Source: Shutterstock I was recently asked in a 2010 planning meeting about my views on Ning and whether or not it was worthy of consideration or attention. It seems that the question is increasingly raised as Social Media becomes pervasive within the halls of marketing, advertising, customer service, and public relations. My answer is this. If your only focus is Facebook, blogs, and Twitter, the grapevine to which you’re connected is only telling you part of the story. Listening to…
Revealing the People Defining Social Networks
Source: Shutterstock Social Networks are among the most powerful examples of socialized media. They create a dynamic ecosystem that incubates and nurtures relationships between people and the content they create and share. As these communities permeate and reshape our lifestyle and how we communicate with one another, we’re involuntarily forcing advertisers and marketers to rapidly evolve how they vie for our attention. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Yelp, and other online communities transformed the regimen and practice of marketing “at” people into…
May I Have Your Attention Please
I would like to take this moment to make an ambiguous announcement of sorts. While I’m currently in the throes of spreading the word about my new book with Deirdre Breakenridge, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations,” I’ve also launched into the development of my next book. I’ll let you know more very soon… In order to provide you with the most relevant and timely insight and perspective on the social economy, I’ve asked some good friends to stop…
Social Media is Rife with Experts but Starved of Authorities
Perhaps Lewis Carroll was peering into the looking glass when he wrote “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.” In it, we were introduced to Tweetle Dum and Tweetle Dee, a curious duo that always shared a fruitful, entertaining, and complementary conversational exchange even though they always agreed to battle each other. Some suggest that the significance of Alice’s encounter with the twins explores how curiosity leads to the unknown and therefore, may not be worthy of…
Transforming Customers into Evangelists: The Art of Listening and Engagement
I recently hosted a workshop at the Satisfaction event, Customer Service is the New Marketing. The topic I’m focused on was, “How to Listen to the Market and How to Engage Customers Online.” Fellow workshop leaders include Christopher Carfi, Deb Schultz, Chris Heuer, Jeremiah Owyang, Becky Carroll, and Douglas Hanna. Empowering your customers to become an extension of your marketing and sales forces isn’t new, but it isn’t widely embraced either. In fact, the function of most customer service has…
Social Media Killed the Video News Release Star
Source With Social Media Releases (New Media Releases) in the spotlight again, I felt this was the ideal timing to introduce you to the Video News Release (VNR) redux. Ready or not, start brushing up on flash, screencasting, video production, online video networks, and Web marketing. Online video is the next frontier for the communications industry adding a new layer of engagement to any existing PR, marketing and web initiative. In my opinion social media has reinvented the VNR, putting…
