This blog posted last week about potential consolidations and this week saw one.  This was not a high profile consolidation, but it does strengthen the social media landscape.  There are several small expos devoted to bringing the latest developments in new media to the industry.  One of the most well known is the New Media […]

Beyond My Space, Facebook and YouTube, this blog takes a look at social networks that you may not have looked at as of yet.  As the holidays are approaching, we decided to turn this into a festive mood by taking a look at BottleTalk.
BottleTalk was started by wine aficionados that wanted to share wine with […]

Got today’s chart from Marketing Sherpa.    I was excited because it is the first in their video benchmarking series.  I took the survey and was anxious to see the results.  Today’s chart I am not sure I agree with though.  The results are mixed which tells me that there is no magic pill that energizes […]

Most industries go through consolidation where smaller companies merge with others to get bigger or bigger gobble up smaller to expand.  Web pioneers went through consolidation to form more sustainable enterprises.   Sometimes consolidations did not work out so well in the long term.  AOL comes to mind as an example.
It is inevitable that Web 2.0 […]

I was searching for a topic for today’s post.  It is a short week and Thanksgiving to boot.  Just was not sure what topic to get into.  I have been reading Kermit the Frog’s new book.  It is part autobiography, part advice to live by.
One particular chapter deals with having dreams: Inner, Outer, Bigger.  Jim […]

Great chart today from Marketing Sherpa that highlights shift from traditional to online.  Speaks for itself:

In addition to Jerry Yang leaving Yahoo, which paves the way for Microsoft to somewhat catch up now, another article caught my attention from Reuters.  The headline read “Tech firms turn to social media to reach consumers”.

From an article titled ‘Recession Proof Your Business’ by Ron Romano:
Recession Proof Your Business – How to Avoid Business Failure & Increase Sales in a Lagging Economy
When you’re a small business owner there’s no “Golden Parachute”, no Massive Severance Package or Stock Options to cash in on and there are definitely no bailouts. The success […]

We continue today with more opinions on the shift from traditional to online and handling the reduction of marketing budgets.  Let’s get right to it.
First up is Simon from Online Perception Audits.  Simon writes:
Yes (Budgets are shrinking)….. but they’re not my budgets, they are other peoples.
TV / newspapers / traditional media have been seen to […]

We continue today with some more insights into how traditional marketing is shifting to online and how budget cuts are impacting marketing.  As with Friday’s posts, the insights and opinions shared are from others collected via a question on Linked In.
First up today is Kevin from Network Solutions.  We share the same thinking on being […]

Seems, we are having trouble getting our posts done on the blog this week.  It has been a busy one.  Today, we finally get to our first post of “You are Not Alone”.  These posts will come fast and furious and share perspectives from others.
The original question was posted on Linked In:
Are you shifting budget […]

I meant to get into this post yesterday, but between all the action, I didn’t get a blog post in.  Whatever your political leanings, there was no mistake that social media made a mark in this election.  The election also made a mark on social media.
Articles flooded the web and blogs all over the world […]

Each week, we take a look beyond My Space, Facebook, and YouTube, at a social network that you may not have checked out yet.  Keeping with our scary week theme, we thought it fitting to introduce you to Sinister Space.
Sinister Space is a social network devoted to horror fans.  This genre is well represented and […]

Keeping with the scary week theme in this blog, we take a look at the recent comments regarding the death of blogs and try to avoid the marketing budget slashers.
Are Blogs dead?
That was a recent headline.  According to some reports blogs have been dead since 2004.  Guess that would make them a zombie them.  The […]

October 27th.  I don’t see a full moon, but apparently leading up to Halloween, we got some weird social media news.
The first came from a US Army report that terrorists could theoretically use Twitter.  There is some great alliteration in that sentence.  Search Marketing Gurus (SMG) report: According a a report by the Agence France-Presse […]

This is the week that was in social media…
The digital music space may become even more crowded.  Reports surfaced that Facebook is investigating some sort of music delivery service. Facebook does not want to tangle with the big record companies over licensing issues nor build a service from scratch.  As such, they are looking to […]

Today’s blog post is actually devoted to others.  Social media is still relatively new and for certain is always changing.  It is important to stay up by reading and researching and talking to others.  You gain strength this way.  That is one of the things I like most about social media, the fact that you […]

Reuters reported today that YouTube will look for more ways to monetize their network.  The site is in the process of building out an e-commerce module that will sell music, videos, games, books, concert tickets and other media related items.
The site has partnered with Amazon and Apple for delivery.  When you view a video you […]

Each week, we go beyond My Space, Facebook and YouTube to get to know another social network out there.  Normally, we say meet the network, but today’s feature is all about meeting up.
MeetUp is a social network that desires to actually get you off the computer.  Strange as that sounds, their purpose is to facilitate […]

Quick Friday post on the events of this week:
The week has of course been dominated by politics.  We don’t cover that topic in this space.  However, we have been watching the explosive rise in social networks directly related to political usage.  Just sign on to Twitter and the top of the page has popular political […]

This is part 2 of marketing in an unstable economy.  In this post, we will look at some tips on how you can get more for your marketing buck.  Making your marketing dollars go further in tough times will help you show more return to management, manage lower budgets, and position you well against competitors […]

Part 1:
A rough economy typically takes a toll on marketing.  Good marketers weather the storm by showing realistic ROI for their programs. They shift resources when necessary and use these opportunities to win market share.  Yes, it is easier to grow in good times, but I hold firm to the belief that you win market […]

Received an interesting report from Marketing Sherpa today regarding the use of Web 2.0 tools, specifically user generated content and online advertising page views.  According to the report, page views can decline with the use of web 2.0 technology.
This has a logical explanation though as web 2.0 tools provide content that a visitor is more […]

Each week (Though we missed last week), we introduce you to a social network beyond MySpace, Facebook and YouTube.  This week we turn to the entrepreneurial side and take a look at Advisor Garage.
Advisor Garage is an online directory of advisors with the mission to help entrepreneurs.  Areas of expertise include funding, getting customers, sales […]

In one of my favorite recent Broadway shows, a shaggy haired puppet sings “The Internet is for Porn”.  Well that may have been true, the recent news announcement made me sing a different tune.
It’s official social sites have taken down the king of the Internet and are now the most used sites.   Turns out […]

It is the first day after a long weekend and the news wire was dominated by Google as well as some other social media news.  Here are some of the topics that made it into the UniversalWit research library today.

Busy day today for social media.  Many user accounts were suspended on Twitter because AMC threw up the red flag with users impersonating characters from the popular ‘Mad Men’ series.
Many users on Twitter are actually fake characters.  The Mad Men impersonators though were able to use sound in the character voices. AMC argued that this […]

With something as new and exciting as social media, it is often easy to forget that you do not want to receive an ROI from your efforts.  Marketing metrics do apply to social media.  To increase effectiveness and justify your expenditure to management, metrics should be regularly evaluated.

Facebook has been all over the news this week. The site has taken over as the world’s leading social network site even if it is still behind MySpace here in the US. Facebook’s approach to using the local native language has fueled their march overseas.

Social Media may be coming of age as a reliable and cost effective addition to a marketing program.  The factors that are leading more and more companies to add social media to the marketing mix include:

More email marketing is landing into spam folders decreasing the ROI for these programs

The holidays are right around the corner.  Is your online marketing strategy ready?  Now is the time to take stock of your programs in advance of the season.  Consider these external factors that may play an important role in a successful holiday season:

This summer has been a busy one for new developments in social media and online marketing.  The past 2 weeks, we have been devoting Mondays to reporting on recent announcements and today is no different.
Cuil (Pronounced Cool) announced that they are bringing a competitive search engine to rival Google.  The distinction for Cuil is that […]

Change is often feared, yet change is inevitable and all around us. New Media such as social networks, blogs, and other user generated content is big change to many marketing folks. It is often more comfortable to continue a marketing strategy because of its familiarity. After all, to make a change, […]

The Field of Dreams quote is so over used it’s a cliché now and I hate to use it again.  ‘If You Build It - They Will Come’ only works for baseball fields in Iowa.  It does not work on the web and it certainly does not work with Web 2.0 tools such as social […]

The 11th edition of Pittsburgh’s Social Media Marketing Buzz is now available at http://pghsocialmedia.blogspot.com The buzz has the latest development in social networking programs around Pittsburgh as well as information and stats from around the country. Check out the issue and email us your news at blog@universalwit.com.

In the news for Monday July, 21, 2008 is the compromise from Yahoo and dissident shareholder Carl Icahn. Facebook also made an announcement today.

The 10th edition of Pittsburgh’s Social Media Marketing Buzz is now available at http://pghsocialmedia.blogspot.comThe buzz has the latest development in social networking programs around Pittsburgh as well as information and stats from around the country. Check out the issue and email us your news at blog@universalwit.com.