This morning, I received an email to my office inbox with a bizarre and fairly obnoxious signature. Is this really the signature that this person uses at the bottom of all outgoing email communication? Yikes! So, that got me thinking about best practices for your office email signature. While there are many articles written on the subject, I have condensed the learned wisdom down to 3 key rules. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘social media’
Top 5 Free Resources For Business Tweeps
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
As of the writing of this post, there are 7,682,986 registered users on Twitter. Once your business has made the leap in to the Twitterverse, you’ll need to have some resources at-hand to monitor and contribute to this additional way of sharing yourself. Your adoring customers, clients, fan-boys, and industry peers will begin following you. How do you stay on top of the flow of followers, and keep everyone engaged?
For businesses to grab a share of those potential customers, they need tools to research, track, and position themselves correctly. Here is the short-list of business-oriented resources you should be using for Twitter.
TwitterGrader
Find out what your business rank/grade is on Twitter. Great tool to start your research.
TwitterCounter
Register for this free tool to begin tracking your subscribers, get weekly reports, predictions, and advice on who you should be following. You can also overlay your competitors in the graph to see how you compare.
HootSuite
The “do-it-all” tool for business tweeps. Register and set up scheduled tweets to be posted days, weeks, and months in advance.
LocaFollow
Geo-located Twitter happenings in a specific area. Set it up to track your city or neighborhood, and keep an eye on what is trending near you.
TweetScan
Similar to Summize (AKA Twitter Search), get reports on topics which affect your business. Sign up to generate email alerts. Find out who is talking about your business or brand instantly or report daily and become aware of how your brand is viewed by the Twitter masses.
If you incorporate some or all of the above resources into your Twitter endeavors, you will definitely see better results than if you hadn’t done any at all. How much of a difference will it make? No one can say for sure, but at least you’ll be able to see how your numbers and metrics are being affected and what measures you’re taking that seem to be paying off. Happy Tweeting!
Social Media’s Top 5 Trends
Friday, August 20th, 2010
So, what ARE the latest social media trends right now? Let’s allow Mashable to dish. For the full article, click here.
1. Social Scanning: Smartphone owners have the world at their fingertips. As grandiose as that may sound, advances in mobile barcode scanning technology have given rise to applications that allow for comparison shopping, QR code place checkins and ultimately a social experience around product barcodes.
What this means is that at any given moment, any smartphone owner can pull out their device, fire up a barcode scanning application, scan a code and complete activities or gain access to a wealth of immediately relevant information. Really, what we’re seeing is the convergence of social media and barcode scanning to create “social scanning.”
These scans aren’t inherently social in nature, but because they can double as verifiable place checkins, they can also possess the social properties of a checkin: location-sharing with friends on the same service or via social network distribution.
Cats tweeting? Meow!
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
Ok, ok, I realize that this post may not have the ideal level of relevancy we usually provide, but as it is the first day back after a three day weekend, I’ll ask for a little empathy here.
So, here’s the scoop compliments of Mashable.
If you love your cat so much that you can’t stand to be away from it — even for a hot second — you’re in luck: Sony Computer Science Laboratories (CSL) Inc has developed a liveblogging device for Mr. Mistoffelees and friends.
This revolutionary new toy, which was created with the help of the University of Tokyo, comes all pimped out with a camera, an acceleration sensor and a GPS, which monitors kitty’s every move, translating actions like walking, eating and sleeping into tweets. Sadly, there are only 11 fixed phrases currently available (I’m guessing, “I left a lovely hairball in your sneaker” is not among them), but Sony CSL is hoping to improve Fluffy’s conversational skills soon.
The device fits easily onto the cat’s collar, so as to avoid hindering its movement, which means your cat can tweet all over the neighborhood.
We’ve seen an influx of novel Twitter functions of late: tweeting trees, tweeting beds and even tweeting cows. While the tech may seem kind of, well, silly, we could see it being of use to people besides lonely cat ladies. For instance, such a collar could be exceedingly useful for zoologists and the like.
“Brands tell the truth and when they don’t they fail”
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
I just read Graham Button’s blog about Brands in the age of the Millennials. Its such a must-read that I thought I’d re-post it here.
He leaves us with a final note — a video with a poem by Taylor Mali animated by Ronnie Bruce. It is definitely worth watching — so check it out here or after the jump.
“Daddy, What’s a Brand?” and 9 More Awkward Questions for Uncertain Times
1. “Daddy, what’s a brand?” Chiquita, Victoria’s Secret, The GOP, Amnesty International. They all use marketing and invite trust in a distinct belief system. They’re all, to one degree or another, brands. For a brand, nirvana is when your good name is so widely endorsed that it enters the language. “Pass the Kleenex.” “Google it.” But that’s the top of a long and slippery slope–look at Toyota and Tiger Woods. A healthy brand drives up your stock, and vice versa. These are the things we thought we knew. It’s 2010–are they still true?
2. My brand isn’t working. Better send out an RFP, right? There’s this idea that advertising or design firms create brands. This is silly. “Just do it” was there in the Nike culture–Wieden + Kennedy was just the reporter that dug it up. Brands tell the truth and when they don’t they fail. Look at New Coke or Cool Britannia–people like you and me decide what Coca-Cola is or isn’t, and in the end it was Britain which re-branded Tony Blair. Recently in Colorado, people took to the streets to protest the possible end of the Frontier Airlines “tail animals”–the core of a brand our company Genesis helped to launch. It wasn’t the graphics they were defending, it was the culture they express. If your brand is under-performing, the first place to look is the mirror.
