Posts

Persuasive Picks for week of 5/21/12

When consumers go online, they expect to receive the same personalized attention they get face-to-face, with engaging experiences throughout their decision-making process. To create those engaging online experiences, MarketingProfs guest blogger Jim Dicso gives readers Five Reasons to Create Online Videos for Your Customers.

Did you know that social media users who receive excellent service from their favorite brands go on to spend, on average, 21 percent more than non-social customers? Shea Bennett at AllTwitter posts more interesting findings from a recent study in Why First Class Customer Service Is The Key To Social Media Success [INFOGRAPHIC].

Looking for Sure-fire ways to improve your brand’s social presence? Social Media Strategist Stephanie Sholnik offers solutions to maximize your productivity to ensure your social media efforts are paying off and benefiting the business on iMediaConnection.

Social Media Overload? Focus on Your Audience, Not the Tools writes Steve Goldstein of The PR News Blog in his latest post that takes a look at how PR professionals can manage it all and show proof that the time invested in each platform is paying off on the bottom line.

Persuasive Picks for week of 4/30/12

Women Are More Social – When It Comes to Social Media, That Is writes Entrepreneur’s Mikal E. Belicove reporting the results of Nielsen’s latest State of The Media report that shows women are the alpha players on the social media playground.

In How Products Participate In Social Media, expert blogger Matt Compton explains that the evolution of the Internet and smart devices has created an amazing fabric of connected lives and now weaves together people’s connections with things, and brands are starting to “participate” in new and meaningful ways. – via FastCompany.

Freelance writer Michael Estrin says there’s no longer a question whether a brand should have a YouTube channel. Instead, the question is, what should a brand do with its YouTube channel? Here’s his 6 lessons in launching a branded YouTube Channel on iMediaConnection.

Many businesses see their social media following as a list, without acknowledging there’s a human being on the other end. James Debono at SocialMediaToday thinks that they just aren’t “getting it” and gives 10 guidelines for Marketing with Social Media – Grow A Loyal Community by Increasing Your Worth.

Persuasive Picks for week of 4/16/12

When Deborah Sweeney, CEO of MyCorporation, started to run her own business, she never would have guessed that a day would come when she’d be expected to update the internet on her life in 140 characters or less. To help CEO’s aspiring to join the Twitter-sphere, Deborah posts her advice on Becoming a “Corporate Executive Tweeter” on SocialMediaToday.

A strong referral network is imperative for small businesses. Thanks to social networking, businesses can now connect directly with customers, enabling them to market in new more cost-effective ways. MarketingProfs guest blogger Pamela Springer provides some tips to Build a Strong Referral Network to Boost Your Business and parlay those social networks into business opportunities.

Pinterest isn’t only for women – despite its heavy concentration on all things girlie, it’s for guys, too! Pinterest has a growing audience of men who like the site – for many of the same reasons women do explains Jennifer Waters in her latest MarketWatch article Why men like social-media site Pinterest.

Doug Schumacher takes a look at some numbers around Facebook content and what kind is the most shared, and finds that video and photo posts are far more likely to be shared than status updates or links. Find out more of What consumers share on Facebook – and why in his iMediaConnection post.

Persuasive Picks for week of 4/9/12

Relatively few brands have used Tumblr in their marketing initiatives, and only a handful have done it particularly well. Michael Estrin explains that despite its lack of traction with brands, Tumblr has a solid following with agency folks, especially creatives in Why digital marketers can’t ignore Tumblr via iMediaConnection.

Peter Himler recounts on The Flack some highlights from a recent panel of senior new graphics decisionmakers – from CNNMoney, Huffington Post, Mashable and The Associated Press – who discussed the ins and outs of the increasingly important communications paradigm of information graphics in The Rise of Infographics.

Social Media isn’t Magic – It’s about Staying Human on the Internet posts Isra Garcia on SocialMediaToday. He writes about building a process that’s aligned with business strategy and is a means of expression that makes possible for customers, communities and brands to connect and establish relationships – that is to say “staying human”.

MarketingProfs‘ Patrick Dorsey provides lessons on building successful social customer relationship management practices and explains why Social CRM offers a new way of doing business in Social Media Is Not Social CRM, but It Can Be With These Five Steps.

Persuasive Picks for week of 4/2/12

Bored with your boards? Jennifer Van Grove of VentureBeat reviews one of the most requested features as Pinterest introduces customizable board covers – offering “pinners” the ability to choose a pin to be the cover for each board.

Tara Meehan writes that properly regulating social media shouldn’t be viewed as a negative. In fact, a compliant social media strategy can strengthen your messaging, build better relationships with existing clients and make you more attractive to potential clients. Here’s 4 Reasons Why All Companies Should Be Social Media Compliant via iMediaConnection.

Want Real Business Results From Facebook? Run a Social Campaign writes Mark Schmulen in this MarketingProfs post that provides examples of effective social media marketing via Facebook; as well as, explains how Facebook social campaigns can drive business results.

Businesses are getting more sophisticated in their use of social networking, so too are the metrics by which they measure social business ROI. As your business gets more social-savvy, Debra Donston-Miller of InformationWeek provides 5 Social Media Metrics That Matter Now that will help strengthen your metrics strategy.

Persuasive Picks for week of 2/13/12

Stephanie Shkolnik takes a look at the components critical to long-term success as you plan your social strategy in How social actually impacts your bottom line via iMediaConnection.

Social media amateur aficionado Dr Layla McCay attends five Social Media Week events and brings back Five Social Media Lessons From the Cutting Edge for The Huffington Post.

