Cynosure - Dishing on the Digital Universe - Latest Comments

Re: Considerations for Corporations Using Twitter for Business

Ashley Saunders — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:54:10 -0000

Great article on corporate use for Twitter! I'll be using some info for a preso I'm giving next week. Props to Zappos for being to innovative!

Re: Those Dirty Rotten Public Relations Pros

BlogFromItaly — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:00:44 -0000

I've becoming involved in the world of PR, or rather MR - media relations. I guess this means people will hate me;-)

The point is, I think, if the marketing or PR (and they are different, but starting to overlap) is sneaky, the effects are likely to be negative. Striking the right balance is not at all easy. Yet we all buy things, so marketing sometimes can actually be useful in that it can help you find products which meet your needs better. And companies need to sell to keep people in jobs, pay taxes and help the world go round.

If you do some research, via the www, after seeing some marketing blurb or other, you can usually work out whether the product on offer is OK or not.

As one marketing specialist once told me - you can market a thing to death, but if the product is useless, it will not sell, or rather it will, people will hate it and never come to your company again. Not good. Deceptive business practices are short term solutions which can work and fatten bank accounts, so for the moment, sneaky marketing will continue and PR/MR companies will help out, after all, a fee is a fee. However being involved with a company which is sneaky may destroy the credibility of the PR/MR firm concerned.

I wonder whether any PR firms actually turn down clients on the basis of the products being dodgy??

Nice post Crystal.

Best,

Alex

Re: Social Media Experts??

BlogFromItaly — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:39:11 -0000

Actually, it's quite easy to claim to be an expert in a field as new as Social Media. Nobody knows that much about it yet, and merely claiming to be an expert will grab attention, whether its true or not. Marketing, I guess.

I'm sure we'll be seeing, if they do not exist already, those sharp web sites with titles like: 'Let me show you how I made 50,000 bucks in Ten Minutes on Facebook'. And people will go for this crap - otherwise those doing it would not bother.

You're right. You should post more often.

Best,

Alex - 'Italy' Expert ;-)

Re: Can Blogs Help Drive Purchasing Decisions?

BlogFromItaly — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 09:34:58 -0000

Writing regularly is not easy - it takes time and no small amount of discipline. Enthusiasm and a love of writing does help. And using humour at times can take the chore out of writing too, or so I find.

Goings on in Italy provide no shortage of content ideas either. I could write full time, but the income the blog generates does not justify this, yet. However, blogging has opened a few, unexpected, doors for me, and these doors are leading to income. This just needs to grow.

And comments like 'excellent content' help keep me going too! Thanks for the encouragement, and for subscribing.

Your books sounds interesting. Is it fiction or non-fiction?

Hope you do manage to make it to Italy next spring.

Alex

Re: Can Blogs Help Drive Purchasing Decisions?

Crystal King — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 09:13:55 -0000

Fresh content is definitely key, which is why I always feel perpetually guilty about my sporadic updates here!

And yes, I was recently at your blog and have subscribed via RSS. You clearly know about excellent content because that's what I've consistently found there! http://www.blogfromitaly.com/ for others who may be reading. We're planning on going to Italy in the spring (and I'm writing a book about a 1st c. Roman) and I have a few Italians in my life, so am very interested in the country and culture. I love that there are blogs like yours to help fuel that interest!

Re: Can Blogs Help Drive Purchasing Decisions?

BlogFromItaly — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 08:08:53 -0000

Interesting piece on the power and perception of blogs, and how they can, albeit indirectly, influence buying decisions.

There is something else too which makes blogs valuable for companies - fresh content. Google likes fresh content, and gives it more weight - in that it appears higher in search results.

Most company websites are pretty static content wise, but add a blog and the content becomes fresher and is likely to attract more people. Such people end up on the company blog, from where they can be sent to the corporate website. This is another reason why blogging is good for business.

As you say though, writing which is obvious spin is likely to put people off. The challenge for businesses which blog is to create something interesting and stimulating - and which may develop trust.

Businesses can also use reputable sector-related blogs as a way to connect with potential customers too. Leaving constructive comments is one way of doing this, and would help build trust too.

Interesting things blogs. I know, I have one - which you had a look at, I believe.

Best,

Alex

Re: Scalejacking: Quantity Over Quality

Tim Dempsey — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:00:51 -0000

Crystal, An extremely important topic. In my humble opinion, scalejacking and the many variants of it, will be the undoing of much potential good if we aren't careful. The other horrible thing happening behind these bogus, trumped up numbers: ego explosions and soaring arrogance by some who fail to learn from the lessons of history. We must be extremely careful here... I refer to the strain that will go pandemic on social media as "IM#1."

Re: Social Media Experts??

