For as far back as free markets go, word of mouth has been the primary tool small businesses have used to spread their message and market their brand. Within the last few decades, though, the explosion of media has led to wide array of marketing opportunities and techniques.

While word of mouth is still important, social media has taken over as one of the most effective avenues for public relations and marketing for even the smallest of firms.

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With the positive effects of social media marketing becoming more and more apparent, most small businesses have started working on a social media marketing strategy.

One of the main aims of social media marketing is to stay relevant to your audience. This might be harder for small businesses as they have more to juggle, in terms of handling tasks. Social media tools and apps can help reduce the stress of multi-tasking and keep your social media activities consistent. Below are social media tools for small business to help make your life as a social media marketer easier.

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As social media use continues to grow, so does the number of marketing opportunities for small businesses. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults now use social networking sites, according to Pew Research, up from just 7 percent in 2005.

Learning how to use a wider range of social media tools can help small businesses target prospective and existing customers on these platforms. Here are four tips to consider:

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It  is not easy being a small business competing against the big boys. They have got the budget, the expertise, and the size to push you around. That said, it does not have to be half as hard as some small businesses make it. For example, for many businesses, their social media and PR plans can be a lot easier and communicate far more authority besides.

To that end, today we’re going to look at how you can automate both to make your efforts both easier and more fluid, using some simple best practice and strategic planning.

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A strong social network can become an asset for any business. Social media offers every business the opportunity to strengthen relationships with their target audience, creating loyal customers and even brand advocates. Exploiting this potential is no easy feat, but can be done if the medium is used well.

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If you have a small business, you know you want to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to increase sales. Kim Garst has made her living telling businesses how they should use social media to their advantage.

The one thing all business owners say to her is that they want to use social media to make money. This is possible Garst says, but you have to first build a brand.

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Millennial business owners depend on social media for brand promotion more than any other medium.

Shocked, right? OK, probably not. But just how much Millennial business owners are using this relatively new media — or how much they don’t use traditional media — may come as a surprise.

New data (PDF) from Magisto shows that 68 percent of Millennial small business owners and entrepreneurs depend on social media channels for developing awareness of their own brands.

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The founder of a multiracial beauty company shares how she coped after her “personal and professional victory” angered many fans.

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How do you stay on top of the latest trends in your field?

I read a lot of blogs. I stay on top of Google Webmaster Central Blog, Search Engine Land and Moz Blog are ones that I read. I network with colleagues in the field to see what they’re doing, what they’re hearing and learn from them. There are a few SEO and social media marketing meet-ups in town that I attend.

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As 2017 unfolds, small businesses should take a look at what did not work in 2016 and find ways to improve in the upcoming year. While you work to control spending and shed some of the holiday pounds, don’t forget about making social media resolutions for your business.

Social media in 2017 will really be a defining factor in successful marketing strategies and strong businesses. In 2016, social media boomed for businesses. It was part of marketing strategies in previous years, but new advertising updates for social platforms and business-friendly changes made it easier than ever for organizations to make connections and offer valuable customer service.

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The try-out period for social media is long past. Even tiny businesses – even many who don’t even have their own websites – know they need to be on social.

10 Classic Small Business Social Media Mistakes

The tools, platforms and methods you use to grow your business are constantly changing. So you need to keep up with all the latest updates and trends. Members of the online small business community have some great insights about these changing tools and trends, ranging from social media algorithms to augmented reality. Read on for some helpful tips.

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Social media, email, text messaging and other communication technologies are transforming government into a more efficient, effective and dynamic process. Whether it’s an elected official using Twitter to address constituents or a city using a Facebook page to make public announcements, government entities and elected officials are becoming more accessible and connected to constituents. And therein lie today’s nuanced First Amendment related challenges

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Social media is a crucial component of any small business' marketing efforts. When done well, a strong social strategy helps you connect directly with your customers, and can even create some free publicity along the way.

For all of social media's advantages, there are pitfalls as well. The internet can look like a cavalier place when it comes to copyright rules, but there are plenty of no-nos that you need to follow if you want to stay out of legal trouble.

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Establishing a strong social media presence can mean big business for your small business. But if you don’t have dedicated resources to devote to it, or you don’t have much time to spare, you might find it tough to gain traction. Use these nine social media tips to boost business and grow your brand.

Set Clear Goals

No matter how eager you are to start using social media for your business, take the time to set clear goals before you begin. Try setting SMART goals — specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely — to guide your social media strategy.

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Digital marketers often identify social media as one of the best forms of content marketing, but it can often feel like we’re just going through the motions. If the social media content isn’t attracting leads, what good is it? It’s likely you just need a quick boost in strategy to make sure your content is appealing to your target audience and getting inbound requests and messages.

