Brands Need To Stop This. Now.

On this historic day, 50 years ago, one of the greatest speeches in history was given. “I Have A Dream” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was spoken. It gave me chills when I heard it for the first time when I was 8, and it still does today.

So why not celebrate this historic day, by making it about golf?!

Why Tweets About Obese Doctors Are Never Your Own

“All tweets are my own.”

That’s the most dangerous thing you could ever say in social media. I see it in social bio’s all the time. Heck, a lot of companies make it a policy that if you’re going to be on social media, you must use a disclaimer so that everybody knows whatever you say is not official word from “the” corporation. Like, you taking a pic of your chicken noodle soup isn’t endorsed by Acme Corp.

“All tweets are my own and not a reflection of my employer.”

Brand Endearment: Return The High-Five

I live on the road, in hotels and airports.  While some people keep suitcases at the back of their closets, I live out of mine.

So when I read about the Genius Pack on USAToday.com I was excited to try it out!  I trusted the site, and the suitcase was exactly what I’d been looking for.  I ordered one that day.

The case arrived quickly and had all the compartments and fancy add-ons I had hoped for (better pockets, phone charger built in, dirty laundry compartment).  I was a happy customer and decided to tweet about it.

Check Your Facts Before You Shell Out Info

Social media is an amplifier. The little mix-ups and mistakes we all make in life are just part of being human, and usually we do them quietly. But when we fark up online, people are listening. Our mistakes can get a whole lot louder, which is why checking our facts before we share information online is really important. Before you fuss with your spelling and your grammar and before you click Update, Post, or Send, please make sure what you are sharing is valid. Or at the very least include in the comment that you aren’t sure. So when you see on Twitter that Jon Bon Jovi is dead, maybe you will pause and think for a minute before you share.

Currently, people are sharing two things about Shell Oil that are hoaxes/parodies. One is the website that is made to look like a crowd-sourced ad-campaign gone wrong for shell:

Worst Scheduled Tweet Timing. Ever.

Social media runs in real-time. Real-fast real-time. If you want to play in the pool, you better be in the pool for the entire party.

Brands/people etc have looked foolish in the past when they’ve scheduled auto-tweets that get sent at bad times during world events like disasters, elections and otherwise.

However, this one from 30 minutes ago takes the cake.

When We Exaggerate Our Size, Everyone Loses

Since the dawn of marketing/communication/PR/advertising we’ve had an issue with “exaggerating” things. We claim our magazine has a circulation of a million, but that includes each magazine being passed around 4 times. We boast that our billboard is seen by the 3 million cars that drive by a week, when the study claims that every person looks at it, and each car counted has 11 passengers inside.

Inflating numbers isn’t new, the problem I have is when we take the same methods and apply them to social media, and for this post specifically Twitter.

Warm Spam: The Worst Social Media Recipe, Ever.

Back in the old days of the Internet/Email, it was a happy place (we’ll call this time period B.S. “Before Spam”). In the BS years the Internet was pure information and email was a way to communicate useful information and conversation. Every time an email came in, it was like a little butterfly of excitement flew into your computer, knowing it was containing an ingredient of awesome. Then something changed. Email started getting UnAwesome.

Cold-callers, Cold-knockers (those that went door-to-door) and Car-smackers (placing flyers on your windshield) realizing that their methods of sales assault worked less and less, had found a place that they no longer even had to lift a finger to push their useless wares on the public. “Now we can email our crap!” and proceeded to group-high five (which is now evolved to awkward fist-bumping).

Things We Should Ask The ROI Question About Before Social Media

Let's call him "ROI Guy"

“What’s the ROI of Social Media?”

That’s the question that gives me ulcers when asked it.

Easy now, old-school business folk, I don’t have a problem questioning the value or return of something that takes potentially both time and money from your business. Any smart business person would do that.

The Awesomeness of Being a 2.0 Author

I don’t know how authors did it years ago. You pour your heart and soul into a book, it hits the shelves and you hope people like it.

I’m such a spaz that I don’t think I could handle the lack of immediate validation and/or rejection.

I’ve been amazed since UnMarketing came out. The immediacy and coolness of tools has blown my mind. Waking up everyday and reading tweets in real time about people reading the book makes me smile. Every. Day. It’s the passive conversation our readers are having with each other that was untappable (my new word) previously.

Twitter mentions

Telesummits: You’re Doing Them Wrong – Video

Originally I was going to call this post The Bus Ride, Best Guy and the Bald Spot, since I hopped on a 6 hour round trip bus ride while I’m in NYC, to get to PA to see the best guy I know and he shows you his bald spot, but dang nabbit, that takes too long to explain.

This get-together has been over 5 years in the making (we had never met in person), so Michael Port and I decided to film us chatting about one of our biggest online pet peeves: being asked to speak on telesummits. Have a look: