Posts tagged as:

social software

Let’s get this out of the way right up front: It might be better to say, “Google+ isn’t the only place for your brand.” For that matter neither is Facebook. Or Twitter. Or Tumblr. Or YouTube. Or any other social platform.

Robert Scoble, if you don’t know him, gets loads of respect as a blogger and thinker. Here’s what he posted on Googe+ today:

“Why do I post here on Google+ instead of on my blog, or over on Facebook? One reason is the search engine here. For instance, search for the word “Occupy” and you’ll find all the posts written about the Occupy Wallstreet protests: https://plus.google.com/s/Occupy

I believe this search engine will become more and more important over time. Right now it’s not that important, in terms of traffic or causing conversations, but that’s why I’m investing time here and not on my blog.

Now, the trick is to figure out what I should use my blog for. :-)

Robert typically shows love for new services as they become available (or, at least, the ones that end up capturing some market share). And, of course, he changes blogging platforms about as often as I change my underwear (OK, not quite as often, but you get the idea).

But, as I’ve said again and again, tools don’t matter. Google could change the rules of Google+ tomorrow and screw your brand.

Not that they have any history there.

Facebook could, too. And Twitter. And Tumblr. Any YouTube. And on and on and on.

And where would that leave you?

Build your brand on your website and your blog as your hub. Then use social tools as the spokes of the wheel that will drive your brand success.

And, for as much as I respect Robert Scoble, don’t listen to those who tell you Googe+ (or any other site you don’t control) is the one and only place for your brand.


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What is the business value of Twitter?Michael Arrington at TechCrunch has great piece today about Comcast using Twitter to as an early warning system. Add this to your list of ways to get business value from Twitter.

Increasingly, businesses are using Twitter and learning about their customers from it. For instance, someone from Zappo’s – they of the best customer service story ever – started following me on Twitter this past weekend (before I dropped a couple hundred bucks on shoes for me and my family). And I suspect I’ll hear from them again.

It’s become increasingly fashionable for people to claim Twitter is a waste of time or useless. But in practice it’s increasingly useful as a tool for smart business folks to learn what their customers care about. If smart companies use Twitter, why don’t you?

UPDATE: McNeil just learned a valuable lesson about Twitter with a failed commercial. You can read what they did wrong and how to avoid that here.


Are you getting enough value out of your small business website? Want to make sure your business makes the most of the mobile, social, local web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today. Or subscribe via email.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter.

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Josh Bernoff, Charlene Li and other fine folks at Forrester have a report on what they call “The POST Method” for social strategy. It’s an excellent report, well worth the read for many folks at larger companies interested in the best way to set social strategy for their firm. Charlene and Josh both have excellent insights into the right way to do social strategy.

For instance, the way that Josh got folks to review this report (and their forthcoming book) illustrates excellent social strategy implementation.

I learned about this report from a link on Josh and Charlene’s blog, encouraging bloggers to tweet Josh if they were interested in a review copy of the report. (Tweets are messages sent via Twitter, for those new to both). He offered the report to the first 100 TWITs. (TWITs are what many folks call the folks using Twitter. Ah, how we love our irony). What impressed me about this method is that Josh sized up his audience first, connected bloggers using social platforms such as blogs, RSS and Twitter. Who better to review a report about social strategy than the folks using social technologies. But, key to both the report and the approach is Josh didn’t start by saying, “I’ll use Twitter.” He started be knowing what mattered to his customers, then using tools that worked for those folks. It might sound obvious, but that’s precisely Josh’s point. Too many companies start with “Let’s use some cool new technology” without thinking first about what value it has to their customers. Your business can use Twitter in a number of ways. But that doesn’t mean you should in all cases. Josh just happened to demonstrate one of them. His colleague Peter Kim listed other uses for Twitter in a recent post, too. But without the right objectives and strategies in place, you won’t see the value you should.

So, should you buy the report? The answer depends on your budget. For many large companies, the cost is low relative to similar reports. For small companies though, I’d recommend waiting for Charlene and Josh’s book. I suspect it will cover everything in the book, plus some and for a much more reasonable price.

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What’s the business value of twitter?

January 8, 2008 Social Media

Is Twitter valuable to your business? Yes.
Well, maybe. Tweets such as “staring at my navel,” “contemplating the universe” or “having a bath” don’t do much for a business (or for many individuals that I can see). But riding the river of tweets (or “twiver” as Doc calls it) is good for several things:

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