It’s customary to share a year in review post listing the top blog entries over the previous 12 months. When you publish 5 times a week, every week, there’s no way everyone that periodically reads your blog will see the best posts.
In 2012 we had a little more of a mix of contributors from TopRank staff and a few more guest blog posts than in years post. That’s a great thing, because our agency has some of the most talented digital marketers on the web and hearing from them is important to get a flavor for our agency.
We’ve covered some impressive ground this year, writing 220+ posts, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors from search, social media and links from blogs and industry websites.
To surface the top 10 posts from this blog published in 2012 was no easy task. I considered popularity metrics like visits, comments, social shares and inbound links as well as alignment with our editorial goals. Check them out and please share your favorites!
1. Optimize Your Social Media Schedule: 4 Tips for Avoiding the Social Media Time Suck
73% of marketers say finding the time to create content as their biggest marketing challenge. If you are involved with implementing social media marketing, you know that 20 minutes a day just won’t cut it, so here are 4 tips for optimizing your social media schedule. Posted by Ashley, January 24th 2012 – the most popular post on Online Marketing Blog in 2012. Well done, Ashley!
2. 2012 – 25 Women Who Rock Social Media
There’s meaningful and impactful work being done for and using the social web by many talented people, including these 25 women recognized in our annual “25 Women Who Rock” list. It brings great satisfaction to draw attention to the people who are a part of advancing social technologies for business and those who use social media to make a difference. Posted by Lee, October 29th, 2012.
3. 45 SEO and Social Media Tools #SESLondon
Tools are only as effective as the expertise of the person using them. Some online marketers use a small handful of tools but their expertise is very deep, so they get a tremendous amount of productivity from them. Others use many, many tools without deep expertise in anyone area and as a result, effectiveness may be lacking. Once you find a handful of tools that work for you, get really, really good at using them.. Here are 45.
Posted by Lee, February 22nd, 2012.
4. Four B2C Examples of How Companies are Using Twitter to Attract & Engage Customers
Customer engagement is a key benefit of executing a B2C Twitter marketing strategy. A recent survey by Chadwick Martin Bailey found 67% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from or recommend a brand they follow. Twitter is also a great resource for crowdsourcing new ideas, getting feedback on current products or campaigns, and figuring out what it is that your customers really want. Here are four examples of how other B2C businesses both small and large have used Twitter to attract and engage new customers. Posted by Ashley, January 3rd, 2012
5. For Better B2B Video Marketing, Check out the Top B2B Companies on YouTube
YouTube and video marketing isn’t only for consumer products of course, B2B marketers are getting in the video game in a big way. Sometimes to learn what’s possible with a particular channel, it makes sense to look at big companies with big budgets and see what they’re doing. We can learn from their investment (right and wrong) to bring insight to our own internet marketing efforts. Here are 11 (yeah, 11 because “10? is boring) of the top B2B brands and their YouTube channels. Posted by Lee, July 12th, 2012.
6. Five Marketing Tips for Improving Customer Relationships & ROI With Better Communications
Armed with the knowledge that satisfied customers has a direct impact on your bottom line, there is no time like the present to begin targeting your current customers. Here are 5 tips on better customer communications you can start using right now. Posted by Ashley, January 4th, 2012.
7. It’s Not SEO Anymore, It’s Marketing. Deal With It.
Modern SEO isn’t limited to keywords and links. Optimizing content and customer experiences is SEO. What most of the better SEOs practice today is really more about the promise of marketing: attracting, engaging and inspiring customers to buy. Whether it’s Google, Social Networks, Online News Media, Digital Assets or any other channel/format for content – best practices optimization is in effect for smart companies that want an advantage. Posted by Lee, February 29th, 2012.
8. 12 Timeless Link Building Tips for Business Blogs
As a key component of a hub and spoke online marketing strategy, blogs can be very effective for social media network engagement, online PR, customer service, and as search engine optimization assets. Here are 12 timeless tips for building natural links that will attract and engage customers to your business blog. Posted by Lee, April 30th, 2012.
9. What Google Personalized Search plus Your World Means for Marketing – SEO Tips
Optimization focused observations for marketers related to Google Personalized Search and more specifically, the recommended personal and brand pages. Posted by Lee, January 11th, 2012.
10. Social Media Links – How SEO and Social Work Together for Link Building
This post covers 6 questions and answers on the fundamentals of using a social media focused approach for link attraction and acquisition. Posted by Lee, July 11th, 2012.
What were some of your favorite posts from 2012? What topics do you think will trend in 2013?
