Content Marketing Today

Social media marketing is a trend, not a fad.  Moreover, it's a terrific extension of your content marketing strategy.

What’s clear from current research is that when we evaluate social media, we are not talking about the marketing longevity equivalent of the hula hoop or the Lambada. Social media marketing is here to stay.  If you are not already active in venues such as a business blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Slideshare, and YouTube, you should be asking yourself whether it's way past time to jump in with both virtual feet. The answer to the question is yes with an important caveat… …Before making the commitment to one or many possible social media outlets, it is vital to determine whether:

• you understand the target audience that you intend to reach
• you have something valuable to communicate to that target audience
• you have someone with the time, skill, and enthusiasm to execute a consistent social media program--either inside or outside your organization
• you will make the time to listen and respond to your social media audience.

There is nothing sadder than a business blog whose most recent post was a year ago. And, there is nothing less impressive than a Facebook fan page with only a few fans and hardly any messages to or from those fans. Yes, social media can be an extremely effective marketing tool. But, you will need to make a serious company commitment to ensure that it is effective for your organization. Read More

A Great Video Points the Way to Effective Use of RSS

Written by Paul Mosensen

  An overview on Google Reader, and how to manage RSS feeds, folders, share buttons, and integrate with LinkedIn, Google Alerts, Google+, and Twitter...... Read More

Awareness, Inc.shares their new annual report on the State of Social Media Marketing - Top Areas For Social Marketing Investment in 2012...

You will notice some underlying themes in this report: Read More

Content Marketing Beats Social Media

A report from BlogHer suggests that tech businesses targeting American women can be most effective with blog content marketing. Read More

Via Marketing Clout

You wouldn’t ask a violinist to conduct an orchestra. He may be an extraordinary musician, but what does he know about conducting or about how each section comes across to the audience? Will the audience come back? Chances are, probably not. Similarly, your typical copywriter, while highly skilled in his area, won’t necessarily have an understanding of writing content for integrated digital marketing campaigns. Old school copywriters are still in demand for offline campaigns. The new breed of digital writers, however, understands how to write for the web. For example, they know how to: Read More

Just two years after the launch of Social Media Examiner, founder Michael Stelzner has plenty to be proud of. He runs one of the world’s top business blogs, with an email list of more than 124,000 and growing, plus over 450,000 visitors per day. He also recently published his latest book, Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, that details his strategy for developing new business initiatives. Read More

Written by Melanie Brooks Dave and Carrie Kerpen started their marketing company,   Likeable Media, after they created a buzz selling sponsorships to their New York wedding. They raised $100,000 for their wedding and $20,000 for a charity The couple, who both had marketing backgrounds, were asked by so many people “what’s next” after their wedding promotional stunt that they started their own company, which today has offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Mexico City. Read More

Classic wisdom from David Meerman Scott. Don't buy, beg or bug!

It still boils down to content marketing.  According to David, you can choose from three old, traditonal methods:

• You can buy attention (advertising)
• You can beg for attention from the media (PR)
• You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales)

Or... Read More

The Top 5 Things Marketers Should Never Say About Social MediaBusiness InsiderHere are some things I resolve to never hear from a brand manager or product marketer or any marketer about social media in 2012...Via www.businessinsider.com Read More

Time to Take Out the Social Media TrashMarketing PilgrimHere's the full layout from Altimeter's new report: “A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation.” Companies create multiple accounts to split out brands or for a specific marketing...Via www.marketingpilgrim.com Read More