Posts Tagged ‘Diana Adams’
Best Social Media and Digital Marketing Research and Statistics of 2011, Part 2
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012Reports, surveys, studies and infographics are among the most popular content posted and shared across social networks. We’re all hungry for data.
Marketers, we’re told, need to think like publishers. But which networks are most effective for spreading the content produced? How widespread, really, is the use of social media for marketing? How are B2B marketers using social media differently from their B2C counterparts? How are marketers measuring social media success? Who is actually consuming all of this content?
Find the answers to these questions and many more here in more than 40 of the best reports, studies, videos and other sources of social media, search, and other marketing facts and statistics of the past year.
General Social Media Statistics
The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic by Search Engine Journal
Jenise Uehara Henrikson highlights the phenomenal growth of social media over the last six years, and particularly since 2008. Also noted:
- • One in four Americans watches a YouTube video every day.
- • 53% of employers now research candidates on social networks before hiring.
- • 71% of companies now have a presence on Facebook. 59% are on Twitter, and 43% use a company blog for marketing.
Researchers To Marketers: Go Social, Mobile by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Les Luchter looks at research showing that 10% of all website visits to the top 1,000 web properties come from social sharing, half as much as from search. Sharing accounts for nearly a third of all referral traffic, and shared links are “clicked on 4.9 times each, on average, across all sharing channels, so content shared by large groups of people reach a wider audience than content passed along from others.”
Social Networking Growth Stats and Patterns by Social Media Today
Dan Nelms dives into a Comscore report which found that although Facebook engagement is increasing (the average time spent on the site per user per month increased from 4.6 hours to 6.3 hours in the last year), niche social networks are experiencing the fastest user growth (up 48.1% for the year). Still, the top 10 social networks account for nearly 80% of all social network traffic.
Twitter, Facebook And LinkedIn: Age, Ethnicity And Gender Of The Major Social Networks [STUDY] by All Twitter
Shea Bennett examines research finding that, no surprise, the user base on LinkedIn skews older than on other social networks: more than half of all members are aged 36-65, with just 6% younger than 22. People over the age of 65 don’t make up more than 6% of membership on any social network (the 6% figure is for Facebook). And while women outnumber men on almost every major social network (e.g. women make up 64% of Twitter’s following), men (63% to 37%) are the larger share on LinkedIn.
Infographic: Social Media ROI Statistics by Digital Buzz
Aden Hepburn shares a wealth of social media ROI statistics here, such as that 74% of CMOs believe they will get a handle on social media ROI in 2012. Website traffic is the most commonly measured social media metric, followed by conversions, positive mentions and number of fans/followers. In the coming year, 77% of companies plan to spend more on YouTube; three-quarters plan to increase spending on Facebook and blogs, and 73% will invest more on Twitter.
You just shared a link. How long will people pay attention? by bitly blog
***** 5 STARS
Hilary Mason reports on research showing the “half-life” of a link on various social networks (the time in which half of all clicks the link will ever get occur). Among her key findings: “(looking at) the half life of 1,000 popular bitly links, the results were surprisingly similar. The mean half life of a link on twitter is 2.8 hours, on facebook it’s 3.2 hours and via ‘direct’ sources (like email or IM clients) it’s 3.4 hours. So you can expect, on average, an extra 24 minutes of attention if you post on facebook than if you post on twitter.”
The State of the Internet Now
***** 5 STARS
This incredible site displays real-time statistics on a variety of global internet metrics, including today’s “Intetnet mood poll,” the relative positions of the largest social networks, how time is spent online, and a constantly changing collection of “Fun Facts” (e.g. “Lady Gaga is Twitter’s most followed user with 8.4 million followers”).
11 infographics for your next presentation by Ragan’s PR Daily
***** 5 STARS
Arik Hanson shares a collection of “Infographics that would fit nicely into many digital marketing/PR presentations.” Topics include online demographics, the growth of social media, Twitter facts and figures (e.g., 40% of all tweets are pointless babble; only about one out of every 11 tweets gets retweeted), location-based marketing, and how executives use social media (LinkedIn is used by 92% of top executives, Facebook by 51%, and Twitter by 41%; half of all top executives use at least three different social networks regularly; and 83% trust social media sites “somewhat” or “strongly”).
Social Media Adoption Slows For Fortune 500 by The Realtime Report
Marissa McNaughton looks at social media use among America’s largest companies. Among the findings: 114 companies (23%) of the Fortune 500 maintain blogs, 62% have active corporate Twitter accounts, and 58% have a Facebook presence. But after rapid growth in 2009 and 2010, the study found that “There has been little or no change in the number of companies using corporate blogs (0%), Facebook (2%) and Twitter (2%) in the last year.”
McKinsey Social Technologies Survey: the Business Ecosystem Benefits by Fusion Marketing Experience
J-P De Clerck passes along some fascinating stats from a McKinsey study on social technologies, including:
- • 72% of companies use at least one type of social technology; 50% use social networking, 41% have blogs, and 38% use video.
- • The most rapid increase in adoption has been in the use of social networking, which has nearly doubled since 2009.
- • 27% of companies expect “the elimination, or at least lessening, of an organizations formal hierarchy because it will be easier to make decisions as a group.”
Out with the Old (Marketing) And In With the New by Blue Focus Marketing
Echoing the statistic from Erik Qualman that “78% of people trust peer recommendations vs. only about 14% who trust ads,” Mark Burgess makes the case for online and inbound marking using numbers: consumers are more likely to trust online consumer opinions (49%), opt-in (vendor) emails (40%) and even brand websites (35%) than any type of web-based advertising–though search ads (21%) outperform other formats.
Companies Should Communicate Via Social Media by MediaPost Onlne Media Daily
Gavin O’Malley relays research from New York University which finds that “78% of respondents (consumers) agreed that either social media platforms would soon replace other means of customer service altogether, or become the dominant way for consumers to communicate with corporations.” The study also noted that “45% of respondents would feel ‘angry’ if ignored by companies on a particular social media platform…nearly 1 in 3 respondents said they would stop doing business with the offending company altogether…(and) if confronted with unanswered customer complaints on a company’s social media site, 88.3% of respondents said they’d be either somewhat less likely or far less likely to buy from that brand.”
McKinsey Research Again Validates Social Technology Benefits by paulgillin.com
Paul Gillin quotes from McKinsey research findings on social media use in the enterprise that 72% now use some form of social media, with more than 40% participating in blogging and social networks. Why? Because it produces real business results: “Executives at fully networked organizations report greater benefits from both internal and external interactions…Self-reported operating-margin improvements correlated positively with the reported percentage of employees whose use of social technologies was integrated into their day-to-day work. Market share leadership in an industry, the final self-reported performance measure, (also) correlated positively with the integration of social tools in employees’ day-to-day work.”
B2B Marketing Research and Statistics
10 informative B2B marketing infographics by Econsultancy
Graham Charlton presents 10 B2B-focused infographics, filled with statistics and findings such as that B2B buyers are increasingly getting their information from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs while other sources fall in popularity, and that 86% of B2B firms are using social media (versus 82% of B2C companies), but they are less engaged than their consumer-focused counterparts (with 32% of B2B companies engaging online daily, compared to 53% of B2C enterprises).
B2B Marketing [r]Evolution (Content Marketing) by PropelGrowth on YouTube
The latest version of this video provides a wealth of B2B-related stats, including: 83% of buyers no longer trust advertising (but most do trust recommendations from other users online). Google attracts more than one billion unique visitors per month. 92% of B2B buyers use online resources to research products and services. And most B2B buying cycles are 70%-80% complete before the salesperson is even aware of the buyer.
