haven’t reviewed these tools in detail just yet, but it appears that influence is a red-hot topic in PR and marketing circles right now. One of the most illuminating books I’ve read on this topic is Influencer Marketing by Duncan Brown and Nick Hayes. advertising influence mainstream media marketing PR Influencer Marketing Klout Radian6 Seth Godin Topaz PartnersMy post last week about the shortcomings of Klout got several thousand views and generated quite a bit of discussion. Sentiment analysis is devilishly difficult to get right, however. MORE >>

Weak products will disappear quickly from the market, and advertising won’t be able to save them. This is the time of year when a lot of people make predictions. ll resist that urge, though, and instead present a plea: Let’s make 2011 the year we stop talking about “social media.”. It’s not that social media is no longer important. On the contrary, today there’s almost no media today that isn’t social. The problem with much of the discussion is that it’s been focused on tools, and tools are far less interesting than what people do with them. Stunning. Barnum, BTW). MORE >>

Instead of “Spot Market Pricing, New Services Fuel Amazon GovCloud Growth,” try “What You Need to Know about Amazon’s Government Strategy”. I spend a lot of time in LinkedIn groups and have learned a bit about maximizing their potential as conversation-starters. Here are 15 of my favorite tips. Please add your own as comments. Ask Questions. The best way to provoke discussion on LinkedIn is to ask questions. Rather than sharing a link to an article, use it to kick off a discussion. Do you agree?”. link]. Make it Personal. Only people can post content. hope you’ll join me there.”. MORE >>

I spent some time with comic video whiz Tim Washer  (also @timwasher ) at B2B Forum last week, and he followed up with a few questions about how B2B companies are using online video as part of their content marketing programs. What companies have succeeded/failed at using videos for B2B marketing? That’s why “content marketing” is now so hot. Do you see any new trends developing around online videos and B2B marketing? . shared some opinions with him, but why not share them with everybody else as well? would add Cisco to that list. Keep it brief. MORE >>

In the weeks leading up to the Direct Marketing Association annual conference in Boston this week, exhibitors were out strutting their best stuff. And then I thought about what that says about the state of direct marketing today. Is it any surprise that forecasters expect direct-mail marketing to decline nearly 40% over the next two years? Like many people, I’m less interested in reading mass marketing material today than I’ve ever been. There are some marketing messages, though, that are so valuable to me that I actually look forward to their arrival. MORE >>