For the love of blog – why every online business should maintain a blog

The benefits of keeping a blog are so simple that it’s easy to overlook them in favor of more complex or trendy forms of digital marketing. Chris Woods explains how, when used correctly, a business blog can become a reliable and profitable tool in your content marketing strategy.

Unless companies pay, their Facebook updates reach 6 percent of followers

One more argument against leaning too heavily on social media to promote your business.  shares the recent news about how Facebook treats businesses and what they may have in mind for the future:

Facebook continues to tighten the screws on the businesses that use the service to market to their customers. Independent research shows that new updates from businesses reach about six percent of the people who follow those businesses. It is rumored that Facebook intends to reduce this number to “between one and two percent” over time. Businesses that want to reach the people who follow them at higher rates will have to pay Facebook to reach them through paid advertisements.

Always remember: your own web site is more important than any other online venue. By using their platform you are helping their business first and foremost, then (if you do it right) benefit yourself.

How to Do SEO for Now and Forever

There is a great new artice by jill Whaleen at High Rankings dedicted on what modern SEO is really about. In Jill’s own words:

While it’s easy to say what SEO isn’t, it’s a lot harder to pin down exactly what SEO is these days. On the other hand, SEO is still the same thing I said it was when I first started writing about it over a decade ago — that is, making your website the best it can be both for people and search engines.

Still, that broad definition probably doesn’t mean much to many of you. You’re likely left wondering how exactly you should go about making your site the best it can be. So today I’ll explain how you can do just that.

Success on Twitter: A How-To for Small Businesses

Success on Twitter can be measured in a variety of ways, depending on your goals. If your goals are to increase awareness, buzz, and feedback, then you should be paying a lot of attention to your follower and interaction count, as well as what people are saying about you. If your goals are more focused around driving traffic to your website or blog, you should also pay attention to the click-through rates on the links you Tweet. However, in order to start out, your first priority should be polishing your profile, gaining a voice, and building a community.

Álvaro J. Soltero, an inbound marketer and blogger for Leaf, shows how to get started with Twitter, benefit your target market there, and measure your success.

Facebook Timeline: 9 Best Practices for Brands

Facebook Timeline officially rolled out to Brand Pages on March 30, but many marketers still don’t know how to take the full advantage of it. A recent study found that fan growth after Timeline has “slowed slightly”– is your company experiencing a bit of a slowdown? If so, Lauren Drell has some good tips for you and backs them up with credible data:

1. Embrace Images

2. Make the Most of Your Cover Photo — It’s Prime Real Estate

3. Pay Attention to Insights

4. Highlight or Pin Your Best Posts

5. Get Your Apps in a Row

6. Make Use of Facebook’s New Ad Suite

7. Run Contests to Boost Engagement

8. Drop in Those Milestones

9. Embrace Your Fans

BONUS: 10 Innovative Uses of Facebook Timeline for Brands

26 Tips for Using Pinterest for Business

Debbie Hemley recently posted a fun A-Z guide for creating a business presence on Pinterest. Besides showing What Pinterest can do for your business, the article also includes numerous links to more information on tips, several infographics, and statistics that shows benefits of using Pinterest. Lots of good, useful information there.