Pros & Cons Of Date Stamping Your Content by Arnie Kuenn

As content marketing continually increases in popularity, more and more content is being published each and every day. In fact, more than two million blog posts are written daily. With all that content being published, date stamping is an easy way for users to gauge the newness and relevancy of a blog post or article.
But lately, I’ve noticed that many blog posts and articles lack a date stamp. In fact, Joe Pulizzi recently posted about this very topic on Facebook, which prompted a conversation among marketers and consumers about date stamping content.

The opinions were divided, with some people stating they won’t even bother with non-dated content, while others mentioned date stamping can result in disregard of otherwise compelling content.
Which way is the right way? Let’s discuss the pros and cons.

Pros Of Date Stamping Content
There are many reasons why you would want to use date stamping. Here are just a few.

Better For The Audience
Though the comments on Pulizzi’s Facebook post were split, many people noted that as a consumer, dated content is preferred. Why is that? Since much content is designed to be useful and helpful to your audience, not including the date can be quite the opposite of what’s intended.

Many times people search for content in order to solve a problem or to research a product, service, event, etc., and in those cases, a date would be beneficial. Without a date stamp, how will people know how recent (or old) your content is? They won’t (at least not right off the bat), which could result in the following:

• Higher Bounce Rate: Some people will leave as soon as they realize the content is missing the date or will quickly recognize it as being outdated information, which could lead to a higher bounce rate.

• Make Your Visitor Work For It: Others will wind up searching for clues elsewhere, either by reading through the content presented or by searching for date stamp of comments — both of which could result in an angry visitor, if the content is indeed outdated.

And though some won’t mind that your content lacks a date, without it, you risk alienating the people
who do.

Link Opportunities
I already mentioned that two million blog posts are written daily… And what do people usually do when writing a new post? They research supporting material and link to it in their piece.

Many writers will only want to source the most up-to-date content, making a date stamp essential. No one wants to reference outdated information, statistics or data if they can help it. Because of this, content lacking a date stamp could be overlooked for link opportunities.

Ensures Fresh Content
By including a date stamp, you are ensuring visitors that the content is fresh, which can also be achieved with an “updated” date stamp. News sites often do this so people know they are receiving the latest information.
If a story has changed, an error has been corrected, or there is just more information, an updated date stamp is present. The date stamp, updated or not, allows people to feel good about sharing breaking news, as everyone wants to be first to share new information.

Date Parameters
Additionally, search engines enable users to restrict search results to content published within a certain time frame, like the past hour, day, week, month, year, etc.

If you date your content, it will most definitely be included in the SERPs if it is within the chosen parameters, while undated content most likely won’t.

Cons Of Date Stamping Content
There are also a few reasons for not date stamping content, which are as follows:

It “Dates” Content
Of course, date stamping does just that – it “dates” your content. This runs you the risk of your content being perceived as outdated even when it isn’t.

Many businesses create and publish evergreen content that is meant to be relevant and useful no matter when a visitor stumbles upon it. However, with a date stamp, some evergreen content may be overlooked, despite the content still being relevant.

Even if the content is compelling and insightful, some may pass it up for similar content with a fresh date stamp.

Potential Loss Of SEO Value 
When producing online content, though it should be created with your audience in mind, many cater to search engines in hopes of higher rankings in the SERPs.

In the case of date stamping content, without a date you may trick the search engines into thinking your content is fresh, even after it has been published for a long period of time. Search engines generally place a preference on new content, so your old content may rank higher without a date.

Date Parameters
Unfortunately, though date parameters can be a date stamping “pro,” they can also be a con. If you date stamp your evergreen content, it will only show up in the SERPs when it fits the date parameters, even if it is still relevant years later.

However, without a date, your content may not be included in date-restricted search engine results at all, which is something you have to seriously contemplate.

Other Things To Consider
There are a number of other things to consider when examining the pros and cons of dated vs. non-dated content. Here are a few:

“Updated” Date Stamps
Though not many publishers do this, adding an “updated” date on your content is a reasonable way to attract visitors to once old content. If you’ve published content about something that has since evolved or is just plain outdated, you can update the original content to reflect new findings and information.

Including the new date may attract some visitors who would have otherwise skipped over it due to the old date. One thing to note is the inclusion of the date in a URL. You might want to consider not including the URL, as the URL won’t change if you update the piece of content later.

