branding

There's a disconcerting trend among companies now to hire a social media or community manager via a contest. People can seek nominations from friends or put their own name forward in an attempt to prove that they're the most popular choice for the position.

In my 2 years on Twitter, I've found it to be an incredible networking tool, resource and place to vent. And in the past months, it's become even better - brands are proactively reaching out to answer questions I have. How? A variety of ways, but many are using a tool called Twitter Search.

I read a recent post by Alan Wolk, and his conclusion really stood out to me:

"I’ll leave you with this quote from a smart young guy named Matt Daniels 'Marketing has a bell curve–most companies create average marketing and achieve average results.' Why did we think social media was going to be any different?"

Social media is about conversation, relationships and transparency. Where traditional media broadcasts, new media interacts. Yet, there are several foundational elements these two forms of marketing have in common. One of those is design.