The Value of Creating a Customer-Centric Social Media Strategy

This is why I want you to read this…

I have good news and bad news for you when it comes to your Social Media Strategy:

The Bad News – Social Media, in general, doesn’t function very well as a marketing and sales channel.

The Good News – Social Media is a great way to make things happen indirectly.

The problem that many companies have with their Social Media efforts is that they are trying to turn these personal communication tools into marketing channels, instead of understanding and accepting how their customers actually use these tools.

The companies that typically understand how their customers use these tools and craft their Social Media strategy accordingly, tend to have better results.

Source: The Value of Creating a Customer-Centric Social Media Strategy | MackCollier.com – Social Media Training and Consulting

This is what I want you to understand. This is what I want you to do…

Pinterest and Evernote

http://youtu.be/UzGbEY3KiD8

Test post via email…

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Odio amet arcu integer, scelerisque mauris, augue nec etiam rhoncus, tempor scelerisque, magna! Odio augue elementum turpis nec. Nisi nascetur nunc tincidunt pulvinar rhoncus risus vel ultrices aenean dolor massa! Dictumst, lectus turpis ut habitasse? Odio tincidunt porta porta pulvinar rhoncus mid non arcu mattis tristique, integer vel.

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Zemanta rocks! You should use it!!!!

Image via CrunchBase

Here’s something cool…

Zemanta analyzes user-generated content (e.g. a blog post) using natural language processing and semantic search technology to suggest pictures, tags and links to related articles.

Zemanta suggests content from Wikipedia, Youtube, IMDB, Amazon.com, Crunchbase, Flickr, ITIS, Musicbrainz, Mybloglog, Myspace, NCBI, Rottentomatoes, Twitter, Facebook, Snooth and Wikinvest, as well as the blogs of other Zemanta users.

Zemanta’s understanding of the content (e.g. whether “Apple” refers to a fruit or a company) can be embedded into the content using Common Tag for semantic tagging.

Originally released for use by bloggers, Zemanta is available as a Firefox and Internet Explorer extension and plugins for WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Ning, MySpace, LiveJournal, MovableType, Tumblr, Drupal and Joomla. It is now also available for use with web-based email systems like Gmail and Yahoo mail^[2], and an Microsoft Outlook add-in is in development.

Zemanta is server based software, so the server does all the hard work and the plugins simply communicate with the server to retrieve suggestions.

Other companies have used Zemanta’s API to add content suggestion to their products, for example hover.in, Triond, RetailFans, Bukisa and Faviki.

Zemanta used to be based in part on TextGarden content analysis software from Slovenia’s Jožef Stefan Institute national research institute

Zemanta – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Value add statement. Please comment…

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Test post

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.

Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

How To Make Your Brand Stand Out

Image via Wikipedia

Comment here.

Branding matters! People, namely your prospects, customers and the public, must be able to distinguish your offering without thinking about it from a sea of competitive products and other messages vying for their attention.

Does your brand stand out? Whether it’s your logo, company colors, voice, look and feel, use of language, sounds or other attributes – does it make a strong impression?

Here are five questions every marketer must answer to ensure that their brand makes a lasting impression. (It’s useful to start with these questions about your brand’s DNA.)

Source: How To Make Your Brand Stand Out | Heidi Cohen

Value add here. Comment or ‘connect’ to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…

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Christmas Deals from Start-ups

Just waiting for me to make a comment…

Just for fun, I asked my start-ups (and a few friends) if they’d like to offer y’all a little something special from the holidays. Here’s an incomplete list.

Many are working on top-secret stuff and couldn’t jump in, but a few were game on last-minute notice, so here you go!

They are listed in alphabetical order by company/name:

Stop being a Wantrepreneur; start taking action. Free vids! Get here: http://appsumo.com/wantrepreneurs-videos/ via @AppSumo

Everything you need to transform. Free trainers, complete nutrition plans, & top-selling supplements. Save 10%! www.Bodybuilding.com/Save10

Photo + Film + Design + Software. Use coupon “tim2011″ for 25% off ANY single @creativeLIVE course til 1/1/12 http://creativelive.com

Email joseph-at-crowdflower.com and we’ll give you free CrowdFlower credits and a free crowdsourcing consultation to get you started on our self-service platform.

