February 5, 2008 30 Comments

Facebook and the Social Graph- Who Benefits

Sometimes it takes a while for something to sink in. Today, one of those things finally hit me. Facebook asks me for all kinds of information on how I know the people I accept as friends, but I realized that I get nothing out of the exchange, and that Facebook and potential advertisers get tons of gain.

Populating the social graph for Facebook is essentially modeling even more data for advertisers to absorb into their information. This isn’t 100% bad. For instance, if advertisers looked at every friend I had and noticed that only 11 of them EVER clicked a Facebook ad, wouldn’t that tell them something?…

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February 5, 2008 71 Comments

Social Networks are Your Local Pub

pub Walking out the door the other night to watch the SuperBowl last night was interesting. I walked past the Barking Dog (another bar), past the Ale House (another bar), past the Carriage Wheel, and then into the Stage 2 Cinema Pub, which is normally a movie theater, but when there’s a big sports event, it transforms into a great place to watch a game. I realized that any one of those places I walked past had people watching the game. I knew that each one of those places had “regulars” and “visitors,” and a sense of what’s okay and what draws disapproving stares. Sounds a bit like social networks, if you squint.…

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February 4, 2008 60 Comments

Is Social Media More for PR than for Marketers

Consider this second in a series of posts where I don’t really know what I’m talking about. In this case, I’ll make the post short, and ask you to educate ME.

Is social media built more for PR types? Is the value there much easier to define than the value for marketers?

What do you think? …

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January 30, 2008 54 Comments

Performance and Your Audience- Blogging Tips

stage Performance. When you blog or podcast or record a video, it is an opportunity for a performance, a presentation, a distilled and distinct package of information. It is your chance to connect with your audience and deliver something of value. It is an obligation and a pact.

It’s fine to use these tools for conversation, but consider your audience. Think about how little time they have in a day. Think about the places where they will be spending their time.

Be Brief

Can you say it faster? Do so.

Appeal to Their Sense of Self

Can you tell a story? Will the story help your audience think of themselves? Will your words bring THEIR minds awake?…

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January 25, 2008 36 Comments

Advice for Traditional and Local News Media

Someone, a brave someone, from Boston’s local TV news scene asked a question to a panel with representatives from MySpace, Facebook, Eons, IBM, and a virtual worlds builder. She said she wanted to know the role of traditional media in this space, and what road she and her organization should get on for the future of media. Their answers were all over the map, but Jeff Taylor (former founder of Monster, current founder of Eons) had the start of a thoughtful answer, and his response blended with something someone else said earlier (either Jeff again, or Tom Arrix of Facebook): that if we observe the Superbowl ads for 2008, we’ll notice that the majority of them will point us to a web property.…

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January 24, 2008 37 Comments

Acknowledging All You Know About Social Media

You probably don’t give yourself credit for all you DO know about social media:

  • You know about YouTube, that it’s more than dogs on skateboards.
  • You know about Facebook, that it’s not just for kids any more.
  • You know about blogs, and at least two places you can blog for free.
  • You know the difference in mainstream news and social news.
  • You know where to find tech advice, marketing advice, sales advice, what matters to you advice.
  • You know what a wiki is, what a Flickr is, what a twitter is.

You know lots, and have helped others around you understand even more.

Who are you teaching? Where are you laying down your knowledge?…

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January 23, 2008 32 Comments

Velocity-Flexibility-Economy

carnivalThink that social media has nothing to offer your “traditional” business? I can give you reasons along any of three points of view: velocity, flexibility, and economy. As our tools come closer and closer to approximating and/or enhancing human interaction, and further away from requiring an abundance of technological expertise, those who are exploring and sampling these tools are at an advantage that can be measured in speed, adaptability, and cost of operation.

We aren’t talking about the marketing department. We aren’t equipping PR professionals. This isn’t a new set of tools for launching campaigns.…

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January 23, 2008 44 Comments

Creatives and Your Secret Mission

superheroes For every day we don’t unlock our own value, we remain plugged into our other identity. I twittered this sentiment, but I believe it applies to a lot of YOU. You have ideas and thoughts and realizations that rise above what you’re called upon to accomplish in a given day.

You can choose a few paths: one is to just do what you’re given to do, go home, and wonder why life hasn’t dropped off a big fat bag of cash and destiny on your door. Another is to fight the system at every turn and rail against everyone that they don’t “get it” and that you’re smarter than all them, no matter how it all looks right now.…

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January 22, 2008 143 Comments

A Sample Social Media Toolkit

toolboxThere are countless ways to get into the game with Social Media, but sometimes, we get hung up on evaluating tools and thinking about which are the best for the job. We go further into thinking about the variety of tools and why we’d use which ones for what, and then, next thing you know, the day’s over and nothing’s been done. Here are a few sample tools and what they can be used for, and from there, maybe some new ideas will spread.

Quick note: I know and use and admire and communicate with LOTS of providers of these tools. For every one of these categories, I could probably name between four and sixteen more people.…

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January 14, 2008 54 Comments

5 Starter Moves – Facebook LinkedIN and Twitter

UPDATE: To receive a FREE copy of the entire 5 Starter Moves series in PDF form, sign up for my newsletter (also free), and I’ll mail you out a file shortly. (Note: if you don’t want to sign up for the newsletter, and still want the pdf, email me: blog at chrisbrogan.com

This is the last of the Five Starter Moves series. If you would like a copy of all five posts together in a single downloadable PDF file, please comment on this post, leaving a valid email address. I’ll send you one shortly thereafter.

Companies are wondering about how social networks will work for them, and whether they should engage on those fronts.…

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