Anne Leuman

Chris Brogan’s Guide to Building a Fast Blogging Framework

Anne Leuman on Mar 22nd, 2019     Blogging Strategy, Social Media Marketing World

Chris Brogan at Social Media Marketing World 2019

Blogging is a part of our origin story here at TopRank Marketing. In fact, we just celebrated the TopRank Marketing Blog’s 15th birthday this past December. But despite our blogging longevity, we’re always refining and optimizing, too.

That’s why I attended Chris Brogan’s session on creating a fast blogging framework at Social Media Marketing World 2019. While there, I learned this bestselling author’s approach to writing blog content (and had a few laughs along the way).

Be Fast

The key to Chris’ framework? The word “fast.”

Being fast matters to Chris, informing the audience that “the average human only read 19 minutes a day. That includes texts, emails, and BuzzFeed articles. They’re not going to read your 2,000-word missive.”


Chris Brogan’s Guide to Building a Fast Blogging Framework
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Anne Leuman

Dropping Digital Distractions With Brian Solis

Anne Leuman on Mar 22nd, 2019     Digital Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences, Social Media Marketing World

Brian Solis at Social Media Marketing World 2019

Photos. Texts. Emails. Video. Digital is a pivotal part of our daily lives.

So what if we stopped using it?

Brian Solis, the author of Lifescale: How to live a more creative, productive and happy life, wants us to think hard about our digital distractions and drop them from our habitual behavior. As digital marketers, this notion sounds antithetical to our mission. But Brian promises that disconnecting is beneficial to marketers as well.

Below, I share Brian’s thoughts on digital distraction and business from his session at Social Media Marketing World 2019.

Focus Is Elusive

“My ability to be creative, to dive deep, to focus, to give myself time away from my device, was not only difficult but impossible,” Brian said.


Dropping Digital Distractions With Brian Solis
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Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: B2B Content Effectiveness Study, Modern Marketing Skills, & Influencer Social Benchmarks

Lane Ellis on Mar 22nd, 2019     Online Marketing News

2019 March 22 Maryville University Chart

When Content Tanks: Brands Lack Faith In Their Efforts, Study Shows [B2B study]
B2B marketers’ content effectiveness has faced struggling confidence, with just 4.7 percent extremely confident in their content’s pertinence, a significant decrease from 2017, according to a newly released B2B marketing study data. MediaPost

Facebook testing features that let Pages archive and share Stories
Facebook has tested optional methods allowing business pages to archive and share Facebook Stories, potentially paving the way for increased exposure beyond the current reach of Facebook Page fans, the social media giant recently noted. Marketing Land

2019 Social Media Influencer Benchmarks
Social media influencer benchmarks are examined in a recently released report from Trust Insights that looked at some 50,000 influencers on each of the major three social influencer platforms. Trust Insights


Digital Marketing News: B2B Content Effectiveness Study, Modern Marketing Skills, & Influencer Social Benchmarks
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Anne Leuman

Why Marketers Need to Care About Blockchain With Joel Comm and Travis Wright

Anne Leuman on Mar 21st, 2019     Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing World

Everyone has that one family member that invested in Bitcoin (or another cryptocurrency) – without knowing anything about it.

For my family, that person was my brother.

Before he invested in Bitcoin, he probably should have come with me to Joel Comm and Travis Wright’s Social Media Marketing World session on blockchain and cryptocurrency. That way he would understand the real value and potential of this new technology, instead of just blindly jumping on a hot investment trend.

One thing’s for sure after hearing from Joel and Travis – blockchain and cryptocurrency will revolutionize much of the world today, including marketing. Read on to learn why that is.

The World Is Ripe for Disruption

“Everything changes, nothing stays the same,” Joel said, using examples of disruption to prove his statement.


Why Marketers Need to Care About Blockchain With Joel Comm and Travis Wright
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Ashley Zeckman

Robert Rose Shares How to Add Purpose & Focus Back Into Your Content Strategy at SMMW

Ashley Zeckman on Mar 21st, 2019     Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing World

Over the past few decades, we’ve seen the rise, fall, and rebirth of content marketing. The launch of the internet changed the value of content and at first, companies saw a lot of early success. But then, the web was flooded with a high quantity of low-value content as content creation had become much easier to execute.

What many brands were missing was a true content strategy that had a purpose, focus, and aligned tightly with business goals.

In his session at Social Media Marketing World, Robert Rose helped the audience face the hard facts about why many of today’s content marketing strategies simply aren’t working and what can be done to flip the script on bad content marketing.


Robert Rose Shares How to Add Purpose & Focus Back Into Your Content Strategy at SMMW
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Anne Leuman

Augmented Reality: How to Leverage AR in Marketing With Cathy Hackl

Anne Leuman on Mar 21st, 2019     Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing World

What do you think of when you think of augmented reality?

If you’re anything like me, you first thought of Snapchat filters, Pokemon Go, or the useful measuring tape app you have on your phone.

Augmented reality (AR) and applying it to marketing campaigns is still a little bit of a mystery. It’s not as popular as other tactics, but it’s attractive because it creates more immersive experiences for customers. As a marketer, it’s something I need to learn a bit more about.

Because of this, Cathy Hackl’s session at Social Media Marketing World 2019 immediately caught my eye. As an AR technology thought leader and futurist, Cathy was able to give insight into how marketers can weave augmented reality into the marketing mix. Below, I share the top takeaways from her session.


