Are You a Social Media Doer or Dabbler?

A debate is raging in the business community over the value of social media.

On the one hand, you have social media evangelists (like yours truly) proclaiming how social media can catapult virtually any business to a new level of success.

On the other hand, you have committed skeptics who see social media as frivolous or downright silly - a way to tell the world how much bacon you had for breakfast.

Who is correct? In all honesty, neither. Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are tools. Tools in and of themselves cannot make anyone successful - it’s all in…

Social Media Squeeze Endangers Midsized Firms

If SOBCon09 Biz School for Bloggers proved anything, it is that social media is here to stay, and it is having a profound impact on whether business enterprises succeed or fail.

Midsized Firms Have a Real Problem with Social Media
Having worked in a midsized company and do work for several now, I’m very concerned about whether these firms will find their way in social media. Midsized firms are always in danger of getting squeezed between more nimble entrepreneurs and more powerful conglomerates. With respect to social media, the stakes are particularly high, because failure to adapt may make it difficult for…

Banks Should Stop TV Advertising and Use Social Media

TV ads for banks generally suck, but I saw one last night that might be the worst yet. It’s part of the Harris Bank “We’re Here to Help” campaign. Going from memory … A couple is in a car dealership talking to a car salesman, and the couple spots a Harris truck rolling by with a message on the side that says, “The dealer paid $21,000.” Knowing smile from the couple. Then, an attractive young woman is waiting for a commuter train and she sees a Harris billboard that says, “The man of your dreams is in the next car.”…

7-1/2 Reasons Why I Won’t Follow Someone on Twitter

We’re all looking for filters to keep our inboxes, feed aggregators, and social media conversations uncluttered and meaningful. How do you determine whether to follow someone on Twitter? Here are my filtering mechanisms, many of which, not surprisingly, are content oriented -

1. They use a generic or celebrity avatar
2. They have 10 times as many follows as followers
3. They pump out blatantly commercial tweets and nothing else
4. They have barely any tweets at all
5. Their bio is silly or calculatingly provocative
6. Their tweets include lots of ALL CAPS and multiple exclamation points!!!
7. They do nothing but retweet
8. They have no website/blog (not always a deal killer)

How…

Will Twitter Be Crushed under Its Own Weight?

Recently I gave a talk on business blogs and social media to a group of Chicagoland consultants. In the Q &A session that followed, a few difficult questions came up. I’ve decided to write about each of them, and here’s the first.

As an example of effective marketing on Twitter, I mentioned how I was tweeting to someone about how cold it was in Chicago, and how nice it would be to be in Phoenix. Moments later I received a tweet from a travel agent who, in a low key way, told me about their special package deals…

Is Your Company Ready for Social Media Marketing?

Liz Strauss featured the brilliant Terry Starbucker recently, who laid out a series of questions he asks potential clients when pitching social media -

• Are you ready to have public conversations?
• How pervasive are your Social Media users in your customer base?
• What is your sensitivity to negativity?
• How are your current “conversational” avenues working?
• Do you understand the medium and how to speak in it?

These are spectacular questions. Many potential clients I meet are interested in social media marketing because everybody else is doing it. That in itself is not a good reason to get started. The response to Terry’s questions is a…

Twitter - The One Stop Social Media Shop

Image by luc legay via FlickrTwitter is the Wild West of social media. Everybody is using Twitter for everything. I think that’s why so many users find Twitter a trifle baffling - myself included. One characteristic of Twitter is emerging, though. Twitter is a one-stop shop for social media activity. Eventually it might compliment or even replace most other types of social media. Everyone knows Twitter is siphoning off blog comments, but that’s just the beginning. For instance …

• Why Stumble a post when you can Tweet it?
• Why join a LinkedIn Group or a Yahoo Group or a Google Group when you…

A Scot’s Guide to Social Media - Guest Post by Joanna Young

I know that Brad is a keen student of UK slang, and has enlisted the help of his readers to unpick some of the words he’s come across. (UK Readers, Please Help Me Understand and UK Slang, Round 2 ) Like any other language there are lots of regional variations in the way people speak in the UK. Although I find pure Scots hard to understand a lot of the words (and slang) have crept into my own language after nearly 20 years living in Scotland.

Every so often these feature in a blog post or something I share on Twitter - which…

25 Reasons to Participate in b2b or b2c Social Media

Image via WikipediaBlogs, Facebook, Twitter - too many companies are still missing the boat with social media. If you’re not using social media to take your business to the next level, here are 25 reasons why you should.

1. Traditional advertising is expensive
2. Social media is inexpensive or free
3. Traditional media audiences are in decline
4. Social media audiences are growing exponentially
5. Traditional marketing is one-way communication
6. Social media engages customers and prospects in conversation
7. Traditional marketing is impersonal
8. Social media is human
9. Social media exposes your brand to a younger demographic
10. Today’s younger consumers and employees are tomorrow’s leaders
11. Blogs establish…

Market DOOM Spells Social Media BOOM

Image via WikipediaIs there anything good to be said about the plunge in equity markets and the deep freeze in credit markets? I think, yes. Bad times will motivate company after company to finally pull the trigger and start using social media for branding, marketing, public relations, customer service, and sales. I see a whole confluence of factors finally coming together to make this long overdue adaption take place.

Reason 1 - TRUST Financial collapse has destroyed whatever credibility big business had in the mind of the average consumer. The adspeak and corporate jargon of traditional corporate marketing has always been read…

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