I recently mentioned that I attended the Gravity Summit one-day seminar on social media marketing. Here are slide presentations from representatives of three large brands on how they have used social media marketing: Yahoo. Sprint. Rodney Rumford , co-producer of the event.

No matter how much you use marketing analytics, you could probably be doing more. And SAS, the statistics and analytics company, divides the market into eight levels of analytics. Take a look at the list to see where you are. Then, look down the list to see how to expand and improve your use of marketing analytics.

Southern California is a hotbed of technology companies that are leaders in their sector. This includes MySpace, CitySearch, Ticketmaster, eHarmony, and thousands of lesser known technology companies. It's been difficult to keep up on all aspects of the technology sector in Southern California.

Available June 1, 2009.  Going off topic today. My husband and I are renting our 2 bedrooom, 1 bath house in Alameda for $1200 a month. This is a short term rental or month-to-month. Quiet neighborhood that is close to San Francisco, freeway and  public transportation. Private patio and side yard (see photos below).

The previous post on this topic advised search engine marketers to bid on their own company name and branded terms, keep keyword lists clean and cross-pollinate SEO and SEM efforts. Here are three more tips for optimizing results from SEM programs such as Google AdWords. Keep your content network clean. Be sure to save your work.

When You Deliver Great Content and Control a Critical Buyer Database You Drive Sales. Although they are in the advertising business, small publishing companies have never done much advertising for their magazines. The reasons were simple, but not necessarily obvious: They didn’t have to—and it wouldn’t work if they tried it. It couldn’t be simpler.

ClickInsights , the Connect the Docs blog, is providing a series of interviews that include one meaty tip from a variety of experts to help marketers meet the challenge of creating better engagement with their prospects. "  The slide deck below is a preview of what you'll find in the interview blog post. Differentiate Your Content.

The February 2009 issue of Wired magazine gives examples. Note: This is the third in a four-part series of guest posts on B2B branding strategy and website design from Rebekah E. Donaldson ("Red") and Cris Rominger of B2B Communications. Today, logos must work well at 2 pixels wide or stretching the full length of a trade show banner. world.

With B2B digital marketing, measuring KPIs has got to go beyond basic activity. Otherwise it's just clicks. Clicks won't get you anything unless they result in sales somewhere down the trail. But, today, that's just not good enough. And, now—yes—I'm going to state again that it's important to use marketing automation technology.

This isn’t a new problem – how to measure lead generation from online activity is as old as the web itself. Not everyone had a shopping cart on their website year ago either, so ways of correlating offline business with online activity had to be devised. And recently it has started to track Twitter-spurred sales at the register.

How should you measure the impact of social media? What are some of the best free tools for monitoring social buzz about your brand or company? How can you create effective online video content on a budget? Of the hundreds of Facebook applications available, which ones are best for business? Web 2.0 Social Tagging

One of the top two objectives for marketers this year is to improve their ability to retain customers. We often get so caught up in generating new demand that we forget that we've got customers who can continue to benefit from the relationship they have with us. And, let us not forget, loyalty swings both ways. I'm honored to be included.

Time 21;27. As more of the practice of PR becomes exposed to all of the public, and not just the segmented silos of the past, it is important for corporate PR and marketing practitioners to change their perspective as well. While developing this concept I came across the book 5 Steps to Expert by Paul Schempp.

Dan Roam in “The Back of the Napkin’ makes a convincing case for a simpler and better approach to communicating based on visual thinking. There’s a reason that school rooms and conference rooms have whiteboards. We all tend to learn better when we combine what we hear with what we see. There is a better way and it’s all about visual thinking.

The other day when speaking to a well respected SEO he commented on how Google lacked sophistication, noting that their algorithms could be enhanced and results for searchers improved. Even though this can be annoying, I commented that this was not very important to Google. So as long as their competitors are less than perfect, they can be too.

Build Your Brand and Your Business by Using Local Radio to Drive Prospects to Your Blog. The key to a powerful online presence is great content that targets your best buyers. Over time, as you increase the critical mass of relevant and compelling content, you will attract increasing levels of traffic. But that strategy takes time to succeed.

Time 10:57. This podcast is part of my conference circuit of “Soundbites From The Road.” It was a conversation I had with Shel Holtz about crisis communications while we attended the Society for New Communications Research New Comm Forum in April. crisis, or what seems like a crisis, can pop up at any time. Maruggi’s 5 rules in a PR crisis.

Note: This is the second in a four-part series of guest posts on B2B branding strategy and website design from Rebekah E. Donaldson ("Red") and Cris Rominger of B2B Communications. An intuitive, user-focused web site begins with an intuitive, user-focused brand. To arrive at such a brand, be systematic. There are exceptions, of course. And again.

In times like these, there's just no excuse for letting revenue opportunities idle in your pipeline. This is a huge reason why marketing needs visibility across the buying process—from start to finish. For some reason there's an irritating hard stop at the point when marketing hands leads off to sales. So what do you do? You introduce them.

Takeaways on a speech by C. Prahalad speaker at the World Innovation Forum. So we are beginning to see the impact of current economic crisis. The bad news is there is going to be significantly more regulation in the future but the good news is there is a tremendous access to global talent like we have never seen before. But you say “C.K.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called 5 steps for using LinkedIn as a lead generation tool and step number five was ‘create your own LinkedIn group and share relevant content.’. Well, last Thursday I launched the B2B Lead Gen Roundtable Group on LinkedIn. My first question to the group was if lead distribution should be fair or optimized?

When Their Own Commercial Shows How Hard It Is to Get Urgent Answers, You Know They Have a Problem. Imagine a scenario where catastrophe looms unless an immediate solution can be found. That’s the situation here where an aquarium worker accidentally creates a crack in the wall which quickly expands to disastrous proportions. Not this time.

It’s all about asking the right kinds of questions of your ideal target buyers. Most of us don’t trust our doctors because they have a lot of diplomas on the wall. Of course, we sure hope they graduated from medical school, did an internship, and completed a residency. All that is necessary not sufficient.

Note: This is the first in a four-part series of guest posts on B2B branding strategy and website design from Rebekah E. Donaldson ("Red") and Cris Rominger of B2B Communications. It’s a question we hear a lot. And for good reason. Either way, you’re still marketing to a human being – right? Yes and no. But here is a short version.

According to a recent survey done by Forrester Research with Marketing Profs, "94% of respondents consider corporate Web sites a key element in the marketing toolbox and 84% of buyers say Web sites matter in purchase decision making." " It's time for B2B companies to regard their corporate websites with a more flexible mindset.

Right now strategy is about projects going on in 2009 to stay relevant! But in 2009, 100% of your projects can’t simply be incremental Box 1’s, because the world is changing. Takeaways on a speech by Dr Vijay Govindarajan speaker at the World Innovation Forum. And strategy is really about Box 2 and Box 3. Sounds so simple.

The CMO Club recently polled its members about who has the most credibility with the CEO. Results show: 31% CFO. 24% Head of Sales. While I'm not surprised to see CFO or Head of Sales ahead of the CMO, I am disappointed in the low percentage equated to CMOs—by CMOs. Their reasoning includes: CEO interest in the reports provided.

How can you effectively explain SEO (and avoid unrealistic expectations) to prospective clients? For new websites, how can you incorporate SEO best practices into the design from the beginning? What tactics are most effective at driving increased search traffic? What emerging topics and techniques should SEO specialists investigate?

Click on the image to play the video. had an interesting conversation with Steve Gershik who writes Innovative Marketer the other day. We We discussed his recent post, “ An open letter to PR agencies… &# which highlighted some of his frustrations over a recent PR agency search. For For me, I come from the PR agency background. Be Honest.

A large thank you to my guests, Dr. Jeffery Segal of Medical Justice and Amy Tenderich of Diabetes Mine, for their appearance on Social Media Throwdown – Should Patients Blog About Their Doctors. To listen to the program click the play arrow on the player above. also thank all those that tweeted comments from the hashtag #hcmktg.

B2B companies need a systematic approach to lead generation, yet, I’m constantly surprised to find that most do not have one. Michael Webb, President of Sales Performance Consultants , and I met a few years back when I began writing my book and he was working on his. Creating information offers to generate leads.

Addressing risk has always been a factor in the B2B complex sale. But research shows that risk must be better addressed by marketers and sellers because it's a primary motivator in many B2B purchase decisions. So how do adjust your lead generation tactics, your marketing messaging and sales presentations to address risk? 

I will explore this issue with Dr. Jeff Segal of Medical Justice, the organization that attempts to put context around the patient discussion of their visits with physicians, even if that means limiting patient’s ability to blog about their physician. We will be joined by Amy Tenderich of Diabetes Mine.