The End of Blogs (and Maybe Websites) as We Know Them by Forbes
Scott Gillum believes that tools like Blogger Dynamic Views and Flipcard have “the potential to turn over complete control of the user experience to the visitor.” He explains what it means for B2B marketers when buyers are essentially able to create their own UI.
How B2B Search Engine Marketers Can Better Impact the B2B Buying Process by Search Engine Watch
***** 5 STARS
In this must-read post for B2B marketers, Derek Edmond reviews research from TriCommB2B detailing the role of content marketing assets in B2B marketing (e.g., which assets are viewed as most critical to buyers—technical data sheets and vendor websites—and which are least important), the six distinct phases of the B2B buying cycle, SEO best practices, using social networking for link building, and more.
Types of Valuable Marketing Content by The Daily Numbers
David Erickson reports that 39% of B2B marketers (as well as 37% of their B2C counterparts) view blog posts as the most valuable type of content to support their marketing efforts. He notes that some companies try to use a blog simply as a mechanism to re-post their press releases, and are subsequently disappointed by the results. But he also points out that companies who stick with blogging over the long term “gain immeasurably through an understanding of content marketing, what types of content appeal to their customers, (and) how content works with search in attracting new customers.”
B2B Marketers Have Much To Learn About Social by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Gavin O’Malley passes along findings from a Pardot study, indicating that “as much as marketers like social media, they’re not spending proportionately on the new channel.” Although 95% of B2B marketers report using social networks to reach prospects, “nearly 30% are not tracking the impact of such campaigns on lead generation and sales. And among those who do, about 42% of marketers replied that zero or an uncertain number of sales leads resulted from social media programs.”
Study Shows Differences Between B2B and B2C Marketers by Marketing Pilgrim
***** 5 STARS
Frank Reed examines the differences in digital marketing practices between B2B and B2C marketers, such as that 75% of B2C marketers say Facebook is their most active social media channel, while B2B marketers are more divided on the question (35% say Facebook, 26% Twitter, and 25% LinkedIn). B2B marketers on average spend a higher percentage of their online budget on SEO (33%) than their B2C counterparts (22%), but less on PPC advertising (28% vs. 43%) and social media marketing (10% comapred to 15%).
Only 8% of B2B Companies Heavily Engaged in Social Media by Social Media B2B
Jeffrey L. Cohen looks into an Accenture study finding that although 65% of B2B marketers call social media “extremely or very important,” only 8% would describe their own social media use as “extensive.” 26% are only slightly engaged or not using social media at all. Why? According to the study, “50% of marketers surveyed felt they needed new tools and technologies to manage their social media efforts and 40% indicated that their team was not properly trained to take advantage of social media.”
4 Ways To Boost The Value Of Your B2B Marketing Content by Social Media B2B
How can B2B companies best take advantage of social media? Adam Holden-Bache passes along research showing that 77% of B2B buyers view content as more influential if it includes social sharing buttons. 92% say that when video “is embedded in content it positively or very positively effects the overall influence.” And 37% of buyers have consumed b2b content using a mobile device.
Social Media and C-Level Executives
Executives Fail to Focus on Social Media Marketing Strategy by eMarketer
Despite the fact that 80% of companies with 100 or more employees now use social media in their marketing mix, “only 27% (of business executives) list social business as a top strategic priority. Nearly half (47%) admit a social plan is necessary but not a strategic priority and 19% say social business strategy is simply not necessary.” Given those figures, it’s not surprising that just 17% of executives believe their company’s social media strategy is ahead of the curve, while 33% are concerned that they trail the market.
Social Media Stats for the C-Suite by Social Media Today
***** 5 STARS
Jeff Esposito here compiles results from several research studies in a collection of 30 interesting social media facts, among them: 82% of 18-29 year olds utilize at least one form of social networking. 40% of corporate Twitter accounts include customer service use. Only about 10% of CMOs say that social marketing efforts are integrated with their overall marketing strategies. And nearly half of consumers “combine social media and search engines in their buying process” (which is why web presence optimization is critical).
Social Media: A Must For CEOs Of The Future by V3 Integrated Marketing
The always insightful Shelly Kramer comments on recent research showing that more CEOs are starting to embrace social media. More specifically, “Twenty-eight percent of CEOs under the age of 40 maintain a work-related blog daily. And 32 percent of them contribute or read micro-feeds using Twitter or a similar application.”
Twitter Stats
13% of Online Americans Use Twitter [STATS] by Mashable
According to Pew Research stats cited by Lauren Indvic here, 13% of all online Americans, 15% of those with incomes greater than $75,000 per year, 16% of college graduates, and nearly 20% of Internet users aged 25-34 use Twitter.
Study: 76 percent of communications professionals use Twitter by Ragan’s PR Daily
Michael Sebastian reports that “76 percent of communicators (PR professionals) in the United States and Canada used the site, nearly double the percentage from 2009,” and in addition, “The percentage of organizations with a budget devoted to social media has doubled since 2009, to 30 percent from 15 percent. 32 percent of PR pros said they have a dedicated social media team in place.”
30 Terrific Twitter Facts And Figures by Geeky Stuffs
Noting that its “glamor and brand problem has not held back (Twitter’s) growth after its humble origins and launch in 2006,” Shaan Haider lists 30 stats about the microblogging service such as that the service had only three million registered users in 2008 (but 225 million by March 2011); 60% of all tweets come from third-party apps; and mobile Twitter users increased by 182% in the past year.
StumbleUpon Stats
The Shelf Life of a Web Page by The Daily Numbers
David Erickson (again) reports that StumbleUpon not only accounts for the bulk of social sharing (it drove “50.3% of the social media traffic referrals in the US from August to September” in 2011) but also that its link have a much longer half-life than those on Facebook or Twitter. He also notes that once-hot Digg has devolved into “the MySpace of social sharing sites.”
Why StumbleUpon Drives Over 50% Of All Social Media Traffic [Infographic] by PSFK
Emma Hutchings shares an infographic loaded with StumbleUpon statistics and facts, such as that “2.2 million web pages…are added to StumbleUpon every month, which works out at 51 each minute. The average Stumble page view lasts 72 seconds, nearly 25% longer than the average web page view, and the average Stumble session lasts 69 minutes, which is three times longer than the average time someone spends on Facebook.”
Facebook Stats
Social Network User Base Grows, 56% Are Adult Females by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Mark Walsh relays survey results revealing that nearly half of Americans now use at least one social networking site. Facebook is, no surprise, the dominant network, but interestingly “the average Facebook member has 229 friends on the site, with people from high school making up the largest share at 22%, followed by extended family (12%) and coworkers (10%), college friends (9%), and immediate family (8%).” The survey also suggests that Facebook may have reached its saturation point in the U.S..
Social Media Surpasses Search, Facebook Leads by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Frequent best-of honoree Laurie Sullivan looks into a Nielsen report showing that in terms of time spent on the site, Facebook (yeah, I know, a shock) is the leader followed by Blogger, Tumblr, Twitter and LinkedIn. All came in well ahead of sites like Google, AOL and MSN. In addition, “Tumblr has grown to become the eighth-largest U.S. site, jumping 183%…in the past year.”
Doing Some Social Networking? You’re 5x More Likely To Be On Facebook Than Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC] by All Twitter
Shea Bennett (again) posts an infographic loaded with online usage stats, such as that 65% of adult internet users engage on social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn (vs. 13% who are on Twitter), 92% use email and search engines, and 81% go online to check the weather. Meanwhile, dating websites and virtual worlds (e.g. Second Life) are reportedly among the least popular online activities.
