Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said Wednesday that failing to meet the “challenges” of cybersecurity will mean the U.S. will “pay the price in the form of diminished safety, lost privacy, lost jobs and financial vulnerability — billions of dollars potentially lost to digital criminals.”

The&FCC&chair called on Internet users, providers and policymakers to address multiple “cyber threats,” including botnet attacks, domain name fraud and IP hijacking.

Source: mashable.com → | ∞ Permalink

Last week I was involved in what one tweeter characterized as an “ROI smackdown.”

I was speaking on a panel for Social Media Week New York&when one of my fellow&panelists said “This ROI stuff is just a bunch of crap. I’m so tired of it. You can’t measure what you’re doing and people should not even try.”

I began to twitch.

“I agree,” said the second panelist. “Too much focus is placed on measurement.”

My head began to throb.

“As a social media marketer, I can’t measure what I do,” said the moderator. “I just do it.”

At that point, the dam broke.

Source: businessesgrow.com → | ∞ Permalink

Sure you’ve setup your company profiles and pages on social media. However, do you know what channels are best used for which type of interaction? This infographic by Grovo shares some great insight into specific uses for many of the popular social media platforms. Did you know? “Content Marketing Becoming Vital” Kelly OCG, a workforce consulting and outsourcing organization shares that they do no B2B brand advertising. Instead they spend about 60% of their marketing budget on creating, distributing, and promoting their own unique content. According to the Custom Content Council approximately $41billion dollars are spent on creating custom content. Via BtoB Magazine.

Source: toprankblog.com → | ∞ Permalink

Rapportive, a startup that makes a Gmail add-on that displays social media info about contacts as you email them, confirmed on Wednesday that it had been purchased byLinkedIn.

Rahul Vohra, CEO of Rapportive, confirmed the acquisition onthe company’s blog. “In business, partnership is dating — and we went on a lot of dates with LinkedIn. Slowly, but surely, we fell in love,” Vohra wrote. Vohra wrote that despite the new ownership, Rapportive will continue building its product. “At LinkedIn, we will support Rapportive, and we will continue to build beautiful products that make you brilliant with people.”

The confirmation comes after a&report&earlier this month from&All Things D&pegged the purchase price in the “low teens” of millions of dollars. Vohra did not disclose financial terms of the deal.

Source: mashable.com → | ∞ Permalink

In this post on Mashable written by Lauren Indvik, the role of Facebook in online retail is highlighted along with some interesting facts about the past year in “F-Commerce” and why some retailers are shutting down their Facebook stores.

From the post, “A Bloomberg report this weekend pointed out that Gap, J.C. Penney, Nordstrom and GameStop have all opened and closed shops on Facebook within the past year — undermining expectations that the social network will become a major revenue driver for retailers over the next decade.”& The author points out that Facebook commerce may not be completely responsible for the failings of online retail stores on the social site. “In most cases, retailers have entered the f-commerce market by importing their online catalogs and making them available for purchase in a Facebook app. The experience is nearly identical to shopping on their websites, with two major differences: 1) Shoppers can complete their entire browsing and checkout experience without leaving facebook.com; and 2) the Facebook apps tend to work more slowly. In other words, consumers have little to no incentive to shop via these Facebook apps.”

Let’s keep the conversation moving forward, is F-Commerce a dying entity or are retailers just going about their selling on Facebook in an ineffective manner?&

Source: mashable.com → | ∞ Permalink

When it comes to driving action and creating engagement online, email is king.

Email is the single most powerful weapon in any marketer’s arsenal.

If you follow the journey of some of the most successful bloggers online today you will discover that effective email marketing is an integral part of their approach, for one good reason; email marketing works.

New mediums have emerged over the years only to wither away quickly but one medium remains strong, and that medium is email; one major reason for this is that we can’t do without checking our emails every day.

The problem with email marketing is that, as users, we’ve gotten so used to emails now that we ignore the majority of the emails we get. How then do you stand out as an email marketer? How do you get into the inbox of your readers and get them to take action? This article will give effective email marketing tips for bloggers.

