Here are this week’s top 10 social media marketing articles!

#1 Study: 78% Of Salespeople Using Social Media Outsell Their Peers by Mark Fidelman

When Jim Keenan, the social sales specialist, describes his work today, he’ll tell you that he’s “ushering salespeople from the old world into the social world” – the cold calling world to the Twitter world, the salespeople who call prospects incessantly to the salespeople who educate their prospects with relevant content.

#2 3 Simple Ways to Measure Your Social Media Results by Rick Mulready

Are you looking for better ways to measure your social media activities?  Do you know if your social media efforts are worthwhile?  Social media measurement is one of the most frustrating challenges business face.  In this article I’ll show you three simple measurement strategies that can fit into one of your future campaigns.

#3 Are businesses failing to find an ROI in social media? Another view by Mark Schaefer

This was a survey of 1,200 of Manta’s own customers.  And yet it is being reported as a national trend by the mainstream news media?  None of the news channels disclosed that this was a survey of the company’s site members. In fact, most didn’t even link to the survey. They just linked to the original USA Today article.

#4 Transformative Analytics — Envisioning The Next Generation Of Social Media Marketing Tools by Nan Dawkins

The next generation of social media marketing tools will do more than organize, manage and spit out pretty reports full of out-of-context facts. Transformative analytics will be at the heart of these tools, meaning that the data provided will go beyond standard metrics about activity and/or a single encounter in social channels.

#5 When to Back Off the Social Media Baby Train by Jeana Lee Tahnk

Useless kid information is one of the many reasons I quit Facebook over a year ago, and I’m a parent myself. Of course I care about my friends’ kids and want to see pictures of them, but unbelievable inventions like email and SMS help me access all the updates I want, which is primarily how I share my kids’ pictures with others.

#6 A Flashy Bet for Yahoo on a Shift in Social Media by Jenna Wortham

Yahoo’s $1.1 billion proposed acquisition of Tumblr is a huge coup for the young founder of the even younger start-up and a splashy move by Marissa Mayer to shake up her company. It also heralds a larger shift in social media.

#7 A Comprehensive Strategy for Humanizing Your Brand on Social Media by Jen Barry

As you navigate the path of inbound marketing, many phrases will be tossed your way. How many times have you heard “blogging for business,” “top of the funnel,” “social media strategy,” or “business branding”? Understanding what these terms mean and how they apply to you isn’t too hard, but figuring out how to put this knowledge into action isn’t always as easy.

#8 How Facebook Advertising is Changing with Open Graph by Mark Luskus

As Facebook evolves, it is becoming an encyclopedia of user actions: the songs your friends are listening to on Spotify, a friend’s status update from their vacation, or an article shared from a website like KISSmetrics. These activities are stored in Open Graph as stories, which, when grouped together, provide detailed historical records of a user’s interests, hobbies, and relationships.

#9 How To Become A Social Media Marketer [INFOGRAPHIC] by Shea Bennett

Who wants to be a social media marketer? Heck, who doesn’t? All that wealth, influence and respect. And did I mention the women? Trust me, if there’s one thing that impresses a supermodel, it’s telling her all about the amazing cost per engagement rates on your latest Twitter ad campaign. It’s like virtual bling.

#10 83 incredible examples of social media marketing by Nur Bremmen

Social media marketing has, over the past few years, gone from something practiced by a few early adopters to a crucial part of most big advertising campaigns. For proof of that, you only have to look at the results of a recent Gartner survey, which showed that most people now see social as being nearly as important as a corporate website and more traditional forms of online advertising.

I hope you like this week’s list. Good luck!

Here is this week’s top 10 content marketing list!

#1 Warning: Population of Content Marketing Experts Surging Out of Control by Keith Blanchard

The world population of Content Marketing Experts is exploding at an unsustainable pace — 12 times the growth of the population as a whole, and nearly twice as fast as One Direction fan blogs, according to recent pretend census data.

#2 53 Actionable Content Marketing Metrics by Heidi Cohen

Content marketing is about attracting the right target audience and getting them to take appropriate action as a result of engaging with your content. Content marketing metrics is about measuring the results.

