Why it’s ridiculous to argue about ghost blogging

It seems like “ghost blogging” — the practice of penning posts for others —  is always under attack. Jon Buscall wrote a fine piece about it recently as did Mitch Joel. Philosophically I agree with them.  In a pure and perfect world executives should write their own copy. But practically speaking I don’t agree. Here’s […]

Want to “go viral?” Think again!

Seems like everybody wants to produce content that goes viral.  Speaking from experience, you should be careful about what you wish for! Last week I followed with tradition and posted something light and entertaining on a Friday. In fact I thought it was funny — skewering Guy Kawasaki for his voluminous and sometimes bizarre tweets. […]

Is this Foursquare or Bore-square?

I think I “get” Foursquare.  I really do. I understand there could be significant business benefits and opportunities to build customer loyalty. But I really wonder if Foursquare can reach critical mass to be a widespread consumer social media platform. To find out, I conducted  … The World’s Greatest Foursquare Experiment. In fact, it might […]

Three new social media myths that MUST STOP NOW

A few months ago I wrote a post about  The Five Social Media Myths that called out some of the mis-guided “rules” of the social web: To be effective in social media, you must give up control of the conversation It’s all about engagement. Never sell. Emphasize quality over quantity. Social media is all about […]

Guy Kawasaki is the devil

  Before I convince you that Guy Kawasaki is the devil, let’s look at his secret identity as described in his “official” bio. Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy […]

Social media strategies businesses should learn from politicians

Guest blogger and political pundit Jenci Spradlin reveals why business should take a marketing lesson from the politicians: Maybe it’s because I’m a political junkie and spend most of my time discussing politics on the social web, but I think the business world would do well to try to translate lessons from politics into strategy. […]

Six ideas to build social media momentum

My bike ride started me thinking about the importance of building social media momentum. Here’s what I mean. My wife and I recently completed a lengthy mountain biking adventure.  At the end of the trail, there was a quaint yellow cottage offering sandwiches, ice cream and drinks. The yard in front of the establishment was brimming with bikes, so we figured it must […]

Hilarious video, serious marketing lessons

I wanted to show you this awesome music video because it’s creative, hilarious and it also reinforces a theme I’ve been writing about over several months … Toyota paid big bucks to produce this YouTube video. It’s not meant for TV. It’s meant for the viral web … and viral it went. Point one: The […]

A Twitter success story: Search leads to new market discovery

Fara Hain grabbed my attention in a big way. In a recent comment on {grow} she mentioned that Twitter had led her to discover a new market for her company’s product. REALLY? I asked her tell us more and here she goes: To some, Twitter is surely the Paris Hilton of new media, a place […]