July 27, 2008 179 Comments

50 Steps to Establishing a Consistent Social Media Practice

50You’ve told the boss that you’re going to implement social media stuff for your organization, and in your mind, you’ve decided that means an account on Twitter and a blog. Maybe there’s a bit more to it than that. For instance, what are your goals? Are you there to show customers and prospective new customers that you care? Are you there to solve customer issues? Are you building awareness and attempting new forms of digital marketing? Knowing this up front makes a world of difference.


In the mean time, here are some things you might consider for when it comes time to implement. They range from ideas for starting out, things to augment your efforts with, writing ideas, next steps, and metrics.…

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July 23, 2008 172 Comments

Essential Skills of a Community Manager

party Community manager is a role that more companies will adopt in the coming years. Jeremiah Owyang provide a huge list of companies who have such a champion already, and more recently gave businesses a scorecard for whether startups should have a community manager.


Here, I’ve talked about managing a community and what it takes. I’ve discussed what I want in a social media expert. I’ve even written about how we might do community management wrong. Here are some pieces of the puzzle that I think are vital to the role, and to its adoption for most businesses. Tell me what you think.

The Essential Skills of a Community Manager

The best community managers are like a good party host mixed with a fine restaurant host.…

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July 23, 2008 79 Comments

The Vital Importance of Your Network

nets Back in June, I wrote about whether companies will value your personal network. It’s a topic I think about constantly because I’ve seen time and time again the value of my own network. I use some amount of that value every day. And I spend a portion of each day threading the social needle.

Two great posts over the last few days show me that it’s not just me thinking about this. Tim Sanders says we should refresh our network often, and Jeremiah Owyang reports on the the risks and opportunities inherent in your network. It’s all pointing towards the same thing: you’ve got to think consciously about how you use social networks, and you have to build relationships that are decoupled from goals.…

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July 19, 2008 43 Comments

Who Cares

shrugAs a guy who does technology, but has somehow found himself in a marketing-heavy role, I’ve got a lot of opinions. Some might be wrong. You’re always welcome to correct me if you disagree.

Marketers: please, please, please think really hard about the recipient of your message. It seems SO easy, but I find that people talk about how amazing they (their company/product/etc) are. I’m glad you’re proud, but is that what you want to tell me? Because if I’m the customer/consumer/user/partner, you know how I’m thinking, right?

  • What’s in it for me?
  • How does this impact me?

    • …

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July 18, 2008 199 Comments

50 Blog Topics Marketers Could Write For Their Companies

You’ve started a company blog. What comes next? It’s not like someone gives you blog topics and an editorial calendar and suggests which one to post first. Well, I’m here to help. As part of my ongoing desire to see you pick up these social media tools for yourself and change the future of your business, here are 50 Blog Topics Marketers Could Write For Their Companies. (Feel free to repost, but please link back to [chrisbrogan.com] ). Oh, and if some of these don’t fit exactly, think creatively about whether you could adapt them.

50 Blog Topics for Marketers

  1. How to get the most from our customer service department.

…

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July 16, 2008 105 Comments

Should Hotels Have Social Networks

hotel I think about this all the time. I want loosely joined social networks for those times when we’ve got an opportunity to meet like-minded people. When I visited the famous Nikko hotel in San Francisco a few months back, I saw all kinds of interesting people in the lobby. At conferences, I’m always wondering who from the event might be at the hotel where I’m staying. I think there’s something to it, but only if done right.

Ideas for a Hotel Social Network

Here are some ideas. Could you think on this too? What would you add?

  • Opt in. HAS to be opt-in.
  • Levels of privacy. Should have an anon email washer like Craigslist, but then options for “revealing” further info.

    • …

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July 14, 2008 319 Comments

50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing

Social media isn’t always the right tool for the job. Not every company needs a blog. YouTube worked for BlendTec, but it might not work for your company. And yet, there’s something to this. Over the last three days, I’ve spoken to four HUGE brands in America that are considering social media for one project or another, and there are many more out there working on how these tools might integrate into their business needs. Here’s a list of 50 ideas (in no particular order) to help move the conversation along. Note: I mix PR and Marketing. They should get back together again.

Please feel free to share this with others, and reblog it, provided you link back to [chrisbrogan.com] as the source.…

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July 14, 2008 97 Comments

Musicians Play for Tips- The Importance of Comments

tip jar This is not a plea for comments for THIS blog. This is a post thinking about how comments matter to bloggers in general. I use my blog only as a reference point. Instead, this is a reminder that commenting is good, and that if you can’t comment, you can still help out bloggers that you like.

At the time of this blog posting, over 5,300 people receive this blog in their RSS reader (or via email). Another 2,000 – 4,000 come to the site directly, depending on the day and the post. Add those up, and let’s say that around 7,500 people come here daily to read my stuff.

If 1% of you commented, that’d be 75.…

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July 13, 2008 72 Comments

If You Intend To Blog Seriously

Blogs are not traditional media, and bloggers are not journalists. Unless they are. But it’s not a requirement. A blog is software. It’s something one puts up on the web to capture information, of whatever type one wants to put on there, and thus, if anyone tells you that you’re doing it wrong, that’s just silly. There aren’t very many wrong ways to do it (legal things like stealing from others might be something you could screw up, but otherwise). And yet.

If you’re going to blog seriously, consider the following:

  • Consider the goals and value of your posts. Are you adding to a body of work?

    • …

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July 9, 2008 82 Comments

Is Your Blog For Rent

house for rent Great story at Trendspotting (and I’m sorry that I forget who sent me this) about Coke trying to work with 9 bloggers in Brazil about a product rollout, where they sent the bloggers some of the new Coke, designed special front page replacements for their blogs, and summarily got lots of negative coverage for creating what the news media called “rent-a-bloggers.”

Blogging and social media are a great set of tools for promoting products and services by the digital version of word of mouth, but it’s a tricky situation. There are lots of opportunities to raise the ire of your community, and lots of ways that the marketer’s campaign could backfire.…

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