Catherine Sherwood | Real Communications

Social Media and the NM Lt Governor’s Race

Catherine — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 01:27:26 +0000

Here in New Mexico, the incumbent Lt Governor has stepped up to become the 2010 Democratic Candidate for Governor. On June 1, five candidates were on the ballot to be her successor in the Lt Governor’s slot. This is a small state, and this was not a high profile primary for Democrats. Still, about 125,300 [...]

Financial Service Firms are Cozying Up to Social Media

Catherine — Mon, 24 May 2010 04:46:24 +0000

Pat Allen of RockTheBoat Marketing has done a good job of keeping up with which financial services firms are doing what on the social web. She did a synopsis of panel discussions held at two recent industry events – the Investment Company Institute (ICI) General Membership meeting, and their Operations and Technology Conference. Those paraphrased [...]

The Art of Social Media and Politics

Catherine — Mon, 24 May 2010 03:24:20 +0000

I’ve been working hard and not communicating online. Not a good choice for a social media consultant, and certainly not the advice I give to my clients. The hard work has been with a candidate in a primary campaign in a small state. There are five candidates for the same position so the small pie [...]

FINRA Clarifies Some SocialMedia Rules

Catherine — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:53:44 +0000

March 17, 2020: Today, FINRA hosted a webcast that was, primarily, and Q&A session between FINRA and two member companies: Bank of America / Merrill Lynch (BAML) and New York Life Insurance. They provided some clarification on their positions set forth in FINRA Regulatory Notice 10-06 (January 2010), but information from BAML and, especially, New [...]

“Financial Services & Social Media” – the Time and Price are Right.

Catherine — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:04:56 +0000

Friends have convinced me that “free” is better than “not free.” I should have know that. After all, my goal is to start a productive dialogue within the financial services industry about how to engage on the social web AND protect consumers. For anyone who is interested in this someone complex, but very important issue, [...]

Financial Services & Social Media

Catherine — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:50:56 +0000

As someone who has a background in marketing to the financial services industry, and who is also social media consultant, I have been watching, with interest, some of the forays into the social web by companies like Vanguard and Fidelity. I have also noticed that many who profess to be holding back on entering into [...]

Hey, Google, you should have asked first…

Catherine — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:45:37 +0000

Google forgot the first rule of social media when it released its Google Buzz social networking service. They forgot to listen first. Worse, they didn’t even start a conversation with their Gmail users. Many people woke up to find practically anyone they had ever sent a Gmail to suddenly their Buzz friends. This is not [...]

What is the Best Way to Measure Your Social Capital?

Catherine — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:12:36 +0000

Social capital is to social media what a Google page ranking is to search engine optimization. The difference is that a high Google page ranking means that – if people are looking for a company that does what you do – your company can be found. It infers a level of popularity and increases the [...]

What Makes the top 50 Facebook Fan Pages Work? Part 2

Catherine — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:53:49 +0000

What Makes the top 50 Facebook Fan Pages Work? In the case of Best Buy (#13 on The Big Money list), some real creativity and commitment. Best Buy has often been used as a case study for how online communities can develop and improve employee performance. In the book groundswell, six pages are dedicated to blueshirtnation, [...]

What Makes the Top 50 Facebook Fan Pages Work? Part 1

Catherine — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:25:47 +0000

The Big Money published a list of the top 50 companies on Facebook the other day. They measured both the number of fans and the amount of fan interaction. They did not include pages run by fans – though the company in the top spot (Coca-Cola) has a site that was founded by a fan [...]