Here Comes Consumer Confidence… + MORE 12/07/2012

Despite the strong jobs report, the employment situation in America remains depressing. Once again, we go back to Calculated Risk, which compares the trajectory of this recovery (red line) with all other post-WWII recoveries. As you can see, the pace of the downturn was far more severe than anything in previous recessions, and the long march back to pre-recession levels remains incredibly slow. Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »

Here are some of the observations and insights that were shared via social media during the past week.
During a client workshop in the Netherlands this week, I explained how I use Twitter favourites to collect items of interest during the week and then review these before posting my regular Friday’s Finds post on this blog. I will often tweet an article and then add it to favourites so that I pick it up during my weekly review. The key to PKM is to find a routine that works for you…

Visual Gold
This new infographic from Marketo takes a dive into content marketing campaigns of the future.  Those that focus on creating visually appealing content in a way that still creates value to the readers.  In this infographic you’ll find ideas such as:

Content Formats
The Five Pillars of Visual Marketing
Promotion & Distribution

Pope Joins Tweeting Masses With @Pontifex Handle
Benedict XVI will begin tweeting in eight languages beginning December 12th, 2012 using the handle: @Pontifex…

Gisele and Tom Brady had a baby girl yesterday, December 5th. Vivian Lake was born at home. Gisele posted this photo and message on her Facebook page: “We feel so lucky to have been able to experience the miracle of birth once again and are forever grateful for the opportunity to be the parents of another little angel. Vivian Lake was born at home on December 5. She is healthy and full of life.Thank you all for your support and well wishes. We wish you and your families many blessings…

Netflix got a Wells notice from the SEC for a Facebook posting CEO Reed Hastings made. This is ridiculous. A Wells notice is a warning that the SEC is likely to bring charges against an individual or company. Typically, it’s done for a viable reason. In this case, the SEC is totally over-reaching, acting like a idiotic overly bureaucratic organization. It’s moves like this that make it seem like government bureaucracy really does smother businesses…

Have you ever dreamed of having your own show?Do you want to know how to get started?To learn more about what goes into starting your own show, this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast goes deep on the subject.More About This ShowThe Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting)…

Minutes away from University of the preliminary December reading of the Michigan Consumer Confidence survey data, due out at 9:55 AM ET. A survey of economists polled by Bloomberg revealed consensus expectations of an 82.0 reading on the index, down slightly from 82.7 last month. We will have the number here LIVE at 9:55 AM ET > Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »

Generating new sales leads can be hard, so why spend so much effort if you can just get it from your current customers? Of course, this will only work if your current clients are actually still willing to do business with you. That is why it is important to know some customer retention skills. Lead generation can be a very demanding work, especially if you are talking to prospects for the first time. It will be very sensible if you could just talk to your current customers and see if they would like to sign up for a new service (or simply stay with you in the future)…

An important element in IT sales and marketing is targeting. With targeting, you can basically be where your customers are at. And today, with many businesses across both B2C and B2C sectors going online, everyone is scrambling to locate their market on the digital frontier.
Obviously, IT sales professionals should be at the head of this game. They are in the business of tech which is the heart of the whole internet revolution. When it comes to things like social media and internet marketing, you should be in the cyberspace as your customers right?
What Knowing The Customer Means For IT Sales Professionals
Actually, not all IT sales representatives know their customers as much as they think…