Direct Marketing Observations

JULY 14, 2010

Brilliant, real time, impactful, measurable, social media marketing. The Old Spice Man shot YouTube videos in response to people’s Tweets. Those people consisted of some people I know like Jason Peck , Lucretia Pruitt and other we all know like Kevin Rose, actress Alyssa Milano, Justin Bateman, and Apollo Ohno who also retweeted the videos. He’s done over a 100 thus far and the effect has been nothing short of Viral Nirvana.

Mashup 205

Mashup Social Media Marketing YouTube 205

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 15, 2010

Often times you have to step in it to realize you are in it. With social media, you would have to have lived in a cave on an island in the Pacific to not know how ubiquitous it is. It’s permeating every part of our daily lives. With that being said, here are 7 “things” you should be aware of as we go forward in this digital world that can carry you and your company towards Web 3.0. 1) Look for more content to be produced by “others”.

Astroturfing 204

Astroturfing UGC Tips Mobile 204

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 27, 2010

If you’re a social media consultant like Jay Baer , or a larger organization like Accenture for instance, one of the constant constants in social media is the amount of education required to get people all on the same page, before anything can really be accomplished. With that being said, once people are “there&# , and they “get it&# , they can see pretty quickly what the trans-formative nature and power of social media is like, and what it can do.

Social Networking 204

Social Networking Flash Mob Forums Communities 204

Direct Marketing Observations

MAY 28, 2010

I was looking at a list of clients that I had worked with over the past couple of years and it’s well over 40. It’s not a big number, but what caught my eye was that I had created a matrix of what I had done specifically for each client. More importantly what struck me was that as much as I had done, in the grand scheme of things, a lot was predicated on how much the company I was working with embraced what I was doing.

Social Media 203

Social Media Marketing Social Bookmarking Widget 203

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 19, 2010

How can you protect your children from social media? One might say, “Do we really need to&# ? and another would say “We have to&#. and still another will say, “We’re all overreacting&#. and you know what? All three opinions are in a certain way, correct. Do some of the following questions and comments sound familiar? “I’m on top of it, I know what this social networking thing is all about&# , “My child doesn’t really use it&# , “Does it reall

Social Media 202

Social Media Social Networking Education Guidelines 202

Direct Marketing Observations

NOVEMBER 24, 2010

They’re coming. The lists are coming, the predictions, the opinions and the trends-all those juicy posts that populate the month of December, they’re coming. So I wanted to get this out there while it could still mean something. What’s right in social media? Or better yet what went right? For me it was a mashup. It started with an eye catching commercial developed by Wieden + Kennedy and ended with videos that have been viewed more than 40 million times and total brand views on

Social Media 201

Social Media Mashup Yahoo Mobile 201

Direct Marketing Observations

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

Posted: November 2nd, 2010 By: Jason Breed. You think marketer’s lives are rough, try being the customer. So much is being thrown at the customer these days, its hard to keep up. B2B Customers: You used to have a few vendors that competed for your dollars, the agencies were simply creatives and technology vendors simply did technology. Without all the improvements in technology, manufacturing had many barriers to entry which reduced your choices.

B2B 199

B2B Patterns Comparison Compete 199

Direct Marketing Observations

JULY 29, 2010

Some of us are tasked everyday with telling people how great social media is and how transformational it can be. Do you want to know why it can be so tough for us to sell someone on it? All someone has to do is a common search on some common perceptions of social media and you get the following. 10 Ways Social Media Is Changing Our Lives. Google, Yahoo, Bing Say Twitter is Stupid.

Social Media 199

Social Media Yahoo Google Twitter 199

Direct Marketing Observations

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Rather than try and throw together a post with lots of juicy links about a sexy topic that might get lots of love and some retweets, I wanted to just throw this thought out there. It has to do with bubbles. in this case, social media. For the majority of us, we operate in bubbles. Our lives consist of numerous bubbles. work bubbles, play bubbles, family bubbles… In some cases, our self importance is derived from our bubbles.

