It's Spring now. So here is my Twitter Post

Forgive me, Father. It's been more than a year since my last confession, oops, wrong forum.

It's been more than a year since my last original tweet. By social media standards, my profile is in the nether graveyard overgrown with mossy weed and an illegible tombstone.

I corrected that today, spruced up my profile and started to engage in conversation (Twitter recommends an 80/20 rule). I learned that I have
been on Twitter since October of 2008...the same month we met SNL Weekend Update Financial Expert Oscar Rogers. In the early days the goal was to get a huge follower count. The same is true today in terms of leveraging your followers for financial gain though you could argue quality should beat out quantity.

Over the last year, some things have changed: advertising has become more of a prominent thing, publishers have gotten their acts together with regularly branded updates, hashtags are a little more cohesive.

Some things have remained exactly the same: food updates, puns, people following people with the exact same political beliefs or trolls following just to pick a fight.

My timing seems to be precipitous (though maybe it just always feels that way on Twitter) as I saw a tweet to an article about new video live streaming technology from Periscope and Meerkat. So I retweeted it. I also started following @StationCDRKelly and his #yearinspace quest because it's so interesting to think about the length of a year, especially when you are away from home.

Good to be back to basics and brush up on best practices. Happy Tweeting.

Yik Yak you can't take that performance back

What it is: Yik Yak is a college/high school platform that delivers anonymous commentary, jokes and news to a home community (the stream is limited to a tight radius like a college campus). It's on more than 1300 campuses and estimated value is in the hundreds of millions.

Why it matters: It would primarily be useful as a listening or intelligence tool in the B2B community but if you are considering particular recruitment campaigns or speeches on college campuses, let Ted Cruz's Liberty University speech be fair warning, the media is already listening to Yik Yak and sharing the results with their audiences. The posters might remain anonymous but your performance certainly won't.

7 Search Tools that Don't Start with the Letter G

Here are some tools to supplement your daily intake of of Googling:

1. Buzzsumo their tagline is "Analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor". A paid service with a free trial offer. Lots of interesting filters and you can export search results.

publisher image from Alexander Hislop & Company

2. BoardReader is a search engine for forums and boards. Includes results from LinkedIn Groups, Reddit, Morningstar and other more niche groups like Bitcointalk.org.

3. Quora is more consumer-focused and requires registration but could be a good place to gather ideas if you are in a creative mindset, here is a recent article based on results "What Are the Major Differences Between the Disneyland and Disney World Experience?"

4. Use Bing advanced search options, check out this article "How to Use Bing’s Advanced Search Operators: 8 Tips for Better Searches" from How-To Geek. For example, use "Feed:" to find RSS or Feeds for topics of interest.

5.A new favorite of mine is Social Searcher which organizes the results by platform in a really clean top-level display. Offers Premium Paid features.

6. Topsy is still great for finding for Twitter shares

7. Social Mention has some interesting data on the sidebar (not sure of its relevance).

Bonus: Alerts from Google for yourself, your brand, your competitors and the topics that matter to you. Ok, it starts with the letter G but it is proactive search tool.

Search is a cycle of being being found and finding what matters to you. It is more important than ever to have best tools so that you can precisely identify your audience, their interests, their chosen platforms, etc. Happy hunting.

Google+, easy to do & time well spent

Google+ is the youngest major social media platform and it offers the most diverse palette of sharing, connecting and positioning.

G+ Circles allow for precise slicing and dicing of your network, not only between personal and professional but also levels of your professional and personal life (i.e. volunteer work, professional associations and your 9 to 5 can each have their own circle). You can decide who sees which section of your profile (sections include: work section, personal, education, story...).


Must do:
Revisit and update your Google+ Profile and +Page. This article from 2013 is nice inspiration: "15 Examples of B2B Google+ Pages & Why They Stand Out From The Rest" by Derek Edomond and check out Google's Best Practices Guide

Seriously Consider doing:
Add G+ into your social media mix and engage with your circles on a regular basis.

Snapchat ripe for B2B applications? You decide in 4 Quick Steps

Snapchat is barely three years old and geared toward a consumer market, definitely not ready for most business purposes. Why not imagine a future recruiting or event-centric application now while the investment is still minimal?

Here are 4 easy steps to allow this emerging tool to find its' place (if any) in your digital strategy:

Must do:
Read The ultimate Snapchat primer (with a B2B twist) by Sarah Dawley B2B News Network and Why is no one using Snapchat for B2B marketing (yet)? by B2B PR Blog. Great context.


Consider doing:
-Download Snapchat and play with it. The platform is exclusive to mobile so, unlike Twitter and LinkedIn, you can't simply observe from your laptop.

-Use as a Competitive Intelligence tool. Most likely, large events (like SXSW) that intersect with your target industries are already in the Snapchat mix. Get a feel for the energy of an event without leaving your office.

Strongest contenders for B2B application: Events and recruiting.

Client Service Case Study: the Price of Maintaining Brand Enthusiasm

Issue: A prospective client is a huge fan of your service but doesn't have the resources to retain your business. At the the RFP stage, how do you maintain the prospect's brand loyalty and evangelism without discounting your rates or degrading your service?

Example: In this clip from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Ms. Golightly and Mr. Varjak want to experience the Tiffany & Co. brand but are completely out of their league in financing the experience.

Resolution: While the immediate sale was negligible, Tiffany's representative engages in conversation to identify a workable solution. He retains brand loyalty and the potential for future sales as the fortunes of Mr. Varjak and Ms. Golightly rise.

That's how you can pull a Tiffany & Co. ring from a Cracker Jack box.