SEO content marketing roundup, week ending February 15th, 2012

Happy Valentine’s Day… after. Whether you woke up with an engagement ring and/or a serious hangover, you’ll find some select goodies in this week’s latest and greatest Web writing news (sans the heart-shaped box – sorry!).

Content marketers discuss blogging and websites, social media marketers continue to buzz about Pinterest and Google+, while SEO and search professionals discuss link building and other SEO fundamentals. So won’t you Be mine, Valentine? and enjoy this week’s picks!

Content Marketing

No matter your internet marketing perspective, you’ll want to check out comScore’s  2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus.

Ardala Evans pens a very witty and helpful, tip-laden Valentine’s Day greeting from your business blog to you at Vertical Measures, with “Romancing Your Blog.”

Shelly Bowen asks readers what their definition of content marketing is at pybop, eliciting some noteworthy replies.

Veteran industry expert Wendy Montes de Oca posts part one of “The Real Truth About Content Marketing and the Search Engines” at Target Marketing Magazine.

Marketing Sherpa gives its readers a Valentine’s Day wrap-up of its 2012 Email Summit, with the top five take-aways for e-mail marketers.

Thomas Clifford posts a six-step process for creating emotionally engaging content at Content Marketing Institute.

Mitt Ray posts how bloggers can create and use white papers at Kikolani.

Rachel McCombie posts a how-to on creating a successful business blog at SEOptimise.

So will the rise of photo apps kill the written word? By Ekatrina Walter at Convince and Convert.

Neil Patel discusses 10 ways that customer data-mining can help you gain a competitive edge at KISSmetrics.

Roger Dooley discusses an extreme example of “product personalization” at NeuroMarketing.

Rachel Foster discusses how you can double your B2B content without doubling your workload at Content Marketing Institute.

Top Rank features highlights from Michael Stelzner’s Online Marketing Summit (OMS 2012) presentation with “Better Content Marketing for Improved Social Engagement.”

SEO & Search

Citing a Valentine’s Day study and infographic from Conductor, Miranda Miller reports that Valentine’s Day 2012 organic searches were dominated by Gifts.com, at Search Engine Watch.

Neil Patel shares 10 advanced SEO tactics that will increase your blog’s traffic at Search Engine Journal.

Ian Lurie discusses “The Challenge of Justifying Enterprise SEO” at Search Engine Land.

Kerry Dean discusses both the changes and the constants of the SEO industry with “The Golden Age of SEO” at Search Engine Land.

In his ongoing series on Google’s patent activity, Bill Slawski of SEO by the Sea discusses the big G’s latest filing which would allow it to filter blog posts in its search engine results.

Jenny Halasz shares her keyword research process with the highly informative “keyword research rabbit hole” at Search Engine Land.

Jack Martin posts “The Alfred Hitchcock Guide to SEO Copywriting” at Portent Interactive.

Aidan Hijleh discusses the ability to search by location using Google+ (and its benefits to marketers) at Search Engine Journal.

Larry Sullivan posts a list of predictions for local search in 2012 at Localbiz Bits.

Daniel Waisberg reports on a Google Analytics update to organic reports at Search Engine Land.

Social Media Marketing

Lee Odden shares his selection of “Essential Resources on Social Business for Online Marketing” at Top Rank.

Michael Stelzner interviews Shani Higgins on 2012 blogging trends (“what you need to know”) at Social Media Examiner.

Citing comScore data, Josh Constine reports that Pinterest has hit 11.7 million unique U.S. users a month – “crossing the 10 million mark faster than any other standalone site in history” – at TechCrunch.

A comprehensive curation of 30 resource links to do with Pinterest is shared by Jeff Bullas at his blog.

Sujan Patel posts 13 ways to get more Pinterest followers at Search Engine Journal.

A less enthusiastic post about Pinterest, “Pinterest and the Huge Sucking Sound,” is penned by Sean McGinnis.

Greg Finn cites a report by Compete showing that Google+ and the Google+ button are seeing phenomenal growth in the U.S., at Marketing Land.

Sam Crocker discusses what you (and your clients) should know about Google+ at State of Search.

Shea Bennett shares an infographic by Imbue Marketing showing “A Who’s Who of Social Media” for brands, at Mediabistro’s AllTwitter.

Gina Dietrich reports that Facebook’s Timeline app will be coming for businesses at SpinSucks.

A little respect: Greg Sterling cites a UK-based “brand desire” study in reporting that Google far outshines Facebook in terms of global brand “respect” by a quantum margin, at Marketing Land.

Brian Solis discusses the importance of user experience in customer relationships at Fast Company.

Jennifer Amanda Jones shares 10 tips for creating a social media policy for your business at Social Media Examiner.

Finally, Jahnelle Pittman pens an impassioned post urging internet marketers to walk the walk and connect the dots at Level 343.

photo credit to Jerry