Tag Archives: social marketing

Vine campaigns give Android users the finger

This is a quick rambling blog post, but just something I think is relevant right now; the fact that Vine campaigns give Android users the finger.

I love Vine.  I think it’s awesome, and the future of social visual content…at least until the next really cool, trendy thing comes along.   So, I want to make that clear:  I love Vine.

However, Android users don’t get to experience Vine.  They are missing out.  And, that’s totally fine.  Twitter and Apple can have their love fest.  That is totally their call and they are entitled to it.  Remember when Instagram was only available for Apple, for like, 50 years?  OK, it wasn’t that long, but as an Android user it felt that way.  All the cool kids were making Android users feel like they were last picked on the kickball team.   Bitter?  Of course.  Can you tell?

And that’s Android users’ fault for using Android.  I totally get the argument.  But that’s not what I’m really talking about here.  Most Android users that I know would rather chew glass than get an iPhone, and vice versa.   So, it is what it is.vine-twitter

There are a freaking ton of Android users out there.  Well, how many is a “freaking ton?”  I wish I knew.  I couldn’t find any hard data detailing numbers of users for Android vs. iO6, just a bunch of infographics that made me want to throw up.  I spent a whole 3 minutes looking.   So, the factual, data-driven argument is extremely weak.  I know.  But we all know there are a “freaking ton” of Android users out there.

Why does this matter to a Vine branded campaign?

If you are a brand and you are running a trendy new Vine campaign, maybe hashtag driven for example, you are catering only to Apple (iOS) users.  Literally.  And that might completely be your strategy, but just keep that in mind.  You are basically promoting a campaign on other social channels and giving Android users the finger.  You’re missing out on a potentially large chunk of your audience and community that might love to participate in something like the Vine campaign.   So just be cognizant of how and where you are promoting it.

Instagram branded campaigns did not hit the scene with a vengeance until Instagram was opened up to Android about  a year ago.  Just sayin…

So for those of you with brands out there that are looking in to running a Vine campaign, just think about your Android fan base.  What about them?  Maybe it doesn’t matter to you.  Maybe this campaign is just a test and learn, which is great.  Maybe you don’t care that Vines also cannot be embedded or shared to Facebook, where most of your fans probably are already surfing around just waiting for new content.

If you’re targeting Twitter users and Apple users, then a Vine campaign is perfect right now.

That’s all I’m saying.  Just think about what mobile crowds you might be alienating.

But I love Vine.  I really do.

Facebook – my quick take on the newer news feed

facebook screenshot

I watched the livestream of the big Facebook announcement today, and I must say, I was really surprised that the last guy that spoke was not wearing a hoodie.

That being said, everything else was very Facebooky.  A relatively informal presentation, but with big hitting information.

I am absolutely not reporting on what changes were discussed.  I leave that to the Mashable and TechCrunch’s of the world.  However, I did want to share some of my very quick takeaways.  These are my initial thoughts before ever actually using the new newsfeed, so take it for what it’s worth.

