"57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company blog." - HubSpot

Business Blogging as a Critical ToolThere is a wide misconception among SMBs that business blogging is a waste of time.  But realistically, blogs are, and have always been great marketing tools.  When used effectively, an active blog with useful, free content can attract a lot of potential customers.  And in today's web environment with discerning readers and strong filtering tools, a compelling blog article can reach audiences further than direct marketing and traditional advertising practices.  

Since the days of Google Buzz, the +1 button has been a mystery to users and content producers alike. It’s different from Facebook’s “Like” button, in that it doesn’t directly share content to a user’s social stream. But the cultivation of a social graph has long been the goal of Google, and its connection to search was likely inevitable.

Google defines the +1 as a feature to help people discover and share relevant content from the people they already know and trust. Users can +1 different types of content, including Google search results, websites, and advertisements. Once users +1 a piece of content, it can be seen on the +1 tab in their Google+ profile, in Google search results, and on websites with a +1 button.

The plot thickened last month when Google launched Search plus Your World. Jack Menzel, director of product management for Google Search, explained that now Google+ users would be able to “search across information that is private and only shared to you, not just the public web.” According to Ian Lurie from the blogConversation Marketing, in Search plus Your World, search results that received a lot of +1s tend to show up higher in results.

Click on the +1  image to read the whole article

Click the image above to read more  
One of the fascinating things about change is that it rarely occurs in a linear motion. Things don't remain static as change sweeps throughout the system; every single item touched by the transformation agent sets off on its own trajectory, itself stirring up change in those around it.

Click the image above to read more   
Content producers, device-makers and marketers will all see new opportunities—and challenges

In the US over the next two years, eMarketer expects more than 26 million mobile phone users to turn to smartphones, helping put the devices in the hands of more than half of all US mobile users by 2014. 

While Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have been at the top of the social media heap in the US for several years now, new services and relaunched versions of older ones are rapidly gaining popularity among consumers and marketers.

“Many internet users are turning…to social networks that offer a more focused experience than Facebook, even as that site positions itself as the social destination for sharing, curation and consumption of content,” said eMarketer’s Kimberly Maul, author of the new report, “Beyond Facebook and Twitter: Visually Focused Social Sites See Growing Interest.” “In the case of several popular or up-and-coming sites, this means giving users the ability to express themselves—and often to become tastemakers—using photos and other visually oriented material.”

Hashtags as Branding Vehicles for Companies
Many marketers are starting to use hashtags as branding vehicles for campaign awareness. A good example is Audi that recently promoted their new LED headlights with the hashtag #solongvampires. The unique hashtag was connected to a TV ad that showed the headlights destroying vampires because of their extreme brightness (part of the product message). The result was a memorable campaign with excellent integration between multiple mediums. 

Click the image above to read more   
As second-tier social media sites become more popular with consumers, these sites are finding their place within the social media ecosystem, referring traffic to larger social networks, as well as seeing traffic arrive from Facebook and Twitter.

 In November 2011, Compete analyzed referrals of US traffic to Facebook, and found that, in addition to retail sites bolstered by holiday traffic, Meebo and Pinterest were two social sites increasing in influence. Meebo’s US referral traffic to Facebook grew 314.48% in November 2011 compared to the previous month; Pinterest’s referrals rose 57.22%.

Pinterest hasn’t just become a significant source of referral traffic for retailers; it’s also becoming a top traffic driver for women’s lifestyle, home decor and cooking magazines, some of which are seeing bigger referral numbers from the image-collecting service than from major portals like Facebook andYahoo.

Beginning this summer, Pinterest became the top social referrer for marthastewartweddings.com andmarthastewart.com, sending more traffic to both properties than Facebook and Twitter combined. Pinterest is on track to become the second highest traffic driver (after Google) to Cooking Light‘s website, up 6,000% from just six months ago. The social bookmarking site already drives 10 times the amount of traffic to Cooking Lightcompared to Facebook.

Pinterest has emerged as the runaway social media hit of early 2012. You probably knew that already. But did you know the company just has 12 people? Or that 97% of Pinterest’s Facebook fans are women? 

Click the graphic to read more

It seems like social networking sites have been rolling out faster than brands have time to react (Pinterest, Google+, Foursquare, etc), and the pressure to continually be active and engaging on each one can be overwhelming, not to mention confusing. So how should your brand approach each uniquely designed platform? If you aren’t getting the engagement you desire, you may be using your social sites incorrectly. So today, we’re going back to basics with a quick lesson in social media best practices for the top social networking site 

Which social network is right for your business?

It’s an important question, as the different platforms can vary dramatically in size, user demographic and functionality. While the ‘catch all’ social channels such as Facebook and Twitter might seem the obvious choice for most businesses, the smaller, niche sites, such as rising star Pinterest, can offer additional benefits which could lead to a superior ROI for marketers, particularly when implemented alongside the more popular networks.

Click on the graphic to read more