Social

By Brian Reed, CMO, BoxTone
Research First
As BoxTone set out to engage with the mobile IT professional community, we learned a lot by conducting focus groups and studies. We sought to find out who would be most interested in a BoxTone community, what kind of content interested them, and how they preferred to consume that content. [...]

Web technologies such as Twitter have enabled celebrities to become publishers, and also now paid advertisers.

If there’s one thing synonymous with pro football, it’s trash-talk. A good ole’ fashion pigskin rivalry without healthy ribbing between cities and fans would be boring, un-American, and just plain wimpy.
No two teams and their fans practice this time-honored tradition like the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Thanks to the power of social media, [...]

I recently analyzed a company’s social media practices using R2i’s 4 Ways to Leverage Social Media. What I realized is that most companies are adept in using the message distribution qualities of the tools, but are not as strong in using them to develop relationships with customers.

There are numerous, obvious reasons why Facebook and other social networking platforms are worthy of our attention. Social networks facilitate online connections by providing people with alternate ways to interact and share. These connections aren’t just for personal consumption; more and more businesses are building a Facebook presence to showcase their strengths and keep the social aspect of doing business alive and well. After all, isn’t it just as important for businesses to be sociable?

This post comes courtesy of Jackson Hole, Wyoming at the base of the Grand Teton’s National Park. Having lunch over the 4th of July weekend at Bubba’s BBQ (which I totally recommend if you ever visit this area) I overheard a conversation regarding a recent purchase and the desired upcoming purchase of a new horse. While I have no interest in owning a horse the conversation intrigued me as the three cowboys conversed on the pro’s and con’s of a fairly little known breeder in the area. How does this relate to social networking? This is the very root of social networking… just a difference of how it is administered.

The big buzz in our office today is swirling around Google’s work with HTML 5 and a centerpiece application smartly named Google Wave. Announced at their I/O conference keynote, Google Wave is email with a monster social-media makeover. Think true real-time online conversations through a combination of email and instant messaging, but that doesn’t do it justice. Every day we see new technology ideas with varying levels of “wow factor,” but only occasionally do we get something that is revolutionary. The significance of Google Wave is up there with the shift from DOS to Windows.

In the last post we talked about the first part of our social marketing framework. Now we are going to talk about part two – creating your own community.

The first thing I want to talk about is creation of a community; you can’t just create your own community. Communities take time to form and when we try to build a place on the web and then expect all our community members to…

I have an unlimited appetite for media and information. Frankly, I’m known to gorge on a regular basis to the consternation of my friends, family and employers. Luckily, it’s also my field so I’m given some grace. But the variety of new social tools and their ability to bring me new info in infinite new ways is not helping in my quest for personal pacing. In fact, it’s a downright smorgasbord: “Ma’am, will you have that in 140 characters or would you prefer it in a 5 part quiz on the Former Queens of Ancient Egypt You Most Admire on Tuesdays?” Let me state for the record, I stay as far away from Twitter as I can. For anyone with strong political opinions, challenged impulse control and strong verbal compulsive tendencies, Twitter is not the best tool for winning friends and influencing people. Trust me. I’m drawn to it like a magnet to metal.

Social Media has changed the way that the world largely communicates. Advances in social website technology now allow users to keep up with individuals and groups on a more intimate level that they may not have had the ability to stay connected to in the past.