Even those marketers with exceptional social-network-savvy can struggle to keep up with the latest developments in leading social media. In summary, our recommendation to you is to do your research before jumping onto a new social media platform. Being aware of the platform's unique strengths and weaknesses, along with your audience's social media habits, will arm your business for social success. Acquisitions, new features and new platforms are a daily occurrence, and it can be easy to get lost in the sea of news updates in the social world. The drawback? MORE >>

Forgetting about social media. Social media and SEO are very intricately connected, although many people don’t realize to what extent. Social media has an enormous effect on your SEO because it helps drive targeted, relevant traffic to your website and whether you like it or not, it’s going to be around for a while. If your company isn’t currently incorporating social media into its online strategy it may be missing out on a large SEO opportunity. So--without further ado--here’s our list of the best ways not to do SEO. Using generic URLs. MORE >>

Econsultancy has released its 2010 Online Lead Generation Report which is produced in association with Clash-Media , a lead generation specialist. The report, which gives a, “detailed overview on how companies are using the internet to generate leads for their consumer-focused businesses.&#. It is a paid report, but the freely available summary is still full of some great statistics and facts on the state of lead generation today. The report is also full of useful graphs and charts and is definitely worth checking out. Do any of the findings we’ve mentioned here surprise you? MORE >>

Debbie Hemley, from Social Media Examiner , published a useful guide to the 26 elements of a good gamification marketing strategy, or 26 things marketers need to keep in mind when building a strategy. More and more companies today are latching onto the potential of gamification to drive engagement and awareness, and the number of companies delivering gamification-specific services has also increased. Although many marketers are familiar with the principles of gamification, some still struggle to incorporate these into their overall marketing strategies. Badges are Great Rewards. MORE >>

Huffington Post, Demand Media and sites like that are well known ones. D: I'd start by getting a solid content strategy and some sort of owned media platform if you don't already have one, whether it's a news section or a blog on your site. Many of you have heard of Google's recent. update to its search algorithm. The search algorithm change has caused. quite a stir in the SEO space, and many marketers (some of which are undoubtedly. daunted by the mere mention of the word 'algorithm') are still trying to figure out. what exactly the update means for their business. MORE >>