A new infographic to help you create content people want to share
Content marketing facts from the infographic
26% + of B2B marketing budgets are invested in content
79% of marketers use article publication as a tactic
52% use video
62% of companies outsource their content marketing
Brand awareness and customer acquisition are the two main goals of content marketing
Blueglass Interactive's new infographic combines tips on the type of content that works and features examples from brands who are making it work.
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Examples showing how building your network in Google+ gives you more visibility in the search results
This post highlights part of the importance of Google+ for SEO purposes. It does so by contrasting 2 screengrabs of Google search results pages, illustrating how H&M have managed to use Google+ to radically affect results for their network of followers, or circlers if you prefer.
About the Images
Both images are from Google.com, where the feature which makes this important to SEO, 'Search Plus Your World' have rolled out more fully than in other countries.
The first image shows search results for 'David Beckham' when not logged into Google+
The second image shows search results for 'David Beckham' when logged in. The important thing to note here is that H&M's business page is circled by the account I've used to take the screengrabs.
Image 1: Not Logged In to Google+
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A short guide to help review if and how you use Pinterest
Prompted by interest in my first post on the marketing opportunities for Pinterest a couple of weeks ago, I thought a more considered ideas post might be useful. So I've summarised the key points that I feel are relevant to consider if you're set on taking your brand onto Pinterest. I've not got into the mechanics of how it works, others do it better already. First things first…
A reminder - what is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a platform for crowd sourced visual content grouped into topics (mostly lifestyle at the moment). From a broader perspective, it's a social network that allows users to visually share new interests by 'pinning' images or videos to their own or others' 'pinboards' (a collection of 'pins' that have a common theme).
Maybe this cartoon explains it…
Questions to ask to make sure you're following the best approach to social sharing
Social Sharing tools are the technology behind embedding of buttons and other widgets onto your website to encourage social sharing, recommending or bookmarking within your site and blog.
We have a separate post on the social networks that are most important to shares in different sectors and countries.
Despite their ability to spread your content, increase your traffic and even aid your SEO efforts, many sites are still ignoring or not using the right sharing tools. The infographic below from popular sharing service AddThis shows why it is essential to implement these tools effectively.
Why do people share content?
Making the best use of Social Sharing technology requires content that is worth sharing in the first place. A great piece of research was conducted by the New York Times…
18 questions you must ask when selecting an SEO agency
If you have a good understanding of SEO, that will help you list requirements and the criteria that an agency must meet. If you don't, then whilst it makes it harder, you can still evaluate service providers if you focus on their understanding of the basics of SEO.
With regards to assessing potential SEO providers, areas you should look for:
Their own website
Question 1. How well optimised is their own website for relevant keywords searches?
Question 2. How effective are they in using social media to communicate with stakeholders?
Question 3. What is the quality of content on their website?
Why ask these questions? Because these 3 strands are crucial to SEO and if they can't be bothered to get their website in order, then you need to push them for reasons. Granted small agencies often let their websites suffer to focus on client delivery and priorities…
This new advice and tools for journalists could be useful for marketers and bloggers too
Value/Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended links:
Twitter for Newsrooms (Shows Grid Above)
Twitter for News
Twitter Media
Twitter announced new advice on the best approaches to communicate using Twitter on Friday.
The advice is intended for journalists, but we though we’d alert you to it, since some of the tools are relevant to companies or bloggers regularly communicating with their audience. After all, many companies effectively have their own journalists today as they compete with online newsrooms and publishers to engage their fans.
Some examples of the tools include greater interactivity on your site:
1. Embedded tweets - we're seeing more of these now - they're a good way to feature promotions or quotes within your site or landing page.
Here's an example -…
If you're thinking of hiring an SEO or are an SEO - this is a must browse
Earlier in January, you may have seen a useful piece of research completed by SEOmoz that looked into the costs and service structure of SEO agencies.
I've included that below, but the main reason for this post is to alert you to this excellent summary by Dan Barker (one of our Expert commentators) which features the UK and, in my opinion, is far clearer and so useful.
You can checkout the full post and research on SEOmoz here.
Turning to the UK data, from Dan, the most interesting for me, which prompts questions you should ask of your agency are...
What services do you provide? Surprisingly few do content creation or promotion - surely a core 2012 SEO technique. A surprising number don't provide link-building recommendations
What charging models do you use? Fixed price is offered by 51.9%, so…
Interesting online media trends for 2011 & 2012
Value/Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: eFrontier
Our commentary
A fantastic report from eFrontier, looking back over 2011 and with an interesting outlook on 2012. The report covers, in great detail, the spending patterns globally and across multiple platforms (Google vs Facebook for example) for their client base. It certainly sounds like Q4 2011 was the big spending month with regards to YoY growth, with US retail spend up 18% YoY. The key trends for you to consider from the report are:
Mobile spend (specifically tablets) is becoming increasingly important, likely to make up 16-22% of all paid clicks by the end of 2012
Facebook advertising spend will reach 5% of all spend by end 2012
Overall media spend will grow 15% by the end of 2012
You can view the full report here, or checkout the top level…
Our round-up of the best advice on how marketers should respond to the Google Search plus Your World integration
Most are dubbing the latest changes to Google's search engine as some of the largest since its launch. The integration of Google+ with the the new Search plus Your World certainly has the industry buzzing again. As Google's social network grows beyond 90 million users with 60% engaging daily, its influence on personalised search is growing fast and will bring new dimensions to SEO.
Dave Chaffey covered off the initial launch of Google Search plus Your World here if you're looking for an introduction on how it integrates communities, relationships and people into its mainstream search results.
Recommended posts on how to harness Google Search plus Your World
Since its launch, how companies should respond based on the implications for SEO and PPC have been a hot topic. There's been a lot of great advice, so…
8 practical techniques you can apply today to increase your online audience
There's much talk and some great examples, around how to best use social media to grow your reach online. But, how do you tackle boosting the audience you reach in a planned, structured way. We've picked what we feel are the most practical and important techniques to help you do just that. We'll add to and evolve this list throughout this year.
1. Target the most relevant audience segments
The fact is that your audience demographic, all the people that you could market to, vary in their importance in two ways - how commercially relevant they are - are they likely buyers, and also how likely your content is going to motivate them to either share and amplify your brand, or drive them further towards purchase.
Though you could theoretically appeal to lots of people, the reality of time and resources…
