Social Media Marketing News & Articles

Let's say your brand has ten thousand followers on Twitter and an even greater number of fans on Facebook. Congratulations! Now what?

In 2007, David Meerman Scott suggested an unconventional angle to online marketers: Hire a journalist. It took about five years, but that shift is finally happening, and in some of the biggest organizations around the world. If you think your marketing strategy might need a good shakeup, read on. 

Facebook is rumored to be announcing the launch of Open Graph applications in a press event. First announced last September, Open Graph applications make sharing "frictionless."

As marketer's understanding of the way that social media affects the traditional buying processes has grown, new ways of working to engage consumers have emerged. Businesses have struggled to understand how to maximize engagement via social media, which is inherently personal and traditionally works on an individual level. Recent changes have encouraged businesses to promote their brands on social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. And the growth in mobile devices, specifically smart phones, has made a whole new level of engagement possible.

 Back in September, the Dachis Group introduced us to its Social Business Index -- a tool based on deep big data analysis of a company’s global engagement designed to provide companies with insight on optimizing their social spend. This week it has launched a new online service called the Social Performance Monitor (SPM).

In 2011, social media marketing not only was a sum of its individual parts, but also a force to be reckoned with as far as social business initiatives were concerned. Let’s take a stroll down social media marketing lane, shall we?

Last December experts from around the globe predicted that 2011 would be all about Customer Experience, and boy was it. As a result we've seen huge shifts in every major area of B2C. Here's a look back at our related trials and tribulations, as well as some key advice for overcoming challenges in 2012. 

We all know Facebook and Twitter are two of the biggest digital platforms for brand promotion, but just because they're both social doesn't mean the typical consumer response is the same across the board. AYTM put together an infographic that compares the two platforms on several consumer angles, so read on if you're hoping to improve social engagement. 

A funny, seemingly backwards thing is happening: Our increasingly connected and technology-filled world is causing consumers to crave the basics of human interaction. As a result marketers are getting personal, relying on empathy rather than logos. This trend will continue well beyond 2012, so if you're thinking about how to be successful going forward, read on. 

Like most of the Internet Giant’s social networking efforts, the reception of Google Plus has been up and down. After a long-awaited debut and a surprisingly positive initial reaction, the smoke is clearing away to reveal a growing nugget of doubt. After all, compared to Facebook, Plus is a ghost town. But wait, should we even be comparing the two? A closer look indicates Google has something different -- and potentially way more powerful -- up its sleeve.

With a practically non-existent barrier to entry and zero money down, social media marketing efforts often leave out strategy. After all, who wants to spend precious time thinking about what to do when there's so much to be done? Unfortunately, the acute threat of information overload makes developing a strategy absolutely essential in this space. On the bright side? It's easier than you think.

Talk about stubborn. The 2011 State of Digital Marketing Report from Webmarketing123 says SEO is the number one source of leads for both B2C and B2B marketers. Still, those surveyed say they plan to increase their social media marketing budgets in 2012, ahead of SEO and pay-per-click.

If you learned that scientists spend a significant portion of their day carrying out experiments but never bothered to measure the results, you’d think they were wasting their time, right? When marketers spend million of dollars on social marketing programs and don’t track their results, we tend to think the same thing.

Twitter has caught a lot of flak over the years for sticking strong to its 140 character limit, but this week the platform showed a bit of flexibility with Stories. The spin-off site showcases interesting tweets and ways users are communicating via the platform. 

Social media is a powerhouse of change for several areas of customer experience. In regards to marketing,  the social web has provided a less expensive, more communicative alternative that's poised to replace traditional methods -- billboards, TV spots, etc. -- altogether. The following infographic from Voltier Digital highlights how things currently stand.