By Alexandra Reid
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of some of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are Social Media Explorer, TopRank, Financial Post, Forrester, Forbes, Copyblogger, and Startup North.
How data hype is destroying your social media ROI
We are all looking for the latest nugget of data that will help us optimize our social media strategies for success. Every time we see a post with an infographic about the best time to tweet or what social networks our audience is using we get excited thinking it’s just the right information to help us take our social media strategy to the next level. That’s why you see so many status updates hyping the data because it’s finally the answer we’ve been looking for … or is it?
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By Alexandra Reid
It is commonplace to see businesses participating on social media, but many are failing to achieve the delicate balance between self-promotion and providing value.
Worse, businesses are misunderstanding what promotion on social media entails. They’re shouting at their audiences while failing to provide any reason for them to listen.
Imagine walking into a cocktail party and, without listening for even a moment to the various conversations taking place, shouting at the top of your lungs about your latest company promotion to no one in particular. If it’s an exceptionally valuable deal like, “We’re giving away free Macbook Pros tomorrow at noon,” you might get some attention because the guests will quickly recognize how it benefits them. However, your less-than-charming approach will not leave the most positive and lasting impression about yourself or your company.
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By Alexandra Reid
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of some of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are MarketingSherpa, Fast Company, MarketingProfs, SocialTimes, and Jeremiah Owyang.
Content marketing: 3 tips from the trenches
Short and sweet, MarketingSherpa provides three content marketing gems in this post.
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By Alexandra Reid
Following the release of her latest book, Marketing in the Round, I sat down with award-winning marketer Gini Dietrich to discuss the new push for businesses to break down organizational silos and adopt a “round” approach to marketing operations. In this podcast, Gini explains what’s going on in the marketing world today that convinced her it was a good idea to write this book, steps to develop a “round” marketing process, and shares specific applications for this approach for all kinds of businesses.
Our conversation was recorded over Skype and, due to sound quality issues, had to be edited significantly. The meat and potatoes are solid, though, and so I encourage you to have a listen.
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By Alexandra Reid
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of some of the best articles we read in the past week. On the podium this week are Velocity, Forrester, TopRank, The Washington Post, and Econsultancy.
‘You had me at hello’ – How to nail personalized marketing in B2B
Say “persona” to a marketer and nine times out of 10 he or she will need to fight an involuntary eye-roll reflex. Author Ryan Skinner is on a one-man mission to turn personas into the sexiest topic you work with. He covers a few simple ways to apply personas so that people see your marketing and think “Damn. I wish I did that.”
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By Alexandra Reid 
