February 9, 2010
What Does The Future Hold?
One thing about collective wisdom is that often subconscious thinking surfaces as emotion before we can articulate it. While most budgets have been set, or in that phase now, we know that budgets grow or shrink throughout the fiscal year.
With that in mind, what does your gut tell you about budget trends in our profession this year?
February 8, 2010
A Social Media Consultant Submitting An Invoice?
In the month of January 2010 links tweeted and tracked by me on my @Steveology Twitter channel were clicked on a little over 27,000 times according to Hootsuite’s analytics.
9.) Top 10 Most Popular Social Media and Marketing Articles Tweeted in December 2009
8.) How Ford Got Social Marketing Right – Harvard Business Review
6.) Evernote is a great tool. Here is a list of tips #evernotetip (No Link)
NOTE: So, when this originally tweeted there were dozens of great tips. Sadly, as of this posting there are only a few. Please visit one of these excellent Evernote tips website or posts instead:
5.) Ten Ways Twitter Will Permanently Change American Business
4.) Twenty-Five Mind Blowing Social Media Infographics
3.) Top 50 Social Brands of 2009 — Results Published
2.) Me write pretty someday: 10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling
1.) How to Build a Social Media Campaign – BusinessWeek
Did I ever mention that you are the most interesting person I know? Oh, and before I forget, please share this post. I’m just saying….
January 5, 2010
A Friend We Know Too Well.
Top 50 Social Brands of 2009 Results Published
By Steve Farnsworth (@Steveology)
Please Tweet this if you like it by Clicking Here.
The Buzz Study, a blog dedicated to monitoring and analyzing trends in Web chatter, published an intriguing list of the most mentioned brands in social media. What makes the list of value is that it is not weighted to the most mentioned brands, since that would skew when a brand fan talked regularly about that brand. Their tool looks for unique mentions. (Buzz Study is the research blog of Infegy, and they use their tool Social Radar to generate the list.)
However, the list shows Twitter displacing Google from the first place. I doubt that Twitter has a greater value as a social brand than Google. So, like many measures it needs to be looked at along side other data. However, this year’s changes are fascinating.
The Buzz Study notes:
This year has certainly been interesting. Several new brands made their way to the mainstream making our 2009 Top 50 list, such as Kindle, Amazon’s hit e-book reader, and Android, Google’s mobile OS that is spreading onto smartphones like wildfire. Interestingly, Samsung and Nokia took a big hit this year, as sexier smartphones such as iPhones and Android-powered devices from HTC and Motorola gain more attention.
January 2, 2010
May Peace be your gift all year through!
Top 10 Most Popular Social Media and Marketing Articles Tweeted in December 2009
By Steve Farnsworth (@Steveology)
Last month links tweeted by me on my Steveology channel were clicked on a little over 40,000 times according to Hootsuite’s analytics.
The number 1 and 2 were clicked on 5,300 and 4,400 times respectively.
Please Tweet this if you like it by Clicking Here.
10.) Great Cheat Sheet — 9 Professional Social Media Monitoring & Online Reputation Management Tools
9.) Searskilledmydog.Com: The Anatomy Of A Social Media Nightmare Averted – A Case Study
7.) How To Build A Social Media Campaign – Businessweek
6.) What Future Do You See For Public Relations?
5.) Ten Things Clients Say That Scare PR Professionals
4.) The Ten Ways Twitter Will Permanently Change American Business
3.) Ten Ways Google Goggles Will Change The World
2.) Tips To Get People To Join Your Facebook Fan Page
1.) Six Social Media Trends For 2010 – Harvard Business Review
You’re Cool. So, You Should Share This. I’m Just Saying….
December 14, 2009
Adorable Toot, The Junkyard Dog Of Social Media Nightmares
Please Tweet this if you like it by clicking here.
You are the social media strategist for Sears Hometown Stores. It’s Friday, the end of a long day, at the end of a long week. You are ready for a refreshing and well deserved cocktail to start your weekend. Heck, maybe two.
You make one last pass at your social media listening dashboard before you head out the door, and you come across your worst nightmare:
* A picture of a cute little dog named Toot.
* A story about a tragic accident where your delivery truck runs over and kills Toot.
* Details about how a local representative of your company apologized, but then went on to tell the distraught pet owners it was not his delivery guy’s fault, but theirs. It keeps getting better. He tells this to them not just once, but on two separate occasions.
* All this is on a website called, and here is where your heart skips a beat and your blood runs cold, SearsKilledMyDog.com.
* And oh, it’s blowing-up on Reddit, Twitter, and the Internet at large.
You are Shaunak Dave, the director, multi-channel integration for Sears Hometown Stores. That well deserved cocktail is going to have to wait …and you might want to remember to breathe again.
Peggy* and David* bought a freezer a little while before Thanksgiving from the Sears Hometown Store in Dripping Springs, Texas. With the promise of free home delivery they had it sent to the house.
When the delivery truck arrived at their home, Maxwell, known as Toot by his family, ran out to investigate the new visitor as he had done many times before. As the truck was coming to a stop in the driveway Peggy and David heard a loud yelp. Toot was fatally injured. He died shortly afterwards.
December 9, 2009
If I Had a Link, It Would Click Through To Pumpkin Pie
In November people clicked on links I tweeted a little over 24,000 times according to the analytics in HootSuite.
Possibly because of the holidays November’s top links are somewhat self-referential. Over the holiday I retweeted several of my past blog posts. They appear on the list below and include last month’s top 10 tweets post.
Also, the Lazarus of tweeted links, and the bane of my existence, is “17 Invisible LinkedIn Tricks Revealed.” A link I tweeted in August. After appearing in the top 10 links for four months running, I’m convinced there is a cult in China that believes clicking on that link is a devotional act.
10.) Very Useful Scobleizer Twitter Lists: An Overview By Robert Scoble
9.) I Love Some Of These Ideas! 10 Ways Of Using Posterous At Work Or Home
8.) The Killed Windows 7 Family Guy Special Even More Horrible Than I Imagined – Family Guy
7.) The $2 Million Tweet: Crisis Communications In A Pizza Box
6.) Survey Says … PR Among Most Important Business Tools In 2010
5.) Top 10 Most Popular Social Media And Marketing Articles Tweeted In October 2009
4.) Michael Vick Unleashes Ethical Dog Fight For PR
3.) 7 Tips For Putting The Public Back In Public Relations
2.) Seventeen Invisible LinkedIn Tricks Revealed (Please, for the love of god, don’t click on this link)
You’re Cool. So, You Should Share This. I’m Just Saying….
November 30, 2009
Will PR For Love
Guest Blog
Rumor has it that when Christ was born, John Tsantes organized the press conference. While I can’t substantiate that, I can confirm that John, along with his staff, has been the go-to-guy for deep tech PR for as long as I can remember.
Currently, John is the president of Tsantes Consulting Group. However, his former agency, Tsantes & Associate, which was acquired by Porter Novelli, had an impeccable reputation, too. That was why 10 or 15 years ago I eagerly applied with them when they had an account executive opening. My hopes were peaked when I was called for a phone interview, but they were soon dashed when I didn’t get a call to come in and impress them in person.
However, I don’t hold a grudge. (In an unrelated note, be sure to look for my next blog post, “Is John Tsantes The Most Dangerous Man In America? Why Hasn’t The FBI Taken Action?”
It is a little surprising that during the years I was practicing deep tech PR I never had the opportunity to meet John. It wasn’t until recently that John and I met virtually on Twitter when we exchanged tweets about the future of client agency spending. It was then that I had the pleasure of getting to know him a little. John was kind enough to compile his comments and insights in to this guest blog, for which I thank him.
–Steve Farnsworth
By John Tsantes, @jtsantes
Over the past 18-24 months, many technology-based companies have all but stopped spending money on marketing and PR. Advertising was the first to go followed by aggressive (and costly) marketing programs and, later, PR.
