GIGAOM — Sequoia Capital partner Mark Kvamme, citing examples from campaigns run on Funny or Die and AdMob, told an audience of marketers at OMMA Global in San Francisco today, "If you can harness social media marketing, you don’t have to pay for advertising any more." Kvamme, whose experience in advertising dates back to the 1980s, when he led advertising agency CKS Group, justified his argument using Neil Borden’s "Marketing Mix" theory. He said Borden’s elements of promotion -- advertising, direct marketing, PR, point of sale and word of mouth -- are still valid for marketers today, just in different ways. The biggest difference can be found in the word of mouth category, said Kvamme, who subsequently called it a tremendous -- and cheap -- opportunity...

HUBSPOT INBOUND INTERNET MARKETING BLOG — We all know content that spreads helps attract more people to your business, and a major way that content spreads on Twitter is through ReTweets (learn more about ReTweets on this free webinar). Here are a number of things you can do to have the best chance of getting the most ReTweets...

SOCIAL MEDIA EXPLORER — I don’t write about cars. I don’t really even write about gadgets. But I’m writing about the Chevy Volt electric car today. Why? Because the folks at Chevy are using influencer targeting as a method to get the word out about their car. No, I’m not succumbing to the power of a good pitch. The car is cool and there’s a fun video below featuring Robert Scoble and Guy Kawasaki that will show you some of that. I want to share the influencer outreach approach they’re using as an example of good PR and interaction with the social media space...

NEW YORK TIMES — Conan O’Brien has almost sold out his nationwide comedy tour -- and all it took was a few Twitter messages. It was an experiment of sorts for Mr. O’Brien’s team -- and they quickly found out how loyal the comedian’s online fan base can be. "It was expertly done," said Geof Wills, the president of Live Nation Comedy, who said he was astonished to see how successful the untraditional communications approach was in selling thousands of tickets. The O’Brien team relied on no traditional advertising, just the Twitter messages to his 600,000-plus followers...

EMARKETER — Social media marketers looking for an indication that their efforts are helping the bottom line will be encouraged by findings from Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate that social friends and followers feel more inclined to purchase from the brands they are fans of. More than one-half of Facebook fans said they are more likely to make a purchase for at least a few brands, and 67% of Twitter followers reported the same...