MarCom Professional

We’re approaching the last bits of this enlivening conversations where Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo) and I examined the state and future of social media.

In this installment we review the various aspects and formalities of bringing a brand alive, truly alive in social media. Everything begins with establishing the rules of engagement in order to define the boundaries, context, and objectives for conversations. Guidelines such as “don’t be stupid,” “use common sense,” “stay positive,” is not the most useful approach to steering representatives or consumer experiences. More...

One of the real benefits of social media is that when a document is published such as the OFCOM Market Report last week or the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) extension to include a digital remit published today, the combined might of bloggers and journalists are quick to review the document and share their thoughts.

Media and marketing experts have been quick to share their views on the ASA announcement published this morning.

Opinion is polarised: consumers need to be protected and advertising standards should apply to all media yet the ASA’s approach is heavy-handed and impinges on editorial engagement. More...

Deleted celeb-Tweets make great fodder for stories for mainstream media. The spontaneous format of the platform, makes it all too easy to tweet-in-haste, and then subsequently delete.

Here’s an example of the genre spotted by The Guardian by cricket star Kevin Pietersen after he was dropped from the England squad today.

TweetMeme developer Chris Alexander suggested that the process of spotting deleted tweets could be industrialised by storing tweets for a few hours and then comparing them against messages that are subsequently flagged as deleted. But that would break Twitter’s terms and condition according to Alexander. More...

There is plenty of information online about using social media for thought leadership. The returns and values have been well-calculated and, in some cases, well-articulated. One great example is our friends over at Bloom Group, who are the thought leaders for thought leadership.

Few seasoned marketing professionals would argue that online thought leadership is a waste of time or money. Most would say it's an imperative. But while the "Must dos!" on this topic are whizzing past, the instructions on "How?" seem to have been left behind. To help with the how, I work with thought leaders within enterprises via a social media immersion program. More...

It’s said that opposites attract. However, in social media, it’s quite the opposite. The idea of privacy and publicity are in fact at odds with one another. And at the heart of the matter, one social network is caught in the crossfire of sharing information and TMI (too much information). The line that separates privacy and openness remains undefined as it continues to shift as individuals learn important life lessons about the benefits and risks of living in public.

As we evolve into a more open society, the economic value of privacy has inverted. Years ago it was inexpensive to maintain a sense of controlled solitude and expensive to earn public attention. More...

The race is on for the hearts and minds of your customers...are you even on the starting blocks?

Okay, blatant plug time...

I've recently relaunched my 'sideline' blog SWEAT EQUITY. Please feel free to check it out, I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

Essentially, the website is forming the basis of a book I'm researching and writing called SWEAT EQUITY: What Small Companies Can Teach the Big Guys About Marketing.

SWEAT EQUITY is a marketing manifesto for a hyper-connected world. It’s a call to arms, a declaration of principles, an ethos for companies to live by. More...

In next installment of discussions exploring the state and future of social media, Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo) and I review how relationships online are evolving from social networks to social “nicheworks” or contextual networks.

In social media, how we connect with one another reflects our interests as well as our contacts. We’re adapting our definition of relationships to now also include a new, thinner layer of “relations” in order to refine our online experience as well as how we learn, discover, and share. In doing so, we create a social silhouette that outlines our interests, concerns, views, and potential,which ultimately is reflected in how we architect and cultivate our social graph. More...

In the next installment in a series of conversations exploring the state and future of social media, Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo) and I discuss social media by the numbers. At any given moment, your “fans,” “likes,” followers, commenters, readers, are expecting personalized experiences. Simply catering to an “audience” is borderline antisocial. Addressing the needs and expectations of the social consumer and the various roles they play in business is the minimum ante to continue to sit at the table. At the same time, we also need to look beyond who we’re connected to today and focus on connecting with influential individuals and nicheworks who define our social and commerce landscapes. More...