The State of Social Marketing 2012

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• December 6, 2011
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The following report is brought to you by the Pivot Conference taking place in New York on October 15-16, 2012. You can download a full copy of the report for free by clicking here.

Why Your Business Should Be on Google+

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• November 30, 2011
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Guest post by Matt Polsky, social media director for Veterans United Home Loans

By now, many of us have already started setting up our Google+ business pages, and have noticed that there’s nothing overly special about these business pages yet, since they currently lack a vanity URL, have no setting for multiple admins and closely resemble a personal page. However, they will be connected back to Google’s search engine in a way that removes the noise made by competitors.

The Force Behind Successful Brand Journalism

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• November 18, 2011
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Guest post by Todd Blecher, Communications Director, The Boeing Company

Much wisdom did Yoda accumulate. But experience with social media I think not the Jedi had. Yoda’s insistence that we “do, or do not. There is no try,” to brand journalism does not apply.

When it comes to brand journalism the instruction should be “Try. There is no do or do not.” In fact, since April, 2010, when we transformed www.boeing.com into a brand journalism platform, we’ve been all about trying. We started with modest goals and walk-then-run approach that has been essential to sustainable success.

How Social Customer Service is Changing the Culture at Comcast

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• October 14, 2011
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Comcast and service are two words that have been closely aligned and analyzed since Frank Eliason initiated the @ComcastCares program on Twitter. Eliason built a new channel for engaging customers to solve their problems. More importantly, he also developed a new infrastructure at Comcast to learn from their experiences. Frank has since joined CITI, but before his departure, he solidified the future of @ComcastCares by placing it in the hands of Bill Gerth and Kip Wetzel. Under the direction of Gerth and Wetzel, Comcast’s social customer service program continues to develop a culture of customer-centricity. At the same time, the team is leading internal efforts to transform products, processes, and services to not just respond to negative experiences, but also improve them to eliminate problems in the future.

Please Remind Me Why I Should Like, Follow, +1 You?

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• August 12, 2011
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Like us on Facebook.

Follow us on Twitter.

+1 us on Google Plus.

Sound familiar?

It’s an all too familiar request that consumers face everyday. But what are businesses doing to help convince customers why they should do so? The answer is not as pervasive as you might imagine or hope to expect. In fact, I believe that “why?” is the least asked question by businesses in social media today.

Dispelling the Darkness with Brand Journalism

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• July 28, 2011
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Guest post by Kyle Monson, a former technology journalist and editor at PC Magazine, is Content Strategy Director at JWT. Follow him on Twitter @kmonson

You probably already know this, but we marketers are the bad guys in the battle of good versus evil. One commonly employed metaphor—“The Dark Side”—is particularly apt: we hunt down Jedi masters and destroy Alderaan. The top guys in marketing might refer to themselves as ninjas, but siths is a better descriptor, depending on whom you talk to.

The Pivot Conference: Your Questions Answered, Part 1

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• June 23, 2011
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The Pivot Conference is designed for brands and their agencies and will take place October 17th and 18th in New York. This year’s theme focuses on an important shift in marketing as brands respond to “The Rise of the Social Consumer.”

As the host and editorial director for the event, I asked early registrants what it was that they wanted to know as they prepare for the event this Fall. I took some time to answer their questions and will run them as a three-part series for those with similar questions.

Welcome to the EGOsystem: How Much Are You Worth?

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• March 10, 2011
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What’s your Klout score?

How many people follow you on Twitter?

What’s your authority on Peerindex?

How are peers rating you on Honestly?

What’s your rank in Quora?

Are you tracked by Traackr?

The answers equate to a market harbinger that’s both alarming and telling…how much is your digital persona worth in today’s social economy.

Behaviorgraphics: Discovering the “Me” in Social Media

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• February 25, 2011
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Social media is a deeply personal ecosystem that I lovingly refer to as the EGOsystem. As such, there is a “me” in social media for a reason. It is quite literally a world in which we are at the center of our online experiences, a place where everything and everyone revolves around us.

Social Media and the Adaptive Business

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• February 21, 2011
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While I’m in the throes of writing the next chapter, I wanted to share a recent interview I did with BroadVision‘s Andrew Gori. Andrew asked some profound and timely questions that are worthy sharing. Following this discussion, the interview was reenacted live at BroadVision’s headquarters in Redwood City, CA as part of its Clearvale SecondFloor speaker series hosted by CEO, Dr. Pehong Chen.