strategy posts, articles, and infographics

Twitter Verification Implications for Brand Marketers

May 16, 2012 by Adam Leiter
with 1,802 views

With recent news that Twitter's verification process has become linked to monthly advertising, there has been conversation and debate about blurry lines in the sand. What does this change mean for your brand or company on Twitter? Is verification critical to your Twitter strategy? [read more]

Chatting up Influence with Dave Balter, CEO of BzzAgent

May 15, 2012 by Mike Lewis
with 133 views

Dave Balter of BzzAgent

Dave Balter is a man who needs no introduction. As CEO of BzzAgent, a company that connects brands with over 400 million global brand advocates and author of two word-of-mouth marketing books, there’s hardly a person better suited to speak on influence and word-of-mouth (WOM). We recently caught up with Dave to interview him for our latest e-book, 3 Keys to Influence: Understanding and Leveraging Social Capital, and talk about influence and how marketers can leverage it. [read more]

The Five Challenges of Social Media Management in Tourism

May 1, 2012 by Frederic Gonzalo
with 517 views

Lilyana Vynogradova/shutterstock.com

Many tourism organizations manage aspects or their social media strategy quite well. Here are five challenges that will need to be addressed moving forward. [read more]

Unknown, Unliked, and Untrusted: Why?

April 22, 2012 by Barry Feldman
with 1,587 views

These are the dog days of advertising. Consumers choose not to consume it. They prefer tasty treats. If you know who they are and learn what they want, you simply must provide it. You will be liked. You will be trusted. [read more]

Moving Beyond the Social Customer into the Era of Customer Engagement

March 29, 2012 by Mike Lewis
with 1,109 views

Paul Greenberg

We connected with Paul Greenberg of ZDNet, one of the most respected minds in marketing, technology and CRM. As we enter 2012 and look toward major developments that will shape our industry, we provide Paul’s latest take on why he thinks we are moving beyond the social customer and entering the era of social engagement. [read more]

Social Strategy and the Non-Profit

March 23, 2012 by Brad Attig
with 932 views

Photo by Ed Schipel via Flickr

Things for a non-profit to consider when embarking on a social media voyage. [read more]

Don’t Start a Social Media Bush-Fire with Your Brand

March 17, 2012 by Paul Fennemore
with 845 views

Social media risk assessment is about analysing the potential negative consequences of a marketing initiative or how to handle a flare up about your organisation. If you already understand that marketing is a science and a lot of social science, then you will buy into the following few broad principles that need to be adhered to.. [read more]

Social Media Serendipity Marketing is Over!

March 16, 2012 by Paul Fennemore
with 632 views

It's time for business to get to grips with social media and not rely on serendipity. Digital natives don't like overt marketing in their social spaces. Banner ads have a click through rate of 0.05%. So why spend money on advertising in social networks? [read more]

Facebook Redesigned: a Challenge for Brands

March 9, 2012 by Alex Konanykhin
with 1,678 views

gornjak/shutterstock

From March 30, all Facebook profiles will be updated to include the new redesigned Timeline, which until now has been optional. This change, one of the most important in the history of the planet’s biggest social network, means new challenges for companies who use online marketing tools to optimize their image and boost their consumer profile. Alex Konanykhin, entrepreneur specialized in the world of online business, outlines the challenges which brands will have to face in order to avoid missing out on visibility opportunities in the online universe. [read more]

3 Key Strategic Marketing Lessons from KONY 2012

March 7, 2012 by Eric Vachon
with 2,456 views

jorgen mcleman/shutterstock

Kony 2012 is s a well crafted and effective campaign, and thus worthy of thoughtful analysis and reflection. Let's identify some key learnings that you can take away from their strategies and tactics. [read more]

Why I don’t care about Pinterest

February 17, 2012 by Melissa Foley
with 2,578 views

After several months of watching ambitious groups and social media gurus experiment, I’ve come to the conclusion that Pinterest can’t be used effectively by most organizations – at least not yet. In this post, I’ll tell you why. [read more]

Why Are Businesses 'Doing' Social Media?

February 9, 2012 by Claire Faucett
with 1,077 views

Photo by Neal Jennings via Flickr

Because they have to. Business today IS social. But there is an important distinction between simply "doing" social and "being" social. Businesses find they are more successful when they aren't simply doing social because "everyone else is."Consumers and marketers alike are realizing that mass marketing or traditional marketing is... [read more]

Listening Platforms; Useful or Strategic?

February 8, 2012 by Eric Vachon
with 567 views

wavebreakmedia ltd/shutterstock

Marketing executives want to gain insights into their customers’ behavior. They don’t want a red, yellow, green dashboard; they want actionable answers to questions like the following: is your marketing messaging aligned to what customers in the global market value? How is your messaging influencing customers at a brand level and at a product level? [read more]

If You Don’t Know What You Want, It Doesn’t Matter How Many People 'Like' You

February 5, 2012 by Melissa Foley
with 4,227 views

Photo by Luca Sartoni via Flickr

Deciding how to measure your social media efforts can be a frustrating undertaking. Number of likes? Number of followers? Level of engagement? Which measures are right for you?Believe it or not, these measures are virtually meaningless. In fact, all measures are meaningless—unless they are tied to your goals. Think about it—an... [read more]

How Do You Determine Your Progress? Inside the Mind Episode 4

January 27, 2012 by Tommy Walker
with 303 views

Seriously, How do you measure success? I'm always surprised when I ask this question how many people answer with something like..."Well... when I get a lot of comments" (or traffic, or money, etc.) But how do you measure "a lot?" And furthermore, in 6 months, how do you duplicate the process? [read more]

Social Media Tips for the New Year

January 23, 2012 by Brad Friedman
with 2,854 views

2011 was a big year for social media. The “Big Three,” Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn got bigger. Hundreds, maybe thousands of other social networks flourished. One would be hard-pressed to make the case that social media is still just a fad. Instead, it’s become clear social media is here to stay. It has fundamentally changed the way we... [read more]

The Corporate Blog

January 20, 2012 by Brad Friedman
with 742 views

fitim bushati/shutterstock

A corporate blog takes time to create and then maintain. You are focused on your ROI. You don’t really feel the blog is necessary but you’ve consented “because it’s what everyone is doing.” So, “Why are you moving forward with the creation of a corporate blog?” [read more]

Welcome to Web 3.0, The Contextual Web

January 6, 2012 by Rohn Jay Miller
with 2,781 views

higyou/shutterstock

Web 3.0, which we are transitioning into, is “The Contextual Web.” Context will now be the critical aspect determining what we see, how we exchange messages, read content, how we congregate, and how we deal with brands online. Social Media was a development of Web 2.0, "The Transactional Web." But how social networks grow and are used will play a crucial role on "The Contextual Web." [read more]

Human Media: The New Media

November 15, 2011 by Isra Garcia
with 1,196 views

It’s about human relationships, connectivity, resonance and sticking together to the people. This is what Human Media is about. The unifying net between businesses and the social web is actually the people. [read more]

8 Social Media Platforms (Other Than the Big 3) to Drive Traffic To Your Site

November 10, 2011 by Jen Brass Jenkins
with 6,606 views

Frequently, when it comes to social media, we as marketers think only of the Big 3—Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (you could probably count Google+ as a half-sibling, but I’ll get to that). Obviously various additional platforms other than the Big 3 have been in the public eye for a growing period of time (or longer), and, what’s more, have a charming and occasionally niche personality all their own. So here is a social media profile, if you will, of other platforms that want to come and play and can be used to drive engaged traffic to your website. [read more]