Search Engine Marketing Articles For Entrepreneurs & Small Business Owners

E Is For Email Marketing

Sending out emails to market and promote your business is picked up hugely in popularity over the last few years. For one, it’s free and for another, it’s very easy to measure. You can tell when someone has received your email, opened it and read it and how many have responded really quickly and easily.  

But, when should you use email marketing to promote your business and how do you make sure it’s effective for you? 

Email marketing is a fantastic tool to help you build a relationship with people. To make email marketing effective for your business requires a mind shift in itself. Gone are the days where you just send out a sales letter by email instead of by post. These days, email marketing is about building a relationship with your customers so that they can experience what you do without any commitment whatsoever. 

That’s why providing people with useful tips or information is far more effective than just simply a sales email. It’s much more likely to be read and people are far more likely to respond to your email. 

But even though you are providing people with something useful, you still have to know what action you want people to take as a result of your emails. If you’ve never contacted people before, you may want them to download a report from your website. Or if you’ve already started to build a relationship with people, you might want them to book onto a workshop, complete a survey or book a 1-2-1 chat with you. 

Whatever your aim, you’re going to need to send out a series of between 7-11 emails to people to get them to do what you want them to do. I know that probably sounds a lot, but your message is going to change on every email so people are not going to get bored reading the same thing. 

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Why Doesn’t The Press Call, Email, Text, Tweet?

We started enjoying the benefits of the Internet before it was the Internet. 

When the National Science Foundation awarded the first four contracts to connect engineers and scientists around the country into an on-line community, we started to work with the fledgling CERFnet that established the Western leg of the NSFnet. 

Up until the any-to-any communications network went commercial it was a badge of courage and honor to struggle with the unfriendly network of networks. 

It was an amazing means of communications!

With newer and more user-friendly interfaces as well as the introduction of the Web things got even better.   

Now they’re also worse than ever but…

Sending emails back and forth is faster and more reliable than sending letters through the USPS. 

It’s easier than using the telephone and playing phone tag for hours and days on end. 

It even enables you to tap into sites around the globe and research almost anything, anywhere, anytime.

We’re not big surfing fans but our son has no problem cruising from site to site gathering information on our solar system, string theory, tons of things he has a hard time explaining to us. 

The Data Rich Web
Recently we had to conduct some on-line research for a client.

We searched through more that 50 on-line press rooms.

We found news releases, white papers, literature, financial statements, product reviews and more. 

The Web delivered up a veritable gold mine of information. 

Almost everything you would want to know…except

Way too often, we couldn’t find an editorial contact. 

Tech support?  Sure. 

Sales?  No problem. 

Webmaster?  Buried but there. 

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The Social Media Seismic Shift

Social media is information created to be disseminated through social interaction, created using accessible and scalable publishing techniques via the net.  Now there is a mouthfull.  It is an umbrella term that defines a wide range of activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures via the web.  That said, it is one of the most important ways to communicate and build relationships with people, including prospects, customers and those in a specific target market.

Social media is changing how we relate with one another, what we learn about each other and what we are comfortable sharing.  The upside of this is that more people are connecting, communicating and in touch than ever before.  The downside is more strangers know more about our personal lives and information.  For example, when someone Tweets that their family is off to Europe, it’s not just their friends that know that they’re not going to be home for awhile.  It’s often hard to remember that the information we post on the net is being viewed by people we don’t know.  It feels like a normal controlled conversation, which can lull people into a dangerous complacency.

Marketing-wise, social media is opening new worlds of possibilities.  Having run a public relations firm for over two decades, I’ve seen the greatest changes in marketing take pace in the past few years.  It has truly been a seismic change.  How we communicate and how we relate is shifting.  Marketers need to take note that (more than ever) a strong campaign comes down to effectively communicating and building relationships

One of the most interesting shifts is the melding of traditional public relations and social media.

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Creating A Successful Internet Marketing Funnel

Social media, blogging and article marketing offer effective ways to generate interest establish a presence for your brand and your company and create a powerful inbound marketing funnel.  As with all forms of Internet marketing, online tracking and analytics help make this type of outreach accountable.  They keep you on track, letting you know if you’re utilizing the most effective approach.  Moreso than with other types of marketing, the key to success here is relevancy.  In this case you are truly shooting for quality, not quantity.

