By  Srinivas  Rao, Contributing {grow} Columnist. We live in a world where people are in a real hurry.  Getting things done as efficiently and quickly as possible has become a calling card for humanity and it’s bleeding into our social interactions. This isn’t necessarily a good thing.  We’ve reduced our communication to the shortest possible route from point A to B.  It isn’t exactly a smart intimacy strategy for social media.  The technology that has enabled us to connect with people in a way we never could before has made us lazy communicators, maybe even lazy marketers. But consider this. MORE >>

If you use images or photos on any of your sites, you’re already on Pinterest , whether you’ve registered on Pinterest or not. So, what’re you going to do about it? If you’re not on Pinterest, you’re already losing control of your visual brand as we speak by virtue of not participating. Pinterest is going to push you to better brand your content and IP in such a way that people know where that content is from without imposing grotesque watermarks, oversize copyright notices, or garish splashes of brand that takes away attention from the message in the image. MORE >>

According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs 2012 report on B2B Content Marketing , 90% of organizations are marketing with content! I’d love to know what the “other 10%” are doing?). But does anyone have a handle on the costs? What are the costs of producing content that never gets used? What are the costs of publishing bad content in the form of lost revenue? looked for answers in 2 separate reports. The one mentioned above and the IDG Connect IT Buyer Survey from last year. CMI and @ MarketingProfs Report. social media excluding blogs (74%). blogs (65%). Conclusions. MORE >>

Earlier this year, we began putting together a strategic recommendation for our clients on Google+ Pages for Business.  This new solution blends elements of popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter with social sharing sites like Flickr and YouTube, integrating search engine optimization and marketing into the Google network of sites. While they were new and trendy, Google+ Pages had several flaws. Most of the immediate flaws have since been addressed, including the ability to add multiple page managers and verification with site and organization. minutes in November 2011 and 4.8 MORE >>

Infographics, short for information graphics are hot right now. It seems everyone is creating one these days. Infographics have been around for a while and are used to communicate complex concepts visually and easily. If done right, they can be very effective in content marketing for manufacturers and industrial companies. In the early stages of lead generation, you are primarily dealing with “suspects” – people who you have not yet qualified as prospects or leads. Infographics fit the bill the perfectly for this purpose. Infographics. Videos that are non-product oriented. Infotaining” stuff. MORE >>