Vertical Measures » Education

Top 6 Internet Marketing Books to Read for 2012

Sarah Moraes — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:45:43 +0000

We thought we would share a selection of 6 books you should be sure to read as you prepare to roll into 2012. Our goal was to recommend a book in several different categories like social media, SEO and content marketing to provide you with a well rounded internet marketing library. We are also only recommending books that we have first-hand experience with. As you can see in the picture below, all six of these books are in the Vertical Measures library.

1. The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social by Jay Baer and Amber Naslund

Co-authored by renowned marketers and social media experts, Amber and Jay provide a seven-part plan to make a shift in your organization and become more social. Businesses are fixated on doing social media and treat it as a tactic, when really it’s a behavior that must be engrained throughout the entire company and not in one department. This book shows you how to change your company from the inside out and is loaded with examples, case studies and checklists, making it a must-have in your office library or even better, as notebook on your desk. Most of us at Vertical Measures have read it and all highly recommend it. In addition, Jay and Amber are incredibly entertaining speakers, bringing the book to life across the country.

Follow @JayBaer and @Ambercadabra for more advice on how to thrive in the social business environment of today!

2. Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing: An Unofficial, Practical Guide to Selling & Developing B2B Business on LinkedIn by Neal Schaffer

Many business owners view Facebook, their brick and mortar location, website and other business assets as separate entities. In Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing by Neal Schaffer, he shows the reader how to integrate LinkedIn with your website and other social media channels. Schaffer not only tells you how to use LinkedIn to grow your business but also gives you the why behind it. In addition, he provides tactics on how to become a thought leader and gain mindshare on LinkedIn, which are concepts that can be taken outside the social network. He also explains why LinkedIn is important for search engine optimization, which is not something that every marketer can speak to at the level that he does. Neal proves that LinkedIn is not only for professionals and job seekers, but is an essential tool for B2B marketers and should be a higher priority than Facebook. The book includes more than 15 case studies in which businesses saw positive ROI from their LinkedIn investment.

Follow @NealSchaffer for his latest tips on using LinkedIn to grow your business!

3. No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing by Jason Falls and Erik Deckers

Don’t let the title of this book intimidate you or feel like you should wash your mouth out for saying it out loud. Co-authored by Jason Falls, founder of Social Media Explorer, and Eric Deckers, VP of Creative Services for Professional Blog Service, the book is not about Twitter, Facebook or ROI, but is it about what you’re going to get out of social media in real, practical terms. The title is truly appropriate in that they cut to the chase and provide insight with common sense. They discuss which department should handle the company social media – marketing, PR, crisis communications, customer service, sales, and R&D — the employees who should and shouldn’t use it, and how you can measure the results to see if everything is working.

Follow @JasonFalls and @EDeckers to get no-nonsense, practical tips for your social media marketing!

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin

Implementing search engine optimization can seem like a daunting task for a company, something that is so foreign it’s difficult to figure out where to start. This is the third edition bestselling guide to do-it-yourself SEO, co-authored by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin. The two lay out a daily strategy for developing, managing and measuring a successful SEO plan. They provide tools you can download and case studies to make it easy for you to stay on top of the fast-moving world of SEO and increase your website rankings and traffic, not only in the short run but for the long run. They provide information in easily digestible chunks so it’s great for everyone from small business owners to Fortune 500 companies, no matter how busy or overwhelmed you are.

Follow @JenGrappone and @Gradiva for more daily SEO guidance!

5. Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions by Tim Ash

Tim Ash is the go-to guy when it comes to landing page optimization and increasing conversion rates. Owner of SiteTuners, Tim takes pages from whacky, boring and helpless and turns them into conversion machines. This step-by-step guide takes the reader through the necessary steps to dramatically improve your bottom line with better landing pages. With a background in both computer and cognitive science, Tim has a unique understanding of online behaviors. In the books, he shows you how to identify key landing pages and identify your audience behaviors including where they are clicking and why they aren’t taking the steps you want them to. Landing Page Optimization contains case studies, practical strategies, a detailed review of the Google Website Optimizer tool and a comprehensive companion website. The book is a one-of-a-kind resource that will help you to turbo-charge your landing pages and increase profits!

Follow @Tim_Ash for the latest landing page optimization tips!

6. Accelerate! Move Your Business Forward Through the Convergence of Search, Social & Content Marketing by Arnie Kuenn

Last but not least is Accelerate!, written by our very own Arnie Kuenn. In this all-inclusive guide to search, social and content marketing, Arnie provides you with the steps, tools, and case studies to show you exactly how to increase your online visibility with quality content. What differentiates his teachings from most other content marketing books is the SEO part. Without proper optimization, your content will never be found. Not only does he show you how, but also he gives you 16 examples of content for your business so that you can get started now. In addition, you’ll hear from 12 other marketing experts throughout the book as they share their input and experiences. Best of all, this book speaks to businesses of all sizes whether you own a small clothing shop or are the director of marketing for a major corporation; your audience desires quality content from you on a regular basis. Find out how to accomplish this in just 8 steps!

