One thing that every social media consulting client asks me about is how to find out who the “Influencers” are in their particular industry. My answer, of course, is that every consumer who is active on social media could potentially be an influencer, and thus truly “accurate” measurement is impossible. Think about it: Someone with 10 followers could tweet something out that gets ReTweeted by someone with 100 followers, and 1 of those 100 followers is someone who works for an industry publication, who then breaks the story to the public, and so on. I think you get the picture. …
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As we head into 2011, it’s best to take a look back at the top 25 social media marketing blog posts of 2010 and see what we can glean to help us in the new year. Social media is fascinating in that the way we utilize these sites, and the functionality of these sites, is always changing. Therefore, as social media marketers, we always need to be staying ahead of the curve of not only the latest changes in the world of social media, but also what the thought leaders are saying about social media marketing. The algorithm I used …
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Although Facebook and Twitter always steal the social media spotlight, 2010 should be remembered as the year where LinkedIn accelerated development and released a plethora of new applications, features, and functionality to their platform for professionals. While many complain of the ever-increasing restrictions and some question the validity of potentially keyword-stuffed search results on the professional networking platform, it is clear that LinkedIn is following a path of sticking to its roots as a trusted network built upon relationships while always looking for creative ways to generate additional revenue and traffic from new sources. If you haven’t kept up with …
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LinkedIn and Facebook would seem to have very little in common going into 2011: One platform was created as a closed and trusted networking site for professionals while the roots of the other come from being an open “face book” of college students. While LinkedIn has built up a dominant presence in the hearts and minds of the professional demographic, Facebook is in the center of consumer culture and many a business who want to capture the hearts and money of us all. Professionals network on one platform while companies establish Pages on the other. Ask most companies where they …
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Google Analytics is the default (and free) service that analyzes visitors to your website. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could analyze visitors to your Facebook Page? Facebook Insights actually provides you with that data. What about Twitter, you ask? Twitter just recently released a beta of their Twitter Analytics to a select few users. And although there is no word about a potential analytics application for LinkedIn Groups, LinkedIn has now released a Google Analytics-like application to analyze those who view you on LinkedIn: LinkedIn Profile Stats Pro. When compared to its social media counterparts, what is unique about …
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With all of the information generated concerning social media these days, it really is getting hard to keep up on the latest developments amongst the multitude of platforms, case studies and statistics. There are definitive sites like Mashable and Social Media Examiner that have risen up to become leading sources of information, but what about the work of all of the excellent bloggers out there with unique perspectives that aren’t appearing on these sites? That’s where social media content hubs come in: Websites that are publishing content from a variety of these bloggers. There are 3 great sites that have …
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Despite the fact that Twitter has apparently grown from 58 to 175 million users in less than a year, it is clear that some of those “users” are actually “bots” or even corporations who have several different accounts to serve their current and potential customers with. Case in point: Dell alone has more than 30 Twitter accounts. All it takes is an email address to register a new account, so it is not uncommon for even some individuals to have multiple usernames. This may explain why, outside the networking circles of those active in social media, there are many people …
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It’s not easy being a social media consultant these days. Between the bashing of some social media “experts” and the viral what the **** is my social media strategy blog, you’d think that every social media “guru” is a quack. I thought it was about time to clear the air and stick up for my profession and the need for our existence, and I am glad to see that Shannon Paul just did something similar by writing an excellent blog post on why we still need real social media strategists. Yes, there are professionals with years of successful sales, marketing, …
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Today’s blog post is from someone I met Windmill Networking on Twitter, Aaron Lee. Aaron represents how truly global Twitter (and social media) have become, as I have been able to build up a virtual relationship with him being in Malaysia through someone else I met on Twitter that was in Hong Kong! Aaron is very social on Twitter, so if you haven’t been following him, you’re missing out on great tweets and getting to know a great person. When he commented on my previous blog post as to where to find great content to tweet, I thought that we …
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I recently got asked a great question in my Windmill Networking LinkedIn Group: Neal, what is one of the most recent insights you have learned about LinkedIn that can help us? Since I wrote the book on LinkedIn, although 90% of the functionality of the site is still the same, I am finding the “Follow” features that LinkedIn have introduced to be of value for some. While this “feature” may still be a mystery to many, here is my advice on how you can strategically use it by thinking outside of the box. For instance:
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