This week’s Fast Five is mostly about social media – its possibilities and difficulties – but there’s a little SEO thrown in as well.

1) Google Plus: Bridging the Gap by Sarah Hill                                                                  The combination of a growing trend called Human Media and the development of Google + Hangouts, is fundamentally changing the possibilities of human communication. Thanks to Google + Hangouts, events can now be shared in real-time – anywhere a suitable internet connection exists. Sarah says, “Say goodbye to the culture of “likes” and hello to a culture of open dialogue that allows for publically debating issues, norms and beliefs right in front of your eyes.”  

2) How to Avoid Blogging Burnout by Sujan Patel                                                           Starting and maintaining a blog is worth the effort, but is it best to do it yourself, train existing staff or outsource? Sujan outlines all the possibilities for those who are thinking of starting a blog, or are looking for a new way to maintain an existing one.

3) Is Social Media Bad For Your Phone? By Corey Geer                                                     I’m going to show my two teenage daughters this post. Mobile search devices have increased our consumption of social media significantly. With teenagers this is even more so. This infographic outlines the numerous effects all this consumption may be having on our health and wellbeing.

4) What Every Graduate Should Know About SEO and Why by Kylie Olsen            Graduate programs in media and communications are not always adequate when it comes to preparing students for the changing environment of online communications – particularly SEO. One considered the domain of those with a technical bent, basic SEO is becoming a must in every communicator’s toolkit. This is a good catch-up-on-the-basics SEO post.

And finally for a bit of fun…

5) 6 Interesting Facebook Tricks You Might Not Know by Kristel Cuenta                          This is a fun post which provides ways to insert code that will modify the way Facebook updates are displayed on your business pages or profiles.

Happy reading!

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This week’s fast five includes: the history of advertising, SEO spring cleaning, Facebook face lifts and lessons from the guru of advertising – George Lucas.

1) Advertising: A Brief History by David Wallace                                                                      I love these infographics-based posts Search Engine Journalers have been creating lately. Advertising is almost as old as civilisation. This is a great one to share for a broader perspective!

2) Dusting the Website for Spring: Optimization and SEO Cleaning by Scott Wyden          In this post Scott gives us nine great tips on onsite website improvement and two offsite tips. Interesting to hear that sites with Google’s Authorship tool enabled, receive 120% more clicks. The internet is becoming so much more personal and the search industry is at the forefront of these changes.

3) Mastering the Art of Local SEO by Tina Courtney-Brown                                                  A friend of mine has a picture framing business which has slowly transitioned from completely offline to mostly online. He used to rely on his village market stall, but now finds he gets most orders online, even local orders. Some businesses, even though they have a strong online presence, they still require a lot of local promotion. This is a great post on Local SEO and covers all the basics.

4) Give Your Facebook Page a Free Facelift by Tina Courtney Brown                                    I am intrigued by the Social Fixer App described by Tina in this post. I haven’t used it yet, but after reading this post, I’m going to try it out. It would be great to make small adjustments to the look and feel of my Facebook page and profile.

And for something a bit different…

5) Transmedia Storytelling: Building Worlds For and With Fans by Gianluca Fiorelli        We are living in the age of transmedia storytelling and this post outlines how you can make this work for your brand. Transmedia storytelling happens when a story unfolds across multi media outlets and platforms and the end users take on an active role in its expansion. You don’t have to be a George Lucas fan to enjoy the message in this post. Transmedia storytelling is where storytelling and marketing collide.

Happy reading!

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From viral marketing to legendary podcasting – this week’s Fast Five contains a great mix from the blogosphere.

1) Foolishly Viral: Lessons from a Million Pageview Day by Jacob Klein                         Most of us have wondered about the phenomena of content going viral and wondered how it happens. Can it be planned? How do people feel when their content strikes a chord with many more people than expected? Jacob shares his insights in this great post about viral marketing success.

2) Remove Unnecessary Steps and Win More Links, Shares and Conversions – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin                                                                               You’ve got to love Rand’s posts about keeping things simple. He is great at explaining why some things are no longer important, while other details are crucial to building relationships and maintaining your reader’s attention. This post could have been called:  How to Win Readers and Influence people.

3) 17 Things You Should Stop Doing to Your Websites by Inessa Bokhan                    I really enjoyed this post. I have to admit I’ve been guilty of using cheesy stock images before! Inessa gives some great advice in this post – it all comes down to keeping it real and fresh and… don’t forget your readers!