Influencer 199

Influencer Social Media Questions 199

Direct Marketing Observations

MAY 10, 2010

So I’m at my 12 year old daughter’s softball game last Friday night and as the game is concluding I reach for my cellphone and I see a text from my wife it reads: Your daughter is on Facebook&# ? I text back. She better not be&#. As I’m waiting for her to emerge from the dugout, I decide to call my wife who is in Ohio for the weekend for my nephew’s first communion.

Social Networking 198

Social Networking Privacy Activities Facebook 198

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 9, 2010

My last few posts have been about the darker side of social media and thus I wanted to clear something up. I am the biggest champion of social media that you will find and here’s why. I may get a little spicy sometimes, but that doesn’t diminish all the “good&# things about this crazy space and all that it delivers to us daily. So get a gander at these 15 reasons and when you’re done reading them add your reason to the mix. 1) Today I have a very large network of close

Social Media 196

Social Media Meeting Social Networking Conference 196

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 29, 2010

For the last few weeks I’ve started to compile a social media abilities list. Namely the skills and strengths that you would need in any high level position within an organization to carry out the social media duties and responsibilities required to be successful. Consider this the reverse RFP for social media consultants and companies. I know there are more questions that could be added, so feel free to add to it.

Questions 196

Questions Social Media RFP Collaboration 196

Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 11, 2010

Given that we have been punked by the dry erase girl it has become apparent to me a few things about our new social transparent world and why marketers want to tap it. We love to share stories where good triumphs over evil. We love to talk and tell others about train wrecks for companies and people. We can be easily punked. We love watching video -and then sharing it-it takes no effort, none. zip. zilch.zero.

Social Media 194

Social Media Social Networking Training YouTube 194

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 16, 2010

As Twitter continues to edge towards more of a business model that will offer something close to a premium level offering, something else caught my eye this week and it was this… Ning announced that it was doing away with its free product and forcing its existing free networks to either make the change to premium accounts or migrate their networks elsewhere.

Social Media 193

Social Media Social Networking Advertising Twitter 193

Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 2, 2010

Have you ever thought about who sees your tweets? I often do. I was reading an article in The New York Times Sunday Magazine titled, “I Tweet, Therefore I am&# in which the author Peggy Orenstein ruminates. How much, was I shaping my Twitter feed, and how much was Twitter shaping me? She goes on to say that “The expansion of our digital universe has shifted not only how we spend our time but also how we construct identity&#.

Questions 189

Questions Twitter Construction Patterns 189

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 28, 2010

I worry about the expectations that some people have for social media success versus the actual results. In some cases, we the consultants and champions of social media are just as bad and as guilty as the snake oil salesmen in pumping up and promising instant, magical results from social media. It’s not fair but for some of us, we believe and we know.

Social Media 189

Social Media Consultant SEO Training 189

Direct Marketing Observations

JUNE 1, 2010

I was reading the post 7 social media truths you can ignore this morning when I was struck by one of the last things mentioned in the post which said, Provide Value. As soon as I saw that, I had to get this thought out. Scene 1. You’ve been dating your significant other for a few months now and have decided to end it. Why? They’re not bringing enough value to the relationship.

Social Media 189

Social Media ROI Course Team 189

Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 20, 2010

I thought it was just me and thus I wrote about the rise of the transactional conversation of Twitter on Monday. Then yesterday David Binkowski threw a post up on Shamable about gaming social media. At the same time Hubspot put out it’s 3rd state of The Twittersphere report. And Todd Defren lastly writes about moving the needle on Twitter. All of these posts and reports and what have you, alluded to something that may be occuring before our very eyes and that’s this: Conversation