In fact, 90 percent of social media users have used the platform to communicate directly with a business before. So if none of your customers or followers are reaching out to you, it’s a telltale sign that something should be changed. Ideally, you’ll post a picture or video with a robust caption that offers value and the floodgates will open: direct messages, likes, comments and queries should start coming (or even just trickling at first) in, proving that your content struck a chord and inspired action. Not there yet? Here are four ways to bolster your strategy to attract those leads.

1. Focus your content on interesting stories
2. Do a poll asking what type of content people want most
3. Host a Q & A on Facebook or Instagram Live
4. Make sure you have a call to action in every post

Zortam Mp3 Media Studio is an all-in-one Mp3 application suite, that combines a MP3 organizer with a wide range of tools that allow you to catalog your files, edit ID3v1 and ID3v2.3 tags, search for ....

XMedia Recode is an audio and video conversion tool that supports nearly all common formats, including 3GP, 3GPP, 3GPP2, AAC, AC3, ADTS, AMR, ASF, AVI, AVISynth, DVD, FLAC, FLV,H.261, H.263, H.264, M....

CNN Wins the Right to Cover the Search for Bodies of Katrina Victims:

On the one hand we're fed up with government trying to sanitise the carnage. They do this not for our benefit but to minimize public outrage.

In explaining the ban, Ebbert said (the city's homeland security director), "we don't think that's proper" to let members of the media view the bodies.

But on the other hand the media want to cover it because they know that drama and horror sells.

"In an e-mail to CNN staff, CNN News Group President Jim Walton said the network filed the the lawsuit to "prohibit any agency from restricting its ability to fully and fairly cover" the hurricane victim recovery process."

And the political left want to exploit it for the "Perfect Political Storm".

Unfortunately that is the world that we live in. The public are but pawns in this political game. Either way the dead and the suffering lose.

Hollywood meets the news; Drama + Hype = Ratings

Dan Rather was taken to task by Mark Steyn of the Chicago Sun-Times over his comments on the 'Larry King Live'' show about the Katrina news coverage. Personally I like Dan, but ever since Rathergate he does seem to be in a habit of putting his foot in it:

"They took us there to the hurricane," he told Larry. "They put the facts in front of us and, very important, they sucked up their guts and talked truth to power."

According to Steyn, the media got it all wrong:

"Er, no. The facts they put in front of us were wrong, and they didn't talk truth to power. They talked to goofs in power, like New Orleans' Mayor Nagin and Police Chief Compass, and uncritically fell for every nutso yarn they were peddled. The media swallowed more bilge than if they'd been lying down with their mouths open as the levee collapsed. Ten thousand dead! Widespread rape and murder! A 7-year-old gang-raped and then throat-slashed! It was great stuff -- and none of it happened. No gang-raped 7-year-olds. None."

Dan Rather:

"That frickin' Superdome," he raged. "Five days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people."

Stein:

"But nobody got killed by a hooligan in the Superdome. The problem wasn't rape and murder, but the rather more prosaic lack of bathroom facilities. As Ben Stein put it, it was the media that rioted. They grabbed every lurid rumor and took it for a wild joyride across prime time. There was a real story in there -- big hurricane, people dead -- but it wasn't enough, and certainly not for damaging President Bush."

Stein:

"How appropriate that it should be Dan Rather, always late to yesterday's conventional wisdom, to bless the media's fraudulent coverage of Katrina."

He makes a good point doesn't he? CNN is the worst. It's a good thing we have bloggers to keep them in line.

The innocence of its name belies the true nature of this new virtual organism.

Meaning? PJs is a powerplay by a handful of elitist bloggers to carve out a new media empire for their personal (and financial) gratification.

"Pajamas Media, a new blogging venture designed to bring together top online writers, journalists and commentators under a single umbrella, today unveiled its editorial board as it prepares for its formal debut next month.

The announcement comes as Pajamas Media further realizes its vision of coalescing the internet's brightest minds and most compelling content into a single source that will, in turn, complement and re-define journalism in the 21st century."

So there you have it folks. The brightest stars in the virtual firmament who are going to "re-define journalism in the 21st century".

Can you believe the hype? The kahunas! A bunch of pompous self-serving goofballs if there ever was.

And speaking of balls, here I thought re-defining journalism is what the blogosphere is all about, even without the help of PJs et al. Silly me.

They are touting Glenn Reynolds as one of their greatest acquisitions. I must confess that I am all the more enlightened from his inspired and in depth analysis. Spewing his best Spock impersonations such as "indeed" and "indeed", or one of my personal favorites... "indeed".

