Marketing Pilgrim

Oh yes I can already hear the champagne bottles popping! Happy new year! 2012 is going to be an amazing year! Have you made your resolutions yet? If one of them is to be a better marketer then I have a secret strategy in store that is sure to get you started on the right foot!

Some define marketing as a process which creates wealth. So if you want to get better at marketing then you need to get better at creating wealth. I am a big believer that practice makes perfect so how about start creating some wealth right now for an organization that needs it? No I am not talking about SEO or social media. I am not talking about PPC or conversion optimization.

We couldn’t do what we do here at Marketing Pilgrim without the continued support of our sponsors. Thank you.

We had a great year this year and we are excited about what is possible in 2012. If you would like to learn more about channel sponsorships at Marketing Pilgrim we would love to hear from you.

Thank to this fantastic (and growing!) list of sponsors:

CHANNEL SPONSORS

INBOUND MARKETING CHANNEL SPONSOR – HubSpot

SOCIAL CHANNEL SPONSOR – Full Sail University

Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information.

B2B MARKETING CHANNEL SPONSOR – Marketo

SEO CHANNEL SPONSOR – Link Assistant

REPUTATION CHANNEL SPONSOR – Trackur

Marketing Pilgrim’s Reputation Channel is sponsored by Trackur’s social media monitoring tools. Plans start at just $18 a month and you are up and running in just 60-seconds!

OUR ADVERTISING PARTNERS

WPROMOTE – Superior search engine marketing
Text Link Brokers – Smarter links for higher rankings
Sponsoredreviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, advertisers build buzz
Vertical Leap – Scalable all-inclusive search marketing at a fixed price

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We here at Marketing Pilgrim wish you a very Merry Christmas. Here is the Christmas story in a very social media way.

Hey Santa! Is it too late to drop in a quick wish list for this year for Christmas? You see, I write about a variety of things in the Internet and social media marketing space and there are more than a few things I would love to get as a gift (or maybe see as a trend) so I figured why not, right? You’re in the “dream coming true business” so I just thought I would fire this off to you.

My 2011 Christmas Wish List

• Could you make sure that the words guru, maven and ninja and any others like them would be stricken from the social media lexicon and no one can use them again unless they are OK with being mocked and ridiculed? Thanks!

This is part 3 of a series of posts from Chris Lorence, the CMO of the Independent Community Bankers of America. Chris is working to get a very traditional group to “buy in” to social media and we are letting you in on the process he is going through. His first post introduced us to the battle he faced just getting his members’ attention. His second post, was about helping his members simply see the social media light. Today, we see how Chris helps the uninitiated see what can be done to take the pain out of social media criticism.

This series is part of our ongoing effort here at Marketing Pilgrim to show the real world of social media rather than just the industry hype and drivel. Let us know what you think and give us an idea of what you might like to see in the future.

The title pretty much says it all. Google has been giving free phone service (albeit a bit choppy at times but hey it’s free!) for a while now. This generous offer was set to expire at the end of 2011 but apparently not enough folks are getting it quite yet so Google is now offering it through 2012.

From the Gmail blog

As the holiday season approaches, we’re happy to announce that we’ve extended free domestic calls within the US and Canada for 2012.

This is our way of helping you connect with friends and family across the country. And you can still call the rest of the world from Gmail at our insanely low rates.

Aol is at it again. It is busy reorganizing and re-inventing itself while the world sits on the sidelines wondering where the whole thing is going to land. At least the dial-up business is going to be tucked away into another area of the company so we don’t have to watch that dry up and wither as well.

According to Bloomberg

AOL Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong plans to reorganize the company to combine its dial-up Internet access business with its Web services, including AOL Instant Messenger.

The new AOL services group would be one of four business units to be created under the new structure, Armstrong said yesterday in an interview. The details will be presented to employees on Dec. 14, before the plan takes effect in January. The other three divisions will consist of advertising, local services and the Huffington Post media group, he said.