So your 2018 has blown through the first month…how are things going? Out of breath yet?

There are constantly evolving things happening in digital and social media marketing (you HAVE heard of the big announcement by Mark Zuckerberg, right?!). This month’s round-up of the best-of-the-best includes a couple of terrific articles about the Facebook news, as well as thoughts on the importance of reviews, some thoughts upon analyzing a TON of LinkedIn profiles, and several others.

Many analysts and marketing gurus agree that the folks getting hit the most by this update are small businesses. While most also agree that we JUST DON’T KNOW how this is actually going to roll out, this article from Entrepreneur.com has 4 recommendations on what you can do now to help mitigate the impact of this.

In this article, Mark W. Schaefer, author of a number of authoritative books such as The Content Code and Known and an uber-expert voice in the digital marketing industry, take a more nuanced view of the Facebook announcement. He contends that what this is really is more of what we’ve been seeing from Facebook over that last few years: prizing online conversations and engagement over passive “rivers of content” that no one really looks at.

A lot of small businesses rely upon, but are scared to death of, online reviews. This article is a summary of an in depth study / survey done by BrightLocal on local consumer reviews, which contains numerous key findings, like:

• Yelp & Facebook are local consumers’ most trusted review sites, followed by Google & BBB.org
• 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
• Responding to reviews is more important than ever, with 30% naming this as key when judging local businesses

Each of these tips is a GEM! Number 18 wraps it up nicely: “Your strategy is the process that defines your approach to reach your business goals. Without a strategy, the time and resources you’re putting into your tactics may turn out to be a waste.” Don’t let all your work go to waste.

Knowing the balance of luck in skill in your business decisions will make the difference between success and spiraling down in your business. In this article Valeria Maltoni digs deep to explain why this is important to any entrepreneur and what to look for as you work to gain greater understanding of how difficult it can be to tell luck from skill.

Does a LIKE on your Facebook business page translate into a greater likelihood that someone will purchase from you? How about their friends? Those are the questions answered by this article, with a tip of the hat to the American Marketing Association Journal of Marketing Research!

Who ISN’T looking for Apps and Tools that will make your social media marketing easier! The selection includes some new arrivals and some old favorites that have stood the test of Internet Time!

In this article John Nemo shares his findings from having actually inspected 16,000 LinkedIn profiles, and how you can avoid the…umm, “problem“…he uncovered.