Mediaboss Marketing

VerticalResponse, a provider of self-service marketing software for small businesses, yesterday unveiled its new social media platform, VerticalResponse Social. Among other benefits, the platform helps businesses save time by creating, managing, and measuring their email and social marketing efforts from one dashboard.

In a recent survey of 300 small and medium-sized businesses, more than one-half (52 percent) said they use social media to promote their businesses, according to consulting firm BIA/Kelsey. Although SMBs are generally embracing social media, they often face logistical challenges, notes VerticalResponse CEO Janine Popick.

"Large businesses have employees and whole departments dedicated to social media and creating content," Popick comments. "Small businesses don't have that luxury...secondly, they often don't know what to post."

According to Popick, VR Social solves both problems. Users can publish content on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn from one dashboard, respond to conversations, and create and schedule social media campaigns. The platform also provides suggested content such as quotes, blog posts, and news items for the user to share with the company's fans and followers.

SMBs also can see how many people retweeted, shared, liked, commented, or clicked on their content. Each post also gets an engagement score to make it easier to determine what followers like for future posts. The platform is free for 30 days, after which customers must pay an $18 monthly subscription fee.

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VerticalResponse Releases Integrated Social Media Platform for Marketers

CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwire -06/20/12)- Valerie Jennings, CEO and founder of Jennings Social Media Marketing (JSMM), is scheduled to participate as a panelist during the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) World Conference in Chicago during a sponsored session by Marketwire.

Jennings is looking forward to bringing her experience and expertise to the international conference. "I am honored to be participating during the social media session sponsored by Marketwire. We have worked hard internally to educate ourselves about the latest trends, insights and tactics. Our case studies illustrate quantifiable metrics in the travel, technology, health care, entertainment, real estate and automotive industries across the U.S. and overseas. I want to thank Marketwire for this amazing opportunity," said Jennings.

The IABC conference will be divided into sessions that feature seven professional development tracks which will offer state-of-the art research and thought-provoking workshops. In addition, the conference will provide learning opportunities on how to approach the plentiful possibilities in the new business environment during the next three years and beyond, while featuring speakers from around the globe.

JSMM is a full service company that utilizes the art of online storytelling with the science of measuring quantifiable results. JSMM creates comprehensive social media marketing, mobile, Web videos and website design and development strategies. The company represents publicly traded to medium-sized businesses across the U.S. and overseas including technology, sports, sustainability, entertainment, travel, financial, health care and real estate (www.jenningssocialmedia.com).

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Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing, to Participate at IABC World Conference as Panelist in Chicago

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire -06/20/12)- Small- and medium-sized businesses rate email and social media marketing channels as the easiest to use and the most cost-effective for customer communications and marketing. Campaigner, an email marketing service and brand of j2 Global, Inc. (JCOM) that empowers companies to better attract and retain business through creative email marketing campaigns, is introducing new features that integrate the two favored tactics. The new social sharing functionality allows businesses to take a more holistic approach to online marketing and brand development.

"The synergies between email marketing and social media are evident, particularly as email marketers explore the value of enabling their messages to be easily shared on social networks like Facebook and Twitter," said Paul Turnbull, Product Manager, Campaigner. "Instead of having to deal with both an email marketing service and social media management tool, customers now have the ability to share emails on multiple social platforms through one easy-to-use interface. We are excited to deliver on many of the top requests from our customers and look forward to meeting their evolving email marketing needs."

With the highly anticipated incorporation of the share-with-your-network (SWYN) functionality, email marketers' subscribers can now pass along emails they receive to their own networks via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ using sharable permalinks. Available in both Campaigner's Email Editor and Smart Email Builder, email marketers can now amplify email marketing messaging by using the new Campaigner 'sharebar' and add social sharing links within emails. This allows subscribers to pass along content like promotional offers and insightful newsletters to prospective subscribers. These new social sharing capabilities enable email marketers to be more discoverable, extend the reach and enhance the life of their email campaigns, and provide another means of building subscriber lists.

As subscribers begin to share content, email marketers have more means to grow their email subscriber lists. Campaigner measures the views originating from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ to help customers gain insights into the impact of each social media channel and track the success of new shareable email campaigns.