  • It’s all about evolving, and doing that with stories.   The most prominent way to tell these stories on Facebook?  Photos.  Other media like videos.  Third party shares from sites like Pinterest…and a slew of others excluding Vine.   Facebook recognizes what people are doing on Facebook.  I can tell you with complete confidence that nothing kills it on Facebook (in my industry) like an awesome photo.  Nothing else comes close.   This is good news for those that want more visually pleasing stories from friends, but it’s also good news for brands.  Bigger, richer media is a big positive.   Of course, this means that brands will have to be even more creative to compete for that precious real estate.  As always but possibly even more now than ever – the best/highest virality content wins.
  • That precious real estate… from the sounds of it not a lot will change for brands immediately with the changes.  There will still be a main “Most Recent” newsfeed that includes everything under the sun, with all of the Facebook algorithms we all know and love to hate.  The curve ball here are the new separate newsfeeds that users can “switch” to.   Friends only.  Brands only.  Games only.  Whatever else only.  Will people use them?  If they do, and use them a lot, this will hurt brands and make it even moreso pay to play.  And even your ads will have to be more strategic to end up in the right feeds, correct targeting, you name it.  If people are lazy and still just use their main landing feed, things will probably stay pretty much the same.  That’s my guess.  I could be wrong – we’ll know as we use it, but that’s how it appears right now.  And I do think people will use the friends only feed.  Why not?  It’s very cool and gets rid of terrible brand posts telling you to “like this post if you love cats.”
  • Facebook is really obsessed with newspapers.
  • Ads will continue to play in the convergence arena, meaning that even though you’re paying for the reach, you still have to earn maximum reach with quality content within your ad.  The whole owned, earned, paid world on Facebook comes together and is eventually going to be what brands have to do be seen at all….  Apparently ads will be much bigger within the newsfeed which is great news.  But, while this works in brands’ favor, it also works against them.  People might get annoyed with the huge ads and start using those new feeds more and more, and inadvertently cut out brand content.   Catch 22 for brands in a way.  They’ll be chasing people around from feed to feed.
  • The overall concept with “everything is bigger” is very cool.  As a Facebook user it’s awesome and I’m really looking forward to it.  As a social marketer I’m kind of making the Jim Halpert face.   I think there are some really good things and some new challenges to overcome.  As always, keep feeding your communities real, great content that will keep them coming back.  That’s how you’ll win.   Brands will adapt.  We always do.  It’s how marketing is now.tumblr_mdaldqkTck1qgy27g

2013: A Year to not be annoying as a social business

This whole social media thing is finally not “new.”  The big social business boom of 2008 was several years ago.  If that was the business world’s freshman year; it has now graduated.  If you are a business that’s been around for a while and just starting or trying to figure social out – you are behind.  The businesses that have been doing it for years have been able to try and fail, try and succeed, and figure out what the goals are for their brand(s) with social media.   Many have gotten it right.  And, many are still looking for a map.

Luckily for you, if you are new to social business, there are a gagillion blogs and articles and “best practices” out there to learn from.  I still completely think that first hand experience with social media is the way to learn, but if you want to dive into a bunch of articles and claim you know it all…go for it.   You’re not alone.

Now back to this whole 2013 thing…Happy New Year!  I promise that wasn’t sarcastic.  Seriously, happy newest of years.  It’s a new beginning.  A start over for some.  And in the world of social media for business- the year to not be annoying.

It’s been long enough now.  Brands should know the following things below to avoid being annoying in 2013.  And I don’t just mean a little nuisance, but the ‘you will get “unliked” or “hidden” at a rapid rate in 2013 if you keep doing these things.’  People are generally not idiots.  People don’t feel the need to tell a retail brand what they’re doing for their Saturday any longer.  The same things that might have worked in 2010 or 2011 won’t work now.  So, to the community managers and social strategists out there….avoid these things:

1) Trying to sneak the word “LIKE” into your post with a goal of your fans subliminally seeing it and thinking, “Hey, I like this sentence.  I will click “like” so the brand feels good about themselves, and because they capitalized the word LIKE, they are clever and I’ve never seen that before.  Amazing.”

2) Hashtagging until the cows come home.  I don’t know when the cows are coming home, but it’s not anytime soon apparently.  The cows needs Google Maps.  If you are using a hashtag, or maybe two, use it with purpose – as part of a strategy or theme.  Just throwing in 7 hashtags in hopes that a trending tag will pick it up looks like your keyboard puked all over your tweet.

3) Auto-posting your tweets directly to Facebook, especially when they include Twitter-only functionality like @ mentions and hashtags.  This one should’ve died off in 2010 but I still see it.  And when I do I give off an evil laugh.

