With more than 618 million active, daily Facebook users, 500 million registered Twitter handles and more than 200 million LinkedIn profiles, it’s easy to see why companies from boutiques to big-box stores have realized the importance of a strong online presence in today’s society. more

Small-business owners are continuing to try social media as a marketing channel. But with so many options – and limited time and resources to use them – which ones are working best? more

Marketing is a mystery – at least that’s the way it seems when compared with just about every other company function. There’s plenty of talk about “marketing,” but efforts to nail it down, specifically, usually end in an uncomfortable silence. It makes the point that it’s difficult to get your arms around marketing. more

(Updated Feb. 20, 4 p.m.) Bella Consulting and Events, the Providence-based marketing, public relations, and event production firm, will announce tomorrow its transition into Seven Swords Media, a division of Alex and Ani LLC. more

LinkedIn has become the most common social media tool used by companies on Inc. magazine’s 2012 Inc. 500 list, according to a study released Tuesday by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. more

Cranston-based jewelry company Alex and Ani and a Providence-based supplier of brand-name items for loyalty programs recently announced an expansion of a partnership that’s relatively rare among local businesses. more

When someone tells me to “Have a nice day,” I don’t think they mean it. I think they’re just saying it as a kind of mundane, almost impolite, form of politeness. Forced nicety. Said out of habit, not sincerity. To me, it’s not just thoughtless, it’s also meaningless. Heck, half the time people don’t even look at you when they say it. more

Jamie Lohr, a co-owner of Guardian Fuel in Westerly, was recently named 2012 marketer of the year by the Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association. The award recognizes her involvement with industry-related issues and her ability to serve as an active and articulate marketer, unafraid to address legislators. Lohr is a resident of Stonington, Conn., a lifelong environmentalist and an advocate for the use of biofuels. more

Happy New Year! more

Mike Doyle, one of the founders and current chairman of RDW Group Inc., the communications agency, has retired. Doyle is being succeeded, effective Monday, as chairman by the firm’s chief operating officer, James Malachowski. more