Surveys offer a powerful tool to publicize and promote your organization. Surveys often win media attention, especially if they cover current topics or controversial issues. But crafting the right questions and collating the answers into meaningful insights is by no means a slam … | Continue reading
While Twitter tested a replacement for its storytelling/tweet curation tool “Moments”, it looks like the feature is here to stay…and it’s expanding. Yesterday, Twitter announced that mobile users now have the ability to create their...read moreThe post Now You Can Make Your Own T … | Continue reading
We all know Instagram as one of the most visually appealing platforms on the web. With it’s visual design, Instagram has done for photographers, models, and fitness entrepreneurs what YouTube did for filmmakers: provide a...read moreThe post 6 Reasons Instagram Is Becoming The Ul … | Continue reading
Ever since "not-coms" burst onto the scene a couple years ago, marketers have been tiptoeing around the subject, wondering just what they should do about it and waiting for someone else to make the first move. There are several reasons to believe that 2017 (+) will be the year (s … | Continue reading
By Hammad Akbar Finding a place to market your website? Every platform seems either costly or complex. Right? But you know what? There’s a secret sauce. It’s Reddit. Reddit is the self-proclaimed “front page of the Internet” because you can learn about almost all internet-related … | Continue reading
Most small and mid-size businesses do not use Instagram and many don’t use social media at all, according to a new survey. That’s concerning. Social media can be an effective marketing tool for small businesses if they learn how to use it well. Small businesses can attract consum … | Continue reading
With over 52,000 employees and operating more than 3,900 departures a day during peak travel season, Southwest Airlines is regarded as one of the best domestic airlines in the United States. Well known for its...read moreThe post How Southwest Airlines Used Social Media to Mitiga … | Continue reading
In our continuing look at the important of user intent, we're focusing on "informational queries" for this piece. Informational user intent occurs when someone uses a search engine primarily for research purposes – they want more data on a specific topic. This user intent is impo … | Continue reading
Photo captions in PR and marketing materials are often an afterthought. Those who neglect captions, also called cut lines, miss a valuable opportunity to spread their key message. Ann Wylie of Wylie Communications offers these facts about photo captions: Images receive the most … | Continue reading
It’s not that your content sucks…in fact, it might even be pretty darn good. It’s just that every minute of every day there are 1300 more blog posts, 360,000 more tweets, 1.7 million more Facebook...read moreThe post 7 Steps to Get Your Content to Cut Through in 2017 appeared fir … | Continue reading
I recently had a chance to meet Lori McFarling, CMO of Discovery Education. I got to know Lori through her inspiring presentation at the Incite Corporate Marketing Summit and I’m delighted to share what she,...read moreThe post Why Brands Are Going Back to School appeared first o … | Continue reading
Online marketing experts call social media advertising one of the most – and perhaps the most — effective new marketing strategies to promote content. While social media advertising has long been used to promote products, its success in promoting marketing and PR content such as … | Continue reading
We've finally seen the dawn of consumer-friendly virtual reality headsets, which are being produced and sold from a variety of companies, from Samsung to Facebook. When a new technology like this hits, it's always tricky to say just how important it will be to the average busines … | Continue reading
Earlier this year, the marketing industry was buzzing about Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak’s quote in the New York Times that “In the first quarter of 2016, 85 cents of every new dollar spent in...read moreThe post The Most Effective Form of Digital Marketing Today appeared f … | Continue reading
Since user intent is becoming increasingly important to Google search queries and, well all sites everywhere, we're looking for ways to make it user intent strategies easier to understand and plan for. One of the most useful perspectives is the three types of user intent that onl … | Continue reading
In the ad world, change is the only constant. And boy, things ARE changing. Traditional advertising certainly isn’t extinct, but there is simply too much noise out there, and people are sick of it. They’re...read moreThe post Advertising Is Dead. Long Live Advertising. appeared f … | Continue reading
If ever we lived in an age that was moving at digital speed...well that would be now. Check out these Google predictions for Black Friday and the Holiday Shopping Season: | Continue reading
Black Friday tends to divide Americans into two distinct groups: those who spend it in their pajamas eating leftover turkey, and those who spend it standing in line to buy a discounted TV. While Black Friday...read moreThe post 4 Trends for Black Friday 2016 appeared first on Soc … | Continue reading
Semantic search! We've talked about how it's changing the way that search engines operate by interpreting user intent – but now we'd like to offer several strategies that can target semantic search more effectively. Google's algorithm is busy studying the real meaning behind ever … | Continue reading
If you manage social media in your business, you’ll know just how much hard work and effort goes into developing a social media strategy. Coupled with reporting, responding to customers, and creating, scheduling and tracking...read moreThe post 7 Free Social Media Tools to Make Y … | Continue reading
"Semantic search" is one of those terms that make people think, "Oh great, this sounds complicated." But really it's designed to make things simpler: This is good news for internet users everywhere! However, it also means important changes for online marketers are on the rise. | Continue reading
Hurray! Black Friday & Cyber Monday Blowout is just around the corner! This is the right time to quench your thirst for unlimited shopping in any department of your choice…yet save money big on shopping! How nice it be to save money just by doing what you love? You’re already doi … | Continue reading
Founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, college roommates at the University of Virginia, Reddit is now the 11th most popular site in the U.S. and 25th in the world. Attracting 542 million...read moreThe post Reddit: Much More Than Meets the Eye appeared first on Soci … | Continue reading
Influence marketing has been on the rise in response to ad blocker and diminished reach on FaceBook, but the FTC has taken notice. The FTC has fined brands such as Lord & Taylor with deceptive...read moreThe post How FTC Guidelines Could Derail The Influencer Marketing Hype Train … | Continue reading
