Do you check your Twitter DM’s regularly?

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Gary R Schirr

A couple weeks ago two twitter friends sent me emails to follow-up on direct messages (DMs) that they had earlier sent. I realized that I have not be checking my direct messages on Twitter.

I am a Hoot-suite user, so I really have no excuse: I have a preset Twitter DM column, I just need to display and check occasionally. I tweeted and FB posted an inquiry of whether followers had also stopped checking Twitter DMs.

Two of my online friends whose judgement saw DMs the same way: Mark Schaefer said “[DMs are] worst way to communicate to me. I hardly look at them any more. 90% spam”; Dawn Westerberg said “Never check – I completely ignore them”; and Kerry Gorgone added “I’ve only ever checked them rarely. Mostly spam.” I also collected some of the Twitter responses in a Spotify post here.

What is your thought about Twitter DMs?

Posted in Social Media, twitter | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Getting your blog noticed: 8 suggestions

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Gary R Schirr

Last evening (until 10 pm!) I discussed how to create a blog about your passion with 12 evening MBA students. I stressed finding a passion, checking out similar blogs, finding a niche, writing on topics the  target audience would be interested in, and writing and rewriting so it is good stuff…

They heard the REALLY good stuff about creating content from the author of Tao of Twitter and Born to Blog, Mark Schaefer! (I enjoyed hearing his 5 tips to great blogging and physics of social media…)

A keen interest from the new bloggers was naturally how to get their blog noticed. My suggestions were:

  1. Polish your title – spend some time! (50% of total??)
  2. Post in our class FB group –12 quick views
  3. Write a good blog post: the class group will pass it on.
  4. Advertise your blog post through enticing posts with links on Twitter and FB and other SM sites! (and build up your SM communities…)
  5. Read + comment on similar blogs –reciprocate?
  6. Have friends recommend your post on Digg and Reddit.
  7. If it fits – do not abuse this – link in a comment to another article on a different blog. (Reputation risk if abused…)
  8. Join a support group on www.triberr.com. (Similar to class group but new bloggers)

What did I miss? What should I add???? Can you get me to TEN??

Posted in Blogging, Content, Social Media, social media marketing, Teaching SMM, twitter | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Is Content Marketing the NEW New Thing?

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Gary R Schirr

Today (Monday July 8) Marjorie Clayman asked a tough question on Facebook: “Is ‘content marketing’ a business movement or a clique of like-minded thinkers?”

Consultants, gurus (I still chuckle when people describe themselves as SM gurus!), and mere social media enthusiasts have a stake in new ideas and buzzwords – we want social media to stay fresh and exciting. There have been an array of new types of marketing:

  1. eMarketing,
  2. Digital Marketing,
  3. Social Media Marketing or Facebook Marketing, and now:
  4. Real-time Marketing,
  5. Contextual Marketing, and
  6. Content Marketing

How are the new flavors of marketing working? It will be a while until we have definitive measures of the success of different strategies, but as noted in a book I am currently reading – The Big Book of Content Marketing by Andreas Ramos – Google Trends gives us some insight as to how much interest the terms generate from the world at large.

If you are interested look at these two graphs generated from Google Trends.

Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Content, Digital Marketing, Social Media, social media marketing, twitter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Buzzkill: Social Media Buzz is Worthless – or is it?

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Gary R Schirr

Ad Age had two important articles about social media buzz at Coke back in March.

Coke which created headlines when its CEO indicated that it had moved 20% of its marketing budget to social and digital media in 2010, has more Facebook fans than any other company. In a recent study quoted in Ad Age, Coke found that online buzz has no measurable impact on short-term sales. 

The company did find that online display ads work about as well as TV, but the finding on online buzz is deeply troubling as the focus of much “organic” social media efforts is to create buzz.

Continue reading →

Posted in Content, Digital Marketing, internet, Social Media, social media marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Change in Blog Hosting

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Gary R Schirr

I am changing my blog hosting which may result in a temporary interruption. Don’t worry I should be back!!! (Motivated in part by my look back on 5 years of blogging – See NEXT)

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5 years of blogging and 4 years of tweets!

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Gary R Schirr

I missed two big anniversaries back in March: I have been blogging for 5 years and Tweeting for 4 !

My 21,272 tweets, assuming 23 words per tweets, would total 489,256 words: the equivalent of 5 books of decent length. My 199 blog posts (combining smm4biz.com and servicecocreation.com) comprise nearly 88,000 words – call it another book.