Updating Without Date Stamps
Updating content can be as easy as adding a picture or extra text. These simple improvements allow you to increase the thickness, diversity and freshness of content, and as the page is repeatedly cached, small changes will be reflected in a search engine’s index.

Though you can update the date stamp of a piece of content when you make changes or insert new information, it isn’t completely necessary, and you can still reap the benefits of adding fresh material.

Repurposing
Like updating posts, old, date-stamped content can be repurposed into new content with a new date stamp, which is beneficial in a number of ways. As creating content takes resources, repurposing content is an excellent way to provide new content without having to start from scratch.

You save yourself resources by utilizing the legwork and research done for the original piece, and you also provide a new piece of content for your audience. This is a particularly great tactic for outdated content that was very popular.

In Summary
It is clear that date stamping content has its pros and cons. Date stamping may be better for your audience in cases where the date is important, could lead to more link opportunities and will ensure your content is included in date-restricted searches.

However, it also poses problems for publishers creating evergreen content, as many people use the date stamp as a guide to whether content is applicable or not. Similarly, search engines also use date stamps when analyzing content relevance, so date stamping could result in lower search engine rankings.

The case could be made for either side, though updating content (with or without a date stamp) and repurposing content are two alternatives to consider.

What are your thoughts on date stamping content? 

Courtesy of Third Door Media, Inc.

The Good and Bad Of SEO Techniques by Leonid Singha

Anyone who is familiar with search engine optimisation (SEO) will know that the practice has undergone a number of changes over the years, many of them a result of people failing to use the techniques properly. Whilst SEO is a popular way of getting your website to rank higher in search engine results, it is of the utmost importance that you have used the techniques correctly, otherwise you risk your website becoming banned or blacklisted.

Keyword Research

Good – It is considered a good SEO technique if you strategically place keywords throughout your website, providing that they are relevant to the information on the page and they haven’t been used so many times that they are considered spam.

Bad – Targeting a single keyword on every page throughout your site is considered spam, as is hiding keywords in the background (by making the font the same colour) and using the keyword way too many times than would be considered natural.

Meta Tags

Good – Creating user friendly meta title tag using a relevant keyword phrase and that is 60 characters or less is considered good SEO, as is keeping your website traffic in mind so that your message can be heard when people read your description.

Bad – Stuffing your meta tag with keywords will not work in your favour when trying to rank higher in search engine results. If you forget about the user experience and just try to spam Google, you will quickly find your ranking lowered.

Content

Good – For the optimisation of your content to be considered ‘good’, you will need to include keywords into it in a way that is understandable and relevant to the website. SEO is all about making the content users want much easier to find.

Bad – If you have so many keywords jammed into your content that it is nearly impossible to read, however, this is considered spam. It is also considered bad SEO if you have used keywords that aren’t relevant to the information on the page.

Directory Submission

Good – When listing your website on directories that will make it easier for people to find you, you should only choose highly trafficked and respected websites. This will ensure that you are getting relevant and high quality links back to your site.

Bad – Using a software program that promises to distribute your website to thousands of directories is essentially useless for SEO if no one looks at the listing and it can actually be detrimental if the directory is proven to be less than reputable.

Facebook Marketing

Good – Building a Facebook fan page that is inviting for your audience and allows you to spread your message is very handy for SEO, as engagement is something that plays a major role in optimisation today. It also gives you another place for links.

Bad – If you attempt to send thousands of friend requests from a personal Facebook profile that has been structured to come from a business, however, you will damage your SEO efforts and Facebook may even shut your account down.

Whilst there are good and bad approaches to many other SEO techniques (such as blog commenting, video marketing and the use of Twitter), the five areas that we have outlined above tend to be the most abused. When it comes to getting your website to rank higher in search engine results, it is important that you ensure you have used the correct SEO techniques in the right way otherwise you will run into a few problems.

Courtesy of  Business 2 Community

Avoid these Four Common Online Marketing Mistakes by Iris Dorbian (included Janet O. Penn)

If there’s one thing that Gene Sower, president of Samson Media, finds frustrating it’s meeting with small business clients who are short-sighted when it comes to online marketing.

