It’s my birthday! And like last year, I have a gift for you.

Every year, I read hundreds (thousands?) of articles on the topic of Internet Marketing, from SEO to social media to web usability and then some. And every year, I hand pick the best articles that I’ve read and compile them in a resource that I hope will last a long time. Here’s my list for 2008. Here’s 2007. Here’s 2006. I painstakingly go through these resources with the hopes that these posts will serve as references for you in years to come. Yes, that’s right. Despite the changing landscape, the articles I list here are typically those that I feel are “timeless” in that they could be referenced in the future and still have utility. These posts are not in response to newsworthy events, nor are they displayed in any particular order. They are strategic guides that hopefully will enhance your internet marketing experiences in the future.

Every year, I can only read so many articles. I try to keep this as exhaustive as possible, but even so, I don’t know every great resource. Like last year, I enlisted in help from my followers on Twitter, many of whom gave me some great posts to add to this list. If you’re looking to be included on 2010′s list, you now know what to do.

Like last year, if your article is highlighted in this comprehensive post, there’s a badge for you to proudly celebrate this achievement on your site. Thanks again to David Mihm who specializes in Portland Web Design for creating them. Scroll down to the bottom of the post to grab the code you need for your post or site.

Without further ado, I now present to you the best internet marketing posts of 2009.

Social Media: Getting Started

• Why You Have to Engage in Social Media, Even if You Don’t Want to (A Smart Bear): Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) makes a compelling argument into why social media must be considered, even if you have no interest in it. The article has examples of how social media worked too.
• The Poetry of Social Networking to Court Customers and Invest in Relationships (Brian Solis): Brian Solis shares his foreword to Sean Percival’s book, MySpace Marketing.  In it, he offers some thought-provoking insights into what must be understood before going into social media marketing.  And… Brian Solis is the most eloquent writer I have ever seen in the blogosphere.  This post is really poetry, as are all his other writings and blog posts.
• 40 Key Elements to Getting Started in Social Media (Louis Gray): Mike Fruchter writes an awesome blog post on Louis Gray’s blog about how to get involved in social media, from branding to blogging to Twitter to community. It’s definitely a worthwhile read.
• Marketing on the Social Web: A Few Key Ingredients (Michael Fruchter): I love the graphic. But more than that, Mike’s post explains that social media is really about using social channels appropriately to communicate and converse — and as an extension of that, you might just end up being able to sell something. It’s really not that hard!
• How Big Brands Can Start Testing Social Media (Conversation Agent): It’s really not that hard to get into social media marketing. It just requires a small shift in mindset.
• Why Social Media is Scary (Steve Radick): Why is social media scary? There are challenges to be overcome by junior employees, developers, managers, and even senior leadership. Steve Radick tackles them all in this post.
• The ABCs of Online Networking (Your Job Stop): I love Joanna Lord’s article — every single letter of the alphabet has an application in online networking. Don’t overlook these — at least consider them!
• What Social Media is and What Social Media is Not (Louis Gray): So many people don’t get what social media is. Mike saves the day by straightening them out.
• Is it Too Late to Catch Up? (Seth Godin): Seth Godin suggests ideas that will make social media slowly work for you as an organization.
• Creating Your Social Media Plan (Outspoken Media): This good primer talks about securing your brand, setting metrics, knowing who you are, setting a presence, engaging, and assessing success.
• 6 Steps for Creating a Social Media Roadmap and Plan (Green Marketing 2.0): Lorna Li writes very introductory post on what social media is and what you can do with it with some great insights.
• A Corporate Guide for Social Media (Forbes): Forbes actually gets it when it comes to social media strategy in the workplace. Have a read and see for yourself.
• 20 Ways to Drive Leads Through Social Media (Kyle Lacy): Here are some of the things you can do to start seeing some movement in this thing they call “social media marketing.”
• 10 Tips for Social Media Marketers (PR Squared): Todd Defren tells you how to jump into social media marketing. What can you do today?
• How to Create Measurable Objectives (Altitude Branding): We’ve talked about goals and strategies as it relates to social media marketing, but let’s break them down even further.

Social Media: Implementation and Execution

• 7 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing Campaigns Fail, and How to Fix them (Stuntdubl): Todd Malicoat never blogs, but when he does, he writes great posts like this suggesting that if your social media marketing campaign is failing, you may have had the wrong strategies in place. Good thing he proposes how to fix them also!
• Two Approaches: Shotgun vs. Laser (Web Strategist): There are two (of many) approaches you can take in your social media strategy. Which approach best suits you?
• How to Make Social Media Work for Non-Consumer Brands (Mashable): This is a good B2B social media article which is chock full of examples.
• Ways to Be Human at a Distance (Chris Brogan): Chris Brogan always talks about how businesses can be human again. So what are they to do? He breaks this article into some of the basics of presence, how to converse, how to add multimedia to those conversations, and the topics of conversation.
• How to Manage Successful Social Media Promotions (Mashable): How can you get feedback from social channels to offer exclusive deals to your followers on social media communities? Read this Mashable guide.
• How to Build a Social Media Cheat Sheet in Any Topic (ReadWriteWeb): Marshall Kirkpatrick writes an amazing guide on how you can find thought leaders in any industry.
• The 12 Step Social Media Program for Traditional Marketers (HubSpot): Here are a few things agencies looking to replace different pieces of their business with social media can do.
• 10 Creative Contests Powered by Social Media (Mashable): You can use social media to do many things: build community, make business decisions, and more. Let a contest help make these ideas a reality.

Social Media: Small Business

• Why Small is the New Big in Social Media Marketing (Jonathan Fields): Jonathan Fields explains why small businesses have a real advantage over large ones when it comes to biting the social media bullet. This is a great read.
• 5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses (Mashable): Here are five techniques proposed by Samir Balwani that go beyond the mere social media presence, including contests.
• How to Promote a Small Business Website (Small Business Trends): This article isn’t totally social media focused, but it’s part of it.  If you want to market a small business website, social is just part of your overall marketing mix.

Hiring for Social Media

• How to Evaluate Social Media Street Cred (Logic+Emotion): Do you know if that person is able to handle a social media marketing initiative? How omnipresent is he? How well-versed is she? David Armano suggests to study out the candidate first; they shouldn’t just be focused on Twitter, for example.
• 25 Signs You’ve Got a Strong Social Media Consultant or Agency (The Buzz Bin): Beth Harte and Geoff Livingston explain that social media consultants need to know a lot more than about the basic tools out there.
• Why You Shouldn’t Trust Social Media to SEO Consultants (Social Media Explorer): The fact that a few in the SEO community have a narrow approach with regard to social media engagement troubles me.
• 10 Questions to Evaluate a Social Media “Expert” (Conversation Marketing): Well, how did you fare in this quiz?
• I’d Like to See a Social Media Consultant or Agency That… (Direct Marketing Observations): I really liked Marc Meyer’s post here. It was actually how he and I built up a relationship.
• 25 Tips to Choosing a Social Media Consultant (Kyle Lacy): How do you find a social media consultant? They might want to pass this test with flying colors.
• Hiring for Social Media: What I’d Look For (Altitude Branding): Amber Naslund has a great series on good and bad approaches for social media job description and tops it off with what she’d look for if she were to hire for the position.

Social Media: Measurement and ROI

• Measurement Strategies for 5 Social Media Goals (PR Communications): John Cass talks about the various goals you might get through social media and the various ways to measure these goals.
• Are We Too Worried with Finding the ROI of Social Media? (The Viral Garden): What are big brand saying about the ROI of social media? Check Mack Collier’s post to find out.
• 100 Ways to Measure Social Media (Inside the Marketers Studio/David Berkowitz): Who said you can’t measure social media?
• Social Media Metrics: What We Need to Track Sales (Samir Balwani): Samir Balwani writes a great post on some of the ways you get ROI from social media.
• Measuring Social Media ROI: Does Size Matter? (Mark Hayward): Mark Hayward shows the ROI of social media. With a plan, you can measure effectiveness of SM.
• Social Media: Who Can Show Us the Real Value? (Econsultancy):  I like the measurements this article provides. The Online Consumer Engagement Value report idea is a good one.

Social Media: General

• Web Promoters: What Qualities Make Up the Effective Ones? (The Future Buzz): Adam Singer writes an excellent piece on the qualities that make up the most popular “power users” of the social web — that is, those individuals whose content people want to consume always.
• 11 Ways to Lose Friends and Followers Online (Social Media Rockstar): This reminds me of my social media etiquette post; there are just so many things you can do that will not win you any friends on social networks. Brett Borders explores the behavioral triggers that don’t win you any new friends at all.
• The A-Z of Social Media for Brands (Econsultancy): They say it’s “social media for brands.” I say it’s “social media for everyone.”
• Is Social Media Overrated? (Samir Balwani): This post serves as a reminder that social media is just one part of the marketing mix, and you still need to strategize and allocate resources intelligently. What is social media about? At the end of the day, it’s about real connections to consumers. (No, it’s not about the tools!)
• 10 Ways to Be a Great Social Media User (Search Engine Journal): Vince Blackham writes a great post on Search Engine Journal about how to be a great social media user, with tips such as contributing, diversifying your efforts, being real, being meaningful, and more.
• Experts Talk About Social Media Training (Samir Balwani): Samir has a great interview on the background on social media marketing with 5 experts. (Note: I was interviewed. Normally I don’t self-promote in this roundup, but the quotes are good, and Jason Falls, who was featured, is one of my role models.)
• Social Media Tips for Optimizing Time Spent by Marketers (Online Marketing Blog): Social media takes time, but yes, you can optimize it with tips from Adam Singer.
• Answers to Social Media Questions You Should Know (Online Marketing Blog): Here are some great questions and answers from Lee Odden on the typical questions you face in social media marketing.
• The Social Media Conversion Scale (Logic+Emotion): David Armano provides a graphical chart showing the various stages of social media acceptance. Where are you on the list?
• The Hardest Things to Teach Your Clients About Social Media Marketing (10e20): A collaborative list of what things you should or shouldn’t expect of social media marketing.
• The Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media (Search Engine Journal): I love how Jennifer Horowitz equates social media with the 7 sins. She has some great comparisons.
• 23 Social Media Marketing Tips from Dell, Comcast, HP, Wells Fargo, Best Buy, General Mills, Ford, UPS, Home Depot, Cirque du Soleil (Online Marketing Blog): Lee Odden takes advice from the best minds in social media who have worked in the corporate world. This is a fantastic interview!
• The Real Lesson in the Yelp User Review Lawsuit (Nine by Blue): The bottom line is that people need to realize that they can’t control the message. The best solution is to proactively address the situation and make it work for you.
• 5 People Who Broke the Rules of Social Media and Succeeded (Mashable): Real success stories and the experiences learned is the subject of this article.
• Which Social Media Channels Should You Be Using? (The Jordan Rules): This is a great chart and article on the best social media channels for both B2B and B2C companies.
• Share This or Else! What Makes People Share Content? (Samir Balwani): What prompts people to share content — and how does one capitalize on this? Samir discusses human psychology and explains how this correlates to content that is shareable.

Twitter

• Twitter, the Most Important Website Since Google (97th Floor): Yes, Twitter is that important. Chris Bennett features some great parallels in his article.
• Twitter, Customer Service, and Good Brand Management (Conversation Agent): Valeria Maltoni writes a great primer to why Twitter is important for customer service, but then goes a step further and tells you what tools you can use to monitor your brand (and some that cost money and let you respond).
• A Twitter Basics Primer (The Buzz Bin): When you use Twitter for marketing or whatnot, you should consider why you intend to use it and what you plan on getting out of it. This is a basic article but goes into great depth.
• Who Should Tweet? (Samir Balwani): Samir talks about the pros and cons of Tweeting by company representatives, from the CEO to a brand. He suggests a “character” to be the face of the brand on Twitter, sort of like a mascot.
• 8 Twitter Networking Tips: From Online to In-the-Flesh (Twitip): Whether it’s getting instant responses or meeting people in real life via tweetup, some Twitter tips are not to be forgotten.
• The Ultimate Guide to Everything Twitter (Webdesigner Depot): This is a crazy in-depth guide on Twitter, but it’s already outdated since there have been a lot more news and apps that have come out since. Still, though, you can tell that there has been in immense amount of work put into it, and it definitely deserves recognition.
• You’re On Twitter, Now What? (Conversation Agent): How do you want to use Twitter? There are many goals you can achieve with the site.
• 4 Real Offline Uses of Twitter (Dream Systems Media): Twitter marketing is happening online, of course, but it’s happening offline too. Just a few weeks ago, I saw a Twitter decal on a car. It was rather cool. Here are four other ways people are promoting their Twitter accounts.
• How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Online Business (here.org.uk): This is a nice beginner business guide of the various things you can do in order to be seen as a credible and useful Twitter user.
• 101 Tweets on How to Use Twitter (SEO 2.0): Tad offers 101 ways to use Twitter in retweetable format. Tips include being active and tweeting daily, limiting using Twitter for broadcasting, focusing on company-wide social media policies, and more.
• Connecting with Customers on Twitter: 9 Tips for Success (10e20): Jake writes a great piece on what you should be doing on Twitter in order to be successful.
• Top 10 Reasons Your Company Should Not Tweet (BL Ochman’s Blog): Not everyone will be able to use Twitter. Here are 10 reasons why you as a company entity should avoid it.
• How to Integrate Social Media into Product Marketing (Social Computing Magazine): This is a nice detailed guide on how you can market products via social media. (P.S. Sending products to bloggers helps too!)
• The Tao of Tweeting (Mashable): Good art via Twitter is not that hard to achieve. Soren Gordhamer shows you how.
• Breakdown: 4 Ways Brands are Earning — and Buying — Followers on Twitter (Web Strategist): Jeremiah Owyang explores the Twitter space to see how followers are being earned (or not) on Twitter.
• The 10 Twitter Commandments (Econsultancy): Patricio Robles says that doing these sins is like shooting yourself in the foot.
• How to Use Twitter to Find Local Blog Content (Hyperlocalblogger): Twitter can bring you local traffic, so use it wisely to build friends and a following in your neighborhood.
• 137 Small Business Twitter Tips (Small Business Trends): One hundred and thirty seven people were asked to offer their best Twitter tips, and this has been aggregated and put in a document (PDF, but not linked to this page) for all to see.
• From Corporate to Personal: The Four Types of Social Media Profiles (Web Strategist): What kinds of brand profiles do you find on Twitter?
• 62 Ways to Use Twitter for Business (WebWorkerDaily): Be it credibility, growing your network, or marketing (and then some), this article is a good way to inspire yourself to grow your business Twitter presence.
• 8 Lessons Learned as a Brand on Twitter (tins/Rick Klau): Rick Klau works for Google. He talks about what he has learned by maintaining a brand presence on Twitter: specifically, Google’s Blogger account.
• Make Tweet Love: Top Tips for Building Twitter Relationships (Brian Solis): This is an excellent compendium of tips to get the most out of Twitter, both by Brian Solis and then his own Twitter friends.

Facebook

• How to Create Rich HTML Tabs on Your Facebook Page (10e20): I know Jesse just contributed an awesome article on this blog but Victor’s guide here is also pretty good.
• Why You Need to Create a Facebook Fan Page (Quick Sprout): Neil Patel decided to build a Facebook fan page that was interactive, using it as a case study for why it would benefit you as a business to maintain one and what would be necessary to make it engaging.
• 10 Key SEO Strategies Every Facebook Owner Should Know (Inside Facebook): We all know Facebook tips and tricks, but did we know we can marry the schools of thought of Facebook optimization and SEO? Let’s dive into Justin Smith’s tips.
• How to Build Facebook Community (Socialbrite): If you’re looking to meet some goals with Facebook engagement, you have to actually be able to engage your audience and participate. This article presents fourteen tips for achieving this goal, most of which are common sense but which may inspire you to get more active.
• How to Win Facebook Friends and Influence People (All Facebook): Nick O’Neill’s post on how to become a Facebook power user (read: genuine) is great.
• The Beginner’s Guide to Advertising on Facebook (Jonathan Volk): If you’re looking to advertise on Facebook, be it for your product for via affiliate marketing (in Jonathan’s case), take tips from this guy. He makes 6 digits a MONTH.
• How to Violate Facebook Etiquette and Piss Off Your Friends (All Facebook): Sure, there’s no right or wrong way to use social networks, but there are still socially acceptable limits.
• Are Your Facebook Fans Truly Engaged? (Conversation Agent): Valeria Maltoni shares the findings of a Frozen Frogs study with regards to engaging Facebook followers.  It’s good to know that there are ways to bring Facebook community closer together.

LinkedIn

• 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job (How to Change the World): Thought you couldn’t get a job on LinkedIn? Think again!
• 10 Tips to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile (SEOptimise): This is a beginner level LinkedIn howto, but it’s amazing to see how many people actually do not follow the basic rules of engagement for LinkedIn!
• Top 10 Reasons Why Your LinkedIn Question is Getting Mostly Pitches (Conversation Agent): Valeria Maltoni writes a great piece about why your LinkedIn community involvement may not be so great for you when you start getting an abundance of pitches. What can you do differently?
• 7 Ways to Get More Out of LinkedIn (Mashable): Taking advantage of the professional network isn’t hard. Here are 7 ways to get the most out of it.
• How to Ensure Your LinkedIn Profile is Effective (Web Worker Daily): Meryl Evans has a good writeup on how to optimize the features of LinkedIn to make a pretty spiffy looking profile.

