 |  | 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.
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| Tuesday, February 2, 2010 Sometimes, 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. Marketing
Read more | Comments (0) | | Monday, December 21, 2009 Starbucks 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. Marketing
Read more | Comments (1) | | Monday, December 14, 2009 There 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. Marketing
Read more | Comments (0) | | Tuesday, November 3, 2009 Is 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. Social
Read more | Comments (0) | | Monday, November 2, 2009 Amid 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. Marketing
Read more | Comments (2) | | Thursday, October 15, 2009 Companies 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? Marketing
Read more | Comments (0) | | Thursday, October 1, 2009 Verily, bloggers are here to stay. When tho reaches out to us, heed thee these rules of engagement, or pay ye the consequences. Marketing
Read more | Comments (0) | | Thursday, September 24, 2009 These 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. Marketing
Read more | Comments (0) | | Thursday, September 24, 2009 Big 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. Social
Read more | Comments (4) | | Monday, September 21, 2009 This 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. Marketing
Read more | Comments (0) | | Monday, September 21, 2009 This 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. Social
Read more | Comments (0) | | Tuesday, September 8, 2009 People 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, Social
Read more | Comments (1) | | Friday, September 4, 2009 The 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, Technology
Read more | Comments (0) | | Monday, August 17, 2009 Good 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!) Technology
Read more | Comments (0) | | Monday, July 27, 2009 Video 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. Marketing
Read more | Comments (0) | | Monday, June 29, 2009 Companies 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. Social
Read more | Comments (0) | | Thursday, June 11, 2009 While 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. Social
Read more | Comments (2) | | Thursday, May 28, 2009 The 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, Social
Read more | Comments (0) | | Thursday, May 21, 2009 Big 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, Social
Read more | Comments (1) | | Tuesday, April 14, 2009 The cause doesn't really matter. What matters is that Amazon wasn't closely monitoring its brand and took nearly three days to respond to a social media firestorm. No brand can afford to do that today. Social
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