think top tweets

  • @rstephens musings from geek squad founder robert stephens
  • @govtwit the world’s largest government twitter directory
  • @socialmediajobs social media-related job openings
  • @ebdailypolitics New York Daily News running conversation about New York’s political scene
  • @harvardbiz management tips from the leading business journal

Baby Steps to Successful Social Media Marketing

April 28th, 2009

In an increasingly digital world, classic sales and marketing tactics are becoming increasingly obsolete. Most customers do not want/need to listen to a lengthy sales pitch; instead, they want more concise information at a faster pace and, if a business is unable to do this, they find someone else who can. more »

Exploring the Link between customer care and brand reputation in the age of social media

August 7th, 2009

The relationship between customer care and a company’s reputation is becoming more and more apparently with each passing day–and with each passing crisis spawned by lackadaisical service on the part of some company or executive. A report from the Society of New Communications Research and Nuance Communications, shown in full as the iPaper above, further analyzes this link, ultimately drawing conclusions and making recommendations on how best to approach customer relations in the context of an always-on social media world. more »

Social Media Meets the Law (Part 1): How to Manage the Public / Private Conversation

August 2nd, 2009

As social media becomes more ubiquitous in the cubicles of corporate America, several issues are being raised, from etiquette to privacy. The latter is having an increasingly significant impact on human resources and corporate communication departments, as well as employment lawyers and the courts.

At the heart of the debate: How to balance corporate security, whether it is checking potential employees’ backgrounds or current employees’ dissemination of corporate information, or respecting an employee’s right to privacy. The New York Law Journal noted several examples of how courts have started to weigh-in on social media, shedding some light on an increasingly important and still emerging area of the law. more »

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Survey about Bloggers & PR Pros Begets Best Practices

July 9th, 2009

PR agency Text 100 recently surveyed more than 400 bloggers from 21 countries, seeking information about their blogging habits and the ways in which they prefer PR people to pitch them. Top-line findings revealed that, while the majority of bloggers welcome being contacted by PR pros, the latter group should treat bloggers as influencers rather than journalists. More specific findings revealed the following:

  • • More than 90% of respondents welcome contact by PR people.
  • • Most reported a high level of regular contact from PR people, with more than 96% of bloggers in the US being contacted once a week or more (versus 36% in APAC and 65% in Europe).
  • • Email is the preferred form of contact, no matter which part of the globe bloggers reside. SMS and IM, universally, are the least preferred forms.

But the report wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops for the PR profession; bloggers were quick to point out bad habits that communications just can’t seem to kick, including

  • • PR people continue to blindly send corporate press releases to bloggers.
  • • PR professionals are failing to read the blogs and truly understand their target bloggers’ communities.
  • • They seem to expect bloggers to post corporate material, demonstrating a lack of understanding of the medium and the very reason why bloggers blog.
  • • They treat bloggers as they would journalists rather than influencers.

Finally, based on the survey results, Text 100 identified 5 key takeaways for PR executives to consider when approaching bloggers

  1. Corporations are increasingly recognizing the influence of bloggers, the increased contact points to the “mainstreaming” of blogging as a communications channel, and the recognition by corporations that bloggers have increasing influence over their desired audiences.
  2. Corporate news releases are out. Bloggers say social media releases will experience far greater usage in the coming months.
  3. RSS feeds are a key source of information for bloggers, second only to other bloggers. If companies aren’t making their information available via RSS feeds, then they’re failing to use one of the bloggers’ most-trusted channels. Corporate bloggers and Web sites are also consistently deemed more credible sources than microblogging newspapers, social bookmarking sites, television and magazines.
  4. The majority of bloggers are still part-timers, so PR execs should adjust their pitching strategies accordingly. Outside of the US, the majority of bloggers surveyed blog for less than nine hours per week.
  5. Most bloggers will acknowledge when a post is supported by a corporation. More than 80% of bloggers, no matter their region, say they would acknowledge sponsorship of blog posts.


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