November 20, 2009 – 6:00 am
Monday, PR guy and fellow highly-caffeinated person Jeremy Pepper posted a few thoughts on using bloggers as a means, not an end unto themselves. I’d encourage you to bop on over there and read it if you haven’t already, but the part that was swirling around in my head in particular was the part about “blogger junkets,” the “pay me mentality” and what might be, for lack of a better and less touchy-feely term, a sustainable model for brands and bloggers to work together.
October 16, 2009 – 2:41 pm
Everybody has an iPhone, and every corporation thinks they need to have an app! However, the real question is, “does your brand really need an iPhone app?” With the increasing rise in popularity of the iPhone, its easy to think that the only way to reach the consumer is through the latest and hottest trend. Sounds good, but before you run off and spend thousands of dollars having an app designed for you, it would help to answer a few questions.
October 16, 2009 – 6:00 am
Let’s say a group of these brand enthusiasts wanted to hold a party to celebrate your brand, or what it stands for. Let’s say they contacted you and said “Hey, we’d like to have a big party with a few thousand people who thing your company is just great. We’ll come up with the entertainment. We’ll promote it. We’ll get as many people as we can to attend.” Would your response be “That’s great. Tell us how it goes.”?
October 6, 2009 – 5:43 pm
Can I share a little secret? I really don’t like doing blogger outreach. I know, I know–I’m a sad, sorry excuse for a social media manager.
There are a number of reasons that blogger outreach is considered the slogfest of social media work. One reason is that it’s a fundamentally awkward process. Journalists and other traditional media members expect to get calls and emails from media relations reps. they may not always like it, but it’s a known part of their job.
August 24, 2009 – 4:20 pm
First of all, I want to say thanks to the people who’ve checked out this blog since we launched it “officially” last week. Our intent here with The Social Enthusiast is to focus on process over personality. It reminds me of the difference between wild west frontiersmen, tour guides, and commercial real estate agents.
When you hear the words “online community” do you immediately think of a branded social network? A Ning network? A Facebook Fan Page? What about a discussion forum or message board? Or a corporate blog? Many times, businesses get locked into a certain model or mindset when it comes to thinking about online community sites. The truth is, there are many different models for adding a collaborative, community-building element to your brand’s web presence. It’s important to consider several different factors when deciding how to begin building your brand’s online community.
With over 26,000,000 US users as of this year, Facebook is looking like an increasingly attractive place to begin a social media marketing effort. Many companies are considering adding Facebook to their marketing toolbox. That said, I ‘m still hearing a lot of questions about the basics of corporate Facebook use. So here is a quick tipsheet to get you pointed in the right direction and clear up a few common misconceptions.
Encouraging comments on your corporate blog
There’s nothing more disappointing than pouring your heart into a blog post, anxiously awaiting the response from your audience… and getting no response in the comments.
As disappointing as that can be, bear in mind the 90-9-1 rule of social media:
90% of people in social media will be consumers-only (meaning they’ll never post or comment)
9% will [...]