Social Media

The Naked Truth about Delusional Word of Mouth Marketers

August 29, 2011

What’s the difference between snake oil salesmen and word of mouth marketers? In many ways, they are the same. When a snake oil salesman first entered a town, he selected a few individuals to cultivate into true believers. Once the group was properly groomed into a loyal following, the healing power of the potions was [...]

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There are Three Kinds of Lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Social Media Metrics

August 26, 2011

Mark Twain popularized the saying, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics” when he included it in Chapters from My Autobiography. If he were alive today, I’m confident that he would add social media metrics to the list. It might even be first. Manipulating numbers to support weak arguments is a [...]

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Social Media – Oversold and Undervalued

August 24, 2011

Social media is oversold as a marketing channel and undervalued as a customer connection. Sales by conversation are an illusion created by people more focused on building personal brands than exploring and developing a new channel. The new media gurus adopted a “sell and destroy” strategy that effectively promoted networking as the only future of [...]

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Google Plus – Lessons, Pros, Cons, and Future

August 19, 2011

Growth for Google+ is outpacing every other social networking platform. Does that mean that it will unseat Facebook as the King of Social or will it fail to live up to the expectations? Will it be a great tool for companies to connect with customers or something else to manage without benefits? What effect does [...]

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Wanted: Social Media Leaders

August 10, 2011

The ability to motivate people to do what is necessary to accomplish goals and overcome challenges is a key management skill required in every successful business. The willingness and skills to lead are especially valuable in a social company. Social marketing is a new frontier with opportunities to discover, tools to learn, and communities to [...]

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