"Building a brand through social strategies doesn't happen overnight," writes Maria Pergolino at Marketo's blog, "it requires a sustained commitment using effective strategies for engagement and relationship building." Even as Twitter celebrates its fifth anniversary, however, many businesses still get it wrong. Here are a few of Pergolino's tips for ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Global ad expenditure is now forecast to grow 4.2% in 2011, down from the 4.6% forecast in December 2010, due to the effects of political instability in the Middle East and the earthquake in Japan, according to projections by ZenithOptimedia. Even so, online advertising is expected to continue surging worldwide, ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

SEO expert Janet Driscoll Miller guides you through what you need to do to discover which parts of your site are winning (and which parts require further optimization). Read the full article at MarketingProfs

In a video interview with Web Marketing Today, Bryan Eisenberg offers a 7-minute primer on what he terms the Five Rs of search engine marketing. "I really wanted to demystify [the five core principles], especially for a lot of small and midsize businesses," he explains. "They hear so much conflicting ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Spending on custom content published via digital channels--such as video, mobile, and Web--reached an all-time high of $12.5 billion in 2010, up from $12.1 billion in 2009, according to a new study by the Custom Content Council and ContentWise. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Presenter: Adrian Ott Join us Thursday, April 14 at noon ET, to learn how to apply knowledge of these triggers to improve your selling process. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

You've heard it said that if you're gonna take the leap into social media, you should go in armed with a strategy—or at least an idea of what you want to accomplish, how you'll do it and how it will be measured. To build a solid social foundation, it helps to ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs

More than two-thirds of marketers (67.5%) say they plan to invest more dollars in display advertising over the next 18 months, and 59.0% plan to invest more in mobile over the same period, according to a new survey from Bizo. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

You know that to succeed, you need a plan. Create one easily with SmartTools: Fast Marketing Plan—the quick-and-easy online service with a step-by-step blueprint for creating a marketing plan. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

"A drip campaign is a series of emails that are sent in a specific order at predefined intervals," writes Liz McInnis at BuyerZone. You might use campaigns to educate, nurture new leads or cross-sell to customers. Whatever your goal, her bits of advice, like the following, are likely to be ... Read the full article at MarketingProfs