Orangecast Social Media marketing has provided the following page as a repository of links to books, tools, and resources that we use ourselves and encourage business owners to evaluate for their educational and marketing needs.

Search Engines are the primary driver of traffic on the Internet.  Though there are other notable sources of traffic including direct blog visitors and Twitter referrals, in the world of online marketing, an understanding of search engine optimization is the equivalent of major and minor scales to a musician.  The “An Hour A Day” series by Wiley Press is an approachable format for busy people who are trying to learn something outside of their core expertise.  Search Engine Optimization – An Hour A Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin (ISBN: 978-0-471-78753-2) is a great book for any marketer or business owner who is looking to better understand search engines.  Even if your intention is to outsource your SEO efforts to professional, you will want to have the knowledge in this book to manage their efforts and ensure that you are getting results for your money.  We’ve seen more business owners go down the wrong SEO path simply because they didn’t know what questions to ask.

On the surface, most people go to Twitter and think, “This is stupid. . .I don’t care what someone had for breakfast!”  What they don’t understand is that their view of Twitter is a fractional slice of an ecosystem that facilitating peoples informational and commercial needs on an hourly basis.  Of course, amongst the masses, you will encounter high percentages of people who simply don’t get it!  Some just flat out make fools of themselves.  A great start for understanding the marketing side of Twitter is the eBook “Twitter Marketing“.

Keyword research is one of the most important tasks when optimizing content.  For example, the legally correct term for drunk driving in the State of Texas is DWI or driving while intoxicated.  In other states, however, the correct term is DUI or driving under the influence.  Dallas has many residence who are originally from other states.  When searching for an attorney or even information on DWI, they might actually search DUI.  The key for a marketer is to garner search traffic.  By researching volumes and advertiser competition, a search marketer can figure out what will drive them the most traffic.  For example, there might be more traffic on DWI Dallas as compared to DUI Dallas but DUI Dallas might have less competition.  DUI Frisco, TX might have even less competition and allow you as a marketer to meet your ROI goals for your SEO effort.  Google’s Keyword Ideas tool is designed for pay per click (PPC or SEM) marketers to research keywords; however, it is very applicable to natural search.  We use this tool everyday and it is FREE!

If you want to see what a search engine sees, there are several free online analyzers that will allow you to do this.  We like to use Submit Express as the tool is simplistic and works with sites developed in a variety of technologies.  Focus on 1, 2, and 3 keyword pairs.  Try to keep their percentage of content between 1.5% and 2.5%.  A word has to appear on a page at least twice to be picked up.

Though email marketing has nothing to do with Search Engine Optimization and Social Media, there are still millions of consumers who prefer to get their information via email.  Constant Contact is the industry leader in email marketing and provides free classes just about everywhere.  They also have all kinds of online tutorials and help.  We use Constant Contact and thought we’d drop it on this page as well!