#3 Developing a Strategic Content Marketing Framework for Your Site by Sujan Patel

Now, if you’re planning to add content marketing to your promotional toolbox as a result of these trends, it’s important to recognize that it isn’t as simple as tossing up a few new blog posts or plastering content links all over your social profiles.

#4 How a Small Company Wins Business With Content Marketing by Henneke Duistermaat

The web is overcrowded. How can you stand out and find customers online? How can a small company win business when it faces big, powerful competitors? That’s the situation Help Scout found itself in late 2012. Help Scout provides email support software to start-ups and small businesses. Competitors like Zendesk and Desk.com are well established; and they have pretty large marketing budgets.

#5 Content Marketing KPIs: 5 Metrics that Matter by Kevin Cain

Tracking metrics like unique visitors, bounce rate, and conversion are critical to content marketing success. But choosing the right key performance indicators to measure can be a challenge. Slow down and focus on these five to start.

#6 15 ways to optimise your evergreen content strategy by Chris Lake

Evergreen content can drive plenty of the right kind of traffic to your website over the long term. It is one of the best returns on your investment into content, as it is a gift that keeps on giving, and should be a key part of your content strategy.

#7 Optimize Your Content Marketing Strategy with 8 Keyword Tracking Tips by Mike Murray

Take heart: If the success of your content marketing strategy is in any way dependent on your search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine rankings, there are plenty of tools and tactics available that might merit your time and effort to explore.

#8 Slideshare Is The Biggest Opportunity In B2B Content Marketing by Michael Brenner

In a recent conference, I was asked my opinion on what is the biggest opportunity in B2B Content Marketing? Without hesitation, I answered “Slideshare.”  With more than 50 Million visitors per month and more than 100 million pageviews, slideshare is one of the top websites in the world and should be a key focus of any B2B content marketing program.

#9 Ask An Expert: Content Marketing vs. Content Strategy – What’s the Difference? by Allie Gray Freeland

In our first ever “Ask An Expert” column, we asked digital marketing leaders to weigh in on the distinction between content marketing and content strategy. While they all agree that the two go hand in hand, they set unique expectations for each.

#10 How to Gauge the Power and Value of Your Content Marketing by Aaron Dun

The state of content measurement today is… well, cloudy. Are you really measuring the value of your content marketing efforts? What metrics are you using to gauge if your content marketing initiatives are working?

Enjoy!

Did you miss this week’s top social media marketing articles? Here they are:

#1 Five tools to help with your social media makeover by Ian Cleary

In the world of social media it’s important to step back and review what you have done and implement changes on a regular basis. And maybe, just maybe, it’s time for a makeover.  Here are five cool tools you can use that just might deliver some new “oomph” to your social media efforts

#2 How To Truly Measure The Success of Social Media by Russ Henneberry

So, you want to measure the success of your social media efforts? Don’t worry, this isn’t another article about tallying the number of Twitter followers you have. This is a discussion of the technical aspect of truly measuring the success of social media marketing. This is an article about tying your social media efforts back to conversions; sales, lead form fills, donations and the like.

#3 When is Social Media Experimentation a Waste of Company Resources by Jay Baer

Just because a new social network – or even a new “trend” like real-time marketing – crops up, it doesn’t mean your company is required to test it and create a presence. Remember, unless you somehow add staff or outside assistance, each time you add a shiny new ornament to your social media participation tree,  you are taking effort away from your existing outposts.

#4 Social media may finally be dying, but the BS around it hasn’t by Brandon Mendelson

This is an interesting moment to tell you why social media is bullshit. I just came back from the Do Lectures in Wales where one of social media’s biggest cheerleaders, Amy Jo Martin, who runs the social media marketing firm Digital Royalty, refused to use the term “social media” in her presentation.

#5 The 2013 YouTube Marketing Guide by Steve P. Young

How does a company that sells blenders attract over 220 million views on YouTube? How does Zappos drive over 250,000 visits a year to its website from YouTube?  With over 72 hours of footage being uploaded to YouTube every minute, how do you successfully market your business on the world’s largest video site and #2 search engine?

