Don’t Be a Prisoner to Your Tools
In 2007, Twitter won over the crowd at SXSW and changed the way we communicate. In 2010, Twitter may have been supplanted by Foursquare and Gowalla. At least, that’s what Jeff Pulver has surmised based on his own experience at SXSW 2010. As he noted:…
Strategy Isn’t Dead, It’s Just Evolving
In Walter Kiechel’s recent Harvard Business Review post, he exposes a popular marketing myth: the death of strategy. Declaring strategy to be a sad casualty of our current trend toward “real-time metrics” is suddenly fashionable, but it doesn’t make sense. And yet plenty of marketers…
Making Social Media Adoption Painless
So, what happens when your company wants to use social media, but everybody’s worried about what’s “okay” for them to say? It can be daunting (and expensive) to determine which employees should be allowed to engage the public, speak candidly or answer questions. And explaining…
8 Questions to Ask Before You “Dive Into” Social Media
Considering the reluctance some companies have to adopting any form of social media, you’d think we’d celebrate any company who “dives in headfirst” and “learns as they go.” Wrong. As much as we love the idea of a client being willing to think on their…
10 Smarter Things to Say Than “Let’s Make This Go Viral”
Let’s make this more effective. Let’s make this more entertaining. Let’s make this easier to understand. Let’s solve someone’s problem. Let’s eliminate our redundancies. Let’s thank someone who deserves it. Let’s learn more about our customers. Let’s learn more about ourselves. Let’s ask “why?” Let’s…
Defending Your Brand: How Some Companies Are Setting Themselves Up for PR Problems
Not every company feels compelled to use social media. But those who haven’t at least moved to establish their own online presence may be in for a surprise: it’s incredibly easy for someone else to do it for you — and not always with the…
Would You Rather Be Cool or Popular?
Or, asked another way: to whom is your marketing directed? On one hand, maybe you’re convinced that influencing the influencers is your best bet. Rather than spending money to reach an audience that isn’t prepared to act on your message, you’d rather focus on the…
The Sky Is Falling! Trust Is Dead!!
Do you hear that panicked murmur rumbling up from the masses? It’s worse than fear — it’s failure! It’s catastrophe! It’s the absolute Armageddon of social media business strategy! According to Edelman’s annual Trust Barometer survey, no one trusts anyone! (Which is ironic, considering Chris…
Using Social Media to Manage a PR Crisis
If there’s one recurring reason companies are reluctant to embrace social media, it’s that “something could go wrong.” But when something else goes wrong in your company, are you prepared to use social media as a way to steady the ship? Eileen O’Brien has an…
What You Can Learn from Bad Case Studies
It’s no secret that people learn more from their mistakes than they do from their successes. Maybe that’s why we’re all so reluctant to share stories about our failures: it’s not that we’re embarrassed about “doing it wrong,” but we’re afraid that someone else will…