Blog

We’ll be upfront from the get-go: putting a specific dollar amount on your return on investment on content marketing is difficult. Why is this? It’s because content marketing isn’t something you can implement and then expect results (in the form of increased sales) immediately. Content marketing takes time, at least several months or quarters. Content marketing also is cumulative. Start blogging, posting to your social media sites, sending out e-mail newsletters, distribute news releases and white papers, etc., and over time all of this content snowballs into, as the ContentMarketingInstitute.com reported in June 2012, “ a slow, steady climb in the influence, visibility, credibility, and desirability of your business — benefits that content marketing is proven in its ability to establish and grow.” This cumulative aspect can help you offset the amount of money you’ll spend in the beginning of your campaign when you’ll see little, if any results. Still, unlike

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At the recent SMX West conference, Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed the growing importance of authorship as a way to validate content on the internet. Though there haven’t been many conclusive studies done about the effects of Authorship on ranks, we do know that Authorship is already enhancing search results and increasing CTRs. Studies done by SEOmoz and Search Engine Land provide definitive proof that Google Authorship can and will lead to more traffic to your website. Below, we detail the 5 step process for implementing Authorship for your website or blog in just a few minutes. Step 1: Create a Google+ profile for your blog author. Go to: plus.google.com.   Step 2: Create an alternate email address for your profile using an email with the same domain as your website. Make sure to click on the verification email that is sent from Google. Click on profile picture in top right

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Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. Pinterest. Google+. Foursquare. Yelp. So many social media platforms! How is a company to decide which to use? Or do you need to be on all of them? Short answer: to start, you probably should be at the very least on the Big Four: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. But – and here’s where things get interesting – you’ll more than likely find that one or two of them bring you the most visitors to your site/the most repeat and/or new business. So the answer to which social media platform is best really is: it depends on your business. Let us explain. LinkedIn, for example, is for professionals. It’s a way for business owners, executives, job hunters, headhunters, etc. to connect with each other. If you own a plumbing company, your activity on LinkedIn could be good for you to connect with owners of businesses so that

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Content marketing and social media go together like peas in a pod, lovebirds sitting in a tree, Brangelina. You get the picture: the two work well alone, but together? Yowza! In fact, social media is a content marketing platform. Perform your social media management well and you’re actually engaged in content marketing. You can’t really talk about one without the other. The ContentMarketingInstitute reported in January that the vast majority of business-to-business (B2B) marketers distributed their content via social media sites. The breakdown: 83 percent distributed content via LinkedIn. 80 percent via Twitter. 80 percent via Facebook. 61 percent via YouTube. 39 percent via Google+ For B2C brands, the most important social media platform can vary. Visually oriented companies like grocery stores or flower shops may find that Pinterest and Facebook are the best sites to exhibit their visually-striking images. For brands like CNN and Bloomberg, Twitter may be a

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More than 90 percent of businesses today have a presence on social media (according to eMarketer.com, a digital marketing analytics firm). The question crops up, however: how many businesses are doing social media well? Continue reading for what we believe to be the top three mistakes companies make when it comes to their social media efforts. 1) Failing to Plan It’s an old saw, but it’s true: failing to plan really means planning to fail. At minimum you should create a social media marketing plan that answers the following: What are your goals (more engagement with prospects/customers, more sales, higher visibility, more hits to your website, all of these)? What will you say? Who will manage it? How frequently will you post? How much money or other resources are you going to devote to your social media management? How will you know when you’ve met your goals? 2) Talking About

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When national emergencies occur, it can be very difficult for social media brand managers to decide how best to address the crisis. Should a brand go silent, or send out a message to the victims? Should they participate in emergency efforts? In light of the Boston Marathon bombings last week, here are the things to keep in mind when deciding how to address these events. Proximity First, if a brand is located close to a national crisis, it can be helpful to find a way to participate in emergency efforts. Whether tweeting out information about where to donate blood or posting emergency contact numbers, a brand that has a large following in a locale close to a disaster may be able to lend significant aid to the relief effort. For companies that aren’t located near the disaster, it makes more sense to post information about how to donate to supporting

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You’re blogging consistently (at least once a week, although more is better). In addition, you’re determined not to give up (most blogs die by about two months of their beginnings*). As you work to grow your blog’s following, are you making the following mistakes, what we call the Big Three? Read on the three blogging mistakes we feel are the biggest an individual or company can make when it comes to a business/corporate blog. 1) Neglecting to Create an E-Mail List This can come about for, basically, one of two reasons: a)    You don’t allow people who read your blog to subscribe to it via Real Simple Syndication (RSS), and b)    You then don’t collect those subscribers’ e-mail addresses and send them newsletters via e-mail via such services as Aweber, MailChimp, Constant Contact, or some other newsletter subscription service. This is important because creating a list from the get-go allows

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Earlier this week, Facebook launched yet another advertising update: Introducing Facebook’s Partner Categories.  Here’s a quick update on what it is and why marketers should care: 1. So, what is this new-fangled ‘partner categories’ feature? Previously, advertisers could target only by user-provided information to Facebook. Now, with the release of Partner Categories, advertisers may target users based on their offline activity. For example, imagine you’re creating ads for your brand’s new salad dressing.  Instead of just targeting ‘people who Like Hidden Valley Ranch’, advertisers can now dive into user data like ‘People who spend 3 times or more than the national average’ on salad dressing. Check out the full description of this example category in the screenshot below: 2. Where does Facebook get this information?’ Facebook teamed up with third-party data partners Datalogix, Acxiom, and Epsilon to deliver over 500 new targeting options and categories. Previously, this type of information

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One of the biggest challenges CMOs face is marketing attribution: the ability to assign or credit a lead or conversion to a specific set of marketing activities. Though digital marketing is far more advanced than traditional marketing when it comes to attribution, there remains a large gap in marketers’ ability to tie lead generation and revenue to specific initiatives. For instance, our 2012 State of Digital Marketing Report revealed that 7 in 10 marketers are unable to accurately define the ROI from SEO, and 4 in 10 can’t measure the value of Social Media Marketing. Data Silos Why is attribution so difficult? Digital marketers are currently faced with two completely separate data silos. One silo rests in Google Analytics, where anonymous web traffic is aggregated on a daily basis and broken out into various segments like Organic Traffic, Direct Traffic, and Social Media Referrals Essentially, Google Analytics houses all of

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Before you dive into your next Facebook ad campaign, take a moment to consider your mobile audience. Whether you’re an experienced social media marketer or just getting your feet wet with social ads, Qwaya’s latest infographic is a stark reminder to pay attention to mobile advertising (note: Qwaya is a Facebook advertising management tool). According to the infographic, 57% of Facebook’s 955 million monthly active users view Facebook from their mobile phone and that number is on the rise with 67% year over year growth. So, what’s the takeaway here? Consider these two points to make the most of Facebook mobile advertising opportunities: Invest in mobile friendly ads. Start by testing ad options that are visible to mobile users within Facebook’s newsfeed. Page Post Ads and Sponsored Stories may run either directly within the newsfeed or sidebar, whereas Promoted Posts run exclusively in the newsfeed. Invest in social content creation.

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