From why NASA engineers need to be fluent in 60-year-old code to the sponsored tweet worth a massive $140,000, here are 2015’s most shared posts from the world of digital marketing.
Collated using Buzzsumo, the list includes the 15 most shared posts related to web design, content marketing, PPC, SEO and social media marketing. So grab a cuppa, sit back and take the time to find out which posts made the grade.
Web Design
Above: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a markup language used for describing how HTML elements are to be displayed on screen. Image by Linux Screenshots
34 CSS Puns That’ll Make You Laugh, Even If You Aren’t a Web Designer
CSS – or Cascading Style Sheets – is a style sheet language that describes and defines how a webpage displays things like colours, borders, fonts and backgrounds.
Inspired by a thread on Reddit, this post, published by Digital Synopsis, highlights CSS-based puns that just about anyone can enjoy.
Adobe Flash Is Finally Dead
Often dubbed ‘the world’s most hated software’, many web designers have been calling for the last nail to be struck into the coffin of Adobe Flash for years. Last year, after Google officially terminated support for Flash advertising in its browser, they finally got their wish.
In this article, published by The Next Web, Owen Williams outlines Adobe Flash’s last obituary.
Why NASA Needs a Programmer Fluent In 60-Year-Old Languages
Launched in 1977, NASA’s Voyager program sent two robotic probes into space to collect data on the outer Solar System.
Originally, the two probes were tasked with the mission of studying the planetary systems of Jupiter and Saturn. However, their mission has since been extended three times and they are still in service today (both are currently employed with exploring interstellar space).
The Voyagers continued service, coupled with the fact that the program’s last original engineer is about to retire, means that NASA is looking for a programmer proficient in code that was originally used in the late 1950s. This post, written by John Wenz and published on Popular Mechanics, provides all the details.
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PPC
Above: In Google AdWords, words have power that equal money. Image from Pixabay
The 100 Most Expensive Keywords on Google AdWords
Although Google enjoys a multitude of revenue streams, one of the most profitable is the ads that appear in search results related to specific keywords. The cost of running ads related to specific keywords depends – at least in part – on how often people search for them. But which keywords are the most expensive?
In this post, Lindsay Kolowich republishes an infographic produced by WebpageFX that illustrates the keywords with the highest cost-per-click in Google AdWords.
5 Facebook Ads Changes: What Marketers Need to Know
Any business can create an advert on Facebook, and the social network provides a wide range of tools that can help businesses connect with customers via its platform. To help improve the reach and effectiveness of your Facebook ads, Social Media Examiner has created a post detailing the five biggest changes to Facebook Advertising that all marketers need to be aware of.
Google to Let Advertisers Upload and Target Email Lists in AdWords with Customer Match
Google has launched a new product, Customer Match, which lets advertisers upload their customer and email lists into AdWords. The targeting capabilities of this new product extend beyond just search, allowing users to include YouTube, TrueView ads and native ads in Gmail.
In this article, published by Marketing Land, Ginny Marvin provides more detail about how Customer Match allows AdWords users to target ads with customer-owned data for the first time.
If you’re looking for someone to help with your paid ad campaigns, check out our PPC management services.
Social Media Marketing
Above: Last year, courtesy of Groupon, the Banana Bunker’s ‘fruity’ shape caused quite a stir across social media. Image from Pixabay
Groupon Posted This Product on Facebook, Then Replied To Everyone Who Made a Sex Joke
In March, the social media team at Groupon went viral with a suggestive post about a fruit container christened the Banana Bunker. Every time someone made a ‘fruity’ comment referencing the product’s phallic aesthetic, Groupon responded with bells on, and social media went into meltdown.
Read the full post, published on Adweek
Sponsored Tweet from LeBron James Reportedly Worth $140,000
The basketball megastar LeBron James has 23.2 million Twitter followers. Consequently, it’s fair to say that he boasts a significant social media audience – so significant, in fact, that a company paid the star $140,000 for a sponsored tweet. That equates to a mind-boggling $1,000 per character. Easy money, if you can get it.
Read the full post, published on Bleacher Report
17 Killer Facebook Post Ideas for Small Business Owners
Some small businesses still possess a blind spot when it comes to maximising Facebook’s potential. This post by Kim Garst on Boom Social provides 17 post ideas that guarantee small businesses the likes, shares and comments they so desire. Worth a look, surely?
See how social media marketing can help your online business grow.
SEO
Above: SEO and content marketing: a match made in heaven or marriage of convenience? Image by Ben Rosett
Why SEO Is Actually All about Content Marketing
Traditionally, SEO and content marketing have been viewed as separate disciplines within the digital marketing spectrum. At the very least, some marketers have viewed the two disciplines as uneasy bedfellows – forcing them together in a marriage of convenience, rather than loving equals.
However, this post on the Kissmetrics blog argues that SEO and content marketing are in actual fact two side of the same coin.
Google Is Hiring an SEO Manager to Improve Its Rankings in Google
In a somewhat amusing turn of events, in 2015 Google posted a job advert for an SEO manger’s position to help drive more traffic to its own search engines.
Is this a classic example of teaching someone to suck eggs? Or a sign that everything in life goes full circle in the end? Either way, the job advert, published in a post on Search Engine Land, makes for interesting reading.
Google Mobilegeddon
For many, 21st April 2015 became known as ‘Mobilegeddon’. It was the day that Google launched a major update to its mobile search algorithm that penalised websites if they were not mobile-friendly.
As this was the biggest SEO development of the year, Business Insider, among many others, dedicated a fair few pixels to breaking the news and spreading the word of this substantial algorithm shift.
If you need support, we can help with our range of SEO agency services.
Content Marketing
Confessions of a Google Spammer
Cast your mind back to 2009: spamming the internet to cheat Google’s search algorithm was all the rage and many black hat SEOs were making themselves and their clients rich in the process.
This post is Jeff Deutsch’s account on this period in time, and it reads like the ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ for SEOs. However, as with all stories of excess, there must be a comedown, and the post also acts as a cautionary tale about why spamming Google is not the right thing to do.
Ad of the Day: Geico Makes Clever Preroll Ads That Are Basically Unskippable
Hands up: who find the adverts on YouTube annoying? After the first five seconds of enforced viewing everyone but the most enthusiastic ad fans can’t wait to hit the skip button.
A large part of the collective disdain for the adverts that front-end YouTube videos comes from the fact that they are largely longer ads lifted straight from television. This makes them unsuitable for digital natives – you need to hook their attention immediately, or you’ll lose them.
This post, published by Adweek, describes how Geico produced fun-filled digital ads that put the emphasis on the first five seconds, making them basically unskippable.
10 Types of Visual Social Media Posts That Get Shared Like Crazy
Social media posts with multiple images enjoy significant pulling power in terms of generating engagement for businesses of all sizes. For this reason, many brands are falling into the trap of adding more and more visuals to their posts just for the sake of it. However, when it comes to adding powerful visuals to your social media posts, focusing on quality over quantity can have a far greater impact.
Read the full post, written by Anna Guerrero and published by Jeff Bullas
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