Author Archives: derekshowerman

March 14, 2011

Get The Cliffnotes of #SXSW

By derekshowerman

Feeling guilty about not attending South By Southwest (SXSW)? Dont! If you follow any event’s #hashtag you will receive the following:

  1. Cliff note quotes
  2. Slide decks via Slideshare
  3. Recordings, video and podcasts of the event sessions
  4. White papers and PDF’s
  5. Invaluable new Twitter and LinkedIn professionals to follow

Honestly, outside of the networking and vendor showcase, I rarely feel the need to attend any event, including SXSW. Would it be cool to attend SXSW? Yes and I probably will, but ultimately I dont feel like I am missing out. Look at my right RSS feed for SXSW…follow the giant green arrow! See it?

Follow that RSS and check it about 2 weeks after SXSW. Everything you could possibly want will be there to get you caught up. If I am wrong, let me have it.  ;) As for other events, I encourage you to try this with events you cant attend, but want to. Just be sure to keep an eye peeled for session #hastags. Most them will have sub hashes- so be aware of that.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Best Practices, Case Study, Social Networking Technology

March 3, 2011

Music Industry Uses Viral Marketing & SEO To Extend Brand Awareness

By derekshowerman

So lets be honest, Charlie Sheen is creating quite a fuss. His name is everywhere, so what did one mid-level band do? They went viral and recorded “Wild Thing” while in the studio recording their next record. All the while they have pimped out the “Charlie Sheen ” name so they can come up in Google searches and Google alerts for……..who else…..”Charlie Sheen”. Very viral of Chimaira dont you think? Check it out….

You know whats cool? In Chimaira’s first DVD, my website was proudly worn by the drummer during the show. How cool am I? lol

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Case Study, Random Schmoozing, Thought Leadership

March 3, 2011

12 LinkedIn Group Tips to Engage, Manage & Empower

By derekshowerman


If you are new to LinkedIn Groups, but in business to make money. Here are ten idea’s to help you manage, engage and empower your LinkedIn Group members. This will ultimately result in brand extension and ultimately new business.

1)      Send a personal welcome message from the Group Manager with a personal invite. Add in some points of interest from the group and 1 call to action with special offer for being a Group Member. This can be a product discount, an invite to a private online event, opportunity to enter a contest, be a guest blogger.

2)      Send out one, non sales, email a month with a helpful tip or article that is not within your corporate website. No sales, all helpful! This will help the open and action rate. The other email each month can be more promotional. All in, 2 emails to the group a month, one helpful, one somewhat promotional but also extending value.

3)      Pick 3 Groups on LinkedIn to engage in and  invite members to join your group. In a perfect world your will be able to identify members of those groups that are not currently your customers, and invite them to the group to taste the value. Many times this depends on how advanced your CRM is.

4)      Empower members who comment and post to do more of it. Pay attention to what is happening and react accordingly.

5)      Ask questions once a month. These questions are exclusive to the LI Group and can be coupled with the helpful tip email.

6)      Contact non LI Group Members and ask them to join. So outwardly ask in your companies mailer for them to join and receive some additional offers and insights not available on your corporate web presence. The more numbers you pile up, the greater the desire to join from organic folks who find your group on LinkedIn.

7)      Poll them once a quarter.

8)      When Linked In rolls out new features, email them with an explanation on how to use the new features. Then roll in company offers and other pertinent brand events. It gives you another reason to reach out.

9)     Empower members to promote their business within the group. It will spill over into your corporate site and brands once they beta test it within the LinkedIn community.

10)   Include your LinkedIn Group link in all of your auto signatures in addition to other social profiles that might already be there.

11)  Pull in relevant RSS feeds.  Not to many, try to limit it to 3, and don’t share all of your unique content from your corporate site within the group. The LinkedIn Group should be an appetizer to your brands main course.

12) If you are a retail company, get on Groupon now and link it to your LinkedIn group. Smell what I am cooking?

3 comments   |  tags: , | posted in Best Practices, Social Networking Technology, Thought Leadership

February 19, 2011

38 Twitter Apps For Business & Personal Use

By derekshowerman

I have had a couple questions recently about Twitter, more specifically Twitter apps. So with that in mind, I decided to put on my transparent hat and show you the apps I use. I suspect there will be folks wanting to gush about an app not on this list. By all means feel free to leave them in the comments. I hope this list helps with any Twitter app questions folks may have.

