The top five, key benefits cited by the study include:

• Better communication with customers, cited by 61 percent of responding companies
• Cost savings (51 percent)
• Brand positioning (49 percent)
• Real-time customer satisfaction (48 percent)
• Potential lead generation (43 percent)

Additional study findings include:

• A full 82 percent of responding organizations have a Facebook presence, 68 percent have a Twitter profile and 68 percent, a LinkedIn page
• Less than one in five companies are currently using social enterprise tools
• Confusion over terminology and hesitation to adopt consumer-driven outreach make the social landscape one that still requires definition and justification for many companies
• While the marketing staff has been the primary owner of social activity to this point, IT departments will play a critical role in the further development of the social enterprise

Our .02 cents:

While the CompTIA study examined the social media activity of  very large, enterprise businesses with multiple departments, many of the study’s findings are relevant to small business, especially the finding about “confusion over terminology and hesitation to adopt consumer-driven outreach” are sentiments we run into from time to time.

And of the top 5 benefits cited, we found one particularly exciting revelation from this study: companies who engage in social do find that the conversational nature of social media allows them to “carry on discussions with their customers, strengthening the relationship and gleaning insights on products, services and satisfaction.” That is one of the core benefits social brings to the table and usually a key benefit most often overlooked or dismissed by organizations who still feel as the study describes as hesitation and reluctance with the social media landscape.

Hoopla aside …

Yep, despite the hoopla about Pinterest, recent findings indicate its not really impacting consumer purchasing decisions. Does the pinning activity on the network generating lots of traffic to sites and blogs? Yes! This is clear in many of the reporting we have seen as of late.

That said, we guess the word is still out about influencing whether or not someone will spend $$$ on a given product or service. The study from Prosper Mobile Insights validates reports of the network’s “slower” impact on purchasing decisions: only 13 percent of survey respondents either somewhat or strongly agree that Pinterest influences their purchasing decisions.

Will Pinterest’s new iPad app and redesigned profiles spike consumer’s interest in browsing pinboards for product purchases?? The jury seems to be out on that one but what businesses should know is that Pinterest has, despite its being around since 2009, really only just recently started to generate some mainstream attention from media and users alike. Right now, in our view, Pinterest is still that “shiny new object” or “new kid on the social block” for many people, let alone organizations and companies.

Once the flurry dies down a bit, we’re pretty sure we’ll see a more ubiquitous use of the “Pin this” icon and capability as we now see with the Facebook “Like” button and Google “+1.”

It will be interesting to see the evolution of Pinterest for business use and whether consumers and prospective customers will be enticed to make purchase decisions inspired by a pin that’s been shared on this trendy social network …

In BlogHer‘s Fifth Annual Women and Social Media study, active blog users surveyed say they trust blogs (81 percent) as a source of information or advice, but an equal number say they trust the advice they get from Pinterest. Why is this significant? Well, for starters, the findings indicate that Pinterest and blogs are being trusted more than older social-media siblings Facebook (67 percent) and Twitter (73 percent).

Similarly, the study finds 61 percent of those surveyed made a purchase based on a recommendation from a blog, and 47 percent bought something based on a recommendation from Pinterest.

One of the reasons the survey points to for the ongoing popularity of blogs is that blogs contain substantive comments featuring details and expertise that make bloggers more trustworthy than Facebook friends, who tend to write short comments, or celebrity endorsers.

San Jose, California-based BlogHer co-founder Elisa Camahort Page comments on the Pinterest and blogger trust issues with an interesting footnote: “Pinterest’s active users are showing an intensity of trust and action that approaches that of blog readers, but its adoption rate is still less than half that of blog reading (as is Twitter’s) amongst the general population. So, we have definitely identified Pinterest as an app to watch (and for our community, adoption is much higher) but its relative impact is still going to be significantly lower.”

Our comments

We find these comments about blogs generating trust to be of high interest, especially during a time when the act of blogging in general (according to various reports we have seen come across our inboxes as of late) is on a gradual decline and/or continues to be challenged by the ongoing needs for content, time and resources. Knowing that consistent, good blogging DOES indeed still foster trust and build credibility is just really good news to hear, in our geeky blogging point of view

Today’s Wall Street Journal (WSJ) includes an interview with Procter & Gamble’s marketing chief, Marc Pritchard, about the company’s plans for the future. According to WSJ, Pritchard is looking to “go digital” as the company attempts to cut $1 billion from its ad budget.

How are brands responding to the “smaller, digital budgets,” he’s asked. Pritchard responds: “Some brands that have very little money get very innovative. Aussie [Hair Care] is 100% digital. Secret [deodorant] is 100% digital. Old Spice [deodorant] didn’t have that much money. They didn’t advertise “Smell Like a Man, Man” at the Super Bowl; it was before the Super Bowl. Then they got this huge lift on YouTube, then they amplified it in PR, amplified it on Twitter,” Pritchard replies.

While the article highlights the digital branding and advertising efforts of a big brand rather than a small or medium-sized business, it is of interest that even the big guns are strongly re-purposing their marketing dollars more and more towards digital. The trend for digital spend has been around for the last five years but the intensity in which how organizations large and small are trying to do more with less and expand further into digital is fascinating to those who care about such geeky marketing subjects … (hint, hint)

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Dear Mayra,

My boss thinks that content marketing is a complete waste of time. He says we are not publishers and “publishing a blog post” or sending out email newsletters does not translate to “X” number of sales. Plus it’s too time consuming and we shouldn’t invest the time for what he perceives as little return. This kind of attitude makes it hard to really get content-buy in across the organization. What can I do to help my superiors better understand the value of content marketing and why we need to have such a practice in place?

Sincerely,

Severely Pressured to Prove Content Works

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Dear Severely,

First, good for you that you recognize the value of content in today’s digital marketing and outbound outreach. While there are countless of resources available online that can explain in vast detail the benefits of content marketing, it won’t mean much to your supervisors if you don’t “translate” those benefits into internal language that makes more of an impact to your C-Suite.

What often happens in the arena of content marketing is that folks tend to limit their view of it to a mere string of singular blog posts or a handful of email newsletters vs. seeing those individual content efforts as key aspects of a much, much bigger combined picture where content plays a mission-critical role in the customer or consumer purchase process.

I just presented on this very topic during February’s New Media Conference in Frederick, Maryland (if you want to view my slide deck for this presentation, please visit http://slidesha.re/wLlTLa). There were a few business owners in the midst of the attendees who really can identify with the “So what?” concerns when it comes to content.

If I were you, as I advised my content marketing session attendees, I’d go to slide nine of my presentation and view the high-level breakdown of a typical purchasing process a consumer or prospect goes through and how content supports EVERY aspect of that process (please note my diagram is very high level and leaves out micro-details such as the content needed during a free-trial or after a prospect transitions into becoming an actual paying customer).

Next, take the information on slide nine and re-purpose it to fit your organization’s purchase or buying cycle as it applies to their own prospects. Identify any and all existing content efforts in place that presently support this process and I can guarantee you will identify pockets where content is lacking or may need severe updating and added attention.

I am confident if you take the time to break down the role content currently plays (or needs to play a larger role) in the purchasing cycle for your company’s own prospects and then revisit the topic with your supervisor incorporating this much more relevant approach, you will surely receive a different response. Yes, there may still be concerns or questions or even some continued resistance. Yet, I’m highly certain you will successfully make much more headway and push the conversation as it pertains to content marketing into a more meaningful direction where new opportunities may become possible or reveal themselves.

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Has there been a digital PR, social, marketing or web-related question on your mind? Want Mayra to answer it? Please send it to mayra[@]ruizmcpherson.com.

Sorry, I just had to get that blurb out of the way and while the debate for whether your business should be on Facebook or not can continue endlessly, for those who have decided to get their business onto Facebook or who have had a business page presence on Facebook for quite some time, this story is just for you.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) wrote up a very good February 3, 2012 piece entitled “Advertisers’ Free Ride May End On Facebook” which essentially warns brand marketers their “free ride” on Facebook may soon be coming to an end. “For years, many advertisers simply set up shop for free on Facebook, displaying their brands to users who “liked” them.”

With Facebook’s pending IPO, the free ride so-to-speak may and potentially will change, the article warns. Moreover, if the Facebook IPO is successful, the attention or shift in focus to increasing revenues as much as possible from advertising will become more ‘intense’ than ever before.

I think most of us in the field are aware that Facebook’s anti-free-ride solution, which was rolled out some time last year,  goes by the name of “Sponsored Stories.” This method of paid displays of branded status posts or updates is, according to WSJ, what many marketers and agencies are recommending to any brand or business seeking to get the most out of their Facebook experience. Why? Because unpaid displays of marketing posts to users on Facebook are decreasing significantly. In other words, content that used to live for a day may now only live in minutes in a user’s News Feed.

As most of us know, the Facebook News Feed is really overflowing with new information streaming in constantly every single day. The chances of your users catching your status update at the same time you post it is slim to none these days. With the launch of Sponsored Stories, Facebook has started to make it more challenging for any branded posts to show up in the News Feed.

