New York SBDC Research Network

From the outside, we know spam when we see it: links in comments that have nothing to do with conversations, emails that we didn’t ask for and aren’t interested in, and constant, high pressure attempts to sell, sell, sell. But from the inside, it can be harder to tell if the marketing we’re doing is spammy or responsible. Oh, sure, there are some easy clues. If you’re copying and pasting the same comment on a dozen websites, you definitely need to take a long look at the integrity of your tactics. Just to have a profile or post random things on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn is not marketing. But if you’re truly not sure, how do you determine whether or not you’re spamming? Read more at Bplans

Advice on managing social media content from hootsuite.com: Creating a plan, a template, or a calendar simply means that you make all the necessary information available to all the relevant stakeholders in one place. It takes in all your channels and resources and organizes them in a way that makes it easy to access information you need when you need it. What is a social media content calendar? A social media content calendar should organize the way you curate and create content, and help develop your editorial strategy. A social media calendar cuts extra time out of your content marketing strategy and helps you allocate your resources wisely, to help ensure your brand consistently publishes high-quality, well-written, high-performing content pieces. Read more at hootsuite

Today, four technologies are driving live-event marketing: social, mobile, analytics, and the Cloud—"SMAC." SMAC technologies provide myriad new ways to get to know your fans, reach them at the right time through the right channel, and measure results to ensure you spend your precious event marketing dollars wisely. The days of spreading the word about concerts or other live events with fliers and radio spots have all but disappeared, laid to rest alongside the cassette tape and the Discman in the graveyard of Music Industry Past. Here are four ways that live event promoters and venues can use SMAC in their digital marketing. Read more from MarketingProfs

Employees' Twitter and Facebook accounts may be a rich source for HR analytics, but laws in many states could block or limit access to some of the data. A top employment lawyer said that at least 21 states have HR and social media laws that restrict employers from accessing employees' Twitter, Facebook and other such accounts. Most of the laws prohibit employers from requiring an employee or applicant to disclose a username and password for a social media account. MORE from TechTarget

Webinar | Social Media 101: A Roadmap to Winning Customers  Thursday, August 13, 2015 | 2:00 PM ET     Do you have questions about the best way to market your new or existing small business? Join the Small Business Administration (SBA) and AARP during a free hour-long webinar on August 13 to learn about:  Developing a marketing plan  Using social media  Building a website  Sizing up the competition  And more!  >>  Register Now    Webinars | Affordable Care Act 101

As our intake of user-generated content has increased, businesses have capitalized on that material and in turn, relaxed the style of corporate media. We see ads copying the style of social media, and the use of popular social media stars to promote brands. The use of humor is becoming even more expected. There has been an increase in the use of various short video-based communication formats across the Internet. From Vine s, SnapChat s, Instagram and Twitter joining the already established YouTube , FaceBook and Tumblr , very young people in particular are comfortable using these methods and video content is proliferating. Small business brands need to be relevant, and it would be wise to consider video as a vital part of the marketing mix. Any dedicated person with a smartphone can start making video content, but it is an opportunity for videographers whose meat-and-potatoes are wedding videos and christenings to expand their clientele. Some businesses are especially suited to usi

Social media can be a formidable business tool, not just for customer relationship management and marketing, but for gathering business intelligence and even developing new product ideas. To benefit from these information sharing networks, companies are learning to manage the social media lifecycle to get the right content out there to the right people at the right time -- and then to figure out how to use the resulting activity to better their business. Internal collaboration in the enterprise has certainly been altered by social media, with tools like Yammer and now Facebook at Work offering new ways for employees to work together. But companies have also moved into the realm of "social business" to bring the consumer further into the enterprise fold and involve them not just at the end of business processes, but throughout. The needs, desires and complaints that consumers voice on social media platforms can be used to improve business operations, spark product ideas and

Social media has become one of the most important outreach and marketing channels available to brands, which in turn means that it’s important to have a social media strategy as a core part of your overall marketing plan. Social media channels offer businesses a cost-effective way to promote their companies, to increase brand awareness, and to generate customer engagement. On the other hand, social media marketing is also still a very young discipline, and a rapidly changing one, which means that as a whole it is one of the hardest channels to consistently get right. Unlike TV advertisements or other types of advertising, there are no established rules and no real paradigms or laws that marketers can reliably follow. In this absence of rules, how do you know what to do? Read more from BPlans.com

Some 84% of Millennials say they like companies on Facebook as a way to show their support for the brand, according to recent research conducted by Nora Ganim Barnes, PhD, and Ava Lescault, MBA, at The Center for Marketing Research, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Other common reasons for liking brands on Facebook include wanting to receive updates (83% of respondents) and a desire to get coupons/discounts (66%). Read more from MarketingProfs

In the past decade, businesses have had to jump on the digital train to stay on top of new trends, capitalize on new markets, and expand reach. From social media channels to review sites like Yelp, there’s a lot for entrepreneurs to monitor in the instant feedback, smartphone-crazed world we live in. Yelp, for instance, can have a big impact on the growth of your business. This review site allows customers to rate your business and leave feedback about their experience. If you’re not actively seeking feedback, monitoring the comments, and publicizing the positive reviews customers leave, you’re probably behind the digital eight ball. More from BPlans .

SBA's YouTube channel has a variety of playlists and how-to webinars. Here are a few recent webinars that you may have missed, but can watch any time on demand: Making and Receiving Online Payments - Online and Mobile Making Your Small Business Workplace LGBT-Inclusive Social Media Marketing Made Simple

In 2013, organizations finally began in earnest to integrate social technologies into recruitment, development and engagement practices. In 2014, this social integration will become the status quo. The digital immigrants have now caught up to the digital natives – we are now all digital citizens. The fastest growing demographic on Google+ is 45-54 and on Twitter it is 55-64! And it’s a good thing that baby boomers and other older generations have embraced these tools, because using social media inside companies will be increasingly important in 2014 and beyond. More from FORBES .

