A Marketing Mix

There's plenty of room for adoption among brands looking to reach Instagram's enthusiastic audience, and restaurants and hotels have the largest presence currently. No matter the industry, brands should take a quality over quantity approach to Instagram, as recent research finds that post frequency and engagement have an inverse relationship.

When is the best time to tweet, best time to post to Facebook or the best time to send emails or best time to publish blogposts? We found out today:

Have you decided that you need to begin, firmly establish, or update your online presence — but you feel stuck, wondering what platform to use, what networks to join? I’ll help you identify which content management software, social media venues, &/or content curation sites are not only of the most value to your brand & product identities, but best suited to your own assets.

Do you feel overwhelmed by technology? Does trying to understand SEO & PR, let alone implement best practices, leave you feeling frustrated? Does the learning curve threaten your ROI? Time is money, after all; so sweating it out alone can really cost you! Let me help you worry less about the latest plugins and gadgets and, instead, concentrate more on how to collect the data you need — and how to use the data you have.

Do so-called “simple” webpages & profiles intimidate you, forcing you to procrastinate? I’ll personally train you in how to set up those sites with one-on-one tutoring. Or, if you prefer, I can set them up for you.

Whether you could use some help getting started or staying motivated, whether you need someone to steer you in the right direction or just be a sounding board to help you sort out all the things you have read (or that are in your head!), I can help. Schedule a consultation appointment with me, and we can discuss in real-time — on the phone, via chat/instant messenger, or in email — your business needs.

After keynoting at the National Retail Federation conference in New York City on Wednesday, Jack Dorsey took some time to discuss the role of social networking in commerce.

...Social is one of those words we tend to overuse and then becomes meaningless, Dorsey said. "One of the things I would advise people is to really speak in a genuine voice about your brand and about what you do. And that is engaging."

If you make bags, talk about the process, show the process, show how you make them, show your customers in the field, show how they use their bags - that is going to build much more engagement than any other strategy - you talking about what you love, he said. "Then your customers will talk about why they love what you're building and what you're making."

Twitter and social media is an equivalent of word of mouth, but more people can do it, it happens much faster, and more people can see it in real time. He advised merchants to talk about their products online the same way they talk about them to their neighbor, or to their wife or husband, or their kids or parents - "talk about them online using these tools, and you'll reap the rewards."

Internet Retailer - E-Retailers/Top 500 U.S. E-Retailers - How social is Amazon?

Many of us spend our days brainstorming, formulating and deliberating how we can create the best content for our brands or organizations. But we spend much less time focusing on the audiences that will be consuming those great content ideas. It’s not so much the number of followers we have on each of our platforms, but whether or not they are the right followers.