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.
[share]If you appreciate what I do, share this Marketing Skinny:[/share]
THANK YOU.
Now grab your cup of coffee and let’s catch up on the marketing news that matter to your business.
Let’s start with the news from Traffic Generation Café.
At TrafficGenerationCafe.com
COMING SOON… Black Marketing Friday: Best Online Marketing Deals of 2014
The biggest sale day of the year is almost here.
Black Friday. November 28.
In this post, I’ll keep you updated on the latest deals on marketing products I love and use at Traffic Generation Café – so I can honestly recommend you use them on your site as well.
It’s On: Amazon Introduces Eight Days of Black Friday Deals
Leave it to Amazon to make Black Friday last. Not by a day or two even, but why not stretch one day into eight, right?
Amazon.com announced Black Friday deals would start even earlier this year - Friday, November 21. Yes, that’s yesterday!
They’ll be adding new deals as often as every ten minutes for eight straight days.
Learn more about the deals and how to get to them in my post on LinkedIn.
Why You Should Dump Facebook Marketing (& Focus on This Instead)
Would you be surprised to learn that your FB fans are twice as likely to sign up for your emails than to engage with your page on Facebook?
Forrester Research has published a report called “Social Relationship Strategies That Work” that looks into the relationships between brands and social media, and questions the effectiveness of some social media platforms, particularly Facebook.
Of course, as you remember, in a Friday night blog post last week, Facebook warned brands that “Beginning in January 2015, people will see less of this type of content [promotional page posts] in their News Feeds,” and admitted that brands that post promotional content “will see a significant decrease in distribution.”
So what are marketers to do?
I outlined a few options suggested in the report; you can find them in this LinkedIn post I just published.
58% Americans Have No Opinion on Net Neutrality - But You Should
I hate to admit it, but until I decided that ignorance was no excuse and started researching the topic and subsequently writing this post, I didn’t have an opinion on Net Neutrality.
I am not sure if it’s any comfort to learn that I am just one of 58% of Americans who have no opinion on Net Neutrality - because they don’t know enough about it.
The other day, I had trouble with Comcast internet connection, which made me realize just how important internet is in my life - I felt like I was completely stranded without it.
You know what I mean?…
It’s time we learned more about Net Neutrality.
LinkedIn and SoundCloud
Noticed a trend above? Yes, I’ve been spending a lot more time on LinkedIn.
It’s my next ‘do or die’ traffic generation platform I am determined to learn everything about and pass it on to you.
- Join me on LinkedIn here and watch me ‘do my thing’.
- Join Sarah Santacroce’ LinkedIn Challenge that will start on December 1 - we’ll learn more about LinkedIn together.
Another project I am simultaneously working on is recording more soundtracks of my posts, posting them to SoundCloud (an online audio distribution platform, yet another traffic generator I am working on), and then adding them to text posts - like I did in Why You Should Dump Facebook LI post mentioned above.
I barely started working on my presence there, so this is building something as ‘from scratch’ as it gets.
- Join me on SoundCloud here and watch me ‘do my thing’.
- Join my Google+ SoundCloud Think Tank community to learn more about it together.
Search
Starting this week (after a slew of mobile-(un)friendly tester icons), Google is officially adding a “mobile-friendly” label to their mobile search results.
New in Google search: when you search for certain celebrities or well-known personalities, Google may show links and icons to their social profiles (other than Google+!) within the Google Knowledge graph panel.
Social Media
Twitter enabled users to share and discuss tweets via direct message - you can now send copies of tweets and comment on them out of the public eye.
Twitter launched a WordPress plugin to get you to embed more Vines in your blog posts.
Twitter now indexes every public Tweet since 2006 - about half a trillion public messages.
Facebook Groups now has its own app.
Just in case you were working too much at work, Facebook is rumored to be testing a product called Facebook at Work, designed to let people, well, use Facebook at work.
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!
Marketing This & That
Apparently, Emojis have joined us on self-hosted WordPress blogs.
This made me mad: Americans pay more for slower Internet. Did you get this: more for slower.
New Google Contributor subscription service will let you pay money to remove ads from certain sites - Google calles it “an experiment in additional ways to fund the web”.
Google Wallet is giving away $200,000 to attract new users - you and a friend can each get $5 when you introduce them to Google Wallet.
Yahoo is going to replace Google as the current Firefox search provider.
Yahoo now lets (select) photographers sell their photos on Flickr.
Microsoft updated the Bing homepage with high-definition backgrounds, image captions, and a new Office Online menu. I must admit, the changes are awesomely helpful and fun.
Now, not only can Skype be used on just about any screen you lay your hands on, but you can also sign in to Skype for Web on Skype.com and be able to connect and start instant messaging directly from your browser.
Amazon is rumored to start a hotel-booking service by January 2015.
Funny Business
Need to flip a coin? Just say OK, Google; flip a coin.
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.
And I am not the only one who thinks that, by the way.
Take a look at the comment Kurt Frankenberg of Shoestring101.com (one of my favorite blogs, by the way) left on a recent Weekly Marketing Skinny:
Here are just some of the mentions I came across in the past week:
The Blogger’s Bucket List: 20 Must-Reach Milestones on the Path to World Domination - Kevin Duncan at boostblogtraffic.com
Born of and Made for Google Plus – Story of an Infographic - Robert Ryan at robertryan.ie
Enstine Muki, Harleena Singh, Anna Hoffman & 13 Other Bloggers Are M.A.D - Babs at thatcoolblog.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:
You can also subscribe to my G+ feed through your RSS reader of choice; just add the following link like with any normal blog RSS feed: http://tgcafe.it/gplus-feed
To an even better next week,
You know I’m sharing this again this week… 😀
Testing out that Twitter plugin now.
Look forward to your screenshot!
Hello madam, yet another awesome round up. I really am getting all I should know and nothing else on this skinny. The best place to stay updated.
Much appreciated, Swadhin.
Hi Ana,
Such a pleasure going through your weekly roundup posts 🙂
It sure has be covered, though I keep most of the reading of these links for the weekend. Yes indeed, it was kind of Babs to have mentioned me along with you in his recent post, that in itself was a great honor I would say.
I’d be keeping a check on the Black Friday deals offer as I’m trying to set up a new store on my blog too. Didn’t know about Google adding a “mobile-friendly” label to their mobile search results and the other changes they’re coming up with. Need to check those out and the others too.
Thanks SO much for all that you do…I know it’s your effort each week to gather these goodies for us, and we so appreciate it. Have a ‘little’ relaxed weekend 😉
I think most of us find that we reserve weekends for ‘catching up’, Harleena. As long as we remember to reserve some time to rest and relax as well…
A new store on your blog? What kind of products are you thinking of selling?
Is your blog mobile-friendly, by the way?
Lol…that’s so true! I wish I had more time to relax over the weekend too 🙂
Yes, my blog is mobile friendly as it has a responsive theme. I’ve just set up the store - so still in the process of trying it out - its an amazone product store and I’m just highlighting the ones offering the black friday deals for now.
Sounds great, Harleena; hope it does well for you!
Hey Ana,
Thank you for sharing and seriously, I have absolutely no idea where you get all the time to prepare this! For one, I am struggling just to keep up.
Nonetheless, really appreciate the time you took and I guarantee you that I love it… Every single time!
Keep it up dear friend!
~Reginald
It seems like that’s ALL I’ve got time for these days… lol
It’s very much worth it to keep up with it though; glad you are finding time to read my weekly skinnies at the very least, Reginald.