If you’re going to make a commitment, live and die by it. If you’re going to miss that commitment for whatever reason, be honest about it.

CRM Daily | Building Strong Customer Relationships

Ticket Sales – Do you have a social media angle for marketing tickets?

Contests/Give Aways – Are you giving your market a reason to keep plugged in?

Off Season Drafts/Trades/Personnel Changes – Can you provide perspectives and insight from the source?

Discussion – Can you generate discussion and debate?

Access – Can you provide visibility on team insiders?

Announcements – Can you release info via social networks prior to a press release?

The Offseason: 6 Ways to Stay Plugged In

How-To: Maximize Conversion with Email Design

“All the research shows that companies that spend on marketing during a recession come out ahead of the competition as the economy rebounds.”

Based on their findings, you should probably get out your checkbooks.  But if you spend, spend wisely…

Marketing in a Recession: What Do the Studies Really Tell Us?

Social Media ROI: Dell’s $3m on Twitter and Four Better Examples.

Back in April of this year we decided to have a look at running some banner ads on a number of high profile design-related sites. Over the last couple of years, advertising in our little corner of the web has come a long way. There are loads of highly trafficked design sites with excellent content and affordable ad slots. On top of this, the rise of targeted ad networks such as The Deck and Fusion Ads has made it much easier to get in front of the right crowd.

Promoting your product or service with banner ads – is it worth it?

As an author of The Social Media Bible, I am often asked, “What do I need to do engage my company, my products, and myself in social media?” The answer is easy: participate. Get out there and get involved. If you aren’t in the game, you can’t win. Here’s your Ten Commandments or things you need to be doing to get in and win with social media.

1. Thou Shalt Blog (like crazy).

2. Thou Shalt Create Profiles (everywhere).

3. Thou Shalt Upload Photos (lots of them).

4. Thou Shalt Upload Videos (all you can find).

5. Thou Shalt Podcast (often).

6. Thou Shalt Set Alerts (immediately).

7. Thou Shalt Comment (on a multitude of blogs).

8. Thou Shalt Get Connected (with everyone).

9. Thou Shalt Explore Social Media (30 minutes per week).

10. Thou Shalt Be Creative (go forth and create creatively)!

The 10 Commandments of Social Media

Soft launching lets you tweak and revise. You get the word out there and you gauge interest. You know what works and what doesn’t.

Plus, you get to make mistakes while you’re still in the shadows. Messing up in front of a smaller crowd means you’ll be better off when the bright lights eventually do shine upon you.

Why it’s wise to launch softly

• A Noninclusive Interpretation Process
• Ideas That Aren’t Vetted
• Missing Practical Steps for Strategy Support
• Executive Vision vs. the People’s Vision
• Limited Commitment

Avoid the Five Routes to Strategic Failure : MarketingProfs Articles.

Welcome to Twittermania. First it was Oprah — now Ev and Biz are on the cover of Time.

Is the hype justified? Yup: Twitter isn’t just changing how we communicate — it is changing how we innovate.

Twitter’s Ten Rules For Radical Innovators – Umair Haque – HarvardBusiness.org.