4) Asking your fans things that they could care less about talking about with your brand, in hopes of getting some quick engagement.  Engagement just to get engagement is pointless engagement.  That means you’re just in it for the numbers with no weight or meaning behind them.  Random questions worked really well a few years ago.  But I’ve seen first hand from my experience as well as with many other big brands – people are just getting plain bored with this type of content.  Social media and content is evolving and getting bigger and better than ever.  You’re not surfing around on Facebook to tell a paper towel brand what your New Year’s resolutions are (no offense to any paper towel brand).  ”What are you guys up to today?”  This opened-ended, off-brand question still gets engagement if you have tons of fans, as some people are simply destined to jump at an opportunity to partake, but it’s so annoying.   And if you have tons and tons of fans you probably aren’t even responding to most of the comments, so if you say “relationship building” you can just go hang out somewhere with those cows.

5) Trying to run a Facebook contest on your wall.  This hasn’t been allowed now, in very straight-forward writing, for over a year now.  Although it really has never been allowed – it was just cracked on hardcore just over a year ago.  Smaller brands still get away with it.  Others get warnings, and the really bad rule-breakers get their pages shut down, apparently.  As a community manager, just know better.  There is a right way to do these things.

There are more, but these are what stick out in my mind as something I keep seeing brands doing that I would classify as annoying.  Something to look for in 2013.  Again, Happy New Year!

-Jeff

 

All thoughts and opinions above are mine and mine only.

more businesses need to be on foursquare

Remember a few years ago when some of your friends would “check-in” to every damn place they went during a day?  Remember how annoyed you were when you’d see these as status updates?  Yeah, me too.

But, I eventually became intrigued with what all the fuss was about.  More and more people were starting to use gps-based check-in apps and I figured that there must be something cool going on or it wouldn’t be exploding the way it was.  This was two years ago.

At the time, Foursquare was primarily just a check-in app.  People would let other people know where they were and what they were doing.  Photos could be attached and the check-ins could be shared on other social media platforms.  The venue lists were kind of a mess and tons of duplicates existed.  It was still relatively new, so the base of locations was still in set-up mode.  Unfortunately, tons of users took it upon themselves to create the same venue, several times.  Yeah, so it was kind of messy at first.

They’ve come a long way and Foursquare as it exists today is much smoother, cleaner and has much more functionality.  Venues have also been sorted out for the most part.  All of the things I mention above about checking in, sharing and beyond still definitely hold true, but it’s become way more of a social engagement tool.  Actual legit brand pages can be created now, just like on Facebook or a slew of other networks.  Brands can “check-in” from their computer (they don’t actually have to physically be somewhere) and share photos of different locations they operate, and these can be shared on Twitter and, Facebook, just to name a few.  The brand can add “tips” for their venues or locations, and these can be shared as well.

The multiplying effect has huge potential.  Fans share a check-in with a photo from your business with all of their Facebook friends.  Boom, free advertising.

Unlocking specials is a great tool for businesses to create compelling offers that can help bring in actual revenue.  There are several different types that can be set up, they can run for different periods of time and deliver unique rewards.  Revenue + social engagement?  Win-Win.

Another really cool function from the brand page side is that demographics can be collected on the back-end of users that check-in to your business.  While this is only a snapshot of people that use Foursquare and have checked-in, it’s still valuable information.  If you use Foursquare a lot and let your fans know about it, this snapshot could become a bigger deal for you as more people become aware and check-in.

You gain followers just like on Twitter and these fans can follow lists you create that pertain to your brand.  For example, if you are a restaurant chain, you could have a list for your friendliest family locations in New York with pictures of each location.  This helps potential guests and allows you to promote your brand in a creative way.  The platform of Foursquare has become a much bigger deal, striking a partnership with American Express, among others.  It serves as much more of a travel planner, dining guide or online directory.  They’ve done a great job with it and it keeps improving.

Overall, the ability for brands to check-in and humanize their presence, share photos, tips and specific lists, and creative compelling special offers – makes Foursquare a very valuable tool for businesses.  More companies should jump in.  The more legit venues that exist on Foursquare, the better for all users.