Ian Kath — Tue, 12 May 2009 22:40:17 -0000

Exactly what I've been saying for sometime and I know I'm NOT a social media anything but user.
I think humility insists that only others can possibly suggest that someone may be an expert in this field for all the reasons that you outlined above.
Generally if it's a self claimed expert I don't believe them, they were probably a share trading expert 6 months ago and an ebay expert before that.

Re: Top Social Media Marketing Tactics in an Economic Downturn

kmonaghan — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:18:04 -0000

Good point about #1. I like several B2B companies but I sure don't want them on my Facebook page. Thanks for the reality check. I'll rethink that.

Another thought: set up an automated search for your company and products with Google Blog Search (http://blogsearch.google.com/). Whenever someone writes about you, be sure to comment, even if it's just to say "thanks for the mention!".

Re: Top Social Media Marketing Tactics in an Economic Downturn

Crystal King — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:53:45 -0000

Good ideas here. Will have to dig in further to the webinar tools. As for the fan page, I think its a great idea for B2C companies in particular but I think B2B companies may have a harder time when it comes to finding fans. I mean, I just don't see many people becoming a "fan" of say, Accenture or Sun.

Your #3 really does bear repeating. I think that most people forget that personal touch. Social media is great for connecting but it can't take the place of putting name, face, voice and a handshake together.

Re: Top Social Media Marketing Tactics in an Economic Downturn

kmonaghan — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:39:14 -0000

Hi Crystal,

Thanks for a thoughtful post. Lots of good stuff here. I particularly love the video recommendation. Really good idea considering how easy it is these days. Zappos does a great job with their video blog (http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/....

Some more ideas to consider:

1. Create a Facebook Fan Page (http://www.facebook.com/busine.... It's free and a good way to reach your fans by giving them a badge to show off their loyalty on Facebook.

2. Host a free webinar with Dimdim (http://www.dimdim.com/) or Yugma (http://www.yugma.com/).

3. Let your customers know you appreciate them with an email, phone call or visit.

Thanks for an informative post!

Keith
http://www.keithmonaghan.com

Re: Wrangling Time for Social Media

Gary — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:49:54 -0000

"One of the women turned to me and said, “This takes so much TIME! How do people have time to do all this?” The other three chimed in their agreement."

I wasn't there and didn't see expressions, inflection, etc. but this kind of statement by people I'm volunteering for or with tends to irritate me. It sounds dismissive and a bit contemptous of something they want done but don't want to get their hands dirty with!

Re: Web 2.0 Sites for Book Lovers

Johan — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:45:30 -0000

Nice compilation.

Now, I'm looking for a site to keep my list of books. I have registered on some on your list, but after an initial view I have not found one that suits all my needs...

I'm looking for a place where I can easily list my read books, books I own, books I want to read/buy etc . For the books I also want to add date read.
The books shall not only be categorizable as above, but also per topic (of my choice).
I also want to be able to publish various subset of my list (ie my wanted list, my recommendations in topic A etc)

Oh, and yes - a "social touch", plus a database of all books (ie incl. Swedish ones) are on my wish list..

Any hint on which book list service that might be best for me..?

Re: PR Agency Pros — How Social Media Savvy Are They?

Barry Hurd — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:58:41 -0000

Good situational review.

I often fall on the line of PR / Social Media pro, which is really developing into a very strong niche in the PR / Comm industry.

In the northwest (especially in Seattle), most of the PR groups and many advertising agencies have exactly one person who "gets it" and they often only know the strategic side, and have little tactical support from the team understanding.

Your statement about billable hours is entirely correct, as my core team spends roughly 2/3 of our time educating ourselves. With conferences like TechCrunch 50 and Demo08, having a 25+ new companies that may influence the social media sphere becomes a significant task. In fact, just reading a site in detail (like Mashable.com) and wrapping your head around the new information is a full-time job.

Keep up the good writing.

~Barry

Re: Does Your Company Web site Even Matter To Your Customers?

laurent — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:11:39 -0000

About your: " Be in those places where people are talking."
So true.
I see a lot of blog posts about how to build a community (i.e: company community) but why build one when several already exists (they're many communities on a given topic nowadays).
10 years ago, during web 1.0, every company needed a website, now every company needs a community. It's done under the old assumption that 'if you build it, they will come'. Unfortunately, like what you described for corpo site, they won't come. They may just stay where they are/where they choose to go, in those communities. And marketers have to be in those places where people are talking. If they want to reach out to their customers , they should first find and join those communities where their customers are, become part of them, participate in a meaningful and relevant way. At the end, with a high dose of patience, openness and understanding, they may get the influence they want to have.

