TopRank Internet Marketing News

When should you start with Content Marketing?  Today’s online marketing is a race where the stakes are high, competition is tough and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to create a sustainable, competitive advantage. Consider these questions to help you answer, “When Content Marketing is right?” for you:

• What’s the right time to understand who your best customers are? Who are your “worst” customers?
• When is it a good time to know what your prospects and customers care about and why they buy?
• What triggers your prospects to discover, consume and engage with content that inspires sales, social shares and referrals?

Chris Brogan & Lee Odden on a panel at BlogWorld - Photo credit: (CC) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com and bub.blicio.us.

Where do you go when you’re throwing around the idea of purchasing a new product for yourself or making a business investment in a solution?  It’s safe to assume that the majority of people would say that is a no brainer.  You go online!  A recent study shows that over 44% of B2B marketers are utilizing blogs as a marketing channel.

The culmination of a deal signed just over a year ago is that Microsoft’s Bing now powers Yahoo! search. The actual search impact remains to be seen, but it’s worth noting that the two search engines together (Yahoo! and Bing) account for only about 30% of U.S. searches – with Google at 65%.

When it comes to a business’ online strategy, questions abound for social media practitioners about how to best leverage and integrate the many online marketing tools available.

The disciplines of search, social media and content marketing continue to intersect and often combine to create a powerful mix. Companies and individuals are creating competitive advantages as they adapt to shifts in technology and consumer behavior.  On Aug. 26, the monthly Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis/St. Paul (SMBMSP) will hone in on this integration.

Event details:
Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis/St. Paul
Friday, Aug. 26, 2011
8:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Cambria Suites Maple Grove
9655 Grove Circle North
Maple Grove, MN 55369

A fairly common – and quite fair – question by many companies when seeking a social media consultant is, ‘can you help us with Facebook?’

The answer, provided by most firms, is ‘of course.’   But what positions some social media consultants above others is this:  the best consultants will never agree to such a narrow focus.

For metaphorical purposes, let’s pretend the consultant in question is a golf instructor.  Each day, you pay the instructor, and he helps you master the first hole of stunning 18-hole course.  Weeks later during a tournament, you double-birdie the first hole – and don’t come within a whisper of the competition the entire balance of the day.  Would you consider the money paid to the golf instructor as money well spent?

How CISCO Integrates Social Media in the Organization – Via Dado Van Peteghem on Slideshare.

The new Google Analytics Beta – a detailed review. Via Smart Insights.

Shoppers Use Search to Find Deals. Three-quarters (74%) of US adult online shoppers use online tools to find deals, and the highest percentage (50%) use search engines, according to a March 2011 survey conducted by RetailMeNot.com and Harris Interactive. Via MarketingCharts.

New Google News. Automatic Personalization and Recommended Sections in Google News. Via Google News blog.

Amazon Server Troubles Take Down Reddit, Foursquare & HootSuite. So much for high availability hosting. Amazon’s data center issues affected a huge amount of social web activity and nearly 24 hours later, they’re still not back online. A boon for Akamai. Via Mashable.

Social Media Usage By SMBs Often Ad-Hoc. Really?  #sarcasm The social web is as mysterious and new to small business marketers now as SEO was 10 years ago. They’re pushing to see what pushes back in the form of marketing value without any coordinated effort or strategy in most cases. That’s a costly way to go about marketing your business. Luckily, experienced agencies like TopRank Online Marketing are here to help Via Information Week.

Loving Facebook fan pages for business?

Guess what, fan pages just got better – Whether you are a B2C or B2B company, Facebook has added new features and benefits that help you get the most out of your social media efforts.

Here are the top 10 Facebook changes TopRank Online Marketing team members think deserve a moment or two in the spotlight…

1. Engage with Fans More Directly – For the first time ever, Facebook fan pages can act as individual users with the ability to “Like” other Facebook pages – This feature allows brands to act essentially as an individual user. By “liking” other pages, you humanize your brand and show support for other organizations that are relevant to your fans.

Have you ever noticed how young children figure out a maze? At first they may struggle going through each path only to realize that they can’t get through. By then, the paper may be filled up with messy crayon or pencil marks that make it virtually impossible to find the right way. Then as they get just a little older, you might see them look at the end point. They may even start at the finish line and work backwards to the beginning of the maze. It’s creative problem solving at its finest.