2012: The Year Of Social Business Strategy... For a lot of business, 2011 was the year of “finding itself” in its attempt to bring itself online in the social media era. Almost over night, thousands of social media-centric job openings began appearing on job boards. Some of them were more traditional-sounding roles, while others appeared to be completely new. As you can see, social business isn’t designated to a single department within a company. Rather, it is far reaching and requires the involvement of people both in the C-Suite and on the ground. 2012 is the year when talk turns into action, and teams formed to develop plans and strategy, really get to work. 
In today’s competitive environment, with numerous social applications and ways to engage clients, retailers must utilize metrics to stay in the race. While each retailer may have a unique strategy to analyze their success with metrics, the new Metrics Therapy — Details, Dashboards and Diligence Whitepaper - http://bit.ly/LigJEC [PDF] by the e-tailing group Baynote - http://bit.ly/Lih0r1 - reveals just how successfully companies are integrating these finds into their marketing strategies. Overall, the Report revealed that while the overwhelming majority of retailers view analytics evaluation as the number one factor in customer retention and loyalty [93%], their use of metrics is still a big work in progress. 
The State of Social Media 2012 by The SEO Company... What was once considered a trend has become a way of life - and now the way we do business. 
An Eloqua content marketing expert asks if social media marketing is as complex as it seems... The Social LUMAscape - http://slidesha.re/K80XOj , the image is the latest entrant in Luma’s series of visualizations that depict the labyrinthine interrelationships among major players in various tech sectors. Although the investment bank has published equally elaborate LUMAscapes for the mobile, digital capital, video, search, and display industries, for some reason this version struck a nerve. Business Insider, one of the world’s top business blogs, reported on the graphic, calling social media “ludicrously complicated,” “confusing” and “an absolute mess.” 
15 Infographics for 2012 that excel at presenting data to Marketers 
Danger: ignoring social benefits in the traditional sales funnel. Sales Happen Slowly; Time To Harness The Power Of The Social Funnel Social media marketing should never be salesy; rather, it’s about accruing a following, engaging your community, and influencing their actions. So how does that all lead to a sale? You’re reaching a customer early in the sales process, meaning that you’ve likely reached them before your competitors. The earlier you reach them, the more history they’ll have with you when it’s time to make a purchasing decision. We make purchases based on trust. The more you engage with your fans and followers, the more they “get to know” you and your brand, which breeds trust. You also become infinitely more memorable to your customers, since they now see you as a presence, not a product. Through engagement, you show you’re invested in them — and in turn, they become more invested in you. Social Media allows you to stay present in your customer’s minds. Social media followers can always play a huge part in your funnel, even if that subscriber never makes a purchase. They can: 1. Recommend you to friends, family, or colleagues, Continue reading some Quick Tips To Remember When Crafting A Social Funnel - http://selnd.com/JvIc8Q 
Those who work in advertising often wonder if they live in a sort of bubble. According to a study commissioned by San Francisco-based advertising agency Heat and conducted this past March by iThink, which found that people who work in advertising and marketing are worlds apart from the "normal" people when it comes to how they use social media and how they view social media marketing. By the way, the survey also revealed that ad professionals tend to engage in more bad behavior at office holiday parties. And the study also seems to suggest that the Mad Men stereotypes aren’t off the mark: Subjects were also asked about how they act at office holiday parties, and it appears that people who work in advertising are more likely to puke from drinking too much (37% vs. 9% of the general public); do drugs (26% vs. 3% of the general public); and hook up with a coworker (26% vs. 8% of the general public). If you work in advertising, these results likely aren’t surprising to you. 
This Infographic from Pagemodo, incorporates 2011 data on how small business owners feel about social media and how they measure what they perceive as success via these marketing channels. Specifically, focusing on whether small businesses' are utilizing social media properly and know on how to measure ROI correctly. 
