Most people are familiar with the term "division of labor," which describes the specialization that companies adopt to promote efficiency. The assembly line is one of the best examples of the efficiency gains that division of labor provides. In a tiny company, such as a one-person firm, there is no division of labor, but as soon as you start to grow, even a little bit, you start dicing up jobs in the name of efficiency. The problem, from a marketing point of view, is that efficient doesn't equal effective. Division of labor can harm your marketing effectiveness and you must...
Bing is all excited about their new partnership with Twitter. But from my perspective, they still have a ways to go....
I sat on a panel at SUPERCOMM's Digital Media Forum in Chicago on Friday called, "Redefining Social Media." (Eric Forst of Visible Technologies and Edward Moran of Deloitte & Touche spoke with me, ably moderated by Patty Brown of The Content Strategy Group.) The name of the panel initially threw me, because it feels like anything old enough to be redefined seems a bit passé, which social media most decidedly is not. But I think there is a point to be made about social media and how it is maturing....
Dan Zarella has spent nine months analyzing roughly 5 million tweets and 40 million retweets. The findings show that there is a recipe for tweets that get retweeted. Check out this video to learn how you can become a retweet master. Oh. And PLEASE RETWEET THIS!...
According to a Search Engine Watch article, Twitter could have cost the movie Bruno $20 Million. Feel the Twitter power baby!...
I consider myself to be a pretty good blogger, and over the past 4 years, my blogging has definitely improved my writing skills. But there had always been one area of blogging where my efforts were failing, and that was holding me back.
The panelists spoke about various topics such as; online tools, social marketing and challenges their clients face. Some good points were made throughout the session however, as most panels go, they were all intertwined and scattered. I have highlighted some of the main items that are beneficial to all businesses either as a refresher or as new information....
Convincing small business folk to get on board with social media is akin to asking a four-year-old to watch paint dry. It's nice to look at, for a few minutes, until boredom sets in and the child asks if he can go outside and play. Outside is where the action is. There's stuff to do. People to see. Places to go....
Top 10 Social Networking and Blog Sites Ranked by Total Minutes for April 2009 and their Year-over-Year Percent Growth (U.S., Home and Work). Facebook and Twitter increase dramatically whereas MySpace sees a decrease in total minutes....
There is a surprising comScore report on the top age demographic in Twitter....
With so many different applications/websites popping up each day it's certainly interesting to watch the long-term trend to see which ones can continue to succeed month over month. I thought I'd check out some of Compete's stats for some of the most popular applications to see how they faired last year (in terms of visitors)....
Twitter itself is pretty simple, but as the site continues to boom in popularity, 3rd party sites/tools are popping up like kudzu in the South. And many offer a great deal of potential for helping you tap into the networking ability of Twitter.
I ran across several interesting posts yesterday on the social media conversation front. Some of them made me nod my head in agreement, but one of them made me absolutely cringe. Once again, watching someone's mistakes reminds us all of the need to listen to our mothers when it comes to how we interact with social media.
Clayton Makepeace recently revived an old copywriting post titled "8 Ways to Spot Dominant Emotions Your Prospects Already Have That Could Drive Your Response Rates Through the Roof." In that post, Makepeace explains uncomplicated yet effective methods for researching your target market. By the end of the post you realize there really is no excuse for leaving out this critical step. While the copywriting techniques outlined are indeed timeless, I'd like to "Twitterize" some of Makepeace's points for the social web....
Sage sports a new studio for the new year. He's added a white board, art-work, a drum set (yes, you heard me!) and even a camera man. 2009 promises to be full of great new videos. This week, we learn that even though traffic was up, online holiday sales were down 3%, but the big story comes out of Canada where we learn about a Twitter address security scam that goes "fishing" for your Twitter information....
So, Twitter happens to be huge right now. There are a ton of articles, Blog posts, and even PDF books on how to use it correctly for different industries. I don't think there's one definitive answer on how to use Twitter, although I can safely say it's important to not forget about other social media options. The whole mix is what can build consumer relationships.
If you have yet to hear about Twitter, I might ask you if you have been living in a cave and for how long. The micro-blogging platform that few knew about a year ago has now gone mainstream with over 6 million users - a number that is growing daily. Even major news outlets such as Fox News, CNN and others are using Twitter on a daily basis to get viewer reaction and create discussion around breaking stories and issues. This leads me to question whether Twitter can be useful for business or is it simply an outlet to waste...
In yesterday's post, I looked at some ways that I have used to get more followers on Twitter. Now I wanted to spin it around and look at some of the criteria I have for who I decide to follow on Twitter.