Follow @ArnieK to get the latest search, social and content marketing tips!

There you have it. Our top six recommended books for the coming year. What books would you recommend to our readers?

Sarah Moraes

Sarah Moraes, Marketing Manager, heads the tactical planning and implementation of cross-platform marketing activities for Vertical Measures including; blogging, social media marketing, webinars, content marketing, email marketing and promotions. In addition, she published the Local Search Marketing for Business How-To-Guide, a part of the Vertical Measures How-To-Guide Series.

+Sarah Moraes

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The Best Higher Education Marketing Blogs

Kaila Strong — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:00:43 +0000

Marketing for an online school can present some challenges due to the highly regulated nature of the industry. Content marketing and link building may take longer and require additional oversight, not to mention the talent needed to stay up-to-date with trends and still be creative. But for those of us up for the challenge it’s also an incredibly rewarding industry to work in.

I thought I’d share with you a few of my favorite higher education marketing blogs that can help keep you up-to-date with industry challenges via news, case studies, webinars, resource lists, interviews, and more. Be sure to follow my Twitter list as well! Did I miss a few of your favorites? Feel free to give me your suggestions in the comments below.

Stamats.com Blog

On this industry blog, the folks at Stamats share insightful webinars, blog posts, host events, and provide resources and information on marketing in the education field.

RebelPHD.com & DotEduGuru.com

Ph.D. student Karlyn studies the impact of social media on job performance. She’s a writer at dot edu guru and very in tune with higher education marketing. I highly suggest you read her musings both on her site and on DotEduGuru.com.

ForProfitEDU.com

Another industry blog, the folks at For Profit Edu provide great information about news in the field and also share resources for marketing, networking, research and consulting in the higher education field.

MindJumpers.com

Not only does MindJumpers.com provide you with information about social media and EDU marketing, they also share some pretty great Infographics. Check out this Infographic about how social media is changing the education industry.

PatrickPowers.net

As a digital marketing and communications professional, Patrick Powers has the experience and knowledge to help you learn about higher education marketing. On his blog he writes about a number of topics in the internet marketing industry including higher education.

Brandmanager’s Notebook

A few writers maintain the Brandmanager’s Notebook, an open forum for marketing professionals. I’ve found a few good posts about higher education on this blog and continually check back for more tid bits.

InsideHigherEd.com

Another great resource for information, one better known than the rest, is Inside Higher Ed. Look for news, career advice, technology and learning, and much more. This site is the ultimate when it comes to higher education marketing advice.

MarketingForHigherEd.com

Marketing for Higher Education focuses on marketing trends, social media, Infographics and higher education. Higher education blogger and specialist Laura D is a former advertising agency account executive and provides a lot of great information, check it out.

BobJohnsonBlog.com

This blog provides news and notes about higher education marketing and focuses mostly on online marketing. With regular newsletters, the site does a great job of summarizing some of the industry’s best news and posts in one place.

DontWasteYourTime.co.uk

Contrary to the sites domain name, you won’t waste your time on this site that’s for sure. As a learning technologist, David Hopkins provides readers with great information about eLearning, mLearning, Web 2.0, blogging and general musings.

BlogHighEd.org

Don’t feel like looking around all over the internet for a good resource? BlogHighEd.org aggregates higher ed blogs from many sites across the Internet.

Higher-Education-Marketing.com

As an education marketing provider this site has the inside track on what’s what in the higher education marketing field. With posts ranging from video marketing to the evolution of search, you’ll find some great information on this blog.

These are just a few of the blogs dedicated to higher education marketing. Many other resources are available as well:

Market research reports are available on MarketResearch.com. Check out the education section for 2011 reports.

EducationMarketingCouncil.com has industry news and resources with great up-to-date information.

Attend #FAC Friday After Class sessions with Converge Consulting to ask questions and learn from experts.

Hubspot, an inbound marketing resource provided this recent post on the 4 Detrimental Don’t’s in Higher Education Marketing.

Updates:

Check out Kelly King’s blog. I found a few great posts on educational marketing – she specializes in helping brands connect with youth.

Ed Net Insights is another blog that helps you connect with what’s going on in educational marketing. (Thanks Ilene!)

Inigral’s blog is a great source for information on social technology in the higher education space, admissions marketing, and student engagement.

Kaila Strong

Kaila is a Sr. Account Manager at Vertical Measures. She works directly with clients to evaluate and analyze their overall Internet Marketing needs, creates sales proposals and recommendations. In addition she regularly reports on client rankings, gives SEO advice to brands in a variety of industries and manages client expectations.

