I’m not talking about the prosaic stuff like being able to make your own reservations and book your own flights. (Which, let’s face it, can be a burden — sometimes I miss having a travel agent in the loop, which made vacation planning a kind of “fire and forget” experience. Although no one misses the added cost.)

I mean stuff like:

* We expect to know more about our vacations: Not only are we setting our own itineraries, but we know (or think we know) everything there is to know about the travel advisories, insiders’ scoop, locals’ perspective, expat worldview, histories, backstories, and ratings for everything and everyone… user-generated, crowdsourced, and group-moderated, more or less in realtime.

Yes, previously we had our guidebooks of choice (the best of which were only slightly out of date), but now we have the breadth, if not depth, of travel information in which to drown.

* We expect we might actually know people at our destination: Because of the broad geographic reach of our online social networks, it’s possible that we could send up an online flare, search our networks, and come back with people in the area with whom to meet up with. (Alternately, we can plan our itineraries to incorporate some real-world visits to online friends.) Or, we can take advantage of our networks by casting about for advice, or even find couches to crash on or apartments to swap.

* We take our friends with us on vacation: Not content to send a few postcards and flip through photo albums afterward while handing out souvenirs, we try to include our friends at home by posting status updates, photo albums, and other artifacts of our vacations, while at the same time, we try to keep up with events at home. (One hopes at a reduced rate — there’s still a role for peer pressure, in the form of “You’re on vacation, dumbass, get off of Facebook and do something, already!”)

* Consequently, we never fully go on vacation: Much has been written about how the office is always getting closer to us, even as we get physically further from the office, but the digital leash extends to our personal lives, as well.

At least now we still have the issues of international connectivity that form a barrier to universal coverage, limiting us to hotel rooms, internet cafes, and open wi-fi hotspots. For those of us who don’t have GSM phones, of course — for us, connectivity, like politics, stops at the water’s edge.

* We expect we can change things on the fly: Once again, mobile connectivity means that flexibility can trump itinerary, to the extent that depending on our tolerance for risk and adventure, just head off in a general direction without anything but the roughest plan and still keep the uncertainty to a minimum, for only modest rebooking fees.

Again, this is a high-level look at vacation in the socially-connected era (and I guess I’m more of a planner, anyway, even though I’m not a very good one, which is part of why I don’t go on more vacations). Do you have your own thoughts on the digital vacation era? Please leave a comment below.

You might be rolling your eyes and saying “great, another acronym to remember and another marketing concept to understand and incorporate into my business”. But not so fast, this one is on of the most important concepts to come along to marketing in years.

Let me explain myself…

Explaining Word of Mouth Marketing in Plain English

According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association web site, they define it as “Giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place. It is the art and science of building active, mutually beneficial consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-marketer communications.”

It goes on to explain “Word of mouth is a pre-existing phenomenon that marketers are only now learning how to harness, amplify, and improve. Word of mouth marketing isn’t about creating word of mouth — it’s learning how to make it work within a marketing objective.

That said, word of mouth can be encouraged and facilitated. Companies can work hard to make people happier, they can listen to consumers, they can make it easier for them to tell their friends, and they can make certain that influential individuals know about the good qualities of a product or service.

Word of mouth marketing empowers people to share their experiences. It’s harnessing the voice of the customer for the good of the brand. And it’s acknowledging that the unsatisfied customer is equally powerful.”

It is really about two-way transparent conversation

Again from WOMMA, “All word of mouth marketing techniques are based on the concepts of customer satisfaction, two-way dialog, and transparent communications. The basic elements are:

• Educating people about your products and services
• Identifying people most likely to share their opinions
• Providing tools that make it easier to share information
• Studying how, where, and when opinions are being shared
• Listening and responding to supporters, detractors, and neutrals”

WAIT! Didn’t you just explain what social media is? YEP.

