Facebook Questions, the Golden Ticket for Big Brands?

While Twitter is busy tracking every moment of your day and Foursquare is busy tracking your location, the recent launch of Facebook Questions is now tracking your thoughts and opinions about everything under the sun.

The recent launch of Facebook Questions now provides a smarter solution to the Q&A sector of social media, tapping into the thoughts and opinions of over 600 million users, a population far greater then Quora and Yahoo! Answers could ever dream of. Not only is the application social and in real-time, but it also offers security and trust. You can go anywhere on the internet to ask a question, but the top trusted source of recommendations always come from friends and family.

This new application has huge implications on a brand’s ability to gain instant feedback from users. Given that brands are asking the right questions, they can now conduct market research in a much more fluid way. Here are examples of ways companies across different industries can use Facebook Questions to make better informed business decisions based on the crowd-sourced Q&A platform:

• A radio station wants to find out about the hottest concerts this summer

• A merchandiser wants to find out what your shopping plans are for the upcoming holiday

• A gym wants to know the best time to offer a new kickboxing class

• An ice cream shop wants to know which flavor to feature next week

This platform will allow companies the chance to act based on the voiced needs and wants of their consumers, and will also enable them to create trusted interactions by doing so. Facebook may have just given advertisers and market researchers the golden ticket they’ve been searching for!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I'm usually not one to keep up with the latest Hollywood drama but BOY has Mr. Sheen demonstrated the sheer power of social media over the past few weeks. A cool one million followers in his first 25 hours on Twitter and an even cooler three million after after only a week? Plus live webinars? Now that's what I call social media #winning! Despite the fact that he's one sloppy bucket of madness, I couldn't be more proud.

With a population thriving on Hollywood drama and social media (just admit it!!) it's pretty easy to see who's driving the crazy train at full throttle these days. Inspired by all this "March Madness" going on, I decided to do a little bracket of my own.

Here's who's made the cut into the Final Four of my Celebrity March Madness Bracket.

1st place Charlie Sheen (278,000,000)
2nd place Lindsay Lohan (40,100,000)
3rd place Mel Gibson (20,100,000)
4th place Nic Cage (1,130,000)

Can Nic Cage pull ahead? Will Lindsay continue to battle her way for worst place? Stay tuned to find out!

*Picks were chosen carefully based on the number of returned Google search results.

In Business, It Pays to Listen

When it comes to devising compelling social media strategies, the number one skill businesses need to focus on is the art of listening.

While many get caught up in accumulating thousands of Facebook "Likes" or followers on Twitter, others are finding success in taking the time to understand conversation across the social web. Everyday, there are millions of pieces of conversation exchanged. There are over 50,000 new blogs started, approximately 140 million new Tweets and even more comments across Yelp, Facebook, News Forums, YouTube and the like.

All of this conversation can be traced back to basic human desires, everyone wants their opinion to matter and wants to feel connected. Companies need to recognize these desires, the concerns, the  joys, needs and questions, and use them to act accordingly.

So companies, like a good date, remember it's better to let them do the talking. Always listen twice as much as you speak. After all, no one likes to hear someone go on and on about themselves, don't be that person! Take the time to listen to conversation and build a strategy around what is being said.


Do this and you'll be able to finally tune into the unmet needs and behaviors of your consumers. The better you get at listening, the better you'll get at building memorable exchanges and long lasting relationships around your brand.

The Death of the Phone Call

Riiiiing. Riiinnggg. Riinnggg. This is a sound soon to be non-existent, the sound of a ringing telephone.

As the pace of the world races ahead, so does our ability to communicate in more efficient and effective ways. Looking back at the past few decades, it’s easy to note that most means of once popular communication have now ceased to exist.

Next up on the chopping block? The Phone Call.

The traditional phone call as we know it, compared to its more sophisticated counterparts, is entirely intrusive. You call someone but you have no idea if you’re interrupting their dinner, a nap or even a meeting. They have no idea why you’re calling, yet they feel obligated to answer. It sucks.

Tweeting, texting, BBM’ing, Facebook messaging, blogging, sharing videos (shall I go on?) have now enabled us to communicate in a much more non-intrusive manner. Our messages are sent and replied to when its convenient for both the sender and the receiver. The when is no longer an issue. Messages are happily sent on their way, not interrupting anyone’s time.

This shift represents a huge turning point in human communications. We as a society, are in a very exciting transition into a social media eco-sphere. The phone call is becoming a dying legacy as we become more adapt to using social media to send and share our messages.  The seemingly limitless options technology now provides, gives us the ability to instantly share tons of information conveniently with our intended audience.

We are now “talking” more and calling less. Bye-bye intrusive telephone calls, hello rise of social media!