Marketing can be very effective when executed correctly. However, like anything else, it can also be ineffective if done poorly. People and businesses tend to get frustrated when they feel they have dumped a lot of time and money into marketing and aren’t seeing Return-On-Investment (ROI) or the results they want. According to an article by Ryan Caligiuri in The Globe and Mail, you can put all the money and time in the world into marketing and still fail to see results if you don’t remember one thing: marketing is a process.

Caligiuri says that there are 3 fatal marketing errors to avoid, including: failing to take it slow, neglecting your best buyers, and leading with tactics. To read about these errors and how to avoid them, check out the full article.

For help effectively using marketing, contact Sagefrog Marketing Group. Visit www.sagefrog.com.

We’ve all heard of the “less is more” concept. It turns out marketers should pay attention to these words of wisdom. In a world filled with information bombarding people all around, it’s important to keep your target audience in mind — and what do they want? A larger quantity of instant information? Or simpler, easier and quality information?

For more information on “less is more” in marketing, read the Welcome to “Less is More” Marketing by TwistImage.

Need help with marketing? Contact Sagefrog Marketing Group, a full service, business-to-business marketing, interactive, public relations and advertising agency serving companies in the greater Philadelphia and New Jersey area. We utilize strategy, creativity and a proven process to help our clients reach the next level. Visit http://www.sagefrog.com/

Ever thought about what happens to your email accounts, Facebook, Twitter and other online identities after you pass? According to an article by Rebecca J. Rosen in The Atlantic, nearly half a million people with Facebook accounts passed away last year. So what were family and friends left to do – create a memorial page? Leave the account open? Shut it down?

Rosen says the government is now suggesting that people create a Social Media Will when estate planning that will help friends or families know what to do with all of your online accounts. What do you want to happen to your online accounts? Is writing a Social Media Will a smart idea?

What do some of the most successful businesses – think Coca Cola, McDonalds, Nike, etc. – have in common? They have all created a strong brand. And if you want your business to join the ranks of these and other successful companies, the key is to start with developing your brand. Unless, of course, you’d like to join the large group of other businesses that no one remembers?

Check out this article about building a strong brand and contact Sagefrog (www.sagefrog.com) to get started on building your business’s brand!

If your business is like most, you probably have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn page, a YouTube channel and a blog. And you also may wonder how is the time and effort I put into managing these accounts paying off?

It’s a question many businesses are constantly asking. According to Social Media Marketing, an article in Smart Business by Krista Neher, measuring ROI from social media is as challenging if not more challenging than measuring ROI for traditional marketing for many reasons, including:

• Brand impressions differ
• Direct marketing return
• Customer retention return
• Word-of-mouth return
• Awareness and exposure
• Don’t hold social media too highly

Read the full article here.

After the recent news of prospective employers asking for job candidate’s Facebook passwords,  it makes sense that those searching for a job may be a little concerned about what their social media profiles say about them.

But according to an article called “Social Media Secrets from Hiring Managers,” by David Mielach, a BusinessNewsDaily staff writer, a new survey reveals that 65 percent of hiring managers who checked social networks did so to see how job candidates presented themselves while 51 percent wanted to determine whether the candidate was a good fit for the organization.

Only about 12 percent of hiring managers were looking at social media sites to find reasons NOT to hire a candidate.

Mielach writes that the most common strike against candidates was posting inappropriate or provocative pictures online. Information about drinking or drug use, poor communication skills, bad-mouthing a prior employee, making a discriminatory remark and lying about qualifications on social media were other reasons for not hiring a candidate.

Some things that helped job candidates were showing their personality, conveying a professional image, providing background info, showing a wide-range of interests, displaying communication skills, being creative and having people post references about you.

READ MORE.

Source: “Social Media Secrets from Hiring Managers,” Fox Small Business Center http://bit.ly/ISlmTE

The term “social media marketing” isn’t new. But many small and medium-sized businesses aren’t entirely sure how to effectively take advantage of social media marketing (SMM). And success story after success story proves that some companies are doing it right. However, according to an article by Chris Horton in “Business 2 Community,” the sad truth is that social media is proving to be a “bust” for most companies.

Horton says these are the main reasons:

Weak Brand Advocacy – Businesses should use social media to build brand advocates. SMM gives companies reach, empowering brands to leverage their content and messaging more effectively than other marketing channels. MORE.

Failure to Drive Web Traffic – SM is the new promotion. And companies that do not integrate their website and SM are blowing a huge opportunity to drive web traffic. MORE.

Poor Lead Generation – The best source of a website lead is a recently-satisfied convert from one of your SM channels. But data from 2011 suggest that 63% of B2B businesses were not generating leads from SM. These companies were generating traffic, but they were not converting that traffic  into leads. MORE.

Has social media marketing worked for you business? Share your success story with us!

In the last week, there has been a social media topic that has really exploded – should prospective employers be able to ask for your social networking passwords? It’s common knowledge that when applying for jobs, candidates should clean up their social networking profiles (e.g. removing photos of questionable behavior from Facebook; removing profanity from Twitter, etc.). And it should go without saying that employers are most likely not looking to hire someone who practices illegal or dishonest behavior and then publicly boasts about it. But should aspects of your Facebook, such as private messages, be scrutinized and viewed by a company who is interviewing you for a job? Does this infringe upon privacy rights? Many people and companies think so, including Facebook who recently issued a statement saying they don’t approve of such behavior. What do you think – would you give a prospective employer your Facebook password or give up on the job?

Here’s a good article for the argument against allowing companies to ask job candidates for their passwords. http://lat.ms/HhgDQg

Business 2 Community recently released an article, How B2B Marketers can Embrace Social Media, in which author Dragan Mestrovic uses Sagefrog’s B2B Marketing Mix Survey to highlight the 4 ways companies can leverage social media:

• Increase brand awareness
• Humanize B2B companies
• Establish as thought leader
• Connecting with customers and prospects

The article also illustrates B2B social media using infographics, and discusses sites, strategies and tactics that B2B marketers are using in their business social media.