Considering the stakes, it's no surprise that the online sales channel is becoming increasingly important to the bottom line of top-shelf brands as consumers of luxury products and services continue to demonstrate their willingness to spend as much through commerce-enabled Web sites as they do in stores. Despite this trend, many luxury brands continue to separate their online and mainline marketing efforts, confusing customers with disconnected messaging and missing golden opportunities to cross-support expensive marketing initiatives. What few realize is that the best experience—the experience that the customer wants—results when all channels work together and complement each other. Here are some guiding principles to help brands achieve this goal. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Viral marketing has been all the rage in recent years: Companies are intoxicated with the idea of creating the next video that spreads across the Internet and becomes a viral sensation. But for every successful viral effort there are countless attempts that totally miss the mark. Here's where David Meerman Scott comes in. Scott understands why ideas spread in a Web 2.0 world, and he educates his clients on why the "old school" rules of PR and marketing are totally irrelevant in a time of content-sharing on YouTube and Twitter. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

As a result of its online customer community, a company can get much more than basic product feedback. It gains deep insight into the needs of customers, and creates ever-greater customer loyalty by embracing customers as co-designers. Most importantly, the company goes directly to the source for product enhancements, pulling new innovations and ideas directly from the minds of the customers who use, buy, and recommend its products. This is the holy grail of customer-centered product design. Online customer communities can enable the connections, host the conversations, and facilitate the processes that make routine innovation possible. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Today's technology offers ample opportunities to start conversations with and among customers, fans, foes, competitors, and the press—any person or group who cares to listen and, perhaps, act on the messages received. By some estimates, 85% of the information companies collect is not in a form that they can access or analyze—it is unstructured. The Gartner Group reports unstructured data doubles every three months while seven million web pages are published every day. This cacophony presents the one of the biggest challenges companies face today. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Blogging takes advances in marketing one step further by allowing businesses to initiate conversations with their audience. Gaining a better understanding of your customers allows you to more effectively and efficiently market to them. This, of course, lowers your marketing costs. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

When Bob Lutz of GM or Jonathan Schwartz of Sun set up their blogs, they probably didn't worry too much about the review with Legal. But how does, say, a midlevel corporate marketer or product manager set out to create an "official" blog with the sanction of Legal? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Today we discuss some SEO tactics that may or may not be Black Hat, and how to deliver a dope smack to commenters who don't add to the conversation. All that and more in this Marketing Over Coffee, a weekly audio program sponsored by MarketingProfs that covers classic marketing tactics and what's new on the technology front. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

One of the biggest hurdles that many companies face in adopting a blogging strategy is that they aren't sure how to quantify the results of their efforts. But as blogging has evolved, and it has become much easier to accurately measure blog performance and tie those measurements back to achieving specific goals. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

What goes unnoticed by many can be an keen advantage for the few. By taking steps to not only build a personal brand but also seek new ways to circulate your name, you will be more successful. Here are three easy (and easily overlooked) things you can do to juice up your personal branding. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

If the Internet community didn't know its place in politics back in 2004, it certainly does today. Its "place" is to engage and educate us, promote candidates, help with fundraising and more... all through the use of new social-media tools that are increasingly vital to a candidate's overall marketing strategy. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Despite all the talk, the mainstream media coverage, the conferences, courses, and books on social media marketing, there's quite a bit of ambivalence, fear, and (sometimes) outright hostility directed toward social media by CMOs, CEOs, and CFOs. All of this leads to the dreaded "we just want to stick our toe in the water, and see what this stuff is all about" and "we want to do a small, low-budget social media project and track the ROI." [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Marketing with Twitter, Google Docs for SEO, who the Connectors are and why you need them... all that and more in this Marketing Over Coffee, a weekly audio program sponsored by MarketingProfs that covers classic marketing tactics as well as what's new on the technology front. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Are you LinkedIn? Do you Spoke, Ryze, Jigsaw, or ZoomInfo? In 2008, will you get a Second Life? If these social-networking concepts are not on your radar, you are ignoring a dynamic trend that could have a profound impact on key areas of your business, such as revenue growth, talent acquisition and development, and operational efficiency and effectiveness. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Learn what Metcalfe's Law has to do with marketing and networking, hear some best practices with PURLs, and why January is Tech Geek Nirvana. All that and more in this Marketing Over Coffee, a weekly audio program sponsored by MarketingProfs that covers classic marketing tactics and what's new on the technology front. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Increasingly, companies are beginning to reach out to their customers to help them with their marketing efforts; in some cases, companies are actually turning some marketing functions over to their customers entirely. Here is how companies have successfully turned at least one of the 4 Ps of Marketing over to their customers. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

In the face of mounting competition and hype from rival networks Facebook and MySpace, LinkedIn has stayed true to its mission of creating a network for business professionals. I've been a member of the service for years, but until recently it had not had the critical mass necessary to get traction. Over the last six months, however, I've seen a flood of people using the service to connect professionally. As I said, LinkedIn doesn't pretend to be MySpace or Facebook. The design is clean, but a little stark, and it could use a little more personality to make it more engaging. In this video tour, I focus on what LinkedIn does well within its network and how you can apply the same logic to your own community. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

