Disqus - Latest Comments for Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media

Re: 3 Baby Steps to Social Media Optimization

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:35:57 -0000

You're right about setting goals, because you can optimize 24/7. I've noticed on my blogs that all traffic is not the same. Sometimes, you get a very popular post on Digg or Reddit or the like and you get huge traffic, but your bounce rate goes through the roof.

All traffic is not created equal!

Re: Social Media, Viral Marketing, and the Power of the Influenced

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:41:36 -0000

Good post. I was thinking that one of the most important parts of the Technology Adoption Learning Curve is the fact that many, many technologies never jump the huge chasm that exists between "early adopters" and "early majority."

Sometimes you can get traction with the tech heads among us, but not the public. The key is whether or not the technology you're promoting actually is better and easier than what it is designed to replace.

One example is e-book readers, that have been "about to break" for years now. Grabbing a magazine or a book and throwing it in your briefcase before a trip is just easier (at this point) than downloading all that stuff. So they have not crossed the chasm.

For something to "tip" ala Malcolm Gladwell style, it's got to cross that chasm...

Re: Listening is Social Media’s Step One

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 16:18:16 -0000

Wait... Dully tagged? Were we dull?

I'm just going to go ahead and assume you meant duly... It'll help me sleep tonight.

Re: Wesabe : Introducing Banking to Social Media

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:05:02 -0000

The real value in these social networking sites (for the owner's anyway) is the huge amount of data they collect on consumers.

Just think how much Facebook knows about millions of people... And how much that is worth to marketers...

Re: LinkedIn Tips, Just in Time to Tip-Over?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 13:41:03 -0000

I looked at it only very briefly today. Like a lot of new social networking sites, the key will be, will people show up...

One feature I'd have liked is the ability to RSS feed an existing blog onto my member page. I can't imagine managing another blog and if my page is supposed to be about me, then why can't I pull my feed into it?

I'll look more when time permits.

Re: Will Social Media be Banned from the Workplace?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:57:37 -0000

Yeah, but it's only Australian $5billion, so that's like, what, only $3 or $4 billion US? ;-)

Re: YouTube: A Virtual Walk-Through for Real Estate

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:17:42 -0000

I agree Brandi. While this video got me a little dizzy in the kitchen there for a second, it was fine for figuring out if I wanted to waste time driving out there.

Thanks for the comment. ~Jim

Re: Guitar Hero Goes Viral

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:21:56 -0000

In a lot of ways, gamers are way ahead on some of this from a tech standpoint, but I think what they are missing is that larger philosophical standpoint that you're referring to here.

Thanks for the comment, Ryan. ~Jim

Re: The Revolution of Social Media

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:24:25 -0000

E-- I can't imagine that people are looking for more community networks. Until the social graph issue is "fixed" it's hard to migrate between sites, and until a new site gets critical mass, it's hard to make the effort worth it.

Would love to know how you plan to deal with that chicken/egg conundrum at MyNeighborhood.

Thanks for the comment. ~Jim

Re: YouTube: A Virtual Walk-Through for Real Estate

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:40:06 -0000

Thanks Lee Odden, of Top Rank Blog, for your comment. So much of this stuff is now cheap and pretty easy, but the vast majority of people I talk to are a bit befuddled by it all. ~Jim

Re: Why Second Life Marketing Is Doomed to Fail

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:00:29 -0000

Fair point, Dave. I have not looked into what Coldwell Banker is doing on SL recently. And some hotels are having some luck, since they can become a destination for good interactions. Good point. Thanks for reading, and helping me get it right. ~Jim

Re: 5 Steps to Rolling Out a Social Media Campaign

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:44:31 -0000

@Josh: Thanks. We've got the first draft about 80% done and moving fast! Stay tuned... ~Jim

Re: 5 Steps to Rolling Out a Social Media Campaign

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:50:13 -0000

@TriangleBrandGuy: Great points. Well said. Nothing this transformational is easy, right?

Re: Chordiant Sheds Light on Social Media Transparency

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:48:17 -0000

Glad you're checking it out, Glen. The first draft of the book is done, so we're into editing mode now. Hoping for a late fall publication date. We'll be sure to keep everyone informed when we get a hard date.

~Jim

Re: Jim Tobin on Forming a Social Media Agency

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:22:06 -0000

@TRBrandGuy: Haven't thought much about it from a chat room perspective, but we have been in contact with the folks at the The Social Media Club, asking them repeatedly if we can start a Triangle area chapter. So far, silence. But I would like to start getting together the folks who are interested in this stuff in the North Carolina area...

Re: FeedXI Manages, Organizes, Custom Publishes RSS Feeds

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:00:38 -0000

Thanks Barry. Your comment hung up in our spam filter temporarily. I appreciate you checking us out.

Some days do you feel wild ahead of the curve, while other days you feel behind it?

