We’ve covered this pretty extensively on this blog before, but it bears repeating – good digital marketing isn’t something that just “happens.”

Publishing good content to your company’s blog requires research and editing.

Proper social media marketing takes a regular commitment of time.

Even the outreach needed to connect with other websites and develop traction for your brand isn’t something that happens overnight.

Simply put, if you want your website to perform at its absolute best, you need to commit time and resources to implementing proper digital marketing strategies.  And when it comes to allocating these responsibilities within your organization, you have two choices.  You can either divvy up tasks and pile them onto the plates of your existing workers or you can hire a community manager to handle the entire process.

At first, the thought of hiring an entirely new employee just to manage your blog and social profiles might seem like overkill.  After all, is it really necessary to take on this extra expense when there are so many other places you could be spending your money?

Before we come up with a definitive answer to this question, let’s take a look at exactly what a community manager can do for you:

A community manager can write your blog posts

We all know that, for business blogging to be successful, it needs to be consistent.  A regular editorial schedule keeps readers engaged with your brand and reminds them to come back to your site again and again for new content.  But unfortunately, if you add the task of blog post creation to an employee who’s already burdened with other responsibilities, you run the risk of missing these important publishing deadlines.

A community manager – on the other hand – can take responsibility for blog posting through the following tasks:

• Researching industry trends and past website performance to optimize future post topics for traffic generation
• Writing high quality posts on a variety of interesting subjects, including industry news updates, product tutorials and “inner looks” at your company’s office culture
• Sourcing images for posts, creating internal links and uploading the posts to your company’s website
• Responding to reader comments to boost engagement with your most dedicated followers

Essentially, a community manager can take your company’s blog from being a digital “ghost town” to the type of thriving destination you always dreamed it could be – without impacting the workload of your current employees.

A community manager can follow up with social contacts

Beyond creating high quality blog post content, a community manager can ensure that the value of your posts is disseminated appropriately to your company’s social profiles.  This can be done through a number of social-specific tasks, including:

• Publicizing new blog posts as they go live
• Publishing other profile updates that prompt follower engagement and brand loyalty
• Responding immediately to any comments, questions or complaints that are left for your business
• Curating content from other social sources in order to increase your brand’s perceived authority

All of these tasks are an important part of social media marketing, but they often get overlooked when employees get busy.  Instead of fully engaging with members of your audience, employees who aren’t entirely committed to your digital marketing plan may post social profile updates once and call it a day.  While this strategy is certainly better than nothing, it isn’t able to address the broad range of follower interaction that occur in the same way that a dedicated community manager can.

A community manager can forge connections with other business owners

Finally, good community managers aren’t just active on your company’s website.  They’re also reaching out to others in your industry in order to arrange promotional opportunities.  Tasks in this realm may include:

• Organizing guest post exchanges with related websites
• Setting up joint venture sales partnerships with other business owners
• Forming the relationships needed to get industry authority figures to share your site’s content
• Conducting training sessions that grow your audience

When taken together, the economic impact of a good community manager can be substantial.  And it’s certainly true that all of these tasks together represent enough work to keep one full-time employee busy.  But the power of a community manager comes from more than just taking work off of other employees’ desks.

When you distribute tasks piecemeal throughout your organization, you wind up with a marketing effort that appears disjointed.  Blog posts may be written in a completely different tone than your social profile updates, leading to cognitive dissonance in the minds of your followers.  At the same time, important deadlines might be missed when there’s no single leader overseeing everything – resulting in the inconsistencies that can frustrate your readers.

Hopefully, by now, you’re convinced that bringing on a community manager would be a good decision for your business – no matter how large your company is.  But what if you simply don’t have the budget to hire a new full-time employee?  Never fear!  The following strategies can help you to take advantage of the power of community managers without breaking your budget:

Hire a community management intern

The dearth of jobs for recent college graduates has made the employment market more competitive than ever.  As a result, plenty of current or former students are willing to take on unpaid internships in order to improve their resumes and get their feet in the door with good companies.

To find an unpaid intern to hire your community management work, contact your local colleges and ask to post a listing on their job boards.  Interview candidates just as you would regular employees and share your expectations with the new community manager you hire.  Who knows?  If your intern is good enough, you could eventually hire him or her on full-time in the future!

Bring on a part-time employee

If you’d rather go the more traditional route, you can always hire on a regular part-time employee to manage your brand’s web presence.  Not only will this save you on salary expenses, you’ll avoid having to pay for benefits as well.

Free up internal employees for community management

As a final alternative, you can always assess your internal resources to see if any of your current staff members have the time and inclination to handle your community management.  To take this approach, ask employees to look for ways to improve their efficiency or if they’re currently involved in unnecessary projects.  If you can free up just 5-10 hours a week of one employee’s time, that could be enough to start experimenting with proper community management.

Unfortunately, your business can’t afford to ignore the power of a well-organized, well-optimized digital marketing strategy.  Today’s consumers expect to be able to interact directly with their favorite brands.  As a result, failing to cater to your potential customers in this way can cause you to miss out on a significant number of sales.

For this reason, we have every reason to expect that community managers will soon become as integral a part of any corporate team as accountants or salespeople.  Get on board with this trend today and see what a difference a good community manager can make to your business’s success!

I get it – you’re busy.  Whether you’re a small business owner, a marketing representative for a larger company or anybody else who’s thinking about taking on the responsibility for a corporate blog, your to-do list is already packed pretty tight.

So why should you even think about adding something else to your calendar?

In fact, business blogging offers a ton of different advantages, including all of the following:

• Business blogging can help you to form relationships with new website visitors.  Instead of being greeted by a static, “billboard” like page, new readers can connect with the casual tone of your blog posts – forging connections that can result in increased revenue without the need for a hard sell.
• Business blogging deepens the relationships you have with your current customers.  When you post good content regularly, these visitors will come back again and again, leading to recurring sales without a ton of extra effort on your part.
• Business blogging gets new people to your website by improving your rankings in the natural search results.  Because SEO places a premium on good quality content that’s updated regularly, running a business blog is an easy way to appease both the search engines’ indexing programs and your regular readers.

Sounds great, right?  If you’re ready to take advantage of all these different benefits for your own company, read on to find out how to get started with business blogging:

What does good business blogging look like?