Google+ is still one of my favorites

I jumped on the Google+ bandwagon right away when in launched in the summer of 2011.  I was skeptical at first, mainly because Facebook was the boss (and currently still is).  I couldn’t understand how or why Google would want to dive into this arena with a completely new social platform.  And then I remembered…

They’re Google.  They are doing it because they can.

I’ve been impressed with Google’s commitment to their social network.  It seems like they are constantly updating the actual website, mobile and tablet apps, integrating +1 buttons all over the web, and now even adding a G+ button on their patented, well known search engine homepage.  The latter point was pretty recent and really showed the world how much they are in this to win it.  My G+ connections are right there on my gmail homepage and accessible for chat and/or a hangout (Google+’s group video chat).  It’s all integrated and ever-growing.

And Android?  Google+ is going to be taking full advantage of the alternative to iPhones.  New users to the Android interface will be asked if they want to create a Google+ account right off then bat when setting up their phone.

The prediction right now is that Google+ will have 400 million users by the end of 2012.  That would be half of all current Facebook users in only a year and a half.  Wow.  Took them over seven years to get here.

I’ve said from the get-go that this is going to be huge, and many of my friends and colleagues still think I’m crazy and refuse to get involved.  Google has so much power behind it, the two biggest search engines (Google and YouTube) – they control a HUGE chunk of the web.

I’ve felt since last year that Google has been releasing just bits and pieces of Google+ in order to keep us interested, and it will just continue to grow and innovate, chipping away at Facebook.  I’m not staying it will overtake Facebook, but it will be right there.  And, the audiences are very different right now, so they aren’t really to be used the same way.  Google+ is not for event promotions, contests, and sales ploys, like Facebook.  It’s a more techy audience that is into the innovation and change, and happy and refreshed to be connecting with folks outside of Facebook.  The engagement and interaction between businesses and fans is very honest and open.  The G+ folks are pretty into social media.  They had to be to dive into a new, unknown platform, right?!

I’ve been a big fan from the start and I still am.  I love it for personal use and I love it for business use.  Getting in circles is the way to grow your follower base quickly, just another little thing that makes Google+ different and cool.

Looking forward to see where it will be at the turn of the new year.

Twitter…slowing down while trying to grow

No, I am not leaving Twitter. Yet.  I will at least wait this one out.  And that wait, in my opinion, is getting shorter and shorter.

Before I get into any kind of facts or numbers I’ll just throw out some observations, which are completely not based on any solid fact or number.  Imagine that?  Over the last several months it looks as though the Twitterverse is slowing down.  This is based on what feels like a huge decrease in activity from my own personal followers and friends and way less mentions.  I know that you are probably thinking, “Well, then don’t put out terrible content.”  Ha.  This could be true, but what I am saying about it slowing down could also be true.

I have 350 followers.  Not huge, but a solid number made up of personal friends, business colleagues, industry experts and of course some randoms.  This group in the past had consistently been interactive and engaging.  Not so much anymore. I also follow many of these people, many of which barely even tweet now.  Just here and there, random updates.  Nothing like 2009-2011.  The entertainment factor of Twitter has taken a huge hit, at least for me, that’s for sure.

Now on to some numbers and facts.

A recent article by TechCrunch had some big news- Pinterest has now passed Twitter on the referral traffic generating scale.  In other words, Pinterest is now simply moving people around the web more than Twitter.  Businesses should take note.

The use has definitely declined by the tweeps on Twitter.  Mashable’s visual history of Twitter infograph lays out exactly that point.  150 million of the 200 million registered users do not log in to Twitter by day, and half of its registered users only log in once a month.  Of every 100 accounts, 20 are completely inactive, dead accounts.  And spammers?  Yeah, the accounts where people are following no one and also have no followers, and they mention you in a tweet with a random link?  Yeah.  Those. Are. Sweet.