Subscription Management Simplified and Customized

Campaigner has also added new functionality for customizing subscription management forms and messaging. Businesses can customize how subscribers can access and manage email preferences, edit their contact information, and opt-in or out of mailing lists and types of campaigns they receive. This allows email recipients to more easily change preferences, update their email address or unsubscribe completely using clear, dedicated forms and help ensure compliance with regulations such as CAN-SPAM.

As part of this functionality, users now easily control which mailing lists are exposed when subscribers update their preferences for a specific email campaign. In addition, it is now possible to make any mailing list visible or hidden, which can be useful to separate mailing lists used solely for internal contact groupings versus those mailing lists that your subscribers can opt-in or out of.

Additional features now available to Campaigner users include:

For more information about Campaigner's new features, visit http://www.campaigner.com/whatsnew and view the video tutorial at http://www.campaigner.com/resources/tutorials/csb/Social_Sharing/.

About Campaigner

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Social-Savvy Small Businesses: Campaigner Provides New Connection Between Email Programs & Social Platforms

This article is written by a member of our expert contributor community.

Our training firm, Social Media Marketing University, recently did a survey of entrepreneurs, executives, marketing pros, and social media practitioners, and discovered this fact: 65% of those executing social media campaigns were self-taught.

What makes social media so tempting as a marketing tool for businesses is the fact that, unless you opt for paid advertising on these sites, using them is absolutely free. However, that temptation can also be a trap. Because social media can seem so easy to use, it's also easy to misuse--in ways that can backfire on your business.

Expertise matters a great deal when you're performing any business task, and social media is no exception. Trying to feel your way through a social media campaign can potentially create a disconnect between you and your target audience.

A recent Intuit survey shows a marked contrast between what companies believe attracts consumers and what those consumers think. Most small business owners (51%) feel that wall posts are the best way to engage potential leads, while only 18% of those potential leads agree. 37%, however, say that special offers and/or discounts are what really grab their attention.

Being an amateur in any arena causes you to make mistakes you shouldn't. In social media, that problem is magnified by the fact that you're making your miscues in front of the whole world. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is becoming more sophisticated about Facebook, LinkedIn, and the like--and that group probably includes your competition.

So, the next time you think about updating your status, up your marketing game as well--and consider the following three important points:

1. Creating an effective social media overall strategy is crucial.

Here's a frightening fact (at least to a business)--two-thirds of everyone who uses social media has never, ever "followed" a brand. That indicates that companies are not giving consumers compelling reasons to be "fans" on social media sites. If you don't have a real social media plan, you won't have a consistent and engaging presence that achieves your business goals.

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For Social Media Marketing, Go Pro Or Go Home

18-06-2012 21:22 2012 Cause Marketing Forum Conference - An Interview with Sheri Turnbow, Director of Partner Marketing of World Wildlife Fund (3BL Media) Sheri Turnbow, Director of Partner Marketing of World Wildlife Fund sat down for an interview at the 2012 Cause Marketing Forum Conference, which took place May 30th and 31st in Chicago, IL. The annual Cause Marketing Forum is the must-attend conference of the year focusing solely on this increasingly important marketing approach and subset of corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. Appropriate for both novice and seasoned cause marketers, the annual Cause Marketing Forum covers a wide range of topics featuring expert cause marketing speakers and discussion group leaders. More than 500 attendees gained insight from marketing and corporate social responsibility professionals from Zynga, Procter & Gamble, Campbell's Soup Company, Whirlpool, ANN Inc., Yum! Brands, The Coca-Cola Company, AOL/Huffington Post Media Group and other companies. Nonprofit speakers included representatives from US Fund for UNICEF, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, KaBOOM!, ACCION, World Wildlife Fund, DoSomething.org, March of Dimes, Adopt a Clasroom and others. Cause Marketing Forum, Inc., producer of the Cause Marketing Forum conference and Cause Marketing Halo Awards, helps business and nonprofit executives succeed together by providing access to practical information and inspiration, opportunities to build valuable relationships and recognition for ...

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An Interview with Sheri Turnbow, Director of Partner Marketing of World Wildlife Fund - Video