Thursday, January 26th, 2012 | Filed under Ask an Expert.
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?
In an ever-evolving age of interactive media, search marketers walk a tight rope. Between paid and organic search, social media, optimization, search rankings and measuring success, it’s no surprise that this balancing act presents challenges.
MarketingProfs University is offering a 13-class course addressing popular questions on these topics to help search marketers find the perfect balance and be more effective in their careers.
While it’s important for business website content to be optimized for search engines, don’t forget that your customers are communicating and making purchasing decisions every day on social media and networking sites. Unfortunately, few companies excel at incorporating both Search and Social Media Optimization in their content strategies.
On Sept. 6 – 9, Content Marketing World is hosting a lineup of over 50 presenters including elite B2B, B2C, small business and non-profit marketers and thought leaders speaking on using content marketing to drive and retain business. One session will take a deep dive into content marketing for search and social. This presentation is designed to equip content marketers with an effective process for any organization, large or small.
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 | Filed under Ask an Expert.
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?
Amazing video showing data visualization. The same technology is what makes Google Analytics Motion Charts work.
Your Guide To The Royal Wedding 2011, Social Media Style. The last time Britain had a big Royal Wedding, one didn’t tweet about it, Facebook about it, Flickr about it and certainly didn’t air it on YouTube. One couldn’t. These things didn’t exist. But the 21st century British Monarchy is hip to the social media channels of today. Here’s how people tuned in to the Royal Wedding today, via social media. Via Search Engine Land.
Content Marketing Optimization — Digital assets, rich media, web pages, consumer opportunities. Interview with TopRank CEO Lee Odden at SES London.
Best Practices for Engaging With Consumers Through Social Media. Via WSJ.
Timeline of major Google algorithm updates 2003 – 2011. Via Level 343.
Three Steps to Generating Higher ROI From Content Marketing. Via MarketingProfs.
If you use Majestic SEO for link tracking and research, then get ready to get more out of Majestic with this Advanced Reports Tutorial. Via Majestic SEO.
Social Media for Marketing presentation from Slideshare.
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.
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.
Monday, February 14th, 2011 | Filed under Speaking.
Social networking continued to gain momentum throughout 2010, with 9 out of every 10 U.S. Internet users now visiting a social network in a month, and the average Internet user spending more than four hours on these sites each month. And a staggering one out of every eight minutes online is spent on Facebook.*
Learn how to take advantage of social media as part of an online marketing strategy from TopRank CEO Lee Odden. Get valuable insight on three of the common problems that trip up successful social media execution for brands online.
From a tactical level, news on the burgeoning trend of social commerce tells us:
“Retailers who currently host the ‘like’ button on their site demonstrated 80 percent higher average three-month traffic.” Digital IQ Index Specialty Retail report (download pdf)
From a more philosophical business perspective, however, what this data truly tells us is that while technology may lead to enhancements – little carries more weight over a buying decision than a personal, trusted testimonial.
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:
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