I've gotta say that as a guy who works out quite regularly, I love that Vitamin Shoppe sends me email reminders and promotions. I'm sure you're probably signed up and receive promotions from some of you favorite retailers too; if not why? Since I use my little rewards card every time I go in, obviously they know exactly what products I purchase and tailor their email promos specifically towards items I regularly by.

It only takes a few minutes of surfing Facebook to realize that everyone and their dog has a Facebook page. On a more relevant note, most of your direct competitors are on Facebook. What separates businesses on Facebook, then, are the relationships they forge with their consumers.

Want to increase site traffic and page views? Try adding Social Sharing and Bookmarking Widgets to your website. These widgets let visitors share your content with their friends through email, recommend it on Facebook, tweet it with Twitter, bookmark it on Del.icio.us and much more. It's a fast and easy way to tap into the ever growing Social Media Network and use it to your advantage.

Why use Social Sharing and Bookmarking Widgets?

Last Thursday (October 28), Facebook quietly put into effect its new spam filter for Facebook Pages. It is a relatively small feature with only a handful of actions left up to the user; however, if you are a community manager and deal with a Facebook page for a company or small business, not being aware of the changes could cost you fans, therefore costing you revenue.

Since the emergence of Social Media marketing a few years back there have been countless books, blog posts, videos and every other form of how you should be using it to your advantage. Let’s be real though, there’s really an information overload out there of what you should be doing and sometimes its hard to get through the muck. If you’re new to the game, welcome; in this post you’ll find 5 simple tips about what Social Media marketing is not. Hopefully you’ll walk away with a better idea of where to focus.

In many Internet marketing projects, a common goal can be to reach out to digital influencers in the client's target industry. Reaching out to influencers can provide many benefits like backlinks, positive PR, word-of-mouth, and product sales.

I used to write in personal blogs off and on for seven years on someone else's network. I started business blogging in 2006 for LevelTen and their clients, but had been blogging on my own since 2001. One day I had a realization and decided to stop building other people’s content and focus building an online presence for myself, as well as LevelTen and their clients. If I would have known then when I started, what I know now, I would have built a huge network over the years. Learn 19 reasons why.

The DFW Social Media Marketing group met last night at Dave & Busters where two amazing speakers taught small businesses/website owners and individual self promoters the value of Personal Branding online through Social Media to promote businesses as well as hands-on Twitter tactics and tools.

Thank to Perry Belcher for this great little video on how to make money with social media.

Social Media - kind of a buzz word these days isn't it?

There's a reason for that.

Social Media connects you to your consumers like never before. It strengthens your customer service efforts, deepens emotional connections to your brand, and can even serve as a psuedo marketing research group.

Social Media is about building meaningful relationships with your core consumer - a marketers dream, right?

So why aren't you using it yet?