Source Nielsen Online is reporting that nine out of the top 10 newspapers experienced growth in online traffic between December 2007 to December 2008. The average growth across the board equated to 16%. Here’s the breakdown: NYTimes.com Dec 07 (000): 17,1777 Dec 08 (000): 18,187 Percentage Change: 16 USATODAY.com Dec 07 (000): 9,939 Dec 08 (000): 11,420 Percentage Change: 15 WashingtonPost.com Dec 07 (000): 8.478 Dec 08 (000): 9,470 Percentage Change: 12 LA Times Dec 07 (000): 4,607 Dec 08…
The State of Social Media 2008
Source I’ve been on a recent whirlwind speaking tour recently, sharing and learning all things related to the socialization of marketing and service as well as how to measure these new strategies and tactics. From San Diego to New York to SF back to New York and then Vegas and SF again, I was reminded that no matter how grand an expert one purports to be, the truth is that we’re all still trying to figure this out as it…
Introducing The Conversation Prism
Last year, Robert Scoble and Darren Barefoot debuted the Social Media Starfish to visualize and document the rapidly evolving landscape for social tools, services, and networks. If you work in marketing, public relations, advertising, customer service, product development, or any discipline that’s motivated, shaped, and directed by customers, peers, stakeholders and influencers, monitoring and in some cases, participating in online conversations is critical in competing for the future. Over the last month, I worked with Jesse Thomas of JESS3, to…
New Communication Theory and the New Roles for the New World of Marketing
In the era of the “new” social Web, communications is actually evolving back to its origins of communicating with people, not at them. It may seem implied, but communications does not, for the most part, embody two-way discussions. Over the years, communications has evolved into a one-way distribution channel that broadcasts messages at target audiences. In the process, communications stopped being about communication, focusing instead on the marketing aspects of top-down message push and control, what we now commonly refer…
The Art of Conversation – It’s About Listening Not Marketing
Discussions and debates on the viability, necessity, and effectiveness of conversational aka social media marketing continue to roar across the Social Web. There are three sides to this equation: – New media pioneers and practitioners who defend and evangelize the art of conversations because they’re investing in people and their feedback and have the experience to showcase value and ROI. – Social Media marketers who embrace social tools and promote their use in corporate/brand marketing and Public Relations, learning in…
The Essential Guide to Social Media – A Free eBook
I’ve been involved with Social Media since the beginning and the more I work, write, and speak, the more I learn. Over the years I’ve observed a series of questions and reactions that I’ve documented along the way and have actively included them in my posts, ebooks, contributions, as well as at my speaking appearances. Over the last year, I’ve assembled the most commonly asked questions and the answers into a free, downloadable ebook as a way of contributing to…
Social Media Continues to Rival Traditional Media
As each day passes, we’re presented with new information that documents the decline of traditional media in favor of online counterparts and new media competitors. It seems that newspapers are among the hardest hit with circulation and print advertising down – forcing layoffs across the country. The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) recently released a study showing newspaper Web sites attracted an average of about 66 million unique visitors in the first quarter, up about 12 percent over the same…
Zude, Where’s My Social Network?
One of the more talked about companies at the Web 2.0 Expo is Zude, an interesting example of what’s possible in the realm of social computing. The world maybe doesn’t need another social network, but what we sure could use is a platform that allows us to aggregate social elements from all over the web into one place – how we want, when we want. Zude officially announced in beta and allows users to grab elements from any social networking…
Will The Real Social Media Expert Please Stand Up?
Social Media is everything you know and nothing about what you think or do in marketing. Sounds strange eh? It’s true though. Think about how you approach marketing campaigns today and the picture will become a bit clearer. – You evaluate target demographics. – Develop strategic messages. – Conduct an audit or focus group. – Revise messages and fine-tune the plan. – Determine the broadcast mechanisms to push your content. – Go live. – Monitor the response. – Evaluate the…
Making Mistakes in Social Media Marketing
We all make mistakes. It’s amazing how much saying sorry helps. But even saying sorry doesn’t fix those affected 100%. We’re all learning together, at least those of us who don’t pretend we’re already experts. Making mistakes in Social Media Marketing is a lot like sticking daggers into a wooden fence. Just because you apologize and pull them out, they still leave the visible scars for others to see, feel, or point to. Sometimes apologies help people feel better, but…
