Whether you’re a writer looking to showcase your talents or a business looking to increase web traffic and gain exposure, starting a blog is a great way all of these things. Thanks to sites like Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, it’s easier than ever to get your company’s blog rolling. Because it’s so easy, there are many blogs on the Internet today...but a shocking 95% of them can be considered dead! 

The idea of starting a blog seems so simple, yet for new bloggers, it can quickly turn into a daunting task and lead to your blog becoming a part of the dead 95%. So how do you avoid failing? Knowledge is power, so we here at Inboun would like to lay some knowledge on you and lay it on thick. We brainstormed together and created a list of 10 reasons why your blog will stop working. We’re not listing these for the fun of it either—in fact, we know these because we too at one time or another fell victim to a #blogfail!   

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Last week, Nielsen's State of Social Media Report for 2012 spread like wildfire.  But that's not too surprising.  After all, the report displayed some hard stats and facts about the current state of social media.  Now that social media and social networking are no longer in their infancy, there are some extremely important aspects that we need to pay attention to going into 2013.  Lucky for us, Nielsen has pointed them all out.

If you haven't already taken a look at the Nielsen Social Media Report, we highly encourage you to do so:  Nielsen Social Media Report 2012. 

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For those who haven’t heard the buzzword, “second screen”, the term refers to a “companion device” such as a tablet or smartphone that allows a TV audience to interact with the content they are consuming (like TV shows, music, movies or video games).  So does the second screen devalue the television?  Or has it becomes TV’s greatest addition since the debut of ABC’s TGIF?

As a matter of fact, television has finally begun to embrace the thought of social media (but it took some time!).  Not only does social media allow consumers to be completely interactive with the program they are watching, but it also helps to battle cable’s greatest enemy—DVR. 

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If we had a dollar for everytime someone asks us if we "do" social media...we would all be retired by now.  And yes, the truth of the matter is, we "do" social media...but that's not the only thing that we "do".  As you may or may not know, an integrated inbound marketing strategy takes a heck of a lot more than posting to Facebook once a week, scheduling a few tweets or posting a video or two to YouTube.  It is so, so, so, so, so much more than that.

How many of you think that "social media companies" do this?:

This video, although created by the satirical writers at The Onion, makes a few interesting points:

• Social media companies don't have any original or creative thoughts.
• Facebook pages are created just because marketers don't have any other good ideas.
• Any teenager can do what inbound marketing companies do (and at no cost and faster).
• Marketing firms create new Twitter accounts to bulk up others.
• Companies don't care if their account is real or not.
• As long as a company looks like it's doing work, everyone will believe you. 

So what do we think of these Onion-y statements?  It's time for COUNTERPOINT!  This one's for you, skeptics: 

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We all have our...vices.  Guilty pleasures.  Weaknesses.  Addictions.   For some, it’s a serious issue.  For others, the addiction can be an affinity for something harmless like...reading. But I digress.  Whatever your vice may be, too much of anything is usually a bad thing. One activity Americans have lauded over for quite some time is...well...I’m not going to say it right away, but I will give you some hints:

• It starts with the letter “S”. 
• It causes you to feel great pleasure throughout.
• You can do it with a friend or by yourself.
• There are a vast array of toys and gadgets to help you do it better.
• We do it almost anywhere but if feels especially comfortable in bed.
• You don’t want to think about it, but you know for a fact that your parents do it and maybe your grandparents too.

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