From the category archives:

Social Media Marketing

Social Media is Not a Selling Forum

Social Media Marketing

Many retailers have indicated that they plan to promote and sell their merchandise via social media sites this holiday season.  Most people don’t join or participate in social media networking so that someone can sell something to them.  People join social media networking sites to socialize, connect with friends or business associates, discuss topics of [...]

Read the full article →

New FTC Disclosure Rules May Impact Your Social Media Activity

Social Media Marketing

The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on October 5, 2009 published new Guidelines Concerning The Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which will become effective December 1, 2009. The new Guidelines reference is 16 C.F.R. part 255 and available for download on the FTC website.
This action by the FTC was prompted by [...]

Read the full article →

How to Make the Most of Your LinkedIn Presence

Social Media Marketing

LinkedIn has over 47 million members around the world and continues to add new members at the rate of about 1 per second. Over 50% have management / director / executive titles and executives from all Fortune 500 companies are members. Over 50% of LinkedIn members are business decision makers. LinkedIn is [...]

Read the full article →

Overall Advertising Spend Down But Up on Social Networks

Social Media Marketing

Two separate, recent reports from Nielsen provide interesting and insightful information for marketers from trends in advertising spending.
Nielsen’s Global AdView Pulse, which reports advertising across 27 markets in Asia, North America, Europe and Africa, shows overall advertising expenditures decreased 6.8% for the first half of 2009 compared to the same period last year. Regional [...]

Read the full article →

Which Social Media Channels to Consider for Your Business

Social Media Marketing

Feedback from several business owners/operators I’ve talked with recently revealed a common concern with using social media for their businesses – what should they use from the growing list of hundreds of social media applications available in dozens of categories? Seems that almost every week a new social media application is touted as the [...]

Read the full article →

20 Examples of Business Success with Twitter

Social Media Marketing

Many business executives/owners/operators and marketers are unsure about how to use Twitter effectively for their business. They understand it requires more than just posting frivolous updates in response to the Twitter “What are you doing?” question.
Rather than go through an academic discussion of the various aspects to consider for using Twitter to connect with [...]

Read the full article →

Where are you on the social media participation ladder?

Social Media Marketing

Forrester Research recently published their third annual Social Technographics Profile research review of social media participation. Forrester categorize 6 groups or levels of participation in an incremental ladder of participative activities as indicated in the following diagram:

These are some interesting highlights from the 2009 report for the USA online market:

Approximately 80% of all online [...]

Read the full article →

Do you have digitally distinct personal brand?

Social Media Marketing

In today’s digital and social networking world your personal brand and reputation are key to success on the Internet. Whether you are looking for a job, developing your career for long-term goals, changing careers, starting your own business, or whatever; you need a strong personal brand and digitally distinct identity on the Internet.
When people [...]

Read the full article →

Expanding your business Internet presence with Social Bookmarking

Social Media Marketing

You’ve probably noticed those little icons on blogs, news sites and other websites inviting you to bookmark or share the article, story, news item, blog post, etc. you’ve just read. See the end of this article and other articles on this website for an example. This article will help familiarize you with social [...]

Read the full article →

Businesses still fear Social Media

Social Media Marketing

Two recent research studies indicate that many businesses still fear social media. The primary reasons for this fear are security, trust, employee productivity and lack of knowledge about social media. According to a research study by Sophos in April 2009, 63% of the business surveyed worry that workers are sharing too much information [...]

Read the full article →

“United Breaks Guitars” incident – important lessons for businesses about the power of social media

Social Media Marketing

The “United Breaks Guitars” video post on YouTube is another example in a series of incidents demonstrating how customers can voice complaints about poor and indifferent service from businesses. If you’re not familiar with the “United Breaks Guitars” incident, Dave Carroll is a professional musician who’s $3,500 Taylor guitar was broken by baggage handlers [...]

Read the full article →

Managing your online reputation

Social Media Marketing

Regardless of the size of your business and whether or not you or your business participate in social media, you need to pay attention to what is happening in the social media world. You can no longer bury customer complaints and problems in the bowels of your service department. Customers and prospective buyers [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries