As more brands embrace social media as a marketing strategy, many are racing to establish a sizable social footprint. For their marketers, that translates to creative briefs like, “How can you get me to a million Facebook fans fast ?’ ’ or “What bots can I use to fast-track my followers on twitter?&# This inevitably begs the question: “What good are a million Facebook fans if they are not engaged and won’t do anything for the brand?’ ’ Brands must work to inspire fan action, not merely seek fan acquisition. Social media is not a numbers game. MORE >>

How many of you go to cocktail parties and, when you say you’re in public relations, the person you’re speaking with says something along the lines of, “Oh. You’re a spin doctor.&# ?  And how many of you own businesses that need external PR help but have spent way too much money for nothing in return? don’t have proof of this, but I believe, as industries go, public relations is at the bottom of the heap…with attorneys and used car salesmen. As an industry, we have done a horrible job of doing our own PR, as evidenced by the “ PR is not publicity. MORE >>

This morning I caught wind of a Steve Spielberg produced, J. Abrams directed movie scheduled to come out next year. I’m sure I’m very late to the game but was inspired by what I found.  The movie is called Super 8 , which is unfortunate due to an association with a motel chain I had a very bad experience with once.  That’s a story for another time, or, never.)  The movie has a high quality and special effects trailer that doesn’t directly reveal much about the plot.  Go ahead and watch the trailer, it’s worth it.  Feed readers may need to click through to view). MORE >>

Marketers need to recognize the order and permanence of human evolution. Once our species started to walk upright on two legs, we never permanently returned to walking on all fours. Such is also the case between the lower social order of communication called “Information” and the higher social order of communication called “Knowledge”. will explain the difference now. Social Value written or spoken to a medium is defined as Information. Social Value which exists only between human ears is defined as Knowledge. Likewise, Social Value is created by transforming Information into Knowledge. MORE >>

The number one question I get about social media is: “How can I do all this social media stuff and still get my work done?&#. Great question isn’t it? mean, OK, I confess I spend all day attached to social media like an IV but that’s my job. People hire me to watch out for them and find new opportunities to engage and new tools and it’s all candy to me, but it shouldn’t be for anybody who wants to run a business that isn’t around social media now is it? You need a social media efficiency strategy. Email. got this one from Michael Port. RSS Feeds. Automate. MORE >>