Event marketing presents some unique and exciting challenges for businesses and marketers. Especially if the event is not your own - like the great Minnesota get-together. Our team manages a couple business's social media efforts during the Minnesota State Fair, and with the state fair starting this week, we take some time in this episode to talk about marketing individual businesses within a large-scale event.

Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat recently announced new features - some are already rolling out and some will be coming to users soon. Some of the changes look to be really good for brands and business pages and others are more focused toward consumers. In today's episode, we run through several changes coming to the social networks and talk about what each one means for consumers and businesses.

Smart speakers - like the Amazon Echo line, Google Home products, and others - have taken over our technology landscape very quickly. They are very convenient devices to have at home, and provide a new way for consumers to take in media and interact with brands. In this episode, we talk with Jeremy Sinon and William White from Hubbard Radio about their findings with smart speakers and where they think the technology is going.

Her Spirit Vodka is a new local Minnesota vodka brand that is trying to change the world. Not only is the vodka "scary smooth", but the company has an ambitious goal of giving back to the community. Owner, Kjersten Merila joins us in this episode to talk about how Her Spirit came to be, why they give so much back to women entrepreneurs, and the joys & struggles of owning your own business.

Her Spirit Vodka is a new local Minnesota vodka brand that is trying to change the world. Not only is the vodka "scary smooth", but the company has an ambitious goal of giving back to the community. Owner, Kjersten Merila joins us in this episode to talk about how Her Spirit came to be, why they give so much back to women entrepreneurs, and the joys & struggles of owning your own business.

Google recently announced some big changes for their AdWords service and other advertising tools. In an attempt to simplify what they offer, Google is renaming product, discontinuing other products, and changing interfaces for advertisers. In today's episode, we give you a primer on Google AdWords and other advertising tools by Google as well as talk about the changes coming soon to those tools and what that means for marketers as well as businesses who advertise with Google.

In recent news, Instagram rolled out their new dedicated video platform called IGTV. This rollout allows for longer, vertical videos on the social media platform that used to be just for photos. In this episode, we discuss the new video platform - what it is, how businesses can use it, and how it will fare against other networks like YouTube & Snapchat.

If you are looking to take your social media knowledge from a pastime to a career, this is the episode for you. It’s not just about being able to get likes - you need to know how to plan, create, schedule and analyze your social media channels. In this episode, we meet with college students and Hubbard interns Maddie Fetters and Ashley Getting on how they picked their majors and the path they took to work in the advertising field.

In today’s society, our reliance on social media can have a detrimental effect on our mental health. According to comScore’s 2017 Cross Platform Future in Focus report, the average American adult (18+) spends 2 hours, 51 minutes on their smartphone every day. On today’s episode we focus on how to disconnect yourself from social media and ways to practice mindfulness and self care in the workplace and at home.

In this episode, we meet with two Minnesota bloggers and discuss how they developed their personal brands; from creating a brand identity kit to a website, to staying consistent with content and dealing with negative feedback.