As Twitter just continues to grow in popularity, more people are wanting to know how to expand their Twitter networks, and get more people to follow them. There are several different ways to do this, depending on how you use Twitter. Here's some of the things that have worked for me.
This morning I found myself in the middle of an interesting chat with Mack Collier on Twitter. It started when I joined in a conversation Mack was having about the metrics he measures when estimating the value of blogs. We kicked around the common ones like traffic, subscribers, links and number of comments. Then Mack made mention of how high his comments jump when he Tweets one of his own posts.
Thinking about starting up a Twitter account for your business? Or considering allowing employees to use Twitter? Here are 10 tips to consider before getting started....
Want to be ignored? Be boring. Simple.But, if your business is ignored, you may end up living in a van down by the river. Not Good.So how can we be, um, not boring? Well, there isn't a one size fits all quick fix, but one step everyone can take is improving how we present our business to the public....
I'm not ready to talk about how Twitter has benefited me or my business yet--we have a complicated relationship. But I think it goes without saying that a lot of people (or should I say "peeps") would like to grow their Twitter following, and I think I've cracked the code. Whatever your social networking goals are, the following tactics will not only increase the number of people following you, but you will begin to experience that old fashioned thing called "community" right from your desktop....
In the last year, Twitter has been quite the buzz for online marketers. We use it in different ways. It could be for pimping out events, linking to different blog posts, or just random tweets about our pet peeves, what we're eating tonight, or the status from the latest "your-favorite-team" game. It's been a marketing tool, but it can be a better customer service tool (I'm a big fan of customer service), especially if you have an e-commerce site.
Last month at fall SBMU here in Columbus, I was trying to explain Twitter to some folks in my social media session who weren't familiar with it. Since I'm a big fan of analogies, I spent the week before the show trying to come up with a quick and easy way to explain Twitter. The thing that kept popping into my head was the idea of a wall of Post-it notes. If you're still having a hard time understanding Twitter, hear me out for one more explanation.
When I finally did get on the micro blogging bandwagon (and no, I don't count Facebook, not even the "new" one), I put my profile on pretty much all of the Twitter-ish sites I could find. Hey, why not? It's sort of like one of those drinking games where you do a bunch of different shooters in about half an hour, realize most of them just make you want to throw up and go back to your favourite beer the following Saturday....
Many people use the Twitter service to meet other interesting people, both with similar likes or just to hear what others have to say. This method of online socialization has become quite commonplace in the online world. However, after following almost 400 people, which for some is but a fraction of the people they are listening to, I had discovered that for the small amount of time I could dedicate to Twitter, this was more information than I knew what to do with....
I think more people are beginning to understand the value of using Twitter during conferences to keep up with the conversation around the event and for meeting people at the show, but I think a lot of people are still failing to grasp the benefits of tying every day Twitter use to post-show networking. After attending Podcamp Ohio this past weekend, I'm reminded of just how useful Twitter is AFTER the show.
The last thing you want is someone out there twittering in your name. Maybe they have good intentions for you, but maybe they don't. In either case, they are out there engaging in the community saying things that may appear to be official company communications.
One of the best bit of social media advice I ever received came from Chris Brogan when he said that when you want to decide if a social media tool is for you, observe how someone that is really good at the tool uses it. Right now Twitter is hotter than Memphis in August, and one of the true power users of Twitterville is Laura Fitton, who is known on Twitter as Pistachio.
Twitter and DirectTV go head to head this week by creating and solving customer service issues at the same time. Mack Collier's article "Worst Example of a Company Twittering?" exposes DirectTV's bumbled use of Twitter, explains the frustration that can cause, and encourages companies to use social media tools "as the rest of us do." The DirectTV/Twitter saga actually begins with Stoney deGeyter's tweet about the company's presence, is filled in with his article "Why DirectTV is Losing My Heart (and Quite Possible My Business)," and then ends with another tweet about the company's immediate response to his customer service...
One of the benefits to spending time on Twitter is that it's a great way to network. But if you are new to Twitter, it can seem difficult to find people that are in your industry or that share your interests. Here's some tips to help get you started meeting new friends on Twitter!
The problem that many companies face when they delve into the social media waters is that they really don't understand these new-fangled tools. And that means they are probably going to use them in the wrong ways, and for the wrong reasons.
I admit, I've been relatively slow to catch on to Twitter. At first it just seemed like a lot of background noise with no real purpose. Silly almost. Like, um, Facebook. Except with Twitter the discussion becomes more relevant as time goes on, not less. The conversations, even inane ones, retain a degree of rawness and truth, cluttered and disorganized as they may be....
