by Jesse Noyes | Tweet this Big happenings in the social media world today as a giant star collided with a smaller, but powerful, cousin. LinkedIn has decided to purchase SlideShare for $119 million in cash and stock. It’s not a deal I can say I saw coming, but it makes total sense. For those of you uninitiated with SlideShare, it’s a platform where you can upload and spread professional presentations. Or what I like to call, the backbone of buying and selling these days. If you’re scratching your head on just why LinkedIn would spend all that dough on SlideShare, let me offer five big reasons. MORE >>

Christopher Brodhead. Last month, President Obama signed the JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) into law.  If you’re unfamiliar with the fundamentals at hand, here’s a high-level overview of the fundraising ramifications:  It is now easier for startups and small businesses to raise money, as “non-accredited” investors (read: less wealthy) are now able to participate in venture funding. Furthermore, “crowdfunding” is now a reality, as companies can have 500 unaccredited investors, and 2,000 total investors, before being required to register with the SEC. Great news, right!?  Who uses it? MORE >>

The introductory post in this series addressed the problems and costs of applying the cost-per-lead metric to measure the success of B2B lead generation investments. In the second post, we looked at elements of a complex sale that impact B2B lead generation costs. Let’s now turn our attention to the characteristics the right marketing metrics should have and then use those characteristics to clearly identify the marketing KPIs needed to correctly measure lead value in B2B lead generation. Shifting to outcome-based accountability and revenue metrics. Not seeing the forest for the trees. MORE >>

Why should any marketer consider a search-driven marketing plan? Can’t we just take what we did last year, do 80% of that and add some new bits? You know, we’ll add in some social strategery and what not. Create some viral videos. Update our Facebook page…no? Unfortunately, many marketing plans are built with a few minor modifications to the previous year’s plans and some new buzz words added in. search-driven marketing plan is the only way to ensure that your marketing activities are aligned to your audience. “how much” and comparison terms like “vs.” MORE >>

A MarketingSherpa research found out that creating content is one of the most effective tactics for improving a website’s SEO. User-Generated Content encountered for Organic search up to 10%, and lead conversion up 125%. Companies who create content, operate a corporate blog and update it frequently have 55% more website visitors. 57% of companies which operate a corporate blog report to have acquired new customers through their blog. Corporate Blogging. Blogging gets companies 55% more Traffic and up to 97% more Inbound Links. Video Content Creation. User generated reviews on ecommerce sites. MORE >>