Marketing Day: January 21, 2014

Here’s our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on MarTech and other places across the web.

From Marketing Land:

• Study: 92 Percent Of Top Brands Tweet Avg. 12X Per Day, Audiences Grew 20 Percent In Q4
  In a new study of how top brands use Twitter, social media analytics firm Simply Measured found 92 percent of brands tweet an average of 12 times a day. Nearly all (98 percent) of top brands are active on Twitter. The study shows that consumers are eager to follow brands on Twitter. Audiences for top […]
• Google Clarifies: Guest Blogging Is OK, But “Guest Blogging For SEO” Is Not
  Relax, publications that use guest bloggers and contributors. Google’s not planning to penalize you under its new “guest blogging equals spam” warning put out yesterday. Rather, the company says, guest blogging is only bad if the main reason a post is run is to gain links meant to influence rankings in Google. Yesterday, the […]
• Google Rolls Out “AdSense Direct” For Publishers To Manage Direct Ad Sales
  Google announced the roll out of AdSense Direct today to allow publishers to implement campaigns for ads they sell direct to advertisers through the AdSense system, with no code changes. Google has also published step-by-step set-up instructions. After securing a direct ad deal with an advertiser, the publisher sets up the campaign in AdSense and […]
• Facebook Tweaks News Feed: Text Updates Aren’t Working, Won’t Be Shown As Much
  Facebook wants Page Owners to stop sharing so many text-based updates and instead try other types of updates that the company says get higher engagement in the News Feed. In a blog post today, Facebook’s News Feed Ranking Product Manager Chris Turitzin says the company has tweaked the News Feed algorithm to downgrade text updates […]
• 17 Near-Fatal Mistakes I Regret Committing On Social Media In 2013
  Accept it. We’re all learning in social media. Every day is a new lesson learned, a new best practice established. And many of these lessons come by way of mistakes. I spend a lot of time on social media, mostly observing what other people do, how they behave, and what they click on (or don’t) […]
• Learn from the Pros: See Who’s Speaking at SMX West and Save $200
  More than 80 of the world’s most knowledgeable internet marketers will present at Search Engine Land’s SMX West conference, March 11-13 in San Jose, CA. You’ll learn what makes them successful, what keeps them up at night, and what to expect from digital marketing in the next year. You’ll hear from: Brand marketers from the […]
• Microsoft Calls For International Conference On Government Surveillance
  Last week President Obama announced reforms to curb NSA domestic spying abuses. There was a range of reactions but many critics contend he didn’t go far enough. The proposed reforms also probably don’t help the tech industry very much. Perhaps feeling let down or skeptical that the US reforms will change much Microsoft’s General Counsel Brad Smith is calling for […]
• How Many iPhones Did Apple Sell Last Quarter: 50 Million Or More?
  On January 27 Apple will release its fiscal Q1 and full-year results. We’ll find out the answer to a question and game that pundits and financial analysts play each quarter: how many devices did the company sell? A year ago Apple announced sales of 47.8 million iPhones and 22.9 million iPads. It recorded $54.5 billion in gross […]
• Say No To Commercial Creep In Search Results
  You’ve read all the guidelines. You’ve hired experts to determine the morally correct and righteous path. You’ve watched the endless hours of Matt Cutts videos on YouTube. You pay experts thousands of dollars a month to make sure your search efforts are optimized safely and accurately. You work within the confines of the assumed moral […]
• Google Remarketing Ads Broke Canada Privacy Laws, Concedes To Revamp Ad Review System
  Canada’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner has found Google in violation of Canada’s privacy rights for the use of sensitive health history in remarketing campaigns. The finding comes after an investigation spurred by a Canadian man who complained that his private health information was being used by Google to retarget him with ads for sleeep […]
• For The Right Content Marketing Answers, Ask The Right Content Strategy Questions
  A big box retailer’s chief content officer of reached out recently with a question. Here’s what he wanted to know: “What is the percentage of content you see utilized comparatively that’s company generated versus user-generated versus contributor generated? I’m trying to see how others are looking at their mix.” What would you have told him? […]
• Leveraging The Social Media Ego
  In the era of Big Data, marketers use buyer information to shape their initiatives more than ever. Data on what your targets are searching for, listening to and buying can provide a mother lode of insight that empowers you to create relevant, high-ROI campaigns. Yet this only works with targets whose data is available. Quite […]

Recent Headlines From Search Engine Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Search News & Information:

• Live @ SMX West: Long-Term SEO & How To Win For Years, Not Days
• Learn from the Pros: See Who’s Speaking at SMX West and Save $200
• Will Link Building Soon Be A Thing Of The Past?
• Marin: 40 Percent Of Google PLA Clicks To Come From Smartphones By Dec 2014

Online Marketing News From Around The Web:

Affiliate Marketing

• 3 Underused Ways to Improve Affiliate Program Visibility on Network, Affiliate Marketing Blog
• £1bn Performance Model showcases diversity of the affiliate channel, blog.affiliatewindow.com
• How to Pick a Profitable Niche That Converts, performancein.com

Business Issues

• Google’s “High Handed” Bus Memo, TechCrunch
• Yahoo Acquires Mobile Marketing Startup Sparq, TechCrunch
• Yahoo’s Got Holes to Fill in Its New Advertising Platform, Ad Age
• Pinterest CEO Lays Out Growth Plan, Sees Revenue in 2014, Wall Street Journal

Content Marketing

• A guide to creating shareable content in 2014, www.directtrafficmedia.co.uk
• The Big Flaw with “Content Shock” and the Way We See Content Marketing, The Sales Lion
• Your Content isn’t Going Viral Because it Sucks, www.socialmediaexplorer.com

Conversion Optimization

• 12 A/B Split Testing Mistakes I See Businesses Make All The Time, ConversionXL

Copywriting, Design & Usability

• Usability Tip: Don’t Make Me Search for Search, uxmag.com

Display & Contextual Advertising

• Adblock Plus Is Finally Available for Safari, techland.time.com
• Google AdSense Testing New Square Background Arrows, Search Engine Roundtable
• 5 Image Ad Best Practices, SwellPath
• The Smart Marketer Guide To Facebook’s 15 Ad Types, socialfresh.com
• Are Website Custom Audiences Now Available Via Facebook’s Ads Manager?, All Facebook
• Facebook and Google won’t sell ads for legal weed, www.theverge.com
• The Dark Side of Google Remarketing, www.clixmarketing.com

Domaining

• Afternic/GoDaddy Sell $1.86 Million In Domain Names, The Domains
• How My Business Model Differs from Other Domain Investors, DomainInvesting.com
• Sedo Transactions Total $1.6 Million, The Domains

Email Marketing

• 10 Reasons You Don’t Deserve to Have My Email, CopyPress
• 3 ways to refresh your email marketing, myemma.com
• 7 Email Tips for Ecommerce Merchants in 2014, Practical Ecommerce

General Internet Marketing

• 4 lessons on press release distribution from Google, www.branded3.com
• 7 Ways You Should Have Advanced Your Digital Strategy in 2013, Web Analytics World

Internet Marketing Industry

• After Rebranding, YP Names Allison Checchi CMO, Ad Age
• Movable Ink Strengthens Technology Portfolio and Development Team with Acquisitions of Mailrox and Eastmedia, Movable Ink

Other Items

• comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Desktop Web Properties for December 2013, comScore

Social Media

• Measuring Success in Social Media., www.hugeinc.com
• Reports of Facebook’s death have been greatly exaggerated, eConsultancy
• Some Facebook Page Admins See ‘Connect To Instagram’ Option Under ‘Edit Page’ Button, All Facebook