One of the things I enjoy most about my job is the reading and research. I could spend all day reading the fascinating articles that pop up in my Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Google Reader streams, so much so that I have to limit the time I spend doing this every day. For 2012 I thought it would be fun to share my top reads of the week with you. So here’s my first round up. If you read a great article this week that you’d like to share leave it in the comments box and you may find it popping up in next weeks roundup.
Facebook ads in Newsfeed
Facebook rolled out ‘featured stories’ this week. These are ad’s that will appear in a users news feed. It will be interesting to see how this one pans out. Will Facebook users resent seeing adverts directly in their streams? Will companies be cautious of using these ad’s in case it upsets potential customers?
Google Search Plus Your World
At the beginning of the week Google announced that it is changing the way we search by making it more social and prioritising results from our Google+ contacts. For a better explanation on how it works and a good example involving werewolves read the Matt Cutts blog.
101 Social Business ROI Examples
I discovered this story yesterday and it’s since become quite controversial. Why? Social ROI (return on investment) is a hot topic within the social media world. We’re always looking for new ways to measure it and this post outlines some fantastic examples of successful campaigns. It’s controversial because of it’s title. These are success stories but it doesn’t go into enough detail. It doesn’t tell us what goals were set, what matrix’s were used to measure it or what costs were involved in running the campaign.
If you’re in Ireland and want to find out more about measuring the results of your social media campaigns check out Measurement.ie a one day conference on the subject in Dublin. Run by Damien Mulley and sponsored by DoneDeals.ie it’s one I won’t be missing.
Chris Brogan On Twitter
Whenever I see a post titled ‘Get More Twitter Followers‘ my heart drops. In this case though it’s all good advice. There’s no advocating automated following, mass following or anything else that would boost numbers without adding value. Chris Brogan shares his ideas on how to build your follower count by nurturing your community and posting valuable content.
How To Keep Your New Years Blogging Resolutions
I’m cheekily adding in one of my own links here. This week I asked people what their social media new years resolutions were and I found that almost everyone (including me) listed blogging more. In fact this post is part of me fulfilling that resolution. Here are three tips on how to keep those resolutions but I’m always looking for new suggestions.
Beatrice Whelan’s Prezi on SEO for Bloggers
On Monday we had our first KLCK Bloggers meetup of the year and this is Beatrice Whelan’s excellent presentation on SEO for bloggers. I also asked some of the attendees to share the tips they had picked up for our videocast. You’ll find that on our Podcast page later on today. I should also mention that it was Beatrice that introduced me to Matt Cutts whose article features above.
Lorna’s Blogging Experiment
Another one inspired by the bloggers network, Lorna Sixsmith conducted an experiment on blog traffic and the Google keyword research tool. Enough to ensure you start taking search engine optimisation seriously on your business blog.
