Email marketing is one of the most effective and inexpensive digital marketing techniques available to businesses today. It has one of the highest returns on investment (ROI) in the marketing arsenal. According to the Direct Marketing Association in 2010, email marketing returned and average of $42 for every dollar spent. (Keep in mind that this is an average generated from a survey of top rated corporate marketing departments. )

Before you get going with email marketing you should do at least three things. Even before you select an email marketing service provider. These tasks should be done as part of your initial research. From these tasks you should be put on the right path to begin email marketing.

Have a favorite author? You may find them on Google Plus. Below is a list of authors that have written books related to marketing in today's digital economy. As you visit their profiles, take a look at what they have shared. If you like what you see, add them to one of your Google+ circles. Chances are, these authors will have more to share that goes beyond the book they have written.

Google+ is a new social networking "layer" from Google. I say layer because it's a augmented Google experience. Google put some great thought into it and has actively and publicly made efforts to improve the bugs that can only become visible when people are invited to use it. They have done this by being publicly available in Google+ and have allowed users to add them to their circles.

If you know me, you know that I enjoy exploring new platforms and checking out how they can be used to make new connections with interesting people and build upon one's digital reputation. Google+ makes this very easy but you should be aware of a few things before you jump in and start adding people to your circles. Here are three tips to help you as you get started with Google+.

Jimmy Fallon of the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show on NBC is a pretty social media savvy guy. In one of his latest episodes, Steven Colbert was brought on to sing the song "Friday" with the show's band, The Roots. The song was entertaining to say the least but what I found most interesting was the guy in the back towards the end of the clip holding up a QR code.

Sometime last week LinkedIn's Groups product team made a significant change to group member communications. They have made it even more difficult for those that share a group to message other group members that may be in their second and third degree networks. Now you are required to go to the Member tab to locate the group member to send a message.

Twitter Media recently published a blog post showing us a pretty cool tool called Blackbird Pie. It helps online publisher and bloggers embed tweets in a post or article. I figured I would give it a try and show you how to use this tool too.