Tune in for a great LeapCast as Mike is joined by Terry McWilliams, President of Mozaic Investor Relations and Chairman of InvestKY. Please visit www.investky.com for more information.

 LeapCast - Interactive In Action: 10.30.07 - A Visit With InvestKY: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Join Katina and Mike as they journey through the interactive landscape - this show discusses trends in online video and email providers dabbling in social features.

 LeapCast - LFI Trends: 10.22.07 - Email Goes Social: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

“You can’t buy homegrown tomatoes,” as the old saying goes. You also can’t buy a “brand evangelist.” To understand why, you have to go back to the word “evangelist” and its ecclesiastical roots. The word comes from the Greek words eu and angellus, meaning “messenger with good news.”

At the most basic level, that’s what a brand evangelist is: someone who’s discovered something truly great, and is so excited that he or she is compelled to share it with the world. That’s why you can’t “hire” a brand evangelist. But you can find them, empower them, and reward them.

The first step is being legitimately great news to your customers, clients or patrons. If you don’t offer something truly exceptional, you simply can’t expect to pay people to pretend that you are. That kind of thinking goes directly against the principles of authenticity and genuine word-of-mouth value that brand evangelism embodies.

Paid endorsement is not brand evangelism, no matter how hard some marketers may try to spin it that way. Have businesses used paid endorsement models successfully to promote their brands in the past? Absolutely. In that sense, it’s no different than paying an athlete to star in your commercial, or doing product placement in a movie. Paid endorsement still has a place in 21st century marketing (although I personally believe its power is waning in favor of updated forms of word-of-mouth from ordinary consumers).

That said, paid endorsement is still traditional advertising. The jury is still out on whether or not paying bloggers to endorse your business has demonstrable value. But calling that “brand evangelism” is like spray-painting a horse and buggy and calling it an automobile.

Join Katina and Mike as they discuss recent trends for big brands and the use of social media to take their brands to a more upscale position.

 LeapCast - LFI University: 10.9.07 - Big Brand Love: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’ve recently gotten the opportunity to teach an IT class at the school where I got my own start in IT:  Brown Mackie College.  I’m grateful for the opportunity to give back to an organization that helped me break into a field I really enjoy.  As of October of this year, I’ll be an official Adjunct Professor.  I report to Dr. Peter Ifeacho, Department Chair of Technology.

The class I’ll be teaching is one that has a lot of benefit to businesses: Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional.  It’s part of this program: Computer Networking and Applications.   To give you a little more background, here’s a snippet from Microsoft about the program:  ”Candidates for this exam operate in medium to very large computing environments that use Microsoft Windows XP Professional as a desktop operating system. They have a minimum of one year of experience implementing and administering any desktop operating system in a network environment.”

Teaching is something I have always been interested in.  The benefit of teaching is that it really is a learning experience in itself.  It encourages you to delve deeper into a particular subject; especially if you’re teaching something that you’re already passionate about.  I look forward to learning from the experience, and hopefully helping the next batch of great IT professionals get their start. 

There has been much buzz in the industry lately about Social Media Marketing. However, the impression that I get from clients and other interactive industry insiders is that it’s still a bit like a junior high school dance: lots of people standing around the edge of the dancefloor, waiting for more people to take the plunge before they go out there (and risk a major embarrassment).

Social Media has tremendous potential as essentially the word-of-mouth marketing of the twenty-first century. Most companies do recognize that transparency and authenticity are two qualities that garner your brand access to today’s consumers. However, with the promise of all that globally-web-empowered word-of-mouth comes significant risk, as well as a channel that is still in its infancy (meaning that the benchmarks for determining ROI for social media marketing are still being developed).

That said, there are ways that your business can begin dipping its toe in the uncertain waters of social media marketing in a relatively low-risk way. Is social media marketing right for every business? If we’re talking about a formal campaign including viral elements, probably not.

But I do believe that every business in this current age of low consumer confidence in traditional brand marketing needs to be cautious about being perceived as a “black box,” where only carefully-crafted, expertly spin-doctored corporate communication ever exits its hallowed halls. People ultimately want to do business with… people. Actual, live human beings.

If your company isn’t ready to enter the fray of formal social media marketing (and that may be a very smart move for your business, at this time), you still need to be cognizant of the cultural factors driving social media and conversational marketing. You need to look at all your communications–press releases, web copy, newsletters, advertisements–and do an honest assessment of how approachable and human your messaging is. We’re not suggesting a “warts and all” style is right for every company, or even most companies. However, the tone and voice of even the most conservative business should always be warm and personable.

Working on integrating the principles of authenticity and transparency into your current channels of communication, and learning to speak on a more personal level even within those traditional message forms, is a smart move for any brand. It can also help set the stage and build the foundation for your company to gracefully move into the promising world of social media marketing in the future.