There's a new air of excitement behind the mobile Web. Initiatives like Verizon's recent announcement to open their network, Google's Open Handset initiative, new wireless auctions, and the iPhone have energized users. For the intelligent marketer the question must be, "Is mobile the right medium to reach my constituencies?" [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Work of any kind requires an understanding of the appropriate tools for the job, and social media is no different. Here are some suggestions for a starter set of social media tools. The actual applications will change, over time, because technology tends to do that. But the basic functions should evolve a little more slowly. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Customer conversations are everywhere today—social networks, blogs, forums, and other social-media outlets. These are unbiased, unfiltered interactions that can deliver rich information about how your customers talk about topics that are relevant to your company and brand. Though it would be nice if people were to use your company's messaging in their everyday interactions, the reality is that for the most part they don't. Social SEO—tapping into how they talk about you and your industry so that you can determine how they will search—is the most effective and foolproof way to master that art/science/guessing game of picking keywords. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Whether or not you completely understand social media or social networking sites, the one aspect you must understand is that they are going to change the way businesses advertise. Facebook, in particular, is constantly evolving and improving its users' experience with new features and applications. As a result, Facebook is trying to change the way businesses market and advertise their products and services to potential consumers. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Of course you know what LinkedIn is. You already have an account, right? So what's the next step? Here are four thorny questions about LinkedIn (and their related answers) to help you get the most out of this professional social networking tool. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

What do you get when you combine video, social networking, micromedia, and a very savvy French entrepreneur? You get Seesmic. Seesmic is a social network where the primary content is video. Users record video, post it to the site, and other users reply in video. It's new and it's red-hot. It's also a glimpse of the future. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Do you know what your customers are saying about you? If not, you (and your brand!) are at a distinct disadvantage. Take the opportunity to participate in the blogosphere -- even if only on a small scale -- and you'll help shape your brand, rather than having it be shaped exclusively by your customers. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

LinkedIn doesn't pretend to be MySpace or Facebook. In the face of mounting competition and hype from rival networks, LinkedIn has stayed true to its mission of creating a network for business professionals. In this video tour, Matt Dickman focuses on what LinkedIn does well, and how you can leverage its strengths. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

In a recent blog post, Cymfony's Jim Nail wrote about a study that provocatively proclaimed that spending on conversational marketing will outpace traditional marketing by 2012. Is that even possible? To find out, Paul Dunay chatted with Jim and Pete Blackshaw, executive vice-president at Nielsen Online Strategic Services. What ensued was a very lively debate about whether marketers are prepared to support conversational marketing—and the answer isn't very pretty. As Jim and Pete point out, not only are marketers not using Web 2.0 tools to create a conversation, but to even listen effectively they need to overhaul their infrastructures—big time. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Social Media

Wacom's digital pens and their capabilities are well-known in the business world. To continue growing, however, the company needed to address the consumer market. Here's how it effectively reached a new fan community. [Read the full story]
Marketing Case Studies: Social Media

Marketing executive and consultant Lewis Green wanted to re-establish his company in January 2004 after moving across the country. With no professional network in place, he figured the best way to promote his business would be a blog. His first attempt failed. But not his second.[Read the full story]
Marketing Case Studies: Social Media

Atlanta management consultant Brent Leary launched a radio show in 2006 to help small and mid-sized businesses understand technology. It proved so popular that he evolved the show into a series of online podcasts, bringing new business and (ultimately) new revenue to his 15-year-old consulting business.[Read the full story]
Marketing Case Studies: Social Media

Goodwill Industries receives generous donations of clothing, many in good shape and by popular brands, but is perceived as a purveyor of low-quality, outdated merchandise. With a social-media marketing campaign, the nonprofit was able to change that perception and connect with young professional women who buy vintage clothing.[Read the full story]
Marketing Case Studies: Social Media

From establishing your company as an expert to providing a forum for testing new products, and much more, blogs can be useful, cheap and effective. Want to give it a go? This 65-page Bible of Blogging will get you started. [Download] Marketing Downloads: Social Media

Find out what's new, what's hot and what's not in B2B marketing trends. [Download] Marketing Downloads: Social Media

MP3 Recording [Download] Marketing Downloads: Social Media

The e-newsletter has become ubiquitous. Almost a dime a dozen. How do you make yours not only stand out in the inbox, but make a positive impact on your bottom line? This guide will show you how. [Download] Marketing Downloads: Social Media

Blogging Summit 2005 - MP3 Recording [Download] Marketing Downloads: Social Media

Time to face facts: They're talking about you. Sorry, that's the new reality. Word-of-mouth marketing is here to stay. So, if you can't beat 'em, you may as well join 'em, and work to turn that gossip positive. Luckily, WOM guru Andy Sernovitz has isolated... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Social Media

They email, they blog, they text, they chat. And now, they twitter. Yikes. Twitter.com offers a real-time service for "friends, family, and co-workers" to communicate what they're doing (in 140 characters or less)—"between emails and phone calls." Great. Do you really need to add this to your... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Social Media

Everybody's doing it, but you've held back. Frankly, you're afraid you just don't have enough to say to do a company blog. Congratulations! You've taken the first step toward forming a blog that's worth reading. According to Paul Boutin, "Internet 2008 [is] full of wannabe Thought Leaders."... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Social Media

After reading an article at CareerBuilder.com about things you should avoid in a job interview, Nettie Hartsock was inspired to come up with her own list of dos and don'ts for media interviews. Here's a peek at her advice: Do your homework. Says Hartsock, "Make sure... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Social Media

When we heard a YouTube channel about online marketing was getting tens of thousands of hits, we had to take a look. And so should you. Its host Charles Lewis is an online marketer for Pop Labs whose alter ego—the Poetic Prophet—likes to rap about his subject... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Social Media