Author Archives: David Schultz
December 4, 2009
When It Comes to Social Media, Best Practice Is Practice
A couple of weeks ago, I was reading a blog post on “Best Practices in Social Media,” a topic on which there is no shortage of opinions. (A Google search will return nearly 2.9 million results, which is about 400,000 more than last month.) As I was reading it, I was struck by how confidently the author threw around the term “best practices” to describe what he was doing. While I think it’s great that people share their experiences – the good, the bad and the ugly – I think it’s premature to start engraving anything in stone.
As I was sharing my thoughts with our Executive Vice President/Executive Creative Director, he summed it up very nicely. “When it comes to social media,” he said, “best practice is practice.”
Posted in How to Go Social, Social Marketing
Tagged best practices, exploration, marketing strategy, social media
October 22, 2009
xTeam and xBOTs – Huh?
Like any organization, we’ve got our own vocabulary for some of the things we do around here.
August 10, 2009
Get a Social Media ‘Expert’ on Staff… and Fast!
Over the past few months, I’ve had several conversations with clients who are getting pressure to get a social media “expert” on staff… and fast! Before you head down that path, you should know that there are no “white knights” out there.
Posted in Social Marketing
July 31, 2009
That Focus Group Feeling
Social media is a game changer on many levels. It can even inspire that “focus group feeling.”
June 26, 2009
Big Bank Joins the Conversation
We’ve got a big Zeitgeist & Coffee initiative going on for a major financial institution, Bank X. (The name has been changed to protect the innocent.) Although they recognized the growing importance of social media marketing, Bank X was not actively listening to and marketing against the many conversations being had about it, its products and its competitors. So we started by plugging in to all of the chatter.
We analyzed conversation streams from microblogs including Twitter, blogs, message boards, user forums, wikis, social networking sites such as Ning, and MySpace and Facebook (to the extent they are open) and video and photo sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr.
June 12, 2009
Juice, Juice Everywhere
Picture “man on the street” interviews that are posted to YouTube and give viewers the chance to vote for the most compelling story. Or a contest that…
Posted in Social Marketing, Social Promotions
May 26, 2009
Making Noise for a Good Cause
In keeping with its brand promise to help people take on life and live well, MVP launched an initiative aimed at reducing childhood obesity. As part of this initiative, MVP created the MVP KidPower program and signed sponsorship deals with Olympic soccer star Abby Wambach and Hall of Fame lacrosse legend Gary Gait.
Posted in Branding, Social Marketing
May 20, 2009
Turn It Around… Then Turn Up the Volume
What does it take to make a brand “conversation worthy” or even “conversation ready?” In the case of Fortitech, it meant helping the company to see and position itself not as a “mixer” of food nutrients but as a provider of “strategic nutrition.”
Posted in Branding, Social Marketing
May 15, 2009
Making a Change Without Making Waves
Conversation-centric marketing starts with listening. Online. Offline. Anywhere and everywhere.
Posted in Conversation Mining and Surveys, Social Marketing