Webbiquity SMM

MARCH 12, 2012

What is the distinction between “traditional” public relations (PR) and online / interactive / social PR? Is there really a difference anymore—or is the boundary blurring? One part of the confusion stems from the fact that in PR, as in many other crafts, the tools change and advance but the fundamental skills required remain the same. PR pros now use tools like Twitter, PitchEngine , PRWeb and Vocus in place of fax machines, media packets, wire services and Bacon’s , but the fu

Vocus 188

Vocus Press Release Tips Blogger 188

Webbiquity SMM

MAY 22, 2012

Back in the mid-1990s, the corporation I worked for hired one of those management-fad-of-the-month consultants to come inspire us to greater heights of success, who did his best motivational-speaker riff on the theme: “Sales is everyone’s job!” This was hogwash of course. Sales is Sales’ job. It’s also a big part of Marketing’s job, and occasionally part of the job of HR, various executives, and product technical experts.

Jive 186

Jive Yammer Training Social Networking 186

Webbiquity SMM

MARCH 8, 2012

I took several creating writing courses back in junior high and high school. For a while, as a teen, I even considered pursuing a career as a novelist—until I did some research and realized that the probability of becoming a best-selling fiction author is on par with the odds of winning the lottery. While being attacked by a shark. And struck by lightning.

Social Media 186

Social Media Course News Travel 186

Webbiquity SMM

MARCH 30, 2012

With more than 90% of companies now using social media to find employees and 82% having a Facebook page , there’s no question that business use of social media has become commonplace. But “use” and “success” are two different things. Many organizations, having now realized that the “build it and they will come” model doesn’t work in social media and that it isn’t just another channel for promoting news releases and marketing brochures, are st

Vocus 184

Vocus Alltop Message Boards Klout 184

Webbiquity SMM

JANUARY 30, 2012

WordPress is not only the most popular blogging platform , but is increasingly becoming a leading website content management system (CMS) as well. Cost and ease of use are certainly factors, but one of the important reasons is its extensibility through plugins. These add-ons make it easy to add an incredible variety of functionality to the platform, from contact forms and photo galleries to social sharing and ecommerce capabilities.

WordPress 184

WordPress Movable Type Review AJAX 184

Webbiquity SMM

JUNE 21, 2012

Twitter went down for about 80 minutes hours today (more or less, depending on where you are), reminding many people how psychologically dependent on it they’ve become. Here are the top 10 tweets (once service was restored, of course). 10. (factual) ? @ RT_com # Twitter goes down worldwide [link]. 9. (good point) @ rwang0 I have to remember # twitter is a free service. thanks for providing it. 8.

Twitter 182

Twitter Course Examples Products 182

Webbiquity SMM

MAY 3, 2012

Guest post by University Alliance. Mobile access to the web has surpassed browser usage. Consumers are growing fonder of their smartphones and tablets, using them to access content and make online purchases in staggering numbers. In fact, by 2015 more U.S. Internet users will access the web through smartphones than through PCs, according to technology site Mashable.com.

Mobile 180

Mobile iPhone iPad Training 180

Webbiquity SMM

JUNE 25, 2012

Sales leads generated through inbound marketing–the combination of content marketing, blogging, social media, website chat and SEM–cost 61% less than those produced through traditional demand generation techniques (e.g., online or print advertising, trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail) according to research from HubSpot. Photo credit: DIY Marketers.

Social Media 176

Social Media Content Vimeo Marketing 176

Webbiquity SMM

APRIL 11, 2012

Recent research from MarketingProfs shows that 84% of B2B companies use social media marketing in some form, and the figure is likely higher for B2C firms. But that’s a bit like saying that most Americans exercise regularly; it’s probably true, but there is a big difference between walking the dog around the block a couple of times per week and training for a triathlon.

Social Media 176

Social Media B2B Exercises Hubspot 176

Webbiquity SMM

JUNE 25, 2012

Sales leads generated through inbound marketing–the combination of content marketing, blogging, social media, website chat and SEM–cost 61% less than those produced through traditional demand generation techniques (e.g., online or print advertising, trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail) according to research from HubSpot. Photo credit: DIY Marketers.

