It worked for Zappos. It probably won’t work for you.
Zappos* is a successful company with a well-publicized, aggressive employee use of social media. In fact, it may be the most famous social media model in all of blogdom. They have 13 blogs, 50,000 videos and their employees tweet like rabbits in heat. It’s worked for them and it’s a wonderful case study. I get it. But it’s probably the wrong […]
Kernels of truth on social media marketing
If I leave a conference with a few “kernels of truth” I can gnaw on and think about, I consider the time well-spent. Here are a few nuggets I picked up at the Social Fresh conference held in Nashville this week. “Movements make their audience feel like rockstars.” To me, the highlight of the conference […]
Does Amanda Chapel matter?
The mysterious, mean-spirited, self-proclaimed “strumpette” Amanda Chapel is the most divisive personality in the social media movement. She relentlessly shoots poison darts at nearly every voice of authority on the social web. It’s typical for her to characterize many of her A-List blogger targets as: “Baby babble” “Full-on non-stop shameless surreptitious sleaze” “The cacophony of dopes” “Sacs de douche” […]
The social web is starting to feel like high school
A while back I wrote an article about the fortress-like tendencies of the A-List bloggers and the sycophants who follow them. I compared it to an exclusive country club. But as I’ve reached a wider audience and gained more experience on the social web, I’m learning that some of the online behaviors deserve even less credit than that. A […]
Ten blog posts that mattered
Ten blog posts that mattered in 2009
How social media can hurt business relationships
The social web may be the most revolutionary marketing tool since the advent of radio. I don’t have to tell you why at this point. But for all the opportunities, there can also be danger, if the technology is mis-applied or misunderstood. Here are some ways social media can destroy customer relationships: 1) Hit and […]
A futurist’s view of the “next big thing” in social media
Venessa Miemis’ Twitter bio describes her as a “Metacog, futurist and thought architect tracking emerging media and technology trends & impacts.” Now THAT got my attention. Currently pursuing a masters degree in New Media Studies at the New School in NYC, she has been passionately thinking and writing about the future for seven years. Venessa kindly agreed to an interview […]
This is the future of social media
Mark Schaefer makes 12 predictions about the future of social media
Is this the end of the social media purists?
I have never used this community to comment on another person’s blog but today I’m just so happy, so enthralled, so downright giddy that I could kiss my keyboard. One of the social media purists has finally discovered the bright, clear light of capitalism. And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy — Jason Falls. Jason is one […]
The curious case of the Twitter Quitters
One of my customers is a brilliant management consultant. An engineer by training, he does not come by marketing instinct naturally and asked me to help. This is a customer tailor-made for Twitter: Small business-owner Enormous, global market potential (needs a lot of awareness) Small budget No time to blog, develop content, etc. Tech-savvy Is a […]