By Matthew Kushin Today’s college students are digital natives. An 18-year-old entering her college freshman year this fall was around six years old when Facebook was released and around eight years old when the world met Twitter. Because college students can barely remember a time before social media, many are beaming with confidence about their social media savvy. But comfort and...
By Christina Newberry You may have heard that LinkedIn has 433 million users, 40 percent of whom check the platform every day. Those numbers are certainly substantial, but they aren’t the statistics that really matter for a business-oriented network like LinkedIn. What really matters is that one in three professionals in the world has a LinkedIn account, and 49 percent of...
By Michael Aynsley Compelling visuals may be what Instagram is all about, but an effective Instagram caption will push the engagement needle, getting you more Likes and comments. And engagement, dear readers, is key. With the recent changes to Instagram’s algorithm, posts now appear in feeds “based on the likelihood [the audience] will be interested in the content.” That means that a...
By Emily Copp Just like reading the right textbooks can help you pass a tricky exam, following the right people on social media can give you insights that will help you grow your brand. If you’re looking to make your Facebook feed a little less about weekends at the beach and more about the latest in social media marketing, we’ve got you...
Written by Ellen Bartolino Consumers turn to social media when making a purchase -- that much we know. They might search for information prior to purchasing and then again, post-purchase, for customer service and company updates. Knowing this, it's imperative that your company is there, providing them with the resources they need to choose your product over your competitor's. The best way to...
David Sottimano Let’s face it: SEO isn’t as black & white as most marketing channels. In my opinion, to become a true professional requires a broad skill set. It’s not that a professional SEO needs to know the answer for everything; rather, it’s more important to have the skills to be able to find the answer. I’m really pleased with the results...
By: Lesley Vos I write every day for my blog as well as other publications. I'm a big fan of guest posting, and every day I do everything I can to reinforce better writing. The problem: Content creation is time-consuming. Content marketers deal with multiple tasks: social media content (93%), newsletters (81%), articles for websites (79%), blogs (81%), in-person events (81%), and...
By: Casey Meraz In this article I'm going to address the current state of local SEO in 2016, review some findings from a new data-driven local SEO study, and provide you with some actionable tips to win the local SEO game. If there's one thing that's consistent about Google, it's the fact that it's always changing. Over the years we've seen many...
By: Rand Fishkin Knowing what content to create is one of a marketer's most difficult jobs. It's all too easy to imagine your target audience and what they already appreciate, then create more of that. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand discusses why that's a bit short-sighted, and we should have a broader vision. Click on the whiteboard image above to open a...
By Larry Kim One of the biggest areas of speculation, contention, and confusion within the SEO universe over the past six years or so has been whether (or how much) social media signals impact organic search rankings. But even if Google isn’t directly using social share counts in their search algorithms, there ought to be some other explanation out there about why high...