Do you think perhaps they might (hopefully) consider (God willing) allowing us insignificant pee-ons add our (albeit smallish) comments to their omnipoobah flatulation? Well try this one on for size:

"Golly gee Instapundit, you sure are great. I was really hoping that if you might possibly consider linking to me some time. Pretty please, and I promise to forever be your grovelling fan... pant, pant, drool."

Or will it be the same old droning monologue we're all accustomed to - the sermon from the mount a la Instapun style.

Hell, if we wanted sermons we can always watch Anderson Cooper 360 report to the CNN situation room. So much for a blogging community folks.

Guys, you've got it all mixed up. If you want a one-sided conversation find a soap box and run for public office. Or better still make an application to CNN.

If you want to write a book then write the stinkin' book. If you want to build an exclusive empire so you can call the shots, give Bill Gates a call. But if you want to blog, join the community.

BUT damn it choose, because they're different. Got it? (Are you listening Glenn)?

Can somebody please explain to me how all this nonsense benefits the blogosphere? Oh yeah right, I forgot - it doesn't.

It sounds more like Al Gore's reinvention of the internet than anything else. So let's be clear boys and girls - it is the technology and all of our collective efforts that has re-defined journalism. Not just a few arrogant twits.

Not since the invention of the printing press has so much been given to the common folk. It is its inclusive, collaborative nature and community spirit that gives blogging its influential power.

HELLO! Are you listening? The blogosphere is not the exclusive playground of an old-boys network trying to elevate itself above the rest of us mere mortals.

That is bass-ackwards thinking, destructive and the last thing we need. Another media empire of self-important opportunists believing in their own press, shovelling verbal poop down our collective throats.

Think about it. Did we take down Dan Rather just to create a job opening for Reynolds? I don't think so. Personally I'd rather have Dan back (no pun intended). And for that matter I hear he's looking for work. Any takers?

It's the same old story. If it becomes popular the politicians have to control it, and the capitalists want to exploit it.

Not that I object to making money from blogging. God knows I could use the extra coin. But it is their elitist business model and its ominous implications that I find offensive.

It's called good old fashioned exploitation. The great American way. Look out Weblogs here we come.

Mark my words. The blogosphere is on the fast track to being hijacked by the control freaks and big business interests.

More restrictive laws and government intervention. Acquisitions and mergers, IPO offerings, get-rich-quick dot-com scam artists, media moguls, ABC, MSNBC, FOX, Pajamas party, whatever.

Sounding all too familiar? PJs is a cash grab. Plain and simple. And for whose benefit? The way it reads right now PJs will benefit only a few elitists, that's who.

