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The "Will it Blend?" series is entertaining and promotes BlendTec.

…when it comes to social media marketing.

Debate might still be going on as to whether CEOs should be fluent in social media or not, but there’s a new platform CEOs might be taking advantage of now: web video.

Video is a great tool to leverage to promote business — it’s engaging, it gives the chance for CEOs to talk and sell their business, and besides being informative, the most successful web videos are fun and entertaining. For example, Tom Dickson, founder and CEO of BlendTec, has a popular YouTube series, “Will it Blend?” where he puts any imaginable product, including an iPhone 4 and vuvuzela, into a BlendTec blender to see if…you guessed it: if it blends.

See more CEOs who are leveraging web videos here.

There are positives and negatives to social media marketing.

Marketing is the life blood of any business but many companies spend too many of their resources on marketing campaigns that don’t lead to real and substantial results.

How can companies get the results they want from marketing campaigns?

Online advertising already accounts for a $55 billion market, but the fastest growing aspect of online advertising is social media marketing. Over $2.5 billion was spent on sites such as Facebook or Twitter last year, a 14% increase from the previous year.

There is no doubt social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are changing the way businesses advertise. But do the benefits of social media advertising outweight the benefits of traditional advertising?

One of the best aspects of social media advertising is it doesn’t cost a lot of money. In a recent interview on the Today Show, SillyBandz CEO Robert Croak said his company spent, “nothing on advertising” because they allowed the brand to advertise itself through word of mouth on social networking sites.

Social media advertising helps keep you in touch with your customers; you can review feedback, both positive and negative, and even conduct informal surveys or customer polls to find out what people want to buy from you.

There are a few negatives, however, and the biggest negative might be that if social media is used incorrectly, it can create a negative buzz for your business.

When businesses use social media marketing, there are some things to remember so you don’t generate negative buzz:  Social media accounts must be continually monitored to ensure customer content is positive and constructive, and all questions and comments must be responded to in a timely manner. Not doing so can have customers questioning your motivation or commitment, which can hurt business and allow disparaging comments to last, not only in cyberspace, but in prospective customers’ minds.

Using social media to advertise may take time to master, but it can be a great benefit to any business if used correctly. What do you think of the social media advertising revolution? Has it helped your business grow?

FourSquare and Gowalla have new apps to help promote business.

Wonder how social media apps could help your small business? Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare and Gowalla just have apps that could benefit just about any business.

Over on ActionCOACH’s Social Media blog, there’s a post that describes how certain  apps are benefiting certain businesses. Things as trivial as users tweeting from a small business — a restaurant, a retail store — and mentioning how good the products are or how great the service is can go far nowadays with social media marketing. But apps take this even further — Twitter, FourSquare and Gowalla allow users to send messages about a particular place or business and the business’ location is sent along with the message. Tweets from all three networks can be relayed through Twitter and Facebook, meaning users can spread the word about certain businesses — good or bad — to a variety of connections on a variety of social media mediums.

Read the full post about new social media apps here.

Will marketing be dependent on Twitter? And is that a good idea?

With all the hubbub about social media, it begs the question: is social media marketing hype? Social media marketing is useful now…but will it be in the future?

Several successful CEOs, like Brad Sugars, Tony Hsieh and Guy Kawasaki are huge fans of social media marketing. But will investing everything in social media be a big mistake down the line?

Marc Brownstein, writer for Advertising Age, says it will. In his article, he writes about how marketing decision-makers everywhere are slashing media budgets and relying heavily on social media — too heavily, in his opinion:

“Brands that already have, or are planning to go dark, in favor of a Facebook page and a steady diet of Tweets.

Some of you might say I’m a hypocrite for feeling this way, as my agency is a leader in social media since 2004. I speak publicly about its attributes and have written frequently and glowingly about it in this column. And our clients are certainly benefiting from digital strategies, none of which are weighted all toward social media.

I love the power of the unfiltered consumer voice — the dialogue between brands and customers as well as customers and customers, vendors and customers, agencies and customers. It’s all good. It’s just that I believe some marketers have gone too far in their reliance on all things Twitter. No doubt their brand awareness, and brand identity, will one day suffer.

My mother taught me that things in moderation won’t hurt you. In this case, she’s right. Social media belongs in the media mix. But it shouldn’t be the entire mix.

How will customers find you? Why should they care about your product/service? What are you going to do when your competitors crank up their promotional spend and start taking your customers?

This message is simple — the short-term delight of not spending any media dollars on advertising will surely have a long-term effect: brand erosion.”

Do you agree?

Can MySpace make a comeback?

MySpace has been considered dead for a while now among the social media-savvy. But could MySpace make a comeback?

Five years ago, News Corp. acquired MySpace for $580 million…and then the losses came. Although MySpace Music is listed as the number one music site from comScore, it’s had a steady decrease in popularity since News Corp. has owned the site.

News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said, “We’ve got to admit that during the last two or three years, I think we made some big mistakes. But we’ve got fine new management now; they’ve started to introducing new features. There’ll be a lot of changes coming through the summer. The early indications—and they’re only early indications—are we’re getting more visitors and they’re staying longer. When that gets more substantial, we’ll get more advertising.”

News Corp. has also called MySpace a “work in progress,” as it plays with its number one music platform ranking to try to get back on top of the social media scene, and plans to roll out a number of enhancements to the site in the next few sites.

What do you think? Can MySpace regain its status in the social media site scene?

You can learn the ins and outs of social media via Web tools.

Social Media exploded and confused many business owners in the process. “What on earth is a blog?” “Who are all these people who want to be my friend on Facebook?”

But it’s not impossible — small business owners CAN learn how to use social media to their advantage. And there’s no need to look to a “social media guru.” Look no further than Web tools already out there, like blogs, webinars and online forums. Check out the article SmallBizTrends.com wrote about it here to find tips small business owners — or anyone — are using to learn the ins and outs of social media.

What else can you learn as a business owner? Click here to find out what a business coaching session might teach you.