 

“I’ve had clients who’ve approached me and the first thing they want to talk about is the color of their web pages,” says Sower, whose Montclair, N.J.-based firm provides online marketing and website services. “I ask them, ‘Okay, but what do you want the website to do?' I try to get them to think of their website as more than a brochure.”

 

Sower says he has made it his mission to help clients with their online marketing by actively blogging about issues he feels are relevant to the subject. For example, he recently posted about the cost-effectiveness of using a template design for a client site versus an original design. Because the latter is often more expensive, Sower maintains that money earmarked for a customized web design would be better spent on a SEO or pay-per-click advertising campaign.

 

Read on to find out the most common online marketing missteps and how you can avoid them.

 

Mistake #1: Not allocating enough money
Just because it’s online, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend any money. Sure, you might derive some leads or pique the attention of a few prospects from a clever (and free) Twitter or Facebook initiative. However, these results could be short-term and middling when compared to the reach of a well-executed and strategic long-range online marketing campaign.

 

Says Sower: “Clients think that social media can drive all of their leads and new business when it’s just unrealistic. A lot of what I tell people is that you have to allot some money to marketing—whether it’s PR, advertising, or search engine optimization.”

 

Julie Davis, director of marketing and development for TotalHousehold, a two-year old Danbury, Conn.-based online marketplace that connects homeowners with qualified contractors, echoes Sower’s sentiment.

 

“When you’re looking to save money, you still need to go with reputable companies and the best plans rather than the cheapest plans,” explains Davis.

 

To prove her point, Davis cites how TotalHousehold recently selected PR Underground, which posts press releases online, for their weekly PR needs as opposed to the far more expensive PR Web.

 

“We do a weekly giveaway on our site and for $29 a week, we can generate a press release [via PR Underground],” says Davis. “If we used PR Web, which we do for bigger releases, it would be hundreds of dollars.”

 

Mistake #2: Doing it yourself
Some small business owners might think that if they take an hour-long seminar on online marketing or read a book on the subject they might be prepared to go the DIY route. Although it is possible that some business owners might excel in blogging or sending out e-newsletters, for example, most will not be skilled enough to launch a comprehensive online marketing campaign that will bring results. To get the ROI you desire, you must make an investment.

 

Janet O. Penn, managing director of Janet Penn Consulting, a seven-year-old internet marketing consulting firm in Fairfield, NJ, urges small business owners to steer clear of the DIY approach.

 

“A lot of times when someone starts their own business, they do it because they have a particular talent, such as making jewelry,” she says. “Their area of expertise is providing that service and they should concentrate on doing that. It’s not prudent or even a good business model to have people thinking they can do it themselves.”

 

Penn brushes aside the notion that it’s in her best interest to take this approach. “The lay person might be aware of Google’s changing algorithms but they don’t really understand what that means,” she explains. “There are so many critical strategies and business practices that are changing. If you aren’t spending a minimum of one to two hours every day just observing and understanding all of those changes, such as how to optimize a Pinterest post, you’re going to be left behind.”

 

Penn often counsels small business owners to allocate some funding to hire a marketing professional, even if it’s on a part-time or contractor basis. This allows busy entrepreneurs to tap into the expertise of marketing professional who can evaluate what needs to be done to have a solid and effective online strategy.

 

Mistake #3: Staying static with your website
Not too long ago, having a website, which listed the services of your small business and included a gallery of portfolio photos and contact information, might have sufficed. But in this social media era where information is constantly streamed to the masses, that is no longer practical. If you want to reach a target demographic or get more leads, you will need to be more proactive with your online marketing.

 

“Everybody these days is a content creator,” says Sower. “The new marketing is about sharing your knowledge and expertise with the people you’re trying to attract. You can no longer have a static brochure website. You have to have some kind of blogging component where you’re able to put up timely content that will be able to attract people to your business. This will not only give you something to disseminate through social media, but it will also help your search engine optimization because the search engines are always looking for sites that are being updated on a constant basis.”

 

Mistake #4: Not properly evaluating your online marketing needs
Believe it or not, not every small business needs online marketing. “It is fashionable, yes,” says Helena Zakmane, a marketing professional whose broad range of experience includes running her own small consulting firm as well as working for international companies. “But by no means is it necessary for everyone.”

