SEO content marketing roundup, week ending October 31st

BOO! Some truly scary stuff to share in this Halloween’s Web-writing news, not the least of which is the mother of all perfect storms (#Sandy) slamming the northeastern (U.S.) coast.

Several online marketers, from retail stores to dating sites,  “newsjacked” the event – and some suffered considerable social media blowback for taking it too far.

For instance, Mike Volpe, CMO at HubSpot, retracted the site’s original post, “5 Creative Hurricane Sandy Newsjacks From Savvy Marketers,” tweaking the content and renaming the original URL “Is Newsjacking Hurricane Sandy Right or Wrong?”

Volpe also issued an apology for the original post being “in poor taste” and thanked David Meerman Scott for calling them on it.

That said, this week’s selection of SEO, search, content and social media marketing news is thick with scary truths, frightening realities, and wicked perspectives! Okay – that was a trick. The treats awaiting you are far more edifying than horrifying… Enjoy!

Content Marketing

Gabriella Sannino posts the insightful and expansive “Behavioral Targeting, Conversion Psychology, Content Personalization, and Privacy: How To Get The Right Message To The Right People at the Right Time Without Being Creepy” at Level 343.

Lee Odden discusses “Winning the Content Marketing Game: 4 Types of Killer Content” at Top Rank.

Melissa Fach pens “Suggestions for Businesses That Have Crappy Content and For Those Who Don’t Want It” at Search Engine Journal.

Sean McGinnis shares his story of evolving into a highly successful online marketer with his interview, ”From surviving to thriving…” at SEO Copywriting.

Michael Rizzo posts “10 Content Marketing Strategy Lessons From Italy” at Flying Cork Media.

Roger Dooley discusses “What Your ‘About Us’ Page is Missing” at his Forbes column.

Matt McGee shares “Two Sample Editorial Calendars for Bloggers” – citing Arnie Kuenn of Vertical Measures and Lee Odden of Top Rank Marketing  – at Small Business Search Marketing.

Heather Lloyd-Martin’s weekly video post is about “How a swipe file can conquer writer’s block” at SEO Copywriting.

Events: 

• The Usability Week 2012 Conference series, hosted by the [Jakob] Nielsen Norman Group, will take place November 5^th thru the 9^th in Seattle, and December 2^nd thru the 7^th in Las Vegas.
• Content Marketing World, NYC is a one-day conference scheduled for November 15^th in New York, NY.
• For affiliate marketing folks, Affiliate Summit West 2013 will be held in Las Vegas from January 13^th thru the 15^th.
• Marketing Sherpa’s Email Summit 2013 will take place in Las Vegas from February 12^th thru the 15^th.

SEO & Search

Christopher C. Cemper breaks down Google’s EMD [Exact Match Domain] Update with “Deconstructing The Google EMD Update” at Search Engine Land.

And if it’s not spam, don’t freak: Alex Becker posts “Everything You Need to Know about the New ‘EMD’ Update” at Search Engine Journal.

Heather Lloyd-Martin shares her considerable SEO wisdom with “14 SEO truths I’ve learned in 14 years” at SEO Copywriting.

In a related thread, Ian Lurie posts “3 Hard Truths about SEO” at Search News Central.

Ann Smarty posts “Make the Most of Guest Blogging: Second-Tier Link Building” at KISSmetrics.

Events:

• Distilled’s SearchLove is scheduled for November 5th & 6th in Boston.
• SES Chicago is on for November 12th thru the 16th. Check out Lauren Litwinka’s post featuring previews of Marty Weintraub’s and Merry Morud’s SES presentations at aimClear.

Social Media Marketing

Miriam Hara posts “Social Media: A Reality Check” at Social Media Today.

Rachel King posts “Hurricane Sandy: By the numbers on Twitter and Facebook” at ZDNet.

Stacey Acevero posts  “[Infographic] Facebook vs. Twitter: Which Social Media Network Wins the PR Race?” at (Blogging) PRWeb.

Lee Odden profiles “25 Women Who Rock Social Media in 2012” at Top Rank.

MarketingProfs posts data supporting the benefits of business blogging (via a new HubSpot report posted by Pamela Vaughan) with “Blogging Drives Leads, Website Traffic.”

Ian Cleary posts “Community Driven List Posts: A Tool for Bloggers” at Social Media Examiner.

Jennifer discusses how to write and format “Good Blog Posts” at Level 343.

Events:

• SMX Social Media Marketing 2012 will be happening in Las Vegas, December 5^th & 6^th. 
• Social Media Examiner’s Social Media Marketing World is scheduled for April 7^th thru the 9^th in San Diego.

photo thanks to paparutzi (Christina Rutz)