While my life continues to get busier and busier each day, I am faced with the challenge of how to manage the increasing activity. Each day, I juggle work, healthy living, and my personal life with varying degrees of success. Work/life balance has always been important to me but it is amazing how fast one or the other can take over if you aren’t careful.

Not helping this situation at all is the constant lure of new social media websites and iPhone applications that seem to launch each week. For example, a few months ago I started to see posts from friends that were done through FourSquare. I pride myself on being an early adopter of new technology and have been the first in line to buy a new device or sign up for a new service more than once. In this case, I was a bit conflicted - I already spend a ton of time on Facebook and Twitter, both online and on my iPhone, so how would I be able to add another application into my life without upsetting my current balance?

With some hesitation, I jumped in and signed up for a FourSquare account after asking a friend of mine what he thought of the application. In no time at all, I was checking in here and there several times a day and sharing the updates with friends. I was primarily able to do this because FourSquare allowed me to sign up using Facebook Connect. so I didn’t have to create a whole separate account. I was then able to Tweet and post my status to Facebook, reducing my need to sign into those two services separately to do customized updates. So while I am now accessing a 3rd application on a regular basis, it feels like I am netting out with the same level of diversion.

But wait, there is more.

Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago, I was asked to share some of my favorite social media tools with iMedia Connection.  Here is a re-post of that article and a few of my favorite applications - some free and some paid - that are worth their weight in marketing gold.

Article Highlights:

• Social Mention gives a great snapshot of blog, forum, and microblog buzz, sentiment, and keywords
• Radian6 and Alterian’s SM2 offer solid analytical tools, easy-to-use interfaces, powerful data retrieval, and more
• Quantcast and Compete are both free resources for basic metrics such as site/blog traffic, user demographics, page views, and unique visitors

In many ways, 2009 was the year of the “a-ha!” moment for social media marketing. While many people long-involved with social media and word-of-mouth marketing knew it was only a matter of time for the masses to embrace this type of marketing, others were just starting to get their arms around the importance of establishing and leveraging their social footprint to build engagement, dialogue, and awareness.

As more companies, brands, and individuals are building their social media presences, the universe of online tools — which used to be somewhat more limited — continues to expand on a daily basis. Not only do we have more choices in how we place content and measure social media, but the tools available to us also change and improve just as frequently.

To provide a little background on me: I run a social media marketing agency (KARMA Media Labs) that helps organizations and individuals connect with their target audiences and build word of mouth in the communities where they live. In order to find these audiences and strike a chord, it’s important to be armed with the right tools to listen to what is being said, find the right influencers, communicate with your audience in a way that is relevant, and provide content that is likely to be shared.

The following is a list of some my favorite tools and sites — some free, some paid — that have been worth their weight in gold in not only finding that desired audience and key influencers, but also putting the right content in front of them to build conversation and word of mouth.

Read the rest of this entry at iMedia Connection

Most people who follow me on Facebook and Twitter have come to realize that I’m not shy about expressing my opinion about AT&T Wireless’ lack of coverage and poor service in my city and neighborhood—which just so happens to be Los Angeles, California.

For the last two years, I have had little to no coverage in my home and other areas of Los Angeles, often getting the “Searching” or “No Signal” notice on my phone. Last time I checked, LA is the second largest city in the US, which makes me wonder why one of the biggest wireless providers isn’t delivering in one of our nation’s biggest cities.

My neighbors and friends, equally frustrated with the lack of service, have also tried everything to voice their opinions—ranging from calling AT&T, to going to their stores, which ironically, had no signal inside the store (aka the store on Beverly and La Cienega).  One of my friends even carries a newspaper ad in his back pocket showing AT&T’s claims for excellent coverage in LA.  None of these efforts proved to be worthwhile.

Making matters worse are the endless Luke Wilson commercials touting AT&T’s fantastic coverage. Don’t mock me Luke Wilson. I doubt you’ve spent endless hours on the phone with AT&T trying to get the service that you paid for.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pitching journalists and bloggers for placements in a social media world requires keeping up with the ever-changing rules of engagement.

I’ve collected nuggets of wisdom along my PR career and put together a set of tips and guidelines to help you avoid a deleted press release and score that coveted placement.

TWITTER/FACEBOOK
While I believe the ideal way to build a relationship with a journalist is through a meet and greet, it can be tough given busy schedules.  Twitter and Facebook are great platforms to learn a writer’s beat, personality, channel/contact preference, subjects they’re interested in covering, and their deadline dates.   Most of the journalists I’ve worked with prefer email pitches.  I use Twitter and Facebook as a way to get to know a reporter so that when a client comes along that might be relevant to the journalist, I can help make a meaningful and authentic connection.

BLOGGERS
Pitching bloggers is different than pitching journalists.  They aren’t paid to write about something specific at a certain time and aren’t under any obligation to cover your brand.  They care more about what is of interest to their readers.   Giveaways, contests, photos, and exclusive content all provide incentive for bloggers to feature your product or brand because it in turn engages their audience.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last Fall, Mass Animation’s Yair Landau, former president of Sony Pictures Digital, partnered with Intel on a Facebook-hosted competition to create an animated film.

The result of that competition is the 5-minute short film Live Music, which will premiere on November 20th as a short before TriStar Pictures’ film Planet 51.

Artists were invited to install a Facebook application which would allow them to download creative materials and assets, including music from guitarist Steve Vai and violinist Ann Marie Calhoun, use Maya to animate shots, and then submit them back for post production.  Three separate deadlines were used to keep content contributions coming.

