Ever since Websites for business first became fashionable, small and medium business owners have commonly treated them as an unpleasant expense – a nuisance at best – that they’d just assume wasn’t their problem.  After all, these are people who work tirelessly on retaining the customers they already possess, right? The last thing they’re interested in is pledging time and money to some nebulous idea that their brochure, repurposed on the internet, is going to unleash a floodgate of new leads and customers. And they’re right. By itself, a Website isn’t the point. Often small and midsized businesses only think of a Website as important because everyone else has one. So really, they’re not remotely certain of a Website’s value and don’t understand what the ultimate goal is anyway. So the thought of a Website truly being a lead generating opportunity amounts to little more, in their mind’s, than some flimsy scheme that even worse, probably doesn’t even apply to their industry. Read the rest of this entry »

Trust. It’s not a very nebulous term. Yet in social media circles, it has lost some of its shine, some of its clarity, sort of the way Stairway to Heaven and Free Bird have due to overuse and overexposure. Trust, as a concept is, nevertheless, a fairly easy idea to digest. In much the same way we allow the time-tested, the reliable and the faithful access to our fragile and emotional squishy parts, consumers allow brands access to their wallets, if again, trust is and has been present.

Easy right? Not so much. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m beginning to see online marketers trend away from forcing social media down the greenhorn’s throat. This is wonderful news, because it shows that we’re likewise beginning to stop a bit of our own shouting too. As online evangelists, we sometimes lose sight of how noisy we can get when we’re waving the social media flag to signal the troops. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey gang. Been a little more than a month since I’ve posted new content to my blog. Well I won’t bore you with the reasons for my absence too much (I think). I will however, take a necessary moment to explain what’s in store for scottpdailey.com in the coming weeks and months, as it does speak to my disappearance.

Ok so here’s what’s happened.

I’ve grown a bit exhausted of discussing the philosophies of social media marketing alone. Now don’t get me wrong: in general, I love philosophy. In particular, I love discussing the sociological systems that drive online sales rituals. So it’s not that I’m bored with tackling these emotional underpinnings. It’s that I’m a bit tired of talking about them exclusively. Read the rest of this entry »

The other day I sat with a client to discuss tying a social media marketing program to the recent launch of the organization’s new Web site. A nonprofit with legitimate sentiment concerns, it seemed that a comprehensive inbound marketing program was the logical next step. And so having previously discussed the power in building organic traffic, I proposed an ongoing social solution that I felt suited their needs. After about an hour of discussion, the client was equally confident that the plan was indeed, a good one. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m concerned about the purity of the conversations undergone in blog comments. I’m concerned that many are not all that pure after all. I’m finding that often blog commenting appears to be something akin to a bunch of people not-so gingerly exchanging business cards and PowerPoints and even worse, trite and banal ass-kissing.

Yawn.

What if hundreds of comments on a blog you love were actually nothing more than a mirage? The post was terrific, but the post’s comment mojo was less the result of the post’s quality and more the result of self-important opportunism and profiteering? What if the 100 comments can be reasonably likened to a pack of hyenas scrambling to snag a bite of the feast the author has laid out by virtue of her blog’s popularity? Popular blog, popular blogger, hmmm? Read the rest of this entry »