A case study on how GlaxoSmithKline is building an emotional strategy in its business GSK was represented by Donna J Sturgess at the World Innovation Forum Now more than ever before emotion is saturating buying decisions and marketing needs to tap into this and use new ways to research and connect with customers.

I just watched a great video by Gary Vaynerchuk about Telling Your Story - the guy is off the wall, truly inspired. Go watch it - I'll wait. Oh, good. You're back. Did you feel your enthusiasm start to bubble up while you listened to Gary talk? Was your head nodding about the rigidity of company messaging? And that's exactly what it is.

I sat in last week on an excellent webcast presented by Chris Abraham of social PR firm Abraham Harrison and Anamitra Banerji , product manager at Twitter, on using Twitter for business. If you've got an hour, check out the slides and presentation video ; if you only have a few minutes, the highlights from the presentation are below. eastern.

Notes from a speech by Paul Saffo, Professor from Stamford University, the opening speaker at the World Innovation Forum. But we are really lousy at understanding the net effect of the S curve running through our lives. Otherwise we would be standing right at the inflection point of the S curve and monitizing it, even in Silicon Valley.

Congratulations to ViralBlog , named Best Marketing & Advertising Blog in the 2009 Chapeau Blog Awards. ViralBlog is written by a "collaborative team of viral bloggers (who) haunt the globe for great viral and social media cases every day.(the) This means of course that WebMarketCentral.took second place.

The ways marketers can interact with customers, connect with prospects and build awareness are growing every day. But, I'm concerned that the new stuff is pushing out the "old" stuff at a rate that's causing prospects to get whiplash. In B2B marketing, lead nurturing takes time. How do I know this? They quit too soon.

Your customers really need your help. Now is the time to deliver content and solutions that provide that help. Smart, sales focused companies have long known the importance of uncovering the thorniest problems that their customers face. So that they can deliver meaningful solutions to those problems. That’s a pretty good place to be.

Just Like Toyota’s Famous 5 Whys, Here’s a Way to Drill Down to Pay Dirt. It’s not enough just to ask questions. We need to ask questions that will get us to the root of a problem or that will deliver an in-depth understanding of the soul of our product. It boils down to asking the same question, "And then what?," Why, daddy, why?

If you don’t get good answers, keep looking. If you are a big corporation, you may have plenty of in-house talent or can afford to spend a lot of money to outsource the rebuilding of your website. Even so, you may not get what you need: A website chock-full of relevant and compelling content. Your customers crave great content.

Phillywordsmith, Emily Sheetz, puts Google Docs to work with a simple, but engaging online slide show for her small business. There’s plenty that I love about the web. Discovering new people from whom I can learn is one of the most rewarding. The Question to Ask, Ask, and Ask Again to Get to Your Product’s Soul.

There were more than 100,000 visits (70,000 unique visitors) to PitchEngine in February 2009. Jump Start Your Online Public Relations for Free. They call it public relations for a reason. Thanks to the infinite reach of the Internet, you have the capability to extend that influence dramatically. What brands are benefiting from PitchEngine?

They estimate current monthly blog readers at almost 100 million in 2009 with an expected growth of almost 30% by 2013. Of course you need a website. But, you need a lot more to succeed. Your website is a primary location for product and service information for which your customers are searching. But for how long?

In the spring of 2009 that is no longer true. In fact, if you compare the number of editorial pages in the typical Penton publication from 1999 to 2009, you would see a dramatic reduction that paralleled a dramatic reduction in the size of editorial staffs. Their ever shrinking content reduces them from ‘must read’ to ‘why bother?’.

What are some of the best tools for implementing PR 2.0? How do PR, SEO and social media work together to build name recognition and credibility for a company? What are the best (and worst) practices in interactive PR? Thankful For PR 2.0 by THINKing Harry Hoover calls out some of his favorite PR 2.0 blogging and SEO). tags: PR 2.0

Time 5:17. The next three posts are conversations I had while attending the NewComm Forum of the Society for New Communications Research and the In-Bound Marketing Summit last week in San Francisco. In this podcast we chat about the value of ROI and the value of not being handcuffed by the most common three letters in business.

As e-marketing has made inroads with B2B marketers a lot has been said about the idea of online conversation. But, what does that mean from a marketing content perspective? When you transfer that idea online, how often do you "feel" any similarity to those above examples? How often do you make a connection with the content you see?

