Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Over the last couple of years I have developed checklists galore, but some of the most useful have been the most simple. One in particular I use when setting up a new blog or website. It steps me through the online conversations and interactions will take place.

And while these checklists are great, usable and effective, they are nowhere near as pretty as the unbounce Noob Guide to Online Marketing....

I know there are some really bad small business websites out there, but some fresh numbers paint an alarming picture.

The stats come from “SMB DigitalScape,” a data tool that’s being jointly promoted by BIA/Kelsey and vSplash, the company that created the tool. The numbers were distributed Monday in conjunction with the beginning of BIA/Kelsey’s ILM East show.

How bad is the picture? Consider these pullouts...

There are so many marketing channels for small businesses it can be difficult to know where and how to best focus your efforts.

To help you sort through it all, we’ve reached out to a panel of marketing and small business experts and asked them all a single question: “What is a surprising marketing channel for SMBs?”

Below is a collection of their thoughts and perspectives....

Earlier this morning the team at SocialMediaExaminer.com released their annual report on the state of Social Media Marketing.

...As with any surveys of this type, you have to remember that the people who responded are already a self selected audience of business owners who care about social media. So it's not surprising when the survey reports that "94% of respondents indicated they are employing social media for marketing purposes."

Still in reading over the report, there were several conclusions that I took from reading between the lines that I found interesting for anyone who is grappling with the challenge of how to effectively integrate social media into their marketing....

The Hunger Games just enjoyed a record-smashing opening weekend, fueled in part by an impressive social media strategy.  The campaign is a case study for how movie studios should be marketing theirfilms on social, and provides a broader lesson in content marketing for any brand.

The Hunger Games’ social media team put together an immersive, multi-platform campaign that focused on three of the main themes that run through the novel....

Social media fatigue, social media frustration, this is all a waste of time, we're not getting anywhere, you've heard it all.

...If you’re not getting the most out of your social media participation, or if you feel like it’s falling flat on either a personal or professional level, there might be a few things at issue. Have a look through the list below for some of the causes behind the symptoms, and what you might to do give your social a shot in the arm....