While recent studies show that about half of marketers say that social media reduces their overall marketing costs , it is by no means without a price. The primary budget effect of social media marketing is to shift costs from media buying to labor. The tools of social media are (mostly) free, but the time, effort and expertise required to make social media marketing effective has real costs. Thoughtful companies keep their SEO efforts local (to avoid link-spamming , for example) and after evaluating all of the costs, many are even moving call centers back onshore. MORE >>

Looking at this strictly as business, we are providing our services for below market value in most cases based on the dollar cost of the service/product being given. This reminds me of that old saying, “Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free?” As the founder of the Social Media Club Hawaii chapter and a very active social media consultant here in Hawaii, I am often invited to attend events and receive services for free in exchange for social media buzz – aka tweeting, facebooking, photographing, and videoing about my experiences. MORE >>

Your mobile app or site connects the customer with the product, but its success can be greatly affected by several non-mobile factors—especially during the holidays (or other high-traffic buying seasons). During the last-minute holiday rush, shoppers who are reassured their precious presents will arrive in time are more likely to buy—regardless of pricing wars. So when it comes to holiday shopping, product reviews can have one of the biggest impacts on customer buying decisions. Posted in Customer Experience eCommerce Mobile. The thick of the 2012 holiday season is here. MORE >>

They buy what they want, when they want and how they want – and they increasingly use retailers’ physical shops (that cost money to maintain) as product showrooms. Best Buy’s mobile code strategy. consumer electronics chain Best Buy is an excellent example. Already extremely successful with text-to-buy campaigns, the retailer is moving full-force into mobile codes. Connect the dots, and best Buy is a textbook example of how retailers can use mobile codes to achieve their business objectives. Not this year. Peggy adds: Talk about timing! MORE >>

yet job seek­ers at a very low cost. Colin Alsheimer Digital & New Media Strategist About Lifestream Contact How to Pitch Me Guest Post Guidelines Disclosures RSS Feed Twitter Facebook LinkedIn is Dead By Colin – 01/28/2010 Posted in: Featured , Social Media , Tools Share Over the last year, unique vis­i­tors have mostly lev­eled off for social media giant LinkedIn. While some may attribute this to a gen­eral indus­try slump (Twit­ter has expe­ri­enced a sim­i­lar lev­el­ing off), I think it’s indica­tive of a broader prob­lem. Stumped? You should be. Yes, the Bump-??like MORE >>