Does Your Crisis Communications Plan Include Social?

Does your organization have a complete crisis communications plan? If it doesn’t include social media, the answer is “no” says online PR expert Ann Marie van den Hurk.

Building the Press Release of the Future

Has Google killed the news release with its new focus on excessive anchor text? Not at all, says Vocus SVP of Products You Mon Tsang. News releases are about news, not links.

Have You Started Marketing in 3D?

Whilst making a financial return is important, your prospects, customers and other stakeholders would like you to play a positive role in society that’s functional, commercial, social and environmental.

How to Handle a Social Media Flame Crisis in Five Steps

Whether your business is new to social media or not, there are a few rules you should ALWAYS follow if someone ‘flames’ your social pages with negative comments.

The #Demand13 Speaker Infographic!

Need the most effective marketing knowhow from the best in the business? The Demand Success 2013 Vocus Conference delivers. This new infographic shows you who’s who.

Actress Elisabeth Moss Joins #Demand13 as Keynote Speaker!

Elisabeth Moss, who plays Peggy Olsen on AMC’s Mad Men, will be our closing keynote on day one of Demand Success, the Vocus conference on Thursday, June 20th.

Vocus Questions: Lisa Barone on Social, Search and #Demand13

SEO and social media have converged to affect how your business ranks in search and whether customers can find you. Lisa Barone, Overit’s VP of Strategy, will help Demand Success attendees navigate this new landscape.

Weekend Read: Six Ways to Grab the Media’s Attention

Excerpt from Let’s Close A Deal by Christine Clifford, a new book that guides businesses to better pitching, positioning and selling, published by Wiley.

Andrea Weckerle: Online Conflict Management as a Business Process

Many companies struggle through negative online behavior as best they can. A better approach is to regard online conflict management as a business process, says next week’s webinar host Andrea Weckerle.

Why Shared Media is the Best of Both Worlds

Owned media is your website or blog. Earned media happens when customers rave about you. But there’s a gray area between owned and earned that’s just as important: shared media.

Publicize It! A Free Vocus Guide to Generating Publicity

Use this free Vocus guide to integrate strategic messaging, media relations, and thought leadership into a successful publicity campaign for your brand.

What Is a Communication Strategy?

A communication strategy does not a marketing strategy make. A communication strategy is complementary and subservient to the marketing one. It takes its cues from the marketing strategy, which, in turn, takes its direction from the business...

Shel Holtz: Smartphones Are Swiss Army Knives for Life

The consumer shift to mobile technology is about far more than accommodating a smaller screen size, says technology and marketing expert Shel Holtz. While communicators scramble to ensure their content looks right on screens between 4 and 10...

Using Survey Incentives to Supercharge, Not Skew, Your Responses

As many marketers experience, you may have had some trouble getting answers to your latest marketing survey. This is when you should start thinking about incentivizing: giving in order to get. The problem here, however, is that incentives can...

Buying Signals: How to Turn Social Media Into a Lead Stream

We now use social media to comment upon a lot of things that we used to keep to ourselves or just share with friends. This is a huge opportunity for any business that can recognize ‘buying signals’ – public thoughts on social media that indicate...

How Co-Branded Employees Can Help Your Business

When your employees build their own ‘personal brands’ on Facebook and Twitter, their output can clash with your business’s marketing goals. However, co-branded employees don’t have to be a liability. Here are some ways to capitalize on employees’ ...

Vocus Questions: Mark Schaefer on Holiday Social Media Marketing

Are you making a list of holiday social media tactics and checking it twice?

If not, don’t fret; Vocus is here to help. Check out what Mark Schaefer, a marketing consultant, social media expert, and author of The Tao of Twitter, has to say ...

Vocus Questions: Ann Handley on Holiday Content Marketing

Every smart marketer knows that creating compelling search and social media content is the key to attracting, engaging, and retaining customers. Now, with the holidays now in full swing, we have a unique opportunity to connect with audiences on a ...

What Do Your Content and a Thanksgiving Turkey have in Common?

It takes a good amount of time to get Thanksgiving dinner on the table. Likewise, as anyone who has ever been involved in writing a whitepaper or guide knows, it takes time to select a topic, do your research, consult with experts, draft, rewrite ...

Five Deliciously Tasty Turkey Day Marketing Campaigns

According to the 2011 AllRecipes.com holiday survey, 82% of consumers surveyed think Thanksgiving has been drowned out by early Christmas marketing. So what have brands been doing do to get their Thanksgiving campaigns noticed? The five great...

Help a Reporter! Peter Shankman’s Holiday Publicity Tips

HARO publicity alerts founder and Vocus small business expert Peter Shankman is an invaluable resource on marketing and publicity for businesses of all sizes. We caught up with him to ask for some tips on pitching reporters during the...

Five Ways Little Guys Can Level the Field on Cyber Monday

The big brands are out in full force for the holidays. Target, for instance, started running holiday ads six weeks before Thanksgiving – and more brands have since followed suit. Don’t be intimidated, though: there are plenty of tricks for...

A Five-Point Checklist for Better News Release Writing

Millions of potential customers are searching online for businesses like yours. With PRWeb (now the world’s #1 news release) you can attract them directly to you. For best results, all you need to do is make your story clear and engaging. This...

Infographic: How Facebook Merges Business and Personal

86% of small businesses now consider Facebook a valuable marketing tool. Fans of a business are 79% more likely to buy from it than non fans. One fifth of consumers now feel more comfortable buying from a business’ Facebook page than from its...