Nowadays, social media is much more than a marketing tool and most businesses are beginning to realize the power of integrating social media teams into their business. Social media marketers are the first points of contact with customers. They have conversations and audience data that can be used to create a better consumer experience. Author Dhariana Lozano writes in her article about some ways to use social media beyond marketing. They are - Product development, Feedback, Extend the Life of Content, and Testing & Borrowing Content for Offline Initiatives. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/4-ways-use-social-media-beyond-marketing-01503766#1C1P7ukIEJ7h66ir.97

The work of a customer advocate is to identify the right people to support your product, represent their company’s needs and create trust in your brand. They also speak to your customer with an insider’s view and share their personal knowledge and positive experience for your product with their coworkers. They also provide valuable feedback on what users like, what can be improved, or even what should be shelved. A customer advocate also helps generate new customers for you, in an effective way. The ideal customer advocate for your company has four main traits: dependable, sincere, passionate, and smart. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/itmanagement/four-traits-to-look-for-when-identifying-a-customer-advocate-70381

Sales and marketing platforms can easily be combined to generate a closed-loop approach to marketing analytics whereas business analytics understands the structure of the past to estimate what might happen in the future. Through marketing analytics, marketers can easily measure all aspects of their marketing efforts. Business Analytics can measure everything from warehouse efficiency and manufacturing. Business Analytics typically incorporate high level data from each department to gain knowledge of how the organization works. What makes marketing analytics different from other business analytics, is its concentration on real market output. Marketing analytics go beyond measuring strictly online performance and provide representatives from sales, customer service and senior business management with real market feedback that helps guide decisions on where to invest and how to prioritize. Thus marketing and business analytics are really a two way street - without marketing data business analytics wouldn't tell the whole tale, and vice versa. Read more at: 

http://blog.hubspot.com/insiders/marketing-analytics-vs-business-analytics

When a product is newly launched in the market, product marketing attempts may fail for different reasons. Marketing research is often the first thing cut due to time or resource restrictions when companies develop an idea, whether it's a new product or a redesigned website. Working with marketing research firms can be expensive and time consuming. Some low budget ways to factor a research stage into a project and give the product, idea, or designs much better footing. Firstly conduct an interview for Prospects and Customers. Secondly, run a Content Strategy Survey. Thirdly, Run User Testing on the Website. There are a number of tools that can be used to get feedback on your designs or positioning. In short, market research doesn't have to be expensive or time consuming -- with the right tools, one can have get great insights in a short amount of time. Read more at: