“If you had to choose social media* or 100% engaged employees for your brand, which would you choose?”

I recently asked that on Twitter and the responses were pretty interesting. The question forces a choice, which many of the people who responded had a hard time making. One person even called it down-right ’silly.’ Generally, people wanted both - engaged employees who use social media. Fair enough, but not a singular answer the question begs.

If you’re having a hard time with the answer, this might be a good gut-check.

You see, the answer gets at a deeper question - what is the most valuable asset that your business has?

We’re not denying that social media can have massive influence for a brand, or even that it can add to a brand’s bottom line if wielded correctly. But I am saying that we would bet on a business with engaged employees and no communication through social media over a business with mountains of online ‘influence’ any day of the week.

Why?

It’s pretty simple: one of the foundations of a good business is an amazing customer experience. And employees provide that experience to customers. And 100% engaged, passionate employees do that in a way that turns ... read more >>

This morning I was a reluctant participant in third grade show-and-tell. Usually the kids bring books about dinosaurs, or vacation souvenirs, but my daughter took advantage of a little known provision that allows the children to bring people. I felt a little like a snow globe, or maybe a sock monkey, on display.

We ended up having a great conversation about online privacy, which was made all the more interesting by the students relating their experiences firsthand.

My daughter proudly introduced me to the class by saying, “my dad wrote a book about work.” I explained it was about social media (not a gripping topic for most nine-year-olds). Most of the kids knew about Facebook and YouTube. A few were familiar with Twitter.

In order to start up a conversation about privacy, I explained Foursquare, and how people “check in” at Starbucks, the movies, work, etc., but how parents should not check in at home, or at their children’s school, karate studio, friend’s house or any other location that divulged the schedule and location of their kids.

This opened a really interesting discussion about privacy, and the data collected by sites like Webkinz, Nick Jr., Poptropica, etc. One ... read more >>

If you run an ecommerce business, chances are your customers – regardless of their age, gender or economic status – are active on social networks and social media sharing sites.

Just consider the statistics from social media monitoring site Pingdom:

• Males and females almost equally use social sites (47% vs. 53%)
• 61% of Facebook users are middle aged or older, with the average age being 37
• 18- to 24-year-olds don’t dominate any particular social networking site; they’re spread out all over

The bottom line: If you aren’t discovering which in social networking channels your customers spend time and include them in your ecommerce marketing mix, you’re probably  missing out on building relationships, community and increasing new customer acquisition through online word of mouth.

Leverage these five social media marketing tips for ecommerce to either get started with more social digital marketing or take your current social strategy to the next level:

1. Go Where Your Customers Are

Very few things in life promise endless options – digital and social media marketing being one exception. From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn to YouTube, there’s no limit to the ... read more >>

I was asked recently by a potential client what my “philosophy of the web” is. What seemed like a strange question at first made perfect sense when I thought about it.

"mediocrity now howls in protest" by Hugh MacLeod

Without sounding overly simplistic, I think there are 3 types of businesses on the web:

1. Ones that try to milk or exploit the web (think spammers, Zynga, the “make millions on Google” crowd). These people aren’t always dirtbags nor are they breaking the law but they’re looking to take everything they can get without giving much back.
2. Ones that just see the web as another medium to conduct business. Decisions on the web are made the same way any other decision in the business is made. Should we change our health care provider? Should we move our office to another city? Should we invest time in a Facebook page?
3. Ones that have a sincere passion for the web and what it can do for people. These are people who contribute valuable work to open source projects, manage vibrant communities of people, and write about these things because they can’t help themselves.

I whole-heartedly fall into the third category; I love the web and everything it can do. ... read more >>

This post might not be a wise move but I never claimed to have a perfect batting average in the wisdom department. David probably shouldn’t tick off Goliath in general. In this case, when it comes to selling books, Amazon is clearly the 800 lb gorilla in book sales. Maybe I shouldn’t write this post.

On the other hand, how do you effect change if you don’t express your dissatisfaction with the status quo? Not by silence. What the hell…I’m going for it.

Why I’m Miffed

The source of my disgruntlement is Amazon, but not as a customer per se. I’m writing as an author and one not happy with its customer service. I’m particularly miffed at the time that it is taking Amazon to post my book videos to the main page of each. The two in question are:

• the second edition of Why New Systems Fail
• my new book, The Next Wave of Technologies

By way of background, Amazon has been allowing authors to post audio or video content on their book pages on a limited basis. For a few examples, see Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price or my friend Scott Berkun’s latest Confessions of a Public Speaker. Both of these have informative multimedia files attached to ...

Why is it that Millennials demand instant gratification?? If you put yourself in our shoes, though, can you blame us? We grew up on technology. I used a computer for the first time in the fourth grade, primarily for computer games, and grew up as the Internet evolved. We are extremely technologically savvy and love exploring the web.

We desire instant gratification in other ways as well:

When we turned 16, we expected to get our license and a car.
When we hear a song we like, we want to download it instantly.
When we took a test or wrote a paper, we wanted results quickly.
When we send an e-mail, we expect a message immediately saying it was sent.
When we call someone, we expect them to pick up.

Now what is it about technology that everyone loves?

Instant access.
Confirmation that an action was received.
Quick responses.
The ability to compute things fast.

Since us Millennials grew up on computers and the Internet, and the above four components are major benefits of fast computers, that explains our need for a quick reward from every action. It is almost an innate instinct of ours to receive instant feedback from something we do, not because we are greedy, careless, ... read more >>