Given the enormous interest in using social media for business purposes, I've been astounded to hear comments like these at recent conferences: "That's all really interesting, but I can't access any of the websites you just talked about. My company blocks all access to social media sites." It is not part of the job. Social Tagging

I'm thrilled to welcome Maria Pergolino as another author of the Modern B2B Marketing blog.  I first met Maria when her company selected Marketo Lead Management for their marketing automation system, and was immediately impressed with her demand generation expertise. Please join me in welcoming her to the Marketo team!

Last week, I was interviewed by a technology services marketing team looking to improve their Demand Generation activities. They had a very cohesive but small team and they wanted to ramp up activities to drive brand awareness and lead generation. But as you might expect they had limited funds and bandwidth (don't we all). And finally.

If you enjoy the coverage on this blog of social media marketing , SEO , online tools and web marketing —as well as occasional off-topic ramble , vacation or home project photos —please cast your vote for WebMarketCentral in the Chapeau Blog Awards today! Or tomorrow. But that's it. Voting closes on Thursday.) Hope for change, and all that.

What are some of the most effective ways to attract more readers to your blog? Acknowledge other bloggers you admire? Find ideas for helpful blog posts? Assure you're utilizing blogging best practices? Learn all of that in more in some of the best posts from the last year on blogging for business. Do You Show Appreciation to Your Favorite Bloggers?

If you have a great B2B story to tell, think about sharing it with other B2B marketers at MarketingSherpa’s 6th Annual B2B Demand Generation Summit 2009. Experienced B2B marketers who want to present will need to submit speech proposals by May 21, 2009. Click here to learn more.

Time 23:45. Golf is like social media, when you play with good players your game gets better. In reading and conversing with colleagues like David Meerman Scott, (World Wide Rave) Geoff Livingston , (Now is Gone) and Brian Solis (Putting the Public Back in Public Relations) you are bound to come up with a few good ideas. See you at NewComm Forum.

 . Southwest Rapper. Click on image to play video.  . When I fly, I typically fly either Southwest or Jet Blue. But I’ve noticed the difference with southwest that goes to the heart of the branding and positioning of the airline.  . This is evidenced by the employees but most evidently via the safety talk mandatory on each flight.  .

The challenge today is not in generating leads, but truly connecting with them. That's why lead nurturing matters. This is why I found this post by my friend Ardath Albee titled, " Strategy Beyond the Send " helpful. One step leads to another.and another." " I agree. Define that problem from your customer's perspective.

The emergence of social media has dramatically changed the role of public relations. While traditional journalists still have significant authority, influence is now more diffused among writers, analysts, bloggers, customers, and other internal and external subject matter experts. and private conversations, which could be informal. Social Tagging

Trish Bertuzzi and The Bridge Group have been doing some great research on what makes inside sales tick. But they've taken it a step farther and produced a really useful tool for comparing your company's metrics against benchmark metrics. Ardath: Can you tell us the basis for the Periodic Table of Inside Sales ?   Need I say more?

I am sorry I haven't updated my blog in a while - with my new job and writing the book on weekends - spare time has been even more at a premium! But this weekend while writing a chapter of Facebook Marketing for Dummies I was very impressed by the Marketplace on Facebook. increase in a day).

I was asked recently, via Twitter, what type of content I recommend my clients use. My reply was that it depended upon what the client's buyers needed and wanted. Even more important, in my opinion, is to get the focus right. However, different strokes for different folks is a good rule of thumb. 34% go online after work hours. 58% read blogs.

In fact, empowering sales support effectively was the subject of one of my vision posts for 2009. During a time when cost cutting is imperative, not knowing about the extent of these costs or the cause/effect relationship they have to achieving top-line sales outcomes can wreak havoc on your company's ability to grow strategically.

Via [link]. 16:14 The challenge today is not in generating leads, but more in truly connecting with them. That's why lead nurturing matters. #. Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

This is the TEST shipment you asked for. 22:29 I couldn't find a tweet to post for loudtwitter # 22:29 So I posted this. Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Albert Maruggi. President Provident Partners. Senior Fellow Society for New Communications Research. www.providentpartners.net. amaruggi@providentpartners.net. Office 651-695-0174. Cell 612-325-8126. Twitter.com/AlbertMaruggi. Sent from iPhone. Mobile post sent by AlbertMaruggi using Utterli. Replies.

In most areas of life, experience with a particular field of endeavor is considered a vital component of expertise. If you needed surgery, for example, you'd probably prefer to have it done by someone who had performed many surgeries before than by an individual who'd merely read quite a bit about medicine. Social Tagging

Strategy for B2B lead nurturing is often treated as more of an after thought—if it's thought of at all. I'm not sure exactly why, as the whole point of lead nurturing is to extend the initial attention you've caught across the buying process until the prospect is in a sales-ready state. That's leaving a lot to chance. But, are they?

What are the best tools for analyzing your website text? How can you view your website the way search engines see it? Which URL shorteners work best? How can you use free Google tools to benchmark your search marketing performance against your competition? I've found its page analysis tools (for keyword density, headings, meta tags etc.)

My good friend, Jill Konrath , is expending a lot of effort this year to encourage salespeople to pound this recession into the ground with new ideas and strategies that will help them fill their pipeline with active, better qualified leads. In fact, with the timing, you can sit at your desk eating lunch while you listen. You have to eat, right?

That's the skinny from The State of Small Business Report from Network Solutions and the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. bet you didn't know that there are over 27 million small businesses (less than 100 employees) in the USA. SMBs have the potential to heavily impact how business gets done. Want proof?

Editor's Note: An edited and condensed version of this post appeared on SEOmoz in January. Here's the original, uncut article. If your company is thinking about hiring an outside firm for search engine optimization (SEO), please read this post. Search optimizing your website has become an essential part of doing business.

In a world of changing business practices and uncertain futures, Me 2.0 offers practical and proven advice about personal branding from an authority on the matter. Some highlights from the book include: A proven 4-step process for building a powerful brand (discover, create, communicate, maintain). Find Dan's book Me 2.0 on Amazon.com.

Time 15:21. Social media is at a defining moment, a point where there are ample technologies to effectively participate in the medium, but also significant issues being debated within organizations about using the medium. will join Scott Monty of Ford Motor Company , John C. Steps to Expert Contest.

A Tweet flashed across the timeline – 16,000 followers in 90 days. At times like this it pays to be a native of New York City, a former journalist, and political hack for a decade, my BS meter is extremely sensitive. However, my curiosity radar draws me in to see what’s up with that! So I watch the Twitter Traffic Machine video.

First, let me tell you, reading this book made me tired and glad that I’m part of Generation X. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with Dan Schawbel , author of Me 2.0 and personal branding guru, that personal branding is more important than ever to differentiate yourself from the crowd.  . Personal Branding – Not Just for Millennials.

When sales reps reject a marketing-qualified lead, or recycle a sales-accepted lead, the decision marketing makes about how to handle them is important. Research has shown that 80% of qualified leads end up buying within two years, so it's critical to keep nurturing, even if their buying horizon has shifted farther out. Yes, I know.

While Google AdWords certainly isn't the only option for search engine marketing, it's by far the biggest. Search marketers need to get AdWords right before expanding campaigns to Yahoo! Search Marketing , MSN AdCenter or Ask SponsoredListings. This is an automated keyword bidding tool that adjusts your keyword bids based on a CPA you specify.

Everybody uses Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but which niche social media sites are worth investigating? Why is online reputation management so important? How can you maximize your results through social bookmarking sites like Digg? How does social media relate to SEO? It drives you professionally, personally and algorithmically. Social Tagging

Click on the image to play the interview with Jeff Stai, Twisted Oak Winery. As I mentioned in my post about tips for your youtube video , I am experimenting more with the power of video. When possible, I will interview interesting individuals and their marketing (this includes social media and public relations) campaigns. Tweet this on Twitter.

Time 30:08. The world is full of good Samaritans who give of themselves for others. Let’s focus on two, Ed Bennett of the Maryland University Medical Center and David Ekrem, Manager, Web Development at the Mass General Hospital for Children. There are hundreds of ways to use these tools, enough to give anyone a headache. Facebook – St.

Click on the image to play the video. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been experimenting more with video. It’s visual and can communicate a lot in a short span of time. want to share three tips that I’ve learned over the past few weeks for your [link] videos.  . The Quality Vs. Content Dilemma. Engaging Spokesperson. Conclusions.

Southern California is a hotbed of technology companies that are leaders in their sector. This includes MySpace, CitySearch, Ticketmaster, eHarmony, and thousands of lesser known technology companies. It's been difficult to keep up on all aspects of the technology sector in Southern California.