Leveraging Other Social Media Sites

• How to Get Media Attention and Traffic Out of BusinessExchange (Small Business Trends): Not many people know about BusinessWeek’s Business Exchange, but Anita does, and she explains how you can get visibility out of it.
• 10 Tips to Get the Most Out of Posterous (Make Tech Easier): Posterous is the new lifestreaming app. Shevonne tells you how to actually use it and take advantage of its features.
• 10 Useful Tips to Using FriendFeed (Make Tech Easier): FriendFeed is still going strong, and its community is pretty powerful. Shevonne Polastre tells you how to make the most of it. Big emphasis on point #9. That’s the way to maximize the potential of FriendFeed.
• How I Use FriendFeed (Webomatica): If you wanted to know a little more about the potential of FriendFeed, check out Jason Kaneshiro’s post.
• FriendFeed Groups – The Fast Track to Content and Community (Knowthenetwork.com): How can you use FriendFeed groups to your advantage? Easy.
• Tools to Analyze Delicious Tags, Bookmarks, and URLs (Search Engine Journal): I normally do not put toolbox posts in my yearly roundup because I look for posts with actionable ideas to be put to use. However, how many of you actually knew that Delicious has tools to help you get the most out of it?
• 3 Easy Tips for Improving the Potency of Your StumbleUpon Account (Search Engine Journal): This post by Ryan Caldwell explains how you can improve your StumbleUpon account, but I’d argue that the information could be applied to other social bookmarking sites or social networks as well.
• Getting Links AND Content from Flickr (Search Engine Land): Using Flickr to build content isn’t so hard once you get inspiration from this article which features a case study and suggested scenarios that you can use Flickr with to help.
• 4 Tools to Track Flickr (Search Engine Journal): If you are tasked with monitoring Flickr for the purposes of listening to the conversation or finding out statistics on the photos you’ve uploaded, you should check out these tools to make your job a whole lot easier.
• 6 Tips for Getting the Most out of Foursquare (Mashable): Foursquare is new for many, so learn it and soak it in while it’s still hot.

Blogging

• 13 Tips for Marketing Your Business with Your Blog (Problogger): Most businesses have one goal with their blog: marketing. Darren Rowse gives you 13 ways to do just that.
• 25 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Started Blogging (Web Distortion): Paul Anthony (@webireland) writes an incredible high-level blogging guide, which, if followed, will definitely bring you ahead of the competition. Guaranteed.
• Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Blog? (Michael Hyatt): This is a good article on the common pitfalls facing bloggers, from not posting enough to posting too much and everything in between.
• Blog Post Ideas that Always Generate Buzz (The Future Buzz): In case you needed to be inspired even more to write good blog posts, Adam Singer covers even more angles for the aspiring blogger.
• A Crash Course in Comments (Chris Brogan): So many people don’t value the connections that can be had if you write meaningful comments on blogs.
• How to Find the Best Free Images/Photos/Graphics for Your Blog Posts (Smackdown!): Some really great public domain image search tools are reviewed in this article. Plus, of course, there’s Creative Commons licensed images too. And I’ll add another favorite: everystockphoto.com.
• 10 Things to Do Before Launching Your Blog (Small Business Trends): Maybe everyone reading this already has blogs.  Maybe you don’t.  If you’re about to start, read this guide.  If you’re starting a new one later on, read this guide.
• How to Write a Review (Blogging Tips): This is a different kind of blogging post, one that pertains to writing reviews of products. If you want to write a complete review of something, be sure to follow the guidelines highlighted in this post.
• 100 Ways to Find Ideas for Your Blog Posts (LifeSnips): If you’ve lost blogging inspiration, Steve Aitchison will bring you out of the blogging slumps. You can’t really run out of blogging ideas after reading this article unless the motivation isn’t within you.
• How to Make (and Keep) Your Blog Content in Demand (The Future Buzz): Adam Singer explains how you can keep your blog in demand, making it referenced and looked at regularly.
• 101 Ways to Promote a New Blog (Daily Blog Tips): Some of these ideas are rather unconventional, but I like ‘em.
• 19 Reasons Why You Should Blog and Not Just Tweet (The Future Buzz): Everyone Tweets nowadays, but there are reasons why you should blog instead. Some of Adam Singer’s points include demonstrating passion, getting full analytics, limits of 140 characters, and being in full control of the content and the website.
• How to Make Blogging Work for Your Business (Wordtracker): This is a great guide by Chris Garrett into what blogs can do for you and how you can build your blog to be successful for your business.
• Suggested Guide for Writing Effective Blog Posts (PMA Media Group): Blogging isn’t always just about opening a “new post” link and typing your thoughts. For some, it’s just not that simple. You might want to start with ways to inspire yourself and include some SEO keyword ranking tips as well.
• 10 Steps to Creating an Authority Blog (David Walker): Bloggers, take note: the presentation and the content of your blog is everything. There’s more than that, though, and David Walker walks you though it.
• 5 Ways to Increase Your Blog’s Search Traffic (Search Engine People): In Glen Allsopp’s guest post for Search Engine People, he says that you can increase your blog’s search engine traffic by applying some tactics to old (already published) blog posts.
• 5 Ways to Turn Blog Comments into Conversations (SEO Scoop): Blog comments should be ongoing conversations, but how do you do that? Barry Welford explores ways to make blog comments more engaging.
• The Complete Guide to Video Blogging (Mashable): Ever wanted to be a video blogger? This in-depth Mashable article by Leah Betancourt talks about the roots of video blogging and how to get started.
• How to Use Curation to Make Your Blog Better (Influential Marketing): I love how Rohit Bhargava compares PostSecret to success in blogging. He offers great tips here.
• Starting a Blog? These 50 Lessons Will Help You Succeed (The Future Buzz): Using data gathered from the Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2009, Adam Singer gives solid actionable tips on how you can start a blog and why it’s important that you do.
• 22 Reasons for You to Blog (Gloson): The youngest person who will ever make it to my top posts is totally Gloson. He’s 11 and gives you 22 reasons why you should blog.
• 8 Tips for Building Community on Your Blog (Problogger): If you really have a strong blog, you have potential to also grow a strong community. But how? Darren Rowse provides the insights.
• How to Create a High Quality Blog (Dan Blank): Pretty pictures and solid advice make this blog post a winner for anyone — companies and people — looking to craft a high quality blog.
• A Short List of Content Elements for Your Consideration (Broadcasting Brain): Before you publish your blog, ask yourself the following questions. Due diligence, my friends.
• How to Make Your Corporate Blog More Social (Social Media Explorer): Dan Zarrella shares small ideas but smart ones that can make your corporate blog a lot more approachable.

Reputation Management

• Top 10 Ways to Save Your Online Reputation in 2009 (Small Business Trends): Business need to step up a notch and be a lot more personable to avoid a reputation management fiasco. Most companies need to start by simply acknowledging each and every incoming request from a customer as alluded to in #2.
• Using Social Media For Reputation Management (DirJournal): Some of the tips here aren’t discussed in other articles, such as focusing on video and optimizing for local search.
• How to Build a Reputation Monitoring Dashboard (aimClear): This is an incredibly huge post by Marty Weintraub on how to set up a reputation management monitoring dashboard, from doing the keyword research to finding additional keywords to monitor to actually building it. It has lots of screenshots and good actionable information that you can get started with today.
• A Common Search Reputation Management Timeline (Search Cowboys): To summarize this post, if you don’t act to prevent reputation management issues, you’re doomed in the search world.
• Be Proactive With Your Reputation Management (Vertical Measures): My book talks about how maintaining social media profiles can help you with your reputation management issues. This post echoes that sentiment and provides specific social networks that you should establish your presence on.
• How Companies Should Respond to Negative Reviews (Outspoken Media): You shouldn’t always let criticism sit.  Sometimes you can respond.  What would you respond to, though?  How should you do it?
• The Dos and Don’ts of Online Reputation Management (Search Engine Journal): This article is a simple easy list to follow for reputation management issues. Yes, you can push down negative search engine results, but you need a plan. You can get some direction on that plan by reading this article.
• 5 Ways Negative Reviews are Good for Business (Small Business SEM): Matt McGee explains why negative reviews aren’t too bad after all. Just make sure you don’t get mentioned on Consumerist or Boing Boing. (Of course, if you get there, it’s probably because your customers exhausted all avenues, which you should’ve been abreast of earlier!)
• Online Reputation Management in the Future (WebProNews): Chris Crum interviews several experts about the possible diminishing impact of reputation management services — that is, when everyone has a reputation management issue, is it going to be less of a concern?
• The Online Reputation Management Guide (Outspoken Media): Outspoken Media has produced an incredible online reputation guide. Rhea Drysdale talks about the nuances of assessing, building, tracking, and monitoring your reputation online.

Content Development/Marketing

• Writing Content for the Buyer’s Decision Journey (Conversation Agent): Valeria Maltoni talks about the buying funnel and gives good examples of companies that do it well.
• 10 Secrets for Creating Viral Content (The Buzz Bin): It’s all about others — NOT yourself.
• The Doctor McCoy Guide to Healing Sick Content (Copyblogger): What do Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy of Star Trek and good writers have in common? Mark Dykeman offers a few parallels that just might get you thinking of your article-writing (or blogging) strategy.
• Beyond Headlines: How to Get Your Audience to Read Every Word (Copyblogger): Dave Navarro’s article on Copyblogger explains how to entice an audience and force them to read every word. The idea is to communicate similar tastes, triggering a sense of need, and promising valuable information.
• 30 Simple Ways of Improving Bounce Rate and Conversion Rate (SEOptimise): This article has some great ways to convert visitors into members, buyers, or regular users of your site. Are you listening?
• 12 Types of Content Strategies SEOs Should Know and Use (Search Engine People): If you want to build traffic and links to your site, you might want to get some ideas from Jeff Quipp. Hint: this type of post is in the article, but that’s not really why I do it. At the end of the day, it’s great to provide a valuable resource for me and for you!
• 9 Strategies for Finding Incredible Content (Search Engine Journal): This post on Search Engine Journal actually proposes some pretty unknown sites that you can leverage for article content inspiration.
• Practical Guide to Finding Link Bait Inspiration (SEO Smarty): Ann Smarty presents a pretty good guide for content inspiration, but not just any type of content: her guide gives you ideas on finding great link bait topics.
• The Psychology of a Linkbait (Search Engine Journal): Loren Baker paraphrases this article by saying, “You can increase your chances of linking success by remembering one simple rule : the best links come from real human beings. Here are ways to appeal to those real human emotions in linkbaiting.”
• Why Most Get Content Marketing Wrong (The Future Buzz): It’s a matter of formatting your content properly. If you miss the ball, you will fail.
• Top 10 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Fails (Conversation Agent): Might as well try to get it right, right? Let Valeria help.
• The 10 Commandments of Content Marketing (Social Media Explorer): I like Kat French. She explains why your content marketing strategy might just not work in a nice list format with good descriptions.
• 49 Creative Ways You Can Profit from Content Marketing (Copyblogger): To be ahead of the game, you should be creative about it. Here are 49 things you can think about right now.

Web Development

• The “Just Create Compelling and Useful Content” Lie (Sebastian’s Pamphlets): Sebastian highlights the elements of a successful website. Hint: it’s not just great content alone.
• Things to Ask Before You Redo Your Website (Seth Godin): Seth asks thought-provoking questions that are to be considered in your next website redesign.

Video

• Online Video for Business: The Three Types of Business Video (ReelSEO): We’ve heard about viral videos, but that’s only one type of business video. There are two other types of videos, according to Daniel Sevitt. He goes into each type by explaining what they are and providing metrics for success.
• How to Succeed on YouTube (Search Engine Marketing Group): If you’ve been looking for some good ideas for how to achieve viral success on YouTube, read what Sheena Melwani says from experience.
• 5 Important Web Video Lessons for Small Business Owners (Mashable/OPEN Forum): How are you going to make your video stick? Josh Catone highlights 5 videos and explains the lessons learned.
• How Video Promotion Launched a Rap Career: A Complete Guide (Shoemoney): This article might be specific to a rapper’s evolving career, but there are general video promotion ideas in here as well.
• 34 Ways to Use YouTube for Business (WebWorkerDaily): These tips are broken down into expertise, advertising, and customer service.

SEO: Strategy

• The SEM Toolbox: 79 Tools and Tips Every Search Marketer Should Have (SEO Contrarian): Ari Ozick provides a list of the best tools ever needed to do your job as a search engine marketer. Categories include backup tools, backlink discovery tools, link management tools, competitive research tools, keyword tools, domain tools, and a whole lot more.
• SEO Hierarchy of Needs (Bruce Clay Blog): What step are you on when it comes to your SEO needs? What must you do next? This article by Virginia Nussey features a graphic that mimics Maslow’s hierarchy with an SEO spin.
• Search Engine Ranking Factors (SEOmoz): Every year, SEOmoz comes out with a list of search engine ranking factors, which is incredibly valuable if you do anything remotely related to SEO or search engine marketing. Of course, it’s not perfect since the algorithm is kept under wraps, but this information has been guesstimated by trial and error.
• Big List of Search Engine Ranking Factors (Huomah): David Harry revisits the discussion of the factors that he believes affects search engine rankings. And since he just came out with the recent training course SEO Dojo, which has been an incredible success, it’s a good idea to read this and listen.
• What Aspects of SEO Should You Be Spending Most of Your Time On? (SEO Book): Peter Da Vanzo gives a good beginner’s guide for how to get into SEO for your new website.
• Google is the Other Woman: The Relationship Algorithm (Foot in Mouth): This article uses an interesting parallel to judge how Google judges your site for algorithmic preference, but I actually would contend that all search engines typically follow the same rules of thumb. I love the analogies!
• Future-Proof Your SEO (Huomah): Here’s an article which will actually likely be outdated in a few years, but I thought it was still good enough for the purposes of understanding the search landscape today with regards to what works and what doesn’t in search engine optimization.
• The 100+ Ranking Variables Google Uses, and Why You Shouldn’t Care (SEO Book): In January, Aaron Wall predicted that search marketing success will come from engaging people. This is absolutely starting to take hold, especially as people actually talk about their favorite websites and search engines respond in kind. Twitter integration in search results, anyone?
• Big Project, Small Budget: Where to Begin Your SEO Campaign (Search Engine Guide): If you are trying to SEO your site, you may want to start thinking about the areas you should put more emphasis on–perhaps because your budget constraints may limit you to only one of these areas.
• 12 Easy Mistakes that Plague Newcomers to the SEO Field (SEOmoz): Even though this is a basic article on SEO, sometimes even seasoned professionals lose sight of this stuff. You can count on the “reciprocal linking” (read: link exchanges) to be a big mishap in “established SEO firms” from the amount of emails I get with that request daily across all my blogs. UGH
• SEO for Large eCommerce Sites (AudetteMedia): Adam Audette is the SEO for Zappos. That means he knows a fair bit about optimizing billion-dollar business websites. He explores the techniques he uses for his big client in this article.
• Creating a Sweet High Value Keyword List in 5 Minutes (SEO Book): Aaron Wall shows you how to create a high-value keyword research list in 5 minutes, then features a video on how to actually see what you just did.
• 5 Free SEO Tools You’re Probably Not Using Yet (Search Engine Marketing Group): Here’s my question. Have you even heard of these yet?
• How to Optimize for Conversion in Organic Search Results (Search Engine Land): SEO should be ROI-centric. If that’s not on your agenda, read this article and start thinking along the lines of driving real conversions.
• 7 Rules for Writing URLs (Small Business SEM): If you do anything related to search engine marketing, understanding the URL structure and how to actually optimize it is important. Matt McGee offers tips on how to do this.
• How Using Google AdWords Can Be the Best SEO Tool in Your Arsenal (RedFly Marketing): Dave Davis presents some pretty invaluable information on the potential for Google AdWords to be an incredible asset for search engine optimization. Yes, you read that right.
• How to Up Your SEO Income by a Factor of 10 (SEO Book): Ari Ozick’s guest post for SEO Book is a darn good one – you won’t know until you test. It’s really that simple.
• SEO Best Practices: New Policies Based on Updated Correlation Data (SEOmoz): It’s time to start reevaluating your SEO tactics. SEOmoz has looked at what works and reported on their findings.
• 5 SEO Essentials: Charting Effective Search Engine Optimization (Online Marketing Blog): Dana Larson’s approach toward effective SEO is great. Most people forget about that in such a social media centric world.
• 6 Key Tactics for Organic Success (Search Engine Guide): Jen Laycock provides six great tactics for organic success: keywords, content, code, optimization, links, and patience. Yes, patience is a big one!

