Visual social intelligence brings businesses closer to their customers. If companies have real-time data, they can identify influencers, respond to customer concerns, and track business success. Social media intelligence gathered and analyzed by the marketing team is useful for campaign planning, PR tracking, and influencer identification. Social intelligence provides insightful information to roles across businesses. It measures the success of KPIs and other success measurement factors, thus improving customer service. Read more at: : http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/connecting-businesses-customers-using-visual-social-intelligence

Brands and retailers have the ability to connect directly with their customers and create a more personal shopping experience. Companies can leverage geo-targeting tools to know from where your customer is and user-generated content. Companies can also create a social center with aggregated content from multiple social channels to capture audiences online. Amir Zonozi (Contributor) writes in his article about some tips on holiday social-media marketing. Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240217

Social media has opened the gates of consumer data and outdated demographic advertisements. Companies can gain a lot of information on individuals through their social media accounts. Every post made, comment liked, or page shared gives an insight into who we are. New features also allow social media sites to learn why certain ads don’t appeal to us, and which ones we tend to react more. Managing vast information in a social media site is a complicated process. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/using-data-better-social-retargeting

B2B marketing requires a longer sales process and the need to build customer loyalty with market-savvy and knowledgeable customers. B2B marketing is tough and continuously changing. B2B marketers also rely heavily on other parts of the business – sales, operations, finance etc. to drive successful marketing campaigns. Mary Wieder-Bottaro (Business Development & Marketing Associate located in Verona, Italy) writes in her article about the roadblocks that arise during B2B marketing. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/5-b2b-marketing-roadblocks-and-how-deal

Nowadays businesses are vying for customers’ attention and making strategy on how to attract customers to your site and convince them to buy. One important strategy is to offer value in the form of content. The content is a powerful tool that business house can use to boost brand and elevate sales. It was found that 40% of marketers report that inbound marketing, including content such as blogs and social media, demonstrate positive return on investment for a company. According to research by Ipsos OTX, photos are the most popular form of content shared on social media. To know more, follow: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/social-media-marketing/how-engaged-are-your-social-customers/1225

Every company needs to stand out from other companies. So, measuring ROI in social media becomes a necessity. Measuring social media ROI depends on what your company goals are. A smaller company may want to track their measurements monthly, whereas a larger organization will want to track measurements on a daily basis. To know how to measure social ROI, follow Dawn Ellis (Content Outreach Executive, alldayPA), article link: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/ultimate-guide-determining-roi-your-social-media-campaigns

According to Manish Godha (Founder & CEO, Advaiya Solutions), social media seems to be the most attractive media through which a business can interact with an audience. Individuals allow an exceptional view into their thought processes, by leaving traces of their activities - personal, social and professional - on the internet. Social analytics attempts to draw relevant understanding and inferences from them which could be used by different divisions of various brands. It is very difficult to ensure that the analysis is relevant and reliable. The most common use of social media analytics is to mine customer sentiment in order to support marketing and customer service activities. It is important that the models correspond to the business context and the intervening mechanics are accounted for. Read more at: http://www.business-standard.com/article/management/social-listening-for-market-intelligence-114092100688_1.html

According to Pernille Bruun-Jensen (leader in marketing efforts for NetBase) both digital marketing and customer care have moved beyond the Web to social media. Marketers have advanced technologies at their disposal. Social data is providing the higher returns on investment that business leaders are asking for. Similarly, emergencies can be detected and prevented before it is too late. To successfully lead in social media and henceforth in digital marketing, marketers need a strategy based on accuracy and speed using real-time tools. Next-generation social analytics reveals not just who is engaging with your brand and what they are engaging with, but why they are engaging. To know more about what next-generation social analytics can do for a brand go to: http://www.adweek.com/brandshare/next-gen-social-analytics-are-transforming-digital-marketing-160064

Branding is just not selling to your customers but also to connect with them. You have to make yourself trustworthy and have to build a fan base. So how do you make them coming back each time? You create brand FOMO or the fear of missing out. Katie Leimkuehler (Social Media Strategist, Author and Speaker) writes about four strategies that will help to create social media presence that people want to miss out on. They are: 1Make your fans feel important.  2. Make your content so amazing they won’t want to miss a post. 3.  Offer exclusive benefits to your fan base. 4. Be innovative. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/4-key-strategies-create-social-media-brand-fomo

You Tube has become an important part in our daily life. Over 6 billion hours of video are being watched on You Tube every month. It was found that You Tube reaches more adult viewers in the US than cable TV.  So, companies should think about You Tube as a part of their marketing plan. But, one needs to have the right content and target audience for You Tube. George Mathew (writer), in his article writes about how to find and win over your new audience.  To know about these techniques, follow: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-build-audience-youtube

According to Laura Cole (marketer and researcher based in the UK) content marketing has emerged as effective method for promoting products, sharing information and motivating brand recognition. It differentiates between Public Relation and social media. Social media offers an advantage in case of online brands as it is entirely free to access and enables you to share and promote your content easily. One can reach a larger audience through social media platform. It also allows messages to be tailored and therefore real-time interactions can be generated with customers. This is a huge boon for business owners, traders and entrepreneurs. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/public-relations/social-media-marketing-represents-new-face-pr-01003698

