We took Marketing Smarts on the road and recorded the podcast live in Los Angeles, where I interviewed Eric Granof, CMO at the largest underwriter of surety bail in the US, and Brad Abare, communications director of a Los Angeles-based church. more

Word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations from friends and family and user-generated content (UGC) are sources most trusted for information about the products people want and need, according to a new report by Nielsen. more

Though small organizations still rely heavily on traditional marketing channels to promote their events, social media is also an important outreach tool: 77% of event marketers who work for a small business or nonprofit say they use social media to promote their events, and another 14% say they plan to ... more

In the early '90s, more than a quarter million Glocks (a semiautomatic pistol) had been sold in the US. Marketers can learn a lot from the runaway success of this handgun, as Bloomberg Businessweek's Paul Barrett told us in this week's episode of Marketing Smarts. more

Pinterest is arguably the hottest social media site on the Internet—user traffic to the online social catalog has skyrocketed since mid-2011—but the website also boasts strong audience engagement, retention, and "virality" among its core demographic, according to a report by RJMetrics. more

More than one-half (55%) of social media users in the US say they are uncomfortable sharing credit card information with a known brand via secure payment on a social networking site such as Twitter or Facebook, according to a new survey from Digitas. more

YouTube enjoys an astounding 3 billion views per day. It's no surprise that big brands are fighting to harness some of those eyeballs. Today the site has more than 20,000 revenue-generating partners. At MIPCOM this year, YouTube announced its intentions to focus on content creators, offering guidance and even Creator Camps ... more

"Here's the big news," writes Andy Sernovitz in the book Social BOOM! "It's not social MEDIA. It's SOCIAL media. It's about real people and the conversations they have." In other words, a presence at online networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn isn't enough. To generate word-of-mouth leads, you'll also need ... more

With the news of Steve Jobs's death on October 5, 2011, the Twitter universe exploded with tributes to the visionary co-founder and former chief executive of Apple. More than half of those tweets were generated via Apple devices, according to a study by Visibli. more

"Plenty of companies have referral programs," writes Kimberly Smith, "but how many can say theirs converts at about three times the rate of other online marketing campaigns and brings in over 500 new product sales each month?" In a case study at MarketingProfs, Smith explains how Roku—which makes devices that ... more

Small business owners are still lukewarm about social media: 53% say they use social media for business, but only 12% say social marketing is a must for their business, according to a survey from Hiscox. Social media adoption varies by company size, however. more

What is serendipity? You could say it is a manifestation of creativity whose inspiration comes from outside. More companies are finding that serendipity is a huge factor in innovation processes, resulting in the birth of "open innovation" programs such as Procter & Gamble's Connect & Develop, and contests where internal ... more

Unless your company finds itself at the epicenter of a major scandal—à la BP—social media chatter can be a valuable sales-generating tool. "[C]onsider every mention of your brand for potential use in your email marketing campaigns," writes Hal Licino in an article at MarketingProfs. "Doing so demonstrates to your subscribers that ... more

Any good conversationalist will tell you: It's not enough to listen, you must know how to listen. That principle holds true in the sprawled social world as well. In a recent article at AdAge Digital, Kyle Monson notes that the "efficacy of social listening is determined not by the listening ... more

The Temkin Group's Bruce Temkin has a six-step philosophy for pleasing users. "The trick to getting customer experience right," he notes in an article at 1to1 Media, "is simply to apply a bit of common sense." Don't miss the complete article (sign-in required). In the meantime, here are a few ... more

More than one-quarter of US consumers (26%) say they are more likely to tell family, friends, and coworkers about a bad experience with a product or service than a good one, according to LoyaltyOne's COLLOQUY report. more

We recently offered tips for checking out your business rivals through social media monitoring. But what exactly is the state of the customer-monitoring art in 2011?  Lucky for us, monitoring firm Synthesio has produced quite a useful article that explores what the big picture of social media monitoring looks like ... more

In a recent post at Search Engine Watch, Rob Chant notes that if you're doing any marketing at all, measuring the performance of your website is still critical to your success. And although your Web server likely has a basic tracking tool already installed, he argues that Google Analytics (GA) ... more

Marketers the world over are using social media not only to connect with customers and prospects, but also to see how well their competition is doing. As the wired social world grows in sophistication, so do the means to monitor the conversation. Sure, it's easier than ever to keep an eye on ... more

Social media still trails traditional marketing channels such as email in driving traffic to retail websites; however, customers who visit top retail sites because of a social media interaction are highly likely to purchase, according to a study by Foresee Results. more

If you've been shoehorned, by choice or necessity, into the role of a social community manager, your fingers must ache. It's not easy navigating a multiplicity of social media accounts for yourself and a client—sometimes multiple clients—at the same time. But thumbs up! The super-helpful iPhone app MySocialMania doesn't just keep you ... more

With an article proclaiming "the democracy of fine dining," USA Today recently covered a growing trend of restaurants using Twitter to improve diner experiences and expectations. Among companies like Chipotle and Pei Wei (which have full-time social-media staffers) and Chicago-based Graham Elliott (whose Twitter is run by the MasterChef judge himself) ... more

In August, correction-tape brand Tippex launched an attention-grabbing YouTube campaign. Colorfully labeled "NSFW. A hunter shoots a bear!," it shows footage of a reluctant hunter faced with shooting a bear creeping up on his camping gear. At video's end, you're left with one of two buttons to push: should he shoot, ... more

In September, UNIQLO UK launched Lucky Counter, a piece of marketing genius that compelled users to Tweet about the company's products. Each time they did, the products got more appealing. How? Lucky Counter featured a diverse, limited array of UNIQLO products and prices. Click on one, and you'd be invited to Tweet ... more

Despite the image of teens being obsessed with digital communications, only 13% of teen word-of-mouth (WOM) about brands takes place online—via texting/instant messaging (7%), social networking (3%), and email (3%)—according to a survey from Keller Fay Group. more