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2010
You are browsing the archive for 2010.
2010 Review & 2011 Predictions
This is my 60th and final post for 2010. It has been a great year for me professionally. I’ve been able to teach a course on social media (more courses coming in 2011), I’ve been quoted in The Concordian (a Montreal university newpaper) about staying safe with social media and I wrote a social media article for [...]
Should Your College President Be Blogging?
This question still might be asked by some communications and marketing folks in higher education. You would think the answer would be a resounding ‘yes they should!’ But the answer is not that simple. Obviously in today’s world of Twitter and Facebook, blogging can be another tool in a president’s belt to achieve their goals. [...]
The Death of Adobe Flash
Today I had an interesting conversation with Hope Litwin about the future of Adobe Flash. She was of the opinion that Flash was going to be obsolete in the next few years (if not sooner). This got me thinking and fueled the conversation. I realized that I haven’t seen that many Flash sites these days. [...]
Why Do My Posts Have a Low Time on Page?
I’ve been asking myself that question for a number of months now. It really bothered me that my blog posts were appearing to have an a Time on Page value of 0 seconds. I was doubting that my content was being read. I became curious when people would comment on Twitter about a certain blog [...]
The Blurring of the Lines: Reputation Management
There has been countless posts talking about protecting your identity or brand online by not posting stupid comments, photos or videos. I think that is the least of your concern. With the market exploding with dozens of smartphone models, capturing a moment and posting it online is literally a click away. I’m not sure if [...]
Create a Social Media Hub
There are numerous social networks where you can invest your time. Do consider the following risks, however, before investing effort and energy in many social networks. Your online community can be disconnected. Imagine a large city surrounded by several smaller cities and towns. These communities, although close in proximity, can be disconnected because of competing [...]
It’s the Website’s Fault
How many times have you heard this or had it implied? When conversions are low, whether sales, enrolments or event registrations, the website is usually the first thing to be blamed as the cause. Websites, even though they have been around for years, are still ambiguous. People that are not close to the web industry [...]
Social Media: Ask. Respond. Act.
Recently, I read a post on Social Media Examiner that shared how Loblaws engaged with customers of their delicious BBQ sauce to understand why sales were not higher. By allowing product reviews, they found out the bottle size made it difficult to store in the refrigerator door. Loblaws redesigned the bottle and they immediately saw [...]
Did I Fail on Social Media?
Today I completed my Movember efforts (Yah! No more mustache). I had a goal to raise $500 for prostate cancer research. I was able to raise $265. That is only half way to my goal. This got me thinking. Did I fail because I didn’t reach my goal? Yes, I failed to reach my goal [...]
4 Steps to Design a Successful Website
Building any website, whether small or large, takes effort. What separates the good websites from the great websites are the process and how efficient the team can follow the process. I just completed a one year redesign project and through the experience, have established a process that we will follow on future projects. Each step [...]
Be Upfront With Your Intentions
At my work we have dozens of domain names that we manage. Every few months I get a piece of mail from the same company kindly reminding me of domain names that will be expiring soon. The wording of the letter attempts to instill a sense of urgency hoping to get me to act immediately. [...]
Be a Thought Leader
We all hate buzz words, but this is a topic that has been on my mind lately. I’ve had discussions with one of my colleagues about thought leadership. Wikipedia simply describes thought leadership as an entity that is recognized for having innovative ideas. Although the phrase was only coined in 1994, the concept has been around [...]
Generate More Blog Traffic
Yesterday I wrote a post highlighting the Future of Marketing virtual conference that happened that day. I didn’t expect the traffic that followed. Within 24 hours, that post was seen 50 times, which is the most viewed post in the last two weeks. This got me asking myself, what made the difference? Why did people [...]
The Future of Marketing
I had the opportunity to tune into the Future of Marketing virtual conference today, where 60 of the top marketers gave their insight into the future of marketing in 60 seconds. The conference was great, but it left me wanting more. The good thing is that the virtual conference is a great idea generator. I [...]
Align The Solution to the Issue
How many times have you been approached by a client with a website issue. They usually come to you with some suggestions to solve the issue. Most times the issue is real and warrants some attention, but far too often the solution is not aligned with the issue. For example, at the college where I [...]
How I Got 1000 Followers on Twitter
For many people, 1000 followers on Twitter is not a huge achievement, but for me it is. The number of followers you have on Twitter doesn’t indicate success or failure, but its how engaged your followers are. The more followers you have, the more likely you are to have engagement. Here are some strategies that [...]
Social Media Can Change the World
Post after post, we read how social media tools like Facebook or Twitter can improve your customer engagement or generate leads. There are less posts about how social media can change the world because these tools do tend to favor the narcissistic side in us. But great things have and can be accomplished using social [...]
Promotion is Critical
Awareness, marketing, promotion. Call it what you will, but without it your social media efforts will fail. I’ve been a part of online contests, social media campaigns and other online activities. One thing that comes to mind is any online activity will fail if not promoted well. This is common sense for people, but sometimes [...]
8 Best Practices for Social Media Success
The list below of best practices are not a secret or only available to exclusive group of people, but it may seem that way because so many people still don’t follow these simple tactics. Despite the cartoon below, by following these best practices, you will not be mediocre. In fact you will shine above others. [...]
When Does Social Media Stop Being Social?
I first raised the question when I made a comment to Jimmy Fallon on Twitter. Jimmy had an actor from ‘Saved by the Bell’ and was trying to get a petition signed on his website to encourage the cast of the show to a reunion either on his show or something like that. I grew [...]