SMBs Embracing Social Media At A Rapid Pace

Posted by Shelly Kramer on January 13, 2012 · 3 Comments

ShareSmall and medium-sized business are embracing social media marketing at rapid pace. Surprised? Surely not. Borrell conducted an online survey from January through August of 2011 that resulted in some 4,200-plus responses. Main Street Goes Social reports that almost two-thirds (64.4%) of SMBs are presently using social sites for marketing purposes and social media marketing [...]

Filed under Business Intelligence, Featured Articles, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Tips and Training · Tagged with social media, social media and small business, social media best practices, social media for small businesses, Social Media Marketing, socialmedia

Google Plus Unveils New Features, Supports Google Apps

Posted by Shelly Kramer on November 1, 2011 · 8 Comments

Share After a bit of a quiet period, Google+ is back in the headlines with a host of announcements that were unveiled late last week. With some 40 million Google+ users, some 1 billion pieces of content shared and a wealth of webinars and Google+ experts available for the bargain price of $47 (or less), [...]

Filed under Digital Marketing, Featured Articles, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Tools · Tagged with Google, Google apps and Google Plus, Google Plus, Google+-integration-with-Google-Apps, Google-plus-analytics, Google-plus-creative-kit, Google-Plus-Ripples, Google-What's-Hot, new features of Google Plus, social media, social networking, social networking and Google plus

Nonprofits: Integrating Digital Marketing Strategies, Measuring ROI

Posted by Shelly Kramer on October 11, 2011 · 4 Comments

Share I had the pleasure of presenting to the YMCA’s New Media/Marketing Conference held in Kansas City this past week on the topic of Nonprofits and Integrating Digital Marketing Strategies and Measuring ROI. It was a special treat because I was asked to participate by a long time friend, Mary Mooney Burns, who’s not only [...]

Filed under Blog Marketing, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Featured Articles, marketing, Marketing Tools, Online Marketing, social media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Tips and Training, Strategies and Tactics · Tagged with Allyson Kapin, digital marketing for nonprofits, digital strategies for nonprofits, Maddie Grant, marketing for nonprofits, nonprofits and social media, Rad Campaign, social media, social media for nonprofits, SocialFish, socialmedia, strategies for nonprofits

Nexercise: The Perfect Match of Gamification and Social Media

Posted by Shelly Kramer on October 10, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Share Gamification paired with the power of social media is a component of digital marketing strategy we can’t get enough of. And we’re not alone. People like games. Whether it’s Angry Birds, Words with Friends or Dora the Explorer, we collectively spend a lot of time and attention, not to mention money, playing online games. [...]

Filed under Apps, Digital Marketing, marketing, Mobile and Location Based Marketing, social media · Tagged with ben young, best exercise apps, fitness apps, gamificaiton and social media, gamification, gamification as marketing strategy, nexercise, social media, socialmedia

Coolest Retro Photo App: Instagram or Streamzoo

Posted by Katherine Meyer on September 28, 2011 · 10 Comments

Share Retro photo apps are all the rage. And for good reason. Fact: People love sharing pictures online. There are over 200 million photos uploaded to Facebook per day, which means there are more than 6 billion uploads per month. Much to the chagrin of digital camera makers, smartphones are becoming more and more ubiquitous [...]

Filed under Apps, Featured Articles, Ramblings · Tagged with facebook, Instagram, mobile app usage, mobile apps, photo sharing, social media, Streamzoo

Sarcasm Lovers Rejoice: Sarcasm Font Has Arrived

Posted by Katherine Meyer on September 11, 2011 · 17 Comments

Share Coming from a family of jokesters, it was pretty much a given that I would ultimately learn to develop a thick skin (well, frankly, I was forced to do so). It was also imperative that I learn the art of quick repartee as a form of self-preservation much like other children learn to walk. [...]

Filed under Featured Articles, Pop Culture and Current Events, Ramblings · Tagged with Apple, BBH, BBH Barn, digital communication, facebook, sarcasm font, sarcasm in social media, Sartalics, social media, Social Media Marketing, Tumblr, twitter, Yahoo

I Got 99 Social Media Tools

Posted by Shelly Kramer on August 23, 2011 · 9 Comments

ShareIf you work in social media, PR or marketing, likely you already know of and use a bunch of social platforms and tools. Most of us know the big dogs — platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc., but there are a LOT of other social sites and tools out there that you might not know about. [...]

Filed under Featured Articles, Free Resources, Online Marketing, social media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Tips and Training · Tagged with Erik Qualman, Jay-Z, Overdrive Interactive, social media, social media monitoring, social media resources, Social Media Tools, Socialnomics

Need a Google+ Invite: Come Get It

Posted by Shelly Kramer on August 7, 2011 · 1 Comment

Share Google just announced that it is now easier for you to invite your friends to Google+ — ergo, it’s also easier for all you folks who don’t yet have an invite to get one. And, after the last few weeks of spending lots of time sending tons of invites in response to a blog [...]