Re: Why Social Media Marketing is Hard for Corporations

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 08:54:22 -0000

@Geoff, @Marshal, thanks for the comments. it's surprising just how difficult it is to just talk... it scares the crap out of people... we've been conditioned to do otherwise for a long time. ~Jim

Re: Social Media Press Release - What’s more important, the look or the data?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:15:43 -0000

Todd,

This is a very interesting topic for us, so we'll definitely keep watching. In our experience, a lot of the traditional distribution methods aren't ready (yet) for the SMPR.

Plus, it seems that you need to have two versions (the traditional) and the bulleted. We're working on an iteration that combines both into one. Perhaps I'll send it to you for your feedback...

~Jim

Re: Social Media Press Release - What’s more important, the look or the data?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 17:44:19 -0000

Mike does raise some great points. It just seems that some of the traditional news distribution points wouldn't even know what he's talking about yet.

And you're right, Brian, there are lots of similarities to a blog post, but I want to find a way to serve both (all?) masters, so we can write the thing once and have it work across the audiences...

Re: Ignite Social Media, North Carolina’s First Social Media Agency, Opens its Doors

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 17:45:56 -0000

Thanks Glen, we hope to see them, too!

Re: Why Microsoft Won’t Ever Really Compete in Social Media

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 17:49:39 -0000

Thanks Alun. Good post. Still a mind numbing number for Facebook. Is it getting silly?

Had trouble with the URL above. I think it got funkified. It's http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2007/09/f...

Re: Why Zooped Sucks

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:28:48 -0000

I love these Zooped comments. Illiteracy and passion are a dangerous mix. But I am really confused about the passion for this particular place. Someone, cogently, fill me in?

For the record. Zooped is now at 12,866 members, up a whopping 500 people in the last month instead of 5,000 the month before.

Perhaps my post was the high water mark for Zooped?

Re: Ignite Launches the Triangle Social Media Club

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:05:54 -0000

I'll be there.

Re: Using Social Media as Part of a Product Launch

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 10:44:55 -0000

Good point, Joseph. Good ideas to steal. :-)

Re: Why Zooped Sucks

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:59:49 -0000

Jack,

Thank you for the first thoughtful Zooped comment. I agree with you that niche communities can be the most interesting. No doubt. My issue with Zooped is that it doesn't seem to be built around any niche. It seems like it's trying to be Facebook-like or MySpace-like (or even "better).

But it's not. So instead of trying to converge (be everything to everyone) like Zooped is doing, they should diverge and be really good for some group.

Thanks for your thoughts.

~Jim

Re: Ignite Launches the Triangle Social Media Club

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:08:48 -0000

@Jeremy: Yes, Jeremy, absolutely
@Al: See you there.
@Jennifer: See you there.

Seems like we're going to have a great group.

Re: Is Oprah Ready for YouTube?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:24:43 -0000

Good point. I wonder if YouTube wanted her to do that (to build their "channels" brand) or it was Oprah's idea. But it's dumb...

Re: Last Night’s Social Media Club Event

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:30:33 -0000

Bobby: Feel free. We borrowed it from the club ourselves. I'm sure they like it to be used (properly of course).

Re: Wikipedia War on the Social Media Agency

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:33:43 -0000

Maggie, your comment got caught up by Akismet. I just fished it out tonight. Let's storm the Wikipedia castle, pitch forks and torches at the ready.

I suppose we're all learning as we go, but I just expected a more progressive stance on this topic from Wikipedia. It's been a learning experience for me.

Re: Social Media Club Contacts

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:35:35 -0000

No, Nathan, we haven't nailed it down yet. Open to suggestions though!

Re: Corporate Budgets Start to Flow Toward Social Media

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:06:59 -0000

Good stuff, Jim. Thanks for sharing. I wonder what they count under the "WoM" spending umbrella.

I'm hoping for 250% assuming that it's 250% of a relatively small number. (Billion here, billion there and pretty soon we're talking real money...)

Re: A Social Media Thanksgiving List

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 12:18:45 -0000

Thanks Glen,

Enjoy reading your stuff! ~Jim

Re: Backlash Against Facebook’s “Beacon” Begins

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:13:19 -0000

UPDATE: Now someone has had their engagement ruined by Facebook Beacon. Bad for them. Brand damaging for Facebook: engagement surprise ruined by Facebook

Re: Busting the 10 Most Common Social Media Myths

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:02:29 -0000

Good stuff, Lisa. As for "fads", I personally have no doubt in my mind that some popular social media stuff today is a fad and will go away. But I also have no doubt at all that the concept of two-way conversation is NOT a fad.

Social media marketing will exist if Beacon destroys Facebook. Tools will come and go and improve. The concept is too powerful to go away.

Hey, maybe I'm drinking the Kool Aid here, but it's grape flavor, it tastes good, gives me a little sugar buzz....

Re: How to Write a Social Media Proposal

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 13:31:10 -0000

@Michael: I'm very interested in your experience with hiring people to do this work for you. As a social media agency, we're curious to hear the experiences of others and how you've dealt with the natural tensions that you mention.

But I also find it interesting that you refer to it as paying people "to write linkbait." That phrase is interesting to me. I guess you are trying to write interesting content, but that makes it so black hat...

