Check Before You Buy Windows Phone 7 device
11 Feb 2012 | 8:29 amDecided to go with Windows Phone 7 smartphone ? Then here are some things that you should look out before you pick a Windows phone 7 device. If you’re going to buy Android device, then check out the Android buying guide. Gigahertz : First you need to check out the hardware specifications. The speed of the phone, the processors that has been used inside. The RAM factor on how quickly it can respond and smoothly it can run etc. Two main things. CPU and GPU. CPU handles applications and GPU handles visuals, animations and videos. Make sure the WP7 device has 1GHz or higher. Also talking… -
Print Midi Sheet Music, Midi to Notes Converter
10 Feb 2012 | 11:04 pmFew days we told you about a music app which can slow down the music and can be used as a music transcription and transposition tool. Today we have got another music related software which is very much useful for the upcoming music composers. This app allows you to print midi sheet music and also converts the midi tones to notes. This simple sheet music to notes converter app is a complete midi sheet music software that used for converting MIDI music files into sheet music. Midi Sheet Music is a free program. It also highlights the notes as the music is played, both on a piano and on the… -
Customize Windows 7 Context Menu Editor
10 Feb 2012 | 9:04 amThere are many programs to customize Windows 7 and we had told you many ways to customize Windows 7 such as context menu tools like Send to Folder Windows 7, 10 right click tools for Windows, tools to customize Windows 7 logon screen, change folder color etc. Today we got a nifty tool for Windows 7 (supports XP and vista too) that allows you to add more, more, more items to the right click context menu of Windows 7. Ultimate Windows Context Menu Customizer is a nifty software that works like a charm. It allows you to add any applications in Windows to your right click context menu. You can… -
How to Host your blog on Dropbox ?
10 Feb 2012 | 12:04 amHaven’t heard about dropbox yet ? Dropbox is a cloud storage service where you can host or backup your files online for free. It provides you 2GB of free space which is so secure, fast and you can access your saved files from anywhere, anytime through any PC, smartphone etc. One of the best inventions in the tech scene, dropbox. We had told alot of dropbox related stuff such as Dropbox clone with 10GB space, dropbox encryption, etc. Today we are going to see how to host your website using Dropbox as your backend hosting. Yes, you can host or create a blog with dropbox completely. As the…
-
Travel Online Partners (TOP)
-
8 Common Mistakes Made When Organizing your Website Menu
6 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amWhat is the one thing that gets overlooked in nearly 99% of the websites we look at in our comprehensive website evaluation? The website menu. Your website menu is just as important as the content that it is trying to organize. While there’s no one right way to do a menu, here are 8 common mistakes made when organizing your menu. Use this list as a quick checkup on your existing menu or a guide when planning a new menu/site design. A bad menu can quickly kill an otherwise good web experience. Mistake No 1. Not putting menu items in priority from left to right. It’s a common… -
(Google) Analytics Jargon Explained
11 Jan 2012 | 2:10 pmI’ve had a lot of thanks for the tips in our email marketing jargon explained piece, so I thought I’d dive right in with some explanations of typical analytics jargon, because sometimes it can feel downright confusing! For the purposes of today’s discussion, I’m mostly referring to Google Analytics, but in fact these terms are used wildly across a variety of analytics platforms. If you’re not sure what analytics means, that’s ok – let’s start right there. Web analytics are simply tools that you use to measure how much traffic your website… -
How to Manage a Community like a Pro
29 Dec 2011 | 7:56 pmBefore I get started with this review of Online Community Management for Dummies, I have to provide a hearty disclosure. That’s because one of my best friends wrote it – one of first people I ever met online, Deb Ng. So heck yes, my review is biased, but when your friends do great work, you tell people about it. Deb’s book is the first “for dummies” book I’ve read. Not that I have anything against them. I was not surprised that the dummies format makes things very digestible and also well organised so you can just read the sections most applicable to you… -
Are you a different person on different social networks?
20 Dec 2011 | 2:12 amHere’s a question I get a lot – I thought I’d just answer Joline’s email today via the blog (thanks Joline!): So, we’re doing the Facebook thing, and the Twitter thing, and we wanna make sure that we’re really being targeted to how users interact on those platforms. I read the recent post on Should I take travel bookings on Facebook – that was helpful, thanks, we’ve decided “not right now.” Ok, so my question is, I’ve seen other people have special links on their Twitter and Facebook pages. Like,… -
Promotion Probably Isn’t The Problem…
12 Dec 2011 | 11:32 amMy good friend Becky McCray from Tourism Currents always is a pithy tweeter, and this weekend was no exception, especially when I saw this gem pop up in my Twitter stream: Promotion Probably Isn’t the Problem I see this a lot – you could easily change the word restaurant to”website” or ”tour” or ”bed and breakfast.” People jumping up and waving frantically, trying to flag down traffic to get people to stop for something they aren’t interested in, and isn’t that good anyway. Looking at what people say when taking our free…
-
Social Media Club of Dallas
-
Content Marketing Careers Interview with Joe Pulizzi
24 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amI had the pleasure of interviewing Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, when he visited Dallas to speak to SMC Dallas. As we were talking I was curious about the evolution of the content marketing career and discipline. Tune into the interview here: What are you thoughts about content marketing roles? -
Blogwell Dallas: #SMCDallas discount code
19 Jan 2012 | 8:02 am“BlogWell is a fantastic opportunity to learn best practices directly from the professionals who are implementing them.” — Shelby Stoolman, ConAgra Foods We are excited to offer a discount for SMCDallas to BlogWell being held in Dallas on Tuesday, January 24th. BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media 8 Great Case Studies on the Best Social Media Programs at Large Corporations The companies: Advanced Micro Devices Shell United Northwestern Mutual Coldwell Banker AT&T Level 3 Texas Instruments And if that wasn’t motivation enough, Use code SMCDALSENTME to save… -
January SMCDallas Event: Managing Content Marketing Book Tour
18 Jan 2012 | 11:42 amReminder: Early registration ends at midnight 1/18 Brands around the world are spending (on average) over 25% of their total marketing budget on content marketing. There have been countless books and resources that have covered all aspects of content marketing… from the why to the what to the where…but oddly enough, rarely the how. Not until now that is. Who: Marketing, PR, and Social Media professionals from a variety of agencies, companies and brands throughout the Dallas Fort Worth area. What: Monthly speaker event. Networking, a Speaker, a Book, and always fun! Where: Angelika Film… -
Get Your Jingle Mingle Ticket Today and Save $5!
25 Nov 2011 | 11:42 amAh, Black Friday, that special time of the year when folks feel the strong urge to wake up at the crack of dawn to line up at the local Wal-Mart in hopes of scoring huge discounts on items in their holiday shopping list. Fortunately for you, this special Black Friday deal requires none of the headaches associated with typical day-after-Thanksgiving offers. No – for you, we’ve made this as simple as can be. If you still haven’t purchased your ticket to the Jingle Mingle, now’s your chance. If you purchase today and use the code BLACKFRIDAY you’ll save $5 on your… -
Smart Business, Social Business Book Tour with Michael Brito [Event]
24 Oct 2011 | 3:21 pmSocial Media Club of Dallas October 20, 2011 #smcdallas @smcdallas http://www.smcdallas.org Smart Business, Social Business Book Tour Agenda: 1. 6:00 Networking 2. 6:45 Welcome and intro 3. 7:00 Introduction to Sponsors @JaredRey 4. 7:15 Sponsor presentation 5. 7:30 Smart Business, Social Business Book Tour with Michael Brito @Britopian 6. 8:45 Post Tweetup at Trinity Hall @TrinityHall About our Speaker Michael Brito is a senior vice president of Social Business Planning at Edelman Digital and leads the digital team in Silicon Valley. He provides strategic counsel, guidance, and best…
-
Rick Mahn
-
Pondering A Motorola Nexus Droid
31 Jan 2012 | 7:30 amCourtesy of Motorola Mobility I’ve been on the fence for some time regarding whether Google should use Motorola to produce a pure Google Android phone. There are lots of reasons why this would impact the Android marketplace in many predictable ways, but could also bring a number of unknown effects. However, I’ve been thinking lately of all the so-called fragmentation, and of all the varying user interfaces (skins) that every OEM ships with their phones. Some are great, most aren’t. They all add unnecessary overhead to the Android experience, no matter how good they… -
Happiness CDI
31 Jan 2012 | 5:30 amA chance to work with people you’ve worked with before – ’cause you know what they can do! Photo University Bridge under construction, 1932 courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives. The Seattle Municipal Archives does not endorse this post. -
Happiness CD
28 Jan 2012 | 10:49 pmA tasty beverage, good people, and good times at your favorite joint. UPDATE: After posting, I’d realized the Roman number in the title was wrong. Oops! It’s fixed but I left the permalink unchanged… just in case you were curious. -
Technology Redux
12 Jan 2012 | 11:16 pm'nixie' by teclasorg So I find myself a year into another technology consulting gig for “the big client”. It’s an interesting thing after spending a couple of years working both the corporate IT world and growing a community for social media professionals. While I’ve grown a little tired of social media for its ability to enable too much interaction, I do find I miss the action. Sometimes. As you may have noticed, I’ve backed away from the social media space in the past six months or so. It’s a conscious decision on my part to get back to basics, and focus… -
Happiness CCCXCIX
26 Dec 2011 | 8:48 pmNot having to… wait for it. (God I’m tired of everyone saying that.)
-
jungleG
-
Facebook’s Essential Goal Is Where They Are Failing The Most
6 Feb 2012 | 11:15 pmI joined Facebook on June 7, 2007. It was a great time to discover what had been just available to College students. But what excited me the most was their approach to social media: they weren’t just a destination, they had become a platform. Today that platform has become a vacuum of activities that happen in many other external services, like Spotify, Twitter or the Wall Street Journal. But those services are becoming too much half and half in my Facebook News Feed coffee. According to Facebook’s IPO filing, they have lofty plans to connect the world: “There is a huge need… -
SQL or NoSQL? How About Both?
20 Nov 2011 | 9:27 pmSince the introduction of the NoSQL database model to the world, there’s been a flurry of proponents and detractors that seem to fall into a 50-50 distribution. Some of the discussions have become very heated, others are just laugh out funny. One of the things that have been talked about in the blogosphere is that you shouldn’t embrace NoSQL as the first solution to your problem. There is time — they say — to scale it using NoSQL later on. To me that makes no sense: NoSQL engines have become mature technologies that can be used by any enterprise, big or small. Reddit… -
7 Habits For Highly Effective Developers
6 Nov 2011 | 11:40 pmA new developer joined our tech team this week, and I’ve often seen how it takes some time for new recruits to get the hang of a new development environment. I thought it’d be a good idea to sit down with him and give him some pointers so that he can move in the right direction. If you have read the The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People you will see some similarities in these tips. That is one of the books that have influenced me the most, even though I read it back in college, and to this day I still remember and apply those rules. Here are the 7 tips I gave our new… -
When Is It Right For a Startup To Pivot?
