Leading in Social Media Monetization

Lena L. West — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:23:38 -0500

There are not many people I sit around thinking about meeting. It's not that I have a super-elevated opinion of myself. It's more than I'm your average (or not so average) jaded New Yorker who has seen things and met some people. A lot of things and a lot of people.

But, as stalker-ish as it might sound ever since I started working in IT more than a decade ago, I've wanted to meet Anu Shukla.

Authors + Social Media = Tribes...and Tribes Sell Books

Lena L. West — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:43:30 -0400

Sure, attention is rapidly moving online, but truth is, having a traditional printed book still remains one of the most effective credibility-building tools out there.

Challenge is, whether you self-publish or go with a traditional publisher, the marketing is on you. (C'mon, you know it's the truth!)

So, my business pal, @JonathanFields wanted to wake other authors up to the need to step up and take control -- 'cause that's what he's all about.

The Facebook Era

Lena L. West — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:06:02 -0400

What seems like eons ago (but in reality was a few months ago), I interviewed Clara Shih (@clarashih), the author of The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff. and the cr

Social New, Now & Next: The Baltimore Marathon on "Social Media Steroids"

Lena L. West — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:43:14 -0400

I'm always interested in organizations that are taking the use of social media to the next level. And, Corrigan Sports qualifies. They plan to use some latest social media hotness, R2iSMASH, to showcase the Baltimore Marathon on October 10.

R2iSMASH, was created by R2integrated, and the technical explanation of it is:

Helping Companies Take on "the Cloud"

Lena L. West — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:39:15 -0400

More and more companies are diving into cloud computing, but there are security, quality and scalability concerns. That's where Sonoa Systems comes in.

If you're not like The Rolling Stones and you DO want people on your cloud, listen in as I have a techy-ish convo with Chet Kapoor, CEO, and Scott Regan, SVP of Marketing, of Sonoa Systems. (Hey, I got my start as a geek! What can I say?)

Biz Stone Advance Video re: Twitter Hack

Lena L. West — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:03:35 -0400

Alas, poor Twitter. The service that we all know and love suffered a Fail Whale of 'orculean' proportions for two hours last week on August 6, 2009, due to a denial of service attack. We were all a little annoyed (read: lost without Twitter), but if you're anything like me, you're just glad Twitter's back up and running. After all, the world hearts Twitter.

Social New, Now & Next: OurBlook Gets Their Social Debate On

Lena L. West — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:09:48 -0400

Debate is a healthy part of life. It's an understatement to say that people won't always agree.

Social New, Now & Next: Scitable's Social Science

Lena L. West — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:09:22 -0400

I'm always interested in how companies that don't have an obvious connection with social media are using these tools to create online destinations that work for them and work for their market.

To feed my curiosity, I've started a whenever-I-feel-like-it interview series about such companies.

Real-Time Communications Means Real Talk

Lena L. West — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:08:14 -0500

This is my first full week back from being on holiday for the past month. Ahhh, good old R&R....

Yesterday, I spent half the day leading two roundtable discussions at the Real-Time Communications Conference, where Steve Etzler and Team BDI packed the house again. See my blog post about his prior event, Convergence 2008.

Here are some good outtakes:

What Proposition 8 Shows Us About Having Your Own Social Media Turf

Lena L. West — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:50:17 -0500

This post is an idea-stem from an excellent post that was written by Michael Mace in the Rubicon blog network.

When consulting with clients and while delivering presentations about social media, I often mention the imperative that local businesses have to leverage social media as well as - or better than - national brands. I often use Yelp.com as an example of a tool they can use to do this.