I know everyone is tired of the “what is social media” question, but I found this article to be a great quick-and-dirty argument for embracing social media as it happens. It really nails down how the internet became an essential part of business (apparently sometime in late 1997) and concrete examples of how companies jumped [...]

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Watching companies having to interact with customers and potential customers or run the risk of being internet hated-on has been interesting. Sites like Consumerist make it so one bad interaction with the public can be forever etched into Google Search Results.
One of my favorite things is when companies are really nice without having to be. [...]

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One of the most interesting and valuable-to-me blogs I read is The Fluent Self. Authored by a woman named Havi and her promiscuous duck, this blog provides great intellectual and business insights in such a way that it feels like your best friend is gently but honestly nudging you in the right direction.
This particular post [...]

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Instead of sending online shoppers coupons or information about sales, executives and employees at Henderson, Nev.-based Zappos.com regularly tweet about what happens to them at the airport, the fact that they eat marshmallows in between phone calls and the state of the economy.
This article in the New York Times is so informational, I can barely [...]

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So, I’ve been active on Twitter for an entire 50 days now. What’s that in Twitter years? And being the old Twitter salt I now am, I am entitled to list my top Twitter pet peeves. So here they are, not in any order of importance.

Excessively Retweeting Yourself: “In case you missed it.” I [...]

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What exactly *is* Twitter? And why do I need to use it?
I get this question from clients a lot. The other part of the Twitter question seems rooted in misconception. No wants to read you liveblogging your lunch! Until not too long ago, I was one of the people that didn’t really “get” Twitter.
Then I [...]

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I will admit it- even as an early adopter, I was slow to “get” Twitter. My account sat dormant and silent for months, and when I came across Twitter-related news, I kind of glazed over. But fellow VAs (thankfully) kept banging on about it, and I started knocking around on the site- and it’s been [...]

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Continuing on with our theme of avoiding social media embarrassment,  I’d like to share this must-read article for everyone over the age of 16 who has a Facebook account.  This comprehensive piece details how to CYA from every angle on the ubiquitous, all-knowing Facebook. It won’t save you from being tagged in unflattering and possibly [...]

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I feel really bad for this guy, and I think we’ve all fired off some off the cuff words into the intertubes only to have them come boomeranging back at us.
However, it’s worth noting that this sad tale starts with a disparaging tweet sent from the airport on the way to a client. To educate [...]

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In my last office gig, I heard time and time again that internet marketing wasn’t worth pursuing because the demographic we served (Boomers) didn’t “get computers.” I suspected that the 50+ crowd was being underestimated technologically, and it turns out they’re gaining ground.
I came across this piece and wanted to share it- it breaks down [...]

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Via JK Virtual Office Resources, a cautionary tale for the internet age about the power of good and bad internet attention and your brand. Background: Motrin created some ads that unintentionally portrayed mothers in a less than flattering light. From the article, some key points:
…outraged mums, furious at the suggestion that their babies were a [...]

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By now, most tech-savvy marketing strategies include some social media marketing. This cool Mashable post highlights 30 new applications to do more for your business with Facebook.
And none of them involve saving the rainforest through the exchange of virtual plants, thankfully.
Think LinkedIn is the only place for business? Facebook is growing rapidly and it’s becoming [...]

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Who had the best coverage of this week’s plane crash? For timeliness- Twitter. Below the snippet, the article covers the coverage pretty thoroughly.
Worth noting: Flight Captain C.B. Sully Sullenberger has a Facebook fan page with 197,077 fans as of this post.
… a US Airways jet made a water landing on New York’s Hudson River, shortly [...]

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Facebook is now technically the 8th most populous country in the world. Are you using this resource to reach out to your client base?
I’ve seen resistance when developing marketing initiatives, but those numbers should be enough to overcome most reticence with this new medium. (Via Lifehacker)
Today, we reached another milestone: 150 million people around the [...]

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