2013 – 25 Women That Rock Social Media

	2013 – 25 Women That Rock Social Media Three years ago I read an article on ClickZ listing “social media rock stars” and while I was honored to be listed, there were very few women were on it.  I published a blog post with a list of 25 women from my own network that were rocking the social web and a meme was born. This is the 4th installment of a yearly list we create, many of which are nominated by past honorees.  We’ve recognized 100 women in all, so if your favorite social media rock star isn’t in this edition, be sure to check 2012, 2011 and 2010. This year’s list includes a diverse group: brand marketers, consultants and PR pros. Plus others that are doing work where social media plays a significant factor (like fundraising for good causes).  What better way to celebrate New Year’s Eve (day) than to highlight these talented professionals and their contributions? Here’s our 2013 list of 25 Women Who Rock Social Media: (in alphabetical order) Amy Senger – CEO, Founder at 1X57 – If there was a Webby for the best personal Facebook content, it might just go to Amy. Not only does she post thought-provoking content, but she adds context and opinion like no one else. Originally a part of the Intelipedia training team at the CIA, Amy moved to LA to live with deeper intention and to inspire others. She now adds screenwriter to her list of talents, that also include Wikipedia editing, surfing, and being a voice and microphone for gender equality in the technology and entertainment industries. Amy was nominated by @LeslieBradshaw, Chief Operating Officer at Guide. Connect with Amy at: @sengseng LinkedIn Annalise Kaylor – Annalise is the Senior Social Engagement Manager at Engauge and according to her nominator, “Annalise is whip-smart, offers a fresh perspective on social media and she’s not afraid to bring companies to task.” She is an active speaker at search marketing industry conferences (Pubcon & SMX) on social media topics and has worked in social media roles since 2006. Annalise was nominated by Lisa (@LisaBarone) Holton, Vice President of Strategy at Overit Media. Connect with Annalise at: @annabelleblue LinkedIn Azita Ardakani – Based in Vancouver, BC, Azita is the CEO & Founder of Lovesocial, a sort of “anti-agency” formed as a B Corporation that aims to use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. She describes herself on Twitter as a cheerleader & advisor to @NPRGenListen @Hootsuite @Reelhouse. Azita was nominated by @Sloane Davidson, Founder & Chief Do Gooder The Causemopolitan. Connect with Azita at: @azita LinkedIn Becky Brown - When Intel had their first global social media event, I was fortunate to be one of the speakers and that’s where we first met in person. She’s now Director of Media at Intel where she manages the integration of all global media from traditional paid media (TV, digital, OOH, etc.) with social publishing and social relationships.  At the start of her previous role at Intel as Director of Social Media, community reach was less than 100,000 worldwide. Now Intel social media efforts reach over 26M people in over 55 countries with over 30 billion social impressions yearly. Becky is continuing her pioneering work having developed a marketing dashboard, a social media cockpit, a media mix modeling behavior and real time decision making tool and Intel's first social media publishing platform called iQ. Nominated by LO. Connect with Becky at: @BeckyBrown LinkedIn Christine Kirk - Christine specializes in online communications and social media marketing campaigns for food & beverage, restaurant/nightclub, luxury travel and real estate, consumer lifestyle products and electronics, and automotive companies. Luxury PR is the name of her game and she plays it well. Christine is a Forbes Travel Guide correspondent and also the founder of #luxchat – an online discussion about the intersection of luxury brands and social media. Christine was nominated by Jennifer Leggio (@mediaphyter), Senior Director, Security Strategy & Portfolio Marketing at Cisco. Connect with Christine at: @LuxuryPRGal LinkedIn Cynthia Sanchez - Cynthia has the Pinterest thing nailed as social media marketing consultant who specializes in all things Pinteresting. Cynthia conducts social media training, she publishes a regular podcast and blogs including guest posts on sites like Social Media Examiner. Cynthia’s nominator comments, “Cynthia rocks because of her awesome podcast and her consistent posting of helpful information about Marketing on Pinterest. She also participates on multiple social media sites so you can get her information wherever you happen to be.” Cynthia was nominated by @AndreaVahl, Social Media Coach, Strategist, Author and Speaker. Connect with Cynthia at: @OSPInteresting  Oh So Pinteresting Gemma Craven - Gemma’s social and digital engagement client experience reads like a brand rock star playlist: AOL, The BBC, British Airways, The Gap, IBM, IKEA, Microsoft, Nestle, Unilever, UPS.  As the Executive Director, Head of Social Customer Engagement at OgilvyOne Worldwide, Gemma has over 14 years in the digital marketing and engagement space in the U.S. and abroad. Her nominator say, “Gemma is one of those brilliant people who truly gets what social media strategy has been, is now, and where it’s going. She’s got ideas big and small for how to unlock the power of engagement, and her position as WOMMA board member means she’s always tapped into latest developments in the field.” Gemma was nominated by Lauren Salazar @sassandglitter, Director of Social Media at Weight Watchers. Connect with Gemma at: @Gemsie LinkedIn Jen McClure - Jen has over 25 years experience in media and communications and is the co-founder and president of the board of directors of the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR). She also co-founded NewComm Forum, one of the first conferences focused on the social web. As Senior Director, Digital & Social Media at Thomson Reuters, she focuses on digital capability building, digital/social media governance, program strategy and management. Her inclusion in our list is long overdue and I’m glad we’ve finally rectified that.  Jen was nominated by LO. Connect with Jen at: @jen_mcclure LinkedIn Jessica Gioglio - With nominations from multiple people, Jessica, aka the Savvy Bostonian, is definitely making an impact on the social web through blogging and networking. Her previous PR and media relations roles at Trip Advisor, ComCast, PUMA and Nordstrom were clearly great preparation for her current career as a Social Media Strategist for Dunkin’ Brands. Jessica writes a weekly social media column for Convince and Convert, and is the co-author of a new book, The Power of Visual Storytelling, coming out in March 2014. Jessica was nominated by her bestselling co-author, @Ekaterina Walter, who was previously with Intel and is now Co-founder and CMO at Branderati. @savvybostonian The Savvy Bostonian Kate Dickman - In a past life, Boston-based Kate worked for a SEO company and I think that must be how we first met. Since then, she’s held social media positions at Panasonic, Lindt, and had her own consultancy working with companies large and small. Kate’s current role is as a Senior Manager of Social Media Strategy at CVS Caremark Corporation. With LinkedIn Recommendations from people like Sean X, Michael Brito and Adam Broitman, you know she’s rocking the social web. Kate was nominated by LO. Connect with Kate at: @KateDickman LinkedIn Kristy Bolsinger - Kristy was doing the social media, SEO and marketing performance optimization thing long before it was a “thing”.  I mean, when someone gets their first name as a Twitter handle, you  know they were there early.  Since we first met many years ago, Kristy has fast tracked a MBA from Willamette, worked at RealNetworks and Ant’s Eye View, had her own consultancy, and is now a Senior Associate at PwC in Seattle.  