SEO and Social Media Marketing Blog
by Mark Murnahan, a Web GuyAre you tired of SEO and social media marketing "snake oil"? Find out how to recognize the difference in good SEO vs. bad SEO and how to reach your target market.
Social Media Popularity Addiction and Why I Quit
Filed Under: Internet marketing, marketing, Podcast, social media, social networking.
I believe the popularity addiction that many people suffer from in social media is downright pathetic. I’m going to tell you, in plain business terms, why I quit putting that drug in my bloodstream and stopped caring about appearances of popularity, having a squillion followers, or stressing about having the highest Klout score. In short, it is because those things aren’t what pays the bills, and they can even be quite destructive pursuits.
If you will look at it rationally, for just a moment, I’ll show you why the fashionable illusion of popularity fails the test of real business value. If you are ready to breathe a sigh of relief, you may want to pay attention and join me on the road to recovery.
7 Blogless Days Inspired the Question: “Why Do I Blog?”
Filed Under: blogging, Internet marketing, marketing, Podcast, SEO Factors, social media.
My optional title was “Why Do We Blog? (or Not): A Question Every Business Should Ask”. I just thought I’d share that upfront. I have some thoughts on blogging, and since it’s been a week since I blogged, it is a biggie. No worries, though, because if your eyes are too tired to read, you can click the play button for the audio version.
I write a lot. I write somewhere upwards of 2,500 words per day. It varies widely, but to say that I spend a lot of time with a keyboard is an understatement. I once went totally off my rocker and wrote three books in three months, along with blogging “on the side”. It was a good lesson in insanity.
As I recently took a seven day break from blogging, a question that has been rattling through my head is “Why do I blog?” The question is not on my mind because I don’t want to do it, although that happens, too. The question is more a matter of focus and purpose. If I know why I am doing it, the purpose is enhanced, and the message becomes clearer. Just like any other business effort, there should be a good reason for it. Periodically asking the question of why I blog keeps things making sense. Similarly, I think every business should ask this question of why they do, or do not blog.
Balancing SEO Practicality and Social Media Popularity
Filed Under: Internet marketing, marketing, Podcast, SEO Factors, social media.
There must be a squillion discussions of SEO versus social media out there on this vast Internet. Many of them are promoting one approach to website marketing, and suggesting that one is more important than the other. What often keeps them at odds is the perspective of the author, but let’s examine the truth of just how much they work in synergy.
A biased “this versus that” view of SEO and social media will often downplay the things that hold these two subjects together inseparably. Each can be used with practicality, and each can be used to create popularity, but let’s take a closer look at their respective roles. I want to use plain and simple logic to suggest ways to balance the two for the benefit of your business.
Google Acquires Fridge, PittPatt, and PostRank, But What Does it Mean?
Filed Under: blogging, Business in General, Google, Podcast, SEO Tools, social media.
Google acquires many companies, but do you ever notice which ones, and do you ever speculate on why Google wants these start-up companies? I think it makes for some great water cooler gossip, but I also think it begins to form a picture of where our Internet is, and where it is moving.
Some of the recent Google acquisitions have been Fridge, which has a focus on security in social sharing, and PittPatt (Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition), a facial recognition developer. With only minimal creativity, one can imagine how these could each be useful to Google. I am confident that we will see influence from these technologies as Google continues to enhance the Google+ platform and other Google products.
Klout: Online Influence Measurement … Like it or Not!
Filed Under: Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, marketing, Podcast, reputation management, social media, Twitter.
Klout is a social measurement tool that places a numeric value on a person’s influence within their social media circles. The service currently pulls data from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare for their influence calculations, but plans to add Google+, YouTube, Facebook Pages, and others for a total of 20 networks by the end of 2011.
On the surface, it may sound positively impersonal, and even a bit absurd to make judgments based on a number, but is it really? We’ve been doing it for many years with credit scores. I don’t think it is a good idea to become obsessed about statistics such as these, but I do believe it is valuable to be aware.
You can find a lot of useful information about SEO and social media marketing in my blog archive. If you do not find what you are looking for, let me know and maybe I will write about it.
Subscribe and Connect
Recent Marketing Articles
- Who Googles Your Name? Here’s Why You Should Care
- Five Years Later – What Happened, and What’s Next?
- Job Recruiting and Social Media: Is Social Recruiting Really as Advertised?
- Pink Slime, Politics, and Marketing: Should You Doubt What You Read?
- Stop Fighting With Time and Build a Better Marketing Plan
- Fire Your SEO: Here is Why and How
- Correlative Affects of Branding and 100 Pounds of Free Bacon