have a different view of the ideal role of social media in the marketing mix that might be helpful to you, whether you are just starting out, or whether you have an established program. Most likely it is a very complex stew of ALL these things that build up over time, and this is precisely where social media fits into the equation. We build our emotional attachments with companies and brands like the way we build our friendships — through lots of small, consistent interactions that lead to deeper forms of engagement. First, I am going to give you ONE view. MORE >>

The way customers buy today is very different from how they made purchase decisions 15 years ago, of course. The most important difference is that today customers do most of their buying research on their own, with many sources of information, often in real time. 10 Steps to a Building a Successful Content Marketing Strategy. Writing educational, helpful content can be useful in building trust. To help customers, you can’t write about your products. They don’t care about your products or your features. By Gerardo Dada. Become an Expert. MORE >>

com Personal Development for Smart People TM. Polyphasic Sleep » What Is Productivity? In this post we’re going to take a deep look into the concept of productivity. Here’s my personal definition of productivity: Productivity = Value / Time. productivity equals value divided by time). By this definition there are two primary ways of increasing productivity: 1) Increase the value created. Time also makes it very easy to compare different levels of productivity, such as output per hour or per day. Be productive. MORE >>

One recent morning I saw a post in one of my LinkedIN groups asking "what is the difference between a social media manager and an online community manager?" For larger organizations new to these rapidly evolving specialties, they strive to find and describe the commonalities rather than highlight the differences in the two roles. She is focussed on the flow of information and knowledge, strengthening relationships and promoting productive collaboration, which may include moderation and hosting of both micro- and macro-events on the company’s community platform. MORE >>

However, I contend the strong ties that develop in blog communities absolutely lead to influence. Awhile back Mitch Joel and I had wildly different views of whether you should be an elitist with your Twitter followers. But since they have been so nice to help mark this milestone, I’d like to tell you a little about them: Vistaprint empowers more than 9 million small businesses and consumers annually with affordable, professional printed and web-based products that make an impression. This week I received the 10,000th comment on my blog. That’s a big deal! MORE >>