Posts about social media as of August 11, 2009

Every time I see the average real estate professional (realtor, investor, mortgage broker, etc…) using the same dinosaur marketing techniques that their former consultants beat into them, I wonder if they enjoy wasting money and getting crappy results. It’s undeniable that this economic recession is making it hard for for many people in many areas of life. In fact, consumers are not responding to the traditional forms of advertising like before.

Wait, what? You mean there is a use for LinkedIn? Yes there is, and the White House has found it! According to the LinkedIn blog, the White House has been using the “Questions” feature on LinkedIn to ask small business owners what they think about healthcare reform. “CEA Chair Christina Romer has posed a question on LinkedIn to engage in a dialogue with the small business community. She will be addressing your comments and questions in a live online video chat this coming Wednesday.

Information Week reports Facebook is acquiring FriendFeed for their management team. Will Zuckerberg let them manage? http://budurl.com/zq9b

I’m more than ‘just an art director’ okay. Look. I’ve decided to GMFST (Get My Fucking Shit Together) . Have had enough sitting in the corner being ‘the agency’s quirky designer who knows online’ . I’m gonna develop my niche and show my employers I know my shit. Gonna campaign for a promotion , and gonna do that by sending out mails about ‘measuring social media’ to make the older ppl in the agency shit their pants and realise how invaluable I am. Step 1: Scour some sites for relevant articles .

Over the past few weeks there have been a number of articles about Twitter and other social media being banned where secrecy and security breaches are major concerns. This ranges from the US Marines, Pentagon, NFL and mainland China. The workplace may be the next battleground. U.S. Marine Corps has banned Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites from its networks, as of August 3.

Though Twitter is currently a media darling, only 8% of advertisers and consumers think it is a “very effective” promotion tool, according to June 2009 data from LinkedIn Research Network and Harris Interactive. The research, which included surveys of US advertisers and Internet users, found that while 83% of advertisers were familiar with Twitter, only 31% of Web users were. Naturally, younger respondents were more familiar with the microblogging site.

Luckily, while I was home recovering from surgery and going crazy (nothing serious, I had my appendix removed), I received “The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web” to read. I’m so glad I read the entire book and I’m going to recommend it as a required resource for all new marketers. The book is written by a friend, Tamar Weinberg, technology enthusiast and social media consultant . She’s brilliant and fully understands how to build and execute social media strategy.

Keystone Morning Quickie       August 11th 2009 Market Commentary Futures are currently pointing to a flat open as traders await coommentary as the Federal reserve begins its 2 day monetary-policy meeting. At 8:30am the labor department will release data which is forecast to show that US unit labor costs fell 5.3 %. The S&P has now rallied more then 50% from the March lows, yet we continue to see buying on any dip in the markets. As we have mentioned many times, there are some opportunities to short, however trade expectations must be small.

If I wanted to explain what social media is and why it needs to be integrated into brand strategy, I could not do better than those guys…F**cking great presentation: visually impactful, easy & straight to the point. Enjoy! What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later View more documents from Marta Kagan . Via PRLAND

Want to rest your head on Reddit? Take time out with Twitter? Kick back with Flickr? Then “Social Pillows”, a series of pillows hand decorated to represent your favorite social networking sites, might be what you need. Created by Chicago-based Twitter user @craftsquatch , the pillows produced include Flickr, Reddit, Digg, the Twitter “t”, the Fail Whale, the Twitter bird, FriendFeed, Tumblr, Facebook, MySpace and more. The pillows are available for $18 each in the Craftsquatch Etsy store .