Howdy everyone.  I'm back after taking the longest break from this blog I've ever taken in the 28 months I've been writing here.  I don't think I've gone 10 days without a post & here I am getting back to the blog 33 days after my last post.  The ironic thing is that I have been doing a lot of writing but primarily for purposes — guest blog posts, marketing materials, investor docs for Lasso, etc.  So I'm maybe a little burned out on writing at the moment, but I'll push on.  I've also had the good fortune of participating in some podcasts

Anyhow, some quick hits:

  • LinkedIn Direct Ads, in my experience, have been a total waste of time & money for me.  Far less effective than Google Adwords or Facebook Ads.  They're expensive and they are integrated so seamlessly in the rest of the site, people can't find them.  It's alluring to reach people for B2B purposes, but the luster fades fast IMO.
  • The location-based services buzz just keeps going.  Kudos to folks at some of the more popular services for staying buzzworthy for so long.  I still suspect the usage metrics are heinous, but if they can keep chugging along sooner or later they'll figure out the equation to get people to use those apps repeatedly.  It may take some time though.
  • I am not a fan of the Influence Project on Fast Company.  Without getting into too much detail, I think it's a self-serving way for Fast Company to inject themselves into social media on the backs of mavens who desperately need to promote themselves.  Like it or not, there is no denying that social media can put everyone on stage to some extent and that impacts sincerity.
  • For what it is worth, I think all of this is yet another reason why a lot of people will grow weary of social media in the long run.  The salad days are here to stay for awhile though.
  • Kudos to the folks at Old Spice for their brilliant use of YouTube to extend their brand to & through social media.  The videos are entertaining, but maybe more importantly they've created a viral phenomenon by giving people an incentive to talk about Old Spice across all major social media outlets.  It's pure genius.
  • Facebook recently announced two things of interest for the future:  1) 150m mobile users, and 2) their intent to make mobile a platform for third party developers much like they originally did with Facebook.com.  Facebook has not been downright hostile to developers as Twitter has, but remember the rules did change rather significantly over time.  Just saying. :-)