24 Oct 2011 | 12:39 amA pivot is defined as a quick turn by either a company or a project. Sometimes it’s like a shift in focus in a small startup. Other times we see it in companies as large as Google, when it announced it was shutting down Google Buzz, a service that it announced to great fanfare but had not quite caught up. As you can imagine, a pivot is something that can be quite stressful for any entrepreneur, as it means changing the direction of the business, sometimes radically. It might require an extra amount of cash or runway that you don’t have. And of course, no one will guarantee that… -
I Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
16 Oct 2011 | 11:31 pmBlogs are becoming harder and harder to maintain. Some are calling blogs dead. My blog hasn’t been the exception. It’s not that I don’t have ideas that I want to continue discussing with you, my faithful readers. It’s more that the platforms where to put those ideas are becoming more and more powerful. Take a look at this Google+ post. Aside from blowing your mind because of its great concept, it contains two of the things that any dream blog post has: amazing content and great feedback (1,344 pluses and 1,686 shares). It even made Techmeme and Philip Kaplan calls it…
-
Callis & Associates - Marketing Blog
-
CONCEIVE, BELIEVE, ACHIEVE
10 Feb 2012 | 1:59 pmIt has been said throughout history that whatever the mind can conceive, and believe, it will achieve. This has been proven with many great leaders and will continue to be a formula for success for many more. The Wright brothers were some of the best at applying this, and their work now speaks for itself. Van Gogh once said, “I dream my painting, then I paint my dream.” I am “painting my dream” by conceiving, believing, and then achieving. I have personally tested this, and without going into much detail, I know that it works. First I CONCEIVED (thought) of an… -
Remembering What’s Important
3 Feb 2012 | 11:02 amAll of us here at Callis are challenged each year to come up with three words to focus on that will hopefully bring clarity and inspiration to both our work and our personal lives. The three that I have chosen to focus on for the year are: Spontaneous, Creative and Positive. To be or not to be spontaneous, that is the real question, indeed. It’s not that I have to have everything planned out and perfect, nor am I a “Type A” personality. I do however tend to gravitate towards those characteristics more than I like to let on. My focus for the year is to not only be… -
Everybody’s Talking at the 2012 SHOT Show
26 Jan 2012 | 11:22 amIf you are involved in the shooting sports industry, especially as a member of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), and you follow the industry through any of the various traditional or digital media outlets, then you know what everybody’s been talking about for the past several months; that’s right, the SHOT Show. SHOT is the largest trade show of its kind in the world, showcasing products and services offered by manufacturers and distributors representing the firearms, ammunition, hunting and outdoor sports industries. So when did this SHOT Show conversation start? -
Focus On the A, B, C’s
18 Jan 2012 | 3:13 pmAt the start of each year, I challenge our associates here at Callis to come up with three words that they can use to bring clarity to their work in the coming months. We even include those words in their annual performance goals. I do the same and I use those words as a daily reminder of what I should be focusing on. It’s easy in today’s world to be attracted by shiny objects, distracted by everything going on around you and lose focus. Hopefully, these words can help you remember what’s important. My 3 words this year are Awesome, Believe and Create, ala the A, B,… -
Finding the Good in Spam
28 Dec 2011 | 10:26 amMy personal email inbox probably looks much like yours: a few emails from friends, a larger group of emails I’ve subscribed to, and spam - lots of it. Doreen, Azzie, and Elnore - ladies I don’t know - want to tell me about Lasik eye surgery, sell me Apple iPads for $30.00 (right!), and supply pills designed to improve my marriage. Nearly everyone ignores spam or moves them to the trash… but not everyone. Successful spammers generate a lot of cash. How do they succeed at something that is universally despised? I don’t like spam, but I’ve learned to pay attention to…
-
Kherize5 Blog
-
Honda Targets Life Stages With New Leap List Campaign
27 Jan 2012 | 4:02 pmA new year, new budgets, new campaigns, and the kick off to what promises to be the best of the best in advertising for the Super Bowl. It is such an exciting time for advertising as we wait with anticipation for the spots during the game (unless you peek and watch the ones that were released early). Who ever would have thought that the 1st weekend in February would place advertising and advertisements in the spotlight? Thereafter, we we start seeing ads catered towards holidays, seasonal ads with spring around the corner and summer knocking as well with ads that try and tie their brand into… -
Choosing Your Audience Without Apologies
19 Jan 2012 | 12:05 pmChoosing your audience without apologies is traditional advertising of tv, radio and print as these spots tend to reach the watchers of a certain show, magazine/newspaper or station and not necessarily those that would ever purchase. This holds true on the web as well with sites that have ads that reach the target market and then some who are viewers of the site but do not fit the exact target of the ad. Sure, we look at the numbers provided by the media outlets and strategically place ads based upon the demographics provided by them and see where our target is there and bam, we place and… -
Advertising Isn’t Dead – The Creative Process Is
25 Dec 2011 | 2:27 amEvery single year we hear advertising as a whole or the various mediums (ie radio, print, outdoor, etc) are dead. And, every year we see new advances in technology and advertising thrive. There are new mediums emerging and we are expanding advertising so, to say that advertising is dead is ridiculous. Advertising is more alive now than it ever has been. I admit, I am a bit old school when it comes to advertising and, like many, think radio, tv, print, outdoor. But, there is a whole other medium that we tend to not necessarily consider advertising: the social platforms; which are very much… -
Fear or Trust
13 Dec 2011 | 9:00 amMany years ago, as a young 26 year old entrepreneur in Atlanta, I was invited to speak at an event where President Clinton was also speaking. As people mingled backstage I’ll never forget watching him as he put his hand on the shoulder of the Governor and said, “It’s all about psychology. You need to understand the psychology of the voters. It’s all about psychology.” Not surprisingly, Clinton and his team came up with the famous phrase, “It’s the Economy Stupid.” They understood that psychology drives elections and the economy. Fast forward to today, it’s no wonder the… -
How To Add Facebook Subscribe Button To Your Website
9 Dec 2011 | 9:48 amIn less than 24 hours after the big announcement of the Facebook Subscribe button for websites, the feature is now live and appearing on some of the biggest news sites like MSNBC, Huffington Post, Forbes and Washington Post, to name a few. The Subscribe button has the same functionality as it does on Facebook pages which eliminates the need for users to have to read an article and then have to go over to Facebook to Subscribe. You may recall that back in September the Subscribe button was launched eliminating the need for users to have to be friends to see updates, well on the ones that are…
-
Social Media Philanthropy
-
How to Deal with Misinformation about your Company on the Web [PIC]
9 Feb 2012 | 1:38 pmI’m not talking about general negativity or fuzzy situations and company missteps; I’m talking about when someone has posted something categorically false about your company online and you have proof that it is not true. This includes blog posts, youtube videos or any other information that is posted online where there is an option to respond publicly. This diagram may seem exceedingly obvious but there are far too many companies that just jump into lawsuits or calling the person a liar, it’s like adding gasoline to fire. Being defensive or hostile from the outset will… -
Lying in the 21st Century – Don’t betray your customer’s trust
31 Jan 2012 | 10:29 amRemember the good ole days…? The good ole days where you could say something knowingly false because, quite frankly, “who can prove I really said that?” Those good ole days where politicians and public figures could just say whatever they want to whichever crowd they were speaking to, never once worrying that they would be discovered for playing it both ways. Those good ole carefree days where the customer that got lied to had no outlet for their frustration except telling those within earshot? Those days are gone Video and audio recording in the palm of our hands means… -
Do You “Bucket?” How to Create a Funnel On Any Network.
20 Jan 2012 | 2:56 pmHere’s something cool about business, whether you are in a B2B or a B2C environment your sales funnel looks almost the same. You have varying degrees of relationships with people. Some are “warm leads,” some are “cold leads,” and some are just part of the rest of the world that you have no contact with and who don’t know who the hell you are. It looks like this: The way you grow as a business is by converting more leads into clients. So here’s how to do that systematically on ANY network (any network that supports the organization of your… -
Facebook Launches 60 New Applications for Timeline: What It Means for Users and Marketers.
19 Jan 2012 | 1:26 pmLast night, at 8pm Eastern Standard Time, Facebook unveiled the next evolution in the Facebook platform. Following up on last year’s F8 conference in which Timeline was introduced, Open Graph was extended to “frictionless sharing” applications and Gestures were explained, Facebook has partnered with 60 websites that want YOU to set it and forget it. For those that don’t know what the hell I’m talking about here’s the whole thing in a nutshell: Open Graph Frictionless sharing Frictionless sharing apps apps let you authorize an application once, and then… -
What is your dream?
16 Jan 2012 | 5:26 pmOn Martin Luther King Day, the phrase “I have a dream…” is spoken and written more frequently than on any other day of the year. Though Dr. King said many things of value, the I have a dream speech is by far his most well known. The speech is about seeing a future that you want to exist and speaking that vision into existence for others to share. Once the vision is shared, it can begin to create a movement. A Dreamless Business Environment The current business environment doesn’t seem like much of a dream. While there are flashes of brilliance,…
-
Ernest Barbaric
-
5 Simple Social Media Tips
7 Feb 2012 | 6:50 pmFew days ago I was asked to submit Top 10 Social Media tips for businesses for a local paper. Chances are that by now, you’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands of these and most of the time they’re either extremely vague (“Engage the Audience” anyone?) or of little practical use. So I tried to really boil things down to a simple, effective few that anyone can understand and use and I came up with 5. Here they are: Exercise focus. It seems that there is a new social media platform launching every month (Pinterest, Klout, Quora, Storify) and it’s almost a… -
Rising Barrier of Social Media
5 Feb 2012 | 8:03 pmAs we move further along the adoption curve, from early adopters to early majority and onward to late majority, the business of social media is shifting as well. If you are a marketer, chances are that you’ve already started moving from WHAT to HOW. From setting up social media profiles to connecting online activities with business objectives. A couple of years ago, it was almost enough to just set up a Facebook page and do very little in order to attract fans and followers. This is no longer the case. Social Media Saturation Vast majority of brands have created social profiles,… -
What is Content Marketing?