To me, good social media marketing is authentic, not just linkbait. Now that might make it work more slowly (so some clients won't wait), but it should also make it work more deeply and therefore longer and more brand building.

Thoughts?

Re: A Little Ignite Milestone

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:18:29 -0000

@Sara: C'mon Sara, having to work for clients in the real world would get in the way of all of our pontificating... hee hee....

Keep watching the site, we'll be pointing to real life stuff as early as next week...

Thanks for reading. ~Jim

Re: As Social Media Takes Off, Most Marketers Get it Wrong

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 08:59:46 -0000

@Johnathan: You're right, but better to not focus on the numbers coming on line, or if they're newbies or experienced. Because I don't think people come online thinking they want to engage with social media in some fashion.

Better to focus on finding where your brand related discussions are taking place and how you can add value. If your product does add value in some way (price, technology, symptom relief, makes life easer, whatever), then it shouldn't be too hard to do. If your product doesn't add value in any way, then that's a trickier issue...

Re: Why Zooped Sucks

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:09:08 -0000

@Thanks Terry. I haven't looked at Zooped in a while. I see their home page has celebrity gossip on it now. It does give the site a bit more personality. I killed my membership so can't see if it's grown (and won't sign up again).

But having said that, why do you like it Terry? Just curious...

Re: We’re just a bunch of Twittering Twits

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 09:44:54 -0000

@Rab, you're absolutely right. Keen has found (as others have) that extreme positions and sound bites get you on TV and sell books.

@Teri, you're right. I get some great info from Twitter that I wouldn't have found anywhere else. I've got "friends" that filter stuff for me, which is great.

Thanks for the comments.

Re: Social Media is a Waste of Time, Part I

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:22:53 -0000

@Rab Thanks Ryan. Wow. That's a pleasant surprise to see in the comments.

Re: Social Media is a Waste of Time, Part I

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:53:31 -0000

@Glen: Thanks man. Hope things are going well and you're at peace with your decision

@John: Well said. Thanks for the very thoughtful response.

@Allen: You're absolutely right. The things you find when you're not looking constantly amaze me...

Re: Social Media is a Waste of Time, Part II

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:42:19 -0000

@Productivity Guy. I emailed you at the address you put in the post, but it bounced back undeliverable. Would love to see the study. Pls send to jim at ignitesocialmedia.com

Thanks!

Re: Did Target Steal Our Social Media Marketing Playbook?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:45:22 -0000

@Carlos. Dang. Apparently, Target actually stole our dictionary. Thanks. I fixed those. Moving too fast...

(Nobody ever pats you on the back for getting most of the words right! hee hee)

~Jim

Re: 6 Ways to Deal with Spam Blogs

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:51:17 -0000

@ Dave. Oh man, that is LOW. This is just one of the reasons that some bad apples give SEO a bad name.

@SlightlyShady: how hard are you going to work to get them to stop? It's a tough call...

@Matt: Good idea. We're actually adding that to our blog, with a Creative Commons footer.

@Erica: I usually ignore them too. If I were in a different industry, I might not though. But I'm going to try to include at least one internal link from now on...

Re: Quantifying the Impact of Social Media: Where the Edelman White Paper Got it Right, Got it Wrong and What We Should Do Next

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:28:22 -0000

@Jeremiah: Thanks. Would love to hear your thoughts.

@Peter Kim: That's a good idea. I've stumbled across various thoughts on the white paper that are all across the board. Anything from a del.icio.us page of links on it to a wiki could be cool. We could do it, of course, but maybe better coming from the roundtable. Don't want to steal/monopolize the conversation you started.

@Marcel: Glad you liked it. What you're doing in the space seemed to fit very naturally and your technology seems like it would adjust nicely to it. I was poking around Naymz last night, and it could be it, but they've got it walled off to even see a full profile, so I doubt you could get all that data..

Re: Quantifying the Impact of Social Media: Where the Edelman White Paper Got it Right, Got it Wrong and What We Should Do Next

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:23:44 -0000

@Geoff: I agree that personality is important and that alpha's can be powerful and I also agree that influence waxes and wanes depending on the validity of what you contribute. I'm trying to measure that by this metric.

At the same time, I also think that certain industries (particularly tech) will have their alpha bloggers and the rest of the world that are just using the tools to talk may be having thousands of conversations without an alpha leaders. But those micro-influencers are certainly out there, and if we can find them we can help our clients immensely.

Re: Quantifying the Impact of Social Media: Where the Edelman White Paper Got it Right, Got it Wrong and What We Should Do Next

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:25:16 -0000

@Rick, thanks for the reply. I completely believe you were trying to stir debate, which is great. I look forward to seeing the wiki...

~Jim

Re: 6 Ways to Deal with Spam Blogs

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:50:51 -0000

@Chris: You are absolutely right. I didn't realize they were part of the iEntry partnership. I've deleted the incorrect reference/link to Inside Office, with my apologies, and updated the article to reflect that I'd made a poor choice. Thanks for letting me know of my mistake. ~Jim

Re: Quantifying the Impact of Social Media: Where the Edelman White Paper Got it Right, Got it Wrong and What We Should Do Next

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:57:24 -0000

@Kin Good luck with the new gig. The social media index looked interesting, but I couldn't imagine trying to replicate it over the long tail of thousands of conversations. It seems like it was manually constructed, so to be useful, how can we automate that? Let me know what happens with your project.