 

For instance, Zakmane recalls advising a client—an apartment cleaning business—to forgo social media outreach in favor of direct mail in their city. “Not having a sufficient advertising budget made it practically impossible for them to reach their audience via social media channels,” explains Zakmane. “It's also hard to imagine someone following a cleaning company’s Facebook page.” 

The lesson learned: take a good look at the business you’re in before committing funds to an online marketing campaign. Just because many businesses are doing it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s right for you.

Whether it’s to increase sales or elevate your company’s profile in a saturated marketplace, including online marketing in an advertising campaign can be an effective and efficient strategy to reach new and existing customers.

© Copyright 2014 Bank of America Corporation.

5 Brilliant Ways to Use #Hashtags in Social Media Marketing by Uri Bar-Joseph

I was watching the Super Bowl (#GoHawks) when my wife asked me about hashtags. Granted, I was writing down every hashtag that came up on the screen for an analysis I did later that night, but her question surprised me.

"What do you mean 'what is this?' It's a hashtag." I said, amazed by my wife's unfamiliarity with the topic (#DoYouLiveUderARock). "You use it to tag your tweets or other social media posts."

Now, my wife's social media activity revolves around reading other people's updates on Facebook and Instagram, so I wasn't mad or anything, just disappointed when she asked me "Why would you want to tag your posts?"

To be fair, it wasn't always that obvious that hashtags will change the way we use Twitter and other social media channels.

Hashtags were a user-innovation that was later adopted by Twitter as an actual feature when Twitter decided to hyperlink hashtags to search results. The rest of the socialsphere followed in its own pace, and Facebook, my wife's go-to social destination, only recently decided to give in and add hashtags as a feature. It's no surprise that for the masses over the age of 30, hashtags are still a novelty.

So whether you're in that group, or just want a short social history lessons, here's the brief history of hashtags. Then we'll look at a few recent examples of brilliant marketing uses of hashtags.

A Brief History of Hashtags

There seems to be a consensus on the origin of hashtags and most people attribute the proposal to use hashtags in tweets to Chris Messina, through a tweet dating back to August 23, 2007.

But the first time a hashtag was used extensively as a way to categorize tweets and was adopted by the public was during the San Diego fire on October 23, 2007, when Nate Ritter used Twitter to report on the fire and included the hashtag #sandiegofire.

On July 2, 2009, Twitter officially embraced hashtags and hyperlinked them to search results. Tumblr was one of the early adopters of hashtags when it launched hashtags on August 18, 2009. A few months later, on March 30, 2010, in another homepage redesign, Twitter moved Trending Topics to its homepage, formalizing hashtags as a conversation driver on Twitter.
As Twitter users adopted hashtags as a normal part of the Twitter conversation, in a typical fashion to Twitter, hashtags stared in popular culture like TV shows, celebrities' promotions and mainstream media.

The pop-culture adoption of hashtags helped push hashtags into other social networks. Instagram adopted hashtags on January 27, 2011, Flickr added hashtags on March 17, 2013 and Facebook finally broke and adopted hashtags on June 12, 2013.

Hashtags Adopted as a Marketing Tactic

An analysis of the Interbrand 100 list (the world's top 100 brands) and their activity on Twitter, reveals that the world's top brands have adopted the use of hashtags almost completely. In Q4 of last year, 97 percent of the brands posted at least one tweet that included a hashtag. Out of the 34,707 regular tweets (tweets that don't include an @ reply or a retweet) that the Interbrand 100 companies posted, 45 percent included at least one hashtag and more than 67 percent included one or more hashtags.

1. Drive Engagement: # + Link = More Engagement

These companies have realized that hashtags help drive engagement. When compared to Tweets without a hashtag, tweets with hashtags showed 12 percent more engagement (RT, favorite or @ reply). Tweets that included a link anda hashtag, showed the highest engagement rate of any other type of tweet.

2. Test Your Messaging: #SOTU

During the last State of the Union address (#SOTU), the White House media team prepared content and tested 26 different hashtags.

