When it comes to social media communications with business executives, I heed the Law of Diminishing Returns; the longer the message, the less likely it will receive feedback.  I know this is true because of all the social media messages that I ignore.

 

You’d think that the people besieging busy executives and major influencers with long messages, some with very good ideas, would learn this by now.  But they don’t.

 

It might be that they think a long message will impress the reader, it doesn’t.

NFL teams are not exactly small businesses.  In fact, according toForbesthe 2015 NFL franchise value for the Denver Broncos is $1.94B making them the 11 most valuable team.  The Carolina Panthers at $1.56B are ranked 19.  When you compare their Twitter follow-to-follower ratios the Broncos are above average while the Panthers are below average.  The average for the entire league is less than one half of one percent (0.32%) which means that bar is not set very high.

 

 

Are you looking down right now? There is a good chance you are if you are reading this post on your cell phone. What type of content makes you look down?

·         A funny video?

·         A pithy blog post?

It has now been over 9 years since its launch and NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has traveled more than 3 billion miles at a cost of over $700 million in order to send us back a clear picture of Pluto. Will the new data from the spacecraft have the potential to change Pluto's planetary status? The real question is; ‘does Pluto’s status really matter now?’

Pluto had been classified as a planet since it discovery by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. But in August 2006 the International Astronomical Union downgraded the status of Pluto to that of "dwarf planet.

A hot tub setting on your back patio that no longer works is classified as bulk trash. And bulk trash requires a big truck and some strong backs. The ad in the Local Directory section of my Sunday paper looked like it was the answer to my problem.

 

AAA Hauling

Hire a Veteran

Large Dump Truck

Hauling – Anything!

Phone 123-456-7890

 

No website, no social media profile, no address, just one phone number. When I dialed the number I heard the following:

 

 

I’m sure you recognized the reference to Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities.” It’s fitting because you can often see a duality when you compare the way organizations use social media channels. Many use social communication the same way they use traditional media.

I grew up in Grinnell, Iowa, a small town in the rural Midwest. It’s not exactly the place you would expect to find one of the most prolific scoring basketball teams in the nation. The “Grinnell System,” Grinnell College’s run-and-gun offense is considered unorthodox, even chaotic, but it is fun to watch.Grinnell teamshave led all playing levels in scoring for 19 of the past 21 seasons, while ranking first in the country in 3-point shooting for 17 of the past 21 years.  According to Head Coach David Arseneault’s book titled “

In September at the beginning of the season I posted a short article related toNFL teams Follow-to-Follower ratios on Twitter.  In short, NFL teams like most major brands do not follow back their fans or customers:

As you can see, the average NFL team was following back just 0.46% of their fans in September.  That ratio now stands at 0.40% which means the average follow back strategy didn't change much over the season.  Now that the Super Bowl is over I've taken the time to update these statistics to see how the league performed in other areas.

It was a lively face-to-face business networking event.  As you might guess, social media was a hot topic.  Of course business cards were exchanged as many of the attendees represented agencies that promise to be able to bring social magic to a brand.  But what I found most interesting happened later, when I visited several of their corporate social media pages.  What became clear was that many of the profiles had not posted content in several weeks, and in some cases, months.

I penned “Customer Intelligence Is Meaningless If You Don’t Tie It to Strategic Action” many years ago.  Over time that article has been used by several organizations in their training materials as a way of demonstrating the importance of customer service and its impact on the customer experience.  One aspect of that article that is rarely commented on, but no less interesting, is the action I took related to my search for a local service supplier when my incumbent vendor did not satisfy my needs.