Among small businesses and nonprofits planning events in 2013, more than 8 in 10 (81%) say they plan to increase their use of mobile technology to market their events, according to Constant Contact's EventSpot survey. So far, however, most small businesses haven't invested in mobile technology for event marketing. more

Are you happy with the quality and quantity of your leads? If not, your lead generation program likely needs a tune-up using the following five principles of lead generation. more

More than one-half (55.3%) of mobile device owners plan to use a smartphone or tablet for holiday shopping this year, to research products, make purchases, find brick-and-mortar stores, or assist with other shopping tasks, according to a new survey from Prosper Mobile Insights. more

For the first time, smartphone penetration crossed the 50% threshold, with 51.0% of US mobile subscribers (119.3 million people) owning a smartphone during the three months ended September, up 8% from the three months ended June 2012, according to data from the comScore MobiLens service. more

"Native" ads, those that give the appearance of being authentic content (Twitter promoted tweets, Facebook sponsored stories, etc.), can have a negative effect on the perceptions of brands that sponsor such ads, according to a study by MediaBrix. more

A note to our readers: MarketingProfs has decided to cease publication of the Get to the Po!nt (GTTP) newsletters, and this issue of the Email Marketing GTTP is the last you'll be receiving. We hope you continue to enjoy our daily newsletter, MarketingProfs Today, and our best-of-the-week newsletter, MarketingProfs This Week. "According to a study by Litmus, ... more

Some 91% of national brands say they plan to spend more or the same on local marketing (i.e., campaigns directed at customers in their local markets) in 2013 compared with 2012 spending levels, and they cite mobile marketing, local blogs, and online customer reviews as their top 3 digital priorities ... more

Among Facebook audiences worldwide, user engagement with brands—via likes, comments, and shares—is surging in 2012, according to Adobe's Digital Index, which covers some 260 billion ad impressions across 338 companies as well as Facebook activity among roughly 70 million fans. more

A note to our readers: MarketingProfs has decided to cease publication of the Get to the Po!nt (GTTP) newsletters, and this issue of the Social Media GTTP is the last you'll be receiving. We hope you continue to enjoy our daily newsletter, MarketingProfs Today, and our best-of-the-week newsletter, MarketingProfs This Week. Facebook ... more

US small business owners favor Governor Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama as the presidential candidate better equipped to lead the US in an economic recovery, according to the MerchantCircle Confidence Index, which polled local business owners about the economy and their expected revenues and marketing. more

Blogging seems like a no-brainer. But it's grueling work that may not immediately yield the results you want. That's part of the reason why longtime blogger Mike Figliuolo has shared his list of tips for diversifying blog content, increasing content shareability, and using tools to maximize output (and profit). A bit ... more

Nearly two in five US tablet owners read newspapers or magazines via their device in the three-month period ended August 2012, and among them one in ten read such publications almost daily, according to data from the comScore TabLens service. Kindle Fire users were the most likely to read newspapers ... more

About one-quarter (24.24%) of all search queries conducted via Google are for local goods and services, according to a study by Chitika Insights. However, Bing and Yahoo users are more likely to conduct local search queries: 28.81% of queries conducted via Bing are local searches, as are 25.28% of those ... more

If you're running a small business, one of your biggest allies is the freelancer or the remote worker—even if she's not at your doorstep (which she increasingly isn't). But if you have multiple remote workers, building enterprise "culture" and camaraderie can be a real challenge. Enter social collaboration tools, which help company ... more

Grab a smartphone. Key in your website/blog URL. If what you see is jumbled or distorted, you are likely losing tons of traffic—and conversions. Now that your audiences are mobile, is your website? more

Online video isn't just becoming faster, more accessible, and of higher quality; it's also growing quickly as a media platform. In fact, in July 2012, 184 million Web users in the US accounted for 36.9 billion video content views—and an average of 22.3 hours of video content viewed per viewer. more

Nearly one-half (46%) of online adults post original photos and videos they themselves have created, and 41% curate photos and videos they find elsewhere on the Internet and post them on various photo-sharing sites, according to a study by Pew Research. more

Instagram, the popular photo-sharing platform, attracted an average of 7.3 million daily users in the US via mobile device in August 2012, surpassing the 6.9 million who visited Twitter via mobile device, according to data from comScore Mobile Metrix 2.0. more

Moms are among the most connected demographics in social: more than 54% own smartphones, 75% use Facebook; and 5 million visit Pinterest daily. Their purchasing decisions affect entire households and spill over to their super-social friends. So how do you attract this connected, influential audience? At Inc.com, Christina DesMarais gives us her top ... more

Mobile app users are an attractive audience for marketers, skewing younger and more affluent than other online adults in the US, according to research from Forrester. more

Social may democratize the marketing landscape, but big businesses still have the upper hand in terms of best-practices, simply because they have more resources to devote to new media. What's a smaller marketer to do to keep pace in the social space? Here's some help. Brad Smith, in a post at ... more

Men are more likely than women to make purchases using their smartphone (45% vs. 34%), and they're even more more likely to buy certain types of products via mobile device, such as consumer electronics equipment and digital content, according to a study by uSamp. more

Smartphones and tablets are redefining sales because they offer a compelling blend of usability, utility, and innovation that's unachievable with personal computers. In short, mobile enablement can supercharge your sales. And this infographic outlines how. more

Who would've guessed a few photo filters and instant sharing capabilities would produce a social hit? Instagram, that's who! The image-based social network, available on iPhone and Android smartphones, boasts more than 100 million users. Many are brands: Starbucks, NASA, MTV, and NBC News are some of the most successful Instagrammers. Recently, the ... more

Google Sites was the top-ranked Web property in August 2012, attracting some 187 million unique visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites with 170 million and Yahoo Sites with 164 million, and making its debut to the Top 50 was Instagram, at No. 48, with 26.0 million unique visitors, according to data ... more