Kaila has a background in social media marketing, link building, SEO and content marketing. She’s an active blogger on SearchEngineWatch.com, and an avid social media user (@cliquekaila on Twitter). She brings her experience to the table with new clients and enjoys writing about her experiences as well here on the VM blog and throughout the web.

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Online Marketing Summit Super Regionals On Their Way!

Elise Redlin-Cook — Wed, 11 May 2011 11:13:19 +0000

The Online Marketing Summit is coming to Phoenix June 15-17! This event features a flexible Super Regional three-day format jam packed with actionable learning where you can choose the day(s), sessions and workshops that best meet your needs. This expanded format contains the great education you’ve come to expect from OMS plus additional learning opportunities like:

Online Marketing Boot Camp: Choose from 12 intensive, interactive workshops offered the day before the main OMS conference. Each workshop earns credit towards certification from the Online Marketing Institute.
Social Media Masters Workshops: For the experienced PR and Social Media professional that’s ready to take social media marketing to next level. Offered the day after the main conference.
Integrated Marketing Content: New workshops and an entire conference track are dedicated to help you learn how to bring it all together. Learn how to integrate the various online marketing components into your overall marketing mix and form a cohesive strategy.
One-on-One Expert Labs: Receive a one-on-one consultation with experts in analytics, search, usability and email. Don’t miss this opportunity to ask the questions that will directly benefit your website’s and marketing performance.

As always, OMS covers key topics critical to your success as a marketer – social media, search, email, demand generation, analytics, usability and integrated marketing, brought to you by industry-leading authors, academics, brand marketers and online innovators. This year’s featured speakers include our President, Arnie Kuenn, Laura Beasley at Beasley Direct Marketing and Matt Dombrow, Master of Clickability at Clixo.

Elise Redlin-Cook

Elise is the Content & Marketing Manager at Vertical Measures, an internet marketing company in sunny Arizona providing services ranging from content marketing, to social media marketing, link building, and advanced SEO. She’s fully immersed herself into the world of content marketing and content strategy and is the managing editor of this blog.

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35 Great Takeaways from the Agencyside Digital Media Seminar

Ardala Evans — Fri, 06 May 2011 11:30:01 +0000

Last week three of us from Vertical Measures (Kaila Strong @cliquekaila, Pel Abbott @pelabbott and myself @azardie), attended a two-day seminar so that we can stay digitally-savvy. The “Back in the Black” seminar was presented by Agencyside and boasted a lineup of over 15 presenters. We became immersed in all things digital and came away with a better understanding of where the digital world is now, and where it’s heading in the future. Here are my top 35 takeaways from the seminar:

Don’t get too attached to QR codes. NFC (Near Field Communication) is taking over. (Bret Giles @bretgiles, agencyside)
Be a POSTR child: Focus on People (who’s your target audience), Objectives (define them), Strategies (how are you going to meet your objectives), Tactics (what are you going to do to meet your objectives), Results (do some measuring). (Josh Yeager, Double Dutch & Co.)
You need to be a generalist and a specialist. Take your passions and become an expert. (Josh Yeager)
Learn the “rules of engagement,” or “netiquette.” Don’t spam—you can smell a fake from a mile away. (Josh Yeager)
People love to talk about themselves; invite experts to lunch and learn from them. (Josh Yeager)
Consumers are marketing to consumers (Yelp, social media, blogs, etc.) Everyone has a voice, should you be afraid? (Jay Feitlinger @jayfeitlinger, StringCan Interactive)
A year ago people spent the most online time on email, now it’s social media—mostly on Facebook. (Jay Feitlinger)
Facebook as a country is the third largest behind China and India with 600 + million users. Facebook may hit the one billion mark by the end of the year. (Jay Feitlinger)
You need to monitor what people are saying about you. There are 140,000,000 tweets per day and 160,000,000 blogs. (Jay Feitlinger)
In 2010 mobile subscribers grew to 5.3 billion. (Jay Feitlinger)
Google still owns about 66% of the search market, and YouTube is the second largest search engine. (Jay Feitlinger)
95% of your website visitors don’t convert on the first visit. (Mark Hayden @markhayden, AIR Marketing)
Watch your competition; put your own spin on what they do. (Mark Hayden)
Drive traffic to and from Facebook; use Open Graph. (Mark Hayden)
People are using Facebook and Google/Yahoo/Bing images to search for products. (Scott Kaufmann @skaufmann, Lucid Agency)
Email marketing is still growing. It’s a great retention tactic. (Chris Sietsema @sietsema, Teach to Fish Digital)
By 2013, 50% of web traffic will come through a mobile device. Is your site ready? (Michael Barber @michaeljbarber, Defero)
91% of mobile users consume social media. (Michael Barber)
Mobile is like an everything bagel. There are so many different devices—phones, tablets, etc. (Michael Barber)
Three common Facebook mistakes companies make: (1) No social media strategy (2) Too much selling and broadcasting—instead provide engaging content (3) Breaking the rules—profile vs. page and promotion guidelines. (Jay Feitlinger)
Use CPR for social media: Content—The #1 searched phrase in Google is “how to”, use this and provide this assistance. People—Get to know your target audience, listen to the “uservoice” and create a community such as My Starbucks Idea. Relevence—You should endeavor to answer questions or solve problems and entertain your target audience. (Josh Yeager)
Foursquare has 7 million users. There were 381 million check-ins in 2010. (Chris Book @chrisbook, Chatterplug)
There are no off days at your company. You’re on display at all times. (Chris Book)
Companies should figure out how to monetize the “Like” button. The button is being added to 10,000 sites each day. (Jay Feitlinger)
Facebook credits are used by 53% of Facebook users to play 350 social games. These credits can also be used to buy real world items. Facebook has the potential to become the loyalty and rewards program of the future. (Jay Feitlinger)
Content Lifecyle = Goals -> Assets -> Audiences -> Editorial Plan -> Creation -> Governance. (Sara Wachter-Boettcher @sara_ann_marie, Off Madison Ave.)
Get mobile under your belt now. Build tools, not ads. (Chris Book)
The secret to getting ROI out of social media is data. (Andrew Bagley @andrewbagley, Sitewire)
78% of people trust recommendations of other consumers. (Michael Barber)
YouTube is now connecting with Facebook accounts to collect data and customize experiences; an example is Desperados Beer on YouTube. (Michael Barber)
Consumers are spending almost one-third of their time on the internet, but advertisers are allocating only around 13-14% of their dollars to it. (Steve Koch @mistakoch, Sitewire & Jay Feitlinger)
Become a publisher and think like a publisher. (Bret Giles & Lacey Brown @laceyfrench, agencyside)
Learn to monetize Facebook. (Bret Giles & Lacey Brown)
Make your site mobile-ready and tablet-friendly! (Bret Giles & Lacey Brown)
Read up on NFC, screen convergence and HTML 5; they’re coming. (Bret Giles & Lacey Brown)

