Finding a social media professional to help you with your online activities can sometimes be a tough process. There are plenty of “experts”, “gurus” and “wizards” out there and many of them don’t have the experience you need. Hopefully, these 1o questions can help you in the process of finding someone who really understands your business and can help formulate and execute a plan to engage with your community online. 1) How long have you been engaged in social networking and/or social media channels? Will you provide me with links to your accounts? MORE >>

Nobody is perfect right? I’m certainly not, and that is also the case as it pertains to my social media usage and strategies. I’d like to think I get a few things right of course, but I’m not without my failures and what better way then to parade them out into the open for all to see right? Some might think I’d be foolish to do so, but part of the reason I think I’ve found the level of success with my blog over the years is by delivering an authentic, transparent voice. So with that, I’ve come up with my list of social media failures. Social Media MORE >>

In an effort to to catch-up on their social media community building, businesses are overlooking the three common leadership practices that practically guarantee their success. Fortunately, the remedies are simple and straightforward. Following are three community building practices that apply to all of the social media networks – including your Facebook business page, company blog, or any of the location pages, such as Google Places. 1 – Qualified Community Managers. Social media amplifies your characteristics, capabilities, and expertise. Know your strengths and weaknesses. MORE >>

The release of this video from Google gives us a glimpse of what life might look like through the lens of Google’s augmented reality glasses. It poses as many questions as it answers but as you watch the video, you quickly realize the powerful ways that your own reality can become a shared and social experience. Naturally, that has enormous impact on social media. Perhaps the most compelling implication for brands is the potential to scale social shopping. Companies will find themselves rushing to provide engagement cues within their physical stores to motivate real time social shopping. MORE >>

Okay…I have to admit that I find these types of tweets mildly humorous: or It’s not that I find the pain of employees funny, but the shortsightedness of companies in their efforts to ignore new technologies always makes me wonder what they are thinking. Over the course of my career, I have worked for companies ranging from small boutique shops all the way up to Fortune 500 and 100 companies and my experience has been that the bigger the shop, the more resistant to new technologies the decision-makers are. Hmmm…slight change in position, eh? Just look at Zappos as an example. MORE >>