Twitter isn’t exactly the log in once a month kind of social platform.  If you’re doing that, you’re kind of missing the point.

As I was thinking about this subject for a blog, I saw a Lowe’s TV commercial.  I found this very interesting and right on par with what I’m saying…at the end they flashed their social platform icons: Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.  No Twitter.  They do still have it on their website, but what does that say that they’d scrap Twitter from their social priorities to their television audience?  I think it says a lot.

There is also a flip-side to this argument, and Twitter is doing everything they can to keep it strong.  They recently launched brand pages for some hand-picked lucky companies to test out.  To be honest, at this point it isn’t much to get excited about.  Check out Coca-cola’s brand Twitter page; not really many bells and whistles.  There is space for a larger image or expanded video links with a thumbnail, and then a banner at the top where you can feature a hashtag or tagline.  Exciting.  Sarcasm.

Some folks do believe Twitter is doing more and more to enhance the brand pages.  I guess it’s yet to be seen, but simply upping the monetization of Twitter advertising doesn’t really cut it, in my opinion.

We’ll see.

I have always been a huge fan of Twitter and have it used it consistently for the last several years.  I completely believe in the power and virality of Twitter and absolutely love it from a business perspective for putting out news and updates, but that’s so one-sided.  However, with the ever-increasing “dead” accounts and spammers, and the decrease in use by the actually active accounts, it just seems to be moving in the wrong direction.  I will leave you with this last thought: Twitter will slowing fade away for personal, active users and will grow for businesses and celebrities.  People will simply follow along and it will continue to move in the direction of one-sided broadcasts as opposed to interaction and engagement.  This is an area where Facebook will leave Twitter in the dust in the year to come.

Pinterest is the new Napster? Oh boy

The copyright and legality problems with Pinterest have really picked up some serious steam lately, and the media has been all over it.  I think I see a new article about this issue each day.  Yesterday I posted a new blog about whether or not your business should be on Pinterest, and the questions you can ask yourself to help you make that decision.  My fourth bullet point touched on the legal risks and I recommended sticking to only posting your own images and property from your website.   I definitely think that is the way to go, now more than ever.

I read another article today that really struck me.  A lawyer named Kristen is comparing Pinterest to Napster, and drew parallels between the two and the ultimate legal collapse of the music sharing pioneer.  It really got me thinking – maybe this is true?  The pinning and re-pinning of other people’s work and property is not really legal, and that is the entire premise of the site.  And Pinterest basically makes it very clear in their legal jargon that it is not their responsibility if you get caught.

So, while the site is huge and continuing to grow, could it be head on with its own demise?  I’m interested to see where this story goes and if some actual real lawsuits will hit the scene.  When that started happening is when Napster started dying.  I guess we’ll see, but it’s definitely something worth watching.

Right now it’s a great social marketing tool if done right.  But it looks like most people and businesses are not doing it….”right.”

you have a business…should you be on Pinterest?

The title asks the question.  I will help you answer it.

So, you either own a business or manage social media for a business, or you are in some capacity responsible for social marketing decisions for your company.  You want to be innovative and stay “ahead of the curve” but you are skeptical about Pinterest.  You have been reading tons of articles and blogs about it but still just don’t know what to do.

You know the site has been creating astronomical numbers for both web traffic to itself but also in driving visitors to other websites.  You want to be apart of this.  But, should you be?

I’m not here to list off the numbers and stats.  The social media news sources can do that.  I will say, however, that Pinterest is huge.  A beast of its own kind and continuing to grow.  While it has been overwhelmingly used by individual people, businesses are starting to get involved.

It’s not an easy and quick decision when thinking about diving into a completely new social media platform.  There has to be a solid reason other than that you just want to do it.  As with any business social presence, there is no point to be on there if you aren’t going to use it constantly, interact and engage with people.  So, you need to ask yourself a few things before diving into Pinterest - this might help you decide if the picture-pinning behemoth is right for you.

