Walmart’s Guide to Making More Money on Facebook

Although I’m not a fan of Walmart, I have to stay I found this interview with their CMO useful. It offers very practical tips for utilizing Facebook for a retail purpose. If your company doesn’t have a presence already on facebook, you are missing out a fantastic opportunity to engage with your customers. It’s like having a focus group 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. What are you waiting for? Social media is not going away. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-make-money-with-facebook-2011-2#ixzz1CuKQNRME

5 Tips To Managing Social Media

I can’t tell you how often I hear from small business owners, “I don’t have time to be on Facebook.” To which I respond, “Can you afford not to be?”

Facebook offers businesses a wonderful opportunity to get to know you what your customers are thinking of your business, what they would like to see improved and what they would like to see more of. It’s like having a focus group 24/7 free of charge. Sure it requires constant managing but I feel it is worth the effort and frankly social media is here to stay so you better get used to it.

Here is a link to a nice blog that offers you tips about how you can manage social media. It is perfect for those weary of “diving in” to social media. Enjoy!

http://www.thesocialcmo.com/blog/2011/01/five-tips-to-keep-your-head-above-water-with-social-media/

6 Ways Social Media Impacts the Hospitality Industry

Social media is giving us more opportunities to get to know our customers and to provide better service to them. This article shows some wonderful examples of how social media can have an impact on the Hospitality industry. Hats off to the Hyatt Regency in Milwaukee for being the Concierge Twitter example. You understand the important role social media can have with your customers!

http://mashable.com/2010/10/18/hotel-industry-social-media/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

Two Great Social Media Stories

There is a definite shift happening in the marketplace and it is becoming more imperative than ever to get your customers to not only be loyal to you but to be advocates for your business. This is a great article about how to gain loyalty with good content marketing.

http://www.pr2020.com/page/9-steps-to-gain-leads-and-loyalty-with-content-marketing

I had the great opportunity to hear Peter Shankman from HARO speak at PRSA Wisconsin’s September 30 meeting and I was really impressed with him. His blog post today had me laughing out loud. That being said, it has some really great points in its message as well. Take a read!!!

http://shankman.com/are-we-ever-going-to-get-it/

13 Mobile Apps that Got it Right

There appears to be a rush right now by companies to want to create a mobile apps that users will want to download and use. The thing is can’t just create any old app, you have to make it something that is useful to the consumer and not just pure promotion. Here is a recent blog post from Mashable that shows some great mobile apps.

http://mashable.com/2010/10/06/branded-mobile-apps/

The Blackberry – Why I and others still love it

Everyone who know me, knows how much I love my Blackberry! Although lately with the latest Droid being released, I’ve been feeling the pressure to desert my Blackberry and dive into a smart phone. Maybe that’s why I got such a kick out of this article by CNN about why people love their Blackberry. I have to admit — the keyboard is what keeps me, I just can’t imagine taping a smart phone screen as quickly. That, and being the klutz that I am I’m afraid that I’ll crack the big smart phone screen within a week of purchasing one. 🙂
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/08/04/blackberry.fans/

Footnote: In late December 2010 I broke down and got a Droid smartphone. I still miss my Blackberry which was a reliable business tool for me for 3 years. Getting used to the touchless keyboard is taking me longer than I expected.