Julio Ojeda-Zapata, and the people at Happy About Books, have released a book designed to help businesses decide how best to use Twitter for business.
He has this to say about this new venture,
As a top U.S. technology journalist, I’ve created a unique blend of professional reportage and social-media insight. My book is based on months of research into Twitter best practices in business, as well as my own extensive Twitter use.
“Twitter Means Business” profiles businesses of all types and sizes that have learned to exploit Twitter in a variety of creative, effective ways.
The book provides an intimate tour of the…
Peter Kim has done the leg work for you. He’s created an ebook with a collection of forward looking thoughts on the social media space for 2009. The contributors include 14 individuals who live and breath social media. The individual authors provide insightful content that will give you plenty to think about as you consider your own social media plans for the coming year.
JC Penny’s has come up with a clever site to help promote their jewelery line during the holiday season. There are several marketing techniques we can learn from BewareOfTheDoghouse.com:
» Create a short video (less than 5 minutes) that can be spread virally and increase brand awareness
» Use social networks, such as Facebook, to integrate with your website to help spread your message’s reach
» Find clever ways to ask for someone’s email address (e.g. give someone a warning before they go to the doghouse)
» Tie your product into every piece of the promotion - don’t loose focus on the creative
Cymberly Pierce is an…
Two well known digital media conferences are joining forces for the future. Mashable reports on the merging of Blog World Expo and New Media Expo as well as their convergence over time. The growth of these groups and now the merger, prove that new media is continuing to grow and evolve as a communications channel. Start digging in those corporate budgets or save your own pennies so you can attend the 2009 conference!
Smibs.com is in public beta now, and the easiest way to explain this service to think of linkedin, but with a project oriented interface. It allows users to find groups and work together in a convenient and easy to use format.
Using smibs.com in conjunction with smibs.com/net, the social networking side of the site, means that no you no longer have to log into different apps and sites in order to collaberate with your group. Everything can be handled right from the same pages.
This is what the blog at smibs has to say about the recent changes.
For those who have been…
Guy Kawasaki lays out 10 rules for turning Twitter into a tool on his blog.
- Forget the “influentials.”
- Defocus your efforts.
- Get as many followers as you can.
- Monitor what people are saying about you, your company, and your product.
- Ask for help.
- Make it easy to tweet on your behalf.
- Create an email list.
- Make it easy to “post to Twitter.”
- Offer advice deals to Twitter users.
- Tell the complainers where to go.
Go to his blog to read about each of these rules. They take away from Twitter being a personal updater, but if your goal is to use your account purely as a marketing tool follow his advice.
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A recent article in the NY Times about our use of digital tools, the trail we leave and privacy has been rolling around in my head. The article talks about how organizations are using the vast amounts of data that we generate through the use of GPS, cellphones, site traffic, online search, etc. to inform business decisions and product development. The term being used is collective intelligence technologies. The concern that is quietly floating in the background is what privacy risk this data may present for you and me.
The digital tools available to us today are designed to make life easier…
For those readers in the United States getting ready to settle in for a Thanksgiving food fest, help with preparations is now just a click away.
Need any last-minute ideas for recipes? Wondering how big of a turkey you need to feed your family with just a few leftovers? Want help from the live Turkey Talk Line?
This and more is available at the Butterball Turkey web site.
Think of it as the modern version of finding Native Americans to save your hide this Thanksgiving.
Electronic billboards have been taking some heat lately from officials across the country trying to regulate them more.
Al Tompkins at Poynter Online recently compiled some examples of the issues over these billboards for his Morning Meeting blog.
Business folks like them, some people are concerned about them leading to distracted drivers and still others are seeing them as a revenue source for transportation departments.
I’m not a big fan of the electronic billboards at night but during the day they don’t seem that annoying. I suppose they could be more distracting than your standard billboards. But is anybody even bothering anymore to look away…
Yelp.com and CitySearch.com are competing to be the go-to search site for everything local.
While both sites offer virually the same concept, they each have different features, some of which might help you to make up your mind about which service works better for your needs.
Yelp.com says real people, real reviews drive their site. It works better for larger, metropolitan areas. I searched my local area, and there are some reviews on the site, but many of them are random and there are only a handful of restaurant reviews for my area.
Yelp offers the option of receiving weekly emails detailing what…
