Marketing Automation – It’s Not All Evil!

Recently in a Facebook Group about Social Media, a new member presented himself as a student interested in social media. He wrote he specialized in automation. I did not have to wait long for the reaction I expected: The first comments started to come in “I don’t like the word automation in connection with social media” and “social media is…

Motivating Employees, Brand Advocates and Social Business

In a recent discussion with young entrepreneurs I mentioned that social media adoption in companies in Germany still is far behind other countries like the US. Someone replied: „That is because in Germany the people actually work in their working hours.“ This remark took me slightly off guard, and I had to ask Jonathan if I got that comment right?…

Content Shock: How Mark Schaefer Blew My Mind In 2014

When you are part of the international marketing community, sometimes something happens. Something scary or enlightening. Something that you know will change the way you approach marketing in general. 2014 kicked off with an event of this magnitude. Maybe not in everyone’s perception, but at least in mine. I am talking about Mark Schaefer’s initial post about content shock. Not…

9 Types Of Valuable Twitter Users (Bonus: 2 Useless Types)

Twitter is simple in features – but Twitter Users are a diverse crowd. And often they misunderstand each other. Misunderstandings lead to complaints, complaints lead to fights, and fights lead to more misunderstandings. Let me be your mediator and explain the different groups to you. Let’s dive right into it: Valuable Types Of Twitter Users 1. The Listener The Listener is…

Content Curation Has Little Value Without Your Own Voice

When we here at The Social Marketers are discussing topics for articles we are going to write for our blog; sometimes I suggest a topic and Jonathan says: “Everybody writes about that, what is your special take on this? What will make your content really something people want to read and cannot find a million times on the web?” That…

Agility: The one Advantage SMBs and Startups have in Online Marketing

In Online Marketing and Social Media things are never static. What works today can be totally useless tomorrow. What works in one situation can be totally wrong in another. What is perfect for one company might have a negative effect on another. It is not only Google or Facebook who are changing the rules of the game constantly. There are…

Marketing Is A Process, Not A Decision… And Never A Magic Trick

I recently sat in a meeting with potential clients, and during the discussion I had the feeling they expected something else… do you know the feeling? That can be a good thing… It can be a good thing when it means that you didn’t surrender yourself to the temptation of promising things that you are not sure you will be able…

Blogging in English – When It’s Not Your Primary Language

“Can I or should I write on my blog in English, even if it’s not my primary language?” This question comes up quite frequently in online marketing, by a lot of different people and for a lot of different reasons. The internet united most parts of the world – and the most common language is English. Content in the English…

The 9 Essential Elements of any Content Marketing Strategy

According to a study by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, only 38% of B2B companies think their content marketing is effective. The same study also states that only 35% of the companies have a documented content marketing strategy. My guess is that some of these companies do not even know whether they are effective or not. They cannot say what…