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Many ask if it's worth putting effort into new Marketing especially in social and digital areas.  And in many cases that they wait until their existing marketing tactics and techniques aren't working before they venture into new territories.

The recent news of the turn around and growth of South Australia's Spring Gully's is good new story we all would like to see more often. After being placed in receivership a month ago the future looked dim. The brand looked tired and sales had dropped.

'Drop a Hint' button is our favourite festive social media tool in the lead up to Christmas. Planning on dropping hints to your loved ones about what you want for Christmas?

The 'Drop a Hint' social media button on the Tiffany & Co Australia website is a superb idea to integration web and social media. http://www.tiffany.com.au  Spot a gorgeous diamond pendant you just can’t live without? See a beautiful white gold ring that you just know will look gorgeous on your finger? You can give your loved one an oh-so-subtle nudge with a simple click of the Drop a Hint button.

For many businesses, using social media platforms is becoming an imperative. It is one of the most cost-effective and direct means of communicating with your customers, colleagues and connections.

As a result, we are tweeting more on Twitter, liking more on Facebook, and exploring platforms such as LinkedIn, Google Plus, and blogs on a more regular basis. Each social media tool has its specific use and purpose, but staying active in the social web can be incredibly time consuming. So while it is useful to be original and specific to each social site, there are times where social media automation can assist.

Here are some of the pros of social media automation.

The subject line is one of the most important ingredients in connecting with your audience with an email marketing campaign.

It plays a key role in whether your reader will open the campaign or relegate it to the junk folder.

Here are some tips for making your email subject line count.

We live in a visual-driven culture, and images have long been used as a powerful communications tool for branding with high impact.

With the rise of image sharing platforms such as Pinterest, the ongoing influence of YouTube, and facebook's new Timeline developments and its recent acquisition of Instagram, social media channels are becoming increasingly visual in nature.

There has also been a massive increase in photo creation through the growing number of people who own a smartphone. Ten per cent of photos taken by humankind took place in the last twelve months.

What does this shift towards a more visual conversation and increase in readily available visual content mean for businesses using social media?

People tend to engage with those they like, know, and trust.

We also personify things, and look for the human elements in non-human things, like businesses and products.

One of the key ways to differentiate your brand is to set out your brand's personality attributes. A strong brand persona is vital for effective engagement through channels such as social media.

A facebook page or twitter account is an opportunity to use a brand voice to create conversations as though your brand is speaking directly to your audience in a one-on-one way.

The f8 convergence brought to light the inside thinking of the facebook leaders.

Social Media’s core functionality across all social media tools is to share within personal and business networks. The openness and transparency of people and content is a reason for the exponential rate of growth with social media.

Facebook the no 1 global social media site in 2011 release of new facebook updates affects an enormous global community, all sharing via this online network.

Social Sharing is part and parcel of the social platform and central to the activities, success and outcomes for personal and business use.

Partnership and collaboration were the key themes in the Marketing Week address by Katrina Sedgwick, director and CEO of the BigPond Adelaide Film Festival.

Katrina discussed how business partnerships, corporate sponsorship are playing an increasingly important role in arts delivery, and how presenting a festival requires a critical mass of resources and collaboration, including financial support, between cultural partners, sponsors, the media and a host of stakeholders.

Many of the principles touched on regarding how ideas and mutually beneficial solutions can grow through partnerships can be applied to any sector.

Marketing Week, is an Adelaide event running August 22-26 2011.

What a great week we’ve had at Marketing week in Adelaide. The combination of speakers shows how broad and wide ranging Marketing can really be.

It made me think of what happens when meeting a new person and they ask, “What do you do?” I usually think, here we go, as I expect a blank look, and when I do my ‘elevator speech’ (explain yourself in 10 seconds, as if you only have an elevator ride to capture their attention), I always get a blank stare. “Right so you’re into sales?” No and yes, I say. “I’m not sales role, I’m in marketing, where we aim to create sales”.

Marketing week proves that Marketing encompasses many different functions and roles, topics and personalities that presented covering areas such as social media, innovation, mass media, advertising, publicity, viral campaigns, database marketing, the list goes on and on.

I started the business when our organic fig tree started to grow in our backyard. By organic, I refer to the growth of this tree, which sits in an awkward spot and doesn’t fit within our garden’s original plan. When the tree started to shoot up and prosper, I said to my husband, don’t touch that tree, or else!

The fig tree grew, and so did Fig Tree Marketing. Quickly we became a digital Marketing firm, based on developing Marketing Strategy with clients, creating Digital Marketing campaigns with measurable outcomes, and communicating with customers through social media and online direct communication. With one focus in mind – create brand and customer loyalty.