THINKing

Too Much Social, Not Enough Sales?

Is social media wearing you out and getting in the way of your real work? It’s not bad enough that you have to keep up with a blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendfeed, Youtube and maybe Plaxo, but every day I’m being asked to join yet another social network. There are hundreds of them, it seems. I’ve said no to Viadeo, no to Friendster, no to MySpace, and by-bye to Goodreads.

Time To Plan

There’s usually some downtime at work around the holidays. What are you doing with your break? I’m using mine to meet with clients and prospects and to complete my planning for 2010. Do you have a marketing plan for the year? What new items are you incorporating into your plan?

Social Media Confuses Businesses

It seems businesses of all sizes are conflicted about how to use social media effectively. In a recent CitiBank/GfK Roper study, about 75 percent of small businesses said that social networks are not working for them.  On the other side of the equation, Gartner says that most Fortune 1000 companies will delve into social media by 2010 but more than half of them will fail.

Links 11/6/2008

A lot of brands are jumping onto Twitter, the latest being Dunkin Donuts. Here’s the Dunkin Donuts Twitter page. Where’s Krispy Kreme?

While we are on the subject of Twitter, Darren Rowse of Problogger has launched a new blog, TwiTip, that’s all about Twitter. If you are into Twitter you’ll want to read this. If you are into blogging, read Problogger. It’s on my must read list.

Social Media: You Are Wearing Me Out

Apparently, many people are tired of social media. According to a Synovate study about social networks,

We spoke with over 13,000 respondents aged 18-65 years in 17 markets around the world to find out who’s connected and who’s not, as well as attitudes and online behaviours. Some of what we found surprised us… like more than a third of social networkers say they are losing interest in social media. And how many people do not even know what it is.

The ROI Of Social Media

This is the first in our guest blogger series. Today’s post comes from DJ Francis, Online Marketer.

Marketers know that social media is impacting their business, but no one knows exactly how much. In what ways is social media changing business, how is this new medium different, and can we measure it? Should we even try? In short, what is the worth of social media?

What’s The Top Social Network?

Anita Campbell at Small Business Trends posed the question to 17 web entrepreneurs who she considers to be savvy,

“If your goal is to grow a small business online, and you had time for only one social networking / social media site, which would you choose and why?”

Get The Flock Onto Your Computer

Flock has supplanted Firefox as my favorite browser. It is powered by Mozilla, the same engine that supports Firefox, however it has so many more features designed for our new social, digital world. There is a nice demo of Flock by Candy With A Why, so I won’t recreate the wheel.

Connections Revisited

I asked what social networks you are a part of and several of you have waded in. Let’s see what’s working for our readers:

Ashleigh Hunter of Bank of America wrote:

The Value Of Connections

As we have discussed before, the value of connections in business cannot be underestimated. I’m talking primarily about tight connections that you use ruthlessly to help you achieve your personal and professional goals. Friend and business coach Brent Dees of Focus Four tells us that you if want a $1 million business, you should have 40 contacts (your Focus 40) each of whom can bring you $25,000 in business. Your job is to help each of these contacts achieve their goals and they, in turn, will help you reach yours. This is a spin on the method that made Andrew Carnegie a millionaire many times over.