Written By: MK on January 15th, 2010
MK here, and welcome to our Social Media Marketing Friday.
Twitter, Facebook, blogs….what does it all mean to today’s business owner?!?! Living in San Francisco, it’s easy to believe the constant buzz about social media marketing, how it is routinely transforming brands and how they communicate with their customers. But the truth is, far too many companies are still unsure about this social media marketing thing.
I know it’s a little scary to jump into something you don’t know much about, and that’s why I’ve gathered up this list of helpful introductory articles about social media. I think there’s something here for everyone, so even if you’re an experienced social media marketer you’ll get something from this list:
Please share your thoughts and comments as well. Does your company use social media? What sites do you find the most helpful?
Written By: Patrick on January 9th, 2010
I’m always reading, from business how-to books to web and video technical tomes, with a dash of novels and short stories thrown into the mix. Every time you open a book you’re seeing the world through another’s eyes, and that’s powerful magic. Any creative person should especially be reading as much as he or she can. After all, we’re expected to create magic for our clients and doing that consistently requires fully-charged creative batteries.
Here’s a list of recent stuff from my virtual bookshelf:
- Search Engine Optimization An Hour A Day (Couzin and Grappone). Even if you end up hiring consultants to help you optimize your website’s search results, this is a great book to read for a no-nonsense overview of how things work. There’s a lot of scammers out there in SEO land. These authors are the good, real deal.
- Small is the New Big (Seth Godin). Sure, a lot of what Seth has in this book is in his blog, and much of what he’s saying can be gotten elsewhere. But the way Seth writes makes you feel like you’re having a conversation with a really smart friend, and oftentimes how we receive information is as important as receiving the information in the first place.
- YouTube for Business (Miller). OK, I have a few problems with this book- his tech tips pretty much suck (for the record, you should ALWAYS upload your videos at the best resolution possible and let YouTube scale it accordingly). But the rest of this book, about strategy and tactics towards using YouTube and video on the web to market your business or organization? It’s a brilliant introduction. I wish more business owners and marketing VPs owned this book, it’d make my job less stressful.
- Narrative. This is a magazine, you can find it on newsstands. Being a tech geek, I get mine on Kindle. It’s a collection of short fiction from around the world, and for me it’s a welcome recharge for my creative batteries.
- The Los Angeles Times. Every day. Cover to cover, via Kindle. Newspapers have been under fire for a couple of years, but I don’t know of a better way to feel connected to your hometown. I also read the Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Business Journal. But the LA Times is an essential.
Have you read any good books lately?
Awesome photo by Moriza
Written By: Patrick on January 1st, 2010
It’s a new year, and I hope it’s a great one for you, your family, and your business. New years bring new beginnings, and beginnings bring optimism and hope. I don’t know about you, but we’re definitely excited about moving forward in 2010. Here’s a few things we’ll be doing to make this new year rock for our clients:
You’ll notice an expanded video production and web video push from us, as more of our clients realize that video is an amazing and effective way to present and sell their stories online. We’ve fought for years to get businesses to understand the value of a well-produced web video, and we’ve finally reached the point where companies of all sizes seem to get it.
Our social media marketing programs will get even more interesting and creative as businesses get more comfortable with the idea of social media and notice the benefits to their bottom line. We’ve already doubled several clients’ online sales through our social media efforts. This is just the start, and as with video, companies are realizing that if they (more…)
