Very few small or medium-sized companies maintain their own in-house accountants, designers, publicists, reputation and crisis managers, or marketers — some don’t even have their own dedicated sales teams. Photo credit: edrabbit. really believe it’s bad advice to recommend that companies fire their social media consultants, experts and agencies only to bring everything internal. While “everyone” is on Facebook , social media is no longer a land of tinkerers, it’s a land of consumers. Kudos, but seriously a truly exceptional example. MORE >>

90% of CMOs say social data has impacted at least some of their decisions; only 47% use social data to make predictions or forecast sales. 71% see potential for Big Data to have a large impact on sales; only 16% have Big Data strategies for sales. Photo credit: Wikipedia. The average tenure of a CMO has increased from 23.6 to 43 months since 2004 according to Spencer Stuart. That’s good news. Perhaps, companies are finally appreciating the business impact a CMO has. Does longer tenure put more or less pressure on CMOs? How are CMOs doing? source: Bazaarvoice ). MORE >>

Sure, we want metrics focused on sales, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t need a strong brand. Photo credit: DavidErickson. Most of you know that Biznology is all about digital marketing, which is a nice hot topic to cover. And you’ll be forgiven if you think that all this focus on shiny new marketing techniques leave little room for the tried and true. But you’d be wrong. Digital marketing, in fact, is way more about marketing than about digital. Even though there are many things that are changing, the basic still stay the same. What do you stand for? MORE >>

There’s no hidden sales agenda behind it. Photo credit: katypang. What are you doing with social media? Are you developing high-quality content? Curating your Twitter feed? Are you connecting with your followers? The The answer to that last question should be YES, because if it’s not, you’re doing it wrong. Social media is all about relationships, which means – for better or for worse – so is digital marketing. Nowhere is this more wildly clear than in musician Amanda Palmer’s instantly viral TED Talk. She asked for $100,000 – and received $1.2 single. Connect. MORE >>

Arguably, Off-Off- Broadway is the best: most creative, most daring, with the best unknown writers, directors, and actors — pure talent; additionally, we have all heard stories of Off-Off making it to Off and then hitting it big with Broadway (for you sports fans it’s similar to Double-A to  Triple-A to major league baseball); however, the only thing that gets you from Off-Off-Broadway to Broadway is audience, ticket sales, and bottom line. I am so impressed by how well brands are messaging these days. People All that is required is some basic prospecting. And how dare you! MORE >>