A couple of months back, I wrote about online influence tool Klout , and their approach to how they build their membership (they use opt-out profiling, versus the more widely-used opt-in). The main concern I had was the fact it was so difficult to leave Klout if you didn’t want to be seen as endorsing their product. As of today, two months later, my profile is still live, despite requests to be removed. sent an email back to Joe, but haven’t heard back yet – understandable, I can appreciate he’s busy. So you can see the folly of that approach. image:  remuz. MORE >>

A few years ago, a colleague of mine was given a tremendous responsibility to oversee the social media department at a prestigious well known NYC-based public relations firm. Less than a year later, she was sent packing up her desk, a casualty of a company that jumped into that shiny toy syndrome that people call social media. As more companies jump into social media, they, too, hear that “social media departments don’t execute” which results in the failure of a social media department that was never meant to be. I’ll be exploring some of those reasons below. MORE >>

One of my favorite parts of my job over the past year or so is having had the opportunity to participate in speaking engagements at conferences and local business chapters. In addition to helping me add credibility to what I do, I’ve been able to connect with people offline, and create additional opportunities for myself and my firm. While I’m not an “expert” by any means when it comes to securing these opportunities, there are a few steps I’ve taken that have helped me do so that I thought might be helpful for those looking to do the same. Connect in the real world. Get your house in order. MORE >>

There's an ongoing business axiom that defines customer service: "the customer is always right." " Publicly, this may be the proper posture. People like Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos and the author of the best-selling business book, Delivering Happiness ) built his first business on making customers happy (the company was LinkExchange - which he sold to Microsoft for $265 million) and pushed the concept even further with Zappos (the online shoe store), which was also sold (but this time to Amazon was over one billion dollars). The majority of customers simply want value. brand. MORE >>

Social media should be an integral component of everything your B2B organization does including marketing, customer service, sales, and product development. It’s surprising how many B2B companies still overlook this key task. If your idea of integration is putting a Facebook logo on all your B2B marketing collateral and calling it a day, then read the following eleven suggestions for going beyond the basics. Eleven Different Ways to Integrate B2B Social Media. Every e-newsletter and email should have a call to action for the social web. Skin your YouTube page. These people may be prospects. MORE >>