How to measure social media: A practical approach
Benchmarking is the only way to measure the efficacy of a social media campaign. Don’t think social media is an entirely different animal just because you aren’t familiar with it. Because of the ad hoc nature of social, there is no universal way to approach it, but here’s what I’ve done for social campaigns: 1) Research the situation, organization and publics as you would normally. This will prescribe whether social media is the best approach. For example, if you’re trying to reach a demographic that reads newspapers more than news Web sites, reconsider social media as a key strategy. Save it for tactics. If the target publics and stakeholders align with the focus of the

Social media test: Who can make my rental car journey happen?
As a social media proponent, online contact forms and 800 numbers don’t provide the personal touch and transparent answers I crave in interactions with companies, so this blog post is a test, to see who’s out there listening (and who’s responsive). I have a rental car need that shouldn’t be too difficult to satisfy. I’m flying to San Francisco to visit my sister before Thanksgiving, and would like to drive with her down to San Diego to see the rest of my family. I’m flying out of San Diego, so it would be a one-way drive, and I want to do it in one day to avoid paying for multiple days of renting (especially because the price goes way up for one-way rentals). I

Another Twix-up!
Before you use Twitter to store your ATM PIN numbers, remember, it can’t be trusted. The micro-blogging platform, which is dominated by a culture of open, public communication, also provides some privacy: direct messages and protected profiles.

Name squatting the Fortune 50 companies on Twitter
The companies of the Fortune 500 generate the greatest revenues worldwide, and undoubtedly require a lot of manpower to sustain their day-to-day operations. Due to their size and complexity, these big companies are often slow to enter social media spaces like Twitter. Who should be the voice of the company? What about legal? Don’t we have bigger fish to fry? By the time some of these giants decide to join the conversation, they may find their trademarked, and extremely recognizable names have been taken, name squatted out from under them, and Twi

What the F**k is Social Media: One Year Later
Marta Kagan, US Managing Director at Espresso gave a keynote last year titled “What the F**k is Social Media.” This keynote is comprised of a nice overview of the space along with nice statistics that the last year has afforded. Some key takeaway points: Visiting social sites is now the 4th most popular online activity-ahead of personal email (Nielsen, Global Faces and Networked Places, 2009) Social media is like word of mouth, on steroids Because, dear friend, social media is a f**king force to be reckoned with (insert yoda image) 1,000,000,000