Kristy was nominated by LO. Connect with Kristy at: @kristy LinkedIn Liz Bullock - Liz is one of those people who’s reputation preceded her by a Texas mile. Responsible for architecting and managing Dell’s internal social media training program (SMaC U) with thousands of employees, she fulfilled a destiny in her former role as Dell Director of Social Media to then become CEO of her own social media training company, Social Arts & Science Institute, LLC (SASI). It was a pleasure to finally meet Liz in person at a recent Dell social media event earlier this year. Liz was nominated by LO. Connect with Liz at: @lizbbullock LinkedIn Liz Philips - With early days at CNN and Qualcomm followed by a long run at HP in various roles, Liz broke into the social media realm at HP and took her social media smarts over to the #1 golf company in the world, TaylorMade. With that solid foundation, Liz went back to her roots, so to speak, and is now a Senior Marketing Manager Qualcomm. When I met Liz at Social Media Marketing World earlier this year, I knew she was a social media force to be reckoned with. Liz was nominated by LO. Connect with Liz at: @iizLiz LinkedIn Marcy Massura - You’ve got to love smart people with a sense of humor. Marcy has that and more. Based in Orange County, California, Marcy Massura is North American Digital Lead for MSLGROUP where, among other duties, she provides strategic counsel for Proctor & Gamble North America. Along with providing social media strategy for her agency’s high profile clients, Marcy also publishes a “Full service Humor Website” called, The Glamorous Life Association. Marcy was nominated by @DebNg, Community Manager at Social Media Examiner and My Kids Adventures. Connect with Marcy at: @marcymassura LinkedIn Mary Henige - To say Mary is a career GM employee is a bit of an understatement. For 27 years she’s held a variety of Communications positions, so it’s only fitting that she’s the Director of Social Media & Digital Communications at GM.  An example of her recent work involves the GM FastLane blog, which was a pioneering effort for a major company when it launched in 2005. Now Mary and her team (and others) have relaunched FastLane as way for GM Executives to connect directly with consumers as well as the media. With a senior social media position at a $150 billion company, there’s no question Mary is rocking the social web. Mary was nominated by LO. Connect with Mary at: @maryhenige LinkedIn Mia Dand -  The cool thing about social networking is that it brings people together that might not otherwise connect. While in London a few years ago a mutual friend (Tac Anderson) connected with Mia and I as we were both in town and took a bit of a London walking tour. Mia was Director, Global Social Media & Marketing Analytics at Symantec at the time and now she’s Community Group Manager at Google where she develops, drives, and optimizes the community strategy for Google’s geo and social products.  Mia was nominated by LO. Connect with Mia at: @MiaD LinkedIn Natascha Thomson -  Specializing in B2B social media, Natascha is the founder and CEO of MarketingXLerator and co-author of the book 42 Rules for B2B Social Media Marketing. With deep experience at companies like Bay Networks, HP, EMC and SAP as well as an Executive MBA from St. Mary’s College, California and a Master of Commerce and Arts from the University of Passau, Germany, Natascha is well prepared to rock the social web. Natascha was nominated by Sudha Jamthe (@sujamthe), Social Media Strategist at eBay. Connect with Natascha at: @nathomson LinkedIn Nichole Kelly -  Nichole is the CEO of Social Media Explorer (As in Jason Falls SME Digital) and Author of How to Measure Social Media. She is also a professional speaker, and blogger. With previous positions at Federal Reserve Bank, Sherwin Williams and the American Marketing Association, Nichole’s focus on measurable social media marketing performance has helped her grow SME into a formidable agency.  Nichole was nominated by Heather Whaling (@prtini), President at Geben Communications, where SME is a client. Connect with Nichole at: @Nichole_Kelly LinkedIn Priya Ramesh -  With a distinct and refreshing focus on measurable social media and public relations, Priya has held executive social media positions at multiple top PR firms including her current role as Digital Strategist at Burson-Marsteller. In the multiple interactions I’ve had with Priya, her drive, intelligence and passion for  were clearly evident and good reason for her deep client experience with companies including: Marketo, Web.com, Satmetrix, Progress Software, Charles Schwab, Air New Zealand, Bridgestone Americas and the Federal Reserve Bank. Priya was nominated by LO. Connect with Priya at: @newpr LinkedIn Rachael Seda - With experience as a teacher, writer, designer and associate at Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, Rachael’s diverse experience has created a solid foundation for her current role at a major PR agency. Working as an Account Executive at PadillaCRT, Rachel’s moderator states: ”She lives and breathes the ‘social’ nature of social media. Rachael instinctively incorporates digital connectivity into every aspect of her life and is always trying to see how it – and she – can make the world a better place.” That’s quite an endorsement.  Rachael was nominated by Shonali Burke, President & CEO @Shonali Burke Consulting. Connect with Rachael at: @rachaelseda LinkedIn Rachel Sklar -  A former lawyer, Rachel Sklar is a New York writer and social entrepreneur based in New York. She is the co-founder of Change The Ratio, which increases visibility and opportunity for women in tech & new media, and TheLi.st (in beta), a community platform for women driven by that same mission. Rachel was nominated by Heather Whaling (@prtini) President at Geben Communications. Connect with Rachel at: @RachelSklar LinkedIn Sharon Panelo - Based in Brooklyn, Sharon is a Senior Strategist at McCann NY with a strong writing and strategy background. At McCann, her role focuses on digital brand experience, social media strategy, and creative technology across agency brands: General Mills, MasterCard, Nestle, L’Oreal, Verizon, NASDAQ, and Kohl’s.  Sharon was nominated by @KandaceHudspeth, Chief Digital Integration Officer, Global Director McCann Always On. Connect with Sharon at: @hellopanelo LinkedIn Sophia Bush - With every list there has to be at least one celebrity, right? You may recognize Sophia from her extensive fundraising and awareness raising work using Twitter and Instagram for the National Wildlife Humane Society, Global Green Gulf Relief, F-Cancer . Or you might have caught her on One Tree Hill. Her new TV show, Chicago PD, premier’s on January 8th. Her nominator says, “Soph uses her platform for good. She is informed, active and passionate. She’s making people care about something they might not have even known about.” Sophia was nominated by @Yael Cohen, founder & CEO of Fuck Cancer. Connect with Sophia at: @SophiaBush Crowdrise Susan Beebe - In the early days of the social web, Dell made a name for itself as a progressive company and one of the people that helped make an impact was Susan Beebe. Her roles in global communications and social media management plus chief listener have undoubtedly proved to be a great framework for her current role as Manager, Social Media & Online Communities at Tyson Foods. She’s also a board member at  @Champions4Kids. As long as I’ve known Susan online, it’s a marvel we have not met in person yet. Susan was nominated by LO. Connect with Susan at: @susanbeebe LinkedIn Susan Emerick - Smart, focused, experienced and did I say smart?  Those all describe Susan Emerick who is also the co-author of one of the BEST books on social business that I’ve seen yet: The Most Powerful Brand on Earth. With over 17 years at as a digital marketer at IBM, Susan has been in social media leadership positions at the $104 billion company for over 7 years.  Susan is a big advocate of empowering employees & partners to build trust & advocacy in ways that create greater awareness & revenues while decreasing the cost of marketing, selling, and customer service. That rocks! Susan was nominated by LO. Connect with Susan at: @sfemerick LinkedIn I pinged my Twitter network of 60k or so for a People’s Choice volley of suggestions for consideration. I received some good suggestions that I’d like to list here, honorable mention, style. @JessBerlin - We were on a panel together many years ago while she was in a social media role at Cirque du Soleil. From there she went to American Eagle and now she’s doing the social media thing at Yahoo. h/t Justin Levy @JoannaLord – I know Joanna mostly through search marketing conferences and she’s a smart, classy marketer and also an excellent writer and public speaker. She’s helped numerous startups including Moz and is not CMO at Big Door Media. Joanna has social media marketing expertise, but she’s also effective at using social media to build her own brand and connect with her community.  h/t Justin Levy @Jennita - Jennifer Sable Lopez – As Director of Community at fast growing Moz, there’s no doubt Jennifer has her hands full. She has a development background and long time interests in SEO and social media. Her community work includes writing for the Moz blog, managing the YOUmoz community blog, comments, Facebook, Twitter and, well, you get the idea. Busy! @LisaBuyer - Founder and CEO of the Buyer Group, Lisa is also the author of a new book, Social PR Secrets. Her consultancy, writing and speaking covers the intersection of public relations with social media and SEO. Surely there are women you know who are exceptional in their knowledge of how to use social media for marketing, communications, advancing causes or other social media awesome.  Please share in the comments. Happy New Year! Top photo: Shutterstock