I (along with the rest of the marketing world) have been writing more and more about Twitter in the last few months. How to use it, how to leverage it, and why you need to be part of the conversation. While there are now plenty of examples of why Twitter is valuable in terms of networking and driving traffic, David Armano has a great post this week exploring how two companies are using Twitter to interact with customers and to build their brand.
I've been using Twitter for roughly five months now and I'm finding more and more reasons to include it on my must-use list of social media sites. I go to thinking about my little love affair this week when Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends asked fifteen small business owners what their favorite social media site was and why. I was interviewed for the piece, as were Unleashed speakers Matt McGee and Wendy Piersall. The more I thought about it, the more I realized Twitter just might be the best all-around social network for small business owners.
Michael Arrington from TechCrunch gets top honors this week with his article "Comcast, Twitter And The Chicken (trust me, I have a point)." After being without cable service for 36 hours, Arrington utilizes Twitter as a way of spreading his discontent and frustration. Within twenty minutes of the first tweet, a Comcast executive contacts Arrington and arranges for the problem to be fixed immediately. Sage points out and encourages everyone, not just major company executives, to utilize Twitter's Tweet Scan as a way of tracking what's being said about them and/or their brand. Not only does the article display the...
If you aren't, you should be! With close to one million users (according to TwitDir), businesses are beginning to realize that it's just as important to monitor what Twitter users are saying about them, as it is to monitor the blogosphere.
Up until now, the series has mostly focused on how you can use Twitter to directly communicate with other members. I've shared insight into how you can expand your networking skills, use Twitter to meet up with people in person and set links on the viral path with "retweets." While each and every one of those uses adds value to the Twitter service, it was the use of Twitter as a news source for that first caught my interest.
By now I'm hoping you've either signed up for Twitter and started playing around to see what you can learn or are at least giving it some thought. Of course if you already have enough friends or never leave your house, I probably haven't convinced you to give it a go yet. I'll aim to change that today by convincing you of the power of Twitter in terms of driving traffic and launching viral buzz.
Ok, so chances are good quite a few of you have Twitter accounts already. At some point, you wondered what the hype was all about, went and signed up and followed a few people. Then you got bored, asked yourself why you were wasting your time on this "crazy Twitter stuff" and left your account for greener pastures. For some of you, it was a good choice. After all, you DO have a business to run. For others...well, maybe you just need a little perspective on when and how Twitter comes in handy.
There's no denying that opening up a Twitter account is easy stuff. Five minutes out of your day and you're ready to be up and running. There's also no denying that Twitter is a lonely, lonely place if you don't have any friends. Today, we'll dive into the Twitter "followers/following" system and learn how you can really use Twitter to communicate with people.
I've spent the last month playing around with Twitter. Now that I've had time to really dive into the service, experiement with it and learn some of the finer details, I figured it's about time I wrote a Seach Engine Guide style guide to the service. This multi-part series will cover everything from how to get an account and get people following you to the finer points of twitter marketing and networking. It's not a service that will be worth the time to everyone, but it's certainly proven itself to have practical application for me.
Maki thinks so. He's put together a great post sharing seventeen different uses he's found for Twitter. It's a good post for those of you who have looked at Twitter with (justifiable) skepticism and wondered what it had to offer you. Some of you will find your skepticism confirmed, but others will spot some practical application that makes a little experimenting with Twitter worthwhile. Thus far, I fall into the latter group.
Here's the problem with social media: it takes a lot of time. There are only so many hours in the day and if you're a small business owner, you need to spend most of them working. The challenge for any small business owner when it comes to social media is figuring out how to leverage it without letting it destroy your productivity. That's why it's essential to stop worrying so much about missing something and start focusing more on using what works for you.
Jennifer Laycock's blog post, "Twitter CAN be Useful! Who Knew?", reminds us that in today's business world you need to be open to new ideas and new iterations of ideas. What may seem a waste of time at first glance may hold promising potential as a business application.
Up until last week, I had never had much use for Twitter. To me, it was just another inane example of people sharing far more than anyone wants to know about them. Then I stumbled across a fantastic use of Twitter and started having second thoughts. I still can't see the sense in letting the world know who is hanging out in your hotel room, but I am thinking there could be some unique applications for it.
I've never been a Twitter fan. I haven't blogged about it or even mentioned it much because quite honestly, I found it to be an incredibly silly concept. (As if blogging hasn't allowed us to share far more about ourselves than anyone ever cared to know already.) I knew there was probably some really great use for Twitter, but I'd yet to see an example of it. Until today.
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