It's a very exciting day for me here at Avaya. We just launched a new product that is a true leap frog from where most enterprises are today and will make it easier for enterprises to integrate social technologies like Facebook into their overall communications and contact centers while saving them real dollars in the near term. OK so imagine this.

Yesterday, I sat on the couch and read David Meerman Scott's World Wide Rave while my husband watched O'Hair lose to Tiger on the golf course. Everyone will say Tiger won but, really, O'Hair lost. Okay, back on track. World Wide Rave is one of those books you just have to finish. Before we go any further, let's clear something up.

Is content really king for SEO? What SEO common mistakes do even experienced consultants sometimes make? Which resources are best for accelerating your SEO learning curve? Why do site rankings sometimes drop precipitously for no apparent reason? How can you get a site indexed by Google News? Google isn’t going to smack the legitimate, solid sites."

This is a tough position. An innocent product, Smarties candies, gets used by some in a non-innocent way. Kids are crunching up the little sugary disks, sucking them in their mouths which turns into smoke Yeah a little confectionery Puff the Magic Dragon action going on for fifth graders. So what should the company that produces Smarties do?

No matter how much you use marketing analytics, you could probably be doing more. And SAS, the statistics and analytics company, divides the market into eight levels of analytics. Take a look at the list to see where you are. Then, look down the list to see how to expand and improve your use of marketing analytics.

This is an absolutely hilarious video about how bad emails that fail to engage might sound if they could talk. As you listen from the customer perspective, think about how you're reacting. Is what you're saying to your prospects coming off like this? So, while you're laughing, don't miss the point. Thanks to EMReports!

The purpose of interactive marketing is to stimulate interactions and engagement with prospects and customers that builds or extends an active relationship. But many marketing campaigns employ one-way destinations. For example: A link from an email to an article that leaves the prospect with no where else to go to learn more. Are you ready? "

MarketingSherpa's 2009 Social Media & PR Benchmark Guide (PDF) provides a wealth of useful statistics and guidance. In It Came from Facebook! Here's some research on how to do that. technologies." If you parse that, it matches up pretty closely to the 4 C's model of social media marketing.) Social Tagging Research and Reports

Would you ever have imagined that your relationship status determines whether or not you're likely to use a Facebook app? Me neither! And, the common belief is that the more wall activity a person has on Facebook, the more likely they are to send virtual gifts. Not true. For example, only 6% of the users were responsible for 56% of the activity.

There seems to be some confusion about the definition of a target market. Apparently, some people still think this definition should be based solely on who their company has decided to sell to. Definitions like these are still commonly heard: The group of people your company wants to reach. The people your company wants to buy your product.

I was listening to Paul Greenberg giving a webinar yesterday when he used a phrase that really resonated with me: Industrial Strength Intelligence CRM and marketing automation systems have given us intelligence. Things like a place to record demographic information, email communications and website behavior tied to lead scoring. agree completely.

It may seem a little odd to see an article about the best WordPress-related posts on a Blogger blog, but for various reasons the WordPress platform inspires a sort of geeky passion that Google's blogging platform just doesn't. Unfortunately, Lighter Menus (a slick tool Joost recommends for creating drop-down menus) doesn't work with WP 2.7. Bummer.

I was talking to a small business owner last night. They are in the middle of a very costly redesign of their B2C website and I couldn't help but ask if they had plans to set up on Facebook as well. Right now, I have Facebook on the brain. Something they call - Facebook Marketing Optimization.

If you think your prospects are simply overwhelmed with inbox clutter and that's why they're not reading your lead nurturing emails, you may be suffering from disillusion. Straight from the Marketing Sherpa Summit in Miami is this chart that shows the top reasons for defection from email marketing programs: Relevance and Frequency.

Time 25:45. With the last couple of blog posts about South by Southwest I’m getting anxious for conference season. You know it falls in line for the most part with the baseball season. thought I’d highlight a few events that I’m participating in and the major questions that may be answered by attending. What recession? Right.

Key points in the release included: 44 percent to reduce marketing spend for 2009. The goal is to position the company for when the economic upswing happens. 25 percent will report flat spending. Spending on advertising will decline by 17 percent and events down by 12 percent. Focus is moving from lead generation to lead maturation. del.icio.us

Several recent studies have put the challenge that social media presents to marketers into stark relief: social media is huge. It's growing at an astounding rate. And most marketers still haven't figured out how to capitalize on it. In social media, where viewers are often creating the content, that bargain doesn't hold up. Those in the U.K.