MASHABLE — Today’s musicians, both mainstream and indie, are using social media to connect with fans, build anticipation, and generate revenue in new and unique ways. The products range from singles to mix tapes to digital six-packs, even oddly shaped USB sticks, vinyl, and the occasional traditional album. But how are these artists reaching their new fan bases online through social channels? Much like the business world, social media promotion for musicians is still a very new game, with no exact recipe for platinum success. There are however, some innovations being put forth, and a new connection is being formed between artists and fans -- a connection that empowers both to give each other what they are looking for...

PR 2.0 — Perhaps the most difficult aspects of Social Media to embrace are the changes in our behavior and overall philosophy it necessitates in order to earn relevance and ultimately prominence in consumer hearts, minds, and markets. Simply put, Social Media makes us vulnerable and officially ends an era of perceived control threaded by the illusion of invincibility. Everything we thought we knew and valued is now in dire need of reassessment. We are entering into a time when we are affected by voiced sentiment in the public spotlight and backchannels of the social Web. What we hear, see and observe can and should touch us...

THE MARKETING SPOT — In my recent podcast interview with local search expert Mike Ramsey, he emphasized the importance of customer reviews in the local search results: "Google, as well as gathering business information data, they gather reviews from all across the web...Companies that have reviews, especially those that have large amounts of reviews, it helps rankings." Mike Blumenthal has an excellent piece on his blog about Asking for Reviews, explaining how Texas apartment locating service, UMoveFree, collected and leveraged reviews. It's a great piece with some strong take-aways...

TOP RANK ONLINE MARKETING BLOG — If you run an ecommerce business, chances are your customers – regardless of their age, gender or economic status – are active on social networks and social media sharing sites. Just consider the statistics from social media monitoring site Pingdom...

EXPERIENCE MATTERS — I always find myself under the spell of the charismatic, in real life and online. The power of charisma shines through in a person’s online activity, making them, quite simply, really likeable. They listen, are positive and authentic and as a community manager, I actively try to eke out any ounce of my charisma that I have naturally as well as trying to learn from the insanely likeable. The effect of charisma became glaringly clear after I read an article published by Psychology Today that detailed and quantified its impact on business communication...