Even if that weren’t the case, the fact that the social network (which will begin to market itself more as a ‘media company’ should the IPO go through), the growth of users has grown from 500 million to 800+ million in less than a year and, as a result, News Feeds do tend to get cluttered with many updates. It’s hard to stand out in one’s News Feed these days.

As a result, the biggest consensus is that above and beyond the traditional Facebook advertising, the Sponsored Stories is the way to go for brand marketers wanting to penetrate the clutter of News Feeds. This requires for marketers to re-visit their Facebook advertising strategies and strongly consider paying for exposure to their posts (which yes, in the past, such posts would have gotten the exposure for free).

Bottom line … if you are trying to maximize your brand’s exposure on Facebook, Sponsored Stories may be the route to go. The added investment in Facebook, should that online community be a strong part of your online marketing mix, may be well worth it in the long run.

The “Why do I blog” theme was inspired, in large part, to a HARO inquiry asking folks to submit the reasons why they blog.

Here are 14 reasons why I blog …

For my business

• Leadership positioning: I blog about new media topics in my Better Social Business Blog. This allows me to position myself and my company as a thought leader in my market.
• Improving “findability”: As most people know, blogging is a great way to get search engines to rank you better and/or have a positive impact in your SEO efforts.
• Speaking opportunities: Often my blogging helps to attract conferences or event planners in need of a speaker in my field. They read what I write and find my blogging to be relevant and of high value to their event attendees.
• Business development: Before people hire me or my firm, they can read about what’s on our minds and hearts and appreciate how deeply immersed we are in our field. Definitely a plus if you are trying to vet us as a viable vendor.
• Enhances communications: If I am emailing someone and I want to reference something specific or highlight an example, it’s great to have a link to the blog where a post I’ve authored has all the extra details needed to help someone have more reference or better understand X, Y or Z topic.
• Attracts media and journalists: My blogging helps other bloggers, journalists or any media-folk vet me as a potential source for a topic in new media as it relates to small-to-medium sized business, which is our niche. Sometimes, they’ll even take a quote from one of our posts and credit back to me or us without any interview. Hey, that works just as well !!
• Writing samples: By having a blog, prospects and clients alike who want to hire me or my company for content development, content curation or ghosting content for their own blogs have literally hundreds of live, real-world examples to view, access and reference.
• Creating and sharing practical advice: I blog regularly to help make sense of the 1,001 things happening in social business literally every single hour it seems! I post about news or information that is relevant to our audience and break it down in a way that makes sense and is relevant to our readership’s every day business.
• I can’t help it: I have a lot to say about my field and my industry. If I didn’t have the opportunity to blog, I would possibly be forced to send out about 3 email newsletters every single day LOL I just like to share and help those who need guidance and direction. I feel most of our blog readers do appreciate having access to advice from an every-day-peer or colleague in the industry and who’s in the trenches of digi-social on behalf of her clients.

For personal reasons on my personal blog

• Lack of “censorship” … On my business blog, my focus is very niche and specific. On my personal blog, the sky’s the limit. I can share anything I want to and am not “limited” by the parameters of topic-relevance and professional perceptions.
• I do it for everyone else, why not for myself … I am hired constantly to create blog content for other businesses or blogs. Much of my weeks are centered on creating content for others. Sometimes, however, I want to create some content just for me that no one pays me to write. It’s mine all mine and I need that outlet from time to time.
• Behind-the-scenes … I like that you can go to my company blog and read about what business things are in my immediate circle day in and day out … but in my personal blog, I like that (for those that wish to take the time to learn more about me) I like that you can see “another side of Sears” LOL … while yes I am a huge “geek” I guess … there is so much more to me and my life beyond my business. I think clients and others appreciate knowing that “I have a life” and find it nice to “get to know me” beyond business settings.
• Community building … I blog for personal reasons because I feel I can contribute to my community when the opportunity rises. Often I am so busy I can’t volunteer much of my time or physically go to things for outreach … but if I can spotlight a goodwill event or fundraiser or some community news and help spread the word about it, I feel like I’m still connected or helping in some way to my immediate community.
• Because I try really hard NOT to be a “hypocrite” … I spend almost 10-12 hours a day promoting the goodness of blogs and how blogging is a wonderful way to engage others, rally community, create positive outreach, establish a voice and so on. It’s important that I practice what I preach … and while I do do that in business with our business blog … I feel I need to set the example well beyond the 9-to-5 business work week.
• I can’t help it: I just love to write. I love to share. I love to express myself. My personal blog gives me the creative freedom that I need and want outside of my business.

Soooo … what are YOUR reasons for blogging??? Do share them in the comments!

