Social Media Blog Posts

Social Media

To say Twitter is in a rut may be the social media understatement of 2017. The company struggles to make money, despite having 320 million actively engaged users. Stock is down 16% in Q1 2017. Executives, who appear to see the writing on the wall, are leaving millions of dollars of stock on the table to abandon… Read More

Social Media

At SEMPDX Engage 2017 I spoke about my complete lack of experience as an influence marketer. I also discussed: How to find your biggest fans How to promote their praise using social media What not to do ever ever ever when doing this Here’s the video. My bit starts at 25 minutes. Mat Siltala’s talk… Read More

Social Media

What is “dark social”? You’ve probably heard the term floated around your office in recent months. Maybe you’re deeply entrenched in influencer marketing and your team read about Adidas’ latest social media campaign that saw amazing returns through dark social outreach. More likely, your CMO pulled you aside and asked you to start integrating dark… Read More

Social Media

If you’re working your way down the “must-have” list of digital marketing needs for 2016, organizing a coherent presence across social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter would get slotted in right under “Setting up my website.” At least it should. Social media fosters brand loyalty and community, increases sales, and helps strengthen SEO, and… Read More

Social Media

Amazon and Google are duking it out for your voice-controlled living room for some very specific, obvious reasons. I’m going to go out on a limb on one: whoever does the best job of quantifiably surfacing sentiment from users across digital mediums will win. And by “win,” I mean like everything. The new car, the… Read More

Social Media

How many times a week do you get hit by ads on Facebook that mean absolutely nothing to you? 10? 20? Broad ad targeting on the internet is nothing new, but something about that approach just feels off on an otherwise highly curated platform like Facebook. The obvious issue at play here is that, with over $17 billion… Read More

Social Media

You see millions of viewers on YouTube. You want a piece of the action. So you borrow a video camera, snag a GoPro from home, or just use an iPhone to get what you need. You record, upload the video and wait for the fans to pour in. Sometimes it works. Usually… not so much.… Read More

Social Media

My internship at Portent is ending, and although I am sad to be leaving, I want to take the time to reflect on my past three months. Here are some thoughts I want to share for anyone out there looking for an internship in social media or something related to digital advertising. To the best of… Read More

Social Media

Well, it’s been two months into my internship at Portent, and I’m beginning to get a firmer hold on my day-to-day workflow. I get the feeling that my friends still think I spend my entire day surfing Facebook and Twitter… and to be fair, I do spend a good chunk of my time each day on different social… Read More

Social Media

During the onboarding process for new clients at Portent, the Social Team is frequently asked if there exists a more buttoned up approach to managing employee access to a company-owned Facebook page. Social media as its own business practice has become increasingly commonplace within organizations, and most teams are rightfully hesitant to provide administrative access to company pages through an employee’s… Read More

Social Media

When I heard that Portent was looking for a full-time social media intern, my first thought was, “What in the world could a social media intern do that could possibly take a whole days’ worth of work?”  To be completely honest, and I know this goes for pretty much every other recent college grad and/or… Read More

Social Media

When you hear people talking about “seismic activity” on the West Coast, what immediately jumps to mind? Los Angeles, rumbling as the San Andreas Fault shifts? John Cusack in 2012, fleeing the mighty wrath of the Pacific Ocean as it gleefully swallows California into its watery maw?* Here in the Pacific Northwest,  mentioning “seismic activity” brings back memories of… Read More

Social Media

Most marketers equate ‘influencer research’ with ‘finding a celebrity who will endorse for free.’ I call that the Rockstar Method. It’s a miserable approach. Ready-and-waiting rockstar social amplifiers are slightly less common than mint-condition K cars. The Rockstar Method has its place with major brands, pure luck and the well-connected. Mere mortals like you and… Read More

Social Media

I have a somewhat-random, step-by-step routine for auditing my own Twitter account (world, really, but I start with my account). I wrapped it up in a presentation. This is not a scientific method kind of thing. It’s more of a take-a-look-at-how-things-went-and-avoid-putting-both-feet-in-my-mouth kind of thing: Confirm, Observe, Adjust: How to audit your Twitter world an 1… Read More

Social Media

Sometimes when you’re a social media strategist (or, really, just a human with a smart phone or tablet), you get stuck in a routine that involves the same few social media mobile applications. Whether I’m on the bus or about to go to sleep, I find myself checking my three favorite apps: Facebook (I know,… Read More