La Jolla, CA Social Media Marketing

On September 23rd, 2009, wrote:

Consumers who are in the know are able to find everything they want from the comfort of their armchairs via the internet. All they want is to be able to find the product or service they need without having to scroll through a bunch of useless website…

Your Voice on Social Media

On September 8th, 2009, wrote:

I recently received an email from Becky, a Chicago web designer that reached out to us for advise on a social media strategy for one of her clients. The topic of how to manage social media correctly has been a hot topic lately and I thought I would share this email. What are your thoughts on the “voice of social media?” Chris, I have one client in particular who needs a ton of hand holding, is technophobic, yet wants to make a living off info products etc. online. (sigh) I sent it to her and she’s convinced that she should be doing more, but wants to hire an Indian company to “manage” her social media. My gut says that having someone else do it for you destroys your voice and people will be able to tell, but maybe I’m wrong here. Thoughts? Becky Davis 773-875-1792 www.beckydavisdesign.com Becky, The short answer is you are 100% right, the saying you get what – Read the full article

Oak Park, IL Social Media Marketing

On September 5th, 2009, wrote:

  The only trick to this is being able to find exactly what you want quickly, without being sent to some stupid website that has nothing to do with what you are really looking for. More often than not, a good website will procure repeat business, b…

Bots, Auto DM and TwitterFeed, Oh My!

On August 31st, 2009, wrote:

For as simple as twitter is, the complexity of using it is nothing short of astounding. Many people strictly update twitter via the web with nothing more than an account of their daily activities. Some “power users” have people that tweet for them, and some even have bots set up that removes the human aspect altogether. Then there’s the issue of the auto-dm. Many users rely on scripted messages to be sent when someone new follows them. Often impersonal and down right cheesy, the auto-dm makes many of us cringe upon receiving them. An extension of this inhuman activity is the use of TwitterFeed, a service that connects RSS feeds to twitter accounts. Users can pull feeds related to their interests and audience and auto-post them on Twitter. TwitterFeed is great when used to pull in your company’s blog posts or entries from your personal site. The problem is that many users rely on this entirely too much and will – Read the full article

The Social Media Revolution

On August 25th, 2009, wrote:

“Right now, your customers are writing about your products on blogs and recutting your commercials on YouTube. They’re defining you on Wikipendia and ganging up on you on social networking sites like Facebook. These are all elements of a social phenomenon- the groundswell- that has created a permanent shift in the way the world works.” This is written on the book jacket of the book Groundswell, a national bestseller. The social media revolutions is upon us. Several experts claim for it to be the biggest shift in business since the industrial revolution. The change in how we communicate with the public, potential and existing customers is evolving at a pace that has not been seen before with adoption of other technologies. Its a social media revolution. It used to take years to build new media platforms, for radio it was 38 years, television 13 years, the internet 4 years, and the iPod 3 years- each respectively to reach 50 million – Read the full article

Chicago Company Sues woman 50K over Tweet

On July 28th, 2009, wrote:

I wrote a post about social media monitoring last week and in the news today is a Chicago company that is suing one of their tenants for $50,000. This lawsuit is already making waves at popular social media news site- mashable. Within the first two hours of the story being posted their are about 900 people tweeting and 115 comments on the blog. The tenant Amanda Bonnen made a comment on her twitter about mold in her apartment. “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.” The reason this story is already grabbing the attention of the social media community is the fact that Horizon’s Jeffrey Michael is quoted in the Sun-Times as saying “The statements are obviously false, and it’s our intention to prove that”, adding that Horizon has a good reputation to protect. Bonnen wasn’t contacted before the suit was filed or asked to remove the Tweet, he said: “We’re – Read the full article

Twitter 101 for Businesses

On July 25th, 2009, wrote:

Luckily, we here at Lakeshore Branding are no strangers to using twitter, both personally and for business. And even though we advise clients on using Twitter everyday, it’s still good to be reminded of the basics and best-practices of the popular micro-blogging service regarding business use. That said, we’re glad to see Twitter has released Twitter 101 for Business, an online guide to Twitter. Twitter 101 includes getting started to understanding twitter lingo, complete with best practices and case studies. The guide can also serve as a resource to keep on hand for getting current and new employees up to speed. Twitter 101 won’t be a replacement for social media consulting services, but it will be a good platform for getting a solid grasp on twitter, and being able to spread some knowledge company-wide.

Do You Have Great Employees?

On July 13th, 2009, wrote:

Do you hire great employees, no matter the position? Yesterday I went to Potbelly in Bolingbrook with my girlfriend and 5-month old puppy, Jack. I stayed outside with Jack and sat at a table while my girlfriend went inside to order. While sitting with Jack, a Potbelly employee comes out the side door and asks if my dog needed some water. No thanks, I told him, my girlfriend would be bringing some with our lunch. That’s pretty thoughtful, but what happened next really made me impressed. A few minutes later, the same employee came back out with a bowl I assume they use for salads. “Here you go, figure this would work better than a cup,” he said. What a guy. Going out of his way to make sure my dog was cared for. Do you hire people like this? If you’re not sure what that answer is, then you have the wrong people working for you. This guy had – Read the full article