We were given a lot of statistics and many ideas for everything from internet marketing services to digital billboards. But the two main points that stick with me above all else is that your company needs to have an active Facebook page and your website needs to have an engaging mobile version. Get busy!

Ardala Evans

Ardala is a Project Manager working with the client Services Team at Vertical Measures. She supervises the completion of the monthly tasks for the clients. She also works directly with clients to provide reporting on their projects and ranking reviews.

+Ardala Evans

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Two VM Staffers Become First-Time Authors

Elise Redlin-Cook — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:33:15 +0000

We here at Vertical Measures are tickled pink to announce the launch of our new bookstore section of our website. Along with the implementation of the new store, two of our expert staffers are celebrating the launch of their long awaited ebooks. Local Search Marketing for Businesses: A How-to-Guide, written by Sarah Moraes, and Twitter for Business: A How-to-Guide, written by Abby Gilmore were released midday yesterday. Both of these fresh books belong to the Vertical Measures How-To Guide Series that will amount to a total of 5 instructive guides specifically designed for the business owner or website and marketing manager who is ready to take their businesses to the next level through social media and online marketing. The books highlight important areas within the fields that are the recommended focal points when developing comprehensive campaigns as well as point out pitfalls to avoid.

Local Search Marketing for Businesses: A How-to-Guide targets businesses that want to optimize their website for local search, structure their content to optimize search engine listings in their favor, and create localized content. The guide was written by Sarah Moraes, content marketing strategist, who specializes in coordinating educational events for training businesses in developing content marketing strategies. “It is my hope that Local Search Marketing: A How to Guide provides businesses with a roadmap to implement a local search campaign that drives traffic not only to their website, but directly to their place of business,” she said. ”As the guide was developed with a variety of skill sets in mind, it is written in such a way that businesses will be able to easily apply the information given to their current search engine optimization and marketing plans.”

The second of the guides, Twitter for Business: A How-to Guide covers how businesses can get started using Twitter. This guide addresses the basics along with SEO integration and how the results of such a campaign can be measured. Abby Gilmore, content strategist for Vertical Measures, wrote this guide, combining her journalism and public relations background with the Internet marketing experience that has enabled her to create content strategies for content and social media distribution. When asked what inspired her to write such a work she responded, “I am passionate about the power of social media marketing and the opportunities that Twitter as a platform presents for business owners specifically, but I know that researching and finding accurate information for planning a Twitter marketing campaign can be difficult to find and collect.”

Both guides are available for digital download in our bookstore now for only $9.99. If you or someone you know can benefit from the internet marketing insights of seasoned professional, such as Sarah and Abby send them this way! We sincerely hope that you and your friends enjoy them!

Elise Redlin-Cook

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