Perhaps it got lost in the translation, but until they can find a more inclusive model the blogosphere needs this shite like a hole in the head.

```
UPDATE: An Open Letter to Roger Simon

Source: daily FISK!

Back in 2010, when I was SVP of Social Media at the Advertising Research Foundation, a member in the mobile industry was interested in learning whether the opportunities in digital signage were right for the company to explore. I ended...

If you're interested in global radio, here's a great opportunity to join the all volunteer team at the Radio Heritage Foundation for a short project starting April 1 2013...

Two new Pacific stories this week...

Multimedia-Downloads.com is a collection of only the best audio converters, rippers, editors, recorders, burners, text to speech, video encoders, decoders, DVD rippers, DVD burners, image batch converters and editors, and more.

The Michigan State University Libraries invites early career professionals to apply for our Residency in Media Preservation. This is a two-year project funded by the National Historical Preservation and Records Commission, and supports the work of the Media Preservation Unit in its effort to preserve the WKAR early television films within the University Archives and … Continue reading "Media Preservation Residency Librarian, Librarian I – Fixed Term at Michigan State University"

SA median house prices. The biggest drop is within the Adelaide metro region. Regional SA prices have also dropped as well. With consumer confidence dropping, SA median house prices will continue to drop into the year 2009.
SA median house prices

The latest South Australia median house prices for December 08 is up. Overall, both metropolitan and regional areas have dropped in prices. With the worldwide economy deteriorating and the Australian economy moving into recession, house prices will continue to drop.

Its 5am here in California and I’m awake. It’s either the excitement around the Portable Media Expo or the fact that my body still hasn’t adjusted to the time difference. It’s a good job I’ve been waking early because there...

There's a clear difference between simply maintaining a social media presence and actually using the platform to engage with fans and followers. Social media really is all about engagement. This post takes a closer look at that and offers some tips and information on how to go about getting more interaction going on your Facebook or Twitter.

The post Social Media is All About Engagement appeared first on Create + Design + Market.

This is absolutely true. There is no way to even debate the issue. The last independent news broadcaster RCTV in Venezuela was not given a licence renewal by Chavez today. It has been reported that this broadcaster, as well as...

The U.S. podcast market has been on the rise for years, but 2019 marked an extraordinary year of growth for the space.

At least 90 million U.S. consumers (27% of the population) listen to podcasts monthly, up 23% from 73 million in 2018, which is an acceleration from the 9% year-over-year growth monthly podcast listening experienced last year, according to Edison Research and Triton Digital.

Top 19 Media Trends of 2019: The Podcast Boom

Vox Media Podcast Network now generates over $10 million a year in revenue from a roster of more than 200 shows across Voxs 14 brands, including those produced with partners like Stitcher. While president of Vox Media Studios Marty Moe would not disclose revenue figures, he said the goal is to double the eight-figure revenue business. This would mean a minimum of $20 million in 2020. In all, Vox Media worked with over 100 different podcast advertisers last year and he said he expects this number to grow this year, although the focus is on expanding hit podcasts.

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Chasing industry trends, iHeart Media is about to become the latest audio company to release a custom ad network. Executives say iHeartPodcast AdSuite will tempt brands and potential partners—and set the company apart from its competitors—with a unique array of ad formats across platforms and custom tools.

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FEDERATED MEDIA has launched a podcast division, including a podcast network as well as production and marketing services, with 46 podcasts at launch, including original shows, branded podcasts, and repurposed radio content.

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iHeartMedia announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Voxnest, the leading consolidated marketplace for podcasts and the best-in-class provider of podcast analytics, enterprise publishing tools, programmatic integration and targeted ad serving. With this acquisition, iHeartMedia, through Voxnest, will now be able to provide podcast advertisers with additional targetable inventory at scale by allowing the effective and efficient monetization across an entire range of podcast inventory on this one-of-kind programmatic platform.

Social media is a vital tool for job hunters these days. Not only can you find job leads through social media, employers and recruiters may look at what you’re doing on social media. You need to know how to use social media and how to make your accounts look...

The post Social Media Checklist For Job Hunters appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

[This Day] The National Senior Citizens Centre came into existence through the instrumentality of an Act of the National Assembly signed into law in 2017 with a mandate to cater for the needs of senior citizens in Nigeria. Indeed the enabling law states in Section 16(2)(d) of the 1999 Constitution that "it shall be a State policy to provide adequate social services and an improved quality of life for the elderly".

[Dabanga] Amsterdam -- Since the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began clashing on April 15, 2023, independent media--particularly those operating abroad--have become critical sources of information. However, the warring parties have escalated efforts to silence these channels, seeking to enforce a total media blackout.

[Namibian] Dear media colleagues,

Using social media platforms for long periods has little to no association with mental health indicators like depression, anxiety and stress, according to new research. However, another recently published study found that men risk developing unhealthy obsessions with physique if they place too much importance on likes and comments.

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Category: Wellness & Healthy Living, Body & Mind

Tags: mental health, Social media, Psychology, Curtin University, University of South Australia

Social media-apps kunnen voor afleiding zorgen, terwijl gebruikers zich ook zorgen maken over hun privacy. Daarom overwegen vier op de tien Nederlanders een of meer social media apps van hun telefoon te verwijderen, zo blijkt uit onderzoek van vergelijkingssite Slimster. I

This company profile analyses the Belgian company DPG Media. The report contains information on the company's current position and strategy, looks at the market in which DPG Media operates and also its competitors. Furthermore, the profile reports on its marketing activities, including its customer and distribution strategy. Lastly the profile contains Telecompaper's SWOT analysis of DPG Media.

1. Liberty Media to spin off assets; CEO Greg Maffei to step down at year-end  CNBC
2. Charter Communications to Acquire John Malone’s Liberty Broadband in All-Stock Deal  Hollywood Reporter
3. Breaking: F1 owner CEO announces departure  Racingnews365.com
4. Charter Communications announces buyout deal for Liberty Broadband at terms above its previous proposal  MarketWatch
5. Greg Maffei to step down as CEO of F1 owner Liberty Media  Motorsport.com

Building a social media presence is perhaps the most common advice given to brands that have just begun building their online presence, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Social media has become so ingrained in our culture that it touches every corner of our lives, both personal and professional. Even those who don’t consider themselves […]

The post Five Tips for Creating a Hot-Shot Social Media Strategy From Scratch appeared first on The Design Inspiration.

March Madness is a big deal, and not just for student-athletes. 

Festival season kicked off as revelers from around the globe flocked to the small town of Indio, California for The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2023.