"Chasing the past, I stumbled into the future". - T A Sachs I've always been a firm believer that in order to look to the future, we must look back to and fully grasp the past (and the present)." David Armano discusses in this post the merits of looking back on the social computing trends of the last decade, before looking forward: #1. Digital: The Interactive Revolution The digital revolution initially begun by replacing the analogue world. Digital began seeping into personal and professional lives and organizations, businesses and industries had to evolve along with it #2. Digital Media: Information Goes Online The "corporate" Website was born—essentially a glorified brochure for your organization however the business world began to wake up to the fact that not being on the Web was perhaps risking being irrelevant. #3. Digital Business: The Transactional Era Digital had become not only interactive and informational, but it became transactional—offering organizations new ways to connect with customers or even employees (intranets). #4. Social: The Human Web The word social becomes key during this era, because we begin to shift behavior during this phase. No longer are we just interfacing with digital systems (human to computer) but we begin to interface directly with each other (human to human). #5. Social Media: Global, Local, Mobile Connectivity At Scale Today, we live and interact with a digital world which is not only about finding information but is about being "connected". Networks now drive much of the Web's traffic as billions of people share links and opinions about the world around them. #6. Social Business: Connected, Adaptive & Intelligent The reality is that most organizations are currently dealing with the realities of social media and only a few truly recognize the potential of social business. Not unlike how digital media evolved into digital business—social business takes the foundation of social media and begins to build new economic models on top of it. Business models where new connections are formed to the benefit of both the business, customer and even employee and shareholders are a core tenet of "social business". #7. Winners & Losers: Navigating Today And Tomorrow's World Today digital has become embedded into the lives of millions of people and a generation who has never known life before it pours into our workforce and gradually rises in the ranks. We are now in a social-digital environment where things increasingly move in real time. Tomorrow's business models must not only be able to adapt to change, they must help drive that change. 
The social-media landscape gets more crowded every year. CMO's third annual interactive Infographic will help you determine which ones to use for maximum impact in terms of customer communication, brand exposure, traffic, and SEO. The latest Social Media Interactive Infographic welcomes five new members to the roster. Time will tell whether they give heavyweights such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn a run for brands' advertising dollars, but incumbents including Pinterest and Google+ have certainly grabbed their share of the headlines. This Social Landscape Chart is an Interactive Infographic. Click on any one of the four column labels--Customer Communication, Brand Exposure, Traffic To Your Site, and SEO--and the chart will automatically reorder so that the platforms most effective for that function are at the top of the list. 
According to the Small Business Search Marketing Survey by American Express OPEN, U.S. small businesses can still count on word-of-mouth as a top way for shoppers to find them. Close behind, however, is the Internet. Local consumers now heavily rely on search engine power when shopping locally. Column Five - http://bit.ly/HflNxk - takes a look at what this means for your small business in this Infographic created with Milo. 
It used to be that if you wanted to get data on a certain industry, keyword, hashtag or Twitter user you had to wait for a geeky, social media scientist type to write the scripts and run the reports for you. With Dan Zarrella's new tool TweetCharts.com - http://bit.ly/Ig8IPe - that’s no longer the case. Enter any word, phrase, hashtag, URL or username and TweetCharts will return a comprehensive report, including data on reply, retweet, and link percentages as well as the most common words, most mentioned users, most used hashtags over the previous 7 days. 
Wanna learn more about new online marketing strategies? Here's 75 of the best blogs and RSS feeds all ready for you! Included are the RSS feed links and average number of posts per week so you know what you are committing to when adding to your reading list! Kristi Hines - http://bit.ly/zTS9Gk - has put together this massive resource with eleven separate categories: http://bit.ly/ICIiuG 1. All-in-One Marketing Blogs Some of the best blogs in the industry cover more than one area of online marketing, even though they may be well-known for one specialty. 2. Conversion Rate Optimization 3. Content Marketing 4. Email Marketing 5. Paid Search 6. Search Engine Optimization 7. Analytics 8. Blogging 9. Social Media Marketing 10. Twitter Marketing 11. Facebook Marketing You can subscribe to each individual RSS feed or subscribe to one or more of the category RSS Bundles. Especially useful for curating your favorite topics. Oh, and if you’re crazy enough to want all 75 of these in your Google Reader or your Preferred Reader subscribe to the whole kit and kaboodle bundle, fatty! [I did] |
![Dear [insert Business Name], What’s Your Promise? | Social-Business-Marketing | Scoop.it](http://img.scoop.it/dQaS8YyB4j5Nol1deD7f9zl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ)
“You say you want to get closer to customers, but your actions are different than your words. You say you want to “surprise and delight” customers, but your product development teams are too busy building against a roadmap without consideration of the 5th P of marketing…people.”
If we are to truly change, we must find purpose. We must uncover the essence of our business and the value it delivers to traditional and connected consumers. We must rethink the spirit of today’s embrace and clearly articulate how transformation is going to improve customer and employee experiences and relationships now and over time. What’s Your Promise? Your promise to me as your consumer, stakeholder, and partner. A promise is meant to inspire For without it, we cannot genuinely voice what it is we stand for or stand behind. It serves as the foundation for your vision, mission, and all business strategies and it must come from the top to mean anything. For without it, we cannot genuinely voice what it is we stand for or stand behind.
