There has been an ongoing theme – to be honest, for quite a while now - resurfacing at various intervals, about the imminent death of blogging, generally to be replaced it seems with the social media tools of the moment such as Facebook and Twitter.
For a small minority, I would agree that this may well be on the cards. The ability to connect with people using little bitesized chunks of information is tempting and may seem easier than sitting down and writing something longer than the typical “update”. However, for the vast majority, and particularly businesses looking to use social media as a tool to reach their customers – shouldn’t we all be? 
– I would say that this prediction is premature in the extreme.
Indeed, with social media now firmly ensconced among the more established marketing and communications tools, I would suggest that not only will we not see a decline in the role of blogging, we will actually see it grow in importance. If you have a moment, then let me explain why – I guarantee that it’ll be worthwhile. …
| Article Categories: | Business Blogging,Business Networking,Social Media Thoughts,Social Networking |
| Article Tags: | Business Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Online Marketing, Social Media, Twitter |
Social Media needs to be integrated
Social media tools aren’t intended to replace the current marketing tools and techniques that we already use – and they won’t, at least not in the short-term. What they are is complementary and, to be most effective, they should be integrated with our better understood online and offline tools.
Let’s remember: at the end of the day, all of these tools from business cards, conferences and magazine advertising to search engines, emails and Facebook marketing, are merely being used to communicate and help convey a message. The message is the key element. However, the benefit that social media offers is …
| Article Categories: | Business Blogging,Social Media Thoughts,Social Networking |
| Article Tags: | Business Blogging, Social Media Integration, Social Media Tools, Social Networking |
Social media use in the largest European companies
This is just a little something that I found interesting and wanted to share with you. The graphic below is part of a great set of posts over at the Flowtown blog, where they have put together a hugely interesting series of graphics which bring together figuratively some of the statistics that have been published around social media.
In this particular one, whose figures come from Burson-Marsteller’s Global Fortune 100 Social Media Study the part I found particularly interesting, you will see at the top of the graphic. It reports that when it comes to European based companies in the Global Fortune 100, 86% of them use one of the 4 major social media tools identified (out of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and RSS) – that puts them right at the top of the global league. However, in contrast, when it comes to European companies …
| Article Categories: | Business Blogging,Social Media News,Social Networking |
| Article Tags: | Business Blogging, Social Media in Europe, Social Media Usage |
Social Media – are you ready?
As part of my work around blogging and social media, I have been doing a number of talks and presentations recently to both businesses and networking groups entitled “Social Media – coming ready or not!” and I just wanted to apologise for this.
Seriously, I am sorry and I need to tell you that!
It’s not that that they weren’t full of good and relevant information or that they weren’t well received or even that they only scraped that surface of the subject at hand – although the latter is certainly true (but hopefully not the others!).
No, I wanted to apologise because I fear that the title is misleading. I worry that it gives the impression that social media, with blogging sitting at its centre, is something which has still to fully arrive …
| Article Categories: | Business Blogging,Social Media Thoughts |
| Article Tags: | Business Blogging, Marketing Planning, Social Media, Social Media Tools |
Being found via Social Media and Business Blogs
One of my preferred analogies when talking about social media and online marketing is the concept of spreading “welcome mats” around the internet. The more individually tailored mats you can make (and strategically place!), the more chance you have of being found in an increasingly competitive online market … and of course the better the chance of developing those all important contacts and relationships.
What’s a Welcome Mat?
So, what do I mean by “welcome mats”? In my opinion, they come in many shapes and forms but are essentially places on the web where you invite people back to your website or blog by introducing yourself (perhaps through something you have written or via a reference or recommendation) and making contact with them. This then boils down to a “doorway” back to your site indicated by a “welcome mat”. …
| Article Categories: | Business Blogging,Social Media Thoughts,Twitter |
| Article Tags: | Business Blogging, Google News, Google Search, Search methods, Social Media, Welcome Mats |
