Facebook’s Changes Means Digital Agencies Should Thrive

Thursday the bomb was dropped at f8 that Facebook is going to be ditching the Like in favor of user actions and passive updates, meaning that when you engage with apps and have the “Add to Timeline” feature enabled it will automatically update your Timeline with what you’re doing (for an example of this, check out the Washington Post Social app). It’s mildly reminiscent of the auto-checkin app for Foursquare, and of course the “please rob me” site that followed, however this latest change is not only a strong push for brands to do more on Facebook than create pithy status updates to get noticed, but should be a huge wake up call for the marketing industry as to where the budgets will be going.

Get Me To The Schmoo

Unfortunately this happens all too often at companies: We need to prove that social media delivers a return before we can invest budget in these sort of programs. Pretty chicken and egg, right? The fortunate part is that it’s easily correctible; if you set up your social media programs and measurement properly you can determine the ROI.

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Since it’s Friday and everyone’s talking about Hurrican Irene, I figured it’d be a good time to slip in some shameless self promotion for a few upcoming speaking gigs in New York City. You know, provided it’s not flooded:

September 16, 2011
PRSA’s T3PR: Theory, Tactics and Technology for High Tech Public Relations
New York, NY
Technology Crisis. Digital Age.

October 26, 2011
ACI’s Focus on Social Media, Business, Technology and the Law
New York, NY
Measuring Social Media’s Value to Your Business Processes in Order to Justify the Investment

Facebook Use May Lead to Psychological Disorders in Teens

This Mashable article reminds me of the Gen Y “Make me famous” syndrome, where Jason Alexander once said:

I once went to speak at a school, and there was a 16-year-old girl. And the girl says to me, “You know what? I don’t care what I do, I just want to be famous.”

And I thought, you know, I should really just shoot her in the head because it would serve two things: It would make her famous as the girl that Jason Alexander shot in the head, and it would, you know, spare the world of the banality of the rest of her life.

And as my friend Spike Jones points out, this may be true of social media experts as well.

Great CEOs Are Born, Not Made

My capstone course in college was all about Leadership. Specifically, we spent the semester dissecting, discussing and debating what leadership is, what makes a great leader and finally submitting a thesis on whether or not people are born with leadership qualities or they can be learned. Much like when I started learning, thinking and applying word of mouth marketing techniques to my clients in the early 2000′s, I didn’t have the research at the time but knew I was onto something. Something in my gut told me that I was right about it. It’s taken well over a decade since that college course but the Harvard Business Review concurs with my perspective. Ironically the post is based on Bob Lutz’s new book where he says that the suits, e.g. MBAs, and not product guys, are what ruined their business (GM was a client at a previous firm).

Classic: How Would You Like Your Graphic Design?

The same saying applies to web design too:

via Damian Rintelmann

Can Social Media ROI Be Determined? Yes. Just Don’t Ask Fast Company.

I have to take major exception with this article, as those willing to  invest in measurement can put a return on their investment. I’ve preached this for a while now, but if a company like Audi wants to make a difference they need to create, support and empower their dealerships to pick up where the national halo campaigns leave off. That is, if they’re actually willing to change what in the auto industry is typically a bad customer experience. 

Word of Mouth Research from Keller Fay, and Why You Should Care About Search

Foursquare Announces 10 Million Users — And Could Use a Lesson in Transparency

Today Foursquare announced that they’ve hit the 10 million user mark (insert Dr. Evil pinkie-to-mouth gesture here). They’ve even included a nifty, interactive “infographic” displaying all of the activity over the past few years. While it’s a no doubt a milestone to celebrate, it’s also a major head scratcher for those asking for a little openness about their metrics.

5 Signs You’re Dealing With A Social Media PromoSexual

“You talking loud, but you ain’t saying nuthin…” – The Fugees

A single, former co-worker, Dad friend of mine posted a link on Facebook the other day that caught my attention and at first I thought it was about Social Media Celebrities. The blog post was really about the single urban professionals who on the surface are into being in a relationship but realistically they really aren’t interested in being involved at all; while I can’t directly relate to this dating phenomenon, I can say that I see similar behavior online from the Promosexuals in the social media industry – on the surface you think “Wow, they must touch a lot of client business” when in reality they have no agenda other than promoting themselves. Here are the sure-tell signs that you’re dealing with a promosexual.