~Jim

Re: Is "Shoutlet" Overselling Itself?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:57:03 -0000

@Jonathan. Wow, did he really? That's great for him. (Do see my update--linked above--where I said it was cool after I saw the demo.)

Jason, if you're reading this, congrats!

Re: Quantifying the Impact of Social Media: Where the Edelman White Paper Got it Right, Got it Wrong and What We Should Do Next

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:48:52 -0000

@Jason: You're right in that only the hard core geeks would (at first) list themselves in this "white pages". There would have to be something in it for the masses to do it. Like making it easier for your friends to find you, or maybe it's one piece of that social media portability site that everyone keeps dreaming of. I don't have it worked out yet, but there has to be a good exchange in order for this to tip... I just don't know exactly what it is yet... But if we can get it to tip, then we can find those 1,000 small dogs much more easily. ~Jim

Re: Quantifying the Impact of Social Media: Where the Edelman White Paper Got it Right, Got it Wrong and What We Should Do Next

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:54:22 -0000

@Kami: YES! This Plaxo move might just be it... They might be building the social media white pages here, and the "hook" that Jason felt was missing might be their auto-update address book feature.

To see what Kami is referring to, check out: http://blog.plaxo.com/archives/2008/02/introduc...

Re: Do People Really Watch User-Generated Online Videos?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:50:34 -0000

@ Rob: You can certainly look at how many are watching, what platform and when. The "who" is currently the tricky part. But you can get good video watching metrics a few ways, none of which (that I know of) solve the "who" part...

Re: Is Fox Sports Doing a Link “Bait & Switch”

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:36:41 -0000

Mike, your brilliant! Glad you're on our team...

Mystery solved...

~Jim

Re: Social Media Marketing and the Skeptics

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:13:32 -0000

Good to know I'm not alone! Thanks all for the comments. I've yet to talk to a marketer about their business objectives and not find at least one way that these tools of two-way communications could be leveraged, either by them personally, by staff members or by a social media agency.

Those who say it's a waste of time must be defining social media marketing very narrowly, like the one guy who said, "all it is is social bookmarking."

Thanks for the comments~

~Jim

Re: Are Social Media Consumers Better Advertising Targets?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:50:23 -0000

@Jon. You're right, advertising on YouTube is very hard (although the new ad platform has increased click-thrus 10-fold, according to what I'm reading).

However, that wasn't my point. My point was that social media consumers are not as anti-marketing as maybe we thought they were. And therefore social media marketing generally has a better chance to work than others maybe appreciated.

I'll have more stats on that coming in the next couple days... ~Jim

Re: Social Media Campaign vs. Social Media Strategy

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:52:30 -0000

@DJLitten It depends, DJ. I had a prospect who needed engagement and they needed it now. I thought that would be tough to be successful doing and (while there were some things they could've done), it was one of the reasons I turned it down.

For others, I might try to find a way to build over here while doing some engagement over there at the same time--always knowing that "how" you do it is as important as "what" you do.

So if there's a non-obnoxious, non-spam way to start engagement, I might try, as long as the client was willing to offer something of value simultaneously. It's not ideal, but the rarely do we find ideal situations.

~Jim

Re: Social Media Campaign vs. Social Media Strategy

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:42:08 -0000

@Joe, oh, how you flatter me. hee hee... Seems like either (a) I explained myself poorly or (b) you're not far enough down your path to see where the two split.

Could be either one... In case it's (a), I did go back and add a sentence to the campaign part. Maybe that helps.

Re: What is a Flash Mob?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:24:15 -0000

@DJLitten: Excellent point DJ. I would say that a flash mob itself is NOT social media marketing. Only what you do with a video of it COULD be social media marketing.

For example, this event was seen by several hundred folks. Maybe a few thousand. No social media element. But the YouTube video has been viewed over 8 million times.

They didn't try to promote anything in this (one of the reasons it's so good?), but if they had and got even 1/20th of the traffic to watch the video, then that could have been one piece of a social media marketing strategy.

Re: Yes, Ignite Social Media Is Hiring

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:02:26 -0000

@Hannah. Thanks much!

Re: 25 Social Media Buzzwords.. Continued from Crain’s Detroit

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:01:46 -0000

@SusanReynolds: DONE, per your request. Thanks. See the update above for the link. ~Jim

Re: 25 Social Media Buzzwords Explained (Part II of II)

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:48:48 -0000

@Jason Peck We didn't include WordPress because it isn't buzzword-y enough. You don't feel like a cool guy when you say it, cha know. It was all just sort of a joke list, but people kept finding it and asking about it. But you're right, WordPress is great. This site is powered by WP currently, although we're talking now about moving it to a new platform we're building...