Today, those that are considering PR want $20k/month worth of services for $10k, and all the research that goes along with it thrown in for free. Although I had expected a business up-tick (more spending, that is) by the 3Q09, it hasn’t happened. Most of these deep-tech companies are stuck in what I call an “emotional recession.”
Indeed, companies are not doing badly. Their product-demand pipeline is starting to build, lead times are increasing and factory inventories are low. But they are stockpiling cash instead of spending even modest amounts to a) position themselves against their competition, who also are not spending, and b) to continue to grow in this new age of social networking. Many don’t know what to do from a (social media) PR perspective and believe that it is an altogether new world out there when it comes to marketing and communications. They’re partly right and partly wrong. They’re sitting on the fence.
The real problem is that most can’t get unstuck from their (emotional) recession even though there are positive signs with the economy. (more…)
November 23, 2009
Will Your Next CMO have The Right Stuff?
Guest Blog
Mark Schaefer is an educator, managing director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and author of the marketing thought-leadership blog {grow}. He is also a new friend. Now, I’m a marketing geek. I have loved marketing since junior high school…sad, I know. Mark would never call himself that. However, he is, and he’s really smart. When one of us is intrigued by some new development that affects marketing we’ll call or email the other to ask, “What do you think about….?” I’m grateful that social media has connected me with a number of others passionate about social media marketing, too. It really cuts down on that talking to my imaginary friend thing….
This time I got to put Mark on the spot. I asked what advice he would give to a CEO who needed to hire a CMO to lead the company into the new digital and social marketing frontier. He took the challenge with great élan. Here is his answer.
–Steve Farnsworth
By Mark Schaefer, @markwschaefer
My teacher and mentor Peter Drucker used to say that the only functions in a corporation are marketing and innovation – everything else is overhead. My friends in manufacturing will argue this endlessly but I think the point is that marketing is often a company’s most essential function. Choosing somebody to lead that team might be a CEO’s most important – and perilous – decision.
By the time somebody is in line to be considered for a Chief Marketing Officer position, they should have amply demonstrated the key traits that make a successful marketing executive:
But what are the special qualities of a CMO in this era of real-time, two-way, global social marketing? What are the qualities that don’t show up in a resume that are critically important to the “New CMO?”
Keen analytical sense.
Sure, screening creative new ads is sexy but the heart of marketing is data and research. The best CMOs can help a company use data to distill the customer signal from the market noise. CMOs should be expert in marketing research methodologies and statistical analysis techniques.
A long runway. (more…)
November 19, 2009
Poll Closed Due To Suspected Vote Fraud
I have to say this is the first time my blog has made me sad. Very sad in fact.
Last week I started two polls to see what social media listening tools folks were using. Both paid tools and free resources. Votes trickled in over the last week; pretty standard voting patterns.
Yesterday I tweeted the running totals of the paid tools to generate a little interest. I was surprised, and initially pleasantly so, to see my average blog visits quadruple. That was until I started looking at the poll’s voting patterns.
Now, I’m a big kid and I know that a Twitter or blog poll is never going to be statistically valid for several reasons. Including, some of those folks on a poll might promote it to their user base and ask their fans to vote for them. Which happened.
I wasn’t really happy about that since what I wanted was to gauge tool usage among the communications savvy pros that read my blog or follow me on Twitter. It was not a popularity contest, and I was not asking people to vote for the prom queen. However, I understand being over enthusiastic when you have been included in an open poll. Hey, I get it. No hard feelings. Been there, done that, guilty as charged.
What I did not expect, and what kicked me in the teeth, was fervent voter fraud. Really? On my little poll, on my little blog? I watched stunned as one lesser-known tool received 9 out of every 10 votes cast. “Vote early. Vote often.”
I took several steps to intervene, only to have the disproportionate voting continue. Then it started with another tool receiving a significantly higher vote count compared to the overall voting of the prior week. I suspect that someone watching figured if others weren’t going to play by the rules then game on, or the same person was just messing about. (Somehow, I’m more okay with one jerk screwing with the results of multiple tools, compared to multiple people trying to game their own results.)
