What piqued your fellow marketers’ interest this year — our top 10 columns on Marketing Land

If you’re here for strategic social media insights, you’re definitely not alone, as the bulk of the most-read columns of 2017 touched on social media marketing topics. From LinkedIn’s Matched Audiences to Facebook algorithm hacks to selling on social media and creating compelling content, these columns explored both time-tested tips and new products and techniques.

In the “new twists” category came AJ Wilcox’ piece — our top column of the year regardless of topic — which explored LinkedIn’s Matched Audiences product and compared it to Facebook Custom Audiences. Chris Kerns introduced marketers to Twitch, a live-streaming video platform, while Brian Patterson explored the viral phenomenon that is the Instant Pot, which really hit the mainstream in 2017. Also on our virtual pages, Wesley Young talked up Facebook’s new ad targeting capabilities and Andrew Dubatowka defied expectations about brand safety — a hot topic in the display space in recent years.

But perennial topics like selling on social media, creating compelling content and leveraging analytics were also big hits with the Marketing Land audience, which understands that marketing fundamentals often remain the same even if their expressions change as new technologies drive shifts in consumer habits. If you missed any of these insightful columns, we encourage you to take a look as we consider the lessons of 2017 and dive into the challenges and opportunities of 2018.

1. LinkedIn’s new Matched Audiences feature just blew Facebook Custom Audiences out of the water for B2B by AJ Wilcox, published on 4/24/2017.
2. 9 ways to sell on social media by Jordan Kasteler, published on 1/3/2017.
3. Why marketers should be paying attention to Twitch by Chris Kerns, published on 1/16/2017.
4. 5 Facebook algorithm hacks to up your content marketing game by Sweta Patel, published on 9/4/2017.
5. The magic behind the Instant Pot viral phenomenon (and the CEO’s favorite recipe) by Brian Patterson, published on 3/13/2017.
6. The most brand-safe app category is not what you’d expect by Andrew Dubatowka, published on 7/17/2017.
7. Facebook tests a new ad format that puts it further ahead of its competitors by Wesley Young, published on 9/11/2017.
8. 10 tools for creating compelling content for social media by Jordan Kasteler, published on 8/15/2017.
9. 10 things you should be doing now on social media to grow your business by Will Scott, published on 2/27/2017.
10. Are you leveraging these underutilized Google Analytics features? by David Booth, published on 2/27/2017.