Blog

Thanks to all of you who have helped us beta test our new look!

As you may have noticed, we are shifting the look and content of Never Mind Marketing a bit. There is a lot of “noise” out there about “social media experts”, “consultants”, etc. Truthfully, based on my experience, there are a lot of people that use Facebook and have perhaps graciously bestowed the “expert” title upon themselves.

I have taken it upon myself to not use the term “expert” or “consultant”. I am an advisor. I am knowledgeable in the social media and online marketing industry and will happily share my knowledge with business owners who want to know more.

The blog will also take a more personal approach as I begin to ramp up admission into our Marketing Master’s program – where we tailer the barrage of social networking news, hype, myth, and scams (yes, there are scams) into a meaningful, palatable, presentation of information for our Marketing Master’s students.

Speaking of barrage, many have written in and asked about some of the tools I use to sift through all the information coming and going. Here is a 30,000 foot view:

• HootSuite – I monitor about 1,000 (it changes often) sources of information via Twitter and RSS feeds about the social media industry. I even follow scammers to stay informed about their tactics. You must keep your friends close and enemies closer in this industry.
• Google Alerts – Find a term you are interested in and monitor it
• Facebook – personal and for business. People are always talking, social networking is about listening
• Mainstream news sources – although, by the time the New York Times or most other publications get information, industry insiders have been discussing it for weeks (or months, sometimes), sometimes useful bits information makes its way into the articles.

What does this mean for you? It means you have an advocate sifting through a bunch of nonsense and passing along stuff that actually matters.

Beware of impostors and good luck out there!