From the monthly archives:

January 2011

What I’m Doing To Bridge The Gap: Exploring Social Media

by Jason Falls · January 31, 2011

At a trade show in Ft. Worth last week, I probably talked to 150 people, one-on-one, about digital marketing. These folks were small business owners, managers at medium sized businesses and there were even a handful of marketing executives at some large companies mixed in there, too. The conference was a retailer’s trade show put on by a wholesaler in a specific industry. It was not an Internet marketing conference.

Some of the people I talked to were using social media marketing for their businesses. Others would say, “I have a website and even do some e-commerce.” And about one-third of the people I talked to said (you may want to sit down), “I don’t have a website.”

Read More →
66 comments

Keepio Offers Pure Social Commerce Play

by Jason Falls · January 28, 2011

So I’ve started working a bit with the folks at Keepio, a new social commerce offering that allows you to inventory items you own (think collectors) and share them with a trusted network of friends. But it also allows you to sell them, trade them or even have a platform to let your friends see what you might have they can borrow (think lawn equipment). Because it’s not just an eBay (all about selling) and the premise is to connect and do this with your trusted network of friend (not with anyone like Craig’s List), I think Keepio might be the first pure social commerce play in the space.

Read More →
7 comments

Is An Arsenal In Your Content Strategy

by Jason Falls · January 28, 2011

Maybe it’s jumping the gun, but when it comes to content marketing and your content strategy, I think you need to go beyond having an editorial calendar, assignments and the like. I think you need to have an arsenal of content you’re constantly building, evolving and stocking so that your worries about content are always distant.

If I ran out of content ideas today, I want three, five, 10 weeks worth built up until inspiration hits me again.

Certainly, that’s an ideal world scenario and isn’t always feasible. But keeping three or four blog posts in the can for when your brain isn’t working isn’t a bad idea.

Read More →
8 comments

New Messaging Makes Facebook More Powerful

by Jason Falls · January 27, 2011

I got my notification tonight inviting me to switch to the new Facebook messaging platform. If  you’re interested, I recorded a screencast of my life switch so you can see how it should go and how simple it is. It’s posted for public viewing at Exploring Social Media (more about that on Monday).

At first glance, it just seems like a neat feature update for the user. But think beyond your personal satisfaction (or something else to complain about) for a moment and think about what this does for Facebook. Integrating email (along with giving every user an @facebook.com email address) and text messaging into the same place you get your Facebook messages now brings many users a single inbox. No, that’s not true for businesses. But for consumers, it is.

Read More →
18 comments

What CMOs Think About Social Media

by Jason Falls · January 27, 2011

One of my favorite and most often used pieces of research when speaking about social media marketing is a bit of data from a 2010 Bazaarvoice survey of chief marketing officers and their expectations for the use of social media. Back then, the fastest-growing metrics identified as critical for a company’s social media marketing efforts were revenue, conversions and average order value.

The reason I loved the research so much is that when you threw those three metrics at most “social media gurus” they looked at you like you had three heads. When you’re not groomed in marketing and business and you believe that “joining the conversation” is all there is to social media, you don’t get very far with company CMOs or other executives.

Read More →
26 comments

How To Create A [Good] Blogger Pitch

by Stephanie Schwab · January 27, 2011

Because I work with a number of PR firms, and have worked for a PR agency in the past, I’m well aware of the difference in pitching bloggers vs. journalists.  The problem is, most PR people aren’t.  My blogger friends bitch and moan to me constantly about the bad pitches they get from PR people, and how many mass emails they receive.  But c’mon folks, it’s been years since this problem was identified and there have been lots of attempts to help PR people understand the difference.  Yet blogger outreach still seems to be a problem for most PR practitioners.

Read More →
57 comments

19 Social Media Best Practices [VIDEO]

by Mark Smiciklas · January 26, 2011

As we head into (what could be) a pivotal year for social media, I thought it would be a good idea to review some of the great principles and practices that have been established to date.

Here’s my infographic inspired list of 19 social media best practices. I know I’m missing more than a few so I encourage you to add to the list and fuel some discussion in the comments.

What ideas or concepts do you feel will be the most important as social media continues to evolve? The comments are yours.

Permanent link to this post (94 words, estimated 23 secs reading time)
36 comments

Lessons from the Twitter Love Guru

by Jeff Larche · January 25, 2011

When I discuss social media marketing I sometimes call it digital word-of-mouth. It’s apt. Digital word-of-mouth could someday become as powerful at growing brands as its off-line namesake. But hasn’t the Digital Age promised us the ability to accurately measure this type of brand influence? Now that word-of-mouth is in moving to “ones and zeroes,” can’t we quantify these conversations — perhaps even predict their future impact?

In a word: No. But that’s quickly changing, due in part to the work of Kevin Hillstrom and described in his new book Hashtag Analytics. One finding from Kevin’s scrupulously scientific approach to Twitter analytics is this less-than-scientific tidbit: Communities rely on love to grow and thrive.

Read More →
22 comments

Why Advertising Agencies Struggle With Social Media

by Jason Falls · January 24, 2011

The day an advertising agency’s creatives (art directors and copywriters) truly “get” social media and how to communicate ideas through social channels, is the day said agency becomes a relevant player in the new marketing landscape. Trouble is, in my experiences, advertising creatives are often solitary, anti-social types, content to focus on their art and craft even at the expense of changing with it.

Certainly I don’t infer that all creatives are this way. Many have made the transition from “working on my book” to creating compelling communications. Many more have gravitated from nice print and outdoor pieces to providing creative direction for simpler methods of transmitting messages, like sales letters, Pay-Per-Click ad copy or even blog posts.

Read More →
70 comments

← Previous Entries

Subscribe to SME via email!

Close (X)

Probably the best thing you will do all day.