Social networking and ROI

Every once in a while, most of us get involved in a client meeting wherein we are asked to justify the expense of social networking in terms of return on investment (ROI). Whether you are charging a company big bucks to completely handle their social programs, or charging them a little to teach them how to do it, they deserve an answer to that question and it is not always easy to justify the expense, especially in the short term … Continue reading

Facebook, yada yada

I was feeling left out because everyone had written a column on the Facebook IPO but me. 🙁 As many of you know, I am not a huge fan of the Facebook concept. It seems to me that they are invasively intruding upon our lives for profit, relying on peer pressure and hype to get that job done. Along the way, they are selling the information they collect from us for free to marketers so that our lives can become … Continue reading

The constant sound of horns

One of the less-desirable facets of social media is the tendency of Web denizens to endlessly promote themselves. The way in which services such as Twitter and Facebook are designed certainly encourages this type of behavior. It is a very annoying trait, regardless of the goal that the user has in mind. And in all of it, there is a certain amount of obvious bullshit. There are two main groups of guilty parties. First, there is the online entrepreneur, always … Continue reading