*blushes* But seriously -- I too am looking forward to hearing from Jessica -- the Twangouts shes doing look really, really cool.

Glenn Couldnt agree more... a web visit shouldnt be a transaction, it should be a beginning of a conversation that hopefully, if done correctly leads to a customer. Right?

Thanks for dropping in Tuija, I dont see it that much here either, but that doesnt mean we shouldnt be focusing on it very closely. BTW - if you liked this post, you want to pop over to follow my new blog http://www.ConverseDigital.com where Ill be talking about this sort of thing more often than here on this blog.

Thanks. Appreciate the kind words.

Thanks Jeremy... appreciate the kind words of support.

Hey Jen, Agree, there are some folks that do a better job than others, but usually not over the long haul. Well unless they arent actually working and have 2-4 hours per blog post to create something truly worthy. Its a shame that the industry has fallen prey to this thinking. But I do hope more folks quit sharing the crap, which Ive got to think would lead to more folks deciding to quit writing the crap and focus on truly providing value on their blogs.

Thanks Jeff... Agree, more frequent publishing certainly can and does help -- but until a spider can hire you, youre just creating false optimism. Thanks for stopping in and adding to the convo. Hope all is well up your way.

Agree Micheline, I also found that by drilling down into my social feeds for friends that lived in different parts of the city, I could quickly piece together an overall view of what was happening and how the storm was effecting the entire city. Yet, I have to admit, it was a news report that helped me get a final picture of how my office did during the story (water, electric, etc.) as I had no friends that live in that area. Thanks for stopping in and adding to the convo.

Jackie, We may have to agree to disagree on this one. Brand management is a delicate balance. If I was a brand that was rooted in NYC or which derrived my brand power from NYC, no, Id not post promotional messaging on 9/11. I would forgo one day of promotion (Id still have 364 more) in lieu of even the remotest possiblity that I might offend one of my core fans/followers. Its just that simple. Its a decision to place humanity above promotion. The examples you cite below re: babies, promotions at work, etc are non-relevant to the argument at hand. They are personal not promotional (commerce driven) in nature. Thus they fall into an entirely different classification of good vs bad manners. But of course if someone had a baby during a hurricane Id certainly congratulate them... in fact I did when my neighbor had a baby on Aug 29 of this year -- smack dab in the middle of the hurricane. Its good manners. But congratulating somone on a life moment and encouraging folks to buy something so a donation can be made to a charity -- which would be very small fraction of the total price of the item bought -- are very different types of posts. One is communications amongst friends and the other is a cause marketing. Again, the point of this post is that auto-scheduling, while convenient is not a set-it and forget-it tool. Marketing messages do not, and never have, existed in a vacuum. Thus, as diligent marketers, we must take steps to ensure our well meaning efforts dont inadvertantly backfire because someone scheduled a message and in between the scheduling and posting, the world context changed. This holds true for both online and offline marketing. As you noted, the promotion had been going on for some time... so in the end, we must ask ourselves, did one last Facebook post really make a difference in terms of results of the effort? Id have to say, I doubt it. So in my opinion, the downside of scheduling that post clearly(ticked off fans) clearlyoutweighed the upside, so in the end, I still wouldnt have scheduled it. I dont consider it politically correctness (something no one has ever accused me of by the way)... I consider it just good manners and smart marketing. But maybe thats just me... anyone else want to chime in?

Hi Jackie, I have no axe to grind with Drew and in fact, if you will reread the post, you note that I don't at any point attack or vent "at" Drew. In fact, I called him a "victim" and pointed out that a number of his fans were coming to his defense. My reason for using the post was to make a point and unfortunately, to make that point, I needed an example of how not to do it and what can happen when you do it wrong. I simply made two, what I thought were important points for brands using social media to be aware of and consider when planning and executing their social marketing. First, auto scheduling while convenient is NOT a "set it and forget it" tool. Brands that take this approach to the scheduled content risk a consumer backlash, as can clearly be seen on this post. Second, I was using the errant Facebook post to demonstrate that you have to think about timing. Forget for a minute that hurricane Isaac was forecasted (almost 4 days prior)to make land on Aug 29, which should have automatically resulted in the post being pulled down, Aug 29 is the 7 year anniversary of the worst storm (in recent history) to hit New Orleans and still gets New Orleanians on edge. So to schedule a promotional post on a day that was either going to be landfall of a major hurricane or the anniversary of THE major hurricane shows a real lack of understanding on the part of whomever runs Drew's account. Regardless of how many fans Drew has worldwide, his brand is and for the foreseeable future shall be rooted in New Orleans. Thus, to do anything publicly that would even hint at a lack of regard for the fans in the city that he now trades off of financially is simply bad marketing in my opinion. There is a time for marketing and then there is a time to just be quiet... when a hurricane has your city shut down, it's time to be quiet and given that the post has been removed from his page, I'm guessing Drew and/or his people agree.

Yes agree. Will quickly be yesterdays news but just goes to show that the devil is in the details. Still not quite sure it made sense in the first place, given today is the anniversary of Katrina But thats another post.

Thanks Kevin!

Thanks Jeff. I too hope someone from LI finds this. The platform has so much more potential and I for one would truly love to see them explore it.