Ok, fellow marketers. You may think you’re extremely smart (and many of you are), but even you are not immune to stupidity. There are simple things that many smart marketers do that make me grind my teeth on a daily basis. Some of these things are specific to a channel, but some are just general tips for interactive marketing. Here’s my list of stupid things smart marketers do:

1. Blindly execute social media.

Many marketers make the mistake of underestimating the power of social media when used correctly. Now before you roll your eyes, I’m not saying it’s the end-all be-all of interactive marketing, because social media can’t stand alone and falls flat without a larger marketing and content strategy. Don’t create a page if you don’t have anything to say.

Here’s a few things to remember when you’re creating a strategy:

• Social media thrives on interaction, so make sure you’re giving your fans and followers something they can’t just read off your website.
• Add some personality to messages so that your fans know there’s actually a person on the other side of the connection.
• Remember that different communities have different personalities, so don’t just spam them all with the same line. If you’ve done your job correctly, people who belong to more than one social community may be following your account on each, so it is a red flag to see the same line of content on each. That flag says you’re spamming me.

2. Turn blog posts into advertisements.

If you’re blogging consistently, you’re on the right track. But if all your blog posts are about your own product or service, you’re really just advertising. Don’t do this! Provide value for the readers of your blog. They didn’t come to your blog to read about how awesome XYZ service is, although you can definitely link to that service or even mention it at the end of a post. The more in-depth and interesting your blog posts are, the more people will realize that a) you know what you’re talking about, and b) you’re not just giving them a used car salesman-type pitch. The best blog posts get the reader to think highly of the author, which makes them think highly of the company, which makes them remember that company when they have a need for your product or service. Be subtle. Give readers the perception that you’re awesome, but don’t shove it down their throats.

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No, Facebook did not fly to Ireland to propose to its boyfriend on Leap Day (though that would have been cool), but it did make some big announcements that will change the way brands interact with their audience on Facebook.

We know a lot of people are writing about this—but we’re sensing a great deal of confusion from our clients and contacts, so we thought we’d explain the most important changes.

Details are still coming out, and we were not at the invite-only Facebook Marketing Camp Wednesday where announcements took place, but here’s a recap of the most important changes from the past few weeks as it applies to marketers.

Timeline for Brands

Ever since Facebook Timeline pages were rolled out for individuals, we suspected that this would be coming soon for pages. Well, timelines are here, and you must switch over by March 30th, whether you like it or not. Here are three things you should know about right now due to this change:

No more landing tabs: You can no longer set a default landing tab for your page. If you were planning on running a contest, driving people to click “like” to get a fan-only coupon, or even pointing ads to a particular landing tab, fuhgetaboutit. Applications will still work in Facebook, but they will show up in the same place where the photos, videos, and friends buttons are now on an individual profile. Woohoo for the bigger image to advertise tabs and apps, but boo for the loss of the landing tab.

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Pinterest delights DIYers, bakers, wedding planners, and anyone who likes looking at cute puppies. This year’s social media darling, Pinterest has become one of the top traffic referral sources for retail and magazine sites. For websites in general, in January 2012, Pinterest drove more traffic than Google Plus, LinkedIn, and YouTube combined.

Holy cow.

Marketers, have no doubt: consumers love Pinterest.

But what the heck is Pinterest, and what should your brand do about it?

Have no fear—this post is here to help!

What is Pinterest?

Have you ever had a bulletin board in your bedroom or above your desk, with little reminders, ideas for later, and pictures of your cat? Or think of the bulletin board full of posters and notices at the gym or the local coffee shop.

Now take that bulletin board, imagine it online, and you’ve got Pinterest.

Basically, Pinterest is a socially connected public bulletin board.  Users create “boards” based around a theme or topic, and then grab images from around the web and “pin” them to that board. Of course, Pinterest is connected to Facebook and Twitter, so users can share their pins with all of their friends.

You don’t need to sign up to browse Pinterest, so it’s easy to take a peek to familiarize yourself. For an example of a very cool personal Pinterest presence, check out Steve McGauhey (who is male, unlike about 70% of Pinterest users on this female dominated platform), and for a brand presence, check out Whole Foods’ profile.

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The following is a guest post from our friend and colleague, Michael Teitelbaum of BMore Integrated. 

Are you generating enough leads to meet your business objectives? How are your company’s marketing activities supporting your sales efforts?

The good news is that in today’s new media environment, it takes less money to market your business and results are more easily measured. The bad news is that it takes more time to develop an effective strategy and even more effort to implement that strategy given the dramatic shift in how people consume media.

Here are ten marketing practices you should follow in order to more effectively market your business:

1. Be Unique: If you haven’t yet identified your unique selling proposition, this should be first on your to do list.  Why should people buy from you as opposed to your competitors? Be as specific as possible. A good place to start is conducting a SWOT analysis.  What are your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? Exhaust each list and be honest. By going through this exercise you will uncover what makes your business unique, which should inform your marketing communications.

2. Think Integration: Align your company vision, mission and core values with your brand position. From that platform, you can craft a consistent message and distribute that message to prospective and existing customers in an integrated way.  Every individual marketing activity should reinforce and complement the others.

3. Get Found: It is far easier to respond to demand than create demand. For this reason, it is essential that your business be prominently displayed in search engines.

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Whether it’s my personal account, my company’s account, or a client’s account, I’m on Twitter every day. I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with some practices that have become (appallingly) common. While some of these grievances certainly reflect my personal preferences, all of these poor practices can damage your professional credibility. The following is a list of particularly heinous Twitter practices that you should immediately discontinue. But never fear, for each action I tell you to stop doing, I will provide you with a better option, a la Women’s Health Magazine’s @EatThisNotThat.

Stop: Automatically direct messaging new followers. This seems to be irresistible to many corporate Twitter accounts. I’m sure you’ve seen those, “Thanks for the follow! Learn more about our services at CompanyX.com” direct messages. The reasoning appears to be that the account wants to show they care and that they appreciate you as an individual follower, but the fact that I have 36 of these sitting in my inbox on Twitter suggests otherwise.  In fact, it tells me that I’m probably one of thousands of followers who receive that same message. And, hello, your web address is more than likely listed on your Twitter page, should I feel the need to go to your site.

Do This Instead: Send a personalized tweet that starts a conversation. This may be more labor-intensive, but it’s a far better option if you want to welcome new followers. Just saying “@rightsource Thanks for the follow! What’s your favorite Company X product?” shows the follower that you’re ready to start a conversation. And, come on, you could mass customize those, right? Have a few responses ready to go and mix them up so you’re not constantly asking the same questions to new followers. While this may not be a feasible option for Twitter juggernauts, you can probably spare a few minutes each day to reach out to new followers in a way that actually shows them you care and appreciate them.

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