Here’s the thing: We want to be more intimate you. Er, I mean, we want to be closer. It’s just that we have all these THINGS we want to tell you and talk to you about. Things about Outspoken Media as a company, about SEO, social media, link building, branding, about a wide variety of topics, really. And we want to do it in a more personal setting. So we thought maybe an Outspoken Media newsletter might be in order. A place where we could all get naked and just talk about the things we think you’d really find useful. So that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to birth a brand new OSM addition – our very own newsletter.
We’re working with folks on our end to help put it together, but before we get too far, we wanted to give you the opportunity to help shape it. After all, it is YOU we want to get down and dirty with. We want your input.
So while we’re working on putting something together, we’re giving you the opportunity to help shape it. After all, it’s you we want to get down and dirty with. We want your input.
Embedded below you’ll find a few questions that will really help us as we put together the Outspoken Media newsletter. If you could take a few minutes to fill them out, we’d be your forever fans. Even more than we already are. If the embed is being wonky (which embeds sometimes are), you can view the full survey direct by going here. And, really, thanks again.
Every so often, I’m tempted to turn infographic sightings into some sort of drinking game. But then I realize the danger in consuming that much alcohol.
Not to be too cynical. After all, infographics are not dead. Just because we’re all tired of the buzzword doesn’t mean that data visualization, as a whole, is a thing of the past. Consuming information in easy to understand, visually appealing, digestible formats will never lose its popularity (if you need confirmation, just check out the Egyptian hieroglyphs). And corporations have oodles of data about their industry or products that could be interesting to a wide audience.
But not everyone has the internal resources to develop a flashy infographic to dazzle their audience. If that’s you and you’re short on either dollars, time frame or even data — fear not. As we’ve seen time and time again, simple visualizations with good data can be just as popular as high budget, flashy infographics.
Of course, having a solid content promotion strategy from the get-go will yield the best return on your infographic spend, but it’s not necessary to spend hundreds of dollars on a designer to create interesting data visualizations. Many of the tools you need are sitting right on your desktop waiting to be used. After all, the best way to maximize your bottom line is to remove those unnecessary costs.
Don’t be afraid. Dig in. Below are some tips on how to create awesome infographics while still pinching those pennies. [read the full post…]
Welcome to SuperBowl weekend. Are you ready to watch the Patriots destroy the Giants and get a little payback? I know I am. ;) But before all that, let’s snack on some Weekend Coffee Links. They’re nutritious AND hilarious. What more could you ask for? Nothing, I say.
First we’ll share what caught our eye this week, then you can share your own links in the comments. [read the full post…]
I’ve been on both sides of the small business SEO coin.
I’ve been an SEO. Having done the intensive SEO work I know the value of good SEO and why it comes at such a premium. SEO is labor-intensive and ever-evolving, but extremely effective when executed well.
I’ve been the lone marketing manager in a small business, wearing fourteen different hats and trying to figure out how I am supposed to fit SEO into the schedule… and the budget. And I’ll be totally honest: Working for a small business, even though I knew how important SEO was and even though I wanted to do it all myself… I honestly just didn’t have the time.
But I didn’t want SEO to fall by the wayside. So I sought outside help. [read the full post…]
You’ve probably heard the news. According to findings released by UMass Dartmouth [hat tip RWW] the number of Inc. 500 companies maintaining corporate blogs has dropped for the first time since 2007. Did you hear that? IT DROPPED! According to Dartmouth’s research, just 37 percent of companies interviewed said they had a corporate blog, down from 50 percent in 2010.
So where are these fast-moving companies moving to? Shinier pastures, of course.
74 percent of companies are maintaining a Facebook page
73 percent are using LinkedIn.
64 percent are using Twitter
Naturally, much of the blogosphere took the headline of the UMass report and ran with it all the way to the linkbait bank.
Is blogging really plummeting? Probably not.
Is it declining slightly? Maybe. People have more options.
And if it is declining, let it. You hear me? Let your blog be the last blog standing because while sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn may be effective and sexy all in their own right, they don’t hold a candle to the sexiness and superpowers possessed by your blog.
