How to Make Your Blog Mobile-Friendly Do you want more mobile subscribers and readers? Is your blog suitable for a mobile device? In 2012, mobile users spent 63% more time on their devices accessing mobile websites and apps and this is set to increase. In this article I’ll explore the importance of mobile for your blog and the different options available to support your blog on a mobile device. Is Mobile Important for Your Blog? Yes! Analytics display details of how many people are accessing your website from a mobile device. Before you make an investment in this area, it’s useful to check your analytics to find out how many people access your blog from a mobile device. Most analytic programs will provide you with this information. If you use Google Analytics, under the Audience section, select Mobile > Overview. Under Devices, you can see which mobile devices your visitors use. You can drill down to find out what mobile devices people are using to access your website. Do your sharing icons work on the mobile device? Advantages:
21 Business Blogging Tips From the Pros Do you blog for your business? Are you looking for exciting tips to streamline your blogging experience? If so, keep reading. We spoke with 21 top experts to find the hottest business blogging tips you need to know today. Here they are… #1: Treat Each of Your Articles as a Product Leo Widrich Here is a tip that completely changed my blogging game recently. Since then, the whole team sat down and rethought our blogging strategy from scratch. Since we started to do this, our traffic and our comments are going through the roof, and our overall feeling of happiness is too. A product is only useful if you know others want it. Treat each of your articles as a product. Leo Widrich, co-founder of BufferApp.com. #2: Crowdsource Unconventionally Jason Miller Your audience isn’t just interested in one topic, so push the boundaries of what you write about and tie it back to what matters most. It’s not enough anymore to just have an RSS feed of other industry blogs as your arsenal of fresh content ideas.
17 Ways to Grow Your Blog From Top Bloggers Do you want to grow your blog? Are you looking for new ways to attract and retain more readers? We asked the finalists of our Top 10 Social Media Blogs contest for their best tips on how to grow your list of blog subscribers. Here are their best tips. I think you’ll agree there are some excellent ideas here. #1: Be Active in Other Communities First Here’s what Mitch Joel, author of Six Pixels of Separation and the blog at Twist Image, recommends: “You’ll have no semblance of community unless you’re an active community member in other spaces. Top 10 Social Media Blog Nomination: Laurel Mackenzie likes Mitch Joel's Six Pixels of Separation blog because "not only is his written content intelligent and thought-provoking, but his podcasts feature discussions on relevant topics with true industry thought leaders." #2: Write About What You Love Here’s how Michael Brandvold grows subscribers on his blog: #3: Write Insanely Great Content “Blogging is not my full-time activity. #5: Offer Real Value
7 Ways to Increase Your Blog Visibility With Social Sharing Are you looking to drive more traffic to your blog content? Social sharing is critical. But how can you make your content as shareable as possible? Follow this process, and consider the following 7 tips. #1: Identify Your Most Popular Posts and Keywords Take stock of your current content. Look at your top content and keywords in Google Analytics. Examine what isn’t getting shared and start to think about how you can replicate the success of the proven winners. You can also discover your top shared content with social sharing plugins such as Shareaholic. #2: Track and Leverage Trends Know what is top-of-mind for readers. This is where all that “listen first” stuff you hear all the time comes into play. Here are some free tools that will make your listening efforts more efficient: LinkedIn Today—this is a great tool, especially for B2B bloggers. Once you’ve identified the conversations that are happening, you should think of a way to use that information for a shareable blog post. Congrats!
Top 10 Social Media Blog Finalists 2013: This Week in Social Media Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. Finalists: Top 10 Social Media Blogs 2012 We received over 750 nominations for our fourth-annual Top 10 Social Media Blogs contest (the blogosphere’s biggest contest for social media blogs). The list of 24 finalists is pretty impressive! Take a look for yourself below. The judges: Our judges include Gini Dietrich (co-author, Marketing in the Round, founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich), Marcus Sheridan (co-owner of River Pools, founder of The Sales Lion) and Michael Stelzner (author, Launch, CEO of Social Media Examiner and host of the Social Media Marketing podcast). Here are the finalists (in alphabetical order): How We’ll Pick the Winners #1: Initial Qualification: A blog must have a strong social media focus and must have been nominated multiple times by multiple individuals. #2: Final Winner Selection Quality of posts: Our judges will examine and score the quality of posts on each blog. Congratulations to the finalists!
