Weekends are always a great time for unwinding and reflection. Here are a few topics for you to ponder as you head into the end of your week.

The Ideal Length for the Perfect Blog Post

At long last, the Holy Grail! An article that will tell me how to create the perfect blog post that will generate tonnes of hits, thousands of instant fans and buckets of money! Well…not really. Don’t let the title fool you. This article is however chock full of interesting stats on how Google ranks post length and the results might surprise you. But remember, there’s no secret sauce to the perfect blog post – it starts and ends with compelling content!

How To Ditch Marketing and Make Friends

This insightful post by Ron Faris, Head of Brand Marketing for Virgin Mobile is a must-read if you’re working in the traditional or digital marketing world. In it, he compels “old school” marketers to stop thinking like a studio – solely pushing out ads and TV and radio commercials and hoping your message sticks – and start thinking like a marketing newsroom – what is your daily commentary about your brand? I’ll let Ron make the case, but it’s one of the best articles geared convincing the C-Suite to adopt social marketing that I’ve read.

Online Habits – Is Less Really More? 

That lovely gal Gini Dietrich is at it again…she’s over on Spin Sucks being a super smarty pants. In this post she’s talking about how her online habits have shifted of late – she spends less time on social media and more time on other aspects of her business – and she’s noticed some interesting changes. A great conversation happening over here, jump in with your take!

How the Internet of Things Will Work

We all wonder if, in our lifetime, the Star Trek-esque home of the future will be a reality. Rooms that automatically set themselves to just the right temperature and lighting and cars that drive themselves seem to be within reach now. But there are some definite challenges to getting smart devices to talk to one another – from conflicting protocols to making devices intuitive. This article takes a deep dive into some of those issues and highlights people who are trying to solve those problems. Oh, and it has a reference to THHGTTG. If you know what that acronym means you’ll appreciate it. 🙂

Eight Simple Steps to Powerful Measurement Tools 

My friend, colleague and self-proclaimed measurement geek, Bob LeDrew, wrote a great piece this week on the importance of measuring social media. Did you know that only 22% of communicators profess to have a social media measurement strategy in place? In this article Bob provides some great resources and common sense advice to getting measurement on track. Oh, and he’s also teaching a course about it on July 25th and 26, in class if you’re in Ottawa or online if you’re anywhere else. Sign up here, and learn from the master! 

Did you come across a thought provoking article, video, image or conversation this week? Share it in the comments!