Google has been getting a lot of buzz lately. Google is another year older, and with a budding social media presence, the search engine is getting more influential by the day. In case you missed it, some of the biggest recent Google stories are re-capped below.
Google+ survives
Social media experts thought Google+ was doomed to fail [...]

Take a lesson from Amazon.  When they promoted the Kindle reader on their home page, they didn’t talk about the technology of the device.  Instead, they talked about how it was the “best selling, most wished for and most gifted.”
The other thing we know from looking at trends research for several years is that if [...]

In light of the recent email breach that exposed customer data from more than 50 major retailers, we decided it’s time to take a look at email marketing privacy issues. To summarize the situation, a huge security breach at email marketing firm Epsilon exposed the names and email addresses of customers of major brands, including [...]

Russian delegates from the Community Connections Program (CCP) visited the Vandiver Group this afternoon to learn about public relations and communications practices for non-profits. CCP is managed by the Bureau of Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Agency for Information Development (USAID) and is run locally by the World Affairs Council of St. Louis.
The Community [...]

A recent article on PR Daily discussed why some clients feel the need for a big agency to handle their PR and marketing efforts, most likely one headquartered on either coast, and why that’s not always a good idea. As a smaller agency from the Midwest, we tend to agree with that argument.
The article, “Midwest [...]

Short of the Superbowl, no other season has more advertisements than around the Christmas holidays. Now that the holiday has wrapped up, we’ve compiled what we think are some of the best ads; the campaigns that made you buy that must-have item, or made you look up the ad again on YouTube and send [...]

By Donna M. Vandiver
In twenty-first century marketing, there is a new rulebook. Rule Number One: Your best marketers are always your satisfied customers. In conversations with friends, family, peers, people they interact with online, and even those who follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, and the myriad of other social media sites, your customers [...]

Less than two weeks until Thanksgiving. Remember, get your shopping done early. Here’s your Friday 5:

1. Forbes Sponsored Blog Model
Forbes is coming under criticism for its paid Forbes AdVoice blog, as debate wagers over whether consumers can tell the difference between paid blog posts and staff blog posts. Forbes argues that there are clear [...]

The shift in corporate management and spending over the last 18 months has created a domino effect that has impacted advertising and marketing departments, shrinking their budgets and shifting the way they approach projects.
Last month companies dropped millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads with fingers crossed their creation would be one buzzed about [...]

TVG recommends that our clients protect themselves from FTC violations by developing a formal social media policy for endorsers. It’s important to conduct periodic audits to ensure that your company’s policy is being implemented. Often, the marketing and legal departments must work together to create a comprehensive policy and a culture of compliance within [...]