Everyone's chattering about Instagram, and there's a good reason: the photo-sharing app has quickly become a gathering place for like-minded fans to unite. As communities grow around shared interests on Instagram, brands have successfully leveraged the power of this social platform by creating digital communities of their own.

For arts organizations getting started with Instagram, it's essential to know the key principles for making the community you foster all the more robust.

In this E-book, Hearty, Wholesome, and Homemade: Building an Instagram Community That Thrives, you'll find:

• Why Instagram is the perfect platform for developing a digital community and how to make your community its most honest and inclusive
• Inspiring quotes, notable case studies, and handy “bread and butter” takeaways for putting your learning into practice
• A battery of handy tools for tracking the success of your Instagram community

Hungry for a helping of practical wisdom for making your Instagram community flourish? This e-book is the perfect place to get your fill. Now chow down!

At the 2012 National Arts Marketing Project Conference, more than 550 arts marketers from across the country gathered together for "Getting Down to Business." We learned how to better broaden our audiences, discovered innovative ways to stretch even the tightest budgets, and gained techniques and tools to improve donor engagement.

But that’s not all: over the course of the three-and-a-half days in Charlotte, NC, we captured over 6,600 tweets with more than 500 people using the hashtag #nampc. In this e-book, you’ll get a glimpse into the conversations and creativity that took place, and find out why weird may be changing the landscape of arts marketing. Our newest compilation of tweets includes:

• @coopaz De­fining engagement: facilitate ways for audiences to curate their experience. #nampc
• @OhDeeOnV What I'm gathering from #nampc...weird people are ruling the world.
• @andmegansaid Marketers are creators of public perception. Let's be responsible with this responsibility, all! #nampc #forward

Last year, we created our first edition of 13 Social Media Infographics Every Marketer Needs to See, Volume 1. Since then, the creation and distribution of infographics has exploded and become the most widespread and effective form of visual communication of data and statistics. This is especially beneficial for arts marketers, who relish in the ability to absorb data through creatively illustrated patterns, trends, and relationships.

Since our first e-book, we've seen the rise of some new influential players in the game of social media, such as Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+. As such, we are back with 13 more timely, more chic, and more instructive infographics to give you this year's biggest trends and best practices for staying ahead of the digital marketing curve.

In this e-book, 13 Social Media Infographics That Every Marketer Needs to See, Volume 2, you will:

• Find out how this year's social media practices have given rise to the "Slacktivist" phenomenon
• Stop grappling with whether or not there is measurable ROI in social media
• Learn how marketers can use Pinterest, the hottest social media site on the web, to their advantage
• Take a ride on the Instagram wave and its incredible growth among users
• Cultivate an appreciation for non-profits that believe in social media despite limited budgets

Video is fast becoming a vital online marketing tool, but with so much content already available, it’s a must that you stand out in a good way! Done right, online video marketing is a persuasive, cost-effective way to engage your audience and deliver substantive, visually striking messages. If you have yet to tackle online video marketing, it’s time to jump in! If your organization has already dabbled in creating and posting online video, there’s a good chance that your videos could make an even greater impact on your audiences.

In this e-Book, Banish Online Video Marketing Blunders for Good!, you’ll find examples of successful marketing videos from a variety of organizations and genres, including dance, theatre, music, and the visual arts.  We will caution you against key pitfalls, and you’ll learn:

• how to create videos with high quality content and make production decisions that will ultimately gain the attention of your audience.
• why not branding your videos successfully will ensure that your hard work will remain lost in the Internet abyss 
• concrete tips on making your videos shareable, maximizing your exposure and building relationships.
• the best practices for maintaining a successful YouTube channel. Why do all the work in creating awesome content if you don’t follow up with your audience’s reactions?

…and much, much more!

On November 12-15, 2011, more than 520 arts marketers convened in Louisville, Kentucky to swap ideas, share success stories, and learn the best practices for engaging and Winning Audiences. More than 4,500 tweets captured the energy & enthusiasm that took place inside and outside of the conference headquarters.

In our newest e-book, 50 Winning Tweets from the 2011 National Arts Marketing Project Conference, you'll see the 50 most insightful, inspiring, and awesome takeaways straight from the #nampc tweet deck. Our compilation of the most stimulating & memorable tweets include:

• @immastereo there are two types of marketers. 1) builders 2) sustainers. which one are you? #nampc
• @PCA_Arts even the best social media strategies don't replace a positive face-to-face experience. #nampc
• @MarilynMJohnson We are privileged to work for institutions that touch people's lives. Tell your story. #nampc

Infographics seem to be everywhere. These tools, which function as a clear and quick way to illustrate data or information, are beneficial to every marketer, and certainly to a creative  arts marketer. We compiled the 13 most effective, informative, and fun infographics to give you tips and the strategies you’ll need to market the arts and engage audiences.

