unwrapping:

"What makes Tumblr unique? The platform is a hybrid of social and the web.” — blackfin360 (Tom Edwards – blog post at iMediaConnection)

"Exactly. You have the aesthetic control and SEO [search engine optimization] benefits of a self-hosted site, with all the social gestures and discovery benefits of a social platform." — bluechoochoo (Andréa Lopez)

From my favorite LinkedIn group: 
tumblr for brands, agencies, and businesses

Ingenius little marketing trick from DHL.

How predictive analytics for B2B sales and marketing can offer huge returns

"Predictive analytics is way ahead of even lead scoring in helping companies close new business, and new SaaS vendors make it easier for companies to adopt it."

It’s all about the data, and the more you have the better decisions you can make. I’ll be checking out some of these new vendors of predictive analytics and adding them to my arsenal of marketing tools. This kind of marketing intelligence is just too good to pass up.

How to Steal Your Competitor’s Twitter Followers

Why do you think my companies have done so well from a traffic generation perspective? It’s because I’ve created a popular blog for each of my companies

Building a strong twitter following is essential, especially if you’re doing a great job creating engaging content on your blog. Going after your competitors followers is a smart tactic to adopt.

Introducing Yahoo Gemini

yahoo:

The first unified ad marketplace for mobile search and native advertising

By Jay Rossiter, SVP of Cloud Platform Group, and Adam Cahan, SVP of Mobile and Emerging Products

When advertising appears seamlessly and naturally, it creates a more enjoyable experience for users, increases…

Are you still tracking followers as your main metric of social media marketing success? Conversion rate and amplification rates would be significantly better metrics to be tracking. Adding followers is easy, but connecting with them is the real goal.

The Moz Blog has put together a great rundown of metrics to follow and tips on how to track it all. Be sure to download the sample reporting spreadsheet to help put together your own reports.

Social Media: A Hotbed For SMB Growth

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are considered engines for economic growth, and with good reason. They contribute $5.5 trillion in annual revenue in North America, according to Dun & Bradstreet. They’re usually eager to grow their companies, and are always looking for new ways to raise the profile of their

LinkedIn published a study showing small companies experiencing hot growth have a strong tendency to be heavy engaged in social media. I think this says a lot about the need for business owners to be engaged in their wider community; which social media is a great way to connect.

4 Principles of Social Proof Every Ecommerce Store Owner Needs to Know

Even if you don’t use Shopify for you ecommerce site, you should follow their blog for some really great content. I find myself devouring just about every post they publish.

Finding Available Domains PLUS available Twitter and Facebook usernames

Finding a great domain for your company or campaign isn’t always easy, and finding one with a matching Twitter of Facebook username can be downright daunting. It should always be your preference to have all three match up: brand.com, @brand and Facebook.com/brand as it gives your customers a single brand identity to recognize.

I’ve become a big fan of NameFind since it helps search helps search for all three at once. It can save you a whole lot of time.

Using Google Plus+ to Improve Search Results

The question of Google+ seems to be coming up more and more whenever I meet with other marketers or business folks. And for obvious reasons: it is this ‘thing’ from the almighty Google that is constantly foisted upon us yet doesn’t have any clear value beyond the networks we’re already using. We have little real interest in using it but we’re still under the impression we should.

First, I am a fan of Google Hangouts as a marketing tool, even more so than a plain old webinar of just slides.

But more importantly and why I keep Google+ in my marketing mix, are the benefits one can get in search results. Here is a great break down from Social Media Examiner outlining some of the activities companies can do to take advantage of Google+ to improve their search results.

I would also assume Google+ will continue to evolve and present other opportunities you will want to take advantage of so now is a great time to get started.

And don’t forget to work on building a community on the site, it is after all a social network.