WTF is Google Wave?

Google Wave is awesome. But trying to explain exactly how it will make things better is really hard. If you'd like to understand how brilliantly simple it is, click here to see a 2 minute YouTube video.

Just as I suspected

Prospective clients have been knocking on Digital Influence Group's door in record numbers this year. As much as I'd like to claim it's solely due to the impressive expertise and experience we've accumulated, even a brilliant message can fail to be heard if the timing's off. These SmartBrief poll results seem to indicate that many clients are ready to take out the ear plugs. According to SmartBrief, customer advocacy of their brand is on the radar screen of 83% of the 864 participants in this poll.

YouTwitFace Frankenstein

I'm too busy working on social marketing projects for clients to write blog posts these days. So I'll be brief. Has anyone else noticed in the last few weeks that alll of the Social Media channels are starting to mush together? Facebook has @replies; YouTube is adding a "do you know these people" button. If each of these social media channels has a distinct purpose, why are they all starting to look and act alike? Will this stitching together of body parts be a good thing? It didn't work out so well for Frankenstein...

Social media metrics that matter

How should clients measure the impact of social media, given that it doesn't necessarily create, as experts are fond of saying a straight line from A (your product/service) to B (your audience) to C (the cash register)? According to the Smart Pulse poll above, featured in the August 26th SmartBrief on Social Media eNewsletter, the metric that matters most to advertisers is "virality", or how much their message is shared. "Sentiment" or how people feel about your brand, came in a close second. Interestingly enough, the effect Social Media has on a company's bottom line came in third.

Boston Twestival

The results are in. Boston Twestival will support one of my favorite non-profits: SmallCanBeBig.org with a fundraising event on September 10, 6:30-10:00PM at OM Restaurant in Harvard Square.

SCBB is a Boston charity that uses micro-donations to help families on the verge of losing their homes, their health, their livelihood, or mobility because of a shortfall in their income. Local charities nominate the families for consideration, and SmallCanBeBig acts as a pass through for all donations.

It is an awesome cause!

Ticket sales will begin once the Twestival Boston folks confirm the details with the "mothership". In the meantime, save the date.

We interrupt this remodel for a social media post

Facebook for business? Ridiculous! NOT. It may not be the appropriate social networking channel for every business or industry. But it might be for yours. Assuming it is, how can you best leverage Facebook? Check out this Duct Tape Marketing post by John Jantsch to find out. Then check out the Inside Facebook blog for examples of how businesses like Visa are creating a social network within this social network.

It was all going so well

Just when I thought "our remodel is going to be the exception rule and everything is going to go on schedule, without a hitch", the shit storm hit.
Last night when I went home, expecting to have our sleek new stove & refrigerator installed and ready to use, instead I found that the oven door was sealed like a tomb. Evidently, the contractors had labored mightily for 1 1/2 hours trying to get the damn thing to open. To no avail. Thus, when I arrived home, there were workmen still underfoot. My oven wasn't usable. And the cats were howling.
Howling. Not mewing. Not meowing. Howling. And there was a bewildering stink coming from their general direction. How could this be? After all, these are the same cats we carted across the country in the heat of summer, staying every day in a new, terrifying hotel. They were frightened and bored. But, they never ever even came close to soiling their kennel.
Obviously, our cat, Coco had reached the end of his rope and decided it was time to make a statement. He'd had enough of being trapped in his kennel while strangers came and went and made ungodly amounts of noise with monster machines. He let not 1, but 2 bowel movements go, then covered them with the fluffy yellow towel I'd lovingly placed inside for their comfort. Now the odor was stupifying and he and our tabby cat, Chechu, were enraged. But I couldn't let them out until the contractors left since the interior doors of the apartment, swollen from the humidity, also refused to shut.
Meanwhile, the appliance company had to be dealt with before they closed. So I was on the phone negotiating with customer service (who never apologized for delivering a defective appliance) as the workmen scurried back and forth trying to clear out and my felines caterwauled in the background.