Re: 25 Social Media Buzzwords Explained (Part II of II)

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:37:25 -0000

@gnome. Rubberbanding. That's a great buzzword. I'll start beating it to death immediately! ~Jim

Re: The Flip vs. RCA Small Wonder - Video creation on a budget

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:42:41 -0000

Nathania, your PowerShot looks better than hubby's fancy pants camera! He needs to adjust his white balance. Overexposed that poor cat... :-) ~Jim

Re: What is a Flash Mob?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:36:22 -0000

@Megan. I heard about one coming to a local college, but I was sworn to secrecy. ~Jim

Re: Why Social Media Leadership Won’t Come from Public Relations Teams

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:34:10 -0000

@DJLitten: Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it!

@Mark: You're right, and there's no guarantee that Ignite will be the market leader either. Someone will prove themselves the innovator over time. My money is on the specialists.

@Florian: True. There are always clients who like (and benefit) from integrated solutions. 20 vendors can be a mess. I just bet the integrators will be one step behind the innovators. And that, for some clients, may be just fine.

@Jun: Good points, but I don't think PR and Social Media will meld into anything. I think they'll continue to fragment.

Thanks for the thoughtful comments all!

~Jim

Re: J&J's Camp Baby: A Social Media Mistake or Social Media Opportunity?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:03:38 -0000

Good point, Peter. I think Lisa could just as easily have written a post on what J&J; did right by having this event.

I guess she just wasn't in the mood at the moment. :-)

Thanks for your thoughtful comments...

Re: Think Before You Ning

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:28:51 -0000

@Nathan. Yes, it's a semantic argument, but if you keep it in mind it makes all the difference. InSocialMedia and so many others seem to have said: "Let's start a social network, and make it about X" instead of looking at it the other way around.

Small distinction, but it can make all the difference.

Re: In-Depth Intro to Social Media Marketing: May 8th

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:51:24 -0000

@Jas Last I heard, registration is still open. Go to: http://shortn.it/IV2I to check it out and register.

Re: Think Before You Ning

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:05:55 -0000

@Nelson. Thanks for the thoughtful comment. And I'm really not slamming InSocialMedia.com. I know it's new. In fact, we were talking the other day around here about creating something similar.

So I don't think the idea is flawed. It's more the point that for it to really take off it has to solve some problems for us (like your aggregator point). And it shouldn't end up looking like every other social network, or it will be of marginal value.

I know FriendFeed and the like are trying to aggregate. BlogLog is trying to do some stuff, but it's still a bit early.

Re: Think Before You Ning

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:42:09 -0000

@Nelson, @Melisa: Thanks for the very thoughtful responses! Wow. You make great points.

Again, I'm not slamming InSocialMedia.com per se (it is young and needs time to grow), but more saying that 5 months ago you could just build a social network and hope for some traction.

Today, function must dictate form if you're going to be successful, and Ning makes it very easy to ignore that. In a now very crowded sea of social networks, you'll get more traction if you think about the utility of your application first...

~Jim

Re: In-Depth Intro to Social Media Marketing: May 8th

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:19:08 -0000

I think they are capping attendance at 80 or 90...

Re: Ignite's Travels are a Mystery... Can You Figure It Out?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:00:29 -0000

Diane, I sure hope you're right... Every year I hope for Vegas...

Re: Ignite's Travels are a Mystery... Can You Figure It Out?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:27:39 -0000

@Tena: Miami would be good. Great night life, and we haven't been there.

@Jess: Hope you're right. We haven't done Vegas yet, in part because some folks feel that's a place everyone eventually goes anyway. I personally hope we go there, as that is the ultimate destination for a trip like this.

Re: 2nd Annual Idaho Potato Video Contest

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:35:21 -0000

Wow. Is that Ferol in that video? hee hee...

Re: Social Media Marketing Mistakes And How to Avoid Them (1 of 6)

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:50:49 -0000

Yeah, Roland, you are absolutely right. And I have to think that if it weren't really hard they would've done it by now. But I was thinking along the likes of Brian.

How much has that cost them in lost revenue over the last few years? And what's it worth to get rid of it? I would think a lot. I'm not privy to their marketing budget, but I'd work pretty hard on that for a while if I were them.

~Jim

Re: Why it’s worth devouring Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:42:35 -0000

@Panos: We have a long road ahead of us here too. More often I get people who think we've deciphered a magic elixir for a not very interesting product.

But those who get it, they will benefit!

Thanks for the comments everybody.

~jim

Re: Feedly Puts the Fun Back into Reading RSS Feeds

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:19:34 -0000

Unless you use a lot of niche FF plug-ins, I'd upgrade for sure. All my FF plug-ins worked. I've heard that there are some that don't, but mine are fine...

~Jim

Re: Feedly Puts the Fun Back into Reading RSS Feeds

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:26:59 -0000

@Edwin I can see that this is a beta launch. It can be a bit buggy pulling in comments from some sites. Stuff like that. But so far so good.

