Doing Business

Doing Business — 2 Comments
30
Apr 10

In the Footsteps of the Giant: LinkedIn follows Facebook

Profiles, lists, pages, badges, mayors. The feature-set of social networks continues to evolve, and it is no surprise that the front-runner continues to be Facebook. Let’s not forget that the once ominous Myspace held the coveted best-known-methods of 2006. What we can learn from this is that even though Facebook is in front in 2010 with features and updates, they are also pushing the pace of updates amongst their competitors. Though LinkedIn might not be a direct competitor to Facebook, the hopes that it will have a sustainable offering amidst the giant implies that LinkedIn must adapt and adopt.

LinkedIn creates the Company Follow feature.

What’s New with LinkedIn? Looking to adopt the vernacular that Twitter lists and Facebook communities/pages has set forth, LinkedIn has pushed out a Company Follow feature where followers can customize the rate, method and type of information they automatically receive about the companies they want to keep track of. This is a great way to keep track of trends in personnel at an organization such as a hiring/firing, as well as understand what kind of interaction a company is having on LinkedIn-connected networks.

What can you do with this feature? Continue reading →

Doing Business / Feature Updates / smb — No Comments
28
Apr 10

SMB + Facebook

For quite some time now we have been talking to clients [clients of Quango Interaction Design] about the immidiate impact that the SMB audience can see when utilizing social media channels; prodominantly Facebook. As if 50+% of the online population in the US wasn’t enough to captivate marketing manager imaginations, Facebook has taken it upon itself to push the subject.

Facebook Storefront Window Decals

SMB Facebook Window Decals!

Continue reading →

Doing Business / Metrics — 1 Comment
23
Apr 10

Facebook 'Like'—SEO/Traffic and Brand Evolution

Tuesday afternoon, Richard Rosen and I continued to prepare for our DMA 2010 Though-Leadership lecture. Working with Richard is fun, to say he knows his stuff when it comes to Direct Marketing is an understatement—and as a Creative Director of Quango Interaction Design, a proven Social Media agency—I find that we often try and tackle subjects over a glass of wine or a mug of coffee, that are far beyond the how-to implementation and BKM’s of marketing.

Even though we feel like we might have hit-gold on how to give Direct Marketers at the DMA Annual a model that ties in their marketing wisdom with the medium of today, what interests us most is the evolution of the Facebook like button, and what it means. Continue reading →

Doing Business / location based — 1 Comment
12
Mar 10

Why Foursquare Will Win

I’m not a gambler, and I certainly do not have a crystal ball. However it is becoming pretty evident that location based social networking will continue to grow. Simply put, a higher degree of mobile device integration by some big players [Google: desktops will be replaced, Intel: showing their hand towards mobile , Apple: the iPhone was successful, what if we made it bigger? ] continues to cater to the demand for continuous connectivity—and more importantly, support for seamless real-time-location interactions.

This is not a new principle—but if we were talking about social networks as a whole, in human-development they would just be entering into adolescence. They are hormonally challenged, seeking an identity, loose with their privacy, frenetic, and awkward—all while having a great deal of potential. To boot, they have a look that they all will be ashamed of in 10 years.

So what does this mean for Foursquare?

Continue reading →

Doing Business / Metrics — 6 Comments
23
Feb 10

Visibility versus Viability

While reading mashable.com this morning I stumbled across an article by Shiv Singh, the VP and Global Social Media Lead for Razorfish—a reputable agency of which I have watched evolve over the years. What Shiv brings to our attention is an algorithm which he champions as the SIM Score.

It is no mystery that clients are demanding, and should continue to demand, more and more detailed analytics into their social media endeavors. I have been saying it to my clients and readers as much as possible—the days of friends and followers were limited, frenetic, and are now nonsensical.  With that said, I first applaud Shiv for taking a crack at the indexing of influence on social media. Shiv uses simple math, and in my opinion simple is best for communicating business objectives.

Here is where it falls short though: Continue reading →

Contests / Doing Business — 8 Comments
5
Jan 10

Foursquare for Small Businesses

In recent news, Foursquare has gone global, allowing for users to check-in from anywhere in the world, at any business. As GPS based social networks are poised to be the hottest expansion [in my opinion] in 2010 it is only right that small businesses understand what a little social-media elbow-grease can do for them.

Foursquare Social Network

Continue reading →

Doing Business — 9 Comments
27
Oct 09

Social Media Measurements for Success: Beware of Jargon

ROI is quite possibly the most abused term in marketing. It was just a matter of time before white papers, articles, and ROI evangelists hit social media without the pedigrees of a seasoned CMO or CFO to set them straight. Furthermore to frame this short write-up, ROI is a valuable tool for the measurement of a business investment, but has failed marketeers for decades just the same.

Let’s take a quick refresher on why ROI fails: Continue reading →