You have a really big... social media following. But when it comes to effective social media marketing, size doesn't always matter. Really. Anyone who gives their marketing staff the directive to get the numbers up on the corporate Twitter account is missing the point. Here’s a secret. You want straight up social media metrics? Get on Fiverr.com and buy followers. The going offer is 7000 Twitter followers for five bucks. The number of followers and likes you’ve got are no indication of ROI. Whatsoever. Don’t fall into that trap.

When it comes to demystifying the enigma of content marketing, you have probably wondered what in the world is content writing?

So, you’ve realized that implementing a content strategy is smart business – a new marketing approach that will create a tighter bond with your audience and has the promise of greater ROI than traditional marketing approaches.

I just checked in at Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique and Bistro on Facebook. It’s been a couple of years since I was even in Scottsdale, but it seemed like an amusing virtual kind of thing to do in light of the explosion of social media attention the place is getting. And that attention ranges from gently derisive all the way to aggressively ugly.

That box of chocolates and bouquet of flowers are so three years ago; cheesy commercials and stereotypical print ads geared towards women are out. Pinterest, and all of its visually organized content glory, is in. 

The rise of content marketing has marketers scrambling for solutions to the content creation conundrum – the truth is that producing engaging, shareable content is difficult. And so, like manic dieters, businesses are searching for quick fixes, racing to find “the solution.”

There’s an explosion of consumer interest in using Twitter as a top line method of customer service. Twitter as a communication avenue between companies and clients isn’t new, but in the past three months, the number of customers turning to Twitter has jumped by 25 percent, and as a result, companies are now getting in on the game. Brands have increased their activity by 33 percent.

Let’s face it—if you’re someone who uses the Internet on a daily basis, you have probably at some point in your life diagnosed yourself with ADD. I mean, how could you not?  There’s just so much out there to explore! Pictures of grumpy little kittens? Yes, please. Constant updates on my friends’ social lives? Of course. The latest coverage of Washington’s vote on Internet sales tax? Send it my way.

Once upon a time, customers did what brands told them to do. Buy our toilet paper; subscribe to our newspaper; purchase our services. That was then, this is now, and customers don’t really care what brands tell them to do anymore.  The brands that succeed today are those that embrace, engage and inform their customers.

Come on. Seriously? You’re about to sit down and bore the living daylights out of people. What you want to do instead is draw people in. The first rule of show business also applies to online writing: be entertaining. Let’s examine what it means to be entertaining in the context of blogging.