The key elements for a business to succeed are a well-articulated strategy and well-defined goals and every business activity should contribute to move the organization in the right direction and thereby achieve its strategic goals. Nowadays, firms spend a lot of time on consulting strategic planning to support sales, marketing and operations across the enterprise but, they don’t include social business activities which sustain the firm’s digital footprint. Social business activities are an automated version of a firm’s identify, thought leadership, relationship and value drivers and also means looking at social business as more than marketing campaigns. To know more about social business strategy, follow Vanessa DiMauro (CEO, Leader Networks)’s article link: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-business/2015-04-03/social-business-strategy-how-prevent-digital-muddle?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+%28all+posts%29

Organizing an event? How to spread the word about the event? This is where marketing comes into the picture. Nowadays, while promoting an event, you have to include social media. It has become unavoidable in today’s world. But social media is used in different ways for different events and one must follow a unique process of marketing while promoting one’s event on social media. William Johnson (Web designer), writes in his article link about some tips on how to promote an event on social media. Read more at: : http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/2015-04-01/top-7-ways-use-social-media-make-your-event-successful

User Experience, also known as UX has become important and it impacts everything from app design to social media. UX designers work with digital marketing teams and this will only increase in 2015. Digital marketers will benefit when working with the UX design teams as it will provide loads of ideas that revolves around how they position the product for sale and marketing. Tara Lifland (Content marketing manager), writes in her article about why UX is important and where. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/2015-03-26/5-reasons-why-user-experience-important

Social media has become one of the most important tools for consumers who wants to file complaints or questions. But, the question is how a brand handles their customer care team.  Sofie De Beule (Community Manager at Engagor) writes in her article link about some of the top 2015 trends for organizing your social customer care team. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-business/2015-03-24/top-trends-organize-your-social-customer-care-team

Small enterprises must leverage social media to grow business, find new clients and engage existing customers. To know more, follow: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-business/2015-03-08/dos-and-donts-using-social-media-business-infographic

Social ecosystem is based on channels, media, platforms and social web tools that create both internal and external communication and marketing processes. Isra Garcia (Business Transformation, Marketing & Disruptive Innovation), writes in his article link about social web ecosystem and how to use it:  http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/2015-02-16/how-create-your-social-media-marketing-ecosystem-infographic

Nowadays, social media is important for any successful digital marketing strategy. ROI of social media marketing can be a great tool for optimizing web presence. Gary Dek (Blogger), writes in his article link about how to avoid social media marketing mistakes, and ways to ensure campaign’s success: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/10-social-media-marketing-mistakes-businesses-must-avoid-01143556

Social media for brands is to have two-way conversations with their customers. But, using social media as a means to broadcast or push messages is not attracting customers nowadays. Sofie De Beule (Community Manager, Engagor) writes in her article link about what type of data is valuable to create meaningful conversations and how brands can truly make sense of it: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/3-key-steps-make-sense-social-customer-data

51% of brands believe real-time social media engagement is their biggest challenge on social media. According to a research it was found that 72% of customers expect brands to reply within an hour. So, it is Imperative to know how brands can meet their customers' expectations? Sofie De Beule (Community Manager, Engagor), writes in her article link about some tips to meet customers' expectations on social media:  http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/3-tips-meet-your-customers-expectations-social-media

In a recent study it was found that 38% of marketers plan to shift spend from traditional advertising to digital advertising in 2015, 42% are planning to do advertising with more B2C marketers, and 34% are planning to move spend to digital than B2B marketers. It was further found that marketers plan to allocate more budget on social media advertising, social media marketing, social media engagement, location-based mobile tracking, and mobile applications. Read more at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2015/26900/2015-digital-marketing-budgets-top-priorities-metrics-and-challenges

Visual marketing enables an organization to show products without telling people about them and it also helps brands to share their business and personal stories. Visual marketing can help organization to inspire, connect and engage with their audience quickly and better than a simple text message. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/power-visual-content-marketing-and-brand-storytelling-nutshell-0