5 Most Popular Digital Marketing and Public Relations Presentations of 2013

	5 Most Popular Digital Marketing and Public Relations Presentations of 2013 Photo Credit: Adamson Studios Photography In 2013, I had the good fortune to share insights on the integration of digital marketing and PR at over 25 events online and off. From San Francisco to New York to London, Madrid and Moscow, marketers all over the world are in search of answers on how to plan, integrate, implement and measure coordinated marketing messaging across multiple channels. I’d like to think TopRank Online Marketing helped move some people in the right direction. Growing tactical expertise is essential, but understanding the customer universe and their buying experience is even more important in today’s always on, always connected, digital world. The power of influence no longer belongs to the few as social technologies and networks have begun to democratize the ability to publish, engage and inspire. Looking over the year’s presentations on integrated digital marketing and public relations on our Slideshare account, I’ve picked out the top 5 according to our 12,000+ followers there to share with you as a review and also what to look forward to in 2014. How to Scale Creative Content Marketing – SES New York  This presentation from SES New York speaks to the evolution of content marketing from quantity to quality to experience. Creativity storytelling in content marketing is essential to stand out and create engagement with buyers in a way that they can feel, not just understand intellectually. Customer empathy is important, but so is brand leadership. So far this presentation has had just under 20,000 views on Slideshare. Digital Convergence: Integrated Marketing & Public Relations – Portland, OR  One of the most enjoyable and well received keynotes I’ve done was for the PDX Communicators Conference in Portland, Oregon on integrating digital marketing and public relations. Yes, Voodoo Donuts were involved as well as insights into how PR pros can leverage digital marketing for customer targeting, which marketing skills to grow, how to find common ground between PR and marketing and measurement. Just over 18,000 views on Slideshare and growing. Future of SEO in a Social Content World – Madrid OMWeek  Another keynote presentation I had some fun with is this presentation on the Future of SEO in a Social Content World given at the OMWeek SearchDay event in Madrid, Spain. The main points in this deck support the transition from SEO-only marketing to SEO as an integrated marketing approach that optimizes for customers first. Find out customers’ questions along the buying cycle and then answer them with content that’s easy to find and share. For a niche audience, this presentation attracted views from all over the world and is just over 17,000 views on Slideshare. War of Words: Myth-Busting Social Media, SEO & Content Marketing – NMX Las Vegas  My presentation at NMX Blogworld earlier this year was named one of the top 5 and is part of the reason I’ll be giving part of the opening keynote at NMX in 2014. The title of the presentation, War of Words: Myth-Busting Social Media, SEO & Content Marketing, was crowdsourced with you, our community. By understanding the customer journey and how people discover, consume and act on information, marketers can make better choices about content, optimization, engagement and offers. Social Media effectiveness is best measured for what it delivers: an assist, not just a direct response mechanism. Slideshare has this presentation at a solid 13,500 views and counting. B2B Social Media Marketing for Success – Moscow 2013  I was fortunate to travel all the way to Moscow, Russia to deliver a social media marketing workshop and this presentation that focused specifically on B2B social media: B2B Social Media Success: 10 Tips and Trends for 2014. When optimizing for the buyer’s journey in B2B, each content object must be accountable to attract, engage and convert at some level. All content does not need to convert to a lead, but at least contribute to the next step in the buying cycle. Creating value for buyers on both a personal and professional level through social media (B’s are people too) helps B2B marketers better engage with target audiences. B2B social media also requires patience – it’s a much longer sales cycle. With over 11,000 views on Slideshare so far, this presentation intended for a small group in Moscow has reached interested marketers from many other parts of the world. BONUS! Content Marketing Rocks! 36 Tips from Rock Star Brands & Marketers – eBook  On the TopRank Slideshare account, we publish ebooks as well as presentations and this eBook created in partnership with the awesome folks at Content Marketing World on Content Marketing was our most popular ebook of the year, attracting over 61,000 views. I hope you find this collection of presentations on integrating digital markeing tactcs and the convergence of marketing and public relations useful. These topics will only continue to grow in 2014, especially as marketing evolves as an integrated discipline from multi-channel to omni-channel. Being the best answer or solution for customers wherever they may be influenced requires and integrated effort and continuous testing, learning and optimization.

Online Marketing News: Twitter Engagement Explodes, Yahoo Falls Behind Facebook, Mobile Drives Paid Search Clicks

