SparkToro Blog

Posts by Rand Fishkin:

Industry Marketing Predictions Tactics

Why Marketers, Creators, and Brands Should Start Using Mastodon ASAP

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
I joined Twitter in June, 2007. It turned out to be a very smart move; over the next decade, that network had a massive impact on my professional success. Some of that is because I did interesting or valuable things, but a lot of it was a combination of timing and serendipity. There are plenty of articles about why you…
Marketing Personal Tactics

How Rand Makes Those Split-Screen Videos You See on LinkedIn and Twitter

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Several times a week, I post videos that look like this on (usually) LinkedIn and Twitter: They tend to get a lot of engagement (in this case, 10,000+ “impressions” which translates to a respectable 2,880 “viewers” according to LinkedIn). And inevitably, I get comments, DMs, or emails that ask “how do you make those split screen recording videos?” It’s easy…
Data Marketing Product SparkToro Tactics

NEW: Audience Tracking is Now Available in SparkToro

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Since our launch in 2020, SparkToro has helped thousands of marketers uncover the most popular demographic and behavioral attributes of their target audiences. Emphasis on “most popular” 😉. That data is undoubtedly valuable: it helps folks know where and how to reach their customers online. But, in the two years SparkToro’s been active, we observed a handful of our smartest,…
Events Personal

The Best Damn Food & Drink Gift Guide 2022

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
For the third year in a row, we’re back! Our annual food and drink gift guide features our favorite products — ones we’ve used ourselves, received as gifts, and/or gifted to others.  Like last year (and the year before), there’s no ulterior motive. There are no affiliate links or kickbacks. Just the products we love and most often recommend to…
Data Marketing

Which 3rd-Party Traffic Estimate Best Matches Google Analytics?

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
In July and August of this year, SparkToro solicited (via Twitter, our email newsletter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram) voluntary sharing of Google Analytics data from the web marketing community. Over 1,000 participants shared their websites’ traffic (through GA’s oAuth function) with us. We then acquired metrics from four providers of traffic estimate data—SEMRush, Datos, SimilarWeb, and Ahrefs*—and compared these against…
Data Marketing Tactics

How to Measure “Hard-to-Measure” Marketing Channels

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
I’ve ranted endlessly about how marketing leaders refuse to invest in hard-to-measure marketing channels like PR, media, native social, events, many types of content, and word-of-mouth. But, never stepped up and made clear how to use metrics, imperfect though they may be, to turn impossible-to-measure into difficult, but possible. Sadly, I’ve never seen a high-quality offering to reliably point-to, either.…
Data Marketing Product SparkToro

Which Subreddits Does Your Audience Follow? What Do They Talk About? Starting Today, SparkToro Has the Answers

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Today, we’re launching a new “Reddit” tab in SparkToro. It will show you the Subreddits to which the audience you search for most-heavily subscribes, and the text content of their Reddit posts. This feature is briefly available for all paid subscribers. In a few weeks, SparkToro is updating our prices & packages, at which time it will be exclusive to…
Events Marketing SparkToro

Introducing SparkTogether 2022: Because the Marketing World Needs Better, More Unique Events

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
On November 10th, we’re running SparkToro’s first-ever marketing summit: SparkTogether. It’s live. It WON’T be recorded (because our presenters are sharing confidential numbers and information). And we’d love to have you there. For details and tickets, check out the SparkTogether 2022 Event Page, or read on for more background. Early bird tickets are on sale until Oct. 8, then prices…
Events Marketing SparkToro Tactics

The Episodic Content Creator’s Guide to Using SparkToro

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Last Saturday, I received an email from Rich Wilan, founder of Fascinate Productions. Rich and his team help podcast creators build audiences and top charts, and they’re very good at their work, helping clients like Zoe: Science & Nutrition, Startup Dads, A Cuppa Happy (and more) launch, grow, and reach chart-topping numbers. Rich kindly gave me permission to make my…
Events Industry Marketing Predictions Psychology Startups

Google, Apple, and Amazon Stifle Innovation When They Favor Their Own Products

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
The SparkToro team got an exciting surprise on Sunday evening: a mention of our research on Last Week Tonight by John Oliver. The full episode, Big Tech Monopolies, is available on YouTube. It covers an issue I’ve railed against before, but with a heightened sense of urgency: there is actually a bipartisan bill in Congress that might fix this. Thankfully,…

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