How to Promote Your Blog With Social Media Are you looking to use social media to promote your blog? Sharing your blog posts on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and even Tumblr can help your content gain significant exposure. But each social media platform is distinct with different benefits and abilities. You need a simple process to tailor your social sharing to generate as much engagement as you can on each of these platforms. Here’s a process you can use to ensure your posts get maximum mileage. #1: Tumblr I’ve been blogging since 1999 and have had my own hosted WordPress blogs since 2003. Fortunately one day I realized that many of my best prospects were using Tumblr and decided to include it into my social media marketing. Tumblr makes it really easy to share your blog post. The HTML code is all ready to use, so I copy it just before publishing the blog post. Here’s how to share with the “text” option. Tumblr offers lots of ways to easily share information. Sharing a post as text is as easy as 1-2-3. Voila!
31 Must-Read Social Media Blog Posts What were the best social media articles you read in the last 12 months? Did you find any particularly useful for your business? We asked our writers to share their favorite social media blog posts. Here are 31 blog posts worth exploration. #1: The 16 Most Important Social Media Updates of 2012 Kristi Hines This post includes some major updates to the top social media networks this year. Although it doesn’t mention the changes to LinkedIn professional profiles, it covers the main things businesses need to know about changes to their social media. The 16 Most Important Social Media Updates of 2012. Kristi Hines, freelance writer, professional blogger and social media enthusiast. #2: Content Marketing Manifesto Leo Widrich If there’s any one piece of content that has truly transformed my thinking about blogging in 2012, it’s Rand Fishkin’s Content Marketing Manifesto. After coming across his slideshow, we went ahead and had a company meeting brainstorming it. Leo Widrich, co-founder of BufferApp.
Top 10 Social Media Blogs: The 2011 Winners! Social media is a big subject. If you’re looking for some reliable places to go for the best tips and social media tactics, look no further! Our second-annual contest generated more than 300 nominations. Our panel of social media experts carefully reviewed the nominees and finalists, analyzing the quality of their content, the frequency of posts and reader involvement (among other things). The following are the winners of Social Media Examiner’s Top 10 Social Media Blogs for 2011. If you’re looking to master all that social media has to offer, these rich blogs need to be at the top of your reading list. Congratulations to the winners. Share the love: Feel free to post the above list on your blog (just reference this post). The badge of distinction: If you’re a winner, you can post the image you see here on your blog and please link back to this page. A special thanks to our judges! Do you frequent any of these blogs? About the Author, Michael Stelzner
Nominate Your Favorite Social Media Blog: 4th Annual Top 10 Social Media Blog Contest We are accepting nominations for our 4th annual Top 10 Social Media Blogs contest, the biggest contest for social media blogs. We are looking for your nomination for the Top 10 Social Media Blogs. The winners will be promoted in our 186,000-reader newsletter and announced on Social Media Examiner. How to Nominate Please make a single nomination of your favorite social media blog by commenting below and including why you like the blog (only your first nomination counts). To be considered, a blog must be nominated by multiple people. The judges: Our judges include Gini Dietrich (co-author, Marketing in the Round, founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich), Marcus Sheridan (co-owner of River Pools, founder of The Sales Lion) and Michael Stelzner (author, Launch, CEO of Social Media Examiner and host of the Social Media Marketing podcast). Winners will be selected based on the quality of their content, the frequency of their posts, reader involvement and their blog’s ranking (in that order).
Blog Post Does your business have a blog? Is it working for you? If you said “no,” I wouldn’t be surprised. But it doesn’t need to be that way. Keep reading to discover why many blogs fail and what you can do to boost your traffic and brand. What’s Wrong With Blogs? This platform, if done properly, can generate tremendous traffic, leads and sales for your business that you otherwise would not have had. Unfortunately though, most businesses do not blog well. They refuse to tell consumers the answers to the questions they most want answered. I own a swimming pool company, and when the economy crashed in 2008, it was our blog that really saved our business. 7 Tips for Making Your Blog a Content Marketing Magnet Do you have a business blog? Are you happy with the marketing role your blog plays? Many businesses consider blogs “a cost of doing business,” or code for “We’re not sure what it does but we’re afraid to stop doing it.” In this article I will explore why and how to make your blog the hub of your content marketing plan? Why make your blog your content marketing hub? To put a slightly different spin on what Chris Brogan says, blogs are your home base; they are at the center of your content marketing system. Whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 100 company, blogs should be at the heart of your content marketing because blogs fuel social media, search optimization and the sales process. The top five reasons to use a blog as your content hub are: Blogs are owned media. This HubSpot report shows how important blogs are for businesses.Blogs support search optimization. 7 Tips to Make Your Blog Your Content Marketing Hub #1: Build a Strong Blogging Foundation to Support Your Content Marketing