Today’s guest post is written by Thom Holland.

Which do you trust more, an advertisement on TV or the word of mouth recommendation that you got from a friend?

Your friend …of course.

As marketers, you already know that.

We’ve always known the best customers come from word-of-mouth referrals. They cost less money to acquire and they typically remain a customer for a longer period of time.

Great entrepreneurs know how to leverage success. They’re able to get happy clients to convince their friends to become new clients.

During the past decade, advertisers have been hard at work, racing to see who can create a business model that successfully capitalizes on people’s social relationships.

Continue Reading »

It’s becoming even more important to disclose the work you do with clients, particularly if it isn’t clear you’re working with a company on their online efforts.

The FTC recently released their “Dot Com Disclosures,” (PDF download) which spells out what is OK and what is not.

Our own Lisa Gerber wrote a blog post a few weeks ago, detailing why we write (client) on things we tweet, Facebook, pin, update, or connect on behalf of clients.

In the comments, she got a lot of flack, ranging from “people won’t read it if you say it’s on behalf of a client” to “that’s ridiculous.”

Well, now it doesn’t matter whether or not you think it’s ridiculous. It’s no longer just a guide or a rule, it’s now required. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Margie Clayman.

A large part of marketing, PR, and online communication rests upon how you respond to criticism.

Some respond to criticism with grace, understanding, and a desire to improve, or at least a desire to see the world from someone’s perspective other than their own.

Others, however, respond to criticism in ways that makes them look really, really bad.

The ramifications of these silly mistakes can be extensive and far-reaching.

I’ve pulled some parallel reactions from fictional characters to illustrate my point.

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Today’s guest post is written by Anne Weiskopf.

I don’t frequent McDonald’s, or any fast food restaurant, but I am a fan of their business model.

They’re a $27 billion dollar company that is not afraid to test customer engagement using social media.

What’s not to like?

A few weeks back Twitter was lit up like the Golden Arches themselves with headlines of a provocative nature FAIL: McDonald’s Hashtag #McDStories Goes Terribly Wrong and Abject Lessons Learnt from McDonald’s Social Media Disaster.

“Did someone get food poisoning?” I wondered. No. But perhaps we’re breathing too much of the same air in the social media bubble.

Practice may not make perfect, but learning and iterating is a blessed event. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Brian Carter. 

I bet you’ve heard plenty about the importance of conversation in social media.

We’ve all heard companies must engage their customers online. We’ve probably said it ourselves.

But is conversation the most important thing in social media?

What’s The Value of Conversation?

Few will question the value of conversation. It extends customer service and makes PR more personal. But does conversation improve the bottom line?

Case studies suggest social companies do better than their non-social competitors.

If we’ve proven conversational companies are more profitable, is it because conversation made them more visible?

There are more reliable ways to reach the masses. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Eric Wittlake.

Be Authentic.

A chorus of advisors and consultants that have beaten the authentic drum in recent years.

It only takes a brief look at the world around us to realize we really don’t want to see authentic in social media. What we really want is something carefully constructed, with enough personality and individuality to look real instead of robotic.

Before you jump back on the authentic bandwagon, consider what a real authentic social media presence would reflect. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Lief Larson.

Why do people (ethical PR and marketing professionals in particular) generally hate “spin” so much?

Because spin is not honest and people don’t want to feel they are being deceived.

PR professionals (the good ones) disdain it because the spin-like practices of the few reflect badly on the entire profession. And marketing practitioners (again, the good ones) avoid it because they understand that building trust is essential to long-term business success.

In the offline world, we can often assess people and decide if we want to trust them by asking them questions. We can learn a bit about their backgrounds, and watch their eyes and body language.

In the online world, this is more difficult.  Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Lisa Gerber.

You may have heard a thing or two lately about CEOs and their communications challenges (cough, Netflix).

Well, MarketMeSuite CEO Tammy Kahn Fennell had the pleasure of sending a slightly different email to their paying customers recently; customers would no longer have to pay for their product.

That’s right! MarketMeSuite (MMS), a premium social media dashboard, is now free.

In a competitive domain, being free is certainly a nice differentiator. The question is, do you get more than you pay for? Let’s hope so. Continue Reading »

Today’s post is written by Jennifer Roberts.

I was riding up one of the canyon roads in Boulder, Colorado a few weekends ago.

I wanted to use the ride to work out how to write an article linking my online social behavior with the concept of a social consumer. But my high-end Sella Italia Lady saddle was distracting me; it was uncomfortable.

I refocused and thought about my online behavior and how narrowing perspective to include only my social media behavior provided an incomplete view of me as a social consumer. Continue Reading »