  • What is your goal?  Is it to drive web traffic to your site through the images you pin?  Then, is it ultimately to sell and drive revenue?
  • Who are you hoping to connect with? Is it a different fan base than your other social platforms?  Right now Pinterest is heavily used by women.  Are you looking to tap into a new audience by way of images?
  • What do you have to offer to the Pinterest community? Other than just your brand, are you there to share your product by way of pinned images, experiences from using your product, interesting looks into your company, or something else?  Remember, users out there on Pinterest can already be pinning images from your site (unless you have blocked the application) which is like free advertising.  Do you need to be on there doing it too?  Check to see what’s out there from your brand already, first.
  • Do you have enough imagery worth pinning? Companies are starting to hear rumblings of copyright problems with images they pin from other companies and organizations.  BE CAREFUL.  To be safe it’s smart to only pin images from your own site or your own social networks that allow it (Facebook does not).  This way you can just avoid this problem, but, do you have enough photo content that merits having a Pinterest page and keeps it interesting?
  • Are you able to be constantly re-pinning, liking and sharing? Pinterest lives and breathes on engagement and interaction.  When you are re-pinning others’ images your connections rise.  Time management.  Can you take on another large social platform right now?

Pinterest will give back what you put in.  If you set up a page and don’t touch it for a month, you won’t get much out of it outside of the initial first day on the scene.  If you are all over it at least a few times a week, you should see some growth in numbers to your website as well as followers and interactions on your actual Pinterest page.

The last big piece of this (and the most important), simply put, is that it depends what your business does.  Other social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, I believe, have a place for every kind of business in some way, shape, or form.  This is not true for Pinterest, where 100% of the content is visual.  If you are an accounting company, a law firm, or do taxes for people, you probably don’t need to be on Pinterest.  Answering this question is up to you and needs to be given a lot of thought.  Do you need to be on Pinterest?  I can’t tell you yay or nay, but the questions I ask above as well as the biggie down here should help you find the answer.

The best thing to do is to play around on there, get comfortable with it and see what you think.  Who knows, you might find it very “pinteresting.”  OK, that is a terrible, overused joke.  Had to get it in there somewhere…

Facebook timeline for businesses – i’m a big fan

It has now been a week since Facebook launched timeline for business pages.  Many of us have played around with timeline for our personal profiles for a few months now and have been anxiously awaiting the business version.  Or at least I was anxiously awaiting timeline for businesses.  The former news feed wall style was starting to look and feel like sooo 2010.  I have been reading about what might be available for pages for a while now, but some of what was out there has proven to just be guessing.  Whereas some folks thought the cover image could basically be used as a massive, beautiful display ad for your company…it couldn’t actually be further from the truth.

Facebook has put their fist down regarding what can and cannot be done to your cover image, which is the 851 x 315 pixel image that lives at the top of any page (that has converted to timeline).  They came out with their set of guidelines and ruined some of the creative fun.  I definitely cannot blame them, though.  If companies could use the cover image as a huge banner ad, for free no less, it would kill Facebook’s lifeblood – paid advertising.  So basically you cannot sell or advertise anything on your business’s cover image with a call to action, a price, or a promotion.  And, the image you choose to put up there definitely cannot be someone else’s image.  Use good judgement.

In other words, the rules and regulations will force companies to get even more creative to make good use of the awesome space up top.  I am really looking forward to seeing what companies do with this over the next couple of months.  A shameless little plug of my own, I’ve done a few different things thus far with Keystone’s cover image.  I’ve used it to broadcast the snow totals for the day and I’ve also played around with collage-style art showcasing the resort as a whole.  I have many other ideas but I will be keeping those to myself for now ;) …the fun has really just begun.