Source: bloggingtips.com → | ∞ Permalink

Many interactive marketers rely on email subscriber valuation (ESV) to justify budgets and plan messaging strategies, according to a new report by Forrester Research, which presents a three-step formula for calculating ESV.

Below, a synopis of the new ESV formula, issued by Forrester:&

1. Find out how much time you have to derive value from a subscriber.
2. Determine the cost of acquiring and serving a subscriber.
3. Calculate the direct revenues from each subscriber.

&

Source: marketingprofs.com → | ∞ Permalink

This Jason Keith article takes a look at Twitter’s next wave of business targeting small companies.

“If you look closely, nearly every social media property plays some form of follow the leader, or at the very least "follow the features." The latest installment of this game happened this week when it was announced that Twitter would be opening up it's advertising platform to small and medium sized merchants, allowing these groups to take advantage of opportunities that only Fortune 500 companies have had in the past year.”

Allowing small businesses ad space is a tactic already taken by Facebook from the previous year. How do you think this will switch up the game for smaller companies?

Source: boston.com → | ∞ Permalink

One of the biggest challenges B2B marketers face when they develop a blog is maintaining its momentum. You may write a few posts, run out of ideas and let your blog sit empty as you devote your time to other projects. However, to realize benefits from a corporate blog, you must post engaging content on a regular basis.

1. Share your&latest research&or white papers.

2. Post educational information or&“how to” tips.

3.&Discuss a problem&in your industry.

4. Tell readers about your&upcoming events.

5. Comment on the latest&news in your sector.

6. Reformat your&press releases&into blog posts to highlight your company’s latest news.

7.&Profile a staff member. Share stories about their work and why they are involved with your company.

8.&Interview your CEO&or&another&leader&or&colleague&in your industry about a&hot topic.

9. Post&case studies&that show the value of your services.

10.&Accept&guest posts&from your staff, customers or leaders in your industry.

11. Post&photos&and write short captions under them.

12. Share&“how to” videos. You can also post videos of interviews, keynote speeches, product demos, events and staff shenanigans.

13.&Report about an event or conference&you have attended. You can even blog live from the event.

14.&Review something&(e.g.&a book, program or event).

15. Develop a&resource list. If customers regularly ask you for information on a specific topic, give them a list of online resources.

16.&Link to a post on another blog&and tell your readers why they should check it out.

17. If you’re active on Twitter, you can share your&weekly “top tweets.”&That way, readers who don’t use Twitter can keep up with your latest news, and readers who tweet will want to follow you.

18. Mention&your other social networks. For example, you can highlight discussions you’re having on Facebook and encourage readers to join the conversation.

What about you?&What other topics make good B2B blog content? Feel free to share your thoughts below.

Source: business2community.com → | ∞ Permalink

Most people view Twitter as a way to converse with others and publish useful information that others are hopefully interested in reading.

Have you ever thought of it as a highly useful competitive research tool?

Source: ducttapemarketingconsultant.com → | ∞ Permalink

Here are a few ways to use Pinterest to boost your search ranking.

Source: ragan.com → | ∞ Permalink

CMO Study 2011 Infographic.Are CMO’s ready for the digital marketing era?

Source: slideshare.net → | ∞ Permalink

In case you’ve been living in a mountain cave in Bhutan for the past couple of months, Pinterest is a relatively new social networking site that allows users to create online image collages, then quickly and easily share those collages — called “pinboards” — with other Pinterest users.

It’s fun, easy, and catching on like wildfire right now.

Part of Pinterest’s appeal is that it’s beautiful. Enter the lovely world of Pinterest, and all the troubles of your day-to-day life just seem to slip away in a stream of perfect little black dresses, baby otters, and cherubic children who never seem to get dirty or mouth off to their parents.

Source: copyblogger.com → | ∞ Permalink

Since the inception of the internet, marketing tactics have been used across this medium. With so many strategies it is easy for plans to become discombobulated. This article by Jeff Lerner, 3 Reasons to Integrate Your Digital Marketing Tactics, touches on the idea of integrating digital marketing tactics and provides three great reasons for doing so.

Often, you'll find what works in one medium can be adapted to your advantage elsewhere. Moreover, integration allows marketing tactics to combine in ways they might not otherwise.

