ION Digital

Reading Twitterville, it’s easy to get the feeling that I’m back in my home state of Texas, surrounded by friendly neighbors, family and loved ones.  Sort of a small town feel, where people leave their doors unlocked and even strangers welcome you warmly.

Some readers may challenge this description—isn’t Twitter a wild west environment, a raging river of commentary, observations and random chitchat?

But by framing it this way—as a “place” we can relate to—author Shel Israel set the stage for what turns out to be an engaging page-turner. Read the rest of this entry »

Q: Why did you write this book? What possessed you?

A: In April 2008, James Buck posted a single-word tweet “arrested.” He was being taken to an Egyptian jail. Because of that post he would be released and sent home in about a day. It blew me away and I posted someone should write a book about the incident. Someone tweeted back, “how about you?” That started a process that became Twitterville. So the credit goes to either James Buck or the Egyptian police, depending on how you look at it.

Q: What was different about writing Twitterville vs  Naked Conversations (ex: completely unchartered territory back then, easier/harder to write?) Read the rest of this entry »

This post also recently ran on MarketingProfs

Businesses have begun to flock to Facebook Pages the last year, and no wonder.  With a Facebook Page, you can post company news, announce events, offer tutorials, highlight videos, conduct polls, and  create community with discussion boards.  Facebook Pages are good for building your brand and creating conversations, allowing users to get more deeply connected with your business.

Recent changes to Facebook Pages mean they’re now more like personal profiles, with a real time news stream and the ability to create your own specialized tabs. Facebook pages are also searchable from outside Facebook, and they’re easy to set up.

They’re also potentially viral. Read the rest of this entry »

The news that BusinessWeek is now up for sale puts to rest any doubt that traditional publications are in a death spiral. This may  be old news to my counterparts in Silicon Valley, who have been writing off “traditional publications” for years. But I always felt there would always be a handful of business publication stalwarts—BW, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, etc—that would resist the tide, somehow survive, even thrive again one day.

Now I’m not so sure, and the future of another big name publication–and the lives of 190 BW editors–is in limbo.  Read the rest of this entry »

This week I came across two articles that helped clarify an issue I’ve been pondering for many months: why is it hard for so many companies to make the leap into the new world of social media?

The first piece was on the art of digital small talk (social media discussions) in the Wall Street Journal. The second article in MarketWatch was about the futility of selling via social media platforms, by John Dvorak.

These two articles have nothing to do with each other. But together they help me think through The Question from a little different angle. The answer revolves around the mindset in which we approach social media in corporate America; in short, we’re trying to sell and market when social media is about people, not products. Read the rest of this entry »