We utilize these social media tools on a daily basis. For what? To build and grow our networks and relationships within. To showcase our abilities on blogs and to bring that value into conversations with other people looking to grow from our knowledge. We look to learn ourselves, from people we connect with and the content we read. Hell, some of us want our egos stroked a bit in the process. But sometimes, just sometimes – there’s something we experience that isn’t really expected: (more…)
Simple thing, really. Hi. How are you? I’m a marketing nerd that loves basketball, the gym and Twitter. Wanna exchange numbers? Let’s hang out! OK, that may be the dumbed down version but you get the point. We’re introduced to new people almost every day, in personal or more formal situations. We hope there’s an initial connection and then build off of that with two-way conversations. (more…)
If you’re rolling around on Twitter every Friday, you’ve probably noticed a trend that started a couple months ago – #followfriday. People recommend favorite Twitterers to their community, thus creating a chain and viral effect on Fridays. It’s a great way to meet new fun folks and has even gone a step further with people creating starter packs for new users. One thing that’s missing, being 140 characters, is that there isn’t always depth on why you should follow those people.
So, what I decided to do was start a little weekly series of Follow Fridays but with a little twist – I’m going to juice it up a bit and suggest great folks to follow, not just for their value on Twitter, but for what they bring to their respective blogging communities. Here you have this Friday the 13th’s Follow Fridays: (more…)
I’ll save the buildup and get right into what started this post at 1:30 a.m. this morning. There was a lot chatter yesterday on Twitter about a new ‘service’ that basically asks this question:
So you’re looking to get a massive following on twitter?
The site is TweeterGetter and apparently Gary McCaffrey guarantees that you’ll get 16,000 (give or take however many thousand) followers in 30 days. It doesn’t require you to follow anyone back as you can just sit back, relax and enjoy the thousands of followers you’ll be getting, of whom you have had absolutely no real interaction with.
I’m sure you can sense my disdain for this service and the negative thinking that it promotes. The thought of ‘auto-piloting’ the follow process and building a humongous following has SPAM written all over it. Gary, and the unfortunate that have taken part in this, fail to realize the value of building relationships vs. just having a large follower count. (more…)
It’s that time folks – time to choose the winner of my recent book giveaway for Rohit Bhargava‘s, Personality Not Included.
As mentioned, I would be choosing the winner through random selection via Random.org. There were a lot of great people that participated in the contest but the winning copy of PNI goes to Eric! I’ll be emailing you to congratulate and ask for your mailing address (don’t worry, I won’t stalk you). (more…)
We all heard about it, while many others were taken advantage of, as a phishing scam hit Twitter last weekend. The scam spread DMs that told people to click on a link that went to what looked like the Twitter login page, which is where many gave away their sensitive account information. It quickly spread and everyone was encouraged to change their password. What had me thinking though was the thought about trust and our seemingly lack of understanding and adhering to that word. I was quickly reminded about an interview I did at the MP Digital Mixer with Chris Brogan, in regards to his upcoming book, Trust Agents. Though the clip was probably full of bloopers on my part, I remembered being asked what I thought a ‘trust agent’ was. The answers Chris got during his interviews were great but what I’ve realized is that we all have a vital role in creating trust and this little fiasco that happened over the weekend shows that many of us have forgotten that.
The role has more to do than just who you trust personally but is more so associated with one action, such as this past weekend’s, and its related/adverse effects. These relations encompass the services you use on a daily basis, the perception companies have on social media, and the communities you interact with.
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There’s no hiding from it. Everywhere you go, you’re bound to hear someone talking about the recession and more specifically, the recent record breaking numbers of unemployment in the U.S. Yours truly wasn’t even recession proof – but there’s got to be some sort of light at the end of tunnel, right? Well, there’s no reason to wait until you get to the end of the tunnel. With the staggering number of people that are getting laid off, we all need to remain vigilant on what could happen and take the necessary steps to be ready if it does. (more…)
There’s been a lot of talk and controversy recently within our online media realm and specifically with one, Chris Brogan. He came under heavy fire from a sponsored post he did on his Dad-O-Matic group blog on behalf of Kmart, which seemingly only caught wind after Jeremiah Owyang posted this tweet over the weekend. It undoubtedly yielded a flurry of responses (good and bad) on Twitter that led to people questioning his authenticity and trust (which is absurd to begin with if you know anything about Chris and his contributions to his community). (more…)
Community Manager. It’s a role that has evolved into a must-have position for any company wanting to connect on a deeper level and communicate directly with their consumers. With today’s new media technologies, it’s the perfect way to find brand advocates, solve customer issues and ultimately, build meaningful relationships. There are many qualities and skills to be had by a Community Manager and I could easily list them out myself. Instead, what better way to find what makes a CM valuable than by asking my own community on Twitter.
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The first part of this short series related to one of the takeaways I had from the MarketingProfs Digital Mixer, people and the deep connections I made with many folks at the conference last week. The second takeaway that I’ll be touching on is passion.
Gary Vaynerchuk is as passionate as they come and if anyone is going to give you a kick in the butt about passion, he’s the man to do it. I’ve always watched his videos on GaryVaynerchuk.com & even on WineLibrary.tv (and I barely drink wine) and am able to take his energy from the videos and into my professional and even personal life. Seeing (and gratefully getting to speak & hang out with) him in person definitely multiplied the force of his words as I’m sure majority of the people at the keynote felt. Summing it up, he makes you want to get out and do 1,000 things. Powerful, to say the least.
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