Most progressive and “cool” companies and brands have embraced social media. They created a Facebook page, a Twitter account and even have a YouTube channel.



If they are real marketing pioneers then they may even have learned how to spell Instagram and know that “pinning” is not just something done by the grannies at the weekly sewing club.

The “geniuses” even know that “Vine” is not just something that grows in the fields of France that leads to much glass clinking, bad jokes and wild dancing.

So the power of social media has been identified to assist and even supercharge creating online brand awareness through the leverage of  ”crowd marketing” that is facilitated by customers and fans sharing your content.

The smart cookies even know that unique fresh content that is popular and resides on your website can provide better search results. Key terms that people use to find your product or service may even appear on page one of Google if your content and search strategy is integrated and honed.

That is gold for any brand.

The challenges

But despite the opportunities there are many challenges.

Creating great content takes time and resources and many organisations have started the journey with enthusiasm but have given up in desperation. They drew up the plan but realised it was a Mount Everest. Blogs were designed and launched but are now desolate and haven’t seen a published post for months. Twitter accounts were started but the tweets are missing and followers are few.

This is due to many factors such as lack of inspiration, the sustained effort needed and the persistence required.

I know what discipline, skill and passion is needed. For the last four years I have painstakingly built this blog on the back of content and technology that has taken me to the teetering edge of keyboard throwing, mouse hurling and laptop launching.

But there are some solutions emerging to help in the battle of content creation and being visible amongst the universe of half a billion websites and blogs.

A solution

For the last 18 months I have been involved in a journey to find a solution to those challenges with a company called Shuttlerock.

It provides a powerful easy to use platform that helps you easily create content that keeps your website and blog fresh, relevant and engaging. It enables your customers, supporters, staff and fans to interact with your website.

Here is a video overview of the concept of how the Shuttlerock software works.

Introduction to Shuttlerock from Shuttlerock on Vimeo.

It is a solution that builds great content for your domain and not just Facebook.  It drives views and engagement to the platform you own.

How does it work?

Shuttlerock is a white label photo and content sharing platform embedded on your website. It allows you to generate, curate and publish photos and stories. It means that your website is no longer one dimensional; it’s now multi-dimensional using customers, staff and partners and their social channels to bring your site to life.



What are the key benefits?

The platform was born out of the frustration of creating content, watching Facebook nabbing all the good photos and not being able to create engagement and content curation at scale.

Here are the key benefits that highlight how it it will assist you with the marketing of your business on a social web that craves fresh unique content.

• More high quality engagement leading to more sales. This is created by the generation of ‘real’ content from ‘real’ people. This “is” content marketing.
• Better interaction with customers AND their friends: a social platform on “your” website. And more control of the customer relationship, content and conversations.
• Creates an on-going source of fresh content which you can share to your company’s social channels.
• Higher search engine rankings. Search engines require fresh content and they rate the social conversations that Shuttlerock encourages.
• Helps you build a valuable email list of your customers and their friends

The key features

The ShuttleRock “software as a service” platform has some powerful features to help you tap into the power of your fans (if you are a sports brand) and followers or customers that love creating content, whether that is a tweet, a photo or other media.

Here are the key features.

1. Content board

It takes minutes to create a content board and you decide whether it’s open to the public or staff only, whether it’s open to voting or not and where it appears on your page.



2. Easily add photos to your site

It’s simple, two-step uploading from a range of sources. No more messing around with cumbersome content management systems or resizing images.



3. Search engine optimisation

Photos are renamed using pre-determined key words to help with SEO.

4. Automatic onsite content creation

Automatic content generation including the hash tags from Twitter, Instagram and Flickr and geotagging.

5. Mobile apps

Content collection doesn’t have to wait to be sent from your computer but content collection can be from a smart phone including Android and Apple.



6. Content publishing control via moderation

Moderation is provided which allows you to accept or reject photos, edit comments or change which board the image appears in before publishing.



7. Prompted sharing

Each time someone shares a photo your brand is centre stage and each share encourages people back to your website.



8. Update multiple social networks at once

You no longer need to chase several channels. Shuttlerock lets you update multiple social networks at once. Create a schedule of posts to your company Facebook pages so something is posted every day even when you have the day off.

9. Demographics and statistics measurement

Demographic information and statistics are presented in an easy to view graph for quick analysis.

10. Integration with 3rd party platforms

Integration with 3rd party platforms including Facebook, Mailchimp and Instagram.

11. Easily create and run a competition

The Shuttlerock content boards create a reason for your customers to send a message to their friends about your business – and drive them to your website.



Some results

The Shuttlerock platform has been added to the marketing toolkits of companies in a range of industries including sports teams, retailers, travel & tourism, real estate and many more.

Some results.

• Progear photography generated 770 shares in the first month getting their brand in front of 77,000 of their customers’ friends.
• Black Cat Cruises created 850 photos in 6 months and lifted their user sessions and online sales by 50% year on year.
• The Queensland Reds football team generated 233 images from 7 content boards in their first 30 days.
• Jucy car rentals increased their Google rankings for ‘Christchurch rental car’ from the second page of Google at #13 to page one at position 3.

View the Original article

The web today is comprised of trillions of links. Who links to your site and how they link to it is the fundamental factor driving your search engine rank and your website traffic.

If you're not sure where to begin when it comes to building links with other sites, here are 10 easy ways to get started:

1. Create a blog.

Creating content on a consistent basis not only builds links internally (by linking out from your posts), but it also gives you the ability to build links naturally, because content is your greatest asset when attracting links. A blog is essential to many strategies outlined here, such as linking out. You absolutely need a blog in today's online environment to survive.

2. Internal linking.

You have pages and posts on your website, so make the most of them. Internal links are huge for link building because you can control everything about them, from the location on the page to the anchor text. This is something that most people overlook--please do not! Make sure to steer your content in the direction of other posts or pages so you can link to them.

Warning: Do not use exact-match anchor text in your site's navigation (sitewide links). This will most likely be another spam filter from Google.

3. Resources/links pages.

Other webmasters have created links, or resource, pages, and these are legitimate opportunities to get links. If the links on that page are relevant, you've got a chance.

Unfortunately, it's not as easy as just asking for a link. The following two suggestions are specific strategies to help you get webmasters liking you before you ask and greatly increase your chance of getting the link.

4. Ask people you know for a link.

Whether it's your friends, relatives, employees, colleagues, business partners, clients, or anyone else, ask them for a link. Someone you know has a website or blog, so take advantage.

5. Make it easy to link to you.

If you want people to link to you, make it easy for them. Create HTML-ready snippets that people can plug right into their content to link to you, because some linkers in your community might not be too web-savvy. Either create a "Link to Us" page or use a little JavaScript to generate the HTML at the end of each article or post.

