This question will rear its ugly face more than once as we move through our social world. With social media in its infancy, we are still trying to define an answer. The only tips I can give you right now is:

• Keep responding and answering fans, followers, friends
• Continue to share content of affinity organizations and information relevant to your brand message
• Cultivate relationships with your most loyal followers and your loudest influencers
• Build mini conversational campaigns around company milestones or important company dates
• Continue to scan the ecosystem for opportunities, discussion topics, etc.

What are your thoughts? How do you keep your social program going?

Are we in a revolution?

Revolution: “a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving”

With the above definition, we most certainly are. Since the beginning of marketing and business communications, we have been lead to believe that we tell people what to do and we tell the market what it needs. Now it’s a complete shift… the consumer has taken the reigns and is focused on finding companies/brands/products that will, not only listen to what they have to say, but also mold offerings to fit into the lifestyles of those consumers.

This way of “thinking and behaving” is definitely a drastic and far-reaching change from what we were doing only 5 years ago.

Now the question becomes… Are you a part of the revolution or the resistance?

Photo courtesy of Flickr - marcel601

You have an amazing platform; one that has barely scratched the surface of what is possible for consumer engagement. Thank you for that. However, I do have a request.

Brands on Facebook are not silos. Yes, we love the fact that we can send updates to our fans, interact with them on our wall, and provide valuable content on our tabs. But, we have affinities too. We want the ability to connect and engage with these affinity organizations. If we sell toothpaste, we want to be able to engage and be a part of the OperationSmile efforts or the new research provided by the ADA on their Facebook properties, as we hope they would want to be a part of ours. I ask you, please break down these silos and let our brand roam for the better. Let us engage our affinities and build a more holistic, more engaged community.

Sincerely,

Your Brands

As of today, I am a changed man. I see things more clearly and look at the world through a different lens. All because, I know I am a genius, an artist, a Linchpin. I know that it’s not going to be an easy transition and there will be times where fear and resistance are going to ring through in my lizard brain, but I know I have a unique gift to offer, not only to myself, but to those around me. I vow from this day forward to stand up and stake claim to my future of being indispensable all thanks to the amazing writings of Seth Godin in Linchpin.

With a unique combination of storytelling and fact delivering, Godin elicits the messages that were whispering in my mind, but were afraid to come out. Describing that inside each and every one of us lies a genius in our own right, Godin creates a compelling argument toward greatness and becoming that person we all wish we were; that voice that is whispering wanting to come out; that Linchpin.

Godin turns traditional thinking about career, marketing, and education on its head. The “if I perform at my highest (within corporate culture) I will be rewarded in the long run” mentality is quickly becoming the downfall in our society. There are fewer and fewer great thinkers out there and more cogs in the machine. But Godin believes an artist lies in each of us. This book Linchpin is the awakening of that artist, that genius. He empowers us to speak up in that meeting to make a difference, to voice our concern about a certain strategy, and the tools to deliver on these new found revelations. The difference between you right now and a Linchpin, is the confidence to stand up and the act of delivering.

Overall, Linchpin is an amazing, eye-opening experience that I am going to recommend to everyone from my cousin in college to the CEO of my company. If my entire organization were filled with Linchpins, the world would be our oyster. Thank you Seth Godin for awakening the sleeping giant.

No matter what you or your company are doing (not doing) in the social media environment, you are still social. “Whether you are aware of it or not…”

The question becomes, Are you aware of it?

So my girlfriend has started a new venture in her life. She has made the decision to go back to school to get her culinary degree. I love food, so I am behind her decision 100%. It’s been a crazy first couple of weeks, but seem like the extra time and energy will prove to be an amazing investment for both happiness and excitement. One thing that comes with a significant other immersing themselves in the Food World, comes hours and hours of the Food Network…

As I mentioned before, I love food and the science behind it so I don’t mind too much. The other night, however, I heard something from the “Ace of Cakes” himself say that all of us marketers should keep in mind while engaging our customers every day. Duff said,

Give people something personally special, and they will be overly satisfied…

Think about it… If we can engage our customers on a personal level and provide them content that they find personally special, we will continue to overly satisfy their needs. Now that is something to talk about.

With the levels of loyalty and advocacy we can create with these social personal conversations, shouldn’t we be discussing brand passion instead?

After all, a passionate person is a force to be reckoned with. Imagine if we had handfuls of extremely passionate individuals leading our cause and communicating our message through vast social networks.

Just imagine…

Through social media we have an opportunity to have conversations with real people, in real time, on a personal level. These conversations increase trust. This trust builds loyalty. That loyalty turns to advocacy. Finally advocacy turns into passion.

Imagine having a Internet-enabled, digital book platform that allows you to not only buy books from the unit, but also talk about, share, and recommend books to your social network… What could happen:

• Digital Study Groups for Students
• Viral Book Clubs
• Personalized Recommendations from Others in Your Network
• Real-Time News at your fingertips
• And More…

I’ve been watching The Copia unfold over the past day or so and am completely enthusiastic about its capabilities and what the integration with mobile, social, and human behavior. With our fast paced, mainly-digital world in which we live in, this amazing revolution allows us to stay connected with, not only our favorite authors or writers, but also with friends (no matter where they are) who share the same passions and excitements.  The Copia is a brilliant step in the right direction with the combination of technologies available today. I’m excited to see what will come from this level of thinking…

Here are some articles to get you up to speed on the revolution:

The Copia eBook Platform and Hardware Get Social With eReading

Copia sets sights on Kindle’s collaboration dream

Copia promises to blend e-books and social networking into set of new readers

What are your thoughts?

With this, I challenge all of us to push what is possible with communications… Take marketing from a pushing, intrusive act to a meaningful relationship between trusted friends. Create brands that are malleable to allow consumers to take only the information they want a need and provide real-time branding through relevant, targeted conversations. Interact with our consumers in a way that was never thought possible. Use technologies and content to reach our customers where they are…

Take time everyday to push the social envelope.

Victories.

With every challenge, there will be victories… I want to shout these victories from the mountain tops. If you or someone you knows creates a social phenomenon, please send it my way so I can publish it’s results. Let’s all work together to make 2010 The Year of The Social.

Enjoy!