Monitoring Tools

“The reality today is you need technology to automate enforcement of social media guidelines and policies,” said Nexgate co-founder and CEO Devin Redmond. “Put guardrails on the roadside and let people go as long as the safeguards are in place.”[read more]

Branding: leave your mark the right way

Nowadays a brand’s reputation depends in a large part on the online activity and conversations around it. If customers react in a negative way to a certain service or marketing campaign on social media, the influence on the brand’s reputation can be enormous.[read more]

Twitter analytics

It looks like everyone's getting into the analytics game. We have Facebook Insights, Pinterest analytics, and now, even Twitter analytics. This is great for a Social Media Marketer because one of the toughest parts of our job is showing the impact of our work through measurable actions.[read more]

In a sense, social media embraces a flagrant disregard for one’s right to privacy. The volume of information that is voluntarily posted can be staggering. The most avid social media user can conceivably be tracked throughout most of their day.[read more]

Best iPhone apps

The iPhone has become a much more integrated device for managing productivity. Recently, a new breed of iPhone apps have begun to hit the App Store that have more intuitive and sleek interfaces. After testing many, here are 11 of the best productivity apps that I've found for the iPhone.[read more]

For a company that spends gazillions of dollars on market research, P&G’s Rosie the Riveter concept test for the steam mop campaign seems to have been “Swiffered” under the floor, literally. Angry and immediate reprisal from women bloggers might have been averted had P&G and its ad team also run a social media concept test prior to campaign launch.[read more]

Kevin Espinosa, Social Media Manager at Caterpillar 

I had a chance to sit down with Kevin Espinosa, Social Media Manager at Caterpillar to discuss some of the topics that you will see at the Social Shake-Up Conference. The following is a transcript of our conversation.[read more]

A new movement is being spawned by a kinship of people across the world, unified by a nonpartisan and unbiased social media ecosphere. Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of people concerned about Monsanto’s unbridled insinuation of dangerous or questionable substances into the food chain joined in 400 cities to March Against Monsanto. The global protest called for stricter governmental GMO and GE controls and full disclosure of risk.[read more]

Last week we spoke with Andrew Bowins, Marcy Cohen, and Jennifer Stalzer, Senior Vice President, External Communications and Senior Business Leaders of MasterCard Worldwide, who showed us how the Conversation Suite is helping inform businesses and enabling them to create more meaningful conversations with their customers.[read more]

Socially Stephanie to the rescue!

In the inaugural post of our new social media advice column, social media pro Stephanie Frasco has some tips for Knackered Knitter in Nashville, who wants to know how to build up a social media presence for her knitting company...AND find time to actually knit.[read more]

Nata Sha / Shutterstock.com

Even with the projected 80% increase in online investment by luxury brands in 2013, fashion brands small and large also are significantly recognizing that the silver lining lies in the adoption of a reliable listening strategy. As transient as fashion is, it appears that Geek Chic is here to stay. Of course, Oscar Wilde knew that over a century or two before Geek Chic became the rage, noting way back then that “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”[read more]

If you are using the internet for marketing your painting company, plagiarism and copyright infringement is an issue you will inevitably face twice. Once when you are building your site to make sure you are not using copyrighted material. The second time is every day after that to make sure your unique content is not being used by someone else.[read more]

Over the last decade, social media monitoring has become a primary form of business intelligence, used to identify, predict, and respond to consumer behavior. Listening to what your customers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about you is key to getting great results from your social media campaigns.[read more]

David Robins is CEO and founder of Binfire, a project management tool that focuses on collaborative work. Robins started out with a company for consulting services for data storage and project management in 2008. Two years later, they developed a tool that would make monitoring of work easier and more productive.[read more]

Nutshell

Running marketing for a startup comes with its own unique challenges, not the least of which is maintaining a tight budget while attempting to drive a daily influx of new leads. Even fully-funded startups would be wise not to invest too much in an expensive, agency-designed website or a powerful marketing automation solution.[read more]

When social media first began, we all felt a rush of excitement, because we had new and unique channels to interact with the people most important to us. Over the last five years, social media has lost its way: companies have lost sight of the “social” element and instead have focused on networks as media channels through which to broadcast mass communication.[read more]

Richard Margetic, Dell's social media lead

Social Media Today had a chance to sit down with Richard Margetic, Dell's Social Media lead, to discuss some of the topics that will be covered at the Social Shake-Up Conference in September, where Richard will be speaking. Here is a transcript of that conversation.[read more]

While Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which bundles Radian6, Buddy Media and Social.com, isn’t free, in the quest for thoroughness, I decided to include their offering in this evaluation to check in and see what’s new over there. Radian6 is the monitoring and engagement module, Buddy Media is the publishing platform and Social.com (...[read more]

We have to measure PR results to business goals. You can measure your efforts with tools such as Google analytics, DoubleClick Ad Planner or WhoReTweetedMe, but I’d take it one step further. From there, you have to combine the data you get in there with a client’s customer relationship management software, their email marketing software, and their ecommerce software. Without access to all of those things, you are only scratching the surface.[read more]

"Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer." This is one of the most famous quotes of Sun Tsu, the ancient Chinese military general. Know your enemies even better than your friends, because in battle, knowing your enemy’s strategies and next moves provides the ability to launch a preemptive strike or at least to plan counter strategies to their next move on the battlefield.[read more]