Don’t Be the Restaurant No One Wants to Eat At Because It Is Empty June 6, 2011

You are walking around an unfamiliar neighborhood with a couple of friends. You are on your way to a party or perhaps just a movie. But you have a bit of time and decide to stop to eat dinner first. You can’t be too choosy, but it appears you have two options. From the outside both look clean and well maintained. The lights are working. From the menus posted in the windows, both seem to offer some appetizing choices. And neither you nor your friends are opposed to either due to personal tastes. But, there seems to be something off about one of them. You can’t quite put your finger on it at first, but then you realize what it is. One of them appears, for all practical purposes, to be empty, save the one out-of-place guy in the corner you see while peering through the window, while the other is overflowing with patrons waiting to be seated. Which do you choose?

Getting Down to Business with Constant Contact, Social Media, and Daniel Nuccio May 31, 2011

Last month I had the opportunity to attend Constant Contact’s “Get Down to Business” seminar in Chicago. Not only was I able to meet with a variety of people working in social media, or at least implementing it for their businesses, as well as see presentations from several top people in the industry, but I was also able to attend a special lunch with Steve Robinson, Gail Goodman, and a small handful of respected guests and loyal Constant Contact customers.

Social Media for the Intermediate User March 22, 2011

Not too long ago I attended a social media seminar hosted by Constant Contact and presented by their regional director for Illinois, Steve Robinson at an Ing Direct Cafe in Downtown Chicago. Despite spending a little time brushing up on some basics, this was not Social Media 101, but an interactive discussion for intermediate users on how to use social media [...]

6 Reasons 2 Use an Email Marketing Service January 15, 2011

You can professionally brand your emails with your company colors, images, logo, etc.. You do not share your contact lists with everyone on your contact list. The odds of your message being mistaken for spam are greatly decreased. You can send your message to thousands of people at once. Doing so automatically puts you in [...]

7 Touches and 3 Emails: 2 Important Numbers for Every Email Marketing Campaign January 14, 2011

Last week I attended a presentation on Constant Contact given by Steve Robinson. Much of it was a refresher. Much of it clarified things I was a bit fuzzy on. However there were two numbers that really stuck out for me. The first was that it takes about seven touches with a prospect before a sale will occur, ideally through a combination of mediums including social media, email marketing, sales calls, advertisements, face to face meetings, and so on. The second number was that when contacting people through an email marketing service like Constant Contact, you only get two or three opportunities to prove the value of your newsletter before a contact will stop opening it, opt-out, or, worst of all, mark you as a spammer.

“The Accidental Billionaires”: The True Story of the Founding of Facebook? November 8, 2010

Ben Mezrich’s The Accidental Billionaires: The Founders of Facebook reads like a novel, but allegedly tells the “true story” of Facebook’s early years. It covers much of the same territory as David Fincher’s film, The Social Network, for which it served as source material, but goes into more detail about things like what exactly is a Harvard Final Club, why it was better for Facebook to take money from VCs early on rather than sell advertising space, what made Facebook different from MySpace and Friendster and The Harvard Connection/ConnectU, and what was in the contracts Mark Zuckerberg’s former partner signed that resulted in him losing his share of the company.

Has Mad Men Run Its Course? October 31, 2010

When Mad Men first came on the air the consensus was that it was perhaps one of the most groundbreaking and innovative shows to premiere in years (translation: it was less formulaic than most of what was on the major networks). It was and is well acted, believably recreates 1950s and 1960s America, handles major historical events without exploiting them, and moves at its own pace. Also, for the first three seasons, it had a style reminiscent of a classic noir film and a plot to match. Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm had a dark secret in his past that was slowly revealed over the course of the first season, then left the audience in suspense for the remainder of that season, as well as the second and third, as they were left wondering what would happen if Draper’s coworkers and family were to find out

“I Want Your Money,” The Capitalist Answer to Michael Moore October 25, 2010

Last year around this time Michael Moore’s Capitalism, A Love Story, was released. Generally speaking it was amusing at times, albeit highly biased. But ultimately it lost me as Moore persisted in using extreme examples of capitalism at its worst, usually coupled with some form of highly unethical or illegal activity, to convey the message that capitalism is fundamentally opposed democracy, and some form of soft socialism is an inherent part of true democracy. By no means was it his best work as a filmmaker, nor as a social commentator.

“Catfish”…the Other Facebook Movie October 18, 2010

Most of us when we think of “The Facebook Movie,” likely think of David Fincher’s The Social Network, based on the controversial book, The Accidental Billionaires, by Ben Mezrich. It spent two weeks at the top of the box office, and has generated a considerable amount of Oscar buzz, and rightfully so.

The Reluctant Social Media User October 9, 2010

Having seen The Social Network over the weekend, I couldn’t help but think about the early days of Facebook, or at least my early days with it. When I first heard of Facebook, it was the spring of 2005. I was about to finish up my first year of college and a friend of mine from high school, who I hadn’t heard from in awhile, was pestering me about how I needed to join this cool new site that would allow me to post a bunch of information about myself to share with the people from college I saw every day, as well as the people from high school and middle school I didn’t bother to stay in touch with, and, in return, I could view the information these people were posting about themselves…and, as added benefits, we could post funny messages on one another’s “walls.”