I was eager to see if Debbie could shed some light on these following questions:

• Do I just give up on “traditional” book publishing route and focus entirely on self-publishing?
• Regarding the self-publishing route, which of my topics might work better in print-on-demand vs. Kindle?
• How many pages should a Kindle ebook be?

Those were some of my most basic questions. I had others but mostly they were somewhat related.

Interestingly, with regard to the first bullet above regarding self-publishing … I have no problems self publishing. However, when I speak to my peers who have actually published books in the traditional sense (vs. ebooks for Kindle, for example), they say that having a book in print carries “more weight” or I’d be taken more seriously if I had a “real book” vs. an “ebook.” I could go on but you get the point. Debbie really helped me work through this important decision and shared her own personal experiences having been at both sides of the fence. I really needed some hand-holding for this question and I totally got it (thank you Debbie!).

After flushing through some of those details, I began to feel validated that the direction in which I was and am headed is solid, healthy and worth pursuing.

I definitely got what I hoped from those 60-minutes with Debbie. And since that call, I finally feel I can proceed in this ebook writing process with confidence and with clear direction.

I spent about an hour during a recent flight to visit clients in North Carolina sketching out my outline and possible ebook titles. Nothing is final as of yet but I’m so much more closer to getting to where I need to be and I’m super excited about it.

I have since also began to source various professionals in my industry to interview and I have received many positive replies so really, things are just coming together and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

I will share more about my topic and direction shortly. For now, I just feel like the bricks have been lifted from my shoulders and I feel my ebook writing journey is beyond well underway.

I will update more once the program comes to a close …

Here’s the quick recap …

• Corporate blogging is down, folks: Just 37% of Inc 500 keep a corporate blog down from half in 2010, 45% in 2009 and 39% in 2008
• Blogging as primary social media tool is being questioned: The leveling off of the use of blogs raises questions about whether the use of blogging may have peaked as a primary social media tool for business
• Social media’s rapid penetration: This research cites that social media has penetrated parts of the business world at a tremendous speed
• Corporate usage of social is a changin’: The study also indicates that corporate usage of social media within the Inc. 500 has changed in the past 12 months (“”We are now seeing the incorporation of new platforms and tools including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, texting, downloadable mobile apps and Foursquare while we note the reduction in use of blogging, message boards, video blogging, podcasting and MySpace.”)
• Small biz too???: Small businesses are also “backing away” from blogging as a marketing tool and shifting to other social media outlets as well

Ugh … I can’t take this news much longer LOL … but let’s continue to the whopping conclusion and get this over with …

So what’s the main reason the study claims is the number one culprit impacting the health of the blogosphere?
Answer: Social media outlets, of course!

The most popular platform in 2011 was Facebook (no surprise there), with 74% of companies using it. LinkedIn came in a close second, with 73% of companies using the professional network.

OK … I’ve been thinking about these study results and honestly, I do not find them surprising but not for the reasons you might think. Yes, updating a status on a social network or social utility tool has gained a lot of popularity over the years and I totally get it. It takes far less effort or brain power in comparison to blogging to create a tweet or leave a simple status update on Facebook. Moreover, consumers and individuals have become comfortable with the micro-update or the abridged format of Twitter and Facebook. Such postings are nimble, easily digestible and quick to scan and consume.

Conversely, good professional blogging requires far more thought, strategy, time and resources than many of us have or want to be bothered with.

Blogging, when compared to 140-character tweets or 2-3 sentence Facebook status updates, is not as easy. It’s not that blogging is “hard” but what the rise of social sharing has made many clearly realize, in my humble opinion, is that blogging requires far more elbow grease than many care to expend or feel necessary.

Moreover, the act of blogging, as many of us know, requires an ongoing commitment and much stronger communication skills vs. the more casual nature of status updates.

The thing that studies like this fail to emphasize, however, is that the rise in popularity in one medium does not negate the value of the other. Social media sharing definitely has its place in today’s e-communications. You will get no argument from me there.

Still, blogging does indeed still have its place. Countless of web sites and professionals have and continue to write about why blogging still matters and why blogging helps you differentiate within your market and positions you as a thought leader in your industry. Oh and let’s not forget the how much search engines reward us with traffic and higher rankings for blog posts with original, insightful good content.

In the end, I think that while most businesses and professionals may surely lean towards the path of least resistance (posting on social networks in lieu of blogging), the value, credibility and differentiation blogs contribute to our digital communications is an essential component of our outbound outreach mix.

In my view, blogging isn’t going anywhere anytime soon … so don’t be too quick to write it off just yet. Yes, there may be changes in the blogging landscape but overall, for those who continue to view this method of communication as key will still heed the blog as a must-have tool in their e-marketing arsenal.