So the latest Mashable article on the use of social media points to emarketer results indicating that two-thirds of marketers use social media in some capacity. The number is projected to increase to 82% in the next 12 months leaving a mere 12% of businesses uninterested in using the online outlet. The reasons companies aren’t using? They range from not knowing what to do, to not understanding measurement and benefits, to believing it is a poor use of employee time.
As this seems to be a great thing for businesses like myself that teach companies how to use social media and help create and execute social media plans, it definitely leaves the social media space cluttered. The space is becoming filled with a lot more noise than a few months ago, and the noise can definitely get in the way of effective messaging. Read the rest of this entry »
Sponsored Tweets, an IZEA company formerly known for “Pay Per Post” that paid bloggers to write about specific products has moved into Twitterdom. Sponsored Tweets offers Twitter users the option of sending their followers messages that hype brands or products. The chosen Twitterers get paid based upon a flat-fee per Tweet, or the number of clicks that their Tweets rack up.
Mashable described Sponsored Tweets method of doing business;
The Sponsored Tweets platform works by giving advertisers the ability to create campaigns and select, invite, and approve Twitterers of their choosing to participate in their sponsored campaigns. On the flip side, Twitterers can set their pay rate and find opportunities to tweet on behalf of advertisers and get paid per tweet and/or click.
Similar to its blogging program, Sponsored Tweets will carry disclosure in the form of a #spon hashtag. In other words, if someone is being paid to tweet about a product, it will be disclosed, assuming that users follow the rules. Read the rest of this entry »
Image by Jobriga via Flickr
Since I was a day late with my last blog post, I have decided to be a day early with this one. That is just the way I am.
I have been working all week on a grant proposal for one of my clients. It has been about 15 years since I did something like this and I am having to relearn a lot of stuff. Still, I had a $70 million track record back then and I think that I can still do it. It just takes some time to catch up. As far as I can see, the fundamentals have not changed–but the details certainly have. I do have to say that it is not real easy to make a living as a professional writer and that it probably helps to have a range of skills for producing a range of products–press releases, articles, newsletters, grants, etc.
The hardest part for me has been convincing myself that I can still produce. I spent the last twelve years or so creating and managing various forms of social media. Returning to more conventional forms of the written word has proven to be much harder than I expected. Read the rest of this entry »
