Wow! It's halfway through September already! Almost three-fourths through the year! How's your content marketing and business blogging going? Do you have goals to hit before 2013, or maybe aspirations in where you want to go with your content marketing or business blogging? If so, then this news roundup may help.
OMG! How NOT to write business web content - Success Works - It may just be coincidence, but it seems like there's been a lot of blog posts recently about how to write online. This article specifically talks about text and corporate communications, the creeping of shorthand and acronyms into business language, as well as those pesky common grammar mistakes that we all know, but make anyway.
4 Must See Content Marketing Resources - Content Marketing Institute - The title caught our eye on this one, and they really are must see content marketing resources. On the list is Red Bull Media House, the content marketing engine behind Red Bull. We know Red Bull does a great job with content marketing, particularly with their magazine "The Red Bulletin." The magazine covers topics like music, fashion, and lifestyle without the barrage of energy drink advertising.
40 Ways to Get Banned from the Top 5 Social Networks - HubSpot - This article didn't seem like it would be a worthwhile read, but then we read it, and learned a few things. For example, posting copyrighted content (anything that you don't have the authorization to share) on Pinterest or LinkedIn could get you kicked off. Also, with Pinterest, once you're kicked off you can never be let back on, so it makes you be a little bit more cautious and thoughtful as to what you pin and post online.
Direct Mail: Gateway to the Internet - TMR Direct - Direct mail may seem like a thing of the past, but it could be making a comeback. Email is getting cluttered, even overwhelming, and technology like QR codes make a seamless transition between the offline and the online worlds. It's something to consider, especially if your target demographic isn't tech-savvy or doesn't congregate on social media.
Marketers Still Can't Tie Social to Bottom Line - eMarketer - This was always an issue, even at the initial onset of using social media for business. It seems like a free way to advertise, but how do you know if it's working by generating leads, increasing revenue, and positively impacting other marketing efforts? Although this survey outlines different ways that businesses can measure social, it doens't provide any tools as to how. However, one tool that goes into those deep metrics, and that is HubSpot (which we use and find to be the biggest asset we have).
What to Do When Your Content is Ripped Off - Business2Community - Hey, it happens (and Copyscape won't catch it all)! It's not fun when your content is ripped off, but this article outlines some great steps on what needs to be done about it. Make sure to bookmark this, as it could easily happen to you, especially in the case in the article, where the content was pulled from a book and not a website or blog, which is much easier to detect.
17 Reasons Why No One Links to Your Content - RankPop - Another sad thing that happens: no one links to your latest blog post or lead gen content. As this article points out, it's not always because the content itself is really horrible. Perhaps the title doesn't stick out, or the content is really hard to find on your site, or maybe the topic is too obscure or too overdone. Whatever the case may be, don't count yourself out as a bad content creator without looking at one of these 17 reasons first.