Video from my Social Media R.O.I. presentation at #sofresh

I have to send out a big thank you to Kipp Bodnar and Jeff Cohen for shooting and posting (respectively) bootleg video from my Social Media R.O.I. presentation at #sofresh last week. You guys rock!  Video is definitely not as fun as being there, but in this case it’s pretty damn close. Check it out [...]

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An Italian, A Frenchman and a Texan walk into a bar…

I have one question to ask you today. Before I ask it, I want you to know that you are going to have to think really hard about the answer for 5 seconds, then click on the link to go say yay or nay. Okay, ready? Here we go… Here’s the question: Do you want [...]

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Marketing in 2009 – The e-book you might have missed

Back in January of 2009, Conversation Agent‘s Valeria Maltoni / @conversationage published a great little e-book she co-produced with a dozen of us with a simple purpose: Blow. Your. Minds. I kid. The premise was actually this: Outline a set of Marketing imperatives for 2009, as seen by some of the industry’s thought leaders. With [...]

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More Genius from the Social Fresh Conference: David Armano does it again

Watch this presentation. It is one of the smartest outlines of the current state of Social Media integration (cultural and corporate) I have seen yet. And David’s unmistakable design style works really well here. Pay particular attention to the sections on cultural change and core archetypes. Good stuff. Insightful.

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Social Fresh, good friends, and the definitive Social Media ROI presentation

Part 1: The definitive Social Media R.O.I. presentation So there it is. The Social Media ROI (#smROI) presentation many of you were waiting for. Sure, I still have a few videos to shoot to complete the series, but a lot of the content and methodology is right here in this simple deck – from what [...]

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Come hang out with me at Social Fresh in Charlotte, NC

Monday 24 August is Charlotte, NC’s much anticipated Social Fresh conference. If you’re in the area and want to hang out with me, David Armano, Gia Lyons, Keith Burtis, Nathan Gilliat, Spike Jones, Chris Harrington, and many more, this is your chance. (Without having to fly to NYC or Chicago or Boston, that is.) In [...]

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Driving. Fast.

Below a little video of the afternoon several local bloggers and twitterati got to enjoy, courtesy of Kamran Popkin and the BMW Performance Driving School. Look for cameos by @JimSharp, @Nullvariable and @brainsonfire (Matt Reese). Incidentally, Matt is insanely fast in a car, so never EVER let him race you for money. I really can’t [...]

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What I will be doing most of the afternoon (more deets laterz)

Yep, this afternoon, some lucky fellow Greenvillians and I are making like Steve McQueen, and putting pedal to the metal at BMW’s North American performance center.  More details, photos and videos once we’ve all unpuked our lunches. ;D

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Fear and Loathing in Social Media: The 10 Rules of corporate denial and blatant overreaction

Fear makes people act the fool. It really does. Take a few random examples throughout history: The burning alive of suspected witches, the French building the Maginot Line, McCarthyism, protesting the US government’s takeover of medicare, and just recently, bizarre, equally irrational and completely unenforceable bans on social media by an increasing number of organizations [...]

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Olivier, where have you BEEN?!

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last five days or so, but I was in Portland, OR. Between being stuck on airplanes and airports, touring the city and its outskirts, meeting with some pretty amazing people and enjoying the honor of being on the 2009 Rosey Awards jury, I didn’t have much time [...]

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What won’t you compromise (and compromise on)? – Inspired by Amber Naslund

Okay, I don’t usually borrow post titles or topics from other people, but today I’ll make an exception. Amber Naslund (@ambercadabra in the Twitterverse) just posted a remarkably honest, human and pretty personal post on her blog in which she asked (and started answering) a very simple but important question: What won’t you compromise? Well, [...]

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What’s in YOUR Moleskine?

The Moleskine notebook is the new Mac. There, I’ve said it. Chastise me if you will, point out that a notebook is analog, laugh at me for making such a ridiculous comparison… but you know it’s true: When all the other cool kids have a MacBook and an iPhone and the neat creative director-style glasses, [...]

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Because this is really all about life, not Marketing.

Neither my posts, my wisdom nor my ideas emerge from a vacuum. Everything I have learned until now and everything I will ever learn in my life will come from doing, learning, experimenting, and listening to people who tried to do the same thing in different ways before I came along. I often hear people [...]

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Paranoia vs. Social Media: Why ESPN and the USMC got it wrong, and why IBM got it right

First, let me open this post by telling you that I am not going to bash the Marine Corps (USMC) or ESPN for their unfortunate and ill-advised decisions regarding social networks this week. But I will say this: Their respective decisions to temporarily (or permanently) impose restrictions and/or bans on their personnel with respect to [...]

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The Hybrid Thinking Manifesto

Several years ago, my friend Ernie Mosteller wrote this, over on Tangelo Ideas‘ blog. (I never grow tired of Purple Cow thinking.) Here’s the skinny: “Family resemblances are a good thing. For families. But for agencies, it can get you into trouble. When the stuff you create for your boat manufacturer client starts to look [...]

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Another Social Media ROI presentation: What made-up nomenclatures say about their authors.

I was kindly invited by Social Media Club Greenville to be a presenter during their inaugural Pecha Kucha event last week and brought with me an atypically short and succinct presentation with me. (If you aren’t familiar with the Pecha Kucha model, it’s like this: 20 slides, 20 seconds each. That’s it.) Being of the [...]

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