When you plan an event, you pull out all the stops. So, too, should it be with your event promotions. Apogee Search's Brian Combs suggests in a recent MarketingProfs article to add paid-search marketing to your event promo mix. "With almost half of all Internet users now using search engines ... more

In last week's installment, we offered step-by-step tips to get you tweeting on Twitter. This week, we offer a few more advanced steps to take, based on Jim Sterne's advice in a MarketingProfs article. Incorporate these into your tweeting habits, and you'll be well on the way to becoming a Twitter ... more

Given the recent Facebook redesign, you're probably hearing a lot of yammer about Twitter. If by now you're not familiar with how Twitter can benefit your brand, walk with us as we cut through the noise and break it all down. In a recent article at the MarketingProfs site, Jim ... more

As marketers continue to see good ROI from finely tuned mobile strategies, the humble text message has acquired newfound cachet. And in a recent video posted at the CenterNetworks blog, Allen Stern interviews Tatango CEO Derek Johnson, whose one-to-many SMS service enables instant mobile communication with an entire list of ... more

On Friday 2/27, Skittles surrendered itself to the Zeitgeist. Visits to Skittles.com led users directly to Wikipedia (later changed to a Twitter search for "skittles," then to the official Facebook fan page), and attempts to explore the site navigation—little more than a pop-up—guided users elsewhere still: flickr, YouTube, Summize. The ... more

In a post at the MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog, Mack Collier tells the story of Alison Heath, the director of marketing for a small company that received favorable coverage from the Washington Post. "That's good," he says. "Unfortunately, [though], commenters were attacking the business, based on the information contained in ... more

In search, you have a very short window of opportunity for engaging your prospect. The key to ensure you get seen through that tiny window: give searchers exactly what they're looking for. One way of doing this, says Medium Blue's CEO Scott Buresh in a MarketingProfs article, is to use ... more

Lingerie label Agent Provocateur is characterized by its risqué unmentionables and the naughty ladies that grace its adverts. So when it announced plans to explore social media earlier this year, we thought we knew what to expect: simpering femmes fatales that appeal more to men than women. We scoped out ... more

There's a school of thought that asserts going "viral" is a random occurrence. There is no formula, algorithm or logic that dictates what does and doesn't become a mainstream hit on the Internet. Those people are correct. But there are ways to hedge the bets in your favor—without selling 3/4 ... more

While attending MarketingProfs' Digital Marketing Mixer in Scottsdale, Karen Talavera finally understood the importance of mixing various sorts of online marketing together. Take email and social media: Each is a significant force in and of itself, but combined they become even more powerful. Talavera's tips for creating marketing gold through ... more

If you read blogs on a regular basis, you've seen comment spam. There are the obvious offenders (those people, for instance, who work their way around the blogosphere leaving generic cut-and-paste lines like, "I love your blog, check mine out"). Then there are those who rub other readers the wrong ... more

In a post at his Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That! blog, Andy Sernovitz recounts discovering something unusual when he opened the advance proof of a book written by Jack Covert and Todd Satterson; at the top of the package sat a pair of postcards designed for word-of-mouth promotion. ... more

In a post at his Be the Brand blog, Dave Saunders links to a YouTube video by Perry Belcher that takes some Twitter users to task for their seeming lack of interest in the people who follow them. (NB: The video contains some four-letter words.) Belcher illustrates his point with ... more

Let's say you've gotten into a culinary rut—always going to the same few restaurants—and want to try something new. You visit a site like Yelp.com to see what customers think about various eateries in your neighborhood, and discover that some have uniformly positive feedback. One glowing review after the next ... more

You want to explore uncharted territory, but you're also worried about sowing cash on unproven social media ground. Well, here's a way to play it safe: ease, ever so slowly, into Facebook. The facts: It's the largest social networking site in the world. In August '08, users spent an average ... more

Van Jones beat the odds when The Green Collar Economy landed at number 12 on the New York Times best-seller list. "What he didn't have, as a first time author with an almost non-existent marketing budget, was the kind of money and name-recognition that typically helps place a book on ... more

Marketers don't always agree on the best way to achieve results, and Michael Antman takes the contrarian view of a strategy popular with many of his colleagues. "[S]ome businesses, especially on the B2B side, rely far too heavily on organic word-of-mouth strategies and, specifically, on acquiring new customers primarily through ... more

When we say "viral marketing" you know exactly what we mean. The question isn't whether to integrate viral elements into your marketing mix, but rather how—and to what degree. But when a profession-specific concept becomes so commonplace so quickly, it's easy to forget that your colleagues and clients might not ... more

Following its 2005 debut, Yelp became the Zagat for a new school of tastemakers. "Yelpers" review everything—bars, boutiques, dot-coms, universities—with humor, anecdotes and flair. Yelp boasted 3.3 million users in March. For marketers targeting young adults, it's got major sex appeal: Yelp reviews are trusted by spendy twenty-somethings, and many ... more

In a post at the Servant of Chaos blog, Gavin Heaton says those who aren't sure how to get "viral" could learn a thing or two from Stride Gum, which took notice of the following Matt Harding had gained with his "Dancing Matt" videos. If you recall, they showed him ... more