Brian's Brain

I recently traveled to Atlanta to visit our Pardot office, and a dinner was arranged at the Atlanta Fish Market. I checked in on Foursquare, as I always do, and proceeded to enjoy the tasty cashew encrusted swordfish with my colleagues. The next day, the restaurant reached out to me with the following personalized tweet:

For the record, I am an avid Colts and Hoosiers fan, and it was nice to connect with the restaurant in such a personal way. I’m sure some of you are wondering how they found out this information about me, and it is quite simple. The first thing they studied was my Twitter Bio.

Yo...

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Are you really leveraging social media?  I think that is an important question to ponder as I share the best hotel experience I have ever had, and it is largely based on their ability to harness the power of social media. So, what made the experience so unique?

When I checked in on Foursquare, they immediately welcomed me to the hotel. I utilized their concierge service for a great dinner recommendation, and later on I got an unexpected call from room service. I was delivered a bottle of Fiji water, some apples, nuts, and chocolates for my stay.

I checked in the following evening, and was asked...

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What could be a better way to start off the year then a feel good story like that of Ted Williams?  Here we have a man, down on his luck, and a fairy tale of rags to riches becomes a real life experience.  This story has been so popular that the original video on youtube has received over 1 Million views.

The more I listened about his story, I found many applications to running a successful business in 2011.

1.  The Power of Social-  From the "Old Spice Man" to videos like this, we are constantly seeing the viral power offered in social media.  The phrase "your brand is the sum of all...

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If you are looking for some Personal Development goals as part of your New Years resolutions, consider a product certification from the ExactTarget Academy. There are multiple courses designed around those who are sending out E-mails (Conent Creator,) people working on the developer side (API,) and the social media business owners (CoTweet) at your company.

Here are three great reasons to get a Product Certification:

1.       Product Knowledge- How many times have you discovered something new about a piece of software you have used for years? We have lots of these “Ah-ha!” moments in our classes...

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Once people start adding some of the social thought leaders to Twitter, they often come to me and say they are considering to "unfollow" them.  These folks Tweet so often, that the other people they follow become lost in the shuffle.  I have good news for them and for you.  By utilizing lists, you can continue to get key information from the most active leaders on Twitter, without losing touch with others.

I will share how I segment my personal lists, and you can find what works for you.  I have a "Work Friends" and "Family and Friends" list.  If people Tweet frequently, I can gleen that from...Read More »

I have recently started to get more serious in the world of cycling.  And in case you didn’t know, this can be a pretty expensive sport pretty fast.  Most “decent” road bikes will cost you anywhere from $1,000 or more, then you need the bike shorts, a special bike pump for your presta valve, and on and on it goes.

I was competing in a bike event and decided to start following a cycle chop near my home on Twitter.  I got a nice direct message thanking me for following them and an encouragement to check out their website.  These were all good things to share.  As a career salesman, I appreciate...

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When I first start discussing that I am on Twitter, I am met by instant skepticism. Stop me if you have heard this before, “I don’t care what Ashton Kutcher had for breakfast and I don’t have anything to say.”

And there you have it, the biggest misconception about the benefit of Twitter (celebrity updates) and a self-devaluation of what each individual contributor makes to the network. The first thing I will share with them is that I find very little value in following celebrities and that everybody has something important to say. I am usually met by a statement of “Whatever” or something along...

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Now that you finally have somebody who is ready to start their Twitter journey, they ask you those famous words, “What do I say?”

Since they are new to Twitter they often get angst about what to post, and Jeff Rohrs refers to this as Twitter angst or “twangst.”  People are afraid that they won’t be followed if they only provide mundane updates about their lives (which is true,) but they want to say something.  They want it to be meaningful, or otherwise there does not seem to be a point.

The first question I would ask is “Is this for business or personal use?”  If they say business, I’m going...

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Only about 5% of people on the Internet are active on Twitter, so why bother? Of all the reasons to not be active on Twitter, I think this one deserves some consideration. In spite of all the press and numerous tools formed around the service, this does seem like a fairly low adoption rate. Is there anybody listening? Why not be on Facebook where there are 500 million users instead?

Let’s look at some numbers that may make you change your mind.

1. 300,000 - This number represents the average number of Twitter users that are joining per day.5% may not sound like much, but if 300,000 new users...

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