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Inconceivable

(a sperm cell swimming in one direction, to the sperm cells swimming the other way) Niche play: I'm going to try to fertilize a kidney.

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How can we use social media to increase our sales and revenue?

For most companies, the bottom line in social media is this: how can I use it to increase sales revenue? There are four ways social media can help you achieve this goal: marketing, traffic, loyalty and innovation.

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We'll call it the "Calamari 5000"

(worker in blood-stained apron to coworkers) I'm as dedicated to the squid-gutting business as anyone. But the writing's on the wall, and it's time we came out with a line of netbooks.

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Your brand in 140 characters

17 tips for using Twitter to grow your business

29 March, 2009
3
by Alexandra Samuel

"Take me now, you magnificent beast" is well under the limit

In 2008, companies woke up to the power of Facebook as a way of engaging customers, building brand, and selling their products or services. Today, the hottest new marketing tool is Twitter: a social network that consists entirely of people exchanging 140-character messages with their friends, family and colleagues.

Just like black-and-white photography can reveal depths you’ll never see in colour, the short length of a Twitter message encourages new levels of creativity and effectiveness in marketing.

Don’t believe me? Here are my top tips on getting started with Twitter…and each is 140 characters or less.

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Blog ROI: Storytelling

10 ways to maximize your blog's ROI: Part 6, telling a story over time

25 March, 2009
0
by Rob Cottingham

Typewriter: It was a dark and stormy night

Not every story fits in a few neat paragraphs - especially stories that are still unfolding. Maybe you're taking on a major advocacy project. Adding a green roof to your office building. Or tracking an intern's apprenticeship in the skills and culture of your industry.

Either way, you have a story that can engage readers over an extended period: weeks, months or even years.

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Blog ROI: You can relate

10 ways to maximize your blog's ROI: Part 4, building relationships

25 February, 2009
1
by Rob Cottingham

So far in this 10-part series, we've seen how blogs can help you give your organization a human voice, gain valuable feedback and create a communications alternative to news releases and advertising. Now we're going to look at how it can help you build relationships with your customers, your public and your team.

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Welcome to the new Social Signal

14 February, 2009
5
by Alexandra Samuel

Valentine's Day celebrates the power of relationships. We're celebrating with a Social Signal relaunch.

The relaunch of our site and business coincides with the explosion of interest in social media. Business leaders and nonprofit communicators are asking how social media can support marketing, collaboration and innovation. Public officials and public citizens want to know how social media creates new opportunities for communities and conversation, on- and offline.

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In praise of uncertainty (I think)

9 February, 2009
1
by Rob Cottingham

I recently had an email exchange with a few colleagues, sparked by a news columnist's disdain for how two local public figures are using Twitter. And Darren Barefoot, after offering some solid advice, weighed in with this:

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No accounting for it

(young hip guy talking to older man in suit, who is punching numbers into an adding machine) Sure. But if you assign an ROI figure to 'fun', then our web team actually turned a small profit in the last quarter.

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And take a shot whenever their domains redirect to a link farm

(police officer on radio, surrounded by bodies and empty beer bottles and cans) Yep, acute alcohol poisoning. Looks like another one of those take-a-shot-every-time-a-Web-2.0-business-goes-under drinking games.