01.01.10 – Do You Know Where The Poseurs Are?

January 1, 2010

Goal: Stamp Out Social Media Poseurs in 2010.
I’m on a mission. Please join me.
You know what a “poseur” is, right? I don’t have to define it – it’s one of these things, like “art” or good graphic design. You know it when you see it; and, when you see it, in the case of Social [...]

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How’s Your January Lookin?

December 28, 2009

Area 224 announces a new series of Webinars for Social Media Success: B2B Marketers Take Note!
If you’ve missed us during the 3 Weeks to Social Media Success series, that’s okay – here’s your chance to get the industry-specific Social Media Strategies your company needs.
We’re hosting Webinars starting January 5, 2010, and each one is for [...]

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Dear Groupon: that is some SERIOUS social shopping savings

December 18, 2009

Item: Groupon saves its visitors some serious cash.
Watch as we uncover from their own website what happened IN ONE DAY…
First, December 17, in the morning — as I know because Area 224 was hosting a webinar and we wanted to zero in on metrics. We used this graphic from the Groupon web page:
Next, lets’ show [...]

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To Avoid Hucksters, Try This Trick…

December 15, 2009

Too Many Social Media Hucksters? Try This Trick…
We watched a great video from that @garyvee guy today. In it, he says that “social media” is becoming such a worn-out phrase that, in his opinion, it will soon just be called “media.”
Good point.
Here’s another way of looking at it, and another trick you can use to [...]

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Tiger Woods vs. David Letterman

December 10, 2009

Ever since the Tiger Woods story broke, we’ve been watching it from a communications perspective: How Tiger communicates, what he says when, and whether or not he’s handling this crisis right. We blogged about it last week (you can see that post here).
And, since it broke, we’ve also noticed something really eerie: for someone who [...]

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Yes, We Want You To Invest 3 Weeks With Us!

December 6, 2009

It is only 9 webinars, after all.
But one thing we’ve heard about Social Media from just about everyone we’ve talked to:
There’s so much out there!
Our goal with the 3 Weeks to Social Media Success program is to do what we’ve been told we do best: demystify. Break the complex down into digestible chunks.
Some of you [...]

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How Tiger Can Get Past the Crisis – Hint: Social Media Can Help

November 30, 2009

Area 224 Managing Principal Dave Van de Walle has been part of crisis communications teams at Aon Corp., TransUnion and U Sphere. He was also Sports Information Director at Chicago State University in the mid-1990s. Here are his thoughts on the Tiger Woods accident and the aftermath:

If you think this is a complex crisis communications [...]

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What’s All This About Retweeting?

November 23, 2009

We love Twitter. But sometimes we all need to take a step back and talk about the basics in a non-threatening, out-of-the-bubble way.
Remember: for every football fan who wants to talk about Cover-2, there’s another who likes the Cowboys for their pretty helmets. The NFL welcomes all with open arms.
Same goes for Twitter — some [...]

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Thank You for Becoming a Fan of… #in #fb #outofcontrol

November 18, 2009

It’s officially out of control. All of it. Fanhood. Convergence. Brand ubiquity. Time to make sense of it all, somehow, someway.
First, a slap on the wrist and 100 lashes with a wet noodle for us here at Area 224. We are guilty of the Fan thing on a couple of levels. We paid for fans [...]

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Why Having a VP of Social Media Marketing is More Important Than PR or IR

November 9, 2009

This post is virtually guaranteed to cause an uproar. It’s intended mostly for public companies – those who might find themselves stuck in the old ways of doing things.
Okay, so we said it out loud. Your VP of Social Media Marketing (SMM) is vital; and we’re about to share five reasons why it’s more important [...]

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