Thank you for your question. I am sitting here smiling. Social media has been compared to a cocktail party, high school and a Bruce Springsteen song. While each of these different analogies has their merits, I don’t think the writers were thinking big enough. Or hairy enough. Social media is like a big, hairy spider. "Social media is like a tarantula?!", you ask, out of breath from jumping on top of your nearest chair. Yes. It is. Here’s why.
And if I do, how can I maintain a "personal" touch?
What a *great* question, thank you! The simple answer is you shouldn't automate ANY part of your social media marketing, communications, product development, customer service, or talent acquisition efforts. At least, not until you understand social media well enough to know exactly how to use each social media channel to connect with your target audience. Yes, it is very tempting to use every tool you can find to reduce the time you spend managing your social media efforts, but think about the irreparable damage you can do to your brand. Do you really want to drive faster in the
The intersection of mobile and social changes all the rules. It gives people a voice and allows them to praise and/or punish companies/brands in public. What is the impact on marketers? Are people really influenced by posts and tweets they read? New independent research from Jeff Hasen -- a brave voice in the mobile marketing space and consistently named one of the top Chief Marketing Officers to follow on Twitter -- has stepped up to document just how people use their mobile phones to communicate their brand experiences. The result is must-read analysis that should spark marketers to listen in and answer back.
#DearKen: @TheMirrorTest author @JeffreyHayzlett calls people who abuse Twitter "twankers". How do I avoid being too self-promoting?
Thank you for your question. Twitter "rules", "guidelines", and "best practices" are great fun for us marketers (especially considering that the golden rule of marketing is that there are no rules). That doesn’t stop folks like Jeff and I, however, from regularly writing about Twitter do's and don'ts.
My usual disclaimer before we start to keep my company’s compliance team happy: all opinions expressed here are my own, and come from my experience running social media efforts, managing social marketers, and advising social marketing clients. Your mileage will vary.
How should marketers approach social media marketing? What is the place of mobile in an effective advertising campaign? And why is mobile video shaping up to be the next big thing? These are just a few of the questions I explore in an exclusive podcast with Jeffrey Hayzlett, frequent speaker, Celebrity CMO, change agent and sometimes cowboy.
We also walk through the key themes of The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing?, a must-read business book (authored by Jeff) that has been on USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Inc.’s best-seller lists.
Twitter is on the move, continuously launching features to enhance the advertising experience on Twitter. (Last week Twitter took the wraps off a beta service that will allow brands to target Promoted Tweets–the ad units that are actually Twitter messages–by country.) But what are the rules of engagement and to what extent (if any) should we promote goods and services in our Twitter stream? Ken Herron, social marketing authority and CMO at social applications and solutions company SocialGrow Inc., is back with a dose of valuable - and practical advice.
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#DearKen What are the pros and cons of sticking ads in your Twitter feed, and what is there to consider?
This week has seen both large tech firms (Bing) and small startup companies come under fire after their initiatives to solicit donations for Japan's earthquake and tsunami victims in exchange for social support of their brands were viewed more as opportunistic PR than genuine efforts to help victims. How should marketers use social media for social good?
We welcome Ken Herron, social marketing authority and CMO at social applications and solutions company SocialGrow Inc., who will author a regular new social marketing advice column, #DearKen, to provide our readers with answers to their questions about social marketing technologies, tools, and best practices. To submit a question, tweet it with the hashtag "#DearKen". All tweets will be acknowledged, and considered as being submitted for publication.
In the app store space, social conversations and connections can mean the difference between notoriety and obscurity for apps on offer. In this scenario it makes good business sense for mobile operators (and app store owners) to improve content discovery, allowing consumers to rate, recommend and gift products to their friends just like Amazon does.
But why limit that approach to storefronts and app stores?
Mobile operators can refine this approach to insert themselves at the center of our social media exchange, a trusted position that is the cornerstone of a sustainable business.
There's no better way to kick off the Mobile Year in Europe - and connect with Germany's best and brightest mobile companies, developers, agencies and brands. A week from today major players from across the mobile business ecosystem (and from Western, Central and Eastern Europe) will gather inFrankfurt (January 27- 28) for M-Days to network and discuss topics ranging from mobile commerce and marketing to mobile apps and cloud computing.
The event, organized by 11 Prozent – Communication, expects a whopping 2,100+ attendees, making M-days the largest mobile event in Europe outside the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Developers: You have one more day to submit your best mobile app and qualify for the Mobile Premier Awards (February 14, Barcelona). The MPA is not only the largest open and global cross-platform app competition in the mobile industry; it's THE place to network, do deals and connect with professionals and practitioners from around the world. (Last year saw 600+ developers submitted their apps, earning the MPA a reputation as a "the point of reference for the startup and developer community."
Participation is free and open to any startup or developer with a mobile app. You can submit as many apps as you want and you can find more details on how register further down in this post. From news and arts & culture to social change and medical & health, the MPA recognizes the best in mobile apps, so stand up and be counted.
Social and mobile are combining to create some amazing experiences. From location-linked games to social shopping schemes, there is money - and competitive advantage - in harnessing location information to power our interactions with the people and communities around us. This trend also turns up the pressure on companies to focus on the quality of the data and develop new ways to get us involved in creating and curating our own local maps and information.
A year ago this monththe world witnessed a massive earthquake shook Haiti, and the citizens of the world, to their core. The extent of the damage following the disaster on January 12, 2010, quickly reached cataclysmic proportions. An estimated three million people were affected by the quake. The Haitian government also reported 230 thousand people died, 300 thousand were injured and 1 million were made homeless.
The earthquake also triggered a global response and a mobile awakening, moving mobile giving -- using our mobile phones to make donations to causes such as earthquake relief -- to the top of our minds and to the fore of the mobile industry agenda.
Thank you for your question. I am sitting here smiling. Social media has been compared to a cocktail party, high school and a Bruce Springsteen song. While each of these different analogies has their merits, I don’t think the writers were thinking big enough. Or hairy enough. Social media is like a big, hairy spider. "Social media is like a tarantula?!", you ask, out of breath from jumping on top of your nearest chair. Yes. It is. Here’s why.
