There’s been some quality social media marketing articles this week in the run up to Christmas. Each week, I’ve been taking note of the best posts and adding them to my weekly reading list to share with you.
I’m sure you will find these resources useful and complementary. I learned a lot from reading them, so I hope they will provide you with some good food for thought.
Have a read through and let me know which social media marketing article you find the best. As you will see, my unofficial favourite is from Jesse Aaron.
In boxing, they say “styles make fights”. Well, “In blogging, styles make readership”. Hey, that’s a quote you can tweet -> just click here!
Enjoy.
1. Probably the most detailed piece I read this week comes from Abu Bashar. His paper on the effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool includes empirical research to back up his findings and an effort towards analysing the extent to which social media helps consumers in purchasing decision making.
2. There are still common myths with content marketing that people are unable to shake. Jay Baer provides an insight into the 11 biggest and sets out some definitive arguments as to why it’s “time to crush them“.
3. Siraj Wahid published an article on why new bloggers fail to drive traffic from social media marketing. It’s a solid overview of a few of the main reasons, which is always worth recapping on.
4. RSS sites are a thing I’ve never really tampered with, until reading Bill Butler‘s post about how you can use them to drive traffic to your blog. I submitted my blog to about 5 of them, but have yet to receive a single visitor. I’m not sure about driving “massive” traffic, but I’m sure some niches would benefit from it.
5. If you haven’t got knowledge of SEO, then it’s likely that you won’t understand nofollow and dofollow links. Fathi Arfaoui breaks it down nicely and lets you know when you should use nofollow blog comments.
6. Do you know about Twitter cards? Have you shared Facebook links before and noticed that an image, title and description are automatically generated with the link you share? You can do the same with Twitter… Jonathan Scheine explains two methods for using Twitter cards - easily the simplist has to be using the great (and free!) Yoast WordPress SEO plugin (if you have a WP blog that is).
7. If you can’t pursuade a decision-maker that social media marketing is valuable to them, then you’re stuck right at the first gate. Tom Martin lets you know how you can convince your boss that it is indeed a worthy channel for their business.
8. Daniel Sharkov explains how you can make your blogging and marketing workday more productive. If you’re constantly behind on your tasks and find that there just isn’t enough hours in the day, then these 4 tips might be of great benefit to you.
9. My unofficial favourite article of the week is from Jesse Aaron. A great line he picks up on when describing another popular blog is: “His articles feel like events.” I thought this concise point was really thought-provoking and should open your mind to how to make your blog more sticky or engaging.
10. Failure is part of life. Aaron Agius notes some of the most common mistakes he see’s preventing the content marketing efforts of companies from bringing in leads.
11. Having writer’s block, or being uninspired for extended periods, can be a real drain. Luckily, Lauren Mobertz shared an infographic into 5 steps to learn new ways of thinking. Perhaps it can help you overcome those moments of despair.
12. Did you know you can see your whole year in review on Facebook? Neither did I, untill I read Carolyn Nicander Mohr‘s post. To see your 20 biggest moments on Facebook, simply use this URL when logged in: https://www.facebook.com/yearinreview/
13. With the holiday approaching, I had to include a social media tips-based article on how you tailor campaigns for Christmas. Courtney Gordner‘s post fits right in. Nice.
14. Harsh Ajmera posted an interesting overview of social media facts, figures and statistics for 2013 as an infographic. The post is very popular too, so you might have seen this in your own streams.
15. Facebook has had some major changes recently. Kathi Kruse explains how you can survive the changes and maximise your Facebook marketing campaigns.
16. Marketo Blog posted an infographic that has a cool angle taken from the series The Walking Dead. As they explain, modern day marketers could learn a thing or two from the survival of the fittest approaches. The comparisons between marketing and events in the series are pretty cool - unless you haven’t seen it before…
17. One of the worst things that can happen is losing regular blog readers. Atish Ranjan outlines 10 reasons why people unsubscribe from your blog. This should give you some food for thought…
18. Jim Wang wrote a great summary piece on advice provided from 78 successful bloggers. They each share what advice they wish they knew before starting blogging. If you’re just starting out in blogging, this is a must read!
19. Amanda DiSilvestro provides a nice to-the-point recap on the years most remarkable changes at Google. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all of Google’ changes, but it’s less of a burden with articles like these.
20. Want to just get away and disappear from the Internet? Lauren Mobertz shared an infographic on how to do just that! I think this could come in handy one day…
Have I Missed Some Social Media Marketing Articles?
As always, my list above includes some of the most useful and interesting posts I’ve managed to catch in my streams each week. If I’ve missed out on a real beauty, please tell me in the comments below!
