We all know the age-old “If a tree falls in the woods…” question, but in the age of social media an equally important question is now being asked by the masses: If you’re in a relationship and it’s not documented on Facebook, does it even count?
We all have friends who record their entire relationship through social media channels—whether through constant tweets proclaiming their love for their romantic partner, frequent wall post declarations of love, or pictures posted of flowers or [...]

As the dust settles over the debate about whether social media is indeed worth all the hype, the medical fraternity has been slowly pointing the needle (pun intended) towards a yes.
The lure of social media notwithstanding, the medical community has been apprehensive about using it. Lack of clear knowledge of usage and value, skeptical response and industry regulations have combined to turn social media into a Pandora’s Box in the minds of many who have taken the Hippocratic Oath.
Times have [...]

As marketers work around the clock to leverage the newest social media platform, I can’t help but reflect on my first uses of social media. I’m a firm believer that you can’t evolve or grow without knowing your roots and learning from your past—and I realize now that in my past, I was engaged in social media before there was such a thing as “social media.”
It was about 13 years ago when I created my first site—a “Power Rangers” fan [...]

When I think of the phrase “The Beautiful People,” the popular, catchy song from a few years ago by Marilyn Manson comes to mind, but ask some of my single New York City girlfriends and they will sing an entirely different tune that is virtual, attractive and now very controversial.
In fact, I couldn’t believe my ears when they told me about Beautifulpeople.com, a dating website where admittance is based on your level of attractiveness. Yet it wasn’t the site, launched [...]

As a Washington Post experiment, Joshua Bell, one of the finest violinists in the world, stood against a wall in a crowded Washington subway during the morning rush and played for 43 minutes. A total of 1,097 people passed by; seven paused to take notice. Three days earlier, Bell had filled the house at Boston’s stately Symphony Hall, where the pretty good seats went for $100 each. In the subway he earned $32.
This is the power of context. What great things are your customers [...]

My first three links this week are about the new way to communicate, and how we can be creative and relevant as marketers. These days we are focused on being respectful of the customer and what he has to say. Yesterday we were asking people to buy something; today, we’re telling them what the product is and why it’s good, and they tell us if they agree or not. If they don’t, we’ve got improvements to make. If they do: [...]

The whole idea behind new media and social networking is to form deeper relationships with customers, which can be cultivated into a strong bond and hopefully brand loyalty. We use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, e-mail, blogs, direct mail and other media to stay connected to them. We spend millions to form and cultivate the relationships. But in the process, do we forget about the relationship itself?
Every Saturday my town holds a farmer’s market in the town hall parking lot. Local farms [...]

What is the value of an ad not seen? Worse yet, the value of an ad seen but not acted upon? For years marketers have worked hard to turn the Internet into a place where ads are proactively blocked, filtered and ignored. Agencies are paid to increase list size, not list quality. Rather than put time into properly segmenting our prospects and compiling relevant offerings, we collect information in any way possible and blast e-mails to everyone. We choose quantity over quality, thinking we’re [...]

Lately I’ve been hearing a lot about loyalty programs, their goals and their objectives, so it’s got me thinking about loyalty in the age of new media marketing. Traditionally, loyalty has been about repeat business—getting happy customers to come back. But in the age of information, optimization and saturation, I see it going a different way.
Friend #1 is a coffee drinker. Sure, most of us drink coffee, but when I say she’s a “coffee drinker,” what I mean is that she’s a [...]