Digital & Privacy Updates on Facebook, the State of SEO, 50 Most Influential Brands on Social Media & More – December 2014

From holiday shopping and privacy updates on Facebook to the state of SEO agencies in 2014, there is a plethora of new information with December’s top online marketing news. This month also brings you the 50 most influential brands on social media and new Google AdWords reporting changes.

This Month’s Top Online Marketing News:

Facebook Digital Will Lead Holiday Shoppers to 345 Billion in Retail Sales
	Deloitte says digital interactions will influence 50% of all retail store sales this holiday season. That’s $345 billion in cold, hard (even if it’s virtual payments to start with) cash.
Facebook, Other Social Networks Not Trusted When Sharing Private Information
	Facebook and other social networks did not fare well in a new study on public perceptions of privacy, as 81% of respondents said they felt “not very” or “not at all secure” using social media to share private information with other trusted people or organizations.
The State of SEO Agencies in 2014
	During the period of August and September 2014, linkbird conducted a study is to create a juxtaposition of agencies, clients and non-clients in the context of the why, what and how of SEO.
The 100 Most Influential Brands on Social Media
	Interbrand has published its first list of the 100 global brands with the most social influence and engagement.
New Google AdWords “Automated Extensions” Report Rolling Out
	Google said it is retiring the use of “annotations” and replacing it with “automated extensions.” Reporting and Help Center documentation will reflect this change.

Top Posts from the TopRank^® Online Marketing Blog:

3 Content Curation Best Practice to Optimize Your Content Marketing
	Pure creation is demanding. Pure automation doesn’t engage. Curating content can provide the best of both. Here are several best practices to help you with curation sources, types of content and where to publish.
Are Marketing or Public Relations Industry Associations Worth It?
	Sponsoring and volunteering are means for both individuals and companies to contribute to the greater good of the industry and local business community. Doing so provides benefits in the form of exposure and an investment in raising awareness of the particular industry overall.
Improve Digital Marketing Performance with Attract, Engage, Convert Sales Cycle Analytics
	With the vast amount of data available from modern web analytics tools, it’s easy to get lost or focus on the vanity metrics, missing the truly valuable insights that can benefit your business. Starting here will allow you to tie your business goals to measurable
Forbes’ 50 Most Influential CMOs of 2014
	Appinions analyzed over 100 million articles from news, blog, and social media sources, noting opinions from and reactions to CMOs from 500 of the Forbes Global 2000 largest companies. From that analysis, they created an influence score and ranking.
New @Marketo Guide to Engaging Content Marketing – @TopRank Style
	Marketo is known for their content marketing (top 20 content marketing brand) and especially their definitive guides to all things related to B2B marketing. The most recent includes over 100 pages of practical and highly usable information on planning, creating, designing, publishing, promoting and measuring content marketing.

Fun Fact:

TopRank in the News:

Comments from Our Community Blog:

	“Great list to peruse. Thanks for compiling. As for the execs without social media accounts, to paraphrase an old adage, ‘If your (legal counsel feels that you) don’t have anything nice (and indemnifiable) to say, don’t say anything at all.'” Ryan, from Forbes’ 50 Most Influential CMOs of 2014
	“‘From an organic standpoint, I think it will become much, much more difficult, Paid inclusion, syndication and performance will continue to become a ubiquitous part of online marketing.’ I think you are absolutely right on this one. We’ve already seen thing shift from a Keyword & Page algorithm, to a Keyword+Links & Page algorithm, to a Keyword+Links & Page+Domain Trust algorithm, to a Semantic Keywords+Links & Page+Domain Trust algorithm.” James Svoboda, from 3 SEO Predictions I Made in 2005 – Was I Right? What About Search in 2025?
	“Can’t get a much better 3-step process then the one here. I think the most important part has to be the engaging of customers. Without engaging content there is no point to attract and customers will not convert. Essentially, the middle man holds all the power in this situation, in my opinion. Thanks for the post!” Justin MacDonald, from Improve Digital Marketing Performance with Attract, Engage, Convert Sales Cycle Analytics