Tweet 2012 is the year of the visual. We’re finally getting to the point where most businesses are—in someway or another—participating on social media sites. So how can you ensure that your business Facebook page or Twitter profile stands apart from the competition in the eyes of the consumer? It’s all about sharing high-quality, unique, and original content. And it’s all about visuals. Anyone can go to Google and find a photo to post on their Facebook page or Twitter account in an effort to spark interaction. So why aren’t you? Are you? MORE >>

In this age of real-time social and customer engagement I wanted to share two charts that dramatically demonstrate how important timing is to the success of your brand from both a macro and micro perspective. The first is a chart for Linked In Analytics that breaks out the growing and shrinking industries as defined by the volume of jobs added or lost. Of particular interest is the relative position of each industry. would encourage you to examine the list and consider what place your brand occupies as defined by the specific mix of skills, services and technologies you offer. MORE >>

Leaders (and our definition of a Puzzle Marketer) have the ability and the marketing know-how to put all of the pieces together and solve any objective. You have many choices of how you can spend your time during the day. You can keep yourself busy with email, you can jump into new projects, you can finish the existing ones, or you can actively pursue the infinite other activities until the day is over. One concept that a former mentor taught me relates to how to spend your time and most importantly how to build a great reputation. ” “What if I tried doing this a different way?” MORE >>

Simply become active in Facebook! Facebook has about 830 million users worldwide which means it reaches one fifth of the global population. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicted there will be 1.43 billion social network users in 2012, 63.2% of internet users will visit a social network at least once a month, rising to 67.6% in 2013 and 70.7% in 2014. The top ten largest countries are: 1. United States 155,886,800. India 45,018,540. Indonesia 43,521,320. Brazil 42,199,700. Mexico 33,599,040. Turkey 31,526,380. United Kingdom 30,484,380. Philippines 27,718,720. France 24,100,240. MORE >>

Pushing Social We see it happen all the time, social media crises break out, the brands are unprepared and the angry crowd takes control of their social media channel – and the brand. Some brands manage to recover quickly, while others continue to be blogged about and made examples of. But did you know that simply having an established blog can help protect you from all of that negativity taking over? Even without a crisis plan your blog can help you regain control of the situation and put an end to the crisis, while coming out of it with minimum repercussions. 4- FAQ your way to amnesty. MORE >>