~Jim

Re: Feedly Puts the Fun Back into Reading RSS Feeds

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:05:26 -0000

@Glen: It doesn't slow Google reader down at all that I've noticed. ~Jim

Re: Ignite Social Media Turns One: Happy Birthday to Us

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:03:56 -0000

@Matt Happy Birthday to you. My oldest daughter turns 10 today. Lots of good times... ~Jim

Re: Where does Social Media live in the organization?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:09:52 -0000

@Panos. I agree. The list goes on of what types of people can use it. And Enterprise 2.0 opens up even more opportunities.

Good point.

Re: 5 Predictions on The Future of Social Media

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:04:55 -0000

Great. So we're up to 8 between Robin and Kipp. I like them.

Who can add 9 and 10?

Re: 5 Predictions on The Future of Social Media

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:15:58 -0000

@Nathan and someone on Sphinn both question virtual worlds (item #5). I do think we're at least 3 years out on that, and I'm saying they will be walled gardens like Second Life.

But 3D virtualization will put you into the user experience better than Flash. And if you get more in the user experience, you're more likely to buy (assuming the product is good). That's the kind of virtual worlds I'm talking about.

Ideally, as in #4, you have an avatar that travels from world to world with you. You heard it here first. ;-) ~Jim

Re: 5 Predictions on The Future of Social Media

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:00:45 -0000

@Breian: The people who say this is a "fad" are partly right. The hype about it will certainly fade. But then there's the important part they are wrong about. Is two-way communication a fad? No way. We're only moving forward there. Will some of the tools we like now seem quaint and a bit dumb in 2-5 years. I certainly hope so!

@JeremyHorn: I hope you're right on the portability. Good to know you're working on it!

@BrianChappell Yeah, going to 6 sites to get 6 different types of data (if you're lucky) and then trying to make sense of that has to go!

~Jim

Re: Why Social Media Leadership Won’t Come from Public Relations Teams

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:03:35 -0000

@BrandonCarlos I only partially agree with you. I think the best PR folks will have to have social media knowledge, because that line is so blurry. I don't think you can do PR holistically if you put blinders on to all the new opportunities.

But I don't agree with you that the "best social media experts will be PR folks." Some will come from that background, sure. But I think the best social media experts will be the ones who think about it full-time--either at an agency or not...

Re: 5 Predictions on The Future of Social Media

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:27:15 -0000

@Eyebee: I have no doubt that I'm using FriendFeed incorrectly. I just haven't spent the time to filter it as you say, and make good use of the rooms, etc.

But the funny thing is, when I did a Tweet asking who is getting value from FriendFeed, 100% of the responses I got were negative. Not scientific, but a sign that FriendFeed good improve their user experience. That was the point. It's early, for FriendFeed and most other things...

Re: Brian Ran to Work...

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:45:03 -0000

His shirt says, "I StumbledUpon this t-shirt," which just made it so much funnier for me.

Re: Twitter Meets Product Reviews: Blippr

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:31:31 -0000

I gotta give some props to Blippr for tracking the conversations. I mentioned them in a Tweet the other day, and within hours they were following me on Twitter.

Now Lisa blogs about them, and within about 90 minutes, Jonathan has a comment on the blog. Good work there guys.

Re: Social Network Geographics - 39 Sites Compared

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:47:05 -0000

@ChristieLea Unless I'm reading it wrong, Canada was the lead country for Facebook. It may not have gone dark blue because it's relative to the others, who also search it alot? But yeah, a lot of the data we see show's the popularity of Facebook in Canada.

~Jim

Re: Quick Vote: Which Book Cover Would You Choose?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:46:17 -0000

This is like a focus group, except faster and with more people! Thanks for all the input! ~Jim

Re: Social Media Marketing Example #2: Best Western

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:52:36 -0000

OMG, that video is HORRIBLE...

Re: New Research: Consumers Like Social Media Marketing

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:53:21 -0000

Ian,

Are you suggesting that consumers will be sad if the ad budget is reduced to pay for social media marketing?

If so, I'm not really sure that would be the case...

~Jim

Re: Will it Blend? We Try to Blend Our New Book

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:26:16 -0000

@Jim: Thanks! We're having fun today.

@Ricardo: I took a VERY small sip... :-)

Re: Will it Blend? We Try to Blend Our New Book

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:45:32 -0000

@joesumney: Good ideas. It's an old white bathrobe. And yes, I did take a little sip. Just paper, some ink and some sweet and sour mix. How much can that hurt ya?

Re: Will it Blend? We Try to Blend Our New Book

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:00:49 -0000

@Jonathan Sure is! hee hee

Re: Today's the Launch of Social Media is a Cocktail Party!

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:24:04 -0000

Ben,

Thanks so much. Absolutely you can do it. I'm not the Facebook generation either!

~Jim

Re: Content Aggregation as a Social Media Marketing Tool

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:32:54 -0000

@Thanks Adam. Good thoughts. Maybe we'll move stuff around as the show heats up. Right now blogs and Twitter are hot, but during the show, video goes nuts... Thanks for the insight. ~Jim

Re: Content Aggregation as a Social Media Marketing Tool

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:11:29 -0000

@Dana. Good thoughts. We looked at the keyword cloud idea and for a variety of technical reasons didn't put it in this round, but we love how TwitScoop does that too.

