I saw the program for a social media conference recently that had 16 unique hashtags peppered throughout the agenda program. My first reaction was why? Some of the hashtags were the city and state name of the event location while others were plain generic like #Day1 and #blogging. The event had a unique name that should have been the main hashtag used to create awareness of the event. However by placing up to five hashtags for each agenda item the event hashtag got lost.
This is the wrong strategy for several reasons. First it dilutes the main brand that you are trying to promote and position. Secondly tracking the tags to measure chatter volume will be inaccurate when you have tags like #RaleighNC or #SeattleWA that may be used by tourists or economic development tweeters. Third and most important, you are confusing the very people attending the event that need to understand how to use social media effectively to communicate.
Most of the seasoned professionals in any discipline go to events for two reasons: to speak and to network. They don’t go for professional development and education. Sure they may pick up a few tips but they are not there to ramp up knowledge quickly. The attendees that shell out their hard earned money are there for that. They want to build up expertise quickly, find starting points for new projects and save time determining what thought leadership blogs they should be reading.
A novice may see multiple hashtags and wonder what they are, what purpose do they serve and how are they used? By bombarding them with multiple keywords in hashtags the event staf is confusing them and not teaching best practices. Part of me thinks that the reasoning behind putting multiple hashtags on a conference agenda or signage is to look sophisticated, smart and savvy. This is when I love to yell at these people through my screen, “You’re doing it wrong!”
Tom Webster (@webby2001) puts out a tweet when he speaks at or attends events stating, “For those of you following at home, the hashtag is…” Tom gets it and knows that there are interested people not at the event that want to share in the information and knowledge being presented. Multiple hashtags makes it frustrating and irritating for those following the event and not realizing that the hashtag they are tracking is only one of several.
What do you think? Is having multiple event hashtags smart or confusing?
I recently bought a sweet pair of navy blue Chucks the other day. First pair of Chucks I had bought in a long time and first navy pair I had since I was a kid. I was a bit excited and nostalgic over my new kicks but was interested in that my wife did not share my enthusiasm. She pointed out how she was tired of seeing hipsters wear them and felt that the brand was less endearing to her now.
Prior to 2011 the .CO domain was the Internet country code for Colombia. Now it is available to the general public to purchase. It is possible that the .CO extension will be as widely used as .COM due to its similarity and opportunity for global branding.There are several reasons why purchasing a .co for your company and brand names makes sense:
Some days I get down when reading blog posts, discussions, seeing speakers talk about new marketing channels like social media or paid search. I have to remind myself that we live in a world where everyone is getting their mega horn on to blast out opinions. Some are on target, others a bit skewed and some are extrapolating case studies into generalizations.So here’s my take on some current marketing myths I see. Please note that I’m not saying these tactics don’t work in a well developed marketing plan that works in conjunction with multiple marketing channels. I’m debating those presenting these tactics as a single, standalone strategy.
MySpace
So we know that two things are hot in business communication and marketing in 2011: mobile and video. And of course mobile video but that goes without saying since it’s a combination of the two. But with the increase of smartphones and mobile web usage, more and more people will start to access your site via a mobile device during the next several years and beyond.
With all the available marketing channels we tend flood ourselves with too much data and statistics around our products, brands and campaigns. Although it’s important to be tracking and analyzing as much data as you can you have to prioritize what key metrics align to your strategies in order to properly measure how effective you campaign is.
The New York Times ran a great article about Heather Armstrong last Saturday called 