When you take a look at all the different benefits that business blogging can provide, it’s easy to get excited.  More visitors streaming into your blog?  Increased revenue from the customers you’ve already connected with?  Sign me up, right?

Although business blogging can be a powerful strategy for promoting and growing your business website, it’s important to remember that it requires time and commitment to do well – just like any other marketing technique.

There’s a big difference between good business blogging and bad business blogging.  Let’s take a look at how the two differ:

Bob the bad business blogger knows how important his blog is, but can never seem to find the time in his day to commit to it.  He drops in once a month and writes a quick update that he publishes right away.  Because he releases so few posts, he makes them as sales-oriented as possible, believing that this will help him to squeeze as much revenue as possible out of the few people who do stop by.  Once this is done, Bob abandons his site until the next month – never checking back to respond to post comments or to promote his content on social sites.

Greg the good business blogger takes a different approach.  Greg knows that consistency is key when it comes to business blogging.  For this reason, he’s created a publishing calendar that involves releasing two 1,000+ word posts each week that touch on a variety of fun and engaging topics.  Greg is active in his community, getting into great discussions with the readers who comment on his posts and carrying the conversations over to his company’s social profiles whenever possible.

Is the “Goofus and Gallant” format of the examples above a little cheesy?  Sure – but it should highlight how much variability there can be in business blogging practices.

Obviously, Greg is going to get better results than Bob, whether he’s attempting to attract new customers, bond further with past buyers or improve his search engine rankings.  If you’re going to model your own business blogging approach after anyone, do your best to be like Greg!

What should you write about?

To improve the results you’re able to achieve through business blogging, one of the most important things you can do is to set and stick with a publishing calendar.  At the very least, you should be posting to your website once or twice a week.  If you’re able to post more frequently, that’s great – but don’t risk burning out your company’s resources by trying to stick to an unreasonable schedule.

So what should you be writing about in your posts?  The following post formats should give you a place to get started:

• Informative content – The cornerstone of any good business blog is the “evergreen” content that provides informative insight into topics that will always be relevant to your audience.  As an example, if you run a website that sells bicycle parts, an educational tutorial on choosing between different bike styles will serve your readers well.
• “Linkbait” posts – Linkbait posts are designed to gather page views or backlinks (or both).  Typical linkbait post structures include list posts (for example, “17 Ways to Save Big on Bike Parts”) or posts that take a controversial viewpoint (as in, “Why You Shouldn’t Buy XX Brand Bikes”).
• Commentary on industry news – Offering your own two cents on issues that are affecting your industry helps to build your perceived authority amongst your readers and can also play a vital role in helping your blog appeal to the search engines (which value “fresh” news-related content).
• Inside looks at office life – Website visitors love to see what’s going on behind the curtains of your company.  Fun posts that showcase your company’s office culture in words, pictures or videos can help to differentiate your brand from others in their minds.
• Promotional content – While sales posts shouldn’t represent the bulk of your blog’s updates, tossing in a promotional piece every now and again can help direct readers to products they weren’t previously aware of.

If the thought of writing all of these posts sounds overwhelming, consider adding other media formats to your business blog.  Posts that feature images, infographics, instructographics, video clips or downloadable files appeal to readers and can help break up the monotony of a regular publishing calendar.

How to get more out of your business blog

If you paid attention to the Bob and Greg examples above, you should have noticed that Greg the good business blogger didn’t just publish posts – he actively engaged with his community as well.

Realistically, your blog should only be the starting point in the conversations you’re able to have with your readers.  A blog post represents your viewpoints alone, but when you start to engage with the people who visit your site, you’ll find that you’re able to form even more meaningful relationships with the people who will go on to become your customers.  At the same time, monitoring reader feedback to your posts can result in incredible market research knowledge that can inform your future blogging efforts and other business needs.

As a result, it’s not enough to simply publish posts and go on with your day.  Effective business blogging involves all of the following activities as well:

• Approving and responding to comments
• Sharing your posts on your social profiles
• Engaging with readers who respond to your social profile updates

Yes, tying all of these things together requires both time and resources.  If you aren’t a strong writer or if you don’t have time to promote your content on social sites, you may need to pull others in your company into your blogging strategy or to outsource these tasks to remote workers.

Just don’t let the excuse of a lack of time or resources prevent you from getting started with business blogging.  The results of this strategy can be tremendously powerful – as long as you commit to doing things right!

The word on the street is that a new Google Penguin update will be rolling out within the next few weeks – and by all indications, the impact of this particular refresh could be huge.

Matt Cutts – the head of Google’s Web Spam team – recently confirmed the forthcoming Penguin release on Twitter, in response to a question regarding whether or not a new update had already occurred:

As to the update’s scale, a May 13^th, 2013 video released by Cutts explained that update “will go deeper and have more of an impact than the first version of the Penguin update.”  Considering that the initial Penguin rollout affected a full 3.1% of search queries and took down heavy-hitting websites like Merchant Circle and Similar Sites, that’s no small promise!

Given that the target of past Penguin updates has devaluing spam links, it’s worth considering that the new data that Google has generated through the number of manual resubmission requests they’ve received and submissions to the Disavow Links tool will lead to much more sophisticated spam link detection algorithms.

For this reason, it’s time for a new link building mindset.  The writing has been on the wall for some time, but since Google has given an unusual amount of advance notice on this update, it’s up to you to make the changes necessary to your link building methodology to keep your site safe in the future.

Here’s what the ideal link building mindset should look like going forward:

The new link building mindset is NATURAL

In an ideal world, every single link pointing to your website would originate from a natural source – that is, another site simply loves your content so much that it’s compelled to share your pages as a resource.

Of course, we don’t live in this perfect world, and waiting for your site to generate links through natural means could delay the SEO process significantly enough to affect your site’s ability to survive financially.

But that said, there’s a big difference between link building methods like guest posting (which approximate the natural link building process) and others that generate links that have clearly only been created for SEO purposes (as in the case of automated profile link submission systems).

Guess which one you should be focusing on??

As you approach the link building process in the future, your primary thought should be whether or not the backlink you’re creating is one that could also exist naturally.  Adding your link to your member profile within the directory of a professional organization you’re already a part of, for example, represents a perfectly natural way to leverage the link building opportunities you’ve always had access to.  Posting content to blog networks designed solely for SEO purposes, on the other hand, is not.

