Digital marketing insights.

Is your credibility as a marketer making it harder for you to keep up with the latest jokes and memes? Does it ever feel like too many people are responding to your offers, forcing you to process new sales and service clients when you’d rather be napping?

Most of us, as consumers, have reached a point of digital saturation. Information and offers are everywhere, but credible, trustworthy resources seem more scarce than ever. We’re past the point of being skeptical – we actively distrust those we don’t know or have very good reason to believe.

In June, I found myself meeting new people at the #SocialShakeUp social media marketing conference in Atlanta. Rather than collect business cards at events, I have a habit of pulling up my mobile and adding people to a twitter list made for the event. Before long, one individual in particular caught my attention, for he had more than 300 thousand Twitter followers. Which of course, quickly became a topic of discussion.

Once upon a time, you could improve your search engine visibility by signing up for dozens (hundreds, thousands…) of different directories (of vastly differing quality), earning a link to your website in the process. At the time, each of these links effectively served as an “up-vote” of sorts to the search engines, making your website appear more authoritative with each entry.

Online reputation is a big subject that’s only getting bigger. We have already seen in the last few years that having lots of positive reviews and feedback around your business can encourage business… and that, conversely, even a single bad review can damage it (big time).

Often, the hardest part of launching a new website or getting a marketing plan off the ground involves getting content from different members of the team or organization. Having multiple perspectives and ideas is helpful, but it can also turn something that seems simple into a herding exercise.

There is an interesting dichotomy floating around on the Internet. On the one hand, the web (and social media specifically) is supposed to be fostering creativity and individual expression. On the other hand, the partisan and anonymous nature of the Internet is fuelling a stronger and stronger herd mentality. A distance that causes people to act as they were wearing a mask.

Spend enough time learning about search optimization, and you’ll undoubtedly run into strong opinions about “white hat” versus “black hat” tactics. Marketers argue (often very privately) all the time about which work best, or are even ethical to use.

Recently, I had the chance to participate in a Google On Air Hangout hosted by LinkedIn fellow Greg Cooper on the topic of LinkedIn Publishing platform Pulse and, specifically, what marketers can do to make the most of it as a blogging platform. On the call with me were LinkedIn heavyweights Marc Miller and Paul Shapiro.

If part of your job involves helping your company to find new customers, especially over the Internet, then there’s a good chance you’ve been hearing a bit of chatter about agile marketing or agile web development.

At a time when social engagement is becoming more crucial than ever before, at every business level, automated social posting and updating tools are increasingly responsible for the posts you see on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +. And even though it’s all being done in the name of “convenience,” I would argue that these types of interactions aren’t convenient, helpful, or meaningful to anyone. More often than not, they’re just a waste of time.

With graduation season upon us, the team at Kayak can look back on the past few years with a great deal of pride. We might not be donning robes, handing out diplomas, or giving commencement speeches, but we have trained a lot of business people in the practice of "being social" on social media.

I don’t know if whomever came up with the expression, “the customer is always right”, is more deserving of our scorn or pity. This misguided soul must have had a challenging time running their business, catering to every client's wish and whim.

Hardly a week goes by when I don't come across some kind of request from a company or organization asking for speculative work submissions (also known as "spec" creative, co-creation, or user-generated content).

If there’s one thing business owners universally fear, it’s an economic downturn. Although there are a few industries that benefit, or at least remain stable during a rough patch, even those tend to face increased pressure and competition in slower times.