Don’t have the time to read all the marketing news, blog posts, announcements, and other content related to SEO/social media/online marketing published each week?
I’ve got you covered.
I sift through trillions (well, hundreds) of online publications to stay on top of marketing news that might affect your online business.
And I package them neatly in bite-sized chunks in my Weekly Marketing Skinnies right here at Traffic Generation Café every Saturday morning.
Between you and me, I have no idea why I bother investing hours of my time weekly reading all these marketing news just to boil them down for you in my Weekly Marketing Skinnies, other than the fact that I know you don’t have the time to keep up with the fast-paced marketing industry on your own, yet you DO need to be in-the-know to remain competitive.
Plus, your enthusiastic comments and social media shares show me just how much you truly appreciate being kept in the marketing loop in just a few minutes per week.
THANK YOU.
Now grab your cup of coffee and let’s catch up on the marketing news that matter to your business.
Search
Porn stars demand Google’s help to combat piracy; they claim that Google is unfairly discriminating against the industry by not allowing porn companies to purchase AdWords.
A possible improvement to Google Answers boxes: it looks like Google is working on encouraging searchers to click over to the web page by displaying the Show me how link at the bottom of the Answer box.
In the past few days, they were a lot of rumors about the Apple search bot crawling the web. Is Apple really getting ready to storm the search industry?
Baidu’s CFO on the future of search: It’s mobile and it’s audio-driven, Baidu Inc.’s finance chief Jennifer Li told Fortune Magazine at MPW conference in Hong Kong.
Mozilla updated Firefox with Forget button and DuckDuckGo search.
Social Media
Google+
New ‘Mentions’ tab rolling out to Google+ on the web. The handy new tab makes it easier to see posts that your profile or page has been +mentioned in one easy-to-access stream.
Twitter and Google used to be a social media/search engine match made in heaven. Until Twitter started blocking Google in 2011. And now Twitter is asking Google to take it back.
Coming soon to Twitter: 3 game-changing updates in the pipeline (native video is one of them).
Oh sure, late Friday afternoon seems like the perfect time to break the news that your Facebook fans will now see even less content from you. As of January 2015, Facebook will be reducing the number of posts from Pages they find ‘too promotional’.
New on Facebook: You can now send video cards to friends and family with Facebook’s new Say Thanks service.
Would you like to discover new exciting places around the world? Facebook aims to help with their new Places directory.
YouTube
It’s here. YouTube’s long-awaited music subscription service starting at a promotional price of $8 per month.
More YouTube updates: starting today, you’ll see a new home just for music on your YouTube app for Android, iOS and on YouTube.com that shows your favorite music videos, recommended music playlists based on what you’re into and playlists of trending music across YouTube.
Apparently, Pinterest has doubled the number of male active users in the past year. Who said men aren’t visual?…
Pinterest says it can do a better job answering user questions than a traditional search engine (read: Google).
You can now embed SoundCloud tracks inside LinkedIn Publisher Posts.
The LinkedIn Challenge, 4th edition, starts on Dec 1st, and I suggest you join us.
Slideshare
Slideshare has integrated presentation software Haiku Deck that allows you to build an eye-catching deck in 3 easy steps right in Slideshare.
To learn more about driving significant traffic from Slideshare, read my Slideshare Traffic Case Study: From 0 to 243,000 Views in 30 Days post.
When you share a moment to Instagram, a typo shouldn’t get in the way. Thus, Instagram announced several changes to its mobile app, most notably giving users the ability to edit captions.
Ello
Ello is finally catching up to the overwhelming number of requests to join the invite-only network - if you haven’t been able to join yet, expect your invite to show up soon. Plus, they manage to push out a few useful updates.
On a Side Note…
If you find tremendous value in my Weekly Marketing Skinnies, like thousands of other readers of Traffic Generation Café do, you should consider joining them and sign up to receive the weekly notifications of when a fresh Skinny is published.
Plus, you’ll get complimentary access to my “Mommy, Where Does My Traffic Come From?” traffic hacks report and traffic hacks newsletter:
"Ana has a unique insight into running an internet business."
- Yaro Starak, Entrepreneurs-Journey.com
Needless to say, your information is completely safe with me.
See you in your inbox!
WordPress
Oh boy… Emojis on WordPress.com… In case you wanted more emoji in your posts (who doesn’t want more Emojis, right?…), you now have 872 to choose from - thanks to Twitter that graciously decided to open-source their entire set, allowing anyone to use them.
Marketing This & That
U.S. president Barack Obama announced his support for Net Neutrality and asked the FCC to “reclassify consumer broadband service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act.”
