Your Company Should Be Using Social Media

Posted: September 27th, 2008 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Social Media News, Social Media Opinion | 2 Comments

A new survey reveals that an overwhelming number of consumers want to interact with businesses via social media. The 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study, from strategy and communications agency Cone LLC, showed an astonishing 93 percent of respondants said they believe a company should have a presence in social media. Not only that, but 85 percent believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media.

Some other findings from the survey:

Companies should use social networks to solve my problems (43%)
Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%)
Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%)
Companies should market to consumers (25%)

This survey illustrates that a website just isn’t enough these days. Your website has to integrate social media like blogs, podcasts, and vidcasts. Social media gives consumers a way to interact with the company in a way that simple email does not. On top of that, they also want to be able to find executives on Facebook and LinkedIn. Essentially, if your business doesn’t even have a website … you’re not a step behind where you should be, you’re actually two or three steps behind.

Note: Hat tip goes to Podcasting News for alerting me to this story.

Tags: blogging, corporate blogging, podcasting, social media

EndGame PR on Facebook

Posted: September 19th, 2008 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Social Media Tactics | No Comments

I’ve been diving deeper and deeper into the Facebook world these days, and I can truly say I understand why it’s called “Facecrack”. I’m having a lot of fun looking up old friends and tinkering with the available applications. It’s also a great way to network with current or potential business associates!

For kicks, I created a page for EndGame Public Relations. Click the badge below to go there and join in!

I’ve also created a group for my flagship podcast, Startup BizCast. Feel free to join up by clicking here!

Tags: facebook, social media, social networking

News Releases: Poorly Written Blog Posts?

Posted: September 13th, 2008 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Social Media Opinion | 9 Comments

Image: I'm Blogging This I just happened upon a post written by Richard MacManus on ReadWriteWeb, a very popular technology blog, about the inclusion of online news release distributer BusinessWire on the Techmeme “leader board“. The leader board lists the top sources posted to Techmeme. MacManus was discussing how Business Wire‘s news releases were competing successfully with bloggers for attention. Note that PR Newswire, another online press release newswire, is also included rather high on the Techmeme list.

What struck me about this post is a comment from Techmeme’s founder, Gabe Rivera:

>>Continue reading…

Tags: blogging, news release distribution, social media

Blogging on The Run from a Hurricane

Posted: September 8th, 2008 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Social Media Tactics | No Comments

Hurricanes and tropical storms continue their conga-line assault on the Caribbean and the eastern and southern United States. The latest was Tropical Storm Hanna, and as I’m writing this, Hurricane Ike is taking aim at Gulf Coast states that are still recovering from Hurricane Gustav the Texas coast. What would you do to maintain your personal, business, or client blog if you were evacuated from your home?

Lorelle on WordPress recently blogged about running from Katrina, and also on how blogs can be critical in times of disaster. The post also linked to a blog post on The Blog Herald which gave tips on blogging in a disaster. Tips included making a list of what you need to blog, using portable applications, storing all of your passwords in a secure place online, and more. Definitely worth reading if you live on the coast and make your living by blogging.

Tags: bloggers, blogging, hurricanes, social media

Social Media and Gustav

Posted: September 1st, 2008 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Social Media News | No Comments

I was just alerted by the Fast Forward Blog to a Ning site set up for information about Hurricane Gustav. The site is aggregating just about anything you can think of, including blog posts, video, Tweets from Twitter, and more.