Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 12, 2012

Inside View gives users an aggregate view of the social presence and activity of a company. Disqus is a better, real-time comments system for users’ site or blog with fully integrated social network elements. PollDaddy enables users to add quick and easy polls to blog posts.

Tools 215

Tools Social Bookmarking Aggregator Disqus 215

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 16, 2010

They also announced that the company has cut almost 70 people —accounting for over 40% of its staff. Tags: Social Networks Twitter social media marc meyer blogging blogs ning. In case you don’t know what Ning is: It’s a service that allows people to join and create social networks. This is only the beginning.

Social Media 193

Social Media Social Networking Advertising Twitter 193

Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 11, 2010

We love to talk and tell others about train wrecks for companies and people. Tags: social media influence blogs marc meyer social media Social Networks YouTube. We can be easily punked. We love watching video -and then sharing it-it takes no effort, none. zilch.zero. We are suckers for top ten lists.

Social Media 194

Social Media Social Networking Training YouTube 194

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 9, 2010

3) If I wanted to have someone guest post on my blog and bring their incredible smartness and knowledge to the table, all I have to do is ask. 5) Need a good email marketing company ? In fact, I got to know someone from a pretty cool company just in the last 2 months, Thanks network. Have you ever thought of asking someone?

Social Media 196

Social Media Meeting Social Networking Conference 196

Direct Marketing Observations

DECEMBER 14, 2011

In order for people to know that you are open for business you have to get them to your website, your blog, your Twitter account or your Facebook page, right? Whether you’re a click and mortar or a web based only company, either or requires more than just a cursory amount of effort revolved around driving traffic.

Brands 176

Brands Discount Sites SEO 176

Direct Marketing Observations

MAY 28, 2010

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. Increase awareness of and interaction with a company’s brand through brand mentions and participation in social networks. Create listening posts.

Social Media 203

Social Media Marketing Social Bookmarking Widget 203

Direct Marketing Observations

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

Either it’s your own personal site, or it’s your company’s. If it’s the company website, you probably have some type of responsibility or influence over it’s content. Assuming I know the audience that read this blog, chances are you have some type of input into your company website.

Mobile 159

Mobile Meeting Questions Sites 159

Direct Marketing Observations

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

I don’t dispute blog posts like this Why Content Curation Is Here to Stay. Google has been making changes to its algorithm to keep low-quality sites from appearing high in searches, according to Matt Cutts in a blog post last month. Marketing departments and SEO companies understand this. Large companies are catching on.

Content 162

Content Curation SEO Adwords 162

Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 25, 2012

It’s engaging in some Twitter banter, dropping a blog comment, and maybe having some extended conversations either via Twitter, IM or email. Even better, I got a job referral from someone that I never met face to face until after I started working at his company. But what does that connection consist of. A phone conversation?

Social Networking 212

Social Networking Avatar Meeting Fashion 212

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Take solace though in this- Some of the best companies fail and will fail at social media, and even more-so, some of the biggest and best brands as well will do nothing with social media out of that fear of failing or notion that social media doesn’t work. So which company would you like to be? It’s worth it.

Social Media 189

Social Media Consultant SEO Training 189

Direct Marketing Observations

JULY 28, 2011

So let’s think through that quickly about the multiple platforms that you, me, and your organization can now use to convey your key message themes: Blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Forums, Websites, QR Codes, Group Buying sites, and LBS( location based sites)-to name but a few. Multiple media platforms. We should tell more stories.

Platform 190

Platform Social Media Drupal Open Source 190

Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 9, 2012

I’ve been somewhat neglecting the blog over the last few months but I have a good excuse er… reason. It’s what keeps companies and organizations in the public eye. You may get lucky and find someone who plays in the same space but it takes some vetting to find that company or person. That’s the dark side.