#6 Want to Improve Your Online Marketing? Master These Search & Social Media Tactics by Lee Odden

Fast changing trends and serious competition has digital marketers chasing the latest and greatest tactics like hamsters on exercise wheels.  Good advice is both hard and too easy to come by. Search “social media marketing” on Google and there are over 1 billion results.

#7 12 Ways to Delight Your Social Media Community & Audiences by Pam Moore

Have you ever thought about how you can delight your audiences? When you are developing your marketing plans, editorial calendar, tweet content for the day or week are you thinking about the positive impacts it can have on the lives or businesses of the people reading them?

#8 Social Sharing Boosts Email Results [Infographic] by Verónica Maria Jarski

Think that social media has killed off email? Hardly. Active email users far outnumber users on any social network. For example, 3 billion people use email. Now compare that number with one billion Facebook users, 200 million Twitter users, and 200 million LinkedIn users.

#9 Has Social Media Ruined the News? by Daniel Zeevi

Can you trust what you read on the internet anymore? Social media connects people around the world in ways never imagined possible. Breaking news, like the Boston Marathon tragedy, sometimes hits Twitter before even the major news outlets can pick it up.

#10 14 Reasons No One Talks To You On Facebook by Courtney Seiter

“How do I get my Facebook fans to participate more on our page?”  It’s one of the biggest questions — and toughest to answer – when it comes to social media engagement. For many businesses, Facebook is the number one site for building a community and engaging fans. With its 900 million active users, the potential is great but sometimes difficult to harvest.

Enjoy!

Here are the best content marketing articles of this week!

#1 Content Marketing DOs and DON’Ts by Adria Saracino

Whether you are new to content marketing or just looking for validation that your program is running smoothly, here are some of the most important (and often overlooked) DOs and DON’Ts of content marketing.

#2 10 Steps to Content Marketing That Converts by Charlotte Han

Since your company is creating the content, it should be all about you, right? Wrong. The truth is no one cares unless you are solving their pain points, educating or entertaining them. Creating content only about yourself is like throwing a rock into the lake; the rock will sink, be buried and forgotten.

#3 A Top LinkedIn Exec On Why Content Marketing Matters More Than Ever by Jonathan Lister

In the past few years, there’s been a real transformation in the way people consume information and communicate. Fueled by the mass adoption of social platforms, this transformation in consumer behavior demands that the ways we market also evolve.

#4 Why Research Should Be A Fundamental Part Of Your Content Strategy by John Waghorn

Creating a detailed and thorough content strategy will take time, although making the effort to do this in the first place will bring its own rewards. Within your overall strategy, there will be a number of areas that you will need to address, from how to promote the content once it’s been created, how to measure its success and of course, undertaking the correct level of research before you get started.

#5 13 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Might Fail by Joe Pulizzi

Remember, customers don’t care about you; they care about themselves and their problems. We often forget that point when we describe how wonderful our widget is (which no one cares about).

#6 Will Your Content Marketing Last The Distance? by Ruchi Pardal

Some people believe that content marketing means multichannel, and seemingly mechanical, publishing of anything, anywhere. Their goal is to gain links and rank well (of course, momentarily) using thin content, spinned content, keyword-rich content or unnecessary press releases.

#7 The 10 Most Important Attributes of a Content Marketing Maven by Jon Gelberg

In an era where brands are leaping onto the content marketing bandwagon, it becomes more and more important for them to find the internal content talent that will strategize, execute, distribute and analyze an ongoing series of content marketing campaigns.

#8 3 Simple Techniques For More Persuasive Content Marketing by Brian Clark

What’s the biggest obstacle to effective content marketing?  Surveys consistently reveal that enterprises — large and small — feel that creating enough content is the biggest problem. But, I’m not sure that quantity is the real issue here.  The problem is quality. In other words, does the content that’s already getting created actually perform the intended function?

