We were recently meeting with one of the top executives of a Fortune 500 company and discussing the power and dynamics of social networks.
The issue being discussed was whether creating a “social network for customer feedback” was a good or bad thing for the organization. One of the executives commented “I’d hate to empower our [...]

Social network operators are constantly trying to add “stickiness” to their networks aimed at bring users back frequently. They understand the bell curve of user knowledge, experience and understanding or lack of understanding.
Vying for our attention, and those of our friends, they strategize on partnerships, new technology, content and marketing tactics to create the [...]

Brands are hiring people to lead their “social initiatives“. Armed with some perceived power afforded by the new position these individuals charge forward with initiatives to help the brands become more social and responsive to customers.
They engage in Twitter, get their brands positioned with a blog, gain presence in “communities” and try to position [...]

Social Media, blogging, social video, networking etc. can be confusing for those just entering the space. Added to this confusion is the daily releases of new technology, new sites, new bells and whistle and the ongoing onslaught of business jumping into the space. Many individuals and organizations react to the hype and jump in unprepared, [...]

The word ridiculous means literally, laughable, from rid?re to laugh, arousing or deserving ridicule : absurd, preposterous.
Everyday we watch the news and announcement of developments surrounding the social web. Some of what we see is ground breaking progress while other stories seem absolutely ridiculous.
Subsequently we’ve decided to write a periodic [...]

Sometime you wonder how the minds of leaders were programmed to think, or should we say, not to think about the customer experience first. The blogosphere screams with stories of major brands being anti-social to the customer.
Check out this one: Want To Win Customers? Don’t Be Like A Wireless Carrier Posted July 11th, 2008 [...]

When people discuss all this “social stuff” it sounds like a different language to a lot of other people. The virtual world has a language all of its own. Learning a new language takes time, practice and understanding. Business leaders don’t typically have a lot of extra time to practice and understand a new language. [...]

Every few weeks I come across an article, website, blogger, or bump into one of my friends in the search engine marketing business and I’m reminded of something about SEO I take for granted. It seems obvious to link keywords, make sure that keywords are located in H1 tags, and that my navigation isn’t [...]

I landed on another business website recently that need a blog update, bad. I would love to link to their site as an example of what not to do, but that wouldn’t be professional. Instead, I will start at the top and work my way down using that site as an example of [...]

Do a Google search on “blog optimization” and you will come away thinking search engines are the only ones who read blogs. It’s fascinating how the idea of optimization seems to ignore the land of the living. Don’t misread me, SEO is critical to your blog being found by the right readers. [...]