SEO: Information

• Small Business SEO: Costs, Expectations, Realities (Small Business SEM): This isn’t a “SEO how to” article. We always see enough of those. What this is is a good article by Matt McGee on what you should expect when you actually buy SEO consulting.
• 5 Tips for Avoiding Deceptive SEO Companies (Small Business Trends): Since we’re talking about SEO, we might as well tell you what to look for so that you do NOT do business with some of these companies. Look for reputable companies if you ever need to focus on search engine optimization. Your rankings depend on it.
• Setting Up an SEO Shop Overnight! (High Rankings): Jill Whalen rants about the “SEO shops” that give SEO the snake oil bad name. There actually are good SEOs out there.
• 8 Short Steps to Forecast and Estimate SEO ROI (SEO ROI): Want ROI for your SEO efforts? Gab Goldenberg offers 8 steps on how exactly that can be achieved.
• You Don’t Need SEO to Rank in Google (Sugarrae): Rae explains that SEO by itself simply isn’t the key to high rankings. Good content and marketing is really the key; SEO is just a secondary requirement.

Link Building

• Get Your Link Building Requests Answered (Dream Systems Media): Matt Siltala writes an incredibly valuable article that answers how to get people to link to you once they’ve already established rapport with your competitors. He also brings in four experts who weigh in on the question.
• Why Link Building May Not Work (Best SEO Blog): Sometimes your link building practices won’t work. Michael Martinez explains why beginning about 1/3 of the way down in this article.
• How to Get Backlinks (Internet Marketing Techniques and Theories): Leo calls this post “very long.” I think I agree with him.
• Secrets of How to Escape the Link Building Trap Now (SEO Theory): If you don’t want to build links, you might pursue these other opportunities to build links that don’t violate any guidelines. There’s also a service review in here for a link building program run by a pretty well known guy in the SEO space.
• Buy Text Link Ads with these 101 Sneaky Tips (Search Engine Journal): Gab Goldenberg tries to stay under the radar when buying text links with 101 ideas that hopefully won’t get you caught.
• Indispensable Link Building Applications (Wiep.net): Wiep Knol has a toolbox filled to the brim of great link building applications. If you do any link building at all, make sure to familiarize yourself with these applications.
• Link Building Techniques, Interactive Agency Approach (Zeta Interactive): I get about 4-5 link building requests across multiple web properties a day. When reading this article, I realize that for 99.9% of these requests, none of these techniques (personalized requests, transparency, knowing the target website, etc.) are employed at all. Is that really so difficult? I guess it is when you outsource link building to interns.
• A Big Bunch of Link Building Ideas (Search Engine Land): Debra Mastaler is a link building genius and when she talks, I always listen. In this article, she explores the consequences of actually linking out to other websites and what you can do to build other types of links.
• Link Building from A to Z (SEOmoz): Wiep Knol is one of the foremost link building experts and has covered an entire alphabet of ways to get new links.
• 10 Goals for Link Building Campaigns: Moving Beyond “Get More Links” (Search Engine Land): Garrett French writes a great in-depth guide on how you can build links, suggesting countless tactics and link prospect sources.
• Link Building Evaluation Journal (Search Engine Journal): Building links to a website? How could you enhance your link portfolio? Dave Snyder suggests different ideas for different metrics of the link, be them the age of a domain, the anchor text, or the relevant authority of the link page.
• 10 Link Building and Tracking Tools for SEO (Online Marketing Blog): Got links? Start testing them. This Top Rank Marketing blog post explores ten possible tools from which to do this.
• 11 Effective, Efficient Ways to Use Limited Time to Build Links (Search Engine Land): If you’re tasked with building links but yet do not know how to manage your time, you might want to read this and follow Debra Mastaler’s suggestions.
• Link Mixology: The 12 Kinds of Links Your Site Needs (Michelle MacPhearson): Michelle MacPhearson writes a good point on what kinds of links you should be getting if you intend to market your website.
• 21 Link Builders Share Advanced Link Building Queries (Search Engine Land): Not all link building tips and tricks have to be Link Building 101. Here are 21 great advanced tactics that can help you get a little more out of link building.

PPC

• PPC Advertising Pitfalls: Don’t Just Do What Simon Says (Search Cowboys): Lisa Myers talks about the common pitfalls when engaging in a Google AdWords PPC campaign and explains that most people fall into these because Google AdWords is so easy to set up that many business owners waste money every day.
• The Golden Rules of Keyword Research (SEOptimise): Choosing keywords for PPC should not be too difficult, as long as your keywords are relevant, specific, local, smart, sneaky, and flexible. Explanations within.
• Top 5 Mistakes Made by PPC Newcomers (Latitude Group): Maybe you’ve decided to go into PPC marketing. If you do, don’t make these mistakes in Google AdWords.
• When Pay Per Click is NOT Right for You (Search Engine Journal): PPC? What’s that all about? Brian Carter explains why PPC is an asset and why it might be detrimental for you. If you have no idea what this is and might consider trying it, read this article first.
• How to Write PPC Ad Copy (Search Engine People): If you’ve ever done Google AdWords or any other PPC, you know that the best copy is important to drive clickthroughs. Just HOW to optimize those messages is the subject of this article.
• 6 Habits of Highly Effective PPC Managers (NVI Solutions): If you do any Pay Per Click, you should possess these six traits at the minimum, which include the desire to test and tweak, leveraging your web analytics, and staying informed of policy updates.
• Writing Your Best PPC Ads (Search Cowboys): If you’ve ever done Pay Per Click marketing, you might want to follow some of the tips Kate Morris offers on this post.
• SEM Training Strategy: Overcoming Common Mistakes (SEO Book): Aaron Wall explains how to maximize your PPC and SEO campaigns.
• How to Prevent Competitors from Seeing Your AdWords Ads (Jennifer Slegg): If you are really the competitive type and don’t want your competitors to see your Google AdWords ads, take Jen’s advice and lock ‘em out!
• 9 Tips to Write Effective Google AdWords Copy (Search Engine Journal): Saad Kamal knows his Google AdWords. Do you?
• 7 Incredibly Valuable but Underused Free Tools for PPC Marketers (Search Engine Land): Brad Geddes talks about some of the most useful tools to help boost your Pay Per Click campaigns.

Affiliate Marketing

• Cut the Fat: Some Quick Tips to Instantly Gain Profit (Jonathan Volk): Jonathan Volk’s gives affiliate marketing tips based on his own trial and error.
• Are You Ready for an Affiliate Program? (NVI Solutions): I usually talk about affiliate marketing on the hows of setting it up. But what if you’re a merchant who is considering it? Then read this and see if you’re ready.
• The Most Powerful Way to Presell Any Product or Service (Dosh Dosh): Dosh Dosh discusses the way to lure potential buyers into buying your product like all affiliate marketers should really be doing.
• PPC Affiliate Marketing 101 (Jonathan Volk): In case you were new to the affiliate game, here’s what you can do to get started with affiliate marketing using Pay Per Click.
• Interview with Rae Hoffman AKA Sugarrae (SEO Book): Rae Hoffman talks to Aaron Wall about her success as an affiliate marketer. This interview is pretty damn good.

Analytics

• 6 Tools Every Google Analytics User Should Have (Unofficial Google Analytics Blog): I’ve never heard of any of these Google Analytics tools before!
• Google Analytics Mega Post: 23 Google Analytics Tips and Tweaks (Search Engine People): Google Analytics out of the box is a powerful package. You can tweak output even further, though. To get started, read this article.
• The Complete Google Analytics Power User Guide (VKI Studios): This is the most in-depth Google Analytics user guide that I’ve ever seen.
• Using Analytics to Measure SEO Success (Search Engine Land): Jill Whalen explains that rankings aren’t good success metrics. Instead, focus on your analytics. Here’s how.
• Google Analytics for Local Search (seOverflow):  This is how you can use Google Analytics for some great local optimization.  This article is choc full of great detail, and while it’s local-focused, there’s good actionable insight for anyone using Google Analytics in some way.

Usability

• Is Your Website Easy to Buy From? Tips You Can Test to Improve Your Site’s Checkout Process (Conversion Room): Want to make sales on your website? You better hope it’s usable. Here are some areas you can test to find out if your site is good for the average buyer.
• Are You Guilty of Crimes Against Usability? Let the Jury Decide (Search Engine Guide): In this usability blog post, Stoney deGeyter equates your customers with the jury. Business owners should study those juries to find out what judgments they are passing on your site.
• Why Usability and SEO Go Hand in Hand (Search Engine Land): Search engines like usable websites, just like people do. It’s in your best interest to appreciate the value of this.

Landing Pages

• 9 Effective Tips for a Better Landing Page (Search Engine Journal): Saad Kamal offers good tips for great landing pages.
• 30+ Principles to a Better Landing Page Design (Landing Page Optimization): You’ve read about the types of landing pages, but how do you actually design one? You can follow the tactics tried by people who already have found success.
• Landing Page Types (Lyris HQ): This article presents a concise list of landing page types, from PPC landing pages to transactional landing pages.
• 7 Tips to Increasing Landing Page Conversions (Search Engine Journal): Lauren Vaccarello explains how to craft the content on your landing page to actually see conversions. One great tip: avoid marketing speak and use simple English instead.

Local/Mobile Search

• Mobile Search Guide (cellphones.org): Now more and more people are using their cell phones and searching on their favorite search engine. My phone is old as heck but even I do it. But if you’re a website creator, have you optimized for mobile search? If not, perhaps you should, since your visitors might end up going elsewhere.
• Local Search Ranking Factors (David Mihm): Just like there are SEO ranking factors, there are also local search ranking factors.  David Mihm gives you an exhaustive list of them for your perusal.
• A Closer Look at the Local Search Data Providers (getListed.org): Any local business presence will want to make sure its information is accurate online.  Take a look at the providers listed to figure out where your information needs to be updated.
• Blocking and Tackling: 10 Fundamentals of Local SEO (Search Engine Land): David Mihm, our resident local expert, provides a basic list of what you should do as a local business to get ranked in search engines.

Personal Branding

• How to Start or Start Over Building Your Personal Brand (Skelliewag): Skellie talks about why a brand is important and how you can do it.
• How to Build Your Personal Brand on YouTube (Mashable): Dan Schawbel is a personal branding expert and shows you how to build a strong YouTube brand. Really, this is a pretty good general YouTube how-to article, but he ties it into the personal branding element, which works for me.
• SEO Tips for Building Your Personal Brand (Search Engine Land): I don’t really consider these “SEO” tips, as they’re more social media centric. But they’re great for building your brand, that’s for sure.
• 7 Ways to Land Great Consulting Work While in Between Jobs (Personal Branding Blog): How to build your brand when finding a job, according to Monica O’Brien!
• What a Personal Brand is NOT (Tom Peters): It is NOT a perk, among other things. You have the privilege of a personal brand. What are you going to make of it?
• 50 Ways to Make Limoncello When You’ve Been Laid Off (Conversation Agent): Valeria Maltoni highlights an incredibly inspirational video and gives you some great ideas to build your brand when you’ve been laid off — and I’ll add when you’re not. You should always be building your personal brand.

Building a Brand/Brand Evangelism

• Checklist: Develop a Successful Advocacy Program (Web Strategist): Jeremiah covers some of the other aspects of a brand ambassador program, detailing the nuances and the like.
• 19 Presence Management Chores You Could Do Every Day (Chris Brogan): Chris Brogan shows how you can be involved in the conversations around you — tangibly.
• What Do You Love? (Cranial Soup): This article is about marketing coming from the perspective of the consumer. Consumers have a duty to market their favorite products or risk losing them from store shelves. Marketers should do this for their favorite products for free. I would. (Call it brand evangelism if you will.)
• How to Create Advocates for Your Business (Logic+Emotion): Brand evangelism. Customer Advocacy. It’s all the same. Now how do you actually get there?

Public Relations

• The State of PR, Marketing, and Communications: You are the Future (Brian Solis): This is the longest “blog post” in the history of the world but it is one of the most brilliant things I have read in all of 2009.
• PR Gone Bad: How to Anger Bloggers and Hose Your Client (Jonathan Fields): This story by Jonathan was so good that I even wrote a story about it which was published to Brian Solis’s blog as well.
• Shift Your PR from Push to Pull (The Future Buzz): Why should you move to a pull PR strategy? Adam Singer gives you the lowdown.
• 3 Steps for Effectively Using Social Media for PR (Online Marketing Blog): Social is everywhere, and you can use it in your public relations efforts. In fact, you really should.
• 25 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a PR Firm (Idea Grove): These questions test competency, prioritization, cost-efficiency, and compatibility.
• How to Use Social Media in Your PR Pitch (Mashable): Interaction is key, according to Susan Payton.
• The Art of the Pitch (Jonathan Volk): Want to pitch a busy blogger? Follow these steps. This is a short read with good insights.
• How to Woo a Blogger (and get coverage) (Outspoken Media): This is an excellent guidebook into what you should to in order to get a blogger to talk about you.  If the proposed content fits the blogger’s audience and you follow these rules, you very well may see more mentions of your clients’ products/services in blog posts.
• How to Write Effective Press Releases in the Age of Twitter (OPEN Forum): It’s not really just the “age of Twitter” – it’s the “age of social.” That said, where’s your multimedia? Is it in your pitch?
• A Poor Man’s Guide to Finding Influencers (The Buzz Bin): If you’re not going to buy a Cision subscription to find the bloggers and people interested in talking about you, try this guide to get you to locating who to reach out to.

Community Management/Engagement

• 5 Myths of Community Management (Altitude Branding): This is a great post on what a community manager REALLY does. Newsflash: it’s not only about walking the halls of social media sites.
• Community Manager Responsibilities and Goals (Connie Bensen): Connie writes a great post about community management (revised from July 2008).
• Social Media Community Manager Job Description (aimClear): Here’s an “official description” for a social media community manager.
• Community Engagement (The Buzz Bin): Geoff Livingston talks about engagement as discussed in his book, Now is Gone, and how it has evolved in the last 1.5 years.
• How to Kick Start a Community: An Ongoing List (Web Strategist): Jeremiah suggests some great ways to build a real online community in your little neck of the woods.
• 10 Rules for Increasing Community Engagement (Mashable): A big point that Leah Betancourt makes here is the emphasis on user generated content (UGC). Other important points are identifying and nurturing power users and welcoming newbies.

General Online Marketing

• Definitive Guide to Word of Mouth Marketing (Samir Balwani): Samir Balwani writes an awesome guide on word of mouth marketing, broken down and categorized into sections (why it’s important, elements of WOMM, web influence, what elements facilitate sharing, campaign tracking, and more!)
• How to Send a Personal Email (Seth Godin): Seth Godin writes about email etiquette. My favorite? #14 (especially due to all the LinkedIn spammers who have been targeting me as of late).
• 6 Powerful Principles of Persuasion for Influential Internet Marketing (Winning the Web): In a post emphasizing the parallels of the book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini, Gyutae Park applies these principles to Internet Marketing and explains why you need to apply them in any online marketing campaign.
• 6 Buzzworthy Laws All Internet Marketers Should Understand (The Future Buzz): Do you know what the long tail means? Probably. How about Metcalfe’s Law or The Streisand Effect?
• 11 Ways to Influence People Online and Make Them Take Action (Dosh Dosh): If you’re marketing to individuals online, you should target your messaging to the three brains of the human body. Don’t understand what I just said? Read the article.
• 6 Fool-Proof Steps to Make More Money With Your Website (Dosh Dosh): Dosh Dosh wrote another great article on how to monetize your most popular web pages. This is great for anyone, from the affiliate marketer to the SEO to the small online shop.
• “Don’t Put Your Eggs in One Basket” is Bad Advice for Internet Marketers (Winning the Web): While I argue that you must not spread yourself too thin, I actually am going to take Gyutae’s advice on this one.
• 3 Reasons Why it Pays to Go Niche (Literally) (Winning the Web): Gyutae Park explains that some markets are saturated. You’ll be more successful if you focus on niche markets instead. (Good luck starting a brand new social media blog tomorrow!)
• 11 Internet Marketing Skills that Should be Second Nature (Conversation Marketing): Are you well versed in internet marketing? Being knowledgeable in social media doesn’t cut it. You should also know these 11 tips as suggested by Ian Lurie.
• Social Impacts Every Customer Touchpoint (Web Strategist): This article touches upon the different elements of online advertising (and then some) and highlights market maturity and brand impact.
• Internet Marketing Isn’t a Buffet: Why You Need Quality Traffic Over Quantity (Winning the Web): Quality is more important than quantity, and Gyutae explains why this is the case.
• 10 Things You Can Do in the Next 60 Days to Market Your Business and Close More Sales (Small Business Trends): This article was talking about how to end 2009, but since you’re probably reading it for the first time now, how about using these to begin 2010?

Everything Else Under the Sun

• Being Socially Aware: Because a Smile and Fast Talk Don’t Work on the Internet (ob81): For a successful marketing effort, the bottom line, according to Howard O’Berry, is that you need to be socially aware of your surroundings and know who to pitch to. He even refers to a case study that impacted him to drive this point home.
• 12 Steps to Upgrade Your Business (Small Business Trends): Here are some great ideas to upgrade your business, from being more approachable to learning a new web technology to NETWORKING! woo!
• Rage Against the Sales Letter (Jonathan Fields): The long sales letter is a tactic that you may not really appreciate, but some marketers swear by it. Read why Jonathan Fields considers long copy a must-have.
• Business Ethics & Mistakes You Should Avoid! (Tony Adam): Tony Adam explores some business ethics moves that you should avoid. Some include reporting your competitors, burning bridges, and more.
• Your Customers’ Hierarchy of Need (Ignite Social Media): Ignite Social Media writes a great post on how customers relate to brands using Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
• How to Identify and Deal with Different Types of Clients (Smashing Magazine): If you’ve ever had a nitpicker or family friend as a client, what are you to do when issues arise? Smashing Magazine has your answer.
• 9 Reasons Your Online Business Will Fail (Shoemoney): Discipline and focus are two of the nine reasons.

