IM Sphere

Posted by rjonesx.

Let me tell you a story.

It begins with me in a hotel room halfway across the country, trying to figure out how I’m going to land a contract from a fantastic new lead, worth annually $250,000. We weren’t in over our heads by any measure, but the potential client was definitely looking at what most would call “enterprise” solutions and we weren’t exactly “enterprise.”

Could we meet their needs? Hell yes we could — better than our enterprise competitors — but there’s a saying that “no one ever got fired for hiring IBM”; in other words, it’s always safe to go with the big guys. We weren’t an IBM, so I knew that by reputation alone we were in trouble. The RFP was dense, but like most SEO gigs, there wasn’t much in the way of opportunity to really differentiate ourselves from our competitors. It would be another “anything they can do, we can do better” meeting where we grasp for reasons why we were better. In an industry where so many of our best clients require NDAs that prevent us from producing really good case studies, how could I prove we were up to the task?

In less than 12 hours we would be meeting with the potential client and I needed to prove to them that we could do something that our competitors couldn’t. In the world of SEO, link building is street cred. Nothing gets the attention of a client faster than a great link. I knew what I needed to do. I needed to land a killer backlink, completely white-hat, with no … Read More

Even if you haven’t attended SXSW before, you’re probably familiar with the cultural impact of the sprawling annual conference/festival/showcase in Austin. From global brands to influential futurists, just about everyone who is anyone makes an appearance at the conference at some point. Elon Musk has been there, as has Joe Biden, Kesha, and even the cast of Game of Thrones. For many marketers, it’s important to get brand visibility at SXSW if they want to be viewed as future-forward.

It’s also unique in that the community is highly involved with the programming process, with about 30% of sessions’ overall “scores” determined by audience votes. This year alone, there are approximately 4,000 session submissions to SXSW and 1,500 to SXSW EDU in dozens of different tracks within the Panel Picker. Voting ends August 30, so now is your time to impact the conversation in 2019 by voting on which panels you’d like to see come to life.

Not heading to Austin? Many of SXSW’s sessions are recorded and broadcast via their Facebook, YouTube, and Soundcloud channels.

I love browsing the Panel Picker submissions—it gives you a glimpse into the zeitgeist. (Side note: My colleague Lauren Teague and I are on Panel Picker this… Read More

Relevancy is everything in today’s marketing landscape. Things move at lightning speed in the digital world, so what worked for your business last year may not be very effective anymore.

Failing to adapt to change and sticking to the status quo can bring certain death to a business. For example, Kodak was once a powerful brand that controlled 90% of the United States’ film market in the 1970s. However, they never adjusted their marketing message and relied on old strategies to keep them afloat. Kodak failed to realize that customer’s priorities change. Today, consumers are interested in the actual story of a business, in addition to their product. Kodak failed to adapt to the changing priorities and nearly had to shut its doors after it declared bankruptcy, giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “Having a Kodak moment.”

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Unfortunately, many marketing teams can get stuck in their ways when it comes to… Read More

Want to improve your Facebook retargeting campaigns? Wondering how to build a Facebook ad funnel that saves you time and effort? In this article, you’ll discover how to build a Facebook ad funnel that retargets users with multiple ads over a substantial time period. About Facebook Retargeting and Ad Fatigue Most businesses have relatively small […]

The post How to Create an Effective Facebook Ad Retargeting Funnel appeared first on Social Media Examiner.

… Read More

Launched in 2014, Slack has become one of the fastest growing business apps today. With 8 million daily active users, and 500,000 organizations connecting, Slack gives people from all over the world a way to improve, no matter their industry or niche – including blogging.

Slack aims to bring teams together to boost productivity and efficiency in the workplace (after all, you can share documents, privately message team members, and create threads in community chats).

That said, today I am going to take a look at what Slack channels are, why you should consider joining a Slack community, and some of the best Slack channels for bloggers.

So, let’s get started.

How does Slack work?

Slack is a collaboration hub that connects people from all over the world so things can get done. It organizes teams into workspaces and acts as a place for people to communicate with others.

Workspaces