4) Losing Traffic (and sleep) Over Google Reader’s Death? Here’s What You Can Do About It by Federico Einhorn                                                                                                   In case you’re wondering where you can source story ideas and news feeds now that Google Reader is closing down, I thought I’d include this post. Federico shares links to other news feed sites and gives some helpful advice for webmasters who may have relied on Google Reader until now.

And finally…

5) Case Study: How to Build a Vast Audience by Mastering the Art of the Interview by Beth Hayden                                                                                                                                      I’m finishing this week’s Fast Five with a bit of inspiration. It’s always interesting to hear from other creative people – how they’ve worked hard to build a successful platform. In this post Beth interviews legendary podcaster Srinivas Rao about his successful career as a content marketer.

Happy reading!

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We have another eclectic bunch of posts for you this week – from the history of the internet, to SEO from a newby’s perspective. Enjoy…

1) A History of Social Media by Copyblogger.com                                                                All you infographic fans out there will love this visual portrayal of the history of social media. From the world’s first email, to the plethora of digital channels we enjoy today, this post shows how dramatically the world of communications has changed in 40 years.

2) 33 Link Building Questions Answered by Rhea Drysdale                                              Link building has changed dramatically in recent years and Rhea has taken the time to answer many of our questions regarding the dos and don’ts of link building – post-penguin. Thanks Rhea!

3) Claiming Google+ Authorship and Publisher Markup for SEO by Navneet Kaushat    Most content creators are keeping a close eye on Google+ Authorship and this post adds another layer to the cake. Google Publisher markup is another way to get your content identified and your website noticed. This post contains a bit of code, to make implementing these changes into your website nice and easy.

I’ll finish off with a couple good back-to-basics style posts…

4) The Forgotten Art of Creating Good Title Tags by Andy Williams                                  This post reminds us all shy title tags are still an essential element of Search Engine Optimization. Andy’s clear advice regarding the essential elements of a good title tag, is worth bookmarking.

5) SEO From a Newby’s Perspective by HappyBrooke                                                          This is a good fun post to remind us all what it is like to enter the field of SEO for the first time. Like any industry, if we’ve been in it for a while, we can forget what it may be like for newcomers – who are just branching or starting out. A good post to refer to anyone who might be thinking of taking the plunge into SEO.

Happy reading!

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This week’s Fast Five features posts on personalized search, content strategies, link building tools and some helpful hints for start-ups. Enjoy!

1) Personalization and SEO – Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin                             Google has become our friend, or at least it’s trying to. Personalized search means that Google knows important things about us, like where we spend a lot of our time, who our friends are, what we like, common search queries and so forth. But what does all this mean for the search industry? Rand’s casual (he’s wearing a hoodie) Whiteboard Friday post points SEM’ers in the socially orientated direction we all need to be in these days. Thanks Rand!

2) Announcing the Just-Discovered-Links Report by Tela Andrews                                   I’ve put this one in here for all the link builders out there. This ‘Just Discovered Links’ report generator is a new feature in Open Site Explorer, designed to help marketers find new links within an hour of them going live. “This report helps you capitalize on links while they’re still fresh, see how your content is resonating through social channels, gauge overall sentiment of the links being shared, give you a head start on instant outreach campaigns, and scope out which links your competitors are getting.”  Amazing stuff!

3) Offering Guest Posts for Your Clients: Why You Should Get Your Writers Involved by Amanda DeSilvestro                                                                                                          Now this one is for all the writers out there, or companies who employ (or contract) writers for themselves or clients. For companies: should you have writers in-house? Or contract to freelancers? For freelancers: should you specialise in a particular industry or subject? Want to find a better way to organise and collaborate on working documents? Amanda has it all covered.

4) Increase Your SEO Business by Specializing by Shadi Khattab                                 SEO is a big industry now, long gone are the days of explaining to people “Oh I help websites rank better” and receiving blank looks in return. With so many SEO companies in the marketplace, how can a small start-up attract solid long-term clients (the goal of every business)? This great post inspires SEO’ers to find their niche and become experts by specializing in that niche.

and finally…

5) How Can Small eCommerce Businesses Use SEO to Compete With Sites Like Amazon? By Mark @ Think Traffic                                                                                     This is a great post which follows nicely from the last one. How can small start-ups hope to compete with megaliths like Amazon? Certainly not by competing directly, but with some creative thinking and niche-in-depth focus, it is possible as you’ll see.

Happy reading!

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