SEO Content Marketing Roundup, Week Ending April 4th, 2012

Information is power: In this week’s latest and greatest Web-writing news, marketers are handed volumes of information garnered from the latest industry research and surveys. SEO and search pro’s face some 50 Google updates, social media marketers digest the latest industry survey report, while content marketers examine every which way to better their business. These powerful pearls of info (and much more) await you like goodies in an Easter basket…enjoy this week’s yummy picks!

Content Marketing

So are you making these mistakes with your content? Level 343 goes beyond the usual posts about copywriting errors with an in-depth look at content snafu’s that happen to the best of us.

Lee Odden answers 12+ business blogging and community building questions (from twitter chats) at Top Rank.

Jeff Freund discusses strategic site content optimization with “A brand’s guide to content marketing” at iMedia Connection.

Carl Friesen discusses how to use opinions to create powerful content at Content Marketing Institute.

Carol S. Valdez posts 4 steps to repurposing content (& looking sharp!) with “Repurpose Web Content Like a Fashionista” at Shelly Bowen’s pybop.

Seth Godin discusses “The essential question to ask before extending your brand.”

Reb Carlson interviews JESS3’s CEO Jesse Thomas and designer Tiffany Farrant-Gonzalez about turning dirt-dull company data into compelling visualization at The Content Strategist.

Are you in the cloud? MarketingProfs asks if your business needs a cloud broker.

Jack Aaronson pens the delightful “You Can’t Cure Stupid: When It’s OK to Lost Customers” at ClickZ.

Ahava Liebtag  posts “5 Questions to Ask before Jumping on the Infographics Bandwagon”at Content Marketing Institute.

SEO & Search

Citing Google’s 50 March (“search quality”) updates, Matt McGee summarizes the more salient points at Search Engine Land.

At Search Engine Watch, Greg Jarboe posts SEW’s “Exclusive Interview on Search Industy Issues with Sloof Lirpa,” the reclusive founder and director of the Sloof Lirpa Center for the Study of Long Tail Profitability.

Search Engine Land posts an insightful read that takes an in-depth look at the “SoLoMo” trend, with “The Golden Triad Of Search Marketing: How To Leverage It For Massive Success.”

David Gould posts a creative read on “What ‘Draw Something’ Teaches Us About Website Optimization” at Vertical Measures.

Summarizing participants’ Twitter feedback from the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, Jim Sterne posts “Today’s 5 Top Analytical Problems” at ClickZ.

Avinash Kaushik posts “Multi-Channel Attribution: Definitions, Models and a Reality Check” at Occam’s Razor.

Jenny Halasz continues her series for SEO beginners with “How To Develop A Keyword Plan” at Search Engine Land.

For those in retail, Dan Morrison posts “keyword expansion resources and strategies,” also at Search Engine Land.

MarketingProfs posts the brief, basic “3 Ways to Know Your SEO is Working.”

For the techie/advanced SEO, Daniel Butler gives “the lowdown on structured data and Schema.org” at SEOmoz.

In his weekly Q&A video, Arnie Kuenn explores the question of whether Google+ will play a big role in future search results, at Vertical Measures.

Eric Ward posts the sharp “Dark Side of the Links: It’s All Fun & Games ‘Til Google Catches On” at Search Engine Watch.

Sujan Patel lists the 15 best link-building tools at Search Engine Journal.

Craig Bradford posts a helpful, no-nonsense guide to building passive links for those without the luxury of a link-building budget at SEOmoz.

Josh McCoy weighs in on the linking discussion with “Internal Linking, the Other Linking” at Search Engine Watch.

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Examiner has released its fourth annual social media marketing industry survey (2012) in which “…more than 3800 marketers reveal where they focus their social media activities, how much time they invest and what the rewards are,” states Michael Stelzner. The 42-page report is available for (free) immediate download thru April 19^th.

Lee Odden discusses highlights from the SME 2012 industry report (above) at Top Rank.

Mack Collier asks what the difference is between a brand advocate and a brand ambassador at his blog.

Brian Solis posts “The 6 Pillars of Social Commerce: Understanding the psychology of engagement” at his blog.

Jeff Bullas discusses “Why Content is the Foundation of your Social Media Marketing” at his blog.

Gini Dietrich posts the (important and) insightful “Five Things to Watch Out For as Facebook goes Public”at Spin Sucks.

Citing a recent report from Simply Measured, Greg Finn reports that Facebook’s Timeline yields a 46-percent higher engagement per post, at Marketing Land.

Corey Eridon debates Pinterest vs. Google+, asking which of the new social networks is worth marketers’ time, at HubSpot.

Eugen Oprea posts a helpful, step-by-step how-to on tracking social media traffic with Google Analytics at Social Media Examiner.

Matt McGee reports that Twitter’s new guide for small businesses is “pretty good,” at Small Business Search Engine Marketing.

Jon Elvekrog shares four smart Twitter tactics for brands at iMedia Connection.

Five reasons why LinkedIn is boring – but in a good way –  are discussed in a guest post by Anthony Juliano at Convince and Convert.

“LinkedIn Networking Gets Easier” headlines Social Media Examiner’s weekly news.

Finally, another great post by Brian Solis: “Survival of the Fitting: 10 important tenets to survive Digital Darwinism.”

photo thanks to uberculture (Jeremy Noble)