#9 11 Examples of Killer B2B Content Marketing Campaigns Including ROI by Lee Odden

According to a CMI and MarketingProfs study, 91% of B2B Marketers are using content marketing and that means a few things:  First, it means content marketing has gained critical mass within the popular marketing mix and any company in a competitive industry would be hard pressed to attract business without it.

#10 Don’t Be a Content Marketing Dweeb: 5 Ways Not to Connect With Customers by John Brhel

If you hope to succeed as a content marketer, you’ll need to engage in the same kind of smart, two-way conversation that you do in real life, just via great content. Don’t believe me? Just ask Amie Marse of Small Business Trends, who said that “content marketing is about having a conversation.”

There you have it. This week’s list of the best content marketing articles. Enjoy!

Did you miss this week’s top social media marketing gems. No problem, here they are!

#1 The First Mile: The Broken Link of Social Media Customer Service by Brian Solis

For all that social media is doing to change business for the better, it’s not yet enough. Interview any executive and ask them what their priority business goals are for 2013 and I’m sure you’ll see some element of customer-centricity on the list.

#2 Study: Social Networks Deliver Most Effective Mobile App Marketing Channel For Conversions, Quality & Volume by Amy Gesenhues

After analyzing billions of mobile app events during the first quarter of 2013, mobile apps measurement platform AppsFlyer discovered that social networks were the most effective mobile app marketing channel, but search delivered the highest quality of mobile app users.

#3 Social Selling: A Day In The Life of A Social Sales Person by Michael Brenner

Social selling is a hot buzzword being thrown around today. What is social selling and how do tomorrow’s top sales people use social selling to become top performers?

#4 Can This Photographer Get New Clients on Social Media? by Todd Wasserman

Vinay Chinni’s business would appear to have a natural advantage when it comes to social media. Ever since Pinterest began gathering steam in 2011, photographs became even more prominent on Facebook. Given his profession, Chinni had a seemingly endless supply of material with which to cultivate a Facebook fan base.

#5 New Data Shows the 7 Most Powerful Calls-to-Action for More Retweets by Dan Zarrella

I’m a big fan of social calls-to-action. Previously, I’ve found evidence that they work on Facebook and Twitter. So I wanted to expand my research and see if I could find more words and phrases that were good at spurring people to social action.

#6 The 2013 Twitter Marketing Guide by Kristi Hines

Are you ready to immerse yourself and your business in Twitter this year? Are you a Twitter user who hasn’t caught up with the latest updates and tools for Twitter? This guide is for you! It will take you through the basics of Twitter, from setting up your profile and learning the lingo to analyzing your results and finding the right tools for your business.

#7 Twitter Opens Advertising to All U.S. Users: Here’s How it Works by Amanda Sibley

Ready to get your hands dirty with some Twitter advertising? Now’s your chance! On April 30th, Twitter announced that advertising would finally be available to all users in the U.S. through the launch of its new, self-service ad platform.

#8 How To Set Up Google+ Hangout Lower Third by Ray Hiltz

When doing a Google+ Hangout, it’s just good form to introduce yourself to viewers and other participants.  Insert a news anchor type name bar under your image by setting up the Google+ Hangout Lower Third App.

#9 Moms More Likely to Use Social Media and Mobile, and to Shop Online by Ayaz Nanji

Moms are 20% more likely than the general population to use social media, and 91% now use social media regularly—a 20% increase since 2010—according to a study of moms’ online social habits by BabyCenter and comScore.

#10 How To Organize A Social Media Content Strategy by Kelsey Jones

Crafting a content strategy for social media is just as important as developing a strategy for what is published on the company blog and website. Social media is one of the main megaphones that a company uses to create its overall online presence, which in turn shapes brand recognition and sentiment.

I hope you like this week’s list!

Here are this week’s top content marketing articles!

#1 The Top 10 Content Marketing Strategy Lessons from the Last 15 Years by Joe Pulizzi

Regardless of what anyone says, there is no silver bullet when it comes to content marketing strategy. So many marketers are looking for the perfect dashboard, system, process, and distribution plan for their content marketing. It simply doesn’t exist.