	Online Marketing News: Twitter Engagement Explodes, Yahoo Falls Behind Facebook, Mobile Drives Paid Search Clicks How To Increase Twitter Engagement By 324% – This infographic from Quicksprout has an absolute wealth of statistics and tips on how to generate a better ROI on Twitter – implement some of these suggestions into your strategy and watch those engagement rates climb. MediaBistro 62% Of Marketers Say Local Search Is Getting Harder – Read the opinions of hundreds of search agencies, consultants and business owners who logged in during a recent InsideLocal webinar. Search Engine Land 14 Stats to Inform Your 2014 Social Marketing Strategy – While no single industry statistic should stand alone in informing future plans and strategies, a broader snapshot of social network trends, social consumer behaviors and brand social media results can help reveal the big picture of social as we head into 2014. Social Media Today 33% of Paid-Search Clicks Coming From Mobile Devices – Mobile devices drove consumers to spend more time online while on the go. Paid search marketers worldwide allocated 34.4% to mobile devices in 2013, with phones capturing 17.7% and tablets receiving 16.7% — up from 20.5% in 2012. More than one in three global paid-search clicks originated from mobile devices during the 2013 early shopping season. The biggest driver was from tablets, where clicks rose from 8.7% of total clicks in 2012 to 16.3% in 2013. MediaPost Report: Digital Ad Spending to Approach $10 Billion This Year – Based on the preceding news item, this comes as no surprise, but the figures are huge. Ad spending across all devices will grow 15.7% to $42.6 billion. In 2014, eMarketer projects total spending on desktop ads will increase by just 0.4%, while mobile ad spending will grow another 56% to nearly $15 billion. – BtoB 12 (of the) Best Content Marketing Infographics of 2013 – Discover the best practices for creating effective infographics and helpful infographic design tools and resources. Webbiquity Six Pinterest Tools for Your Blog – Check out these six Pinterest tools to make the most of your site's visual content. SpinSucks B-to-B Digital Ad Revenue Up 25% in First Half – According to American Business Media’s most recent Business Information Network (BIN) Report, total B2B media and information company revenue increased 4.4% in the first half of the year to reach $13.11 billion, led by a 24.8% increase in digital advertising revenue. B2B Twitter Pushes Promoted Account Ads Into Timelines, Rolls Out Conversion Tracking Tool – As Twitter closes its most important year to date, the company is rapidly adding features in a concerted effort to boost revenues and compete with Facebook and Google for advertising dollars. Promoted accounts, one of Twitter's few ad products currently available, are now coming to the timeline via the company's iOS and Android apps. ClickZ Yahoo Slips Behind Google, Facebook and Microsoft In Online Ad Share – According to eMarketer, Yahoo!, long the country's second-largest ad seller, will cede share of net U.S. digital ad revenues to Facebook and Microsoft. AdAge Only 12% of Businesses Take an Integrated Approach to All Marketing Activities – The inability to integrate marketing campaigns is at least partly due to the failure to utilize relevant technologies. Less than a fifth of respondents (19%) said that they are currently using multichannel campaign management technology, though more than half (55%) are planning to begin using it in the next 18 months. eConsultancy 5 Biggest Social Media Lessons of 2013 – We still have a ways to go in understanding and applying social media to the business world, but there was no shortage of lessons to glean from 2013. Mashable Hit By Panda and Confused About Low-Quality Content? – Getting hit by Google Panda can be confusing for many webmasters. But one important Google Analytics report can help Panda victims get on the right track and quickly. This post includes detailed instructions for creating and exporting the report. Search Engine Watch Facebook Page Insights Now Include Real-Time Data – Facebook introduced two updates to its page insights aimed at giving page administrators a much clearer picture of both the present and the past. MediaBistro/All Facebook The Shape of Things to Come: Google in 2014 – How will Google evolve after the acquisition of Wavii, Behav.io, PostRank, Grapple, and machine learning and neural computing technologies? Gianluca Fiorelli paints a picture of Google in 2014, based on entity search, semantic, and über-personalization, covering how Google’s recent acquisitions will interact with one another in order to shape our search experience. Read this informative and definitive post. Moz Twitter Alerts Gains New Features, Rolls Out to Additional Countries – Twitter's Alert feature is becoming much more robust. Launched back in September, the goal of Twitter Alerts is to provide pertinent information in times of crisis. MarketingLand Top 20 YouTube & Video Marketing Stories the Year – YouTube dominated the video marketing headlines again this year, but Vine and Facebook made waves, as well. These were the 20 biggest stories in 2013. ClickZ Visual Search May Offer Deeper mCommerce Engagement – Recent advancements in the area of visual search are setting the stage for a major shift in how people interact with the world around them and how those selling can better interact with those buying. Visual search technology is entering real viability at a critical time for an industry undergoing a tremendous amount of upheaval. Mobile Commerce Daily Real-Time Marketing: The Agility to Leverage ‘Now’ – [SlideShare] Digital channels are ‘on’ 24/7, a fact that’s as true for brands as it is for traditional media. Organizations struggle to keep up, not to mention remain relevant. All marketing organizations must now consider to what degree they will function in real time. New research from Industry Analyst Rebecca Lieb defines real time marketing (RTM), identifies the six RTM business scenarios, addresses the benefits, challenges on how to execute and best practices of RTM. She outlines how companies can move into real-time readiness. Rebecca Lieb, Altimeter Report: Email Volume Rises 13% in Q3 – A study by Experian  revealed a rise in open rates when a brand’s name was included in the subject line of transactional emails, such as shipping and order confirmations, order cancellations and return confirmations. What are you doing to make your email stand out? BtoB From the Online Marketing Community On Why a Transition From Optimizing for Search Engines to Optimizing for Customers is Essential David Black said, Thankfully the days of posts with illiterate titles based solely on the top results from a quick Google keywords search may soon be over. It’s always possible to write articles or build web pages that customers want to see whilst using simple SEO techniques to help people find them. Really good content will get pushed around with social media and result in good SERPS. Derek Miller said, Really good article Lee and a lot of valid points. If companies do not make the change to focus on customers they will be left behind their competitors that do. Thanks for sharing. Eva said, Great Insight. I think one of the problems firms face is they are too focused in what they do rather than what customers need. The regular meetings revolve around what happened rather than “how can we help you achieve your strategic objectives?”. Add to that marketing being separate to the account manager people and you end up with SEO stuffed content in danger of falling into the “no one cares” about category. I believe research is critical is answering this debate, yet many companies are reluctant to ask their customers the critical questions. I would love to know if others have experience this. What’s Your Take? Will 2014 be the year more businesses take an integrated approach to marketing? Will you be optimizing for the customer journey? Wishing you all a very happy New Year! Thanks for reading.