Note: This might not be the best option for every community. Are you in the cement niche? Then this is perfect. Are you talking about internet-related business? Then this might not be your best bet, because the majority of your audience probably already knows how to link.

6. Research your competitors.

When it comes to finding new link opportunities, competitor research is one of the first things you should do. Essentially, you're piggy-backing off their success. While some links are unobtainable (that is, a random mention in a news post), others can be diamonds in the rough (a high-quality niche directory).

Try using SEOmoz's Open Site Explorer for this. Plug in your competitors and export their backlinks to a CSV file. Do this for all your competitors so you can get all their links in one place in a spreadsheet workbook. Then you can sort them by various link metrics to find the best opportunities.

7. Link out.

Linking out is huge. Don't be a link hoarder; you're going to create content, so use it to gain favor with other people.

8. Build relationships.

This is the No. 1 link-building strategy in the world. Get to know people! Build relationships with them, because it'll come back to you in the form of links (that is, if they're the right people).

The best part about this is that it's just like real life. Remember how people say, "It's not about what you know, it's about who you know"? The same goes for link building.

9. Niche-specific directories.

As opposed to general web directories, niche-specific directories only accept sites that meet a certain topic criteria. For example, one directory might only accept sites about arts and crafts. Some of these directories are free, while others are paid. One example is Business.com, a directory for business websites. The cost is $299 per year.

10. Paid directories. 

Some directories ask for money before accepting your link(s) in their listings. Dir.Yahoo.com, for example, is a paid directory. Once again, while some of these can pass on legitimate value, others offer little and aren't worth your time or money.





































View the Original article

Outreach and submissions only go so far. Sometimes you have to let your content attract links naturally to get the results you want. If you create content that naturally attracts links, it not only saves you time getting them manually, but it also increases engagement on your blog (if it's worth linking to, it's usually worth reading). This is where your content and link-building strategies meet.

How-tos and tutorials.

Whether it's a tool, DIY project or anything else, showing people exactly how to do something is extremely helpful.


Quizzes and tests.

Testing your reader's knowledge and letting them share their results with their friends is always a great idea.

Timely or seasonal content.

Creating the right content at the right time can get you a ton of attention. Creating an infographic on the statistics behind this year's Super Bowl the day after the event is a perfect example. The same goes for seasonal content. Whether it's Valentine's Day, Halloween or Christmas, you can create holiday-themed content that can get a ton of attention over a short period of time (and every year after).

Case studies.

Everyone loves a good case study. Real results with real numbers can instantly catch people's attention. If you offer a product or service, this is a no-brainer. If you give out advice, find someone who's used it successfully.

Printable resources.

People like hard copies of useful guides. By creating a printable resource with an awesome design, you can almost guarantee a few links will come your way.

Creating contests.

Entering contests is great for link building, but creating them is even better. By requiring your participants to write about and link to the contest from their blog, you'll not only get links from them, but their posts will increase the exposure of your contest, thus growing your number of contestants -- and thus, the amount of links you get -- at an exponential rate.

Infographics.

People love data, but sometimes it's hard to digest. Creating an infographic on it is a popular way to change that. Not only will it naturally attract links, but you'll also get other bloggers embedding it, which means even more links. Not to mention you have control over the anchor text of the embed code.

Web tools.

Creating free online tools, such as specialized calculators, is a fantastic way to attract links. They don't even have to be complex. If it could save me five minutes, then I'll probably use and share it.

Interactive -- content your user can alter, change, or remix.

The next big thing in linkbait is interactive content. The reason: because it's flat out cool and few people are doing it.

Review something new.

Just like with news, if you're the first to review something, and if it's awesome, your review will get tons of attention. You can also use this to gain favor with the creators of the product or service you're reviewing.

Webinars.

Spending a couple of hours every month doing a webinar is a great idea for attracting links over the long term. Set up a page on your website solely dedicated to webinars and as you create new ones, the links will roll in each time.

Surveys.

There's generally a two-step process to attracting links with surveys. The first step is asking people to participate. If it's on a particularly interesting topic, reaching out to bloggers, experts and industry news sites to ask to spread the word both on their blog and on social media sites is a great way to attract your first wave of links.

The second step is releasing the results. Combine the release with some nice visualization and a bit of controversy, and you've got yourself a fantastic piece of linkbait.

Google maps mashup.

Google Maps is a great tool, and you can use it to attract links if you get it in front of the right audience. A great idea would be to map out all the industry events taking place this year.

Lists.

1. People
2. Love
3. Lists.

Why? Because the content is super easy to digest.

Debunking myths.

If there's a common misconception in your industry, make sure you let everyone know. If it's big enough, and if your statements are bold enough, you could get some serious attention.

Interviews.

Interviewing industry experts will always be a fantastic way to attract links, but getting them to interview is only half the battle. The other half is asking great questions. A good way to find out what questions you should ask is by holding a Q&A with your blog's community, whether it's on Google+, Twitter or any other site. Ask what kinds of questions your readers want to see answered.












































View the Original article

Linkable assets are the experts, pages, widgets, tools, discounts, relationships and any other people or pages related to your organization that incentivize others to share a link with their site visitors. When you understand what's linkable about your organization, as well as what types of assets earn links in your market, you'll have a much easier time identifying your link opportunity types. Knowing these types makes you more effective at prospecting for these opportunities.



The following linkable asset categories will help get you thinking about what your organization's linkable assets could be. Thinking broadly and creatively at the beginning of a link-building campaign can open you up to a stronger, more effective campaign design. After all, you could be sitting on a link magnet and not even realize it.

Free apps and tools on your site.

Do you provide any free applications or web-based tools to your site visitors? If so, it's likely that these have already attracted links naturally. If you haven't promoted these tools yet for the purpose of link building, then these assets could help you develop even more links. Be careful, though, when designing and building a tool or app -- they can be expensive (sometimes two to three times what you expect or what you're quoted), can seem to take forever to develop, and could still flop. That said, nothing demonstrates your expertise like a custom tool you've crafted to make your customers' lives easier.

Products and services to give away for donations, contests or review. 

If you have products or services you can give away, you can earn links through donation thank-you pages, through contests, and via product/service reviews from experts in your market. Often this asset is one of the easiest paths to developing links. However, it's fairly easy for your competitors to emulate. Further, these approaches to link building can create enormous and unexpected logistical nightmares, such as shipping and packaging, or even getting the winner's contact information from the site conducting the giveaway.

Widgets, tools, images and data for publishers. 

Have you created widgets, tools, images, or data that publishers of other websites are free to add to their websites? Infographics, embeddable tools, research data, and other types of information created for the express purpose of giving it away is a classic and powerful method for earning links. If you have any of these assets and you haven't aggressively and extensively promoted them, then you're leaving valuable links and relationships on the table.

Thought leaders and subject matter experts. 

