 | B.L. Ochman
Blogger, social media strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and sought-after corporate speaker B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also is the co-founder of Pawfun.com, the custom photo t-shirt site for pet lovers. |
Five Reasons Why Companies Should Not Block Employee Access to Social NetworksThursday, March 11, 2010Last week, a client told me that they don't allow employees to access YouTube at work. "Do your employees carry cellphones?" I asked. The answer was "yes," of course. "Well then, most of them already have access to YouTube," I replied. "Right in their pockets." The fact is, resistance to social network access at work is futile. Read on for five reasons why. SocialRead more | Comments (1) |
Thistle Farms: Marketing With Hope, Love & Social MediaTuesday, February 2, 2010Sometimes, the use of social media is a rather frivolous afterthought in marketing campaigns. In the case of Magdalene House and Thistle Farms, hope, love, and social media sell redemption. Let them show you what social media really can do. MarketingRead more | Comments (0) |
Starbucks and Kelloggs: Two Silly StrategiesMonday, December 21, 2009Starbucks is busy un-branding its new stealth stores, and Kellogg's is compulsively adding its name on each corn flake it sells. The problems? Some of us like Starbucks, and we'll never see the names on the corn flakes until after we buy the box. MarketingRead more | Comments (1) |
Two Questions For Your New Social Media AgencyMonday, December 14, 2009There are scores of blog posts suggesting that you need to ask six to 20 questions. I maintain these two will give you the real skinny on your prospective social media agency or consultant. MarketingRead more | Comments (0) |
Top Five Reasons Why Free is a Good Business Model & How We Plan to Use it to Retire Before We're 90Tuesday, November 3, 2009Is free really a good business model? Experience tells us the answer is "yes". If we're right, we get to retire before we're 90. SocialRead more | Comments (0) |
Ten Things Social Media Cannot DoMonday, November 2, 2009Amid the endless pronouncements about social media -- often shortened to "social" these days by consultants trying to sound like they know what they are talking about -- is the reality that social media is not a solution, or a sure bet. Here are 10 reasons why. MarketingRead more | Comments (2) |
Augmented Reality Meets Social Media at Meijer Halloween SiteThursday, October 15, 2009Companies from GE to Popular Science to Doritos have begun incorporating augmented reality (AR) into their marketing, and iPhone and Google Android have begun proliferating. Meijer, the 190-store mid-western retain chain, is merging Augmented Reality and social media on its Halloween site. Will it blend? MarketingRead more | Comments (0) |
B.L. Ochman’s Blogger Outreach ManifestoThursday, October 1, 2009Verily, bloggers are here to stay. When tho reaches out to us, heed thee these rules of engagement, or pay ye the consequences. MarketingRead more | Comments (0) |
Three Top Ways to Damage Your Brand With Social MediaThursday, September 24, 2009These three social media marketing mistakes are made over and over by companies that just don't want to believe that customers really are in control, and that what matters most about your brand is what comes up in Google. MarketingRead more | Comments (0) |
The Top Six Reasons Companies are Still Scared of Social MediaThursday, September 24, 2009Big companies are dipping their toes into the social media marketing pool in increasing numbers, but they are still scared that social media will bite them. These are the top six corporate fears about social media. SocialRead more | Comments (4) |
E.P. Carrillo Cigars Seeks the Long-Elusive Social Media Mashup Business ModelMonday, September 21, 2009This just-launched mashup of Google Maps and Twitter from E.P. Carrillo Cigars seeks to add business to the mix by creating an international community of cigar smokers. The current mashup is simply a placeholder for the website, which launches in late October.
Elegantly simple, the E.P. Carrillo mashup features a real-time map shoring the origin of Tweets that mention cigars anywhere in the world. MarketingRead more | Comments (0) |
Yes Men Use Social Media to Help Them Pull Off Media Heist with "We're Screwed" Edition of NY Post'Monday, September 21, 2009This morning, starting at 4 a.m., more than 2,000 volunteers helped the social activist pranksters, the Yes Men, distribute more than one million copies of a fake New York Post special edition about the global warming crisis with the page one headline "We're Screwed!" They made masterful use of social media to organize and execute the stunt. SocialRead more | Comments (0) |
People of Walmart - A Runaway Hit Wal-Mart Can't (& Shouldn't) StopTuesday, September 8, 2009People of Walmart is a new blog about weirdly dressed Wal-mart shopper. It's gone viral and there doesn't seem to be a damn thing Wal-mart can - or should - do about it.
The site also defines social media: content that makes people want to share something they like, or dislike. Marketing, SocialRead more | Comments (1) |
What To Do When Your Contest is Bitten By CheatersFriday, September 4, 2009The prize in the Cutest Dog Competition is $1 million. That's led to 50,000 entries and 300,000 votes a day - including a lot of ballot stuffing by cheaters.
Here's some advice on how to make sure a contest you run isn't over-run by cheaters. Marketing, Media, Social, TechnologyRead more | Comments (0) |
Study: Companies Are Slow to Adopt Web 2.0 Technology, But Positive Change Often Results for Those Who DoMonday, August 17, 2009Good news: When corporations bring Web 2.0 tools into their Intranets, and allow changes in their command and control corporate culture, positive change is likely to result.
Bad news: It takes most companies 3-5 years to incorporate collaboration tools into their Intranets. (That's like 10 years in Internet time!) TechnologyRead more | Comments (0) |
"Happy Joel" Levinson Makes a Living Winning Video Contests by Marketing His Entries Better Than Companies Market Their ContestsMonday, July 27, 2009Video contests continue to proliferate like mosquitoes in a rainy July. Most are run by companies dipping a toe in the social media water and hoping for a cheap way to attract viral buzz. However, like their insect counterparts, the vast majority of these contests, and the lackluster way they are marketed, suck. MarketingRead more | Comments (0) |
Updated List of Social Media Gurus on Twitter: a Public Service for CMOs, from What's Next BlogMonday, June 29, 2009Companies large and small are scrambling to pick a social media guru to guide them through the wilds of new media marketing. Fortunately, there is no shortage of self-declared social media marketing gurus, experts, consultants, agencies and stars. This list is provided as a public service. SocialRead more | Comments (0) |
KISS: The Difference Between Strategy and Tactics - and Why It MattersThursday, June 11, 2009While there is a huge shortage of social media strategy, there certainly is no lack of corporate online experimentation. Most of the money spending results in nothing happening. So I'd like to do my part to help a few companies avoid spending a huge amount of money for nothing in return. So, let's KISS. SocialRead more | Comments (2) |
The Slightly Salacious, and Semi-Disgusting, Trend in Fast Food AdvertisingThursday, May 28, 2009The trend in online fast food advertising is toward the slightly salacious, and relatively disgusting.
Social media component? Other than a really lame try by KFC: none. Long-term strategy? None. Gimmicks: galore. Marketing, Media, SocialRead more | Comments (0) |
How to Pick Your Social Media GuruThursday, May 21, 2009Big companies, as if experiencing a collective Rip Van Winkle awakening, are in a frantic search to hire social media consultants to help them navigate the new online frontier.
Bloggers, including me, have been making fun of all the self-proclaimed social media experts competing for business. The Tweepsearch results, below, will give you an idea why. It shows that among the thousands of social media marketers on Twitter, there are thousands of self-described gurus, experts, strategists, stars, specialists, and a few superstars. [...] Marketing, Media, SocialRead more | Comments (1) |