SEO Research and Stats
SEO Underused, Forrester Report Suggests by MediaPost Search Blog
Laurie Sullivan reports Forrester research discovering that three-quarters of technology vendors have embraced SEO; less than 10% don’t use search optimization at all. However, SEO remains under-used in certain areas, such as “supporting sales in moving prospects through the sales process.” From the buyer perspective, Forrester found that “When customers search for IT products, 20% said they primarily search for best practices; 19%, vendors and products; 18%, technology categories; 17%, other experiences; 16% business problems; and 9%, organizational adoption programs.”
Wow, you can make good money in Search by iMedia Connection
AJ Lawrence shares SEMPO research on SEO salaries showing that the average search marketer earns $75,542 per year. This ranges from rookie analysts starting at around $30,000 annually to vice presidents bringing down more than $250,000. More than half of all SEO professionals (57%) have five years or less experience.
SEO Salaries and the Best Cities for SEO Jobs by Onward Search
Going a bit deeper into the topic of SEO compensation than the post above, this post/infographic shows the top cities for SEO work (New York, LA and San Francisco top the list; Minneapolis, where I’m at, comes in at a respectable 12th place), a breakdown of SEO titles, and salary ranges by market (if you don’t mind the heat, SEO jobs in #10 Atlanta apparently pay considerably better than those in #9 Seattle).
SEO Behavior: Click-Through Rates Drop Per Search by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Laurie Sullivan (again) notes research showing that more than half of searchers click on a first-page search result. In round numbers, the top result generates 18% of click-throughs, the #2 result 10%, and positions 6-10 each get 4% or fewer of all clicks. David Erickson offers additional detail on the same study in Organic Click-Through Rates by Ranking.
10 Stats to Justify SEO by Search Engine Journal
Daniel Bianchini shares some high-level stats on the importance of search, such as that 93% of all internet traffic comes from search engines, with Google dominating. The figures here are specific to the UK, but the general ideas are more universal.
Google Longtail Keywords Infographic by SEO Book
Aaron Wall presents an infographic titled “How Google Killed the Long Tail,” which delves into topics like spell correction (sometimes a friend, sometimes not), Google Instant (ugh), query freshness and “not provided” keywords in Google Analytics (boo, hiss).
A Tale Of Two Studies: Google vs. Bing Click-Through Rate by The Daily SEO Blog
According to this infographic, results on the first page of Google generate higher click-through rates across all positions (maybe that “Bing and decide thing isn’t working out—or maybe this data set is simply too small). 55% of Google searchers are male, while women (58% to 42%) are more likely to be searching on Bing. And in terms of ranking factors, Google supposedly no longer cares about the H1 tag, while neither search engine gives weight to domain age (hmmm).
General Marketing Research
Among Affluent Americans, Print Media Is Tops by Ad Age Blogs
While social media generates headlines, don’t write off traditional media just yet. Stephen Kraus and Bob Shullman report that of households with more than $100,000 in annual income, 93% read magazines in hard-copy format, while just a third read them online. Similarly, 86% read printed newspapers compared to 39% who read the same news online. And 94% watch television shows on (gasp!) televisions, versus 23% who view TV shows online.
Study Says Drudge Report Drives More Traffic Than Facebook & Twitter Combined by Mashable
Lauren Indvik (again) takes note of research from Outbrain which finds that the Drudge report drives 7% of traffic to sites like the New York Times, MSNBC, and The Atlantic (and Mashable), more than twice the percentage of Facebook and Twitter combined. That figure was up 1.5% from the previous year. Overall, according to the study, “social networks still drive relatively little traffic (7%) compared to content sites (56%) and search (37%).” Among social networks driving traffic, Twitter and Reddit came out on top.
2011 Insane Mobile Marketing Facts & Trends by Bit Rebels
The delightful Diana Adams reports that more than one-quarter of all mobile phones are now smartphones, that mobile internet usage is expected to overtake desktop usage by 2014, and that Americans spend about twice as much time on their mobile phones each day as they do eating, among other fascinating factoids in this infographic.
Paid Search To Grow 15% In 2012 by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Laurie Sullivan (yet again) shares findings from recent search marketing research. Among the trends: paid search is projected to grow 15% in 2012 and 2013, followed by 13% in 2014. Costs are rising: “a promoted trend on Twitter now costs $120,000 daily, up from between $25,000 and $30,000 when Twitter first launched in April 2010.” And the fastest growing format is expected to be online video ads.
24 (of the) Best Business Blogging Guides, Tips and Tools of 2011
Monday, January 16th, 2012Despite any recent recent rants you may have seen about how blogging is dead or blogs are passé, the fact of the matter is that business blogging is now more important than ever. With Google’s most recent Panda algorithm updates, attributes like content freshness and social signals (strengths of blogs, not corporate websites) will gain increased importance in search ranking.
But as the blogosphere continues to expand (as noted by Diana Adams below), it becomes more difficult to stand out and be heard above the noise. How can a company launch (or relaunch) a new blog properly? Write great blog post headlines? Promote new content most effectively? Optimize blog content for search? Emulate the best corporate blogs? Take advantage of free or low-cost blog tools and resources?
Get the answers to those questions and more here in two dozen of the best blogging guides of the past year.
Guidance for New Bloggers
20 Common Mistakes Made By New Bloggers by Ink Rebels
Noting that will well over 100 million blogs on the web now it can be challenging to stand out, the effervescent Diana Adams shares a list of common mistakes to avoid such as making your RSS button hard to find, posting inconsistently, and failing to respond to reader comments.
12 things every business blogger should know how to do by Ragan’s PR Daily
Contending that “blogging isn’t that difficult until educated, professional, bright grownups begin to overanalyze things,” Susan Young provides a dozen pieces of commonsense advice for business blogging success, such as sticking to what you know and enjoy, and writing “to express, not to impress.”
The Entrepreneur’s Advisor | Why and How to do a Blog Right by The Entrepreneur’s Advisor
Stuart W. Smith provides some blogging basics and helpful tips for those relatively new to blogging. After making the basic case for a blog, he delves into keywords, developing quality content, links, calls to action and more.
6 Tips for Blogging for SEO in WordPress by Business Insider
Sue Reynolds offers a half-dozen tips for SEO on WordPress blogs, helpful particularly for those just getting started.
Business Blogging Tips, Tactics and Best Practices
8 Ways to Get Your Blog Ready for the Big Time by Blog Engage
Frequent best-of honoree Kristi Hines offers eight tips to get your blog ready for a surge of traffic if you happen to get mentioned or retweeted by a highly influential source. Among the tips: optimize your site for speed, delay your opt-in popup form (or better yet – lose it, they’re obnoxious) and make sure your key pages (About, Contact, Guest Post Guidelines, etc.) are easy to find.
How to Be an Awesome Blog Commenter by HubSpot Blog
Kipp Bodnar offers half-dozen tips for “how to be a thoughtful and engaged commenter” that apply to social networking sites as well as to blogs. Much of it comes down to appropriate social etiquette, and always striving to add value to the conversation.
How to Turn a Lousy Blog Headline into a Great One by The Backlight
Tristan Higbee steps through the creative process of turning a boring blog headline into a better one and then, eventually, into one that is both search-friendly and compelling to potential readers.
26 Ways to Enhance Your Blog Content by Social Media Examiner
Another delightful A to Z post from Debbie Hemley, this one alphabetizing the business blogging process from attributing source material through links and blogging as a hub of social media efforts through YouTube and “Zigzags and Leaps” (“mental moves that might open up things a bit, allow a little more in, including, we hope…discovery”).
