But while we all marvel at the power of Obama’s online campaign, the truth is that most of the tools his campaign used are available to ordinary citizens and advocacy groups for less than $20 a month. The platform that provides these tools is NationBuilder. I sat down with NationBuilder’s Vice President of Organizing Michael Moschella to learn more about this great tool.[read more]

Many of today’s most popular technology products have surprisingly inauspicious origins. In fact, it’s a wonder that some of the gadgets we take for granted today even made it past the prototype stage.[read more]

Are you considering creating an animated explainer video for your business? Do you need inspiration on what to choose for an animation style, music, or script? We have 7 awesome examples of animated explainer videos that actually convert. From driving additional sales to user sign-ups to engaging visitors, we show you what works and what doesn't work with animated explainer videos.[read more]

How does a business make their start-up come alive online without creating dozens of profiles for social platforms? Actions speak louder than words and these actions are best reflected with Instagram, Vine, and Pinterest, all three of which have plenty of benefits they can bring.[read more]

A source has leaked to TechCrunch that Facebook will soon unveil the addition of video to their popular and recently-acquired Instagram product. This comes on the heels of a publicized invitation to a June 20th event in which Facebook will launch a "new product."[read more]

Here’s the most popular way to use Twitter to tell a story: Sharing personal details from your life. Even when you blog for business, you’re still writing for people, and people like to hear personal stories. If you’re the face of your brand, be a memorable face. Share what you’re doing, what intrigues you, what you’re learning, and so on.[read more]

A crisis will make its way into social media whether you like it or not. Here's how to use the power of social media to manage a crisis and make it go away quicker.[read more]

As a nonprofit or association, you will need to fundraise and draw in support from as many as you can. Storytelling is a great way to do this. If you follow these tips you are bound to increase your success rate in gaining funds and garnering support for your cause.[read more]

Have you ever thought about how you can delight your audiences? When you are developing your marketing plans, editorial calendar, tweet content for the day or week are you thinking about the positive impacts it can have on the lives or businesses of the people reading them?[read more]

All of the onboarding in the world cannot fix poor sales hiring practices. The expectation, when onboarding a salesperson, is that the right individual has been selected for the role. When companies cannot skillfully make selection decisions, the onboarding benefits become a pipedream.[read more]

Did your Facebook Page fare well during May? Did you achieve the number of fans and likes you set for last month? Is your Facebook Page performing above the average? These questions, and more, boggle the minds of social media marketers and marketing managers.[read more]

The long-term impact of spending one’s life in the real world while constantly connected to the virtual one is not yet fully understood. While treatment for Internet addiction has been available since the mid-’90s, it’s worth noting that more people than ever before are exhibiting the ironically anti-social behaviors now associated with spending too much time online.[read more]

I realize that most brands will never achieve the influence or following Sarah Palin has, but that’s exactly why she’s such a powerful content marketing example. By using Facebook and Twitter to bypass traditional media, Palin is able to speak directly to those who agree with her and give them more of what they want to hear.[read more]

Google took a major role in the movie’s production. It helped recreate its headquarters in Atlanta to be used as a set. The Los Angeles Times wrote that real Googlers were in the film as extras, helped design the end credits, and the movie featured product placements by Google.[read more]

In 2012, Nissan tapped into their social community's passion for rebuilding classic cars by introducing Project 370Z, the first ever social media build of a classic car. Over eight weeks, Nissan gave its community a choice of the car to restore, the parts to use, and the colors to paint it; together the community built a car from the ground up.[read more]

Social media marketing directors are among the scrappiest and high-performing individuals in digital marketing organizations. The high-pace work environment naturally caters to highly productive on-the-ground commanders. Communicating results among executives is necessary to be recognized for achievements, but unfortunately these skills don’t come naturally to many of these individuals. How can you get GI Jane to communicate like Marissa Mayer?[read more]

Any form of marketing that relies on or draws from editorial content is considered content marketing. It has always existed, although what it’s called and the tactics around it have matured over time. Companies have long created white papers, articles, charts and graphs, videos, and reports to position their brands as thought leaders and industry experts deserving of loyalty, with the goal of generating leads and sales.[read more]

The moniker “social business” will disappear over the next 24 months. However, the concepts underlying social business will provide the foundation for good business strategy. The new abilities to take social, mobile, cloud and Big Data will converge to create new opportunities. The result - social business is just good business strategy.[read more]

With all of these mistakes by Microsoft (intentional or not) Sony reps must be sitting in their offices with giant grins on their faces. At E3 recently, Sony fully unveiled the PS4 and all of its features. Guess what? Sony’s PS4 has no used game restrictions, no restrictions on game-sharing, has a degree of backward compatibility, has generally better hardware, is $100 cheaper, is region-free, and will be able to play online or offline, without any form of DRM whatsoever.[read more]

While most businesses understand the need for good, shareable content, they don’t always have the budget to support in-house creatives and copywriters. The good news is, all you need is a good content strategy and a system for collecting and sharing it.[read more]