Kevin Samolis
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Posts by Kevin Samolis
How has social networking saved your ass?
Oct 21st
David Spark
At TechCrunch Disrupt I asked attendees, presenters, and exhibitors how social networking has saved their ass. We’ve all had stories of the community providing information we needed in a moment of crisis. Here are some great stories. Watch until the end for a story of social media literally saving someone’s ass.
Watch These 3 Annoying Online Punctuation Lapses
Oct 21st
Way back in those scary days of high school biology, musty textbooks taught us that the human ovum is about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
The statement highlighted that, in the absence of decent birth control, something very teeny could have a massive impact, eventually mushrooming into a 240-pound bro flailing his arms, hooting frequently and ordering unwanted Jager bombs for the whole table.
Likewise, the actual period at the end of a sentence can have a huge impact — all punctuation marks can.
Since commas, periods, et al. are the only hints you can give your reader about how he should hear your e-mail (or Facebook (
) message or Match.com note) in his head, you best be sure you’re giving accurate (and minimally offensive) stage directions every time your fingers hit the keyboard.
Should Your Company Have a Chief Marketing Technologist?
Oct 19th
While presenting Tuesday at Pivot Conference, Scott Brinker, president and CTO of ion interactive, explained why he believes organizations should take the next step toward digital proficiency by fostering a new breed of executives — the chief marketing technologist. Brinker explains this type of executive as:
“… someone who has a hybrid between business and technology, a strong background in engineering and IT, is an early adopter of technology, but someone who also understands the pragmatic realities of scaling technology. But most importantly, someone who brings those skills and combines them with a deep love and passion for the marketing mix. This is a technologist that reports to the CMO, not the CIO.”
Traditionally, organizations silo functions into categories — communications, finance, creative, operations, and of course, marketing and technology, to name a few. Brinker’s case for the Chief Marketing Technologist has legs, especially as marketing and technology functions are becoming increasingly intertwined. Your company may have seasoned marketers and top-of-the-line technologists, but it takes those who are dually knowledgeable in both marketing and technology to really make the right moves in Internet () marketing, as they are the ones who really understand the way the web works and what’s possible for marketing from a technological point of view.
How Social Search Will Transform the SEO Industry
Oct 18th
Facebook () and Bing (
) announced last week an agreement that would allow Microsoft’s search engine to return results based on the Facebook “Likes” of the searcher’s friends. Additionally, Google (
) recently began including Twitter updates in its search returns. It’s a natural innovation that fits into the business models of both companies and takes the trend of individualized search results to its next logical level: results tailored to the searcher’s existing social footprint.
SEO insiders have wondered whether this new search innovation would affect placement strategies. And the simple answer is: yes. Yes, there will be changes to the way SEO professionals run their clients’ campaigns. Yes, this will affect the industry as a whole. And yes, we believe SEO professionals will have to adapt to meet ever-evolving needs.
The Business Case for Social Media
Oct 16th
Here’s a killer question from business owners: how can I get a return on investment from social media? The answer is not very straight-forward, it very much depends on what you are looking to achieve from it and indeed your business goals.
Some companies will use Twitter for talent acquisition, others will use LinkedIn to connect with potential customers and some will be blogging to showcase expertise.
As I get asked the aforementioned question frequently, I thought I’d put together a summary that I can point people to. Here are some of the main benefits that you can expect from creating and implementing a social media strategy.
1. Marketing and brand awareness
Your successful social media strategy will lead to more online conversations about your business. If you are able to reach out to your target audience with social media, your customers will spread your message more effectively than traditional methods.
How Predictive Analytics Can Make Money for Social Networks
Oct 16th
Dr. Rado Kotorov is chief innovation officer at Information Builders, and is responsible for emerging reporting, analytic and visualization technologies. He has developed analytic models and applications for the pharmaceutical, retail, CPG, financial and automotive industries.
You’ve likely been experiencing a deluge of online information coming at you in recent years — an overwhelming number of status updates, e-mails, tagged images and so forth. You’ve probably also seen, and potentially been alarmed by, the growing accuracy of targeted advertisements — “People You May Know,” and other “offers” online.
As the quantity of irrelevant information has exploded online, so too has the market for the delivery of targeted offers and information. Social networks, in theory and in practice, expose many people to contact and influence. Without precise models, people will continue to be bombarded with ineffective offers and other irrelevant information. Predictive analytics, a branch of data mining concerned with predicting future probabilities and trends, applies a filter to users’ online interactions with the aim of delivering more value from a sea of irrelevance.
With increased value comes the potential for social networks to make money as well. Here’s a look at some specific ways in which predictive analytics will make social networks money.
Marketers Trade Tales About Getting to Know Facebook and Twitter
Oct 16th
By STUART ELLIOTT
HOW much attention is a big annual conference for marketers paying to the growing importance of social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to help reach consumers? Well, speakers are saying “fans,” “like” and “hash tag” almost as often as “touch points,” “benchmark” and “prioritize.”
The conference is the 100th anniversary meeting of the Association of National Advertisers, which began here on Wednesday night and is to continue through Saturday morning. The conference has drawn a record attendance estimated at 1,600, a third higher than the approximately 1,200 people who attended the conference in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
By this point, it might seem that discussing social media in the marketing mix would be redundant. After all, scores of brands have already shared their track records with nontraditional media at conferences and in trade publications.
But if the results of a survey taken during the opening general session of the conference on Thursday are projectable on a large scale, marketers may still need some schooling on the dos and don’ts of social media. Asked to describe how its use has affected sales, 13 percent replied that they did not use social media at all. (Eleven percent said sales had increased a lot, 34 percent said sales increased “some” and 42 percent said they had seen no change.)
How to make your Facebook content “Top News”
Oct 15th
By Emily Molitor on October 14, 2010
One of the main aims of companies using Facebook for business is generating awareness, as Jay Baer pointed out in his Facebook Success Summit session on Tuesday afternoon. The top way to do this, Baer says, is to win the News Feed. It seems simple: If you get someone to “like” your company’s Facebook page, then they receive the content you send out, right?
Not exactly, Baer said.
Your news feed is divided into two sections, “Top News” and “Most Recent News,” and people are automatically directed to their “Top News” feed when they log in. Facebook has even acknowledged that 95% of users only read their “Top News” version of the feed. Thus, to stay on your customer’s radar, your content must fall into the “Top News” category.
As Baer explained in his presentation, “Top News” is determined by the Edge Rank, an algorithm that reflects three components:
How to Integrate Video Into Your Social Media Marketing
Oct 13th
Video is hot! It adds a whole new dimension to your marketing. Are you looking to use video with your social media efforts, but feel a bit stuck?
In this episode of Social Media Examiner TV, Mari Smith shares important tips, creative ideas and what you need to know to integrate video into your social media marketing. Also be sure to catch her ninja marketing tip at the end of the video.
Be sure to share your feedback and see the show notes with lots of useful links below.
Video Content
First you need to know what exactly you’re going to put into your videos. Mari shares some ideas and then tells you two easy ways to create video content.
Facebook, Twitter and The Two Branches of Social Media [OP-ED]
Oct 12th
The Social Analyst is a column by Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space.
There’s no disputing that FacebookFacebook is the poster child for social networking. It is the platform for building social connections online and keeping up to date with what’s happening in your social circle. It is one of the two most important platforms in social media.
The other one is TwitterTwitter. However, if you try to describe Twitter as a “social network” to anyone who works at the company, they’ll quickly correct you. Internally and externally, Twitter describes itself as an “information network.”
What exactly is the difference? And is there one?