7 Key Elements to a Successful Business Blog by TopRank Online Marketing
Lee Odden defines the key characteristics to consider in terms of “branding, community, SEO, PR, recruiting and taking midshare away from your competition” with your blog including the URL, name, design and navigation. (For more on this topic, see also Eight Factors to Consider When Launching a Business Blog previously published here.)
12 Things to Do After You’ve Written a New Blog Post by Content Marketing Institute
Noting that “even great content can go unnoticed,” Brody Dorland recommends 12 steps for promoting your blog content, from the obvious (utilize keywords for SEO, use syndication) to the creative (using a post to answer a question on Twitter, promoting posts via your email signature).
21 Ways Bloggers Engage by Heidi Cohen
Heidi Cohen details 21 ways bloggers can engage with readers beyond just responding to comments, among them: inviting others to contribute guest posts, providing social sharing buttons, enabling readers to subscribe by email, and participating in Twitter chats.
The Blueprint for the Perfect Blog Post (Infographic) by Business 2 Community
Brian Rice graphically illustrates nine components of the “perfect” blog post, beginning with a compelling post title. in this nicely-done infgraphic. He also shares six blogging lessons learned, including the importance of user experience and letting your audience drive your the conversation.
Displaying Social Proof – What the Marketing Experts Use by KISSmetrics
Kristi Hines studies the AdAge Power 150 blogs to see how leading bloggers are displaying their social clout. Tools and methods used include displaying FeedBurner reader count, a Facebook Like box, LinkeddIn share button, or multi-purpose tools from AddtoAny, Share This, or AddThis.
Blog SEO
SEO success for your blog in 10 easy steps by {grow}
Guest blogger Eric Pratum outlines a “10-step prioritized plan to improve the SEO for your blog without spending a lot of time or money,” from keyword strategy to sitemaps.
How to Optimize Your Blog for Google by Social Media Examiner
In this extensive and detailed post, Dino Dogan walks through the process of search optimizing a blog, from audience targeting considerations and keyword research to SEO plugin settings (presuming you are using WordPress).
Where to Use Keywords in Corporate Blog Posts by TopRank Online Marketing Blog
Lee Odden lays out a non-technical five-step process for getting a corporate blog to rank well in search. His item #4 (“Use Descriptive References vs. Pronouns”) in particular should be required reading for ANYONE writing online content.
Top 10 Blog Directories 2011 by SEO Wizardry
Writing that “Blog Directories add an important element to your web site traffic generation and search engine optimization programs,” Peter Hollier lists and links the top 10 blog directories along with their Alexa ranks.
8 Steps to Optimize Your Blog Post by Search Engine Watch
Erez Barak recommends a heavy focus on keyword research, selection and tracking among his eight steps for getting a blog post to rank well in search.
Examples of Exceptional Corporate Blogs
The 10 Best Corporate Blogs in the World by {grow}
Mark Schaefer shares a few observations on the state of corporate blogging (e.g. the tech sector produces most of the best corporate blogs, the Fortune 500 lags the rest of the world in this area) as well as his picks for the top ten corporate blogs based on quality. Most of the companies are large, but the variety of industries represented is intriguing.
Outstanding brand blogs you should check out by iMedia Connection
Sarah Kotlova showcases four well-done corporate blogs (or in the case of Cisco, a collection of company-related blogs written by internal subject-matter experts) from both the B2B and B2C worlds.
Blogging Tools and Resources
Huge List of Useful Tools for Bloggers by ShoutMeLoud
Exactly what it says–a big list of tools to make your blogging more productive. This post lists and links to tools for SEO, writing, blog marketing and more.
Need an interesting photo for your latest blog post but don’t want to shell out big bucks, go through some convoluted licensing process, or risk violating a photographer’s copyright? This may be the site for you. Owned by Getty Images, Stock.XCHNG bills itself as “the world’s best free (image) stock site.”
A free stock photo exchange where you can search, use, share and create collections of images for online use.
If the free sources above don’t have quite what you need, fotoglif offers reasonably-priced photographic images, in a range of categories including news, politics, business, technology and lifestyle.
The Nifty 50 Top Women of Twitter for 2011
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011Few phenomena have ever spread as far and grown as rapidly as social media; obviously, this has tapped into something essential to our nature. What is it? The answer may come from the email marketing field. According to a recent study by email service provider Aweber, four simple words virtually guaranteed to get an email opened are: “You are not alone.”
That is what has driven social media adoption. From freedom seekers living under oppressive regimes connecting with each other and with people around the world who support them, to individuals with uncommon viewpoints or highly specialized professional interests connected with the like-minded anywhere on the globe, social media is about not being alone. It’s a way to find and form relationships with others who share our particular interests and passions, whether down the street or on other continents; interesting people with whom there has been no practical way to engage before.
Talking recently with Cheryl Burgess (@ckburgess)—partner and CMO at Blue Focus Marketing, a B2B social branding consultancy firm in Bridgewater, New Jersey; 2011 & 2010 winner of the Twitter Shorty Awards in Marketing; and author of the Blue Focus Marketing Blog—we were both struck by how many of the same people we know through social media (and we both learned about some interesting new people to follow as well). Many of these were other B2B marketers, but others were social media experts, journalists, PR professionals, or just plain fascinating personalities.
Cheryl and I thought it would be a great idea to collaborate on this special social media project—and so the process began for creating the 2011 #Nifty50 List of Top Twitter Women. We decided to recognize and share the names of some of these noteworthy individuals with our respective readers and followers, starting today with 50 remarkable women (just in time for Mother’s Day, as we’re pretty certain that every woman on this list either is a mom, has a mom, knows someone who’s a mom, or some combination thereof).
One source of inspiration was Twitter’s Top 75 Badass Women by Diana Adams (@adamsconsulting) and Amy D. Howell (@HowellMarketing), a list on which Cheryl was honored. Though it’s a remarkable list, to keep ours distinct we haven’t duplicated any of Diana and Amy’s picks.
Next month, we are following up with our list of 50 men, just in time for Father’s Day. This list will be posted on Cheryl Burgess’ Blue Focus Marketing Blog. Whatever your role in social media, we hope you find this list valuable in expanding your knowledge and your network.
Jennifer Aaker
@aaker
Jennifer is the General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School or Business, and author of The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways To Use Social Media to Drive Social Change
Diana Adams
@adamsconsulting
Diana is a USC grad now based in Atlanta. She heads up Adams Consulting Group, a technical services firm specializing in Apple Macintosh desktops, servers and laptops. Diana writes for BitRebels.com and InkRebels.com, and as noted above, her post on Twitter’s Top 75 Badass Women was one source of inspiration for this #Nifty50 list. She’s smart, personable, sometimes controversial and never dull.
Alicia Arenas
@AliciaSanera
Hailing from San Antonio, Alicia is founder and CEO of Sanera, a professional development and training firm for sales and business leaders. She describes herself as a “small business coach, speaker, corporate trainer, blogger, singer, lover of life, dreams, family and God.” Alicia is a warm and outgoing social media pro and creator of March Marketing Madness.
Allison Mooney
@allimooney
Allison lives in the New York City area and works with the Marketing team at Google to explore the changing face of media, mobile and consumer behavior, drive new thinking internally, and communicate Google’s visionary concepts to wider audiences.
