How can small business owners develop effective and cost-efficient marketing techniques that allow them to thrive in good times and bad? In this podcast, Vice President of Publishing Natasha Nicholson talks with Cathy-Anne O’Brien of Blue Sky Communications about the unique challenges small business owners face with marketing, and how they can compete with the deep pockets of big corporations. O’Brien also discusses cost-effective marketing techniques for small business owners.

This workplan outlines an innovative communication campaign from Chevrolet and Weber Shandwick that relied on online video, social networking and word-of-mouth marketing to generate awareness of the Chevy Aveo5 among college students.

Social media communication tools are proving to be a valuable resource for successful event marketing—they create buzz, increase attendance and foster interaction long after the actual event. While event marketing focuses on the face-to-face experience of attending, social media facilitates shared experiences and creates brand advocates on a much larger scale.

Communicators always start out with high hopes for their customer surveys. They're excited to ask customers a bunch of questions, and are prepared to be enlightened. But when results come back muddled and jumbled, it makes you wonder why you even bothered in the first place. But there is a way to get valuable results from your customer surveys. It starts with having educated expectations.

With the rise of content curation, new companies are developing specialized tools to help people home in on the online content they find valuable. One such company is Pearltrees. In this CW article, Oliver Starr, chief evangelist for Pearltrees, discusses what curation is and how it can serve communication professionals and their companies.