Marketing in Real Life

There is a lot you can learn about your Facebook Fans by keeping a close eye on what content they engage with and tracking Facebook insights, but some things you just need to ask. While you don't want to over survey your fans, here are three things you should know as you build out your strategy. 1. Are your fans already customers? To best serve your audience, you need to know if you fans are already on board, considering a purchase, or just enjoying your content with no intention of buying (not necessarily a bad thing by the way!) 2. Why did they become your fans? Did people click the "like" button for a specific offer? On a whim? Or because they really want to engage with you? Knowing what got them to act in the first place can help you grow your network and provide the right content. 3. What do they expect? While you can learn a lot from Facebook insights about what works, it never hurts to ask. How often do they want you to post and about what? If you give your ...

We've been interviewing lots of people at my job lately and I often wonder if we all over think the process. We look for specific skills. We scour resumes for companies we admire. We ask thoughtful questions and hope for great responses. But are we really using the right measuring sticks? I'm not so sure. We all spend so much time with our co-workers - more than with our families - and yet we often use impersonal methods for evaluating job candidates. The truth is that you know pretty quickly if someone is close to right. If the conversation is easy, enthusiastic, and enjoyable and they have a background close to what you need the details can always be taught. I mean, how many skills truly transfer directly from one company to another? So, my advice is to not think so hard. You know when a candidate is right. And that may mean placing more value on the personal connection than the resume.

Dear Mr. or Mrs. Social Network Starter, I understand that you and your company have been working on building a social network for months, maybe even years, but most of the people you want to join and use it are not going to be interested. It's not that the functionality isn't great, I am sure it is. And we may even sign up to check it out. But we just can't divide our attention any further and we certainly can't convince our friends and colleagues and parents and children to move from one place to another. We appreciate your intentions but ask you to refocus your efforts. If Facebook is the new tv, you can be the AMC to our NBC. We are interested and eager to see how you can take Facebook or Twitter or Linkedin to a new level. But we ask you please... Do not make us sign up for a new network. Our dust covered Quora, Plaxo, and G+ (too soon?) accounts send their regards. Best, Internet users everywhere