The new link building mindset is about TRUST

The concept of “good neighborhoods versus bad neighborhoods” isn’t exactly a new one when it comes to link building.  But given the amount of new data Google’s been able to amass recently, it’s an important concept to revisit pre-Penguin 2.0.

Simon Penson, writing for Search Engine Watch, explains how the concept of “link trust” could influence future backlink valuation changes:

“In my view Google uses its Hilltop algorithm, which identifies so-called “expert documents” (websites) across the web, which are seen as shining beacons of trust and delight! The closer your site is to those documents the better the neighborhood. It’s a little like living on the “right” road.”

Not only will building up links from trustworthy sites help to protect your site from negative impacts in future algorithm changes, it could also give your site the wiggle room needed to account for any spam links or other low value connections you’ve made in the past.

Our recommendation here should be pretty obvious: if you haven’t already done so, start to dedicate your link building effort to securing backlinks from high value, trustworthy sites.

The new link building mindset is SOCIAL

Quick question…  What’s one of the fastest ways to generate new backlinks if you aren’t able to use spam tools and other automated programs?

The answer is social networking websites.

Social media marketing is an important promotional tool for a number of different reasons, but it’s also a great way to acquire natural links quickly.  However, it’s – again – important to note that not all social media activities will provide the same type of value when it comes to backlink creation.

According to Single Grain partner, Neil Patel, writing on his Quick Sprout blog:

“You already know search engines look at social signals to help determine the ranking of a website, but after Penguin 2.0 I think they will focus less on the social count, but more on who is sharing it. If someone with a powerful network of 200 influential (and real) people shares your post, that will carry more weight in Google’s algorithm than a share by someone with a network of 2,000 bots and spam purveyors. If it doesn’t now it soon will.”

When it comes to social link creation, the best things you can do to protect your website from search engine algorithm updates like Penguin 2.0 is to focus on creating good content and disseminating it amongst influential users in your industry with whom you’ve already established relationships.  Yes, this will take more time than simply spamming out links to bot accounts, but it’ll be worth it in the long run.

The new link building mindset is FREE

Last up, if you’re paying for links, it’s time to stop.

Google has been pretty clear in the past about its stance on paid links – namely, that if you pay for a link, it shouldn’t be passing link juice on to your site.  However, there are plenty of paid link building scenarios that haven’t yet been subjected to this “black and white” type of scrutiny.

As an example, if you pay a Fiverr outsourcer to post your link to 100 different websites, you’ve technically paid for those links – even if your arrangement isn’t as direct as a paid advertorial or other direct link placement.

Whether or not Google is able to devalue these types of grey hat paid links in the forthcoming Penguin 2.0 update doesn’t really matter.  Because these links clearly don’t meet the other criteria described above (as they aren’t natural, trustworthy or truly social in nature), it’s still best to rid them from your backlink building toolbox to protect yourself against future changes.

There are hundreds of different ways to create legitimate backlinks that adhere to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines while still providing a substantial SEO benefit to your site.  So stop wasting your time on techniques that could get your site penalized in the future.  Adjust to the new link building mindset now to keep your site, its traffic and your income safe for the long run.

This person should be a strong writer with excellent communication skills. They can handle and prioritize a diverse workload to meet any and all deadlines and are quick on their feet when it comes to sudden changes in plans.

This person should be passionate about the world of digital marketing/content creation and should have a basic understanding of the current trends and technologies in the industry, i.e.blogging, infographics, motion graphics, viral content, ebooks/whitepapers, and anything and everything else that exists in the digital world.

Bonus points:

• Skills and understanding of graphic design.

• Understanding of WordPress

• Regular Blogger.

• Experience in PR, promotions, and outreach.

• Proofreader extraordinaire.

• Social media user (more points if you are an influencer)

If this sounds like you, and you’re not shaking in your boots, email your resumé and any other interesting and relevant links to mike@singlegrain.com.

Did you know that interesting content is one of the top 3 reasons why people follow brands on social media? In fact, according to content+, 6 in 10 Twitter or Facebook users are more likely to recommend a brand they follow to their family and friends. If this is anything to go by, it isn’t hard to see why content marketing is all the rage nowadays.

However, there is a right way to do it and a wrong way and in this article I will be highlighting 6 of the most common content marketing mistakes that even the pros make.

So let’s jump right into to it.

1. Trying to do everything by yourself

If anything, this should be considered a cardinal sin. Too many people try to do everything by themselves. There is a reason why Seth Godin, Brian Clark and Darren Rowse attract such huge followings – they focus all their energies on doing what they know how to do best – blogging.

Yes it is true that they might have the resources at their expense to allow them to focus on one particular area of their business, however, it is important to remember that everyone starts from somewhere.

A few short years ago, the pros were exactly where many of us find ourselves today and believe it or not, they had to learn the hard way that trying to be a one man show is the fastest way to failure.

They were wise enough to lay out a strategy that allowed them to focus more on their strengths rather than their weaknesses. The same should apply to you. Don’t wear yourself out trying to figure out every little trick that will get you tons of traffic at the expense of the value of your content.

Remember, it’s easy to get thousands of eyeballs viewing your content; however, it is a different story to convert them. So focus on your strengths. Content marketing isn’t effective without the content right?

2. Lack of an audience outreach plan

I have found that one of the main reasons why many content marketing/seo “experts” rarely achieve any success with their campaigns is because they don’t even know who their audience is.

They take the “one shoe fits all” approach to their campaigns and wonder why things aren’t working. In essence, this can only be likened to starting a journey without having a clear destination in mind.

Your audience is the most important part of your business and if you can’t successfully meet their needs, they will find someone who can. In order to stop your customers from walking out on you, you have to know who they are, understand what their problems are and find a way to solve them.

Once you know who your audience is, then you can devise ways to appeal to them. A few good methods would include:

• Offering them valuable free stuff like reports, manuals and video series that teach ways of solving their problems.
• Empathizing with them. Show that you care and that you are the right person who can help them with their problem. Jon Morrow explains this best in his post.

3. No follow up plan

Experts say it takes 7 exposures from the time a new lead lands on your content to the time they actually buy from you. This period in internet marketing circles is referred to as the warming up of your prospects cycle.

What’s surprising is the fact that a lot of people ignore this aspect of content marketing because it means work. Let’s be honest, we are all lazy and the thought of rolling up our sleeves and getting down to work is not the picture of success we were sold.