Augmented Reality: How to Leverage AR in Marketing With Cathy Hackl
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Caitlin Burgess

Once Upon a Time: Storytelling in Today’s B2B Content Marketing Landscape

Caitlin Burgess on Mar 20th, 2019     B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Everything—no matter how innocuous or dated—had its use. It was a mantra he lived by. Born in 1946 to an Irish immigrant father and an American mother of French-Canadian descent, his parents’ coming of age was marked by the Great Depression plus decades of war.

Unsurprisingly, this meant that his parents, Pat and Stella, were more than practical when it came to purchases and investments. They were intentional. They were frugal. It was “waste not, want not.” And they never threw anything away—a way of life that he held on to long into adulthood.

But one day, Pat and Stella’s hoarding and his resulting belief that everything was useful, changed my life.


Once Upon a Time: Storytelling in Today’s B2B Content Marketing Landscape
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Lane Ellis

Our 2019 List: The Top 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers

Lane Ellis on Mar 19th, 2019     Social Media

2019 TopRank Marketing Social Media Marketing Influencers

It’s that time of year, marketers. Once again, we’re absolutely thrilled to present our annual list of 50 influential leaders who are engaging on social networks around the topic of social media marketing.

The goal of this annual list? To showcase the top 50 influential voices in the marketing industry we can all learn from and follow.

List Methodology:

Influencer Relationship Management (IRM) Platform Assisted: Ranking of the people in this list leverages data and algorithms from Traackr, which is an influencer relationship marketing platform. Unlike the vast majority of lists like this that are published online, this list considers many more data sources than just Twitter. To provide a better sample across the web, Traackr rankings can include citations and links from data sources such as blogs, publications, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest.


Our 2019 List: The Top 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers
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Anne Leuman

Social Media Marketing World 2019: What to Do & Who to See

Anne Leuman on Mar 18th, 2019     Marketing PR Conferences, Social Media, Social Media Marketing World

Social Media Marketing World 2019

The average person has 5.54 social media accounts and spends an average of 116 minutes on social media each day. But social media is changing – especially for marketers.

From data and privacy concerns to new product launches like live video and 3D photos, the social media marketing landscape is in constant flux. And you need to quickly adopt and adapt if you want to effectively raise brand awareness and engage audiences over social.

That’s why you can find us at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego this week. We’re excited to hear where the social media industry is headed, how they’ll adapt to potential data regulations, and expert advice on how to account for these changes in our social media marketing strategies.


Social Media Marketing World 2019: What to Do & Who to See
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Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: Influencer & Data-Driven Marketing Stats, B2B Social Usage, & Twitter’s New Video Analytics

Lane Ellis on Mar 15th, 2019     Online Marketing News

2019 March 15 Headway Capital Chart

Marketers less concerned about data tech, IAB annual report finds
Digital marketers and publishers increased data-related spending in 2018, and 78 percent plan to spend more next year, one of several findings in the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s newly-released annual report. MarTech Today

Podcast Growth Is Popping in the U.S., Survey Shows
The number of U.S. podcast listeners grew at the fastest rate since Edison Research began tracking statistics in 2006, and with young listeners also on the rise, podcasts may have reached a tipping point, which the New York Times explores. New York Times

Twitter debuts new analytics tools for publishers focused on improving video engagement
Twitter has released a slew of updated and new analytics tools, with Media Studio additions aimed at helping digital marketers achieve better video engagement rates by examining more data, the firm announced. TechCrunch


Digital Marketing News: Influencer & Data-Driven Marketing Stats, B2B Social Usage, & Twitter’s New Video Analytics
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Nick Nelson

Where Do Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn Stand With B2B Video?

Nick Nelson on Mar 14th, 2019     Social Media, Video

Social Media Video Trends for B2B

Modern B2B marketers understand that the key to an effective digital content strategy is meeting customers where they’re at, and giving them what they want.

With this in mind, the appeal of social media videos only makes sense. We know that billions of people are on social networks, and we know (or at least research leads us to believe) they want video.

Then again, certain developments may cause us to question what we think we know. How meaningful is it, really, if X% of users are watching X% of a video while scrolling through their feeds? And how can we be confident this data is even accurate, after the whole inflated metrics fiasco?


Where Do Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn Stand With B2B Video?
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Lee Odden

5 Key Trends in B2B Influencer Marketing Plus Critical Do’s and Dont’s

Lee Odden on Mar 13th, 2019     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

B2B Influencer Marketing Trends

Overall Influencer Marketing attracted a lot of attention in 2018 for some good and not so good reasons. Luckily, most of those unfavorable reasons were in the B2C space. Within the B2B marketing world, influencer marketing has made many advancements and more organizations are evolving their testing, use and sophistication of the practice.

There are many trends happening with influencer marketing right now, but here are 5 relative to B2B marketing that are worth paying attention to:

1. Micro AND Macro influencers. A lot of marketing press has emphasized micro and even “nano” influencers over celebrities. There’s merit to that but in B2B, the tier one influencers are still important. Successful programs incorporate top influencers that have large, relevant networks with more niche influencers with high engagement. When mapped to the right kind of content in the buying journey, a mix of influencer types is very powerful for B2B marketing.


5 Key Trends in B2B Influencer Marketing Plus Critical Do’s and Dont’s
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