[Posted by Mathieu Hannouz
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Neolane, Inc.]

Addictive, creativity filled, inspiring, entertaining, and actually pretty darn useful.  These are all words used to describe Pinterest, the newest social media craze that so many are talking about, including Mashable, Conversational Marketing, and country music star Taylor Swift.  Although this visual pin board is currently filled with recipes, fashion ideas and dream travel destinations, it has fantastic potential for businesses.

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[Posted by Mathieu Hannouz
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Neolane, Inc.]

I read an interesting article in the Washington Post associated with the Consumer Electronics Show, “Privacy rights activists worry about potential abuse of high-tech devices featured at CES event” that examined privacy concerns being raised in light of increasingly high-tech homes and gadgets – can you imagine your refrigerator, stove or washing machine being connected to the internet?  It’s not a concept that is all that far away.  As a result, privacy advocates warn that consumers must be diligent about understanding what real-time data and personal information could be collected and shared with third parties, like utility companies…and quite possibly marketers.

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[Posted by Mathieu Hannouz
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Neolane, Inc.]

I recently co-presented a webinar alongside Suresh Vittal of Forrester Research that highlighted best practices around effective ‘rules of engagement’ for B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer) marketing.

This type of marketing applies to sectors that distribute products and services through an intermediary (services are sold to a business and then to a consumer)—the insurance, pharma, automotive and financial advising sectors would be the best examples.

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[Posted by Mathieu Hannouz
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Neolane, Inc.]

Transparency, awareness and engagement.  In social marketing, these words take on additional meaning as B2B marketers examine the value of social media and how it supports interactions with prospects and revenue generation across the customer lifecycle.  These were also recurring themes throughout a FOCUS roundtable that I recently participated on: “Social Media and Social Marketing Across the Funnel.”

I joined respected industry influencers Carlos Hidalgo from The Annuitas Group (@cahidalgo) and Kathleen Schaub of TrellisOne (@kathleenschaub) in an engaging, informative session moderated by Neolane’s Kristin Hambelton (@KMHambelton).

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[Posted by Mathieu Hannouz
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Neolane, Inc.]

“Do you hear what I hear?” While adopting an appreciation for heavy metal music hasn’t been a priority since relocating to the U.S. that could all change next week.  With Metallica headlining salesforce.com’s Global Gala during Dreamforce 2011, I plan to bang my head with the best of them!

Head-banging enthusiasm aside, with all of the hype around social media these days, it’s no wonder salesforce.com is declaring ‘the Social Enterprise’ as the theme of this year’s event. For four days, organizations of all sizes are invited to learn all about the new technologies, tools and best practices needed to help prepare for the next generation of cloud computing, which promises to be “entirely social, mobile and open.”

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Help send us to Austin! We have submitted two speaking proposals for South by Southwest (SXSW), the insanely popular music, film and interactive conference and festival held in Austin, Texas each year.  On August 15, SXSW organizers opened the 2012 PanelPicker – an online tool developed to offer the community a chance to participate in “reviewing, commenting and voting for those ideas they most want to see become a part of the event.”

Competition is fierce, so we wanted to make it easy for you to find (and vote for!) the Neolane panels from Mathieu Hannouz, and yours truly, Alexis Karlin.  Details follow, thanks in advance for your support!

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[Posted by Mathieu Hannouz
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Neolane, Inc.]

During this week’s 2011 CRM Evolution Forum, I had the pleasure of meeting quite a few Social CRM gurus, including Constellation Research’s Principal Analyst and CEO, R “Ray” Wang.  Ray and I were able to sit down for a brief Q&A, where he shared some interesting perspectives on the impending challenges facing the CRM industry, as well as a preview of what he will be discussing as a keynote presenter at Neolane Evolution 2011, our annual user conference. Here’s what he had to say…

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[Posted by Ed Hadley
Senior Marketing Manager, Neolane, Inc.]

Your email infrastructure can often mean the difference between poor and great deliverability.  As the key link to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and corporate mail servers, it helps eliminate potential bottlenecks, keeping the floodgates open for your email messages. Good infrastructure also automates many technical aspects of email deliverability, reducing marketing’s dependence on IT.

But let’s be clear: infrastructure isn’t the end-all, be-all of email deliverability.  On the contrary, nearly every aspect of email marketing contributes to messages reaching the inbox—or not.  One area that’s often overlooked, yet very manageable is the message itself.  Below are seven key elements of email messages, with best practices that marketers can easily implement to improve deliverability:

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[Posted by Mathieu Hannouz
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Neolane, Inc.]

Earlier in April I saw a banner ad for a new product, Gmail Motion.  Excited at the prospect of how this exciting new technology could enhance my computing experience, I quickly clicked the link to the product page.  The new product, which allows consumers to use their own bodies to control Gmail, promised to be one of the most significant innovations since the keyboard and mouse.  Describing how the new product would change the way humans interact with computers, one of the “experts” on the Gmail Motion product page said, “No longer will people be required to bend to the will of technology. Instead, technology will now bend to our will.”  Unfortunately, I was one of many people fooled by Google on April 1^st.

With this experience fresh in my mind, I recently attended Forrester’s Marketing Forum 2011 in San Francisco.  The conference, which focused on “Innovating Your Marketing for the Next Digital Decade,” kicked off with presentations from Forrester analysts about myriad technological advancements that seem to be coming to market almost daily.  These advancements are changing the way that people engage with companies, brands and products.  Going beyond “established” technologies like Facebook and Twitter, new innovations, such as location-based mobile applications and gaming consoles that enable users to interact through motion rather than a controller, are catching on.  Maybe the Google folks, whether playing a joke or not, were on to something important.

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[Posted by Mathieu Hannouz
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Neolane, Inc.]

With the mid-point of the baseball season upon us, the All Star Game is here. Each year, the best of the best, selected by fans, players and coaches, gather to pay homage to the “American Pastime.” And while I am still familiarizing myself with the finer points of balls, strikes, and outs, I did recently attend an event that could be the CRM industry’s analog to baseball’s Midsummer Classic—the Gartner Customer 360 Summit.

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