The reality however is that if you are going to be successful, you must be willing to put in the effort.

So though it might take you a couple of hours, may be even a few days to set up your whole follow up campaign, once it’s done it’s done. Remember, people become experts and pros because they are willing to do what they don’t like to do and what is necessary for them to do because they know the pay off is bigger.

So once your audience is interested in what you have to offer, make sure you employ strategies that will not only keep them as leads, but that will turn them into hot prospects.

4. Not measuring your statistics

The truth of the matter is that numbers are boring especially when they don’t add up to your bottom line. The thought of analyzing statistics for most people (myself included), is a major turn off.

However, this could be one of the biggest mistakes you can make. As a marketer, it is important to know your click through rate, your bounce rate, average time spent on your site — amongst other stats if you are going to have a successful campaign.

This might sound technical; however, it’s pretty simple. In fact, there are tools which will calculate all this for you so you don’t have to worry about it.

Understanding your stats will help you devise ways to optimize your content that will eventually help you build relationships with your visitors and improve brand loyalty to the point where your visitors automatically turn into customers.

5. Writing for the sake of writing

“Content is king” is a popular saying in internet marketing circles. In fact, you might have probably come across it a number of times.  In my case, it was one of the very first words I came across when I got started online.

Back then, there was no Google Panda or Penguin so people churned out massive numbers of articles just to get high rankings in the serps – and that was very acceptable. Boy, have things changed. Nowadays, submitting a dozen articles per day to the top directories just doesn’t work – at all.

Today what matters is relevance. Your content must be valuable if it is going to attract and convert prospects into customers. People are seeking genuine solutions to their problems. You are that link. The key then for you should be to provide all the useful information that will not only help your prospects find what they are looking for, but which will also present you as the expert authority on your subject.

This will not only build trust between you and your prospects, but it will also cause them to like you and as we know, people will always buy from those they know, like and trust.

6. Lack of effective content promotion methods

The last mistake which is very common among both pros and newbies alike is the lack of effective content promotion methods. Today, social media is all the rage. However, not a lot of people know the best ways to use this medium to reach their audiences.

Even the pros usually hire out the services of social media managers to help grow their brand. A good content promotion campaign should be simple, consistent and measurable. Posting random tweets and updates hoping that someone somewhere will click on your link and buy from you is like wishing for snow on a hot summer day. In order for your promotion methods to be effective, you must understand who your audience is.

Just as you would not sell ice to an Eskimo, it would be foolish to use a method of content promotion that does not appeal to your audience. The key is to understand what your audience likes and give them just that.

Here are some social media promotion tips:

• Find out what social sites your audience is most active and engaged. Then dominant that site.
• Find out what types of content your audience wants to consume – is it articles? Vidoes? Research Reports? Etc… – and give it to them.
• Social Media is a conversation so don’t forget to respond to your audience members. The more active you are the more active they will be.

That’s it! I would like to know your thoughts on this. These may not be the only content marketing mistakes out there, however, they are among the most common and avoiding them could be the tipping point between a successful campaign and a weak campaign.

The SEO rumor mills are at it again…  At this year’s SMX West conference, Matt Cutts – head of Google’s Web Spam team – announced that webmasters can expect to see the latest version of the Penguin algorithm rolled out sometime during 2013.

Of course, Cutts wouldn’t clarify exactly what types of sites or activities the update would target, nor how big of an impact the rollout would potentially have.  But that hasn’t stopped some SEO pundits from speculating that this could be another “big one” in the vein of the original Panda and Penguin algorithm changes.

Currently, the most widely circulated theory regarding Penguin 4.0 is that it will go after the link networks that weren’t affected by previous updates.

According to Julie Joyce, writing for Search Engine Watch:

“Simply, a link (or site/blog/article) network is a group of sites that are connected. They can be owned by one person or multiple people, their connections can be as obvious as a badge displayed that proudly identifies the site as a member of X network or as covert as a footprint uncovered by lots of digging.”

Google has been going after these properties since at least March 2012, when it completely deindexed the popular “BuildMyRank” service, as well as several other prominent link networks.  Certainly, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Google take further action in these areas as the sensitivity of its algorithms at detecting networked sites improves.

However, there’s another interesting piece of evidence that points to Penguin 4.0 being tied to low quality backlinks in some way.  A recent studied carried out by Portent indicated that Google is becoming increasingly stricter in terms of the percentage of spam links that can be pointed at a site before Penguin filters are triggered.

After looking at the link profiles of hundreds of different sites – including about 20 that were hit by the initial Penguin updates – Portent found that, while sites were initially able to survive negative effects with as many as 80% spam links, that number has since dropped to around 50%:

The troubling thing about this data is that no one is certain how low these limits will go.  Could Google refine its algorithms to the point where as few as 0-10% of spam links will be allowed?  Though this outcome certainly seems unlikely, there’s no way to guarantee how far Google will take things.

This steady progress towards the minimization of spam link influence – along with increased murmurings about future link network action – should give webmasters pause.  Even if these Penguin 4.0 predictions don’t come to pass (whether the impact of the update is much smaller or it targets an entirely different area), it’s clear that webmasters need to be concerned about the quality of their backlink profiles.

This is especially important when you consider how few websites ever fully recovered from the impact of the first Penguin rollouts.  According to a poll of more than 500 websites carried out by Search Engine Roundtable, only 6% of respondents were able to claim a full recovery:

In this case, the best defense against future Penguin actions is a good offense.  Consider taking all of the following steps to help minimize the potential impact of the forthcoming Penguin rollout on your own website:

Step #1 – Continue to clean up bad backlinks

Last May, we gave you a few recommendations on how to identify bad backlinks in your site’s link graph and how to remove them in order to prevent them from triggering Penguin’s filters.  Specifically, we asked you to:

• Assess the diversity of the domains linking back to your site
• Assess the PageRank distribution of all sites linking back to your pages
• Check for “bad neighborhood” links
• Assess your anchor text distribution to ensure high variability

All of these tips still hold up a year later and should remain a part of your site’s regular SEO activities.  At least once a month, check your site’s link profile using tools like SEOMoz and Majestic SEO in order to identify spam links (whether ones that you’ve created in the past or that your site has acquired as part of a negative SEO attack).  If you find these links, do your best to get them removed by contacting webmasters and link building services, or by using Google’s Disavow Links tool.

