15 years to make a referral: The long reality of word of mouth (and “social”)

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I’ve spent a lot of time talking about how social media shouldn’t be looked at overnight, how it’s anything but a direct path towards the sale. It’s a message made by most every “social strategist” but, despite us all shouting the point, most businesses simply still look to take things back to fans, clicks and sales… the so called “ROI.” So today I thought I’d share a quick story to remind us how “viral” really works. Think about what you can track along the way.

Photo from Lone Mountain Ranch <http://www.lonemountainranch.com>

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Rethinking Recommendations: Interests Matter, Friends… Not So Much.

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Recommended GraphicI make regular use of Amazon’s “people who looked at this, bought that,” Facebook and Twitter’s suggested friends, Netflix’s movie picks and while I realize they’re great tools for companies to sell me more, a good recommendation is about my life easier too. They’re why we should all be [more] ok with giving out so much about it… the benefit to being tracked.

But recommendations are getting infused with an awful lot of social and that’s doesn’t always [or often] make sense.

Sure, at first glance it’s great to know that my friend stayed at that boutique hotel while searching TripAdvisor, or that my sister owns that movie; but my friends and I travel differently and my sister, well, we haven’t watched a movie since Terminator I [which I'm pretty sure was not her first pick]. That’s a gap that applies to just about anything I’m thinking about and most anyone I know. Continue reading →

Does a tweet change perception? No, but it’s a start.

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In the airline world half the variables are simply out of the carrier’s control so reputation is really more about how they handle something than avoiding it but flying around we all know the sad reality: just about no one is doing it right. For me this hits home most with United. The airline I put my time on, built up with, and yet wait weeks to hear back from via email… social channels? There’s hardly a single response from their accounts, let alone one directed to something I’ve asked. Continue reading →