Sales

If you’ve seen the Day of Week data from Hubspot’s social media scientist, @DanZarrella, then you know that the weekends are the best time to publish your blog. As you see from the chart here, weekends are not just a bit better – they’re a LOT better.[read more]

consumer strategy

Recently I read a remarkable document from Netflix aimed at investors, titled “Netflix Long Term View.” (The fact that the phrase “long term” was in a document from a public company was only one remarkable piece of the story.) Netflix has a “North Star,” and it’s based on customer satisfaction.[read more]

Marketing strategy

Effective marketing is one of the biggest challenges faced by small businesses today. There are many marketing techniques out there, and choosing the right approach for your business is not easy. Here is the first part of a two-part series on ways you can increase your reach and visibility.[read more]

SoLoMo to the rescue!

I’ve written over the past year about the impact of social local mobile (SoLoMo) on consumer behavior and business marketing. Only after employing SoLoMo best practices to narrowly avert a plumbing crisis in my home did I fully realize its value. Here's my own personal case study.[read more]

When determining how to manage social media marketing efforts, many businesses – particularly smaller businesses – default to putting the intern in charge. And why not? They have time. They’re young and ‘into social media’. They have 1,000 Facebook friends, and 2,000 Twitter followers. They’re perfect, right? Well, not exactly. Putting an intern in charge of your business’ social media marketing is all but a guaranteed recipe for disappointment.[read more]

In the Financial Services vertical, you can still find some who think that social media is not that important--that wealthy investors and licensed financial professionals are too busy and too serious to pay attention to (much less create) tweets and posts.[read more]

The other day I came across two articles that, when taken together, aptly underscore the fickle and sometimes outright contradictory nature of marketing data. The two articles presented data that led to opposite conclusions. How do we figure out which is right?[read more]

Jesse Sprinkle

In the old music model, you would release albums. Period. If something wasn’t included, it was probably lost forever. Of course there were the occasional B-Sides and rare recording releases, but those were left to mostly the biggest name artists with large fan bases. Not anymore.[read more]

social media campaign/shutterstock

Social media, done right, is not cheap, free or fast. It takes time to listen, to find the moments that people want to share and to build campaigns that lead to an enviable social media strategy that truly aligns the brand.[read more]

There are an estimated 4.5 million SMB CEOs with less than 10 employees in the US. Many of these individuals lack the budget for a dedicated marketing staff member, but realize their business can benefit from having an online presence. We’ve highlighted insight on the biggest challenges facing SMB CEOs today, and how to find answers on social media[read more]

With new US and UK regulatory guidance, social media and financial services are firmly linked. Here's an updated guide to managing social media engagement for the financial services industry.[read more]

new Facebook admin panel

The problem is that Facebook's revenue model is not working. Too many businesses are investing in Facebook promotions and advertising and seeing little to no return on their investment.[read more]

slworking2 via Compfight

You’re a small business owner and have spent some of your hard earned money on social media marketing, hired people to setup your Facebook Page, Twitter account, YouTube Channel and LinkedIn Business Page. The only problem is that although everyone seems to be doing it, you just don’t get it![read more]

Ask about e-readers and consumers now mention their iPads (and other tablets) so the category distinctions are beginning to blur, if they haven’t completely blurred already. And while the number of people who report reading e-books has risen, fewer consumers report using a dedicated e-reader to do so.[read more]

small business/shutterstock

With all that choice available it can quite often be very confusing for small business owners who are focused on doing what they do best: delivering value for their clients, regardless of the niche they are in.[read more]

good employees/shutterstock

Add this to the mountain of evidence that contradicts the conventional wisdom that employees’ use of social media is a drain on productivity: Among hourly workers, those that use five or more social networks are more productive and better at handling customer transactions.[read more]

Over the years, businesses have developed sales, marketing and service strategies around the funnel. Awareness, interest, desire, action, to this day, describes the likely steps a customer may take in making a decision. Over the years, it was assumed that the liner path would also continue through a transaction to a state of loyalty and ultimately advocacy.[read more]

Google vs. Bing / shutterstock

It has been a little over two months since Google introduced its new enhanced campaigns. Not everyone is on board with the updates, which then begs the question: Why do some people disagree with the new Google enhanced campaigns, and are the Bing changes any better?[read more]

Social branding case study: Chobani

The #1 Greek yogurt brand, Chobani, transcends the competition by way of high-quality active cultures and a strong social presence. Consumers are CHObsessed. The Chobani brand demonstrates the ideal way to build a social presence: enthusiastically and organically.[read more]

Bitcoins as far as the eye can see

Bitcoins are a kind of online, open-source currency whose value is not backed by any precious metal, tradable commodity, or national economy – making it essentially decentralized with respect to the international market. Here are five reasons you should be paying attention.[read more]