27 Jan 2012 | 6:49 pm2012 seems to be the year of Content Marketing. It’s everywhere. When you have global organizations such as Coca Cola committing their strategic and marketing resources to content marketing, it’s a significant enough shift to warrant a deeper look. To me, it seemed like a repackaging of the term “Social Media Marketing”, so I thought to investigate and share some of those findings here. Content Marketing This is a fairly recent term used to describe “the creation and sharing of content in order to engage current and potential consumer bases”,… -
3 Brass Tacks of Engagement
26 Jan 2012 | 9:55 amThe term “engagement” has been tossed around like a wet sock at a college dorm for a while now. If you were to play a drinking game, taking a shot every time a presenter said “engage the audience” at a social media conference… I don’t believe you’d be awake to see 10AM. So, let’s take a moment and see what this “engagement” is really all about. Engagement = instance of interaction One of the ways to define engagement is as an instance of interaction. This is usually manifested when someone clicks “Like” on your… -
Why You Suck at Social Media
15 Jan 2012 | 6:53 pmThis article was literally JUST inspired by a podcast interview I listened to, in which a certain executive coach and consultant goes on to berate Twitter as a waste of time. Well Sylva, let’s dance… By the way: following applies equally to virtually anyone who gripes that social media is a waste of time. Let me give you some context before we tear into this. The example used in the podcast was that she tweeted she was looking for a videographer, but nobody got back to her. She was ready to engage someone in a paid (I assume well-paid) contract to provide videography services and…
-
albarce
-
5 Twitter Best Practices for the Optimal Account
30 Jan 2012 | 11:55 pmTwitter is one of my favorite, if not my favorite, social media platform. I love the real time, fast-paced news feed that helps me learn about current events much faster than many of my peers and the news outlets. I’ve pulled together a few best practices that I’ve learned from using the service. Some help with your follower count, some help with SEO, some are just pet peeves. Note that these just best practices, there are exceptions to each rule. #1: You have 140 characters, use 120 of them. Why do I say to not use 20 of your precious characters? This is for retweeting purposes. If you… -
Is Google shooting itself in the foot with social search?
17 Jan 2012 | 6:12 pmPersonally, I was very excited when Google+ came out. I thought they could be a true competitor to Facebook. However, since they’ve started, Google has done nothing to keep my enthusiasm for their social network. First, they failed miserably with brand pages. Brands wanted to get out there and promote the network, what did they do? They shut down those accounts and told brands to wait. Really? People are really anxious to try your product and promote it for you and you’re going to tell them no? Really?! Then, they finally came out with brand pages and I was disappointed big time. Not… -
Why a Facebook Contest is a Bad Idea for Your Small Business
22 Dec 2011 | 12:21 pmFacebook is an excellent place to businesses to gain instant popularity. People who would have never walked into their physical store can now find out all about a company by viewing their Facebook profile. Granted, most people can also find all they want to know about a company on their website, but Facebook gives users a different experience. Unlike your site, it’s in a community that millions people are familiar with. They expect your page to be a little less corporate than your site and much easier to interact with. All this being said, most would think that Facebook would be a great… -
Weak sauce Google+, weak sauce
15 Nov 2011 | 8:15 amMonday of last week, Google rolled out their Google+ business pages to mixed results. Since Google+ debuted earlier this year, brands have anticipated the launch of business pages to promote their message through another social channel. I must admit, I myself was antsy to see what Google would do with these highly anticipated pages. I was quite underwhelmed. First, the roll out was pretty weak. The announcement seemed a bit haphazard and with all the buzz (no pun intended) about Google+ when it first came out, I expected a bit more for the business pages. Next, these pages seemed to launch… -
How Social Media Has Changed PR
15 Oct 2011 | 6:58 pmCourtesy of AllPosters.com I’m really not that old, but a lot of my friends will tell you I have an ‘old soul’ – mostly because I like to watch 70’s westerns and go to bed early. But that’s beside the point. My point is that I’m not that old. I graduated college 3 (almost 4) years ago. My degree is in PR and I feel like almost everything I learned in my PR classes is so out of date it’s like I learned it all 25 years ago. While writing a press release the other day, it hit me that I still make my releases fit the rules that were drilled into my head every class, even…
-
gizmogyan.com
-
LG Optimus Vu to compete with Samsung Galaxy Note
8 Feb 2012 | 3:34 amNew Delhi: LG is working on a smartphone, which will compete with Samsung Galaxy Note, the much talked smartphone cum tablet. The company has released a teaser video on its blog to promote its Optimus Vu. The video has been uploaded on YouTube too. According to the reports, LG Optimus Vu will be running on Android 2.3 operating system, Qualcomm APQ8060 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM. It will have features likes 8 million pixels camera, Bluetooth and NFC support. We are waiting for the next update regarding LG Optimus Vu. -
Wikipedia to Go Dark on Wednesday to Protest Anti-Piracy Legislation
17 Jan 2012 | 1:42 amTo protest anti-piracy legislation under consideration in Congress, Wikipedia will black out the English language version, the organization said in a statement. According to the statement, the website, which is quite popular among the internet users with millions of visitors daily, will go dark for 24 hours. Not only Wikimedia, several other online communities such as Reddit, Boing Boing and others have announced plans to go dark in protest as well. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia said the bills are a threat to the free, open, and secure web. Wales was the first to announce the move on his… -
5 More Games to Keep You Busy, Other Than the Angry Birds
17 Jan 2012 | 12:21 amIf you are done with the Angry Birds, five more games are waiting for you. We have found 5 more games to you busy, other than the Angry Birds. These games are, Stupid Zombies, Aiko Island, Sky Burger, Fruit Ninja and Cube Runner. 1. Stupid Zombies- This game is said to be most similar to the Angry Birds. You have to follow aim-and-shoot method in order to pass each level. There are more than 600 level, you need to pass, gunning down a series of bloody zombies. -
Now Google tablet in March this year, priced for $200
6 Jan 2012 | 12:27 amLondon- Google is going to roll out its own brand tablet PC by this March or April, reports say. The seven inch tablet will be pitched against 9.7 inch iPad and will be priced at $200. Amazon’s Kindle Fire is being sold in the same price range. Digitimes reported quoting sources from Google’s upstream supply chain believe that Google, instead of Apple, may actually be targeting Amazon’s 7-inch Kindle Fire as its major competitor. Google has recently made moves into selling music, films and books, so such a move would make sense. Though, Google officials in Taiwan have refused to… -
iPhone 4S set to face Samsung Galaxy S3
6 Jan 2012 | 12:17 amLondon- iPhone 4S is going to face tough competition from Samsung’s latest to be launched 3D handset Galaxy S3. According to the reports published in the Daily Mail, this handset may be launched in February this year and could display 3D films and games on its screen, and even plug into 3D televisions to ‘play’ 3D content such as photos. Korean news website ET News has said in its report that the much awaited smartphone will sport hi-tech features such as an AMOLED screen capable of 720p hi def. The phone will also have 2GB of RAM. The new handset will be launched at the Mobile…
-
Listen Completely
-
What the “hash” is that?
13 Feb 2012 | 6:34 amEver wonder what all the symbols are in all those tweets? Twitter uses a few different symbols to achieve certain results for its users. Here’s a quick guide to these common symbols, but a simple way to remember is this: @ refers to Twitter accounts and # refers to topics. The Pound or Hash Symbol The pound or hash symbol is used to create a hashtag. This symbol is used to tag relevent keywords within a tweet. Doing so creates a hyperlink to other tweets using that same “hashtagged” keyword, enabling you to view a conversation stream (tweets from many people, sometimes coordinated,… -
“How Many” is not a valid KPI
11 Feb 2012 | 5:52 amPeople like stuff. We like to count how much of it we have. It’s even viewed in certain circles as a measure of success. Back in the early days of the web, everyone had a hit counter at the bottom of their homepage. We shamelessly clicked ‘reload’ to make our sites seem more popular. But we grew up and realized that it’s not enough to count web visitors. We figured out we need to know who these people are and why they shared their time on our web sites. For today’s social managers, fans, likes, followers, follows, subscribers and Bitly clicks are common measures we like to hang our… -
4 ways listening can help your business [INFOGRAPHIC]
9 Feb 2012 | 10:09 amWhat are your customers saying about you? Your market? Listening and engagement is becoming a critical piece of the marketing mix. It affects everything from the sales funnel to customer support to media-mix modeling. Social media is the key to your digital strategy. Start those engines -
EMC got its social listen & measure on today!
8 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pmAn occasional mind meld of all things social analytic. Smart folks from across the org stuffed themselves into a room and joined online to discuss how social analytics plays a huge role in how @EMCcorp does social. We had fun. (Strangely, Storify thinks these tweets are a week old. They were indeed tweeted this very afternoon.) [View the story "EMC got is social Listen & Measure on today" on Storify] -
Social listening from a dog’s POV
8 Feb 2012 | 5:15 amThe Nose Knows My dog has a head for social listening. She does. If little Ella could talk or type, she’d be a listening champion. While the old new adage “getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant” might seem true, think like a dog for a moment. What does that fire hydrant tell you? What are you trying to learn from it? Dogs smell. That’s right, they smell. And I don’t mean they stink. They actually smell. They smell everything. My own little Boston Terrier gets as much exercise over a one-mile distance if she runs with me, or if I walk and…
-
The B2B Guide to Social Media
-
Emperor’s new clothes?
13 Feb 2012 | 11:10 amBy Mark Jackson, @rugby_mark You don’t have to look very hard before you find one marketeer or another extolling the virtues of social media. The stories of how social media is building fans, brands and revenue are legion. But there’s a common theme; almost all of these stories relate to consumer brands. How many stories have you heard, for example, about how ScrewFix has used Twitter to double footfall into its stores? I bet the answer is ‘none.’ Sometimes, it’s difficult to swim against the tide but the facts are incontrovertible – social media is not a major deal for businesses… -
Innovative ways your business can use social media to recruit
13 Feb 2012 | 6:31 amBy Kwai Chi, Total Media, @kwaichi So you’ve had a bad day. The boss has been on your back again and you think it’s time to move on. The job hunt begins… These days the job market has been actively moving in certain sectors despite the state of the economy and part of this is the ease of access to your information online from recruiters. In the good old days, recruiters would have nice offices where job seekers could go to discuss options and then the recruitment cycle would begin. As technology moved on, sites like Monster and Totaljobs shifted user behaviour and so did the… -
B2B social media case study
11 Feb 2012 | 11:14 amBy Samantha Cox,SilverDoor SilverDoor is an independent serviced apartment agency which sources and books accommodation for a client base which includes many FTSE 100 companies and a large number of SMEs, as well as several prominent and industry-leading TMCs and HBAs. Our business is growing fast and we gain new clients regularly, but our success relies on the strong relationships we’ve built with our existing clients and property partners. Furthermore, because we make no direct sales calls, most new clients come to us either through internet search engines or through word of mouth. -
To pin or not to pin, that is the question everyone is asking.