Where Search Optimization Fits in The Future of Digital Marketing

	Where Search Optimization Fits in The Future of Digital Marketing Clever lighting at Google As long as useful answers can be found on search engines, optimizing content for search discovery will remain a key to online success. The degree to which marketers must align creative, technical and customer centric resources for content may vary, but optimized content is vital for reaching and engaging customers that actively looking for solutions. Buyers are continuously seeking answers from the web, whether it's via PC, mobile, or tablet, at every stage in the buying cycle. So it's important that brands ask themselves: Are your digital assets and media properly optimized to capture these visitors at every phase—from discovery to purchase? Of course, the days of optimizing a web site as a single source of interaction with customers are long gone. Buyers are becoming far more sophisticated in how they access information, often consuming media of different formats on multiple devices at the same time. While a company may do well with web pages on Google search from a lap top computer, their competitors might be dominating with images on mobile search and using video within relevant social networks. If your business isn’t “the best answer” where and when customers need you, then the competition will be. Integrated digital marketing across earned, owned, paid and shared media is the answer, but can be complicated for marketers that are structured for single channel efforts. As a starting point (and a solid reminder for pros) here are three simple tips on how to use search optimization as part of a more sophisticated digital marketing program. 1. Know Your Customer How well do you know your customers? What characterizes your best customers? Your worst customers? Have you quantified and qualified these observations? One way to anticipate the demand for topics that can drive your content creation and performance optimization is to research keywords with tools like Ubersuggest and Google AdWords Keyword Planner (AdWords account required). Use that research to create a keyword glossary and then map topics that are most relevant and in demand to the corresponding categories and pages on your website, blog and other web content. While Google has masked organic keyword referrers from web analytics, this mapping tactic will help you connect traffic performance to the topics and keywords that you’ve been optimizing for. Knowing what your buyer wants is the first step to delivering and then optimizing valuable content that will prove meaningful to new and returning customers alike. Use what you already know about your best customers to create, promote and optimize content that helps them answer key questions during all phases of the buying cycle. Don’t just focus on transactions. Once you have engagement with that content, you can use social media monitoring and web analytics data to further refine messaging, creative and calls to action. The future of optimization with digital marketing is a never ending effort to improve the ability for search engines and buyers to find understand and act on your content. 2. Align Sales with Search Businesses should analyze KPIs (key performance indicators) that lead consumers to conversion. What pages are driving conversion? What pages serve as stepping stones to conversion? Take inventory of these pages and ensure that they are optimized for discovery, engagement and action appropriately. For each customer segment, there may be a unique sequence of steps along the buying journey from awareness to interest to consideration and purchase. With each step there are different questions to be answered and different calls to action. Make sure you anticipate what KPIs make the most sense at each stage and that they align with the business outcome you desire. Trying to instigate transactions on a page that is optimized for customers that are just learning about your category of solution for the first time is a disconnect. Optimizing a page with a case study, pricing or competitive comparison is a better match for inspiring educated buyers to transact. Align appropriate sales messaging with optimized content across the buying cycle and you’ll deliver a better customer experience that will lead to more sales whether the pages are discovered from search or links from other sources like social media, industry publications or the company blog. 3. Track Performance & Facilitate Change Once you've implemented an SEO strategy into your digital marketing mix, the job of optimization for search is far from finished. Track the organic search visibility of your optimized content and digital assets to see if there are correlations between keyword ranking and the performance of pages that have been optimized for specific phrases. Moving forward, tailor your content and topic optimization strategy to reflect buyer preferences, and refine messaging on destination content like landing pages as well as feeder content like blog posts, earned media and social networks based on performance indicators. The process of optimization is continuous. The future of optimization within a digital marketing strategy means creating a search strategy that encompasses all devices, channels and media that customers are using. Modern business buyers and consumer shoppers are discovering and interacting with content on multiple channels. What does that mean for marketers? The days of single channel are dead. The days of multichannel are maturing and the world of omnichannel is where marketers need to gain proficiency in order to truly deliver on “the best answer” experience for buyers. According to Google Think Insights, "90% of people use multiple screens sequentially." Today, and in the coming year, your search optimization strategy must span all channels, reach your customers on all screens and be integrated with your overall online marketing strategy. Know your customer and revisit the data that supports your hypothesis about what drives each of your most important customer segments.  Optimize across the sales cycle, not just for transactions and make sure you’ve committed to optimizing for content performance in search on an ongoing basis. Have you tackled these three basic steps? Are your SEO efforts still focused on keywords and rankings or are you optimizing for customer experiences? This post was adapted from an edited interview I did with LivePerson for their eBook: The Future of Digital Engagement: 10 Thought Leaders Share Predictions for 2014

I am proud to share that both Alexis Hall and Nick Ehrenberg earned their Master’s degrees this year. Congratulations!

I am proud to share that both Alexis Hall and Nick Ehrenberg earned their Master’s degrees this year. Congratulations!

Happy Holidays from @TopRank Online Marketing

Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones from TopRank Online Marketing!
It’s been an incredible year for us with new faces, new clients, improved services mix and the continued growth of our digital marketing consulting practice.
This year we’ve added some amazing talent to the TopRank team and I am very thankful for their contributions! Ours is a very dynamic industry and mutual client and company success calls for our team members to be adaptable, passionate about the work and solution oriented.
I am happy to report that they’ve answered the call impressively. We’ve taken on 20 new clients, renewed more client engagements than ever and have grown numerous programs to include an integrated mix of content, social media, SEO and online PR.
Here’s a huge THANKS to the smart, creative and results-focused future leaders that have joined the TopRank Online Marketing team in 2013:

• Ben Brausen – Social Media Marketing
• Brooke McDonald – Account Management
• Eliza Steely – Account Management
• Emily Bacheller – Social Media Marketing
• Jesse Pickrain – Content Marketing
• Michael Bak – Account Management & Paid Search Marketing
• Nick Ehrenberg – Account Management, Content Marketing
• Steven Zahurones – Account Management, SEO

And we’re still hiring!
During the Holidays it’s important to reflect on what’s important and there’s a lot to be thankful for with our team and customer community. As part of that reflection, I regret the loss of our team member, Brian Larson and also marvel at the ability of senior consultant and director, Jolina Pettice, to hit the ground sprinting at full speed while taking on his client accounts.
We place a high value on ongoing learning at TopRank and I am proud to share that both Alexis Hall and Nick Ehrenberg earned their Master’s degrees this year. Congratulations!
Multiple team members have continued their quest for knowledge through various Google certifications (Analytics & Paid Search) as well as attending local and industry conferences. Account Manager Evan Prokop has embarked on a new Digital Marketing role that will impact his own areas of expertise as well as the rest of our team. We’ll continue that trend into 2014 so you’ll see more TopRank team faces at events, getting certified, continuously learning and optimizing performance.
I’d also like to extend gratitude, appreciation and best of luck to our amazingly talented Amie Krone who helps keeps the TopRank ship running in more ways than one. I wish the best of luck with the birth of her new baby and hope she can relax as much as possible during her maternity leave.
The heartbeat of TopRank is of course, Susan Misukanis, who mentors our consultants, works with new client opportunities and has the uncanny ability to bring clarity out of chaos. We are all forever thankful and grateful for her leadership and contributions (and sense of humor) that drive the success of our team, clients and overall agency.
There’s a lot to look forward to in the coming year and this one blog post simply isn’t enough to share the depth of my gratitude to our team, our clients and to our community. Thank you!

