Over the week we go through a lot of content - news and blog posts, how tos and conceptual posts on the state of the internet. Every Sunday we share some of our favourites with you.

Check out the links and let us know in the comments if you have any questions or if you read any great posts this week!

Lara

This week there’s a bit of a theme to my content - it’s all about the attitude necessary for being online. To be successful online, you need to be online a certain way. I think these three articles really highlight the things we need to remember:

People go online to find information on making sales and to purchase. They do this for all things, not just technical things. If you aren’t online and responsive in your business, you’re going to miss out. (Brass Tack Thinking)

Be real. Be you. Be open. Be truthful. Be helpful. Be social. The rules are simple, but easier said than done. Not following these rules is a recipe for losing your audience’s trust. (Copyblogger)

Online advertising and campaigns aren’t about posting your newspaper ad online and assuming people will click through and purchase. Digital marketing needs to be creative and respond to the audience online. Digital Creative needs to be different. (Six Pixels of Separation)

Karen

It hasn’t started yet, but this month I’m going to be doing several blog posts about using LinkedIn. I see so many posts proclaiming that Google+ is the most valuable network you’re not using, but I think that’s overstating the value. For small businesses, LinkedIn is where it’s at. I’m learning to really appreciate the value I can get from it. For now, here are some tips to get you started (Smart Blog on Social Media). Also, is your profile up-to-date?

One of my favorite recommendations for my clients is to repurpose content. But how does one do this easily when you’re churning out a dizzying amount of information? Organization is the key (Awaken Your Superhero).

Facebook is consistently criticized for various privacy infractions. The biggest criticism typically comes around ad targeting. Or having ads period (Grow Blog). Pretty soon, though, we’ll know when an ad is tracking behavior on Facebook (MarketingLand) by this little icon to the left. Anytime you see it, you’ll know you’re being tracked. I already saw it once and it seemed to show up beside a bit.ly link. That’s interesting since bit.ly allows users to access stats on clicks for each shortened link.

Everyone is talking about Vine right now. The app was released by Twitter and it’s being called the Instagram of video (for now). Users can create 6 second videos, which is an odd amount of time. It reminds me of the 140 character limit on Twitter. I haven’t used it yet, but many really smart folks have and they’re coming up with lots of great uses for businesses.