The three big reasons cited here are saving money, providing clarity, and expanding your core message to a broad audience. Do you have any more reasons that you don’t see here? Is integrating your digital marketing strategies something you’ve already done, or will it be in the works?

&

Source: clickz.com → | ∞ Permalink

This week's top conversational marketing stories:

5 Ways to Use Social Media and Your Online Presence to Drive People Offline& by John Jantsch& on Ducttapemarketing

This post by John Jantsch with more than 230 reactions looks into five ways to use social media and online presence to drive small business results offline. In the digital world we live in today, before actually going to a store, auto shop, hair salon, or restaurant, people are going to go online to do some kind of search on the company or product they are looking to invest in. Jantsch puts online calls to action at the top of his list of ways to increase awareness, he writes “When people do find and visit your site make it easy for them to use your website to get a free pass, coupon or trial product. Enable tools like click to call or chat from Olark, so they can get in touch right now and get their burning questions asked. Put a tool like GenBook on your site they can find a time and schedule appointment without needing to call. Make sure that you have turn by turn directions and links to maps so they can find your business and even send the directions to their smart phone.” He also speaks about running local ad campaigns using Google Adwords, networked networking, local social groups, online and on the go. These tips will surely assist in creating a name for your small business and drive profit to your company. Have you seen any small business grow with successful online marketing campaigns? If so, which ones?

Beyond Tools, Marketers Must Focus on Content Altimeter Report&& by Jeremiah Owyang &on Webstrategist &&

In this post by with more than 200 reactions, Jeremiah Owyang discusses the importance of focusing on content, not just the tools used to send out and create it. The author points out six trends from an Altimeter Report that seem to be most popular among marketing agencies and vendors. The top trend highlighted is the notion that video and image content seem to reign supreme, drawing in the most viewers and interaction among users. Some other trends spotted include, mobile and location-based marketing are the second most-cited area into which marketers want to expand content initiatives. Marketers must manage flow and develop the ability to respond in real-time in social channels. Creating intriguing content for your customers or followers is the biggest hurdle to leap over in the marketing realm. It won’t matter what social media outlet you are using to send out a message, if the content is not interesting to the readers, you simply will not get your message across effectively. What are some of your favorite companies to follow on Facebook or Twitter?

Facebook Stats: Five Years of Worldwide Growth on Marketingprofs&

This post on Marketingprofs with more than 160 reactions highlights some interesting facts about the social media giant Facebook over the past five years. From the post, “Across all regions worldwide, Facebook's penetration climbed dramatically over the past five years. Though US and European markets leveled off somewhat in 2011, other regions such as Latin America and the Middle East and Africa continued to attract large numbers of new users during the year, suggesting that although Facebook already reaches one-half of the Internet users worldwide, its audiences are still growing.” Facebook is not only reaching extremely impressive amounts of internet users, it is the most engaging social site. “In addition to attracting huge numbers of people, Facebook is also the most engaging social network among world audiences, according to separate research from comScore.” How much time do you spend on Facebook? Is it your “go to” social site?

Let's keep the conversation moving forward! Have you noticed any successful small business internet marketing campaigns? Is the content you’re reading engaging your attention ?

&

&

Source: conversationalmarketing.com → | ∞ Permalink

Engagement. It’s the buzzword&du jour, particularly in regard to&Facebook. It may have been good enough a year or two ago to just get a lot of people to like your Facebook Page but now you have to somehow occupy the attention of those people as well.

But just as marketers are feeling the pressure to boost engagement, Facebook is raising the stakes. In early October, the social networking giant&introduced some new engagement metrics&including People Talking About This. As the name suggests, PTAT (also known as just “Talking About This”) measures user-initiated activities, like posting to a Page’s wall, liking, commenting, sharing a Page post or content on a Page, answering a Question posed to fans mentioning a Page, liking or sharing a deal or checking in at your Place.

Source: mashable.com → | ∞ Permalink

What is happening with Facebook Marketing? Facebook has become the default social network to focus your promotion efforts on when it comes to marketing on social media. In fact Facebook is now the single largest publisher of all US display ad impressions. It delivers 28 percent of all display ad impression which is more than Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and AOL combined!

