Platforms

It isn’t just your imagination – the internet is becoming less of the “too nice” place that The Atlantic speculated it was turning into and advancing into a state of “social rudeness” where arguments are increasingly made public rather than privately discussed.[read more]

While content is obviously important, what is more important is the context it is provided in. A lot of successful entrepreneurs and marketers have shown us that in order to truly make the most out of digital marketing, it is imperative that firms are able to integrate technology with creativity.[read more]

When you get your business blog started, it’s tempting to invest in a custom blog design, theme customization, or other features that will set your business’ blog apart from the rest. My advice on this is quite simple: DON’T.[read more]

Annette Shaff / Shutterstock.com

Last month, Foursquare’s CEO Dennis Crowley addressed rumors that Foursquare’s growth had become stagnant, which he said simply weren’t true – in fact, they consistently see their numbers grow by 10-30% each month. However, he did admit that Foursquare was no longer the “shiny, new thing” in the world of social media.[read more]

Klout, like other disruptive companies, has been trying to figure out the best way to provide value to the people who use it. Klout has definitely succeeded in becoming a noteworthy metric to help identify influencers. And soon, there's going to be a whole new level added to the Klout world... Klout is becoming a social network themselves. Some may call it a pivot, others may call it growth, but any way you look at it this is a big step for the company. Essentially the scorekeeper is now playing the game.[read more]

image credit: foto76/freedigitalphotos.net

Most companies who are using social media correctly know the value of a strong blogging presence to inform and entertain their customers. But while social media is a multiple-times-a-day priority, your followers will start to get a bit bored if you post links to your own articles exclusively.[read more]

Social media engagement

Social media continues to evolve and ways to improve engagement are also changing constantly. These five alternative tips -- ranging from Google+ Hangouts to Instagram -- should help you increase engagement and get more benefits from social media.[read more]

There are many different social networks out there, and if you're like me, you have accounts on a lot of them. Maybe you created a profile on Facebook to connect with friends and family, or maybe you got on Twitter because you were told it would be good for your business. Either way, statistically the average American has six different social media accounts, and that number is on the rise.[read more]

Solaborate

Solaborate, a new social network for tech professionals, is seeing its beta launch. It's a professional network whose Los Angeles, California-based platform gives more weight to companies and technology professionals.[read more]

It shouldn’t take long to review your objectives to help put the stepping stones in place to aim towards success, so take the time to find out what works, but more importantly, what doesn’t. Your social media spring clean is just the same as tidying up your cupboards at home.[read more]

In the past decade we have seen many changes in the world of Social Media and business. Twitter and Facebook have adapted to the world of business better than anyone could have imagined. In 2009, we saw the realisation of the influence that listening to consumers had on Social Media and in the ending of 2011, media went from being a simple broadcast platform to a sophisticated network of connections and rewarding engagements.[read more]

Adobe

Adobe Summit 2013 started this morning with some major announcements. Adobe has just released a new Predictive Publishing for Facebook, which aims to forecast social content performance to maximise engagement and ROI. It opens the gate to a new era for Social Media and new challenges for organizations.[read more]

This top tier of social networks contain those networks where you know your target client is active and engaged, and so your activity levels here are highest. You will have a complete profile, share updates and content multiple times a day, and will be looking for opportunities to engage and connect with prospects. These opportunities may include commenting on and sharing other people's posts, and participating in groups and communities.[read more]

Using social-powered tools found in platforms such as Google+, Facebook and LinkedIn allows you to meet your customers and prospects where they spend their time online. Social media also allows you to understand where and how varying segments congregate online, and exactly what they talk about.[read more]

Representing a new generation of YouTube pop artists who bypass the stifling corporate music industry with their own do-it-yourself YouTube success, K-pop recording artist Psy has become yet another driving force that is forcing the industry to change its hand. Today’s pop artists have found highly profitable ways to monetize their sounds on YouTube, rather than struggling to profit from their record labels and relying on, in large part, merchandising at concerts.[read more]

A blog post shouldn’t just be a blog post. Any time you put the effort into writing a blog post, you should consider how to deconstruct it into several pieces of shorter form content to feed your business’ social media content pipeline. I’ll describe how you can do this and a few things you should consider for each social media platform.[read more]

Blogging with stock photos / shutterstock

It's rarely taken into consideration that part of a social media budget should be set aside for a paid stock image account, but it should be a high priority for company social media departments. These accounts are worth every credit spent for the following three reasons.[read more]

Shutterstock

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]

Twitter today announced the launch of Twitter #Music, a Tweet based music discovery service using popular streaming apps like Spotify and Rdio.[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]