11 Feb 2012 | 9:53 amBy Charlotte Ward, @Charloot Pinterest. It’s the first social media fad of 2012, but is it just a fad? Every day my inbox is filling up with requests from journalists who want to know the social media expert’s opinion on the latest platform. I can only imagine how many times I am going to read about the site in the coming weeks, but then this sort of hype is nothing new. I seem to remember Quora being the fad of 2011, or was that 2010? Time flies and fads come and go. Yet there does appear to be a growing interest in this pictoral version of Twitter. This week I received my invite to try… -
A few lessons all B2B marketers can learn from Beliebers
10 Feb 2012 | 9:52 amBy Hannah Stacey (@hanstacey) For the record, I haven’t lost my marbles. I haven’t been captured and brainwashed by a mob of raving Bieberites. Nor have I succumbed to the alluring charm of his perfectly crafted fringe. Perhaps I should qualify myself here: I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard a song by Justin Bieber (although I have been informed he is easily mistaken for a shrieking toddler, so I may well have done.) Like you, I have despaired at his ghastly pubescent diva tantrums. I too have found myself astonished by the seemingly endless ways in which it is possible to fashion…
-
Venpop
-
5 Ways to make the Facebook Timeline work for Brands
13 Feb 2012 | 6:01 pmToday: Venpop’s is a guest writer on SmartBlog. Hop on over to SmartBlog for the full post: 5 ways Facebook Timeline could help your brand tell its story. Now that all Facebook users have to switch over to the new Facebook Timeline, questions are being raised about the possibility of Timeline for brand pages. It seems like it’s not a matter of if, but when. Sources say the new format will be rolled out for businesses this Feb. 29. Although Facebook hasn’t confirmed these rumors, companies should still start preparing to make the switch and figure out how they’re going to… -
Top 5 Ways to Pin with a Purpose for Brands and Bloggers
10 Feb 2012 | 5:16 pmIt is no secret that Pinterest is everywhere. It now boasts of a user base of over 3.3 million, and it is no wonder. Never has there been such a visually appealing way of pinning or ‘tagging’ all the pretty pictures you love online. It is the ‘FB like’ taken to a whole new level- not only does Pinterest ‘like’ your pin- it saves it too – and like with Twitter, everyone who is following you can see what you’ve pinned. Genius. So how does this help brands and bloggers? Well businesses too can set up profiles and pin away with the best of them. And to answer your question… yes,… -
Chris Brogan on Adopting and Investing in Social Media
10 Feb 2012 | 12:47 pmOne question many people are asking is “why social media?” It’s a valid question- why embrace social media marketing when businesses already have more traditional forms of marketing that they know work? In this video, Chris Brogan gives an excellent explanation for why businesses need to incorporate social media into their marketing strategies: Video Source -
10 Awesome Ways to Boost Sales in 2012 [Infographic]
9 Feb 2012 | 12:23 pmHaving a strong relationship with customers is an essential part of any business. Consumers want to feel connected to your brand, and giving them more personalized attention definitely strengthens this connection. This Truaxis infographic shows 10 solid methods your brand can use to improve its relationship with customers and increase sales in 2012: Infographic Source -
CEO Max Ciccotosto to Speak at WIBC’s New Trends in Social Media, Local and Mobile Technologies
8 Feb 2012 | 3:24 pmLooking for something to do in Seattle on Valentine ’s Day? Join our very own CEO, Max Ciccotosto – Wishpot and Venpop founder who will be a guest speaker at WIBC’s New Trends in Social Media, Local and Mobile Technologies Join us for a panel discussion and insights from industry experts on the latest developments in Social Media, Local and Mobile technologies. Image Source
-
ZD Design Interactive | Blog
-
Twitter plans to reveal a series of new tools!
30 Jan 2012 | 3:56 pmTwitter plans to reveal a series of new tools over the next few months, including an analytical tools, according to Erica Anderson (@EricaAmerica), Twitter’s manager for news and journalism. For those of using Twitter for business this is good news! Not only will we be able to answer questions of ‘quantifying’ traffic to clients, it will be a useful tool for demographic research. Speaking at Columbia University’s social media weekend in New York, Anderson said the analytical tools will better help publishers track the reach of tweets sent through the microblogging service. Per… -
2 Reasons Why Businesses Fail at Social Media, 4 Strategies to Social Media Success
9 Dec 2011 | 4:58 pmby Meghan Connor, ZD Design Agency When Facebook first started in 2004, it was a way for college students to connect to one another. Two years later, Twitter provided a way for people to share their day to day events with family and friends. Flash-forward to 2011 and these two social networks are being used as a platform for businesses to connect and engage and are being used as prominent search engines with their customers and their industry. Social media marketing is especially effective for small businesses that do not necessarily have the finances or networks big brands do to connect to… -
Making Your Blog Design Work in Your Favor
7 Dec 2011 | 6:27 pmJust because you’re running a business online doesn’t mean you can ignore human nature. People naturally put more trust into something that is pleasing to the eyes and obviously well cared for. What does that mean for you? You need to be proactive about ensuring your site is both functional and beautiful in a way that’s in-line with your business. The first impression people get when visiting your site is crucial. So is the way it functions, how the navigation is built and how easy it is to use. Be Original but Not Unique I know… do what? Let me try to explain… Don’t try to… -
The Two-Sided Door to Google Indexing Facebook Comments
30 Nov 2011 | 4:02 pmIf you’ve been running a blog for any amount of time, you probably know the benefits of having a stream of fresh comments on your blog posts. For a static website, there are more challenges to overcome for implementing a comment system, but there are some out there. Facebook comments, Disqus and Intense Debate are some just to name a few. However, they’re not all created equal. Say Goodbye to the JavaScript Dilemma Some of the commenting systems are easy to implement on both sites and blogs, but they run from JavaScript. JavaScript comments have traditionally been difficult for search… -
Website Ranking Factors You Need to Know About
16 Nov 2011 | 11:56 amWebsite Ranking Factors You Need to Know About If you’ve been following SEOMoz at all over the years then you know that they periodically do studies for determining what factors Google may be using to rank your sites. Every couple of years they release their survey and it is common practice for SEO specialists to study them in great detail and debate the findings. This year is no different. Well, kind of no different… this year they did us all a favor and added in opinions of over 100 SEO experts on correlation data. Of course, you’ll still find the traditional type of data that…
-
Bright Bear Media
-
Social Media and Elections
20 Jan 2012 | 11:40 amThe 2012 election cycle is well underway, and if you haven’t been assualted by robo-calls, television adds, or direct mailers, it is only a matter of time. Some candidates have begun basic social media campaigns as part of their strategic marketing efforts to build a stronger rapport with their followers. In the video below (courtesy CNBC), you [...] -
2011 Social Media Sharing Trends
14 Dec 2011 | 1:23 pmAs social media evolves, statistics reveal interesting new sharing trends. This infographic provided by TheNextWeb.Com provides some interesting analysis… AddThis, a sharing platform, and Clearspring, a social data aggregator, present the sharing trends of 2011. With over 1.2 Billion users analyzed, this may be one of the most comprehensive sets of data available about online sharing. -
5 Companies that are Rocking Social Media
6 Dec 2011 | 1:44 pmThis infographic was created by Voltier Digital, a content marketing agency based in Florida, specializing on the creation and promotion of impactful content marketing campaigns for businesses of all sizes. This is a reprinted post from Scott Monty @ http://www.scottmonty.com. Thank you, Scott for such great content… We all know the usual names of companies [...] -
Happy Halloween from Bright Bear Media!
31 Oct 2011 | 11:21 amHere’s an amazing behind the scenes look at how Google developed their Haloween 2011 doodle…. enjoy, and Happy Halloween from Bright Bear Media. -
Engage!
27 Oct 2011 | 12:20 pmDepending on the dictionary, there are approximately 15 definitions of the verb whether transitive or intransitive. For the purposes of strategic marketing, we going to focus on 4 specific definitions: To attract and hold the attention of; engross To draw into; involve To require the use of; occupy To involve oneself or become occupied; participate [...]
-
Gamification Network » Gamification Network – The leading resource for Gamification
-
Gamification.org Growth
8 Feb 2012 | 7:22 pmGamification.org v1.6 is here! Highlights include: * Gamification.org now being translated to over 16 languages. * Groundwork laid for Gamification portals for Gamification of Education, Marketing and Enterprise. * Improved usability and design. Faster loading times for Game Mechanics, Videos and other pages. * Big growth! We’re making awesome progress towards the realization of “Worldwide Gamification”. In this post I’ll cover: 1. Gamification.org’s Growth 2. Gamification.org’s International Plans 3. New Social Profiles 4. Gamification.org Changes 5. -
Gamification @ Node Summit
18 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pmI’d like to remind everyone that Gamification.org will be at the Node Summit next week as a media sponsor. It’s the first ever conference focused entirely on Node.js, which is one of the coolest new technology platforms. It makes real-time applications possible that wouldn’t have been just a year or two ago. We’re big believers in Node.js and are using it with Gamify.com to do some really awesome stuff. I’m of course biased, but I think it’s going to be the most interesting conference this year in terms of seeing interesting new technologies and some… -
Node Summit – Media Sponsor
4 Jan 2012 | 7:11 pmWe’re excited to announce that Gamification.org is a media sponsor of the Node Summit, the first ever conference to focus exclusively on how Node.js is transforming the future of computing. Node.js is enabling the creation of real-time, high performance, scalable, networked applications – and will likely have a major impact on businesses and consumers in the coming years. We believe in the power of Node.js and are using it with Gamify.com. One of the cool perks of being a media sponsor is that we get to provide our community with a discount on attending! :) You can get 20% off if… -
Gamification Wiki v1.5
26 Sep 2011 | 12:30 pmToday we’re releasing a new version of the Gamification Wiki, v1.5. Since creation of the wiki in November of last year, our traffic has continued to grow in line with the growth in popularity of Gamification. Our small side project at Gamify has turned into the most visited resource for Gamification, thanks to everyone in the community! We decided it was long over due for us to improve the wiki, so we decided to begin by improving the infrastructure of the wiki to make it faster, easier for others to contribute to and to spread it to every corner of the Earth.. and beyond. With v1.5… -
Results of the Gamify SETI Contest
15 Aug 2011 | 5:09 pmWe’re excited to announce the results of the Gamify SETI Contest! The Winner is…. *drum roll* Roman Rackwitz , also known as Romrack or “Winner”. Congratulations Romrack! Honorable Mentions Joshroby Ohtravioso Stevenbrent sdwrage JeffZ jaeoncrux Jason Zagami maxs_pooper_scooper Alex Inbar Shani Thanks to everyone for participating! Please read this post from SETI with more detail on what they learned from the contest and their thinking behind selecting Romrack as the…
-
crowdshifter
-
Who Owns the Account? – Navigating the Minefield of Social Ownership
8 Feb 2012 | 6:57 pmWhen your job responsibilities include engaging in social media, are the contacts you make truly yours, or do they belong to the company? It’s a divisive topic for companies who engage in social communications. If you put an employee in the position of representing your brand in social media channels, what happens with that account if that employee leaves your business? How should you set up these accounts, and how ‘personal’ do you make them appear? Recently, the story of PhoneDog and its former employee Noah Kravitz brought forth a shining example of how things can… -
How a Blog Can Help Your Sales Force
1 Feb 2012 | 9:29 amThere's Sales Power in a Business Blog Wow, I just read about a University of Massachusetts study that revealed a huge drop in corporate blogs in 2011. That’s quite a surprise, considering the benefits. In a very recent Crowdshifter post, Jonathan Barrick did an excellent job of pointing out the SEO benefits of blogging. Optimization could be reason enough to maintain a corporate blog, but I’d like to touch on another benefit that doesn’t get talked about as much as it should. Presumably companies are interested in increasing sales. I wonder if the executives who are… -
Join the Google+ Revolution Now
31 Jan 2012 | 12:01 amBy the end of 2012, analysts predict that Google+ will reach 400 million users. In its first 88 days the social platform’s growth rate outpaced Facebook and every other social network. Impressive, but, is it worth a small business owner’s time and energy to learn yet another social network? While Google+ is still just a fraction of the size of Facebook, its uses are already becoming apparent. Because of this, developing an understanding of the unique qualities of Google+ can help give your business a competitive edge on a new and expanding platform. Start with a… -
The Big, Bold Benefits of Blogging for Business
25 Jan 2012 | 7:20 pmA recent eMarketer article told an interesting tale on what marketers are planning for social activity in 2012. Not surprisingly, the majority of respondents marked Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as the top 3 places where they are currently active. After all, these are easily the most talked-about social networks right now, and are poised to continue to be tremendously effective in connecting with customers for the foreseeable future. Blogs came in at #4 on the list. This shouldn’t be too much of a shock, since blogs are one of the oldest forms of ‘social’ on the list,… -
5 Ways to Promote Your Blog’s Email Feed
23 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amYour blog’s email feed can give you the best of both worlds: email marketing and social media. Let’s review the best ways to attract new subscribers. One of our SEO specialists was telling me how he gave up on Google Reader after its latest design “enhancement” and is now using email feeds. Interesting. There’s always been a rather large group of people who prefer email for business and never bothered with feed readers. Joining their ranks may be disaffected RSS subscribers. Personally, I don’t care much for reading blogs in my feeder, either: Google Reader…
-
Virante Orange Juice » Social Media
-
The Best Search Engines Today Aren’t Search Engines
12 Feb 2012 | 9:09 amI was reading social media news posts in an iPad app I’ve used every day for the past year, when it suddenly struck me. What I was doing at that moment just two years ago I would have been doing with a search engine. The app is Zite. It spiders out through my social networks to monitor for shared content in categories I select. Then it filters that content through a complex heuristic that makes use of social credibility cues. If the content passes a series of other quality assurance gates, it is then displayed to me in an attractive magazine format, each link expanded to a title, sample… -
Announcing Inbound.org: The Best Inbound Marketing Content
11 Feb 2012 | 4:44 pmIt’s like Reddit for inbound marketing. Inbound.org is the brainchild of Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz and Dharmesh Shah of Hubspot. It’s objective is to present the best and most current online content on all aspects of inbound marketing. Inbound.org is entirely dependent on user contributions and user curation. It uses a Reddit-like system of upvoting to surface the best content to the “hot articles” list on the front page. Anyone with a Twitter account can register for an inbound account (inbound uses Twitter OAuth verification). Account owners can submit new content,… -
Virante Director of Social Media Marketing to be Panelist in Major Webinar About Google+
10 Feb 2012 | 11:19 amVirante Director of Social Media Marketing +Mark Traphagen will be one of four panelists teaching over 30 Fortune 500 companies, major universities, and government entities about using Google+ for greater brand engagement and visibility in a webinar sponsored by leading PR agency Bulldog Reporter. +Mark Traphagen has been active on Google+ since its first week, and has built a reputation as a Google+ for business expert. He blogs regularly about social media for business at http://virante.com/blog/ and has guest posted on +Neal Schaffer‘s popular WindmillNetworking blog (The First… -
How to Use Your Google+ Business Page: Your “Owner’s Manual”
6 Feb 2012 | 4:33 pmI miss my ’67 VW Bug. Armed with my grease-stained copy of the classic How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual for the Compleat Idiot, I could fix anything on that car, with its lawnmower-simple engine. Your Google+ Business Page isn’t really much more complicated than those 1960′s VW engines, but without a good guide, much of what you can do with it might remain buried under the hood. So, without stooping to call you a “compleat idiot,” here is your quick and easy guide under the hood of your Google+ Business Page. But before we get started… If you… -
First Update to Google Search Plus Your World Increases Relevancy
31 Jan 2012 | 4:16 pmGoogle may have the world’s largest search engine, but they can turn it on a dime! Earlier today Google’s new Search Plus Your World (SPYW) disappeared from my Chrome browser for several hours. It was back to what looked like “Google Classic.” After a browser restart a few minutes ago SPYW was back…but something had changed. Suspecting that the “downtime” might have been Google installing an algorithm change, I did the now classic “proof search” for SPYW: “music.” Until today, this search returned Britney Spears as the top…
-
Social Media Drive-Thru
-
Spirit Brands Drinking The Social Video “Kool-Aid”
4 Feb 2012 | 11:35 amConsumers are bombarded with messages every day. To cut through the clutter, marketers need to shift online engagement from interruption to engagement—in the digital world it‘s about entering the conversation. With the shift in control from marketers to consumers, choice-based video (also known as social video) becomes even more important—consumers no longer want to be [...] -
2012 Social Media Marketing Predictions
17 Dec 2011 | 8:02 amData is the new black. Today, brands have access to vast amounts of consumer insight that would have seemed inconceivable as recently as a year ago. Yet, brands have barely scratched the surface in terms of how they harness this data and effectively reach consumers over social media. 2012 will be the year of the [...] -
The Sky Is the Limit for Innovation
19 Nov 2011 | 5:36 pmMajor airlines have increasingly adopted social media to keep up with younger, higher-income, and more tech-savvy consumers, who are the most frequent users of sites such as YouTube and Facebook, and the earliest adopters of new mobile location–based concepts. Some of the most cutting-edge innovations in social media marketing have emerged from the smaller carriers [...] -
The Social Nature of Human Beings + Sharing 2.0
10 Sep 2011 | 12:37 pmSocial context shapes the human behavior and sharing information is innate to who we are. We’ve been sharing information for centuries as a means to communicate, entertain, and pass on our cultural values from generation to generation. Today, as we are no longer bound by the physical realm (pencil and paper), the Information Age allows [...] -
Making Strides in the Social TV Space
9 Aug 2011 | 5:15 pmTV is inherently a social medium—people gathered around the water cooler for ages to discuss last night’s television program. Now, this behavior has shifted to the digital world where people are discussing TV programs in real-time, across social media environments such as Twitter and Facebook, and within mobile environments like the social TV check-in apps, [...]
-
Marketing with authentic, engaging and persuasive web content
-
Social Marketing Predictions for 2012
18 Jan 2012 | 10:37 amIt’s still January, so it’s not yet too late for me to talk about trends and predictions for 2012. Instead of making my own — and risk having egg on my face a year from now — I’ve gathered some noteworthy blog posts on this topic. These soothsayers seem to agree that: 1. Social marketing [...] -
Your 2012 Web Copy To-Do List
4 Jan 2012 | 3:31 pmI’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions, but I love the energy buzzing around us when we enter a new year. It motivates us to improve our businesses and the rest of our lives. It forces us to commit to doing better, pruning bad habits, and moving closer to our ideals. It fuels [...] -
The Best of Magnetic New Marketing in 2011
28 Dec 2011 | 9:40 amAt the beginning of 2011, I gave up a paid blogging gig to have more time, energy, and mental juice to write more often in this, my very own blog. Judging from the quality of readers, partners, and clients I attracted with the help of this blog, that “sacrifice” has paid off. In this post, [...] -
Top 3 Social Media Marketing Opportunities of 2011
21 Dec 2011 | 10:34 amSocial media platforms change fast, and with these changes come new opportunities for marketers to reach a wider audience. This year, 2011, we saw the rise of several social media “trends.” Three of them look like they’re going to be here to stay. If you haven’t been using these social media marketing opportunities, it may [...] -
Review: 31 Days to Build A Better Blog
14 Dec 2011 | 8:06 amWhenever a client or friend starts blogging, I always recommend 31 Days to Build A Better Blog, an ebook by Darren Rowse of Problogger (the blog and book) fame. Not only does Darren Rowse know what he’s talking about (he is, after all, the owner of one of the most successful blogs out there), but [...]
-
Digital Tomorrow Today
-
When and how do British Airways tweet?
5 Feb 2012 | 9:52 amWho follows British Airways? What is the demographic split of their Twitter audience? How often do BA tweet, where from and when? These are just some of the questions we aim to answer with BirdSong for Twitter. Currently in private testing, BirdSong will empower brand owners and agencies to plan more effective Twitter strategies by understanding more about the competitor activity and profiles as well as identifying influential followers for potential engagement. BirdSong for Twitter will enable you to check any Twitter account for this level of detail. Check out our review of Lady… -
When does Lady Gaga Tweet?
5 Feb 2012 | 9:36 amAnd how does Lady Gaga Tweet? As part of our BirdSong development we are testing out new Twitter insight and visualisations. The aim of BirdSong is to help you identify tweet beahviour for any chosen Twitter account with specific focus for brands seeking gap analysis of their competitors or to help identify and engage influential tweeters. Unlike other tools BirdSong is open to deliver insight on any account you choose, not just delivering insight to your own account. As you can see from this infographic, we chose the biggest Twitter account, Lady Gaga. For a brand example, check out our… -
When and how do Pepsi tweet?
5 Feb 2012 | 9:35 amWho follows Pepsi? What is the demographic split of their Twitter audience? How often do Pepsi tweet, where from and when? These are just some of the questions we aim to answer with BirdSong for Twitter. Currently in private testing, BirdSong will empower brand owners and agencies to plan more effective Twitter strategies by understanding more about the competitor activity and profiles as well as identifying influential followers for potential engagement. BirdSong for Twitter will enable you to check any Twitter account for this level of detail. Check out our review of Lady Gaga‘s… -
How Local Social Mobile will impact news distribution and consumption
2 Feb 2012 | 10:53 amThe rise of social networks, combined with mobile innovation and local presence can lead to new benefits for regional news and content providers. In this podcast for Journalism.co.uk Jamie shares his views on how social will impact news distribution and social connections. Listen now. -
Is Backplane the next Facebook?
