Small businesses can learn lots from design firm Method's socially appealing philosophy. Case in point: Method's Interaction Design Director Ben Fullerton recently wrote an eloquent article for Fast Company about turning website design pixels into a brand experience for users. Here are our favorite bits of advice from the article: Embody what you ... more

Want to enhance your mobile marketing efforts? Rather than undergoing dreaded technical training, apply a common-sense approach to mobile. Learn four practical tips from four marketers in the trenches of mobile marketing. more

Have your marketing efforts gone "SoLoMo" yet? Learn why combining your social, local, and mobile marketing efforts are critical in today's market—and how you can go "SoLoMo" in seven ways. more

Internet advertising revenues reached $8.4 billion in the first quarter of 2012, up 15% from $7.3 billion a year earlier, setting a new record for the reporting period, according to a report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC US. more

In only two years since the release of Apple's iPad, tablets have reached critical mass in the US: One in four smartphone owners used a tablet during the three-month period ended April 2012, according to data from comScore. more

Between next-generation smartphones, tricked-out apps, and celebrity-filled Siri commercials, it's easy to look at mobile as a set of breakthrough devices, tools, and channels. But that's not the lens through which marketers should be viewing mobile. more

Nearly three in four mobile users (74.0%) say they fully pay attention to mobile ads while browsing the Web, either on a regular (35.3%) or occasional (38.7%) basis, according to a recent survey from Prosper Mobile Insights. more

Building to its IPO, Facebook unrolled improvements that let marketers optimize ads for multiple actions (not just Likes). In a post at Mashable, Victoria Ransom shares four tips for enhancing performance with those action-driven optimization capabilities. Now more than ever, she notes, "the challenge to create organic-feeling and genuine ads ... more

If your email marketing campaign doesn't generate the kind of ROI you expect, take a look at your typical call to action (CTA). Does it tell a customer how to take the next step? Does it create a sense of urgency? "When your audience is left with no direction and no ... more

Some 15% of online adults in the US say they use Twitter, up from the 13% who said so a year earlier, according to a report by Pew Research. Only 8% of online adults check their Twitter feeds on an average day; however, that proportion is twice the 4% who ... more

In today's social and mobile media landscape, confusion reigns regarding who in the organization controls the customer conversation: 58% of C-level executives say the CEO is responsible for customer communications via social and mobile channels, but only 28% of middle managers agree with that assessment, according to a report by ... more

In April, the McKinsey Quarterly published "Demystifying Social Media" for businesses. The article illustrates how using social media right can enable "targeted marketing responses at individual touch points along the consumer decision journey." Here are four steps to take to meet consumers along the way and achieve social touch-point engagement: Monitor. Make learning what's said about ... more

Long-form content—defined as videos lasting longer than 10 minutes—accounted for more than one-half of the total time people spent watching online video across all connected devices in the first quarter of 2012, up from 25% six months earlier, according to Ooyala's Global Video Index Report. more

Americans are in love with their tablets: 91% of people who own a tablet say they take their device to bed with them, and 15% say they would give up their car in order to keep their tablet, according to survey from Yahoo and Ipsos MediaCT. more

Once upon a time, notes Ryan at the MarketFish blog, email was the pinnacle of cutting-edge online technology. But that was then and this is now. "While there [are] a bunch of really cool companies driving innovation in the email space, as a whole, email still lags behind the breakneck ... more

Think mobile is for consumer audiences only? Think again, B2B marketers. Learn why mobile marketing is ideal for B2B marketing, and how three simple words—better, faster, easier—can help you win over your B2B audience. more

Though people use a variety of social channels to log in to third-party websites, Facebook still dominates social login, according to a report by Janrain. Facebook accounted for 45% of social logins in the first quarter of 2012, followed by Google with 31%. more

Growing numbers of smartphone owners are using location-based information services: Nearly three-quarters (74%) say they use their smartphone to get real-time location-based information, up from the 55% who said so a year earlier, according to a study by Pew Research. more

Ah... mobile mania. It's everywhere. Whether your target audience is B2B or B2C, your marketing needs to go mobile. Here's a three-step framework to help marketers effectively integrate mobile into the marketing mix. more

We've shared how-to's about Pinterest from a brand perspective, but its biggest users are women (especially mums!) who have a super-useful perspective on how to maximize this powerful visual network. Here's an abridged version of MomAdvice's tips on becoming a Pinterest superstar. (We highly recommend reading the full article because it includes ... more

Mothers are more present, more active, and more engaged users of social networking sites than other women, according to a study by Performics. Moreover, moms are 45% more likely than other women to say they have made a purchase as a result of a recommendation via social media (42% vs. ... more

Like any marketing campaign, a mobile marketing campaign can be well thought out, meticulously planned, and perfectly functional... but still produce limited user engagement. Why? A subpar call to action. more

At MIPTV in March, YouTube's Joe McDermottroe introduced the company's latest Creator's Playbook—a bible of video production gold—by giving away tips on how to make the best of your own YouTube video content. While of course it's up to you to produce unique content that captivates users in the first few seconds, ... more

Though Hispanics use smartphones to help with in-store shopping, most tend to visit stores with friends and family, relying more on the opinions of their companions when making purchases and less on user-generated reviews and ratings via smartphone, according to a study by Sensis and White Horse. more

Small businesses that were early adopters of mobile marketing have begun to earn tangible returns on their mobile investments, according to a study by Web.com. Even so, most small businesses haven't embraced mobile marketing yet. more