We are living and communicating in a world that is seeing the rapid convergence of traditional and social media.  The velocity of this shift has often left communication professionals feeling confused, uncomfortable, and unsure of what to do: scrambling to figure out how social media fits in overall communication strategies, how to utilize it to our advantage, and how to measure its impact.  With so much and so fast, there’s a worry, too, of missing something big.

At Marketwire, we’ve been successful as the innovative leader in distributing our customers’ news, and now we are applying that innovative spirit to the social media sector and social media monitoring.

As such, I am very excited to announce Marketwire’s acquisition of Sysomos. (more…)

Note:  The following article is posted on GuideStar.com and was also featured in the July 2010 edition of its monthly newsletter. GuideStar seeks to revolutionize philanthropy and the nonprofit practice by providing information that advances transparency, enabling users to make better decisions and encouraging charitable giving.

Today, marketing isn’t so much about the “big sell” as it is about the way in which you communicate with your audiences. Of course, big-budget ad campaigns for TV, radio, print, and, now, online will cease to go away entirely, but realistically, most nonprofit organizations do not have the budgets to invest in traditional advertising, let alone any other kind of costly marketing campaigns. (more…)

A challenge for today’s communicators is to keep pace with the new lingo that seemingly pops up out of nowhere. If we’re not paying attention, a whole new vocabulary appears overnight.

We can choose to ignore all of this and simply stick to the AP Stylebook and our handy Webster’s Dictionary, or we can go “whole hog” and pepper these buzzwords through our own communications. But even if we choose to stay with the tried and true, it pays to acquire an understanding of the more common terms since they have a nasty habit of migrating beyond their borders and popping up in places when we least expect them. (more…)

I’ve never been in a room of more nervous marketers than when I sat down to listen to Mike Grehan of SearchEngineWatch interview Maile Ohye of Google Webmaster Tools at SES Toronto’s day 2 keynote panel.  On the heels of several algorithm changes to Google search, many in the crowd needed to hear reassuring words from the world’s most popular search engine for themselves.  Thankfully, Maile wasn’t dodging hot topics like Google’s Mayday algorithm update or Google’s Caffeine infrastructure changes, two hot topics at SES Toronto this year that promises to have significant effects on optimizing websites and news articles for search. (more…)

Did you know that the word “translator” derives from the Latin root word for “traitor”?  The translator can indeed be a traitor, if she translates incorrectly and conveys an erroneous message.

Case in point: During the 1987 Miss Universe Pageant, Inés María Calero said, in Spanish, that her favorite dish to make was ropa vieja.  The translator told the audience that the Miss Venezuela contestant liked to cook “old clothes.”  That was the literal translation, but in fact it’s a very common Cuban dish consisting of shredded beef in a tomato-based sauce.  Although she received 3rd place, the translator’s faux pas may have cost her the crown.

For translation services, accuracy is key, but the understanding of local and cultural nuances, innuendos and colloquialisms are equally as important. (more…)

To maximize your 140-word limit, Nick Shin, our resident social media guru, came up with a brilliant dictionary of Twitter terms and abbreviations on his own blog, Marketing Shindig. Here’s a few of them: (more…)

Congratulations to the winners of our haiku contest!  I received entries from a wide range of backgrounds — from the casual writer to haiku fanatics. But, the results — your poems –  are creative proof that  all of you have embraced social media.  As a contest that was promoted through social media  about social media, it was amazing to see it in action because of its widespread reach and the amount of participation we received.

Without further ado, the seven winners: (more…)

Recently, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company’s new “Open Graph” platform – a move that is guaranteed to change how 400 million (and counting) Facebook subscribers interact with the internet. As the No. 2 site in the world (as of May 6, 2010), Facebook is giving its users the ability to personalize their own web experience through this social-bookmarking-on-steroids approach.  (more…)

One of the best lines I’ve heard regarding social media was, “Who is that spaceman” from a colleague at Marketwire (we won’t name any names).  What “spaceman” was the colleague referring to?  This one:

I thought this was hilarious.  Many of you reading this will immediately recognize the logos of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter because these social media sites get the most attention.  However, don’t limit yourself to just these three, there are other networking sites that you should consider visiting.  (more…)

One of the most asked questions I’ve received from our Social Media Fitness Program participants is in regards to Twitter and how to optimize one’s Twitter page.  I’m glad many of you are taking the initiative to consider social media optimization as part of your strategy.

In this session of Tips from the Trainer, I will go over how to optimize your Twitter profile and your Twitter background. (more…)