This comparison to books raises the relevant question: is it worth it? I am struggling to complete my first book on social media, while in the past four years I have tweeted and blogged nearly 6 books of posts and tweets. To be fair most of my tweets are simply RTs of good info, but the tweets and posts do reflect time and energy used.

Worth it?

On one level, I am disappointed in my blogs. I started blogging early enough that I feel that I should have been able to make a mark and have more impact. Each blog post gets a 150-200 views and average 2 comments and 15 tweets. I am happy with the feedback I get and pleased with my loyal readers, but believe that I should be having more impact. Reading through Mark Schaefers guide to blogging, I suspect that the #1 thing limited my blogs success is:

  • Irregular posts – sometimes twice a week, sometimes once, sometimes skip a few

For example I thought of this post back in March!

On the other hand I consider my twitter “experiment” to be a total success, which is truly ironic since I started tweeting with the sole purpose of driving people to my blog!

On twitter I had the good fortune to make early friends with Kent Huffman and Mark Schaefer and to work with Cheryl Burgess (who was also starting up) and with their help I figured out Twitter. I have 70K twitter followers and a Klout score of 70, but the real value of twitter is the community. I have written previously about how my twitter community led to my SMM courses and the importance of a PLN for every “knowledge worker.” Those   benefits cannot be overstated.

BOTH BIG Wins

Overall I consider my experiences on BOTH my blogs and Twitter to be big wins for me. Even if I had no audience at all, the act of writing my blog posts focuses my thinking on topics that are important to me. I know more about a topic after I finish writing a post about it.

My twitter activity motivates me to continue to scan all of the materials in my Twitter lists and RSS feeds to find content worth sharing with my community – what better way to stay current on areas of research or personal interest?

And as already noted my incredible online PLN augments me! As I have previously argued we are all cyborgs now!!

I would encourage everyone to have a blog and active twitter account.

Posted in Blogging, Klout, Social Media, social media marketing, Teaching SMM, twitter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

#Showrooming: Why Wal-Mart will lose to Amazon

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Gary R Schirr

A study of “showrooming” showed that even comparison shoppers often end up buying something in the brick and mortar store.

This is why Amazon is considering setting up some retail locations. This should be an opportunity for some of the “brick and mortar” stores. Wal-Mart comes to mind because of their expertise in logistics and convenient locations. I have purchased several items through walmart.com instead of Amazon because free pickup at the Wal-Mart store – just a couple miles away – is even handier than free home delivery…when you worry about having the item sit in your driveway all day.

Despite Wal-Mart’s advantages I suspect that their cost-cutting culture, based on “everyday low prices”, may handicap them in competition with Amazon. This problem was illustrated when I went to Wal-Mart recently to pick up an Internet delivery.

Picking up my walmart.com order

The pickup area is an unadorned room in the middle of the back wall of the Walmart store. I suppose it is in the back in order to be by the warehouse, but another goal may be to make you walk through the entire store – like someone buying milk in Kroger.

There are big negatives to the location: it is a walk, it feels remote and cutoff from the store, it is a long way to carry packages going out. In addition if you forget to get a shopping cart as you entered the store it is a hassle to go back and get one.

As noted, the room is austere. A large sign over a credit card swipe machine says to touch the screen to let an associate know that you are waiting to pick up a walmart.com order. The space is shared with restrooms and a job search computer. The effect is to make you feel like a third class customer. Several associates walked through but simply gave me a pitying look, probably knowing that I would be there a while.

I waited 5 minutes before leaning across the counter to the inside phone. I hit the page button and said “walmart.com customer waiting for assistance in the pickup area.” An associate came back fairly quickly. It turned out that only one of the two text messages I had received from walmart.com  was accurate: the second package had not arrived. The associate gave the impression that 50% accuracy was normal.

The pickup took nearly 25 minutes. In that time Wal-Mart managed to deliver half of what was promised and convinced me that I was a low value customer.

I would actually like to see Wal-Mart prevail against AMZN, perhaps out of nostalgia for the 80s, but it will take a company that cares about service to fight Amazon. Maybe Target?

Posted in Digital Marketing, internet, social media marketing | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Graduation 2013

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Gary R Schirr

Graduation 2013

Happy Day – Seeing my students graduate and getting my tenure and promotion letters!!!

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Theory of Innovation

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Gary R Schirr

Do you have thoughts about a theory of innovation?

If so, please go to my other blog and share your ideas!!!

Thoughts on a theory of innovation? 

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