Your 2011 Marketing Trenches Favorites

2011 is finally drawing to a close, so now is the time to reflect on the past year’s marketing highlights and stumbles, along with improvement opportunities for 2012. 2011 was a big year for Right Source Marketing; we expanded our team and our client roster faster than we expected, introduced a new content marketing offering, and rolled out our brand new website and blog. We also created a lot of content, and we’re very thankful to all who read, shared and interacted with our posts!

Just like last year’s, here’s a “Reader’s Choice” list of your favorite 2011 blog posts on Marketing Trenches. We compiled this list based on page views, comments, and tweets (maybe next year it will be Google +1s!), so also thank you for jumping in with comments and sharing our posts with others! The wait is over; here’s the countdown of the top 10 Marketing Trenches posts of 2011:

10. What Makes an Exceptional Social Media Manager?

The Must-Haves, Nice-to-Haves, and Bonus Points you should look for when hiring someone to manage your social media.

9. 10 Things You Should Include in a Social Media Plan

If you’re the fly-by-your-pants type, you might want to skip this post because it has the word “plan” in it (yikes!), but Mike Sweeney lays out exactly what you need to take the pain out of planning.

8. What Angry Birds Taught Me About Social Media

Forget what Mom said. Mindless games can teach you something! Find out what the smash-hit game can teach you about the social media realm.

7. Everyone Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth

Mike Tyson may have said it first, but Will Davis explains why strategic planning is important no matter how well you think you’re doing.

6. 17 Ways 2 Make Ur Tweets Shorter

Remember 2 leave room 4 ppl to RT u! Check out our suggestions here.

5. 10 Steps to Pick-Up a Social Media Audience

What works at the bar will work in social media—just skip the cheesy pick-up lines (or not).

4. 6 Fixes for Writer’s Block, Even if You’re Not a Writer

This post is about… well, you see, this post really explains the best way to… oh well, just read it!

3. Why Companies That Say They Want Social Media Really Want Content Marketing

Executives and students alike may not know what content marketing is, but they’ll still ask you to “do social media,” so be prepared.

2. When 2,000 Facebook Fans Mean Nothing

It’s not how many you know, it’s who you know! Don’t fall for numbers that don’t have any value.

1. Don’t let the Social Media Tail Wag the Content Marketing Dog

A wise man once said, “The tail is nothing without the dog, but the dog is still the dog even without the tail.” See how this applies to social media and content marketing.

0. Special Bonus: If you build it, will they come? Content Marketing Webinar

While it’s not a blog post, and it doesn’t live on Marketing Trenches, this webinar covering the basics of content marketing was popular when it launched and remains popular today, so we think it’s earned its spot on this list.

How did we do? Did all of your favorites make this list? Let us know if we missed any of your favorites by commenting below!

About Right Source:

The Marketing Trenches blog provides thought leadership from actual marketing practitioners, not from professional thought leaders. Designed to help business leaders make more educated marketing decisions, our insights come directly from our experience in the trenches. You can find more from Right Source on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn.