Reading Roundup: What’s Happening in Blogging Lately?

It’s here! The first roundup for the new year.

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited and motivated for a brand new year of learning, growing and enjoying my blog. Nothing like a frest start to get a fresh perspective on something we may sort of, kind of be stuck in a bit of a rut with.

I hope you find something useful here to kickstart your 2016!

Instagram Advertising: What’s Working? // Marketing Land

Have you tried Instagram ads? I have seen a few of them roll out in my feed, and I think it must be much easier to create one now that they’ve integrated that option to your Facebook Page dashboard. The “have a good image” bit is a no-brainer (Instagram is such a visual platform) but it’s interesting to see the research behind these tips.

5 Digital Marketing Tactics to Help Your Brand Stand Out in 2016 // Top Rank Blog

We all know that the key to success is differentiation (and doing it well!), especially in a culture of oversaturation. But the first tip “use existing platforms in creative ways” gave me hope that there’s still life in the old dog yet. It’s time to start thinking differently about how we blog and promote this year.

Facebook Wants to Kill Phone Numbers Forever // Time

Ok a bit of an overkill headline, but there are changes coming to the Messenger app now that 800 million (sheesh!) people are using it to communicate for both business and pleasure. I love the features for the business communication, I think it would be a fantastic way to collaborate with people… but the flip side is you can turn to your personal feed and get lost down a facebook rabbit hole way too easily…

I’m pretty desperate for that virtual virtual assistant “M”, by the way.

11 Google Chrome Extensions Every Social Media Marketer Needs // Adespresso

I had a few of these already (Momentum is great!) but who knew Klout was still a thing? And my chrome bar grows ever wider.

Really though, who wouldn’t want to “increase your productivity and reduce the effort required on all social media platforms”, and if all it takes is installing a few extensions, I’m there!

#Twitter10K: Possibility of 10,000 Character Limit Creates Big Buzz // Entrepreneur

I think being forced to keep my bon mots to 140 characters has made me a better writer. Plus it’s easier to skim my feed… what do you think of largely unrestricted character posts in tweets?

How to Improve Your Page Ranking for a Specific Keyword // Content Marketing Institute

This was so interesting – especially for me, who really has one keyword most relevant to my blog: vegetarian. It is most likely that a few of us have at least a couple, but if you’re looking to rank in those areas, this tips can’t hurt. Very useful too for helping you avoid over-optimization, which can harm your blog rank.

2015: The Year That Angry Won The Internet // BBC

So it’s not just me that thought there was a vastly unusual amount of ire on the web this last year? It seemed something switched the haters into Full-Blown Mode. Some of the stories you hear are downright heartbreaking, and you wonder how much worse it’s going to get. Did you get caught in the fallout? What do you do when the Internet is a boiling pit of rage and you just can’t take it any more?

10 Predictions for 2016 in SEO and Web Marketing // Moz

You can always count on Rand to have some ideas about what’s going to be useful in SEO!

Page Views Don’t Matter Any More But They Just Won’t Die // Wired

It isn’t the best indicator of popularity and influence, it’s true – but it’s still a quantifiable way of judging ROI and some people just don’t want to drop it. Or, probably more accurately: they don’t know any other way of calculating value. Are page views important, do you think? Or is the whole of blogging more than the sum of its parts?

How to Curate Your Social Content with Reddit // Social Media Examiner

If it’s your job to find funny/useful/interesting things to share with an audience, you might like to try these tips.

Happy 2016!

Stacey Roberts is the Managing Editor of ProBlogger.net: a writer, blogger, and full-time word nerd balancing it all with being a stay-at-home mum. She writes about all this and more at Veggie Mama. Chat with her on Twitter @veggie_mama or be entertained on Facebook.