'According to  Jonathan Alter’s new book,  The Center Holds , it was Barack Obama’s young geek volunteers who crushed Mitt Romney ‘s “ Mad Men ” campaign out of the 1960s in the 2012 election. And while much of their success had to do with their collective beautiful mind, it also had to do with something that Mr. Alter said as a matter of fact: they got “over the fear of being annoying.” As you may well know from my blog posts, I am fully on board with pushing a little hard. ” and any number of other attempts at getting our attention. MORE >>

'If you’re not confident in your writing skills, can you still be a great blogger? Let’s be honest. Good writing matters. But there are a few simple ideas any one can learn to dramatically improve the quality of their blog posts. Let’s take a look at a few tricks of the trade that are explored in detail in a new book I’ve co-authored with Stanford Smith called  Born to Blog : Read it out loud. “I feel like you’re talking to me.” ” That’s common feedback I receive about my books and blog posts. Cut, cut, cut. Write upside down. Get help. MORE >>

'by Lauren Harper | Tweet this Social media is still a new frontier for many marketers. With the emergence of what seems like an inordinate amount of social sites and tools, figuring out how to get started and ramp up your efforts with social media marketing can be confusing. So you’ve set up your Facebook page, Google+ page, and your Twitter profile…now what? Here are 6 quick tips to set your organization up for social success: 1) Unless you are speaking directly to someone on Twitter, be sure to put a character before someone’s Twitter handle when tweeting at or about him/her. MORE >>

'I have covered Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends charts for a couple of years, starting in 2010 when she talked about the commercial impact of the developing world getting on the internet. Mary claimed that Mobile accessibility was driving rapid changes in the way we advertise, sell and innovate. In 2011 , Mary updated her views on the above but also covered Content Marketing. She talked about how the value of undifferentiated content is approaching $0. She also showed that Google revenue alone is about to surpass all US Newspapers combined revenue. Chart 1. Chart 2. Chart 3. Chart 6. Chart 7. MORE >>

'The majority of marketing studies tend to focus on either the consumer or producer (business) side of the equation, essentially only telling half of the story. tend to prefer a more holistic approach. Such is the case with a newly released study by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and Lyris analyzing the differing perceptions among marketing executives and consumers regarding the effectiveness of various marketing channels. To better understand this, here are a few insights gleaned from the EIU/Lyris study. Customization over Personalization. The Power of Process. Not quite. Mind the Gap. MORE >>