27 Jan 2012 | 4:30 amMuch of 2012 will be about the niche social networks. Sites like Tumblr and Instagram are seeing substantial growth over the past 12 months and more. But one site is aiming (or proclaiming!) to be the next Facebook. It is called Backplane, backed by Lady Gaga & Eric Schmidt. The aim of Backplane is to deliver niche social networks for Superstars, starting with Gaga’s Little Monsters. The aim of Backplane will to be the platform for interest communities from Superstars to designers and niche interests. More likely to be the next Ning, rather than Facebook. Read a little bit more on…
-
Kommein
-
Win a Copy of Online Community Management for Dummies
3 Feb 2012 | 9:52 amOnline Community Management for Dummies is the book I wanted to read when I was starting out as a community manager. Though it’s a “Dummies” book, and a basic, practical, reference book, I also hope it’s an intelligent look at some of the issues community managers face today, and how to deal with a variety of situations. If you have been a part of my own online communities, you may know that community management and building online communities are a passion of mine. I’ve been doing this for years. I have always enjoyed interacting with people and I’ m so… -
6 Ways to Show Appreciation to Your Community Manager on Community Manager Appreciation Day
23 Jan 2012 | 7:01 amDid you know Community Manager Appreciation Day falls on the fourth Monday in January, and that we’re celebrating our third annual day of appreciation? CMAD was founded in 2010 by Jeremiah Owyang as a way to say “thanks” to the people who enrich our online experiences by making sure our favorite online communities are positive, productive places of discussion. I was thinking about Community Management Appreciation Day yesterday and wondering how to best thank my favorite CM’s. Most of us only know community managers as an online presence only, and might think… -
Top 5 Pros and Cons of Being a Web Based Worker
20 Jan 2012 | 7:36 amI consider myself very fortunate in that I work from home for a company in California. As you can imagine, working remotely has many perks which I list here from time to time. However, over the past couple of weeks I developed the Web Worker Blues as I dealt with spotty Internet connections at home and sporadic hotel and conference WiFi as I traveled. As I waited for the cable repairman to come by and fix my connection yesterday, I listed some pros and cons of being a web based worker. 1. Connectivity Pro: You can work anywhere Being web based means I can work from home or the local coffee… -
5 Ways to Use Pinterest as a Community Building Tool
10 Jan 2012 | 9:45 amEveryone is talking about Pinterest, the social “pinning” site used to share, well, anything. It’s a little early to say, but judging by the buzz (and the amount of people posting about Pinterest on their blogs), it has a good chance of becoming the top social site for 2012 and perhaps the next big thing. Pinterest is different from your Facebook, Twitter or Google plus because it’s not about posting a sentence or paragraph in hopes of starting a conversation. Instead, folks post images of things that interest them and that’s what gets the conversation started. -
Three Words for 2012: Focus, Heath, Celebrate
2 Jan 2012 | 6:24 amEvery year Chris Brogan posts his three words to live by for the upcoming new year, and every year for the past three or four years I, and many others, have followed his lead. (And for the second year, the BlogWorld team is doing the same, so stay tuned for that.) I don’t take my three words lightly. I find they give me a plan and I need to hold myself accountable for stuff. Last year, my three words were “passion,” “focus,” and “delegate” and though I think I still need a little help with word #3, I’ve done pretty good staying true to those…
-
Sharing How To Use Social Media to Get More Business
-
Erik Qualman Shared the Secrets Behind the Success of Social Media Revolution Video
6 Feb 2012 | 5:07 amEverybody is talking about the importance of creating videos in these days. But with 48 hours of video content uploaded to YouTube every minute, it is not easy to get views to your video. In this short video I got the chance to pick the brain of Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics and Digital Leader. Erik is also the mind behind social media revolution video which is one of 2010′s most viral video on YouTube. In this short video you will find out: Bascis of creating YouTube viral videos How social media revolution video helped him to sell his book How you can use videos to pass your… -
11 Social Media Marketing Gurus Revealed Their Best Social Media Traffic Source
25 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amTired of chasing every social media marketing channel? I know it is difficult. To make your life easier I asked the following question from the leading social media Gurus. Which is your Favourite Social Media Channel to Drive Traffic to Your Blog or Website and Why? I am sure after reading this post you will have the crystal clear idea about the best social media channel (s) to concentrate on. After reading this post, don’t forget to add your favourite traffic source in the comments below. Enjoy! Chris Brogan is a professional speaker, New York Times bestselling author, and blogger. -
How to Get Different Results in the New Year
16 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amInsanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein How often we expect different results while doing the same old things? You need to change your actions if you want different results. This is what I did in 2011: Read too much stuff Spent lots of my time on learning new things Said yes to too many opportunities Changed my business practices very rapidly Tried lots of new tools Never followed own created rules Procrastinated a lot Took time to decide many things Spent too much time on social media Started too many things at once Still I… -
Social Media Business
10 Jan 2012 | 6:25 amAre you wondering how you can get lot’s of business using social media? It is so simple; don’t think as a social media marketing instead consider it as a social media business. Here is how you can get lots of business using social media. In a business there are following six core sets of disciplines you need to follow for a successful operation: Research Product Development Marketing Sales Production & Delivery Customer Services Can you recall any business doing really well without all of the above components? I seriously doubt it. I think if any business wants to flourish in the… -
How to Write Blog Posts Easily Like Kristi Hines
8 Dec 2011 | 10:10 amIn this video I interview blogging queen Kristi Hines from Kikolani.com Kristi is an online marketing consultant, freelance writer, professional blogger and social media enthusiast who now offers services for businesses and bloggers. By the end of this short video you will learn how to write blog posts with ease like Kristi Hines. Don’t forget to add your thoughts or ask questions in the comments below. Below are the few important points you will learn from this video: How can you write blog posts easily and regularly How to find and capture blog post ideas What is the most important thing…
-
Ricardo Bueno
-
How many social media sites should you use?
13 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amTweetPin it I came across the following Q&A with Seth Godin in a magazine yesterday: Q. How many social media sites should you use and what are the most important sites you should be using? Seth Godin: This is a dangerous question, because it escalates the medium (social) above the purpose (communicating with permission). Use the tools that help you achieve you purpose. Too often we get confused about who we’re trying to please and end up pleasing no one. Answering that question with a list of social networks to join presumes too much. It says that social media is a “one size… -
The Missing Ingredient To Accomplishing Your Goals
10 Feb 2012 | 3:21 amTweetPin itA mentor once told me, the formula for success is: Clear Goals, Hard Work, Unwavering Focus Most people fall short at step #2. Probably due in large part to a lack of focus. Or, simply a lack of motivation. The thing of it is, goals mean nothing if you’re not taking the necessary steps to execute and fulfill them. What I’m talking about of course is execution. Execution is everything! Put another way… Sure, you have great ideas. But without the proper action, who cares? How To Get Things Done: Get specific about your goals and develop a strong desire to accomplish… -
Who’s Minding the Store?
8 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amTweetPin it I went to the local outdoor mall yesterday and wanted to share a couple of varying shopping experiences and how they relate to customer service, sales and how it got me thinking about the over-all experience we provide our own customers in our day-to-day businesses. For the record, I’m not particularly fond of going to the mall. In this case, I already knew what I was going there for: I wanted to check out a copy of Hug Your Customers by Jack Mitchell at Barnes & Noble at the recommendation of Ryan Rodenbeck from SpyGlassRealty.com (a current Diverse Solutions client). I… -
Google+Tweet: A Full Featured Twitter Client Inside Your Google Plus Account
7 Feb 2012 | 11:53 amTweetPin itA co-worker of mine who happens to be in love with Google+ shared this extension with me: Google+Tweet. It essentially integrates a full featured twitter client inside of your Google+ account. Once you sign in, it looks like this: Features include: Your Tweet stream inside of Google+. Access your twitter stream, view mentions, retweets, direct messages and favorites. A URL shortener via bit.ly, You can follow, un-follower users and view profiles, Upload photos through Twitpic, Toggle one button over, and you have your Google+ stream. It’s kinda cool actually. I like Google+. -
10 Things I’m Learning From Running a Paid Subscription
6 Feb 2012 | 12:50 amTweetPin itI launched Real Estate Blog Topics last year. I took an idea, ran with it, and refined it along the way. At first, it started out as a simple sales page here on my blog. Then eventually, I built a site around it and sometime in March, I’m re-launching it as a full-blown membership site consisting of a mixture of expert audio interviews, video tutorials, live Q&A’s and the content in it’s current form. In the meantime, here’s a few of the things I’ve learned along the way… 10 Things I’ve Learned from Running a Paid Subscription: 1. Just…
-
Jeffbullas's Blog
-
Twitter Approaching 500 Million Users
12 Feb 2012 | 3:31 pmTweet Twitter’s tipping point into the spectrum of social media consciousness was in 2007, when it started generating significant attention at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. Since then the 140 character micro blogging platform has continued to attract both users and investors. In the 5 years since launching it has attracted significant investment funds with an estimated total capital raising of over $1.3 billion. The 2 most significant investments have been: Digital Sky Technology in August, 2010, which at over $800 million was reported to be the most significant… -
Is Content Marketing the Hot New Trend? – Infographic
9 Feb 2012 | 3:01 pmTweet It was in 2008 that I realised the power of creating and marketing unique content to pull people to your website and blog. That was one of the primary reasons I started jeffbullas.com. I discovered this when I stumbled upon Hubspot, a company that was one of the early innovators of content marketing. Their marketing was refreshing change to “old school” marketing and was based upon creating attention through attraction with blog articles and free ebooks. It was the dawn of “pull marketing” or “inbound marketing” rather than push strategies such as… -
3 Secrets of a Twitter Madman
8 Feb 2012 | 3:16 pmTweet 437,356 groupies. Um, no. This is not Martin... Oops, I mean followers. Yep, my friend Martin Zwilling has 437,356 followers on Twitter. So you must be thinking, wow, this guy Eric is friends with movie stars or something. He must be chillin’ with celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Charlie Sheen and Martin Zwilling. Wait a minute. Hold the phone. Have you ever heard of Martin Zwilling before? Didn’t think so. But that’s the cool thing: Martin is an average, normal business guy just like you and I. So if he can get over 400,000 followers on Twitter, why can’t we? Well,… -
Pinterest Drives more Traffic than LinkedIn and Google Plus
7 Feb 2012 | 5:49 pmTweet Do you ever feel a strong urge to update or check Facebook? Is the desire to Tweet overwhelming and you have this compulsion to “Tweet” for no particular reason? Are you starting to wonder if you have a social media addiction? Well joining the self help group “social media addicts anonymous” may not be far away as a recent study by Chicago University has revealed that social media is in fact more addictive than sex, alcohol and cigarettes! Pinterest the New Addiction Pinterest is the new addiction in town that has everyone blogging, tweeting and sharing the… -
What are 4 Key Goals in Content Marketing?
