Link-Building Ideas: The ‘Definitive List’ of Link-Building Ideas for SEO

Link-building is fundamental to SEO. In this post, I am not going to explain what links are, nor why they matter. I’m going to ignore nofollow vs. dofollow, domain authority, relevance and all the technical details. I’m assuming you know that. You’re ready for “link-building.” What you need is a list of ideas. A checklist of ideas on how to build links, that you can run through looking for easy link ideas. Continue reading →

Content is King on Social Media: You are the Court Jester

In my book on Social Media Marketing, I remind people that “social media is a party” and “you are the party-thrower.” That’s totally true. People (customers, potential customers…) come to your Facebook, Instagram, TikTok… to “have fun” and to “consume content.” In this post, let’s dig into content. They say, “Content is King,” especially on social media… and we are all content marketers now. That’s true as well. You are the “Court Jester,” the person responsible for creating, nurturing, spurring, encouraging, and otherwise getting a reliable stream of text posts, text, pictures, photographs, infographics, videos (oh, yes, videos) onto your social platforms.

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Digital Marketing: Strategy, Skills, & Attitude

That “marketing has gone digital” is pretty much a platitude by 2022. Yes, there still exists “traditional” marketing, especially “word of mouth,” and to a greatly diminished extent since the Pandemic, trade shows. But traditional print media – magazines, trade press, and daily newspapers… are all but extinct, reaching only the most “traditional” and “elderly” of consumers. Billboards? OK, yes, they still exist. Direct mail – not dead (yet), and so on and so forth. Some of the traditional venues and methodologies are “hanging on” but they’re more like a 99 year old woman in a nursing home, than a young vibrant lad of just 16. Continue reading →

Managing Your Facebook Business Page: You Have (Too Many) Choices

A “business page” is a must if you want to use Facebook for marketing. Whereas individuals have “profiles,” businesses have “pages.” A “page” is the foundational element to using Facebook for either organic or paid advertising. Facebook has more than one way, however, to manage your business page. In this post, I will focus on “organic” marketing on Facebook and the different tools that Facebook (Meta) has for managing your business page. My examples are also drawn from the desktop, although if you’re a 100% phone person you can also manage these resources via the Facebook app.
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What is a Hashtag?

The goal of social media marketing is to “build your brand” and (ultimately) “sell more stuff.” One way to do this is to engage in online customer conversations. “Hashtags” are essentially the markers of “online conversations.” People who are talking about “organic food” will mark their conversations (on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok – primarily) with hashtags such as #organic or #organicfood or #natural. Continue reading →

Social Trust Indicators & Social Media Marketing: Becoming a Trustworthy Brand

“Social Trust” is a buzzword you hear a lot among marketers. Either you’ve got “social trust” or you don’t. But what is “social trust,” and more importantly how can you – as a small business marketer – influence it in a positive direction? Let’s investigate. Continue reading →

Autocomplete on Google: Brainstorming Keywords for SEO, Google Ads, and Social Media Marketing

Keywords are the foundation not just of SEO or Google Ads, but even, I would argue, social media marketing. What are your customers searching for? What are they talking about (on social)? Google’s autocomplete is an easy tool to research your keywords. Let’s investigate. Continue reading →

Social Media Marketing World – Review & Random Notes on the Best Show for Social Media

Social Media World came “back,” bigger and better after a one-year hiatus due to COVID-19. The show is each year in March in San Diego, and the team at Social Media Examiner blows it off the roof as one of the absolutely best shows I attend each year. If you have the budget, get it and go to it.  #lovethisshow. Here are my own random notes and thoughts from Social Media Marketing World 2022. Continue reading →

Personal Branding: Step-by-step to Your Own Personal Brand

It used to be that only the famous had a “personal brand.” I’m a huge fan of Andy Warhol, for example, and one of the tenets of his art was that the “brand” of the person and the person him/herself aren’t the same thing.  For example, one of his most famous paintings is “Double Elvis,” which you can see today at MOMA in New York City. I won’t take credit for this idea, but I heard it somewhere in the ether (so it must be true). The point of the painting – or at least one take-away – is that there’s the “Brand” of Elvis, the Elvis we all know from TV, movies, and music, and then there is (somewhere) the “real” Elvis. Not to mention there’s the “brand” of a cowboy (like we see on TV or movies in Westerns) and then there were real live cowboys. “Double Elvis” asks us to question whether we truly know Elvis at all, or just know the brand-projection of Elvis that was “created” by Hollywood and record labels. Elvis is nothing if not a brand – a brand so famous he lives on even after death. Continue reading →