Has the Bubble Popped for Social Media?
Ok, I know that I am not the first to write about this. This type article has been written and rewritten over and over again for the last few years. I am not about to state that social media is dead, far from it really. There are, however, a few alarming trends that I have noticed. Over the last few months I have been decidedly absent from social media. I do not post near as much as I used to. I sometimes go for days without even looking at a feed. I’ve been gone for two main reasons. First, I’ve simply been busy. I’ve been focusing on evolving my business and have gained...
read moreThe Art of Quiet Influence
Quite a lot is being said about influence. Klout, Grader, and an array of other sites will grade your level of influence, and that is quickly becoming the standard of measurement for how we are doing on the web. Many online marketing people will teach you to expand your audience, how to use email lists, how to convert pageviews into sales, and teach you about the scarcity principal. They will tell you all about how to gain social proof and create authority. Many of these people are full of crap. Spending your time working to convert viewers into buyers is a soul-destroying waste of your...
read moreIs Bre.ad the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?
And enter bre.ad to the marketing arena. Taking from one of my favourite mantras, “A good product must solve a real problem” bread sets out to help you stand out from the crowd. You can create your own digital billboard that will show for five seconds and then carry your reader to their destination. Ok, I can see it, but why should I buy into their philosophy? They give three reasons as to why I should love Toast: They’re Personal: A toast is a personalized recommendation from someone you trust. If you follow someone on Twitter or Facebook and you click on their links,...
read moreCreativity’s Event Horizon
Augmented reality. That is the reality we now live in. Not only do we interact with the tangible physical world, but also with an ethereal digital world. Gone are the days when we carried around an extra dime for the pay phone in case of an emergency. No longer do we need to wait for the TV Guide to come in the mail to see what’s on TV next week. Is my flight on time? Well, lemme check my phone. My phone. My reality “extra” is right in my hand. I can go anywhere, find any answer, make purchases and pay bills, all while standing in my grocery store’s checkout line....
read moreSocial Media Metrics and What You Should Be Looking At.
ROI this, metrics that. We constantly hear about how to assess your social media benchmarks, and quite a few of them are pretty complicated. Bottom line, especially for small businesses, ROI really doesn’t need to be that hard to calculate. I’ve gathered together a few things that you can be looking at that will give you a basic understanding of how you are doing. The biggest thing here is that there are so many things that can be looked at, and so many that can seem very unrelated. No, you really cannot effectively quantify real, quality relationships, but you can put together...
read moreWhat My Return to Soccer Taught Me About Marketing
I started playing soccer again. I love this sport. I started playing in 1980, and continued playing until about 1991. I played or practiced every day. I’d be outside with the ball until the sun went down and my mother would be insisting I come in for dinner. About 8 years ago I started coaching. My oldest started playing the game and I fell in love with the sport all over again. Coaching kids became a way of life. I see one of my old coaches from time to time and he’s tickled that one of his players picked up the torch. I wonder which, if any, of my players will become a...
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