Are there thought leaders and subject matter experts in your organization? Do they have time to write or in some other way share their expertise with the market? These linkable assets could generate links in the form of interviews, guest posts, and quote contributions to industry news publications.

Partner relationships.

Do you have business partners, vendors, customers, and technology licensees? Each of these represents a potential link in the form of testimonials, published client lists, and "powered by" buttons. Gather a list of your vendors and partners, and look for ways to acquire (and give) links to all of them. Think interviews, think link requests for their vendors and partners pages, and think updated "powered by" badges.

Job listings, events and coupons. 

If your organization consistently publishes job openings, puts on events, or launches new products, then you've got quite a few link opportunities open to you. Colleges and industry vertical sites are sometimes willing to link to pages that feature new job openings. Many cities have event calendars that will publish details about your event and post links on their site for sign-up and more information. If you consistently offer coupons to your customers, then you'll find massive numbers of coupon-listing sites, many of which link back.

Consistent publishing via blog, video, podcast, Twitter and more.

Do you or does your organization publish content consistently? These linkable assets open you up to numerous link opportunity types from around your industry -- everything from blog directories, to niche social news sites, to blog lists, to PDF submissions, to distribution sites. In some industries, the fact that your CEO blogs is link-worthy and notable in itself.

Budget.

Money is almost always a linkable asset in that if you have the money, you can offer it to another site in exchange for a link. However, the link opportunities that you can purchase are often easy for competitors to duplicate. Further, some search engines aggressively penalize (in the form of lowered search rankings) purchased links that aren't labeled or coded as advertisements, making them a potentially risky investment that could end up costing far more in damages than they bring in search traffic. Some sites, such as directories, require a budget as well.


































View the Original article

Peter, a friend of mine and I decided to look for some holiday work to top up our meager income. He had some contacts in a local steel plant that was offering some holiday shift work that paid well.

The only challenge was that it was a 12 hour night shift.

On taking the job I was given the task to sit on the other side of a machine that chopped large pieces of metal into smaller pieces of metal. Task two was stacking those small pieces of metal into piles on a pallet.

This was brain numbing. By the end of the first night I was thinking, there had to be a better way.

I also had an insight about my future career path and it was “not” going to be in a steel fabrication factory!

Twitter can be tedious

When I started with Twitter it was great to see people start to retweet my content.  On a social web it is not just  about you, so you need to share other people’s content that adds value to your followers and friends. This can be done a few ways. I can follow their Twitter feed and retweet their content when they tweet it. Another way is to check their blog for new content.

The problem is that this can take a lot of time and it is tedious. I thought, there has to be a better way.

So I had to find an answer to the question. How can I share fellow bloggers content that I trust without sitting at my computer all day?

The Twitter tool that saves time

In my quest I stumbled upon Twitterfeed.com that allowed me to share great content from other bloggers on automatic pilot. It meant that every time they published a new post it was tweeted into my Twitter stream.

It serves three purposes.

1. It shows up in my Twitter feed and alerts me to new content from bloggers who know their stuff. They publish and I learn.
2. It also places valuable information into the Twitter accounts of my followers. They discover.  
3. It makes sure that I don’t miss sharing their new content every time it is published. The tool handles it and doesn’t forget.

So how do you use it?

Step One: Create a new feed

Go to the top of the Twitterfeed dashboard and click on the create new feed . In a few simple steps you will improve your social media effectiveness.



Step Two:  Create a name for the feed

In this example I am entering Jay Baer whose blog “Convince and Convert” is one of the top marketing resources on the web, especially in the area of content marketing.



Step Three: Advanced settings

I would recommend that you tweak your Twitterfeed so that you also let the blogger know you are sharing their content.  So at the bottom of the “Step 1″ page click on advanced settings.



Then enter the Twitter name for the blogger whose posts you will be sharing with the @ before their Twitter name.



This will ensure that the blogger knows you are sharing their blog posts on Twitter. This could create awareness about you and could even lead to them sharing your content.

That only has to be a good thing!

Step Four: Select and authenticate your Twitter account

The last step is to enter your twitter account  and then authenticate it.



You are now done!

This will free you up to write more blog posts. Engage with your followers and spend valuable time on creative tasks.



































View the Original article

The web was dominated for a decade by two key elements. Search engines and content.

If you wanted  information you asked Google. It was simple.

This led to the rise of a new industry called “search engine optimization” or if you love acronyms “SEO”. Experts good, bad and scammy emerged from the web mist to offer your website the holy grail of being ranked number one on a Google search result page. This was important because that gave you 40% of all clicks. Ranking number one could mean the success or failure of your online business.



This led to dubious practices and activities and content farms that just replicated content popped up. Unique and interesting information was being buried and overwhelmed by poor duplicate content.

Google decided to change the game as their search results were becoming more irrelevant and of lower quality.

They decided to work out ways to identify great content through social signals (hence the launch of Google+) and other technologies that rewards the content creators and not the content copiers.

Google got smarter. The web became more human.

Content on purpose 

Content creation on a smarter and social web requires you to ask some questions. So before we start writing our next piece of copy we better stop and ask ourselves what its purpose is when published on the Internet.

• Is it fresh and unique, or are we just adding to the duplicates, risking to get penalized?
• Is it readable and persuasive, or it pushes our readers away?
• Does it answer the questions the readers ask, or are we wasting their time?

Writing a high quality copy requires thorough research on the subject, taking you to all sorts of blogs and articles people from all around the globe have shared, but sadly, this pile of content often consists of far too many articles that fail to comply with the three goals we mentioned above. Not that these three goals of a quality copy are all we should meet, but if you want to truly grab the interest of your target audience, you should give them a second thought before you or your marketing team decide to publish the next post.

Since Google Panda was launched  you should be aware of duplicate content on your website, so writing the unique and quality content is extremely important, with free duplicate content checker PlagSpotter you can find out who steals your works without citing you.

Google is changing copywriting

It is true that Google’s algorithmic updates have caused many transformations in SEO copywriting. We all need to align the way we write with these constant changes. But, instead of us trying to stay one step ahead of the search engine equations, we can create our content with our human audience in mind, and meet them at the finish line.

Google will always have good user experience as their primary goal, and each update they make will be in the direction of better understanding of the content from a human perspective. If you guide your copywriting to provide what your readers look for, not only that you’ll get more loyal audience that loves to come to your website and read what’s new, but Google will also award your actions with a higher ranking in their search result pages.

So how should you write?

Here’s what you should ask yourself before you publish your writing on the Internet:

#1. Would my friends or colleagues walk away if I read this to them?

Read your copy out loud to better understand the flow for each sentence and paragraph and to see if the content is interesting enough to capture the interest of an audience. This will also allow you to clean up your typos, punctuation errors and unnecessary words.

#2. Do the headlines in the copy explain enough about its content?

