Are you blogging but not sure why?

Not seeing business impact from creating blog posts?

Wondering how and why to blog for your company?

With a few quick yet critical fixes, you can turn your not-so-hot blog into a killer blog that will generate tons of traffic.

First, some considerations...

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Over the last few years LinkedIn has evolved to play a central role in professional networking and relationship building. I’ve come to find it very disappointing when I see a profile that looks like it was thrown together in 20 minutes, doesn’t have much thought put in to it, or is clearly overdue for an update.

If you think of yourself as a brand, think of your LinkedIn as part of your website – your profile should be thoroughly developed with care and attention. Take a look at these tips to bring your LinkedIn page to the next level.

Show your strategy — not a list of tactics

LinkedIn is a place for you to be descriptive. Bullet points are great for resumes, but they should stay there. Find the right language to bolster your experience and highlight your personal contributions and accomplishments rather than listing your daily duties like a job posting...

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Kirstie Alley, the very public and notoriously inconsistent dieter, has made a cameo appearance in the Zoo World Facebook game.   The game, which revolves around building a zoo and keeping your customers happy, now allows for you to either purchase a Healthy Snack Stand item that is sponsored by Kirstie Alley, or you can buy a Kirstie Alley Greeting stand, which just sits there and looks pretty.

The items are shown above, and fit right into the game style.  Other than the name brand, they don’t have much to do with Kirstie at all, and her camp hasn’t released any press relating to the items.  It seems that her advertising firm is probably dipping their feet to see what kind of response they get.

It’s interesting to see celebrities make their way into social games, and the fact that it is a prominent female dieter just underscores the fact that females are the main demographic for games...

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The web of intent is coming.

Want to confuse someone? Start talking about the importance of localized databases and the aggregate collection of data from a wide variety of users.

Huh?

We are shifting into our new reality; a reality built from our own contextual input, from both a virtual and analog perspective.

The world is now a Wikipedia entry.

The red light is always on. Smile.

Social media has taken conversation and made it a part of the public dialogue. We've created a public forum for discussion that is accessible to all people at any time.

The behavioral shift over the past five years has been nothing short of revolutionary. We now feel comfortable sharing the most intimate of details about ourselves with the populace at large.

This openness by default has led to the development and improvement of data collection. We've started to reach a critical mass of information; a mass with which we can actually do something...

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It will probably come as no surprise that the pre-dominant activity on SlideShare, according to the company's CEO Rashmi Sinha, who I spoke with recently about the launch of their new branded channels, is B2B lead generation.

B2B sales cycles exceed those of B2C, because the former requires someone be walked through a process, learn best practices and see relevant case studies to arrive at a purchasing decision... read more >>

Yahoo today announced that they are acquiring Citizen Sports, a company that creates fantasy sports leagues for Facebook, iPhone, Android and other devices.  The acquisition is meant to enhance Yahoo’s position in social games and fantasy sports, and “strengthen Yahoo!’s social strategy of enriching, aggregating and distributing social content from across the entire Web, and offering a highly customizable social experience.”

Citizen Sports various applications allow people to play in fantasy leagues, fill out brackets, check out live scores...

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Almost a year ago I wrote a post called 5 Reasons Social Media is Like Sailing that was well-received. It’s time to update that post.

Since then I’ve come up with more reasons sailors might just have the right approach to social media for business. Even if you aren’t into sailing you might try these approaches to see if they don’t make your time in social media more positive and more productive.

Here then are 10 Ideas to Help Business Navigate Social Media:

1. Pick your boat carefully: Not every craft is right for every sailor just as in social media not every platform is right for every individual. Pick a platform that suits you. Work with one at a time and see what works.

2. Start slowly: Nobody goes from pond sailing to open-ocean sailing in a day, weeks or even years. Learn your own capabilities, learn from others and be willing to get dunked a few times along the way.

3. Find an old-salt/mentor: Every top sailor was at some point helped along by an experienced hand. So it should be in social media: Find someone who literally knows the ropes and can help you navigate your early days. They’ll also be there to stop you from drowning when you inevitably get ... read more >>

“Reciprocal following” is when you follow the people who follow you on Twitter. Sounds harmless, even nice. But don’t be fooled. Many problems are caused by this practise. Reciprocal following should be discontinued — here’s why.

Don’t confuse your “followers” (those who have chosen to follow you) with those that you are “following.” They are two different groups of Twitter users that are associated with your Twitter account.

You should follow other Twitter users that you find interesting. The tweets from these people show up in your timeline (your Twitter feed). They should be users that provide you with information, entertainment, dialogue or whatever it is that you find interesting about them...

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