Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 4, 2012

This is a guest post from Mik Stroyberg of Issuu , a digital publishing platform for magazines, newspapers and catalogs. I asked Mik to share some thoughts on the future of digital publishing. -Adam. I love reading magazines, and I love my iPad because it lets me carry 8 million titles around in one lightweight device. I can read my favorites anytime, anywhere – at the airport, in the subway, at the park or at home.

iPad 167

iPad Publishing Sports Meeting 167

Adam Sherk

AUGUST 14, 2012

As Pinterest continues to grow in popularity and usage it is becoming not only an important source of traffic and engagement for publishers but also a good source of links. What types of sites get the most links from Pinterest? I spend a lot of time auditing websites which means I am regularly in the Google Webmaster Tools profiles for a variety of sites.

Survey 166

Survey Sites Publishing NoFollow 166

Adam Sherk

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

The Google News news_keywords meta tag is now available to all publishers that are approved for inclusion. It is nice that Google News is trying to accommodate publishers and allow for more witty, print-style headlines. But in the bigger picture encouraging the use of this tag has as many potential cons as pros, so publishers should be careful about how they promote it internally.

News 162

News Google SEO Publishing 162

Adam Sherk

APRIL 10, 2012

With a new baseball season underway I thought I’d check in on the 30 MLB teams on Twitter and Facebook. Which teams are seeing the most growth? I have not done a sports team comparison post in quite a while, mainly because the figures quickly become outdated and total reach is not all that important to look at. But one advantage of having done this in the past is that I have previous figures to compare against.

Team 152

Team Twitter Facebook Comparison 152

Adam Sherk

JANUARY 25, 2012

The rise of Reddit and the steady decline of Digg have been well documented. Just recently Reddit announced that its traffic has more than doubled in less than a year (to 2.07 billion pageviews in December), an impressive feat. Has this translated into a significant change in social news referrals for publishers? Anecdotally we’ve all seen Reddit gain in prominence at a time when Digg has struggled to maintain its relevancy.

Digg 149

Digg Reddit Survey Publishing 149

Adam Sherk

MAY 30, 2012

While Pinterest is a natural fit for lifestyle publishers there are good opportunities for broadcast media too. Today Kim Wilson and I are leading a social media workshop for a group of local TV and radio stations. In preparing for the Pinterest portion I took a look at the pinning activity of local TV news teams. It is fair to say that it is still early days for local TV newsrooms on Pinterest.

Team 148

Team News Digg Fashion 148

Adam Sherk

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Ever notice how the most flattering blog comments are actually the spam comments? This always makes me smile, so I thought I’d share a handful of them here. It would be a shame for so much unbridled positivity to never make its way into the world. There are the simple, straightforward compliments: And it is hard to argue with this: A pat on the back is always nice too: But I like the longer, dare-I-say philosophical comments best: Bringing someone back from the precipice makes all this wor

Comments 146

Comments Publishing News Sites 146

Adam Sherk

MARCH 19, 2012

The Pew Research Center’s The State of the News Media 2012 is out and the section on What Facebook and Twitter Mean for News makes for an interesting read. The figures on where users get their news links from is already being covered as a sign that Facebook and Twitter may not be as strong of a news source as previously thought. But when I look at those charts I just see common sense: Facebook is still dominated by real, personal connections so why wouldn’t friends and family be the primary sour

News 135

News Organization Twitter Facebook 135

Adam Sherk

JULY 17, 2012

Which news site has the highest customer satisfaction rating? FoxNews.com – by far. Who fared the worst? HuffingtonPost.com. These are the findings of the annual ForeSee American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Business Report that was released today. In the News and Information category FoxNews.com leads by a considerable margin. Its satisfaction score of 84 is six points higher than the #2 news site, ABCNews.com.

Sites 125

Sites News Report Advertising 125

Adam Sherk

FEBRUARY 14, 2012

It has been a couple months since StumbleUpon rolled out its Channel pages for all members so I thought I’d check in and see how media brands are doing. StumbleUpon Channels are a good opportunity for publishers (and any business involved in content marketing) because they create a direct pipeline to users that are specifically interested in your content.

