Dive into the archives.
- I Ain’t No Followback Girl (or Boy)
Just the other day I saw this tweet in my @replies column on Tweetdeck. I have to admit that right at first I was a little angry, offended and irritated. Not because this person chose to stop following me, but because they thought it was necessary to make a public statement about it. It felt a little bit like an attack on me and all because I had not automatically followed this person back after they followed me. Of course, in a matter of seconds my emotions came back to reality and I replied with an apology, explaining that I was weeks behind on going through people’s profiles to determine if I was going to follow them. I have explained my process in further detail in a previous post, but in a nutshell it goes like this: whenever I have time I go through the list of people who are following me and check out their profiles, looking at their bio, background, avatar and recent tweets. If it seems we have something in common, or they seem funny or engaging or interesting in some other way, then I will follow them back. But I don’t automatically follow people simply because they chose to follow me.
I ain’t no followback boy.
- DESIGNERS: Submit Yourself and Nominate Others To Be Featured Here!
If you’ve been following this blog recently you have been witness to a few new features that I have initiated in an effort to introduce and promote lesser known members of the design community. Yesterday I launched a new feature titled “Behind The Avatar” in which we will get to know different people who are designers and developers (and maybe other pursuits as well) a little more personally. In previous posts I have shared with you 24 Designers You’ve Never Seen On A List Before, 43 Twitter Backgrounds You’ve Never Seen On A List Before, and 27 More Designers You’ve Never Seen On A List Before. I explained my reasons for doing this in detail in this post: DESIGNERS: Why I Promote and Support You Rather Than Compete Against You.
Today I want to remind you how you can get involved. Whether you are a designer or developer yourself and are interested in a little self-promotion, or you know someone who you think deserves some recognition for the work they do and/or the type of person they are, all you have to do is leave your information in the comments below to be considered. Here’s a little more info…
- How to Best Promote Your Brand Using Social Media: 10 Top Tips and Ideas!
Whether we like it or not, people – customers- are and will always be the main focal point of any marketing, promotional and research and development efforts. They are, as the quote above clearly indicates, the real assets of any business with which it can’t operate or function without. Therefore, when considering the best practices for promoting any brand or product, through social media or offline, the first thing the company has to consider is its target audience, in terms of demographics, education, backgrounds, likes, dislikes and so on and so forth.
Yet, since the simple marketing mix theory consists of 4 main elements: product, place, promotion and price, the tricky part is figuring out the right mix that suits a liquid medium such as social media.
Therefore, this article will discuss, in details, the best 10 top tips and ideas that can help steer a brand towards success and away from mistakes that might lead to utter failure and losses!
- Google Wave: Interviews of Real People’s 1st Impressions (Not “Experts”)!
Yes, I was one of the lucky few who happened to know someone who was willing to send me an invite to preview Google Wave last week. You can read more about my experience and thoughts in an article I just wrote for Thoughtpick.com which will be published shortly (check back later today for the direct link). Once I added a few contacts I decided it would be a cool way to test out the collaborative functionality of Wave by conducting a small interview asking my contacts about their first impressions of the new technology. More about the process and experience is in the Thoughtpick article, but I wanted to share the interview transcripts here with you. Each of the users had some similar and some unique contributions, so I think you will find it beneficial as we all voyeuristically anticipate the widespread release of this phenomenal new tool, platform or whatever you want to call it.
- Influencers, Followers and Friends – Oh My!
Is social media unwittingly watering down the true meaning of these words and affecting our relationships in the offline, real world?
- 43 Twitter Backgrounds You’ve Never Seen On A List Before
Two days ago I asked people to submit their Twitter backgrounds that have never been included on those lists design blogs put out. It is a little pet peeve of mine that the various lists tend to feature the same 100-200 Twitter background designs and claim that they are the best out of the millions of possibilities. I find it hard to believe that those lists could be so exhaustive as to have gone through every single Twitter background to determine the best. Besides, isn’t beauty in the eye of the beholder and judgment of design subjective?
So I thought it would be a good idea to offer an opportunity for those who have designed backgrounds but are maybe less known or new to Twitter so they have not yet occupied one of those lists.
- Exploring The Oxymoron of Automated Social Media
In this post I want to focus on the oxymoron of automated social media. An oxymoron is the combination of two normally contradictory terms, in this case “automated” and “social”. Webster’s definitions pretty clearly demonstrate the contradiction of these two terms. Yet automation in social contexts is becoming more and more the norm.
- Who Makes The Social Media Rules? You Do!
As businesses, professionals and individuals frantically scramble to keep from being left behind in the latest technological phenomenon of global virtual communities that have been collectively coined “social media”, the wide-eyed and wondering search everywhere for answers. As with all revolutions past – only multiplied by the miraculously rapid pace at which real-time communication and information disbursement occurs – the common laws of the emerging society appear to be caught up in a free-for-all battle fought between self-proclaimed experts, early-adopting renegades, ground-breaking pioneers, drooling capitalists and everyone else who refuses to end up classified as living under the proverbial rock.
Over the past few weeks I have been asked some very interesting questions by various relative newcomers who for some reason believe I may be one who has the inside track on how things are done. Most of these people don’t realize that only 6 months ago I did not have a single social media account. I don’t know if someone recommended me to them, or they are just looking at my numbers, or they have seen my name in certain circles, or any other reason that would lead them to seek me out as one who would have the answers. All I know is that there is a common thread to their questions, and it has led me to write this post to hopefully answer them all simultaneously.
They all want to know what “the rules” are.
- Sound Off: RT Thanks or Not?
Last week I came across an interesting blog post titled “Eight Twitter Habits That May Get You Unfollowed or Semi-Followed”. I thought it was well-written and I agreed with most of it. I left a comment expressing my thoughts and the author and I had a bit of back-and-forth about my one disagreement. He was very cordial and it never escalated into anything ugly, which can very easily happen when two people publicly disagree. In fact, he even went to my own site and emailed me to privately respond and make sure there were not any hard feelings. I thought this was pretty admirable and it made me respect the author even more.
Here’s the statement we disagreed on:
Sending a public tweet that thanks someone for following, for recommending you, or for retweeting your post isn’t an expression of gratitude but a boast sent to everyone who follows you. It’s a big, needy, self-serving way to make sure a wide group of people are aware that someone thinks you’re terrific.
- The Enlargement of the Online Footprint: Articles Mentioning bkmacdaddy
Last week I started writing a new series of articles about building your online presence. Coincidentally (or not) there have been a few articles popping up here and there mentioning bkmacdaddy – a flattering yet timely example of the results that can come from working at enlarging your online footprint. The powerful potential of the viral nature of the interwebs is available to each of us and can be utilized in countless ways to grow awareness for your campaign, your business, your product(s) and/or your reputation.
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