Thank you! Happy 10 Years of Blogging @TopRank Online Marketing Blog

	Thank you! Happy 10 Years of Blogging @TopRank Online Marketing Blog Can you believe it? On this day in 2003 our first “hello world” blog post for TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog was published.  1,328,500 of my own words plus tens of thousands more from our team later, it’s amazing to think it has been 10 years already. Wow, how time flies! A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to you, our readers, who have engaged, shared and interacted with us over the years. Your feedback and interactions have inspired us with ideas that we’ve been able spread all over the world.  In fact, I’ll be sharing the top 10 lessons I’ve learned from 10 years of blogging as one of the opening keynote presenters at NMX BlogWorld the first week in January.  As I reflect on the awesome contributions from our team and our community to the success of  TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog, I’ll share a few of those lessons here. Blogging has been good for our business. Many readers have become our clients, others have joined the TopRank team and many more have learned and shared the advice here amongst their own networks in the digital marketing, public relations, search, social and content marketing worlds. Blogging has also enabled coopetition amongst other digital agencies, many of which we’ve been able to partner with.  We’ve realized other benefits too: Unsolicited media coverage from The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The New York Times and many others Speaking opportunities all over the world: New York, San Francisco, Moscow, Madrid, Sydney, Antwerp, London, Hong Kong, Auckland, Tonoto and even Coralville Iowa. Consulting with major brands: General Mills, HP, Dell, McKesson, Staples, LinkedIn, Marketo, Radian6, and many others Recruiting top talent Partnering with amazing conferences as a media sponsor, content partner: Content Marketing World, Social Media Marketing World, NMX BlogWorld, ClickZ Live and others Source of experimentation The thing is, our blog isn’t a success just because of what we publish. It’s a success because of the the online to offline dynamic of networking and interacting with people in the industry.  We crowdsource ideas, content and leverage offline to online interactions for a cycle of interaction with priceless effects. Find smart people to interact with on relevant topics and then recognize them publicly when they contribute. This is how we’ve grown our social community to over 3o0,000. The magic formula for community growth: Ask, Recognize. Repeat. The proof is in the feedback. I can’t count how many times people have approached me at conferences and industry events to say they’ve been reading our blog for years and how it has helped them improve their marketing and even get jobs, promotions and inspire them to start their own consultancies. Not only is it satisfying to know our efforts to contribute have helped others, but it’s inspiring others to do the same. A rising tide lifts all ships. Our business blogging philosophy: Give to get. With the real-time, visual and mobile web exploding, blogging still holds an important place in the digital marketing mix – and always will for our team at TopRank. While we’re a boutique digital marketing agency, our blog has helped us achieve industry awareness, reputation and respect on par with a agency that is multiples our size.  We’ve been included in numerous lists as a top blog and are often considered a publisher on par with many industry publications. Becoming a go to resource for topics your community is interested in helps you become the center of attention when it matters most. It helps your customers bypass industry publications and connect with your brand directly as a trusted source of answers, resources and solutions. If you want to ensure your brand gets in the media, then become the media yourself. As a communications and marketing tool, the importance of blogging cannot be underestimated. Blogging has been an instrumental part of growing our business from a few marketers working with a handful of clients from home to a sweet office on Lake Minnetonka where we get to work with some of the biggest companies, best known B2B brands, and smartest client marketers on the web.  The best part is, as we share our knowledge, we also hypothesize, test and learn in a continuous cycle. Blogging facilitates that cycle of learning that we can share with our community. A blog is only as interesting as the interest show in others. For 10 years, creating content has been the core of our communications strategy to attract, engage and inspire action from prospective customers, potential employees, industry media, influencers and bloggers.  Seeing the millions of dollars in ROI from our blogging efforts, I can’t imagine that strategy will change in the next 10 years. Creating content as information, specifically useful and personalized for a target audience and as an overall experience across channels will be even more important in 2014 and beyond. Content is more than blogging, but blogging help you create more and better content that can reach the audience you’re after. Content isn’t just king, it’s the kingdom When it comes to creating impactful content with minimal resources, I believe we walk the talk like few other companies can. Then we pass that insight on to your, our clients and community nearly every day.  Competition for time and attention is only going to increase. At the same time, it’s essential that marketers become even more effective at being useful and info-taining when and where it matters to their target audience. Whether it’s a search, a social network, email, an industry publication or an event, companies need to be present and top of mind for buyers. Blogging is a fantastic platform for asking and answering the questions that buyers are asking and that Google is beginning to favor. Remember, content is the reason search began in the first place. Marketing Strategy for 2014 and beyond: Be the best answer. Thanks to our team of contributors and very small number of guest posts, we’ve published nearly 3,500 blog posts including hundreds of marketing conference liveblogs, industry trends, tips and how to’s, interviews, book reviews, software reviews, polls and our beloved lists. I hope you’ve found them useful and continue to visit and share our humble little blog as often as you can. I’ll be sharing more insights and specific thank you’s to TopRank staff, contributors, influencers and our community during the rest of this week as our 10 years of blogging celebration continues. Thank you for reading, using and sharing!

Online Marketing News: Holiday Stats, Content Marketing Predictions, Hummingbird Impacts Local, Facebook's New News Feed

