TopRank will be offering a new set of TopRank Guides specifically focused on B2B Social Media, B2B Blogging and B2B SEO. We’ll also be conducting several webinars to explain these guides and how best to use them.

The only way to hear about the guides being published is to be a recipient of TopRank’s Tips from the Top Marketing Newsletter. It’s free and you can subscribe here:  TopRank Online Marketing Newsletter.

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You can easily find any of these books by copying the title and author below and pasting into the search box on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Books on Social Media:

• Cluetrain Manifesto – Rick Levine, Chris Locke, Doc Searles, Dave Weinberger
• New Rules of Marketing and PR – David Meerman Scott
• Do It Wrong Quickly – Mike Moran
• Join the Conversation – Joseph Jaffe
• Groundswell – Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff
• Personality Not Included – Rohit Bhargava
• Tribes – Seth Godin
• Here Comes Everybody – Clay Shirky
• Age of Conversation – Gavin Heaton, Drew McLellan (100+ contributors)
• Social Media Marketing An Hour A Day – Dave Evans
• Secrets of Social Media Marketing – Paul Gillin
• Naked Conversations – Shel Israel & Robert Scoble
• Freakonomics – Stephen Dubner & Steven Levitt
• Buzz Marketing – Mark Hughes
• Radically Transparent – Andy Beal & Judy Strauss
• Web 2.0: New Tools, New School – Gwen Solomon & Lynne Schrum
• The Long Tail – Chris Anderson
• The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success – Lon Safko
• The Wisdom of Crowds – James Surowieki
• Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion – Gary Vaynerchuk
• Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business – Larry Weber
• Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking – Andy Sernovitz, Afterward by Guy Kawasaki
• Social Media is a Cocktail Party: Why You Already Know the Rules of Social Media Marketing – Jim Tobin, Lisa Braziel
• Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide: Business thinking and strategies behind successful Web 2.0 implementations – Amy Shuen
• Now Is Gone: A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs – Brian Solis, Geoff Livingston
• The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web – Tamar Weinberg
• Social Media 101: Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online – Chris Brogan
• Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn: An Unofficial, Step-by-Step Guide to Creating & Implementing Your LinkedIn Brand – Social Networking in a Web 2.0 World – Neal Schaffer
• Friends with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook – Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo
• The Twitter Book – Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein
• Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods – Shel Israel
• Twitter Power 2.0: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time – Joel Comm and Anthony Robbins
• Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day – Hollis Thomases
• Twitter Marketing For Dummies – Kyle Lacy
• Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets – Paul McFedries
• Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business – Erik Qualman
• SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate (Voices That Matter) – Joel Postman
• Engage! The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web - Brian Solis
• Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves – Adam L. Penenberg
• Open Leadership – Charlene Li
• Trust Agents – Chris Brogan
• YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day – Greg Jarboe
• Social Media Metrics – Jim Sterne
• The Social Media Marketing Book – Dan Zarrella
• Social Media Marketing For Dummies – Shiv Singh
• Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day - Mari Smith & Chris Treadaway
• Facebook For Dummies – Leah Pearlman & Carolyn Abram
• Facebook Marketing: Designing Your Next Marketing Campaign – Justin R. Levy
• The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff – Clara Shih
• Facebook: The Missing Manual – E. A. Vander Veer
• The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World – David Kirkpatrick
• The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue - Shama Kabani and Chris Brogan
• Social Media Marketing: Engaging Strategies for Twitter, Facebook & Other Social Media – Li Evans
• The Hyper-Social Organization: Eclipse Your Competition by Leveraging Social Media – Francois Gossieaux & Ed Moran
• MicroMarketing: Get Big Results by Thinking and Acting Small – Greg Verdino

Coming Soon:

• Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business – Ann Handley, C.C. Chapman, and David Meerman Scott (Dec 2010)

Books on Search Engine Marketing:

• SEO Warrior – John I. Jerkovic
• Art of SEO – Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, Jessie C. Stricchiola
• Search Engine Marketing Inc, 2nd Edition – Mike Moran & Bill Hunt
• Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day – Jennifer Grappone & Gradiva Couzin
• The Truth about Search Engine Optimization – Rebecca Lieb
• Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics, 2nd Edition – Brian Clifton
• Search Engine Visibility, 2nd Edition – Shari Thurow
• SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible – Jerri L. Ledford
• The Truth About Pay-Per-Click Search Advertising – Kevin Lee
• Advanced Google AdWords – Brad Geddes
• SEO Made Simple – Michael H. Fleischner
• Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing – Kristopher B. Jones
• Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond – Aarron Walter
• The Findability Formula: Easy, Non-Technical Approach to SEM – Heather F. Lutze
• Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies – Bruce Clay and Susan Esparza
• Landing Page Optimization – Tim Ash
• Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity – Avinash Kaushik
• Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets – Andrew King
• Inbound Marketing – Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah
• Search Engine Optimization Secrets – Danny Dover
• Marketing in the Age of Google – Vanessa Fox
• Audience, Relevance & Search: Targeting Web Audiences with Relevant Content – James Mathewson, Frank Donatone, Cynthia Fishel

Coming Soon:

• Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing: An Hour a Day – David Szetela and Joseph Kerschbaum (Aug 2010)

Did we leave any SEO, PPC or Social Media Marketing books out? Which would you recommend?

