From the monthly archives:

January 2012

Getting The Most Out of Great Content in Social Media

by Jason Falls · January 31, 2012

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest post from Jordan Viator Slabaugh, Director of Social Media at Spredfast, a social media management solution provider and SME client.

Using social media for business requires companies to embrace social channels to satisfy the needs of their customers, prospects and networks. This can mean many different tactics for various types of companies, but content is always at the heart of this activity.

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10 comments

Double Down on Facebook Marketing

by Eric Brown · January 31, 2012

I have been thinking about the value of Facebook fans lately, and how they stack up against other types of online and digital marketing payoffs. The problem with getting to an answer to the value of a fan, and what many small business owners face when trying to sort out what square to place their marketing dollars on, is the array of mismatched direction.

Small businesses aren’t very good at increasing their Facebook fan base. So even though they may be following all of the “rules of the Facebook road,” they aren’t seeing much if any return on their effort.

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18 comments

Benchmarking Your Social Performance

by Jason Falls · January 30, 2012

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from Tristan Handy from Argyle Social, a service SME uses and a company that sponsors our events. But I think you’ll agree, disclosures aside, it’s awesomeness. 

You’ve spent all year writing and sharing great content. And from time to time, you check to see how your posts perform. But when you look at that report—whether it’s in bit.ly, Google Analytics, or your social media management tool of choice—how do you interpret it? Is 100 clicks good? Is 1,000 clicks good?

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11 comments

The Jedi’s Guide To Content Marketing Success

by Jason Falls · January 30, 2012

As you know, Copyblogger‘s Brian Clark will serve as the opening keynote for Explore Dallas-Fort Worth on Feb. 17 in Dallas, Texas. Register now so you don’t miss out on the full day’s content and networking that I’ve started saying is a, “no-frills, learn-your-ass-off digital marketing event.” But his opening keynote will surprise many. It’s a new talk and one that I’m going to be taking a lot of notes from as well.

Brian’s talk is called, “The Star Wars Guide To Online Marketing Success.” I’m sure we’ll all get a kick, as well as some great knowledge from him. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say Brian is a content marketing and internet marketing Jedi.

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5 comments

Employees on Social Networks: To Be or Not To Be…

by Jason Falls · January 27, 2012

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post written by Ann Davlin who works at MotoCMS – an advanced Flash CMS and Flash templates provider.

It’s not a secret that many recruiters and business owners use social networking sites to screen prospective employees. According to the survey of 300 hiring professionals conducted by Reppler the most popular online resources for time wasting are Facebook (76%), Twitter (53%) and Linkedin (48%). It probably means that the whole (online and offline) business world considers it necessary to take social networks activity into account and use it for corporate objectives. But there are not so many employers who enable their employees to use these social networks at the working time if they are not engaged in corporate social accounts maintenance: In 2009 Robert Half Technology proclaimed that:

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16 comments

Death to Bot Talk: Tips On Voice In Writing For The Web

by Jason Falls · January 26, 2012

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Suzanne Norman, director of brand at Emma, an email marketing and communications company.

The bot problem

Let’s face it: most companies write marketing copy for the web and email that reads like it was written by a robot.

And nobody likes bots. (See: spambots, twitbots, fembots, that 80s movie with Emilio Estevez where all the semi-trucks come to life.)

photo by davedehetre

I spot this kind of writing all the time in email marketing campaigns — that’s the realm I work in — but it’s just as rampant in every other digital medium.

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7 comments

The Power of A Blog

by Jason Falls · January 26, 2012

Why are blogs such a powerful communications tool in the arsenal of a company? There are lots of reasons, really. But the explanation I’ve used that normally gives those who don’t quite understand blogging have their “ah-ha” moment is a simple one. To understand the power of a blog you have to compare it to something familiar.

Think about your company newsletter. If you’re not that hip to blogging yet, your company newsletter is probably still printed and circulated in everyone’s box in the mailroom. Or maybe it’s mailed to everyone’s house. But in some form or fashion, some printed piece of information is circulated monthly or bi-weekly to everyone in the company. There are pictures of new hires, company softball team news, maybe even some tips and tricks articles for the sales team and a list of birthdays.

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16 comments

The Sad Reality Of Silicon Valley

by Jason Falls · January 24, 2012

Say goodbye to CoTweet. As of February 15, the free version will no longer be offered. Free customers will be given a chance to transition to ExactTarget’s new Social Engage product that is essentially an improved version of CoTweet’s enterprise product, but they’ll eventually have to pay for it. And frankly, they should have to. The innovation and integration with ExactTarget’s long-standing excellent email suite isn’t something the company should give away.

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31 comments

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