  1. Ico_fav 

     

  2. Oauth_application 

     

  3. Twlogo2 

     

  4. Facebookapp 

     

  5. Square_logo_normal 

     

  6. Iphone_icon 

     

  7. Oneforty-logo-square 

     

  8. Oauth_application 

     

  9. Oauth_application 

     

  10. Icon_ver02_512px 

     

  11. Js-kit-avatar 

     

  12. Owly_oauth_logo 

     

  13. Oauth_application 

     

  14. Societylogo 

     

  15. 512px-icon-hootsuite 

     

  16. Ubermarket_icon 

     

  17. Fbfriendfinder_small 

     

  18. Twellow_icon_70 

     

  19. Digsby_196x196 

     

  20. Icon 

     

  21. 4sq_48x48_trans_biggerFoursquare When the city is your playground!
  22. Twitpic-icon 

     

  23. Oauth_icon 

     

  24. Adly_twitter_profile_73 

     

  25. Twilk-logo 

     

  26. 128x128 

     

  27. 23312_25059205044_1089_n 

     

  28. Typepad-75x75 

     

  29. Refollow_logo_display 

     

  30. Stargate2 

     

  31. Ms_twitterlogo68x68

    32.  

  32. Squaresmall

    33.  

  33. Buzzom3

    34.  

  34. Logo100x100

    35.  

  35. Air-dock-icon

    36.  

  36. Tweetizen_logo

    37.  

  37. Twittercounter_logo2009

    38.  

  38. Oauth_application 

     

Leave a comment

January 25, 2011

Do You Feel Like A Commerce Cow?

By derekshowerman

My friend Dave Wieneke reminded me of something I have thought a great deal about, but never put into print. It is about how each and every one of us is a “commerce cow”. From the time you can say your name till the time you can no longer say your name , every single one of us is considered an object that spends money. We (that means you too) keep American commerce churning, and without us, none of us would live in the America we know today. Processing information and acting upon that processing is what makes the world go round!

Chick-Fil-A Commerce cow

Chick-Fil-A Commerce Cow

Not many of us realize just how over the top the onslaught is for our dollar. Do you ever think about the repetetive commercials during your favorite TV show? Do you ever think about the repetetive commercials about that other show wanting to be your new favorite show? How about going to a bar? Every mirror in the place is wrapped in branding to buy Budweiser or Coors. It is amazing we have the capacity to order a real mans beer like “Chimay“.

Remember GI Joe and Transformers? They made cartoons of toys and then had commercials for the toys of the characters you were watching on TV! As a drooling 10 year old boy – I transformed into a full fledged Commerce Cow at a very young age! YO JOE! Sorry Mom and Dad- I really didn’t mean to torture you every time we went to Kmart!

I am curious if people feel the same way I do. Everywhere I go I feel like I am being sold. I just do! Billboards, trucks, video, TV, radio, clothing, mobile apps, newspaper, magazines, boxes of food..all propaganda! I find it amazing that people complain about graffiti, when arguably the world is really a giants playground for brainwashing you. Pushing your inner commerce cow to rear its fugly head! I don’t know about you, but I feel like a big fat commerce cow everyday…what about you? And if you do, would you really want it any other way? Be honest!

Please discuss in the comments….

7 comments   |  tags: | posted in Random Schmoozing

January 10, 2011

4 Innovative Businesses You Should Know About In 2011

By derekshowerman

I had every intention of finishing this post prior to the Holidays. BUT- like most good intentions sometimes they go awry! With that said, I am finally fulfilling my commitment to speak up about four businesses I am quite fond of and the reasons why. So without further adieu -

Performant is a  traditional agency that offers traditional agency services. But there is a catch!  You hire them and  pay for performance marketing. They align their interest with their clients, creating a long lasting and fruitful relationship. When an agency is paid based on the results of the client, the synergy becomes undeniable. Companies dealing with agencies has historically been a gamble…….not so anymore!

Contact Anders Ekman to learn more: info@performantww.com

@JanetAronica very eloquently wrote this about One Forty. Oneforty is an online community for people who want to review, discover and share social media tools. It’s the internets most complete and categorized listing of Twitter applications, featuring real user reviews for the tools. oneforty has an online forum, Answers where users can participate in any social media-related discussions. One of the most compelling and popular features is Toolkits, which are Twitter app lists made by community members showing collections of Twitter tools that they use.  Toolkits are not only a clever way to bookmark your own apps, but it’s a helpful way to “see how others are doing it.”

Founded by Twitter for Dummies co-author Laura Fitton – @Pistachio – oneforty’s Twitter account is a huge focus of their community-building efforts and a well-known resource for answers to incoming Twitter app questions. If you use social media for your job in any aspect, both the directory and community aspects of what oneforty offers make this exceedingly valuable. Bookmark it.