MarketingProfs‘ Chris Chariton explains why marketers should focus on content creation, online marketing, and technology in the article Five Trends B2B Marketers Need to Understand to Succeed in 2012.

Adam Vincenzini rounds up some of the latest tools and apps that are generating some buzz online in This week’s most useful new social media tools via TheNextWeb.

Persuasive Picks for the week of 04/25/11

Jumping20 Blogs Every Entrepreneur Should Read
Whats that? You’re looking for some new and exciting content to read? This Business Insider post from Alyson Shontell and Bianca Male has enough recommendations to keep small business entrepreneurs busy for quite some time!

Four Ways Leading Companies Are Using Social Media: Lessons For Us All
Ramon Ray shares four easily digestible social media success stories from some well-known brands – in this post on SmallBizTechnology.com.

SMB’s Continue to Increase Social Media Use
Marketing Pilgrim Managing Editor Frank Reed provides highlights from a recent American Express Open Small Business Monitor report that reinforced SMB’s slow and steady march into the deep end of the social media pool.

The shortcomings of Facebook “Likes”
Amielle Lake puts SMS and Facebook “Likes” up against each other to see which can inject a campaign with more juice – in this interesting read on iMediaConnection.com.

Frito-Lay Sets Guinness Record for Facebook Likes
Mashable‘s Todd Wasserman recaps details of Frito-Lay setting the Guinness World Record for highest number of Facebook Page “Likes” within a 24-hour period. Not only is the number they obtained impressive, but Fritos are really tasty when added to a nice bowl of chili and cheese.  🙂

Image: Cordey via Flickr

Persuasive Picks for the week of 04/18/11

Content Delivery Are You in Charge of Content Delivery?
Valeria Maltoni expands on how content creation and distribution is changing the face of marketing – and that companies (both SMB and Enterprise) need to understand the importance of using content to meet business objectives.

Say it with Me: ‘Social Media is Part of Marketing’
Many marketers are drawn to social media with the impression that it can provide instant gratification, and most are sorely disappointed after approaching it with that attitude. This SocialMediaToday post from Wendy Bryant urges marketers to view social media as an integrated part of their overall marketing strategy, and she shares a personal experience of how human connection and social media make for marketing success.

5 fantastic examples of interactive video
Many brands have started experimenting with their online video efforts by adding interactive elements to their productions that help drive user engagement and provide a more direct call to action. This iMediaConnection post from Dave Sanderson provides five examples of brands that have incorporated interactive elements into their efforts and the reasons why each one was a success.

Which Social Media Channels Matter the Most?
Choosing which social media platform will get the most attention can be a challenging, but necessary, task. Marketer Ernan Roman provides some insight on how to go about selecting the correct channels on which to focus your interactions – via this article on HuffingtonPost.com.

Social Media Usage By SMBs Often Ad-Hoc
InformationWeek‘s Kevin Casey shares the results of a recent SMB Group study that revealed while small- and medium-sized businesses are more apt to engage in social media than in prior times, many are still doing so without any formal strategy in mind.

 

Persuasive Picks for the week of 02/28/11

Social Media Cycle

Understanding the Social Media ROI Cycle
The 60 Second Marketer‘s Jamie Turner shares some excellent insight into Social Media ROI and the various phases of a social campaign via this guest post on Mashable.

Lessons From a Corporate Insider: Dream Big, but Think Small
Leading the charge to convince corporate communications of the benefits of moving into the the social space can be a tremendous challenge. This post from Mark Ivey on MPDailyFix.com provides some good tips, along with a personal experience story direct from Mark. As an added bonus, additional advice from the community continues on in the comments section.

Proof of Life: 4 Reasons Why B2B Marketing Lives On
MPDailyFix turned up this other great pick by way of this Pro-B2B post from Carlos Hidalgo who shares “our reasons why B2B marketing is still alive and kicking.

Expand Your Social Media Mix: Twitter Alone is Not Enough
This excellent post from Jeremiah Owyang hits the nail on the head by urging readers to add a little more “steak” (more substantial content) to their social media mix. Several social tool alternatives are shared to help get you away from focusing on Twitter as your primary content sharing vehicle.

Why the digital agency will never die
In this iMediaConnection.com post. JetSet Studios CEO, Russell Scott shares his take on why digital agencies are here to stay and how the “story” is at the center of it all.


 

Persuasive Picks for the week of 09/06/10

My 3 takeaways on Google Instant
Christopher S. Penn provides an eye opening look at the affect Google’s Instant Search will have on your PPC (pay-per-click) metrics if your business utilizes Google’s AdWords program.

The Social Media Insider, Unplugged
Mediapost’s Social Media Insider, Catharine P. Taylor, shares thoughts on a topic that many of today’s “web-workers” struggle with – the pressure to stay connected versus the freedom of going unplugged.

Help Customers Count on You
Jeanne Bliss from MPDailyFix.com explains the importance of creating a “service magnet” to attract new customers and keep existing ones coming back. She strengthens the idea with highlights from TD Bank‘s success with implementing “Penny Arcades.”

5 ways you will be defeated by the pitch process
Sean X Cummings lays down a healthy dose of reality for agencies when it comes to pitching new business in this post on iMediaConnection.

3 Studies Show Facebook’s Marketing Potential
Amy Porterfield shares the results of three Facebook marketing studies that show the potential value the platform has – based on usage patterns, ad placement and more – via this post on SocialMediaExaminer.