Step #2 – Think “natural” when it comes to new link creation

In addition, pay particular attention to the quality of any new link creation endeavors you undertake.  While it’s premature to say that you should avoid all link networks, it’s a good idea to balance any artificially created links with their naturally-driven counterparts.

So how can you acquire natural links?  Well, the easiest way is to simply do something link worthy!

For example, working with a designer and researcher to create a compelling infographic image that can be disseminated across industry sites could do as much for your website’s backlink profile as will hundreds of purchased spam links.  Writing great blog posts and engaging with followers on social networks can also help to create legitimate backlinks in a non-sleazy way.

Whatever you do, keep in mind that “natural” is the new name of the link building game.  No tool is ever going to be able to replicate the backlinking results generated by a committed group of readers and brand advocates.  Focus first on activities that will prompt link acquisition naturally and look at other solutions as nothing more than a way to supplement your main efforts.

Step #3 – Diversify your traffic sources

Finally, keep in mind that SEO should only represent one avenue of traffic generation.  If your site receives the bulk of its inbound traffic from Google alone, you’re setting yourself up for failure by placing all of your eggs in one basket.

For this reason, it’s important to make it a priority now to diversify your traffic sources.  In addition to Google, your site could receive visitors from:

• Other search engines
• Paid search ad placements
• Social media marketing
• Paid social ads
• Content marketing
• Media buys
• Guest articles published on other sites

Yes, some of these strategies may require more work than tweaking a few on-site and off-site variables (as in the case of traditional SEO), but the reassurance you’ll receive from knowing that your business is no longer vulnerable to Google’s unpredictable algorithm changes will be invaluable.

The best part about these recommended actions is that there’s almost no downside.  If you take steps to improve your site’s link profile and the next Penguin update winds up affecting only a tiny percentage of sites, you haven’t lost anything – in fact, you’ve improved your chances of staying safe throughout the next round of algorithm changes.

Remember, Google is never going to stop refining its algorithms.  Even if you’ve been safe throughout these tumultuous last few years, there’s no guarantee that your site won’t be filtered out by a future update.  Take the time to clean up your link building activities now – your long-term site stability will thank you!

If you’ve been reading along with us here on the Single Grain blog, you know that we’re all about creating high value content that engages readers and drives traffic as a method of website promotion.  So it might surprise you to know that we’re also highly in favor of stealing content – as long as it’s done ethically.

No, we’re not saying that you should go out and claim the work of others as your own.  That’s plagiarism, and it should be avoided like the plague.

Instead, what you have to recognize is that there are very few truly original ideas out there.  According to a telling quote from Mark Twain – as cited in “Mark Twain: A Biography” by Albert Bigelow Pain:

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”

Artists, writers and other creative types have been adapting each other’s work and ideas for centuries – building on what’s been proven to work and discarding elements that don’t.  You can do the same with your digital content pieces!

The following are a few different ways that you can steal content ideas without violating any ethical guidelines.  Taken together, these techniques can make it much easier to develop winning content pieces and to avoid the type of burnout that plagues those who feel they must do everything from scratch.

Things to Steal #1 – Headlines

The first thing that you should absolutely “steal” is headline structures.  Scientific advertisers have been formulating and testing these headlines for decades, giving marketers today a pretty good idea of what works when it comes to these important content cues.  So why on earth would you try to reinvent the wheel or think that your “brilliant” headline will perform better than those that have stood up to the test of time?

Here’s how to do it…

First, find a well-trafficked blog in your industry that lists its most popular blog posts somewhere on the site (typically found in the sidebar widget or on a special “Start Here” page).  Then, take a look at the titles of the most popular articles on the site.

As an example, let’s look at “4 Hour Work Week” author Tim Ferriss’s popular lifestyle blog.  In this case, the most popular article of all time on the site is one titled, “How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise.”

Now, you don’t need to operate in the health and fitness industry to steal this headline for your own use.  Instead, break it down so that you understand the root of what makes this article title so powerful:

• “How to” – Readers love instructional topics and tend to gravitate towards headlines that promise much-needed, easy-to-digest information.
• “Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days” – This part of the headline touches on a hotly-emotional issue that many internet readers face.
• “Without Doing Any Exercise” – The clincher here is that the article headline delivers its benefits without requiring extra effort on the part of readers.  This is huge for driving reader engagement.

Once you know how the different emotional appeals behind the headline are operating, you can modify this headline structure to suit your own content pieces and industry.  All of the following headline examples follow this same format – effectively stealing what makes the original headline so effective without directly plagiarizing the author’s original work:

• How to Pay Off $5,000 in Credit Card Debt… Without Giving Up Your Daily Latte
• How to Pick Up Girls at Bars… Without Making a Fool of Yourself
• How to Easily Potty Train Your Child… Without All the Accidents

Things to Steal #2 – Content Structures

But beyond headlines, there are plenty of other content elements that you can steal for your own purposes.  For instance, how about the entire structure of your articles?

Writing your articles is another place where you don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time you put pen to paper (or, keys to keyboard as the case may be).  Plenty of successful bloggers and website owners have gone before you and determined which post structures audiences respond best to.  Don’t be afraid to steal their insight and use it to cultivate your own internet presence!

The following are a few different post structures that have been proven to work across different industries.  Give them a try today and see how well your audience responds!

• “How to” article – Instructional articles that provide specific information, as in the case of Tim’s most popular article referenced above.
• “Top 10” article – Also known as “list posts,” these articles – which can include as many as 100 items, draw in audiences who crave the most up-to-date information possible.
• “Myth busting” articles – Articles that dissect commonly-held industry beliefs can be great for generating attention and engagement.
• “Step-by-Step” articles – Make your content pieces easy for your audience to follow, and they’ll reward you with higher readership numbers.
• “Failure to success” case studies – We all love a good success story, so capitalize on this content structure by relating changes you or your clients have made to your audience through powerful content pieces.

Again, none of these ideas are new.  Go to any popular blog online and you’ll see examples of these content structures at work.  As long as you’re putting your own spin on the subject and bringing value to your audience, it doesn’t matter that you’re essentially stealing these widely-used formulas!

Things to Steal #3 – Content Topics

Finally, if you’re facing the inevitable burnout that threatens to derail all website owners, consider stealing topic ideas for your next set of blog posts or content marketing pieces from other popular sites in your industry.

