About Social Marketing

As an email marketer, the primary promotional messaging you do for your business is a no-brainer. Sale coming up? Send the email. Event to RSVP for? Send the email! It’s a marching order of sorts, one that keeps you busy week in and week out, planning for what email is next and which subject line to use and which buttons will drive the most clicks and...

In the mix of it all, are you missing the clear opportunities to build out your programming to make the most of your audience and their engagement? Use the check list below to earn a gold star on your message strategy, or identify the programs...

They say that “two is better than one.” But when it comes to interactive marketing, I’d have to disagree.

I think that ONE is better than two.

We’ve all heard that siloed marketing is unsustainable and a thing of the past—if you keep your interactive marketing data separate from your social, website, point of sale, and other customer data,providing a cohesive brand experience for the end consumer seems further and further away. After all, your customers don’t silo their interactionswith your brand—why should you?

So, how can you unsilo your marketing and start functioning as ONE cohesive unit? 

Sta...

Marketing automation is term that is gaining momentum whether you are a B2B or a B2C marketer.  But what does it mean and what impact will have on your email and cross-channel marketing efforts? 

        
Salesforce and American Data Company will discuss Success in the Social Enterprise, and explore how mobile devices are accelerating and amplifying the social message. We’ll share insights from our 2012 Channel Preference Survey highlighting what motivates consumers to use specific communication channels,...

What is the difference between a Tab and a Fan Page? How is the Social Graph different from Open Graph? Marketers ask us these questions all the time and with help from folks at Facebook, we put together a Glossary to help you master the newest Facebook marketing concepts. We hope you find it useful!

Glossary

Actions and Action Response “AR”
There are a variety of actions within Facebook Ads or Pages including when a user clicks “Like”, “RSVP” or selects a custom action. Another way to think of actions is to think of the traditional “Call-to-Action” like click, call or download. AR stands for...

What is Bazaarvoice Social Summit?

The Social Summit is a two day conference, April 11^th-13th, filled with social strategists and executives from top brands.  These leaders will share trends and strategies for using social data in a customer-centric world.  Join ExactTarget in listening to:

• Top thought leader Keynotes
• Interactive session tracks
• Emerging Bazaarvoice initiatives and strategies

Summit Party 

Thursday, 6:30 PM

Join us, Texas-style, in hanging out with Bazaarvoice and the attendees at their grandest Summit party yet.  A showcase of local bands will set the tone for the evening while we...

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Who's ready for Facebook timeline going live today? Facebook is officially rolling out the Facebook Timeline to all pages who have yet to upgrade to the new design. A little fuzzy on what I'm talking about? That's fair. A couple of months have passed since the initial launch of the FB Timeline and other changes.

Let's take a look back. From our very own Katie Van Domelen:

The new Timeline profile structure that rolled out to users several months ago will now be available for brand Pages (as of today). Facebook has provided brands with a great resource on this new layout, but...

Each Thursday at 11am EDT, marketers from around the world join theExactTarget Nexus partner ecosystem on Twitter for a conversation about trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing industry.  We call the virtual coffee chat the Nexus Café.

Our guest for a recent #NexusCafe chat was Elizabeth Music Industry Marketing Manager, Retail here at ExactTarget.  Elizabeth has over 7 years of experience in the retail industry with a passion for helping retailers improve their digital marketing programs. We discussed how to meet the demands of a hyper-connected consumer. Here's a summary...

The ExactTarget Nexus team invites you to participate in our #NexusCafe Twitter chat tomorrow and every Thursday from 11am-12pm ET, where we discuss emerging topics and trends from across the interactive marketing world. The virtual coffee chat is hosted directly on Twitter, hosted by @ETNexus. Follow the #NexusCafe hashtag and be sure and add the hashtag to your tweet to participate. The person with the best tweets wins a Starbucks gift card!

For our upcoming #NexusCafe chat this week, our featured guest will be me, Elizabeth Music, Industry Marketing Manager, Retail here at ExactTarget. We...

Each Thursday at 11am EDT, marketers from around the world join the ExactTarget Nexus partner ecosystem on Twitter for a conversation about trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing industry.  We call the virtual coffee chat the Nexus Café.

Our guest for a recent #NexusCafe chat was Jeremy Mayes, account executive at PPC Associates. Jeremy has over 15 years of direct marketing experience with a passion for search engine marketing. We discussed fundamentals and insights for maximizing your pay-per-click campaigns. Here's a summary of our discussion:

@ETNexus Q1: What are some...

At their first fMC Facebook Marketing Summit the social network announced three core changes to their brand pages:

1. Timeline for Brand Pages
2. Revamped Advertising Structure
3. Direct Messaging and Upgraded Admin Capabilities

The last group of changes and important (behind TimeLine) is the addition of real-time analytics to Page Insights and direct messaging for branded pages.

That’s right. We now have direct messaging for Page admins. I think I speak for all brand managers,  we have been waiting for direct messaging on branded pages. But more importantly, Facebook also announced the addition of...

Last Wednesday in a packed house at the FMC, we learned new and exciting changes introduced to the way that brands can interact with Facebook users.  Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and VP of Product Chris Cox were among some of the other top Facebook executives sharing all of the new tools becoming available -- from sponsored stories in mobile newsfeeds to display advertising upon logging out of the social network.

What struck me as most interesting was the anticipated makeover of Facebook Fan Pages -- where they now sport a style similar to the recently revamped personal profile Timeline Pages....

Last week Facebook had its first ever conference just for marketers, fMC. During the course of the day several exciting announcements were made that will affect the way that brands do business and engage with customers on Facebook.  We know it can be hard to keep up with the ever-evolving world of social media so we put together this crash course on the upcoming changes.

Lesson 1: Timeline For Pages

The new Timeline profile structure that rolled out to users several months ago will now be available for brand Pages. Over the new few weeks you can opt-in to update your page but by 3.30 all Pages...

Traditional retailers are seeing a major shift with how they communicate with and market to their customers. Gone are the days when brands and retailers told customers what they needed and where to purchase these “needed” items. In today’s retail marketplace the tables have turned. The customers are now in control and we once again have technology to thank. Through the Internet customers now have the ability to find the best price, choose what types of advertisements they are exposed to and can easily share with their friends and family what products they like or dislike. With this shifting of...

I had the pleasure of watching, tracking, and reading about the first ever Facebook Marketing Conference held on Wednesday the 29^th.

Facebook focused the announcements on three core changes:

1. Timeline for Brand Pages
2. Revamped Advertising Structure
3. Direct Messaging and Upgraded Admin Capabilities

At ExactTarget, we understand that the changes in the ever-evolving world of social media can be a little overwhelming. To relieve the pressure, we have put together some crash course blog posts (including this one) on the upcoming changes to the platform.

Let’s get to the changes in the ad platform. Read ‘em...

Facebook will be holding it's first marketing only event tomorrow, February 28^th from Noon – 6 p.m. EST in NYC. While the event is invite only, Facebook is offering a live-stream of the event so you can watch.

I recommend you tune in tomorrow to learn about new social marketing strategies, success stories and maybe even some new product announcements. It should be an interesting day! The big players on the sales and marketing side will be keynoting. Speakers include:

1. Sheryl Sandberg – Chief Operating Officer
2. Chris Cox - VP of Product
3. Mike Hoefflinger – VP of Brand Product Marketing
4. David Fischer -...

I wasn’t able to attend Social Media Week (#SMW) this year, but lucky for us, there are plenty of videos, posts, tweets and mentions that give you a flavor of what’s happening and what people are talking about.  Here are a few tidbits I picked up today:
 
Two years ago, brands thought that Twitter was a fad, today brands are still trying to  figure out how they compare relative to their competition, and how to leverage it to drive their businesses.

Here is some data:

• 12,000 tweets/second after the Superbowl
• 843 Million users on Facebook
• 30% of all Facebook users say they want to BUY...

The actual definition of online identity can vary based on who you are asking. In my opinion online identity surrounds everything you do, say, approve, and share on the social web. It varies based on what social services you are using (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc) and whether you are actually being authentic.

I stumbled across an Ev Williams' blog post about online identity in which he describes the five pieces of online identity - authentication, representation, personalization, communication, and reputation. Simply put, you have to authenticate the "representation" of your personality...