Philosophy

The Navigator is my monthly email newsletter. You should subscribe if you haven’t already. The theme of this month’s edition of The Navigator was relationships. With Valentine’s Day coming Sunday and the topic top of mind for many of us, I wanted to share some of the ideas here to further the discussion.

Social media brought humanity back to marketing. Brands engaged in social media activity are no longer monolithic, corporate entities. They are groups of interesting, diverse and valuable people — humans — who we often want to connect with, sometimes to build a stronger connection with the company; sometimes because those individuals share a common interest. This humanity gives brands a unique opportunity to bring romance into the customer equation. The theory here is that social media and that humanity allows us to make our customers fall in love with us.

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Five Things We Should All Do In 2010

January 1, 2010

If you haven’t seen a 2010 prediction post in the last two weeks, welcome back from your coma. If you don’t see a wad of New Year’s resolution posts this week, we hope you come out of yours soon. Nothing against those who have produced such entries. There’s some search and link value to those [...]

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May Your Christmas Be Merry

December 25, 2009

My hope is you don’t see this blog post until well after Friday. My intention today, and this weekend, is to unplug and enjoy family and friends.
But I did want to take a moment to wish everyone a very merry season, whatever holiday you celebrate, or even if you don’t celebrate anything other than another [...]

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The Key To Startup Success

December 4, 2009

Unwittingly, my job has given me a fair amount of exposure to, and interaction with, entrepreneurs building the next big thing. Whether it’s a gadget, software platform, online service or earth-shattering productivity whatchamadigger, I meet and talk with up-starts and start-ups from several walks of life. Many are trying to pitch me to write about [...]

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Sprucing Up Social Media Explorer

December 3, 2009

Welcome to the new design for Social Media Explorer. I know, it doesn’t look all that different, but I needed to put a new coat of paint on the walls and move some furniture around.
Since the majority of you reading this might be interested (not many first time visitors or newcomers will care), I thought [...]

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The Benefits Of Off The Grid

November 25, 2009

I’ll be headed home to the mountains of East Kentucky this week. Image via Wikipedia

You may notice me being a bit off the grid this week. And there are some very good reasons.
First, we all need some R&R from the daily grind, even if it’s the grind we love so. I spend between 10 and [...]

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Determining Your Friends

November 20, 2009

I’ve been pondering the value and validity of the term “friend” lately. Until a few years ago, we all probably had a couple hundred friends, give or take. Social networking not only incrementalized that number, but changed the definition of the word for many people.
I have 1,300 or more “friends” on Facebook. I’ve probably met [...]

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The Four Spheres Of Social Media Strategy

November 18, 2009

A crowd of 80 or so attended yesterday’s social media boot camp hosted by the Kentucky chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the Social Media Club Louisville. I was honored to serve as one of the presenters along with the undisputed queen of measurement, Katie Paine, and The Bad Pitch Blog [...]

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The Dangerous Waters Ahead

November 4, 2009

The era of the social web has given us unprecedented access. We can see more about each other’s lives, know more about each other’s daily routines and find each other easier now than ever before. We have access to what would have been millions of dollars in software applications and platforms now, too. But they, [...]

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Prioritizing Your Networks

October 21, 2009

Five days in Las Vegas with my Internet friends always forces me into a fit of introspection about where I’m going, how fast and who with. Blog World & New Media Expo brings together a good number of my online contacts. We talk, learn, laugh and enjoy each other’s company for a few days, talk [...]

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A 100-Percent Guarantee For Social Media Success

October 19, 2009

Several really wonderful people approached me at Blog World & New Media Expo over the weekend to tell me they appreciated this blog, my Tweets and the ideas I share with them around the Internet. Those types of conversations never get old. To each of you who had one with me, the thanks are all [...]

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