As of this past October, studies indicate that Video usage on the web had doubled in 5 months. With that knowledge in hand, think about video in relation to your business. Now know about VisibleGains, the company that allows you to embed questions and qualify leads via video. Simply put, it is the perfect unification of video with your marketing efforts to drive leads, sales and pull business intelligence.

Additionally, the solution has its own analytics that can be data scrapped and inserted into your existing analytics dashboard. Not to mention, it functions seamlessly with 95% of marketing systems of today. If it doesn’t, you may want to consider a new system. Contact them today.

social media marketing

I was allowed to get the inside scoop on Yellow Robin- White hat SEO marketing. SEO has really evolved over the past 3 years; unfortunately most companies are still practicing outdated techniques that won’t be very effective in 2011. Yellow Robin was created to focus exclusively on white hat SEO & leveraging social media content into back links. The goal? To make SEO more affordable, accessible & scalable for small to medium sized businesses. Businesses not leveraging content into back links in 2011 is simply missing out. Keep an eye on these guys and contact them at aj@yellowrobin.com

My next post will involve a case study of Social Media success within the music industry. As a hint, have a gander at this bands website built on Ning.com: http://apalehorsenameddeath.com/ Happy belated New Year everyone!

5 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Case Study, Random Schmoozing, Social Networking Technology, Thought Leadership

November 17, 2010

5 Ways Social Media Has Changed American Culture

By derekshowerman

america and social mediaI have to admit, this is the longest I’ve gone without blogging. For that I am sorry. But, I have made a commitment to blog more often, call it my early New Year’s resolution. Hold me to it!

For awhile now I have promised 5 Ways Social Media Has Changed American Culture. So with that, here we go:

1.       Cheap Birthdays

I would love to see how much money Hallmark has lost to the Facebook Birthday wishes, that are universally accepted as adequate. In all  honesty, every morning I look at the “Home” section of Facebook to wish people a Happy Birthday and accompany it with a ridiculous youtube video. The best part, people like it and accept it as a reasonable substitute to sending a card and taking the time to pick one out. In fact, I get more well wishes on facebook for my BDay then I ever did cards in the mail. I am not sure if that says anything about how much people really like me, but it sure made me feel good to be on the receiving end of all those kind words. No $2 to $5 dollar cards needed. I would call that a good ROI for social media. Money saved is money earned.

2.       Stalking Is Ok

Since when is it ok to “stalk people”? Apparently in modern American society nobody bats an eye when they come right out and say “I have been stalking you on Facebook!”  Really?! Ten years ago people would be uncomfortable and wondering how to go about getting a restraining order. Just the other day, I was in Starbucks and a guy got chatting in the female attendant behind the counter. They had a quick conversation about Kings Of Leon, who was being sold at the cashier counter in Starbucks. The conversation ended with the guy saying, and I quote; “hey what is your last name, I would love to stalk you on Facebook and Twitter!” Without batting an eye the girl gave out her name and seemed excited to be “stalked” by this stranger! This girl apparently did not see Silence Of The Lambs?

3.       Lousy Tableside Manners

Rebecca and I went out to dinner last night. While I was waiting for her to arrive, I looked around the resto and saw people texting, no doubt checking into Foursquare and taking pictures of their food. Am I guilty of all of these things? You bet! Think about our Grandparents generation! I remember how many times my Grandmother would yell at me for bring toys to the table. Dinner was sacred time. Today, it is about giving tips while you eat your 3 courses at a restaurant you really may or may not care about.

4.       Minimal effort to be a friend, ex-colleague, sibling, son or daughter

I spoke with my friend Rob yesterday. It had been months since either of us made any effort with each other That is ok, I was completely up to date with what he was doing and how is his birthday was. Likewise for him! See bullets 1 & 2 above.

5.       News Is Political & Politics Is Religious

Remember when you tuned into Dan Rather or Tom Brokaw (can someone find a better picture of Tom for his Wikipedia page? He looks more like a serial killer than a trusted news source) for your unbiased news? I call it vanilla news. News for what it was, nothing more! Simple!  Today everyone is part of the news, and because of that there are many times news items are delivered with a political or religious spin. The end result is a melted separation of church and state. In my opinion that is not a good thing. But with that said, the reality is American culture has a far more religious political landscape then it ever has in its history, and it started with Social Media making each and everyone one of us a news source.

The undertone of this post is a bit negative. But I wasn’t intending it to be. I in fact like being cheap, I don’t care if I am stalked and my table manners have always been suspect. Not to mention, Facebook makes keeping in touch just so darn easy. Lastly, I am personally not very religious, nor political. I don’t trust any politicians, there is always a gain for them. “Public service” is a silly term to use, there is always an underlying reason for everything they do. So I don’t have a strong opinion about bullet 5.