In our newest e-book, 13 Social Media Infographics That Every Marketer Needs to See: Volume 1, you will:

• Travel through time to learn the history of marketing channels
• See visual representations of complex data on the instant effect of social media
• Follow alongside the journey of your tweet
• Learn how you can structure and maintain your website through the concept of “donut marketing.” YUM!

Back in 1923, Claude C. Hopkins, widely recognized as a great advertising pioneer, wrote in Scientific Advertising: “The severest test of an advertising man is in selling goods by mail. But that is a school from which he must graduate before he can hope for success. There cost and results are immediately apparent. False theories melt away like snowflakes in the sun. The advertising is profitable or it is not, clearly on the face of returns.”

In 1991, I wrote: “Direct mail was the shining star of advertising in the 1980s and promises to continue to be so in the 1990s. It’s the fastest growing form of advertising because it’s measurable, relatively easy to produce, and cost effective.” Fast forward about 20 years and I could probably say exactly the same thing about e-marketing. How the world has changed!

While the delivery mechanisms are different, in reality, the basics of communicating effectively with whoever the target audience might be really haven’t changed very much, if at all. Effective communication is still effective communication, and direct mail — whether in the snail mail environment or online — still benefits from the same tried and true principles that gurus such as Claude C. Hopkins, and later, Bob Bly and Herschell Gordon Lewis espoused and practiced. When you run a radio spot for your product or service it’s hard to tell exactly how effective it is.

When you mail coupons to prospects — whether delivered via snail mail or email — it’s easy to measure the results; simply count the coupons you get back. Better yet, in the digital age, you can tell how many people opened your email, how many forwarded it on to others, how many clicked through to various parts of the message, and (based on their email addresses or domains) who they are!

Truly, the beauty of direct mail is its measurability — the ability for marketers to know, with certainty, the value of the effort they have put forth. That same thing can’t be said about other forms of advertising. While success may be implied, it cannot be explicitly measured when we use techniques such as television advertising, billboards, print advertising, etc.

Regardless of what you have to sell or who you want to sell it to, direct mail (traditional and/or digital-era) can provide a flexible, measurable, and very cost-effective means of delivering your message and achieving results.

Those who are already steeped in the practice of traditional direct mail will find that there aren’t a lot of differences between the traditional and the new-media approach. Those who have not yet dipped their toes into direct mail marketing will be glad to learn that the principles can be readily applied whether they’re developing materials for delivery to a mailbox or a desktop.

It sounds simple enough and it really is. The information in this book will make it easy for you to plan and produce your own directmail campaigns, measure their results, and make improvements to subsequent campaigns to generate even better results. That’s the beauty of direct mail! [Introduction p. xiii-xiv]

Over the last several years, we’ve had an opportunity to talk to tens of thousands of companies about their online presence. In that time, we have also seen some dramatic shifts in digital marketing strategies. When we opened our “digital doors” back in 2007, some of the techniques that worked for our clients were very different from the majority of techniques that we use today. That’s because we are always adjusting and adapting to new search engine updates and best practices so that we can keep helping our clients see positive results. In fact, the fundamentals may be the only things that have remained constant.

During our years in business, we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on research and data to ensure that we are always ahead of the curve, allowing us to provide quality service to our clients. Part of what we’ve discovered is that the fundamentals will always be the foundation of online success, regardless of any new updates or design trends that pop up. With this in mind, we wanted to make information readily available to anyone who wants to learn more about the basics of digital marketing.

The purpose of this guide is not to give you a full digital marketing strategy, it is to inform and instruct you on the key concepts of website optimization and advertising on a basic level. This guide is meant to help those just starting out to have a sound understanding of what to know and what questions they can ask as they put resources towards making their business more successful.

These fundamentals will help you solve the two most important questions of online marketing:

• How can I get more traffic to my website?
• How can I increase my website conversions? [Introduction p. 2]

The team at MDG Advertising have created this new infographic which looks at seven key digital marketing resolutions that businesses should consider as we move into 2017. The listing includes improved automation, re-targeting, video marketing - a collection of the key ideas you might have seen floating around elsewhere but co-ordinated into a single, easy to consume list, along with relevant data to back up each suggestion.

On November 11-14, over 600 arts marketers came together in Austin, Texas to explore the latest arts marketing strategies through the lens of this year's Conference theme, Fueling Change. Attendees shared new models, swapped ideas, and deepened connections. Topics explored the latest in digital marketing, social media, revenue generation, audience engagement, innovation, and more.