Social Media 170

Social Media Vimeo Content Hubspot 170

Webbiquity SMM

OCTOBER 5, 2012

After 32 months (time flies when you’re having fun!) and 300 posts, here is a quick look back at the 10 most-read posts on the Webbiquity blog to date. This is an update of the looking back at 100 post in July 2010. Again, thank you for reading the MarketingSherpa Readers Choice top b2b marketing blog for 2012. Without further ado, below are the 10 most-viewed posts on this blog to date.

Vocus 155

Vocus B2B Social Media Statistics 155

Webbiquity SMM

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

Is Quora still a significant social media destination? When the service was first launched, I was (like many others) flooded with notifications of new followers and invitations to follow back, to the point of annoyance. But that flood began to subside in about April of last year and had slowed to a trickle by late summer. Blogger interest in the site seemed to follow a similar pattern.

SEO 146

SEO MySpace Hubspot Patterns 146

Webbiquity SMM

JUNE 11, 2012

Guest post by Christopher Wallace. Believing that your posts to Twitter or Facebook are more important than those of your friends may be a sign of egotistical delusion (or perhaps your friends just put up lousy, boring posts). Regardless, Facebook may soon give its users the opportunity to leapfrog their status updates to the top of the pile. The social media giant recently launched a pilot program in New Zealand that allows users to pay to ‘highlight’ a post, meaning that it will ap

Tumblr 142

Tumblr Facebook Apparel Feed 142

Webbiquity SMM

JANUARY 12, 2012

TradePub has just launched its first report in a series for 2012, the Social Media Wrap Up report. Each report will highlight a selection of the best social media posts from leading authors published the preceding month. The inaugural report includes posts from authors such as marketing agency veteran Drew McLellan ; Marc Meyer , digital and social media strategist at DRMG; and author, speaker and SVP of Social Strategies at Social 5150 Neal Schaffer.

Social Media 140

Social Media ROI Report How To 140

Webbiquity SMM

JULY 9, 2012

Recommendations and reviews are common in the consumer world, where customers routinely yelp, buzz and epine about everything from air conditioners to yard ornaments. Search for any local restaurant, retailer or other establishment and customer reviews are almost certain to be featured prominently in the results. Online shopping sites host reviews of products and sellers, and Angie’s List built an improbable business on ratings of household services companies.

B2B 101

B2B Case Study Telecommunications Banking 101

Webbiquity SMM

MAY 22, 2012

Back in the mid-1990s, the corporation I worked for hired one of those management-fad-of-the-month consultants to come inspire us to greater heights of success, who did his best motivational-speaker riff on the theme: “Sales is everyone’s job!” This was hogwash of course. Sales is Sales’ job. It’s also a big part of Marketing’s job, and occasionally part of the job of HR, various executives, and product technical experts.

Jive 101

Jive Yammer Social Networking Training 101

Webbiquity SMM

MAY 15, 2012

A year ago, Cheryl Burgess and I published the first #Nifty 50 award winners, starting with the #Nifty50 Women of Twitter on this blog in May 2011 and followed by the #Nifty50 Men of Twitter published on Cheryl’s Blue Focus Marketing blog in June. The posts were a huge hit on Twitter, with the #Nifty50 hashtag reaching nearly 70,000 people through more than 140,000 tweets and retweets, according to TweetReach.

Twitter 101

Twitter iPad B2B Apple 101

Webbiquity SMM

JULY 2, 2012

Marketers often seek out benchmarks by which to measure the effectiveness of various marketing programs as well as their performance vs. industry competitors. In some cases, this information can be quite useful and enlightening, for example, when looking at average email open rates by industry. In other situations, however—such as when looking at what percentage of total website traffic should be driven by organic search—the answer is a clear but not helpful “it depends.” Looking at

B2B 100

B2B SEO Social Bookmarking Sample 100

Webbiquity SMM

JUNE 21, 2012

Twitter went down for about 80 minutes hours today (more or less, depending on where you are), reminding many people how psychologically dependent on it they’ve become. Here are the top 10 tweets (once service was restored, of course). 10. (factual) ? @ RT_com # Twitter goes down worldwide [link]. 9. (good point) @ rwang0 I have to remember # twitter is a free service. thanks for providing it. 8.

