Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 404

When Free Costs A Fortune

For the average person, having access to something for free is the best, but it's when those average people become power users that the problems begin.

Everything online is free. The truth is that everything online is not free (it just is for the vast majority). When you live online (yes, I'm looking directly in the mirror), you quickly begin to realize that you're never better off with a free service, and that was validated twice this week. Both Chris Brogan (co-author of the best-selling b...

Viral Videos Still Work

As the popularity of YouTube and other online video destinations grows, something made me think that the concept of a "viral video sensation" would dissipate. Boy, was I wrong.

If you think about it, YouTube continues to grow (both in terms of who is watching videos and how many people are uploading videos). It only reasons that the more people watching and the more people posting videos might lead to a weird moment when everything falls into the Long Tail, and it gets increasingly more...

What's Happening With Twitter?

By all accounts, Twitter is still one of the hottest Social Media platforms to be connected on, even as its growth begins to slow.

That was the news on Tuesday via eMarketer in their news item, Twitter Stays Strong as Growth Slows. "Twitter usage exploded in 2009," begins the news item. "US site traffic, which is only a partial barometer of how many people used the service, grew from a few million unique monthly visitors in early 2009 to over 20 million by June. Traffic has since reached a...

What Makes A Brand Social?

In following many of the higher ranked, populated and community-focused Blogs about Marketing, you will spot an interesting trend...

Many Bloggers (and their community members) feel that brands are not very "social" unless they are a part of the "conversation." Top-line, this does seem like common sense: for a brand to be trusted and accepted in Social Media it should be an active voice within the community. After all, if someone is complaining about (or applauding) your brand and you're...

People Should Not See Marketing

If Marketing is doing its job, Marketing should be invisible to the consumer.

That sentence would have never made any semblance of sense in the days when mass media advertising ruled the Marketing landscape. As we transition out of one phase and into another (where Marketing platforms like Social Media, Customer Service, and more play a larger part in the Marketing ecosystem) and make a slight shift away from continuously (and obnoxiously) blasting and cramming these advertising messages...

How One Non-Marketer Explains Social Media Marketing

If you had to explain Social Media and the Marketing opportunities available to young entrepreneurs, how would you do it?

Hugh McGuire (Librivox and Bite-Sized Edits) sent me the link to his Slideshare presentation for an event he recently spoke at. McGuire (also a regular on the Media Hacks podcast) likes to think he's not a Marketer (I'd argue that everybody in business is in both sales and marketing), but as you can see by his presentation, he's probably more suited to be a marketing...

What A Social Media Case Study Can Look Like

Success in Social Media can come from anyone and anywhere. Just take a look at what happened today...

During our recent co-book tour (Bring Trust Agents And Six Pixels Of Separation To Your Community), I was watching Chris Brogan (who co-authored the best-selling business book, Trust Agents, with Julien Smith) grapple with his carry-on luggage. For one, the bag simply wasn't all that functional, and it also had a tendency to topple over on a whim (Brogan joking referred to his carry-on bag a...

Unlike Advertising, Social Media Can't Save A Bad Brand, Product Or Service

Jumping into Social Media is one of the smartest things a brand should do. It could also be one of the worst moves if the brand is not prepared.

All too often, I've heard gripes like, "we're on Facebook, but nothing is happening," or "we're on Twitter and no one is following us." You can swap out whatever Social Media channel I've mentioned and replace it with lines like, "nobody is watching our videos," "nobody is downloading our Podcast," and "no one is leaving any comments on our Blog."

...

Back To The Future

Were you expecting Nike high tops and a DeLorean?

In thinking more about current trends that will become business standards (more on that here: Four Current Trends That Will Change Marketing Forever) and in seeing many videos and photos of people with their new iPads, it started becoming very obvious that we all look like we're on the set of Star Trek - The Next Generation. In fact, you can look back to all of the Star Trek series to see how much of that technology has come to life.

You...

The Audacity Of Asking

When you ask somebody to do something, it's always wise to consider whether or not you have the Social Capital to make the request.

Before you ask someone you hardly know to tweet out something for you on Twitter, Blog about something, or join your group on Facebook, you would be well advised to start out by reading two great business books, The Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt and Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. These new Digital Marketing channels and Social Media platforms make ...