Source: jeffbullas.com → | ∞ Permalink

We have a fresh niche social site to talk about, and its making a huge splash. Last week, we saw reports that Pinterest has hit 10 million unique monthly U.S. visits. Reports for the week of January 16, 2012 monitored the site traffic as high as 17 million unique monthly U.S. visits. It’s addicting, it’s social, and it’s driving tons of site traffic. So what is Pinterest? The millions of people using and visiting Pinterest everyday are there to do one of two things: users can share their favorite things, people, thoughts, or ideas from all over the web on virtual “boards”; and a person can monitor their board’s activity or “repin” from the people or brands that they follow. Thanks to a beautiful, constantly refreshing interface, each visit to Pinterest can be equally memorable as it is unique.

Source: blog.shop.org → | ∞ Permalink

As Pinterest enjoys a surge in popularity, MyCustomer takes a look at its value to business – and whether it could prove to be another significant social platform to engage with customers.&

Everyone's talking about&Pinterest&- the new&virtual pinboard site that is being blogged as one of the hottest social services right now. According to Compete, the number of Pinterest’s unique visitors increased by 429% from September to December 2011 to reach 7.21m users and research by Shareaholic&indicated the site has overtaken Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn for site referrals, generating 3.6% of referred traffic from January.

Source: mycustomer.com → | ∞ Permalink

By Christopher J. BucholtzCRM Buyer Part of the ECT News Network 02/16/12 5:00 AM PT The great thing about social is that it's the flip side of the proliferation of the PC in homes, which was driven by workers' mass exposure to computers at work. The social revolution is the same phenomenon in reverse: Social networking has been inculcated into people in their private lives, and they're now eager to bring the freedom and ease of communication they've found in their off hours into the workplace.

Source: technewsworld.com → | ∞ Permalink

Users of social networks are getting tired of sharing — but that doesn’t mean sharing is on the decline. A new study analyzes sharing behaviors on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and makes predictions for the future of sharing.

Source: mashable.com → | ∞ Permalink

Do you feel like you woke up a week ago and Pinterest had taken over the world? &I read on Twitter (so it is true, of course) that Pinterest is now bigger than Google, will be running for President of the United States, and is recording an album of Justin Bieber cover songs.

The meteoric success of Pinterest has shocked everyone.

Except me.

I have it all figured out. You see, Pinterest makes perfect sense if you just look at the natural evolution of social media …

Source: businessesgrow.com → | ∞ Permalink

This post &on Mashable by David Berkowitz discusses tips to avoid making mistakes when taking your marketing campaign to Twitter. Berokwitz writes about “hashtag marketing” campaigns becoming high jacked thrusting them towards irrelevance. &His first tip is to figure out why you might be using a hashtag in the first place. He says, “Brands tend to use hashtags, predominantly on Twitter and sometimes other services like Instagram, either to create a centralized discussion around their campaign or event, or to jump into conversations that are already happening. Assess what you want to get out of the hashtag before diving in.” The post goes on to speak about other tips for hashtag marketing including determining what kind of hashtag makes sense for your goals, thinking of the worst-case highjacking situation, and more. Berkowitz points out the future of marketing campaigns will certainly incorporate hashtags, so learning from other brands hashtag campaigns is important for campaign success.

Let’s keep the conversation moving forward! What hashtag campaigns have you seen succeed on Twitter or Instagram?&

Source: mashable.com → | ∞ Permalink

Earlier this month, the NYTimes took a deeper dive into the idea of “good attention vs. bad attention.” I wanted to keep the ball rolling on this idea, as it’s fundamental to thinking about social engagement with (and as) customers.

Source: customerthink.com → | ∞ Permalink

A good marketing event always gets you excited to return to the office and apply what you've learned. The trouble, though, is few of us remember everything we heard. Many more of us do not make it to the event at all, and we're out of luck.

That is, of course, unless you're talking about the MarketingSherpa Email Summit. We're back from Las Vegas, and we've gone through our stacks of notes to give you the top five insights to improve your email marketing. You get tips on deliverability, optimizing designs, boosting lists and more.

Source: marketingsherpa.com → | ∞ Permalink

Scott leads Innosight’s Asian operations. His fourth book on innovation, The Little Black Book of Innovation, will be released in early 2012. Follow him on Twitter at @ScottDAnthony.

