Twitter grows more popular each and every day and more and more users are discovering it and putting it to use. Since the beginning, Twitter has struggled to meet this demand and it has been a big challenge for them to not only meet the current demand that their users have, but also to provide additional value to those users. One of the reasons that I have been reluctant to use Twitter on an everyday basis is that it seems very inefficient to me. ...continue

The biggest mistake that people make when they start using Twitter is to look at the numbers. They see the figure under the followers link and they believe that the bigger the number, the more successful the twitterer. That may be true. But it doesn’t have to be. True success on Twitter isn’t about how many people are following you. There are some very simple strategies than can boost follower numbers. It’s about the depth of the rela ...continue

Every successful company I’ve ever seen has had two things in common. They’ve all had great products. No advertising budget, whatever its size, can compete with experience and word-of-mouth. When a company creates garbage, people talk. They don’t buy. Companies that don’t create great products soon find that they’re not selling. But that’s the easy bit. Ideas are cheap. Production is tricky but once you have a development system ...continue

I love buying things online! What I am not fond of is the service, or should I say the lack of service, I often receive after the sale. The great speaker and human development expert Earl Nightingale once noted, "Our rewards will always be in exact proportion to our service." However, with the world markets injured by those who focused more on profiting themselves than serving the needs of others, it is clear that Mr. Nightingale’s wisdom is no ...continue

It happens at least two or three times a week. I’ll check my tweets to see who’s talking to me and I’ll spot it. Someone I don’t know will have invited me to get in touch to discuss some great idea I’ve never heard of. I’m always pleased to see that people are coming up with great ideas. I’m always flattered that people want to discuss them with me. But I’m floored to think of a reason why they think I’d respond. An ...continue

In my last several prospective client meetings, a consistent conversation has centered on the need for a social media policy. Whether you work for a progressive organization or a conservative, risk-adverse one, it seems that everyone has an opinion on the best approach. Here are some prevailing camps: 1. The Ostrich Look-A-Likes – “I’m on Facebook to keep up with my teenage daughter; it has no relevance to our business, and it’s goin ...continue

Ever since Twitter took off after winning a Web award at the SXSW show in 2007, people have been wondering how it’s going to make money. There was talk about creating special Pro accounts and charging businesses for extra features. The company picked up some cash from Microsoft who sponsored ExecTweets, a page of tweets posted by leading executives. And it earned a lot more by making deals with search engines to include its real-time c ...continue

Ask a lot of marketing “experts” what social media marketing is all about and they’ll look at you as though you’ve just fallen off Mars. “It’s all about branding!” they’ll tell you. “Nothing builds a brand faster, better, stronger than social media.” Ask them what exactly that means though, and they’ll look confused. That social media can “help with branding” has become a mantra. It’s something that every busi ...continue

When big companies first picked up on Twitter, many got it wrong. They used the company logo as their avatar, broadcast their ads and offers, ignored the people replying to them and didn’t follow anyone who wasn’t part of the company. They acted like giant firms using Twitter as a giant billboard. A few companies though got it right. They let their Twitterers use their real names and their real pictures. They allowed them to tweet about th ...continue

I know just enough to be dangerous. Seriously. I am a case study in, “Don’t wait until you have it figured out before you take action.” That being said, I take massive action and when I don’t get the results I hope for, I evaluate, readjust, and take more massive action. This seems to work for me. Somehow I have grown my online audience and lists to about 100,000 with no paid traffic. One thing that has planted itself firml ...continue