Illustrated by David Flanagan
American playwright David Ives said that lists are anti-democratic, discriminatory, and elitist. Well, Mr. Ives, I happen to like lists. And, as the fourth quarter of 2012 is ending, I’ve come across some really impactful and wonderful lists that I wanted to share. So, here they are, and I’ll keep adding to the list as more pop up.
10 Predictions for Inbound Marketing in 2013 by Rand Fishkin (SEOMoz)
I’m sort of a Rand fangirl, ’cause we have the same SEO brainwaves and work patterns (hello, late-night blog posts!), except he’s famous and makes bank doing it. This list is Rand’s predictions for 2013 that he hopes you hold him accountable for. He also reviews his predictions from last year and how they held up. Great read.
2012’s Top Lessons for B2B Marketers by MarketingProfs
The lack of explanation behind “automated is better than manual” in Lesson One turned me off a bit, although I’m sure the social media slackers of the world would love to apply that one-size-fits all strategy to their business. Everything else I enjoyed, though, even including the fact that Klout does indeed have a good algorithm for determining who’s influential.
12 Worthwhile Small Business Resolutions for 2013 by Swipely
I think the least obvious item on this list is to plan your holiday promotions in advance … like, now. I write almost daily about small business marketing, and I spend a lot of time looking for effective promotions. Most of the time, businesses throw up their holiday promotions or event flyers a week before the big day. Gotta plan that thing at least a month in advance! OK, so I wrote this one, but what kind of marketer would I be if I didn’t include my own “Best of” list here?
Social Media Report 2012 by Nielsen
A pretty-looking presentation, made up of about 15 pages worth of infographics. I was a little shocked that 33% (the majority) of social media users think ads on social media sites are more annoying than elsewhere on the web. Really? More annoying than pop-ups and those full-page stopper ads on newspaper sites? Cripes, I’ll take relevant ads based on my consumer and browsing data any day.
Top Tweets of 2012 aka Golden Tweets from Twitter
I’ll give you a hint: The top two tweets were by Obama and Bieber. I do like the other complementary add-ons to this list, though, like seeing your own year in tweets, and seeing through the eyes of major events on Twitter.
The Most Popular Stories of 2012 from LinkedIn
What I like most about this list is that it’s not some chump putting it together (hey, who you callin’ a chump?!), but it seems to be curated in some way, whether it’s populated from the most popular posts in my network, or just by the most popular posts in LinkedIn, I found the list to be pretty darn good.
Top 20 Conversion Insights of 2012 from Unbounce
I was hoping this list would be more about test results from Unbounce, but still enjoyed the brainy quotes from all of the Internet elite. Loved the quotes from Peep Laja, Carlos del Rio, and Jon Correll. Still working on that one from Steve Krug. Also, does Chris Goward look like Rand Fishkin, or what?
Top 1 SEO Tips for 2013 by SEOMoz
This was forwarded to me by Raymond Horwitz over at Black Belt Magazine, and I thought it was a great summary of SEO in 2013. As always, content rules, but you really need to get your crap together about writing better content and article marketing. People MUST be sharing your content and they MUST be linking to it. Also, you ought to have a backup plan if Google decides you’re not the best search result anymore.
The Best Books of 2012 by GoodReads
I’m really excited that Wild by Cheryl Strayed was on this list, because Gretchen Rubin (author of The Happiness Project) introduced me to this book a month or so ago. I read half the book through Amazon’s preview features and can’t wait to read the paperback. Also, there wasn’t enough time for it to make this list, but I think The 4-Hour Chef is amazing and fun and everyone needs to own it.
Best in Travel 2013 by LonelyPlanet
I like this list because it’s more of a collection. Sure, the usual suspects are there, but they also have other lists, like the best places to hunt for buried treasure, the unluckiest places in the world, and best places to do something new (my favorite). And when you need to get back to budgeting reality, you can read the best value destinations.
Email Marketing Awards 2013 by MarketingSherpa
I worked for MarketingSherpa several years ago, and something I liked about their annual marketing awards was how they judged their entries. The truth is that it didn’t take a lot of work to judge them. Which email got the most conversions? How much money did it make? Great, there’s our winner. There was no design specialist scouring over what shade of blue you used – there’s just data and facts. If you won, it’s because your copy and design syntax worked, and no human can judge that based on instincts, just numbers.
This list will be a work in progress during the month of December. Please suggest any that you’ve loved in the comments!
If you like this list, buckle your britches and head over to our 15 Social Media Gift Ideas for #SocialMedia Lovers post. (C’mon, take a chance!)
