As I’ve noted in the past, it’s the marriage of promotion, product, place and price that resonates most fully for your customer. (Photo credit: Christopher S. Penn). few days ago, our fearless leader noted “nobody needs both Pinterest and LinkedIn.” ” And, generally, Mike’s absolutely right. Too many guys in black turtlenecks and very cool eyeglasses try to fit their standard portfolio of tricks and tips to your business, without really considering how to various social channels fit your brand’s needs. Actually, you might. For others, LinkedIn. MORE >>

mean, I see it all the time: folks who respond to any query with a fee sheet, be it their price for a “sponsored” post or even for just a keyword link. can understand offering me a price list for advertising space in the form of a banner or sponsorship credit, but these bloggers, who I will not name, are impenetrable when it comes to working on building a relationship, on becoming a preferred news channel, or even taking the audition towards becoming an official permanent member of one or more communications programs. may well be mistaken. ” (Wikipedia). Right? MORE >>

They stopped selling their huge pop bottle at ridiculously low prices competing with Coke ® , brought their prices way up and seriously raised year-to-year earnings while seriously lowering sales volumes. Photo credit: Wikipedia. The Internet offers so many opportunities to mathematically create world-views that can help us make marketing decisions on expected sales and where they’d be coming from. I’ve often told clients using my SEO services that the number of keywords they’d use in their websites would influence sales volume. long-trail keywords, and such. criteria. MORE >>

Some companies will identify their top accounts—based on margin or on topline revenue—and provide them with special perks, pricing and service levels, such as: Corporate-wide purchasing agreements, where all buying across a far-flung enterprise can benefit from pre-negotiated contract pricing. Photo credit: Wikipedia. Business marketers have much to gain from retention marketing.  Business customers tend to be fewer and more valuable—meaning you can’t afford to lose even one.  But how do you keep your customers active and buying from you, versus the competition?  MORE >>

And suppose I could sell acces to my full social graph for a price to advertisers? Image via CrunchBase. am a retired IBM Distinguished Engineer. My wife says that makes me an Extinguished Engineer.) So, you might guess that I am fairly comfortable with the technical side of social media, but there’s one thing I don’t like, which is that technical people like to make up new fancy words to describe what they make, even if no one knows what they mean. ” We make it really complicated to get that simple answer. My latest favorite term is the social graph. People. MORE >>