Why I Officially Work At Sokolove Law Doing Social Media & SEO November 29, 2009
Posted by derekshowerman in Random Schmoozing.Tags: Jim Storer, Sokolove Law, thank you
1 comment so far
Anyone who is paying attention to the Social Media world knows that the following 3 industries are slow to adopt SM into their marketing efforta:
- Law
- Finance
- Pharmaceutical
Say nothing about the culture associated with the companies within these industries. So why in the world would I go work at Sokolove Law? A number of colleagues thought I was crazy, while others praised me. My friend and colleague Jim Storer is fascinated by what I am doing. Jim I owe you a call and will be reaching out with some business ops soon!
Simply put, I took this position to crack the law nut. As you would imagine we have lofty goals that have a monetization attribute of our social presence. To me, this is the ultimate challenge in my career and I am really excited to get started. My focus will be SEO through the use of Social Media. While much of my job with still be creating a SM strategy (clarity- around SEO) that simply works. So not much has changed other than I have one focus instead of 9 or 10 companies at once. I also have resources to execute on our plan which is simply amazing!
Although I will not be able to share much of what we do, I will still be maintaining this blog from an analyst perspective. A birds-eye view of the social media space if you will! Because what we are doing is considered “trailblazer”, the IP we acquire will have to stay within the Sokolove walls. BUT- I will stay up to date on trends and share perspectives and best practices that I deem worthy to share from Sokolove. All in all, nothing will change in regards to this blog presence.
Thank you to everyone who is religious about reading my posts. Thank you to those who have helped me get to where I am today. These are people I mention within Twitter and on this blog religiously- y know who you are! Without you- I would not be in a position I am today to do something simply awesome. Thank you so much for having the bearing on my career that you have had!
Lastly, thank you to AJ and the Authority Domains staff for giving me the opportunity to help them grow their business while being able to look at SEO through different shades. It is that perspective that has afforded me the opportunity I am presented with today! I have heard that life is experiences that pile up as valuable building blocks. The Authority Domains experience was a leaps and bounds for me professionally and I will always make sure to pat their backs as I progress further in my career.
On a final note! If I can ever be a sounding board for ideas, a reference for your SM presence, or if you simply need strategic advice- please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. My new cell is 781-690-5998 and I can be emailed at dshowerman@gmail.com or dshowerman@sokolovelaw.com.
Happy holidays everyone! I wish you all the best! I will be following up soon with a post about not being afraid to ask.
3 Best Practices On How Your Brand Can NOT Be Intrusive November 16, 2009
Posted by derekshowerman in Best Practices.Tags: facebook, intrusive, Thread
add a comment
On Friday I was playing around with Thread. To put it bluntly- it is intrusive and not an application that I would suggest for clients to utilize. It is meant to be an application where you can meet friends of friends. I think I would find it to be rather annoying to have a friend of a friend hitting me up for a date or trying to contact me for a business opportunity. It just seems to cross that line in the sand…moving from being a helpful tool to a tool that is overbearing.
The last month I have been inundated with Twitter followers who include me in business offers in public Tweets. Instead of inspiring me to click on the link, it instead prompts me to go on a rampage of “offing them!” No, not putting on my Tony Soprano leather jacket- just unfollowing and blocking them!
So these two observations got me thinking about the importance of brands to be engaging but not intrusive! Three suggestions:
- Don’t use technologies like Thread that impose your will on people. It will do you no good- trust me! Make sure that you have unique nuggets of value within each channel. What does that mean? Read point 2.
- Don’t create a Facebook fanpage and just replicate blog and webinars from another location. Create unique content for that presence- otherwise you are simply creating another push channel. Give it value for your target audience!
- Ask questions of others & join the conversations important to your brand! This is for those organizations on Twitter that are well….completely obtrusive and turn my into digital Tony Soprano!
Lastly, be wary of new technologies moving forward. Be morally aware of how obtrusive or obnoxious they are before using them. It is ok to share value, but pushing your sales message is a no no! Some of new technologies make it easy to spam – you don’t want to be known for that! Err on the side of caution- if you feel like you are being intrusive and spammy- then you probably are. Have a gander at this…
Angels & Airwaves- Using Social Media To Monetize In An Innovative Way! November 10, 2009
Posted by derekshowerman in Case Study.add a comment
The music industry is in a state of flux. Let’s be honest, the way by which record labels were able to monetize via album sales has flown the coop. Enter Tom DeLonge of Blink 182 fame. He has said that Blink 182 was a band that had no voice whatsoever. But with his new band Angels & Airwaves he believes it carries a massive message about being optimistic in the future and plans to use that message as the vehicle to change the way music is marketed and delivered. An ambitious goal considering the music industry is ripe and in need of fresh ideas.
So how is Tom going about doing it? Well the first three albums of Angels & Airwaves are supplying the soundtrack to a movie called Love. Here is the 3rd album and movie teaser here:
Both the album and the movie are coming out on Valentines Day, 2010. Here is the movie trailer itself:
Pretty impressive right? To this point Tom has successfully created a huge buzz using:
- 1. Twitter (84,858 followers)
- 2. Facebook (91,373 fans)
- 3. Modlife (well over 100 podcasts)
- 4. Social Bookmarking (Stumbleupon, Digg, etc for link juice & exposure)
- 5. Traditional Mailing List
- 6. Youtube (1760 AvA videos), Hulu, Vimeo
- 7. Press Releases
A solid blend of traditional marketing with social Media! Tom has successfully built a massive buzz that he can market directly to. One problem, he isn’t following 1 person on Twitter! I am going to hedge my bets that this will be a success and an amazing case study when it is done. I can’t deny thinking though, how much more productive would the project be if Tom was a bit more open to suggestion?
One other observation! This is not a full-fledged Social Media project. If it were, there would be collaborative components. However it is using Social Media effectively to generate buzz and be viral. Look no further then the inspired fans creating videos of their own and chatting up the movie and 3rd album in virtually every social channel. How many man hours it has taken for it to get to this point? I wouldn’t care to know! Something to think about when your business engages- you need to go all in-resource allocation and all! Tom DeLonge understood that and burned many night hours of his own time to get here. Let’s see how his vision plays out!















