Top 25 Social Media Blog Posts of 2012 from @PamMktgNut

Wow, it's amazing as it seems like just yesterday I was writing this same post for 2011. Amazing how time flies when you are having fun.

Much has changed in the social ecosystem while still not a lot has changed. Being an early adopter of technology and anything geeky since I was a child, it's easy to understand why it seems this way. Yes, there are millions on the social networks and it seems every business is jumping on Facebook or Twitter. However, this doesn't mean we've even touched the tip of the iceberg with integrating social media into the DNA of business.

In summary most business leaders are still learning the what, how and when of social media. They are still at the beginning stages of learning how to tweet, how to really leverage Facebook for business, how to build community, how to measure results, and most importantly how to achieve an ROI on their investment of time and resource in this crazy social world.

This post includes the top 25 posts on the “Pam Marketing Nut” blog of 2012 as well as a short summary of key findings and learnings summarized at the end.

I hope you can learn from it to improve your content marketing, social media and blogging results in 2013. I also hope you can see that if you are new to this social world and still learning how to tweet that there are still many in your shoes learning the same thing. Move forward into 2013 maximizing what you do know, accepting what you don't know and focusing on the key areas you need to learn to grow your business. As I always say, the only guarantee in social media, business and life is change. Don't focus only on the tools. Set clear goals and objectives and implement a system of balancing both art and science as you make the investment to become a social business.

Top 25 Posts of 2012

1. 15 Must Know Tips to Rock Your Facebook Timeline Business page (includes free Adobe Cover Image Template) 

2. How to Get More Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers & Social Friends

3. The New LinkedIn Endorsements, Are We Being Gamed? 

4. 75 Things I learned on My Journey to 100,000 Twitter Followers

5. 10 Reasons Why I Don't Retweet You & Your Content

6. 15 Things Every CEO, CMO, CIO, CTO Must Do Before Hopping on Twitter

7. Social Media Lies, Myths & Fairy Tales

8. 15 Reasons Random Acts of Marketing & Social Media Don't Work

9. 21 Tips to Balance Social Media Addiction, Tweets, Life & Real Work

10. 42 Things to Do on Twitter Besides Tweet Spam & Coupons

11. Social Media Consultant Gone Bad, Real Bad

12 Kitchenaid: Bad Tweets Happen to Good Brands Who Don't Manage Social Media Risk Properly

13. 25 Content Marketing Ideas for People Who Don't Like to Write

14. Quit Blaming Facebook & Fix Your Own Marketing Problems

15. Your Child's Reputation is in Your Facebook Hands Starting Now

16. The Definition of Social Business

17. 10 Easy Ways to Rock Your Brand on Facebook

18. Heartbeat of Social Media 

19. How to Build a Brand That's a Sweet Orange in a World of Bitter Apples

20. 34 Social Media Truths in a Nut Shell

21. 24 Tips to Integrate Conference & Event ROI By Integrating Social Media

22. Ultimate Social Media Party Foul List – 70 Party Fouls of the Social Foolish

23. Social Media is Not Rocket Science

24. The Only Way to Become a Social Business in 2012

25. Top 10 Tips to Maximize the Life of a Blog Post

Key Learnings & Summary

• Google organic performed well for us in 2012. Google page rank increase to 4 seemed to help as well as implementing and integrating Google+.
• The list does not include posts from 2010 and 2011 that are still in the top 10 for driving Google organic traffic. Most of these are Facebook and Twitter posts.
• Facebook posts definitely took the lead. As much as we want to think everyone is using Facebook and understands how to drive real results, the truth is they don't.
• Twitter posts still do very well and get a high number of viral shares on Twitter as well as syndication on other blogs.
• Lists still work. I don't care what other “gurus” say about lists, they work and drive the results that help us meet our business goals.
• People want your opinion. They want you in the post, not the same post that 100 other people have written about a Google plus feature.
• Videos help drive visits and longer time on site.
• We decreased our bounce rate from over 75% to less than 5% by redesigning the blog, improving performance and other factors.
• Some of the posts you see at the top of the list were written in the last half or quarter of the year.
• Implementing an editorial calendar integrated with our business and marketing plan proved high return on investment the past two years.
• The focus on the needs of my readers and customers versus what I personally want to write about drives high return.
• People still like to laugh and be inspired. Some of the top posts have a crazy spin to them.
• We have a different audience for our agency blog, Marketing Nutz. There is some crossover. However, there are key differences. We will be maximizing these differences in 2013 and will share results.
• A good mix of the type of posts keeps people coming back for more. We use a combo of lists, how to articles, opinion pieces, and thought leadership.

Thank You to Our Friends & Family

Thank you to our clients, Social Media Today, Business to Community, Forbes, Triberr, Inc, Huffington Post, IBM and other businesses and communities for syndicating our content, including our content in your work, engaging in our conversation, and sharing it with your audiences.

A special thanks to everyone in our community for reading, commenting and sharing our content in 2012.

Thank you to our #GetRealChat community that meets via Twitter every Tuesday at 9pm et. You are our rock and offer so much value to all who tweet in, join the conversation. I am blown away by how far you have come and can't wait to see where we go in 2013!

We appreciate you and would not be where we are without our awesome community of readers, friends, colleagues and more. We do not do this by ourselves. You inspire us beyond words daily. May 2013 bring you much peace, prosperity, love, happiness, laughter and a good long, well deserved vacation!

Advice to new bloggers:

Do not give up! Even if you only have one share per day do not quit. My unique visitors is now higher in one hour than it use to be in an entire month. You have to start somewhere. Don't compare yourself to others who have been blogging for a year or more. Compare yourself to nobody in early stages. Focus on your audience, their needs and delivering the highest possible content you can. You can see the first post I ever wrote here –>Go Big or Go Home, after becoming an entrepreneur. It was written on our first agency blog (agency now sold) in late 2009. The Pam Marketing Nut blog didn't launch until late 2010. By 2011 it was a top 100 Small Business Blog on Technorati and made it to Ad Age Top 150 Blogs! This was achieved by 100% focus on needs of audience. You can do it! Go Big or Go Home! 

 What You Say? 

What did your blog trends look like in 2012? Did you achieve the results you wanted to? Do you need to better align your content with your goals and audience in 2013? What advice can you offer others? What questions do you have that we can help answer? What content would you like to see more of on this blog in 2012?