Badges

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Closing Notes

The year 2009 was incredibly huge for me. I gave birth to my first child, a little boy, who is my pride and joy. I published a social media marketing book. I’ve made great relationships, big and small, and I’ve worked on some fantastic projects that I could have only dreamed of just a few years ago.

In the past decade, I’ve graduated college, married the love of my life, switched careers to find my passion, and now I live through it every day. Every morning, I wake up excited to see what the day will bring. I’m aiming higher for the next 10 years — let’s see if I can top this. I’m truly excited to see what next year will bring.

May you all have a happy, successful, and wonderful 2010.

[ Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2009 is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

Today is my birthday, and I decided to give you all a gift that few of you have been highly anticipating for a few months now. My most popular post on this site — probably by far — was last year’s Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2007 compilation. I spent about 3 days (and nights) on it (without sleep) and I was quite happy with the turnout. This year, I began starting to write this compilation in the first week of December. The collection begins with posts that start in January of 2008 and have been collected and shared in the last 12 months. Like last year, I’ve grouped them into different categories and written short descriptions on each post. There’s no order to the posts; I’ve used my bookmarks and a variety of social sites and peer recommendations to create this list. I hope this year’s list surpasses last year’s. Let me know how I did in the comments.

Here’s how this works: In the Internet Marketing Best Posts “series,” I take posts that are typically timeless — they’re not confined to a specific event or news occurrence — they’re valuable for the long haul in terms of Internet Marketing and creative strategy. Hopefully, you’ll see that these posts are still relevant in a few years down the road.

These posts range from beginner to advanced with a greater emphasis on the more intermediate posts. I’d argue that if you’re starting your Internet Marketing business with not much know-how, you should check out the 2007 posts; in fact, most may still find them relevant regardless of the skill level.

New for 2008: If your article is highlighted in this comprehensive post, we have badges for you! Feel free to link to this post with the top right hand image, which was contributed by David Mihm who specializes in Portland Web Design. Every post is a winner!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

• The SEO Success Pyramid: Matt McGee talks about the process of making great websites. He illustrates this in a graphical pyramid. You can even download it but you have to go to his post to get it.
• Online SEO Tools: The Ultimate Collection: At Search Engine Journal, Ann Smarty has compiled a list of the most valuable tools to perform SEO analysis.
• WordPress SEO: Definitive Guide to High Rankings for Your Blog is written by WordPress optimization expert and coder Joost de Valk and gives you some great tips on how to use WordPress in a search engine friendly fashion.
• How Much Money is a Top Google Ranking Worth to Your Business: Aaron Wall discusses the cost of that #1 link backing up the data with some hard research.
• SEO Mastermind Aaron Wall Brings Bad News: In an interview with Entrepreneur magazine, Aaron Wall talks about all things SEO.
• The Web Developers SEO Cheat Sheet: Danny Dover of SEOmoz shares the “mother of all technical SEO cheat sheets.” Nuff said.
• The SEO Guide to Information Architecture: How do you design a website for efficient crawling by search engines? If you don’t have a clue, Adam Audette is here to help.
• What is the Definition of SEO?: Jeremy Schoemaker asked a number of online marketing experts about their definitions of search engine optimization.
• How to be an SEO Service Provider: So you want to provide search engine optimization services? Here’s what you should do so that you can get the best return for your efforts.
• Don’t Sour Your Link Juice by Forgetting Basic SEO: Loren Baker explains that you could have lots of links — and that’s still not enough if you don’t follow basic search engine optimization techniques.
• 4 Reasons Many Big Brands Downplay SEO: Why aren’t all Fortune 500 companies engaging in SEO? Laura Callow tells you why.
• How to Get New Web Sites to Rank Quickly: Aaron Wall discusses some strategies to get high rankings with a brand new site — and we know those are sites that often need to take time to build trust.
• Keyword Density SEO Myths: Hobo SEO asked a bunch of established SEO experts about their opinions on keyword density.
• How You Can Get Your Google Rankings Back: Ever get a search engine ranking penalty? Aviva Directory did and they tell you what you need to do about it and how to address it.
• Content is NOT Always King and SEO is not always bad: Wil Reynolds explains that search engines can’t choose the best content and those pages with great content may not rank so high.
• Ranking as the Original Source for Content You Syndicate: According to Vanessa Fox, you can get the ranking control over that article that some lame blog just ripped off. As for me, I threaten DMCA takedown notices. It usually works.
• The Beginner’s Checklist for Learning SEO: SEOmoz’s Danny talks again about how newbies can get their SEO learn on.
• SEO Guide for Designers: This is especially useful if you code in Flash or like your graphics.
• The Most Powerful SEO Tactic: Simplify, Simplify, Simplify: Eric Enge simplifies (no pun intended) the essentials of SEO.
• Tools of the SEO Trade: There are a lot of tools out there that make search engine optimization simpler.
• Google Double or Indented Listings: Andy Beard shows you how to get an indented listing on Google.

Social Media: Generic Strategy:

• 50 Ways to Use Social Media: Jeremiah Owyang shows how you can apply social media to some standard social computing objectives.
• What is the ROI for Social Media?: Jason Falls explores the commonly-discussed (but not easily answered) question about social media.
• Scared of Social Media? You May Already be Pro!: Jill Whalen has been active on forums and online communities for 10 years now. But “social media marketing expert?” She didn’t think she was one.
• Top 10 Reasons Why SEOs Fail on Social Media: This is a practical guide for search engine optimizers and their shortcomings with new media.
• The Limitations of Social Media: Social media may seem to be awesome, but sometimes it just doesn’t work.
• The ABCs of Social Media: For every letter of the alphabet, you have a way to relate a word to social media.
• Social Media Marketing: How to Win Friends and Influence People: Sound like a famous book you’ve read? It is. But you can apply these tactics to social media relationships too.
• A Sample Social Media Toolkit: Chris Brogan talks about some of the ways you can tap into the social media field.
• 50 Steps to Establishing a Consistent Social Media Practice: Great tips all in one single post.? What could be better?
• Social Media Will Change Your Business: This is an update to an old article from BusinessWeek on how blogs have changed your business. Not anymore — it’s about social media (which typically encompasses blogs too).
• How Does a Company Dip its Toes in the Conversation?: If you’re new to social media, how do you engage as a company? Let Valeria Maltoni tell you — she’s that good.
• 7 Videos About Social Media You Need to Watch: Samir Balwani has gathered the best videos on social media so that you can further expand your knowledge.
• What I Want a Social Media Expert to Know: If you are Chris Brogan, you might have specific demands of your social media expert.
• Will the Real Social Media Expert Please Stand Up?: On the other hand, if you are Brian Solis, you need to know what to do as an expert and where to listen to the ongoing conversations.
• Intel Social Media Guidelines: Last month, it was discovered that Intel had pushed its social media guidelines out in the open. You can learn a thing or two from it.
• Starting a Social Media Strategy: Perhaps you’d call this a beginner’s piece — perhaps not — Chris Brogan touches upon considerations for implementing social media strategy.
• Big Brand Social Media Interview: Lee Odden interviews Wells Fargo, Home Depot, UPS, and Graco to get a feel of how they are engaging in the social media playground.
• Best Social Media Advice from this Site: Uh, I’m sorry, I just gave you a lot more reading material from Chris Brogan. Please read it after you’re done with this post. That’s all I ask.
• Towards a More Social Organization: Chris Heuer says that we’re becoming more social, so start realizing the importance of this trend and evolve accordingly.
• How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business: Aaron Uhrmacher explains the factors you must consider to see if your social media campaign has had an impact.
• Social Media ROI: Janet Fouts explains other ways to calculate your ROI on social media.
• A List of Social Media Marketing Examples: Peter Kim has an exhaustive list of companies engaging in social media. Is your company on the list?
• Social Media and Business Marketing Links: Related to Peter Kim’s list above, we see other business uses of social media.
• Biggest Mistakes Made by Social Media Gurus: You can still screw up in social media, but you don’t have to. Some people have lived and learned; read the Mashable post to avoid the same mistakes.
• Online Communities and Their Impact on Business: The key to success is engagement, but Michael Mace says that there are some concepts you need to understand first.
• A Social Media Guide: Steve Spalding writes nearly 8000 words on what he’s learned on social media over the past few years. It’s also available in PDF format.
• How to Measure Success in Your Social Media Marketing: So is ROI for social media really hard to calculate? Here are even more ways to measure ROI on your campaigns.
• Social Media Marketing Guide: Barry Welford at Cre8tive Flow talks about political success in social media marketing and explains how to be good at it for business success.
• How to Change the World Using Social Media: Can you really change the world? “Yes — when you turns to we,” Brian Clark says.
• Involve, Create, Discuss, Promote, Measure: Valeria Maltoni gives you 5 key ideas that you must understand fully for social media success.
• How to Champion Social Media at Work: Own social media at your workplace with some solid tactics presented by Jason Falls.

Social Media: Strategy for Social Sites:

• Building a Popular Social Media Profile: Seven Essential Characteristics: If you plan on being active in the social media space (where voting is a big part of promotion), you have to make sure you’re doing the right things.
• Top 10 Reasons Why Great Content Fails on Social Media: In case you’re still emphasizing submissions on social sites, here’s why your content … uh, appears to suck.
• 7 Social Media Websites and their Impact on SEO explores Mixx, Sphinn, Twitter, Digg, delicious, StumbleUpon, and Reddit and shows the positive and negative impact of using each.
• How NOT to Manipulate Social News: A Sphinn Experience: For those not familiar with social news, gaming is clearly something you can spot if you know what to look for.
• How to Commit Social Media Suicide: Some people don’t get social media.
• The 2008 Social Media Network Analysis Report: Brian Chappell reveals geographic, demographic, and traffic data for a whole lot of social media sites.
• 10 of the Best Alternative Social Media Sites because not everything social media is Digg, Mixx, and Reddit.
• 6 Social Media “No-Brainers” You Shouldn’t Forget: Social media tips and tricks that aren’t always on the mind.
• How to Promote Yourself on Social Sites Without Actually “Promoting Yourself”: David Wallace presents a practical way of becoming a social media rockstar.
• The ‘El Farol’ Problem in Social News: Muhammad Saleem explains that the community is happy when social news submissions occur in moderation. Not excess. I suppose most things do very well in moderation.
• SEO Explained for Small Business Owners: If you work in a small business and the articles above scared you, then read this one instead.
• The 10 Commandments of the Social Web: Building a social network? At the minimum, you need to follow some rules, according to Nick O’Neill.
• Social Media Marketing ROI: Metrics and Analysis: If you promote content on social networks, you should have some metrics in place to see how effective your campaign was. Here’s a guide to start with.
• Are You a Super Influencer?: Given social sites, there are new influencers in town. Make way.
• How to Get Started in Social Media: There are so many sites out there, so Shana Albert explains how she got involved and the sites you can use for both business and personal purposes.
• How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media: Beth Kanter interviews a nonprofit employee to see how he has found success with social media for awareness.
• Free Online Resources for Finding Missing Persons Through Social Media: This is a bit different but still very important as I’ve read about some amazing stories about how people use social sites to reunite old families.? The bottom line is that social sites are great for marketing a lost person and hoping that they can be found again.

Twitter:

• Twitter Wrote his Column For Me: Clearly, this post itself demonstrates the power of Twitter and the collective.
• 7 Tips for New Twitter Users: Shel Israel talks about how you (as a new Twitter user) should use the service for maximum gain.
• 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers, and Business Owners: People are raving about Twitter, but are they using it to its fullest?
• How to Get Customer Service via Twitter: Which companies are listening, and should you join the conversation? If you’re new to the area, you can check out how to start following what pople are saying.
• How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business: This recent post on Copyblogger quotes how many businesses has found success with the microblogging service.
• How to Use Twitter to Build Brand Integrity: These are some solid tips for Twitter users to follow in order to add value to the conversation.
• Why Twitter Matters: BusinessWeek cites examples of why the microblogging website is a must-use for everyone.
• 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business: Chris Brogan covers a lot of ground with this piece.
• The Evolution of Brands on Twitter: Jeremiah Owyang explains how you can evolve your brand using Twitter.
• Getting Intimate (with Customers) on Twitter: Some companies really get it. And they profit. Are you one of them?
• Twitter Goes Mainstream: More and more people are using it. Are you?
• How to Build Community on Twitter: If you want more followers, take some solid advice from Sarah Evans.
• How to Pick Up Followers on Twitter: Guy Kawasaki adds to the list of how you can get more followers on Twitter.
• Building an Effective Business Profile on Twitter: Michael Gray’s guest post on Twitip is golden.? He suggests personalization, professionalism, and humor, among other tips and tricks.
• Twitter Tools for Community and Communications Professionals: Brian Solis is constantly updating this post which includes great tools to make your Twitter experience a much more pleasurable one.
• How to Become a Twitter Rockstar: Now that you’re armed with tools and have the Twitter basics down pat, how do you use Twitter to your advantage?? David Brown explains it all.

Sphinn:

• Beginner’s Guide to Sphinn: Surely there are some of you out there who have never used Sphinn before, but if you are remotely interested in this post, you can imagine that half of the posts I put here were also submitted to Sphinn.? That said, join up and read this Problogger post for some rules of engagement.
• Top 10 Signs You’re Spamming Sphinn gives you more insights into how to use social news sites properly.
• Crappy MP3 Sites, Comment Spamming & Enough Already: Danny Sullivan rants about how there are “search marketers” trying to manipulate Sphinn (and other social news sites). He explores examples and shows how hard it is to be a moderator of a site like this. Hey, I hear you.
• An Analysis of Sphinn: 175 Homepage Homeruns Dissected: This post shows you what people are loving on Sphinn.? It also somewhat correlates to the categories on this post since some topics just happen to be a lot more popular than others.

LinkedIn:

• Why LinkedIn is the One Social Network I Couldn’t Work Without: Jennifer Laycock explains why she hearts LinkedIn.
• Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You: Having a LinkedIn profile is one thing. Having a solid LinkedIn profile is a different story.
• Business Uses for LinkedIn: LinkedIn is very powerful, but how do you use it? Valeria Maltoni explains that it’s about community, connections, and more.
• How to Get the Most out of LinkedIn: Mashable’s guest writer Brian Wallace explains how LinkedIn can be used as a valuable tool.
• Elements of a Good LinkedIn Recommendation: If you’re recommending someone on LinkedIn, strive for quality, not quantity.
• 100+ Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn: Just in case the articles above didn’t suffice, this one has many more in-depth articles on making LinkedIn work for you.
• How to Use LinkedIn Jake Swearingen of BNET says that you need to create a good profile, build your network, get the most from your connections, and then manage your network.
• Successful Networking Tips for LinkedIn and Facebook: Loren Baker shows that LinkedIn and Facebook aren’t so different and building your network is key.

Digg:

• How to Level the Playing Field with Digg: While I personally don’t like Digg anymore and find that it’s useless for marketers, Skellie think it’s still valuable. (I’d argue “rarely” nowadays.)
• How I Became a Digg Power User with a 75% Popular Ratio: I got banned in October from Digg with a 67% popular ratio and 278 front page stories and offered very similar tips in 2007, but some people still want to use Digg for this kind of thing.? Personally, I think Digg will ban you when you get popular.? The guy who wrote this blog post speaks from the same kind of experience.

Wikipedia:

• Using Wikipedia to Reveal Web Traffic Data: Jonathan Hochman writes a piece on how, when using Wikipedia, you can find out about how much traffic a top search ranking will send.
• How to Overthrow a Wikipedia Result: This is a good tactic but you should use it in moderation!? Don’t get caught!
• Wikipedia 101 for Marketing: The awesome Todd Defren explains how you can use Wikipedia to market your business.? But as many of you who have attended SEO conferences know, don’t do it from your company IP address or face the banhammer.
• 3 Awesome Wikipedia Tools and How they Could be Useful: I’ve never really known of any real good Wikipedia tools except for WikiScanner until this post (and this post doesn’t even talk about that IP scanner program).? ? So there you have it — 4 tools for your Wikipedia enjoyment.
• What to do When Your Company Wikipedia Page Goes Bad: The problem with editing your own company page when you work for the company is that there are moderation issues and biases.? So what can you do once someone adds bad content to that page?? Jessica Bowman tells you how to make the nasties “fade into the background.”

StumbleUpon:

• The Idiot’s Guide to StumbleUpon: Tim Nash, an active StumbleUpon expert, has offered some strategies on using the social discovery tool.
• How to Write Posts that Set StumbleUpon on Fire: Skellie utilizes real-life experience with the social discovery site to show you how you can get a whoosh of good traffic.
• 28 Tips to Make You a StumbleUpon Superstar: I personally love StumbleUpon — a lot. And you should too when you apply these tactics.

Fark:

• Definitive Guide to Fark and Getting Mass Traffic: One of the lesser tapped social media sites among search marketers is Fark. But not for Glen Allsopp, who reviews it here.

