Jason Falls content audit

Like most of you, I drink coffee. I don't drink too much, because then, I understand from those that love me most, I am a little hard to take. And probably like you, I have a favorite coffee shop. Problem is, I don't go there anymore.

A recent conversation with a friend allowed me the opportunity to jump on my soapbox a bit. She was having frustration with an agency partner who was pushing back against the recommendations of a second agency partner which wanted to apply a simple design to her website's mobile iteration.

Today, we will take a look at some of the largest (in terms of worth) and most recognizable brands. More specifically, we will dissect just how powerful these brands have become. How customers perceive your brand, whether large or small, will ultimately determine your success as a business.

There are few authors I'd recommend buying their books based solely on who they are and what they know. But Mitch Joel is one of them. With his first book, Six Pixels of Separation (Business Plus, 2010) he solidified his reputation as one of the leading minds in digital marketing.

I can count on one hand the number of times I personally have been grocery shopping in the last 10 years. It's not that I am lazy or think it's a woman's job, but that my wife and I are incompatible in grocery stores.

Two friends of mine are expecting a baby any day now. They know it's a girl and, as their last name is Barr, I've begged them to name her Tiki. Regardless, I'll probably call the baby Tiki. Because I can. In all seriousness, though, picking the right name is an important task for a parent.

Daily deadlines. Huge audiences. High expectations. The big marketing blogs attract readerships that rival small newspapers, but with only a fraction of the staff. And there's one key role inside every great marketing blog: The Editor. They're often behind the scenes, in the shadow of a more famous celebrity blogger.

Behind every great community, you'll find a community manager. They're the social catalyst, driving conversations in social networks, blogs, groups, and forums. They're brand champions, town sheriffs, and caring listeners. They engage, sparking conversation to get things going. They moderate, fighting fires if things go too far.

In the wake of tragedy, the Internet and social media sites can be the most precious resources people can have. But the can also be the most dangerous. There's not a trained journalist in the world that hasn't sat, open-mouthed, at the irresponsible and erroneous reporting of speculation and innuendo we've seen in the last week.

This ain't Back to the Future. It's Top Gun. We're going time traveling-backwards. You with me? Here we go... Is that Whitney Houston on the radio? Great song. Crank it. Oh, and did you hear? Mike Tyson's the youngest heavyweight champ ever and the USSR doesn't want to fight. Aviator glasses?

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is starting an important movement with her book Lean In and online community LeanIn.org The premise is that there is a vast inequality of women in senior positions in the workforce and she is committed to opening the conversation about why.

The fine folks at The Realtime Report have put together a very nice guide to understanding social influence measurement tools that should be rather helpful if you're interested in understanding and leveraging influencers in your marketing program. And the fine folks at Appinions are offering a limited supply of those reports for free.

There's been a bit of a kerfuffle in the parenting/lifestyle blogosphere this past weekend, related to a brand's blogger outreach program. The brand in question is KFC, and (from what I understand, as I wasn't there) they invited a number of bloggers to an in-person event, with their children, to learn about KFC's new kids meals.

The Chartered Instituted of Public Relations (CIPR) released its first edition of guidance for use of Wikipedia last week. See the full guide in PDF form here.

From the beginning, our mission at Social Media Explorer has been to help businesses of all sizes use technology and innovation to grow and prosper. The Louisville chamber of commerce, Greater Louisville, Inc., is also a tremendous resource and supporter for business growth in the local community.

For many companies the barrier to adopting social media or expanding their digital marketing strategy is risk. These are not small risks; these companies have come face to face with a reality that many of us can't even fathom.

If you're a digital marketer and don't log into analytics at least weekly, shame on you. You're missing information that can help you make better decisions, even in tasks and roles that seem pretty far removed from reporting. Most marketers associate Google Analytics with periodic reporting of traffic.

Last month I presented at my first online marketing conference about aligning search and social to improve organic visibility and increase traffic. Jason was kind enough to help me with a quote for the presentation on how search and social don't necessarily get along.

Jump into a search engine and look for the phrase, "how to rank well in search engines." In Google, I get 88 million results. Now look for the phrase, "how to get content seen on Facebook." I get 5.1 billion (with a "b") results.

Last week, we talked about a simple workflow for using Google Analytics to inform your content planning. We looked at the Content Drilldown report, and used it to reveal the gaps in your existing content, helping you plan your editorial calendar. While looking at content performance is interesting, have you ever wondered how your content performs before the click?

Long ago, before "social media" was a twinkle in Pete Cashmore's eye, I used to build websites. Before that, I designed print flyers, billboards and brochures. The one thing that has never changed? Nobody knows when to stop adding things.

Earlier this year, Social Media Explorer partnered with The Financial Brand to release the Power 100 List of Banks and Credit Unions on Social Media. Now, we're excited to announce that the rankings have been updated with 2 nd quarter data and we included some improvements to provide a quarterly review of each financial institution's performance.

Charlene Li and Brian Solis have penned a nice e-book that can help you better understand what a social business strategy is and judge whether or not your social efforts are, in fact, strategically focused.

Yesterday was the perfect day for baseball in the Bay Area. And, never one to pass up the opportunity to see America's Pastime, especially a Major League Baseball game, I strolled into AT&T Park for the Giants-Diamondbacks rubber game on the invitation of Bryan Srabian, the Giants's director of social media.

In case you haven't noticed, I've not proactively posted anything on my social channels since July 3. It's been a little experiment, just to see what would happen. Would anyone notice? Would I miss it? Would my Klout score drop? (God forbid!)