Today’s guest post is written by Lisa Gerber.

We have an important announcement: Effective immediately at Arment Dietrich, we will be disconnecting our phone service.

We no longer have the time or the resources to answer the phone. It just keeps ringing. And it won’t stop! People have questions! And they want us to do work for them! But we don’t have the time. So we’re shutting it down.

Preposterous you say? We agree. We’re not really shutting down the phone. But this is exactly the message you’re sending when you say you don’t have time for social media. Continue Reading »

Because I had a lot of time to read last week (what with not sleeping and all), I got caught up on this month’s Fast Company.

The cover story is called “American Idol,” and it’s about Mark Zuckerberg and the pending IPO for Facebook.

Because of their IPO quiet period, Facebook did not comment. Rather the writers combined five years of interviews to put together 12 page story about the $28.4 billion CEO and the company he’s built.

Love him or hate him – or even love or hate Facebook – you have to admit he’s doing something right.

But what I found most interesting about the story was not how well Zuckerberg is doing in the CEO role (seemingly very well) or what he’s doing to protect his ownership as they go public, but what Fast Company thinks he will have to do to justify a $100 billion valuation.

And all of their ideas affect you. Continue Reading »

I’m having a really hard time understanding some employers today.

As I travel the country and spend time with business leaders, it’s very disturbing to me how many have firewalls installed that prevent their employees from using the social networks during business hours.

As if they aren’t just using their phones to get online during the day. Some business leaders go so far as to take phones away as soon as a person walks in the door to prevent even that. Continue Reading »

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I have a secret. Nothing I write today is going to outdo Shonali Burke’s Valentine’s Day blog post.

So please go over there, get it out of the way, and come back.

It’s OK. I’ll wait.

Now, wasn’t it worth it? I, for one, am pleased to finally see the movie star’s talents coming through. Enough of this PR stuff. Let her do what she was born to do!

And on to our regularly scheduled program.

I have good news!

Rumor has it Facebook is rolling out its timeline feature to business pages this month. 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 »

Let’s talk Facebook today, shall we?

Sorry, Howie. I know you’re not a fan so you can go read another blog today.

I’m going to make a pretty big assumption most of you have at least checked out the new timeline. Even if you hate it, if you’re using social media for work, it’s important to understand how these most recent changes affect your business pages.

You’re going to become pretty creative in how you use Facebook now. I’m going to give you some tips. Continue Reading »

There is an interesting conversation happening about using Facebook in place of a business website.

With 700 million active users on the social network, it’s hard to ignore . But should you use it as your only web presence?

Let’s say you have a retail shop, with only one location, and one or two employees. Developing a site, with a content management system so you can change it every time you have a sale or a promotion might be too cumbersome.

Is it easier to change content on a Facebook page instead of trying to do it on a website?

In order to really think through the conversation, I’ve developed some pros and cons to help. Continue Reading »

We are having a contest through the month of November and it is your opportunity to win fame, fortune, and fabulous prizes.

Well, a great wine opener anyway.
And a seat to our December webinar; The Spin Sucks Second Trends Webinar. (More on that later.)
And this lamp. (Not really a lamp; that’s a joke.)

We are in search of the most horrendous, and the most #winning social media experiences we’ve never heard of. That means we’re not interested in hearing about Kenneth Cole, or Chrysler again. Share with us organizations, celebrities, and individuals whom  you’ve seen either doing great things, or doing really annoying and bad things. Continue Reading »

This guest post is written by Molli Megasko

Yes, it’s another Facebook post. But don’t roll your eyes yet (Howie!). I’m not going to talk about the user changes, I’m here to discuss the free ads Facebook is giving to small business.

This January, Facebook is planning to give away $50 in free advertising to 200,000 small businesses across the country to show them how the ad platform works in hopes of return sales and more users.  (That’s $10 million in free advertising!) Continue Reading »

This post is written by Molli Megasko.

There is a new digital connectivity endeavor that I’m really excited to talk about here.

Ticketmaster is going social by creating new features that allow music lovers to see where their friends on Facebook are sitting at concerts.

A good friend of mine, Kyle Kiefer, pointed this out to me (through Facebook messages, none-the-less) and since then I’ve wrapped my mind around how much this was needed and why it took so long to create.

Concerts are the most social thing I can think of and sharing music tastes and events is one of the most talked about topics for my generation. Continue Reading »