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Sabel HarriszMarketingqComments

A List of 10 Sites Every Marketer Should Check Daily (In a Sentence or Less)

With the hectic-ness of my life, I’m slowly but surely solidifying my routine. A big part of my routine though is to always have things to read because any good writer, or marketer for that matter is always up-to-date with recent happenings. Granted, I can’t be as current, as I want; however, there is a running list of sites I check daily to make sure I’m caught up with the best industry news.

Especially, with Google Reader getting the ax (May it rest in peace), its essential that you have a go-to of the sites you must check daily to then integrate into another reader.

With that, here’s a quick 10 sites you should check daily in a sentence or less.

1. Inbound.org- A type of “hacker” news for marketers, Inbound.org should be the site you check first because the community is filled with peers that provide a screening (content is “upvoted”) of the best content submitted onto the site

2. Adage, AdWeek, AdExchanger, Digiday, MediaPost (Grouping all of these into One)- All advertising/digital marketing related industry news that provide great snippets of brands using the latest marketing techniques.

3. Search Engine Watch- With a plethora of content, this site gives some good foundational insights to keep up with some of the basics along. Read More »

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Sabel HarriszCompetitive Positioning, Social Media MarketingqComments

Competitive Social Media

From playing rock, paper, scissors to battling it out over a race to see who could run the fastest, I never turned down competition.

But who am I kidding, that hasn’t changed. I’m a very competitive person and I like winning. Actually put VERY in all caps and change like to love in the previous sentence.

Regardless of my own competitive personality, the most apparent competitiveness in society is obviously business…next to sports of course. Every business has at least one identifiable competitor and there will always be this inherent competition. If you’re winning, your revenue is in the plus zone and if you’re losing obviously it could go the other way.

Besides revenue, virtually being the main factor with competition in business, there are clear other forms that have risen up to the cause. One of these has become a vital component in every business — social media.

Competitive social media isn’t necessarily always a quantity factor, the most followers, likes, pins, etc, doesn’t make for a full blown winner. Lately, I’ve noticed much more competitiveness on social media in regards to the actual content and how it increases the brand’s engagement.

1. Brand to Brand Interaction on Twitter

Some of the best examples of competitive social media can be directly seen with Twitter. Twitter provides an easy and quick way for companies to broadcast informative tidbits. It’s also a way to showcase the best battles of wit.

This past week KitKat and Oreo battled it out. They aren’t direct competitors, but I have to admit when I’m at the store I do limit myself to only one sweet snack. So, I guess I would have to chose between Oreos or KitKats. It was a battle on Twitter neither completely dunked in milk or giving each other a break, but there wasn’t any blood. The banter between the two mainly revolved around wit and laughter with a game of tic-tac-toe. A fan tweeted at both stating of her chocolate fondness and Kitkat responded with a real-time tweet to Oreo with the beginning of the game. Of course, Oreo responded and it was fun seeing the match between the two.

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Sabel HarriszCorgi Friday, From Maven's PawqComments

Happy TrackMaven Corgi Friday

Yesterday, the TrackMaven team got together to take part in a fantastic team photoshoot. The whole team was finally together….and we dognapped a corgi (Ok the corgi was borrowed willingly from it’s owner).

As the homepage is coming alive, TrackMaven comes out of beta and Maven finishes his excavating, we hope these candid pictures of the team show how excited we are to launch. I also hope I’m contributing to the suspense and anticipation too! (I know sitting on the edge of your seat is hard, but we won’t leave you in the dark.) Make sure you are signed up with your email to be the first to know when we launch, follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook!

The speed, Read More »

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Sabel HarriszContent Marketing, Social Media MarketingqComments

Twitter Favorites: How to Use Them In Your Marketing

Recently, I read a piece from a fellow Patriot from my alma mater, George Mason University. Kevin Loker wrote about Twitter Favoriting, a subject that has peaked my interests for a while. He spoke of it from a journalistic view; however, I think favoriting holds some benefit to marketers.

In comparison to a reply or a retweet, a Twitter favorite is almost like an afterthought. Maybe you didn’t have the energy to retweet or reply, you just didn’t know what else to say and/or you wanted to read the tweet later. Favoriting a tweet seems a little mysterious because there isn’t a clear strategy over this little star.

It’s a part of the Twitter family, but it doesn’t significantly shine as bright as it’s two brothers. It’s a “nice” touch. Now, I’m not saying a Twitter Favorite doesn’t have any significance or doesn’t do anything to contribute to your social media tactics. Heck, I use it all the time. I use it to signal that I like certain topics, like corgis, or I use it as a simple “Thank You” or “You’re Welcome” when people reach out to TrackMaven. I’m not really sure many analytics tools track who favorites your tweets, it’s almost like unknown territory.

When looking at my own favorites I see a mish mash of things I “like” (subconsciously interpreting Twitter terms as Facebook, you’re welcome Mark Zuckerberg)

However, I believe in fully utilizing all of the tools that are set out in front of you because you never know what you could be missing. A cohesive brand is an important point to takeaway out of all of this and streamlining your twitter favorites could add a little piece to hold it together.

Taking a look at some Favorite feeds of some Marketers and Companies…

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