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How Crowdsourcing Can Revolutionize Your Approach to Content

A few months ago an international team of gamers solved a complex problem that had scientists baffled for years. For a decade industry experts from around the globe had been unable to figure out how a protein-cutting enzyme from an AIDS-like virus found in rhesus monkeys folds. In a final attempt to solve the riddle, […]

5 Content Marketing Resolutions (That You Might Actually Keep)

The resolution bandwagon is full of false hope and empty promises at the beginning of every year. You’ve got the classic “I will lose X number of pounds before bathing suit season” and “I will save more money this year (and stop buying so many video games.)” Sure, those resolutions are good hearted but many […]

A Letter from Mark Zuckerberg*

Editor’s note: OK, so this is not a real letter from Mark Zuckerberg, but it’s a real satire of what could be in a letter from Mark Zuckerberg, hypothetically speaking, of course. Hey there! It’s Mark Zuckerberg, everyone’s favorite socially awkward billionaire! I am here to walk you through our latest exciting changes at Facebook. […]

4 Reasons Your Facebook Fan Stopped Liking You

“You like me, you really like me!” It’s hard not to get excited when someone likes our organizations page on Facebook, especially early on. It could be the beginning of a beautiful romance of brand and consumer. But then things go wrong. Brand statuses are ignored. Questions are left to wither alone in silence. The flame is […]

5 Reasons the Intern Shouldn’t Run Your Social Media Campaign

carrying the load alone as a social media intern

Your intern has more Twitter followers than you do. That is great. But what happens when she gets offered that gig with the agency across town? Will your corporate blog survive? How about that snarky Twitter account or well-maintained Facebook page? Though much of management is wearing the “social media strategy” hat in the board […]

Fighting Words: Marketing Lessons From the UFC

Your organization can learn a lot from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Yes, I’m serious. No, I don’t mean you can learn flying knees or triangle chokes, although those might come in handy when meetings get heated.

7 Things Good Marketers Have in Common

It takes more than a snarky attitude and knowledge of hashtags to be successful in social media. Being likable, retweetable, and ultimately generating leads and developing new partnerships is more art than it is science. But which personality traits separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to social media marketers? The same traits […]

How to Avoid Awkward Silence in Your Comment Section

avoiding awkward silence in your blog comment section

There are a lot of lurkers on the web. You know, those people who visit websites, consume content, and move along. We’ve all done it. (You’re probably doing it right now!)

Want Your Message to Resonate? Say it Again. Want Your Message to Resonate? Say it Again.

Growing up, my mom had to constantly remind me to do the things she needed me to do. After the fifth or so reminder, I’d reluctantly get up and put my clothes in the hamper (or complete whichever menial task she’d requested of me). On my way back to couch potato land, I’d let her […]

Quit Daydreaming and Focus on Your Website

That one big idea—the one that will bring the masses to your website overnight and lead to more Twitter followers than Lady Gaga sees is not worth waiting for. I’m all for brainstorming and trying big new ideas, but if you really want to improve your pageviews and build community online you should place your […]

Free Your Content, and the Rest Will Follow

A social media presence is a good start, but a presence alone is a lot like having a storefront on a quiet street and waiting for people to come in your door. Sure, they may find out about you eventually – if you’ve invested in advertising, have great word of mouth, dominate search engine rankings, […]

How to Kill Creativity With One Simple Phrase: They Already Have That

Every day, this four-word phrase murders innocent ideas before they had a chance to grow up. It suffocates its victims with a blanket of negativity. It is the leading killer of creativity. It runs rampant in the offices and minds of people in those offices. And it needs to be put behind bars, never to […]

Award to the Wise: Readers Are the Real Judge

At the custom publisher where I spend my waking hours, the halls are adorned with praise for well-written articles and smartly designed feature spreads—a triumphant redesign of a moribund business school magazine, a celebrity cover for a prominent medical title with a circulation that seemingly knows no way but up. The list goes on.

The Next Big Thud

When it comes to gadgets and tech, I used to be a late adopter. I didn’t own a cellphone until 2000. Even four or five years ago, I would choose a cheap model and tell myself I really didn’t need a phone that took pictures, played music or even included a texting plan, for that […]

4 Lessons from Matt Drudge on Serving Your Audience

Quick: what’s black and white, ignores SEO, scoffs at design best practices and is one of the most wildly successful websites in history? If you guessed Craigslist.org you earn partial credit (only because their SEO is formidable). If you guessed DrudgeReport.com, congratulations, you go the lightning round. A recent article by David Carr on NYTimes.com […]

4 Must-Haves for Must-Have Brands

When money’s tight, people look at their budget and separate things into two columns: must-have and might-have. And lately, branded goods haven’t been making it into the latter column as much as they used to, as a recent Harris Poll has found that 62% of people are making the choice to go “generic” instead of […]

How to Monitor Social Media Conversations

There’s a lot of social media static out there. And sifting through it is not an enviable task.

4 Things My Mom Taught Me About Social Media

Mothers are the conduit of all wisdom. They know how to mend a scraped knee, a broken heart, and a fractured ego. And of course – and you knew this was coming – they incidentally have taught us a lot about social media. In honor of Mother’s Day here are 4 things my mom taught […]

The Lifespan of Social Media Content (Or, the Fish, the Stream, and the Shore)

There are a lot of analogies being passed around when it comes to where to publish social media content: “Fish where the fish are.” (You should focus efforts predominately on Facebook and Twitter.) “Don’t get lost in the stream.” (You should build your own presence, so you avoid getting lost on Facebook and Twitter.) “Rent, […]

4 Tips to Develop Engaging Story Ideas

“That’s a story idea,” I would often think as a general assignment newspaper reporter and editor. So many of my friends’ and family’s stories about lively debates at their jobs, old friends they ran into or the TV shows they were obsessed with would often lead to an article idea relevant and interesting to our […]

Social Media Friends … with Benefits

Marketers are courting people on social media and the relationship has evolved past the early days when it was all about making friends. Much to the delight of CFOs everywhere, social media has entered the era of “friends with benefits.” Tangible ones, even. According to survey results released by Social Media Examiner, marketers have reported […]

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