Sentiment 189

Sentiment Twitter Microblogging Hubspot 189

Direct Marketing Observations

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Recently I had 3 conversations with a cab driver, a plumber and a CEO. Each conversation revolved around the customer experience. I want to share with you the gist of each conversation. The Cab Driver: I actually had 3 cabbie’s but it was the 3rd one who had really understood the customer experience. Look I get it, if you take enough cabs, you’re going to get the gamut of drivers, but I think it’s interesting to see how some know how to engage the customer and how others could

Conversation 189

Conversation Social Media Resources Course 189

Direct Marketing Observations

JULY 20, 2010

This past week something occurred that seems to have slipped by people rather quietly. Frank Eliason is leaving or has left Comcast. For those of you that have been dialed into social media for awhile, this is significant for a number of reasons and you’ll know why. The biggest reason is that we, the social media community lose our poster child/ case study of how one person with one tool/platform can transform how a company operates in the social media spectrum of customer service.

Company 187

Company Case Study Brands Posterous 187

Direct Marketing Observations

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

In the early days or say the first year or so of Twitter’s life it really was a way to get to to know people. The motives were pure. Twitter provided a way to get to know people. You could build a network. Conversations were abundant. As the number of people exponentially grew, the number of “real&# conversations exponentially decreased.

Twitter 185

Twitter Conversation Trends Platform 185

Direct Marketing Observations

MAY 5, 2010

Given some recent Twitter data that shows that most people don’t actually “use&# Twitter-Why in the hell should we sit here and tell SMB’s to use Twitter to listen, to monitor and “be&# where there customers are when a) Their customers might not be on there, b) They don’t have time to use it and c) Those customers or competitors that might be using it are using it wrong and d) There is essentially nothing there.

Microblogging 184

Microblogging Twitter SEO Hashtag 184

Direct Marketing Observations

JUNE 4, 2010

This is a post where I am right but so is Brian… So yesterday I was talking via Twitter with Brian Dresher, the manager of social media at USA Today. The discussion brought on by this tweet/thought: Brian followed that thought up with mentioning that “following&# someone pre-Twitter meant something more akin to stalking than it did to something more related to complimentary.

Social Networking 183

Social Networking Wiki Conference Hosting 183

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 7, 2010

In recent weeks I’ve received emails from Xmarks and 12seconds.tv announcing that both were ceasing operations by the end of the month. I was bummed. With Xmarks, I actually used it every day to keep all my bookmarks synced across multiple machines. With 12seconds.tv, I had used a dozen times or so and I could see an application or a place for it in the crowded world of social applications and services.

Company 183

Company Social Media Microsoft Web 2.0 183

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 23, 2010

Recently I read somewhere that the demise of Twitter is imminent and all anyone wants to talk about anymore is Foursquare and Gowalla , 2 shiny new LBS based companies that are reeling in new users by the bushel. Sure I’ll talk about and use Gowalla and Foursquare, but that doesn’t mean that Twitter is no longer relevant though. In fact what this simply means is that those 2 aforementioned companies have merely carved out a niche for themselves in a space that Twitter doesn’t

Twitter 180

Twitter Microblogging Foursquare SEO 180

Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 26, 2010

Last week seemed to be the week to talk about social media and B2B. And rightly so. You see, THAT is the niche that all marketers and consultants need to be focusing on right now. Why? Because B2B is focusing on social media. The impact of social media on B2C is obvious, but B2B is starved for information, case studies, consultants that know what they are doing and knowledge.

B2B 180

B2B Social Media Case Study Consultant 180

Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 19, 2010

Call it an epiphany. Over the past few days I have gone back to my roots and I feel better about it. It’s almost as if I’m reading Naked Conversations again. What is it that has reinvigorated me? A new tool? A new app? Nope, it’s even more simple than that. It’s right there in front of us and yet I think we’re getting so caught up in a perceived race of sorts that it has caused us to lose sight of a stark reality.

Social Media 180

Social Media Strategy Conversation Meeting 180

Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 13, 2010

This might be the dirty little secret that no one wants to admit. That if they had their druthers, they would outsource their social media activities. Why? Because what they won’t admit is that social media is a big time suck and furthermore, they might not even admit that they are tired of “engaging&# every day. Why? because they didn’t know it was going to be like this.