How Trump used social media to gain an edge over Secretary Clinton.The post Fake News and Negativity: How Social Media Put Trump Over the Top appeared first on dcustom.com. | Continue reading
Who doesn’t want a little free promotion and marketing? From micro-influencers to employee social media advocacy, one topic that comes up again and again here at 21 Handshake is the importance of personal relationships for successful marketing. From viral tweets to Yelp reviews, … | Continue reading
With the 2016 election over, purveyors of fake news will turn their attention from candidates to corporations. Companies and large not-for-profit organizations now need to more closely monitor news and social media. Early detection of bogus news and aggressive measures to refute … | Continue reading
We – and many others – have hedged around the Google AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages project for a while now. It was exciting, but a little too new and drastic for companies already deeply committed to responsive mobile design. We think 2017 could be the year that's going to chan … | Continue reading
The year 2015 is widely recognized as the year that organic reach died. Organic reach is the total number of unique people who were shown your content through unpaid distribution. Paid reach, on the other...read moreThe post How Facebook Organic Reach Died… and What You Can Do Ab … | Continue reading
Balancing Being Everywhere vs. Concentrating ResourcesBrands will revamp their social media strategy and focus on fewer networks – perhaps even just one next year. At least that’s what some predict. Many organizations promote their messages on multiple platforms. As new social me … | Continue reading
Inbound 16 has come and gone. | Continue reading
As the presidential election illustrates, Americans are divided among economic lines, geographic lines, racial lines, gender lines. We’re especially divided along partisan lines. The diminishing circulation of major newspapers and the rise of bloggers, niche websites, and social … | Continue reading
Twitter might be struggling, but brand customer service on the platform is more popular than ever. In the last 2 years, Tweets to brands and their customer service handles have increased by 250%. Many people...read moreThe post 5 Tips to Master Your Brand’s Customer Service on Tw … | Continue reading
Let’s face it. Presentations these days are either really boring or really engaging. And who wants to be boring? One way not to be boring is to think interactive! According to Kissmetrics, interactive content is not only the way of the future, it’s where all the Read more ...Th … | Continue reading
Buffer’s recent survey of marketers exposes a surprising finding that organizations can use to their advantage. Only 21 percent of businesses cite customer support as a reason they use social media, according to Buffer’s State of Social Media 2016 report. Buffer content crafter A … | Continue reading
Public speaking has become one of the most popular forms of quick, information-intensive coaching. For those who could do with the help of public speakers who focus on media coaching, here is a list of...read moreThe post Top 10 Media Training Speakers You Need to Know appeared f … | Continue reading
What’s next for thought leadership in 2017? With everyone claiming to be an industry “expert” these days, it’s natural to wonder if thought leadership will simply suffocate under the weight of all the digital clutter it’s produced. We’ve written before how even the savviest marke … | Continue reading
*This is an updated post Let’s face it, when it comes to content marketing, knowing how to up the ante on your content experience and make your blog stand out is likely one of your biggest challenges. In 2013 there were 152 million blogs out there. Can you imagine how many more b … | Continue reading
In the old days, say back in 2014, video marketers would shoot a video, and then simply post it across multiple networks. Now, social media’s embrace of video means marketers must edit videos specifically for particular platforms in order to win viewers and engagement. Video mark … | Continue reading
Nine out of 10 customers say online reviews influence their buying decisions. Eighty-six percent of customers rely on their peers to learn about brands, according to Edelman’s 2016 Earned Brand study. A single tweet can set off a firestorm of negative publicity or drive thousands … | Continue reading
I recently spoke with Michael Brenner, CEO of Marketing Insider Group, co-author of the bestselling book, The Content Formula, and recognized by Forbes as one of the top CMO influencers in the country. Michael is...read moreThe post Content Marketing: What to Expect in 2017 and B … | Continue reading
When planning a vacation or business trip what is your first search? It’s likely that you are thinking of one of those travels sites that not only show you various flight options, but also gives you recommendations of places to stay. Soon that may no... | Continue reading
Marketing analysts face the growing challenge of trying to understand audiences who jump from device to device and online to offline. These users are notoriously difficult to track and categorize. That’s causing some top marketers to change their thinking about measurement and ac … | Continue reading
PR can be an effective strategy for gaining the attention of both consumers and B2B professionals, new surveys reveal. There’s a catch, though. The most successful PR campaigns involve repeated media placements. The “one-and-done” press release holds little chance of success. The … | Continue reading
Emoji have become a new, universal communications language. Even if public relations, marketing and other communications professionals don’t yet plan to write in emoji, they’d be wise to keep a close eye on their growing adoption – and determine how emoji may fit into PR and bran … | Continue reading
Is marketing dead? Many believe that the internet at large is getting too smart for marketing. Indeed, consumers are getting resourceful. Traditional marketing such as advertising, public relations etc doesn’t seem to hold the same...read moreThe post This Is Why Influencer Marke … | Continue reading
The term "mobile first index" is starting to pop up everywhere in the marketing world, accompanied by a little bit of panic. And, if you're like a lot of people, you're probably wondering just what mobile first indexing is all about. It's time for a new term, so we've got a quick … | Continue reading
Befuddled pollsters, journalists and media analysts are wondering how they could have been so wrong following Donald Trump’s shocking win of the presidential election. Practically every poll predicted Hillary Clinton would win. They were wrong. Media and PR commentators continue … | Continue reading