Time Budgeting. Do You Really Need More Twitter Followers?

Your Social Media engagement needs a budget or you will go bankrupt on time.

It’s no coincidence that we see an endless stream of blog posts about how to get more twitter followers. About the sweet spot of tweeting 20 times per day to engage followers. That retweeting messages can increase your social media brand awareness by sharing. Having a goal of obtaining 50,000 followers is great. But have you asked yourself if you actually need that many?

Switching from Thesis to Genesis: Chris Brogan’s Influence

Would your business be sustainable if 10% of your customers walked away?

Many of you are familiar with the potential divorce between Chris Pearson (DIY Themes) and Matt Mullenweg (WordPress) over GPL compliance. I have received numerous emails from readers asking how it will effect their blogging platform of choice. Relax. Pour yourself a glass of spanish cava or red wine. Take a sip. It’s ok. What? Chris Brogan just posted an article on his official divorce of Thesis? Ok. Well. We need to talk.

Crowd Sourcing Customer Reviews: Kmart’s Success and Angie’s List Fail.

57% of shoppers trust customer reviews as a research source.

Stores are cashing in on the popular trend of showcasing customer reviews to soft sell products in store, print and television advertising campaigns. This sales technique gained large scale popularity during last year’s holiday shopping season. It plays into three key psychological triggers of…

Promoted Trends: Why Twitter’s New Ad Format Should Scare You and How to Improve It

With any successful platform there will be companies that try to spend their way into public awareness. Earlier this week Twitter began testing their new Promoted Trends ad platform; an extension of their Promoted Tweets platform. According to Twitter, “These Promoted Trends initially appear at the bottom of the Trending Topics list on Twitter and [...]

Utilizing Social Media to Provide a Better Customer Service Experience

Reassurance that problems will be fixed is not enough. More and more companies are looking to Social Media to facilitate and engage their customers. Life can be incredibly stressful depending on the support system in place. We want to know that we can trust your brand or service before we are customers. To know that [...]

How ABC Capitalized on 95/5 to Create Repeat Customers with Lost Finale.

ABC has convinced its customers to repurchase product they already own just to get their hands on the coveted 5%. On May 23, 2010 the Lost series finale aired. It was watched by 13.5 million viewers and became a trending topic across social media networks immediately. Dedicated fans argued the effectiveness of the final episode [...]

Building yourself as a successful brand.

Which are you? The drug dealer or the pay it forward networker. What separates you from every other successful industry professional out there? If I called all of your clients today, without time for them to prepare, what would each of them say about you? Are you reliable? Hard working? Honest? When a problem arises [...]

Grading Your Leads: Which Social Media Network Benefits Your Company?

Each has varying demographics that utilize the network differently. I have developed an equation through demographic research that rates Social Media lead generation. Lead Grade = (2Li+Tw – Fb) / .5TL. How did I determine this and, more importantly, what does it mean? A couple of weeks ago Jim Raffel wrote an article asking how [...]

5 Reasons You Need to Advertise While Business Is Strong to Succeed

Over the last ten years I have noticed an oddly consistent trend in small business advertising habits. Other business owners just like you are doing things completely backwards. Surely you can’t be one of them too, right? Let’s find out. Remain at the forefront of a customer’s mind…if you aren’t, someone else is. Do you [...]

Is the Apple iPhone 4G leak a clever market test? My Magic 8-ball says, “Yes.”

In the end, whether this turns out to be part of a marketing plan or not, Apple wins. On June 22, 2009 The New York Times published an article entitled “Apple’s Management Obsessed With Secrecy Grows Stronger.” In it writers Brad Stone and Ashlee Vance wrote, “Few companies, indeed, are more secretive than Apple, or [...]