Social Media

Believe it or not, there are people on Twitter that don’t know you exist.   I know, it came as a shock to me and my 300 followers as well. But Twitter is a conversation, and whether you’re a person or a person representing a brand, you can’t converse with anyone who doesn’t know you… Read More

Social Media

“Because I said so” worked with your mom and it works in marketing. “Because” is a magical word because when people hear it, they start to buy in. Taking its roots from the phrase bi cause during the 13th Century, “because” introduces a direct reason for any occurrence or action in a statement. Last month,… Read More

Social Media

Last week, I did my first half-day seminar: Social Media Means Business. It was a great group, and we’re converting and editing the video (soon to be on sale on an internet near you) now. In the mean time, here are the slides I used. Gratuitous Meerkat picture included: View more presentations from Ian Lurie

Social Media

And a fine Twitter Tuesday to you as well. A Hootsuite tutorial about using Twitter lists can only begin with a beautiful memory. I remember when I got my first Twitter follower. I was a bright-eyed web surfer with a bushy tail (since birth). @getfree_ebooks3 followed me, and our relationship blossomed. She was beautiful. I… Read More

Social Media

It’s amazing how 140 characters can have such an impact on your career. Now that we live in a world where “Google before you tweet” is the new “think before you speak,” we all know how important it is to digest a witty thought before broadcasting it into the universe. The next time you feel… Read More

Design & Development

Custom tabs on Facebook Pages allow us to display our own HTML content inside Facebook Pages by embedding code in iframes. This is done by creating a Facebook app and providing a few parameters (like the URL where our custom HTML page is located). Here’s an example of a custom tab: Add a Custom Tab… Read More

Social Media

When it comes to writing updates in Google+, some of the most influential people use the following formula to make their posts stand out: (Title in bold) + (3 to 4 short paragraphs) + #hashtag + URL + Picture = Awesome Update The inspiration of this post comes from Avinash Kaushik. I’m sure we’ve all… Read More

Social Media

By now, we all know Pinterest is the “latest,” “greatest” and “hottest” social network out there. Pinterest boasts some eye-popping statistics, like the fact that it passed Twitter in referrals and broke into the top 30 US sites in terms of pageviews in February. Still, the hullabaloo over copyright issues has scared some users away. Pin It Terms… Read More

Social Media

A post in the Subreddit r/Facebook on Wednesday claims to show you how to identify people you don’t know who view your profile. It raises a serious question: Is Facebook recording every move you make on the social network? How would you feel if you knew if Facebook recorded your name, location, action and time… Read More

Social Media

As Facebook upgrades all business pages to Timeline on March 30, 2012, we wanted to make a living infographic of the new Facebook Timeline design to help everyone make the change. Portent’s Timeline Dimensions page on Facebook displays best practices for the Facebook Timeline cover photo dimensions, profile and photo dimensions as well as custom… Read More

Social Media

In Suzanne Collins’ post-apocalyptic young adult novel The Hunger Games, 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen finds herself in a televised fight to the death with other teenagers. If she’s to survive, she’ll need some luck. But when it came to making sure the $75 million Hollywood adaptation would be a success, Lionsgate knew luck wasn’t something they could… Read More

Social Media

  ‘Tis the season… for search marketing conferences, that is. I have several colleagues who just returned from SMX West (and learned some lessons in search marketing). I myself just returned from SEMpdx’s SearchFest 2012, and there are many more conferences coming up this year – so many that I won’t even try to list… Read More

Social Media

Steve Martin and his Twitter book make this Twitter Tuesday funny. Since starting as a stand-up comedian in the late 60s, Steve Martin has been an actor, playwright, author, and one hell of a banjo player. In 2010, Martin brought his famous persona to the digital frontier: social media. Steve Martin hit the social media… Read More

Social Media

You might be like me. Sure, I follow a couple of my favorite comedians or musicians on Twitter, but overall, I don’t really care about the tweets of the rich and famous, or that Blue Ivy isn’t a Batman villain. However, in my never-ending quest for social media knowledge, I figured there was a thing… Read More

Social Media

It’s Twitter Tuesday, and my study of good Twitter profile pictures has yielded some blog-post-worthy results. But first, a question: If a tweet falls in the forest, will anyone read it? You’re churning out 140 characters of brilliant headlines and observations. You’re promoting great content through links. You’re participating in relevant hash tags. And you’re… Read More