Content 207

Content Curation Smart Phone Yahoo 207

Direct Marketing Observations

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

I was so mad that I blogged about it. Of course I used the company name with a map and hyper links because I was so angry but never really expected to hear from anyone within the organization. Good stuff coming from- A Plumber who get’s it. The CEO-I had about as bad an experience as could be had at a local restaurant.

Conversation 189

Conversation Social Media Resources Course 189

Direct Marketing Observations

FEBRUARY 5, 2010

BL recounted the raw responses on her blog post , but I wanted to clean them up a little bit, make them into complete sentences, add some clarity and lastly point attendees from Social Fresh to this page. 1) Create a Social Media case study of who is talking about your company both in good & bad ways. Make sure you open them.

Social Media 177

Social Media Case Study Crowdsourcing Hashtag 177

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Last week I asked via Twitter what the shelf life of a blog post was. One of the great soft metrics of content marketing is that it is tough to measure it’s long term effect on your business or company. The soft metric of good content means that it may be around long after you have left your current company.

Metrics 148

Metrics Content Campaign Reputation 148

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 27, 2010

Social Media flash mobs go nuts over corporate missteps-they validate each other in unison and then are further validated by Twitter, blogs and reaction from the company itself. Blogs were and still are great because not only did it provide a forum and platform for self expression but it also provided instant feedback.

Social Networking 204

Social Networking Flash Mob Forums Communities 204

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 27, 2011

How do other companies compete when Nike, Gatorade and AE give stuff away for free? I think part of the reason why case studies on organizations that do it differently are written is because the majority of marketers and companies do it the same way over and over with predictably average results. Do they just give away free stuff too?

Compete 162

Compete Case Study Social Networking Small Business 162

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 15, 2010

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. Companies are mining the social web to build dossiers on you. Information posted publicly on blogs, Facebook , Twitter , forums and other sites is fair game.

Astroturfing 204

Astroturfing UGC Tips Mobile 204

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. Check out some of the great content on The Fit Blog which has just as much of a shot to create a loyal and robust audience as do larger more interactive sites. This site rocks.

Social Networking 177

Social Networking Exercises Sites iPhone 177

Direct Marketing Observations

MAY 22, 2012

Going to a conference and meeting that person that you have had tens of twenty or hundreds of conversations with on Twitter or Facebook or blog comments. That’s the money shot.

Social Media 178

Social Media Avatar Journal Conference 178

Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 24, 2011

We all could mildly claim that we are or were bloggers at one point in time, except that it’s now merely part of what we do for our clients and respective companies. I can bet all of you who have had a blog longer than a year can now spot a noob to the blog scene. We all did something before social media. Case in point.

Social Media 199

Social Media Skills SEO Aggregator 199

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 19, 2010

So what do you do if you want to monitor your space, your company, your name and your competition? With the advent of blogs and micro-blogs, there’s a constant online conversation about breaking news, people and places — some famous and some local. You check out these 7 easy tools with even easier setups.

Tools 179

Tools Analytics News Google 179

Direct Marketing Observations

JUNE 17, 2010

That’s what a lot of companies and people do. What will the tweets and live blog updates look like if the product on the field sucks? It’s like paying for blog posts. Tags: sports and social media social media marc meyer blogging twiiter mlb social media policy cleveland indians.

Social Media 166

Social Media Sports Policies Press Release 166

Direct Marketing Observations

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

Do you create content for your blog or for your company blog? ” Invariably the answer is yes but I do read a lot of crappy, link-baity blog posts that make me feel dirty for actually wasting my time with it. Are you tired? Tired of creating content? Tired of reading the same content? For clients? The good news?

Social Media 162

Social Media Content Banking Blogger 162

Direct Marketing Observations

JUNE 23, 2010

I was talking to an SMB owner the other day who is doing everything that he is supposed to do in regards to social media usage for his company, and doing it seemingly correctly. He reads and comments on other blogs when he has time and he is thinking of starting his own blog.

