Blog  straight off the cuff

Newest to Oldest  forever and ever

JLB

posted by on September 25th, 2011

Here at JLB we encourage all of our clients to keep Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs fresh with new content. To keep our own blog up to date we have a little schedule to make sure our blogs are posted at different times during the month. The thing is, we aren’t so good at keeping up with that little schedule. Sometimes the person who is supposed to remind us of our blogging deadline, forgets.

I’m going to give you a little peak into the email chain about blogging that occurred recently… Read more…

A complete guide to Google+

posted by on July 29th, 2011

Long before Google+ even went into beta testing, the blogosphere was abuzz with rumors of Google’s newest attempt at entering the social networking world–some might remember the complete wash of Google Buzz–and in that moment in time, Plus was a huge mystery.  Fast-forward six months or so and we’re out of beta testing, the world is still abuzz with Google+, over 20 million users have registered for accounts… and yet Google+ is still a mystery.  Very few people know exactly what to do with new service or what its features are.

Fortunately, Ben Parr over at Mashable has created an amazing guide for all those still trying to figure out Google+.  Check it out.

The Power (within) Social Media

posted by on April 23rd, 2011

DiggI read an interesting article this morning.

It addresses the fact that social media is powered not by the friends you keep in touch with on a regular basis, but the acquaintances that only a social media outlet connects us to. Read more…

Social Media – Is It Working for You?

posted by on April 21st, 2011

We’ve been talking (and tweeting) a lot lately about the power of social media for businesses.

JLB has been using outlets like Twitter and Facebook for a few years now, and at the beginning of 2011, we unveiled a social media package for our clients. It’s been received well, and we’ve signed up a dozen or so businesses to our social media services in the past six months. Part of this initial success is the way that we’ve organized our approach to the practice of social media. Read more…

Podcamp – Nashville’s top-shelf (interactive) unconference

posted by on March 19th, 2011

It’s been a couple of years since we’ve attended PodCamp. It’s not that we opted out of last year for any particular reason, but we didn’t make it a priority. This year is different. This year, we are going again. And this year, it’s bigger than it’s ever been.

podcamp Nashville

“What’s PodCamp?” you ask… well, it’s one of the South’s premier un-conferences for online interactivity. Think of it as a gathering for nerds, geeks, entrepreneurs, small business owners, big business owners, and pretty much anyone involved or interested in online communications. If you have an interest in social media and/or social networking, then PodCamp is for you. PodCamp describes itself as “a forum for bloggers, marketers, content creators, educators, podcasters and the like to gather, network and learn about the latest trends, tricks and technologies in the interactive world – ultimately making them the superlative gurus in online communications.”

That might sound a little intimidating… PodCamp is really for anyone who is generally interested in online communications. The conference features 35 sessions presented by some of Nashville’s most prolific social media experts, web developers, and content creators. Sessions feature titles like “The Ultimate WordPress Experience,” and “How Mobile Bar Codes Can Help Your Digital Get Physical,” and “Mobile Marketing: How Your Business Can Use It Today.”

An estimated 550 people will attend this year’s PodCamp — and maybe more — PodCamp’s prominence has been growing. (Even The Tennessean has pre-covered the event in its weekend paper.) For our part, JLB is pleased to say that we’ll be featured as a panelist at one of the sessions on Saturday morning. At Paul Campbell’s, “We Did: Stories of Startups,” JLB is set to be one of 4-5 panelists representing small tech in Middle Tennessee.

For those interested, it’s not too late to sign up. And it’s free to attend PodCamp. Just visit the official website and register. We’ll see you there!

Why HootSuite is so sweet…

posted by on February 21st, 2011

So we’ve been playing a little at Camp JLB. The latest toy? HootSuite.

HootSuiteIf you’re new to social networking, you might not know what HootSuite does. If you’ve been social networking, you might not realize how far HootSuite extends.

So what is this technological joviality? HootSuite is web-based software for social media management. It is a resource that brings many of your social networking profiles under one roof. HootSuite built its business as a “Twitter tool,” allowing for the management of multiple Twitter accounts. But it has expanded its reach to include Facebook profiles, Facebook fan pages, LinkedIn, Ping.fm, WordPress, Myspace, and Foursquare.

For a brand management firm like JLB, HootSuite is a powerful tool that allows us to manage our own social media profiles in one place. And with the Pro version, we can manage our clients’ accounts in one spot, as well. This means if you’ve got a message that you want to distribute to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn simultaneously, you can post it into HootSuite and assign it to all three networks with just a click. (Gone are the days of logging into three social networking accounts and “copying/pasting” the message multiple times.)

And, if you are the kind of business that likes to tailor its announcements and plan out  Tweets, Status Updates, and Posts, HootSuite allows for the scheduling of messages. This is very helpful when planning an overall social media campaign for the month (let alone for the year). It’s a great way to craft a series of messages and develop your comapny’s voice.

What’s more, HootSuite provides rich statistical data for Twitter and Facebook accounts — allowing us to see the effectiveness of a series of Tweets or reading into the demographics of your Facebook fans, for example. HootSuite even has a tie-in for your Google Analytics (one of the more powerful stats trackers on the Web).

Sounds pretty nifty, huh? We think so, and we’re expecting to see HootSuite expand its social networking reach over the coming year.