Hey, hey, guess what? It’s time for the first monthly link find post of 2012. Are you ready for it? It’s the one day of the month (the last day, to be exact) where the Outspoken Media staff get together to share with your the one link that they found most useful all month long. It’s a good way to see what’s been on our minds and where our individual passionate points sit. We’ll go first and then you’re invited to share your top link pick from January. Tell us the post that most racked your brain or made you think about things differently. And yes, it can be your own post. Just make sure it’s worthy or we’ll flog you in the comments. ;)
Every time Google sneezes, cries of “SEO is dead!” resound across the blogosphere. And after reading Scott Vaughan’s definition of “marketing as a service,” I almost agree. The traditional one-off model of SEO is dying (and may already be dead). In its place, a sustained, relationship-based SEO partnership based on a strategic implementation strategy has emerged. Those seeking an SEO consultant should be prepared to take on this type of relationship to ensure the success of your search marketing investment. [read the full post…]
Hello, friends. Welcome back to your weekend. I do hope you’ll use it to do something totally rockin’ and weekend-worthy. You deserve it. To help get you into the spirit of things, check out our fun link finds from the week that was January 23. I hope it was a good one for you. I had a blast.
Even the newest of SEOs and marketers understand how important content is to developing a brand presence. Your content is who you are. It’s your voice in the market and what you use to convey your message to customers. It’s through the combination of your Web site copy, your blog, your article marketing, your pitches, and your social updates that you reach prospective customers and turn them on until they become full-blown customers. There’s just one problem.
You…well, you can’t write. Or at least that’s what you’ve been telling yourself for the past thirty years.
Because you don’t believe you can write, you seek out advice, often from writers (or self-proclaimed ones). You ask for their tools of the trade and writing advice. The problem is sometimes these folks point you in the wrong direction. They don’t mean to feed you lies or bad best practices. It just, well, happens.
For example, below are five well-intentioned pieces of writing advice that may actually do more harm than good when you’re trying to build content for an SEO campaign. Break these “words of wisdom” and the content you put out will thank you. It will also probably suck less. [read the full post…]
Monday was Community Manager Appreciation Day, an online event started by Jeremiah Owyang three years ago to honor and recognize those who fight on the brand front lines every day. Last year I honored the day by offering up 8 ingredients that make a community manager and paid homage to a few folks who I think do it really well. This year I wanted to talk about something different.
I recently gave a community manager interview where I was asked whether CMs were finally being given the respect they deserve, what goes into the position, and what their roles are within an organization. You can read my answers to those questions and more over there but what was really on my mind is something I don’t think gets talked about enough – just how easily it is to burn out from the position.
As I’ve written before, being an online public face isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. There’s a dark side associated with always being on, having to manage several different social media identities (at minimum, yours + one branded account), a host of different platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Q&A sites, etc), your own blog (holla), wrangling fans, bringing out the best in people, responding to attacks, and constantly defending what you do to people in your organization and in your life. Those who spend their days working to build these communities and living such public lives can easily find themselves burning out from working on too many problems, too many sites, and trying to be too many things to too many people.
If you’re a Community Manager, how do you protect yourself?
Or, if you’re a brand, how do you protect the person you’ve put into this role and ensure they stay in it for a long time? Hiring and re-hiring not only gets expensive, but it makes it more difficult for your community to trust your public face.
It started innocently enough. My buddy Matt Sullivan read an article on Fast Company about Chobani tickling the taste of Pinterest. He thought it sounded similar to the love letter I had written earlier, so he sent it to me via Twitter knowing I might want to check it out.
The “flavor Tourettes” line is in reference to a quote found in the Fast Company article. When discussing how fanatical people are about engaging with the Chobani Facebook page, Chobani’s digital communications manager Emily Schildt is quoted as saying:
“We call it ‘flavor Turettes’ in-house,” she quips. “We get about a tweet per minute, and I would say 50% are about our newest flavor, apple cinnamon.”
Here’s the thing: We want to be more intimate you. Er, I mean, we want to be closer. It’s just that we have all these THINGS we want to tell you and talk to you about. Things about Outspoken Media as a company, about SEO, social media, link building, branding, about a wide variety of topics, really. And we want to do it in a more personal setting. So we thought maybe an Outspoken Media newsletter might be in order. A place where we could all get naked and just talk about the things we think you’d really find useful. So that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to birth a brand new OSM addition – our very own newsletter.
Every so often, I’m tempted to turn infographic sightings into some sort of drinking game. But then I realize the danger in consuming that much alcohol.
I’ve been on both sides of the small business SEO coin.
Danika’s Top Link: 
Even the newest of SEOs and marketers understand how important content is to developing a brand presence. Your content is who you are. It’s your voice in the market and what you use to convey your message to customers. It’s through the combination of your Web site copy, your blog, your article marketing, your pitches, and your social updates that you reach prospective customers and turn them on until they become full-blown customers. There’s just one problem.
Monday was 