Facebook:

• Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Facebook: Guy Kawasaki is right — you probably don’t know some of these things (like #7)!
• Facebook Insider’s Guide to Viral Marketing: This article on docstoc has good tips if you’re looking to market on Facebook.
• 5 Reasons Why Whole Foods Gets Facebook: Businesses can make a difference on Facebook. Whole Foods did.
• Facebook Ads 101: How to Set Up and Track Facebook Ads: While people like free Facebook advertising, there are wonderfully targeted ads that may even be more effective.? Now you can understand how to leverage them.
• 5 Tips for Promoting Your Business Page on Facebook: If you created a business page on Facebook and actually want people to know about it, you might want to make sure it’s one that people actually are interested in joining.
• Facebook for Those Over 40: How do you explain Facebook to a group of folks who find this technology a little daunting?? We’re so involved in social media today that we may lose sight of the beginner explanation.
• 3 New Ways to Target Your Audience with Facebook Pages: Did you know that you are able to restrict access to Facebook pages by demographic information?? I didn’t.? But doing this can ensure that you get the right kinds of users.
• The 25 Most Popular Pages on Facebook: There’s nothing truly eye-opening about this discovery, but you can learn a thing or two about the power of marketing that has made some of these individuals so popular.
• Facebook Pages and Local Search Engine Optimization: Andrew Shotland offers a little-known tip on how you can possibly find prospects via Facebook through search.
• Facebook vs. LinkedIn: Which is Better for Business? In a 7-page article, ComputerWorld assesses the pros and cons of both.

delicious:

• 6 Ways to Make Life Easier with delicious: How many of you actually use delicious as a search engine? Maybe you should.
• How to Analyze Your Site with Delicious: Ann Smarty dissects the various parts of delicious.com and shows you how you can learn more about your website.

Flickr:

• How to Market on Flickr: While Flickr itself isn’t seen as a community that you would market to, you can find out how to become a respected community member AND market your services as well.
• An Insider’s Guide to Marketing on Flickr: Rohit Bhargava gives some very detailed tips on how you can use Flickr to successfully market products.

FriendFeed:

• FriendFeed Can Disrupt Search and Reshape Advertising: Steve Rubel offers his initial impressions of FriendFeed.
• 25 Different Uses for FriendFeed: FriendFeed power users Michael Fruchter and Louis Gray team up (well, Mike posted the guest post on Louis’s blog) to share some tips on how you can get the most out of this service.? As an FYI, I LOVE FriendFeed (and as another FYI, I said the same about Twitter in 2007 and everyone joined up in 2008.? Just sayin’).? By the way, Louis has a ton of great posts on FriendFeed on his blog and this isn’t the only one.

Blogging:

• The Most Important Difference Between Websites and Blogs: Tad switched his website over to a blog. He reflects on why this was a smart move.
• 10 Ways to Improve Blog Traffic in 30 Minutes or Less gives you some lesser-known (or implemented) strategies to bring you (possibly) more blog visitors.
• You’re Not Just a Writer, You’re the Editor-in-Chief: Dosh Dosh explains that your approach toward blogging needs to be more than just of a freelance nature.
• What Suggestions Would You Offer a Beginning Blogger?: You need to “learn to” do a few things as a blogger. Bill Slawski explains what they are.
• Practical Guide to Starting a Corporate Blog: Jason Falls discusses the steps you need to take before you actually launch that much-needed corporate blog.
• How to Start a Professional Blog: 10 Tips for New Bloggers: Andrew Chen gives some detailed insights on how your new blog can take off.
• 10 Commandments of Business Blogging: If you want to be taken seriously as a business blogger, there are some rules you need to follow.
• Does Blogging Really Work? Here’s the Proof: Mack Collier uses the examples of Dell Hell and Stormhoek to show that blogging is a powerful marketing tool for both the positive and the negative.
• 27 Secrets to Linking Like a Master Networker: This post shows how you can network via blogging.
• 45 Ways to Power Up Your Blog: Here are small things you can implement to make your blog a little more appealing to your audience and search engines.
• How Much Do Top Tier Bloggers and Social Media Consultants Get Paid? We Asked Them!: Marshall Kirkpatrick, you didn’t ask me!
• How to Blog Design Style Guide goes into detail about blog design, from the header to the content area to the comments.
• 3 Phases of Flagship Blog Growth or How to Fall in Love with Blogging: Tad explains that perseverance is important to keep your blog going strong.
• How to Get Piles of Links, Subscribers, and Comments: Skellie explains the ways you can use your blog for awareness and then some.
• The Ultimate Guide to a Wildly Sticky Successful and Outstanding Blog: Liz Strauss takes a bunch of great blogging guides and puts them all together for this tool for serious bloggers.
• 27 Resources fr Evaluating Blogging ROI: Is blogging working for you? You can check against the experts to find out.
• A Sample Blogging Workflow: From the goals of blogging to the tools you should use, Chris nails it.
• 21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Website Sticky: Yes, this is from Darren Rowse at Problogger. Yes, it’s about blogs. It’s also about websites. Read it whether or not you have a blog as it has some great tips on keeping your visitors hooked.
• Ariana Huffington Shares 4 Secrets of Creating a Successful Blog: Learn from someone who knows. HuffPo is a very popular blog.
• Case Study: The Launch of a New Blog: A serious blogger from Traffikd shows how his third blog fared after it launched.
• Why Start a Blog and 25 Tips to Make it Work: A very in-depth article on why you should create a blog and engage in blogging.
• The Sweeney Todd Guide to Blogging Sonia Simone equates characteristics of Sweeney Todd to blogging, marketing, and communication.? An example: Sweeney Todd improvised to get multiple streams of income; bloggers can strategize to get different sources for readers.
• Is Your Blog Going for the Gold? This article discusses the pros and cons of blogging for businesses.? One of the main cons, of course, is the fact that you may be starting a blog with no brand recognition whatsoever.? That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, though.

Viral Marketing:

• The Top 10 Viral Marketing Campaigns of All Time: Patrick Altoft reviews the most popular YouTube videos and explains why they rock.
• Hard (but Important) Lessons About Viral Marketing: Having realistic expectations is important so that you don’t fail at your viral marketing campaign.
• The Viral Marketing Glossary: Dan Zarrella gives definitions for a bunch of terms related to viral marketing.
• What is Viral Marketing?: Seth Godin’s post from the last day of 2008 is the reason why I held publication of this post till 2009.? He explains viral marketing and then shows a case study of how it works.

Link Building:

• Link Building: A Complete Walkthrough: Many of you may be reading this and have no idea about link building at all. That’s where Saad Kamal’s in-depth introductory guide comes in.
• The Fundamentals of Link Building: Adam Audette also gives you some in-depth but beginner information into the art of link building.
• 11 Experts on Link Development Speak Out: Rae Hoffman has gathered some great authorities in the area of link building and asked them several questions about sources, strategy, and more.
• Link Building Secrets Revealed by Top Linking Experts: In this article, twelve link experts talk about lesser known strategies. The report is also available in PDF format.
• The 30 Easiest Was to Get Links and Exposure suggests some strategies to get more links to your website.
• Link Building Strategies: 69 Solid Tactics for 2009 tells you even more ways to get links to your site.
• 30 Ways to Get Links Naturally and Stop Link Building: On the other hand, if link building is too time consuming, you may want to think of other strategies.
• A Linkbuilding Method So Effective I Can’t Believe It’s Not Blackhat: The basic premise is that you should find pages/sites that used to offer a service and no longer do. The fill that void.
• Where Do You Start Your Link Marketing Campaign?: Wiep Knol discusses some strategies on where you can think of gaining some new links.
• 6 Sure-Fire Tactics to Re-Ignite Your Linkbait: You wrote something awesome. It sucked on your targeted social media site. Now what?
• How Getting a Link is Like Picking Up a Woman: Link building is not much different than flirting. Really.
• There’s No Such Thing as a Worthless Link: …because they all end up pointing to your site, right? But Deb Mastaler shows that there’s more.
• Get In Touch With Your Inner Link Self: Finding out where your customers go and targeting those areas is a golden way to get links.
• The Definitive List of Link Building Techniques in 2008: Jeff Quipp gathered every single link building tip he could find.
• Link Exchanges: It’s Not the Size of the PR, but How You Use it: Not everyone likes link exchanges (raises hand), but then again, I’m a blogger who gets 384824 link exchange emails a week.? However, there are legitimate non-blog websites that get a lot.? The question: how do you research sites for link exchanges?? David Leonhardt offers solid strategies on how to choose sites for link building and link exchanges.
• The Ultimate Guide to Internal Linking and Part 2: In two posts, Pete Wailes uses some PageRank formula to guide you through an internal linking strategy and then brings quantum theory into it.? Yes, really.

Reputation Management:

• Dealing with “Impossible” Online Reputation Challenges: Brett Borders goes through the various problems relating to reputation management and lets you know if they’re solvable — or not.
• Five Steps for Recovering from an Online Reputation Crisis: Two different events, two different responses. You need to handle your reputation issue appropriately.
• 12 Reputations Every Company Should Monitor Online: When you are a public facing company, reputation management issues can come at you at all different sides. Make sure you have your bases covered.
• How to Remove Negative Posts and Links: From asking to suing, you have a way to [usually] remove those bad search results.
• How to Bury Negative Online Mentions of You: Search Engine Watch covers some intermediate-level strategies on how to deal with a reputation management crisis.
• The M&Ms of Online Reputation Management: We’re not talking candy here.? Actually, we’re talking M&M&M&M: monitor, manage, measure, and mediate.
• Digital Reputation Management with SEO, Social Media, and PR: Taking a proactive approach toward ORM (online reputation management) is important.? This post touches upon the surface and unfortunately Lee Odden discussed the rest in person at a conference.
• Reputation Management: Because You’re Worth It: In a lighthearted post, a female working for a search engine marketing agency explains how reputation management is like a beauty emergency.
• Treat Me Mean, I Need the Reputation Tom Critchlow shows you what negative reputation looks like.
• Online Reputation Management: What Goes Around May Be Total Crap: Kim Krause Berg talks about the ethics of reputation management and then some.
• Pre-emptive Reputation Management Comes of Age: Don’t fret about reputation managment.? Tackle it before it becomes a problem with preemptive reputation management.? ? The ideas Jeff Quipp presents in his article are really clever.
• Reputation Crisis Management: 8 SEO Triage Tips: Marty Weintraub says that reputation management isn’t much different than SEO.
• Reputation Management Tips from Around the Web: Many search marketing experts weigh in on one very important reputation management tip.
• Online Reputation Management for the Small Business Owner Providing high quality service will avoid the reputation management issues you could encounter.? If you get a negative review but provide great service thereafter, the newer positive reviews will mitigate the negative review.
• Ten Tactics that Could Save Your Online Reputation: Perhaps you’re not in an online reputation crisis yet.? Maybe you’ll never have to be if you read these tactics.
• Your Seven-Step Online Reputation Crisis Plan: If you already have a problem on your hands, now you need to create a strategy.? In seven steps, you can successfully avoid the crisis.? ? Here’s how.
• Reputation Management and Defending Your Brand: This is a good beginner article for smaller businesses and gives some solid tips on how your local business can be more visible in a positive way.
• Online Reputation Management is Hot — But is it Ethical? Some companies discuss their failures due to a reputation management issue.? Others talk about how they are helping address the issue.
• Online Reputation Management for Individuals: We’ve talked about business reputation management, but you can still lose your job using social media channels and lose out on good opportunities.? Don’t forget that your personal brand is still something you may want to protect.

Analytics:

• 8 Awesome Google Analytics Hacks, Tips, and Tricks offers tips on how to get more out of Google Analytics rather than what comes out of the box. Note: Some programming may be required!
• The Huge Collection of Google Analytics Tips: In case the previous link wasn’t enough for you, get tracking of your outgoing links, links to banner ads, downloads, and more.
• How to Use Bounce Rate as a Metric to Improve Your Website Performance: A lot of people ignore bounce rate. Maybe you shouldn’t.
• 8 Stupid Things Webmasters Do to Mess Up Their Analytics: Google Analytics isn’t that accurate after all. Find out if you’re being impacted.
• How to Analyze and Improve the Bounce Rate for Your Website: Dosh Dosh gives insights into the hated bounce rate and then suggests strategies on how to reduce that percentage.
• Context is King Baby! Go Get Your Own: Avinash Kaushik argues that the single most important missing ingredient in understanding your analytics is the context you can place around the analytics data you’re provided with.
• Using Stats and Goal Tracking for Your Blog: Want analytics for your blog?? Michael Gray gives some tips on how you can get some.? And yes, you should.

Personal Branding:

• Resumes are for Sh!t: The 4 Things You Really Need: Want to build your personal brand? Dave McClure says you need LinkedIn, a blog, keywords, and social media.
• How to Get Noticed: Jeremiah Owyang offers tactics for becoming noticed in this space.
• Seth Godin: Profile of a Marketing Guru: How’d Seth Godin score his own action figure? Read this.
• Gary Vaynerchuk’s Keynote at Web 2.0 Expo NY: Sure, while this is a video (!) and I still emphasize articles in my yearly post, I actually attended this 15 minute keynote, and it’s a real morale booster. Watch it. It’s worth it.
• Why You Need to Care More About Your Personal Brand: Mitch Joel explains why personal branding is important.
• We Are in a Recession, so Build Your Brand on the Internet Now: It’s a perfect time to build your Internet presence.? This Internet Marketing firm did it for their clients by establishing its presence on multiple channels.? Find out which ones they used (and feel free to just use this as a starting point — there are more channels to leverage!).
• Personal Branding: What a Difference a Year Makes: Dan Perry was nobody in 2007.? (No offense, Dan!)? But in 2008, he became somebody according to Google.? What were his takeaways?

Local Search:

• Local Search Ranking Factors collects advice from 20 experts in the area of local search marekting on a variety of ranking factors.
• Local SEOs Share Geolocation Tips from Around the World: The Distilled guys who are in the UK ask several SEOs around the world about how to optimize for search engines.
• The Mother of All SMX Local/Mobile Recaps: David Mihm attended a conference and shared the top takeaways. The post provides very valuable information even though it’s a conference summary!
• Local vs. Traditional SEO: Why Citation is the New Link This is a very detailed post explaining some new discoveries about local SEO.? Links aren’t that important in local SEO, and David explains why.
• Website Optimization for Telephone Leads: Surely there are companies out there that get a lot of leads via phone.? If your phone number is prominently displayed on your website, you will likely get a lot of good leads. (I’d add that it’d be a smart idea to get a number specific for web-only inquiries to ensure that the lead came from there.)
• Free Local Marketing Options that Bring Real Traffic: Mat Siltala takes a look at easy local search tweaks you can use that will bring some valuable traffic.? The sites he mentions are high-trafficked ones, and if you cover your bases, you can benefit from a gift that keeps on giving.
• How to Create Effecitve Local Business Landing Pages Are you missing any of these essential elements from your landing pages?

Content Development:

• The Secret to Compelling Content: Anna Bourland describes how you should organize your website and create a hook that drives your visitors to perform a desired action.
• How to Have a Constant Flow of Content Ideas: Sometimes, getting that idea in your mind is the hardest obstacle. Here’s some help.
• Writing Killer Headlines: Top 20 Viagra SPAM Email Subject Lines: I feel like my email subscribers just got this email blocked due to this actual post, but it’s a REALLY good read, so I had to include it.
• Link Bait Ideas: Lyndon Antcliff gives some strategy into creating the ultimate piece of content.
• 12 Tips on Creating Content for Social Media: Let’s face it, people are talking social media nowadays. It’s time to create content that works.
• The 5-Step POWER Copywriting Method: Want to be persuasive and rock? Follow some guidelines.
• 5 Great Marketing Lists and What You Can Learn from Each One: Make a list. Profit. Rohit Bhargava explains the benefits of 5 popular lists.
• How to Maximize Current Events for Social Media: The 10e20 blog shows what you can do with current events to create compelling content.
• How to Write an Article in 20 Minutes: Let me put it this way: this article did NOT take 20 minutes to write.
• Writing Content that Works for a Living: The key takeaways of this article are to make it simple and do it right.

Web Development:

• 50 Questions to Evaluate the Quality of Your Website: Explore questions of accessibility, navigation, design, content, security, and more with this checklist.
• The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period: Stoney deGeyter breaks down the intricacies of web design into easy-to-digest categories with this exhaustive but awesome checklist.
• I Can Make Your Site Run 10 Times Faster: Site not running fast enough? Search engine spiders and visitors may not appreciate it. Mike Peters tells you what you can do to get that needed boost.
• 101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Website is a great checklist on usability, writing, and design, and refers to 101 more articles just in case this list of posts wasn’t enough.
• A Design is Finished When: Twenty-three designers offer their insights on when your website design is complete and you can take it the next level.
• Let’s Talk Landing Pages: Rebecca Kelley at SEOmoz shares some really great tips on how to make the most out of your landing pages.
• Website Checklist: Getting to the Close: Peter da Vanzo outlines the steps for beginner web designers to get visitors to perform a desired action.

