There have been numerous posts written about the pitfalls of social media marketing (including helpful pieces from Online Social Networking , Sysomos , and  one I wrote for HubSpot ). It takes business savvy and years of industry experience to do this well. It’s far easier to teach a subject matter expert in your company how to use social media tools than it is to try to magically impart product, company, industry and business knowledge to a social media intern. Kmart as the place for fashion, or Oracle as ideal for small business) to the market. MORE >>

The most compelling content needs to be created so brand advocates will share it on professional networks like LinkedIn, and within niche communities. Marketing software company Hubspot is a master at publishing content to drive awareness at the top of the funnel. They are looking for solutions to business problems. Does this show a prospect how their business need can be solved, and would they be willing to share this with other connections online? Communications Lead Generation Sales awareness consideration Content Marketing Hubspot purchase sales funnel MORE >>

And if you want more background, you should also check out my post from yesterday, " How the HubSpot CMO Screens for Top Marketing Talent ," where I go into more detail about the attributes you should be looking for in an inbound marketing manager, and how to screen potential candidates before the interview stage. As I mentioned in my post yesterday , during interviews I prefer asking “case-style” questions, which is a technique I first heard about in business school since all the consulting firms use this type of interview. All my best interview questions are here for the taking. MORE >>

According to a recent presentation from HubSpot , “selling is 10X easier once you have established trust.&# Other than having something of value to offer, trust is the most essential element for business success. It removes psychological barriers and objections to buying, and makes people want to do business with you because they are comfortable. Half-jokingly, I told her not to worry, I can build her business without her. Blogs and social networks are just tools. What matters most is your approach to business. It’s difficult to obtain. MORE >>

Many of the same principles apply to optimizing a blog for search as for optimizing a business website : use keywords in the body copy, post titles, subheadings, permalink URL, image alt tags and meta tags. Sharing your content on social networking sites like Twitter and (most importantly) Google+ as well as social bookmarking sites creates links to your blog. So while sharing your own content provides some SEO benefit, building and nurturing a network of authoritative people in your industry and producing content they want to share is even more valuable. Fresh content. MORE >>