SIX PIXELS OF SEPARATION — Have you ever wondered why there is such a struggle to build a sense community around the Digital Marketing initiatives you are developing? It goes well beyond the famous movie line, "build it and they will come" from Field of Dreams. There is one, critical, piece of the puzzle that most Marketers and self-proclaimed "Community Managers" forget: it's not about what's happening on your space as much as it is about what you're doing on the communities that serve your industry and space. You will have no semblance of community unless you are an active community member in the other spaces...

SIX PIXELS OF SEPARATION — There are better (and more interesting) ways for companies to use Twitter than simply have a "conversation." Most people think of Twitter as either a great way to engage in conversations with individuals, or as a great way for a company to blast out little bits of content in 140 characters at a time. There are also plenty of Blogs and Twitter conversations about how companies "should" use Twitter - as if there is some kind of professional code of conduct for businesses on Twitter. Bottom line, there are some innovative ways to use Twitter that go well beyond basic customer care. Here are 6 alternative ways to use Twitter for business...

SIX PIXELS OF SEPARATION — Most companies and brands won't have any level of satisfaction from Social Media Marketing unless we - as the collective practitioners - can communicate and demonstrate a high level of ROI and value. Most modern marketing agencies have to come to this realization. One of the only ways we're ever going to move the needle and get dollars to shift from the tried, tested and (apparently) true ways of mass media advertising, is to get better at creating tangible results and selling those stories through case studies, white papers and yes, even in these Social Media channels and platforms...

SIX PIXELS OF SEPARATION — "What am I doing wrong?" is often the question many people who are just starting out in online social networks and Social Media (Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc...) ask. It's a fair question, but then again, it's not a fair question because there are no real rules for success. That being said, there are some good guidelines. Here are 6 things you can do right now to improve your chances of building a strong community (that involves little more than a simple mind-set shift)...

Without a doubt, the number one question asked about these new Digital Marketing channels is this: do people really care and want brands to participate in online social networks? Most brand managers have a hard time believing that anyone cares that much about their brands and what they do. They may be right. Not many people cared deeply about the environment until Al Gore put together his presentation and the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, came out. Many people were not thinking about the digitization of music until Steve Jobs and the good folks at Apple introduced the iPod and iTunes. Nobody thought twice about selling their used junk online until eBay came along...