Filed under Featured Articles, Marketing Tools, Online Marketing, Pop Culture and Current Events, social media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Tips and Training, Strategies and Tactics · Tagged with comScore Google+ stats, Google, Google Plus, Google+ demographics, Google+ for business, Google+ growth, Google+ usage stats, Kansas City Social Media Marketing, social media, socialmedia

How To Create a Book of Facebook Memories

Posted by Katherine Meyer on August 2, 2011 · 4 Comments

Share What you say? There’s an app for creating a book of Facebook memories? WooHoo! Before you laugh, remember that people love stuff. Harry Potter fanatics buy Lego figurines, replias of invisibility cloaks and wizard wands. Twihards (a/k/a those obsessed with the Twilight series) buy dolls, clothes, posters…heck, they probably even buy Twilight-themed sleeping bags. Ergo, if the societal [...]

Filed under Apps, Featured Articles, Free Marketing Resources, Free Resources, social media, Social Media Marketing · Tagged with app for Facebook book, Cabot Soup Swap, Facebook apps, Facebook memories book, social media, socialmedia, socialmedia apps, SocialMemories

Rapportive: A Plugin That Makes Your Life Easier

Posted by Katherine Meyer on July 13, 2011 · 4 Comments

ShareSo there are a ton of plugins out there that beef up your browser and generally make it more dynamic and useful. One cool plugin I stumbled across that does just that is Rapportive. Rapportive is a free plugin for Chrome and Safari users. Sorry IE users! A quick aside — why in the world [...]

Filed under Featured Articles, Free Resources, Ramblings · Tagged with browser plugins, Chrome, facebook, Rapportive, Safari, social aggregator, social media, twitter

How to Create Google Plus Profile Custom URL

Posted by Shelly Kramer on July 9, 2011 · 117 Comments

Share So Google+ launched and all the social media loving geeks – myself included – are spending ridiculous amounts of time exploring, commenting, blogging, critiquing, complaining, hypothesizing, well, you know the drill. If you’re slightly annoyed at not yet getting into Google+ or annoyed by the incessant the talk about it, please forgive us. It’s no [...]

Filed under Featured Articles, social media, Social Media Tips and Training, Tactics and Tips · Tagged with Google, Google Plus, Google Plus custom URL, Google+ custom url, social media, socialmedia

Facebook Photo Tagging For Pages: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Posted by Shelly Kramer on July 2, 2011 · 4 Comments

ShareOne of Facebook’s newer features, photo tagging for pages, extends the power of brands; yet it’s one that, in our opinion, should be used carefully. You can get the full scoop on the new photo tagging feature here, but, to sum it up, Facebook pages can now be tagged in photos. This means brands, products [...]

Filed under Content Marketing, Featured Articles, Social Media Tips and Training, Tactics and Tips · Tagged with brand strategies, facebook, Facebook photo tagging for pages, Facebook tips, Kyle Lacy, social media, social media policy

Want to Change Attitudes about Social Media? Make It Fun

Posted by Shelly Kramer on June 13, 2011 · 7 Comments

Share We work with businesses of all sizes helping them understand, navigate and participate in the online space and understand the value of social media marketing. For those of us who are old hands at that, it seems like no big deal. But for a vast number of people, even ones who are somewhat familiar [...]

Filed under Blog Marketing, Blog Marketing, Content Marketing, Featured Articles, marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing · Tagged with analytics, blogging, content marketing, content marketing strategy, corporate blogging, eMarketer, Fun Theory, HubSpot, Piano Stairs, social media, socialmedia, Volkswagen Fun Theory

How to Run A Successful Facebook Contest

Posted by Shelly Kramer on June 12, 2011 · 6 Comments

Share We’ve all seen them. Facebook contests are all but impossible to ignore. Headlines scream “Be our 5,000th fan and get a gift certificate!” “‘Like’ our page in the next two weeks and be entered to win a prize!” Yep—Facebook contests and promotions are becoming increasingly prevalent as brands and businesses seek to expand their audiences [...]

Filed under Featured Articles, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Tips and Training · Tagged with best practices, best practices Facebook contests, contests on Facebook, facebook, Facebook contest apps, Facebook contest rules, Facebook contests, Facebook Promotions, LockerGnome, social media, social media contests, social media tips, socialmedia, Wildfire

Supercharge Your Social Media Marketing on Twitter with Formulists

Posted by Michelle Mangen on June 9, 2011 · 7 Comments

Share Managing your social media marketing efforts doesn’t have to be massively time-consuming. Especially when you can learn some tricks, combine those with killer tools, and add some efficiency to the process. A week or so ago, we wrote a post listing 7 Creative Uses for Twitter Lists. The last two items on the list [...]

Filed under Featured Articles, Free Marketing Resources, Free Resources, Marketing Tools, social media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Tips and Training · Tagged with building community, engagement, Formulists, Free Resources, free Twitter tools, social media, Social Media Marketing, social media tricks, socialmedia tools, Twitter list management, twitter lists, twitter tips