There's a recent surge in the business press about incorporating social media and search or basically a more holistic approach to natural search optimization. While many popular biz pubs are catching on, bloggers and consultants like the team at TopRank Marketing have been covering the topic for a while. To help marketers better understand the notion of holistic SEO outside of PageRank, meta tags and link building,

Since 2005 or so, I've been pretty active speaking at conferences all over the world. Some of the cities I've been to for speaking engagements include: San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., Boston, Detroit, Hong Kong, Auckland, Sydney, London, Barcelona, Toronto, Minneapolis and Park City, Utah. But to this day, my favorite city for a conference is New York. All of the cities I've listed above have many great things going for them,

Yesterday I spoke at Search Congress in Barcelona Spain on the topic of improving online marketing )end even PR( with Social Media and SEO. My co-panelist was Aaron Kahlow of Online Marketing Connect and the moderator was the famous Massimo Burgio . Just before the event, Massimo suggested we break out our Spanglish in the presentations plus I ran into Bryan Eisenberg who did a keynote - unexpectedly in Spanish because the translator didn't show.

Google Farmer update paranoia aside, there are plenty of reasons to make content marketing a more prominent piece of your online marketing mix. Content fuels search visibility, social sharing and consumer interaction. Great content aligns customer goals with those of the brand. Ultimately, useful content helps win and keep customers. Because we promote editorial marketing here and with clients so much,

It's easy for early adopters and social media enthusiasts to get caught up in the latest and greatest tool available but many companies are still seeking a basic foundation. According to Harvard Business Review Analytic Services , only 12 percent of companies surveyed felt their organizations were using social media effectively. Exploration and experimentation are viable steps when entering social media marketing for the first time. However,

I'm a bit of a travel bug and my third trip to London didn't disappoint. SES moved its venue to the center of London, literally across the street from Westminster Abbey and a short walk to Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye and many other well known landmarks. Whether a conference happens in amazing places like London or New York, there are a few things I try to do in order to maximize the value from attending including speaking of course, but also networking,

As a long time and trusted marketing agency, TopRank Online Marketing gets to work with some amazing B2B technology and SaaS companies. One of those companies is StrongMail . Today Kristin Hersant, VP of Corporate Communications joins an esteemed group of marketers and thought leaders ranging from Guy Kawasaki to David Meerman Scott interviewed here at Online Marketing Blog . Kristin is a firecracker of smarts and energy towards online marketing.

The last session of the day on the last day of SES London was on Social Media in the Marketing Mix with Kristjan Hauksson of Optimize Your Web in Iceland and Mel Carson of Microsoft in London. Kristjan started things off: What happens when a volcano goes wrong? He recounted the situation last year when Eyjafjallajokul erupted )say that 3 times fast - I dare you( and so much ash spread into the atmosphere that hundreds of planes were grounded from flying. This,

The first session of the day for me here at SES London is a topic I've been interested in for a very long time: video marketing and optimization. It's a great panel featuring Jonathan Allen from Incisive Media, Paul Carff from Google and Will Critchlow from Distilled. All three speakers offered plenty of interesting tips. First up is Paul Carff from Google who is a Developer Advocate that helps people learn about and use APIs.

Over the past 7 years of blogging, one could say I've become quite familiar with the world of blogging. Online Marketing Blog has received a lot of kudos recently but more importantly, our experience with reviewing others' blogs has been a learning experience to say the least. I've looked at over 1,000 blogs to create the BIGLIST and recently reviewed the top UK Online Marketing Blogs as well.

Either as a consumer that loves different brands or a B2B marketer who's looking to connect with prospects, Facebook Fan pages offer an easy way to engage with others that have similar interests. It's easy enough to find the brand names you know, but when looking using other criteria, it can be tough.

Online Marketers world-wide are looking towards content marketing as a way to educate, connect with and influence prospects to become customers. Content can also play a big part in lead nurturing and engagement with existing customers. With 9 out of 10 B2B marketers using content in their mix and predictions from the likes of Geoff Ramsey of eMarketer, " Content Marketing is Critical in 2011 " and Ashley Friedlein of Econsultancy,

The widespread use of social media has fundamentally changed how people communicate and share information. According to recent data from comScore , Facebook now accounts for 12.3 percent of the time spent online in the U.S. versus 7.2 percent just a year ago. Twitter now counts approximately 200 million accounts and over 110 million tweets per day.

Social Media Marketing has taken a firmer position within the marketing mix of most companies in one way or another. For some, social web participation is a natural fit. For many others, being more social isn't in the management DNA. Regardless, marketers are held accountable for improving the bottom line and with that comes a number of common "headaches". Yesterday I did a webinar with a client of ours, NewsUSA on 3 social media headaches. As part of the prep for that,

Thank you to all who participated in our little poll seeking votes for the best UK Online Marketing Blog last week. That link will take you to the ful list as well as the voting results. The purpose was to create awareness of UK centric blogs that share as much of a passion for Online Marketing topics as we do here at Online Marketing Blog. 35 blogs were listed and many put effort into promoting themselves via blog post, Twitter, email,

While at OMS and SES Accelerator this week, I bumped into )literally( my friend Jay Baer who has just published a new book with co-author Amber Naslund called The Now Revolution . I am reading it now and may do a full review, but I asked Jay about a few core principles or shifts from the book that I think are essential for helping organizations transform. The first deals with the notion of companies "doing social" vs. "being social".

Google sites handle about 88 billion searches each month. YouTube is the second most popular search engine second only to Google. Facebook is now over 600 million users. Twitter has nearly 200 million accounts. LinkedIn is at 101 million users and FourSquare grew 3,400% in 2010. The variety of options for customer marketing and engagement ranging from social media to SEO to email marketing to online advertising can be overwhelming. As a result,

At a reported $3 million per 30 second spot , Super Bowl advertising is big business. For a multimillion dollar investment, brands should be maximizing every opportunity to reach potential customers. Which advertisers took advantage of a customer base actively engaged in the big game to extend the conversation? Not too many. In the much-hyped ads airing during the Super Bowl,

If I were to write a tactical "how to" book on Content Marketing, I'd like to think it would be a lot like "Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars and More that Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business". After knowing Ann Handley online for several years, I finally met her in person at a B2B MarketingProfs event in Boston last year. I met C.C. during a GM sponsored blogger dinner during SXSW.

Facebook has been a great tool for reaching consumers directly for many B2C brands. But can companies focused in the B2B industry use Facebook to enhance a reputation and grow new business? Absolutely. Quite a few B2B companies are successfully using Facebook to build important relationships with prospects and customers. If your B2B company is still considering where Facebook might fit within an online marketing mix,