Using free social media tools is a great way to improve your business and increase your overall traffic. There are a lot of paid social media tools, but the next few are completely free and is extremely useful when it comes to managing, generating post, sharing content and improving inbound marketing overall. See them at Business Art of War . Small business owners often find themselves responsible for all aspects of their business, from sales and marketing to HR and, most importantly, keeping finances in order. Hiring an accountant is a luxury at first. Using mobile apps that help track business expenses is a great, cost-effective option. See them at David Kiger

From Hispanic Business : Anyone who uses social media has heard stories of the pitfalls -- you could be stalked, potential employers could snoop into your past, oversharing could lead to identity theft. But the state of Minnesota believes there's still one group that needs to be warned: small businesses. In "A Legal Guide to the Use of Social Media in the Workplace," published by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, Minneapolis attorney Michael Cohen argues that a company's reputation, trade secrets and legal liability hinge on understanding the rapidly changing rules of using social media. A free copy of the guide can be read on the website of Cohen's law firm, Gray Plant Mooty, at tinyurl.com/kk58alk . Or it can be ordered in print or on CD at the department's website, tinyurl.com/y9tuj6d . Cohen explains why you should read it.

If you’re not using video in your social media marketing, what are you waiting for? The engraved invitation came back in 2006 when Google bought YouTube. In 2011, YouTube passed Yahoo to become the world’s second-largest search engine. Video is a powerful tool, and leveraging it correctly can yield amazing results for your social media marketing. Social media video is hugely popular and includes everything from Vine (Twitter’s 6-second mobile video app) to long-form videos on YouTube. According to research by Pew Internet, http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Video-sharing-sites.aspx 71% of online Americans use social media video sites (and that study was conducted in 2011—the percentage has likely increased since then). A picture is worth a thousand words so the cliché goes and a motion picture is priceless, which is why Pew Internet described videos as “social currency” when they reported in 2012 that 41% of adult internet users share and repost videos on social media. More from

In today’s age of ubiquitous connectivity, many small businesses have implemented a variety of online marketing efforts to attract new customers and increase overall sales. Unfortunately, results can vary significantly because tools are only as good as the expertise of the person using them. The lure of the “next big thing” can create online marketing inefficiencies when small business owners try to be a marketing “jack of all trades and master to none”. For example, the rapid growth and adoption of the social web can be overwhelming for small business marketers. Consider these social network growth statistics: Google sites handle about 100 billion searches each month (SEL) YouTube hosts nearly 14 billion videos (comScore) Facebook is now over 1 billion users (Mark Zuckerberg) Google+ has over 500 million users (Google) Twitter has over 550 million accounts (Statistics Brain) LinkedIn is at 225 million users (LinkedIn) Pinterest grew 4,377% in 20

The U.S. Small Business Administration and the W20 Group, an entrepreneurial ecosystem of digital communications companies, will present Blogging 101, the second topic in the five-topic social media webinar series that will run through June. The webinar will help small business owners create content to connect with their customers and market their products. Blogging is a beneficial tool for small business owners because it is a cost-effective way to communicate their expertise and message directly to a larger audience, expand the company’s web presence and build their brand. The Blogging 101 social media webinar for small businesses will be held on May 8, 2013, at 1 p.m. EDT. To register for the webinar, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8214259306487899136 . The webinar will highlight topics such as: • What blogging can do for your business; • What to blog about; • What blogging tools are available to you; • Managing your time; and • Other best practices. T

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration and the W20 Group, an entrepreneurial ecosystem of digital communications companies, is launching a five-topic social media webinar series to help small businesses leverage and grow their businesses using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and mobile marketing. Social media is playing a growing and vital role in the success of small businesses growing and creating jobs. It provides the opportunity to build deeper relationships with customers, to increase sales and to reach new markets in a cost-efficient manner. The webinars will help small businesses to develop a comprehensive social media plan that is engaging, effective and that has maximum return on investment. The first social media webinar for small businesses, Introduction to Social Media: Helping You Get Started, will be held on April 24, 2013, at 1:00 p.m. EDT. To register for the webinar, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6526746

“If a company doesn’t have anything interesting to say, they have bigger problems to solve than where their next blog post is coming from.” That’s a bit of a jibe, but it does reflect the need for a change in perspective. Many companies see themselves as a vessel, with a finite number of ideas and pieces of information. In other words, their view of content is fairly static and self-centered. Once they’ve said all there is to say about their own products and services, the well goes dry. This is in contrast to what many successful business owners and entrepreneurs are doing with blogging and content creation. They create a blogging plan with topics and ideas to write about that customers would actually be interested in. They look at blogging as a byproduct of the ongoing listening and engagement that occurs between brand and customers, between brand and prospects and the community at large. More HERE .

From SmallBusinessNewz : For some time now I’ve been suggesting that social media as we’ve come to address it over the last few years doesn’t really matter anymore because it just is. We’ve given up on seeing it as some separate practice and accepted that it’s simply a function of marketing that must be integrated. Lately I’ve begun to wonder if social behavior, not social media, is actually much more than we’ve made of it. We’ve bolted certain socially enabled practices on to our businesses to provide greater reach, customer service and the pretense of connection, but I wonder if we’ve stopped dreadfully short of the true potential of social. Even those that preach social strategy are generally talking about finding ways to use social tactics to support existing business strategies and models. My belief is that the real opportunity is to build a fully social business model, one that addresses the total picture of social behavior. One that moves beyond social tactics to a pl