Ambal Balakrishnan
@Ambal
Ambal is co-founder of ClickDocuments, based in Silicon Valley. She’s an entrepreneur, marketer, blogger, and alum of Wharton and Purdue. Her Connect the Docs blog—frequently featured on the B2B Marketing Zone—is a platform for her own thought leadership content as well as frequently solicited insights from other B2B bloggers.
Amber Buhl
@amberbuhl
Director of Sales for @klout. Though fairly new to Twitter, Amber is active and highly engaging, and her following is likely to grow quickly. A USC grad, Amber’s past includes stints at Hulu, Yahoo!, and the E! Entertainment Network.
Amy Nelson
@AmyPioneerPress
Amy serves as social media editor for the St. Paul Pioneer Press as well as the Features/Travel editor for the newspaper. She’s an informative and prolific Twitterer, and active in Twin Cities social media.
Ardath Albee
@ardath421
A B2B marketer, strategist, writer and Author of eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale. Friend, mentor, and source of inspiration. Also an expatriate Minnesotan now living in southern California (we miss her, but can’t blame her).
Angie Schottmuller
@aschottmuller
Interactive Minnesotan skilled in web strategy, conversion rate optimization (CRO), e-commerce, SEO, social media, QR codes (she knows a lot about QR codes), design, UX, analytics and inbound marketing. Angie is also a Search Engine Watch columnist and speaks at national events including SMX, SES, and OMS.
Becky Denniston
@Becalynd
Expert Community Manager with the Focus Expert Network, a network of thousands of leading business and technology experts who answer questions and post thought leadership content. Becky is also an MBA Candidate at San Francisco State University with a strong appetite for Social Media and Marketing.
Jenara Nerenberg
@bopsource
Jenara is an Asia-based filmmaker, organic farmer, and freelance journalist for Fast Company magazine and CNNGo, as well as a Harvard and Berkeley grad. She’s interviewed the famous and not-so-famous from high fashion superstars to up-and-coming designers to UN leaders, literary giants, cashmere producers, and royal mistresses, and her work has also appeared in TIME, BlackBook Magazine, and NextBillion.
Maria Popova
@brainpicker
Brooklyn-based Maria calls herself an “interestingness curator and semi-secret geek obsessed with design, storytelling and TED.” She’s also the editor of Brain Pickings and writes regularly for Wired UK magazine, The Atlantic and Design Observer.
Connie Bensen
@cbensen
Connie is the Community Strategist for the Alterian (formerly Techrigy) SM2 social media monitoring platform. She’s been named by Forbes.com as one of 20 top Women Social Media & Marketing Bloggers. Connie recently migrated from the frozen tundra of northern Minnesota to much balmier climate of Minneapolis.
Deirdre Breakenridge
@dbreakenridge
Diedre is the president of Mango! Marketing, author of PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences
Deborah Weinstein
@DebWeinstein
Deb is a journalist-turned-PR pro. She’s president of Strategic Objectives, an award-winning PR agency in Toronto. And she’s energetic and inspirational on Twitter.
Eileen O’Brien
@EileenOBrien
Eileen has more than 14 years of digital healthcare marketing experience. She is an opinion leader on social media, and has been invited to speak at industry conferences and quoted in publications. As @eileenobrien she moderates the #SocPharm tweetchat on Wednesdays at 8 pm EST which discusses pharma marketing and social media.
Ekaterina Walter
@Ekaterina
Oregon-based Ekaterina is a corporate social media strategist as well as a “speaker, connector (and) passionate marketer.” She’s also a frequent guest-poster who’s written bookmarkable pieces like 9 Ways to Sell Social Media to the Boss.
Ellen Hoenig Carlson
@Ellenhoenig
Based in New Jersey, Ellen is focused on simplifying consumer and healthcare marketing for “elegant solutions in a complex world.” Though she writes mainly on pharma-related subjects, her blog topics also include branding, family, fundraising, innovation, leadership, and Twitter.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen writes for Fast Company magazine and helps run the 30 Second MBA site.
Elise Segar
@Esegar
Connecticut-based Elise is active in social media, an enterprise technology sales and business development pro who is passionate about inside sales and sales strategy. She’s a fellow member of the #Lebronians team “drafted” by Robert Rose in FollowFriday & Who’s The Lebron In Your Strategy – Maybe It’s You.
Gail Nelson
@gail_nelson
CMO with Siegel + Gale, a brand strategy, customer experience and design consulting agency in New York.
Gini Dietrich
@ginidietrich
CEO of Chicago PR agency Arment Dietrich, author of spinsucks.com, Vistage member, author, speaker, communicator and writer of amazingly entertaining and insightful rants like Get Rich Quick! Lose Weight Tomorrow!.
Gretchen Rubin
@gretchenrubin
Based in New York City, Gretchen is the best-selling author of The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
Heidi Cohen
@heidicohen
Heidi is a fascinating marketer who shares practical advice about marketing and life from New York, NY.
Jill Konrath
@jillkonrath
Minnesota-based keynote speaker, sales trainer, motivator, creator of fresh strategies for selling to crazy-busy people; author of SNAP Selling (#1 Amazon sales book) and Selling to Big Companies
Judy Grundstrom
@JudyGrundstrom
Minnesota social media rock star, Business Development Director at Pixel Farm Digital, founder of the annual Twin Cities Top 10 Titans in Social Media awards, talk show regular on myTalk 107.1, and never boring.
Karen Emanuelson
@KarenEman
Karen heads Reciprocate LLC, a small business marketing consultancy in Minneapolis. She’s an expert in social media marketing (particularly LinkedIn optimization), a small business advocate, trainer, speaker and coach. She’s active in local community and business organizations as well as social media.
Katie Rosman
@katierosman
Katie reports on technology and pop-culture for one of the world’s greatest newspapers—the Wall Street Journal—and is the author of If You Knew Suzy: A Mother, a Daughter, a Reporter’s Notebook
Eve Mayer Orsburn
@LinkedInQueen
Eve is the author of Social Media for the CEO: The Why and ROI of Social Media for the CEO of Today and Tomorrow
Lisa Petrilli
@LisaPetrilli
Based in Chicago, Lisa is CEO of C-Level Strategies Inc, CEO Connection Co-Chair, Leadership & Executive Marketing Consultant, and #LeadershipChat co-Founder. Like Elise Segar and Cheryl Burgess, Lisa is a star of the #Lebronians team.
Liz Strauss
@LizStrauss
Liz is the founder of SOBCon, a brand strategist and leadership trainer based in Chicago. She’s also an insightful, prolific and generous social media presence.
Lorna Li
@lornali
Officially, an expert in inbound marketing, online visibility and personal branding, via social media, SEO and SEM. Also big on green business marketing. Unofficially – friendly, smart, and writer of many highly bookmarkable blog posts.
Lucretia M. Pruitt
@LucretiaPruitt
Living in and tweeting from beautiful Denver, Lucretia refers to herself as a “random muse, speaker, ex-CIS Professor, social media devotee, geek, mom, wife, & insomniac.” Lucretia is a highly engaging and sophisticated observer of technology developments.
Lisa Grimm
@lulugrimm
Digital PR Specialist for the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, Lisa describes herself as “a gal constantly awed by the intricacies of human behavior. Love my family, peeps, dogs, film, food and learning.”
Mari Smith
@MariSmith
Mari (like Ferrari) describes herself as a “passionate leader of social media, relationship marketing and Facebook mastery,” but most of us know her as the ultimate guru-ess of Facebook marketing and co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day
Missy Berggren
@MarketingMama
A phenomenally busy yet amazingly prolific blogger, Missy is a marketing pro at healthcare network Allina, co-founder of the Minnesota Blogger Conference, and is also active social media as the MarketingMama.
