On Wednesday, May 13, I gave a talk for Naper Launch, an initiative of the Naperville Public Library to help entrepreneurs launch businesses, in honor of Small Business Week. Here's how it went.

Twitter and Facebook ads, content marketing, search engine optimization – with so many evolving options to consider, it’s easy to get caught up in the details and lose focus on the bigger picture. Are you sabotaging your business because you aren’t properly prepared to make marketing decisions?

The first step in having a successful social media marketing campaign is having great content to share with the masses. But, what comes next? Distributing your content! I’ve been using and doing research on some sponsored options and most recently have been looking into LinkedIn’s Sponsored Updates. LinkedIn Sponsored Updates are a paid media option for sharing your messages with the right people. Is it something worth looking into? In my opinion, if you’re considering a business to business paid campaign option, I think it is. 

Let me start by saying –not every business needs to be on Instagram. I think we have a tendency nowadays, with all of these different social networks, to try to be everywhere, everyone, and everything. Instagram is slightly different than your average social media platform and, when used for marketing, it’s really used to show your business’ creativeness, humor, passion, etc. If you’re considering an Instagram account as a marketing tool for your business, ask yourself if your target audience is active on Instagram and, if so, have any of your competitors been successful with it? If so, then you should definitely jump in. There are a few basics that you should be sure to check on your list. Like any social platform used for marketing –you’ll have to take a step back and work out a plan, understand there is going to be some sort of testing and tracking phase, and expect a few kinks as you’re learning your way.

No, email marketing is not dead.  In fact, email marketing is kind of huge right now.  I can tell you that with Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Crazy Holiday Deal Madness behind me -I did most of my online shopping based on email marketing campaigns sent from a few stores I frequent online.  I can also tell you that I am a repeat shopper at most of those places online not only because I love their products, but also because they continually send me emails that hit the nail right on the head.  What are they doing right?  I'm glad you asked...

Vine definitely isn't a social media website like Facebook or Twitter -it's an app.  However, more and more people are diving in and using apps to create marketing campaigns that they can then turn around and promote across their more conventional social media platforms.

Technology seems to be a living, breathing entity.  As marketers, we are constantly watching as the parameters change, the norms become distant memories, and the things we never thought we'd be marketing with are now front and center.  Take Snapchat for instance.