What’s better than a weekend roundup of awesome marketing blogs? Well, I was going to say chocolate chip pancakes, but that’s not really a fair comparison, is it? So enjoy your breakfast then get caught up on some good reading. I kept it light and (mostly) fun so you can do some reading then get about the business of enjoying your long weekend.
How To Find Inspiration
Written by Erin Feldman
What do you do when you need inspiration? Do you sit and wait for it to strike? Hope for some magical pixie dust to light things up? Or do you do what Erin suggests and get to work, damnit! The thing about inspiration is that it’s not a mystery and if you treat it as such it may elude you forever. I love the poetry of Erin’s writing and if you need inspiration you want to pay attention to what she has to say – literally, because she makes a great point about our “war with inspiration” and figuratively because she writes with a little pixie dust of her own.
Read the article at writerightwords.com and follow Erin on Twitter @ErinMFeldman
Emoticons For Brands: New Trend Or Too Spammy?
Written by Arik Hanson
Recently I wrote a post that included my opinion on using emoticons in email but Arik takes it a step further by exploring when it is and isn’t appropriate to use emoticons in communication. He starts out by asking the question whether emoticons should be accepted as part of regular communications. And he gives the answer I love most: it depends! In this post Arik lays out a number of scenarios where emoticons can work – and others where they don’t. I also happen to agree with him. Read the post and let me know if you do, too.
Read the article at arikhanson.com and follow Arik on Twitter @arikhanson
Google Catches Free Host Injecting Hidden Links On Clients Web Sites
Written by Barry Schwartz
This is the shortest post on the list and also the scariest. Barry is an SEO expert who brings a really frightening incident to light, one that was previously buried in a Google Webmaster forum. Apparently, a specific hosting company is inserting hidden links (ie: spam) into the code of the sites they host. Can you say super mega serious problem for SEO? It’s worth a few minutes of your time because if it’s happening to you, you won’t know it until you read this and that could be detrimental to your site and SEO. Even if it’s not happening to you, it’s worth spreading the word to people you know. Barry also makes the other relevant point here: pay for your hosting. With a reputable company.
Read the article at seroundtable.com and follow Barry on Twitter @rustybrick
Top Blogging Statistics: 45 Reasons To Blog
Written by Tatiana Liubarets
This is a fun post, worth bookmarking for those days when you need a tweet or a quick status update. It’s less post and more list, but Tatiana has compiled a fun collection of stats about blogging, content creation and social media. The best part is that every stat has a reference. I don’t know about you but I really like my stats to come with a little bit of credibility, and Tatiana gives just that. My nomination for “most outrageous stat”? “75% of small to medium-sized U.S. business websites lack an email link on their home page for consumers to contact the business.” Yikes!
Read the article at writtent.com and find Tatiana on Google+
6 Lessons NYC’s Candy Cab Can Teach You About Marketing
Written by Elissa Freeman
I totally cheated on this one and added it mostly for fun. Hey, it’s a holiday weekend. Why not end on a light note? Apparently one New York City cab driver has the same idea… he treats his customers to handfuls of lovely, delicious candy just to make them happy. And there are marketing lessons in it, too. Elissa summarizes this cab driver’s experiment and points out why it’s a great example of integrated marketing. The best thing about it is that it’s not really marketing – it’s just a guy who is thinking about his customers. Now don’t you wish all marketing was like that?
Read the article at prdaily.com and follow Elissa on Twitter @elissapr
Enjoy the weekend!
Hi Carol,
Thanks for posting these. Looks like I’ve got a lot of reading to do! 🙂
Happy to keep you busy, George 🙂
Thank you for the lovely words, Carol Lynn!
You’re welcome, I enjoyed your post. Definitely “inspirational” 🙂