Martine Hunter
@martinehunter
Idea generator, b2b marketing professional, creative director, process engineer and writer at MLT Creative in Atlanta, as well as a mother, friend, sister, daughter, diabetic, crocheter and jazz fan. She’s also really nice.
Sally Church
@MaverickNY
Sally is a scientist with Icarus Consultants in New Jersey, a pharmaceutical / biotechnology-focused marketing strategy firm. She blogs about marketing strategy, market research, science, oncology, hematology and immunology.
Michelle Tripp
@michelletripp
Working and tweeting from New York, Michelle is a creative director, brand strategist, and author of The BrandForward Blog. She spends her time exploring the future of advertising, social media, and emerging technologies and just being pretty cool.
Jennifer Preston
@NYT_JenPreston
A staff writer for the New York Times, Jennifer writes about the use of technology and social media in politics, government, and real life.
Susan Kang Nam
@PinkOliveFamily
Splitting her time between New York, Andover (MA) and elsewhere, the dynamic Susan Kang Nam is founder of Cebisu Research Inc., a member of Andover’s Harvard Club, founder of Boston-based career club Salty Legs, “an entrepreneur, former recruiter and non-profit advocate who grew up in Asia (Korea, Japan) and US (Hawaii, California, New Jersey, NYC) and since 1994…using the world wide web exploring different platforms to engage in various of conversations”—and a classical pianist.
Laura Fitton
@Pistachio
Prolific Twitterer, Bostonite, CEO and founder of the oneforty social business software hub, as well as co-author of Twitter For Dummies
Rebel Brown
@rebelbrown
Rebel has been a marketing and business consulting for more than 20 years, is a popular speaker and author of Defy Gravity. She’s also a self-described “spiritual seeker, horse crazy, ski freak, and animal lovin’ nature gal.”
Rebecca Corliss
@repcor
Based in Boston, Rebecca is a singing Inbound Marketer with all-in-one marketing software platform developer HubSpot. She’s also a founder of a cappella group Common Sound. And yes, she is a rock star.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
@RosabethKanter
Harvard Business School Professor, author of SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good
Stacey Acevero
@sacevero
A social media communications manager for PR/social media monitoring provider Vocus in Washington DC, Stacey runs the popular monthly #prwebchat on Twitter. She is a former model, auxiliary member in the U.S. Air Force, and a self-proclaimed “SEO nerd” who loves NASCAR, steak and rock n’ roll. Definitely one of the most awesome and unique bios in social media.
Anita Campbell
@smallbiztrends
CEO of Small Business Trends, an online small biz community reaching over 250,000 each month. Anita tweets from Cleveland, Ohio, the hometown of rock n’ roll.
Liana ‘Li’ Evans
@storyspinner
Liana describes herself as “an online marketing geek girl who loves all things social media.” She’s a top expert in social media and SEO, and the author of Social Media Marketing.
Wendy Blackburn
@WendyBlackburn
Wendy is a blogger and digital marketer focused on the pharmaceutical industry. She’s an executive vice president at at Intouch Solutions, a marketing agency serving the pharmaceutical, animal health, medical device, and similarly regulated industries.
Wendy Marx
@wendymarx
Based in Trumbull, CT, Wendy is an award-winning PR and marketing communications executive who helps B2B companies become well-known brands, and a truly engaging social media personality.
There you have it, the Nifty 50 Women of Twitter for this year. To keep it to 50, we had to leave off some deserving names—it was a tough call. Maybe next year…
Watch next month (close to Father’s Day) for the Nifty 50 Men of Twitter for 2011.
Best Business Blogging Tips and Guides of 2010 (So Far), Part 2
Monday, October 18th, 2010How can you craft more compelling blog headlines? Which SEO tools should be part of every blogger’s arsenal? What characteristics do successful bloggers share? How can you get more links to your blog? Continually come up with fresh and interesting topics? Avoid dumb mistakes that even smart bloggers make?
Find the answers to those questions and others here in more of the best guides to business blogging of 2010 so far.
10 SEO Tools Every Blogger Must Use by Daily SEO Tip
Anil Gupta provides mini-reviews of 10 useful SEO tools for bloggers, from the popular (e.g., Google Analytics) to the lesser-known (e.g., Ranks.nl keyword density tool and Sitening.com SEO Analyzer).
Blog Optimization, Post Title SEO & Deadeye Targeting by aimClear
Marty Weintraub explains, with his customary depth and real-world illustration, how to use keyword research to craft blog post titles that draw both human readers and high organic search position.
The 8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers by Copyblogger
Want to join the ranks of highly successful bloggers? Of course you do, or you wouldn’t be reading this. Annabel Candy details eight traits to cultivate for blogging success, such as being concise, focused and persistent.
Meaningful Metrics for B2B Blogging by Proteus B2B Marketing
The prolific Galen De Young first clarifies which commonly used metrics aren’t particularly important (and why), then does a deep dive into several more valuable ways to measure the impact of a corporate blog, including analysis of total site traffic driven by your blog, your blog’s impact on search traffic, and visit quality.
Top 10 Blog Directories by SEO Wizardry
***** 5 Stars
Pete Hollier lists the top ten blog directories for listings that will generate both direct traffic and valuable backlinks.
The 5 Old Blogging Rules Killing Your Readership by Outspoken Media
The highly linkable Lisa Barone showcases five “old rules” for blogging success that no longer apply, and recommends new ones to replace them. Example: “Old Rule: Good Bloggers Keep Posts Short…Instead of insight, opinion and commentary, we got copycat stories and blogging for blogging’s sake. It was riveting. Only not. New Rule: Size doesn’t matter, the content does.”
Smart Professionals with Dumb Blogs by Writing on the Web
Patsi Krakoff presents a list of common “dumb” mistakes made by otherwise smart bloggers (long sentences, overuse of “we,” vague terms) along with recommendations for writing better posts.
17 Easy Steps to Brilliant Blog Posts by Copyblogger
Lamenting the lack of a “succinct summary all in one place” of the most valuable guidelines for bloggers, Jill Chivers proceeds to offer her own excellent summary of four key factors in writing a compelling post, eight ideas for more interesting content and five things to check before publishing.
4 Business Blogging Best Practices by HubSpot Blog
Noting that “Great business blogs have to walk a fine line: they have to create value for current and prospective customers while at the same time supporting a strategy that provides business growth,” Kipp Bodnar advises business bloggers to think like publishers, consider SEO and provide a clear connection to the corporate website among other practices.
7 ways to get more link love by iMedia Connection
Garrett French offers seven tips for getting relevant links to your content, such as constantly looking for ways to link to your peers first: “Link lavishly, and it will return to you in time.” Hey, it worked for him here.
50 Ways To Optimize Your Blog by jeffbullas.com
Jeff Bullas presents 50 tips to increase your blog’s readership, like asking questions of your readers, using StumbleUpon and AllTop, thoughtfully commenting on other blogs (with a link back to your own) and tweeting each of your new posts at least twice.
100 Sources of Blogging Inspiration by Ink Rebels
Diana Adams compiles an outstanding list of “though starters” to help break through blogger writing block, including writing a follow-up to an earlier post, lessons learned from an event you’ve attended, a book review, a case study, or if all else fails—inviting another blogger you’re socially connected with to write a guest post.