We do have the announcements section for blurbs on parties, events, etc. at the show.

But you've got great insights... I'm always impressed by the wisdom of crowds! ~Jim

Re: 5 Trends: Where Social Media Marketing is Heading, in 2009 and Beyond

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:05:48 -0000

@Matthew Thanks. Hopefully others will like the concept of Outbreaks. I think it's more rational.

@Kanika Yes, but point me to a lot of social media marketing on mobile examples. Corporations I talk to are interested, but waiting for critical mass and cross platform issues to resolve a bit more.

Re: 5 Trends: Where Social Media Marketing is Heading, in 2009 and Beyond

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:44:17 -0000

@Axel I didn't know about your Twitter conference. Interesting, but glad to know I'm not alone!

@Karl You're right. MAYBE this year. I had been saying 3-5 years, but things progressed so quickly in 2008 that my old timeline was too cautious.

Re: How MC Hammer went from caricature to human being--the social media story

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:02:40 -0000

Yes he did! :-)

Re: Chief Marketing Officers Want to Listen to Customers, Don't Know How

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 22:09:35 -0000

Dominique, That is an outstanding point. Well said. ~Jim

Re: The Risk of Social Networks

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:39:51 -0000

Nick,

Great site. I subscribed. You may be a daily read... I'm telling the office about it, too...

One question relative to this post: Do you use a password management software? I tried a couple, but most are more trouble than they are worth. I'm sure we both have tons of log-ins and managing them all can get ugly. What do you do?

~Jim

Re: LinkedIn Growth Trumps Facebook

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:28:48 -0000

Good stuff, Nick. I'm going to post about this in the morning. But one thing: when you show size stats, pls be sure to say how this is defined. Is this user sessions, registered users, page views, etc. etc. etc... Different stats tell different stories.

Re: 2007/04/18/zooped/

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:26:00 -0000

Well, Kristen, you wrote about this 5 months ago, and the site still hasn't gone anywhere. I guess that validates your arguments.

I just wrote my review, Why Zooped Sucks, and wasn't nearly as nice as you were.

There's going to be a huge thinning of the herd in the next year or two, and this is a calf limping in the back of the group...

~Jim

Re: 2008/08/04/social-media-jobs/

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:51:59 -0000

Garrett,

Totally agree. You can argue all you want that a particular tool (like Twitter) is a fad. But two-way communication a fad? No way.

It is sooo young. I wrote a post on 5 social media predictions on where I think this is going if you're interested, located at:
http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/future-social-...

Jobs will change some, but won't go away.

~Jim

Re: 2008/08/06/rejaw/

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:15:37 -0000

I agree EJ. And the design is funky, too. But I think it's a great start. My review of it, for those who are curious, is at http://shortn.it/sIB0

I think we may soon see the Twitter killer come out if Ev and the boys can't turn things around asap.

But this is built in Ruby, too. Will it crash in a week?

Re: How I’m using Spaces on Mac OS X

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:11:08 -0000

Colin, Thanks. Very helpful. Could not find the box for the life of me. Just realized I'm on 10.5.2... Upgrading now. Good info.

~Jim

Re: 50 Steps to Establishing a Consistent Social Media Practice

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:45:54 -0000

Great list Chris.

For #21, consider Hittail. It does a nice job of showing you what people are searching for and even suggesting topics. The topic suggestions are usually a bit off base, but they sometimes serve as idea starters.

~Jim

Re: Top 142 Social Marketing Blogs on the Web

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:23:18 -0000

Jack,

Thanks for the mention. One thought: Lots of people are using the term "social marketing", but that's a term that's been in use for decades. It means applying marketing principles to address social issues.

What I think all of us on the list do is social media marketing. It's longer to say, and a bit clunky, but we can't use a term that's so well established.

~Jim

Jim Tobin at Ignite Social Media's last blog post..Google Knol Review - Has Wikipedia seen its last day?

Re: 12 Social Media Companies that Kick Ass

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:29:59 -0000

Jason,

Truly humbled to be included on the list. Best part is, we're having a lot of fun as we go. ~Jim

Re: TechMeme list heralds death of blogging?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:29:23 -0000

I think the point about Twitter and blog fatigue is a good one, but I'm not sure about the blogs have to be individuals thing. I know that's the popular thing to say, but if corporations take the advice in Naked Conversations and elsewhere, it's natural that they adapt it to their needs.

If they "stuffed shirt" it, people will just ignore them, but to define blog as one person only doesn't quite cut it for me either. It's just a content management system, it could be used well or poorly, by individuals and companies...

My two cents...

Re: TechMeme list heralds death of blogging?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:30:23 -0000

Oh, and I found this post by following Steve Rubel on Twitter. Totally agree that's often more interesting than GoogleReader...

Re: Steve Ballmer still doesn’t understand social networking

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:56:45 -0000

You right a ton of stuff, Robert. This one was dead on. But it's bigger than MSFT and social networking. I think it pervades big companies as they deal with disruptive technologies.

