In the last month I have had several large potential and current clients come to us and say that they want to grow their email lists and need innovative ways to do that. With the comfort and now current use of social media – leveraging social media tools is a great way to do this. Social media tools allow for a  more targeted, relevant and successful email campaign – that encourages the recipient to get involved and better yet SHARE! Read the rest of this entry »

PR has been a priority for most major corporations whether they retain a team inside or hire an agency outside of the business. “According to the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), public relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. …” In some cases PR specialists were some of the first to embrace social media, in other cases PR specialists have stuck to their more traditional means of fostering relationships with key media in respective areas of print, radio, television and used the news wires to distribute their press releases with follow-up to their ongoing contacts to whom they have formed relationships. Read the rest of this entry »

Networking is the epicenter for new contacts, sales leads, friendships and new clients. Social media has been a magnificent platform for networking and sites such as Linkedin – have created a community – that has been a well respected platform for businesses and professionals. Twitter has now also become a great place to connect for all genres of interest both business and personal and lets not forget Facebook! Read the rest of this entry »

I have written many articles about Twitter in the last few years that I have been writing this blog. There are many out there -that are still trying to figure it all out – along with many other social media sites such as Facebook and Linkedin. While you continue to ponder or assume that many of the people you are trying to connect with and target may not be there – guess again. On Twitter alone there are more than 100 million users and many small businesses have already begun to use it as a free resource to market their business. I tell our clients all the time that even if you are not ready to use social media – I can almost guarantee (I still go by the adage that their are no guarantees in life!) – that your current and potential customers already are and better yet they are talking about YOU. The question becomes are you reaching out and talking to them? Read the rest of this entry »

I did a speaking engagement last week to a group of Sr. Executive women. When asked my advice on what is most important when looking to engage your business with social media -” I said you need to understand who your target market is and then aptly find ways to understand what their social computing behavior is and go from there.” Using the right data and traffic analysis tools – to find out who your most influential followers are and how they utilize social media tools – is the key to connecting with them and all the people that follow them and so on. So many people as I wrote in an early post a few weeks ago – get focused on building thousands of fans and or followers -rather than focusing on who that early adopter and or influencer is – for their community and the best way to communicate with them and their many followers who are part of your target market. Read the rest of this entry »

As we celebrate both Passover and Easter – I thought this article I found from Social Media Insider – not only offers great information – but  apropos in light of the holiday season. To quote another article I found in the New York Times – which speaks about business schools – incorporating courses about social networks as part of their MBA programs. The author Fiona Mackay says in response to a large retailer who makes some real social network blunders “The lesson: social media are not marketing toys to be handled by interns but a professional communications channels that require understanding of the technology and the community that uses it.” Here is the link if you would like to read the full article. http://tinyurl.com/yd2j5xv Read the rest of this entry »

I was at lunch last week with a new friend and he asked me what is social media? I said to him it is a form of networking that is leveraged using social media tools online such at Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Linkedin and so on. Yes—all things that most of us know!
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When I began my education into the world of social media a few years ago, my beacon of expertise and guidence was the book I have spoken of often, “Groundswell”. In the book, Josh Bernoff and Christine Li talk about understanding social computing behaviours in order to be able to engage your target market and connect in a way that is in line with the goals that you plan to reach by implementing a digital strategy.
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In the last few days, “thought leadership and innovation” has been a discussion topic between myself and several different business people. It was first brought to my attention a few days ago by someone who passed on the assessment (from another business associate) that, after reviewing my blog posts, they felt I was not showcasing our business skills, expertise and brand offering because I was including full articles written by others below my daily thoughts. The reason I began this blog was to use the premise of our business name, SHARE, to share with people what I read.
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Hi Everyone,

Thank you for your ongoing support and for all the comments and connections that we are making with our readers. Linkedin groups and connections have been really great and we are so happy to hear from everyone regarding our posts. Keep it coming!

We would love to connect with you on Facebook and have added a fan box for BCAD Group on this blog. We want to build a community where we can have an ongoing dialog about the many ideas we write about on this blog and the issues we haven’t yet touched: your thoughts or whatever may be on your mind!

We want to know—Who Do You Think You Are Talking To?

Best Nicole