Do you know what content marketing is? On paper, content marketing encompasses all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of engaging content. This is typically done with the goal of attracting prospects or acquiring and retaining customers. The types of content can vary widely and includes videos, white papers, infographics, memes, articles and blogs to name a few. The whole point of content marketing is to both engage readers and provide valuable information.

Though just about everyone in the online marketing business has something to say about the latest Google Penguin Update, conflicting information and mass confusion are abundant. Even the so-called experts are struggling to understand and articulate the effect that Penguin has had across the web. There have been numerous blog posts on Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Land trying to make sense of the latest update. In addition, Google's system of numbering the Penguin updates hasn't helped.

In a news release today, Facebook announced that they are adding support for clickable hashtags, which the social network Twitter popularized.

Like many in the online marketing business, we are fascinated by Google Glass. Who wouldn't be with it's very futuristic and very cool design (or ridiculous, depending on who you ask). Whether or not we'll someday consider Google Glass users when we're developing online marketing strategies remains to be seen. Remember, there was once a time when we didn't put any thought into mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. Maybe Google Glass will catch on and we'll all be talking to our glasses and taking a picture with just a wink!

More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month and over 4 billion hours of video are watched. YouTube is the third most visited site, just behind Google and Facebook (source: Alexa). Some of those videos go viral, creating YouTube sensations. Where would Justin Bieber be without YouTube? (Probably back home in Canada). 

No formula exists to make a video go viral but you can take advantage of YouTube for SEO. The more you optimize your videos, the better chance your videos will be found in Google search results, perhaps even page one! YouTube's recently launched, YouTube One Channel, gives you plenty of opportunity to promote your brand and best of all, it's free!

Promote Your Brand!

What YouTube really wants to do is help advertisers engage their target audience by encouraging and pushing users towards channel subscriptions. This will allow advertisers to grow a community on YouTube. As a brand, you will receive several benefits from the One Channel design.

1. First Impression: Use the new trailer feature to win over new subscribers.
2. Dress Up: Design on your desktop and look good on tablets and all other mobile devices.
3. Uniqueness: Nobody's channel will be like yours. Organize your videos and playlist to fit your one of a kind brand.

Yesterday, Matt Cutts, the head of Google's Webspam team, announced the roll-out of Penguin 2.0 which is said to affect 2.3% of all search queries on Google. To catch some of you up, Penguin 2.0 is the fourth release of Google's spam-fighting updates. Some people will be calling it Penguin 4, but it contains Penguin 2.0 technology, which Google states is a new generation of technology that should better stop spam. That means, this is not a data refresh, however a new algorithm set to ward off spam even more and hopefully reward those of us that are actually doing SEO the correct way. With the update now live it is said that webmasters and SEOs should expect major changes to the search results.

In spite of the rash of Google updates and other covert maneuvers, link-building is still necessary for search rankings. Google has made it crystal clear that high quality content is what it wants. But, Google is not quite so upfront about links. We do know that quality onsite and offsite content is just part of effective SEO. You still need to get those links. Link building tactics have changed and will continue to change in response to Google updates. Looks like another Google update is coming soon.

Google Places for Business continues to merge Google’s offerings. Now users will be able to access their Google+ and Google Local page from the same place, making Google Local and Social more unified. Will Google local search and social media continue to become one? We’ve been wondering for awhile! Google Places for Business is still in its infancy, but we’ll keep you posted on changes and new features in Google’s offerings.

Scared of Pay Per Click? Don’t have the budget? Set up a remarketing only campaign. 'Remarketing' is literally re-targeting people; showing ads only to people who visit your website. They were interested in a product or service you have to offer--that’s why they visited your site in the first place. Your ads will appear on other publisher's websites as a reminder to come back to your website. It’s an easy, simple, friendly, inexpensive way to get more customers who don’t convert when they first check out your website.