Quit Facebook Day — May 31, 2010
Friday, May 14th, 2010
So, apparently Facebook users are ticked off. A lot. So much, in fact, they’ve done everything but declare a national holiday. What they have done, however, is make May 31, 2010 Quit Facebook Day, complete with a website stating the reasons behind their en masse sign-off and offering to send users an email reminder on the 31st to delete their account.
Some of the reasons cited (directly from QuitFacebookDay.com:
For us it comes down to two things: fair choices and best intentions. In our view, Facebook doesn’t do a good job in either department. Facebook gives you choices about how to manage your data, but they aren’t fair choices, and while the onus is on the individual to manage these choices, Facebook makes it damn difficult for the average user to understand or manage this. We also don’t think Facebook has much respect for you or your data, especially in the context of the future.
For a lot of people, quitting Facebook revolves around privacy. This is a legitimate concern, but we also think the privacy issue is just the symptom of a larger set of issues. The cumulative effects of what Facebook does now will not play out well in the future, and we care deeply about the future of the web as an open, safe and human place. We just can’t see Facebook’s current direction being aligned with any positive future for the web, so we’re leaving.
The site then goes on to sympathize with the public, claiming they “understand this is a difficult decision…. facebook is engaging… facebook is addictive…”
For me personally, I will not be quitting facebook this month, or even next month. I like Facebook, I’ve reconnected with people I thought I’d never hear from again and I believe that if I were as passionate about these issues as these people are, it would mean I’m spending too much time on Facebook, period.
You can read more and decide for yourself on QuitFacebookDay.com.
Will you quit or stay committed??
Some cool stuff
Friday, April 16th, 2010Happy Friday! Here are a few cool things I’ve found around the web. Hope you enjoy
I LOVE Shawn Wolfe’s posters and illustrations. Browse around his site for inspiration and entertainment.
http://shawnwolfe.com/
Wondering what its like to be a designer? Check out this crazy site! Are your eyes bleeding yet?
http://iamnotanartist.org/index.php
I love the idea of these plants in a can! I’ve been trying to grow my own veggies but I’m no master gardener and don’t have a ton of space so I love that this makes it so easy
http://www.brooklyn5and10.com/Microgiardini-s/199.htm
Speaking of veggies… I love these clever dental floss ads. They also comes in corn and broccoli. This is a great site for browsing a lot of ads.
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/colgate_dental_floss_strawberry_thread
Man oh man this site never fails to make me laugh!
http://unhappyhipsters.com/
Another fun site to peruse. I love these google map envelopes (although they are not yet a reality).
http://incrediblethings.com/tech/google-maps-envelopes/
I also love these customized band-aids. Genius!
http://incrediblethings.com/home/customized-band-aids/
Need to send a message that an email just won’t quite communicate? Try this.
http://www.bigassmessage.com/
Google TV?
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
Google, Intel and Sony are collaborating on a new platform currently called “Google TV”. This would likely lead to the development of set-top boxes and integrated hardware in future consumer screens to utilize the platform. Content focus would be to merge social applications, digital television, and local digital files. Additionally, the current plan is to base the platform on the Android operating system, allowing developers to quickly produce another set of open source applications for users of Google TV.
How does this measure up? A win for Sony, being a leader in entertainment technology. Intel is getting involved because the technology will be run on their Atom chips. And Google? They want to be able to leverage their advertising to take over consumer eyes sitting on their couch at home.
Personally, I believe they should drop the “TV” moniker to use a more relevant current name, like “Google Screen”. Some people might get the idea that it is specific to television, and wouldn’t provide a complete media service.
This may be another set-top box, similar to Boxee’s beautiful set-top they recently released. Apple TV? Assume this will be far superior. Time to start developing Android apps which will run on your home theater system? Yes, please.
Evaluating the Buzz
Friday, February 12th, 2010
Google’s recent release of Buzz has been surrounded by hype and questions. Only a couple days after its release, it remains to be seen if this new social networking tool will actually take off. Could it really become one of the social networking elite, or fall flat like Wave?
What is Buzz all about?
Currently, it shares a spot somewhere between Twitter and Facebook. It can be open to the public like Twitter, or updates can be private like Facebook. The API is open to developers in the same way Twitter is, but access is limited to those who own a Google account (similar to Facebook). You can send out short text updates to your followers, but it also has built-in media sharing capabilities such as: Twitter, Flickr, Blogger, Google Reader, Picasa, and YouTube. It only takes one click to tie in each service, as most of those services already belong to Google. You can have Buzz send out an update whenever you post to any of these services, or you can choose not to share. And just like Twitter and Facebook, Buzz is available on your phone to share from anywhere you happen to be. (more…)
Resolution | Building A Better Coop
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010Fads. None of us are immune to them all the time, it’s just that some are easier to resist than others.
For instance, brown was never the “New Black” for me, it was just brown. Chickens, on the other hand, now those were a fad I just couldn’t pass up.
Fluffy Yellow Chicks? I’ll take 5 of those Silver Laced Wyandotte’s please! We’re allowed to have 3 hens, but I figured there might be some natural attrition. I also allowed for human error that 1 or 2 might turn out to be Roosters. We watched in awe as the chicks went from fluffy, to gawky to beautiful. Well, all but one of them. I would stand out by the run watching them, the sun glinting magically off their iridescent tail feathers and remark to my partner “Baby, they’re so pretty! Except that one, why is she so ugly?” And then, one day, we heard a tentative, garbled Rrrrr-rrrrr-rrrrr. The ugly one, it turned out was our only hen. (more…)