Twitter 100

Twitter Course Examples Products 100

Webbiquity SMM

JUNE 11, 2012

Guest post by Christopher Wallace. Believing that your posts to Twitter or Facebook are more important than those of your friends may be a sign of egotistical delusion (or perhaps your friends just put up lousy, boring posts). Regardless, Facebook may soon give its users the opportunity to leapfrog their status updates to the top of the pile. The social media giant recently launched a pilot program in New Zealand that allows users to pay to ‘highlight’ a post, meaning that it will ap

Tumblr 100

Tumblr Facebook Apparel MySpace 100

Webbiquity SMM

OCTOBER 16, 2012

Though social media marketing is now used in about 90% of companies, techniques, platforms and best practices continue to evolve. Should you include Pinterest in your mix? Increase use of video marketing? Is blogging coming back or trailing off? What will likely be the hot trends in social media over the next couple of years? Marketers have questions, this post has answers: 87 vital social media and online marketing statistics covering everything from how executives and large companies are usin

Social Media 229

Social Media Hubspot B2B Marketing 229

Webbiquity SMM

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

A year ago, the #Nifty50 honored 50 remarkable men and women on Twitter. This year, colleague Cheryl Burgess and I changed things up a bit, opening the award to nominations but focusing specifically on outstanding men and women who work for technology companies and are active on social media. These women are executives, thought leaders, bloggers, authors and role models for younger women with an interest in technology.

Twitter 257

Twitter Bazaarvoice B2B Microsoft 257

Webbiquity SMM

MARCH 26, 2012

One of the most interesting aspects of web presence optimization (WPO) is how frequently bloggers and journalists write about the concept without actually using the term. They use terms like “search and social,” “inbound marketing,” “social media optimization,” “online reputation management,” “internet marketing” and others, with general agreement that the art and science of getting found on the web today require much more than just SEO

Tips 183

Tips Reputation SEO B2B 183

Webbiquity SMM

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

With The B2B Social Media Book: Become a Marketing Superstar by Generating Leads with Blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Email, and More , authors Kipp Bodnar of HubSpot and Jeffrey L. Cohen of Salesforce Radian6 have literally written the book on social media best practices for B2B marketers. Unlike the multitude of other social media marketing books, this one isn’t about how celebrities build a huge Twitter following or how big consumer brands use coupons and contests to attract mass

B2B 185

B2B Social Media Review eBook 185

Webbiquity SMM

JANUARY 9, 2012

In just a few short years, Twitter has transformed from an odd little sort of public IM service where people posted what they just ate for lunch or what their cat was doing at the moment into one of the big four social networks and a significant channel for news, PR & marketing, politics and more. It has enabled revolutions in real life as well as in digital marketing.

Tools 201

Tools Twitter Tips B2B 201

Webbiquity SMM

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

The old days when SEO meant writing key-stuffed copy and then begging for or buying as many links as possible, from any willing website, are long gone. That’s clearly good for searchers, as search engine results have become more relevant and useful. But it’s also good for marketers, as it forces a focus on understanding buyers and providing them with value rather than manipulative gaming of search algorithms.

Review 190

Review Press Release SEO Engineering 190

Webbiquity SMM

JANUARY 3, 2012

Social media, content aggregation and curation , user-generated content and other developments have dramatically changed the B2B buying cycle over the past few years. Marketers need to think like publishers not only to improve their company’s visibility in search (which is where 93% of B2B buying cycles now start ) but also to address the differing information needs of buying team members, at different stages during the decision process.

B2B 190

B2B Strategy Marketing Buy 190

Webbiquity SMM

JANUARY 16, 2012

Despite any recent recent rants you may have seen about how blogging is dead or blogs are passé , the fact of the matter is that business blogging is now more important than ever. With Google’s most recent Panda algorithm updates, attributes like content freshness and social signals (strengths of blogs, not corporate websites) will gain increased importance in search ranking.

