Online Marketing Blog

Implementing a successful social media advertising program is an art form.  There are many opportunities for success and failure, which is why it’s imperative that you follow a set of best practices to increase your chances for success.

Defining what you want to achieve with your Twitter advertising program is a key piece to the puzzle and should not be skipped.  Do you want to attract new customers to your company through education, engage current followers with exciting content, or convert fans into customers?  This post shares 4 basic tips for using Twitter advertising as part of your ongoing social strategy.

Tip 1: Pin To the Top of Your Timeline

10 Crucial Consumer Trends 2013

2013 marks a new year filled with new predictions and trends for consumers.  This new Slideshare presentation from Trendwatching.com provides insight into the top trends ranging from mobile to data mining.  Browse the presentation for a detailed report on these trends and what it means for your business.

3 Tools to Simplify Your Social Media Marketing
The time it takes to post, respond, and monitor your social media marketing can eat up valuable time during the work week.  But don’t worry, there is a solution.  The three tools mentioned in this post will help simplify and manage your social media marketing efforts.  Via Social Media Examiner.

The music business is tough. Everyone wants to be a star but only some put in the time, effort and bring the talent to really make a difference and become successful.

“Making it” in the social media world isn’t so different. Everyone seems to be a “social media guru” but few seem to deliver on the promise of making a difference and achieving a positive impact on business outcomes.  But like the music business, there are those few who bring varying degrees of talent, dedication and smarts to really leverage the social web to become rockstars in their respective industries and roles.

Content Marketing Media Matrix For Small Businesses

This new infographic from PRWeb provides a guide to finding what type of content is best for promoting your business depending on your audience as well as you’re services or products.  Use this infographic to find out what will work best for your content marketing strategy.

DMA Finds Marketers Bullish on Growth of Digital and Direct Marketing
According to this recent article, 75% of marketers say that they’re bullish about growth prospects for digital and direct marketing.  This is slightly up from a previous survey taken 2nd quarter, in which 72% said that they were bullish about growth prospects.  Via BtoB.

After months of waiting (or stressing) Thanksgiving is finally here.  Your relatives are on their way, you’ve gathered all of the last minute ingredients (hopefully), and you’re ready to start cooking the meal you’ve been planning.

When tackling an entire Thanksgiving feast it doesn’t take much to become overwhelmed.  As you begin rehashing the planning of the meal, cooking all the elements, and making sure you please your guests it’s likely you may feel like you’re in over your head.

However, if you break up your planning and execution into smaller and more digestible elements you’re more likely to be at ease, and have a much more enjoyable time.   How does the planning and execution of a large meal relate to your online marketing strategy, and what are all of the moving pieces?

Phew! What a whirlwind week at SES Chicago.  While my TopRank Online Marketing teammates were taking SES Chicago by storm, I was holding down the homefront manning the blog, monitoring Twitter feeds, and helping in any way that I could.

We were fortunate to have an army of TopRank  staff speaking, attending, live blogging, and interacting for the entire conference including:

Lee Odden: CEO
Jolina Pettice:  Director of Client Accounts
Thom Craver: Senior Technical SEO Manager
Alexis Hall: Account Manager
Evan Prokop: Associate Account Manager
Miranda Miller: Content Marketing Manager

In this wrap up I’ve provided you with a 360 view of the conference which includes links to our live blogs, tweets, a video with keynote presenter Avinash Kaushik, and photos from the conference.  Enjoy!

Social Stereotypes: You Are What You Share

This recent infographic from WIX  focuses on social media, and the types of things that people share, or read.  Findings include:

• 71% of tweets are ignored
• 23% of tweets get a reply
• 5% of Pinterest users are under the age of 18
• 97% of executives surveyed used LinkedIn in 2010

7 Effortless Ways to Find New Ideas for Your Blog
Coming up with new and exciting topics for blog content is no easy undertaking.  This article shares 7 easy ways to come up with new blog content regularly.  Read on to find out more.  Via Social Media Examiner.

Think back to a time when you created a piece of content marketing awesomeness.  Visually it was appealing, you were very confident about the content, and you were sure that it was going to be a hit.  Unfortunately, it fell flat.  And it left you wondering, how did this happen?

Your first instinct may be to assume the online audience just didn’t understand how good the content really was.  But here’s the gig, it’s time that we as marketers understand “why” we’re creating content and “who” it is for.  This will allow us to make better marketing decisions and project what type of content will resonate best with our audience, and meet business objectives.

24 Hours in the Google Economy

This recent infographic from WordStream takes a deep dive into just how much revenue is generated on Google in 24 hours.  The infographic covers the following industries:

• Finance
• Travel
• Shopping
• Jobs & Education
• Internet & Telecom
• Computers & Electronics
• Business & Industrial
• Home & Garden
• Autos & Vehicles
• Beauty & Fitness

Confirmed: Google Moving Search Options Above Results
The time for testing has passed.  Google  has just confirmed that searchers will soon be viewing the new interface which shows Google search options above results instead of on the left of the browser window.  This article also provides a preview of how these results will display in Google.  Via Search Engine Land.

When I make new connections on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn I get excited because 9 times out of 10 I have either made a new friend with a similar interest or have found someone that I can either learn from, or help guide.

All too often we forget that the connections we make online are very similar to those we make offline.  If you are introduced to “Tim CEO”  in a business meeting and you can recognize that he doesn’t offer information freely and needs to be drawn out, then you’lllikely optimize your approach in a way that makes him at ease and gets him talking. Similarly, social media users with different personalities and proficiencies will require that little extra optimization to interact.

Social Media and the Holiday Shopper

This recent infographic from Clever Girls Collective provides insights into social media-savvy women’s 2012 holiday shopping plans.  Findings include:

• 93.3% purchased something because a blogger recommended it
• $515 is the amount the average US household will spend on gifts this year
• 75% say sale prices influence holiday purchasing decisions

3 Ways Podcasting Can Land You Customers
Podcasting is quickly becoming a very popular means of creating online content.  In addition to it’s virility, podcasting puts a voice to the face that prospects will appreciate.  This article shares 3 great tips for using podcasting to get new customers.  Via Social Media Examiner.

Happy Halloween to all the online marketing ghosts, ghouls, and goblins out there.

Have you ever heard or received a really bad piece of online marketing advice?  Maybe the recommendation was founded on total hearsay, completely out of date or you discovered that the suggestions actually hurt, rather than helped? Scary! At one time or another we’ve all received the trick and not the treat in our internet marketing candy basket.

In this post you’ll find 20 scary SEO, social media and content marketing tales from the team at TopRank Online Marketing and from our friends on Twitter @TopRank, fans on Lee’s Facebook page and the TopRank Facebook page.

BOO! Scary Stories From the Crypt

1 – Classic scary: “Build great content and it will attract visitors all on it’s own. SEO isn’t necessary for good content to stand out.”