1. #SOTU
2. #StateOfTheUnion
3. #OutOfManyWeAreOne
4. #OpportunityForAll
5. #CollegeOpportunity
6. #MadeInAmerica
7. #ActOnClimate
8. #ActForOurVets
9. #RebuildAmerica
10. #ActOnJobs
11. #InvestInSTEM
12. #ActOnCIR
13. #ActOnUI
14. #ActOnPreK
15. #ConnectED
16. #EqualPay
17. #RaiseTheWage
18. #ActOnTenTen
19. #GetCovered
20. #ACA
21. #PeopleOverPolitics
22. #RightToVote
23. #ActForOurKids
24. #SaluteOurTroops
25. #Iran
26. #TeamUSA
27. #ActForOurTroops
28. #SOTUChat

The next day (January 29) the White House focused on only seven of these hashtags and the vast majority of its tweets promoted the top three hashtags:

1. #OpportunityForAll
2. #RaiseTheWage
3. #EqualPay
4. #ActOnJobs
5. #ActOnTenTen
6. #CollegeOpportunity
7. #MadeInAmerica

They did so because those hashtags resonated the best with audience on Twitter.


As evident by these charts, the White House team used Twitter to test the messages in the president's speech and the following day applied their lessons to emphasize and reinforce the ones that stuck.
The #SOTU campaign is a master class in digital media campaign management, and this was one of the best lessons from it.

3. Tie Activity Across Multiple Channels: #SB48

During #SB48, ads included more hashtags than any other social signal including Twitter handles and Facebook account names. Brands used hashtags because of their cross-channel nature.
Since most social media channels adopted hashtags as an identifier, brands can now run cross-channel campaigns with one common identifier, virtually making hashtags the global connector of the social web.

4. Create a Story: #esurancesave30

Following the Super Bowl, Esurance ran an ad promoting the hashtag #esurancesave30. Within minutes, the hashtag got tens of thousands of mentions and within an hour it racked over 1.4 million mentions. With a simple, albeit expensive, campaign, Esurance created a story that was featured the next day on media outlets, blogs, and last Wednesday on TV.

The hashtag brought to Esurance more than just attention, it gave them a list of people who actually engaged with their story and brand.

In the minutes following the ad, the Esurance Twitter account added more than 40,000 followers, more than doubling its followers in a matter of minutes. And in the days following the ad, the account added more than 250,000 followers, almost 10 times it's audience size prior to the ad airing.

5. Track Results: #Whosgonnawin

Leading to the Super Bowl, the NFL and Verizon created a campaign to allow fans to vote on who they think is going to win the Super Bowl. By tweeting the team's name with the hashtag #WhosGonnaWin fans voted for their favorite team.

Verizon and the NFL created a special website to track the results in real time http://www.whosgonnawin.com/ every day a new question was posted and fans voted using Twitter. By the end of the day, the team with the most mentions got to light up the Empire State Building.

Summary

Hashtags have become more than just a way to categorize posts or add a narrative to your updates. Marketers have found new, innovative ways to use hashtags as a mean to drive conversation, harness the public support, and garner attention to their brands.

Courtesy of Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC.

Need help with Managing YOUR Social Media Campaign?
Contact us and visit: http://www.janetpennconsulting.com/social_mediamarketing.html

Building an Email List From Scratch by John W Hayes

The money might well be in your list, but what if you haven’t got one?

Well, then it’s time to start building.

I recently helped a client build a list from zero to 2,000+ in just under a week. And guess what? The list is already driving leads and will soon be driving revenue.

So how did we do it?

A Great Offer: It all starts with a great offer. In this case, it was incredibly useful content that demanded attention. Not only did the client offer great content providing real value (do your white papers always do this?), we backed it up with a really cool competition. The prize might have cost a fair bit of money – but it couldn’t be ignored.

List Rental: This is not to be confused with purchasing a list (remember, we don’t like that). List rental is when you pay another organisation (normally a magazine publisher or a blog) to send a campaign on your behalf. Renting lists can be expensive – so you better make sure you convert as many opens and clicks to your own list as possible. This means having a great email, a great landing page and a great offer.

Social Media: Next, we hit Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn – hard. We didn’t just broadcast. We encouraged debate, asked questions and pointed people back to our really great landing page, complete with great offer and cool competition (see points #1 and #2).

PR: We put the message out there via PRWeb (part of the Vocus family), which generated a ton of buzz on social media and helped generate press coverage for our content and our giveaway. We also phoned or emailed every blog writer and journalist we had a personal relationship with to give the story wider coverage.

