There’s an old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Twitter is a paradox that redefines that old saying to, “If it’s broke, don’t fix it, because it works.” For all intents and purposes, Twitter shouldn’t work, yet 200 million people (and bots) have created accounts in this thriving information egosystem. Now, news no longer breaks, it Tweets. Celebrities use it daily to connect directly with fans and also augment their income streams. Politicians and governments use Twitter to…
Rest In Peace Marketing: I Never Really Liked You Anyway
This guest post is by Michael Stelzner, the founder of Social Media Examiner and author of the new book Launch. Social and selling just don’t mix. Have you ever been to a wedding sponsored by Nike? Does a future where restaurant tables display infomercials sound appealing? The last thing anyone wants in a social context is a commercial. If you’re responsible for marketing your business, the time for change is now. It’s time to pack away the marketing messages. If…
This is a Time for Leaders to Lead not React
If you’re reacting, someone else defines what you’re going to do, rather than defining what people need to do. Your businesses faces great change. This statement is true about customers, competitors, and everyone else affecting market behavior. The question is, what are you going to do about it? Customer engagement, and specifically customer engagement in social media offers many benefits that businesses are starting to uncover, most of it unintentionally. While many champions knew in their gut that social media…
In Social Media, Your Return Represents Your Investment
Sometimes the path of least resistance unwinds into a far more complicated and arduous journey than we anticipated. In times of change, taking the path less traveled, although initially daunting, proves easier and far more rewarding in the long run. Such is true for social media. I read a review about Engage once that read, “Brian Solis takes the fun out of social media.” The author’s point was that the book took an academic approach when the industry could benefit…
Power to the People: A New Mantra of Business
Exhibitor Magazine ran a feature story on new media and how it is changing the world of event marketing. In our discussion, we expanded the scope beyond events to discuss how people were forcing the evolution of business overall. The result is something quite profound. People are now taking control of their online experiences driven by how they connect and to whom in the social web. This shift changes how people find, share and discover information within their networks of…
Revolution: Jim Louderback, Revision3 CEO on the Future of Broadcast and Web Television – Part 1 of 2
Long time friend Jim Louderback joins us for the latest episode of Revolution. Jim is the CEO of Revision3, a leading Internet television network. Founded by Digg’s Kevin Rose, Jay Adelson, and David Prager, Revision3 creates and produces original episodic, community-driven programs watched by what could only be described as a very passionate fan base. The network gets over 65 millions views and over 19 million unique viewers per month. Indeed, the Web, and specifically, the social web, is becoming…
Customer-centricity Begins with Creating a Culture of Change
Customer-centricity or getting closer to customers is often the focus of many executive meetings I attend these days. The question always arises, “how can we use new media to get closer to customers?” The answer is not, develop a social media strategy to start engaging with customers. The answer is, change. Any organization that focuses on operations, margins, and efficiencies over customer experiences will find itself unfavored by tomorrow’s connected customer. It’s difficult to see the customer or empathize with…
You Can’t Measure What It Is You Do Not Value
ROI is as popular an acronym in social media as OMG or LOL are in TXTING. No matter how much you believe in social media, the reality is that management needs to know, what’s the ROI of Tweets in “the” Twitter or Likes in “that” Facebook thing that all the kids are talking about? Kidding aside, the future of social media within your organization and the value your customers experience in their networks of relevance is in your hands. No…
An Interview with Get Satisfaction on the Future of Service, Media and Business
In the past, I had the good fortune of working with the Get Satisfaction team to help brands embrace new media to improve customer relationships. During those early years, I learned a great deal about the process and corresponding hurdles that face change agents as organizations evaluate new technology to socialize CRM. I also began what would later become years of immersion in understanding and defining the role leadership plays in changing organizational culture and methodologies to help businesses truly…
How World Leaders use Social Media: Why the @WhiteHouse doesn’t follow @BarackObama & other idiosyncrasies
Guest post by Matthias Lüfkens, Associate Director of Media, World Economic Forum – Follow him on Twitter Twitter is redefining the way we communicate – and that includes our world leaders: 15 of the G20 governments use it. But the question is who follows who, who doesn’t follow who, and do world leaders even realize the diplomatic significance of their tweets and Twitter friendships? Barack Obama was the first to use the micro-blogging service to communicate with his electorate in…
