The topics and behaviors that become popular on the Internet are sometimes referred to as memes. Perhaps you’ve heard of Rickrolling? Unfortunately, it’s impossible to predict what will become popular, however, you can always be a “fast follower” taking advantage of the latest hot trend.

One recent meme is adding subtitles to unrelated content in a humorous way. One of my favorite examples is the “Hitler rant” in the movie Downfall.

To illustrate, I’ve made my own version as a tribute to the wonderful team at Earthkind. Watch the video and you’ll understand what they do.

A few months ago, I pointed out that companies that blog get on average 55% more web traffic.  But it’s not just 55% more traffic; it’s new prospects finding you exactly when they’re looking for what you do. Recall that half of all web traffic originates at a search engine (mostly Google).

Yet if you blog, there’s an even more effective way to build your traffic… participating proactively in the blogosphere by commenting on other authors’ relevant posts. Instead of working day-by-day to bring an audience to you, go to where your audience is already spending their time and attention.

The search engine Technorati.com shows you the blogs are the most “authoritative”, meaning the most widely read and cited, for any given topic. Not only has the crowd already vetted the quality of the content, they’re likely to be interested in what your business offers (assuming that you’ve select relevant keywords).

At Technorati.com, click the toggle switch to search for “Blogs” (publications) rather than “Posts” (individual articles). Then enter a keyword or phrase that relates to your business and target audience, and click “Search”.

You’ll see a list of blogs ranked 1 to N based on “Authority” score, 1,000 being highest. Any blog with a score of, say, 100 or higher, has a meaningful audience.

Make it a habit to regularly read these blogs and when you have something of value to add, click to leave a reply. Remember that you’re never overtly selling or self-promoting. Instead, you’re sharing information of value to the readers, which happens to demonstrate your expertise. These comments on high authority blogs will be widely read. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever heard the expression: “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail?” Yes, I’m talking about e-mail. According to the recent book, “The Tyranny of E-mail” by John Freeman, we’re now spending more than 40% of our time in corporate America “working” e-mail (note the quotes around the word working). It’s not just you; it’s your entire staff, your entire company. The problem with e-mail is that it’s other people’s agenda, not your priorities.

Worse than that, with the explosion of spam and use of “Reply All”, information density is actually declining. Am I the only one who thinks we should have the death penalty for long e-mails? This tool is totally out of control.

Gen Y rarely, if ever, uses e-mail. Why? With their fresh eyes, they’ve found social media tools that are more efficient and more effective for communicating. When they want to convey time-critical information, they send texts. Otherwise, they use a rich information-sharing tool called Facebook. While these tools are great for personal communication, what if we could use similar mechanisms for corporate communication? Interesting… no? Read the rest of this entry »

Regular readers know that I usually focus on business social networking issues, and I will continue to do so. However, today I’m covering another “Interactive” topic of equal importance.

In speaking to hundreds of business executives around the United States each month, I find a surprising percentage are not embracing technology, specifically tablets (think iPad or Galaxy Tab), smartphones (think iPhone or Droid), and hundreds of thousands of Apps.

This is an incredibly dangerous head-in-sand strategy. Remember what Darwin observed: “It’s not the strongest or most intelligent that survive… but those that adapt to a changing environment most quickly.” While it’s true for species, it’s true for business on a hyper-accelerated time scale. Think about it. How long can you sit still and not respond to your competition, not enhance your products and services, not upgrade your technology and team?

We live in a world of accelerating change. Ray Kurzweil predicts that between 2010 and 2045 (just 35 years), we’re going to see an increase in what might be called “human-machine knowledge” of 1,000,000,000 times. Looked at another way, the amount of information we’re dealing with today represents just 0.0000001% of what we’ll have in that future. What a quaint, simple world we inhabit today.

To the point of this column: It is now becoming impossible to keep up in business without thoroughly embracing technology. Ii you are uncomfortable with technology, its time to reexamine your mindset. It is a mindset.

Start by buying an Apple iPhone 4S and get to know Siri, the integrated voice assistant. Read the rest of this entry »

Some businesses chase every new social media service, or at least get nervous about missing something as each new platform is introduced. They feel the need to be everywhere. The most common mistake I see consumer-focused companies (B2C) make is dissipating their limited resources and therefore under-investing in (or worse, ignoring) Facebook and Twitter. It’s a huge missed opportunity.

Surprisingly, business-focused companies (B2B) make exactly the opposite mistake. They see the tremendous success of B2C companies in Facebook and Twitter and rush right in. In fact, I see very few B2B initiatives that show apparent return on investment (ROI) in either platform. They’re the wrong tools for most B2Bs. Read the rest of this entry »

As a consultant, it’s incredibly gratifying to pause periodically and look back on all of the great clients I’ve had the opportunity to work with in the past few years. Here’s a sampling of some the businesses and not-for-profit organizations I’ve helped with social media strategies since 2007. In some cases, projects have been bigger in scope (full-scale business plans and/or digital marketing programs with website implementations), and in other cases, just LinkedIn master training for the sales team.

Thank you to all!  [Most recent update: April 22, 2012]

Dave Nelsen

I’m currently vacationing with my wife in Ponce, Puerto Rico (celebrating our 25^th wedding anniversary) and another article is due. Thanks to the magic of the iPad and the Internet, it’s only a question of what to write about. Suddenly it dawns on me; I can’t believe I’ve not shared my “3 Rules” for using social media in business:

1)    Social media is like a cocktail party. What works or doesn’t work in one venue applies equally in the other. Good cocktail party behaviors include: Asking questions, actively listening, engaging in conversations, and building relationships. The same is true in social media.

Bad cocktail party behaviors include: Talking all about you, introducing yourself and then completely shutting up (or down), and any form of active (or passive) selling. Again, the same is true in social media! Read the rest of this entry »

When Google announced a new social network called Google+, I ignored it. Using a loose definition, Google had already “failed” at social networking three times, with Orkut, Wave, and Buzz. Are you using any of these? You never even heard of them?

I figured that Google engineers just didn’t get social networking. My opinion changed when I discovered that more than 10,000,000 people had joined during the first two weeks. And you can’t just sign up; you have to be invited by someone who knows you. Genius!

Now I’m using Google+ and am very impressed. It will change not just Facebook and LinkedIn (evolve or die) but, I believe, business-to-business (B2B) social networking. Have you noticed that B2B doesn’t really work on Facebook? Here’s why.

On Facebook, almost everything you do is shared with everybody you “friend”. The problem is that I have my family and personal pursuits out there on Facebook. I don’t want to share that with my professional associates. Do you dress the same for the office as you do at home? Didn’t think so.

Google+ changes all that with “Circles”. Read the rest of this entry »