Interest in social media marketing is surging, with several recent studies showing that a majority of companies, of all sizes, are now using social media in some form for business purposes. I've also seen dramatically increased interest in hiring social media consultants. But if most companies are already using social media in their marketing/PR mix, why is a consultant necessary? After all, isn't social media primarily about conversations? And aren't those conversations best engaged in by internal subject matter experts? And aren't the tools pretty easy to use? Social Tagging MORE >>

My last post listed several of the best news articles from 2007 on how to effectively use social networking sites for marketing. Here are some of the best blog posts on social networking and social media marketing strategies and tactics. Reasons Why Niche Social Media Outlets are Better Than Digg by AjaxNinja After noting that "Digg has an immense amount of traffic and getting landed on the front page will send a tsunami of new readers to your blog or website, but getting onto the front page is incredibly difficult. MORE >>

One of the most popular posts ever on this blog was The Social Media Email Signature , in which I noted that "In the old days, email signatures pretty much just mirrored business card information (which is still the case for most people).A growing number of Web 2.0-savvy executives, however, are breaking out of the old mold and creatively integrating social networking into their email sign-off." It clearly struck a cord, and traffic-wise, it didn't hurt that Guy Kawasaki tweeted the post. It helped. In fact. In Outlook, it's a bit more work but not terribly difficult. Open Microsoft Outlook. MORE >>

Though social media is all the rage, email marketing also remains strong, with 85% of companies planning to increase spending in this area in the second half of 2009 according to a recent study. Email in many cases is taking budget dollars away from other channels because it remains reasonably effective, highly measurable and relatively inexpensive. Combining social media with email marketing holds tremendous potential, as the tools are complementary. Email is permission-based interruption marketing; social media is participatory. Email is outbound, social media is inbound. MORE >>

The importance of search engine optimization—helping websites stand out in an increasingly cluttered online world amid rapid growth in global search volume —combined with the fact that search is one of the few growing areas in an otherwise brutal economy has led to an influx of new providers in the space. Nothing wrong with that, competition is good! Particularly for buyers.) Here are seven characteristics to help avoid hiring one of those types for your next SEO project. Irrelevant experience. Most of the good ones came out of either marketing or IT. Number of Twitter followers. Bottom line? MORE >>