Foodzie’s Tasting Club delivers a monthly selection of artisan food products. Gift it and receive a FREE month on your own subscription. Valid through 12/24.

Ed Cooke trained Josh Foer to be US memory champ in 1 yr. He’ll train you if you can learn 500+ words in a week on http://www.memrise.com

Create a free and private website for your family photos this holiday season on Posterous Spaces.

Want a virtual assistant? Get one, FREE, for a year. (From Ramit Sethi of iwillteachyoutoberich.) http://bit.ly/uVjY3M

45% off a year of Reputation.com’s MyPrivacy service ($55 for a year) to protect your digital personal information. You can use this link http://www.reputation.com?code=4HOUR to get the discount automatically or enter the code 4HOUR in the gift code section on our site when buying.

Have a Productive New Year for 50% off – Sign up for @RescueTime for $36/year! – http://bit.ly/RT36Y

3 months free – Shopify Unlimited Plan, first 100 to use the promo code ’4HOUR’ [value $537]

Happy holidays!

Source: Christmas Deals from Start-ups

Comment or ‘connect’ to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…

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Trust me, an infamous serial liar says

Image by bre pettis via Flickr

Intro

Stephen Glass, the whiz-kid magazine writer exposed 13 years ago as a serial fabricator, is telling what may be his most compelling story yet — his own. He swears he’s not making it up, and he’s asking California‘s highest court to believe him and give him a chance.

Glass, who graduated in 2000 from Georgetown’s law school, works as a paralegal for a firm in Beverly Hills, California. But he really wants to be a lawyer, and he insists he’s remorseful, reformed and committed to telling the truth. Others aren’t so sure, which is why a bar application that usually would be a no-brainer is taking five years and counting.

There is no question that Glass is brilliant, and he easily passed the bar exams in New York and California. But his budding legal career has become snagged on the jagged rocks of good character and moral fitness.

Source: Trust me, an infamous serial liar says – CNN.com

Outro. Comment or ‘connect’ to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…

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Research Roundup: Improving Intelligence Forecasts

Image by jaygoldman via Flickr

Intro

When business leaders fail to make accurate forecasts, profitability is at risk. When intelligence agencies miss the mark on their predictions, however, the results can be far worse. In a new analysis of behavior in the intelligence community, with implications for business managers, Wharton management professor Philip E. Tetlock and Wharton marketing professor Barbara A. Mellers present a framework to improve accountability and forecasting accuracy, particularly in a politically polarized climate.

In their article, “Intelligent Management of Intelligence Agencies: Beyond Accountability Ping-Pong,” published in the September 2011 edition of American Psychologist, the authors note that forecasts by intelligence organizations frequently are open to harsh criticism for either underreporting potential danger or overreacting to threats that never materialize. A clear recent example of underreporting would be the September 11, 2011, terrorist attacks on the United States, Tetlock says. At the other extreme, he points to reports — which later proved to be unfounded — that Iraq had developed weapons of mass destruction.

“The intelligence community is often whipsawed between these conflicting criticisms,” says Tetlock. “The question is: Is it possible in this kind of political environment to learn anything beyond avoiding the last mistake?” The authors propose three steps to end the “blame game” in intelligence predictions and improve accountability and intelligence forecasting.

Source: Research Roundup: Improving Intelligence Forecasts, Vertically Integrated Health Care, and ‘Worrisome’ Health Care Costs – Knowledge@Wharton

Outro. Comment or ‘connect’ to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…

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Managing Information Overload: 5 Reasons a Chief Content Officer Can Help

 

Much has been written about the need for better managing information overload on the Web.  This need largely is occurring because of the rise in user-generated content. Computerworld reported on an IDC study that predicts we will see a 50 times increase in the world’s data in the next ten years leading to greater information overload. In 2011 alone they report that 1.8 zettabytes (or 1.8 trillion gigabytes) of data will be created. This is the equivalent to every U.S. citizen writing 3 tweets per minute for 26,976 years.

Source: Managing Information Overload: 5 Reasons a Chief Content Officer Can Help