SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social-media practices and issues.
Last week’s poll question: Which of these qualities is most important to a blog’s success?

A distinctive voice –  43.41%
Compelling exclusive content — 35.66%
A unique niche – 11.63%
Strong promotion via social-media channels — [...]

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SmartBrief has grown a lot during the past year. We’ve covered conferences, launched briefs, held seminars and attracted hundreds of thousands of new readers. But something is missing. And we think it might be you.
For the first time ever, SmartBrief is scouring our readers to find the next leading voice in social media [...]

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It was amazing how few hands went up yesterday at the Online Marketing Summit when moderator Joe Pulizzi asked how many people in a room full of marketers have a content strategy in place. Attendees scribbled madly as his expert panel laid out a plan:

Start with a needs assessment. Mike Stelzner of SocialMediaExaminer.com suggested [...]

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Remember that blog post you wrote back in September 2008? Remember how earth-shattering you thought it was? How it would take on a life of its own, make its way around Twitter and Facebook, and change lives forever? You weren’t on Twitter yet — LinkedIn didn’t offer status updates and your friends on Facebook were [...]

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Bloggers are always asking us how to get featured in one of our 100+ SmartBrief newsletters.  Without going too deep into our proprietary search technology, editorial know how and super-secret selection algorithm, here are five factors that stop us (and every newsletter service worth its salt) from including your latest and greatest post.

You didn’t use [...]

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Know anyone in the association or non-profit world?
On Thursday, July 9, SmartBrief will host an event in downtown D.C. for industry trade groups eager to incorporate social media and word-of-mouth tactics into their overall strategy. This one-day summit explores the measurable impact of the social Web on the business needs of associations and [...]

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Today’s guest post is from Steve Radick, an associate with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and a member of our Social Media Advisory Board.
Which party would you rather go to?

Reading Merritt’s posting on Government 2.0 last week, I was particularly drawn to one point that she made – “like the corporate world, the government is [...]

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Word-of-mouth marketing is all about honesty. It’s about earning the respect of your fans so they want to give you their recommendation. It doesn’t work if you trick them, lie to them, or engage in any sort of shady tactics. True word of mouth marketers are always open, honest, and transparent about who they are [...]

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