Cocktail Hour: January 13, 2012

What have you been reading about lately? Chances are you’ve probably been seeing a lot about CES, the largest technology trade show (for which Visual.ly provides an overview infographic here) or reading who’s getting pissed off about Google’s addition of personal search tools. Here are some of our favorite finds from the past week.

They Did It: Google Personalizes Search & It Is Not Evil (ReadWriteWeb): Now when you’re searching on Google for the latest in digital news, you can see which of your friends gave +1s to content. Or you don’t have to. Google’s “Search, Plus Your World” is live, amidst mixed reactions. The personal recommendations are a nice touch, but it’s not for everyone. Luckily, you can just turn it off.

A New Breed? 7 Roles of the Content Marketing “Engineer” (Content Marketing Institute): Strategize all you want, but make sure you have the content to back it up. What content works best for you? How are you creating it? What keeps people engaged? This is a great list of tips to making sure you’re planning a successful content strategy with sharing and engagement in mind.

Social Sharing Boosts Email CTR Up to 115% (Get Response): Are your social and email strategies integrated? Do you even have both to begin with? There’s a lot to consider about what goes into a strong email marketing campaign, but keeping sharing options in mind is vital. With 10% of all Internet traffic consisting of social sharing, making sure your emails are easily synthesized into that world is incredibly important.

The Ballad of @Horse_ebooks (Splitsider): Is it spam? Is it marketing genius? No one is really quite sure, but the amount of buzz (and created fan content) around a nonsensical Twitter account about horse books is remarkable. This is an amusing look at how invested communities can arise from just about any paddock. It’s also a reminder that while we use Twitter for business purposes, there’s still a lot of fun to be had on the network. And fun is something we can incorporate into our nontraditional marketing techniques to increase engagement, exposure and the general human element.

How to Work From Home Like You Mean It (Fast Company): Many of us are working in the typical office environment, but to those of us without (or with flexible work locations), working from home is commonplace. It can be difficult at times to separate home from work, and to avoid the temptations of just watching Netflix and lounging around all day on the couch. The tips discussed in the article, including setting a schedule, actually getting dressed and allowing break times, are useful in creating the ideal home office.

And for a bonus laugh, check out F*cking Creatives and Douchey Account Guy. These single-serving Tumblrs are “Overheard at the Water Cooler”-type listings of the more absurd things we may hear in our offices. Some of it seems a little exaggerated, but at least we can all poke fun at ourselves.

What did we miss? Share your favorite reads from this week below!