Altitude’s Weekly Round-up (September 2, 2011)

Every week I spend a considerable amount of time reading industry blogs and newsletters to keep up with all of the evolutions and revolutions in online marketing and technology. The purpose: to generate new ideas and recommendations for our clients—and for you, our faithful readers.

SEO

Search Optimization Is Still Part of Social Media Marketing

SEO isn’t dead. Honestly, it’s not. You just have to realize how to work its key principles into your efforts in social media marketing for success in both areas of online marketing. (ClickZ) August 31, 2011.

How to Train a Link Builder

Back links are an extremely important component to an effective organic SEO effort. Done correctly they can help your site climb the charts from a SERP perspective. Done incorrectly they can get your site into SEO-hell. This article was written from more of a “training someone to link build” perspective, but I see it as a valuable guide to those that want to link build themselves. (SEOmoz YOUmoz Blog) August 30, 2011.

TTips For Spying On Your PPC Competitors

Spying evokes images of stakeouts on dark streets, dumpster diving to dig up old phone records, elaborate electronic eavesdropping and bugged lampshades. In the corporate world, we prefer to use the softer, more professional reference to competitive intelligence gathering. What ever you prefer to call it, keeping track of competitors is something we all do in one way or another. We all want to know what keywords our competitors are using and how much they are paying for them. This certainly would be important data to have, but the real value of competitive intelligence comes when you can know not only what your competitors are doing right now, but what they are likely to do and when they are likely to do it. (Search Engine Land) August 22, 2011.

The seven deadly sins of PPC

According to the Catholic Church, there are seven deadly sins. They are, in effect, the root of all of the other sins. Can the same be said of PPC? There are many, many mistakes that can be made, but can they be tracked back to seven root causes? And are these causes similar to the seven cardinal sins? It’s not quite as ridiculous as it sound… (Econsultancy) August 25, 2011.

In a Race to Out-Rave, 5-Star Web Reviews Go for $5

As online retailers increasingly depend on reviews as a sales tool, an industry of fibbers and promoters has sprung up to buy and sell raves for a pittance. The boundless demand for positive reviews has made the review system an arms race of sorts. As more five-star reviews are handed out, even more five-star reviews are needed. Few want to risk being left behind. (NY Times) August 19, 2011.

Social Media

8 Ways To Avoid A B2B Social Media Marketing Failure

A recent survey by Marketing Pilgrim found that over 90% of B2B decision makers use social media somewhere in their buying process. Advertising and marketing associations are seeing marketers catching on to this trend and now social media is part of their marketing mix. In surveys by GroupM and coMscore it’s become apparent that the impact social media is having on brand search is significant, so it goes without saying that social media is now a serious part of a buyers research and a suppliers marketing activity. So why is it then that B2B companies are still finding it difficult to demonstrate results? This post helps explain why and how to avoid failing. (Business2Community) August 31, 2011.

When Even Social Customer Service Isn’t Enough

We laud social’s potential to revolutionize customer service. It gives the voice of the customer a platform. It makes big companies feel small again, gives them higher touch with the customers that matter to them. It shortens the distance between problem and resolution, hopefully, when all goes well. But you have to plan for the moment when even the most social of customer service just isn’t enough. (Brass Tack Thinking) August 29, 2011.

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Mastering LinkedIn

With more than 100 million users, LinkedIn is the most popular social network for professionals as well as one of the top social networks overall. Are you using it to its fullest potential? While Facebook, Twitter, and now Google+ have been generating the most buzz lately in the social media world, LinkedIn is a powerful platform that often gets underutilized or put on the back burner. The truth is, LinkedIn can be extremely useful — especially when you’re aware of all the little hidden tricks that don’t get nearly enough exposure as they deserve. This post contains a handy list of 20 awesome tricks you’ve likely overlooked. (Hubspot Blog) August 23, 2011.

13 Hot Facebook Marketing Tips From the Top Pros

Facebook continues to be the most powerful social network on the planet with over 750 million active users. Businesses simply cannot ignore Facebook as part of their online marketing strategy. We spoke with top marketing book authors and Facebook brand managers. Use 13 excellent tips to take your Facebook marketing to a new level from the top pros in Facebook marketing. (Vertical Measures) August 24, 2011.

Facebook Ads: 5 Tips For Success

Facebook Ads have emerged as a popular and cost-effective way to promote a small business online. According to recent research from MerchantCircle, 22 percent of small businesses have used Facebook Ads, and 65 percent say they would use Facebook Ads again, citing ease and flexibility as the top reasons to run another campaign. But not everyone enjoys success with Facebook Ads—among the one-third of users who say they wouldn’t run another campaign, nearly 70 percent say that it didn’t work to acquire new customers. With this in mind, here are five tips to ensure you’re set up for success with Facebook Ads:

The Social Timing Sweet Spot: Timing your posts for optimal results

Some of us tweet and post on Facebook almost nonstop throughout our day, while others tend to limit their posts to a few updates here and there for fear of overloading their friends and followers. As it turns out, there is an optimal time to tweet and post, as well as a favorable frequency of updating that will lead to peak results. In a recent study by award-winning social media scientist, Dan Zarella, he reveals research that determines when and how often we should be reaching out to our own audiences for maximum exposure. (The Next Web) August 22, 2011.

The Social Media Brandsphere [Infographic]

The Social Media Brandsphere is a handy tool, created by Brian Solis and Jess3, that breaks down the division of media opportunities for marketing professionals. The infographic goes beyond the standard opportunities of Paid, Owned, and Earned Media (P.O.E.M.) and includes the more recent strategies of Promoted and Shared to create a complete picture of the opportunities available to engage audiences. (Forbes) August 23, 2011.