Blogging

Everybody uses Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but which niche social media sites are worth investigating? Why is online reputation management so important? How can you maximize your results through social bookmarking sites like Digg? How does social media relate to SEO?

Learn the answers to these questions and more here in some of the best blog posts on social media marketing and optimization of 2008.

5 More Business Social Media Sites You May Not Know About by The Caffeinated Blog

In this follow-up to her original post on 5 Business Social Media Sites You May Not Know About, Kari Rippetoe reviews five more business-oriented social media sites including wiki site Smallbusiness.com and local business site Briz.

Discover Niche Social Networking by I’m Blogging That

An organized plan for maximizing traffic to your blog from social media sites, from using search and monitoring to find the most relevant niche social media sites for your blog and connecting with top users through submitting content and evaluating results.

How to Build an Impressive Social Networking Presence, Beginning with Facebook by Social Media Power

Advising businesses new to social media to avoid a scattershot approach and “choose one or two social networking sites that fit your business well and invest the time to maximize your presence in them,” Deltina Hay provides a helpful step-by-step guide to using Facebook for business.

Grab Your Profile Link Before Some Jerk Does by The Link Spiel

Echoing (and perhaps improving upon) the arguments I made about the importance of online reputation management in Don’t They Know Who You Are? Why Reputation Management is Critical, Debra Mastaler states, “Online, reputation is everything. It drives you professionally, personally and algorithmically. Have a good one and you’ll see positive returns.” She makes the case while it’s impossible to monitor every social media and networking site (plus the new ones that keep appearing), it’s nevertheless crucial to “protect your reputation by registering your known brand/name with as many social media, forums, and discussion sites as you can.”

Online Reputation Management with Video SEO by Search Marketing Standard

Grant Crowell explains why video is a powerful component of reputation management (e.g., because people are looking for it, search engines give it prominence in results, and it’s viral) then provides tips for how to effectively use it. One of his recommendations is to subscribe to TubeMogul, a free service that enables you to upload video to multiple sites and provides detailed viewership metrics.

Social Bookmarking Done Right by HubPages

In his own uniquely straightforward fashion, Chris Lang explains how social bookmarking can actually harm search engine rank if not done properly; how (and how not to) submit your site and blog posts to get SEO value from the backlinks; and why your blog is (or at least should be) at the center of all of your social marketing efforts.

How to Level the Playing-field With Digg by Skelliewag

How to game Digg to get your content onto the front page, by building and utilizing a grassroots network and selectively targeting power users. Which raises the question: is a secret still a secret if everyone knows it?

Taking time with ex-IBM search guru Mike Moran by BtoB Magazine

Carol Krol asks search marketing guru Mike Moran, now with interactive agency Converseon, about how search marketing and social media work together, asking customers to take initiative, and the challenges of b2b social media marketing.

You Can’t Separate Social Media and SEO by Conversation Marketing

The brilliant Ian Lurie explains how social media and SEO are inextricably intertwined, to the point where the work and the talent can’t be separated. “Search engine optimization, at its core, is based on relevance and authority”—and relevance and authority come from thought leadership content (e.g., blogs), community interest and links, all of which are built through social media participation. The relationship works the other way as well, as Ian points out in his inimitable fashion: “You can no longer succeed in social media without a boost from the search engines, either…In spite of my wide-ranging stardom, readership of nearly 10 people and my 3 friends, Google still drives most of my site traffic.”

Previous articles in this series:

Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 1
Best of 2008: Interactive PR, Part 1
Best of 2008: SEO Tools, Part 1
Best of 2008: Search Engine Marketing
Best of 2008: Web Analytics
Best of 2008: Email Marketing Tips
Best of 2008: SEO Keyword Tips & Tools
Best of 2008: Sales & Marketing Copywriting
Best of 2008: SEO Link Building
Best of 2008: Website Design
Best of 2008: WordPress Tools and Tips
Best of 2008: Web & SEO Copywriting
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 2

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Continued here:
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 1

In my continuing effort to clean out my bookmarks and stay ahead of the game for the Best of 2008 series in January, here are a dozen of the most linkworthy articles and posts on search engine marketing so far this year.

Google Analytics Keyword Sleuth vs Search Query Performance Report by Google Analytics Blog

Mark Curtis offers up a detailed comparison of these two helpful PPC keyword research tools. Both are free, but one is considerably faster and more thorough.

SEO and SEM Shortcuts, Spying and Stats to Dominate Google! by SiteProNews

Writer Michael Small supplies some now-slightly-out-of-date but still useful statistics on usage of the leading search engines as well as advice on tools to help improve both SEO and search marketing results.

The AdWords Content Network – Better Than Ever by PPC Discussions

Reflecting the experience of many search marketers, blogger Jeremy Mayes gives 10 reasons why the Google content network no longer sucks for advertisers. Thanks to improved quality of sites in the network, along with other factors, the content network can now provide reasonably good lead generation performance often for considerably less than the cost of search-driven conversions.