Blogging: The client blogged about the offer on its own site – providing additional content for its social media activity.

Asked to Share: We asked people (colleagues, clients, prospects – in fact, anyone who would listen) to share the news – and they did. In fact, the campaign went viral, and that’s when the list really started to grow.

Building a list isn’t easy and it isn’t always cheap – but the potential return can be fantastic.

If you haven’t got a list, isn’t it time you started building one today? Share your advice for list-building strategies below:

This post first appeared on the iContact Email Marketing Blog.

© Copyright 2010-2014 Business 2 Community.
Need help with Managing YOUR Email Marketing Campaign?
Contact us and visit: http://www.janetpennconsulting.com/email_marketing.html

SMToolbox: Be More Effective on Google+ with CircleCount by Steve Rayson

How effectively do you use Google+? CircleCount is on a mission to help you better understand Google+ and improve your performance on the network. This week in the Social Media Toolbox we take a look at why you should be using Google+ and how CircleCount can help you use the platform more effectively.  

 

Why Google+?

Despite a tentative start Google+ is growing in importance as a social platform. At the end of October 2013 Google reported there were 300 million monthly active “in-stream” users. These are people that see or visit the Google+ content stream. 

 

Marketers and SEO agencies have found that Google+ helps improve SEO results. Google+ posts are indexed by Google very quickly and they are treated like any other web page; hence the posts gain page rank, give page rank and appear in search results.

 

Content creators understand the importance of Google+ in terms of authorship and authority building. Google+ is the backbone of the Google eco-system, which is seen most clearly through Google authorship, wherein Google+ validates your profile and helps you gain authority. Authorship also places your Google+ profile picture next to your posts in search results.

 

Those trying to build communities are finding success with Google+ Communities and increasing interaction through plus ones, sharing, comments and Google Hangouts. According to CircleCount, there are now over 200,000 Google+ communities.

 

As a consequence, Google+ is growing in importance as a social platform. The challenge is to make sure you are using it effectively.

 

How CircleCount Can Help You

CircleCount is a free tool that helps you understand Google+ and provides you with extensive statistics on your performance and influence.

 

Circles are one of the key features of Google+. You can create circles and include people in your circles to follow them. However, you can only have a maximum of 5,000 in your circles even though you may be followed by, say, a million people. CircleCount.com tracks these Google+ circles.

 

CircleCount shows you the most active, most followed and most influential people on Google+ for pre-defined categories. These tend to be the people with really large followings, and I personally think it would be more useful if you could search for influencers in more specific topic areas. However,  you can filter by region, which helps narrow your search. 

 

CircleCount provides a wide range of extensive Google+ statistics, including the highest ranking profiles, pages and communities on Google+. It also shows the posts that are the most reshared and which receive the most plus ones. However, for me the real benefit is in the personal data and insights that it provides. You can add your Google+ profile (using the URL of your Google+ profile or your custom Google+ URL) and CircleCount will track the circles you are included in. It will then provide you with detailed information about the following:

• Your profile and followers
• The performance of your posts
• Your engagement and interaction

Your profile and followers

CircleCount provides you with a detailed overview of your profile, including a chart that maps the growth in your followers. I suggest you start with the Dashboard, which gives you your ranking in your local country and globally.

 

There are also a range of useful profile statistics about your followers, sharers and communities. You can also now get statistics for your Google+ pages. One of the many features is ‘Your Follower Map,’ which provides you with a nice heatmap of where your followers are located. Mine is shown below.

Performance of your posts

CircleCount helps you assess the performance of your posts and your influence on Google+. It does this by tracking your posts and the activity they generate, such as comments, plus ones and reshares.

I like the grid report it provides, which gives you a clear visual picture of the performance of your posts (see below). The red bar shows no activity, such as no plus ones, no comments, etc. You can easily re-sort the table by column for a more detailed analysis.

Engagement and interaction

CircleCount shows who has shared circles that include you, who is following you, and who is sharing your posts. This enables you to reach out to people that already like and share your content.

CircleCount also provides useful charts showing when people engage with your posts. By reviewing these charts you can schedule your posts at a time when you are likely to gain more engagement.

How well did you use Google+ in 2013?

