Etc.

… you give your fans an offer they can’t receive elsewhere.

I’ve published a few articles of late that indicate a few things: Facebook users do not want to be sold to while they are feeding their chickens on Farmville or whacking someone in Mafia Wars. But consumers who become your fan on Facebook do expect something in return.

It looks like woman’s apparel and accessories seller Nine West is going about it the right way. Marketing firm Fluid launched its Fluid Fan Shop app on Nine West’s Facebook page this week , and it allows the merchant’s Facebook fans to shop for select discounted items without leaving the social network. more

If I look back at articles I wrote in 2009, “Twitter Better for Nonsense than Business Sense” may have to be my favorite. It wasn’t just because it was a hot topic - one that may define the year in marketing - but because of the comments it received.

Simply put, everyone seemed to be an expert on social media (and you could sense that in some of the comments), and at the same time have no clue how to use social media. Twitter, like many other social media channels that because household names in 2009, was treated like the great unknown. And as a result many so-called gurus threw the fundamental elements of marketing out the window and overtweeted to death. more

Tons of comments on this article I wrote and posted Monday on the Multichannel Merchant site: Twitter Better for Nonsense than Business Sense.

The premise: More than 40% of all tweets are considered “pointless babble.” Twitter may not be all about self-promotion, as the surveyor had thought. Heck, MCM editor Melissa Dowling pointed that out in this post last month.

With the exception of one comment (which may be by someone who has a personal vendetta against Pear Analytics, the company that did the study on Twitter content), everyone brings a valid argument to the table. more

Is there any difference between spamming someone and really just trying to get the most from your customer? Here’s why I ask. more

If a customer or potential client talks about you on Facebook, can you avoid losing a sale?

No, not unless the customer is a part of your own conversation.

But if someone is talking smack about your brand or company of Twitter, you have that chance to join the conversation and steer the conversation in a more positive direction.

Here’s my quick, unintentional case study. more

It takes Bezos six minutes to cut to the chase about the deal, but is worth watching.