Social Media

Serving Up Social Media (When You’ve Already Got a Full Plate)

Lucky me! Last week I was invited to host a Social Media Club of D.C. event and let my true nerd flag fly. My task? Moderate a panel discussion that combined two of my favorite things: food and social media.

Linking: It Does a Website Good

When it comes to digital media, competition can sometimes make writers turn into digital grinches. While it’s healthy to stoke friendly competition and take pride in your work, stonewalling and shoulder checking isn’t really necessary. The web was built on the notion of sharing ideas and exchanging news. Links, the glue that holds the Internet […]

The Rise Of The Profersonal In Social Media

In the past year, social media was the vehicle that drove several high-profile careers off a cliff. Pro athlete Larry Johnson tweeted a homophobic slur that resulted in a fan petition calling for his removal from the Kansas City Chiefs. He was later suspended. Gilbert Gottfried lost his gig as the voice of the Aflac […]

Web Gems: The Art of Being a Web Editor

Guess what? It’s not all about you. Anyone who has ever played on a team knows that. And shortstops know it best. This idea is the fabric of his or her nature. While pitchers, outfielders, and catchers have received the lion’s share of the glory in baseball, they would be nowhere without a good shortstop. […]

10 Better Ideas Than Looking at a Top 10 List For Advice

Top 10 lists are like new year’s resolutions. They seem great at first, but they quickly make you feel bored, hopeless, and like you’ve wasted your time. And that’s usually because they are filled with things you know you should do but can’t commit to doing. They’re too aspirational. Too shoot-for-the-moon-y. Which is why I’ve […]

How Betty Crocker is Baking Content Marketing Success

Betty Crocker found a great recipe for content marketing success. (I know, that pun was hard to swallow.) When food brand giant and cultural icon Betty Crocker, a brand owned by General Mills, wasn’t having success online they developed a digital video series centered around solving common problems for at-home chefs. Since launching in 2008, […]

Why the Best Social Media Begins Offline

When I was notified last year that the content marketing firm where I work was moving offices—giving up its spacious, albeit outdated, digs for a new state-of-the-art studio three blocks up the road—I couldn’t help but be a little skeptical, uneasy even, of the changes in the offing.

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, […]

While Your Audience Checks In, Are You Checking Out?

are you checking out while your audience checks in?

I have a strange relationship with Foursquare; I use it compulsively, though the reasons why I do that are unclear. I check in at restaurants, movie theatres, shopping malls, and even at the veterinarian. I hadn’t realized how obsessed with the social check-in service I had become, until the day that I pulled out my […]

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 […]

5 Ways to Become a Better Writer in 2012

I wrote my face off in 2011. Both professionally and personally, I wrote more words this past year than any other in my life. I can now honestly tell people at parties that I’m a writer and not have it be some part I’m playing in my mind. I’ve worked my entire life to get […]

5 Lessons From my Biggest Blog Fails of 2011

I failed a lot this year. My gut reaction was to quietly sweep my failures under the rug, whistle, and walk away. But instead, I figured I’d scrape the bottom of the barrel to see if there was any gold. Sue me. I’m an optimist. Instead of a collection of successful case studies, this post […]

Is Your Twitter Account a Ghost, a Witch, a Pirate or a Vampire?

Halloween is the one day every year people can dress up as anything they want and not be stared at strangely in the grocery store. So we put a lot of thought into what we might wear to capitalize on the opportunity. But we don’t always think about what kind of costume our Twitter account […]

Born to Write: 3 Lessons from Rock Stars to Writers

It’s rare that I’m surprised by music. I am a product of my father’s musical tastes, so as a teenager, I was baptized by Neil Young’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”, Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung”, and the Moody Blues’ “Tuesday Afternoon”, rather than new releases by Foo Fighters or the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Call it […]

7 Ways for Your Company to Break the Ice with the Blogosphere

Does your organization have a blog? Though it seems the evidence that blogging pays off is everywhere, some companies are still struggling to get a blog up and running. (Consider this 2011 HubSpot study where 69% of businesses surveyed attributed their success with lead generation directly to blogging. Business is built on consumer interest, and […]

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 […]

Why Distractions Mean Failure in Football and Marketing

Once, after a loss, former Tennessee Titans’ coach Jeff Fisher made this statement to the media about his team’s effort: “I think you have to be able to deal with distractions, put them in perspective and move on. Distractions are the primary reason for losing football games. ” He didn’t chalk up the loss to […]

Give Me One Reason to Share It and I’ll Spread Your Post Around

There are a lot of blips on our daily radars. We check our Twitter stream. We drop in on Google+. We comb through our RSS feeds. And for the most part, we ignore most of the content we see. Why? Because we’ve read it before. Because it sounds too familiar. Because it’s obvious. Because it’s […]

3 Unrealistic Promises Made About Social Media

It’s easy to get overly ambitious when making the case for social media. When the board room is finally ready to listen, we breathlessly explain the social media sea change and how our organization can ride the wave. And in our excitement, we sometimes make the case too well. We make it seem too easy. […]

4 Tips for Developing a Blog Comment Policy

If you’ve spent much in social media, you’ve probably been warned not to “feed the trolls.” Trolls, as Wikipedia will tell you, are defined as “someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into […]

4 Ways to Get More Mileage Out of Old Content

nickelodeon old content all that, picture of a girl getting slimed

I’m a ’90s baby. I grew up during, at least what I believe to be, the peak of Nickelodeon’s programming. These classic Nick shows represented an iconic part of tv’s pop culture and had everything from talking babies (Rugrats), a dog and cat conjoined (Catdog), action shows (Legends of the Hidden Temple) and pretty much […]

The Joe Paterno Guide to Branding

Whether you bleed blue and white or boo when you see it, it’s hard to deny that Penn State football has a strong brand. And most of the credit for that is probably due to the life work of Joe Paterno – the de facto face of Penn State football and the winningest coach in […]

You’re a Human, Act Like It. Unless You’re OK with Being a Digital Marketing Failure

human digital marketing superior to robot digital marketing

Audiences are made of people, they aren’t made of logos. And when building an audience, you must connect with other people as a person, not as a logo. There are very few that can succeed while ignoring this basic mantra. According to the law of averages, you are not one of them.

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