Social media is big, and here to stay. If your business isn’t doing social media marketing, you may want to consider the following statistics. In a pew research study published in January of this year, it was found that 58% of all adults in the U.S. use Facebook. In other words, over half of all Americans are using the site. If you look only at internet users, it’s a whopping 71% that use Facebook. Of course other social media sites such as Twitter and Pinterest don’t have quite that amount of traffic, but are still significant.

If you're a business owner or marketing manager, you may want to consider hiring a social media consultant to help you reach your target audience.

Here are a few benefits you will get from this type of service:

Businesses have jumped on the content marketing bandwagon and now they are along for the ride. But will this wagon get you to where you want to be?

The answer is YES, if you're the one steering and not just “along” for the ride.

Have you noticed your competitors producing content: blogging, offering eBooks, free content like videos, infographics, helpful checklists and such? They may be on the wagon as well. So now it's time for you to do it better!

While it's great to be helpful and offer lots of engaging content, remember this wagon shouldn’t be on a leisurely Sunday drive. You're actually on a popular highway and everyone is speeding by.

Time to get in the fast lane, but first you need a strategic, optimized content marketing plan to get the most out of your time and resources.

Whether you're a large company or a small business these key components can take content marketing to the next level and get you out there on the highway zipping past the traffic towards your target!

When was the last time you checked your social media accounts or even used a website to help you answer a question or solve a problem? These are all digital marketing services that your business should be using in your marketing strategy. But did you know that these can boost your brand’s awareness? Let’s dive a little more into the different services that you can use to help your business’s name get out there.

They fall asleep staring at a Twitter screen and wake up to check their Facebook. Some of them have never known a world without internet, and some even without social media networks. There isn’t a meal that gets eaten without first Instagraming it, but first let me take a selfie. #Yum. Who are these people? Millennials.

My coworker recently made a comment that she considers me to be her friend – not just a work friend – but a real, true friend. I feel the same way about her, and my other coworkers too. I know this is not the norm in the small business world, but I think people would like it to be and it would cause them to be better employees.

Do you have an email marketing consultant that you work with as part of your marketing? Do you have a healthy relationship with them? While most people are aware of the dynamics of an unhealthy relationship in their personal lives, when it comes to business relationships it can be a little harder to know what is to be expected. You may be getting the short end of the stick and it may be time to move on.

Here are a few signs that it may be time to break up with your email marketing consultant:

You spend a good chunk of money creating great content that is helpful and optimized for search engines. But then what? Sure, you should be getting constant hits from organic search but what about the other ways content can be shared?

There's email marketing, social media marketing and more. You didn’t even think about using social media management companies to boost your content, did you?

Keep reading to learn more about how properly utilizing social media can help resurrect your content from the grave - that is, content buried in Google.

Are you wondering what kind of marketing services you should invest your money in for your business? You hear about all these different types; ads on Google, Facebook ads, PPC, paying for links, etc. But which one makes the most sense and is the most beneficial for your business?

This just in: hiring online marketing consultants may cause significant changes in your health and well-being. A significant number of small business owners have reported less stress, fewer sleepless nights, heftier pocket books, better employee relationships, and actually looking forward to going to work. They credit it all to inbound marketing.

You may have heard already, but recently Google was re-organized to become one division of a new “parent” company called Alphabet. The newly formed parent company will also include other businesses in addition to Google. If you are a business that advertises on Google or relies on an SEO strategy to rank in Google search results, you won’t really be affected by this change.

You may be wondering what this has to do with your business. In this transition, there are a few principles that can apply to any business or entrepreneurial endeavor. Read on to find out some of the things Google is getting right that you should also be doing with your business.

Internet marketing for many small businesses gets put on the back burner and the “more important” stuff gets shoved up front. But then it catches up with you and you realize your business needs to be found online. The answer everyone is talking about: SEO. But what is that really?

Are you looking for something to help save your business? Maybe business is a bit slow and you’re hoping for some more customers? Or your competition is sneaking up on you and you’ve now realized you need to step up your marketing and advertising efforts a bit?

Every day while running a business, you make decisions - small decisions that move projects along, answer general questions, point your team in the right direction - all part of the day to day operations of your company.

But then there are the big decisions, like whether you should create and hire an in-house content marketing team (even one person) or outsource content marketing services to an agency. This is no small decision, even though outsourcing is a strategy used in other areas of running your business.

Understanding your customer base is important. Here at Half a Bubble Out, we provide inbound marketing services and talk a lot about them. If you’re unfamiliar, the quick description is that we think it is best to attract your audience naturally, and this is primarily done through helpful content. If you want a more in depth description, check out this blog on inbound marketing.

Does your business use social media? If it doesn’t, it’s a lost opportunity for you. In today’s society, people expect a business to have an online presence. People are looking for you online, whether it’s reading a review on Yelp, checking in on Foursquare, following you on Twitter or liking you on Facebook. Social media allows your business to make a touchpoint with your audience, build relationships, and give people a way to get to know you.

Imagine your perfect business. You have happy customers and happy employees which means customers show up to buy and your employees show up to work. You are always in the green which means that you don’t have to worry about provision. Your business has room to grow if that is what you want. Heck, do you want to go global? If this sounds like something you want then learn more about 4 internet marketing solutions to help get you on the right track.

You’ve been up since 5 a.m. and started replying to emails and thinking about work before you could even grab a cup of coffee. You login and take a look at your business's Facebook page and your stomach drops. Shoot. Another bad review.

Why do they keep coming? What are you supposed to do? Why can’t you delete it? You’re suddenly interrupted by an automated call from Google telling you to update your listing. How do you do that?

What if there was one simple way to create a whole bunch of original content? Your content marketing strategy for the month – that’s 31 days or less – would be set, you would be prepared to write, your customers would be satisfied with information, and your boss would be smiling. “What if” no more because there IS one simple way to get your content working for you to kick-off more relevant content.

We come in all shapes and sizes when it comes to being a consumer of technology.

Are you the “preorder-to-be-the-first-one-to-try-it” type of consumer OR are you the “sit-back-and-wait-for-everyone-else-to-try-it-first-then-buy” type?