To see how to do this, let’s head over to the popular “Art of Manliness” blog.  A quick glance at the “Popular Articles” widget displayed on the site’s sidebar reveals the following list of articles:

• “100 Must Read Books: the Man’s Essential Library”
• “How to Shave Like Your Grandpa”
• “100 Must See Movies: The Essential Men’s Movie Library”
• “How to Tie a Tie”
• “How to Carve a Turkey”

If you were targeting a similar audience, the list above could provide plenty of inspiration when it comes to possible post topics.  For example, Art of Manliness readers have demonstrated an interest in the topic of old-fashioned shaving.  Couldn’t you take that idea and write up your own article using a different content structure (perhaps something like, “The Step-by-Step Guide to Old-Fashioned Shaving,” using one of the sample formats discussed above)?

As long as you write the article itself using your own language and expertise, you aren’t truly stealing anything.  Instead, you’re leveraging the market research knowledge made available by others in your industry in order to provide new value to your own audience.  It’s a powerful technique, and it’s one that’ll keep you brimming with the content topics needed to keep your site fresh for the long haul.

So what do you think?  Do these techniques constitute “stealing” and would you use them on your own site?  Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments area below!

Image: elhombredenegro

With mobile internet browsing set to overtake traditional desktop internet usage as early as 2014, according to research reported by the Smart Insights marketing team, having a website that displays appropriately in a mobile environment is becoming less of a luxury for today’s businesses and more of a “must have.”

And when it comes to creating and releasing a mobile-optimized version of your site’s content, you have a number of different choices.  You can:

• Create a separate mobile version of your site that resides on your “m.domain.com”
• Use a plugin to automatically create a mobile version of your site on-the-fly
• Develop and release a mobile app that contains the same information as your website
• Utilize a responsive web design template that resizes based on a number of different criteria.

Let’s look at each of these options in more depth…

Separate mobile site versions

Launching separate versions of your website entails building two separate copies of your website – one that lives on your main URL and one that’s triggered to display on your “m.domain.com” subdomain whenever your site detects that it’s being displayed on a mobile browser.  Unfortunately, there are two major issues with this approach:

• Separate site versions only allows you to create one mobile site version, which won’t do you a bit of good when it comes to accommodating the huge variety of different digital devices in use today.  Say you design your mobile site version to look good on the iPhone 5.  That’s great for some users, but doing so runs the real risk of alienating users on tablets or smartphones with different screen sizes.
• Developing site versions across multiple URLs isn’t ideal from an SEO standpoint.  Bing has clearly come out in favor of single URL solutions and while Google’s been more circumspect on the issue, it’s easy to see how optimizing one site version is less hassle and represents fewer opportunities for errors than optimizing multiple site versions.

Mobile site plugins

Since mobile site versions don’t represent a great option, what about mobile site plugins?  Tools like “WP Touch” are freely available and take much of the hassle out of mobile site creation, as they allow you to install a simple piece of software and automatically trigger mobile site versions that display correctly in a number of different environments.

From an SEO perspective, this is a much stronger alternative than creating separate sites to accommodate mobile devices.  However, there’s one key weakness that you need to take into account with mobile site plugins – the loss of important branding elements.

Take a look at the following banner from the WP Touch Pro homepage:

Though the desktop is well-designed and well-branded with distinctive fonts and color schemes, the mobile interface loses all of this visual appeal.  While WPTouch and similar tools do offer the ability to control some visual elements, they don’t come close to replicating your desktop site – causing your company to lose out on the power a well-branded web presence has to offer.

Mobile app development

So, if displaying your desktop website’s content correctly in a mobile environment is so tricky, why not skip the process altogether and just release your site’s information through a mobile app?

Well, not so fast…  An October 2012 study conducted by the Pew Research Center discovered that 60% of web users would rather read news on their mobile browsers, rather than through website apps:

Though the study addressed the consumption of news media only, it’s safe to say that – given this demonstrated preference for reading text through mobile browsers – mobile apps should never be considered a true replacement for mobile website versions.

Responsive website design

The final option – and the one that most web users and SEOs prefer – when it comes to mobile website creation is something known as “responsive website design.”

Essentially, a responsive website design is one site design that automatically changes its display parameters, based on the type of device displaying the site.  If a website visitor lands on the site using a desktop computer, the site design displays at full width.  But if the site detects that it’s being displayed on a mobile device, it automatically aligns itself to display correctly within the new browser.

This occurs because of the presence of two important pieces of technology: the fluid grid and CSS3 media queries.

While many sites are designed on a fixed-pixel basis – meaning that the design is a set width that won’t change no matter where it’s displayed – responsive site designs utilize a “fluid grid.”  Fluid grids represent an advancement on past liquid layout designs, in that they’re designed to proportions, rather than arbitrary percentages.  When fluid grids are used, your website’s design automatically resizes according to the proportionate change in screen resolutions.

Of course, proportions can only take you so far.  If your website uses a 3-column layout, resizing your site design down to a 300-pixel mobile browser screen will result in a pretty cramped design!

That’s where CSS3 media queries come in.  In particular, responsive website designs make use of the min-width media query, which allows websites to conditionally serve up different CSS sets based on the detected size of the browser.  As an example, queries might be set to trigger different CSS rules when it detects browsers below 320px, 480px, 600px, 768px, 900px or 1,200px – accounting for most of the different screen sizes available on today’s desktop and mobile devices.

Following with our earlier 3-column layout example, combining the liquid grid with media queries enables designers to set a “break down” point, where the style of the website changes dramatically.  Instead of resizing the 3-column layout to any different screen size, media queries enable designers to switch to a single column layout as soon as it’s determined that the design is no longer displaying correctly.

And – best of all – because all of this happens from within a single site design, there are none of the SEO concerns that would otherwise arise from displaying these different versions on separate website subdomains!

Responsive website design isn’t a perfect solution, but it’s the best we’ve got right now.  According to Jeffrey Veen, author of “The Art and Science of Web Design”:

“Day by day, the number of devices, platforms, and browsers that need to work with your site grows.  Responsive web design represents a fundamental shift in how we’ll build websites for the decade to come.”

To create a responsive website version, you have two different options.  You can:

• Change over to a pre-built responsive theme (which are widely available through services like ThemeForest), or
• Hire a web developer to create a responsive version of your current site.