Online Marketing News: Holiday Stats, Content Marketing Predictions, Hummingbird Impacts Local, Facebook's New News Feed 47 Stats to Supercharge Your Holiday Marketing – Gain some insight into a number of intriguing statistics about holiday marketing. It may be too late for you to shift marketing dollars now, but it always pays to plan early for next year. Hubspot 50 Content Marketing Predictions for 2014 – Part of the fun of getting to the end of 2013 is predicting the trends for 2014. Find out what Joe Pulizzi and 50 other content marketing thought leaders see ahead. Content Marketing Institute Advertisers to Spend $5.60 Billion on YouTube in 2013 Worldwide – YouTube takes home $1.96 billion in net global digital ad revenues and a 20.5% share of US video ad market. eMarketer Facebook Launches Video Ads – Facebook is rolled out a feature this week that will allow advertisers to play videos in users’ news feeds. The feature offers companies a new way to promote movies and products on smartphones and computers and is being tested with a small group of Facebook users. CNN Money The 80/20 Rule: Why Just 20% of Your Social Media Content Should Be About Your Brand – The 80/20 Rule should always be a big part of your social media strategy. It simply comes down to this: use just 20% of your content to promote your brand, and dedicate 80% to content that really interests your audience and engages them in conversations. Social Media Today Hummingbird’s Impact on Local Search – There seems to have been a significant qualitative shift in local results since Google’s release of Hummingbird that David Mihm says he hasn't seen reported on search engine blogs and media outlets. Head's up if you own a local business. Here's your chance to dominate local search. Moz Study: More Than 70% of Under 35s Research, Post and Talk About Brands on Social Media [Infographic] – More than seven out of ten millennials (internet users aged between 15 and 34, aka Generation Y) consult, react to or post about products and brands on social media, with almost two-thirds saying that positive – and negative – experiences shared by others impact their purchase decisions. All Twitter Facebook News Feed Now Favors High-Quality Articles – Facebook announced changes to its News Feed algorithm that give favorable placement to high-quality content including links to articles — especially for mobile users. Additional changes include story bumping for posts with comments and links to additional articles. Search Engine Watch Google Ad Rank Study: How the New Formula is Impacting AdWords Performance – In October, Google changed its Ad Rank formula which determines the position order of AdWords paid search ads. The revised formula now factors in the expected impact of ad extensions and ad formats, in addition to the bid and quality score. Read the latest findings on the impact of this significant change here. Search Engine Land How to Use New LinkedIn Showcase Pages – Showcase pages allow companies with multiple brand messages to segment them easily and deliver them to the right audiences. Here's what every marketer needs to know. Social Media Examiner 7 Features Your Brand’s Facebook Page Isn’t Utilizing, But Should Be – Although Facebook has been a staple in many business' strategies for several years, there are some features you may not know about. Here's a list of useful highlights to help you maximize the effectiveness of your brand's Facebook page. Business2Community Google Allows Select Brands to Turn Google+ Posts Into Display Ads – Learn more about Google's new plans for +Post ads, which can be created from Google+ posts, and why the ad type may be a boon for marketers. Hubspot Twitter, Pinterest Challenging Facebook for Social Sharing Dominance [Infographic] – According to Gigya, Facebook's social share sphere has declined from 50% to 41% comparing Q3 to Q2 in 2013. Meanwhile, Twitter now boasts a 30% share, up from 24% with Pinterest rising 4%, growing to 20%. MediaBistro More Than Half of US Residents Get News From Social Media – According to a Pew Research study, more people in the US are turning to social media as the source for news. Reddit was rated the highest as a news source with 62 percent of its users being there for the news. Instagram, Vine and Pinterest rated lowest at 13 percent, nine percent, and three percent respectively. 54 percent of tweeters were getting their news hot off the hashtag. Social Times Twitter's Latest Experimental Account Tries to Predict Viral Tweets – Twitter appears to be experimenting with a new account called @magicstats that can predict which tweets are going to go viral. Social Sprout Content Marketing Questions to Ask and Answer – [Infographic] Answers the Who, What, Where, When, Why & How to make you a more effective content marketer. Marketing Tech Blog Google Moves Into Robotics – Google has acquired Boston Dynamics, a company known for developing super-fast, animal-like robots with strong ties to the U.S. military. In addition, Google has quietly purchased another seven robotics firms over the past six months, with some of the companies heralding the start of a “robot revolution.” CNN Money Survey: Facebook the Most Trusted Channel for Brand Recommendations – The just-released Social Recommendation Index shows that Facebook is the most trusted social media platform for product and service recommendations. Recommendations from family and close friends have gained the most credibility when it comes to purchase decisions, while celebrity reviews are the least reliable, according to the survey. ClickZ Report: Tweets with Pictures Shared 3x More Often – Twitter posts that include a picture are more than three times more likely to be retweeted than those without one, according to "The Retweet Report" from competitive tracking platform, TrackMaven. The report also found an inverse relationship between the busiest times for tweeting and retweeting. Tweets are most frequently sent on weekdays between noon and 3 p.m. ET, but the greatest number of retweets occurs between 10 p.m. and midnight.  BtoB Online Facebook Hashtags Aren't Very Effective Study Says – On Google+, hashtags help surface related content. On Twitter, hashtags enable news to spread fast. On Facebook, hashtags turn your posts into garbage, according to a study by EdgeRank, a Facebook analytics provider. Social Times The Best Pinterest Place Pins Examples and Why Your Business Should Use Them – Here are some great tips on the best ways to utilize Place Pins for every industry, retail, public services and even your local post office. Search Engine Journal The Marketer’s Guide to Actionable Data [Infographic] – Using historical and real-time data about customers, marketers can create tailored experiences for them and drive company revenue. See what marketers consider to be their biggest obstacles to using data. MarketingProfs How to Find B2B Leads in 2014 (Hint: Probably Not on Twitter and Facebook) – [Infographic] Business to business (B2B) marketing has always been a tougher nut to crack than business to consumer (B2C), and that's particularly true in modern marketing mediums such as social media and mobile. For brands looking to generate leads and sales in this space, identifying what does and does not work is key not only to success, but also to survival. This visual offers quite a few interesting statistics that should help you to make better, more informed marketing choices for 2014. MediaBistro From the Online Community On Why A Transition From Optimizing for Search Engines to Optimizing for Customers is Essential Eva said, Great Insight. I think one of the problems firms face is they are too focused in what they do rather than what customers need. The regular meetings revolve around what happened rather than “how can we help you achieve your strategic objectives?”. Add to that marketing being separate to the account manager people and you end up with SEO stuffed content in danger of falling into the “no one cares” about category. I believe research is critical is answering this debate, yet many companies are reluctant to ask their customers the critical questions. I would love to know if others have experience this. On 11 Must Read eBooks to Get Content Marketing Smart for 2014 Aaron said, Lee, thanks man, not only is this a monster list of awesome ebooks, the bigger take-away is how well you and TopRank “walk the walk” when it comes to producing a mix of QUALITY original and curated content on a frequent basis. “The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing & Influencer Strategy” looks particularly interesting and timely. Thanks! Steve Peck said, Thanks Lee! I appreciate you configuring this list, which will keep me and our content marketing team engaged well into the new year. Seeing this compilation reinforces my belief in the value of longer form content as part of an effective content marketing strategy. What role do you see long form content like eBooks and Whitepapers playing in 2014? Will these resources experience a Renaissance or will marketers invest to appease the rapidly diminishing attention span of their prospective customers? What’s Your Take? What's on your reading list for 2014? Will online marketers get on board with optimizing for the customer rather than search engines? Thanks for reading and have a great holiday!

Why A Transition From Optimizing for Search Engines to Optimizing for Customers is Essential

	Why A Transition From Optimizing for Search Engines to Optimizing for Customers is Essential Judging by the daily new business inquiries we get every day, there’s a groundswell of companies that have become frustrated at the lack of cause and effect data from their SEO programs. Sure, there are workarounds for things like “not provided” keywords, but the lack of information and uncertainty about what Google will take away next is causing many marketers to diversify into other owned, earned and organic areas: social media, content marketing, online public relations, and certainly into online advertising. At the same time, as SEO practitioners have matured as marketers, the shift from keywords as the driver for content optimization and creation have been displaced by a focus on answering customer questions along the sales cycle. Ironically, this emphasis on solving for the customer and architecting content according to satisfying customer information is in alignment with Google’s Hummingbird update – i.e. the move away from “keyword SEO” to creating useful, customer-centric content that answers their questions is actually good for SEO. But so many marketers have relied upon and benefitted from traditional SEO tactics and reporting, that they have a hard time letting go. Their internal marketing performance reporting is often keyword driven and a ridiculous number of companies cannot answer the question: “What is the profile of the target customer you are optimizing for?”. What does the sales cycle look like? What topics are important during the customer journey? Think about that. There are numerous companies that have top tier writers creating keyword optimized content with no clear identification of who the content is for, or what the specific intended outcome is. Or where one content object fits with other content and how they are connected to the customer experience. What legacy SEO focused marketers often care about is rankings, organic referred traffic, and page views with trend lines that go up and to the right. There’s not a lot of focus on customer experience, customer journey or differentiation amongst segments. Even if marketers were convinced that keyword lists and ranking reports are no longer the primary way (yet still useful in some ways) to manage a website marketing program, they aren’t set up to move to something else other than various online advertising options. I’m sure more than a few brand marketers reading this can relate to situations where management wants tactics to affect certain big picture measurables like “rankings and traffic” that are not necessarily tied to other important metrics like increased orders, sales, revenue, customers added, sales cycle duration, and cost of marketing/sale. It’s the old KPIs vs. business outcomes thing. So how can you move from that all-SEO program and mindset to a customer focused online marketing program?  How can you put SEO in it’s place within the marketing mix without discrediting yourself and past advice? What’s the go forward and how can you continue to provide value with roots in SEO but with an emphasis on customer targeting across the sales cycle? Fundamentally, it comes down to cracking the nut that is your target customer and how solving information problems for them in a way that leads to achieving business goals – leads, revenue, profitability, referrals, lower marketing costs, retention and advocacy. Optimize covers this in depth. That’s not a book pitch, it’s the truth. Every week I know that companies are contacting their SEOs and saying, “Hey, we love the work you’re doing, but we’re shifting our focus. What else can you do for us?” When that happens, you’re up to bat, what are you going to do? Are you going to start rambling on about algorithm changes? Or maybe say that social media is the new SEO? Better yet, talk about how content marketing is the new SEO! Content Marketing is NOT the “new SEO” My challenge to companies still focused on keyword vs. customer driven online marketing is to take a step back and maintain perspective on where SEO fits in the marketing mix. Content is the reason search engines were created, so broaden your perspective and think about answering the why, for who and what outcomes are expected with content. Understand who the target audience is and why they buy. See the relevant topics and stories you could tell in your content and let that drive creation, optimization, amplification and engagement. Some marketers will say, “We don’t have people who know how to do that.”.  The good news is that agencies like ours that integrate multiple marketing disciplines have been helping companies with these discussions and transitions for years. You may not know this, but our company roots are an integration of public relations, direct marketing and SEO – since 2001. That long standing “SEO plus” approach has helped keep SEO in perspective.  After all, SEO is just marketing. The last thing you need, is to pay a SEO consultant for advice only to later find out the effect of that advice (quantity, not quality content, overly aggressive links) is now working against you. Next you’ll be asked to pay to undo what you paid to have implemented in the first place. Whether that comes as a result of SEO hucksterism or brand greed, it’s expensive and potentially deadly. And it’s completely avoidable. Not all SEO consultants put their clients at risk like this. Not by a long shot. The reason to transition from keywords to customer optimization isn’t just to avoid risky SEO tactics. The drive to make the transition should be a clear picture of how your company can better serve your customers. Start speaking customer and focus on content that helps your brand become  the best answer for customers, where ever they may be: search, social, email, publications, mobile. More important than getting into the weeds of how to make the transition is acknowledging that the change needs to be made. Then having the confidence that what you evolve to is something that actually works – for customers, for your business and especially for you in your role as an agency or a brand marketer. Has your company made a transition from old school SEO tactics to a more customer focused, integrated marketing approach? Do you ever feel stuck with SEO focused reporting and want something more strategic?

