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Ashley Zeckman

Online Marketing News: Pinterest’s Sneaky Tactics, Keeping Leaders Honest, 100 Million Videos Watched Per Day

Ashley Zeckman on Feb 10th, 2012     Content Marketing, Google, Online Marketing, Search Engines, Search Industry News, SEO, Yahoo

How Social Media Keeps Leaders Honest

David Jones of Havas and Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore recently sat down to talk about the responsibilities of the leaders of today to respond to social media, and how it holds them accountable.

“Google Clarifies: No, Ads Shouldn’t Help Rankings & No, SEO Isn’t Bad”  Recent comments made by a new Google employee have some SEO’s up in arms.  Apparently his comments included “SEO isn’t good for users” and “It’s a bug that you could rank highly in Google without buying ads.”  Curious to know what else he has to say and what reaction this has caused within the online community?  Via Search Engine Land.

Ashley Zeckman

Online Marketing News: Facebook IPO, Harmonize with Google+, Pinterest Dominates Traffic

Ashley Zeckman on Feb 3rd, 2012     Online Marketing, Search Industry News

Prior to IPO

Facebook in Numbers: Prior to the IPO

The big news in social media and business this week is Facebook’s new IPO.  This infographic from statista and creative commons shares some very interesting figures about Facebook, before it goes public.

Highlights include:

  • In 2012 Facebook is expected to reach: 90% of U.S. Social Network Users & 60% of Internet Users.
  • Assuming a valuation of $100 billion, Facebook would be work 67 to 100x’s it’s estimated 2011 net income.

The Social Media Buzz

“How to Harmonize Google+ With Your Other Social Platforms”  Search Plus has placed even more importance on blending your online marketing strategy in order to adhere to the social, personal, and personalized search algorithm.  This post offers some great tips on harmonizing Google+ with your current platforms.  Via Search Engine Watch.

Ashley Zeckman

Online Marketing News: Say NOPA to SOPA, Google+ Strikes Again, Coca Cola “Gets It”, Twitter Gobbles Up Summify

Ashley Zeckman on Jan 20th, 2012     Blog Marketing, Online Marketing, Search Industry News

Using Social Media to Find a New Job

The Social Job Seekers

The social media job market is hot! This infographic visualizes the 2011 Social Job Seeker Survey that was conducted by Jobvite.  It examines who the job seekers are and how they are utilizing social media to find jobs.  Some interesting statistics you may not be aware of:

  • 61% of all employed Americans are open to a new job or actively looking for a new one.
  • 4 out of 10 job seekers are “Super Social” and have 150+ contacts on Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin.
  • 1 in 6 job seekers found their last job through an online social network.
Ashley Zeckman

Online Marketing News: Google+ Who?, Know Thy Customer, Social Media Law, TopRank Team News

Ashley Zeckman on Jan 6th, 2012     Online Marketing, Search Industry News

Google+ Statistics

Who’s Using Google+?

The launch of Google+ in 2011 has put Google in the social networking boxing ring.  When it comes to user statistics some of them may surprise you.  This infographic by Flowtown shares some interesting information about the increasingly popular social media site.

  • 63% of users are male
  • Only 17% of users are considered active
  • 61% of top 100 brands have a page on Google+
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Online Marketing Tips & Tricks

“10 Brand-Building Steps For Beginners” For many companies 2012 marks the year that they will begin implementing a social media strategy.  This article provides 10 easy steps for those who have not yet many the plunge into social marketing.  Via Fast Company.

Lee Odden

Was 2011 The Year Facebook Killed Google?

Lee Odden on Jan 2nd, 2012     Online Marketing, Search Industry News

Google vs. FacebookA recent post on PC World, “2011: The Year Facebook Killed Google” reflects a common mis-perception about the emerging role of search and social media for consumer information discovery. In the post, the author Dan Tynan shares that he’s finding and consuming more information on social networks vs. Google during “moments of leisure”. Citing unique visitor traffic and time on site statistics from Nielsen, Dan then makes the argument that Google is falling behind.

Was 2011 the year Facebook killed Google? 

People don’t surf the web anymore, they socialize & share.  Consumer behaviors and expectations towards content discovery, consumption and engagement are always changing online and more-so in the past few years with the emergence of today’s social networks and media sharing sites. People use search engines and social networks to find answers, yes – but I’d argue that they use them differently.

Ashley Zeckman

A to Z Internet Marketing News: Happy Birthday TopRankBlog!, 2012 Marketing Predictions, Social Disasters, Cashing in on XMAS

Ashley Zeckman on Dec 30th, 2011     Online Marketing, Search Engines, Search Industry News, Social Media, Social Networking, TopRank News

21 Social Media Marketing Trends for 2012

Curious to find out what 2012 could have in store for online marketers?  This presentation from DreamGrow shares 21 predictions on what 2012 could look like.

Highlights include:

  • Social CRM making inroads
  • Social media influencing more sales
  • Social commerce on mobile devices

Facebook IPO and Most Popular Social Sites:

“Nielsen: Top Web Destinations, Social Networks and Video Sites in 2011”  As 2011 comes to an end, Nielsen released a review of the top online destinations, social media sites, and smartphone devices.  It is no surprise that Google was the most visited U.S. Web Brand and Facebook was still the leader among social networks and blogs.  Via Nielsen.

