New Google+ Layout: Hangouts, Photos and Stream Reminiscent of Pinterest Google announced a major update to their social network this week that changes the way Hangouts, photos and the Google+ stream are viewed by users. The decidedly Pinterest-esque layout was just one of many announcements this week out of Google I/O, the totality of which Jeremiah Owyang and Chris Silva dubbed a "wreck." "The end result, we hope,

Visual content is certainly trendy - see the meteoric rise in infographics and social engagement with images as proof. Yet the need for content that appeals on a visual level and presents information in a more engaging format than text goes far beyond what is cool or fun to create. In creating curriculum and learning materials for students )child to adult( and their teachers, I learned just how important visuals are in meeting the needs of different types of learners .

As part of our continuing series on content marketing tactics , I'll be covering a topic that is absolutely near and dear to every content marketer's heart: business blogging. According to a recent NM Incite report, there are over 181 million blogs around the world. The way many companies treat blogs in their content marketing mix is to incorporate blogs into their website as a section or subdomain, or host them on their own domain name as we do.

Your customers want more personalized messaging and content. In fact, 64% believe it's more important that companies represent them with relevant offers, compared to 36% who don't want their activity tracked. Given the tools available to block ads, tactics to stop tracking, opt-in nature of communications and social participation, it's clear that customers who do choose to interact with brands expect a more personalized experience as a result. The Mass Marketing vs.

Planning and executing a successful social media marketing strategy sometimes requires that brands look outside their own companies for assistance. Businesses may partner with consultants or agencies to tap into the expertise, skills and resources they can offer, to help with strategy and tactical execution of the plan. However, things can go wrong in social and when they do, the fallout can be massive and instantaneous.

Conversion rate optimization is the marketing art of maximizing your investment in existing site traffic, through improvements and problem-solving rather than additional ad spend. At some point in any business site's lifetime, CRO is a must; for smart marketers, it's an ongoing process that pays dividends over and over again. Once you've invested in attracting traffic to your site, whether to complete a purchase or take some other action,

LinkedIn Adds Rich Media Capability to Profiles LinkedIn users can now add rich media content objects to their profiles , allowing designers, analysts, authors and others to share their best works in a visually interesting format. Users can now use videos, images and presentations to demonstrate their experience. Danielle Restivo, Head of Global Programs, Corporate Communications at LinkedIn, reminds us that brands have had rich media access on their pages for some time.

Content marketing has exploded over the past year and will continue to grow in importance throughout 2013. Still, many marketers make the mistake of rushing to publish or producing content without a purpose in an effort to capitalize on the trend. Quality rules the day when it comes to content creation. We write often here on the importance of content planning and optimization and Lee Odden offered a complete framework for optimizing across SEO,

Where do advertorials, also know in politically correct terms as "native advertising", fit into the content marketing toolkit? To answer this question, we first have to understand what advertorials are - and also that the definition of content marketing itself is a hotly contested topic. Adam Stetzer of HubShout, in his recent investigation into the purported Google penalization of Interflora for employing advertorial content,

Brands understand the importance of content marketing, yet most have not yet addressed their content needs on either a strategic or tactical level, according to Altimeter's Rebecca Lieb. Researchers for the company conducted interviews with executives actively engaged in content strategy or marketing; their findings were the basis of a new report, Organizing for Content: Models to Incorporate Content Strategy and Content Marketing in the Enterprise .

So you want your campaign to go viral' Let's keep in mind your business objectives, shall we? As these social marketing fails will show, campaigns may take off but go seriously sideways if companies place popularity above purpose. Some companies can afford more risk and racier campaigns than others, yet risk in business must always be mitigated and justifiable based on the potential rewards. You might disagree with my opinion on the campaigns featured in this post,

Text messaging open rates are far superior to those on Facebook, email and even Twitter, according to this latest infographic from SlickText.com. In addition, SMS coupons are ten times more likely to be redeemed and shared than mail or newspaper coupons. Almost all text messages are read within the first five minutes, they claim, which makes sense as the average person checks their phone over 150 times per day. See more insights at SlickText .

Vibrant, colorful photos drive more engagement. Use this guide to find the right dimensions, resolution, and file size for Facebook images to market your business with albums, cover images, apps, timeline photos, highlighted images, and more.

This month, we learned that although 65% of brands participate in influencer marketing, just 10% of total digital marketing spend goes to social, which includes influencer marketing. Some have cried, don't people see the opportunity? Why aren't they spending on influencers! Technorati Media's 2013 Digital Influence Report shared the above insight, as well as the fact that a mere 6% of social spend is allotted to marketing to influencers.

Technorati Media Shares: Where Brands Are Social Over 90% of brands recently shared with Technorati Media that they have a presence on Facebook, with Twitter and YouTube comig in second and third with 85% and 73%, respectively. Just 26 percent of brand managers report a presence on Google+, lower even than Pinterest at 41%. According to their 2013 Digital Influence Report ,

Most companies understand the benefits of a well-executed online PR strategy: improved brand visibility and industry reputation, increased traffic to the company website and even sales. It's no wonder that companies trip over themselves to come up with a regular stream of PR related content. Unfortunately, lower barriers to entry for publishing and distributing information have resulted in a plethora of non-news littering the web.

7 Step Framework Demonstrates Core Elements of Successful Content Marketing Strategies There is no silver bullet in content marketing, yet there are core, common elements to successful content marketing strategies, says Content Marketing Institute. They've shared their content marketing framework to help marketers increase their own chances of success, along with a whitepaper expanding upon each of their seven identified elements.

Content creation isn't easy and I, for one, am very glad. I've been writing online content for almost a decade now and have truly enjoyed the increased emphasis on quality over quantity and targeted messaging we've seen over the past few years. Companies are now fully aware that simply distributing information on a regular basis is not enough. As Lee pointed out in a recent article on the reasons companies are challenged by content creation ,

Real-time social engagement is a great way for brands to stay top of mind, build their social audience and even influence the buying decisions of consumers. On-the-fly upsets to content plans and rapid response content creation are counterintuitive for most brands, though. At TopRank, we coach brands on careful planning, implementation, measurement and ongoing improvement based on insights.

Digital Now Accounts for 57% of Daily Media Consumption Consumers now spend more time each day consuming digital than traditional media, according to the most recent GlobalWebIndex . Overall, consumers now spend an average of 10.7 hours a day with all forms of media and 5.6 hours of that on digital. People are turning to online channels for radio, TV, social and other forms of content consumption in record numbers, especially in China and UAE.