6 Feb 2012 | 5:09 pmTweet We consume information with an almost manic obsession. In most homes the 50 inch plasma high definition television is babbling on in the corner enticing us to watch and listen while cooking, cleaning or chilling out. We jump in the car and the radio or GPS is informing us as we drive to work or as we head off to the shops. At work the computer monitor tempts us with high definition photos on Facebook or an online news stream filled with a torrent of multimedia content. Escaping media while out and about is now almost impossible as walking down the street is now an exercise in…
-
SMP Updates
-
Mobile Advertising World Australia 2012
13 Feb 2012 | 3:20 pmMobile Advertising World Australia 2012Dates: 1 May 2012Location: Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, Australiahttp://www.terrapinn.com/conference/mobile-advertising-world-australiaMobile Advertising World brings together telcos, brands... -
Planet of the Apps World Australia 2012
13 Feb 2012 | 2:57 pmPlanet of the Apps World Australia 2012Dates: 30 April - 1 May 2012Location: Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, Australiahttp://www.terrapinn.com/planetofapps Planet of the Apps is Australias only expo and conference that brings togeth... -
Zynga is Sued by Personalized Media Communications for Infringing Four Patents
13 Feb 2012 | 1:45 pmZynga is Sued by Personalized Media Communications for Infringing Four PatentsSUGAR LAND, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Personalized Media Communications, LLC (PMC) has filed a patent suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of ... -
Zoho Recruit Links up with LinkedIn
13 Feb 2012 | 4:07 amZoho Recruit Links up with LinkedInIntegration with Professional Social Network Highlights New Features of Companys Applicant Tracking and Recruitment Solution Additional new features include custom reports, website integration,... -
Content Management World Australia 2012
13 Feb 2012 | 1:12 amContent Management World Australia 2012Dates: 30 April - 1 May 2012Venue: Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, Australiahttp://www.terrapinn.com/contentmelbourneContent Management World reflects the evolution of the industry and the growi...
-
Shiraz@ShirazDatta.Com
-
Slow Down…..It will help your speed….
13 Feb 2012 | 12:32 pmDo we have too much energy in the system....or are we stuck to the notion of being speedy....We simply want to speed up the process of what we are doing and how we are doing....But in the pursuit of speed aren't we also speeding ourselves to exhaustiveness, fatigue, burnouts... Hence it forces me to wonder that having aim or a target is important, getting there is equally important, but then its more important how and what you do on the way or pursuit to that target. Do we loose people, or gain; do we take or give; do we plant happiness or sorrow.....and at what speed we go about our… -
Transactions and Complex Selling: Strong Catalysts of Cloud Computing Growth
10 Feb 2012 | 1:58 amEnterprise software vendors need to challenge themselves to deliver significantly more value if the potential for cloud computing is going to be achieved . Instead of just going for the low-end, easily customized processes within analytics, CRM, supply chain management, ERP, pricing or service, vendors need to take on the more challenging, complex hard-to-solve problems enterprises have. As I am completing more research on personas, I’m finding what CIOs really look for in SaaS apps. Flexibility and ease of workflow support, intuitive user interface design without sacrificing… -
We Have Problems But then "WE" are the Solution
7 Feb 2012 | 2:19 amIndia - A country that I call home.... Every time I travel and interact with people across the globe, the one common question or discussion I had is about India...The common thread is with so much of problems, cast, religion, thoughts, even to the extend festival, styles, beliefs, and so on; how this country is still managing to prosperous. My usual response - One of things that I learnt being in this country that We have problems but then its "We" are the solution.. Imagine if one pledge to help one another person....now you do the math. Then comes a common question - I am one and what… -
Kindness
6 Feb 2012 | 6:17 amKindness know no boundaries.....provided you don't define or create one. You move people's | person's attitude tremendously through the unspoken words of kindness, and mind it, it does have a viral effect, just like shown in the video. Its equally important not to restrain your kindness based what caste, creed, financial status, young or old, etc the person or individual belong. It should be more like the the child's smile. If you smile to a child, the child smiles back....he/she doesn't have any inhibitions about the person to reciprocate the smile. So let the kindness flow the… -
Never look down on anybody, unless you're helping them up.
5 Feb 2012 | 9:16 amTo realize the value of a sister/brother ask someone who doesn't have one. To realize the value of ten years: ask a newly divorced couple. To realize the value of four years: ask a graduate. To realize the value of one year: ask a student who has failed a final exam. To realize the value of nine months: ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn. To realize the value of one month: ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.. To realize the value of one minute: ask a person who has missed the train, bus or plane. To realize the value of one-second: ask a person who has survived an…
-
Windmill Networking Blog [Full]
-
The Changing Social Business Landscape in 2012: Is Your Business Ready?
13 Feb 2012 | 6:20 amIn the last few months of 2011 through the beginning of 2012, the social business landscape has proven to be as dynamically changing as ever. If your business thought you were all caught up because you were beginning to see engagement on your Facebook Page and were equipped with enterprise-grade social media monitoring software, some of these recent events should have you thinking again as to what potential you might be missing out on – or what trends are emerging that you should be paying more attention to:The rapid emergence and need for your business to be on Google PlusHow Google… -
Do Your Social Media Accounts Belong To Your Business? Why Worry, When There Are Safeguards You Can Take Now
10 Feb 2012 | 6:20 amWhile many people have been hoping to get some resolution to the question of who owns the followers of a Twitter account from the ongoing litigation between PhoneDog and its former employee Noah Kravitz, this federal case in the Northern District of California is unlikely to provide clear answers. The district court has recently held that PhoneDog can pursue its action for misappropriation of trade secrets and tortious interference with economic relationships based on new allegations concerning the alleged disruption of PhoneDog’s relationship with its advertisers. Thus, the dispute… -
How Does Your Brand Experience Translate in Social Media?
9 Feb 2012 | 6:20 amAccording to Wikipedia, who quote the American Marketing Association, the definition of a brand is a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” A good brand, however, does more than merely differentiate itself from the others: It creates an emotional attachment, a bond that says even at a higher price it still has fans that will buy the product. You could say that I’m a fan of Toyota because I bought their car shortly after the wave of recalls that hit them back in 2009 and… -
Much Ado About Social Media Followers Who (May) Turn Into Customers
8 Feb 2012 | 6:20 amBusiness was so much easier during the Middle Ages. Establish your fiefdom, keep the serfs happy, collect taxes and fend off the occasional barbarian hoard or the jealous younger sibling. Oftentimes a monarch with a large domain to protect couldn’t afford a standing army or a well-stocked armory. Thus was born just-in-time defense and the invention of the “freelance”— knights expert in the art of war who would sell their battlefield prowess to any lord or baron with enough gold, precious stones or land to render payment.So what does this WayBack Machine story have to do with… -
Social Media for B2B Sales – What’s Your Plan?
7 Feb 2012 | 6:20 amPlan?! We don’t need no stinkin’ planning! LOL. Three years ago when I made the decision to jump into the waters of social media, I did just that. I jumped in. I had no goals and no plan to reach those goals. I had been given a loaded gun, my finger had been placed on the trigger, and I had no idea as to which end of the device that the bullets would come out of. Bullets hurt.Let’s talk about goals first and then we will raise some important questions that you will need to answer in order to formulate your plan. As a B2B salesperson, your goals should be to …Expand your networkPromote…
-
Elliott's Thoughts
-
Lemolo
13 Feb 2012 | 1:51 pmLemolo followed me on twitter this last week and I noticed they were local to Seattle so I decided to check them out. When I first hit play I was honestly skeptical when a extremely simplistic electronic beat started. In hopes that it would get better I waited to see if it would build but nothing changed except for a melodramatic electronic organ. This continued for 27 seconds into the song and then Meagan Grandal’s voice dropped in and I was hooked. Lemolo is a dream pop group that is worth your time to listen to and personally I can’t wait to hear what they sound like live. So… -
Still Life by Scott Garner
13 Feb 2012 | 1:34 pmStill Life by Scott Garner takes a creative look on how a new dimension can be added to still life images by making them interactive. On the hardware side is a custom-framed television connected to a rotating mount from Ergomart. Attached to the back of the television is a spatial sensor from Phidgets, makers of fine USB sensors. On the software side is a simple C application to communicate with the sensor and feed the data to a Unity 3D scene. The scene itself consists of a camera tied to the sensor data with all lights and objects parented to it so they rotate in unison. -
Rebecca & Fiona – Dance
10 Feb 2012 | 5:21 pmIn May 2010 the girls released their first single – Luminary Ones. As 2010 ended, Luminary Ones had become one of the most played songs on SR P3. In addition to touring the whole of Sweden they followed Robyn as opening act on her European tour. They played for the Swedish king at the Polar Music Prize and proved themselves as one of the biggest pop/dance acts in Sweden. Donʼt let their beauty and glamorous public life fool you. Rebecca and Fiona are dedicated musicians who spend more time trying to nail loops in the basement of their recording studio than to splash champagne at trendy… -
Classified – Things Are Looking Up
10 Feb 2012 | 11:26 amWhen I think of Canada I have to admit hip-hop isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. However, hip-hop artist Classified is lyrically gifted and has an ear for loops that just flat out make you feel good. Maybe it’s all the bad weather they get up in Canada that drives his insouciant flows. If you’re ready for a pick-me-up to easy your way out of work and into your weekend this is a record that you need to play. -
Mobile Web Apps vs Native Apps
9 Feb 2012 | 3:22 pmHave you ever wondered what the difference of Mobile Web Applications (the web pages that people can find using a browser on their mobile phone) and Native Applications (the apps that you have to download from and app store) here’s an infographic that will help you understand the differences. The infographic itself is designed not to give a bias if web apps or native apps are better than the other. But few understand the role that each can play in a mobile marketing and advertising strategy. Native applications are usually over promoted simply because the hype and buzz around…
-
Angie Glotzbach
-
The Key to Social Media | Build Trust
4 Feb 2012 | 12:45 pmIt was this tweet from Jeffrey Gitomer, founding partner at Ace of Sales, that inspired this post about building trust and social media: @gitomer: It may take two years to earn trust, but it takes only one minute to lose it. #gitomer #trust #business Let’s face it. One of your competitive advantages is how well your customers like and trust you. Building relationships with happy customers will result in them sending you referrals. The beauty of social media is it can help you build that trust, by talking, listening, and sharing ideas. Everyone talks about content, creating and… -
Twitter Resources that Can Make You More Effective
21 Jan 2012 | 10:22 amSharing a quick list of Twitter resources that have helped me to have a better tweeting experience. Hootesuite is a great social media management tool that allows you to monitor your Facebook biz page, personal page, LinkedIn, YouTube and more. This tool makes it easy to schedule tweets with its date and time feature. Hootesuite also has a handy dandy link shortener with analytics to quickly see which links have been clicked. You can also save your keywords and recover them with a click of a button. LocalTweeps also known as the zip code level Twitter directory. Use this to find and… -
Twitter Terms
7 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amIf you’re new to Twitter, some of the terms and lingo can be downright confusing to understand. So here’s a list to help get you started. Tweet – a tweet is a public message you’ve posted that your followers see. You have a whoppin 140 characters to do this. # or Hashtag- used to designate a topic, category or interest. For instance, let’s say you’re a frustrated Minnesota Vikes fan who’s interested in tracking the convos. You can see all of the related tweets about #Vikes by typing this in the search bar. The # or hashtag allows you to follow that stream… -
Online Reputation Management and Social Media Reminders
19 Dec 2011 | 12:00 pmWith more and more of the purchasing decisions being driven by social media, thought I’d post a refresher on social media and online reputation management. Be Aware It’s important to know what people are saying about you and your business online, the good and the bad. Good posts can drive traffic to your site. Bad posts can keep them away. At a minimum, set up alerts in Google for you, your business, and industry. Engage It’s also important to engage with the bad posts too. Genuinely listen, empathize, and diffuse the situation by taking the high road and moving the… -
LinkedIn Network and Connections
2 Dec 2011 | 10:00 amBefore you build your LinkedIn network, decide if you’ll be a LION or not, a LinkedIn Open Networker. An open networker accepts all connection requests to expand their network to huge numbers; they initiate a lot of connection requests and accept requests from almost everyone. One downside to this approach is that you don’t know your connections very well. Another approach is to connect with only with those people you know and trust, which means fewer connections, but it’s a great way to strengthen your network by really interacting with others to get to know them better.
