From presentations to conversations

It isn’t every day that I get to make a difference. Most days, I am lucky to put out a few fires, return some emails, get some work done and maybe say or write something of value. But yesterday, I was handed a very precious and unexpected gift, packaged in simple words of genuine thanks [...]

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Digital Crisis Management: Putting things in context.

Yesterday, we looked at John Bell’s argument for creating a digital crisis management plan for your organization or client, in case your brand ever finds itself threatened by a PR catastrophe, (more of a when than an if, by the way) and determined a few simple things: 1. Putting together a digital crisis management plan [...]

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Digital Crisis Management – a primer by John Bell

Solid piece by John Bell over at Digital Influence on the relatively new and ever evolving PR discipline of digital crisis management this week. This is pretty timely as I keep running into PR departments and firms just now starting to get comfortable with the notion: It’s almost a joke amongst communication pros. The first [...]

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New rules, new skillset

The topic came up in conversation yesterday: What grouping of skills and experience should a company look for in a Social Media manager or director? I have to confess that my answer sounded more like a list than anything: Marketing communications, PR, community management, blogging, account planning, business development, reputation management, brand management, brand insights [...]

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The Art of the Corporate Avatar

Even with all the hubbub about Social Media these days, not many people seem to be zeroing-in on what may arguably be one of the most important visual elements of a person or company’s online presence: The almighty avatar. Before we get into the topic of avatars, let’s first divide Social Media users into two [...]

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Twitalyzer Part 2: Twitalyzer for brands

Aha! See? You learn something new every day. I have to confess that I wasn’t familiar with Twitalyzer’s brand-specific tool until Eric Peterson (@ericpeterson) pointed it out to me Monday. (That’s what I get for not spending enough time playing with the free stuff.) Anyway, “Twitalyzer: Brand” is essentially a brand-focused version of Twitalyzer that [...]

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Twitalyzer: Another fast way to measure influence on Twitter

Thanks to Fuel Labs‘ Kristi Colvin, for pointing me to Twitalyzer, another free tool that helps shed some light on people’s (and brands’) influence on Twitter. Instead of giving you an overall score (which doesn’t really tell you much unless you happen to be looking at Twitter scoring as some sort of popularity contest), Twitalyzer [...]

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SmartBrief announces new Social Media Advisory Board

When I was recently asked to join SmartBrief on Social Media‘s advisory board, I had no idea how many big names were going to come along for the ride as well. I feel truly humbled to be in the company of folks like Ogilvy Worlwide’s John Bell, Connie Bensen, Guy Kawasaki, Geno Church, Ann Handley, [...]

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Brand Tweak Wednesday: Employee Engagement

I was chatting with a friend about budget-conscious brand revitalization strategies, the importance of creating employee-friendly corporate cultures and how to drive more passionate employee engagement today, and I was suddenly reminded of something John Moore – over at Brand Autopsy – wrote on his blog back in 2007: “Astonish employees and they will, in [...]

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Tired of layoffs? Help share stories of people starting new jobs on twitter: Use hashtag #hired

According to the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the US in March was 8.5% (up from 8.1% in February). Not counting farm workers, the US lost 663,000 jobs last month alone. Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs increased by 547,000 [...]

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The Delusion Bug

Here’s a sobering little bit of reality: “A study by Bain & Company found that 80 percent of companies surveyed believed that they delivered a “superior experience” to their customers. But, when customers were asked to indicate their perceptions of the experiences they have in dealing with companies, they rated only 8 percent of companies [...]

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WordPress Workshop Greenville: Photos

Hi gang! Thanks a bunch to all who attended our first WordPress Workshop Thursday. It was pretty exciting to meet all of you and have a chance to help you get more out of your blogging – both from a technical perspective (Doug’s piece) and a strategic perspective (my piece). Sorry if we went a [...]

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Doug Cone speaks about advertising on your blog

Little impromptu interview with Doug Cone (@nullvariable) about advertising on your blog. (Part of a prep chat for Thursday’s WordPress Workshop. I know… the hair is a little crazy. It was windy outside. What can I say.

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The Channel 7 interview

Doug Cone (@nullvariable) and I chatting with Amy Wood (@tvamy) about the importance of blogs and our WordPress workshop this Thursday. Suddenly rethinking the glasses and blazer look. I am not the Professor, for crying outloud.

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How Attending our WordPress Workshop Could Change Your Life:

Hi kids! So we’re just a couple of days from Greenville’s very first “Working With WordPress” spring workshop, and I thought now would be a pretty good time to go over a few reasons why you might want to consider attending our event (if you aren’t signed up already). And assuming you are going to [...]

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Video from Clemson University’s Social Media and Networking Panel

Thanks to Bobby Rettew and View (these guys do an awesome job with anything that touches video or event coverage) for organizing the event, mediating the panel and also covering the event. Talk about multitasking! (All we had to do is just sit there and answer questions.) On the panel (left to right): Me, Steve [...]

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‘Linking The Upstate’ brings career expert JT O’Donnell to Greenville, SC

Greenville, SC got a big treat today: Career expert JT O’Donnell was in town to speak at Linking The Upstate‘s inaugural event at the historic Westin Poinsett Hotel. Two words for you: Awe and some. I knew JT was pretty savvy when it comes to career advice, but I had no idea just how smart, [...]

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Gil Gerretsen on taking the time to look forward

For the first time ever, I am opening up my blog to a guest contributor… and it’s about time too. I should have started doing this years ago. Today’s guest post comes to us from local business and strategy coach Gill Gerretsen, who is arguably one of the most recognizable (and some might say influential) [...]

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Photos from Clemson University’s networking 2.0 panel

So Steve Gonzalez, John Warner, Phil Yanov, Trey Pennington and I spent the latter part of the afternoon chatting with Clemson University students and faculty about the power of networking. The premise (eloquently framed by John Warner and Trey Pennington) was basically this: “Build Dig  your well before you get thirsty.” In other words, don’t [...]

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