Social Media Content Marketing

Please stand back. I'm about to adminster social media expertise. Social media content writing is not rocket science -- it's far more difficult. And it shouldn't be attempted by non-experts or someone may lose and eye. Or that's what "social media experts" will tell you. And they'll also tell you that they're social media experts right from the get go. Social media is just public relations, advertising, sales and marketing packaged into bite-sized pieces. So whoever handles those functions should be the same people who handle your social networking.I spend much of my day involved with social media and have for about three years now. I create strategies, write content, link efforts over various social networks, monitor and track mentions, identify influencers, and so on. The industry is still forming and changing so we are all perpetual students. The problem is social media hasn't been around long enough to create experts. Seasoned commun...

Wake up calls are at their most powerful not when they are delivered not by the front desk, but rather by fate. I f they had a Facebook page, no one would "like" alarm clocks. What other pieces of technology do you routinely slap, hit, and toss across the room? Their dials are either impossible to tune or immovable; their music muffled white noise. In short, they are sleep executioners sitting motionless all day, then lurk at night with glowing numeric eyes waiting patiently for the precise moment to kill peaceful sleep in the prime of its life. I awake minutes before it's set to awake me to turn the tables on the alarm clock and ruin its morning. (I know. I need to get out more or just sleep more.) Wake up calls however are much different. "How" you say? (Humor me and say "how?" as I am just trying to make a metaphysical point -- if there even is such a thing). Here's how: wake up calls are harsh but for your own good. There'...

The prospect of going underground does appeal to me more and more, but I wonder if it's even possible for a self-proclaimed social media guru?   I 'm thinking about going underground for awhile. Not in the secret agent sense of the word, though that has always sounded up my alley. Assuming a new name, making quick changes, wearing disguises -- actually that sounds more like a cruise ship entertainer than espionage. And not going underground in the political refugee sort of way either -- though as a centrist I always feel a bit invisible this time of year anyway.  But underground as in a law-abiding citizen who needs some time to rethink -- while off the radar. My best friend does this so routinely that it's more an event when she's "above ground."  Wait, that makes it sound like she's a vampire -- but I'm (pretty) sure she's not as her teeth are not sharp, loves garlic, and faints at the sign of blood. But she does disappear from...

Quitting Facebook without notifying a soul was easy. What happened next was the interesting part. I remember hearing about Facebook for the first time in 2007 from a snarky 20-something who was making fun of "those" girls who posted drunken photos on their wall in hopes to make their otherwise mundane lives seem famous. Like most productive members of society at that time, I didn't know much about anything online social online past the eHarmony commercials. Intrigued and newly divorced at the time, I found sought out Facebook and joined. Partly due to my job as a high tech marketer, partly as an experiment, and partly in hopes not to look like the out-of-touch, middle-aged divorced guy (still working on that part). Shortly thereafter, I was hooked. Then earlier this year, some five years later, after reconnecting with school buddies, connecting with unrequited school crushes, and mis-connecting with eHarmony dates that had gone awry, I unceremoniously ...