We always push the importance of content marketing to businesses. Having articles and relevant content on your areas of expertise that you can link back to your website is a great asset. While we’re working hard to churn out new and relevant content on a weekly basis, it’s easy to overlook the great content that we’ve already produced. If you’re writing a blog (weekly, monthly, yearly, whatever) and/or publishing content online, your previous articles are still a great resource for your marketing campaign!

Well, for the first time since 2010 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has updated its FAQ page for endorsement requirements. For those who are unfamiliar, the FTC is the agency that enforces U.S. truth-in-advertising laws. 90% of you still probably don’t know what I’m talking about since it seems like social media marketers aren’t exactly away that there are certain regulations on posting. Whether you know or not though, there is an agency that enforces these laws and they are becoming more specific when it comes to posting and running contest or promotions on social media. Essentially the FTC’s point stays that any material relationships between brand and endorser on social media must be clearly and conspicuously disclosed and they are diving in further by providing a detailed guideline on social media issues that have come to light in the last few years.

Surprise, surprise. There’s been another shift in the marketing and social media marketing world. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve already seen it pretty heavily in action other the past year or so. You’ve probably already purchased products based on it. What is it? Influencer Marketing. What does that mean? Well, influencer marketing is basically where brands take their products and team up with an “influencer” to demonstrate/sample/review their product. For instance, a monthly subscription box of makeup samples might team up with a YouTuber. That YouTuber would receive a free box, make a video where they use and try the products, and all of their followers would see the video. Very simple and extremely effective.

With the amount of time and effort we pour into marketing our businesses, you would think that we'd be more interested in keeping and reaching the people that are interested in our services/products vs those that aren't.  However, it seems like a lot of businesses are looking for big numbers.  More followers, more likes, and more sign ups.  Sure, there's power in numbers, but what if you're wasting valuable marketing dollars on people who don't care what you're selling?

Still giving Facebook hashtags a go?  Great! Assuming you're using them correctly... If you're using hashtags on Facebook, you have to remember that it's not the same platform as Twitter.  There are different rules that apply.  The same basic structure is set up though.  You type in a "#" symbol and then whatever single word or phrase without spaces that you want to use (sans symbols).  What else do you need to remember though?

At this point, many businesses have taken the initiative to put themselves out there.  Businesses are reaching their customers like never before through websites, blogs, newsletters, and social media.  With what seems like 30 new social media platforms a minute, it can be difficult to decide which network is worth putting a big chunk of your time into and which might not need as close of an eye on it.

A large majority of social media networks are following the trend and becoming publishing platforms. Users are taking advantage of the opportunity to publish their original content to propel readers back to their own sites, businesses, products, etc. Social media marketing and content marketing are very much merged at this point. Platforms, like LinkedIn, who are encouraging content marketing with features like LinkedIn Pulse are also adding better analytics for publishers to able to better target readers and to have the ability to adapt their content to the preference of those readers. 

Hootsuite recently launched a new feature they are referring to as "Suggestions".   This new feature gives users the ability to get a weeks worth of content suggestions tailored to each specific social media account that users have tied in to their Hootsuite account.  It was advertised within Hootsuite as a new feature designed to save time and to find the best articles possible to share at the best times possible.  Those of us who have been poking around with it here or there over the past few weeks have learned that the Suggestions' beta period is now closing.  The new rules following that beta period are that users can share 10 articles per week or upgrade their accounts for unlimited shares.  So, is it worth upgrading to unlimited?  And, what has my experience with Suggestions been?

Say it isn’t so! You’re talking to a dedicated “googler” over here. I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz lately about Pinterest being the new Google and at first I rolled my eyes and said a sarcastic OKAY, but now that I’ve sat back and thought about it a bit … I’m guilty of searching on Pinterest too. This can be a pretty positive shift for those who are marketing (or should be marketing) on Pinterest. With its power in search growing, this can translate into serious dollars for Pinterest marketers.

We've all seen them -cringeworthy posts on social media that we wish we could take back for the other person.  I've had severe secondhand embarrassment for someone who posted a questionable status or photo on social media.  Selfie on a toilet anyone?  A completely insensitive joke with a hashtag #toosoon?  Now let's translate that to brands on social media.  Brands are not immune to social media faux pas.  There are a few safe bets when it comes to social media don'ts.