Social, Mobile, Analytic, and Cloud (SMAC) based business models are trending nowadays in digital marketing. SMAC gives you a complete solution in transforming your business as a highly functional and productive entity and also helps in managing future business challenges. Every digital marketer should take into account some key points when designing their own SMAC business model. They are: 1. every business should consider their business objectives and resources. 2. Organizations should implement a more realistic initiative to drive their business marketing strategies. 3. Companies should discover their business capability in using SMAC and explore every aspect of benefits that can be derived from each. 4. Organizations should link with technology partners that can help them manage their SMAC based marketing campaigns. To know more about SMAC, please follow Jason Bowden (Chief Consultant at Digital-Warriors Internet Marketing)’s article link: : http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-smac-social-mobile-analytic-cloud-your-business-model-1

Nowadays, Twitter has become an important channel to sell products and services and is very effective for Business-to-Consumer (B2C) companies. A report by eConsultancy revealed that, Twitter has a conversion rate of 2.17% while other social networks such as Facebook have 0.80% and LinkedIn has 0.74% when used by B2C businesses. According to Ray Wang (Marketing Coordinator at SmarttBut), there are three important tactics which are to be kept in mind while using Twitter. To know more about the Twitter tactics, follow: http://www.smallbusinessbc.ca/growing-a-business/how-discover-potential-customers-using-twitter

Social media is an effectual instrument for managing networking with other business owners, boosting a brand, targeting a specific demographic, and keeping in contact with existing clients. Paisley Hanson (writer and blogger on health and fitness), writes about some social media tips which will be helpful for the growth of any business. They are: Advertise on Social Media, Increase Your Market Share by building audience in social media,Using Social Media for promotions,Finding Joint Venture opportunities, Integrating Social Media with Other Marketing Channels. To know more, follow: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/5-social-media-tips-business-owners

63% of IT pros said that they would not consider a candidate for employment if they saw one to five social media comments about that company and 68% IT leaders said they would not consider a candidate if they saw a single negative social media post about his or her current employer, as seen by the TEKsystems survey. Social media plays a very important role in IT hiring. 68% IT leaders use social media to search for candidates and 82 percent use it to screen them. LinkedIn was rated as the top source for finding prospective employees. Facebook was second with 9%. 75% of IT pros rely on social media with 67% citing LinkedIn as the best source for finding jobs. Facebook came in second at 12%, followed by Google Plus at 7%. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297739/social-media-matters-hiring

According to author Avneet Gupta (Country Manager, IBM Collaboration Solutions, IBM India), with advancement in technology and workforce dynamics, organizations today are totally focused on socially-enabling business developments. By rethinking and reworking the existing processes through a social business lens, the workforce gets more involved, operative and productive thereby delivering great returns for organizations. The biggest concern is therefore to better understand employees along with supervising the transformational changes required for constant innovation and alteration of the workforce. The progressive organizations globally have already invested in adapting to social changes for smarter workforce. Read more at: http://www.indiaonward.com/the-power-of-rethinking-the-work-through-a-social-business-lens/

Social media screening has become common among recruiters and hiring any official and also in many college admissions. It is primarily focused on job candidates and employers, but it can be applied to students, athletes, admissions offices and coaches as well. Employers are "googling" job candidates and searching social networking sites as part of their pre-employment background checks, and admissions counselors and coaches are using similar practices to make acceptance decisions about prospective students and athletes. An article in New York Times reveals that the reasons to reject - and accept - students based on their social media activity are similar to those used by employers. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/social-media-screening-guidance-individuals-and-organizations-slideshare

 A number of companies are creating new avenues for revenue generation by thinking out of the box and encouraging amateur-made catchy videos on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. This approach helps to nurture talent. Famebox, a company supported by Malaysia's Astro Group, is on a project where it aims to create "webstars" and make profits in an unconventional way, by making videos go viral so that they bring in at least a million hits. Revenue can also be generated by sharing with YouTube but it depends on the sponsorships from brands that are looking to advertise on social media. According to Kunal Rao, co-creator of The East India Comedy, the shift to online media for satire and commentary is due to the rising censorship on TV channels. To know more, read at: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-08-16/news/52873607_1_video-online-social-media-viral

Ideas like appointment and dimension mean lots to several public. We listen to experts asking us  to interrelate with all our admirers, that social media is concerning one-on-one communications in order to be winners. So, can big brand make social media meeting? Are the experts practice  similar for the brand with 500 admirers as for the brand with five million or more? The answer may be yes and no. The solution to the conversation has to do with level, which is the most misread concepts in advertising. level has to deal with percentage and size. When a little school tries to duplicate a social media movement by a superior school, it possibly doesn't be unsuccessful because the audiences are dissimilar in demographics, requirements, or online behavior. So what happens when we are too big to help with every admirer? The key is to range the plan and not the tactic.Read more at:http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-big-brands-build-social-media-engagement

Facebook along with market research agency GfK commissioned a study, according to which more than 60 percent of adults in the US use at least two devices every day, and more than 40% start an activity on one device and finish it on another. Facebook announced this week that it will track users' actions between devices and share with advertisers when an ad or promotion leads to a purchase. Facebook plans to capitalize on the multi-device trend. This will give marketers valuable information to make more informed advertising decisions, it does not pose any threat to users' privacy, said Rebecca Lieb, analyst at Altimeter Group. The information Facebook shares, is neither personal nor personally identifiable, she explained. Facebook is the first company to offer this type of information to marketers. Marketers can find the new cross-device conversions for campaigns within your Facebook Ad Reports. Read more at:

http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/news-analysis/297575/facebook-track-shopping-habits