Social Media are really Word of Mouth Tools

Granted, social media is on the tip of everyone’s tongues with tools such as Twitter and Facebook but if you think about it, Social Media and its tools are the ultimate digital conveyance of “Word of Mouth”. Instead of telling 20 of your friends that this restaurant rocked you can share it with 20 million people on Yelp.com. Pissed off at a vendor and you vented on Twitter? Most likely that company has an outpost there and is listening.

You can’t fake this stuff

“Word of mouth can’t be faked or invented. Attempting to fake word of mouth is unethical and creates a backlash, damages the brand, and tarnishes the corporate reputation. Legitimate word of mouth marketing acknowledges consumers’ intelligence — it never attempts to fool them. Ethical marketers reject all tactics related to manipulation, deception, infiltration, or dishonesty.”

Expanding the Discussion of Word of Mouth Marketing - I want to hear from you

This is just touching upon the basics of Word of Mouth marketing and I plan to dive in further and really explore how your business can benefit from these concepts but I want to hear from you. Let us know what you want to know. Case studies? Concepts? Resources? Leave a comment.

In the mean time, check out these great resources:

Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA)

Word of Mouth Marketing Book - Andy Sernovitz

Photo Credit: Media Bistro

Here they are:

Tinu Abayomi Paul

Leveraged Promotion, a website promotion company. Their specialty is bringing companies with an existing offline presence the local, national or international exposure they need to increase profitability, leveraging the cost-effective tools available on the web. You can reach her at http://AskTinu.com.

Her last project was a contribution to Rok Hrastnik’s comprehensive guide to RSS, “Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS”. You can find more of her daily tips on RSS, Blogs, Google tools, and more, at her main blog, Free Traffic Tips.

Jared Goralnick
Jared Goralnick’s passion is to help businesses save time through more efficient usage of technology. In 2002, he founded SET Consulting, a productivity training, development, and design firm, which he continues to manage.  Some of SET’s clients include the FBI, NIST, CRS, NTT Communications, and HP.  In 2008, Jared launched AwayFind, a web service that addresses the problem of email overload.

In addition to a building a passionate online following of users, AwayFind received international attention in NPR, The Guardian, and blogs large and small.  In 2009, he started Bootstrap Maryland, a community organization focused on building lean technology businesses in the greater Washington DC region.  You can find Jared blogging online at Technotheory.com or speaking about workplace productivity and communication around the globe.

Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is President and CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a full service marketing communications provider offering copywriting, business communications, blog, book and article writing, and marketing and branding consulting services. She brings with her over 15 years of experience working in the marketing field for some of the largest corporations in the world (including divisions of AT&T, HSBC, Household International and more).

Susan is a published author with three books available in book stores and online (Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon through Palgrave Macmillan, Kick-Ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps through Entrepreneur Press, and Google Blogger for Dummies through Wiley). Her fourth book, Building Brand Value the Playboy Way, will hit book stores (through Palgrave Macmillan) in Fall 2009.

Susan frequently writes about marketing for various publications. She is a featured columnist on Entrepreneur.com where she writes about marketing communications, and you can find some of her marketing-related articles on websites such as WomenEntrepreneur.com, MSNBC.com, FoxBusiness.com, BusinessWeek.com, WashingtonPost.com, TheStreet.com, SmartMoney.com, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Small Business, and more.

Susan is also an active blogger authoring the KeySplash Creative Conversations blog about branding, marketing and advertising for her company, KeySplash Creative, Inc., as well as one of the leading blogs for women working in the field of business, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a contributing author at Corporate-Eye.com where she writes about corporate branding, and she writes about small business marketing for Cox Communications’ Kudzu.com Business Success Center where she authors the Everyday Marketing blog. Additionally, she is the Guide to Web Logs for About.com (a New York Times company).

Becky Carroll
Becky is founder of Customers Rock!, a consultancy focused on engaging customers through conversation, social media, and WOW customer experiences. Becky’s clients have included companies such as EA, HP, Fujitsu, and Ford in addition to numerous small businesses and non-profits. She is the author of the business blog Customers Rock!  and teaches the class “Marketing via New Media” at UCSD. Becky is a regular personality on the nationally-syndicated Big Biz Talk Radio show, a contributing author on the recently-released Age of Conversation business books, and a sought-after speaker on social media and customer loyalty.

Previously, Becky served as Director of Social Media for Brickfish and as a Senior Consultant with Peppers and Rogers Group. She also worked at HP for 14 years, including her role as Director of Marketing, UK.

Anita Campbell
Anita Campbell has been an entrepreneur at heart her entire life. A lawyer by training, she has a wide range of interests, as reflected in her varied background in banking, information technology, human resources, marketing and eCommerce.

Today she is the CEO of her own business, Small Business Trends LLC, a media and information company. In that role she closely follows trends in the small business market and trends in technology.

Before starting her entrepreneurial journey she held various executive positions in the corporate world. Most recently she was a senior executive with Bell & Howell Company, including serving as CEO of a technology subsidiary of Bell & Howell.

A respected speaker and emerging trends resource, Ms. Campbell’s expertise has been noted or her opinion quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Inc Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, CIO Magazine, Entrepreneur Radio, BusinessTVChannel.com, Cleveland Plain Dealer, San Francisco Chronicle, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Akron Beacon Journal, Boston Globe, CRM Buyer, and countless trade publications, websites, podcasts and more.

Christopher Carfi
Christopher Carfi is an entrepreneur and CEO of Cerado, Inc. Cerado was founded in 2002 to provide software and services that enable businesses, organizations and associations to better connect and understand their customer and member communities. His blog, The Social Customer Manifesto, is a “Top 25″ marketing blog, and has won numerous other awards including “Top CRM Blog” in 2005 and 2007. He is also an active contributor to the ProjectVRM, based at the Berkman Center at Harvard University, which focuses on improving customer-vendor relationships and is creating tools to equip individuals with tools of both independence and engagement.

Prior to co-founding Cerado, Chris was a product marketing executive at Extricity, a provider of B2B integration services. He also spent nearly a decade at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) as a manager at Andersen’s Center for Strategic Technology in Palo Alto, California.   He serves on the Network Solutions’ Social Web Advisory Board.

Chris grew up in Chicago, holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from Northwestern University, and currently lives in the Bay Area with his family.

Looking forward to their input

We are looking forward to having each one of these incredible people provide their insight and opinion to continue improving and bringing you the best online experience.

“Twitter, despite its many extraordinary uses, can be a bit of a head scratcher when you first get started. From hashtags to Trending Topics, Twitter is a world of nomenclature and established conventions that are alien to newcomers.” [Mashable] I also admit when it first came out I really didn’t get it but I captured my name for brand protection purposes and now with the Twitter-verse growing by the minute, I am glad I did.

But you may be asking how your business can properly use Twitter and get some return on the time invested. Sure, you can start with how to get on Twitter if you aren’t already, but if you are already, you need a guidebook and Mashable has delivered.

Ironically with all the mentions and tutorials/tips for Twitter there is not a single hub for serving up  resources and how-tos for all Twitter users, from beginner to expert.

That’s why they put together The Twitter Guide Book (twitter.mashable.com) and according to their site it is “a one-stop shop for getting up to speed with everything Twitter, from managing your Twitter stream to promoting a business”.

As you can see in the screenshot below they have also included the latest Twitter lists and news from Mashable, plus community reviews of Twitter and related services from their sister site, Blippr. The Twitter Guide Book will be cultivated, maintained and updated to bring the latest tips and tricks as Twitter evolves.

You can check it out here.

Images Credit: Mashable.com

I almost never pre-scheduled these little drive-bys in advance, instead just relying on a simple calculus: I’d stick my head in, and if they weren’t busy, on the phone, or otherwise waving me off, I’d stop and chitchat for a bit, find out what was going on, gripe and get griped to, then leave.

If they were busy, I’d just wave and move on, and maybe try to catch them on the return trip.

I can’t be positive, but I don’t think I annoyed too many people with my drive-bys. A lot of times, people were surprised that someone would actually, physically, visit (some folks were very head-down, e-mail and IM-only types) — especially someone who they weren’t actively working with at the time.

