In “The Best Practices In Social Media Marketing Writing Project”, my good friend, Mitch Joel examines the issue of best practices in Social Media Marketing.  His best practice recommendation?  Consistency.

Consistency. Be consistent. In everything that you do. (The article link above will take you to Mitch’s specifics.)

Mitch is collecting best-practice ideas from folks in the industry.  He happened to tag me.

So here’s my take on what companies involved in Social Media Marketing should be considering.

In the recent past, companies have…

...continue to read "Before Consistency in Social Media Marketing"

Sunday’s New York Times surprised me with ” Fox News Joins a Social Network, but Not Its Parent’s Site”

“Fox News Channel wants more friends. But instead of reaching out on the News Corporation’s own social network, MySpace, the cable news channel is choosing to network on the site’s chief rival, Facebook.

Think it has anything to do with MySpace’s existing partnership with MSNBC? Fox says it has more to do with audience.”

This is a sign of the maturity of social media,…

...continue to read "Is Facebook The Right Choice For MySpace Owners?"

Hat tip to Sam Decker for pointing out this anthropological introduction to YouTube by Prof. Mike Wesch who presented this lecture at the Library of Congress on June 23rd, 2008. This is fascinating for those interested in understanding why people do the things they do.

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...continue to read "An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube"

In the technology universe, two companies dominated most of 2007’s headlines and lined many pockets. Writes Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, “This has been a good year for Apple believers — the stock is up a whopping 138%. In comparison, Google, the other stock market darling is up a mere 54%.”

And 2008 also looks to be another sweet year for Apple. Stephen Coleman, CIO at Daedalus Capital, which is invested heavily in Apple, told Bloomberg News, “There’s so…

...continue to read "Marketing Lessons From Apple"

Josh Porter of Bokardo.com is becoming one of my favorite blog authors.

Tucked away as part of the new Open Social initiative launched last week, Google engineers offered an interesting best practices document of social design dos and don’ts.

Social Design Best Practices

The list of best practices are as follows:

1. Engage Quickly - (my interpretation: provide value within 30 seconds) 2. Mimic Look and Feel - (make your widget look like the page it is in) 3. Enable Self Expression - (let people personalize their widgets)…

...continue to read "Social Media Design Best Practices From Google"

Marshall Sponder shares an interesting comScore study that illustrates what we at Future Now have been saying for many years: shopping cart and form abandonment happens well before people reach the form.

I’m always thrilled when additional evidence surfaces.

The majority of abandonment issues can be fixed if you focus on answering visitors’ questions earlier in the “funnel” or purchase consideration process. Persuasion Architecture™ (define) is designed to anticipate the questions people have and facilitate the momentum required for them to accomplish their goals.

We’ve been solving this…

...continue to read "What You Don’t Know About Form Abandonment"

It’s a sad day in social media when Facebook deletes Ranger Rick, the National Wildlife Federation’s beloved spokes-raccoon.

On Facebook, networks grow organically — often slowly — and by deleting Ranger Rick, the NWF’s entire 500-person network was brutally poached.

Sure, this public relations gaff seems more to do with a flawed policy and/or housekeeping algorithm than contempt for nature conservation, but it’s still absurd. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so scandalicious if it weren’t for the fact that Paris Hilton and Hillary…

...continue to read "Facebook Deletes Ranger Rick, Saves Paris Hilton Clones"

A lot has been written about Second Life over the past few days, mostly because it seems marketers are fleeing the popular online community in droves. After a mad rush by large brands to plant their flag in Second Life, folks like CenterNetworks‘ Allen Stern are questioning whether the virtual world really needs a “Ben & Jerry’s Island.”

We spent most of the session on the “Ben & Jerry’s” island. During the session, we were able to fly around, look at a wall…

...continue to read "Should Marketers Get a Second Life, or a First One?"

Yesterday was one of those days. You know, the multiple Excedrin days that begin far too early in the AM, talking about far too serious things before the coffee’s set in… and extending way too far into the evening.

We’ve all been there.

As business owners, these are not the customers we’re typically looking for. Picture the Comcast phone rep who answers the phone when this person comes home to no digital TV service during the big game, or the Amtrak phone rep who has…

...continue to read "How to Not Get a Testimonial…"

Mashable’s headline got my attention, too. You can read ‘MySpace is Better Than Porn‘ for yourself but here’s an excerpt:

“Well, almost. The Economist (via Computers.net) has pulled up the Hitwise stats to show that social networks are about to overtake sex sites in the US any day now. The metric being measured is percentage share of site visits, with % visits to sites like MySpace, Bebo and Facebook on the increase, and % visits to porn sites going down (no pun intended).…

...continue to read "Mashable: “MySpace is Better Than Porn”"