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A community manager is the person who manages the social identity of a brand, from Instagram to YouTube to Tumblr. When companies launch (or decide to perfect) their social presence, the first major decision they need to make is whether or not they will manage their accounts internally or hire an agency to do so.[read more]

Last week, Google+ users started noticing an additional option in their “Contributor to” section: a past or current contributor drop-down. As of today, the option appears to be global.[read more]

Blogging with Google-friendly content

Even though social media is often in the spotlight, business blogging is still vital to your marketing success. Some companies have lost focus on original content creation, thinking that social media is all that matters. But original, high-impact content still needs to be the lure for your audience.[read more]

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Google Plus offers many benefits to any organization. It yields opportunities to better understand clients and their needs, position your company as an authority with Authorship, and increase visibility in search results. Considering it’s all free, can you afford not to use it?[read more]

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Personalization is a term bandied about with increasing frequency. Everyone seems to be personalizing everything. There is personalized learning, personalized shoes, personalized phones, personalized fitness, personalized ads, and the list goes on. Just as a rainbow spans a continuous span of colors, personalization seems to span a continuous spectrum of options.[read more]

Google+ isn't that confusing. shutterstock

Misconceptions about Google+ could prevent people from taking advantage of a social networking platform that offers unique features and benefits. If you give up on Google+ before you give it a chance, you have probably fallen victim to these four common fallacies.[read more]

Creating original, highly shareable content, actively participating in industry discourse and building a significant social following could win you a reputation as an industry thought leader and increased exposure, brand recognition and lead generation for your company. Social business stardom is within your reach.[read more]

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The success of your contest relies on how many targeted individuals enter. While the contest market is heavily saturated, the response you will get is related to the prize you giveaway (the better the prize, the more entries) and how well you promote it. Just as I focus a lot of energy on blog promotion, contest promotion should be taken just as serious.[read more]

social media management tools

Social media is one of the most effective ways for you and your business to get more traffic and generate new leads. Having a presence on all the major networks is a business necessity these days. But what tools are the social media gurus using to manage these multiple accounts?[read more]

eModeration's Blaise Grimes-Viort explains how to successfully claim Google Authorship next to your articles and blog posts using photographic attribution.[read more]

facebook contest

While contests are fun, they are also engaging, which is why you should host one for your business. In this article I share my tips for how, why, when & where you should host your social contest.[read more]

game of social media

“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.” The same goes for social media networks. They either flourish or flounder. Here's how the most popular networks compare to Game of Thrones characters.[read more]

Google+ Ripples (image: Bearseye/Flickr)

One of the hidden gems within Google+ that a lot of long-time users still aren't aware of is Ripples. It's a powerful feature that is hidden within a drop down menu, so you may not have ever seen or noticed it. Here are some impressive ways to use Ripples to benefit your business.[read more]

A dynamic visual presence is essential to a successful social media campaign. But stunning visual campaigns don’t have to be just for the big-name brands with money to burn on fancy lighting, editing and production costs. Even a small brand can make waves with thoughtful and visually powerful multimedia.[read more]

Twitter surge for a hurricane

Users behave differently on different social media platforms. When a news story breaks it moves across social media in different pulses depending on what the news is and how it travels through these platforms like Twitter, Facebook and WordPress. Here's a case study that explains a lot about how each social network works.[read more]

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The SEC decision to allow social media to be used as a channel of communication for companies marks the beginning of the transition to Social Media 2.0. A social media savvy audience uses the medium to suit itself. Platform loyalty is no longer a requirement. This also makes it harder for marketers whose social media marketing revolves around a platform-specific presence.[read more]

Google+ vs. Facebook

There are tons of rumors floating around about how Google Plus will help you with your SEO rankings. While this may or may not true, it shouldn't be the sole reason to use G+. The reason to use G+ is to connect and converse with your audience.[read more]

This article will further explore ways that you can increase engagement with your community and audience on Google Plus. While many of the same Facebook Engagement rules take place here on G+, here are a few that will really help your engagement increase.[read more]

#RumourHasIt that Facebook is looking to incorporate the hashtag feature into its News Feed. Sure, the same feature that set Twitter apart from the rest of the social media networks - until Google+ started using them, too.[read more]

social media clean

It’s April, the second quarter has begun, and spring is here! Springtime isn’t just a great time to put your winter clothes away and clean your a garage. It’s also a great time to review and refresh all of your social media channels, especially if you haven’t reviewed them since after the holidays.[read more]