Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

In few professions has the emergence of social media been such a double-edged sword as public relations. On one hand, the “citizen journalism,” blogging, and content-sharing platforms for all types of media have fundamentally altered the traditional print-based business model of professional and trade publications. Information scarcity has been replace by information overload.

There are fewer professional reporters and editors, and they inundated with more noise: it’s estimated there are now four PR professionals for every full-time journalist in the US.

On the other, given their skills in relationship-building and content development, PR professionals (should at least) have a natural knack for social media success. And recent changes to Google’s search algorithm which place a premium value on earned links—the kind generated by effective PR and social media engagement—have increased the value PR professionals bring to maximizing overall brand visibility....

Here is the first part of a two-part series on ways you can increase your small business's reach and visibility....

How to market effectively is one of the biggest challenges faced by small businesses and entrepreneurs today. There are many marketing techniques that can be used, and choosing the right approach for your business is not easy. Small businesses also have limited budget to use on marketing which makes it even more challenging.

A good marketing strategy is a very valuable tool for any business. In order for your business to be successful, it is essential for people know about your brand as well as the products and services you offer. This is where a good online marketing strategy can help. In this two-part article, we will take a look at some of the most effective strategies to market your small business. These will help to increase your reach and improve the visibility of your business in front of your targeted audience.

Here is the first part of “35 effective strategies to market your small business effectively”. The remaining points will be covered in part two of the article....

Still, Twitter’s taken the lead for a few reasons that Lichtenstein delves into, and that will be gone into a bit more detail here to be sure that business owners and entrepreneurs know exactly how they can use Twitter to really boost their social media marketing campaign....

Historically (and statistically), social media has always skewed slightly favourably towards women, and recent studies suggest that almost three-quarters (71 percent) of internet female users are active on one or more social media sites, compared to slightly less than two-thirds (62 percent) of men.

Typically, women are more likely to use Twitter (which has a 62 percent female populous), Facebook (58 percent women) and, of course, Pinterest (70 percent women), whereas men dominate Google+ (64 percent men), LinkedIn (54 percent men) and YouTube (54 percent men). Of course, collectively both genders add up an awful lot of social networkers. Indeed, there are more combined social media users in the U.S. than there are people in Japan. The infographic below takes a closer look at how men and women are using social media....

Just when he was getting the hang of Twitter, Facebook and generating Justin Bieber-type numbers of followers, the world was shocked to learn of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation Monday.

This is a look inside the first social media Pope, his surprise resignation and the challenges posed by social media....