-
Dave Delaney | Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategy
-
5 new ideas for Valentine's Day
13 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amFor Valentine’s Day tomorrow, why not take a moment to love yourself? Sounds selfish doesn’t it? It’s not. Read Julien Smith’s post, How to Change Your Life: An Epic, 5,000-Word Guide to Getting What You Want Consider your health and improve it Get networking, buy someone a coffee Read Chris Guillebeau’s The Art of Non-Conformity Be happy on purpose by reading Melissa Morrison’s 10 tips Do something nice for yourself today. Love yourself everyday. Happy Valentine’s Day. -
The single best thing we can do for our health
8 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amIn my interview with Marcus Whitney on the Jumpstart podcast, Marcus explained how fitness is so important to him. Why bust your butt on your business if you’re not taking care of yourself? That thought has stuck with me since speaking with Marcus. It’s really true. I want to be around to watch my amazing kids grow up. I want to be with Heather for a long, long time too. So, health should be priority number one. Right? The single best thing we can do for our health Take 10 minutes to watch this video of Dr. Mike Evans (who is awesome), founder of the Health Design Lab at… -
Facebook Birthdays are a perfect reminder
7 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amUse Facebook birthdays as a reminder to connect with old friends and grow your network. Each day when I log in to Facebook I see a list of a few friends celebrating their birthday. What a perfect way to remind me to reach out and wish them a happy birthday. It’s lovely to post a birthday greeting on your friend’s wall, but take it a step further and email or call them. This is especially important for friends you don’t see or speak with often. Do it for the right reasons Be sure to start with wishing them a happy birthday, ask how they are and what they are up to these days. -
Microsoft's Allison Watson in Nashville
6 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pmLast week I had the great pleasure of seeing Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, US Marketing & Operations Group, Allison Watson, speak for NAMA in Nashville. Watson’s presentation was about new marketing, specifically about being customer centric, using social media, making decisions from intelligent analytics, and what generates revenue. I enjoyed seeing how Microsoft is creating simulations at trade shows to show would-be customers what a day in the life is like using Windows products. It’s a clever way to give customers and media a taste. Food trucks and… -
How to use Pinterest for business
5 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amIt’s hard to miss news about Pinterest lately. The incredibly popular social bookmarking (err “pinning”) site now produces more referral traffic than Google Plus, LinkedIn and YouTube combined! According to Compete, unique visitors to Pinterest increased by 429% from September to December 2011, and it already has user base of 3.3 million! Pinterest is not the place to shill your products, however, companies can use Pinterest in a number of creative ways that drive traffic back to their sites. Be sure to follow the rules though. Don’t push your products, push…
-
Timothy Carter - Social Media Consultant
-
Small Biz Social Media Cheat Sheet
1 Feb 2012 | 7:19 amSocial Media is a growing part of business for any business large or small. From having a Facebook brand page, tweeting on Twitter, showing off amazing videos on YouTube, to having a presence on Google+, social media marketing is a part of daily business activities. The amazing peeps over at Flowtown and Column Five Media take a look at the different social media sites and provide some of the lingo used in each community. A nifty little social media cheat sheet for those who want to get started. (Source: Flowtown Copyright © 2012 Timothy Carter - Social Media Consultant. This Feed is for… -
Social Media Tweet Recap for 1-12-12
13 Jan 2012 | 9:39 amSocial Media News via Twitter from Thursday January 12, 2012 Facebook May Account For 5% Of Online Ad Spending This Year bit.ly/ybYfmk — Timothy Carter (@TimothyCarter) January 13, 2012 The Top 10 Brands on Facebook and What You Can Learn from them to Grow your Fans (Plus Infographic) bit.ly/x4D3Lj — Timothy Carter (@TimothyCarter) January 12, 2012 Will Facebook Top 1 Billion Users In August? bit.ly/xBXQtj — Timothy Carter (@TimothyCarter) January 12, 2012 You May Have Some Klout… But Do You Have Kred? bit.ly/yPFmpO — Timothy Carter (@TimothyCarter) January 12, 2012… -
Google, LinkedIn, Twitter And Facebook – Meet Your Virtual Friends
12 Jan 2012 | 10:45 amEach of the social network sites – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter & Google all have a “personality” if you will. Take a look at this social media infographic below from LinkingR on how you can befriend your virtual friends Google, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to maximize your effectiveness of building your personal brand in each social circle: Got thoughts? Copyright © 2012 Timothy Carter - Social Media Consultant. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of… -
Social Media Tweet Recap 1-11-12
12 Jan 2012 | 9:27 amSocial Media News via Twitter from Wednesday January 11, 2012 Rest in Peace, Social Media ROI Doubts: 2006-2012 rww.to/xUDUag — Timothy Carter (@TimothyCarter) January 12, 2012 Google Plus Brings Social Media to the Heart of Search | Social … bit.ly/yEGjXW — Timothy Carter (@TimothyCarter) January 11, 2012 Social media success Rx: “Be a little crazy” – Postcards bit.ly/yYUlIg — Timothy Carter (@TimothyCarter) January 11, 2012 Twitter Calls Google’s Search plus Your World a ‘Bad Day for the Internet’ bit.ly/yjNx4p — Timothy Carter… -
What Do You Consider Important To Be “Influential” On Twitter Poll
11 Jan 2012 | 1:36 pmAnyone involved in the world of social media understands that Twitter has immense value and influence can be developed through the correct use of Twitter. Can anyone become influential on Twitter? Sure! But how do you measure that influence? Is it through a 3rd party like Klout or Kred or PeerIndex? Is it the number of Twitter followers? What is it? I’d really like to hear your opinion on what you think are the most important facets to building influence and being influential on Twitter. So what DO you think? What is the most important piece that make a person influential on Twitter and…
-
Social Media DDS
-
Tell Your Dentist Why They Should Be on Facebook
6 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amYou’re on Facebook right? Your favorite restaurant is probably on Facebook. Your favorite wine is probably on Facebook. Heavens, your favorite detergent is probably on Facebook. So, why isn’t your dentist on Facebook? You need to join me in my campaign to bring dentists into the 21st century. You need to back me up in [...] -
Four Out of Five Dentists Recommend Social Media
2 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amWell, okay, maybe four out of five dentists don’t recommend social media quite yet, but I’m sure working on making that statistic correct. Why is the dental industry so slow to jump on the social media bandwagon? I believe it is a combination of tradition and uncertainty. TRADITION: If we look at the history of how [...] -
A Little Something to Make You Smile…
24 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amTweet -
Crazy Butcher…A Tale of Two Stories
16 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amWhen I was a little girl, my Grandpa seemed bigger than life to my siblings and myself. He was almost a hero to us. He was handsome and smart and well liked. He had a voice that was big, deep and strong…a voice that commanded attention. We had a wonderful Sunday afternoon ritual at our [...] -
Another Auld Lang Syne
1 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amI can’t explain it…but maybe I don’t have to. From all that I have been reading… from all that I have been hearing… I am not the only one who senses it. That almost palpable energy that the very word 2012 seems to carry with it. Maybe it’s because many of us are so done [...]
-
Social Media, Inbound Marketing, & SEO Solutions for Small Business | Lancaster, PA | Inkling Media
-
Social Media and the Hiring Process
13 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amImage by Getty Images via @daylife The other day I got a call from an acquaintance of mine, asking me about someone who had applied for a job with their business. I was kind of curious because I knew that there was no way the individual in question would have put me down as a reference for a job search. At all. I asked the caller why they had reached out to me, and I was told that they were checking up on the applicant and saw that we had engaged on various social platforms from time to time, and since they trusted my judgement, they wanted to hear what I thought about the applicant. They… -
The Social Life of Frank & Linh: A Valentine for One?
12 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amWritten & Drawn by Jeff Burkholder. See previous installments of The Social Life of Frank & Linh. The Social Life of Frank & Linh: A Valentine for One? originally appeared on Social Media, Inbound Marketing, & SEO Solutions for Small Business | Lancaster, PA | Inkling Media on February 12, 2012. -
Day 249: Are Your Marketing/Ad Dollars Still Sitting on the Curb?
11 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amI’ve been tracking the progress of this particular copy of the Yellow Pages that has been sitting by a curb in New Jersey. My friend Barb noticed it for the first time in June, and I posted about it in July. Then we checked back in August and November of 2011. And now, here we are in February, 2012…at least 249 days and this poor guys is still sitting by the curb, in a pile of dead leaves. At least now the poor guy has some company from a few items of trash that someone has discarded along the way. Again, this is not exactly an indictment on the Yellow Pages themselves, though I… -
5 Steps to Learning More About Your Customers
10 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amI like to think that I’m a rather observant person, and in particular, I’m an observer of humanity. My wife calls it being nosy. Whatever. When I’m out and about, I watch people and, based on what I see, I make up stories about them. I try to figure out what their deal is. In fact, just yesterday morning while out on our two-mile walk with Shadow, I noticed that it was trash day, and I started peeking in recycling bins and making observations about the people who owned them. One bin had an overabundance of Bud Light cans, so I gathered that they probably had had a Super Bowl… -
Plugging In: The Six Communities with which Your Business Needs to Connect
9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amAs you build, maintain, and manage your online social presence, you need to remember that communities don’t grow themselves. Whether you’re on Twitter, Facebook, or any other platform, you need to cultivate those communities, especially if you’re a small business. In most cases, that means that you need to reach out and connect with them first. They won’t just show up on your doorstep. In particular, as you seek to build your following and online communities, there are six main communities with which you need to connect. If you start with them, your job will be easier…
-
Joshua Swodeck
-
Why Do We Fear Questions?
31 Jan 2012 | 2:05 pmTake a kid to the mall or the zoo for the first time and they will bombard you with questions