Affiliate Marketing:

• Five Effective Copywriting Tactics for Affiliate Marketing: Want to sell your affiliate offers? At the minimum, make sure you follow these tactics.
• Jonathan Volk Interview: If you don’t know Jonathan Volk, meet this kid through this interview, because he’s in his early 20s and is making 6 figures a month.
• Three Killer Content Strategies for Building Affiliate Marketing Assets: Brian Clark gives even more affiliate marketing tips.
• Only Wanting the “Thrill of the Chase”: Why do most affiliate marketers fail?? Because they have an initial rush of motivation but then get annoyed at the hard work required, according to affiliate marketing mastermind Rae Hoffman.
• Managing Risk: Legal Issues for Merchants and Affiliate Marketers Affiliate marketing is not a risk-free endeavor, so be sure you are aware of all the risks before you take the plunge.
• The Diary of a PPC Newbie and Why You Should Expand: As you’ll see, this article isn’t really about Pay-Per-Click.? ? It’s how you can use PPC and affiliate marketing to make some money.? Don’t you want to do that by now?
• 81 Useful Affiliate Marketing Resources: If you’re ready to start with affiliate marketing, here are some tools that can make your life easier.
• Making Money Online with Local Affiliate Programs: This great post by Jeremy Schoemaker was suggested by @ronhekier and gives some great advice on how you can make ends meet especially if you just got laid off during the recession.

Domains and Domaining:

• How to Pick a Kickass Domain Name: Lisa Barone gives solid tips on choosing the domain name that’s perfect for your company.
• On Domain Names, Size and Quality DO Matter: Daniel Scocco looks at the top 250 domains on Alexa and shows how the most popular sites actually all have very powerful domain names.
• How to Find Available Domain Names: With the Google AdWords tool and a bulk whois checker, you may be able to get some great SEO-friendly domain names.
• 2018: A Domaining Odyssey: Experts weigh in on the future of domaining in this article.
• How to (Really) Make Money with Domain Names: Finding a good domain name is half the battle.? Once you’re done with that, there are some good strategies you can use to make money with them.? One key is defensible traffic.

AdWords/PPC:

• Eight Keyword Research Mistakes that are Costing You Money: You may be spending lots on Google AdWords, but are you spending smartly? Christine Churchill gives you some points to review.
• Marketing Lessons Learned from Pay-Per-Click Analytics shows what you can learn about general marketing from reviewing your PPC analytics.
• Landing Page Optimization: 5 Elements that can Impact Conversion Rates: While this could fit in this blog post’s “web development” category, it is a better match for giving you the biggest bang for your buck if you engage in pay-per-click marketing.
• How I Optimize My PPC Campaigns: Harrison Gevirtz, a teenage genius and CEO of a company, teaches us tactics that made him successful in a guest post on Shoemoney.com.
• PPC Spend Should be More than SEO: John W. Ellis explains the correlation between Pay-Per-Click and Search Engine Optimization but still contends that your PPC budget should exceed your SEO budget.
• 7 Ways to Save Money During a PPC Campaign: Saad Kamal offers practical tips on how to reduce your Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing ad spend.

Internet Marketing:

• The Internet Marketing List: 59 Things You Should Be Doing But Probably Aren’t: Ian Lurie presents what you may want to put into a checklist — things you should be doing on your website and that you may have ignored.
• How I Turned My Mediocre Website into a Million Dollar Business: Erica Douglass speaks from experience. The bottom line: customers deserve great value.
• Colorize Your Brand: How Color Builds Your Brand: Ann Smarty presents “color in business” theory and shows its application to Internet technology.
• Firefox 3 Shows How a Good Landing Page Can Convert Seven Million Visitors a Day: Test, retest, and enjoy the benefits.
• The Digital Rules of Engagement: If you’re going to engage, make sure you know what you’re doing. This AdWeek article ties in well with social media, but it has some other important concepts that caused me to put it in the Internet Marketing category instead.
• The Internet Marketing Handbook: SEOmoz has compiled a huge list of almost 100 tools and resources. Sweet!
• 14 Must-Have Resources to Launch a Small Business: How many people have you spoken to who say they want to start a business but don’t know how?? Maybe you should point them to this checklist.? (It’ll help if they know exactly what kind of business they’re looking to start, though!)
• The “Poochie” Effect: While I love social media, one-way advertising is still practiced by many companies. In this post, you’ll consider the questions that you need to have answered before you engage on an advertising campaign.

General Marketing:

• Top Experts Dish with their Best Kept Marketing Secrets: Some of the most brilliant experts provide their one best marketing secret.
• 38 Things I Wish I Knew When I started in Marketing offers some advice that I kind of still don’t apply myself.
• Tell Us Your Most Outrageously Creative Money-Saving or Business Growth Tip: Anita Campbell delivers again by gathering expert quotes and offering some brilliant insights into what they’ve done to take their businesses to the next level.
• What Do You Know?: Seth Godin’s list that is 3 years old (and counting) never grows old. Yes, this is a reprint from 2008 with some newer tips.
• The Essentials of Guerrilla Marketing: Jay Conrad Levinson shares concepts that will make your business rock.
• 8 Strategies for Successful Realtions with Clients: Since social media is within the scope of Internet Marketing and is a lot about customer service, client relations should follow. If you have good relationships from the outset, you may avoid those reputation management crises and more.
• How to Deliver the Perfect Client Pitch: Client acquisition is all the rage, but are you actually getting new clients?? If not, perhaps you need to adjust your pitch.
• Why Clients Won’t Buy: The Hierarchy of Choice: You could be an awesome salesperson but your customers still won’t necessarily buy from you. Find out why.

Best of Techipedia 2008
I typically don’t put posts from my blog in the “Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008″ list, but this year, since I’ve grown a considerable number of subscribers, I’ve decided to give new users the opportunity to read the two best posts without feeling that they need to dig through the archives.? Of course, if you don’t mind reading the other posts I’ve written, by all means, go ahead.? There’s some good stuff there that I’m not highlighting here (including two on FriendFeed, which is a great content discovery and community building tool which simply doesn’t get much love).

• The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette (or Netiquette) Handbook: My most popular post of December 2008 was about social media etiquette and goes through a variety of social sites to suggest what should and shouldn’t be done.? The comment discussion is great as well.
• What Traits Define a Social Media Marketer?: Experts on social media marketing weigh in on the essential characteristics of the ideal social media marketing guru.

Thanks again to the Portland Web Design company for their awesome badges (and to Jill for the idea).? Also, thanks for all your contributions to this series.? Stay tuned for next year’s!

Badges: If you would like to use any alternative badges on your site, please choose one of the below and copy the corresponding text on your website:

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Happy 2009!

[ Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008 is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

With many individuals finding great success with social media (and as an aside, a basic understanding of search engine optimization), they immediately consider themselves social media marketers and consultants (as well as seasoned SEOs) and offer to sell their promotional services. What skills, though, do successful social media marketers have that put these individuals above the average (or addicted) social media user, and better yet, above the traditional marketer? I asked several social media consultants, bloggers, marketers, search engine optimizers, and social media addicts about what they considered to be essential skills and characteristics of the most efficient and results-driven social media consultants. In the many paragraphs that follow, learn from many of the experts and hear what they consider success when using social media to engage with consumers about products and services.

Maki, Internet Marketing and Social Media Blogger: The main characteristic [social media marketers] need to have is a genuine curiosity/interest in social media, particularly on how it influences human relationships and business practices. This is not just standard required job skills but rather a deep interest that pervades one’s day to day life. One needs to constantly be informed of the latest technologies while striving always to learn and improve one’s knowledge levels. In order to do well when marketing, one should have tactical knowledge and ideally, first-hand experience of the specific social media platform. This will help a great deal in planning and managing successful marketing campaigns.

Reem Abeidoh, Social Media Strategist: A social media marketer provides strategic online recommendations based on the client’s business goals and intensive research. A marketer also reaches out to the target audience through various methods of social networking, and constantly monitors the buzz surrounding the client’s products and services. They should be passionate, strategic, creative, personable, intelligent, aggressive, diligent, determined, adaptable, motivated and have a sense of humor. To succeed, they need to do the following well:

• Data analysis
• Provides holistic strategies to clients
• Training, presenting, and research
• Relationship-building and networking
• Outreach to online users and bloggers

A social media marketer’s job never ends. They usually work 70 hour weeks and need to be extremely flexible. There are days when marketers may have to serve as internal evangelist by introducing key stakeholders to social media. There are other times when marketers may have to launch a multi-platform outreach campaign. It just depends on the needs of the client.

Additionally, a social media marketer needs to be a contributor and participant online to better understand the space and provide solid recommendations to their clients.

Valeria Maltoni, Online Marketer: Although social media as a set of tools has radically transformed marketing, I do not think it appropriate to use the term “social media marketer.” People do not want to hear from companies as represented by marketers, they want to hear from other people.

The scope of marketing needs to be broadened in view of the new dynamics that have employees, customers and prospects engaged in conversations – horizontally, peer to peer, in some cases even in co-opetition situations.

These scenarios come to fruition in spontaneous communities, on social networks, and other self-service tools – all thanks to the availability of low cost technology and access to the world wide web.

To participate in the conversation, marketers will need to be able to have and provide greater access to decision makers – speed of response is crucial. Other important skills will be the ability to hold or facilitate a conversation where listening and learning take the majority of the attention.

We are now right were we should be, attracting customers, building relationships and trust as we help them connect with each other.

Rebecca Kelley, Search Marketing and Social Media Consultant: A social media marketer needs to be an active participant in the social media sphere. Because social media is so interactive, it can constantly shift and change; therefore, a savvy marketer needs to be extremely familiar with the community and know how each social media website audience is different from the next. Also, one story on the Digg home page does not an expert make. A knowledgeable social media marketer has experienced repeated success on various social media websites and knows what sort of content succeeds and fails, and effective ways to write, submit, and promote various pieces.

Jason Falls, Director of Social Media: A social media marketer is simply someone who uses social media tools to connect products or services with customers or audiences. There’s no real reason to define it any more than the simple semantics of it all. That said, such a broad determination means you can be a social media marketer and not know it. You can also not use the tools correctly or not behave appropriately within communities around the tools and market poorly.

So, in order to be a good social media marketer, in my opinion, you should understand the tools you’re using and the communities to which you are marketing, be they ones that surround the tool itself (Twitter users) or subject matters within a certain tool (FriendFeed room about, say, cell phones.). Some communities are very open to marketers being there and contributing to the conversation. Others aren’t. As long as you earn your keep, contribute meaningfully to the community and gain the level of trust they need to allow you to seed your own messages or pitch your own products or services, and you don’t violate their trust, you’re marketing via social media successfully.

No, it’s still not a clear picture. People are different, communities are different and marketers/brands are different. As a result, the acceptance or success of a social media marketer will vary in different communities, using different tools and for different brands. But those basic rules will apply everywhere social media and marketing collide.

Geoff Livingston, author of Now is Gone and CEO of a Media Relations Firm: I think social media marketing really requires networking skills first, because you are building relationships, not overtly promoting. It’s a unique blend of networking skills (relationships). traditional PR skills (building goodwill), marketing skills (giving customers what they want), and customer service (delivering resolutions to issues). So ultimately, the best social media marketers understand all of these disciplines. It requires a convergence, making the jack of all trades suddenly and incredibly valuable.

MG Siegler, Technology and Digital Writer: I think a person who is a social media marketer is someone who is an expert at all of the various way of getting data on the various social sites out there. By that I mean not only the social voting sites like Digg, Reddit, etc, but also on the social networks (Facebook, MySpace, etc), social communication tools (Twitter, Pownce, Seesmic, etc..), social conversation tools (FriendFeed, and maybe you could even lump in Disqus and the like with it).

That person would ideally knows all the ins and outs of these systems and their various differences. For example, what plays well on Digg versus what plays well on Propeller.

A lot is made about being able to “game” these systems, but more I think a social media marketer should just know how to work with what is in front of them. Knowing the right people to send something to on StumbleUpon or keeping a conversation going on FriendFeed for example. Other example may be creating a fan page on Facebook or creating a company account on Twitter that tracks instances of the company name via a service like Summize.

I also think it’s extremely important for such a person to stay up to date on the most current trends within the social sphere. Things evolve so rapidly and sometimes new opportunities open up quickly that can be utilized.

Allen Stern, Founder of a Blog on Social Media: A social media marketer is someone who possesses first marketing education and/or experience. Second, a social media marketer is someone who markets products and/or services through the usage of social media tools.

Daniel Scocco, Blogger: In my opinion a social media marketer is someone that leverages social media to promote a website, product or company.

As for the characteristics that they need to possess, I think that the most important one is to be a social media user in the first place, and to like the concept.

Social media can be seen as a tool for a marketer, but not a static one like an advertisement. The term itself describes something that is made out of people, so the marketer needs to understand the dynamics behind it.

Michael Gray, Internet Marketer: Being a good social media marketer requires a combination of a few different skills. The first is understanding what are the things that appeal to a certain community. Stories that do well on Digg or Reddit, may not do as well on Kirtsy or Boudica, because the members of each community have different likes, dislikes and interests. A marketer has have an understanding of the community and help craft campaigns, articles, stories, videos and or pictures that appeal to each community.

Another skill is understanding what makes a story viral, or what are the qualities that make it sticky or interesting. Many companies just see this as a new avenue to push existing traditional marketing messages, and this is why they almost always fail. For example an article with “10 Reasons You Should Buy Travel Insurance” is almost never going to go viral, it’s not surprising, shocking, interesting or in any way sticky. But something like “10 People Who Wished They Bought Travel Insurance” showing pictures of prop planes that collided on the runway, or a video of someones suitcase dumping out and the contents strewn down the highway, has a much better chance.

Lastly is understanding that you have to be a member of the community first. if you see the community as a virtual ATM where you can come and get links without ever contributing, eventually your account will run dry. if the only stories you ever submit or vote on are for clients or friends, you are not going to do as well over the long term. The people who do well are the one who contribute lots of good stories that the community values, with a sprinkling in of other stories.

Laura Fitton, Presentations Consultant and @pistachio: A social media marketer is someone who is fundamentally oriented towards LISTENING first, and only then offering contributions that move the conversation forward. The result of their work is that it helps the business grow by genuinely and authentically helping customers. It’s not about any of the tools.

Advertising and marketing currently emphasize selling and helping others sell. That’s shifting to a future where profit comes from helping people buy.

Social media marketers have to listen and respond genuinely, most of all. Characteristics: unselfish, interested in people, open-minded, un-controlling and creative.

Chris Brogan, Social Media Strategist and Blogger: I think the term “social media marketer” might just be a temporary thing, because it’s like saying “email marketer.” I believe the people who use social media tools as a part of their marketing strategy should understand the following:

• relationships over shotguns. — marketing in online communities is a slower, more matching-based approach, where you think hard about whether the person you’re connecting with is the idea recipient of the information you have to share. It takes more time, but sticks much better.
• party hats not bullhorns. – social software and the communities it empowers are for contributing, not pushing. Share something at the party; don’t just barge in to give your messages.
• it’s not always about you. – sometimes, other people’s products are better. In this world we’re developing, we say that outright. We don’t obfuscate or dance around. We just say it when we think someone’s done it better.

People using these tools have to “be human” well, and by that, I mean realizing that all life isn’t based on marketing directives. Instead, it’s about contributing, bringing something to the picnic, and doing what Radian6 Marcel LeBrun calls “listening at the point of need.” That means, knowing when to promote your idea, product, or service.

Darren Rowse, VP of Blogger Training and Co-Author of Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income: What makes a person an effective social media marketer? Here’s a few quick thoughts:

1. Playfulness – there are so many tools out there that it can be overwhelming. An ability to be able to ‘play’ with them and work out how they are best used is important. Also not taking yourself too seriously is important.
2. Focus – social media is full of all kinds of wonderful distractions. Knowing what you want to achieve and being focussed enough to stay on that path is important.
3. Curiosity – most social media marketers that I know are constantly asking ‘what if….’ type questions. Curious people are driven to push into new group and solve problems in new ways.
4. Perseverance – building a social media presence doesn’t happen over night. It takes regular participation over a sustained period to build a network.
5. People Persons – being genuinely interested in people, what they think, how you can help them, what makes them tick…. all of this helps you become more effective in your communication and networking

Chris Garrett, Blogger, Internet Marketer, and Co-Author of Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income: I think there are three types of social media users: marketers, browsers and active users. Browsers obviously mostly lurk. The difference between the other two is agenda. A marketer has a goal, even if it is just self promotion, while the rest are just taking part out of social or entertainment reasons.

A good social media marketer has to be able to write, particularly headlines and descriptions, and will have a better chance of success if they are a student of psychology. The best like people, are fascinated by them, and enjoy socializing. You also have to be able to take knocks on the chin as social media can provide harsh criticism.

It’s a lot like SEO, people focus on algorithms, tricks and tactics but it is really all about people.

Matt McGee, Small Business Expert and Internet Marketer: I think great social media marketers come in all shapes and sizes, but if there’s one trait that seems to show up in spades in the people I know, it’s that they’re engaged with the world and the people around them. They love communicating and reaching out to others. They love ideas and news. They love sharing ideas and news. They have an interest in other people, whether they’re close friends or not. They have an interest in the world around them, and being active in it. Social media success is about being engaged.

Steve Spalding, Blogger and Entrepreneur: Like any traditional marketing field, Social Media marketing is almost exclusively about understanding the “territory.” You don’t hire a marketer because you think they have some magical ability to make bad products good. You hire a marketer because they understand the people, products and culture surrounding the industry you are trying to enter.

