It’s a ubiquitous mantra of the social web to the point where sometimes I think it takes over as the ultimate goal. So how did we get hung up on the social media “conversation” as a goal of its own?  What What is the future of the social media “conversation?”  Buyers and sellers looked each other in the eye, met, and spoke directly to each other without the filter of media, the positioning of marketing, the arrogance of advertising, or the shading of public relations. So the idea that social media conversation is revolutionary is untrue.  The MORE >>

Last week, I talked about how blogger outreach is scary , and I talked about why this fear exists for most people before they start talking to bloggers. In the five years that we’ve been reaching out to bloggers, we’ve learned just as much about how NOT to pitch as we’ve learned about the right ways. It is very easy for even the least sophisticated of my fellow bloggers to sense sucking up or kissing up, especially if you haven’t done any homework or any research at all. Bloggers did not fall of a turnip truck.  Tweet This Post. MORE >>

In fact, the blogger and co-author of The Now Revolution is one of the smartest guys I know. Jay’s premise is that through channels like e-mail marketing and social media, we now compete with everybody.  Perhaps your competition isn’t McDonalds, Nike, and every other company trying to dominate the social web. Maybe social media helps make the traditional notion of competition obsolete. spend a lot of time helping people with their social media marketing efforts.  In fact, social media amplifies my competitive advantages. MORE >>

really believe it’s bad advice to recommend that companies fire their social media consultants, experts and agencies only to bring everything internal. While “everyone” is on Facebook , social media is no longer a land of tinkerers, it’s a land of consumers. For most companies, one would generally need to rehire everyone in a company to make certain they’re died-in-the-wool social media passion players with exceptional communications, empathy, and writing skills. Photo credit: edrabbit. ” Happens every time. MORE >>

Social media and inbound marketing techniques have been a boon for marketers. Not only do leads generated through social and content marketing cost half as much as traditional outbound-generated leads (see below), they also close at higher rate (again, see below). And social media isn’t just about lead generation of course. While prospective buyers are using search and social to research products and services before making purchase decisions, marketers and PR professionals can use those same tools to research buyer wants and needs. Social Media B2B ). MORE >>