#2 Books On Content Marketing: Seven Good Choices by Ann Smarty

Content marketing is quickly becoming a primary focus on the Web. The expansion of blogs and websites that use content as a main format make it a hot topic for any marketer and content creator. But it is an adapting field like any other, and you might be worried that you’re not exploiting the method as much as you should be.

#3 Case Study: How Content Marketing Saved this Brick-and-Mortar Business by Beth Hayden

At this point, we hope you’re seeing how content marketing can transform an online business into a runaway success story.  It’s probably less obvious how you might go about doing that with a more traditional brick-and-mortar business. But those under-explored territories can be particularly fertile ground for a solid content strategy. Today we’ll talk about just one example.

#4 Mining Your Social Networks for Content Marketing Ideas by Sujan Patel

Creating compelling content that engages your readers isn’t as simple as pressing a button or running an automated link building tool (of course, the things that are effective usually require more effort to complete!). You’ve got to actually work to uncover the ideas that your audience will respond best to and to put these ideas into practice in engaging content pieces.

#5 Nurturing Leads: Content Strategy for Mid-Funnel by David Lewis

The secret to using content with marketing automation to nurture leads is making sure you’re having a conversation. David Lewis of DemandGen speaks at Content Marketing Bootcamp about how to get away from “batch and blast” and create strategic, conversational nurture campaigns that pull leads down the sales funnel.

#6 The Secret Recipe for Viral Content Marketing Success by Kelsey Libert

Let’s assume you know the basics: content marketing is one of the best ways to engage with audiences and potential customers online. It is useful for improving search rankings, increasing brand engagement and loyalty, increasing brand visibility, and encouraging social sharing and interaction.

#7 Inspiring Content Marketing Case Studies by Lisa Mason

In a time when social media marketing has pretty much taken the headlines, it can be easy to forget the more consistent foundations that are still relevant, but perhaps not as talked about. Content marketing is still a highly viable, useful and frequently used form of outreach.

#8 3 Keys to Activating an Audience with Smarter Content by Ben Straley

Everyone’s talking about content marketing these days. OK, maybe not “everyone,” but certainly a whole bunch of people are doing so within the search marketing and digital media business. So what’s all the hoopla about anyway?

#9 Rethinking Relevance in Content Marketing by David Gould

If content marketing is utilizing content to engage an audience and compel them toward business objectives, then relevance is clearly determined by how effectively the content does so. Relevant content resonates with the intended audience – it speaks to their needs and interests.

#10 How to become an Influencer through Content and Relationship Marketing by Jason Acidre

Being an influencer has a lot of perks. Aside from being respected in your industry, it also opens a lot of opportunities for business/professional growth. Prominence or an influential status is very important in online marketing, since it can almost always speed up the process of getting your audience/customers’ trust.

Enjoy!

What a busy week for content marketing. Lots of great gems. Here are the top 10!

#1 16 Content Marketing Golden Rules to Increase Social Engagement by Pam Moore

Many business leaders under estimate the work required to develop good content marketing that drives real results. Many think it’s as easy as a simple blog post and you’re done. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

#2 How to Write 100 Blog Articles in Under 5 Hours: An Amazing Content Marketing Story by Marcus Sheridan

At this point in my career as a consultant, I’m happy to say I no longer work for person #1. In fact, it has become my entire goal to find the outliers in each industry that are willing to be digital renegades and quit looking for excuses as to why they “can’t” do certain things and instead embrace the possibilities of what “can” be done if they simply make it a priority.

#3 Content marketing strategy: content formats in the new buyer journey by J-P De Clerck

Just as is the case with most other smart marketing tactics and in an integrated marketing approach, a content marketing strategy is essential to succeed. Such a strategy is built around the buyer journey or customer journey during which buyers consult several content sources.

#4 Turbocharge Your Content Marketing Machine by Alastair Kane

Content marketing is a precise art. It is an art because it relies on creativity for its successful consummation. It is precise because the right type of content, aimed at the right kind of people in the right type of place at the right time, will facilitate the achievement of your online marketing goals.