Source: blogs.hbr.org → | ∞ Permalink

Infographics that feature B2B social media stats always get my attention. And when someone takes the time to fully source their statistics with footnotes that point each stat to a source, I am going to shout their praises from the rooftops. The following infographic does both as it focuses its gaze on content marketing.

Source: socialmediab2b.com → | ∞ Permalink

Building up your brand’s social media presence takes time, effort and sometimes a little bit of luck. All of that hard work, however, can be undone by these five common social media mistakes. To avoid a public relations disaster and keep your followers and fans happy, make sure you aren’t committing any of these social media sins.

Source: brandingpersonality.com → | ∞ Permalink

A recent&McKinsey Quarterly&study revealed that having the ability to engage their customers and leverage those relationships is the No. 1 digitally related challenge facing marketers today.

The survey, which was conducted over a two-week period,&queried&nearly 800 marketing executives representing a wide range of industries from business-to-business marketing and business-to-consumer marketing.

The results of the survey were quite fascinating insomuch as over 50% of the respondents indicated that engaging their customers and gleaning deep insights from those engagements is their most important challenge from a digital perspective yet over half of the respondents&also&said that over the past two years the advancements in digital marketing have provided them with the ability to engage their customers.

Source: mpdailyfix.com → | ∞ Permalink

Unbounce – The DIY Landing Page Platform Unbounce – The DIY Landing Page Platform [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Adam McNamara, Matthew Lawson, Niccol Formai, Austin Habich, Cody Damon and others. Cody Damon said: The Noob Guide to Online Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC] via @unbounce http://ow.ly/3TlfQ [...] [...] The Noob Guide to Online Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC] | Unbounce. [...] [...] Gardner from Unbounce has created a glorious infographic guide to starting online marketing from scratch. An accompanying blog post on SEOmoz explains each stage [...]

Source: unbounce.com → | ∞ Permalink

This marketing infographic from KISSMetrics aims to demystify bounce rates, offering insight into what they are, how the averages vary by industry, factors that impact bounce rates, and tips for improving them.

Source: getelastic.com → | ∞ Permalink

This week's top conversational marketing stories:

Hey Retailers! Refine That Mobile Marketing Strategy (Altimeter Report)-& by Jeremiah Owyang &on Webstrategist

Jeremiah Owyang looks at numbers released by an Altimeter Report in this post with more than 260 reactions, and discusses ways retailers need to refine mobile marketing strategies. He says, “This report is powerful in a few ways; it indicates the growth in the space, referencing that 45 percent of all mobile phone users are carrying a smart phone, and the growth rate for tablets is 23 percent annually.” The report highlights some missed opportunities by marketers, such as forgetting to link to their site when creating an app. “Yet beyond the mis-steps of retail marketers, this report provides a maturity framework segmented into three major steps, and a point based system that brands can use to self-assess their quality. Lastly, you’ll find a breakdown in roll out steps from plotting the impact of strategy, choose business impact, choose application type, add features, extend platform support, and then finally globalize.” This post includes the report in its entirety to highlight trends in mobile marketing as well as how companies are expanding their mobile marketing efforts. Do apps really help drive brand awareness? Are marketers taking the right steps to optimize mobile marketing for their brand?

Is Your Marketing Producing the Results You Expected- by John Jantsch& on Ducttapemarketing

In this post on Ducttapemarketing with more than 180 reactions, John Jantsch discusses ways to see the return on investment (ROI) for marketing efforts made by your company. Oftentimes, seeing ROI in the marketing field is one of the most challenging aspects of a marketer’s job. Jantsch discusses two important steps to ensure marketers are producing the results they expect. These steps include setting expectations and measuring results. Jantsch says of setting expectations, “One of the simplest, yet most effective things you can do is set expectations or goals for your marketing. You can create overall revenue goals, campaign goals or more product or service specific goals, but either way, simply defining a target number will prove to be one of the best first steps.” After setting explicit goals, there needs to be a way to measure results, he says “You can make this is a simple as a weekly sales total or as complex as the results of multivariate ad element testing, but the key is start measuring something and sharing the numbers.” Have you seen your marketing efforts produce results that you expect?

