Fetching Friday – Resources Mashup & Key Takeaways from #SMAZ

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the resources mashup, key takeaways from Social Media AZ, and jumping otters on kikolani.com.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbled upon, retweeted on @kikolani, and read in RSS subscriptions this week.

Blogging / Writing

• The most effective way to increase RSS subscribers – 5 ways to turn visitors into subscribers.
• The keys to rapid blog content creation – whether you are just starting out or looking to grow your ideas bank, these are great tips for any blogger.
• Diary of a wimpy blogger – how to go from wimpy to fierce in the blogging world.
• 24 blog optimization tips to attract search engines and readers – great tips to get an overall boost to traffic.
• How to build reputation with a blog: create value and be patient – a continuation of a great series on building reputation through blogging.

Facebook

• 5 links to boost your Facebook marketing leverage –
• Facebook marketing basics for green businesses – six main things to think about when planning your Facebook strategy.
• Static FBML Facebook transition to iframes – experts discuss the upcoming changes.
• 5 things you need to know about the latest Facebook Like changes – the new layouts and options of what you can like.
• How to create fan-only content for Facebook pages – a comprehensive guide, including examples, code, testing, troubleshooting, and what will happen when FBML is gone.

Link Building

• How to get high quality links in 30 minutes or less – simple way to find the best links.
• 18 examples of awesome viral linkbait – not from this week, but a great article nonetheless.
• 14 free SEO tools from SEOmoz – great tools for keyword research, link building, competitive research, and more.
• How to find the best internal pages on a domain – using SEOquake and Firefox to find high PageRank pages, most popular articles, and strongest directory categories.
• 4 link building techniques to avoid – why you should not go for these types of links.

Mailing Lists / Making Money Online / Online Marketing

• 15 brilliant tips to help you earn more – great tips for making money on (and off) line.
• Why you should make wealth, not money with your blog – how to create wealth outside of monetization.
• 60 proven ways to increase your online marketing influence – great advice to strengthen your reputation.
• What the Gmail priority inbox means to marketers – how to get above the fold.
• Make us trust your business – how to get more business by being transparent.

Personal Development / Productivity

• How to expect the best – 3 simple steps to forming positive expectations.
• 10 useful things to know when dealing with other people – keeping these things in mind may help when dealing with others.
• How to overcome distractions and interruptions – how to optimize work areas, maximize your best hours, and more.
• How to use subliminal messages for self help success – what are they, and what they can be used for.
• If you can’t get away from the crowd, learn to transform it in your head – how introverts can deal with large groups of people.

Search Engines / SEO / Analytics

• What can you learn from Google Instant? A look at the brand domination and importance of good online reputation and social media. Follow this post up with this post on if Google Instant is faster than Bob Dylan, including a list of more reactions to the new search feature.
• How to use Google suggest for keyword research and beyond – a comprehensive guide, and a very important keyword research method thanks to Google Instant.
• 6 cliches to help you understand SEO – good things come to those who wait and more meaningful applications to search optimization.
• SEO: a comprehensive guide for beginners – covers keyword research, code optimization, and link building basics.
• Use Google Analytics advanced segments to find the the real questions your visitors ask – learn how to use analytics for keyword profiling and research.

Social Media / Social Networking

• Who are the best social media researchers? This post lists a few, but it is there are also more recommendations in the comments.
• How to piss off an online community – examples from the latest changes to Digg, Facebook, Sphinn, and Twitter.
• 10 social media books – every small business owner should read.
• We know where you are: the creepy side of geolocation – is it stalking, savvy marketing, and when you should be concerned about privacy.
• Are numbers important in social media? A look at business objectives, profit, and when the numbers do count.

Twitter

• 7 Twitter tools for multiple user and group tweeting – great apps to use if you have multiple people handling the same Twitter account.
• How to make Google love your Twitter profiel – great tips on Twitter profile SEO.
• Most influential celebrities on Twitter based on CTR – a look at which celebrity tweets get the most clicks.
• 8 tips to building quality Twitter followers – great ways to find new people to follow (that will hopefully follow back).
• Trendistic: awesome new Twitter trend analysis tool – a look at how to learn more about Twitter trends.

WordPress

• How to setup multiuser in WordPress 3.0 – setup a network of site within a single WordPress installation.
• 5 WordPress plugins to keep in touch with co-authors – great plugins for multi-author blogs.
• 5 excellent eCommerce WordPress plugins – these plugins will help you sell products from your blog or WordPress site.
• Ultimate roundup of WordPress screencasts and tutorials – a great collection to help you learn more about using WordPress.
• WordPress, Joomlan, and Drupal: Which one is the best? A summary of the reasons why you should go for one over the other.

Top Takeaways from Social Media AZ (SMAZ)

This week, Social Media AZ, founded by Fred von Graf, held the third SMAZ event designed to help businesses learn more about digital marketing, social media, and search.

It was a great event for not just learning, but also networking. I got a chance to meet some local experts including Cindy Kim, Fionn Downhill, Evo Terra, and Thomas Ballantyne as well as catch up with friends and former colleagues Annette Matzen and Sarah Schager.

Here are just some of the many interesting statistics, tips, and strategies that I learned in the sessions I attended – a condensation of about 10 pages of notes.

From Acquisition to Advocacy: Taking the Customer Lifecycle Digital by Greg Chapman

• The four core digital strategies that should be used together: local, mobile, social, and search.
• Why local optimization is important: 73% of searches are for local content. While 91% of internet users comparison shop, 31% purchase offline.
• Why mobile optimization is important: 50% of interactions with websites will happen on smartphones. 883K laptops and PC’s are shipped daily vs. 773K smartphones.
• Guitar Center is a great example of a site that utilizes great local and social optimization for all stages of the customer lifecycle. See their website’s footer, Facebook and YouTube.

