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…
The Spear vs. The Hook: Understanding the Difference Between Traditional and Social Marketing
Hunting is about obtaining food. Marketing is about obtaining sales. Either way, you can’t eat unless you first understand how to use the proper tools. A spear is a distance weapon. You refine the tip until it’s razor sharp and guaranteed to cut through anything…
Letting Go in the New Year: What Is YOUR Company So Afraid Of?
The Buzz Bin’s Mike Mulvihill kicks off the new year with an excellent observation about social media: the way companies obsess over “controlling the message” is strangling the industry. In Mulvihill’s own words (emphasis mine): I’d love to see a survey of how many of…
AT&T vs. Verizon: Why Bad PR Is Still Good for You
In Andrew Cherwenka’s recent case study, he explains how AT&T used Facebook to defend themselves against Verizon’s claims of a better 3G network, and how that plan backfired when the very customers AT&T expected to rally to their defense instead fell silent while the conversation…
3 Lessons We Learned from One Social Media Campaign
This past week, we wrapped up a short social media campaign we’d been involved with for a client, Bigelow Tea. As is often the case, what didn’t work is just as valuable (if not more so) than what did work, and we thought you might…
Teaching Marketing: What If No One Knows the Answers?
There’s a great conversation happening on Amber Naslund’s blog, where she asks: What does the next generation of marketing professionals need to know? The answers from her readers are practical, including: Critical thinking Storytelling Consumer behavior How to engage with multiple (and quickly-changing) demographics The…
3 Social Media Case Studies, 1 Central Lesson
Your social media presence is only as useful as the change it triggers in your business. To that end, here are 3 recent case studies we’ve found, along with the lessons explained (or implied) by each: The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) called in its bloggers…
Defending LinkedIn Groups from Irrelevance
I recently lamented the decreasing quality of my LinkedIn experience, which has since been accelerated by the explosion of questionable “experts” offering webinars via LinkedIn groups. But although my own experience is more spam than signal, I also realize that there are ways to use…
5 More Reasons Companies Fail at Social Media
Last week, Amy Mengel brilliantly summarized 5 Reasons Corporations Fail at Social Media. Those lessons (which she gleaned at the 2009 Inbound Marketing Summit) are entirely valid concerns for any company that’s navigating its way through the mostly uncharted waters of social media. But, in…
Goldilocks and the 3 Social Media Strategies
There’s been a lot of talk lately about whether or not an external agency should (or even can) manage the social media efforts for a client’s company. Debates abound over efficiency, ethics, customer service and business strategy. To us, the answers are simple: yes, no…