50 (of the) Best Twitter Guides, Stats, Tips and Tools of 2010 (So Far)
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010While a dwindling number of business executives still dismiss Twitter as a waste of time, recent research suggests it is one of the most valuable social networks for business. Awareness of Twitter has exploded; 87% of Americans said they were “familiar with” Twitter in a poll taken earlier this year, versus just 5% in 2008 and 26% in 2009. Although fewer Americans use Twitter than Facebook, Twitter users “are far more likely to follow Brands/ Companies than social networkers in general. 51% of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or products on social networks. Twitter users frequently exchange information about products and services.” 71% of business users now say Twitter is a useful tool, up from 59% a year ago. And 52% of journalists say they use Twitter to research stories and discover what’s hot.
So what are the best ways to use Twitter for business? How you can use it most effectively? Which tools are most helpful? You’ll find the answers to these questions and many more here in 50 of the best Twitter tools, posts, how-to guides and rants of 2010 so far.
Twitter Facts, Figures & Stats
New Data on Twitter Usage Can Strengthen Your Twitter Outreach by Search Engine Guide
Jennifer Laycock reports some fascinating statistics and insights from a HubSpot study, revealing factoids such as: the average Twitter user has about 300 followers and follows 170. Thursday is the busiest day of the week on Twitter, and the highest click through rate on tweeted links occurs between 2 and 3pm. Tweets that include links are far more likely to be retweeted than tweets without links. And much more.
The Truth About the Average Twitter User [STATS] by Mashable
Ben Parr digs into a study from Barracuda Labs demonstrating how power users rule on Twitter: “Only 26% of Twitter users had 10 followers or more by December 2009, while only 40% were following 10 people or more (in fact, a majority of Twitter users, 51%, were following less than five people)…only 21% of Twitter users are active users.”
I Tweet Therefore I Am by Brian Solis
How popular is Twitter? Who’s really using it? Brian Solis provides a wealth of statistics that answer these questions and more, e.g., 87% of Americans said they were familiar with Twitter in 2010, up from just 26% in 2009. Total volume is approaching 50 million tweets per day. Women slightly outnumber men, and one-third of Twitters are in the 25-34 year-old age bracket. 63% have at least a college degree, and roughly a quarter earn more than $75,000 per year (a figure that is likely higher, as 27% refused to answer the question).
The Ultimate List: 100+ Twitter Statistics by HubSpot
***** 5 Stars
Kipp Bodnar collects 17 Twitter infographics quantifying everything from the different categories of tweets and how Twitter compares to Facebook to the peak days for different types of tweets and the most-followed Twitter users (Ryan Seacrest beats CNN; that’s just sad).
Tracking the National Mood Through Twitter by The New York Times
Nick Bilton reports on how researchers from Northeastern University and Harvard have analyzed Twitter messages to keep tabs on the nation’s mood. Among the findings: during the work week, people are happiest in the early morning and late evening. When Twitter users get collectively upset, the most negative tweets tend to come from the central states and the East Coast. And as perhaps a hopeful sign, “the peak of happiness on Twitter is reached on Sunday mornings.”
Why should brands bother with Twitter? This table says why by Social Media Today
Dirk Singer uses data from an ExactTarget study to show that “US Twitter users in April 2010 were far more likely than general Internet users to post to forums (75% vs 25%), blog (72% vs 14%), comment on blogs (70% vs 23%) and post ratings / reviews (61% vs 20%). In other words, the 14 million odd people who regularly go on Twitter (as opposed to the 95 million that have signed up), are already active in social media, know how to make things happen and to create noise – good or bad – online, and take conversations elsewhere, be that to blogs, forums, other social networks, or even the mainstream media.”
How-To Guides and Best Practices
10 Tips to Getting More Retweets by TwiTip
Kiesha Easley shares her personal story of transition from Twitter newbie to expert and offers 10 tips for getting retweets she learned along the way including sending direct messages, tweeting others’ blog posts and responding to interesting tweets.
8 Simple Steps to Growing a Quality Twitter Following by Social Media Examiner
Cindy King supplies an excellent guide to creating a tweet plan, a strategic approach to using Twitter, though she helpfully warns “Don’t make the mistake of relying solely on the scheduled tweets in the tweet plan to connect with people and expect to build your business. You still need live tweets to engage with people.”
Secrets of Twitter Hashtags (For Those Still Unsure) by Interactive Insights Group
For those unsure of what hashtags are or unaware of their many uses on Twitter, Robin Broitman offers an extensive list of hashtag resources and guides.
Twitter: The 7 Rules of Business Engagement by Smedio
Douglas Idugboe advises Twitterers to keep their Twitter handle as short as possible (to help with retweets), avoid automated DM welcome messages (hate these!), be conversant, and retweet others among his best practices.
HOW TO: Make the Most of Your Twitter Profile Page by Mashable
Amy-Mae Elliott offers guidance on writing a great bio, selecting a Twitter picture, making the best use of your URL link and using lists to optimize your Twitter profile.
How to Monitor Your Brand Using Twitter Search by Pamorama
The always insightful Pam Dyer embeds and summarizes a video from John Hayden demonstrating how to create saved searches (for your brand, competitors, industry terms, etc.) in Twitter, track URL mentions, create feeds from searches and more.
Seven Habits of Highly Effective Tweets by Smedio
Jay Adams suggests that the “Twitter traits that make for effective tweets” include clarity, brevity (pretty much a requirement given the 140-character limit), and strategic use of keywords and links among other characteristics.
62 Ways to Use Twitter for Business by GigaOM
Twitter isn’t just for linking to blog posts or telling the world what you had for breakfast, as Meryl K Evans demonstrates in this extensive list of the business uses of Twitter such answering questions, providing highlights from a conference or event, getting and giving referrals, finding topic experts and tracking conversations about your brand.
The Ultimate Guide to Twitter Theme Design by 1stwebdesigner
***** 5 Stars
Anastasia Miles provides an outstanding, detailed, richly illustrated step-by-step guide to creating an attractive and effective Twitter background.
5 Secrets To Get Retweets That The Experts Won’t Tell You by Tremendous News
Am irreverent yet informative post that could have been included instead in the most-entertaining-of-the-year category, but is too helpful not to put here, on how to get more retweets. Example: “1. Focus On The Sexually Active. Think of a retweet as an STD. But one that’s not devastating. One that still retains a measure of hilarity. Crabs. Let’s do crabs. Now picture twitter as sexy college campus during the first week of school…Who is in danger of getting crabs?…Is the fat, hairy terroristy looking dude going to get crabs? Of course not. So don’t fill your followers with people like him. Focus on the sexually-liberated cool kids.”
21 Twitter Tips From Socially Savvy Companies by Fast Company
The ubiquitous Brian Solis offers tips for Twitter success based on the experience of real-world companies like Dell (special offers), Comcast (customer service), using dedicated brand channels (Ford) and developing new ideas (Starbucks).
Twitter 101 for Business: A Special Guide by Twitter
Must-reading for any business owner or executive who still doesn’t “get” Twitter – the folks actually behind the world’s most popular microblogging platform put together a detailed guide to using Twitter for business, covering everything from getting set up and learning the lingo to building relationships and measuring value.
The Ultimate Guide for Everything Twitter by Webdesigner Depot
*****5 Stars
In this ambitious, long and lavishly illustrated post, Angela West compiles a remarkable collection of Twitter tips, etiquette, jargon, tools, apps, icons, WordPress plugins and more.
50 Power Twitter Tips by Chris Brogan
Social media rock star Chris Brogan offers 50 tips for interaction, technical considerations, business, integration, and off-Twitter activities (e.g., “Think of Twitter as a guidance system to what you think is interesting. A lot of that is likely off-Twitter.”).
