http://www.businesssmarttools.com Harnessing the power of emerging technology for business Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:00:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Long ago, advertising followed this timeline: * You buy ad space in a newspaper. * The newspaper runs your ad. * You get additional business because of your single ad. * Repeat. The media may have changed, but the concept has remained the same: advertising is a one-time shot at getting someone's attention. Thus, ... http://www.businesssmarttools.com/2008/12/03/like-diamonds-social-media-is-forever/ We're not about to get political here, and tell you what you should think of any proposed federal bailout of the Big 3 American carmakers.  Instead, we'd like to shed light on how one of those companies is using social media to spread the word about their POSITIVES -- which ... http://www.businesssmarttools.com/2008/11/26/how-ford-is-using-social-media-to-spread-the-facts/ Shel Holtz and John C. Havens have written a new book about the value of transparency in your business communications.   It's called Tactical Transparency, and it features extensive quotes from both Valorie Luther (founder of Business Smart Tools' parent company, Creative Concepts) and BST speaker Cindi Bigelow (President of ... http://www.businesssmarttools.com/2008/11/19/psst-shel-holtz-thinks-were-quotable/ (Full disclosure: Creative Concepts, the parent company of the Business Smart Tools conference, developed and produced the following video.) Last year, The American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes teamed up to deliver nearly 600,000 holiday cards and letters to members of the US armed services, as part of their Holiday Mail ... http://www.businesssmarttools.com/2008/11/13/new-red-cross-video-asks-you-to-send-holiday-cards-to-us-soldiers/ Last week, we mentioned the importance of being "present" in as many social media forums as you can handle, because you never know which one of them might help a new customer (or a hundred of them) discover your business. This week, let's tackle the nuts & bolts of HOW to ... http://www.businesssmarttools.com/2008/11/12/how-to-be-everywhere-at-once/ Once upon a time, a company could make a healthy living just by advertising in one form of media.  Sure, you might invest a minimal amount in radio or TV, "just in case," but if print ads were how most of your customers found you, then print ads were where ... http://www.businesssmarttools.com/2008/11/05/why-you-need-to-be-everywhere-at-once/ If your company is using social media to interact with your customers, you presumably want to know what those customers think.  You WANT them to tell you how you're doing, what they like (and what they don't), and what they wish you would do more (or less). But in order to ... http://www.businesssmarttools.com/2008/10/29/you-got-customer-feedback-great-now-what/ When someone engages with your company or brand in a social media setting like MySpace, Twitter or YouTube, they often choose to become your "friend." In social media terms, a "friend" is the same thing as a subscriber -- it's a person who's interested enough in what you're doing ... http://www.businesssmarttools.com/2008/10/22/with-social-media-friends-seek-quality-over-quantity/ When things are going well for your company, being "social" in social media is easy. But as soon as a company or an industry experiences trouble -- from an economic hiccup to a full PR disaster -- it can be tempting to bar the gates and limit all public ... http://www.businesssmarttools.com/2008/10/15/why-being-transparent-is-more-important-than-controlling-the-message/ One of the benefits your company enjoys with social media is the opportunity to engage directly with your audience / customers / critics / competitors.  But WHO is doing that engaging on YOUR behalf? Some companies empower their executives to speak their own minds, in their own words (for example, the ... http://www.businesssmarttools.com/2008/10/08/who-is-the-voice-of-your-company/