Good Social Media marketers are heavy users of Social Media. They love (or at least respect) the idea that many kinds of content can be distributed most effectively over the Internet, and because they use the platforms so heavily themselves they have the networks and the knowledge that allow them to make those distributions easier.

Almost as important, effective Social Media marketers also act as product designers. They’ve seen hundreds of applications and have used a large fraction of them. More importantly, they know which applications have been successful and have a general intuition as to which design elements sink and which swim in an environment inundated by noise.

To paint my answer in broader strokes, Social Media marketers “get” the web. We understand that the Internet is just like any other country, city, town or industry that has ever existed and that in order to market a product successfully on it you have to understand, respect and know how the deal with the people in it.

Brian Clark, Blogger, Editor, and Entrepreneur: A social media marketer is one who understands how social media works, takes the time to observe what people say and do within the context of social media, and then markets accordingly.

Todd Mintz, Director of Internet Marketing (and @toddmintz): Social media marketing (as I define it) is the process of delivering a marketing message via the most appropriate social communication channels to a targeted audience. A top-level social media marketer needs to possess the following capabilities:

1. Being able to look at the client situation and perceive the appropriate steps that need to be taken in order to have a successful engagement.
2. Identify who the target audience should be for the message (Note that I’m deliberately starting with the conclusion and working backwards).
3. Decide which social networks / influential persons are the most appropriate conduits for relaying the message to the end users.
4. Creating or overseeing the creation of a marketing message that will not only resonate with the targeted audience in a way advantageous to the client but also resonates with the members of the social networks & key influencers so they will act in such a way that the message gets passed via their collective sphere of influence to the masses.
5. Launching the message out to the networks & people that will spread the word (schmoozing as necessary).
6. Supervising the whole process and when the inevitable hiccups happen, knowing what to do to get everything back on track.

People who can do all this well are Social Media Marketing Rockstars!

Muhammad Saleem, Social Media Maven: A good social media marketer isn’t really a ‘marketer’. He/She is a connector (and is good at social networking), a maven (and is a thought leader and ‘information specialist’ or information resource), and a salesperson that can persuade an eskimo to buy ice. He has to not only be an information resource but be an active participant in the various social web communities that he claims proficiency in.

A good social media marketer is one who can start a conversation that people want to participate in.

Brian Solis, Principal of a New Media Agency and Blogger: Social Media Marketing combines the most effective attributes of PR, Web Marketing, Customer Service, and a working knowledge and genuine enthusiasm of the social networks and tools to listen to, spark, and engage in relevant conversations. In an ideal world, Social Media Marketers will also embrace social sciences to observe and understand the online cultures and social dynamics where they ultimately wish to participate.

Many purport to be social media experts these days, yet most of us are truly students. We overlook some of the most rudimentary elements that define and inspire the socialization of content, especially the social sciences involved with observing the culture, behavior, and conversations within online societies.

We’re excited, and maybe even obsessed, with the tools. We frantically rush from service to service in an exhausting attempt to keep up with our peers, fearing that we may one day relinquish our position as a leading authority on the subject of all things social. We are edglings, and the membership dues are paid in the form of time, attention, vision, and translation as we bring shiny new objects from the edge to the center.

But, are we losing sight of the guiding principles and teachings that foster meaningful and rewarding relationships simply because we’re practically held captive by a never-ending cycle of new and popular social tools? Our thinning attention may be clouding our ability to see the bigger picture.

Suddenly everyone is a social media consultant, yet very few of us are true online sociologists, observers, or genuine conversationalists. The firsthand research and lessons learned in the field are invaluable and definitely tier the experience and expertise of those selling their services. But, just because we’re on Twitter and Seesmic, blogging, or uploading Flip videos to YouTube doesn’t qualify us social media experts.

It’s so much more than the ability to guide companies on how to create fan pages on Facebook, islands on SecondLife, accounts on Pownce or Plurk, and profiles on Bebo or Myspace. Social Media experts must have the ability to determine which networks are relevant to the businesses that they represent, why, and how and when to engage. Most importantly, they must connect participation to brand resonance, customer loyalty and also the ever prominent “bottom line.”

It’s the listening, charting social maps, drafting strategies for meaningful engagement, understanding our relevance in the short and long tail, and the definition of metrics and ROI that count for everything to businesses and respective decision makers these days.

Without a working knowledge of customers, markets, online communities, and the dynamics of their company’s business model, Social Media Marketers will succumb to the brilliance of shiny new social objects and remain hypnotized by their allure and promise.

Jonathan Hochman, Internet Marketer and Wikipedia Administrator: I classify social media marketers by their level of involvement:

1. Listening — Being aware of social media, monitoring your brand, and using that information to make business decisions.
2. Responding — Participating in discussions about your brand on the web in an effort to improve your reputation and increase visibility.
3. Inviting — Building social media applications, such as blogs, wikis, bookmarks, to interact with your audience.

Li Evans, Director of Internet Marketing: A social media marketer understands that utilizing social media is about building relationships through communication and sharing. In order to build relationships with customers, or potential customers for their clients, the social media marketer realizes that those relationships have to be built on trust. By starting out with a solid foundation in social media, marketers realize they can do exciting things with these customers — the potential can really be limitless. With social media, the marketer realizes that the experience of the interaction and engagement with the customers is the ending results — anything else is a by-product.

Debra Mastaler, Link Builder and Search Marketer: What makes a person a social media marketer? The desire to be heard.
What characteristics do they have to possess? The good ones have to be brave, smart and fair to a fault.
What do they have to do well? Good social media marketers need to communicate well, understand not all goals are profit oriented and have the ability to turn casual participants into a legion of loyal followers.

Jonathan Fields, Entrepreneur and Blogger: What makes a social media marketer?

Reality is, everyone who engages in social media on a regular basis is a social media marketer, it’s just a matter of what we’re marketing. Some people are looking to change the world, others to change what people buy and still others just want to make friends. But, in the end, all of us in social media are looking to effect some outcome.

The folks who get “labeled” social media marketers, though, are the ones who tap social media to push a more commercial end-result. So to me, it’s more about the intention behind the action.

Are you choosing your hubs and posts based on a concerted effort to build authority, brand or sell a specific product or service? Are you crafting the language of every sentence toward that same end? That’s commercial social media marketing.

So, while a lot of the actions of a commercial social media marketer and someone pushing friendship or conversation around non-commercial topics may look outwardly similar, it’s the intention and level of focused, deliberate effort that makes the difference.

Wiep Knol, Link Builder and Internet Marketer: In my opinion, the difference between a social media marketer and a “regular” marketer is their point of view. A regular marketer is usually product minded and aims products (or content, or whatever) at target groups, while a social media marketer is consumer minded and matches groups of people with products. Another difference (and characteristic) is that a social media marketer is far closer to the end user. By following, participating, discussing and listening very carefully, a social media marketer is able to adjust both his or her product AND his or her selling technique to the customer.

A social media marketer is like opt-in, where most regular marketers are like opt-out.

I came across a great example earlier today; the form at http://www.conversationmarketing.com/2008/07/how_not_to_design_a_signup_for.htm
was probably designed by a regular marketer.

David Chen, Blogger: A social media marketer thoroughly understands the systems that people use to connect to each other, and knows how to leverage those systems to spread positive messages about a brand.

Michael Dorausch, Chiropractor and Social Media Addict: I’ve been a webmaster for more than 10 years but I wouldn’t consider myself a social media marketer. From the people I’ve met and interacted with, I’ve come to the conclusion that it takes a specific focus if they are to perform well. The best social media marketers that I’ve met have had these traits in common: they network well off-line and online, they offer assistance first and ask for help later, they get great results (for themselves and or their clients). Being able to work well with others, not being pushy, selecting quality content and/or clients to promote, and seeking ways to help others, are all things I’ve seen top social media marketers do well. They are active on nearly all the usual suspects popular social media sites, and they typically bring a lot of value to the community. That’s the one thing I believe separates them from novices and newcomers to social media marketing. It’s like going to an open bar event, the newcomer will ask people to buy them drinks. The advanced marketer will make sure the bartender is tipped well and we’ll see all their friends don’t go thirsty. Doesn’t cost them much to assist others, and they reap many return benefits.

Chris McGill, Founder of Social News Site Mixx.com: To me there are mostly social media enthusiasts: we call them “media hubs.” These are people who are enthusiastic about information and what is going on right now is part of the fabric of their being. They represent somewhere around 15% of the population and they simply have a passion for info and sharing info on the topics and subjects they find interesting/ are passionate. The vast majority of people fall into the “reader” category in that they consume (and vote) on the content that is being put forward by the media hubs. Again, I think being a media hub is just a part of a person’s being.

Adam Metz, Social Media Strategist: [Social media marketing is] a few things:

1. Experience working with diverse groups of brands, generally (business-to-business, business-to-consumer)
2. Experience executing in at least 10 tools (podcast, video, wiki, blog, social network, etc.)
3. Total authenticity with the client, to the point of being willing to terminate an engagement when it’s clear that the client is not ready for social media counsel.
4. A win-win-win attitude (for the client, the social media consultant, and the users of the social web at large)

Kim Krause Berg, Blogger and Usability Consultant: A social media marketer is an outgoing personality who intuitively understands the medium and its potential to network and communicate ideas, as well as persuade value proposition to readers. Link drops in social media sites are not social media marketing. Creating sites on Facebook and MySpace are not either. There has to be a REASON to go there and retain interest.

Basics and theory aside, I find the social media marketers I respond to the most are impeccably polite polite, friendly, care about the people they network with and are responsive in positive ways. They know their audience and stay in touch. I can sense a “user” type and that turns me away.

Shana Albert, Web Designer and Social Media Addict: What is a Social Media Marketer? They are active honest members of Online Communities where they can naturally get the word out about a product or service… causing their message to become viral throughout online communities and bring in viewers/customers/clients to a Website.
Characteristics they must possess: outgoing, extrovert, motivated/motivator, social, easily multi-task, organized, influencer, persistent, creative, friendly
What do thy have to do well? conversation, multi-task, participate, influence, unselfish member of community, creative web content

Jason Kaneshiro, Blogger and Web Developer: A Good Social Media Marketer:

• Should be comfortable and eager to use new technology.
• Should be able to quickly assess a new social website – how it works, how it would be useful, and the characteristics of the community that fits within.
• Should be sensitive to the mores of the community within a social site – what would be considered spamming or rude behavior.
• Should do their best to become part of that social site’s community.
• Should also be comfortable and productive using “old” technology (Email, IM, desktop applications).
• Should be aware of the tools the target audience is communicating with, and able to craft the message to the appropriate medium.
• Should be able to work anywhere, and from any computer, or even just a cellphone.
• Should know how to make their data portable so they aren’t tied to one service for their online identity, and manage that data so it can be retained.

Generally, different social sites foster different communities, where different messages are appropriate or celebrated while others are considered “spam” – and what’s “spam” on one site may not be on another.

Also interesting is the “digital nomad” trend – increasingly mobile computing, from laptops to cell phones and beyond. I would say it’s a must for social media marketers to have all their data and tools online so they can be productive from any computer in any location. Then consider how one could be productive with just a cell phone, and it may even be a worthwhile exercise to write a blog post using pencil and paper.

The last point is a reminder to be aware of data portability – if not the principle of the thing, it’s good to know how to get all our online data “out of the cloud” and backed up. A user of new technology should use it to the fullest, but also consider that a lot of technologies fail and it’s never good to become “locked in” to one company’s products.

Louis Gray, Blogger: A successful social media marketer would be somebody who grasps where his/her audience is and knows where conversations will take place online. They would typically leverage social networking sites and news aggregators, and engaging in such a way that their message or product is communicated.

They would need to display an understanding of how different social media communities interact, and what how each one offers a unique experience, which could be folded into more traditional approaches to public relations, demand generation advertising and brand awareness.

An ideal background for somebody here would include:

• Traditional marketing or public relations experience
• Tie-ins with increasing pipeline and revenue
• Their own active blog with strong writing skills
• The ability to communicate as a public speaker and use PowerPoint-type apps
• Awareness and engagement of leading social communities

Jane Quigley, VP of Social Media and Emerging Technologies: There are a number of different skillsets needed as a social media marketer. Of course, like any job, there are different levels of experience, but I have a pretty set list of criteria that remains constant.

One — Participant
This is the easy one. Where, how, how much (although that’s subjective — people get busy) and how smart they are about it. That’s to say — are they smart about what’s posted on the Facebook profile? Can they identify trends? Are they obsessive about it, or does Social Media seem fun and easy? What blogs are they reading — and what posts have been memorable? Do they go to BarCamps, PodCamps, etc?

I want to see the basics — Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, Flickr, YouTube, a Blog, Twitter (Basic)

Two — Big Picture
How does social media work with other current strategic tactics (SEO, Branding, Advertising). Where does it fit within the entire campaign and especially how does it support the brand?

Three — Relationship Master
Building a client relationship is key — not only in communicating trust and results — but long-term client welfare.

Four — Analyst
Knowing how to analyze a campaign for results. How to set benchmarks, test campaigns, look at trends, analyze results.

Five — Curiosity
Did not kill the cat — it makes each candidate stronger — no matter where you are in a career. Be curious about everything online and offline. Real life has a way of influencing online behavior.

Six — Sharing is Caring
I want to know what excites someone — what people bookmark, what FB apps they like, what videos/pictures they tag. You can tell a lot about a person from what and how they share.

Brent Csutoras, Social Media Consultant: Defining a social media marketer is difficult based on the true definition being the use of social media for a marketing purpose. With “social media” being a vague term that indicates any feature or function that allows other people to participate with any given site, almost everyone is technically engaged in social media and people that use it at even a basic level for some conversion or gain, often refer to themselves as social media marketers.

However, if you were to sell your own car, it does not make you a car salesman. So just because someone happens to use or participate in social media marketing does not make them a social media marketer.

I think being a social media marketer is defined when you are paid, in some fashion, to take an active interest in the way social communities work and start to participate within them strategically. When I was young someone once told me “If you do it for fun, it is a hobby. If you get paid for it, it’s your profession.”

Conclusion

I purposely asked a variety of users of social media, from the media relations and marketing spectrum to the social media enthusiast and blogger spectrum, for this answer. Many agreed that social media is about community-building, passion, and enthusiasm. Creativity, a multi-tasking mindset, and the ability to think outside the box were also heavily agreed upon. Most importantly, those who find the most success in the social media marketing realm are those who are heavily networked and ensure that maintaining ongoing relationships is part of their everyday routine.

Social media marketing encompasses a variety of elements and is synonymous with community (particularly those communities that belong to the new media sphere) sprinkled with other traditional marketing elements, such as dedication, perseverance, and fervor. Successful social media marketers are thought leaders. They must be kept abreast of the latest technologies in addition to buzz surrounding the products and services that they are responsible to market. Above all, though, social media marketers’ contributions to the community should be selfless and should be thought to benefit those who engage within the community.

What is your definition of a successful social media consultant?

(All photos created by Will Lion as discovered by Paul Stamatiou)

[ What Traits Define a Social Media Marketer? is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

Greetings all from SXSW! It’s been an incredibly busy and physically taxing few days (with little hotel internet and no real opportunities to sit down and edit posts), so you’re seeing yesterday’s keynote today (and numerous other posts to be put on this blog in the upcoming days). Here we go with the highly-talked-about keynote presentation at South by Southwest…

Just like an Apple keynote, they tried to build up some serious momentum for this event. In fact, before Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook came out into the open, they dimmed the lights, pumped up the volume, and introduced Mark with some catchy Daft Punk tunes.

This keynote has been heavily discussed, mostly criticizing BusinessWeek editor and interviewer Sarah Lacy’s approach toward the interview. Personally, having sat next to Daniel Terdiman of CNet, I heard (and understand) both perspectives after having liveblogged the entire event. Particularly, for me, Mark Zuckerberg’s responses were lacking of any substance and felt too “corporate.”? Brian Solis has written a very good piece on Sarah after spending hours speaking with her about the backlash.

(Photo credit: Brian Solis)

Here’s the edited version of the interview from a neutral perspective.

Sarah Lacy: Facebook is playing a strong role throughout the world. Tell us about how it has evolved.
Mark Zuckerberg: It’s a great first place to start. A lot of the focus as of late is how we as a company has grown. Facebook helps people connect and communicate more efficiently. For individuals, Facebook helps to build more trusting and empathetic relationships and builds upon their lives. One example of this is that we just launched internationally: Facebook was always available for people to use but only in English. On February 11, we launched in Spanish. (Sarah Lacy interjects: Let’s hear it for Spain!) One of the countries that has benefited from this is Colombia. When we launched in February 11th, a lot of people signed up to use it to revolt against the guerrilla army in Colombia.

Lacy: Let’s talk about that: the original vision and original mission of the site. Did you ever expect them to revolt against the government of Colombia?
Zuckerberg: Well…no. If we can help people communicate efficiently, that will have profound effects. That’s a really important thing as the world becomes an increasingly complex place. As you add all those connections, you can make a profound impact on the world.

Lacy: What is it about Facebook though? The Internet as a whole enables communication, so why Facebook?
Zuckerberg: The internet is a great platform for overall communication, but there need to be specific tools. We’re not the only ones [enabling such communication] but a lot of people are using our tools, especially in places like Colombia. We’re not trying to build new communities; we’re allowing people to communicate with people they already know.

