No other media comes close to social media’s potential to build buzz almost instantaneously and amplify content to the point where it goes viral.

I recently watched the Netflix documentary, “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened,” and found it to be as exasperating as it was entertaining.

So many people were hurt in so many ways, especially financially and emotionally.

Not only did a group of popular celebrity influencers promote Fyre Festival on social media, but music fans who shelled out big bucks to attend this epic flop used social media, too, to get the word out about their miserable experience there.

Yup, social media can giveth and social media can taketh away.

For better or worse, social media can catch fire.

Use it with care.

Use it for good.

The post Video: When Social Media Catches Fire appeared first on Bob Cargill.

    

Look all around you.

Selfies are being taken everywhere.

People are taking selfies at ballgames and concerts, at the beach and the dinner table, while parachuting and ziplining, in voting booths and business meetings.

Selfies are ridiculously popular in the era we’re in, a time when technology and culture have collided to make sharing pictures online both easy and customary.

Businesses and brands would be smart to capitalize on this trend, if they are not already.

Selfies are a great way to engage not just your employees and colleagues, but your customers and prospects.

Look all around you.

Everybody likes selfies.

The post Video: Selfies on Social Media appeared first on Bob Cargill.

    

In the future, will all media be social media?

That’s what some prognosticators say.

I tend to agree with them.

The Pew Research Center announced recently that social media had outranked print newspapers as a source of news for Americans.

Such a momentous milestone not only illustrates the prevalence, popularity and power of social media today, it’s a warning sign of what’s to come to those businesses and brands who still aren’t up to speed with online communications channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and the like.

The post Video: Will All Media Become Social Media? appeared first on Bob Cargill.

    

The post Podcast: A Few Words with Christina Inge appeared first on Bob Cargill.

    

You know the story. It’s about the legendary rock band, Queen, and their late, great lead singer, Freddie Mercury.

There’s a scene in this movie in which the band is developing the idea for their song, “We Will Rock You.” You know the song.

They wanted to engage their audience. They wanted their fans to be part of that song.

Watching that scene and listening to that song gave me a thought.

As it was for Queen in playing that song, it is for all brand and businesses.

You want to engage your audience.

You want to involve them in whatever it is you do in some way, shape or form.

You want to rock your audience.

The post Rock Your Audience appeared first on Bob Cargill.

    

The Boston Red Sox won 108 games during the regular season this year, the most in franchise history, and then cruised through the postseason to win their fourth World Series title since 2004.

The Sox had to compete against plenty of other talented baseball teams in 2018, but perhaps none had the camaraderie and culture the Boston team had in their clubhouse.

Maybe none had such a supportive, selfless manager like Alex Cora at the helm, either.

Talent and skills aren’t always the determining factors in winning.

Without the right culture instilled into the workplace, even the best teams – and businesses in general – can fall behind the competition.

Without a strong leader installed at the top, even the best teams can fall apart.

Businesses and brands, companies and organizations of all sizes, shapes and forms…ask yourselves if you have the culture and leadership in place to win in the marketplace like the Red Sox won on the field this year.

Corporate culture counts.

The post Corporate Culture Counts appeared first on Bob Cargill.

    

And…you can’t really be social without being transparent.

That’s why transparency beats privacy on social media…every time.

Being private means to be holding something back, to be hiding something from public view…and ideally, social media is transparent, fully transparent.

That’s what I believe, anyway, and that was the premise…kinda sorta…of the 2017 movie, The Circle.

The Circle was based on a novel written by Dave Eggers in 2013.

The movie is about a tech company called The Circle which places small cameras everywhere to provide real-time video of practically everything.

It’s a little creepy, sure, and certainly scary for some.

But it is my opinion that the premise of the movie, the pros and cons of being fully transparent, is something that not only those of us in social media and marketing will be dealing with more and more in the future, but also society at large.

Brands, businesses, people who are using social media for professional reasons…those whose attention you covet will be far more attracted to you if you let down your guard and share who you really are with them.

They will respect you for being just like them, human, as opposed to being some far-fetched, unrealistic image of perfection.

That’s how it should be in both our professional and personal lives, if you ask me.

Share and share alike.

In my opinion, transparency beats privacy not just on social media, but in real life, too.

The post Transparency Beats Privacy on Social Media appeared first on Bob Cargill.