Gone are the days when you could tell the customer what to read, think or buy. The customer has his/her ideas about everything including what and where to  buy. They aren’t listening to us very much.
Case in point: many businesses are putting their newspaper ads on Facebook–you know the discount ads. When these are put on [...]

Yes, Social Media is the ‘next hot thing’ for your company. However, like any other marketing strategy, it must be capable of bringing in customers, and you must be able to measure its effectiveness. Check out this Forbes article on social media and customer service.
Don’t get fooled into thinking that web traffic ‘likes and followers’ will [...]

A lot of attention is being paid to big data, which is the phenomenon we now see as a direct result of so much social media activity and software able to monitor traffic and metrics for the purpose of making smart marketing decisions.
Marshall Sponder is an author, analyst and speaker. He writes and speaks about [...]

Elliot Robia, Market Strategist from Pixel Farm of Minneapolis, wanted to demonstrate how social media really should work using two dramatic examples side by side. Pixel Farm is a Minneapolis studio that creates digital experiences for major brands and ad agencies and connects them to their customers in novel and unexpected ways. Prior to joining [...]

Although most business owners know the world of social media exists, there are still some hoping it will disappear. The number of naysayers are dwindling.
A recent survey found that two thirds of small businesses are spending more time on social media today than they did a year ago. We’ve come a long way baby–no longer [...]

Recently, I spoke at Schenectady Downtown Improvement Corporation on the topic, “Using Social Media to Build Your Business.” It was a great turnout, and the participation was interesting. Even businesses that are working with social media are still asking tons of questions. Most of the questions were about blogging.
There were questions like, “Why should I write”, “What [...]

                      
How can Google + pages help you create customer loyalty for your business?

Communities show customers “love.” The key to building loyalty is building customer intimacy. To do this you must be consistent with your social media and involve yourself in your customer’s lives. Playing games with customers is one way to engage, but are you really getting [...]

                      
It used to be pretty easy to build loyalty. Give customers rewards, promotions and points, and you’d own them. Not so much anymore.
For years the airlines built loyalty using frequent flyer programs. One might argue that they don’t really reward passengers for loyalty, they reward them for airline segments. It might be smarter to reward customers [...]

It was probably only a matter of time before we realized there was something fundamentally flawed about social media. In its early stages there’s been a major focus on quantity — getting more followers, more likes and more pluses. You follow me, and I’ll follow you, usually without much consideration to exactly who we were [...]

We are all so incredibly connected these days. It is a digital world. Go on-line, and just throw out a topic. You know what I mean even before I finish a message in 140 characters.
Here are three examples I’ve noticed just in the past 48 hours.

Scott (the nametag guy) Ginsberg likes to challenge his Facebook [...]