SEO Content Marketing Roundup, Week Ending April 6th, 2011

Feeling sociable?  This week’s latest and greatest web writing news centers on being (successfully) social, as content and social media marketers talk blogging and community development, while SEO and search folks discuss Google’s social ranking factors and its latest attempt at being social… plus (+1) or minus (-1).  Spread your social butterfly wings and investigate this week’s early spring blossoms…

Content Marketing:

So how do you define marketing?  Great read by Lee Odden at Top Rank.

In a similar vein, C.C. Chapman (co-author of “Content Rules”) talks about why content curation is critical to business via HubSpot’s “Inbound Now” video “show.”

HubSpot also features a video interview with Guy Kawasaki, who shares content creation tips.

iMedia Connection features an article addressing what “audience development” really means to social media, digital, and content marketing.

Are digital marketers ignoring Baby Boomers? At their own peril: check out the stat’s at eMarketer, which also reports that ad dollars still aren’t following online and mobile usage.

Another definition, this time of “conversation marketing” is posted by Ian Lurie of Conversation Marketing.

So do you have Google’s trust?  Check out this smart post at Brand Dignity (Brandignity).

Design Damage explains why attention is the new online currency, and Big Brand System discusses uncovering your brand’s personality (in 10 minutes or less).

Ragan.com further takes up (business) blogging with seven must-haves for a successful business blog, via guest post by Lee Odden.

Marketing lessons from Charles Darwin are at HubSpot, as are “mind-blowing statistics” that every marketer should know (both making the case for inbound marketing).

Do you know how and what content your buyers consume? Smart post at Content Marketing Institute on understanding your prospect.

Seth Godin addresses the disconnect between price and value in content, and Neuromarketing reviews Godin’s new book, “Poke the Box.”

Mashable discusses the brewing war amongst industry heavies to replace your traditional wallet with NFC technology.

In the mobile marketing thread, iMedia Connection posts seven new ways that brands can go mobile.

A great example of direct, instant engagement with the consumer via mobile content is at  Marketing Sherpa, citing the National Hockey League’s Calgary Flames and its fans.

Content Marketing Institute discusses five things you need to know about content strategy.

Finally, the need for (website) speed:  Mashable reports on Google’s new tool for helping you increase page speed, and Conversation Marketing’s Ian Lurie reports that fast pages convert two times better than their slower competitors (based on his column at Search Engine Land, where he focuses on ways to speed up your website).

SEO & Search:

SEOmoz posts a retrospective of all the SEO changes (mostly Google’s doing) that have occurred over the past year, not the least of which is the rise of social SEO.

Google’s introduction of its plus-one (+1) feature (social recommendation “button” for saying “it’s pretty cool”) to search results (and eventually to sites themselves, says the big G) had all the SEO and search industry buzzing, with insightful posts and smart takes from:

Search Engine Land – Danny Sullivan likens Google’s +1 to Facebook’s “Like.”

Search Engine Roundtable – Barry Schwartz does a great job of summarizing the feedback from searchers, webmasters and advertisers, providing a brief video demo and links to relevant resources.

Weighing in on the recent Google initiatives, Eric Enge addresses post-Panda measurements of social engagement at Search Engine Land.

Finally, Eric Ward discusses how all those social likes, pluses, tweets, etc. may “cleanse the link graph” via Search Engine Land.

Ann Smarty reviews Alan Bleiweiss’ new ebook, “The Site Owner’s Guide to SEO for Content Writing,” at Search Engine Journal.

SEOmoz’s Rand Fishkin addresses the healthy “sibling rivalry” between PPC and SEO in his latest “Whiteboard Friday” presentation, and posts early ranking factors data from 2011.

So is SEO going to be a costlier service (or, a more profitable profession) in coming years?  Read about it at Search Engine Journal.

Social Media Marketing:

Social Fresh looks at three simple tools for merging social and search, while Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan discusses Twitter’s advanced search page and improved “who to follow” results.

SEL also explores Twitter’s new home page and its emphasis on interests, and HubSpot posts five marketing action items from Twitter’s search update.

Vertical Measures posts how Twitter milestones are happening every day.

Top Rank’s Lee Odden discusses how B2B marketing can become more social.

The three types of “self-destructive” corporate tweets is at Jay Baer’s Convince and Convert, and Trackur discusses “the do’s and don’t’s” of reputation management.

Search Engine Journal posts how (some) PR people are “destroying social media,” B2B Marketing Insider posts “the end of social media,” and GigaOm discusses how newspapers still aren’t really “getting” social media.

How to grow a blog community with social media is the subject of Social Media Examiner’s Michael Steizner’s video interview with ProBlogger founder and author, Darren Rowse.

SME also looks at Foursquare vs. Facebook Places, Mashable posts how Foursquare makes discovering brands easier, and Sazbean posts an infographic on Quora’s evolution (via Kissmetrics).

Business Insider posts a chart showing that – at least for now — social sites have little effect on where folks buy stuff online.

Meanwhile, Guy Kawasaki discusses how to launch any product using social media at Mashable.

Mack Collier penned a couple of posts about blogging, one that speaks to how to create a blog that connects with readers via slides, and a second on how to build an online community.

“Kick-starting” your blog by embracing the “nobodies” is posted at Kikolani, and critical “mom blogger” realities that you’re overlooking is at iMedia Connection.

Finally, Daily Blog Tips discusses common sense ways to network your way to blogging success, and Jay Baer posts how to spy on your Facebook competitors with “hyperalerts” at Convince and Convert.