You could say that Social Media has made American culture a bit more lazy and maybe less moral? But think about this, Social Media has raised the value of a birthday card. Heightened the value of someone who respects a person’s privacy  online. Makes you more desirable when you are on a date if you leave your phone in your pocket. Take the time to call and visit those who are important to you. And finally, maybe worth more votes to the politician that is transparent about their reason for running public office, while leaving their religious views at the door. Is this a negative post, or a positive one? Do you agree or disagree? You decide, that is the beauty of Social Media. Like it or not, it is here to stay and is changing our lives and American culture.

9 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in Random Schmoozing, Thought Leadership

September 28, 2010

LinkedIn – How to Change Group Settings To Daily Digest Emails

By derekshowerman

Over the past couple of weeks I have had a couple people mentioned it is hard to delete emails with notifications from LinkedIn Groups as they come. I agree- completely! With that in mind, did you know you can have each LinkedIn Group send you a daily email with a digest of that groups posts? Here is how.

  1. Login to LinkedIn
  2. Click On Settings
  3. Click on Receiving Messages under Email Notifications
  4. Look at the highlighted Yellow section below and click the buttons to receive Daily Digest Email associated to the group to the left

LinkedIn Group Settings
There! No more unwieldy email notifications cluttering your In Box! I hope this helps!

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Best Practices

September 24, 2010

commonground Nominated For The Forrester Groundswell Award

By derekshowerman

commonground Global Social Network for Environmental and Commercial Real Estate ProfessionalsModest and humble? Nah..not my style! It is ok to share wins you are excited about….right? So with that, I am excited to announce that commonground is being considered for the Forrester Groundswell Award under the Business To Business- Support catagory. If you are new to commonground, it is a virtual community for everyone in the environmental and property due diligence industries to share ideas, ask questions and network.

Members can:

Success Metrics:

Growth:

  • 450% increase in discussions/comments
  • 80% increase in blog posts
  • 317% increase in visitors
  • 289% increase in visits
  • 91% increase in membership

Content.  We now have:

Thanks for reading and feel free to visit the Forrester Groundswell page to review the nominations for all catagories, and feel free to visit the commonground page. I hope everyone is having a fantastic fall and watching plenty of Football. Stay tuned for a post on how Social Media is changing American Culture.

2 comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Case Study

August 27, 2010

@danieltosh Is One Celebrity Using Twitter The Right Way & SEET

By derekshowerman

Ashton Kutcher Should Take A Clue From Tosh.O

Last year I wrote a post called One Question for Ashton Kutcher and said:

Twitter is not a high school popularity contest. I, like many of the legacy Twitter users, utilize Twitter to learn from my peers to better be able to do my job. I/we use it stay in touch with valued thought leaders in the business  industry in which we work. Ashton may have successfully beat CNN, but CNN’s value proposition is apparent. Their Twitter posts will keep me up to date on the news-real time! Ashton, what is your value proposition? Are you going to tell me who the latest person is you punk’d? If so, I will stop following you as quick as I followed you out of sheer curiosity. That curiosity is to see what you do with your million followers.

Needless to say, I have long since unfollowed @aplusk. Lets be honest- he uses Twitter exclusively to push his message. Yep, he is doing alot for Malaria- I get it. But he is also doing more boasting about how “cool” he is, and only mentioning his fellow celebs.

Enter Daniel Tosh. Now, before moving forward, here is a warning: @danieltosh is offensive. So don’t click on him if you are easily offended. But what he is, is hilarious and gasp- a celeb using Twitter the right way. He engages 24-7 with his fan base, and goes out of his way to answer virtually every tweet after his show. Want proof, see this purposely very long Tweet history- all to make the point:

daniel tosh on twitterMeanwhile, have a look at @aplusk‘s level of engagement- or lack therof. No comparison!

Here is the point. Share, engage, empower and thank- “SEET”.  All the right ways to use Twitter whether it be for personal or business use. Daniel does that and Twitter is a staple of his show that ultimately lowers the cost of advertisement. Why? Because the engagement continues all week until the next episode on Comedy Central at 10:30PM EST. That engagement on Twitter keeps the viewers engaged, even when the show is not airing. The business intelligence spawns new ideas for the show. In the end, Tosh.O is a completely organic user generated television experience. Daniel is simply the moderator and facilitator. Brilliant when you think about it. One day businesses will engage their constituents in the same manner – maybe with a little less crass of course!

Thanks for reading, and let me know if I am remiss. Oh, and you are welcome for “that” part of the video embedded on the link above! If you watched it, you know what I mean! Yuck!

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1 comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Best Practices, Case Study, Random Schmoozing, Social Networking Technology, Thought Leadership

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