When people talk about “social media” marketing, what do they really mean? What is a “social strategy”? How do you get started? How do you measure success? These are some of the the daily discussions we see that usually revolve around how marketers can get more “fans” or make marketing more “viral”. But these questions are questions about distribution, which is an advertising-centric way to think about it.

In advertising, distribution drives content. On the other hand, in social media marketing, content drives distribution – that is, you have to have something important or interesting to “say” in order for someone to be interested enough to engage and pass it along. It is the content strategy that delivers distribution opportunities, audience cultivation and, ultimately, how a social media campaign may play out.

So how do you develop content that provides distribution? Here are four ways to break down social media marketing into specific content and distribution tactics.

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Web Page Optimization is a critical marketing activity that combines search engine optimization (SEO) and website usability to ensure that your website continuously improves as the marketplace evolves. Web Page Optimization occurs on an ongoing basis on existing websites to help websites avoid staying static and uninteresting to customers. Web Page Optimization is designed to accomplish the following:

• Your business has an increasing amount of organic traffic because customers are finding your website via search engines and social media;
• Your customers increasingly interact with you when they visit your website (ie. “helping your customer further down the conversion funnel“);
• Your website is a thriving, continuously improving channel for sales, leads and signups. Continue Reading »

You may have heard someone recently say something to the effect of, “Buying media is yesterday’s news. Earning it is the future.” But what is earned media?

Earned media is publicity without payment to the person or company who provides the publicity. One of the primary reasons for the buzz is that earned media is often used synonymously with the term “free media”. The other reason for its recent buzz is that platforms for easily distributing earned media – like Facebook and Twitter – have become very popular over the past couple of years.

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