Ashley Zeckman

A-to-Z Internet Marketing News: Reflections & Outlooks, Facebook Addiction, Go Google+, Stats You Can Use, Social Fails

Ashley Zeckman on Dec 23rd, 2011     Online Marketing, Search Industry News

Social Commerce Psychology

Social Commerce Psychology [INFOGRAPHIC]

This is indeed an infographic of a different color.  Tab Juice has created a very interesting graphic which focuses on 6 mental rules of thumb that affect social commerce buying decisions.  In an online world flooded with infographics this one definitely stands out!

Did You Know?

  • 81% of consumers receive advice from friends and family through a social networking platform.
  • 50% of people have made purchases based on recommendations received through their social network.
  • Over 25,000,000,000 pieces of content are shared on Facebook each month.

#Trending: Reflections of 2011 & Predictions for 2012

“150+ Content Marketing & Social Media Predictions for 2012”  This very extensive list of 2012 predictions includes some of the creme de la creme for online marketers including: even more from Google+, the year for video and mobile, and long-form content poised to make a comeback. Via Content Marketing Institute.

Ashley Zeckman

A to Z Internet Marketing News: Tacky Social PR, Can You Measure Up, Is Sales #1?, Sharing 2011, Email/Social Become One

Ashley Zeckman on Dec 16th, 2011     Search Industry News

Data for Social Shares in 2011

2011 Social Sharing Trends [INFOGRAPHIC]

A new infographic recently released by Clearspring provides a good overview of social sharing in the past year.  I especially liked the breakdown of shares by social media platform.

Facts You May Not Know You Didn’t Know:

  • 73% of the top 10 shares were related to death & disaster
  • Twitter makes up 52% of sharing in Japan
  • Google sharing declines by 8% even with the addition of the +1 button

Is Google Scheming on Your Location?

“Google follows Currents launch with activity-recommendation tool Schemer and face recognition on Google+ Econsultancy” If you want to try out the new location based tool recently released by Google, get in line.  Currently in beta testing mode “Schemer” is an online application that allows users to make plans and explore suggestions for things to do.   In addition to launching new services Google+ is also putting it’s best face forward with a facial recognition feature.  Sounds like Google’s been busy!  But will it pay off in the end?  Via Econsultancy.

Ashley Zeckman

A-to-Z Internet Marketing News: Bloggers Beware, Google Trust, Mobile SEO, New Twitter, SMBs Heart SEO

Ashley Zeckman on Dec 9th, 2011     B2B, Online Marketing, Search Industry News

B2B Content Marketing Report

New Report on B2B Content Marketing for 2012:

This week started off right with the new report (pdf) from Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs:  ”B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends”. The report offers a great mix of insight into most and least effective content marketing tactics, social media tools, measurement, budgets and compelling data points like:

  • 9 in 10 organizations market with content
  • Content marketers use 8 different content marketing tactics (on average) in their mix
  • The most popular content marketing tactics included social media, blogs, newsletters, case studies and events
  • The least effective content marketing tactics: podcasts, mobile content, digital magazines
Ashley Zeckman

A-to-Z Internet Marketing News: Google Redesign, Cyber Monday, Speed Linking, Self Serve Twitter Ads, Damn Humans

Ashley Zeckman on Dec 2nd, 2011     Interactive Marketing, Online Marketing, Search Industry News

Lee Odden

Wicked Smart Interview with Ann Handley of MarketingProfs

Lee Odden on May 8th, 2011     Content Marketing, Interviews, Online Marketing

Ann HandleyIf you’re looking for one of the most influential and “wicked smart” voices in online marketing, Ann Handley is an easy conclusion. Add a sense of humor and brilliant writing skills and she’s easily #1 in my book. A journalist and co-founder of ClickZ, you’re more likely to know Ann as the Chief Content Officer for the wildly popular MarketingProfs which boasts over 388,000 subscribers. Ann is also co-author with C. C. Chapman of one of my favorite marketing books, Content Rules.

A perk I enjoy most from blogging and working in this industry is getting to meet and know smart marketers. Smart + funny just takes it to another level and you can count on Ann for plenty of both. Along with the accomplishments, contributions, influence and energy she brings to our industry, Ann is genuine and grounded, plus she’s not afraid to “tell it like it is”. I appreciate those qualities a great deal.

Lee Odden

Essential Statistics from Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2010

Lee Odden on Nov 4th, 2010     Blogging, Online Marketing, Search Industry News

State of the Blogosphere 2010Jon Sobel of Technorati has published the latest State of the Blogosphere Report for 2010 including stats from 7,200 blogger respondents world-wide. Started in 2004 by Dave Sifry, this annual report has provided insight into the growth of the blogging community and helps answer questions like: who is blogging, why, what are they blogging about, how often and where are they blogging from.

In 2008 Technorati added insights of individual bloggers to the report with an emphasis this year on women blogging. As a long time blogger and advocate of blogging for online marketing, I’ve always taken a lot of interest and insight from these reports.

For marketers and communications professionals seeking to better understand the changing nature of the social web and the role blogs pay within in it, here are some essential statistics from Days 1 & 2 (of 3) from the 2010 State of the Blogosphere Report:

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