Marketing Sherpa last week released its 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark report. Though the full report runs $400, much interesting data can be gleaned from the free executive summary. The report’s authors begin by noting that:

“An important transition in the use of social media for marketing purposes is taking place. A rapidly increasing segment of marketers are gaining the experience required to advance from novice to competent practitioner capable of achieving social marketing objectives and proving ROI…In the past year, marketers have been captivated by the ample hype about Twitter, Facebook, blogs and other social media platforms…(but) they jumped into this new medium thinking tactically about the latest social media platforms they could add to the mix rather than thinking strategically about the objectives they needed to achieve. In the year ahead, we see social marketing maturing to the point where a majority of organizations will be in transition from the trial phase to the strategic phase of the learning curve.”

Among the key findings...

If you want to create the successful life and career that you want and deserve, you need to perform at a high level consistently.  High performance is one of the competencies in my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Star Power, I Want YOU…to Succeed, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success. 

High performers manage their time, life and stress well.  They pay particular attention to their health and well being.  It’s impossible to perform at a consistently high level if you don’t feel healthy and energized.  In this post, I’d like to discuss two issues when it comes to managing your stress and feeling healthy and energized – restoring energy and dealing with headaches.

We all get tired, run down and out of sorts occasionally.  That’s when it’s important to catch your second wind.  Here are my best ideas for getting your second...

• Employment --Owners reported workforce reductions that average .52 workers per firm, basically unchanged for the past several months.

• Capital Spending --the frequency of reported capital outlays over the past six months rose three points to 47 percent of all firms, an improvement from December's record-low reading, but historically very weak. 

• Inventories and Sales --Small business owners continued to liquidate inventories and weak sales trends gave little reason to order new stocks. 

• Earnings -- In a word...

The topic of increasing online sales through conversion rate optimization has been discussed in length recently and rightfully so. More and more online stores are looking at conversion rate optimization as a means to increase online sales, alongside traditional means such as increasing traffic volumes.

Four Smart Pricing Tips to Increase Online Sales

One area which is often overlooked, is using smart product pricing as part of the conversion rate optimization process.

1. Show The Customer How Much Can Be Saved

Whether or not your website has the newest features or hasn’t been updated for some time, at the end of the day customers are looking to save money. They will often compare your prices vs the prices of their local store, so some savings has to be reflected and visible shown. Products will often come with an RRP or suggested list prices. Visibly show this price and your price as it’s a very strong pricing message. My favorite way to display this message is RRP $$ Our price $$ (% of saving or you save $$).

2. Waver Shipping Costs

Excessive shipping costs will...

Avatar is a world-wide phenomenon and is currently the top grossing movie of all time*. How can you learn from its success and apply it to your own projects (even if they aren’t billion dollar movies).

1. Technology Matters. James Cameron first wrote Avatar in 1994, but he ended up tabling it until 2005 because he felt the technology wasn’t there yet. Figure out what your idea needs and how you can make it happen. If your current idea won’t work well, put it on hold and work on something else.
2. Love Your Idea. This movie finally came to fruition 15 years after Cameron’s initial idea. He didn’t just forget about it, he waited for his moment and made it happen. And now he’s very rich (er, richer).
3. Get Fans, Not Just Viewers(/Users). Avatar was so successful because you didn’t just go and think “good movie” and go to sleep. You wanted to tell everyone you knew about it. After watching this movie I immediately started telling my family and friends they had to see it. Now.
4. A Little Controversy is Good. Avatar’s a commentary on the war in Iraq. And our treatment of...

Trust is a key factor in any customer’s purchase decision. PR company Edelman have recently released their 2010 Trust Barometer which highlights that we are now less trusting of business than we have ever been. Within this context we need to try even harder to instill confidence in our online purchase processes.

Here is a list of 20 things you can do to in order to reassure your customers and online:

1. Third-part seals or certificates, such as the Verisign logo, are important in reassuring customers that any data input is securely protected by a recognised independent vendor. Make sure that the seals are visible, clickable and present from early on in the sales process.
2. Make sure that personal data is visibly submitted securely using HTTPS...

The mission: to interview growing small and midsized businesses this year as part of a series

The plan: to glean insights specifically from women business leaders which will not only be really exciting to share, but will start to crystalize a picture of how 2010 will take shape from a business perspective. 

The questions: (samples)

1) What do you do?

2) How will your business change this year?

3) What advice can you give other business leaders especially women who are looking to learn from your success?

In so doing, I expect to share insight into the way the business world is changing for small and midsized businesses and the way in which women business leaders can rise to the occasion and capitalize on the opportunities, best practices, and advice from other business leaders. 

The business:

For the first of our interviews, we are delighted to have Mary Lou Jepsen, entrepreneur extraordinaire, one of TIME Magazine's Top 100 Most Influential people in 2008, and currently, founder of a fascinating global company which has offices in the US – Silicon Valley - and Taipei, Taiwan, called Pixel Qi.  Pixel Qi designs and manufactures innovative LCD ...

Last year I recorded and published a podcast about using the Google.com Local Business Centre to list your business and enhance your online visibility using this free tool.

I was recently explaining it to my client – and decided to create a short video tutorial to explain the benefits and how to get started. And I thought I would also share it here.

Your business can optimize your listing in Google Local for the key words you want to be found for when people are searching for services and products that you offer in your town or city.

In this video I cover...