Why a Silent Customer Can Be Deadly- on Marketingprofs&

In this post by Marketingprofs with more than 130 reactions, the author discusses the importance of making complaining easy for your customers. Sean D'Souza at True You Marketing had a bad restaurant experience, “He called the restaurant chain's toll-free number to complain, but was told that complaints should be directed to the specific location's manager. D'Souza couldn't be bothered—understandably—and simply chose to stop patronizing the restaurant.” Often times, customers “silently” stop supporting a brand, meaning after a bad experience or a lack of customer support, they may just cut off brand loyalty all at once. Customers oftentimes do not enjoy going the extra distance to voice a complaint. Have you had a bad experience with a product that caused you to silently lose brand loyalty altogether?

Let's keep the conversation moving forward! What are some mobile marketing strategies that you have seen as successful? How do you measure your marketing efforts? How far will you go to voice a complaint before giving up loyalty?&

Source: conversationalmarketing.com → | ∞ Permalink

Looking to double your number of retweets? Here are some best practices to higher retweets and adding followers to your Twitter account.

Source: socialmouths.com → | ∞ Permalink

I doesn't get much easier than this. We've taught you what QR Codes are and how they can benefit your business, now we want to give you some ideas how to use QR Codes and what kinds of products they can be printed on. Feel free to contact us and discuss your creative ideas.

Source: youtube.com → | ∞ Permalink

With so many channels available to listen and explore right from Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn to YouTube to Tumblr to … getting data about your competition has never been simpler. However, converting the data to real Competitive Intelligence remains a challenge.

Source: socialmediatoday.com → | ∞ Permalink

In what may be the first test of Twitter‘s new international censorship strategy, Brazil is suing the company over tweets that warn drivers of police roadblocks and speed traps.

Source: mashable.com → | ∞ Permalink

This infographic explores different aspects of customer loyalty--from what it is to why it is an important aspect of business to future trends impacting loyalty. While it emphasizes the role of customer service in cultivating loyalty, the importance of marketing cannnot be overlooked as well.& The customer wants--or often demands--to be delighted.& Both marketing and service play a crucial role in fulfilling that promise.&

Source: customerthink.com → | ∞ Permalink

This article posted by Andrew Hanelly on Socialmediatoday &discusses four techniques to use when trying to build a strong social media following. First on his list is to “Become a Social Journalist,” stating “Rather than view Twitter or Facebook as potential resource guzzlers that threaten to siphon time away from your reporting, use these tools to animate the editorial thought process for your audience—build communities, increase your readership, gauge reaction to controversial topics, interact with fans and critics alike, and make your content stronger!” Also included on his list is “Start a Conversation,” “Big Fish. Small Fish” and “Be Real.” He says under his “Big Fish” header that it may not always be best to target the largest followed users on Twitter, rather engage in conversation with people who will respond or re-tweet your post to spark interest. Let’s keep the conversation moving! What are your social media strategies in building a strong social media following? &&

Source: socialmediatoday.com → | ∞ Permalink

by Robert Gembarski on February 6, 2012 Starbucks has a big brand presence online. Not because they have millions of dollars for Marketing and Advertising, which they do have, but because they are one of the most engaging companies online. If you are fan of Starbucks coffee, and a bit Internet savvy, then chances are you have come across one of if not all of Starbuck’s Social Media Pages. Starbucks has made it a point to take its successful offline branding strategies and implement them online. Its online image and messages have stayed consistent with their brand values, which are honesty, sincerity, and connecting with its consumers on a level unlike any other brand. The offline Starbucks Culture has taken to the airwaves of the Internet and Social Media. Lets take a look at how they became one of the most engaging brands online.

Source: brandingpersonality.com → | ∞ Permalink

This ReelSEO article argues that the future of online video advertisements won’t be limited to just the creative surviving, only those who stick out will last. The article then looks to the new OK Go video, which manages to meld music and advertisement.

OK Go got to do a video they probably couldn't have funded on their own. Chevy gets to be front and center on what is likely to be one of the most viewed and most shared videos of the year. And fans everywhere get one of the most creative and impressive videos they're likely to ever see.