Social Media 180

Social Media Aggregator Activities Fashion 180

Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 26, 2010

I got this email today: Hello, My name is , and I write for the (Insert the name of something not even close to what I do) blog at. Would you be interested in receiving a guest post submission from me? What I had in mind was just coming up with an article on theme with your blog and sending it to you for your approval. I don’t have a specific topic in mind, so I’m happy to write on whatever topic you request, if you have a specific request.

Strategy 179

Strategy SEO Marketing 179

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 19, 2010

If you’re the average person, you don’t have time for paid monitoring tools; and furthermore, you really don’t want to mess with complicated social media monitoring tools or setup either. So what do you do if you want to monitor your space, your company, your name and your competition? You check out these 7 easy tools with even easier setups.

Tools 179

Tools Analytics News Google 179

Direct Marketing Observations

NOVEMBER 23, 2010

10 years ago seems so 10 years ago in the world of search, social and mobile. We’ve definitely evolved and rightly or wrongly so depending on your point of view. Take for example search. In 2000 Google was a 2 year old start-up still trying to create an identity and compete with Yahoo and MSN. We all marveled at the simplicity of their interface and as a starting point for our queries, it simplified and created a less cluttered entry into a sometimes messy and confusing search result.

Mobile 177

Mobile MySpace SMS Yahoo 177

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 4, 2010

One of my clients, a very large sports drink company, has indirectly nudged me into taking a look at the state of what I drink, and ea, on a daily basis. As well, it’s opened my eyes to what we all eat and drink. The offshoot of this has been that I have been paying a lot of attention to the health and fitness social space. With that being said, in my opinion, here are the best social networks for health and fitness that I’ve found.

Social Networking 177

Social Networking Exercises Sites iPhone 177

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 21, 2010

This past Monday, I sat on a panel in Naples Florida where we talked about social media and children. It was put on by the Collier County School Board and the panel consisted of law enforcement officials , representatives from Naples High Schoo l, and an individual from the Naples Daily News as well to name a few. Throughout the 2 hour discussion I was amazed at what I heard but not surprised, and thus I jotted down some things.

Education 177

Education Social Media Wikipedia Social Networking 177

Direct Marketing Observations

FEBRUARY 5, 2010

This past Tuesday on our weekly Hashtag socialmedia tweetchat , we were honored to have one of the classiest people I’ve gotten to know, host our chat, BL Ochman. To say that it was a successful tweetchat is an understatement, but what really pushed the chat over the top was the last question in which she asked for quick tactics to encourage corporate social media adoption.

Social Media 177

Social Media Case Study Crowdsourcing Hashtag 177

Direct Marketing Observations

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

Good question right? What’s the simple answer? Maybe not. If you are a marketer thinking about social media marketing then there is a good chance, if you have not done anything yet, that its because you just don’t have enough information yet. On Monday in Tampa, I attended and spoke at a conference titled Social Fresh , at that conference, during Maggie Fox’s keynote, she nonchalantly asked the audience how many of them were marketers.

Social Media 174

Social Media Conference Policies Social Networking 174

Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 29, 2010

Before we get into this, I want you to know that I have had this type of situation happen to me more times than I can count. So I have to ask you, Do you have client meetings like this? Where you ask all or parts of the bulleted questions and conversations below? OK, so lets talk about your business objectives. What are they? Tell me what you want to do and how you are currently doing it.

Social Media 174

Social Media Marketing Social Networking Consultant 174

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 29, 2010

Transparency and openness are so 2008 and you’re so 2000 late. OK so I’m paraphrasing Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas a bit there. But I have a simple point to make with a larger concern. look at these latest headlines. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Doesn’t Believe In Privacy. What Do New Facebook Features Mean for Your Privacy? See What Facebook Publicly Publishes About You.

Privacy 173

Privacy Social Networking Policies Authentication 173