Quality vs. Quantity? Content Marketing Pros Pick Sides While attending Content Marketing World (#CMWorld) in Cleveland this week, we had the opportunity to attend an all-star panel discussion called, Quality vs Quantity: How Much Content is Enough? How Good Does it Have to Be? The content marketing pro panelists included: The panel, (and this was no shy panel), was moderated by Michael Brenner from SAP. They passionately, and at times, heatedly debated content marketing topics including the hot topic as to whether quality vs. quantity is most important. Quantity vs. Joe: Quantity. Marcus: Quantity. Heather: Quality. Rob: Quality. What is the main objective of content marketing? Rob: We recently surveyed 200 marketers, and they replied that engagement, then brand awareness followed by lead generation are the main objectives. Heather: The power of content marketing is lead generation. Joe: Marketing’s job is to get the sales team enough leads and let them sell. Should Content Marketing Be Forced to Prove ROI (Return on Investment)? Marcus: Yes.
Your 31 Day Action Plan to Getting More Blog Readers "Stan, I know what I need to do but I'm not sure where to start!" We were talking about blog marketing, the topic that gets bloggers all tied up knots. His next questions were tinged with frustration. "Do you start with SEO?" "How about creating an ebook?" "When do you need to build a Google+ page?" Have you wrestled with these questions too? Today, you'll get some answers. I've created a 31-Day Blog Marketing Action Plan for you. A Few Things To Remember Before You Get Started I've briefly explained each day's marketing task. Ok, here we go. The 31-Day Blog Marketing Action Plan Let Me Show You "How" to Maximize Your Blog Marketing Success Each Day My new blog marketing course "How to Get Your Next 10,000 Blog Readers" will show you, in detail, how to implement each step in this calendar. The price of the course goes up by $10 every Monday, because new strategies are added every week.
Tiramisu Pancakes : Parentables - StumbleUpon A few days ago, I put a call out on Twitter for help. Marscapone help, to be specific. Many people came to the rescue, however it was @Ivoryhut her responded with a recipe idea that went beyond delectable. Tiramisu Pancakes. oh. hell yeah. Why not have dessert for breakfast? huh?! And while you're at it, come visit Ivory Hut food blog - This woman can make bread, the most beautiful striped bread even! These photos and recipes are from Ivory Hut - enjoy! ~Jaden These amazing Tiramisu Pancakes started out as a casual idea spurred by a tweequest for things to do with half a cup of mascarpone, and the fact that I had just posted a pancake recipe on my blog. The maple-butter glaze is optional, but it gives the pancakes a nice boost of sweetness and extra maple flavor to remind you that these are, in fact, pancakes. I also maintain that, as decadent as it sounds, it might be a tad healthier than regular pancakes because you're not drowning it in syrup. ~Ivory Hut Tiramisu Pancakes Instructions:
Social Sharing, How to Inspire Fans to Share Your Stories Do you use stories to market your business? Are you wondering how you can get people to share your content? To learn how to inspire your fans and followers to share your stories via social media, I interview Simon Mainwaring for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing. The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting). In this episode, I interview Simon Mainwaring, author of We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World. Simon shares the importance of tapping into the power of your fans to share your story. You’ll learn how you can create a story and the kind of content you need to use to succeed. Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below! Listen Now Social Sharing Why did you start your company?
How To Make Your Blog Appealing To Your Key Audience Will your potential visitor stop and read your blog content or won’t he? That’s the key question. Regardless of your goals, if your blog isn’t appealing to your target audience, it’s not going to attract an audience or achieve your goals. Your blog has to be like chocolate cake to entice readers. Schaffer grew and expanded his blog, originally named Windmill Networking, into a top rated community blog with over 20 global contributors. In his opinion top blogs contain 5 attributes that create blog appeal. This is a point many bloggers overlook. Here are Schaffer’s 5 points that all top blogs contain combined with my blogging tips. 1. As humans, we take in visual information 60,000 times faster than text. Add a photo or image to each blog post to get your reader’s attention.Integrate a number of images and/or screenshots to entice your content and illustrate your points. 2. Recognize that your readers are seeking to get through your content as quickly as possible. 3. 4. Skip the promotion.
Chicken Cacciatore I am a lover of braised meats, whether it be pot roast or short ribs or beef brisket…or the chicken dish I’m sharing with you today. Just give me some meat, a pot with a lid, some combination of liquid ingredients, and I’ll be eating out of your hand…as long as your hand is holding braised meat. That might have been the weirdest introductory sentence of any recipe I’ve ever posted. This is a delightful meal, and a comfort food classic. And magic does happen. I use chicken thighs for this recipe because I happen to love chicken thighs. Not that I’m dramatic or anything. Let’s make Chicken Cacciatore! Here’s what you need: salt, pepper, butter, olive oil, flour, chicken, onion, bell peppers, garlic, mushrooms, canned tomatoes, wine, ground thyme, turmeric, Parmesan cheese, and parsley. And noodles. Begin by heating butter and olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. The start to any good meal! Generously salt and pepper both sides of the chicken. Dredge both sides of the chicken in flour. Yum.
Pinterest Promoted Pins, This Week in Social Media Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention. What’s New This Week? Pinterest Tests Promoted Pins: Pinterest experiments with ads as its traffic moves from the web to mobile and will be ”promoting certain pins from a select group of businesses.” Pinterest says promoted pins will be tasteful, transparent, relevant and improved based on your feedback. Pinterest Makes Pinning Smarter: “Now when you click the Pin It button for browsers, you’ll see the images look a lot closer to how actual pins appear on Pinterest. Check out the new features for the Pin It button. Facebook Tests Easier Way to Watch Video: “Now when you see a video in your news feed, it comes to life and starts playing. Videos on mobile will also be easier to watch in the coming weeks. "To control which ones you see, go to the Account tab and tap Settings." Here’s some upcoming news to follow: inShare236
How To Create An Editorial Calendar to Publish Blogs, Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter, and Email Newsletters | Reach Customers Online | Connect with Low-Cost Tools and Know-How How To Create An Editorial Calendar to Publish Blogs, Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter, and Email Newsletters This article is an exhaustive overview of how to design, create, and use an editorial calendar with links to additional articles, templates, and more. It brings you up to date on how best to create an editorial calendar and process to manage online and offline publications, including content published in email newsletters and social media sites Twitter and Facebook. This article strives to provide a comprehensive overview of all possible resources online compared to other articles which may be publication-specific or focus on one viewpoint of how to create an editorial calendar. When this article was first published in 2003, most online publishers had never seen an editorial calendar unless they came from a publishing background. Most importantly, this article is written for people with no little or no publishing experience. The Editorial Process The Publishing Process
CHARTS: Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About... The "Occupy Wall Street" protests are gaining momentum, having spread from a small park in New York to marches to other cities across the country. So far, the protests seem fueled by a collective sense that things in our economy are not fair or right. But the protesters have not done a good job of focusing their complaints—and thus have been skewered as malcontents who don't know what they stand for or want. (An early list of "grievances" included some legitimate beefs, but was otherwise just a vague attack on "corporations." So, what are the protesters so upset about, really? Do they have legitimate gripes? To answer the latter question first, yes, they have very legitimate gripes. And if America cannot figure out a way to address these gripes, the country will likely become increasingly "de-stabilized," as sociologists might say. In other words, in the never-ending tug-of-war between "labor" and "capital," there has rarely—if ever—been a time when "capital" was so clearly winning.
6 Creative Ways to Use Embedded Facebook Posts Would you like more people to see your Facebook posts? Have you used Facebook’s new feature to embed posts on your website or blog? Embedding Facebook updates on your website can help you increase visibility and engagement. How can you creatively use embedded posts as a part of your Facebook marketing strategy? Let’s find out! Here’s How It Works Twitter isn’t the only embeddable social media. You can embed most public posts from a personal profile or a page. Locating the Facebook embed post option. When you click on this, you’ll get a popup showing how the post will look and the code to use. Example of embed code. The result? As of now, you can only embed public posts from profiles and pages. Unfortunately, you can’t embed public posts from within groups or comments on a Facebook post. And your ability to embed posts depends on the privacy settings used by the person who created the post. Here are six easy ways marketers can use Facebook’s embedded posts. #1: Demonstrate Social Proof . . . .