#5 The Advanced Guide to Content Marketing by Neil Patel

We wanted to give you the most extensive and detailed guide of advanced content marketing techniques available today. This resource is chock full of tactical, immediately actionable ideas that you can implement in your own business.

#6 How to Stop Jargon From Pulling the Plug Out of Your Powerful Content by Dennis McCafferty

We live in the Age of Jargon-Geddon, buried under a blizzard of buzzwords.  For example, during the day, we use expressions such as “core competencies” (meaning: “what we’re good at“), “best of breed” (are we talking about show dogs?), and “ideate” (as opposed to “think?”).

#7 Five Ways to Inspire a Culture for Content Marketing by Gini Dietrich

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”  That’s a quote credible sources attribute to Peter Drucker.  I’ve come to realize companies tend to fall into one of three culture camps: Those who believe in culture, those who don’t, and those who pay lip service to the concept.

#8 3 Ways to Use Content Marketing to Generate Demand by Barb Schmitz

In traditional marketing, much-coveted sales leads were immediately “thrown over the wall” to the sales team, which would then be tasked with following up, qualifying and—hopefully—securing the sale. Today’s marketing mix is vastly different and includes non-traditional forms of marketing, such as content marketing, that have changed the way sales leads are generated.

#9 Creative Content Marketing Strategy from Brands Killing It with Content by Miranda Miller

Content marketing has exploded over the past year and will continue to grow in importance throughout 2013. Still, many marketers make the mistake of rushing to publish or producing content without a purpose in an effort to capitalize on the trend.

#10 How to Use Keyword Tools to Brainstorm Blog Topics [Quick Tip] by Lindsey Kirchoff

There are a ton of ideas out there on how to come up with content inspiration when you’re stuck. But my favorite content trick comes from customer Marcus Sheridan — and it’s so good, even the New York Times approves.

Enjoy!

Here are this week’s top 10 social media marketing articles!

#1 How to Master Social Customer Acquisition by Shanelle Mullin

We live our lives in social media. When you go on vacation, all 1,049 of your Facebook friends will see the pictures of you lounging on the beach. When you’re stuck in traffic on a Monday morning and need to vent, your Twitter followers are there for you! In fact, there are 3.2 billion interactions on Facebook and over half a billion tweets published every single day.

#2 The Must-Have Resources for Community Managers, According to Them by Don Power

Generating, growing, and engaging a group of people on social media in support of a business or a brand is no easy feat. As we’ve seen in a number of previous articles on Sprout Insights, the role of a community manager is a multi-faceted career involving very specific skills sets, connections, and resources in order to be successful in one’s job.

#3 Running a Contest on Facebook Successfully and Legally by Carter Schimpff

The first step to running a successful contest on Facebook is to make sure that your contest (and possibly your page) stay on Facebook, by following the rules. You see, Facebook has set out some very concrete guidelines where contests are concerned, and it has no compunction (and every right) to pull both your contest and your page down if they feel you’ve violated those guidelines.

#4 18 Fresh Stats About the Current State of Social Media Marketing by Ginny Soskey

At some point or another, we’ve all heard people spout off about the “death” of social media. One day someone announces a boycott of Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest — the next day, the social network is growing exponentially.

#5 Five ways using “controversy” as a content strategy backfires by Mark Schaefer

I recently listened in on a webinar where a young guy was pontificating on the best strategies to build an audience for your content. A pillar of his presentation was “be controversial.”  This struck me as odd.  Is “controversy” really a sustainable position for a content marketing strategy?  The more I thought about this, the more I disliked this advice.

#6 Social Media Checklist: How to Engage Prospects Through Social Media by Carolyn Edgecomb

Simply being on Facebook and Twitter and posting sporadically does not count as an effective use of social media.  Your social media activity should be engaging your prospects and generating excitement about your company or brand.

#7 Are Social Media “Experts” Worthless? by Sonia Simone

Gary Vaynerchuk, in his usual low-key, mellow way, said last month that 99.5% of social media experts are clowns. This immediately prompted a schoolyard-style kicking of the whole idea of a social media expert, with one prominent writer saying that anyone who does it for a living should “go die in a fire.” And that was one of the nicer responses.

