Bob Williams

Delaying the inevitable – businesses ignoring social media

March 19th, 2011 | Leave a comment | Tags: , ,

If your company doesn’t use social media tools to interact directly with customers now, it’s only delaying the inevitable.

Every day there are news stories, blog posts, television commercials, radio ads, and print pieces about consumers and businesses using the internet and rich media to communicate with each other. Some consumers and businesses are still on the sidelines whether out of apathy, denial, or ignorance because they claim these tools are not relevant to their lives or business. For business, sitting on the sidelines often lasts as long as the first brand or public opinion crisis.  Check how active BP was on twitter, facebook, etc. before the oil spill of …Continue reading >>

Bob Williams

What the annual Christmas card teaches us about social media

December 18th, 2010 | One comment | Tags:

It’s that time of year when many of our friends and family send their annual recap, a Christmas card, or pictures of the family. Some of them are verbose and take pages, while others may just be on the front side of a card. It’s a great tradition and gives us a chance to reconnect with some that we may only see once a year. For the past several years I’ve created a version of an annual card that I’ve sent electronically to my distribution list.

This was the picture with the most "connections"

My wife has used the traditional method of creating a photo, buying a lot of …Continue reading >>

Bob Williams

Social media ideas for amusement parks

April 9th, 2010 | 2 comments | Tags: , , ,

I spent the day at Sea World in San Antonio with my family and as we went through the park I searched for signs of the digital and social media age.  I was surprised not to find any. In fact, the amusement park today is much like the amusement park I remember as a child and teenager. The focus is on selling the season pass, the end-less refill soda,  the gift shop at the end of the ride, and other extras not part of the base ticket price(not that I recognized that as kid).  I did a quick scan on Facebook for Sea World and Six Flags and found they …Continue reading >>

Bob Williams

Social media awareness

April 16th, 2009 | One comment | Tags: , , , , ,

A classic marketing framework for describing consumer behavior is awareness,  interest, desire, and action (AIDA). Tim Ash does a good job of relating the AIDA model to eCommerce and Internet Marketing. Over the past several months, I’ve been trying to promote the ‘A’ for awareness with social media with my organization, friends, and family. It’s been a surprisingly difficult task.

At work, I routinely collect and share social media examples with peers and managers. Now, I don’t consider this a spamming effort. I try to make the content of each message relevant. It might be about relationship building or how businesses are using social media to reach customers. My …Continue reading >>

 
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