A promise is the ink that inscribes the spirit of the relationship between you and me. A promise serves as the words that influence change from within and change beyond the halls of our business. Organizations that strive for innovation, imagination, and relevance will outperform those that do not. Change will only happen because you and other internal champions see what others can’t and will do what other won’t. It takes resolve. It takes the ability to translate new opportunities into business value. And, it takes courage.
Remember To Aim For A Higher Purpose! An Inspirational Post by Brian Solis - http://bit.ly/w1AGy8 , Read Entire Article Here: http://bit.ly/LxjGnM 
Read 20 of the most telling inbound marketing statistics and data points that will help position your progress against other Marketers.
This post by Magdalena Georgieva - http://bit.ly/KYw6CM - highlights the 20 most interesting data points from Hubspot's latest edition of "120 Awesome Marketing Stats, Charts & Graphs" - http://bit.ly/KYwp0l [PDF]
1) Research is a vital part of online shopping 2) 89% of marketers are maintaining or increasing their inbound marketing budgets 3) Inbound remains more cost-effective than outbound marketing 4) Search engines are often a starting point for product research 5) More web pages mean more leads 6) 80% of email marketers send the same content to all subscribers 7) B2B marketers use email segmentation heavily 8) More and more people report reading email on mobile devices 9) Social media & blogging generate real customers 10) Social media adoption has grown drastically in the U.S. 11) Social media conversations influence purchases 12) LinkedIn drives the most customers for B2B organizations 13) Facebook drives the most conversions for B2C organizations 14) Pinterest is popular mainly in the U.S. 15) Most marketers recognize the value of blogging 16) Blog reading peaks around 10am 17) Facebook grows in importance to Marketers 18) Most Twitter users are 25-34 years old 19) Twitter drives more customers for B2C companies 20) Mobile users rarely reopen emails on computers
How are you going to use this knowledge in your day-to-day marketing life? Read more: http://bit.ly/KYxHZr 
What is Freemium? Free + Premium = Freemium Freemium, a term combining "free" and "premium," is a marketing model based on the idea of charging absolutely nothing for a basic product or service. What is the freemium economy all about? If users want premium or full versions with advanced functionality and added value, they pay a fee to upgrade The Freemium Sales Funnel Awareness Download/Sign-up Use Purchase Advocacy Why Customers Like the Freemium Model It costs nothing It allows testing It's just right Simplicity 
With the digital revolution and various social media platforms, data equals intelligence and intelligence is wisdom. Social business intelligence is all about wisdom—the wisdom to listen, interpret and act authentically, tapping into the wants and needs of the billion-plus consumers who openly express their opinions online. As consumers offer opinions, expose their likes and dislikes, and express raw emotions, they produce a treasure trove of intelligence for brands. Socializing the feedback process offers instant advantages: You gain real feedback in real time and can make data-driven decisions on a dime, translating feedback into informed action at lightning speed. Classic business intelligence yields data from the inside out. Social business intelligence works in real time and leverages powerful technology to offer you the outside-in view. Now there is no more excuse for navel-gazing. The outside world is at the tip of your fingers! 
On the eve of National Small Business Week, Paychex, a provider of payroll and human resources services to small- and medium-size businesses, compiled information to show just what small businesses mean to the economy. The results found that small businesses have anything but a small impact on job growth and economic development. An estimated 50 million people are employed by small businesses, a large portion of which (20 million) work at companies with 20 employees or less. Those 50 million workers employed by small businesses equals out to slightly more than one-quarter of the working population of the United States. Beyond employing more than a quarter of the population, small businesses also are responsible for generating $11 billion in receipts a year, a number that is higher than the yearly receipts generated by businesses with more than 10,000 employees. Overall, the $11 billion generated by small businesses represents nearly 40% of all business receipts in the U.S. "Small businesses do more than provide services and products; they strengthen and shape our communities, our economy, philanthropic efforts and innovation," said Martin Mucci, president and CEO of Paychex. 
