tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15145887436907082142011-08-07T07:05:30.798-04:00We'll explore the many thrills and spills of life in social media.Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.comBlogger221100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-79455802012708884962010-11-09T10:03:00.000-05:002010-11-09T10:03:52.632-05:00

Sorry to be out of touch, I've been busy transitioning to a new career path, as VP of Marketing for Encell Technology. We make green and alternative energy storage and monitoring solutions for the utility, wireless, healthcare, computing, and security industries. We are most specifically NOT a media venture. Sure, as the marketing exec I will be implementing all our media and communications

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-18816596922337775602010-07-21T10:15:00.000-04:002010-07-21T10:15:14.174-04:00

Since The Bee is brand new, we're under a lot of pressure to grow awareness of our product and we're relying a lot on social media channels to do that. We're also a small startup, so we don't have unlimited staff or budgets to work with. In that context, it's tempting to look for tools that make keeping all our content properly syndicated and our social profiles up to date easier, right? Enter 

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-49115956461673260482010-07-19T12:14:00.001-04:002010-07-28T10:29:16.960-04:00

I have not posted in quite some time, but that's over now. I have a great new role as Chief Buzzologist for  @b2bee, a simple, clean accounting and invoicing package for freelancers, solopreneurs, and small consulting businesses. Yes, it's like Freshbooks or Quickbooks, only easier, simpler, and cleaner, for folks that really don't need or want all those bells and whistles. It's a terrific

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-33848644072025365822010-01-29T11:21:00.000-05:002010-01-29T11:21:39.476-05:00

OK, there has been a lot of hype and counter-hype about Apple's new iPad this week. All the Windows-heads and tech folks are crowing about how this is nothing more than another Apple love-fest and that the device really isn't that special. Nothing more than a large iTouch, they say. Right now, this week, that's sort of true. But it won't be for long, and here's why. First, the app model. Apple

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-88659302731798475242010-01-13T11:35:00.000-05:002010-01-13T11:35:53.656-05:00

I attended a really interesting talk last night on "The Future of Local Journalism." The panel included three members of the local print publications--The Hook Editor Hawes Spencer (@readthehook), Charlottesville Tomorrow’s Sean Tubbs (@cvilletomorrow), and Daily Progress assistant city editor Josh Barney (@dailyprogress). Moderated by a local Internet entrepreneur Waldo Jaquith (@jaquith), it

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-528982502030916872009-11-04T10:35:00.001-05:002009-11-04T10:54:30.745-05:00

Remember that old Pretenders song? I used to love that song for a couple of reasons--one was that Chrissie Hynde sounded so hot in it, and the second was because it was so true. I have been pondering it lately for yet another reason, and that is its relevance to social media. As social media professionals, we have all embraced the idea that all these tools can somehow help our brands get closer

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-73280394802429698062009-09-24T13:56:00.000-04:002009-09-24T14:07:58.358-04:00

Here at Rowdy we produce NASCAR programming, as you may know. We also have three "hosts," Buck Fever (@thebuckfever), Bass Masters, (@bass_masters), and Buzz Cutler (@buzz_cutler). It was like pulling teeth to get these guys to extend themselves beyond their duties as hosts to engage our fans on Twitter, but eventually they waded in and are now totally addicted. They are like newly reformed

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-27572790455510148122009-09-02T12:12:00.000-04:002009-09-02T12:30:00.488-04:00

We were in a status meeting yesterday here at the plant and the topic of Twitter came up, specifically whether our hosts on Rowdy should start offering up regular tweets as the characters they play in our podcasts and videos. One of our hosts let it slip that "I hate all this social media s**t! and all the time it takes! Just another thing I have to remember to do!"While I think the short answer

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-4466138652026258832009-08-19T16:13:00.000-04:002009-08-19T16:30:42.582-04:00

So I love the TED Talks on iTunes...I learn something after every one. I just watched one from Clay Shirky today entitled How social media can make history in which he told some real social media stories about the China earthquake last year and MyBarackObama.com. The details are familiar to all of us, but one thing REALLY stuck out to me, and that was the difference between CONVENING your

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-55437775096509131492009-08-18T10:35:00.000-04:002009-08-18T10:44:17.717-04:00

As a social network manager, I am pretty plugged into the social media community--at least I like to think so. I have met some amazingly smart folks out there online, including two really terrific new friends from Arment-Dietrich, a growing and innovative PR firm on Chicago. The founder/CEO's name is Gini Dietrich and the President is Diane Blazek. I met them both on Twitter and Gini shares my

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-29259579700862416582009-08-17T09:19:00.000-04:002009-08-17T09:32:29.671-04:00

So I logged in to TweetDeck this morning just like I always do and a friend of mine had posted something new. I have just changed my setting so I can now see how many followers each poster has, and I have to admit I was surprised, and maybe a little jealous, at how many followers this guy had amassed. We have both been at this about the same amount of time, but he has five times more followers