Dejected, despondent, disconsolate, discouraged, disheartened, dispirited, (and a bunch of other D words I’ll spare you), it was at that point I decided to kill the paid social media listening tool poll. I have deleted the paid social media listening tools poll and comments to protect the innocent. I have kept the free social media listening resources poll available, but closed it.
Sorry to be so dramatic, but social media is a party that I love being a part of, and when someone, or persons unknown, poops in the punch bowl it makes me sad.
I have had the pleasure of working with a number of the tool developers on the poll, and they are a stand up bunch of folks. Some even promoted the poll in an unbiased way. They just made people aware of the poll without asking for votes. Class act! You all know who you are.
There is no reason to think that any software developers on the list, or anyone associated with their company, had any knowledge or involvement of this incident. To all the tool developers who reached out and were supportive, I apologize to you for this debacle.
I will not recount who was on the list because I don’t want them to be tarnished by association. Also, I will not name names of those I suspect, because I have no proof that there was fraud at all. In fact, there could be several valid reasons for what I witnessed. At the end of the day I only have what I saw and my common sense.
I would like to ask you a favor. Please stop reading. You see, I have a special message exclusively to those who ruined my day, and I don’t want to offend any reader’s sensibilities. Move along. Nothing to see here. Thanks.
Now, that everyone else has left, and it is just you and me, let me say…
From the bottom of my heart, you are a bunch of real wankers. Now piss off!
November 16, 2009
The Mad Skills Communications Pros Need To Thrive
Legions of senior marketing leaders owe their jobs to Dan Green, and that is what makes him one of Silicon Valley’s most in demand executive search consults and connected guys. As I have been exploring what skills the new communications pro will need to thrive in today’s changing marketing landscape, I thought of several people I wanted to ask for their insight. Dan is on that very short list.
He has a lot of irons in the fire, which is why I appreciate him finally breaking under the barrage of my pleas…um, I mean graciously consenting to contribute a post on Corporate Communications Executive 2.0. Part 2 of the series. (To read Part 1, A Mass Comms Curriculum Alone Short-Sheets Tomorrow’s PR Pro by Lou Hoffman.) Besides being one of the top recruiters for high tech marketing executives, Dan is the president and senior search consultant for both vpofmarketing.com and Marcom Match.
–Steve Farnsworth
Dan Green, Guest Blogger
Corporate Communications Executive 2.0 — The 4 Skills Needed To Thrive
By Dan Green, @DanGreen_VPM
The marketing skill sets needed to succeed and be employable have always evolved, but the fundamental nature of the way companies connect with customers is under radical transformation. Customers no longer want to be talked at; they want to be talked with. Being able to accomplish this flawlessly has many moving parts, and that means marketing teams not only have to be comprised of multidisciplinary members, but each member’s skill set must be interdisciplinary.
Steve and I first talked more than a decade ago. However, over this last year we have communicated more frequently on how social technologies are impacting every communications professional. While a more complete discussion on this topic would fill a book, Steve asked that I capture a few of my observations that the C-suite and future leaders could use now.
In order to have greater depth to these ideas I interviewed several noted thought leaders in the high tech public relations and communications community to get their insight on the topic.*
What I have below is clearly not exhaustive, but they are the ideas that really resonated with me as a recruiter. Also, as we all know, many vital corporate communications skills are clearly timeless and I’ve tried not to put too much overlap of them here.
Increased Importance Of Ethics And Corporate Social Responsibility Considerations.
The concept of transparency as it pertains to the modern enterprise is relatively new and hugely transformational. Because of current and future technology, our organizations are going to be transparent whether we like it or not. We’re all living, or will shortly be living, in glass houses. As a result, it’s going to be largely up to the top communications leaders within the company to make sure this fact represents an opportunity and not a restriction. The silver lining of the existence of the challenge posed by transparency from the communications person’s point of view is that, if it’s within her purview, it gives her a lot more leverage for influence internally — and should mean even greater access to and cooperation from C-level executives. (more…)
