If you’ve been following Fearless Competitor , you met such marketing luminaries as Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 , Paul Dunay of Buzz Marketing for Technology (picture at left), Jon Miller of Marketo , Trish Bertuzzi of the Bridge Group, Scott Mersy of Genius.com and Brian Kardon of Eloqua. “Who is your Social Media Lightening Rod? &# Hey, social media is content too. Find New Customers helps business develop and implement programs to improve the way they find and acquire new customers using best practices in lead generation. is a Chief Content Officer. MORE >>

This feeling of being part of an important moment was almost palpable during our recent Marketo Summit here in San Francisco (which was celebrating its own big moment with the 75 th Anniversary of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge). More than 1,400 people descended on our city to be a part of the Marketo Summit 2012.  Social Media Driving Brave New World. Of all the change agents that are driving that Brave New World of sales and marketing, none looms larger than social media. Be Social.” — a mandate for us all. Time to Seize the Moment — Be a Leader! MORE >>

Of course, we think Marketo is almost always the best solution—yes, we’re biased. Typically, a voting approach doesn’t create the best decision process. You’ll choose the vendor that best suits your needs if you follow these recommendations below: Select vendors to evaluate. Evaluate each vendor’s ability to make you successful through access to best practices, community, consulting, support, and training. Solicit others from your personal and social networks. Work with your vendor’s enablement and consulting teams for best practices. MORE >>

I recently received a question from a Marketo customer about best use of links in emails.  Example: Marketo. Example: Read the new Marketo Lead Nurturing White Paper. At Marketo, we are typically more successful if we do only one bonus content link in a paper, though you need to test to see what is appropriate for your company. . Analyze to ensure best results of future offers. In addition, Marketo customers or those using a sophisticated marketing automation tool should be sure to include links in their emails.  This may look like phishing. MORE >>

by Jason Miller Want to know the ROI of social media? With our latest Facebook campaign, we are doing just that; tying leads generated by Facebook directly into our revenue pipeline via Marketo. We developed a custom Facebook application that generates a special offer and is powered by a Marketo form. Once they make their selection a form pops up, a Marketo form in disguise, and upon clicking the Get My Decal (submit) button they are prompted to share to their social network. We can now measure the marketing ROI of our social efforts. So do we. MORE >>