Content is everywhere – and that’s the problem. Content creators – bloggers, videographers, writers, artists, designers, musicians, journalists, directors, illustrators, actors, etc. – should be celebrating. The internet has opened up the world to them. Writers can sell novels and non-fiction directly to readers. Musicians can sell their songs right to listeners. YouTube and Vimeo […]
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Why “Likes” Matter
May 8, 2013 
3 Comments
Nothing causes as much consternation as a Facebook “like.” Marketers want to give it a value. Sales guys want to monetize it. Communicators want to measure it. But the simple fact is that few people understand it. So what is a like? What does it mean when a Facebook user “likes” something? First, you need […]
Read more4 Myths of Social Media Authenticity
April 29, 2013 9 Comments
One of the great big whopping lies about social media is authenticity. Because – let’s face it – there isn’t much that’s authentic about social media. There’s lots of spin, cherry-picking, and bright-side propaganda from both individuals and brands going on. Few people and brands are truly genuine about their attitudes, personalities and opinions on […]
Read moreYou’re Not Married to Your Social Networks – You’re Just Dating
April 12, 2013 4 Comments
Because if history is any guide – social networks come and go. Mostly go. So don’t go off and get hitched. As my astute colleague Greg Swan recently noted: “You would think the track record of social network migration (i.e. users emigrating from Compuserve to AOL, AOL to Friendster, Friendster to MySpace, more recently MySpace […]
Read moreShould We Block Big Brother Tactics by Companies?
April 4, 2013 8 Comments
Gmail reads my emails. … so they can serve me targeted ads. Amazon analyzes my book buying habits. …to serve me up ads via recommendations. Facebook studies my posting habits and likes. …to sell my profile to advertisers so they can target me with ads. Google collects and analyzes my search habits. …to serve me […]
Read moreWhat the Heck is Content Marketing?
April 2, 2013 5 Comments
Content marketing is when a brand creates content and shares it. It’s different from “regular” content (whatever that is) because its goal is to attract and engage consumers. Content marketing has been around since the beginning of PR and advertising. It used to come in the form of company newsletters, advertorials, user conferences, company magazines […]
Read moreFear of Storytelling & Other Tales of Brand Failure
March 27, 2013 2 Comments
The Internet is killing Advertising. Or at least what we would consider traditional advertising. Fewer people believe the claims. More people tune it out. Or just avoid it all together (fast forward anyone?). The Internet has ushered in an era of transparency, openness and instant access to information. There’s no place to hide. So claiming […]
Read more“The Best Personalized Newspaper in the World”
March 8, 2013 3 Comments
That’s a quote by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg describing Facebook’s newly redesigned News Feed. Amazing, isn’t it? Facebook wants to be a newspaper while its busy putting real newspapers out of business. Oh, the irony. Facebook’s business model is about selling ads around content. But Facebook doesn’t create any content. It’s users do by uploading […]
Read moreWhy a “Like” Doesn’t Matter Except When It Does
February 27, 2013 0 Comments
Too many brands troll for likes. And that’s because the people who manage the Facebook pages – be they internal or external – are often measured by the number of “likes” the content generates. And that’s why brands often post compelling content like this (actual posts – names withheld to protect the guilty): Remember having […]
Read moreWill Anyone Ever Pay for Journalism Again?
February 13, 2013 10 Comments
Never giveaway a product if you have to sell it to stay in business. Sounds like a no-brainer doesn’t it? Because guess what happens when no one wants to buy your product anymore? You go out of business. That’s what’s happening to the business of journalism right now. It is slowly, but surely, going out […]
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HighTalk by George F. Snell III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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