And The Consumer Says “I Want A Divorce”

I found these two videos on YouTube yesterday and want to share them.
In a very lighthearted way, the videos depict the current issues and problems between most traditional Advertisers and their Consumers.  The ads are very well done and were created (interestingly and surprisingly) by a group called Microsoft Advertising Solutions.  The only reference to [...]

Is Happiness Your Business Model?

Tara “missrogue” Hunt posted a great presentation on Slideshare recently called “Happiness as Your Business Model” which is about “incorporating your human drive for fulfillment into your core business”.
Not only is the presentation visually pleasing, Tara makes several great points in the 197 slide presentation (don’t worry, it doesn’t really feel like 197 slides and [...]

Honk If You Love SnagIt!

I love SnagIt and use it almost every day.  After Firefox, SnagIt is my most used application and one that I consider an essential tool.
As a Social Media exercise, I’m going to share my thoughts on SnagIt and try to get some Link-love, Twitter-love and Facebook-love for my favorite product.  I don’t work for TechSmith [...]

So, What Do Community Managers Make?

I participated in the Forum One Online Community Compensation Survey in July and the results were just emailed to me last week by Bill Johnston who coordinated the survey.  The research was sponsored by Mzinga, Solution Set and the Online Community Research Network.
Here are my take-aways from the report:
Wide range of salaries – The survey [...]

Confused About Community Registration?

Communities walk a fine line when they are trying to get people to register for their site.  On one hand, community managers and sponsors want to know as much as possible about each member as possible.  On the other hand, most people are reluctant to part with their data or do not have the patience [...]

Getting the Most Out of Community Metrics

I was the community manager of the Catalyze Community – a B2B niche community for business analysts and usability professionals – from its inception in early 2007 and oversaw its growth to over 4,000 members in July 2008.  During the 18 months under my leadership, tracking and analyzing metrics was an important part of my [...]

Hey Michael Phelps – Don’t Forget About Paavo Nurmi

Dear Michael,
Please don’t forget about Paavo Nurmi!
Congratulations on winning your 8 Gold medals this year and on your 14 total Gold medals.  It’s definitely been an exciting Olympics this year.  With all of the hype and hoopla around you and your record-setting achievements at the Beijing Olympics and your comparisons to Mark Spitz, I wanted [...]

Tips For Running a B2B User-Generated Commercial Contest

More and more companies are turning to their customers and others to help with their marketing messages.  One of the more recently popular vehicles is to hold a contest for the best commercial.  Doritos has successfully held a contest for the past several Super Bowls.  Other consumer-based (B2C) examples include contests from Heinz Ketchup, Dibbs [...]

Adding A LinkedIn Group To Your Community

If you are managing a community, especially a B2B or professional community, you need to make your community friendly and available to LinkedIn members.  LinkedIn is becoming the de facto social networking site where people maintain their online ‘resume’ and having a LinkedIn Group is a community best practice.
Adding and maintaining a LinkedIn Group is [...]

Web 2.0 and Beer

Which beer brand is the most Web 2.0?
This thought came to me last night while reviewing traffic on my Twitter account and noticing a lot of tweets around Pabst Blue Ribbon or PBR as it is more affectionately known by “beer bon vivants”.  I’m from the Midwest and have downed a few PBRs in my [...]