CircleCount introduced a nice new feature for the new year, which is your own profile infographic called “Your 2013." Click this option and you will get a complete summary of your activity in 2013, including:

• how many public posts you made
• how many plus ones they received
• how many reshares they received
• how your followers grew over the year

I suggest you start here, review your CircleCount infographic and then consider how effectively you used Google+ last year. If, like me, you need to be doing more, then CircleCount is a great tool to help you.

 

Courtesy of Social Media Today LLC

JPC does NOT rely solely on Google Analytics to provide website traffic reporting and analysis for their clients.  We use companies like CircleCount, Web-Stat and many more for FULL reporting!!
Contact us and visit: http://www.janetpennconsulting.com/website_traffic.html

Why Google+ is Big News for Online Marketers in 2014 by Megan Totka

In a marketing world filled with social media and information overload, content marketing has always been an important ingredient for success. Now, most industry experts have predicted that 2014 will be the Year of Content Marketing—and that Google+ will be essential for a strong online marketing strategy.

The search engine giant’s social network, launched in 2011, is still young compared to the other big players on the social scene. But there are already more than 340 million active monthly members on Google+, a number that’s second only to behemoth Facebook’s 1.2 billion.

Still, what makes Google+ so important for marketers in a content-driven era?

Here are three compelling reasons to integrate this platform into your 2014 online marketing strategy.

Content is for Searching—and Google Dominates Searches

The primary goal of content marketing is to increase your search engine rankings—for your website, your social media pages, and your shared content. Of course, there are other search engines besides Google, but there’s a reason “Googling” has become the most popular way to say “searching for something online.” According to the latest comScore data, Google holds 66.7% of the search engine market share. Microsoft’s Bing, the second-place search engine, doesn’t even come close with 18.1% of the market.

While Google doesn’t outright confirm this, it’s clear that content on Google+ is viewed favorably by its parent search engine. Active Google+ users enjoy higher rankings on the biggest search engine in the world.

Local SEO + Mobile Search = More Business

Some social networks have been late to the party with this feature, but Google+ has always offered a strong local component since the rollout of the network. Business pages on Google+ have evolved from the initial Google Places to the integrated Google+ Local, which provides plenty of helpful features for businesses.

Perhaps more importantly, these pages tend to rank high in local search terms—an essential consideration for mobile search since Google dominates even more than browser-based search with over 90% market share. And mobile search not only brings people to your business, it keeps them there: Search Engine Watch reports that 82% of shoppers use mobile phones to help them make in-store decisions.

Google+ Gives Your Content More Authority

When it comes to content marketing, it’s important that your potential customers view you as a trusted source. With Google+, you can lend your content more authority through Google Authorship.

The Google Authorship program lets you link content you publish anywhere on the web to your Google+ profile. This not only enables easier sharing, so your content gains more traction—it also heightens your visibility. Content that’s published using Google Authorship shows up on Google search results alongside your photo and bio from Google+, making your results instantly noticeable and boosting your authority.

Courtesy of B2B Community

25 Outreach Tools That Can Take Your Business to New Heights by Helen Nesterenko

Do you think a solid content marketing strategy exempts your brand from needing to do outreach? Sorry, but it doesn’t. Check out these 25 awesome outreach tools for your smash business strategy. We’re living in an era of content saturation. Over 2 million blog posts are published each day. Research by Technorati has found that digital influencers are quickly outpacing traditional media in terms of ability to win consumer trust. The world’s best-known bloggers have the ability to make or break their brand’s reputation with a simple Tweet to their massive audience. Perhaps most notable is the fact that blogs fall just behind retail websites in likelihood to influence purchase decisions.

Traditional PR just isn’t as effective as it used to be. It’s time to discard traditional outreach tools and tactics, and focus on connecting directly with digital influencers!

To learn more about this concept, we recommend Why Digital Influencers Can Explode Your Company’s Bottom Line.

Outreach isn’t just important–it’s crucial for brands who hope to expand their audience, develop credibility, and gain notice in a crowded online world. To streamline your entry into this practice, we’ve reviewed 25 of the most powerful outreach tools:

1. GroupHigh

This product is the secret behind the viral content of many notable brands, including Home Depot, GoDaddy, and Groupon. The software acts as a one-stop shop for digital influencer outreach, allowing content marketers to quickly identify, contact, and manage communications with thought leaders.