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) consists of different techniques to connect a search engine's technology. SEM include SEO and PPC (Pay-Per-Click) ads. SEO and SEM are often used interchangeably. But, SEO is a subset of SEM. The question here arises that what is the difference between SEO and SEM. SEO's aim is to provide organic search results for free while with SEM, search are not always be free as it uses paid ads for the certain keywords on search engine results page. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/what-main-difference-between-seo-and-sem

If a business website does not convince the audience, business might lose a client and it was proved that 7 percent of visitors leave a web page within the first 20 seconds if it isn't interesting. Rob Keating (Owner of Lead Generating Websites), writes in his article link about some tips to help business website content to be successful: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-content/five-content-musts-for-your-business-website/1425

Brand publishing is the new content marketing. It's more authentic. It is more transparent. In 2015, brands will become publishers. Irfan Ahmad (Blogger, social media savvy and infographic designer, Digital Information World) writes about Social Media Marketing Trends in 2015. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/2015-social-media-marketing-trends-you-cannot-miss-infographic

Social media has become an integral part of any business. It allows a business to promote and market its own brand and is a key element in assisting consumers in their decision making process. Social media pages increase recognition and companies can advertise to potential customers and clients by posting relevant content.  It was found that 71% of all internet users are now active on social media sites.  Companies nowadays are developing content marketing strategies, sharing blogs, infographics, and whitepapers. Customers and clients also interact directly with businesses via social media. It helps businesses to build customer loyalty and strengthen their brand image. Katie Alyward and Chloe Hutchinson-Brown (Northstar Research Partners) in their article link writes about the ways to track the reputation of any business and performance on social media sites:  http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/social-media-marketing/the-importance-of-social-media-within-a-business/1274

In any business social media is essential. Study has shown that on average a majority of companies don’t know how to measure their social media ROI. Businesses must have a clearly defined goal of what they would like to achieve from social media marketing and should update posts, tweets and pins relevant to their business goal. Right tools must be used for tracking social media. Read more at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/social-media-marketing/how-to-track-your-social-media-success/1331

 Messaging apps are changing the social media landscape. They are more than SMS. They might replace email, voice calls. Messaging apps brings together a defined group of people to address a question, issue or topic. Messaging apps allows us to behave naturally. In 2015 it is predicted that there will be an increasing volume of discussions in these micro-communities as more people will use apps such as WhatsApp. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/why-messaging-apps-will-change-social-media-landscape-2015-0

Social media is very important nowadays. According to a research done by Pew Research Internet Project, the following statistics was found. They are: 74% of online adults use social networking sites, 19% of online adults use Twitter, 71% of online adults use Facebook and 21% use Pinterest. So, businesses must leverage social media. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/leverage-social-media

Consumers see social media platform as more than an advertising platform. So, it has become one of the ways to create customer loyalty and in turn creates a community through social media and PR. According to Social Habit, 32% of social customers expect a direct online answer within 30 minutes and 42% expect a response within one hour. Nowadays consumer needs are getting higher and brands have to adapt to this social change. Brand loyalty is important as consumers want to be listened to. Brands should also have an online presence, create loyalty schemes, and recognize that their target markets come first. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/why-social-media-and-online-presence-important-brand-loyalty

Online presence is a must for every business nowadays. So, social media has become very important. According to Statista, there are about 1.79 billion users in social media in 2014 and it is projected to reach about 2.44 billion by 2018. William Johnson (Web Designer) writes in this article about the emerging trends in social media. These trends are: Social Media Marketing to Go Mobile, Use of Images, Marketing through Short Videos to Become Popular, Viral Marketing to Become Attractive, Companies to Use Real-time Marketing to Serve Customers, and LinkedIn and Instagram to Become the Most Important Platforms. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/top-7-anticipated-social-media-trends-2015