Tools 193

Tools Tips Directory SEO 193

Webbiquity SMM

OCTOBER 29, 2012

Recent research makes clear that, for high-value consumer purchases as well as b2b procurement, being as “findable” as possible online is critical to winning the business. Of course that means it’s imperative to produce relevant, compelling, optimized content for your company’s website and blog, but online visibility goes beyond that.

Findability 197

Findability Directory Social Bookmarking B2B 197

Webbiquity SMM

JULY 18, 2012

Imagine that you walk into a restaurant and there’s no one there to take your order. You can’t even find anyone working in the place. Or you are waited on and place your order, but have to repeat it to three different people, because the servers won’t talk to each other. Or you’re told shortly after placing your order that you’ll need to choose a different item, because the menu has changed in the last five minutes.

Google 181

Google Facebook MySpace Privacy 181

Webbiquity SMM

AUGUST 22, 2012

One of the most valuable features of Google Analytics is the ability to drill into detail on traffic sources; not just how much traffic came from search or social media, but how much came from each specific search engine or social networking site. But for most b2b websites, one of the top three sources of traffic—and often the largest single source—is “direct” visits.

How To 169

How To Conference Analytics Social Bookmarking 169

Webbiquity SMM

JULY 31, 2012

I’ve spent several weekends this summer experiencing the excitement and trepidation of visiting colleges with my eldest offspring. The adventures have been eye-opening (college life has changed a lot since the 90s) and, sitting late last week in another university presentation, it occurred to me that there are lessons to be learned for social media marketers from the way colleges handle this process: (at least) nine of them.

B2B 188

B2B Marketing Diagrams ROI 188

Webbiquity SMM

MARCH 21, 2012

While B2C marketers focus on Facebook, LinkedIn is consistently cited as the top social network for B2B marketing. Part of the reasoning is that while Facebook is good for sharing coupons, promoting events, and showcasing corporate culture to potential employees, LinkedIn is powerful at generating web traffic and leads. LinkedIn now has more than 100 million 150 million members including executives from every one of the Fortune 500 companies; 80% of them influence their companies’ purchasi

LinkedIn 234

LinkedIn Tips B2B Social Networking 234

Webbiquity SMM

OCTOBER 23, 2012

Twitter isn’t just for the birds anymore. According to recent social media research , Twitter now has more than 165 million users, and is attracting nearly a million new users each day. Twitterers collectively post a billion tweets every three days. 62% of the Fortune 500 companies have at least one Twitter account, and the average Fortune 100 firm maintains 10 separate Twitter handles to support different product lines, divisions, functional areas and geographic regions.

Tools 203

Tools Tips Twitter Klout 203

Webbiquity SMM

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Despite a shaky IPO last spring, Facebook remains the 800-pound gorilla of social media marketing, as it now approaches the billion-user mark. Though often associated with bands and brands, Facebook is viewed as the most effective social media tool (by a fairly large margin) by both B2C and bB2B marketers. So what are the best tactics for marketing and advertising on Facebook?

Tools 177

Tools Facebook MySpace Hubspot 177

Webbiquity SMM

AUGUST 28, 2012

Given the widespread adoption of social media marketing practices, the “if” and “when” questions seemed to have now been resolved by most midsized and larger companies (and a lot of small companies as well). However, as the posts and articles highlighted below show, plenty of questions remain, such as how much should we budget for social media?

Social Media 207

Social Media Tips Tumblr Wikipedia 207

Webbiquity SMM

JULY 18, 2012

Imagine that you walk into a restaurant and there’s no one there to take your order. You can’t even find anyone working in the place. Or you are waited on and place your order, but have to repeat it to three different people, because the servers won’t talk to each other. Or you’re told shortly after placing your order that you’ll need to choose a different item, because the menu has changed in the last five minutes.

Google 103

Google Facebook Adwords Privacy 103