A huge goal for companies will be to get fans to actually go spend more time on their page.  Pre-timeline, the way the vast majority of fans got their company fix was just in their own news feed, but they didn’t go back to the business page since that initial “like.”  Now, with all of the new beautification, layouts and possibilities for creativity, companies will be looking to engage in different ways.  One great way to do this is to add cool events from the past to the timeline with images and stories.  Check out what the US Army did – it’s amazing.  Keep it interesting. “Highlight” the best photo or video of the week and “pin” the most important or interesting message to the top of the wall for up to seven days.  Use the new tools and advance the way you use Facebook as a business!

The platform is changing and businesses will have to adapt.  The companies that grow with Facebook and look to take advantage of timeline will be the winners in the social marketing stratosphere.  And by winning I am talking about engagement, interactions and connections with the community.  Anyone can spend a ton of money and buy new fans (which also inflates the “people talking about” stats) with acquisition campaigns, but not anyone can actually do a superior job connecting with fans once you have them, and continuously giving them awesome content.  There is nothing wrong with running ads to acquire fans – that’s the game and that’s just how it works now, but you have to be able to engage with those humans.  If you acquire them and post just to post, or don’t respond and interact, you will just as easily lose those fans.  (And I am fully aware there are ads and campaigns that are solely for the purpose of engagement and not fan acquisition, which is awesome).

Timeline comes with some sweet new functionality for business pages and I’m personally stoked about it.  I’m in head first and can’t wait to see what they come up with next.  Change is good.  And with social media, change is one of the only things that’s consistent.

I’m a Facebook timeline fan.

an intro to….me.

Oh look, a blog about social media!  That’s something new and different.  I know, I know.  Seriously?  Now?  Well, yes.  Now.  I just have too much to say and I need somewhere to put these thoughts.  I will not be a news source like some social media blogs – just passing on stories and basically paraphrasing the meat of the excerpt and calling it their own “blog.”  No, I will take hot topics related to social media and craft my own opinions based off first-hand experience.

I live and breathe social media.  I lead/manage the social strategy for one of the biggest ski resorts in North America.  So, I think I have something of value to add. And, if I don’t get many readers?  Oh well.  I still want to put my thoughts somewhere.  My mom will read them.

After telling a hilarious joke.

I deal with this stuff around the clock, on weekends and anything in between.  I love social media for myself, but I mainly love it for marketing…for business.  The possibilities are endless at this point, and it’s very fun and exciting to be involved in the future of marketing.  We’ve still only seen the “tip of the iceberg” for lack of a better generic cliche.  It’s generally still so new that there really aren’t “experts” out there yet.  There are folks that absolutely know more than others, are better educated about it and downright get it.  But experts?  Not so sure anyone can claim that.  We’re all still learning, innovating and adapting as social media expands and changes.  It’s very quick to change and even quicker to grow.

I’m a firm believer that no matter what industry you are in that there is always some method in which social media and marketing can provide a benefit. Different industries and markets will have different uses and strategies, but the general concepts, thoughts and theories will hold true.  For example, a cruise ship line will want to market the experience of their vacations with amazing images, videos, guest testimonials, among other content that will envoke a true feeling when connecting with their brand, and people will in turn want to have that feeling of their vacation experience.  Whereas a lawn mowing service would most likely aim to provide tips for grass care, optimal methods for lawn maintenance, photos of their awesome work, and eventually leading consumers to connect with them and follow their brand based on a need for their service.

Everyone has an opinion. So, this is why I figured it was finally time for me to jump in the blogging game to share my thoughts, observations, opinions, strategy and whatever else ends up on here – all related to social media.  All from my brain.  If you do feel so compelled as to tune in, then, thank you!  And, if you also feel so compelled as to completely disagree with me on an issue, I also thank you.  That not only means you actually read my blog(s) but that it created some kind of emotion in you.  Social media is an open debate.  I can go on and on about it almost as much as I can about sports.  We’ll save that for a different day.

Until then – thanks for checking in!  No Foursquare pun intended ;)