Codero was asked to be featured in the book because of how we handle crisis management using social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. The book states: “Just as other communication revolutions necessitated that we rethink our business from the inside out, the Now Revolution does as well.”

As consumers embrace technology even more, the book helps you learn how businesses can adapt to social media. It shows how you can retool your organization to capitalize on real-time business. The seven shifts that make your company faster, smarter, and more social, are detailed through case studies, valuable tips, and actionable advice.

Here’s your chance to read the book and possibly get prizes when you pre-order it. You could win a NOW Revolution prize pack with items from companies profiled in the hardback.

You could get prizes from Sweet Leaf Tea, Taylor Guitars, Swix, a social media book from Wiley, ThinkGeek, Moosejaw, and Codero!

Pre-order two or more copies of the book by January 31 and email your receipt to info@nowrevolutionbook.com. Winners will be randomly selected and 10 winners will be notified on Feb 1, 2011 if they won.  Good luck!

Judge a Book By Its Cover, Codero is Profiled In This One. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

That’s something I learned from the social media boot camp Codero co-sponsored featuring Sarah Evans. Sarah pegs herself as a “social media freak”…she has turned her passion into a career as a public relations and new media consultant of her own Chicago firm, Sevans Strategy. She considers social media a tool that allows user-generated content.

I learned a lot from this social media guru and really did come back to Codero with practical ideas to launch immediately.

My colleague and I are already eager to break out a contest idea using social media to launch a new product. And we have another idea up our keyboard to use when Codero co-sponsors industry conferences. 

The interactive sessions with Sarah really were “less theory, more action” as Ben Smith, from Social: IRL blogged.

It was also amazing to watch as more than 859 tweets about the event were projected on a large screen in real-time from some of the 127 participants. Questions were asked and answered during the six hours covering Facebook, blogging and Twitter. Sarah also gave us ideas for social media workflow and provided many statistics I found interesting:

• 51% of people get news from people they follow, according to Pew Research.
• 95% of online shoppers conduct research before making a decision.
• The average social networking user is 37 years old.

In the U.S., our relationship with news is portable, personalized and participatory, which really reinforces why print advertising is declining and why online and social media are the channels to be watching.  Ad Week published statistics from eMarketer estimating that one in three companies will have a public-facing blog for marketing this year, rising to 43 percent by 2012.

So armed with my inspired faith in social media, here is an incentive for you to write a guest post on our blog relevant to social media. Email your idea to marketing@codero.com.

If your guest post is chosen to be on this site, we will also mail you a free green Codero bag…just like the ones we gave out at the boot camp, but this one will be filled with goodies.

No trick...our treat...FREE bag with goodies.

In the meantime, look for another Codero blog here soon with comments from the three participants Codero sponsored and the link to Sarah Evan’s boot camp presentation.

Sarah recaps parts of the event here in this video.

Social Media Is Not About Return On Investment. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

We had the great opportunity to attend Free State Social, which was hopefully the first annual of many Free State Social events to come. While there have been a vast number of recaps, write-ups, etc. following the event (and you can find most of them in the recap section of the Free State Social website), below is a small collection of the things that impacted us most.

Chris Brogan (follow on Twitter: @chrisbrogan)

• Having a social media department is like having a phone department. 100% agreed.  Regardless of how a company decides to utilize social media, it’s a responsibility that can fall on the entire company – not just one person/department. This gives a more honest, personable view of your company/brand to the world. Not the filtered, often diluted view.
• “Would you say that at a party?” – Things to think about before you post/comment in social media. Too often we scream/broadcast information out in social media. No one wants to hear how great we think we are. Have conversations and make connections to prove it.

 
Shawna Coronado (Follow on Twitter: @ShawnaCoronado)

• In social media – you are the brand. I think too many people forget this. If the content you provide via social media is stiff or stodgy, people will view your brand as such. If all you ever talk about is yourself (as a company/brand) people will get turned off and view you as arrogant. By being nice, personable and most importantly – being yourself, people begin to identify with you and stop viewing you as that looming corporate entity.

 
Sarah Evans (Follow on Twitter: @prsarahevans)

• Think like those you’re trying to reach. Too often corporations utilize social media and come off sounding, well, too corporate. With social media being an easy way to reach out and engage with people, companies should think and speak like those that they’re trying to reach.

 
Jeremiah Owyang (Follow on Twitter: @jowyang)

• Always ask why. When contemplating a social media tactic, companies should stop before jumping in and ask why. Don’t create a Facebook page or a Twitter account just to have one – you must realize how your customers will interact with it, and set aside time to really interact back with them. A passive social media strategy is a bad strategy because if you’re out there, people expect an immediate response, as too often in social media “real-time is not fast enough.”

 
What was your favorite moment(s) from Free State Social? Share with us!

Free State Social #FSSocial. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog