With so many marketers finding social media stumbling blocks standing in their way, how can they effectively find ways to “leapfrog” over them?  Research shows social media usage is steadily on the rise as companies look to promote brand awareness and nurture leads. In fact, with more than 5 billion mobile phones (70 percent of the world’s population) and 2 billion Internet users, the number of social media posts is staggering.  So how can marketers maximize social media campaigns and face the accompanying challenges head-on? MORE >>

Social media, inbound marketing, mobile marketing, and globalization all are becoming more prevalent in the B2B marketing mix. How Social Is B2B? How B2B Marketers Are Scoring Big with Social Media. Marketing in Social Media: What Works for European Marketers. How Social Is B2B? InsideView’s new infographic shows how effective social media marketing has become for B2B, taking a closer look at the benefits of using social media for B2B marketing. Source: How Social Is B2B? Return to the Top. MORE >>

the sources below provide a vast wealth of data, statistics and research results, as well as a bit of interesting social media trivia. How are consumers and b2b decision makers using social media in their buying processes? Which social media platforms are most effective at influencing buyer behavior? How do the audiences differ across various social networks? How do social media marketing strategies in small businesses differ from those in larger enterprises? Social Media Facts and Stats. by Social Media Today. MORE >>

Today, I plan to go through, “line-by-line,” a site we create to support all of our blogger outreach campaigns, that we call a Social Media News Release (SMNR) but we also call a Microsite, a Resource Site, or a Fact Sheet. Flat-file pages tend to serve faster and more reliably because they’re generally much less resource-intensive. And like I said, if we don’t do everything to make it as easy as possible to allow the blogger to search, discover, collect, and report on what we’re pitching, then we’re risking losing them. MORE >>

This week I was asked to speak on a panel about social media to a group of B2B marketers in financial services. But when the panel was over, I realized something scary: Most of the success factors we wound up talking about had nothing to do with social media. They had to do with other things that companies have to do before they can successfully engage in social media. Here are some examples: Most C-level executives are not in social media—they’re in search. Social doesn’t happen in B2B without a culture change. 30% said yes. MORE >>