So what’s the point of this story, other than to show that I was (am) a big slacker? It was all about maintaining relationships within my professional social network. And not in a coldly-calculating, Machiavellian career-advancement kind of way: These were people whom I was friendly with, yet who weren’t necessarily my “friends,” but with whom I’d worked before and might work again.

And it was often pretty useful, not just for gossip-swapping purposes: You could get a sense of how other groups worked, what challenges they faced, who was doing what; all stuff that you can’t really get from a status report (even if you’d see another groups status report, which generally, you wouldn’t.)

Now take that idea and expand it, using modern social media and online communication tools, as well as the concept of ambient intimacy. It’s not that big of a stretch — using pings, pokes, winks, and general status updates are low-cost ways (in terms of attention and interruption, not money) to seed conversations that have no set agenda, but are still valuable for maintaining relationships.

Truth to be told, though, for these purposes, I still prefer one-on-one communications like IMs, direct messages, and other targeted conversations over social broadcasts. They’re a lot warmer than just shotgun-blasting status messages out to your entire network, even if it’s just a one word “’sup?”, harassing a friend with a silly quote, or sticking an earworm in their head. (I also think privacy, or at least semi-privacy, leads to more candor and thus more valuable — or at least more interesting — conversations.)

Also, 1-to-1 drive-bys of this sort online probably work better for personal relationships — you should be more judicious in the business context, and not bother people unless you have a valid (and not just plausible) reason to say hi. At least with my in-person office drivebys, I was physically in the neighborhood, which wasn’t just a pretext — it was the truth.

If you want to be cynical about it, you could say that you’re just keeping lines of conversation open and primed, so that they’re available for when you need to use them for something substantive. One likes to think you can spot that kind of ulterior motive, though.

Do you do anything to maintain your online relationships? Are you the cold, calculating sort with calendar and stopwatch; a social spammer; or something in between? Leave a comment.

And if you’re one of the folks I used do drive-bys on, also leave a comment and let me know how you felt about them. Even if they bugged you. I can take it.

Now granted, there are few things that are unachievable like #100 - “Work and like is ecstasy, bliss and pure joy” and quite subjective like #93 - “I am surrounded by people as productive as me” so getting the perfect score will not be there but I believe I can get to the “Jedi” status.

So my task is to take that score of 32 as close to 100 over the next month and see how things improve. Here are some things beyond my four principles that I must accomplish to get a great score by September when I do the test again.

- Create Better Tracking Lists

- Incorporate more physical things like an Inbox and the Tickler System

- Schedule Weekly Status/GTD Prep Time on Monday morning 9-11am

- Review GTD Book again for some key planning concepts (pages 56, 192, 196)

- Get my email inbox in better order

- Find a GTD Mentor to review what I am doing so I don’t fall into bad habits.

See you at the end of September to mark my improvements and hopefully new lessons learned.

Photo Credit: iStockPhoto

Network Solutions is listening. Listening to our customers. Listening to YOU.

Change is here and today on Monday June 29, 2009 we would love for you to be a part of our sneak preview.

We are overhauling our brand and this not just a cosmetic change. We have heard loud and clear what you want and we are aligning our offerings to your needs regardless of what stage you are in the business life cycle.

Change We Have Been Waiting For

We’ve evolved the website structure and navigation to provide a more logical flow of information and a more customized experience so users can find what they are looking for.  We’ve also reorganized and simplified our offerings to meet the specific needs of the customer.

OK, So how can I participate in this sneak preview of the new website and offer my feedback?
http://preview.networksolutions.com/

You can head there RIGHT NOW to see the preview.

Share your thoughts and get a SPECIAL OFFER as a “Thank You” for your feedback

In exchange for taking the time out of your day to offer your thoughts on how we are doing and input on how we can make the experience better, we will send you a coupon for a $35 credit towards the purchase of Network Solutions products and services, while supplies last*.

So head on RIGHT NOW. We look forward to hearing from you.

