Welcome to another roundup of some of this week’s best blogs. If you’re looking for a “how to” you’ll find those here. If you want a few opinions and some food for thought, you’ll find those too! These are pretty quick reads (but don’t let that fool you, they’re full of good stuff!) so take a few minutes to browse and see which ones will help you.
How Do You Find The Time For Social Media?
Written by Michael Brenner
Are you too busy to spend much time working on your social media marketing? Well, the truth is that you may be missing out on opportunities because whether we have time or not, the world is going social. Michael makes a great point: the time isn’t going to magically appear, but if social marketing is important, you’ll make time. he shares some interesting stats and links about the amount of time we waste on things we may think are productive (but aren’t) and the amount of time we just plain waste. Michael concludes with some simple and practical tips for getting started. When you realize it doesn’t have to be an “all or nothing” proposition, and that you don’t have to spend hours a day dealing with social, you may just make the time!
Read the article at b2bmarketinginsider.com and Follow Michael on Twitter @BrennerMichael
Social Media Is So Noisy It’s Quiet
Written by Margie Clayman
What caught me most about this post is that I’ve been thinking the same thing. When social media was the new shiny thing, we were excited and we jumped in. We met people, we talked and we looked forward to the brave new world of marketing and relationship-building. But, as Margie points out, lately social networks (especially Twitter) seem to be nothing but white noise – people tweeting out link after link and completely forgetting about the conversation. Alas, “social” is showing its dark side as another push medium. I enjoyed reading Margie’s reflection on this and it serves as a reminder that we should be mindful of the true nature of social. And in that way that social media has of delighting and surprising, this topic turned into a real conversation that proved that all we have to do is remember that behind those links there are still people!
Read the article at claymanmarketingcommunications.wordpress.com and Follow Margie on Twitter @MargieClayman
The 7 Step Daily Twitter Marketing Plan
Written by Gabe Johansson
Do you know how you read about marketing and you get lots of information and ideas but sometimes you just want someone to tell you how to do it? Well, this is it. Your quick, down-n-dirty, get started on Twitter without pulling your hair out guide. Gabe gives you 7 simple, easy steps to kickstart your Twitter marketing that you can easily add into your day. There’s just enough information in each tip to give you a great starting point without being either too vague( there’s no end of “easy tip” posts that do nothing but give you the same rehashed nonsense) or too cumbersome (I dare you to make an excuse for not following these!) Gabe gets it “just right” with a great starter plan that you can use and adapt to fit your needs.
Read the article at bloggersmakemoney.com and follow Gabe on Twitter @GabeJohansson
5 Sure-Fire Ways To Build A More Engaged Email List
Written by Meg Appleby
One of the reasons I liked this post is because it’s quick and to-the-point. Meg doesn’t bog you down with a billion details and complicated or abstract ideas that will leave you spinning your gears. These are real, actionable ways you can increase the value of your email interactions. I loved the first tip – where Meg warns not to waste your “welcome” email, because it reminded me that even though I have one, it could stand a little updating and finessing. She also introduced me to a tool called Rapportive that works with Gmail, which I haven’t tried, but did immediately with interesting results. Any post that can get me taking two actions before I even leave the page is worth sharing!
Read the article at bloomonline.co.nz and Follow Meg on Twitter @Bloom_OnlineNZ
The Future Of Retail Includes Showrooming
Written by Matt Crawford
If you’ve read the recent news about a store in Australia that’s charging a “showrooming” fee ($5 to enter and browse) then this is a great follow-up. Showrooming is what happens when people visit a store then go elsewhere to purchase – these days, that “elsewhere” is usually online. Matt makes the point that this behavior has existed for a long time and it’s not going away, so instead of trying to fight it, smart businesses need to figure out how to compete. You can’t strong-arm people into doing business with you. And alienating them certainly won’t help! Yet even in a competitive environment, some stores seem to draw customers in droves, even if their prices aren’t the best. How do they do it? matt offers several suggestions and you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that providing “remarkable service” is among them. Read the rest for more food for thought.
Read the article at steamfeed.com and Follow Matt on Twitter @SocialStratMatt
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Thank you very much for the kind words! 🙂
I enjoyed the post and the follow-up conversation!
Gabe had a solid guest post on my blog! It has helped tons of people! Thanks for including it!
You’re welcome, I enjoyed it.
Thanks for mentioning my post! So glad to hear it helped you 🙂
You’re very welcome!