One powerful use of online communities is to help get new ideas into a business; taking advantage of the fact that many (if not most) of the best ideas for your business are likely to come from outside, from people who don’t work for you. There are some well know examples of businesses working with consumers on co-creation in this way: MyStarbucksIdea and Dell’s Ideastorm being among the most well known.

Most of these sites use a similar process: people can join the community and then suggest their own idea, comment on existing ideas or vote for the ideas that they think are best. The best, most commented on or most voted for ideas are then responded to by the brand. They are an effective way for businesses to get ideas into their business and, more importantly perhaps, of showing customers some of their internal decision making and letting people who buy the product understand more about, and even influence, the processes by which it is made.

Like any good online community, such ideas sites work best when they work with other social networks – interacting with people on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, in forums and blogs. Going to where ... read more >>

The people we refer to as the Linkerati are those web users who not only own websites and blogs, and are not only prone to linking to compelling content, but whose sites carry strength and authority. They are the people whose accounts at social media sites are highly active, lending additional weight to that which they submit and vote on. They are web-savvy individuals who have seen a lot of linkbait and who often don’t want to link to direct marketing ploys. Upon visiting a social media site or reading a blog, the only reason why a member of the linkerati would take your bait and either vote for it or link to it is because it’s simply too good to ignore. The public at large may send links, chain letters and pictures in mass emails, but the Linkerati are a harder sell.

There are six types of people who regularly constitute the Linkerati. Sometimes, people fall into more than one category.

Social Media Participants

These are people who are actively involved in communities such as StumbleUpon, Reddit and Digg. They visit these sites every day, vote on content, submit content and add comments. They are powerful because their votes determine which content will become ... read more >>

I love a few restaurants. I love Jackie's in SilverSpring. I love Pete's Apizza in DC. I know how hard it is to make a sustained buisness out of  a restaurant. I tell people about both whenever I can. I have no material connection to either business and sadly am not even recognized upon my frequent visits. (I mean, come on, I was at Jackie's opening night.....)

So when I discovered Tastecasters, I was intrigued.

A simple service, TasteCasters lets folks with social media juice (followers) form their own local groups to try restaurants and food shops with the express purpose of sharing their experience via their social  graph ( their blog, Facebook page, Twitter, YouTube - you get the picture). Your self-formed group will then get invited by restaurants to come have a session. It's kind of like a tweet-up with an informal commitment to share your experience at the establishment via your own platform.

Dan Harris is the founder and is bootstrapping this effort. He is building the car while driving it so to speak. So, he gets lots of points and latitude for the scaffolding still being in place, so-to-speak. Being a WOMMA ethics guy I had to make a few suggestions ...

Brandweek has an excellent article today on the changing job description of a CMO.

Lynne Seid, a partner for the global marketing practices at Heidrick & Struggles, the recruiting firm and  Tom Kline, chief scientist for the marketing firm Digital Scientists,  interviewed 111 top CMOs in December about digital marketing. They say that the realization that data like searches, trackbacks and tweets add up to valuable marketing data is just hitting a lot of companies right now.

That is true for PR too.  As the online world changes the media landscape and what influences people, we find that we need new skills.  One of those skills is understanding search engine optimization and search trends, so our nrws content gets seen in the right places.

Google has a wealth of data and they make it freely available.  All you have to do is learn how to use their tools.  Why ‘fly blind’ when tapping into online data can give you  insights into what people are interested in right now.

Google Trends can tell you what search terms are popular, which are rising and which are falling out of favor.  Here is a Google Trends graph for the phrase skin care.

As I work with our clients on their link building projects, I am often testing out new tools to make the process more efficient. After meeting with Lee at PubCon South in March, Jeremy Bencken - one of the founders of BuzzStream -  followed up with Lee for the opportunity to demo and test out their link building tool - BuzzStream for Link Building. Lee requested that I take a look at this tool, and I was glad for the opportunity.

For many webmasters, managing link building campaigns can seem pretty daunting. Identifying a link building strategy is one key to success. Another is ensuring link building efficiency and follow up. Identifying processes and tools to help increase this efficiency can greatly increase the amount and value of links you achieve.

BuzzStream is one such tool. Developed by the creators of ApartmentRatings.com, BuzzStream helps identify sites from which to request links, and makes this link building process efficient and human. The BuzzStream for Link Building tool works in 4 key ways: Identifying contact information, managing communications, managing link opportunities and link request sent, and monitoring backlinks achieved.

When searching for link ...