So everyone wins, OK Go gets an awesome video and Chevy gets an ad. So can anyone top the creative power behind this marketing video? How competitive do you think the world of video marketing will get?

Source: reelseo.com → | ∞ Permalink

A guest post by Sarika Periwal of karmaCRM.

Talking is the best tool of a salesperson. The only way that you have face to face of convincing a person to buy a specific product or service is by convincing them that they need it. This includes highlighting the benefits that the product brings to their life to make it simpler.

It also means that to be a successful salesperson you need to have impeccable communication skills. However, this is not an inherent skill but one that has to be developed through practice. Here are a few things that you should keep in mind when you next deliver your sales pitch to your prospective client.

Source: mpdailyfix.com → | ∞ Permalink

In a few short years, millennials—consumers currently ages 18 to 34—will account for a sizeable portion of US purchase decision-makers. Yet&Bazaarvoice&found these digital natives are already using and creating online content to recommend or dissuade friends, family and anonymous site-visitors from a brand, product or service.

Source: emarketer.com → | ∞ Permalink

Have you been trying to figure out how to integrate Social Media into the email communications you send out for your Restaurant? Fear not! It's actually far easier than you think.

Source: fohboh.com → | ∞ Permalink

More About: integrated marketing email marketing social marketing marketing

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Have you been trying to figure out how to integrate Social Media into the email communications you send out for your Restaurant? Fear not! It's actually far easier than you think.

Source: fohboh.com → | ∞ Permalink

More About: integrated marketing email marketing social marketing marketing

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Facebook Inc., the world’s largest social networking service, will begin displaying advertisements on its smartphone and tablet applications as soon as early March, the Financial Times reported late Sunday.

Seeking higher revenues in advance of the blockbuster US$5-billion initial public offering the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has set for this spring, Facebook plans to introduce what it calls “sponsored stories” into mobile news feeds within weeks, several people familiar with the matter told the FT. Advertising agencies have already submitted proposals for the new feature, the people said.

Making money from mobile was highlighted as a top priority for Facebook when the company filed documents for its highly anticipated and long expected IPO last week. Half of all 845 million Facebook users globally accessed their account through a mobile device last December, yet a lack of advertising means Facebook makes no money from those visits.

&

Do you think that adding advertisements to help monetize their digital marketing is smart or will it discourage you from using the service?

Source: ottawacitizen.com → | ∞ Permalink

Social media works best for B2B companies when people connect directly around topics they are passionate about. Connections work even better when no one in the group is pushing a particular agenda. This allows the focus of the communications to be around joint learning, which draws crowds, versus thinly disguised sales pitches, which drives everyone toward the metaphorical door. There is no group better to foster these learning discussions than a company’s channel partners, especially for those companies lucky enough to have built out strong channel partner programs. Channel partners know the niche and know the clients. They also have an independence that provides both authority and authenticity. These partners looked at all the solutions they could sell, and with their reputation on the line, chose to include your offering. When they enter a discussion, and a prospect checks out the channel partner’s background, the fact that they didn’t create a particular product makes it easier for them to be established as providers of valued advice.

Source: socialmediab2b.com → | ∞ Permalink

This week's top conversational marketing stories:

How and Why I Use Buffer – by John Jantsch& on Ducttapemarketing&&

John Jantsch’s post on Ducttapemarketing, which includes more than 500 reactions, discusses one of the biggest reasons why he’s successful on Twitter. Jantsch cites keeping his followers happy by tweeting or sharing 8-10 blog posts a day through a program called Buffer. He says, “The Buffer app is a tool that allows me to easily bookmark and schedule Tweets or Facebook updates from any browser or mobile device. This way I can effectively spread my Tweets out over the course of a day, whether I find something in my morning reading or as I surf around throughout the day.” He goes on to say flooding people’s Twitter or Facebook feeds will increase the chance that they’ll ignore or unsubscribe from your feed. Jantsch’s post subheadings, “Why I use it” and “How I use it” offer insight into the application that can make social sharing easier and more effective. How do you ensure your tweets are not cluttering a follower’s feed? What’s your strategy?