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-54464100245723332102009-07-01T13:39:00.001-04:002009-07-01T13:59:21.196-04:00

We're a NASCAR site. Not exactly the type of demographic most folks associate with technologically savvy consumers. But as our analytics have been showing us recently, that is a big-time mistake. In the last three months, the traffic and energy we are getting from our Twitter outrach has really blown us away. Month over month, the amount of visitors we are getting from Twitter is up almost 300%,

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-21083161783825871482009-06-02T13:24:00.000-04:002009-06-02T13:38:26.371-04:00

I just had a great lunch meeting with a old friend and former co-worker yesterday. It was truly great to see her and the discussion was animated, energetic, full of excellent catching up and business blathering. She is a executive at a major PR and social media firm and as such is involved with a lot of pretty major clients with pretty major social media programs running.We were going back and

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-31764388558172361682009-04-24T10:12:00.000-04:002009-04-24T10:20:33.714-04:00

We launched our Facebook and Twitter initiatives about two months ago with a goal of updating at least 5 times a day on both platforms. Since we started, we have seen the percentage of traffic driven to rowdy.com from these platforms grow fantastically. Facebook is up over 200% and Twitter 550%.  In a month.But I worry because the overall traffic numbers re actually down from before we did this.

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-59712063975197464652009-01-07T12:37:00.000-05:002009-01-07T12:43:25.787-05:00

We've been doing a lot of business development lately, and during that process we have been reworking our materials, message, and sales pitch. In so doing we have had to really think about where we've come from, what we've accomplished, and how it's all happened. The story really reveals how a brand can grow through all the values that we as social media professionals claim to espouse: openness,

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-22976407683922992442008-12-29T09:41:00.000-05:002008-12-31T10:25:34.826-05:00

Sorry, I've been so busy doing business development and dealing with the holidays that I almost forgot I had a blog. Now that we have all that either well underway or done, let's get back to work, shall we?This I ran across an article by social media stud Chris Brogan, whose blog I read religiously, about whether podcasting is dead or alive. It's called Podcasting Isn’t Exactly Dead, and since

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-7802478939008517922008-12-09T10:34:00.000-05:002008-12-10T11:32:11.839-05:00

OK, I have been getting some feedback that I am discounting the evolution of the online newspaper's video and multimedia capabilities. Seems that a lot of the larger papers are "re-training" their photographers to create video. OK, I get that's where the web is heading, but I think, once again, that newspapers as the last harbinger of in-depth analysis and journalism have an opportunity or even

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-23304390004154867682008-12-01T21:19:00.001-05:002008-12-01T21:19:48.006-05:00

I have been pondering the next "newspaper." It looks something like this: Standard writers and photographers or videographers, all freelance, assigned to their usual places and roles. Same writing style, same format (sections), same editorial approach. DO NOT FIRE YOUR BEST ASSETS, THE WRITERS AND EDITORS!! Craziness. Adjust designs to accommodate this style of writing. Short articles with no

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-52948793605345187412008-11-12T12:17:00.000-05:002008-11-12T14:14:04.889-05:00

One of the epic battles in our office has been how to measure the success of our online community. How do we know if it's performing well against our business objectives? Last post I discussed the concept of revenue per visit, which is still the bottom line in my opinion. But in order to maximize this number, you have to have a community that is healthy, vibrant, and participating in what you

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-74228559119528853952008-11-03T11:42:00.000-05:002008-11-04T14:49:06.524-05:00

The big discussion here at the race shop is all about Revenue per Visit. My good friend Julie Rutherford at the Washington Post shared this seemingly simple little tidbit with me a while back, and it's really stuck with me because at the end of the day those of us in the web X.0 industry have to pay the bills somehow, either for clients or our own companies. And that translates into revenue per

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-13553724780371588182008-10-25T15:49:00.000-04:002008-10-25T16:49:26.485-04:00

Well, now that I'm a social media blogger, I read everything differently. This one struck me though because it happens to us all the time. It's an article from David Armano on Experience Matters called Viva La Evolution! Get More Return On Insight about the need for insight before expectations of ROI can be realized, and how ROI always seems to win. AMEN!!We are a small company with a "realistic

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1514588743690708214.post-41495254620735622302008-10-25T12:11:00.000-04:002008-10-25T15:31:52.181-04:00

Well, it's finally happening. Everyone keeps telling me that as a social media professional I just can't afford not to have a blog of my own. I guess I don't really disagree. It's just that there are so MANY of us out there, all saying a lot of the same things in different ways, sharing the same links and Tweets and Diggs and widgets, trying to be THE GUY. Not everyone is meant to be a published

Social Engineeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09672840439064860565noreply@blogger.com1