I love infographics… This one from Marketo give some great info on Content Marketing.  At a quick glance, it gets your brain juices flowing about why you might consider content marketing a viable part of your marketing mix.

Some takeaways:

• 51% of companies interviewed in this study said they use a blog for content marketing. Are you blogging about your business, your products, your services, your customers and your knowledge areas?
• 55% of companies interviewed are providing case studies as part of their marketing content strategy. If you can demonstrate the success of your product, it makes it much easier to buy.
• 43% of companies interviewed are writing white papers and sharing them online as part of their marketing content strategy.  You already know your business, and chances are people are looking for the knowledge you have.  White Papers are a great way to spread some love.  You don’t need to charge for them, your visitors and downloaders will thank you for that by coming back to your site over and over.

Not suprising the biggest challenges most companies face in content marketing:

• They are concerned they are not providing the right type of content or value
• They are concerned they are not producing enough content.

I got a few other interesting nuggets out of it, but have a look for yourself – click on it to view the enlarged version on Marketo’s website.

Click to view the original enlarged version.

If you are anything like me, you are constantly reading blogs and coming across great info you want to share with the world.   In these social times, it’s easy to do, right?  Forget the days of trying to print and fax something to your distribution list, or scan and email a document, only to find out the recipient has a different operating system and cannot even open the article.  Today with social media it has become simple to share to our favorite social networkings sites like Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn.

Many of the blogging platforms out there have made it pretty easy to publish content, with their easy to understand interface and wide variety of plug-ins.  When you decide you want to share something on Facebook it does all the work for you by pulling in the article’s title and a description with the link.

What do you do when you want to share something, and when it opens up the dialogue box for sharing — it only includes the URL — and no description? Well, unless the article was really really good, I typically just click “cancel” and go about my day.

It’s pointless to share something without telling anyone what it’s about.  Unless your followers and connections are so loyal to you, they will click on anything and everything you share, you’ll need to go back to the article and grab the title (or write one yourself), before you share the link.  Let’s face it… we are all in a hurry these days.  So I generally won’t bother.

But here’s the simple truth.  It’s all in the meta data.  Your Meta Title and Meta Description are the key to making your content well formatted for sharing, and potentially much more inviting to read than some nondescript shortened URL.  Blogging platforms provide the easy-to-use interface to create your Meta Title and Meta Description (most of them anyway), and this same rule of thumb applies to websites.  If your website or blog is designed to be shared (why wouldn’t it be?), make sure your meta data is in place, and makes your content inviting and easy to share.

Include descriptive keywords in your titles, and be clear as to what the content is about. Don’t mislead your readers by saying something that isn’t true just to draw them into your site.  Be transparent, and honest.

Most people won’t take the time to read the description, so the title should do most of the work for you.   The description, however, should not be ignored.  Meta Description is a critical element of search because when your site it listed in Google or any other search engine, that Meta Description could be the very thing that leads someone to click on your link over the others search results, if it’s well written.  Write a short, concise, first sentence that will display in the search engine below your link.

In this age of social sharing, there are enormous amounts of content out there being shared daily.  Chances are someone else is writing about the exact same things you or I write about, and that’s okay.  But, missing the mark on meta data could be the very thing that holds you back.  If you are taking the time to put your thought leadership into an article, take the extra few minutes to be sure your meta data is complete.

Here’s a quick an easy “how to” on adding Google Analytics tracking code to your blogger site.

First – if you have  a main web site for your business that your blog is supporting – hopefully you already have an Analytics account set up for tracking your site traffic.

Assuming that’s the case you will be adding a new profile to your already existing Analytics account so we can track your blog traffic.   We covered how to add profiles in our post about applying IP Filters to our analytical data (which you’ll want to do for your blog also).

Got your profile added?  Now grab your analytics tracking code from Google Analytics (copy it into Notepad or some text editor) – and run on over to Blogger.   Under “Layout” in your Blogger account select the Page Elements option (which should like the image shown below)

See that “Add A Gadget” field along the bottom of the image?  That represents your blog footer and is where you’ll want to input your Google Analytics Tracking Code.

Click on that “Add A Gadget” link and select “Html/JavaScript” (shown here)

Clicking on the blue “+” will open a window.  DO NOT enter a title in the Title field.  Simply copy your tracking code from NotePad and paste into this Content field of this pop-up window.  Click SAVE and then it should take you back to your layout screen and show now show an HTML/JavaScript item in your blog footer.

For good measure SAVE your changes on this screen as well and then go back to Analytics.  Lets verify that your tracking code is installed properly.  Click on “Edit” in your Google Analytics profile.  When the profile edit screen opens, look to the top right for a link that says “Check Status”  - once you click on that – Google Analytics will check the tracking code you just installed on your blog and will either deliver an error message, or tell you that your tracking code has been installed properly.

Those are the basics.  If you need help with setting up your blog in general, or are not quite sure how to get your Google Analytics Tracking Code – drop me an email.  I can answer any questions you may have about installing your tracking code, setting up your IP filters and so on.

Good luck and happy blogging!

Read more on IP Filtering through Google Analytics.

Skittles/Mars takes the giant leap into the Social Media arena with a bold new web presence that fully utilizes social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube and more.

Don’t be suprised when you visit this edgy new site – if have to second guess whether you’ve landed on the right page or not.  Today when I hit it, it landed on Wikipedia’s definition of Skittles candy flavors.  How cool is that?

They make great use of Social Media tools including a full video library of very edgy new commercials/videos embedded in their new site – along with YouTube.  Here’s just one example called Pinata Man:

Users are given direct access to Skittles related images on Flickr as well, which by the way shows over 17,000 results when you click on the pics link in the skittles navigation.  The Friends link takes users directly to their branded page on Facebook allowing users instant access to their FB profile.  It’s sheer brilliance in my mind.  

What better way to manage your consumer brand than only through Social Media channels.  As an internet marketing professional myself I look for ways to educate my clients on the benefits of jumping into the social media arena now – even if to just dip their toes in – they need to be taking the swimming lessons now so when the relay starts they are ready for the race.  If they don’t get on board now – it will be too late when their competitors realize the importance of social media and get ahead of them in the race.

Click image for Flickr credits.

The areas I’ve had luck with to date are Facebook, LinkedIn and blogging – as far as getting my customers ramped up in Social Media…. I say that to a certain degree.  Getting there is one thing – getting them to use the tools with which I have equipped them is a totally different game.  Blogging is only as great as the effort you put into marketing your blog.  Facebook has a huge audience you can tap in to… if you work your page and develop relationships… The same applies to all Social Media tools.

My clients believe it to be a daunting task to manage all these outlets, but truth be told a structured plan for addressing each social tool can maximize your efforts and minimize the time you spend keeping your social media tools current and active.  Once your customers are on board with it, and using Social Media regularly – they’ll be amazed by the outcome. 

I have established relationships that have helped me in ways I never even thought of when I got going on sites like Twitter and LinkedIn.  I cannot say enough… you just don’t know when you meet someone how you can help them or they you.  Don’t miss out on getting your brands/products in the Social Media game before your competition does.

I’m suddenly craving some Skittles.  :)

And my Twitter friend @peasandbananas just posted a poll – which do you like better?  M&Ms or Skittles?  Vote Now!  

Have you ever encountered a person (or people) in your career that just seemed too happy to be working? Or perhaps worked for a company that seemed just too good to be true (or so you thought)? As I’ve unlocked my passion I have discovered the perfect job does exist!