10 Reasons You’re Not Getting Followers on Twitter by Social Media Today
Paul Sutton lists factors that can turn off potential followers on Twitter including using your profile to sell, excessively automating your tweets and tweeting repetitive messages.
Twitter Tips – Things You Should Know by Trailblaze Social Media with Josh
Joshua Lyons provides a short but useful set of tips he believes can help “make the difference between mediocre Twitter use and excellent Twitter use.”
Twitter SEO
How to Turn Your Twitter Profile Page into an SEO Masterpiece by TwiTip
David McClellan presents an outstanding to optimizing all of the elements of your Twitter profile (name, bio, avatar, URL and feed) for search.
Twitter SEO Best Practices by SEOptimise
Tad Chef covers the best practices for SEO with Twitter: how to rank in search with your profile and tweets, get found in Twitter search, make your tweets spread virally and capitalize on Google real-time search.
Twitter Strategy
Successful Twitter Marketing Strategies by Social Media Optimization
According to a MarketingProfs study, monitoring and responding to brand mentions are ranked among the most successful Twitter marketing tactics by both B2B and B2C marketers. Driving sales directly was ranked by both groups as the least effective use of the platform.
In Social Media, Twitter is Just the Start by Social Steve’s Blog
Steve Goldner lays out a strategy for using Twitter in conjunction with other social media tools like blogs, YouTube and Flickr to optimize your social media marketing success.
7 Insanely Useful Ways to Search Twitter for Marketing by OPEN Forum
John Jantsch shows how to target Twitter users by occupation, bio or location and get the most out of Twitter by creating “some very powerful searches and alerts combining Google and Twitter.”
9 Questions for Analyzing the Tweet Stream by iMedia Connection
Frequent best-of contributor Daniel Flamberg outlines the two biggest issues facing brands on Twitter, nine questions for addressing them, and a strategy for answering those questions to “get a feel for what’s being said, understand competitive comparisons, potentially identify brand loyalists or opinion-makers worthy of extra care and attention and intervene before problems or negative comments cascade into real trouble.”
Benefits of Twitter by Boomtown Internet Group
I’m guessing English isn’t Priyo’s first language so pardon the grammar and word usage issues here, but he presents a nice list of the benefits of Twitter use for business such as for collaboration, promoting content and improving SEO.
The A-Z List: How Twitter Can Make You A Better Blogger by Ink Rebels
***** 5 Stars
Diana Adams puts together a remarkable and entertaining post, lavishly illustrated, extolling the benefits of Twitter from A (“A is for – Ask”) to Z (“Z is for – Zen”).
14 Cool Things People Do On Twitter by Penn Olson
Sarah Chong’s recommendations for Twitter use range from the common (learn, be heard) to the unusual (monitor sensors in your home, catch thieves) to the truly inspired (write poetry).
Twitter Tools and Reviews
Twitter stats and analytics tools – top 10 by Social Media Today
Chris Norton writes that “There are hundreds of twitter tools that measure different statistics out there but many can be a bit of a waste of time. I have been through most of them in the last few years and given them some kind of test” before setting out mini-reviews of his top 10 picks including TweetStats, Tweetmeme and Twitterholic.
Get rid of stale Twitter users that have stopped tweeting by Social Media Today
It’s Chris Norton again, this time providing a quick review of UnTweeps, an handy tool for culling inactive Twitter users from those you follow.
The Complete Twitter ‘Follow / Unfollow’ Toolkit by COMMS Corner
The brilliant Adam Vincenzini offers a concise but valuable list of tools and advice for managing your Twitter following.
Local Tweets: 9 Ways to Find Twitter Users in Your Town by Mashable
Josh Catone describes how to use local events and tools like Localtweeps and TwitterLocal to identify and connect with Twitter users in your local vicinity.
Busting through the Twitter noise to find a signal by {grow}
Guest author Frank Podlaha explains how to craft a search strategy and then use tools like LocalChirps, Twitscoop and Radian6 to cut through the clutter on Twitter and find exactly what you’re looking for.
Twitter ROI: Show Your Clients the Effectiveness of Twitter Campaigns by Web Analytics World
Chuckie Oliver reviews five key tools for measuring the effectiveness of Twitter activities including Twitter Analyzer, Klout and Tweet Stats.
36 Twitter Resources: Advanced Twitter Search for Business by Social Media Today
Coree Silvera compiles an outstanding list of tools for Twitter research and monitoring, directories and geolocation, along with links to articles on improving Twitter search skills.
9 Twitter Apps Worth Another Look by Web Analytics World
Manoj Jasra reviews “interesting Twitter apps” Tweetshare, ComTweets, TheCadmus and half a dozen others.
27 Twitter Tools To Help You Find And Manage Followers by 1stwebdesigner
Dainis Graveris writes brief reviews of more than two dozen Twitter follower management tools including FriendOrFollow, WeFollow, Twubble and My Tweeple.
4 Free Tools that Publish Blog Updates to Twitter by Freesourcing Blog
Mini-reviews of that use RSS to automatically publish blog posts to your social networking sites inclding Dlvr.it and RSS2Twitter.
Top 20 Sites to Improve Your Twitter Experience by Mashable
Vadim Lavrusik offers his list of “the top 20 third-party websites for making your Twitter experience more useful and easier to manage,” including tools for management, filtering (such as the very cool create-your-own-newspaper site Paper.li), spotting trends, making lists, finding new followers, measuring influence, sharing photos and video, conducting polls and more.
The Ultimate Collection of FREE Twitter Tools by Regillo Consulting Group
***** 5 Stars
An outstanding collection of Twitter tools for analytics, business, follower/following management, network building, information gathering, media sharing, organization, blogging and more.
Don’t want to go through the trouble of creating a coolio Twitter background from scratch? Themeleon is a cool tool that automates Twitter background theme development.
***** 5 Stars
One of the tightest Twitter tools around, Tweetake lets you export your followers and following lists to Excel for analysis, grouping, backup or any other purpose you can think of. In the words of the site, “The brainchild of Alfred Armstrong and Nikki Pilkington, Tweetake is here to allow you to back-up your followers, people you are following and Tweets with just one click.”
Sort of Swiss Army knife for Twitter, Tweasier’s functions include Twitter analytics, finding and sorting followers, email alerts, conversation tracking and more. Free and fee-based versions are offered.
Slick map-based interface lets you zoom in on any geographic area to find local Tweeps to follow.
Twitter Rants and Musings
Why Your 4,243,564 Twitter Followers Don’t Mean Jack by aimClear
Another post that would have been a great post to include in most-entertaining-of-the-year as well. We’ve all seen the buffoons on Twitter who somehow manage to amass a large following despite offering no apparent value or even seeming to have a clue as to what “social” media means. Noting that “there are also bandwagon-jumping companies and celebrity glory-whores who go at Twitter like a portly dude at a buffet. They use it as self-centered bullhorn and nothing more,” Lauren Litwinka here brilliantly categorizes these Twitter-star wannabes into archetypes such as “You have 822,780 followers. You follow two people,” “Your feed consists of status updates. And only status updates” and my favorite: “You share would-be Zen gems through a f*cking API.”
Ten Things You Need to Stop Tweeting About by The Oatmeal
Simply awesome. Anyone who’s spent any serious time will relate to this entertaining and creative list of things we’re tired of seeing people tweet about, including what they’re eating, their workouts, their pets, and the incredible (or not so) number of Twitter followers they have.
Bye Bye Birdie: Why Twitter is On the Outs by Techi
Timothy James Duffy argues that Twitter’s popularity is fleeting, it offers most users little value, and it will never make money. Agree? Disagree? Check out the 72 comments in response to this post.
