LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest. These are some of the many and most well-known social media platforms available for companies to reach out to prospects and customers. And the people using them is staggering. There are over 300 million LinkedIn members, more than 645 million active registered Twitter users and over 1 billion
In my last post, I talked about the merits of Facebook ads and boosting Facebook posts, and the Achilles heel of Facebook ads: ad-blockers like Adblock Plus. I ended with the question, “What does this mean for your company’s social media strategy?” I think it means that the smartest way to advertise on Facebook is
News flash: Facebook is a valuable social media tool that every business should be using. (This message brought to you by the year 2008.) However, like any tool, it has to be used correctly. The typical usage goes something like this: you post an update on Facebook. Your fans (those who have “liked” your page)
Managing your online reputation is something you can’t ignore in 2014. In my last post I discussed the importance of managing your company’s online reputation. In this one, I’ll share five ways that get down to the nuts and bolts of how to actively watch and maintain that reputation. Remember that social media is a
“You cannot opt out of any of this. You cannot opt out of social media. You cannot opt out of online reputation management. It’s going to happen. Just having a web page isn’t enough.” Those are the comments of Matt Bullington, the fourth generation owner of the tiny but iconic Texas Tavern diner in downtown
For centuries, Western knowledge has been based on the concept of authority. Whether it was religious authorities handing down spiritual truths, government officials handing down legal truths, or scholars handing down scientific truths, society, with rare exceptions, has accepted the truths passed on to them without question. When union leaders spoke, workers followed orders. When
Addict. These days, you can’t go anywhere—restaurants, cars, meetings, sporting events, concerts, even restrooms—without seeing people glued to their phones, tablets or laptops. What is it with us? Are we addicts, drawn to this 24/7 lifestyle, where instant connection and response are the norm? Many of us have joked about and even wondered if our
Having a blog was the craze 8 or 10 years ago. In fact, BusinessWeek (now Bloomberg Businessweek) published an oft-cited article titled “Blogs Will Change Your Business” on May 1, 2005. That was a digital eon ago, but Businessweek updated it, and in February of 2008, a mere half-eon ago—and retitled it “Social Media Will
Earlier this year, Facebook Data Science released a map showing where the Facebook fans of the various NFL teams live. Not only did the map spark interest among football fans, but it contains some valuable lessons for your business as well. The map The map provided a graphical representation of NFL fandom that both surprises
On May 25, protesters around the world took part in what was probably the most successful global protest ever: the “March Against Monsanto.” Monsanto is an international agriculture and biotech company headquartered in Missouri. It has been the subject of controversy recently for its production of “genetically modified organisms” or GMOs, such as crops that
Do you need answers to your business questions now, and are you willing to pay hundreds of dollars for them? That’s the premise on which Mancx.com is hanging its success. The Swedish online Q&A company is planning to stand out from the crowd—whether that be Google searches or dedicated, free Q&A sites like Quora—by charging
It was the ultimate oops, going down in real time. Onward State, a student-run blog about Penn State University, had reported via Twitter on the evening of Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012 that legendary (and recently fired) Penn State football coach Joe Paterno had died. CBS sports and other news outlets soon picked up the story.
Robert Niles wrote on Nov. 18 in the Online Journalism Review that “It’s okay: you don’t have to use every social media service.” Thank goodness—because there are a lot of them. Wikipedia lists about 200 of the most popular sites, from Facbook to iWiW (it’s big in Hungary) to My Opera (the performance, not the
This is just getting confusing. Google has released “Google+” (let’s call it “Google Plus”), which is supposed to be the Facebook killer that isn’t really a Facebook killer. It’s supposed to be a better way to share, connect and hangout with others online—even people who don’t sign up for Google+. The reality is, it’s difficult
Goldmail is a company that allows users of it service to create animated presentations with sound and graphics (“voice-visual” messaging). It can be e-mailed to others or embedded in e-mails through services such as Constant Contact. The premise is that potential customers are more likely to respond to a message if the content is conveyed
A new social media website is creating waves in cyberspace: Quora, the self-described “continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it.” Basically, Quora works like this: you ask a question, and other Quora users answer it. How does Quora differ from other question sites like Yahoo! Answers?
Did you know that Trade Press Services is a women-owned business? As such, we have a special interest in how women select and consume media, especially new social media like Facebook. You can imagine that a recent survey conducted by Lightspeed Research for Oxygen Media on the Facebook habits of women 18-34 caught my eye.
When you read marketing blogs today, nine out of every ten articles seem to be written about some aspect of social media. White Horse, a digital media company, has released an interesting publication titled “B2B Marketing Goes Social: A White Horse Survey Report” (registration required). White Horse surveyed 104 corporate marketers in March of 2010.
From Thursday’s episode of the Office: [dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xde1y8_woof-the-new-social-networking-webs_shortfilms[/dailymotion] Ryan’s “last word in social networking” isn’t real (thankfully), but unfortunately, it’s not too far from the truth. It begs the question, how much social media does one really need, and what purpose does it serve? Many in the business world today, and certainly professional communicators (journalists, authors,
Recent studies revealed some interesting facts about the ways in which women use social media. The “2009 Women and Social Media Study” by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners shows that women make up the majority of participants on many social networking sites, and they were more likely to turn to blogs than social networking sites for
