As I have scanned and read the 100 plus blogs in my Google Reader subscriptions over the past week these are five articles that have stood out.
1. 10 Steps To Optimize Your Content Marketing Strategy
This article is fromLee Oddens Blog titled “Top Rank Blog” which always has great posts and is worth subscribing to if you have an interest in social media, SEO and inbound marketing. He says
“The rising importance of optimizing one’s digital assets came out of Google and other search engines’ decision to start including information and file types from other sources than their main search index. Some queries trigger search results that go beyond web pages, MS Office docs and PDF files to include sources such as images, blog posts, news, video thumbnails, books and shopping.
While many SEOs were responding to the changed landscape of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) and optimizing for other file types, many others were already optimizing holistically under the premise of, “What can be searched on can be optimized“.
Most companies are not wired to create the variety of content that can achieve top visibility on search engines. In most cases, search engine optimization efforts are focused on content and digital assets that are currently in place. Being able to get more marketing impact out of existing content is as much a driver of digital asset optimization as it is a part of a holistic strategy that matches up with the opportunities presented by an ever changing search results page”.. read more
2. The Personal Branding Content Lifecycle
Personal branding is so much easier now with the ease of blogging and being able to promote your content with social media. This article by Chad Levitt on Dan Scwabels blog (which is always full of great tips and insights on how to create a personal brand) looks at how important content is as part of a personal brand creation and marketing strategy. He says..
“To create a credible and influential personal brand requires that you create remarkable content. Here is a flow chart that details the different stages of the personal branding content life cycle. Use it to help you understand the different stages and how to use each stage more effectively as you create the brand called you.
Create Content:
Creating content is the first step in the content life cycle. Content can be blog posts, interviews, video blog posts, mash-ups, wikis, podcasts, eBooks, webinars, linkfests, etc. We live in a world that is thirsty for great content. If you want to get ahead with your personal brand you need to see yourself in the business of creating content regardless of what industry you are in. There is a market for everything and eyeballs waiting for their attention to be grabbed“…read more
Mobile data is going to continue to be one of the fastest growing areas in the online and digital space and cannot be ignored in developing and creating an online presence either personally or for your corporate brand. This article is from Mashable one of the top social media blogs in the world..
“Overall, the trend of convergence between mobile devices and the internet not only continues, but is accelerating. We saw lots of shiny new phones of course, but we’re also hearing a lot more about environments like the car becoming increasingly connected. Tablets and smartbooks add to the array of devices we’ll need data plans for, and cell carriers will need to begin addressing a heterogeny of devices and platforms that single consumers need to get connected. Read on for some of the bigger trends the wireless industry is concerning itself with today and down the next few years of the mobile roadmap”... read more
4. Video Is The Fastest Growing Website Feature For Small Business
The other content trend in social media and SEO that you ignore at your marketing peril with over 25 billion online videos being viewed in the United States a month is online video. This article by Reel SEO highlights online video and its marketing importance for small business…
“Indeed, small businesses have been racing to get their websites video-capable over the past year – and those same small businesses are spending more on paid search advertising. According to a new report, small business advertisers spent more than twice as much on paid search and nearly 4 times as many of them reported having video on their website vs. a year ago.
Local online advertising firm WebVisible just released the second installment of their study, “State of Small Business Online Advertising,” which examines trends among their nearly 12000 small business advertisers and represents around $22M in Q4 2009 U.S. small business advertiser spending.
While there are a lot of nuggets of data about where SMBs are headed with online advertising, I thought I would take some time to highlight the aspects of the data that most apply to our readers: video, search, and conversion”…read more
A lot of people say social media marketing is free. What a lot of people don’t realize is that the platforms are free but the time and resources required take time and expertise and these are not without cost. As social media marketing matures how to scale the effort is new territory. In this article Chris Brogan one of the top social media bloggers and authors globally touches on what are some of the considerations in taking social media marketing to the next level….
“If you’re a company considering using social media tools for business communications, marketing, sales, etc, you’re no doubt wondering about how much time it will add to your already busy day, especially if you’re a smaller business. The answer varies depending on how you’re using it, how many platforms you’re engaging, your goals, and more. But we can still walk through some potential recipes and give you a sense of what will take time, how you might budget for it, and how to consider your engagement efforts. From a business perspective (and you can stretch this for non-profits and other organizations), it comes down to a mix of prioritizing and satisfying customer needs. Here are my thoughts on scaling social media.”
What are the top 5 social media articles you have read this week?