Archives for March 2011

There are a lot of “best practices” that you hear about and learn about as you begin the process of immersing yourself in Social Media. I entered into the fracas around the time that David Meerman Scott published his book, Lose Control of your Marketing and PR, so a lot of the talk was about how you just need to get your message out there and let it fall where it may. Much like a white fluffy dandelion, you have to be willing to let your idea fly all over the world. You might never see it grow into another dandelion. You might never know what happens to that seed.

Like so many things in the world of Social Media, hearing words like this might make you feel one way, but then when you actually start experiencing life as it exists online, best practices sort of undertake a new meaning, a more personal meaning. Maybe a meaning you didn’t expect. So is the case with “losing control.”

[Read more…] about Losing Control Versus Losing Credit

This wonderful addition to the Engagement series is by Suzanne Vara. Suzanne, in addition to being a dear friend of mine, is queen of community and founder of Kherize5 Marketing and Advertising. Suzanne blogs and tweets (@suzannevara), and I recommend you find her in both places!

Fear: a vexing emotion actuated by a perceived threat in response to some sort of stimulus. The stimulus, while generally thought of as external as in being afraid of the dark, bugs, a noise late at night, is also found in some deep seeded emotions. We are reactive to the stimuli that are happening now and proactive in a way by predict what will happen in the future, thus creating many different scenarios that are the building blocks for the fear to emerge. Fear holds us back as the perceive risk increases and it starts to overtake us, making us pause and the fear is so intense, we fail to act all together. Breaking away and rationalizing the fear is where we need to focus our efforts to avoid continuing the cycle of fear.

[Read more…] about Fear, The Greatest Inhibitor

This is a guest post by Jason Sokol.  Jason Sokol, whom I call J-Dubs,  is a marketer, blogger and proud father-to-be. He loves marketing and finding ways to connect meaningfully with customers and is determined to bring grocery store marketing and advertising into the 21st Century. You can find him at jwsokol.com or at @jwsokol on Twitter.

Do you remember back to when you were a kid and your kindergarten or first grade teacher took you to the library for the very first time? You walked into the room and were surrounded by thousands of books – picture books, chapter books, nonfiction books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, maps, videos, and CDs (actually, they still used the old cassette tapes back when I was in school). It was like walking into the king’s treasure room.

No matter how ambitious you might have been, reading all of those books would have been impossible. Maybe you even tried to do this. How far did you get? Did you have a system that allowed you to make some great progress? Now let’s switch gears and look at what happens today.

Each day, millions of new articles, posts, videos, images and files are added to Web. If you are a blogger, a PR pro or even an avid web enthusiast, understanding what RSS is and how to use a feed efficiently is critical. Now add in one more complication to your online reading habit – trying to keep up with hundreds, maybe thousands of friends and fans on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and any other social network. Whew! You can quickly find yourself lost in a sea of information. Rather than “selecting all” and hitting the “delete” key, there is a much easier way to stay up to date on all the latest happenings and engage people.

[Read more…] about 5 steps for staying social with RSS

Given that I am sitting here writing post number 15 for The Engagement Series, you might have a few assumptions about how I manage my Social Media presence. There are a few givens. For example, there are millions of people on Facebook and Twitter and in the blogosphere, and even the squishiest of the squishy can’t engage and be friends with everyone. Second of all, as we discussed a couple of days ago, one must always be ready for the growth potential of an online community.  It may even be likely  that I actually believe that engaging with people online is pretty important.

So, with all of that mushed together, you probably would go to Vegas and bet on the fact that I have lots of Twitter lists and Facebook filters that help me keep everyone organized. As the subject of this post might preview, you would lose that bet in a landslide.

[Read more…] about The case against Twitter Lists and Facebook Filters

One of the things we talked about yesterday was determining what your follow-back policy will be on Twitter. Many of you pointed out quite correctly that this is one heck of a hot button issue in the world of Twitter, and you’re 100% correct.

I’ve always taken a sort of “middle of the road” approach to following people on Twitter. I’ve never made it a habit to go out and follow tons of people at a time. I gravitate towards people who I start talking to or who I meet in chats. If someone starts following me, I look at their profile. I look at how they are engaging with other people.

But how I do things on Twitter is not how other people do things on Twitter. It may not be how you want to do things on Twitter. So, instead of me blabbing at you about how I would do things, I thought I would give you a sampling of the ongoing conversation about the art of Twitter following. Take a look at these posts and see which resonate the most with you, and let us know what you find out.

Sound good?

[Read more…] about Who do you follow?