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Context Over Dogma - The Official Blog of Pandemic Labs
Advice and Tips

Three Rules for Language in Social Media (The Elements of Fu*$ing Style, Indeed)

yoda-djI am, at heart, and uncomplicated dude. Though I went through a rather protracted term of amassing large amounts of stuff, those times spent living dangerously are long behind me. These days, I remain keen on being able to fit everything I own (excluding furniture) into my car. If I can’t move it myself, I don’t want it around. Aiding this not-always innocuous strategy are several things:

  • I drive an SUV
  • I do virtually all my reading on a Kindle
  • I wear mostly jeans and t-shirts, with the occasional custom-tailored, black two-button suit (even us noveau minimalists have to retain some semblance of style)

Understand, this is not some deep-rooted philosophy of engagement with life. This isn’t some quest to rid myself of “things”. What this is, is a preference to keep things uncomplicated. Clutter makes me crazy. The less stuff I have complicating my life, the more streamlined that life becomes (or, at the very least, feels). I am infinitely more effective, creative, and agile when things are kept uncomplicated. Note – I didn’t say simple. Remaining sensitive to the fact that life, inherently, is complex, it behooves one to move through it in an uncomplicated manner. Path of least resistance, ftw.

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August 11, 2011by Ed Gazarian
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Advice and Tips

6 Best Practices for Calculating Return on Social Media

ROI1

People that claim it’s impossible to calculate ROI in the social space are really just saying that they can’t calculate ROI in the social space, or probably in any space. The truth is, calculating ROI for social media is just like figuring it out for any other media – print, TV, radio. I’m not saying it’s easy. ROI is difficult to calculate across any medium, especially on the “return” side of the things. For example, you know how much that magazine ad cost, but how much business did you see as a direct result of it? It sounds difficult, but I assure you, it can be done! The tips below will help you get a handle on social ROI:

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July 26, 2011by Brennan White
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Advice and Tips, Video

Food for Thought: Make Video that Doesn’t Suck!

Image by williamcho

Image by williamcho

Video is one of the most powerful media available to the modern marketer. Never before has it been so cheap and easy to put video content in front of billions of consumers. YouTube just celebrated its sixth birthday and released some (quite frankly) ludicrous stats:

  • More than 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
  • YouTube serves more than 3 billion views-per-day

In the face of easy video production and uncanny levels of video consumption, I find myself pondering one question: why do marketers still make shitty videos?

I’ll probably write a few posts on this topic, but for now I want to leave everyone with some food for thought when considering video as a medium for your marketing efforts.

Before you make the video, do this little thought exercise:

Imagine it’s a rainy, cold Saturday afternoon and there is a marathon of your favorite TV show (Lost, House, Battlestar Galactica, etc.) You are more than happy to curl up and watch. In the middle of one of the episodes, you hear about a video online. If you wouldn’t stop watching a rerun of a show you enjoy to check out the video, THEN DON’T BOTHER MAKING IT.

99.9% of all brand videos fail this test.

Save yourself time and money. Don’t make videos that suck.

June 4, 2011by Matt Peters
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Advice and Tips

Four Tips for Social Media Success in 2011

91-9Rw-mUWL._AA1500_The New Year is upon us. I, for one, felt like I had all sorts of time to plan and then all of the sudden it was January 3rd and I realized that execution must take the place of planning. It is very possible to plan too much and find yourself in Q2 having not yet actually done anything. Inaction is the death of any warrior on the battlefield of social media.

In honor of ushering in another year that is sure to be bursting with technological advancements, I want to humbly submit four tips that are important–nay crucial–to success in social media marketing. My mind is filled with that scene from Varsity Blues where Jon Voight repeatedly bangs his whistle against James Van Der Beek’s helmet, intoning, “Stick to the basics, stick to the basics, stick to the basics.”

And so, some basics. But do not for one second think that because these tips are “basic” that they are not important. That is a mistake too often made by the arrogant. Is breathing (certainly one of the most basic functions of our living bodies) not important? Are the basic impulses sent from your brain telling your heart to beat not, in some ways, among the most important functions of your body?

The tips commence.

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January 10, 2011by Matt Peters
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Advice and Tips

Getting a High ROI from Your RSS

REally big RSS buttonIn an information-saturated online marketing world, it can be challenging to find relevant content on a regular basis without committing valuable time. Using feed readers can cut through the clutter by customizing your view of the Web.

Feed readers aggregate new content from multiple sources— blogs, news sites, and multimedia— using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology, allowing you to quench your thirst for a particular field without visiting individual websites. Given its utter simplicity and its extreme utility, it astonishes me that I still have friends who haven’t yet set up a feed reader.

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February 27, 2009by Megan Weintraub
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Here Lies Snapchat: Are We Witnessing the Death of this Popular Social Platform?

“Trip Consideration” Targeting Now Available

The Ads Are a-Changin’

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