Three Ways to Make Your Content Search Friendly – by Marketingprofs&

A post on Marketingprofs with more than 170 reactions discusses three ways to make your content more search friendly, according to Lindsay Atkinson's blog on Digitalthirdcoast. Atkinson states that the number one tip is to create high-quality information: “More and more, your best SEO results happen when customers recognize the value of your information and want to share it with their social networks.” Other ways to make your content more search friendly include focusing on evergreen topics and format for easy consumption. Marketingprofs draws the following conclusion about content: “Make it well worth reading. Your content won't be king until it deserves a crown.” Do you agree that these tips will make your content king? How do you make your content search engine friendly?

Your Personal Brand: Normal is not enough – by Rebecca Rapple on Personalbrandingblog&

Rebecca Rapple’s post on Personalbrandingblog, bringing in more than 130 reactions, highlights keys to taking your personal brand to the next level. She says “Being average, playing it safe or blending in with the crowd is no way to define your personal brand. Rather, normal is not enough. Effective brands take risks, stand out effectively and put in the hard work.” This post walks the reader through her strategies, which include “Be different: take a risk,” “Be different: stand out effectively” and “Be different: put in the hard work.” She says of taking risks, “To effectively brand yourself, you need to take a stand. Identify your target audience and tell them something that you believe in. This can be as simple as offering a different solution in a meeting to declaring your political affiliations.” Have you taken a risk lately to better your personal brand?

Let's keep the conversation moving forward! How do you manage your social media posts? Have you stood out in your workplace lately? Is your content drawing the attention of search engines?&

Source: conversationalmarketing.com → | ∞ Permalink

Making websites is pretty easy. You buy a domain. Pick a template on WordPress or any CMS platform of your choice. Throw some content and images. Get it live and SEO’d.&

Making it social-friendly is another story.&

As the world becomes more social every day, you have to make your site more open and mobile. The salesman approach to social platforms and eCommerce websites is passe already. Users nowadays look closely if it has a dash of social to it, which means you need to use a personal approach to turn a user into a customer. We all know that almost every company is already on Facebook and Twitter, but if you’re a start-up, how do you make users flock to your landing page and increase sign-ups? The success of a social platform doesn’t lie on the number of sign-ups but how many people are using it. Pinterest, Instagram, and Codecademy have done it right. Can you?&

Here are 5 tips on how to make your websites more social-friendly:&

Source: socialmediatoday.com → | ∞ Permalink

MarketingSherpa asked CMOs to prioritize their top five business objectives for email marketing for the next 12 months and then rate whether email marketing is either somewhat or very effective at achieving these objectives. While 85% of CMOs ranked increasing sales/revenue as their top email marketing objective, only 65% found it to be effective at achieving that objective.& Driving website traffic, increasing lead generation, and nurturing prospects all ranked higher in terms of effectiveness.

Source: marketingsherpa.com → | ∞ Permalink

Pinterest, the website which lets people collect and share photos online with a “virtual pinboard,” has steadily amassed a very dedicated following of users that spreads far beyond the app-obsessed early adopter crowd. On Tuesday, a new study out of content sharing company Shareaholic showed just how powerful the Palo Alto, California-based startup has become. Shareaholic's survey (click to enlarge) Pinterest is now driving more referral traffic on the web than Google+, YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn — combined. That’s according to Shareaholic’s January 2012 referral traffic report, which is based on aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that reach more than 260 million unique monthly visitors each month.

Source: gigaom.com → | ∞ Permalink

Paul Allen, a Google+ watcher, says the network will hit 100.8 million users by Wednesday evening. Google’s most recent figure for Google+ was 90 million, which Larry Page&announced on Jan. 19.

In a&blog post&(on Google+, of course), Allen noted that the network has grown more than 10% in that two-week period. Allen, the founder of Ancestry.com, takes an unusual approach to come by his estimates: He and his staff run hundreds of queries on surnames they’ve been tracking since July and then extrapolate the size of the network. His method seems to work: Allen’s numbers are often very close to figures that Google cites a few days later.

Allen has also&predicted&that Google+ will hit 400 million users by year’s end. That’s half the number that Facebook currently claims.

Source: mashable.com → | ∞ Permalink