Social Media Content Marketing

The second 2012 Presidential Debate is tonight and social media campaigns abound from the Left and Right aimed at undecided voters. To paraphrase their message, the opponent is the Devil incarnate while their candidate is the Messiah's messenger on Earth. (And that's from the non- denominational groups.) But it's online facts, as a Google study on today's media savvy swing voter  that gets their attention. And that is, well, confusing the hell out of both parties. Facts evidently have little to do with Presidential elections any more being used only as a last resort. Most registered party voters profess to routinely vote across party lines, though I tend to believe otherwise. Is it to convince themselves and those in earshot of the water cooler that their vote was based upon a well thought out decision rather than on dogma? Maybe they voted for the Dog Catcher because they attend the same religious service or coach little league with them...

     With 5 million unit advanced sales,   clamoring zombie-like minions , and effusing praise from reviewers who have yet to hold one, I can only surmise that the iPhone 5 must cure cancer. Maybe it's the " special aluminum"   that they've used  now in short supply that cures cancer as well as diabetes, diverticulitis, diverticulosis, depression, all diseases and disorders beginning with the letter “D,” Swine flu, bird flu, new flu, and the heartbreak of psoriasis -- but we all expected that after the leaked photos. How else can this phone turned national panacea  be explained?      They report that the iPhone 5 is faster, lighter, and so  thin that careless altar boys have been mistaking it as a Eucharistic wafer at Catholic churches.  And yet despite all its seemingly magical properties and powers, I will not buy one . With me, it's not iPhone backlash, a high selling price, or  the lack of Google Maps ...

The etiquette on how quickly to return texts and other messages depends more upon who sent it more than when it was sent. I like attending weddings when they're not mine. To be fair, I've only had one but I was so busy making sure everyone else had a good time. And shortly after we returned from the Honeymoon, my bride was prompt in sending out Thank You notes. The etiquette is one year, though Italians usually don't give wedding gifts, we give money. Colloquially known as "ah boost," that cash always warrants instant "Thank You's."        Social media has changed the expected time of response to all messages to immediately. So what I do often think about is the accepted response order when returning a Facebook message, voicemail, text or email. For me, texts take precedence. Which text gets the first reply depends upon my relationship to the sender. My child commands the fastest response time. I think most parents would agree. I...

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...

I quit watching television six years ago and replaced it with social media. Life's more different than you may think. S ix years ago next month I sold my house in the suburbs and moved to the top of a high rise into a swanky bachelor pad overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Newly single, I decorated the apartment best I could, painted an accent wall with burgundy and cherry stripes, collected dark leather furniture with darker wood and silver accents. It wasn't as much swanky as it was divorce nouveau. English Country meets "I'll take the couch if you don't want it or the dining room table." When it was all finished, I kicked back on my new, "they-told-me-it was-leather" couch, put my feet up on the coffee table (because now I was allowed to) and looked at the bare spot on the wall. I had left the prime spot for what I planned to be would be the home of my first flat screen television. But as I looked out over the ocean, then back to ...

Few businesses seem to "get" how to promote and post on their Facebook pages. Here are three tips to avoid putting visitors to sleep.   A s some social media start-ups get gobbled by Google (or is it Googled by gobble?) while other shining stars tumble, the naysayers are shooting from their anti-social media starting blocks faster than a Jamaican Olympic track team on Red Bull. If you’re reading some of the same articles, blogs, and Tweets that I am, then you’ve seen the recent onslaught of negative press regarding social media. Maybe I’m naïve to inner workings of Wall Street, but I’m not exactly sure how Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth going from a gazillion dollars to a measly bazillion signals the death knell to an entire industry.   Though Markie-Mark 2.0 aside, so many pundits seem convinced:   Social Media is dead. Over. Finito   Completo .   A member of the not-so-dearly departed.     To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors of social ...

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 ...