The Facebook application contained a sequence viewer and classified material as Easy, Medium and Hard.

The prizing included $500 per shot used in the final cut, as well as Dell computers.  Users were invited to vote on their favorites and the Facebook community determined the winners.

Read the rest of this entry »

As a marketer wishing to create a presence on Facebook, one is often faced with the decision of whether to create a Group or a Fan Page.

Before the design revamp earlier this year, Facebook Groups and Fan pages both had similar functionality and one big problem: they didn’t give people a reason to come back.

Once someone joined a group or became a fan, there wasn’t much to remind them to return for a visit.  This made the decision pretty much 50/50 for a marketer as one option had about the same pros and cons as the other.

Point: Team “Fan Page”
The Group vs. Fan Page game changed a few months ago when Facebook updated Fan page functionality to act more like a personal page.

Rather than having static content, fan page news updates and wall posts would be pushed out to fans’ newsfeeds and foster more organic word of mouth and engagement (see our previous entry on the benefits of a Fan Page). During this time, Groups stayed the same– stuck with limited functionality and passalong factor. The marketing choice became a lot easier: create a Fan Page to maximize participation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last Sunday night, I noticed multiple posts on Facebook about Kanye West’s inappropriate actions at the MTV Video Music Awards, where he interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech.

Since the program was delayed on the West Coast where I live, I naturally went to social media to see what the fuss was about.

To my surprise, every video I tried to play was interrupted by a message saying the content was removed by Viacom.

Much has been discussed the past few days about Viacom’s decision to make VMA-related content available only on MTV or MTV.com. Viacom has been actively removing clips and content where they see it posted. Forums, message boards, UGC sites and blogs all had clips that had to be removed or wouldn’t play.

While Viacom is still engaged in a lawsuit with Youtube, my guess is their actions are as much about controlling content as driving traffic to their site and advertising supported video player.

Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine someone you love has been taken by a foreign, hostile government.  Where do you turn?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the families of Laura Ling and Euna Lee went online.  There they found a committed, vocal and galvanized group of people who shared their goal of bringing their loved ones home from captivity in North Korea.  When you love someone, the why’s and how’s fade pretty quick.  Your overriding concern is simply getting them home safe. 

I speak from experience: Laura is my friend’s little sister.

There was an initial round of shocked emails as friends heard the news.  We know Laura as a level-headed, committed journalist, a woman who cared a great deal about exposing injustice and doing what she could to make the world a better place.

The women’s plight was aided a great deal by Laura’s older sister, Lisa Ling, a reporter for National Geographic and Oprah. Lisa is savvy as they come, and grasped quickly how the media could help raise awareness. The families hit the talk show and news circuit, pleading for their loved ones’ release.

Read the rest of this entry »

I believe that the best stories out there are ones that are from personal experience, filled with the joys and anguish we get ourselves into.  This is one of those.

Since I got my 73 year-old father to join Facebook and Twitter, he has had a ton of questions on how to use it.

“What is the difference between my Homepage and my Profile?”

“If I write on your wall, does everyone see it?”

“How do I tell just you that you are an amazing son?”

OK, I stretched the truth a bit oh that one but you get the idea.  Answering these questions for him took a lot of patience and some revisiting of previous lessons but I think I got him to good place on how to communicate appropriately on these platforms.  Luckily, my dad does not have a smartphone so would not need additional lessons on how to not embarrass oneself while out and about.

So, you might think that since I am such an active user and have the ability to teach others, I would be a master of all the nuances of the websites, as well as their slick iPhone applications.

Not so fast.

While I was on the iPhone app recently, I received a Facebook email, that I thought was just for my eyes only.  It was not a very complex email, and actually contained an invite to a nice party on the weekend.  Sweet – I’ll have something to do this weekend instead of catching up on episodes of 30 Rock.  I hit reply and went into detail about my week, what was going on this weekend, and some little quips that only my friend would have been able to understand.  I believed that my friend would respond with a smartass reply and all would be well in the world once I got back to my computer.

OOPS.

Read the rest of this entry »

I was thinking today about how we used to communicate before computers and email and blogs and cell phones and text messages and social networks.  In general, we had 3 big options:

Option 1: Walk up to a person and open our traps.  That person would then open theirs and so on, and so on. Presto. An in-person conversation. If you were lucky, you would avoid an argument and end with a nice hand shake or a warm hug.

Option 2: Write a letter on a piece of paper – most appropriate when traveling or after receiving that “great” gift from Grandma (Dear Nana – Thank you so much for the peach polyester sweater with the pink elephants on it.  I will wear it to high school every day.  Love you!).  You actually had to sit down, think about your thoughts and either write them exactly as they appeared in your head or utilize a pencil with an eraser to correct bad spelling and grammar on the fly.  Address the envelope, stamp it, fold your letter, insert, seal and drop it in the mailbox.

Option 3: That  involved the telephone – not the one that travels with us no matter where we go. This one might have had a rotary dial and could have been the Princess model, with hopefully a nice long twisted cord so you could stretch it across the room and behind the door to the basement in order to chat with the boy that drove you absolutely crazy at school.  You couldn’t even leave a message on a machine – if no one answered, you tried again a little later hoping they would have arrived back home.  But you would keep trying and eventually, you would have an actual conversation with the person you wanted to talk to.

Now, while all of these options are still available, we have become a very different society, where people can be reached pretty much any place they are and if they are not there, we can leave them a message to force them to get back to us ASAP.

Read the rest of this entry »