What I want for my birthday from LinkedIn

I’ve become a big fan of LinkedIn PPC advertising. The CPC is pretty low (especially for the B2B space), and they have been converting at an aggressive rate. Obviously, my landing pages can’t take all the credit. So, clearly, LinkedIn’s targeting and various anonymous algorithms are firing on all cylinders. I just wish that LinkedIn would put together a mobile app for its advertising platform.

Here’s the deal: my market is all over the world. And, when I wake up in the morning, I’d like to get an early sense of whether it will be a good day or not. Decent progress on my campaigns, of course, could make that extra cup of coffee superfluous. Unfortunately, I have to schlep over to my laptop, fire it up and then head over to the LinkedIn advertising platform. That’s just far too much work for me. It would be so much better if I could just pull up my LinkedIn advertising dashboard on my iPhone or Kindle.

So, LinkedIn, please, please, please: give me a mobile app for your advertising platform. To hit my deadline (check the headline), I’ll need it by the first week of March.

I love this video

I’ve always gotten a kick out of it, especially given the hype in the social media market until the Facebook IPO flamed out. Now, it’s great for nostalgia.

I have to admit – sometimes, I really do miss running Inside IPO (which is no more …). Also, I’m guilty of “I have an amazing team” – specifically the folks at my last gig.

Got a Social Media Obsession?

For the social media-obsessed, right? When you wear something like this, you’re really sending a message. Now, to find the right hashtag for something like that …

A Big Mistake #WithMitt

Have you downloaded the iPhone app from the Mitt Romney campaign? I have, and full disclosure, I support neither Romney nor Obama. The app allows you to take photos that are framed with inspirational messages like “The America We Love” and state that you’re #withmitt. For supporters, this is a great way to spread the word. Take pictures of what you love about America, post them on Facebook and Pinterest, tweet them and so on. It really does sound great.

Until the wrong person starts to use it.

How Facebook Screwed It up for Spectators

The social media market used to be fun to watch. A palpable excitement pervaded it, as rapid growth turned the likes of Facebook, Twitter and many others into household names. Enormous venture capital deals were cut – not that the recipients need the money. It looks like many were taking periodic cash-outs instead of having to wait for the big day.

What’s Cooler Than a Million Dollars?

Facebook employees are about to find out what turned their boss on about a billion dollars. The company is looking to unload around $1 billion in employee-owned stock, as the worker bees who have sacrificed cash for years look for a bit of upside. And, Facebook is doing it in style.

The social media company is looking to help its devoted employees cash out of some shares at a valuation of $60 billion … that’s “cool” 60 times over. It’s also a 20 percent jump over the company’s previous valuation of $50 billion.

Blackbird Pie Is Finally Here! It’s about Time

http://twitter.com/#!/TechCrunch/status/614261751554049

I’ve been using Twitter’s Blackbird Pie utility almost from the day it was released. Unfortunately, there aren’t many places where I can use it. It works on Gadling, Luxist and HuffPo, but not Business Insider. Until recently, it didn’t work on WordPress … but that just changed!

WordPress is actually making it incredibly easy to use Blackbird Pie (far easier than the original utility, which was pretty easy anyway.

So, what’s the implication of this … aside from my having a new social media tool to play with? Well, I have a lot more latitude in embedding tweets in my posts. So, I can start presenting Twitter users in their own words. This is particularly useful for me with people who don’t think before they tweet.

How Well Does Social Media Drive Blog Traffic?

Okay, you’re not going to find out here. Instead, head over to the guest post I wrote on Scene by Laurie, exploring how travel bloggers can fall victim to niche audiences that generate plenty of social media chatter but never really click through. If you are over-reliant on Twitter or Facebook for traffic, this is the downside to which you’re exposed. And yes, I do anchor it with a real world travel example.

Travel Blog Analysis: Does Social Media Drive Real Traffic? >>

And, here’s the source story from the case study …

Five Reasons Flight Attendants Should Shut up and Push the Cart >>

Five Most Recent Social Media Marketing Guest Posts

Okay, I’ve been busy lately, which is why I’ve been neglecting Migrant Blogger. Just so you can have a sense of what I’ve been up to, here are my recent social media marketing guest posts for Social Times and Technorati:

Four Ways Corporate Bloggers Can Lure Readers Back >>

Four Ways to Hedge Against Twitter Platform Instability >>

Four Terrible Objectives for Your Corporate Blog >>

Corporate Blogging: Ignore Your Metrics >>

Top Five Ways to Turn Blog States into Sales Intelligence >>

Why the Twitter Startup Market Won’t Get More Cash

Peter Kafka’s latest article over on AllThingsD (a must-read for me) caught my attention quickly. He found that the amount of investment cash flowing into “pure play” Twitter startups fell to $10.4 million for the June 2009-to-May 2010 period … from $21.6 million the previous year. The 52 percent year-over-year decline probably feels like a shock to the system, but it looks like there are some clear drivers for this change.

Kafka cites the natural ebb and flow of venture capital deals, as well as Twitter’s rush to fill gaps in its services. The latter, to me, is a no-brainer, as I remember trying to keep up with it. During last spring’s Chirp conference, Twitter announced a number of new measures that rounded out its product set. Of course, it came at the expense – whether Twitter wanted to admit it or not – of the many companies that had arisen as a result of the market opportunities created by Twitter’s gaps.