Case Study 156

Case Study Social Media Study Sentiment 156

Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 13, 2010

But you see, there’s more than just the blog, that’s the easy part; there are status updates, there are content updates, consuming content, creating content, sharing info, driving traffic, analyzing data, connecting with your peers, finding your customers, making sure your clients are happy, and looking for prospects.

Social Media 180

Social Media Aggregator Activities Fashion 180

Direct Marketing Observations

JULY 6, 2010

Which one is going to have the largest impact on your company? The reasons could be limited resources, limited time, money or whatever-but you just don’t go and jam a generic social solution into every company just because they want one. and why would you use it? On your business? For your client? You can only choose one.

Social Media 143

Social Media Wiki Social Bookmarking Flickr 143

Direct Marketing Observations

JUNE 28, 2010

Dear __, you’re right, most companies don’t understand what it takes to be engaging, and most don’t have the right staff deployed, and some are not sufficiently funded to create engaging content-but they’re getting better. Be transparent. Be authentic. and try some different things.

Consultant 171

Consultant Social Media Posterous Authentication 171

Direct Marketing Observations

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

Now some companies, the smaller ones, can get away with just doing some of the above mentioned tasks and not doing others, and I might add, doing it well, but larger ones at the enterprise level cannot. Social has virtually the same amount of moving parts. Very similar to search, and yet, both very complimentary as well.

Microblogging 175

Microblogging Wiki Analytics SEO 175

Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 17, 2012

Your day is already full and now companies want you to participate in and contribute to these new growing internal networks. But what about your Facebook page, Twitter account and your blog? The less time you have, the more likely you are to mail in your participation in networks that matter less.

Social Networking 170

Social Networking Exercises Influencer Issues 170

Direct Marketing Observations

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

You want to listen for mentions of your company, brand and top executives. You quickly determine there is no way to manually search every blog post, tweet or comment on the web so you turn to automation. I’m not going to get into the depths of all things social media monitoring because that would take all day. So let’s focus a minute.

Sentiment 143

Sentiment Analysis Aggregator SEO 143

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 4, 2011

In the larger picture of the social web though-there is Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube and blogs. I’m generalizing blogs, but if you insist, I could go with WordPress, Typepad and Blogger. Consider the following statements: “We have a blog, come read it and find out cool stuff about our company&#.

Patterns 162

Patterns Hashtag Microsoft YouTube 162

Direct Marketing Observations

JUNE 28, 2010

The mine field is littered with companies that have not done a good job in this area. Companies need to be prepared for this-even if it never happens. You never know when groups, large groups, will take to social networks, large social networks and complain about your company. I probably would have blogged about that as well.

Groups 122

Groups Groups Policies System 122

Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 27, 2010

I was recently directed by Tom Martin to read an updated post by Rohit Bhargava on Social Media Optimization and while it did get me thinking again about something I had not given much thought to in a while, it, like many other blog posts, opens up another footlocker of thoughts. Dive deeper when doing your homework on companies and people.

SEO 162

SEO Social Media Reputation Mashup 162

Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 27, 2011

It’s one thing to critique a blog post-Hey we all write crappy ones from time to time, but taking it down a notch was not fair. Sure it was in a private Facebook group but I can’t take back what I did and naming names does me or this blog post no good, but there’s a valuable lesson here. It wasn’t fair.

Social Media 177

Social Media Social Networking Groups Groups 177

Direct Marketing Observations

JUNE 21, 2010

He is principal of FutureWorks , an award-winning New Media agency in Silicon Valley, and has led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 BrianSolis.com is among the world’s leading business and marketing online resources.

Twitter 148

Twitter Web 2.0 Small Business Startup 148

Direct Marketing Observations

FEBRUARY 17, 2012

Brian Solis from Altimeter Group used the term empathetic business models in a recent blog post titled, A Critical Path for Customer Relevance, Part 1 , and though it sounds good and I would like for all businesses to “be” that in the end. Today, every CPG company has to have as much ammo as it’s customers.

Buy 143

Buy Education Activities Groups 143