More on that thought at: http://tinyurl.com/3bvupt

~Jim

Re: 200+ Internet Marketing Gurus on Twitter

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:33:09 -0000

Andy,

A) thanks for including me and fellow Igniters on the list! I haven't gotten that many adds in one day on Twitter ever.
B) You're a traffic-building genius with this stuff, man...

Thanks again,
~Jim

Re: 200+ Internet Marketing Gurus on Twitter

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:35:48 -0000

Oh wait, Brian, you wrote this. Thanks to you. Clearly YOU are the genius. ;-)

~Jim

Re: Will You Pownce on Twitter Alternative?

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:24:17 -0000

I joined Pownce back when it launched, but like you haven't really done anything with it.

I'm still struggling to find the problem it solves. I know it does private file sharing, which I suppose could be handy for virtual orgs, friends who like to swap music, etc.

It was supposed to be huge. I'm at a loss so far... Anyone loving this thing? If so, what are you using it for.

~Jim

Re: Sure-fire Strategies to Pounce On Negative Search Engine Results

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:00:57 -0000

Kurt,

An excellent article. Most posts on this topic seem to be written by folks who are delusional or who don't share any insights.

This, on the other hand, was a must bookmark...

~Jim

Jim Tobin at Ignite Social Media's last blog post..Social Media Marketing Mistakes And How to Avoid Them (1 of 6)

Re: How to Make A Blog Post Go Viral with Social Media

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:52:18 -0000

I don't know that this article delivered on the promise of the headline. If you do all those things, you can still find yourself shouting into the wind.

Perhaps a part II with a deeper level of insight? It's an important topic...

~Jim

Jim Tobin at Ignite Social Media's last blog post..Social Media Marketing Mistakes And How to Avoid Them (2 of 6)

Re: Win Copies of Jim Tobin’s Book “Social Media is a Cocktail Party”

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:38:49 -0000

I just have to say that I'm really enjoying all the comments. Very funny stuff.

Thanks for all the interest, and thanks to Andy for making it happen.

~Jim

P.S. I don't need a book...

Jim Tobin at Ignite Social Media's last blog post..10 Celebrities on Twitter: How They Stack Up

Re: Analysis of the Little Gordon Campaign for Caterer.com

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:03:33 -0000

Kevin,

This is a great analysis. What we more often see in these campaigns is the opposite: "Share this" links puked all over the page, but content that is just awful. It's interesting that they did the inverse on these. The videos are really quite good. I'm going to share this around the office.

I suspect that a traditional agency did this. Two reasons: 1) Clearly strong writing/video production skills and 2) weak understanding of the social space.

What troubles me is how much the Compete data DROPPED post campaign. That's a real problem. As the economy is getting worse, a site for catering jobs is losing traffic? Oy... That's a problem, and I think some of the reasons you suggested could be to blame. Either that, or they offended their target audience, but I suspect it's the lack of integration.

~Jim

Jim Tobin at Ignite Social Media's last blog post..All Your Face Are Belong To Us - Facebook's Terms of Service

Re: Twitter has Email Equivalents

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:29:38 -0000

Rob,

Good analogy. I find a lot of newbies get thrown by the @ and D functions, sort of like they get thrown by the wall versus the inbox (and which is private) in Facebook.

~Jim

Re: Going for the Gold: The Best of Social Marketing Online - Part IV

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:39:02 -0000

Melissa,

Thanks for the mention of Ignite. I'm glad you're getting value from our content. That's a great compliment.

~Jim

Re: How ReTweets Spread: The Epidemiology of Viral Messaging on Twitter

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:47:35 -0000

Good stuff Dan. Love seeing some sociology and some hard data applied to this stuff. Keep it coming.

Ironically, I found this by Tweet and I'm going to retweet it.

~Jim

Re: Social Media Marketing is NOT a Direct Response Channel

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:27:37 -0000

Jake,

I do this full-time for a living, too. Our whole company does. But I only partly agree with you. I agree that social is different, and that in many ways it's about branding. Plus, what's the ROI of a trade show, or a press release? Few really know.

At the same time, my clients are carving out some percentage of their limited marketing dollars (even those who have millions have limited dollars).

If we as an industry are going to have it mature, we can't live on the "don't track this, it's different" answer for very long. What we do is online, which offers us better opportunities than most to do some tracking.

I certainly don't have all the answers yet, but it's one of the key things we're working on with our clients.

Keep up the good commentary.

~Jim

Re: BIGLIST Search Marketing Blogs 083107

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:04:16 -0000

Thanks for the shout-out Lee and the constructive critique. We'll punch up that About Us section and talk about who Lisa and I are. An oversight we need to correct.

~Jim

Re: Best Books on Social Media

Jim Tobin Ignite Social Media — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:14:09 -0000

Lee,

Thanks for including Social Media is a Cocktail Party.

My favorite on this list is Groundswell. I've read 5 or 6 of these, and Groundswell is really well done.

~Jim Tobin