2. InkyBee

Designed especially for agencies and PR Pros, InkyBee is a product for managing your influencer outreach and communications – with the added benefit of visually rich, easy-to-consume reporting.

3. BuzzStream

This product is robust enough to handle and track social media outreach at major enterprises, thanks to its unique feature of collaborative list-creation and maintenance. Even large outreach teams can communicate remotely with prospects, customers, and influencers thanks to its organized interface.

4. Blogger LinkUp

This free service sends emails on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays featuring guest content requests and offers, products for review, and interview opportunities. Membership allows you to both subscribe and submit requests to other content marketers.

5. BlogDash

This company’s stellar outreach tools help connect brands and bloggers. Users are able to perform detailed searches on content marketers, using qualifications like reach, categories, and demographics.

6. Boomerang

Persistence can be key, which is why outreach tools that remind you to follow-up are important. Boomerang allows Gmail users to schedule outreach, and reminds you if it’s time to follow-up on a message.

7. Mention

If you’re starting to outgrow Google alerts, it may be time to invest in Mention – a tool which allows real-time monitoring of any keyword, from industry terms to your brand’s name.

8. Signals

Gmail, Salesforce, and Outlook users can closely monitor their outreach with Signals, an app that informs you minute-to-minute when your emails are opened, read, and forwarded.

9. Klout

It’s hard to define Klout – is it a social network? Or is it better categorized as outreach tools? Regardless, it’s the world’s leading measure of the digital influence and reach of people and brands.

10. Haro

With a tagline of “free publicity,” Haro is a free subscription service that features interview requests and media opportunities from entities as big as the Associated Press and ABC News. Submit your own request, or keep close tabs on their thrice-daily emails for publicity opportunities.

11. Alltop

Founded by social luminary Guy Kawasaki, Alltop is among the world’s largest content repositories. Sort by category to connect with well-known blogs in your niche, or syndicate your own work for daily republication.

12. MyBlogGuest

Notable SEO blogger Ann Smarty is the brains behind MyBlogGuest, one of the largest forums dedicated to connecting would-be guest bloggers. Threads are separated by industry, so you can easily find the right authors and requests for your brand.

13. FollowerWonk

Do you really know who’s following you on Twitter? FollowerWonk is one of the sharpest ways to analyze your social following, including the demographics and top influencers of your audience. These outreach tools also come with gorgeous visual reporting.

14. Google Alerts

If we had to select just one option from these outreach tools that every blogger needs, it would be Google Alerts. This notification service is free, easy-to-use, and takes just minutes to set up.

15. Little Bird

Brands worldwide are still learning how to leverage competitive intelligence and thought leaders for marketing, which is why Little Bird can help you stand out. The service offers rich social research and content curation capabilities.

16. Outreachr

Though these outreach tools are still in Beta, there’s no doubt this is going to be epic. Outreachr retrieves lists of invaluable contacts in response to your searches around keywords.

17. RavenSEO

This smart tool provides the best options for your outbound links for content marketing, allowing you to establish relationships through SEO efforts.

18. WordTracker

These outreach tools are a platform for ethical link exchanges – allowing you to connect with other content marketers to provide outbound links that offer a high chance of links in return.

19. Topsy

This tool is essentially a search engine for the “social web,” which provides users with the opportunity to explore social trends, viral content, and influencers.

20. All My +

This data visualization platform provides a to-the-minute overview of your personal or company’s social graph.

21. Kred

Much like Klout, Kred is a measure of digital influence, but their outreach tools offer the additional benefit of content promotion and social networking.

22. FollowUp

This platform integrates with your Salesforce or calendar to allow you to set reminders as easily as including a time and date-specific note in the BCC field of your emails.

23. Ahrefs

Ahrefs site explorer is something of a search engine for backlinks, allowing you to scope out page authority of competitor’s domains and their best-performing content.

24. OXO

Product-oriented brands can connect directly with bloggers through OXO, a service which specializes in being an intermediary for relationship-building.

25. RavenTools

It’s easy to centralize your strategy with RavenTool’s extensive list of outreach tools, which range from social monitoring to easy reporting on your paid advertising.

Courtesy of Business 2 Community