If somebody reads only the headers of your article, will they understand what the article is about and what is its main idea? Ideally, the headlines should, provide transition and a description for each of the paragraphs.

#3. Are the keywords repeating too often?

When writing content for the Internet there must be some focus on the important keywords, but the density should always float somewhere in between 1% and 3% if we don’t want the writing to sound forced or spammy.

#4. Are my intentions being honest as a writer?

Why are you writing this copy? What is your purpose with it? Is it a complete plagiarism, or an effective idea sharing? Provide your readers with links to other websites, articles, pictures or videos related to your content to be able to achieve better SEO.

#5. Does the copy offer anything new to the readers?

This question builds off the previous point – will those who read your writing learn something new? Your content should match your goal of satisfying the curiosity your audience has on the particular subject. Only new, fresh and organic content is the way to more quality visits and better rankings.














































View the Original article

The demand for fresh and high-quality articles on websites is at an all-time high.

Since Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithm updates in 2011 and 2012, content that uses spam SEO practices has been penalized and quality is ever more crucial. Although keeping a news site or a blog up to date with fresh daily content is important and an effective way to generate traffic, your website must also have a solid backbone of  ‘evergreen’ content – or stuff that will not go out of date so easily – to stay relevant.

Evergreen content is content that has endurance and longevity.


What is evergreen content?

You have perhaps heard about evergreen content from industry experts who seem to have fallen in love with the term. They will tell you that it is vital to your blog’s overall success. Evergreen content  covers topics that are always relevant whenever they have been posted. It is written with the goal of driving traffic to a website for a long period of time. Examples of these would be “Tips” and “How-to” posts that retain their value, unlike news content which relies timeliness.

Importance of evergreen content to business?

Most small businesses find it difficult to stick to a blogging schedule, as it takes time and money. As a result, people often write a selection of articles when they get the time and then post them over the coming weeks, without having to worry about tying into the day’s news. It thus sounds more practical as well as business-like to create articles that have no expiration date.

From a blog management standpoint, evergreen content is effective as these posts will continue to be relevant and receive visitors. Creating evergreen content is a powerful way of building your business’ online presence and audience.

Writing perpetually relevant content is not that difficult. It’s just a matter of searching for an interesting topic that fits your business.

To get you started, here are some guidelines to consider:

#1. Choose timeless topics

When choosing a topic for your evergreen post, remember the K.I.S.S rule (Keep It Simple and Sweet). Never choose topics that are too broad, as they must be thoroughly explained, which can make them far too long. Take note that a typical online reader will scan your website looking for keywords and sentences that match the information they are seeking.

In 2008, Nielsen reported that “79 percent of searchers scanned Web pages and they only read 20-28 percent of the words on the page.” Thus, if the readers found that your article is not relevant to them within the first few seconds, then expect them to be clicking the back button.

#2. Give the content depth

Research extensively about your chosen topic. Start by reading up on the subject on Wikipedia, then see what else the web can turn up. Although you’ve done your research, this does not mean that you can confuse your readers with jargon. Remember to write for your market. If your content is for beginners, avoid technical terms that could scare them off. Simplicity is the key to all effective writing. Consider reading 8 Essential Habits for Effective Writing on how to be an effective writer
for a more productive writing experience.

#3. Present your content with visuals

As the online marketing game becomes more competitive, business marketers are finding that interesting content isn’t just about what you say, but also how the information is presented. Content that includes appealing visuals such as photos, videos and graphs (to name a few) will help tell the story you are trying to convey.

In fact, in a study conducted by Florida’s Poynter Institute in May 2004, researchers found out that “images (photos and graphics) were viewed more than text. Photos attracted more attention than graphics. Sixty-four percent of the photos were viewed for about one-and-a-quarter second, on average. Graphics (other than banner ads) were viewed 22 percent of the time, and received about a second’s attention.” So if you’re planning to write tutorials or tips then consider searching for videos or photos to make your content more effective.

So what are you waiting for?

Maintaining a blog for your website often entails a lot of decision making, especially when it comes to deciding what topic to discuss. Remember that “creating content that is just as useful five years down the road as it was the day it was published is not easy, but it’s possible.”

So start investing in evergreen content now to build your brand’s online presence.





















View the Original article

If you have a website or a blog, you engage in content marketing every time you publish a page or post – whether you realize it or not.

As the business world continues to evolve with the Internet age, content blogging has become a booming market. However, many small businesses are making a lot of avoidable mistakes or simply missing out on an opportunity to get the most out of their expensive content.

If you own a site or blog, you know how expensive and time-intensive getting quality content published can be.

So get the most out of your content and avoid these costly mistakes.

 #1. No Plan

The first and most obvious content marketing problem is the complete lack of a plan. Most firms have a short term plan at best – they might know what the next few blog posts will be or what pages on their site need to be added.

But what about the big picture? How is your content adding value? Does your content coach a potential customer into and through the sales funnel? Are you tracking responses to your content so you can improve as you go?

These are just a few questions to get you started. The point is to get a plan on paper that goes beyond the next few weeks’ worth of content.

#2. Wrong Purpose

Content writers can fall into many traps that steal them away from the actual goal of content. Content writing is not about the writer, a random topic, or a selling point. All of these types of writing will frustrate and alienate your readers. The goal of content writing is to spread valid professional advice about a topic that relates to your business. Think about your audience. Who do you want to read your content? Then ask this audience what topics they wish to read about. Your readers might then become customers if you establish yourself as an expert in your business field.

The purpose is not to make a quick sell. Content comes in many forms, but the goal is to create value. This can look like a FAQ section on your site, how-to guides for troubleshooting, or general industry information. Avoid salesy content at all cost.

#3. Unprofessional

Businesses sometimes forget to make sure their content writing is professional. Content writing does need to be grammatically correct, clear, and valid. Your content should be interesting, engaging, and meaningful to your readers. Hiring an ad agency or PR firm is not always a good way to solve this problem unless they have specific training in content writing. Invest in a service or writer who will be worth your time and money.

 #4. Social Media

Publishers will have one of two problems with social media. Either they will never use it and lose all the potential marketing benefits or they will rely too heavily on it to do all the marketing for them. Content needs to be consistently spread through social media outlets, but it must be valuable to your readers and be professionally written.

Encourage readers to share your content using social media buttons on your site by using Twitter and other social media techniques to share your news. But you must understand, they will only share high-value content.

#5. Search Engine Optimization

One of the many reasons to engage in content marketing is to improve your search engine rankings – a process called search engine optimization (SEO). But a common problem with a content marketing campaign is that it does not properly incorporate the latest SEO techniques.

This is an industry in and of itself. Very few inexperienced staff will be able to fully take advantage of up-to-date SEO information. At a minimum, you’ll want to engage an SEO professional to get you some policy in place regarding how to publish your content and best-practices for any social media content you publish. Ideally, you can have an SEO expert involved from start to finish so they can monitor progress and adapt your campaign on the fly.

#6. Untapped Resources

Another common content marketing mistake is failing to use your company’s resources. Get creative with your content and find ways to incorporate your business’s specific strengths and expertise. Have your employees come up with ideas and even write articles for you. The more you set your company apart, the more likely your customers and readers will get behind your content and eventually your company.























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Geoffrey Rush the Oscar winning actor said he has strived to accomplish two things in his life…”Credibility
and Visibility“.
 
If you are a job seeker then standing out is important in securing that next job.

Business owners and entrepreneurs need to be noticed to obtain funding and sell their products and services.
To succeed as a musician and artist your work obtains visibility as it is played, displayed and seen.

Authors have the challenge of writing a book that has to stand out in a mountain of 15 million books that will be published in 2012.

If you want to stand out, Seth Godin recommends “Purple Cows”

Do something unique and different.

Pick Yourself

We live in an age where we have the means and the machines to self publish and self market. Technology is democratising publishing and marketing.

The Gutenberg press has been superseded by the digital press. The written word has been set free from the confines of time and space.

On a social web  you don’t need to wait to be picked to publish. You can “Pick  yourself”.

No longer do authors have to pitch or beg a publisher. Amazon is providing the platform for self publishing.
The tools and technologies now allow you to publish short form content in an instant. That could be on Tumblr, Facebook or Google+.

Even your smart phone is a publishing machine in your pocket that can publish images and text whether that is on Instagram or Twitter.

Emulate then Innovate

Online video adds to the publishing mix which provides the means to communicate with all the power of face to face communication with all its associated subliminal messages.

The motivating power of face to face communications is not restricted to the boardroom or the town hall. YouTube is leveraging the transmission of skills that cannot be transmitted just with words.

You can’t show someone how to dance with text.

Video transmits the non verbal such as facial expressions, gestures, passion and eye contact where serious magic happens.

Reading and writing are fairly recent inventions whereas face to face communication has been honed by tens of thousands of years of evolution.

“What Gutenberg did for writing video is doing for face to face communications“.

Video enables people to view how something is done, then emulate and finally innovate.

Radical Openess

The hardest part though is being prepared to open up and expose yourself to the world. Content needs to be set free and giving away your secrets is part of this new paradigm of radical openness!

Credibility is achieved through the display of your skills via your content whether it is carried by music, words or video. Visibility is achieved by building online tribes and followers and sharing with them  your ideas.

So what can you do to stand out on a very crowded web?

1. Tap into your passions

Some  people know from the first awakening of awareness, what they will do for the rest of their life. We all have an inkling of what we love. What keeps you up late at night, what do you read about, what makes you leap into your car and drive for hours?

This is your engine room.

2. Leverage your innate abilties

What are you good at? Reading, learning, loving, writing, video production, speaking, cooking or running? This is where you start. Along the way you will discover other skills that you didn’t know you had.

3. Build your Soapbox

This can be a Facebook page, Google+, Tumblr or a WordPress blog. My pulpit of choice is WordPress technology, with my own domain and self hosted. It is mine, I own it and I have control.

I like that.

Don’t  hand over the keys of your content hub and home to a social network  that can cut you off or ask you to leave with an explanation.

Some people have made their home on a Facebook page or Google+. If you are removed (and it has happened and regularly) then I can only wish you good luck in calling their help line.

4. Start

This is where the rubber hits the road.

I remember reading a blog post on Hubspot and it said even if you aren’t exactly clear on what you should be publishing ….just start. This could be writing, creating YouTube videos, posting fashion photos, Publishing images of your art, paper folding or infographics.

In short create content. Don’t wait for the design and branding to be perfect. The refinement can happen on the journey as the crowd tells you what works and what doesn’t.

Just do it!

The magic is in the movement.

5. Know your audience

Understand the persona of the audience(s)who you are targeting.Don’t over complicate this, the audience will become clearer over time. You will hear their voice and see their shadows. You will sense what they want.

Just listen.

6. Educate

“How to” articles are always popular. It is the fastest growing category on YouTube. Educate with stories. A story’s power is twofold. It provides knowledge of how to act and inspiration which is the motivation to act.
Don’t underestimate people’s desire to learn.

7. Inform

In your target niche people want to know what is happening. Keep them up to date with the latest facts, figures and news. Articles that provide insights into the latest industry news will keep your audience coming back for more.

8. Inspire

Show people the potential to change their life and show them a future with potential and let them know that dreams can come true.

A vision is vital.

7. Stay on topic

We are all tempted to go off on tangents. You need to keep asking yourself “does my audience want to read about this”. You can try new angles but the crowd will tell you via the retweets, Google plus ones, shares, likes and comments what they like and don’t like.

Focus is vital.

8. Keep it  simple

As you build knowledge through researching, reading and creating you will be hit with the “Curse of Knowledge“.

“The better we get at generating great ideas—new insights and novel solutions—in our field of expertise, the more unnatural it becomes for us to communicate those ideas clearly. That’s why knowledge is a curse.”
So keep the message simple and clear of “industry speak” and acronyms.

9. Market and promote everywhere

Create a brand and presence on the large vibrant social networks. Publish and promote your content from your blog to as many social network platforms as time and resources allow.

Be “ubiquitous”

10. Build for search engines

Google with its latest updates called “Panda” and “Penguin” is valuing unique content that receives social votes, whether that is a “plus one” on Google, a “Like” on Facebook or a retweet on Twitter. Use WordPress plugins like “SEO all in one” or “Yoast” that create search engine friendly titles, descriptions and tags that make it easy for Google to crawl your site and show up in search engine results.

11. Build your tribes

Tap into the power of reciprocation. Follow people on Twitter and they will follow you back (some of the time). The great content on your homebase (blog) and the essential engagement with your followers will help you build a tribe. Be real and be willing to show the human side of your self.
Open the hood and reveal your secrets and the tribe will leap in.

12. Communicate with multi-media

Everyone learns differently. The younger generation prefers a short video. Baby boomers would rather read an article. The LinkedIn types like powerpoint presentations on Slideshare.

Provide the same content in a variety of media.

13. Hone your writing skills

If you want to write then you need to “read”. Writing can be learned. The basics are vocabulary, tempting headlines and well structured articles.

Tempting visuals (eg Infographics) will add a little bit of content contagion.

14. Be relentless

I can’t stress too much how important this is. Producing content once a month isn’t going to cut it. It is like flying plane.

Full throttle for takeoff until you reach cruising altitude.

 How About You

Are you visible online? What has worked for you in getting attention? Is it video or is it writing articles and blog posts?

Have you tapped into the power of writing great headlines? Do you need to build a larger and more engaged tribe.

Look forward to hearing your stories.








































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Global revenues from social media are projected to hit $16.9 billion in 2012, a 43.1% jump over the previous year, according to Gartner.

The bulk of that will come from advertising, which will contribute $8.8 billion. Social gaming revenue is next at $6.2 billion and subscriptions account for another $278 million. The researcher predicts “moderate growth” for the segment in coming years, though Gartner declined to share specific figures.

The advertising figure appears to be in line with a similar projection by eMarketer, which predicts $7.7 billion in social media ad revenues for 2012 and $11.9 billion by 2014. The U.S.’s share of such revenues will stay at around 53% over the next couple of years, according to eMarketer, which does not have an aggregate figure for social media revenues.



To put the figure in perspective, the Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates that global ad revenues for Internet advertising were $31 billion in 2011. Display ads accounted for $11.8 billion. The IAB didn’t break out figures for social media advertising.














































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Google accounted for 65.02% of all US searches conducted in the four weeks ended June 2, 2012, according to Experian Marketing Services' Hitwise. Bing-powered search accounted for 28.12% of searches: Yahoo Search and Bing received 14.95% and 13.17%, respectively.
The remaining 65 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis report accounted for 6.86% of US searches.



One-word searches constituted the majority of searches, amounting to 29.93% of queries. One-word search queries increased 19% from May 2011 to May 2012.

Longer search queries—five to seven words, and eight words or more—decreased 4% from April 2012 to May 2012, and some 11% from May 2011 to May 2012.




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Social media and inbound marketing techniques have been a boon for marketers. Not only do leads generated through social and content marketing cost half as much as traditional outbound-generated leads (see below), they also close at higher rate (again, see below).




And social media isn’t just about lead generation of course. While prospective buyers are using search and social to research products and services before making purchase decisions, marketers and PR professionals can use those same tools to research buyer wants and needs. And their competition. And…even social media itself.

Which brings us to this post. Wondering which social network is most effective at generating b2b leads? What marketing technique generates leads with the highest close ratio? What the best day of the week is for Facebook posting? Which U.S. city produces the largest share of “pins”on Pinterest?

Find the answers to those questions and many, many more in this collection of 72 fascinating social media marketing facts and stats for 2012.

Social Media / Social Networking

1. The average midsize or large company (1000 employees or more) has 178 “social media assets” (Twitter handles, employee blogs, etc.)–yet only 25% of companies offer social business training to their employees. (Marketingeasy)

2. B2b marketers believe social media is critical to organic search success. Marketers rate social media as the second-most imporant factor (64%) in search, behind only strong content (82%). (BtoB Magazine)

3. Although Facebook is the most important social media lead generation tool for b2c marketers (with 77% saying they had had acquired a customer through Facebook, compared to 60% for a company blog), among B2B companies, LinkedIn was the most effective, with 65% having acquired a customer through the professional network, followed by company blogs (60%), Facebook (43%), and Twitter (40%). (Marketing Charts)

4. The best way to “go viral” is to engage millions of users, each of whom share through small networks. “Online sharing, even at viral scale, takes place through many small groups, not via the single status post or tweet of a few influencers…Content goes viral when it spreads beyond a particular sphere of influence and spreads across the social web via ordinarily people sharing with their friends…the median ratio of Facebook views to shares (is) merely 9-to-1. This means that for every Facebook share, only nine people visited the story. Even the largest stories on Facebook are the product of lots of intimate sharing—not one person sharing and hundreds of thousands of people clicking.” (Ad Age)

5. LinkedIn generates more leads for b2b companies than Facebook, Twitter or blogs. Yet only 47% of b2b marketers say they are actively using LinkedIn vs. 90% on Facebook. (Social Media B2B)

6. One-third of global b2b buyers use social media to engage with their vendors, and 75% expect to use social media in future purchases processes. (Social Media B2B)

7. “Best in class” b2b companies are significantly more likely than average firms to integrate their social media efforts with their email marketing (65% vs. 51%), SEO (61% vs. 49%) and webinars (47% vs. 31%). (MarketingProfs)

8. As for “best in class” practices, 51% of best-in-Class companies use website social sharing tools, compared to 36% of average firms while 49% use keyword-based social media monitoring, compared with 39% of their more average peers. (MarketingProfs)

9. Top executives need to be involved in social media. 77% of buyers say they are more likely to buy from a company whose CEO uses social media. 94% said C-suite social media participation enhances a brand image. And 82% of employees say they trust a company more when the CEO and leadership team communicate via social media. (eMarketer)

User Experience

Want more registrations on your website? Consider offering a social login (i.e., the ability for visitors to register at and log in to your site using one of their existing social network profiles rather than creating a new login):

10. 86% of people say they are bothered by the need to create new accounts at websites. (MarketingSherpa)

11. 77% responded that social login is “a good solution that should be offered.” (MarketingSherpa)

12. 21% of “best in class” companies use social sign-in, compared to 8% of average-performing firms. (MarketingProfs)

Lead Nurturing

13. Only 27% of B2B leads are sales-ready when first generated. This makes lead nurturing essential for capitalizing on the other 73%. But 65% of B2B marketers have not established lead nurturing campaigns. (MarketingSherpa)

14. SEO-driven leads have the highest lead-to-close rate (15%) among common lead generation sources. Paid search leads average a 7% rate, while outbound marketing leads (e.g., direct mail, telemarketing) close at a 2% rate. (Econsultancy)

Facebook

15. B2C Facebook interaction is 30% higher than average on Sundays. (Mindjumpers)

16. Though nearly every large charity and university in America has a Facebook presence, less than 60% of the Fortune 500 do. (Mindjumpers)

17. 95% of Facebook wall posts are not answered by brands. (Mindjumpers)

18. Though Facebook continues to add users, U.S. members are becoming less active there. Between mid-2009 and late 2011, “messaging friends declined 12%, searching for new contacts fell 17% and joining a group of Facebook users dropped 19% in the U.S.” (MediaPost)

19. 70% of local businesses use Facebook.The U.S. has the largest number of Facebook users. The country with the second-largest Facebook population: Indonesia.  (Jeff Bullas)

20. Facebook is the leading source of referred social media traffic to websites, at 26%. Twitter is second at 3.6%. (Pooky Shares)

21. Facebook marketing is a specialized skill. For those looking to outsource this function to a professional consultant, expect to pay $500-$1,500 for initial page setup and anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 per month for ongoing content management and curation. (Mack Collier)

22. 52% of consumers say they have stopped following a brand on Facebook because the information it posted had become “too repetitive and boring.” (SMI)

Twitter

23. There are now roughly 100 million active Twitter users (those who log in at least once per day). (Mindjumpers)

24. 34% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter, and 20% have closed deals. (Mindjumpers)

25. 40% of Twitter users rarely post anything but primarily consume content there. 55% access Twitter via a mobile device. (Mindjumpers)

26. 92% of retweets are based on “interesting content.” Only 26% are due to inclusion of “please RT!” in the tweet. (Mindjumpers)

27. Twitter now has 200 million users, including 8% of the U.S. population. About one-quarter of all users are considered “extremely active,” checking in several times per day. (Jeff Bullas)

28. 55% of all Twitter users use the service to share links to news stories, and 53% retweet others. (Jeff Bullas)

29. 77 of the world’s 100 largest companies maintain a corporate Twitter account. But media outlets are the most active users. (Jeff Bullas)

30. Most professional consultants charge $500-$1,000 to set up a Twitter account (optimized bio, custom background etc.) and $500-$1,500 per month for ongoing management (dependent on level of activity and amount of content). (Mack Collier)

Google and Google+

31. Google’s search engine is used by 85% of global Internet users every month. (MediaPost)

32. Google+ is expected to reach 400 million users by the end of 2012. It’s membership is 63% male, with the largest cohort in their mid-20s. While the largest block of users by country are in the U.S., the second largest is India. However, only 17% of users are considered “active.” (Jeff Bullas)

Pinterest

33. The image-based social network has grown 4,000% in the past six months, now boasts more than 4 million users, and keeps those users engaged: the average Pinterest user spends nearly an hour-and-a-half per month on the site, behind only Facebook and Tumblr. (Jeff Bullas)

34. 83% of Pinterest users are women. In the U.S., the most popular categories are Fashion, Desserts, Clothes and Birthdays. (MediaPost)

35. But in the U.K., the five most popular topics on Pinterest are Venture Capital, Blogging Resources, Crafts, Web Analytics and SEO/Marketing. (Pooky Shares)

36. 22% of all pins come from New York, followed by Los Angeles at 15%. A higher percentage come from Minneapolis (10%) than from San Francisco (8%)–even though Pinterest is based in Palo Alto. (MediaPost)

37. Pinterest is virtually tied with Twitter (at 3.6%) for the amount of referred social traffic it sends to websites. (Pooky Shares)

Tumblr

38. Tumblr grew 900% in 2011 and now has 90 million users. However, just 2% of members account for more than 40% of all traffic. (Jeff Bullas)

39. The five most popular tags for Tumblr posts are GIF, LOL, Fashion, Art and Vintage. The U.S. has the largest share of users, followed by Brazil. (Jeff Bullas)

Mobile Marketing

40. 4.8 billion people now own mobile phones. Just 4.2 billion own a toothbrush. (Mindjumpers)

41. One-third of smartphones globally use the Android OS. (MediaPost)

42. The number of tablets in use in the U.S. rose from 34 million in 2011 to 55 million this year and is expected to reach 108 million by 2015. (TMGmedia)

43. Mobile commerce is projected to ten-fold from 2010 ($3 billion) to 2016 ($31 billion). (TMGmedia)

44. While three-quarters of b2b marketers are aware of the growing importance of mobile devices, only 23% rate mobile search as either “important” or “critical” to their search marketing objectives. (BtoB Magazine)

45. Just 16% of b2b marketers are producing mobile-specific content as part of their content marketing efforts. (Smart Insights)

46. Although the percentage of visits to b2b websites coming from smart phones has increased nearly 50% in the past year, they still represent only about 1 out of every 24 sites visits on average. (Webbiquity)

SEO and Search Marketing

47. 57% of B2B marketers say SEO has the biggest impact on their lead generation goals. (Mindjumpers)

48. Though half of all b2b digital spending is focused on search and most websites are organically optimized, only 65% of b2b marketers have ever used pay-per-click advertising. (BtoB Magazine)

49. Search provides the highest quality leads. According to research by HubSpot, “SEO leads have a 15% close rate, on par with the close rate for direct traffic, and ahead of referrals (9%), paid search (7%), social media (4%), and outbound leads (2%).” (Marketing Charts)

Blogging

50. Social media sites and blogs reach 80% of all U.S. internet users. (Mindjumpers)

51. Social networks and blogs account for 23% of all time spent online — twice as much as gaming. (Mindjumpers)

52. “Increased frequency of blogging correlates with increased customer acquisition, according to…HubSpot. 92% of of blog users who posted multiple times a day acquired a customer through their blog, a figure that decreased to 66% for those who blogged monthly and 43% for those who posted less than monthly.” (Marketing Charts)

53. The most popular frequency for blog posting is weekly (60% of bloggers). Just 10% post daily. (Marketing Charts)

54. Blogs are the single most important inbound marketing tool. “When asked to rank the importance of the services they use, 25% of users rated their company blog as critical to their business, while a further 56% considered them either important (34%) or useful (22%)” for a total of 81%. (Marketing Charts)

55. B2B companies with blogs generate 67% more leads per month on average than non-blogging firms. (Social Media B2B)

56. For those looking to outsource, a professional consultant will generally charge $1,000-$3,000 for setting up a blog, $1,000-$3,000 per month for ongoing content development/editing, and ballpark of $200 for a single guest post. (Mack Collier)

Video and SlideShare

57. 52% of b2b marketers use video as part of their content marketing mix. (Smart Insights)

58. Video production costs vary widely, depending on length, quality, type of content and other factors. High-end animated videos can cost $20,000-$30,000, while simpler interview-type videos can be under $1,000. Common 2- to 3-minute videos with a mix of live action and simple animation typically cost $2,000-$5,000. (Mack Collier)

59. SlideShare draws 60 million visitors per month; but most importantly for b2b marketers, it attracts 3X more traffic from business owners than any other social media site. (Jeff Bullas)

Social Demographics

60. On social networking sites, men and women are about equally willing to share their real names (both about 87%), political and religious affiliation, and the brands they like (~77%), but men are far more likely than women to share their physical address (11% vs. 4%), their current location (35% vs. 20%), their phone number 15% vs. 4%), and their income level (16% vs. 5%). (AllTwitter)

61. Contrary to what you’ve probably been told, longer format video may actually drive higher engagement: “different types of content yield different sharing behaviors. Breaking down video behavior within StumbleUpon, videos viewed between two to three minutes found a spike in sharing out to social media, whereas videos viewed beyond four minutes see direct shares increase by five times. Longer, arguably more involved, content may drive viewers to more intimate sharing routes.” (Ad Age)

Inbound and Content Marketing

62. 90% of b2b marketers do some form of content marketing. 26% of b2b marketing budgets are invested in content, and 60% of b2b marketers say they plan to spend more on content marketing in the coming year. (Smart Insights)

63. The most popular content marketing tactics used by b2b marketers are article posting (used by 79% of b2b marketers), social media excluding blogs (74%), blogs (65%) and enewsletters (63%). Just 10% use virtual conferences. (Smart Insights)

64. The average cost to generate a lead through inbound marketing ($143) is about half the average for outbound marketing ($373). (Econsultancy)

65. Small businesses, on average, spend twice the share of their lead generation budget (43%) on inbound marketing as do large companies (21%). Small organiations spend more than twice as much on social media and 3X as much on blogging as their larger counterparts, while big businesses spend three times as much on trade shows and nearly twice the share of their budget on direct mail as do smaller firms. (Econsultancy)

66. More is (often at least) better. Businesses with 40+ different landing pages/offers generate 10X more leads than those with five or fewer landing pages, and those with 200 or more total blog posts generate 3.5X more leads than those whose blogs have 20 or fewer posts. (Econsultancy)

67. 84% of b2b companies are using some form of social media marketing. However, “best in class” companies generate over 3X their share of all leads (17% vs. 5%) from social media as do average performing companies. (MarketingProfs)

68. 90% of b2b marketers are doing some form of content marketing, and b2b marketers spend on average 26% of their marketing budgets on content. The most effective content marketers spend twice as much as their less effective peers on content development, and consider buying stage when developing content. (B2B Marketing Insider)

69. It shouldn’t be a surprise, but content has to be good in order to be effective. B2b buyers say that less than half of vendor content is useful–and vendors who produce such low-value content are 27% less likely to be considered and 40% less likely to win the business. “Good” content is concise, entertaining (includes stories), more educational than promotional, and is contextually personalized. (B2B Marketing Insider)

Media and Online Advertising

70. Most “national” newspapers are still quite regional: the Chicago Tribune gets socially shared at above average levels only in Illinois, the Washington Post only in Virginia, D.C. and Maryland, and the New York Times only in a clump of northeastern states and Hawaii (though the Wall Street Journal is very popular in Arizona). Fox News is most popular in the southeastern U.S. plus Nevada and Alaska, while the Huffington Compost is widely share along the Interstate 35 corridor (Minnesota to Texas), Florida, Oregon, Maine and the rustbelt. (Forbes)

71. Online CPM rates have little correlation with actual advertiser value delivered. Nearly one-third of all display ads are never seen (defined as 50% of the pixels in view for at least one second). But contrary to popular belief, “below the fold” ads don’t necessarily have lower impression rates than those placed high on the page. (MediaPost)

72. Leaderboard (728 x 90 pixels) and medium rectangle (300 x 250) ad sizes have the highest view-in rates. Coupon and directory sites have the highest ad view rates, both over 80%. In contrast, a sponsor’s ads had just a 27% likelihood of being seen on pet-oriented sites. (MediaPost)




































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1. @_VonCount

Who loves to count? Count Von Count does, that's who -- and he will make sure that you know it if you talk about him on Twitter.

2. @Betelgeuse_3

Don't say it...you know what will happen.

3. @RedScareBot

A Joe McCarthy spambot filters through the Twitter "black list" by searching for anyone tweeting about communism.

4. @LogicalB0t

Professor Spock in spambot form seems to selectively tweet anyone who talks online about space, NASA, the Enterprise, Spock and other geeky topics.

5. @KingLeonidaz_

Any Twitter users claiming something is "madness" will get a famous response from the spambot version of 300's King Leonidas.

6. @MarmiteBot

Love it or hate it, this Marmite spambot will let you know he's listening.

7. @StealthMountain

Stealth Mountain takes one small step for spambots, and one giant leap for grammar. Anyone misspelling "sneak peek" will be corrected.

8. @THEUNlVERSE

Any philosophies or accusations about the universe will get a witty and sarcastic response.

9. @Jedward

Irish pop duo Jedward has a younger fan base on Twitter, so you can imagine the amount of people getting the "We are Jedwardbot" automated response.

10. @EnjoyTheFilm

Though it's no longer active, Cabin in the Woods fans might have received an unwanted spoiler if they tweet about plans to watch the movie.


Nearly every Twitter user has fallen victim to spam at one point — there’s no argument that it’s annoying and detrimental.

But not all of it is bad — in fact, some of those spambots are not bots at all. There are parody accounts that will filter through specific topics and respond to unsuspecting users, like @THEUNlVERSE.

There are still spam accounts using automated third-party applications too. As Twitter cracks down, the more sophisticated spambots find ways to avoid suspension.

For those who might crack a smile at a harmless spambot reply, see 10 of the funniest accounts in the gallery above.

Can harmless spam be funny when executed properly? Let us know in the comments.










































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1. Etsy

"In our neighborhood: a water tower that looks like stained glass by artist Tom Fruin." (Part of the Water Tank Project)

2. Chris Kane

Electrical outlet hidden wall safe -- purchase it for $8.95 on Amazon.

3. Josué Cardona

Bat-ribbon, in memorial of the victims of the Aurora shooting

4. Etsy

"This kitten loves to push his stepbrother around in a tiny, kitten-sized shopping cart."

5. Andrew Firstenberger

"Earth is round (Bangkok, Thailand) by Thanadol Yuiam, via 500px"

6. Rachel VanderPol

An epic Oreo cake

7. Rashida Coleman-Hale

"Easy-to-make and inexpensive felt superhero masks"

8. Panera Bread

"How to easily make your own eggs for breakfast sandwiches."

9. Dave Howell

"Tulip fields, Skagit Valley, Washington"

10. Misty Strickland

Bluejay eye makeup inspiration


You won’t want to miss our 10 favorite Pinterest pins this week. We found a variety of pins ranging from creative and crafty tips to stunning photos of very different cities.

A tiny hidden wall safe disguised as an electrical socket caught our attention (and, it is available online for under $10), as well as the most elaborate Oreo cake we’ve ever seen.

In addition to the whimsical and helpful, Pinterest users also took on a more serious tone this week. We found an array of pins created in memorial of the victims of the Aurora shooting.

People love Pinterest for a variety of reasons: Some enjoy the pretty pictures and others are on the hunt for helpful ideas and recipes. Our weekly top 10 pins feature is a chance for us to round up a sampling of our favorite pins from the different corners of Pinterest and share them with you. All of our favorite pins can be found on this board — for easy repinning. What were some of the coolest things you saw on Pinterest this week?

SEE ALSO: Last Week’s Top 10 Pinterest Pins

Danielle Phillips

House plants

Amie Cherry

"Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii"

Kelly Petersen

"In my dreams ...The perfect backyard"

Kami Arnold

"How to organize a whole house. SO many great ideas!"

Lindsay Hunt

"Blueberry Biscuits"

Ninfa Glenister

"Beach house tree house!"

Cool Mom Tech

"Etch A Sketch iPad case. Awesome."

Shannon Green

"Ha!"

The Pistachio Project

"How to Make Your Own Sunscreen Lotion"

Shirlene Jacobson

"The Dancing House"



































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