Switching over to a responsive theme is the cheaper alternative, but it may mean losing some of the branding elements found in your current site design (as replacing your theme or template involves modifying an entirely new design from scratch).  If you aren’t committed to your current site design, this could be a great approach to keep costs down while still accommodating mobile website users.

On the other hand, while hiring a web developer to custom-code your new responsive website version might be more expensive, the costs are often worth it in order to save on development headaches and preserve the website branding you’ve worked so hard to create.

Really, it doesn’t matter which of these two responsive site design options you choose – as long as you make a choice!  Mobile website browsing and responsive website design are the way of the future.  Don’t risk losing your site’s mobile visitors because you’re hesitant to pull the trigger on this powerful type of technology!

Image: MattsMacintosh

Content marketing is all the rage these days – and with good reason!

A well-executed content marketing campaign can result in a steady stream of website visitors who arrive regularly on your site’s pages for months following the launch of each new content piece.  And as members of your industry get used to seeing your name associated with high-value articles, videos and infographics, your brand’s reputation increases – continuing to improve your sales and profits without any additional direct effort on your part.

But all of that said, producing content for content’s sake isn’t a great strategy.  Releasing a content piece because some “marketing guru” told you it was a good idea and hoping for the best isn’t a legitimate business-building approach.  Instead, you need to actively measure whether or not your content marketing efforts are having the desired effect on your website’s bottom line.

The process for doing so is similar to the ROI measurement protocol we’ve described on this site for social media marketing, though there are a few special issues to be aware of when it comes to content marketing campaigns.  To ensure you’re getting the best possible bang for your content marketing buck, take the following steps to determine whether or not your campaigns are converting:

1 – Define your conversion goals

While plenty of website owners approach content marketing as a way to drive buyers back to their pages, this isn’t the only type of impact that can be used to assess the success of a campaign.  Other possible content marketing goals could include:

• Increasing brand mentions within your industry
• Increasing social followers of your brand
• Increasing overall website traffic
• Improving natural search engine results page (SERP) rankings
• Increasing email marketing opt-ins
• Increasing sales or lead generation form completions

Any of these goals are perfectly viable content marketing initiatives, but the key is that you must have a way to measure your goal completion rate.

For example, take the idea of increasing brand mentions through content marketing.  It isn’t enough to simply say, “I’m getting more traffic to my site, so my content marketing campaign must be causing more brand mentions in my industry.”  You need to actually be able to measure your change in mentions and tie these mentions back to content marketing campaign pieces!

Fortunately, for each of the different goals listed above, there’s a quantifiable way to measure campaign success.  In the example of brand mentions, it’s possible to measure a metric called “Share of Voice (SOV)” using the free Social Mentions tool that will tell you whether your brand mentions are increasing relative to competitors in your industry.  SERPs ranking changes can be measured using any SEO tracking tool.  And in the case of social followers, website traffic, email opt-ins and product sales, goal completions can be measured by pulling the day-to-day changes in your account metrics (as in, number of Twitter followers one day compared to the next).

2 – Measure and manage your campaigns

Of course, generating goal completion data is only half the battle.  In addition, you need to be able to tie changes in your goal metrics to your content marketing campaigns.

To see why this is so important, imagine you undertake a content marketing campaign and see a 25% increase in sales – your target goal completion.  Pleased with the results, you decide to invest significant resources in producing further content pieces, as you’re sure that doing so will lead to even better results.

Now, what happens if – unbeknownst to you – the reason for your increase in sales wasn’t actually your content marketing campaign, but an improvement in your natural search rankings that occurred at the same time due to a Google algorithm change that was out of your control?  In this case, investing further into content marketing isn’t likely to benefit your business in any major way, as it wasn’t the key factor behind your initial increase in sales.

Depending on the type of content marketing goal you’re tracking and the reach of your campaign, distinguishing goals that occurred due as the result of your content promotions from those that can be attributed to other sources can be difficult.

If you’re tracking conversions that occur on your site – for example, email opt-ins, sales or lead gen form completions – you’ll definitely want to take a look at the combination of Google Analytics Goals and Advanced Traffic Segments.  When paired together, these two tools allow you to note when a goal completion occurs, as well as to filter out individual goal completions according to content marketing specific traffic sources.

For more information on how to do this, check out Google’s help section on Conversion Tracking.

3 – Understand the limitations of a content marketing campaign

Once you’ve put a tracking system in place to measure both goal completions and the traffic sources that enable them, you’ll be able to better understand how much your content marketing campaigns are contributing to your business’s overall success.

However, don’t get too far ahead of yourself here…

When we work with new Single Grain content marketing clients, we’re very clear to say that it may take a few months to generate solid conversion data that can be used to inform your campaign.  This is because our campaigns usually run according to the following structure:

Months 1-2 – Traffic Generation.  The first goal of all of our content marketing campaigns is simply to get visitors to the page.  Some of these visitors might wind up converting, but that isn’t our primary focus at first.  Instead, we want to get as many sets of eyeballs on a site as possible in order to start generating site usage data – sort of a, “throw the spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks” approach.

Months 3-4 – Visitor Engagement.  After generating our preliminary traffic data, we’ll start attempting to engage the new audience that’s building on a deeper level.  This might involve disseminating content pieces based on what’s proven successful with readers in the past or it might involve things like visitor surveys and reviews.  All in all, though, the goal is to start taking the next step in engagement, building a sustainable readership that can then be relied upon for conversions.

Months 5-6 – Conversion Rate Optimization.  Once we’ve used content marketing techniques to build up a steady, reliable readership, we then start honing in on the best ways to spur this audience to action.  As listed above, the specific types of conversions we target for each client may vary, but we have found that it’s helpful to build relationships with a site’s readers before asking them to take significant action.

The reason I tell you this is to help you put things in perspective.  If you’ve written a few “viral style” articles and published a single infographic, you aren’t really content marketing – you’ve run a few standalone promotions that aren’t likely to have any meaningful impact on your website’s success.  While it’s important to have testing and tracking measures in place, it’s also crucial that you look at content marketing as a long-term strategy that will help you to both improve the relationships you have with your audience members and your website results at the same time.

Any questions about how to take your own content marketing campaigns to the next level?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below:

Advertising your business on Facebook is an important part of any good social media marketing plan – but there’s a big difference between posting effective, engaging updates and sharing posts that fail to draw any attention to your brand!

