An Open Letter to Media Publishers and other Business Leaders

Dear Publishers and business leaders,

Your business is dying. You know it. Your readers know it. So what are you doing about it?

The belief that the Internet was the death knell of print – and maybe even cable news – was a bit of an exaggeration although your revenue statements clearly show it’s had a major impact.

I’ve seen attempts to move content online via tiered, paid subscription models, which clearly isn’t working to reverse your financial fortunes. I’m thinking you’re all sending Apple Christmas baskets to thank them for the iPad, which – for a time anyway – has enabled the sale of content via Tablet magazines. Still, adoption for paid digital magazines on tablets is a far cry from the heydays of the print publishing industry.

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In 2012 Stop Reading & Start DOING!

Growing up, my mom always said “readers are leaders.” I think that statement is largely true. Reading and consuming information helps us grow and expand our knowledge.

However, with so much content to consume – through blogs, books and social networks – we’ve become bloated by digesting a bunch of stuff that’s not getting us any closer to our goals.

You see, we can read, scan and tweet all day long, but that practice will NOT help you succeed.

Before you jump on my case, let me explain.

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Is Community Management Dead?

Has the relevance of the community manager already come and gone? Just four years ago, it would be difficult to name a company that employed someone to grow and nurture their communities. Today, it would be equally as difficult to name a company that doesn’t.

As you read this, hundreds of community managers are taking to their TweetDecks and HootSuites to manage social media outreach and engagement. So, is community management really dead? Perhaps not altogether, but the narrow definition of it, which has been used in the past four years, most definitely is.

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2012 Social Marketing & New Media Predictions

Awareness Networks released insights and prognosis from 34 business and marketing leaders as part of its 2012 Social Marketing and New Media Predictions report.It’s written for marketing strategists, brand marketers and consults and those working in agencies. I think you’ll find it interesting to say the least and perhaps even prescriptive.

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Lessons from the Chapstick Social Media Fiasco

What do “butts,” “ChapStick,” and “social” have in common?  They are all part of a recent huge—and very public – series of poor choices that have seriously impacted the reputation of a major brand. I actually pulled those three words from the categories assigned to Tim Nudd’s recent AdWeek article, ChapStick Gets Itself in A Social Media Death Spiral.

So what happened?  Long story short (read the article for full details), ChapStick posted an ad that was offensive to some people, and when those people voiced their opinions on ChapStick’s Facebook Fan Page, ChapStick deleted those comments… and kept deleting them as they were posted.

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