#8 How to Improve Your Social Media Calls to Action by Heidi Cohen

Is your audience responding to your social activities?  Have you integrated the right calls to action into your social media strategy?  A call to action is a way for you to entice your social media audience to focus their attention on the next action you want them to take.

#9 The Secret to Acquiring Profitable Customers on Facebook by Kate Harrison

This week I wanted to share more insights from the Performance Marketing Insights conference   in New York – a “two-day content-led performance marketing conference aimed at senior decision makers & marketing professionals from advertisers, publishers, networks, agencies and tech companies.”  Speaker: Marc Grabowski. COO of Nanigans. Marc has managed over $200,000,000 worth of ad spending.

#10 Brian Solis: How to Connect Social Media Strategies and Business Value by Brian Solis

In business, social media is becoming a lot like email. Every company has it. In an Altimeter Group survey of 700 executives and social strategists fielded in late 2012, we found that 100 percent of participating enterprise organizations run to varying extents an active social media strategy.

Enjoy

Here are the top 10 social media marketing articles of this week!

#1 My Steps for Fueling New Business Through Social Media by Michael Gass

Since I launched my consultancy using social media in 2007, social media has become main-lined into traditional marketing. But, a lot of agencies  were caught “flat-footed” when it caught fire, being fueled by the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression.

#2 How to Diagnose the Health of Your Social Media Strategy by Ashley Zeckman

A healthy social media strategy will take into consideration the needs of your prospects and customers, as well as finding ways to efficiently plan, track, and measure your efforts.  But the question remains, how can you really determine if your social media strategy has a pulse?

#3 Interview: Sales Professionals on Effective Social Media Strategy by Nacie Carson

For those marketing and promoting their businesses on social media, it came as a surprise when Eric Schmidt, senior manager of marketing strategy and insights at Coca-Cola, told AdAge magazine in March 2013 that there was no “statistically significant relationship between our [social media] buzz and short-term sales.” But is that accurate for every business — or even Coca-Cola?

#4 5 Social Media Management Tools You Should Consider by Jamie Turner

Have your social media activities spiraled out of control?  Are you looking for tools to simplify the management of your social media marketing?  Would you like better insight into your audience or the ability to compare your social activities against the competition?

#5 The Small Wins From Social Media by Mitch Joel

There is an arm’s race – of sorts – for brands to reach a million fans (or more) on Facebook. Brands will look to see how many people are connected to their number one competitor (or the industry leader), and that acts as some kind of key performance indicator as to where they should be in fan accumulation.

#6 The 2013 Twitter Marketing Guide by Kristi Hines

Are you ready to immerse yourself and your business in Twitter this year? Are you a Twitter user who hasn’t caught up with the latest updates and tools for Twitter? This guide is for you!

#7 Why Social Media Command Centers Need to Be Less Like GI JOE by Jeff Berezny

Over the past couple of years, as large international entreprises have begun to realize the importance of social media strategy and marketing, there has been a new phenomenon that has sprouted up called a ‘Social Media Command Center’.  These are generally great initiatives that can help hurdle organizations forward in the social media space.

#8 10 top rated tools for your Social Media Monitoring Toolbox by Hugo Ludbrook

Here I look at 10 top rated tools that help B2B companies listen, engage, promote and analyze in the realm of social media. The past couple of years have seen a huge growth of add-on tools to help companies with their social media strategy and monitoring.

#9 5 ways social media can cost you a great new job by Amy Levin-Epstein

For instance, you can develop digital relationships with a company you want to work for on Twitter or publicize your professional portfolio through your blog and Facebook. But social media can also sabotage your chance of getting a great, new gig.

#10 The Business of Being Social: brands need to plan, listen, analyse and engage by David Taylor

For years, large organisations have employed press officers or PR agencies to protect their brand against incorrect or damaging allegations and stories. Such activity was reasonably straightforward when there were just a handful of different media channels to police.

I hope you enjoy these great articles. I sure did!