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Jason Falls

Rebooting With Mitch Joel

by Jason Falls · June 17, 2013

There are few authors I’d recommend buying their books based solely on who they are and what they know. But Mitch Joel is one of them. With his first book, Six Pixels of Separation (Business Plus, 2010) he solidified his reputation as one of the leading minds in digital marketing. His new book, CTR ALT DEL: Reboot Your Business. Reboot Your Life. Your Future Depends On It (XXXX, 2013) Joel is at it again, telling us what we need to know to be successful tomorrow, not just today.

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What’s In A Name?

by Jason Falls · June 10, 2013

Two friends of mine are expecting a baby any day now. They know it’s a girl and, as their last name is Barr, I’ve begged them to name her Tiki. Regardless, I’ll probably call the baby Tiki. Because I can. 

In all seriousness, though, picking the right name is an important task for a parent. This is what the child will be known as, what people will call her and will serve as the basis for potential teasing as a child. If I had a dime for every jackass who walked up to me in school and said, “Jason Falls down!” I could take you to dinner.

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The Whack-A-Mole Fail Of Social Technology Vendors

by Jason Falls · June 3, 2013

As part of my duties at CafePress, I was invited to serve on a panel at Internet Retail Conference and Exhibition in Chicago this week. I’ll join Siva Kumar of TheFind.com and Sen Kanthaswamy, manager of eCommerce Business Development and Sales at Henry’s Photo-Video-Digital, to discuss leveraging Facebook data. We’ll share our experiences and our companies examples of tapping into the social graph, reading Facebook information and incorporating it into smart marketing decisions for e-commerce and beyond.

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Why Memorial Day May Not Make Sense For Your Brand

by Jason Falls · May 27, 2013

There’s a fair chance most company blogs, social posts and other communications today will be focused on tipping a cap to the men and women who have served the U.S. in the armed forces, making the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Memorial Day is not, as some like to think, the holiday that marks the first week the pool is open. It’s a tribute to those who have sacrificed for our American freedom.

But while it behooves us all to pay tribute to those who have died for our country, is memorializing lost veterans smart for your brand? The answer is, “Not always.”

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Do You Understand The Mathematics Of Social Marketing

by Jason Falls · May 22, 2013

One of the advantages of having exposure to a large e-commerce company and the incredible talent within its walls is that you learn from some of the top minds in the industry. It was just a few months into my tenure at CafePress that I started to dive deep into learning from the team that runs one of the largest Internet retail operations in the world. And boy, have I learned.

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What A One-Hit Wonder Taught Me About Marketing

by Jason Falls · May 20, 2013

There’s one phone number that most people can recite, regardless of demographic. And I mean full phone number, not 9-1-1. Think about it for a minute: What’s the one phone number than most everyone you know has in common they can recite without hesitation? 867-5309.

Tommy Tutone’s hit from 1981 emblazoned the number in our minds, and while little more of the song is all that memorable, “867-5309/Jenny” has an incredible marketing lesson buried within it’s one-hit wonderness. The song is the probably drunken announcement of a man who finds the number of a woman written on a bathroom wall. “For a good time, call …” graffiti, while most often a cruel joke, is the ultimate in smart marketing.

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The Trick Is Applying General Knowledge To Specific Needs

by Jason Falls · May 15, 2013

How does this apply to me?

That should be the question we ask when encountering learning about the digital marketing world. Whether you’re reading a blog, a book, attending a webinar or conference, the one thing you won’t likely get is advice and examples that are directly applicable to your specific business.

Conference speakers are generalists. People who write books are, too. Their job is to be informative and helpful but appeal to as broad an audience as possible. If I were to speak at an event about how to leverage Twitter in medium-sized floral shops, I would only help a few audience members. If the talk is how to leverage Twitter for any business — a general approach — there’s more appeal.

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Will Thinking Beyond Social, Ruin Social

by Jason Falls · May 13, 2013

The thematic meme running through the social marketing world of late is that we’re about to move beyond social media marketing as a primary practice to thinking more broadly about our marketing and our business. Social is part of a greater whole and social-only thinking won’t get you very far for much longer.

Part of this is driven by the social consultants threatened by those of lesser breadth of experience. Part of it is the reality that the industry is maturing. Social is now part of marketing. Marketing is almost impossible today without social.

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Blog Monetization Without Advertising

by Jason Falls · April 29, 2013

Is it possible to monetize your blog, website or digital presence without advertising? Certainly it is, but only in certain contexts. Consultants or businesses can focus their energies on providing thought leadership and educational posts with the thought that interested parties will reach out to them to hire if and when they need the help. The organic content leads to search engine results which leads to traffic which leads to leads, and so on.

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About Jason Falls

Jason Falls

Jason Falls is the founder and chief instigator for Social Media Explorer's blog and signature Explore events. He is a leading thinker, speaker and strategist in the world of digital marketing and is co-author of two books, No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide To Social Media Marketing and The Rebel's Guide To Email Marketing. By day, he leads digital strategy for CafePress, one of the world's largest online retailers. His opinions are his, not necessarily theirs. Follow him on Twitter (@JasonFalls).

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