5 Ways to Turn Helpfulness Into Marketing Greatness

We’ve talked in the past about helping vs. selling, and that the former approach takes you a lot further in the realm of social media and word of mouth marketing. When I discuss this concept with companies, however, too often I hear something in the realm of “we don’t know what to provide our customers […]

Are You Growing Enough Voices

I’m back from my family vacation in Canada. While I was away, Convince & Convert featured 11 guest blog posts from friends, clients, and colleagues. Some of the guest writers blog on occasion at their own sites. None of them blog routinely. You might expect that this blog that has been written almost entirely by […]

Co-op SEO and the Future of Websites

Guest post by Jason Kintzler, the Founder and CEO of PitchEngine, where people go to get the word out. He’s a former journalist turned PR guy and straight shooter at New Media Cowboy. Way back in the early days of PitchEngine (like 2009), people thought we were crazy to offer our social media news release […]

6 Degrees of Influence – The Value of Customer-to-Customer Connections

Guest post by Yael Davidowitz-Neu, a Sales Strategy Analyst at Google responsible for analyzing consumer behavior, search trends and market dynamics.  She is deeply curious, loves all things marketing and blogs less frequently than she would like at Stickystimuli.com. While many businesses are excited about opportunities to reach their customers on the social web, few […]

Protecting Yourself From Social Media Lawsuits

Guest post by Indra Gardiner, founding partner and COO at BG Creative. She spends her days thinking about social media, public relations and digital strategies for her agency’s consumer focused clients. You can find her on Twitter or, if you’re lucky, behind a rolling pin making a fresh pie. Hide! The Lawyers Are Coming Social […]

5 Steps to Winning Fans with Content Strategy

content strategy

Guest post by Mike Corak, Vice President of Strategy at digital consultancy Tallwave, and blogger at Digital Marketing Strategy.   About a year ago, I wrote a guest post here titled “Use Online Listening for Competitive Research. The post explored the topic of utilizing common interactive marketing tools in unintended ways to tap into consumer […]

Get Your Social Media Operations Act Together

Guest post by Josh Lysne, Director of Digital Strategy for the Flint Group of agencies and AdFarm, specializes in the development of multi-channel communication strategies for a wide range of clients ranging from small businesses to large global corporations. When it comes to creating a social media strategy, there is one, often overlooked piece of […]

Social Media is the Servant of Strategy, Not the Master

Guest post by Mike Cassidy, a non-profit Senior Executive Director specializing in membership development, engagement and retention. His ramblings can be found at www.membershipjedi.com This post is a compilation of ideas born out of Jay’s post “Why You’re the Key to Social Media Success” in which he succinctly describes one of the biggest obstacles facing […]

Why the Digital Divide is Death to Your PR Firm

Guest post by Elizabeth Sosnow, Managing Director of BlissPR, a New York City based public relations firm. She develops and supervises strategic communications programs for major companies in professional and financial services, with a particular emphasis on the legal, consulting and insurance industries. I recently had lunch with an old colleague who now works for […]

Wow Online Influencers With An In-Person Experience

Guest post by Paula Hahn Managing Director at Marina Maher Communications (MMC). An expert in marketing to women, she heads the Media Connections practice, focused on managing brand dialogue via traditional and social media. Time is proving that no matter how much social media changes, the core rules of engagement remain the same. Transparency and […]

3 Reasons Email is the Coolest Vampire Today

Guest post by Jeff Rohrs, who heads up the Marketing Research & Education Team at ExactTarget. A driving force behind the company’s SUBSCRIBERS RULE! philosophy, Jeff is also co-author of the ExactTarget/CoTweet SUBSCRIBERS, FANS & FOLLOWERS Research Series. He lives in Cleveland and has not, to his knowledge, ever been bitten by a vampire—although he […]

Social Media Monitoring Tools – How to Pick The Right One

social media monitoring tools comparison

Guest post by Katie Van Domelen, the social media manager at Off Madison Ave in Tempe, Arizona. She specializes in social media strategies that lead to actionable plans to achieve real world objectives. I’ve spent a lot of time working with various social media monitoring tools and I’ve whittled my list of favorites down to […]

Tying Together Social Media and Corporate Social Responsibility

corporate social responsibility

Guest post by Laura Hall, Managing Partner at PainePR. She leads the agency’s social media group, and has more than 20 years experience in consumer, technology, B2B and social media marketing. As the world continues to watch the devastation caused by the BP oil spill, it shines the light much brighter on the impact that […]

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

Greetings from Canada. I’m on vacation in the great white north for a couple weeks, trying to spend a little time with the family and get The Now Revolution (my new book with Amber Naslund) finished up. I have recruited a posse of incredibly smart social media, digital marketing, and public relations thinkers to entertain […]