So if you’re struggling to attract followers and fan engagement, consider any of the following strategies for improving your Facebook marketing activities:

1 – Tie updates to current events

When in doubt, try a status update that relates to a current event – like an upcoming holiday, major sports game or other newsworthy item.  Not only are these posts more likely to attract reader attention, you can gain an extra boost in engagement if your update is included in the “Posted About” groupings that appear on your followers’ news feeds.

2 – Use photos

According to data published by the AMEX Open Forum, Facebook posts that feature images receive 39% higher rates of engagement than other types of content.  Take your own photos, share photos from the profiles you follow or source Creative Commons images from Flickr to create your own viral-style profile updates.

3 – Keep your updates short

The same Open Forum infographic reveals another surprising engagement factor that all web businesses need to be aware of – the fact that short posts (those that are 80 characters or longer), receive 23% more interaction than longer updates.  Do your brand a favor and keep things short and sweet in order to boost overall engagement!

4 – Run caption contests

Part of running a successful Facebook marketing campaign involves deepening the connection between your brand and your followers.  Facebook users follow brands they like all the time, but they only make it a priority to interact with a select few.

If you want your followers to up their engagement level with your brand, you’ve got to get them commenting on your updates.  One of the easiest ways to do this is with a caption contest.  Post a funny picture, ask your followers to caption it and give out a prize to the best submission.  It’s a fun, easy and low commitment way to up your Facebook interaction levels.

5 – Ask a question

On a similar note, try posing a seemingly-random question to your Facebook followers.  Don’t tie it to your branding or marketing objectives – instead, make it something fun and engaging for your fans to respond to.  As an example, posting a question like, “What super power would you most like to have?” could be a great way to get your followers talking!

6 – Share quotes

Everybody loves a good inspirational quote – even if we know they’re not going to provoke much positive action beyond a few minutes of warm, fuzzy feelings.  The key here is that Facebook users don’t just love quotes – they love to share them as well.  To try this technique for yourself, find an inspirational quote that speaks to you and then use PicMonkey to add it to an artful image found in Flickr.  Post your final creation to your Facebook page and see if your engagement doesn’t skyrocket as a result!

7 – Avoid URL shorteners

Interestingly, a study by Buddy Media found that Facebook post engagement rates were three times higher when a full URL was included, compared to a shortened URL (as in, those offered by services like bit.ly).  If you absolutely must use shortened URLs – perhaps because you’re advertising long ecommerce URLs that are full of character strings – set up a brand-specific URL shortener to minimize this effect.

8 – Know when your followers are active

Additional data compiled by Social Media Examiner has revealed some interesting trends regarding when Facebook users are most active.  Specifically:

• The best time to post on Facebook is between 1:00pm-3:00pm, with 3:00pm on Wednesdays being the best time to post overall.
• Links posted outside of the 8:00am-8:00pm window are less likely to be shared.
• Facebook engagement rates tend to be 18% higher on Thursdays and Fridays.
• Posts shared on Saturday and Sunday get the most “Likes” (keep this in mind if you’re measuring engagement in terms of “Likes,” rather than comments or shares).

Of course, every fan base is different, so the statistics listed above may not match up exactly with your experiences.  However, if you’re just getting started with Facebook marketing, this framework should give you a rough timeline for boosting your fan engagement through status updates.

9 – Understand the “lifespan” of your updates

The “lifespan” of an update refers to the amount of time it remains in a follower’s news feed, and typically averages around 3 hours.  If you post more frequently than the lifespan of your posts, you risk annoying your followers with excessive updates – leading to a decrease in engagement.

To find your Facebook post lifespan, you’ll need a tool like Edgerank Checker Pro.  Although the tool costs $15/month, you can take advantage of its two-week free trial to see if the data generated makes a big enough difference in your Facebook marketing efforts.

10 – Ask for engagement

Just as you’re advised to “ask for the job” while interviewing, it’s a good idea to ask your Facebook directly for the type of engagement you’d like to see.  In fact, the Buddy Media study cited earlier found that the use of specific words – including “post,” “comment,” “take,” “submit,” “like” and “tell us” – all led to higher levels of engagement when posed directly to Facebook fans.  Ask, and you shall receive – just be careful not to overdo it!

11 – Ask yourself, “Would I share this?”

When it comes to Facebook engagement, don’t forget to use your common sense.  You can follow all the rules and guidelines in the world, but if you get so tied up in social media marketing best practices that you pump out dry, formulaic content, you’re not going to get anywhere with your fans.  To prevent this from happening, ask yourself “Would I share this?” before hitting “Publish” on any new status update.  If the answer is, “No,” head back to the drawing board for something better.

12 – Be quirky

Facebook – and social media websites in general – isn’t the place for branding slogans and marketing jargon.  Instead, be yourself!  Be wacky, be quirky and be a little bit “out there.”  Users come to Facebook to relax and let off steam, making them far more likely to engage with you if your brand doesn’t appear to be trying too hard.  Just be aware that there’s a fine line between quirky and weird.  Watch your Facebook engagement metrics carefully to see what sticks and what falls flat.

13 – Respond quickly to others

Keep in mind that Facebook “engagement” isn’t just about posting fun status updates and getting more “Likes.”  It’s a two-way street, which means that if a follower reaches out to your company’s profile, you need to be ready to respond as quickly as possible.  Response times matter in the world of social media, so check your profile at least once a day and respond to others as necessary to prevent your company from being seen as an unengaged brand.

14 – Stick to a posting schedule

On that same note, don’t post several times a day for a week and then fall off the face of the planet.  Consistency is key when it comes to social media marketing, as you want your followers to get used to seeing you in their news feeds.  If you can’t commit to posting at least once a day on your own, use a tool like the Buffer App to handle automatic posts for you.

15 – Be a person and a business

Finally, keep in mind that Facebook posts need a personal touch in order to be successful.  Your fans want to hear about your company and its news – but they don’t want to be tied into 24/7 sales pitches from your marketing team.  Finding a balance between personal and professional updates can be challenging, but it’s worth it to experiment with different post ratios and measure the results in your Facebook analytics panel in order to reach your highest possible engagement levels.

Got any other ideas on how to successfully boost engagement on Facebook?  Share your experiences and recommendations in the comments section below!

Image: mhkmarketing