Lacy: You were telling me a story about Facebook and terrorism. Can you talk about how efficient the platform is for this? It’s surreal to think about these stories.
Zuckerberg: A few months ago, I heard this story that’s unbelievable. Facebook has a large population in Lebanon. At this point, people who have studied terrorism enough know it’s not out of a deep hatred of anyone; it comes from a lack of connectedness, a lack of communication, a lack of empathy, and a lack of understanding. There were youths in Lebanon who have spent a lot of time with their local religious leaders because their leaders educate them and provide the youths with free services such as food and shelter. They are also like regular youths: they do things on Friday night like we do in the western world, such as going out for food and meeting girls. Because of Facebook, these people were able to maintain connections with their friends who have gone to Europe and other places, which enabled them to broaden their horizons and increase the options [and choices] that they had. It gave them a broader perspective of what is happening in the world. These people are currently at a crossroads in their lives and are deciding what they want to do with themselves, and Facebook is helping them choose. We’re not the only ones who do this but we’re definitely helping them communicate.

Lacy: Beyond just enabling it, are there things you are doing to proactively do things in the world? As a company?
Zuckerberg: As a mission, it is a very important thing for us: to help people communicate efficiently.

Sarah tells the story about how Mark Zuckerberg was on 60 minutes and how Mark hasn’t been giving great answers. Eventually, she asked, “tell us in two words what you feel about this interview.” Zuckerberg answered, “that’s really hard.” And the response? “Okay, three words.”

Zuckerberg: So what was the question again?
Lacy repeats her question and Mark continues: There are a lot of really big issues in the world that need to be solved. We’re trying to build an infrastructure to solve these problems.

He talks of a group on Facebook that has a goal to build an organization that has enough political clout to achieve ends to end poverty. He heard a story where there was a bill that was being voted on. There were people protesting everywhere. Within a week, the senator behind the bill realized that he got it wrong. With all the protests, the senator realized that the people behind the different organizational efforts really were against the bill. The thing that was most striking to Mark about this is that he realized that Facebook can help out. He asks, “why does there need to be a big organization that channels people’s voices? We’re at a day and age where people should be able to communicate without millions of dollars. The world is increasingly complex. There are a ton of issues out there and the US is not necessarily in the same position it was before where they can tell other people what they should be doing, so there needs to be a solid base for people to communicate. We need to have a base that works from bottom up” with people who build applications. I think that’s a really important trend in the world. We’re not running around with a ton of money but we’re trying to build the infrastructure where people can communicate and do these things.

Lacy: When you compare Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, I think that fewer companies are as successful in the Web 2.0 world, but those who are have a tremendous impact. I think that’s why people are addicted to the site.

Lacy: Well, you’ve touched on international — I heard you were launching France tonight –
Mark: Yeah! Way to get that news before me! [Audience reaction: mixed reviews]
Yes, we’re launching in French tonight. [And now everyone cheers]

Lacy: A lot of web companies have a hard time scaling internationally. You guys seem to have navigated it better than others. Why do you think that is?
Zuckerberg: We’re tapping into a universal need. Even from the beginning when I launched Facebook in Harvard, a lot of people thought it was a college thing, but we’re always helping people connect. I think that this or something like it — perhaps Facebook, perhaps not — will connect every single person in this way.

Lacy: You’ve created a great innovation. What about the ad deal you currently have with Microsoft? Google and Microsoft are going after social networks and some people feel aren’t monetizable. Do they feel they’re getting their money’s worth (especially because sites like Digg and MySpace may not be)?
Zuckerberg: Let’s talk about what we do at the company. Our mission is connecting people. In terms of the Microsoft relationship, we want the way people make money to be in line with the way people use the site. People always list their favorite music, favorite movies, and things they’re into, and a lot of that is very commercial. That’s fine; people are expressing their identities. If we give people enough information, that’s a significant overlap with the way we think we’re going to make money on the site.

Someone from the audience yells out “Beacon sucks.” (“We’ll get to that,” Sarah says.)
Lacy: There’s a sense that you have this immediate revenue from Microsoft but people think that’s not sustainable and it’s not profitable.
Zuckerberg: I’m sure Microsoft is pretty happy with it. We’re a private company so we’re not sharing but it’s going well for both of us.
Lacy: The world of advertising is changing.
Zuckerberg: It’s part of a larger trend. It’s basically people endorsing things.

Lacy: Have you figured out how this endorsing thing works?
Zuckerberg: We probably got a little ahead of ourselves and thought we understood more about it than we actually did, but I think in general, the theme holds. We think that the way that people share things is the way we want to build upon.

Lacy: You view this as a social graph and you see this as a multi-decade process.
Zuckerberg: Correct. We see this as a long term process. A lot of people are playing an instrumental role here and it takes time.

Lacy: Let’s talk about Beacon. WTF?
Zuckerberg: …
Lacy: Tell us about it. Let’s all have an open mind and listen.
Zuckerberg: In our company, Beacon isn’t part of the ad team. It’s part of our platform team. There’s a trend that these social networks or social services have moved from monolithic sites to a collection of social services. Some are ones we’ve developed, such as the News Feed, Profiles and Inbox, but a lot of services are things that we’re not developing. We know our DNA isn’t set to develop everything and a lot of people out there are more talented. An increasing number of social sites like Facebook are building platforms that allow other people to build services upon them. Similarly, a lot of people are building things outside Facebook.com. We can push information to our friends and that’s an increasing part of the ecosystem. Beacon is the first step in letting people take action in other parts of the web and sharing them back with their friends on Facebook. Our ad system was intended to fit very organically with things on the site. It’s trusted and you care about it because your friends are endorsing it. If your friends communicate it, you trust it. The first iteration of Beacon was intended to do that outside Facebook. We made a lot of mistakes when we did that and we’re trying to fix that. We’re learning as a company.

Lacy: It’s interesting that you compare the News Feed and Beacon. At the time, the News Feed situation threatened the company more than Beacon. There was a lot more uproar over the news feed from more users than there was with Beacon and it was primarily a concern about privacy. Is there something about a bigger vision of where things are going that addresses this concern of privacy?
Zuckerberg: We need to give people complete control over the information that they have. That enables more sharing. Twenty to twenty five percent of people have their cell phone number shared on Facebook at this time. The reason why they do that is because they have opted to share this only with their friends. Granular control over their information allows for this connection to take place. The more control users have, the more information people will prefer to share and the more we’ll be able to achieve our goals. All the times we’ve made mistakes, we haven’t given them control (“or you haven’t communicated it” — Sarah).

Lacy: When you opened the Facebook developer platform, you grew in membership but a lot of people considered all these apps frivolous. What do you think about this? Are we going to see real substance?
Mark: There are pretty big changes underway. We believe that people are fundamentally good and aren’t trying to game the system inherently. The applications you get are inherent of the product system we’ve set up. You can add the box to the profile and choose to distribute it, etc. You as a user have up until a point to utilize this without being spammy. These systems are all about trust. We have made the system work in such a way that when you send requests, the more your friends accept particular requests, the more requests you’re able to send. If people like your feed items, your feed items will appear more frequently on other people’s feeds. Those feed items people like get pushed to other users. It’s a trust based system.

Lacy:Is that a fine line in keeping the system very open?
Zuckerberg: In one way, it means less rules from us directly. The community can determine if something is being too aggressive.

Lacy: Talk about the rumors that you’re launching an iTunes with record labels. What’s going on?
Mark: I don’t know. We talked to a lot of companies all the time. Right now, there are music applications on Facebook, and music has been a vertical that we haven’t gone after at all. Facebook internally has developed photo applications and video applications, but not music applications. Once we opened the developer platform, there were music applications that filled that void, like iLike. At this point, I don’t think we have anything to talk about.

Lacy: Is that something appealing to you though?
Zuckerberg: We’re first and foremost trying to build this base. We want to enable communication so that we can build applications ourselves and then we build a developer platform that enables our users to build other applications for that goal.

At this point, Sarah thought there was time running out (but there really is 30 minutes left)…

Zuckerberg: You mean you’re out of questions?
Lacy: I was at a Hackathon at Facebook and the place was disgusting. There were Wii bongos all over the place and it was like a tornado had come through. Mark was half asleep and I kept him out for 6 hours.
(In other words, she has plenty of questions.)

Lacy: Respond to this: you’re the youngest billionaire according to Forbes.
Zuckerberg: We’re not really thinking about that. We’re not focused on financial information. Internally, the company is all about the themes about communication, our developer platform, and how we can best map out friends. We just want to go and build a business. That lets us attract the people that enables us to reach our goals.

Lacy: Does having a valuation like that bring forth a negative? More people want to work at Facebook and you have to live up to a high bar?
Zuckerberg: It’s tough, but it adds a lot of positive things. The recruiting is important to us though, as we consider people who are aligned with our core mission. Having such a focus on money in the business has been tough because it has self-selected people who care too much about that. We’re not planning on going public anytime soon because we don’t want people to want to make money very quickly. I think we want to do well and build a good business. We value that we are worth to be aligned with the value we provide to our users.

Lacy: That’s what we talked about in the beginning. The core of it is community building and without that, nothing wouldn’t be happening.
Zuckerberg: Right.

Lacy: For such a long time until the Microsoft deal, IPO was a topic of conversation. Maybe you want a valuation because it kind of closes the door on that speculation. Is that a side benefit?
Zuckerberg: We’re not making a lot of decisions based on [financial decisions].
Lacy: But it throws it down the gauntlet.
Zuckerberg: It’s really not about the value. It’s not that we don’t want to do IPO; we’re just not focused on it. Some companies have that as a goal, but for us, that’s not what we’re trying to go for. There was a similar thing in 2006 when Yahoo was going to buy the company. They were offering $1 billion, which is a lot. We were thinking that perhaps the company can grow to be worth more than that. We used that opportunity to really give people the opportunity to connect. How many times do people have the chance to do that? Zero or one. That’s how we’re thinking about it.

Lacy: Jim Breyer, who is on the Facebook board of directors, realized you were an entrepreneur who ran your business with your gut feeling, your heart, and with sheer analytical thinking, and when you weighed on the IPO from both perspectives, you said it was a bad deal.
Zuckerberg: Okay.
Lacy: Well what do you think about that statement?
Zuckerberg: A lot of people didn’t want to [go ahead with IPO].
Lacy: Really?
Zuckerberg: Yeah.
Lacy: That’s not he word on the street.
Zuckerberg: Yeah, we made some management changes. [The audience murmurs at this response.]
Lacy: You know what you’re good. If you don’t like people, they don’t stick around.
Zuckerberg: We really rely on the people on our team. There are expectations from us and from our staff in terms of what people want to get out of it. With the Yahoo thing, there were a lot of people who joined who wanted to have the company bought for $1 billion, because they would have made a lot of money right then and there. There were others who didn’t care for that.
Lacy: I think it’s good that you remove people who don’t see in line with your vision.

Lacy: Let’s talk about Sheryl Sandberg, the person that you just hired from Google. What do you think about bringing a grown up into the mix?
Zuckerberg: It was a group decision, really. We were looking for someone to scale our operations, as we now have over 500 employees. The company is growing really quickly. It’s incredibly important for us.

Lacy: What do you think about having a woman in this environment? After all, this is a male dominated field.
Zuckerberg: I think she has a good track record. I don’t think that will be an issue.

Lacy: You also recently put Matt Cohler in charge of Product Development. Can you elaborate?
Zuckerberg: He’s been here for nearly 4 years and he’s been in charge of a lot of operations in the company, including sales. This is a big step for us. We want to scale the company in an effective way. We have over 200,000 developers, so this step was necessary.
Lacy: It gives you more time to be CEO.
Zuckerberg: Cohler is going to bring more scale and organization to the business. It’s an interesting time for us.

Lacy: What about you staying CEO? Why do you want to be CEO? A lot of founders don’t want to be CEOs. Kevin Rose, for example, is not CEO of Digg. Do you feel that you want that level of control over what you build or is [being a CEO] something that you love?
Zuckerberg: I think the CEO sets the goal of the organization. For me, being in that role is a good way for me to make sure that the organization focuses on these goals in its product development, its communication and narrative, its privacy policies, its development platform, the advertiser system, and the operations — and that’s a really important thing. As the organization grows, we need people to keep their eyes on what’s important and that’s what I do.

Lacy: Everyone wants to write about Web 2.0 and they all use Facebook as an example. I think you’re distinct from the rest of the web 2.0 world. One way this is is that you consider yourself a tech company, not a media company, and you don’t leverage yourself as using one community.
Zuckerberg: Being a technology company is important for the culture of the company. We try to hire a leadership team that is largely technical. Our marketing director has a tech background. Our CFO has a technical background. It lets us be pervasive in our culture. We really believe that to reach our goals, we need to let other people build companies that can help them communicate. In terms of community, we think about it as a personal thing. The site is really serving as a utility to maintain relationships.

Lacy: Can I tell the people about the books?
Zuckerberg: Go for it.
Lacy: One thing a lot of people don’t know about Mark is that he has a lot of bound books that he uses to painstakingly write out his ideas for the site. You can actually see everything in these books about how the website is played out. [To Mark:] I find that fascinating that you’re a computer guy and you write this on paper and you’ve been working on this vision in this way all along. Right?
Zuckerberg: Sure.
Lacy: Well?
Zuckerberg: You have to ask questions.
Everyone starts applauding at this! (Here’s where it gets interesting.)
Lacy: Just to warn you, when I interviewed Michael Arrington once, I spilled a cup of cold water on him. At this, Zuckerberg takes away her cup of water and moves it to his side of the table.
Lacy: How much of that has been your original vision that you’ve seen in your books and how much has changed?
Zuckerberg: A lot of what I’ve written in those books have been broad ideas. The News Feed is a pretty good idea in theory, but for a lot of stuff that gets built, there are a lot of details. People look at the News Feed and think that it may have been good or bad. The same goes for the platform development. People chock most of it up to the original idea but the vast majority of what is currently on the site didn’t come from me writing in a book. It came from the team at Facebook who has been working for weeks and months. My job is to communicate and help people focus but I don’t want to downplay the fact that other people are doing all this work.
Lacy: You didn’t mention that you destroy the books.
Zuckerberg: Yes, I didn’t.
Lacy: He burns the books.
Zuckerberg: No I don’t! You made that up.
[An audience member shouts: Talk about something interesting!]
Lacy: You have to realize that my job is a lot harder than you think!

Then the audience shouts “Q&A” and Sarah gives into mob rule and lets them ask questions.

Question: There’s a fundamental problem with the site right now. You have the information, but you can’t hold onto it.
Zuckerberg: We are aiming to give more people control. If we don’t succeed at control, it’s going to be an issue for us.

Question: You can’t even search within your messages and you can’t hold onto a post and tag it.
Zuckerberg: We’re working on these things, and they’re clearly very important to us. Facebook is relatively constrained as a company. Things take time for development. We’re working on it. We need to get there, so thank you for bringing it up.

Question: Do you think there are too many applications right now, like MySpace, and that you’ll have to block them?
Zuckerberg: I think the ideal format is one that lets people use the applications that they want to and not use the ones they don’t want.

Question: Other than really rough interviews, what do you think is the single biggest obstacle that Facebook faces?
Lacy: Has this been a really rough interview?
Questioner: I’m not asking you. I’m asking Mark!
Lacy: Someone send me a message about why it is that I suck so badly.
Zuckerberg: I think a lot of it is around building these systems and giving people control while also building an easy product that honors users’ privacy. We want the framework that enables people to share the info that they want. That’s a huge thing for us within the next year.
Follow-up question: Is this a concern related to security or reputation?
Zuckerberg: It’s really about privacy and trust. The most important thing is to give people control and build a framework for application sharing. If we can extend that to the application platform, it can be a really valuable thing.

Question: Is Google pissed that you are trapping so much information within Facebook?
ZuckerbergL I’m not trapping information. [pause] No, those guys are nice. In general, search is an important thing if you want to make information available to the whole world. With Facebook, your information is not completely private and it’s not completely public. You can give information to your friends or not. We think that it’s a different realm. Search and sharing semi-private information is a big trend and will play a big part in the next few years, but [us sharing information with search engines] is really not us.

Question: One of my frustrations with MySpace is that they like shoving TV shows and ads in front of me. You’ve talked a lot of about efficiency, but I can’t sort messages or save them. I can only keep them or delete them. In reality, email is a better option. When do you plan to fix this and why hasn’t it been prioritized?
Zuckerberg: We didn’t plan on being an email competitor. Messaging was initially set up to be a simple thing but people started using it more often than we expected and for other things. We didn’t focus on it because messaging was set up for that purpose initially. It’s something we want to fix in the future.

Lacy: Anything else you wanted to add?
Zuckerberg: I didn’t think [that the interview] was that painful. I think these are interesting trends to watch, and I’m glad that we got to talk about this stuff. We often find ourselves talking about this corporate stuff and the valuation of Facebook as a company and not stuff we care about. But we should understand the trends in the world and this is a conference to do that at because the attendees are engineers, artists, designers, and developers.

So, what are your thoughts?

[ SXSW: Mark Zuckerberg Keynote (the edited liveblogged version) is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Read more about The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, a primer to social media marketing. Or you can subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.