How Behavior and Personality Types Impact Marketing by Matthew O’Brien

Being a fan of psychology, it was interesting to learn about the personality types of marketers. But from the digital marketing aspects, it was more interesting to learn about which types of content hit home for different types of consumers and why you should use a good mixture of everything so you have content that will appeal to all types.

First, the four different types of people you want to reach are:

• Directors – these types want the bottom line, results, ROI, stick to the facts, and like less creative content.
• Influencers – these types are feelings driven, products must make them feel good, boost their ego, and like visually stimulating content.
• Analyticals – these types want to know the how and why, facts, features, and like data driven content.
• Amiables – these types are compassionate and caring, want to help solve problems, and like content that gives assurance.

Two must check out resources shared during this presentation are:

• Qik – allows you to broadcast a smartphone recording as it happens on a blog or website using embed code.
• PixelPipe – allows you to publish text, photo, video, and audio files once to have it distributed across over 100 social networks, photo/video sites, blogs, and online storage sites.

Finally, use Social Mention, Google Alerts, and Google Analytics to measure 5 points of ROI:

• Increase mentions and links.
• Increase traffic to CTA.
• Increase keyword rankings.
• Build online community.
• Increase inbound inquiries.

Status Quo Just Doesn’t Cut it Anymore by Brett Giles

Why should you be using social media?

• 24 hours of video are uploaded every hour to YouTube which receives over 1 billion views per day.
• 65 million tweets are sent per day are sent to 190 million users making 80 million searches per day on Twitter.
• 100 million checkins have been made on FourSquare at 5.6 million venues.
• 75% of the US uses social media for an average of 6 hours, 13 minutes every month.
• If Skittles’ fans on Facebook were a state, they would be the 12th largest state in the US.

Also, a great quote for digital agencies:

“The hardest part of this business is to realize that what you knew yesterday and all the things that gave you a sense of empowerment and prestige and security and safety is perhaps not relevant this morning… perhaps somebody else sees something you missed because you keep thinking you knew it all.” ~ Dan Wieden

Painful Lessons Learned Bringing My Own Products to Market by Mike Roberts

• Kevin Costner is a lying douchebag. Just because you build it, it doesn’t mean anyone will necessarily come, ala the quote from the movie “Field of Dreams.”
• Never do your own creatives. Spend your time focusing on user experience, product development, and conversion tactics. Leave the graphic design work to less expensive resources on Vworker, Guru, Elance, and oDesk.
• Don’t name your product something that sounds like a venereal disease. Have a cool company name with descriptive product names that get searches. Use the formula elevator pitch > bullet point > product name.
• It really helps a launch if you tell someone about it. Use press releases, social media releases, tell bloggers, send something to your list, etc.
• Make something that is free. Nobody writes about paid stuff – people will write about free products, tools, or information.
• Blogger Love = Lots of Links = Good SEO = Strong Brand
• Apple and the Blair Witch movie are examples of good product launches. Google and Microsoft are examples of companies that do bad product launches.
• The three stages of a successful product launch include:
  • Tease (teasers, sneak peaks, “leaked” content, demos)
  • Pre-launch (launch stories, free stuff, marketing copy, feature emails, webinars)
  • Launch (banner ads, text ads, emails, interviews)

And how do you come up with a great product? Find out the frustrations of your potential customers, do a “what if” of whether you can help them, then let your product be the solution to the frustrations.

FAIL: Big Mistakes in Social Media and What to Learn from Them with Jeff Moriarty, Evo Terra, Mike Roberts, Michael Barber, and Tiffany Winman

• Don’t put a spoiler from a newly released movie in the US in a podcast that has a worldwide audience, as many movies aren’t release everywhere at the same time. ~ Evo
• Tell people a weakness that is also a strength. ~ Tiffany
• Your content will find its own legs – if people love it, or hate it, they will pass it on. ~ Jeff
• If there is a risk of failure, let it be known up front as a possibility. ~ Michael
• Hire risk takers and the types of people that will point out the potential problems to balance risk vs. failure. ~ Evo
• Watch out when using words that might have different meanings in other cultures / countries. ~ Michael

Best advice ever: If you are hiring an agency to handle your marketing, take a look at their job postings. If they are hiring people as social media marketing managers for $8 an hour, there might be a problem. ~ Michael

Last Chance to Save on Blog World and Facebook Success Summit

Alright, there are some big registration deadlines looming. If you are planning to attend Blog World Expo, registration goes up to full pricing on September 16th, a difference of $100 for the weekend only or Thursday only pass and $300 for the full access pass. So if you haven’t already, be sure to register by September 15th to get in on those savings. Also, code EBIRD will give you an additional 20% off. If you’re on the fence, you can see the great schedule line up thusfar to help in the decision making process.

Also, if you were interested in the Facebook Success Summit, the half off of registration also ends on the 16th. This is an event not to miss with THE experts in Facebook leading some great sessions, all of which you will be able to download PDF transcripts and video for future reference. So be sure to register by September 15th to save! And if you can’t buy tickets to the Facebook Success Summit, you can still try to win tickets instead with a simple tweet! The deadline to enter this contest is September 17th.

Jumping Otters

Since there’s a pretty heavy load of information in this post, I’m going to balance it out with a simple video, again from Cute Overload, the destination for cuteness and smiles.

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