TopRank Liveblogging Schedule for NMX BlogWorld 2014

	TopRank Liveblogging Schedule for NMX BlogWorld 2014 It's official—we're breaking one of the cardinal rules of Las Vegas. You know the one, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”. But at TopRank Online Marketing,  just can't bring ourselves to do that. This year's NMX conference is taking the city (and the New Year) by storm. Full of bloggers, digital marketers, and industry experts this new media conference promises to deliver so much information we just won't be able to keep it to ourselves! Which is why I’m joining Nick Ehrenberg and Ben Brausen to jet off to soak up as much as we can, and share it with our readers (even if it means breaking the rules). Along with liveblogging, our own Lee Odden will also be at NMX giving one of the keynote presentations along with Scott Stratten, Amy Porterfield and several other top blogging pros. For those who can't attend, or for attendees who missed a session and want to catch up, here is a preview of our liveblogging schedule. These aren’t all the sessions we’ll be covering, so be sure to follow along @TopRank to see when new posts are published. Ben Brausen: Taking Your Pinterest Account to the Next Level: Strategies for Attracting Followers and Driving Traffic to Your Blog Pinterest drives more traffic than Twitter, LinkedIn, and Reddit combined. In this session by Cynthia Sanchez we will learn how to : Create a Pinterest account that attracts followers Leverage Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog Optimize blogs for Pinterest Creating pinnable content By the end of the session, I hope to have a live blog that readers will happily pin on their own boards. The Power of Niche Podcasting – Three Reasons You Should Narrowly Focus On One There are a million podcasts out there. So how do you find your niche? In Kenn Blanchard's presentation, we'll learn how to find your podcast focus, how to define your audience so you know where to find them, and how to tap into a highly engaged audience. We'll learn how to find our place in the world of podcasting and how to stand out among all the others. 15 Social Media Tools to Become a More Productive and Effective Blogger Social media is a great tool for connecting with your target audience. We could spend all day working our social channels (out of necessity and losing track of time). Though some of us would love to do that, we don't all have that luxury. For those of us that can't, there are tons of tools out there to make the most of your time spent on social. Ian Cleary's session will look at 15 social media tools to make the most of your social efforts. The presentation will cover new tools, as well as existing ones that could be more efficient than ones you're currently losing. Cleary will also present how to best use these tools for the best return on your time investment in social and blogging. Nick Ehrenberg: Crowdsourcing Influence: Brands and Influencers get Hitched in a Big Way Brands frequently discuss leveraging thought leaders in their content strategies, but what is the best way to collate and utilize these sources? Dino Dogan, founder of Triberr, believes that hiring 100 brand ambassadors – bloggers and content creators each with their own small but loyal followings – will boost online brand awareness. His session will teach how to connect brands and influencers in a creative way. We're hoping to learn how to make it work for smaller B2B clients that may not have the same resources as a large brand. How to Create a Mobile Content Marketing Strategy Businesses cannot ignore mobile content marketing, but they also must understand customer mobile habits in order to create relevant, shareable content. What are customers looking for with mobile content? What are B2B businesses looking to deliver? How should mobile be integrated into an overall content strategy – and are we nearing a future where mobile become the dominant platform for content delivery? Greg Hickman, founder of Mobile Mixed, will teach NMX attendees how to create a mobile content marketing strategy that will allow you to create an amazing experience for your consumers regardless of the device they use. Thousands of Fans in 6 Months or Less: 5 Easy Steps to Get your Facebook Page off the Ground Almost everybody – individual and brand alike – has a Facebook page. But if you want to register more that incremental growth on that page, (and have little funds available for paid advertising), the tips from this session should help create authentic growth. Andrea Vahl plans to highlight 5 essential elements that an effective Facebook page has, as well as teach how to set up a Facebook Page strategy and find the best content to post. Eliza Steely How to Work with Bloggers and Influencers Influencer marketing has been a hot topic this year, and promises to continue being important in 2014. But when you're not quite sure how to work with influencers, or even other bloggers, it can be a hard thing to tackle. Tara Salinas has had incredible success working with bloggers. Her NMX session promises to leave attendees with confidence by teaching: What to look for in a pitch How to check to see if the blogger is hitting your demographics How to make a blogger criteria that works for your company How to Convert Your Casual Readers into a Thriving Community of Raving Fans Let's face it, most of us would rather listen to friends and family than marketers—it's why word of mouth is so popular. In his session Pat Flynn will demonstrate (and help us discover) what to do to turn regular readers into "ridiculously supportive fans who will wear your team colors with pride!". Some key takeaways include: The science behind what makes a raving fan Specific strategies, and examples, to use to cultivate a growing audience Magic-like techniques to get people to quickly root for you and your brand Monetizing on a Global Scale through Content Lately, marketers have shifted to focusing more on the customer experience and ensuring it's optimized, relevant, and as memorable (yet unique) as can be. It's essential to balance that with your own objectives which has raised a huge question, "how can you make money from advertising and not degrade the consumer experience?". Matthew Alecock and Dave Zinman plan to review principles that lead to their success in this arena. They will also highlight why it's important for publishers to offer advertising solutions that successfully operate on a global scale, the importance of targeting customers in real-time, and how to enhance the user experience with advertising. Like every other great conference, these sessions are a miniscule representation of the helpful, interesting sessions scheduled throughout the three-day conference. Check out the conference program for the full schedule of presenters and topics! If you can't attend NMX, don't worry—we've got you covered! Ben, Nick and I will be live-blogging the sessions above, and a few others, to share key insights and actionable tips along the way. You can always stay up-to-date on the conference via Twitter by following @TopRank as well as our individual Twitter accounts: @BenBrausen, @NickEhrenberg, @elizalynnsteely or by tracking the hashtag #NMX. What are you most excited to learn from NMX? Are there any sessions you’d like us to cover?