Whats the best keyword match type? by CDF Networks

Broad match, exact match, phrase match, negative match…ever wonder when to use which? This brief yet helpful post provides some answers.

Four Tricks to Gain An Unfair Advantage on AdWords by Search Marketing Standard

“Unfair advantage” may be stretching the case a bit, but author Andrey Milyan nevertheless presents four tactics that enhance your SEM results with Google AdWords.

With A/B Testing – You Don’t Think, You Know by Find Resolution

In this articulate and well-researched post, Jeff Campbell lays out a 10-step program for scientifically performing split tests to optimize campaign copy.

Why YOU fail with Google Adwords by SiteProNews

Leighton James ticks off ten common mistakes to avoid in PPC campaigns, from including too many poorly targeted keywords and failing to optimize landing pages to improperly using phrase matching options and modifying bids for the content network.

Avoid Scope Creep Money Pit SEM Jobs by aimClear Search Marketing Blog

In kind of an inside-baseball piece for search marketing agencies, Marty Weintraub shares his firm’s goals and scope document, which is designed to set clear expectations, avoid expensive scope creep and, in the end, make projects fair for both agencies and their clients.

PPC Automation: Robots vs Humans by StraightUpSearch

This post makes the case for using a real live PPC manager instead of PPC automation software. In practice, both are probably needed. Particularly for large, complex campaigns, automation software can improve efficiency and reduce total costs. But the software itself is just a tool; for best results, it needs to used in the hands of an expert search marketing professional who can use it to streamline tedious tasks while applying human judgment in areas such as optimizing ad copy and aligning SEM programs with overall marketing goals.

Pay Per Click Advertising Tip #11 – Conversion Tracking by semvironment

Okay, it’s kind of basic, but conversion tracking is essential to determining and optimizing ROI from search marketing programs. This post walks readers through the conversion tracking process on AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.

Website Visitors Read Your Copy, Right? by Search Marketing Standard

Uh, no. Kevin Gold offers a couple of examples demonstrating that ad clickers don’t read landing page copy in detail. In other words, they respond to what they think the offer is rather than what it actually is. As with all other elements of search marketing campaigns, the key is to test, test, test landing page copy to not simply maximize leads but also disqualify resource-consuming non-prospects.

PPC ads should always lead your online sales efforts by DMNews

Writer Tim Schaden makes a compelling case that PPC efforts should precede and guide SEO efforts. Because PPC produces almost immediate results—while SEO changes need weeks to take effect—it’s the ideal testing ground for the productivity of various search phrases for a particular offering. Armed with analysis from PPC testing, SEO efforts can be focused on optimizing for the most valuable terms for a specific company, product or service.

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2008 (So Far) – SEO Guidance, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) – SEO Guidance, Part 2

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technorati tags: search engine marketing, Google Analytics Blog, Mark Curtis, SiteProNews, Michael Small, PPC Discussions, Jeremy Mayes, CDF Networks, Search Marketing Standard, Andrey Milyan, Find Resolution, Jeff Campbell, Leighton James, PPC campaigns, aimClear Search Marketing Blog, Marty eintraub, StraightUpSearch, PPC automation software, semvironment, Kevin Gold, DMNews, Tim Schaden

del.icio.us tags: search engine marketing, Google Analytics Blog, Mark Curtis, SiteProNews, Michael Small, PPC Discussions, Jeremy Mayes, CDF Networks, Search Marketing Standard, Andrey Milyan, Find Resolution, Jeff Campbell, Leighton James, PPC campaigns, aimClear Search Marketing Blog, Marty eintraub, StraightUpSearch, PPC automation software, semvironment, Kevin Gold, DMNews, Tim Schaden

icerocket tags: search engine marketing, Google Analytics Blog, Mark Curtis, SiteProNews, Michael Small, PPC Discussions, Jeremy Mayes, CDF Networks, Search Marketing Standard, Andrey Milyan, Find Resolution, Jeff Campbell, Leighton James, PPC campaigns, aimClear Search Marketing Blog, Marty eintraub, StraightUpSearch, PPC automation software, semvironment, Kevin Gold, DMNews, Tim Schaden

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Here is the original:
Best of 2008 (So Far) – Search Engine Marketing, Part 1

UK-based The Content Group leads the quality standards study for Enterprise Content Management. The Content Group (CG) aims to collaborate with BSI British Standards to develop a best practice standard for ECM, which will establish a frame of reference for the entire ECM market. The final result is expected to be the first ever Publicly Available Specification (PAS) for Enterprise Content Management.

A specification for ECM…something that should have been done long ago? Is the content management industry ready for it?

Continued here:
Is the Industry Ready for an Official ECM Standard?