StumbleUpon 120

StumbleUpon Brands Directory Real Estate 120

Adam Sherk

DECEMBER 18, 2012

Another year gone by and once again it is time for the obligatory best of the year post. These roundups may be overdone, but I enjoy putting them together because it is interesting to look back and see what made an impression. Here are my top 10 posts of 2012 by pageviews: The Best Free Tools for Twitter Analytics. Beyond Facebook Insights: Useful Facebook Analytics Tools.

Press Release 119

Press Release SEO Digg Sports 119

Adam Sherk

JULY 10, 2012

The demographics of Google+ are typically described as predominantly male and young. But that is not always the case; sites that are geared towards women are drawing a Google+ audience that is largely female. For example, take a look at the +1 Audience Report from the Google Webmaster Tools profile of a major fashion site. Its Google+ gender breakdown is 80% female, the largest majority I’ve come across to-date: Gender breakdown of unique users that have +1’d a page on the site.

Google 119

Google Fashion Sites Report 119

Adam Sherk

NOVEMBER 1, 2012

This is a guest post from Wendy Dulaney, co-founder of Easy.PR. Wendy has been doing some interesting work for start-ups, targeting small audiences to achieve specific goals during critical stages of their growth. I asked her to share some examples and tips here. – Adam. How many great ideas and concepts from early startups are out there just waiting to be heard?

Startup 117

Startup Campaign Tips Reputation 117

Adam Sherk

JUNE 27, 2012

Now that the Hot Searches list on Google Trends has been stripped down publishers are moving to other sources for monitoring search trends. Specific to lifestyle publishers the Google data was never all that useful anyway since it was dominated by topics like breaking news, sports and entertainment. So what’s a lifestyle site covering things like food, fashion or home to do?

Yahoo 116

Yahoo Trends Publishing Data 116

Adam Sherk

AUGUST 28, 2012

Lately I’ve been noticing a lot of Facebook posts in my news feed with a specific request to “LIKE” the post. Sports teams are among the biggest offenders: Now don’t get me wrong. As a marketer I appreciate the use of a call to action to increase activity and engagement. It is an effective tactic and there are plenty of good ways to do it.

Sports 116

Sports Team Facebook Feed 116

Adam Sherk

OCTOBER 24, 2012

Last week I received a press release from an unexpected source: the Harlem Globetrotters. Frankly I’m not sure why they’d be sending a press release about their new VP of Communications to me. But I always liked the Globetrotters as a kid, so when I saw the team logo at the top I actually thought it was kind of neat. To be fair I do write about PR and I occasionally cover sports and social media, so it’s not completely off base.

Press Release 108

Press Release Sports Team Statistics 108

Adam Sherk

AUGUST 21, 2012

I was invited to contribute a column to an upcoming social media guidebook from Media Industry Newsletter and Folio. I thought I’d share it here along with some links to additional resources. It is intended to be a general overview for publishers. Hopefully you’ll find it useful. How does social media activity impact search engine optimization?

SEO 278

SEO Social Media NoFollow Engineering 278

Adam Sherk

MAY 1, 2012

Your sites have been audited, improvements have been made and there is more to come in the road map. The technical, editorial and marketing teams are trained in SEO best practices and are integrating them into the daily workflow. Sounds good, but are your efforts working? That’s where tracking and measurement comes in. When it comes to SEO publishers need to understand and effectively communicate progress and success.

Metrics 164

Metrics SEO Publishing Analytics 164

Adam Sherk

APRIL 3, 2012

Yes, this is indeed another post about Pinterest. But fear not, I come with real data to share albeit it in aggregated and anonymized format. It is well established that Pinterest offers great opportunities for lifestyle publishers but how well is it paying off in actual site traffic? To get a clearer picture I pulled referral data from the past six months for a group of 25 magazines sites that we work with at Define Media Group.

Sites 157

Sites Digg Reddit Fashion 157

Adam Sherk

MARCH 14, 2012

SEO and social media are now vital components of audience development for publishers of all shapes and sizes, but there are still huge opportunities for improvement. Since infographics are still (kind of) the rage I’ve been meaning to publish one here. But since I lack any artistic ability and I don’t have the time to pull any meaningful data I thought I’d try something a little different.

SEO 145

SEO Publishing Social Media Sports 145