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3. Social Media Marketing Tactics to Connect With Customers Much like trying to literally capture lightning in a bottle,...

Much like trying to literally capture lightning in a bottle, haphazardly inserting social media tactics into a marketing plan in an attempt to force customer connection can be inefficient at best and dangerous at worst. In the article below, originally published in Target Marketing, TopRank® Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden offers three tactics that ensure better connection with customers on the social web:

The buzz surrounding companies investing in social media marketing to reach consumers has created a lot of attention for sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the recently popular Foursquare. Millions of consumers are spending their time online with social networking and media sharing sites instead of other media.

Some companies are wasting significant resources by chasing after too many different services without taking the time to figure out which social networks and Web sites their customers prefer. Why not fish where the fish are? Here are three tactics you can use to better connect with customers on the social Web:

• Ask Them! One of the most effective and accurate methods of finding out which social media sites your customers prefer is to survey them. That same survey can do double duty and invite customers to friend, fan or follow based on their preferences.
• Social Media Monitoring. Free services like trackur.com or socialmention.com can help uncover which sites customers are using that also discuss your brand. Paid services like Scout Labs or Radian6 are very useful for more advanced monitoring and social CRM.
• Web Analytics. Review your Web analytics to see which social media sites are already sending you traffic, and leverage that insight to decide where to participate.

Doing your homework on customer preferences for how they discover, interact and share on the social Web will shorten the time to reach the right people and help create a more relevant opportunity to interact.

Stay up-to-date with the latest news from TopRank® Online Marketing by subscribing to our newsroom RSS feed, following @TopRank on Twitter or becoming a fan of Online Marketing Blog on Facebook.

Learn more about the social media marketing programs offered by TopRank by downloading our Social SEO Guides.

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Below is a PowerPoint presentation offering Social SEO guidelines, planning tips, case studies and practical SEO information for Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

We hope you find it useful:

Companies that can commit to content creation and marketing strategy can do a much better job of expanding their searchable presence on the web and offer more content that others can link to that also satisfies the information consumption needs of customers.

Discovery via search will always be important, but the longer term opportunity is to optimize for all relevant types of search for the audience you’re trying to reach. That means standard search engines like Google and Bing as well as social search within Facebook or on YouTube.  Of course we must not forget real-time search either.

A holistic content strategy helps companies reap rewards both from search engines and increasingly popular social media/networking web sites. TopRank is committed to continuing our hands on efforts, experimentation and insight development for clients through our own social web participation. Join us:

• TopRank Online Marketing Blog
• Online Marketing Blog Facebook
• @TopRank on Twitter
• TopRank on Flickr
• TopRank on Delicious

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Despite company marketing and PR budgets being in a state of ambiguity, many marketing and Public Relations organizations are focusing on social media, trying to figure out “do’s and don’ts” to improve online reach. At the same time, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of news content is fast becoming an established part of the mix for many marketing and PR programs.

On their own, SEO and social media channels offer attractive opportunities for reaching industry influentials as well as end consumers through push and pull PR.  Together, SEO and social media combine to create a competitive edge that can boost online PR results.

Why is this so?  Changes in the way the media and end consumers discover, consume and share content illustrate the intersection of opportunity for search and the social web.  Today’s increasingly social savvy content consumer not only expects to find what they’re looking for on search engines, but to interact with the results. Those interactions take many forms including: commenting, voting and sharing. As a result, social media can affect search engine visibility in numerous ways, creating new promotion opportunities for public and media relations efforts.

Of course, throwing keywords at social media tactics isn’t quite the same thing as developing and implementing a plan to reach specific goals.   Dropping links to news being promoted on social networks can have impact but is difficult to sustain. For long term value from effort with SEO and social media, PR professionals should follow best practices as well as the fundamentals:

1. Identify the specific audience to reach. What are their behaviors and preferences for content, sharing, media types, etc? What keywords are used in a social AND search context?
2. Set specific goals and objectives that can be measured. Mentions, comments, links, rankings, traffic, media coverage or other “engagement” metrics.
3. Develop a strategy for reaching those goals with the intended audience.  Content creation and promotion is essential for a SEO and Social Media PR effort.
4. Figure out which mix of tactics (blog, social networks, media sharing, microblogging, etc) will support and execute the strategy.
5. Identify which specific social tools use. If social networks are the right channel, which social network? Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace or niche networks?
6. Put proper measurement tools in place and identify what events and outcomes to analyze.
7. Identify individuals and resources necessary to implement. Forecast time, internal reporting, and feedback mechanisms for participants.
8. Plan for success and what it will take to scale when you succeed. Be ready to address issues or failure as well.

For another take on creating a Social Media Roadmap, check out “Social Media Roadmap: Building a Social Media Strategy”.

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2. Social Media Optimization Case Studies & Tips Optimizing social media for search engines, presents a tremendous opportunity...
3. Social Media Marketing Tactics to Connect With Customers Much like trying to literally capture lightning in a bottle,...