More companies are looking at ways that will enable them to go green with their marketing efforts. However, their motivation isn’t solely driven by the want to improve the environment. These organization realize that the green movement can be good for business. From email communications to social media campaigns, the digital channel has made it easier than ever for companies to conduct their business in a more eco-friendly manner. And perks such as the following benefits are what’s driving change for many of those that have decided to sing a new tune:   Reduced resource consumption…

The marketing adage “content is king” has been around for a long time. In 2013, it appears that both the search engines and social media sites are focusing on content as their driving forces, but in a different way than most understand. Things are changing in the world of internet marketing. Here’s what you need to know. Content was never really “king”. Though it made a nice talking point and allowed marketing companies an opportunity to charge for their labors, it was always a temporary fix. In search, it started off as extremely important for a little while until marketers started learning how…

“I sit down at the computer and think of things to post on social media.” This is the problem. It’s the challenge that faces many companies as they try to explore new ideas to post about on social media. They have “social media time” set aside, and while this is good to schedule and maintain, it also allows people to miss some of the best opportunities available in social media. It’s what happens in the day to day affairs of a business, the things that come to us when we least expect it, that really makes for strong social media posts. Businesses all too often try to come up with their social media posts while…

Purists will say that using apps and dashboards like Hootsuite or Buffer take away the fundamental interpersonal relationships that are built through social media. By scheduling posts or sending them through these tools, users won’t be able to see the person behind the message, they say. Marketers find other reasons to avoid dashboards, particularly with Facebook. The posts often do not carry as much weight as ones posted directly through Facebook, making it convenient but less effective to use tools. Both purists and marketers may be correct, but there’s one major advantage that dashboards…

It’s every marketing company’s dream to create a viral video for their clients. In the world of online and social media marketing, there’s really nothing more difficult than to expose a brand to millions of people who really aren’t wanting to see a marketing message. Samsung and the agency they hired to promote their solid state drives, The Viral Factory, committed an atrocious and taboo act by making a “viral” video centered around Laina Walker, a.k.a. Overly Attached Girlfriend. Attempting to piggy-back off of a meme like this is bad form. First, it’s only known by the small (but growing) portion…

The art of saying as much (or as little) as possible on Twitter with the 140-character restraint is challenging to master. Some of us still prefer to use proper English and regular spelling of words (archaic, I know) when texting or posting to social media, so getting the full message across appropriately is difficult. One technique that works well is to punctuate with a hashtag at the end of your Tweet. Think of it like the opening scene to every CSI:Miami episode. The main character, Horatio Caine, walks onto a crime scene and is giving a quick debrief. He then gets his trademark stoic, contemplative…

In hindsight, it’s easy to see that it was only a matter of time. Facebook has been such an amazing marketing tool for businesses for a couple of years now, allowing effort and proper strategy to circumvent spending money on the platform. If a business worked hard and applied the proper techniques, they could perpetuate a formidable marketing strategy that helped with branding, drove traffic, and sparked engagement. Facebook fixed that last month. Page administrators started noticing their statistics fading. In some reports, the drops were dramatic, chopped down to a third or less exposure…

One of the promises of social media in the early days was that it would help businesses generate new customers by exposing their brands and products to people who otherwise might never see them. It was a great reinforcement tool; much in the same way that television ads work through passive acceptance and absorption of messages, so too does social media allow for exposure while people are in their “happy place”. The biggest roadblock to seeing this promise become real is that the options available to businesses to allow them to market properly are so abundant that it can become extremely confusing….

Facebook has been testing various revenue streams since 2008 but they have accelerated the frequency of the tests since going public earlier this year. Now, the “personal” part of Facebook, profiles of individuals, are being propelled onto the list of potential dollars for the social networking giant. Users can now “Promote” their individual profile posts. This is a feature that has been available for a while on Facebook pages but posts on Facebook profiles, the ones held by individuals, have not had this option. Now, they do. Promoting a post moves it up higher into friends’ news feeds and places…

Every business on Facebook is trying to make money. With the growing number of Facebook profiles and the increasing popularity of social media marketing companies to carry the weight of company advertising, a startup company might have just proven that Facebook Shops can work. Zindigo is a startup company that encourages Facebook users to sell company merchandise to receive a 40% commission; 40% commission!!  According to the report on Mashable, consumers open their own shops as business pages on Facebook stocking their shops with merchandise from more than 80 apparel and accessories…