You don’t have to be a lifestyle-type site to win on Pinterest, you merely need to make your brand fun and create interesting, shareable images. Pinterest offers other benefits, including social links generated from content shared on Pinterest. **Pinterest is now the third most popular site, just behind Twitter and Facebook [Experian Traffic Report-April 2012]. **Pinterest is now looking to go Global **The demographics have also shifted to a more balanced gender viewship - 65% Female and 35% Male [ComScore March 2012]. Pinterest is growing in overall volume, becoming more gender balanced, increasing its age group range, and building out a global community. Much as Facebook and Twitter are a general part of your SEO/social strategy, so should Pinterest. Value Of Pinning Will this strategy necessarily bring massive boost for established brands or highly competitive keywords? Probably not! Will this help diversify your backlink profile? Yes. Does Google like fresh content from social sharing? Yes. Is this an easy way to inject some fresh content and new social citation for your site? Yes. If you create creative and interesting images, and have some influence on Pinterest, could something go viral? Yes. Should companies and sites invest in using Pinterest? Absolutely! Pinterest is becoming a major social medium to build your digital strategy around. Creating interesting and creative images to share with others is the key to success. 
What separates the best from everyone else? Remarkable entrepreneurs do more than make money. They are the few who possess qualities that don't appear on balance sheets but do make a significant impact on the lives of their employees, industries, and communities. Here are nine qualities of remarkable entrepreneurs: #1. They find happiness in the success of others #2. They relentlessly seek new experiences #3. They don't think work/life balance; they just think life #4. They're incredibly empathetic #5. They have something to prove - to themselves #6. They ignore the 40-hour workweek hype #7. They see money as a responsibility, not a reward #8. They don't think they're remarkable #9. They know that success is fleeting, but dignity and respect last forever 
There’s a huge focus on the big-picture aspect of understanding how businesses can best develop a social media plan and guidelines, let’s not overlook some basic and practical fundamentals that people will encounter day to day, like writing blog posts and making comments on posts. You’d think it was pretty straightforward, right? Actually it is – your common sense will guide you best – but there are some key aspects to consider when posting online on a professional basis. With that in mind, Dell has developed this handy Infographic for small to medium-size businesses to help their employees assess how to comment and respond effectively on behalf of their company, whether this is on a blog post, a tweet, a Facebook wall post, or anywhere else. Original Post: http://dell.to/JyFWvT You may also download Dell's Social Media Toolkit - A guide to how small and medium businesses can make the most of social media - http://bit.ly/JyGAcy 
The 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report Infographic depicts how marketers across different industries are using social media to promote and grow their businesses. Based on Michael Stelzner - Social Media Examiner's fourth annual social media study, more than 3800 marketers reveal where they focus their social media activities, how much time they invest and what the rewards are. This 42-page Report is one that you absolutely need to download and study. You will want to examine all the research and charts and discover some of the ‘not-so-obvious’ findings which are also contained within the Report. 
As the world of Social Media becomes more visual, Gloople have jumped on the bandwagon and created an Infographic on The Future Of The Social Customer. Looking at the social customer, pulling together a series of data points and research that trace the path from browsing on, say, Facebook or Twitter to pulling out the credit card. 
Global technological, cultural, and media changes have forever transformed the process of buying and selling, and have left B2B marketing and sales leaders struggling to keep up. Revenue Performance Management, or RPM, is a strategy that shatters outdated practices for B2B marketing and sales and provides the blueprint for a far more effective revenue process for companies big and small. 
Based on a recent Survey by Pagemodo - http://bit.ly/Ipy0zr - this Infographic showcases the most common benefits of using Social Media: Of all the businesses queried, 90% say that they use social media for marketing, and 93% of that claim that it’s beneficial to their commerce. Interestingly, only 43% of marketers see an actual rise in sales, and 83% say that social networking helps with brand exposure. 56% of those surveyed pointed out that platforms like Facebook have improved and expanded upon business partnerships, and 91% say that higher traffic can be achieved once an online storefront gets the hang of marketing in a social media environment. More experienced users spend more time marketing in social media – beginners spend an average of 1-5 hours a week, while those with 3 or more years of experience spend roughly 16 hours a week. 
91% of companies today measure marketing performance using only a single measurement: revenue. These single-metric minded organizations are being left in the dust by Top Performers who systematically apply a number of metrics to optimize the entire lead lifecycle, including: total number of inquiries, number of marketing- qualified leads, and cost per sales-accepted lead. Lead lifecycle analytics are crucial; successful lead generation and lead nurturing rely on an organization’s ability to address the multiple different stages of the lead lifecycle. This Lead Lifecycle Analtyics Dashboard Infographic - http://bit.ly/IF0r7X - provides a visual overview of 15 key metrics needed to optimize the lead lifecycle, as well as how Top Performers are measuring their overall marketing performance using the following:
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Fred my pleasure, cheers