Photo Credit: Customers Rock

As always, we will continue to work to take measures to prevent these and other types of technical issues caused by third parties that may impact our customers.

Here are links to two articles that explain what a DDOS attack is in case our readers are interested.

http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-015.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack

June 26th : 8:15:22 pm. : Please stand by while we are mitigating a DDOS attack on our servers.  We will update here as soon as we  have more info Thanks.

A similar thing can happen in a realm where the stakes aren’t so high, but the terrain is just as perilous. It’s a convoluted land of complex social norms, finely-calculated relationships, and polite fictions: the public social calendar.

This is social broadcasting in its most literal sense — you’re broadcasting what you’re up to, socially.

I’ve talked before about how publicly-viewable invitations have changed how people use RSVPs (especially how they’ve changed from actual indicators of intention, to signifiers of endorsement or aspiration.)

Now, when you throw public status updates, especially mobile status updates, into the mix, you add in a layer of self-accountability to your public responses.

At least, in potential — I don’t know that anyone is so aware of other peoples’ actions in real life. Or I hope not — it seems petty.

Here’s the scenario — previously, if you were invited to an event to which you didn’t want to attend (or you had a few competing events to choose from), you could beg off politely, give an excuse (washing my hair / food poisoning / just going to stay in and watch TV), and no one would know the difference (unless, of course, you ran into someone who later ratted you out).

Now, though, unless you’re really self-disclipined, you might find that posting an otherwise-innocuous status update causes you to out yourself in real-time (to say nothing about getting tagged in someone else’s photo later on) — by telling people where you are, you’re also telling the hosts you snubbed where you aren’t. And if you used a lame excuse or outright lie, you can bust yourself and cause some awkward moments down the line.

Call it truth and consequences.

We’ve seen this in work contexts (say, getting busted after skipping out of work to go to a Halloween party) as part of the broader theme of getting into trouble for posting stuff online.

Anyway, there are a couple of paths you can take to avoid this problem. The first is discretion (or alternately, obfuscation) and being really careful or ambiguous about what you socially broadcast. I don’t see this as viable in the long-term, since as we’ve seen, discretion tends to go out the window, especially after a few drinks.

The next course, of course, is transparency (it’s always transparency with us social media types, isn’t it?) — when you’re honest, you don’t need to worry about keeping your lies straight. Of course, you want to be diplomatic as well; there are many ways to say “I’m holding out for a better offer” while sparing feelings.

The last method is disinformation — deliberately broadcasting false information about where you are and what you’re doing. I’m not sure why anyone would want to do this, unless they were crafting an alibi, shamelessly social climbing, or had really touchy friends.

Obviously, this isn’t a new phenomena — it’s just that social media and social broadcasting make these potential faux pas so much more accessible to everyone.

Anyway, I’ll throw it out to you — as the host of an event, have you ever paid close attention to what the ingrates who declined your invitation did in lieu of accepting your hospitality? Or, as an attendee, have you ever got busted by a status update that got back to the host? Please leave a comment.

Network Solutions is listening. Listening to our customers. Listening to YOU.

Change is coming and on Monday June 29, 2009 we would love for you to be a part of our sneak preview.

We are overhauling our brand and this not just a cosmetic change. We have heard loud and clear what you want and we are aligning our offerings to your needs regardless of what stage you are in the business life cycle.

Change We Have Been Waiting For

We’ve evolved the website structure and navigation to provide a more logical flow of information and a more customized experience so users can find what they are looking for.  We’ve also reorganized and simplified our offerings to meet the specific needs of the customer.

OK, So how can I participate in this sneak preview of the new website and offer my feedback?
http://preview.networksolutions.com/

You can head there on Monday 6/29 to see the preview.

Share your thoughts and get a SPECIAL OFFER as a “Thank You” for your feedback

In exchange for taking the time out of your day to offer your thoughts on how we are doing and input on how we can make the experience better, we will send you a coupon for a $35 credit towards the purchase of Network Solutions products and services, while supplies last*.

So head on over there next week. We look forward to hearing from you.

Photo Credit: Customers Rock