Let Google help you Fight Ebola: Google will triple every dollar you donate to fight the disease.
Food for thought: YOU are your worst online security enemy. Your online security starts and ends with you.
Funny Business
This video is too good not to share: actor Mike Myers and his brother, Sears Canada employee, attempt to save the company with a funny video ad.
Mike Meyers’ brother Peter has worked for Sears for 32 years and appears in the ad with his brother, Mike.
In the ad, which Mike wrote, the two trade barbs about the sad state of affairs Sears Canada now faces.
Thank You
To all of you who mentioned Traffic Generation Café in any share or form in the past week, my whole-hearted THANK YOU.
Traffic Generation Café would NOT be what it is today without you.
Here are just some of the mentions I came across in the past week:
Tips Tuesday – Keyword Search Tools, LinkedIn and SoundCloud, Google Analytics Dashboards - MaAnna Stephenson at blogaid.net
What Does Your Small Business Want out of the Internet? - Michael J. Coffey at ardeacoaching.com
40 Ways to Multiply Your Blog’s Audience - Brittany Bullen at internationalbloggersassociation.com
How To Push Your Articles To “Link Roundups” Without Even Thinking About It - Tim Soulo at bloggerjet.com
5 Content Marketing Strategies Not To Overlook In 2015 - Reginald Chan at schoolofcontent.com
Have I missed your mention? Let me know in the comments!
Want to see your name here? Mention Traffic Generation Café in your next blog post!
Subscribe to Stay Ahead
I share a lot of marketing news as well as the best posts I read throughout a week on my Google+ profile.
To read them as they come out and stay ahead of your competition, as well as become a social media star and share the best with YOUR followers (you’d be surprised how much it’ll do for your credibility and online presence!), join me there:
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To an even better next week,
Hiya Ana!
Again I get a pile of winners from your weekly roundup. You seem to have a knack for attracting the best kind of people to this conversation about blogs/traffic/seo/content marketing that I needn’t look anywhere else but your roundups for the best and brightest.
I visited EACH of the ladies and gents that you recommended above, but this week Brittany Bullen helped me most. Here’s what I posted to HER site:
“Everyone (well, not EVERYone but the savvy bloggers) know that one should always link out to others to create value and strengthen mutual support. But you’ve given an impressive list of creative ways to DO that.
“Rather than the obvious link sharing credit, or becoming part of a “tribe” which dutifully retweets, reposts, comments on one another’s thoughts… there are dozens of truly creative ways to create value and spread the love around.
“Thanks for sharing. You should know that I found you because of Ana Hoffman’s roundup, in case you track such things. Hers is one of the few I follow every single dang Saturday because she boils it down to who’s really speaking in this great content marketing/blogging/traffic conversation.
Thanks again for the thoughtful ideas.”
Ana, thanks again for all that you put into these weekly roundups. I know it’s a lot of work but if anyone is getting half out of it what I do, you are accomplishing the goal for sure.
Keep Stepping,
Kurt
Love the comment you left for Brittany and love the comment you left here, Kurt - you always have a way of putting a smile on my face!
Thanks so much for mentioning the LinkedIn Challenge, Ana!
You are so very welcome, Sarah; thanks for coming by!
Anna, the coffee cup came early this week! New emojis!!!!! Yay!
😆 They should quickly integrate it with jetpack so that wp.org users can use them too; Thanks to twitter. 😉
P*rn industry wants Google to help them fight piracy… Hmmmmm………. what can I say!? 😕 But the US government really did some work in taking down music hosting and sharing sites. They recently took down the “Almighty” Rockdizmusic/Rockdizfile really scary bae! :O Not sure Google will help them (pornstars) though!
Thanks once again Anna, the cup of coffee was refreshing <3
I can tell you are a big Emoji fan, Kay - and I didn’t even know they work on self-hosted WP blog until now!
Thanks for coming by, Kay; have a great week ahead!
Hello Madam, I love your this series and thanks for doing something awesome. almost every Sunday I have my exam and on the way I read your skinny post through the email you send me every week. Its like a knowledge treat.
By the way are you on Ello, or Tsu? There’s a even better addition to bloggers and its “this.cm “.
Yes, I am on both Ello and Tsu, Swadhin - you can find me there under ‘Ana Hoffman’.
Thanks for letting me know my Weekly Marketing Skinnies do matter and have a great week!
Hi Ana!
Thank you for the kind mention. You are awesome and I look highly on you especially when it comes to marketing.
Keep up the good job. Love it and have a blessed weekend!
~Reginald
Thanks so much, Reginald, and you as well!