Re: Does Your Company Web site Even Matter To Your Customers?

armo — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:09:57 -0000

I admit to commenting here partly because it is self-serving of my own blog, but you are definitely on to something. I have experienced what you describe many, many times. I bought the Mr. Clean "Magic Eraser" of my own accord, but found it to be such an amazing product(/a> that I Googled it (the modern sign of true love). Sure enough, I came across another blog that gushed about it, and because I liked what I saw on this blog, I read pretty much every single product review there. She recommended some makeup... which I bought (and then so did my sister, my mom, and one of my good friends). She recommended a book... which I bought (and lent to several friends). And so it goes (and so I blogged.). I would describe this type of blogging as infectious advertising, because once you read about someone's excitement for a product, you get infected with the desire to own it, and it is only the very strong who can resist such a force. Or maybe a really, really negative Amazon review.

Re: Gmail Down, the World in a Panic

farlane — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:23:27 -0000

I never thought of Twitter as a remote sensor. Thanks for the eye-opener.

My Gmail is up now. ;)

Re: Will texting habits change as our youth grow up? | Cynosure

Gary Smith — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:37:03 -0000

Here's a better link to that video, i.e. one that works - texting v. morse code! I'm such a geek:

http://davemcgraw.com/movies/m...

Re: Will texting habits change as our youth grow up? | Cynosure

Gary Smith — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:34:12 -0000

LOL! UR O7D!

But seriously -

I'm 41, and I don't text much. The texting I do is often (don't laugh) from my personal cell (which is, by design and preference, NOT a smart phone) to my work cell if I don't have anything to write with (again, I'm 41 and already suffering from CRS). Otherwise, it's for very rare occasions when it's very urgent to let someone know something, but I know they can't answer the phone. And as you say, it's rarely a 2-way conversation.

My niece (14) just got a cell phone and my brother had to put a big block of text messaging on the bill to avoid going bankrupt $.30 at a time. My nephew, only 2 years older, thinks texting is just stupid. "Just CALL them," is his atttitude. Is there a gender aspect to this as well?

I dislike texting because it's slower than morse code, which is something else I'm enough of a geek to be familiar with (http://www.till.com/blog/archi....

Having had informal conversations with younger people about this, I can think of a couple of things that may be driving the train, one of which is generational (i.e. they may still think the same way when they're older) and another of which is situational (i.e. it will be "cured" when they get older):

- younger people often mention that e-mail seems to be kind of "broken" or "old school," because of spam and the slightly lower speed at which it travels. If you're 16-20 years old, you were introduced to e-mail as a young child, and your experience with it has probably gotten worse, not better. Me, I'm sitting at a desk all day behind a couple of good spam filters and a firewall, and I'm careful about who I give my work address to. The average gmail user probably gets a bunch of garbage in their inbox, especially after they post their address on their blog... a 20-something who used to work for me says his friends mainly correspond via IM or private messages between services like MySpace or Facebook because there's less spam that gets through.

- remember that younger people are more likely to be in school or at a job where they don't primarily use a PC that they're allowed to access the internet from. For long stretches of their day, they are more likely not to be able to use PC-based applications or the internet via the PC. So for them, their cell phone may truly be their only connection to their friends.

Re: Cuil: A Case Study in Failure | Cynosure

Karlonia — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 05:25:05 -0000

Apparently Cuil was not quite ready for launch during the first day or two - many medium long tail queries did not return results at all, and even general queries returned way fewer results than they should have considering Cuil's claims of having indexed so many pages already. They did improve somewhat afterward, however, and seem to be picking up more results and increasing relevance as more people have been testing out the engine.

In the long run, I hope they get things together and perform well enough to compete with the major search engines and then maybe do some advertising. I would like to see more serious competitors to Google in order to hold their power in check and encourage more transparency overall.

Re: Cuil: A Case Study in Failure | Cynosure

Matt Keegan — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:01:35 -0000

Actually, I think the word "cuil" should be translated as "fail." Seriously, the "show" that this search engine put on this past week was a bomb, something I doubt they'll be able to amend with ease. Some of those unrelated photographs were quite odd, making me wonder if the mistakes were done on purpose.

We were oversold on Cuil!

Re: Cuil: A Case Study in Failure | Cynosure

cheney — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:08:26 -0000

Seconded, what a massively overrated failure.

Re: Cuil: A Case Study in Failure | Cynosure

sandeep — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:39:03 -0000

lol...very true !!

Re: Podcamp Boston 3 Wrapup | Cynosure

crystallyn — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:34:50 -0000

@Christopher That is just plain awesome!

Re: Podcamp Boston 3 Wrapup | Cynosure

Christopher S. Penn — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:12:07 -0000

We actually had a fail whale!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/c...