Have you Written your Online Identity into your Will Yet?

Ever thought about what happens to your email accounts,Facebook, Twitter and other online identities after you pass? According to an article by Rebecca J. Rosen in The Atlantic, nearly half a million people with Facebook accounts passed away last year. So what were family and friends left to do – create a memorial page? Leave the account open? Shut it down? Rosen says the government is now suggesting that people create a Social Media Will when estate planning that will help friends or families know what to do with all of your online accounts. What do you want to happen to your online accounts? Is writing a Social Media Will a smart idea?

Why Measuring ROI for Social Media is Different than for Traditional Marketing

If your business is like most, you probably have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn page, a YouTube channel and a blog. And you also may wonder how is the time and effort I put into managing these accounts paying off? It’s a question many businesses are constantly asking. According to Social Media Marketing, an article in Smart Business by Krista Neher, measuring ROI from social media is as challenging if not more challenging than measuring ROI for traditional marketing for many reasons, including: • Brand impressions differ • Direct marketing return • Customer retention return • Word-of-mouth return • Awareness and exposure • Don’t hold social media too highly Read the full article here.

Social Media Tips for Job Candidates

After the recent news of prospective employers asking for job candidate’s Facebook passwords, it makes sense that those searching for a job may be a little concerned about what their social media profiles say about them.

But according to an article called “Social Media Secrets from Hiring Managers,” by David Mielach, a BusinessNewsDaily staff writer, a new survey reveals that 65 percent of hiring managers who checked social networks did so to see how job candidates presented themselves while 51 percent wanted to determine whether the candidate was a good fit for the organization.

Only about 12 percent of hiring managers were looking at social media sites to find reasons NOT to hire a candidate.

Mielach writes that the most common strike against candidates was posting inappropriate or provocative pictures online. Information about drinking or drug use, poor communication skills, bad-mouthing a prior employee, making a discriminatory remark and lying about qualifications on social media were other reasons for not hiring a candidate.

Some things that helped job candidates on social media sites were showing off their personality, conveying a professional image, providing background info, showing a wide-range of interests, displaying communication skills, being creative and having people post references about you.

READ MORE: http://bit.ly/ISlmTE

Is Social Media Marketing a "Bust" for Your Company?

The term “social media marketing” isn’t a new term. But many small and medium-sized businesses aren’t entirely sure how to effectively take advantage of social media. Success story after success story prove that some companies are doing it right. However, according to an article by Chris Horton in “Businehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifss 2 Community,” the sad truth is that social media is proving to be a “bust.”

Horton says these are the main reasons social media marketing is a bust for most companies:

Weak Brand Advocacy – Businesses should use social media to build brand advocates. SMM gives companies reach, empowering brands to leverage their content and messaging more effectively than other marketing channels. MORE.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Failure to Drive Web Traffic – SM is the new promotion. And companies that do not integrate their website and SM are blowing a huge opportunity to drive web traffic. MORE.

Poor Lead Generation – The best source of a website lead is a recently-satisfied convert from one of your SM channels. But data from 2011 suggest that 63% of B2B businesses were not generating leads from SM. These companies were generating traffic, but they were not converting that traffic into leads. MORE.

Has social media marketing worked for you business? Share your success story with us!

Would you Give a Prospective Employer your Facebook Password?

In the last week, there has been a social media topic that has really exploded – should prospective employers be able to ask for your social networking passwords? It’s common knowledge that when applying for jobs, candidates should clean up their social networking profiles (e.g. removing photos of questionable behavior from Facebook; removing profanity from Twitter, etc.). And it should go without saying thhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifat employers are most likely not looking to hire someone who practices illegal or dishonest behavior and then publicly boasts about it. But should aspects of your Facebook, such as private messages, be scrutinized and viewed by a company who is interviewing you for a job? Does this infringe upon privacy rights? Many people and companies think so, including Facebook who recently issued a statement saying they don’t approve of such behavior. What do you think – would you give a prospective employer your Facebook password or give up on the job?

Here’s a good article for the argument against allowing companies to ask job candidates for their passwords. http://lat.ms/HhgDQg

B2B Marketing and Social Media

Business 2 Community recently released an article, How B2B Marketers can Embrace Social Media, in which author Dragan Mestrovic uses Sagefrog’s B2B Marketing Mix Survey to highlight the 4 ways companies can leverage social media:

Increase brand awareness
Humanize B2B companies
Establish as thought leader
Connecting with customers and prospects


The article also illustrates B2B social media using infographics, and discusses sites, strategies and tactics that B2B marketers are using in their business social media.

Sagefrog Marketing Group is Now Hiring

Sagefrog Marketing Group is Now Hiring

Looking for a paid, part-time summer internship? Sagefrog is NOW HIRING!

Intern Qualifications:
- Junior, senior or graduate student from a local college or recently graduated
- Marketing or communications major preferred
- GPA of 3.0 or higher
- Commute of less than one hour (we are located near the Doylestown train station)
- Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)
- Strong writing and communication skills
- Fast learner with the ability to take initiative and work independently
- Must be available a minimum of 20 hours per week (May - August)

Responsibilities (including but not limited to):
- Support online distribution of agency and client press releases, case studies, etc.
- Research PR and media opportunities
- Support Brand Strategy discovery and research process
- Maintain agency and client contact lists and marketing databases
- Support testing and review of client marketing materials and websites
- Participate in weekly staff meetings

If you are interested, please submit your resume and a writing sample. To learn more, please visit http://bit.ly/GH8D5F.