Relevancy comes down to creating and posting effective content that your readers and customer base are interested in.  Content is king when it comes to the net.  You can’t overestimate it.  Once that most important element is in place, there are various ways to package and deliver your content.  The more organic avenues include blogging, article marketing and social networks.  The more commercial-oriented avenues include Adwords, pay for clicks, placing ads on social media sites email marketing, etc.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the jury is still out on the success of ads on social media sites.  There are certain risks by association that advertisers are not comfortable with.  An ad on Facebook or Twitter could be placed next to some very controversial post or image.  It is a risk the advertiser takes.  The sites themselves are developing new revenue models that are not ad-oriented.  Some offer games on their platforms, others sell customized digital items to their members, and others such as LinkedIn offer premium services for a monthly fee.  Twitter will be charging for different analytical tools.   One thing that’s clear is that the revenue model for social media sites is not yet clear at all.

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An Author’s Dilemma: Surviving The Seismic Shifts In The Book Trade

Book signing tours use to be a regular part of the publishing industry.  Authors expected to sign a deal, get an advance and then prepare for a tour.  Some tours, those of the reigning literary superstars, had a glamorous side; for most they were a bit of a grind and a part of the road warrior aspect of trying to sell books. 

But book tours are going the way of the LP in the music industry.  They are still there, but they’re becoming scarcer.  It’s a shame, because book tours are more important than many realize.  They are about making connections with individual stores, store owners and managers.  Even those inevitable signings that end up with barely a handful of people in the audience can be beneficial, if a relationship is forged between the writer and a bookseller.  But now independents are falling by the wayside and the large chains are doing all that they can to simply survive.  As with the music industry, the Internet has set the publishing industry on its head.  Stores and chains are failing as more books are being bought and sold online.  As with all types of intellectual property, book sales are being hit hard.  The model that worked so well only a few years ago, is now broken.

The downside is that the days of generous advances, full-blown PR campaigns and multi-city book tours is pretty much a thing of the past, except for a very select few.   Still as the old model begins to falter, new  opportunities are surfacing.  For authors who take their careers and their works into their own hands there is a new world of opportunity out there.

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The Music Industry: Spinning A New Business Model

The Internet has impacted all of the arts, but no sector has been hit quite as hard as the music industry.  With CD sales fading and radio play shrinking, recording artists are finding less opportunities to get their music heard.  To survive, many musicians are becoming brands in the service of brands.  The industry is in such a free fall that advertising avenues are filling the shoes that music labels once did.  During most of rock’s history melding music in the service of a product was anathema.  But this is a very different world; in the past musicians and record labels could make a good living off of selling records and CDs.  An artist didn’t have to sell his or her music to an advertiser or TV show to turn a profit.  But with the advent of Napster and subsequent sites, the days of platinum and double platinum record sales are quickly fading. 

Now most bands make their money off of touring, merchandising and yes, melding their music with products.  Lady GaGa’s Bad Romance is a product placement wet dream come true.  The video is filled with brands galore.  But she’s not the only one going down that road; everyone from Iggy Pop to Velvet Revolver to Depeche Mode has cut deals with products and brands.   Although Steve Jobs helped to put some life back into music with iTunes as a way to generate revenue, it’s a far cry from where things stood in the ‘60s, ‘70s, or ‘80s.  As the industry shifts, artists have to rethink their approach and their career paths.

The downside is that labels are no longer there with the famed A&R reps grabbing bands off the streets and turning them into stars (not that it was ever that common an occurrence to begin with).

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Creating a Long Term Marketing Action Plan

Most companies develop action plans for what they consider the nuts-and-bolts part of their business, including production, sales, distribution, etc.  It’s surprising how few companies automatically throw marketing into that mix.   This is particularly true when it comes to small or mid-sized companies.  Many entrepreneurs and business owners think of marketing as an extra, an afterthought, something to focus on when there is extra money to spend on incidentals.    The truth is that for a company to be successful (first and foremost) marketing matters.  It is a business essential.  The question should never be if a company should market, but how.

The good news is that businesses now have more options than ever.  It used to be that direct marketing, traditional advertising and PR, were the holy trinity in marketing.  Along with some basic grassroots guerrilla approaches, those three were considered the only viable options.  The internet has changed everything.  The new marketing arsenal now includes social media, blogging, email marketing, article marketing, pay-per-click, video marketing, Adwords… the list goes on.

But this does not mean that there is now an either/or approach to marketing.  The correct question is not:  should a company launch a traditional public relations campaign or a social media campaign? Rather, how does a company effectively meld a PR campaign with a social media, blogging approach?

To launch an effective campaign, a business first needs to develop a clear message, create a strong brand and define its target market.  The next step is to develop a strong marketing approach and marketing plan.  The plan needs to be a living breathing, fluid approach that can shift and change as the market changes.  Each business has different needs.  But a plan is a necessity.

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How To Grow Your Home Based Business

Summary - If you have taken the plunge and opened a home based business, you are likely interested in learning how to make it a success. The most important skill to master when working at home is marketing.

How to Grow your Home Based Business
Marketing is the key to financial success for any home based business opportunity. When you work at home, you must learn how to leverage the power of the Internet to grow your annual revenues. No matter how knowledgeable you are about a particular product or service, if you don’t generate sales, you will go out of business. Follow the ideas outlined below to grow your work at home opportunity.

Article Marketing
Content is king on the Internet for generating website traffic for your home based business opportunity. When a potential customer types in a keyword or keyword phrase into a search engine, a list of relevant websites will come up for their review. And, when they click on a link provided, the business stands the chance to generate either a lead or a sale. So, for your work at home opportunity, leverage the power of article marketing to increase revenues. Articles of interest to your target lead can be placed onto your website or into article directories to increase your natural page rank over time.

Create a Blog
Blog marketing is also a popular online marketing technique for home based business owners. Blogs are more personal in nature than articles and can also be placed either on your company website or on an independent website with links back to your URL. Blogs should be written about informative topics that would appeal to the ideal lead for your business.

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What are the New Ways to Promote Your Business?

Over the last year or so, lots and lots of new ways to promote your business have appeared. Some of these were there before, but they’ve now become mainstream and have opened the doors for smaller businesses to compete with larger businesses for the first time. And they all have to do with advances in technology. 

For the first time, you are able to market and promote your business to the masses without it costing you a penny and whatsmore, because some of these ideas are new and a bit different, it makes marketing fun! 

If you’d asked me about these things a year ago, I probably would have told you that it simply wasn’t possible, but now it is. So, let me give you a bit of an insight into some of the new ways to promote your business. All of these are completely free to do and some of them may appeal to your nature as a completely different and creative way to do business.  

1.   Social Networking I think most small businesses have now heard about Social Networking or the likes of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc, but many people haven’t yet experienced this form of marketing. It’s still incredibly new and a bit scaryfor people, but it’s a really fun way to get your message out and great for allowing people to experience the person behind the business.  

2.   Podcasts or audio recordings Audio recordings are gaining pace as a completley different way to learn. These are tips, opinions and information but on an audio recording rather than being written down. Once you’ve recorded your stuff, you can send a link to download the recording to your customers or provide the information on a CD. You can even record a few recordings and then submit them to Itunes for inclusion on their site. 

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Just What Is An Autoresponder?

The word ‘Autoresponders’ has been used more and more over the last few months and pretty much all of us have now experienced them even if you don’t yet realise it. 

But just what is an autoresponder and why should you think about using one in your business? 

Well, let me explain. 

The simplest form of an autoresponder is when you send a message to someone and you immediately receive an email back that tells you that person is out of office. This email will have been sent automatically (no human response was required) and it will have responded to you – hence the name autoresponder. 

You will have also probably seen an autoresponder if you’ve purchased products off of a website. Take Amazon for example or Ebay. If you’ve purchased something from Amazon or made a bid on Ebay, the chances are high that you will have immediately received an email from the company confirming your purchase or your bid.  

And you may have seen autoresponders at work if you’ve subscribed to a newsletter from a website. In most cases now, you will have immediately receive an email from the company concerned welcoming you to the website with a copy of the newsletter. 

Now, trust me when I say that a human is not sitting there at all times of the day or night responding to messages that come in from a website or order confirmations – these emails are sent automatically from you by a computer programme that has been specifically written for this purpose. 

But, why should you care? What has this got to do with your business? 

Now (hopefully) you’ve got your head around what an autoresponder is, I want you just to think for a minute about the power of autoresponders and how they can help your business. 

Imagine that while you’re on holiday, a potential customer visits your website.

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Six Steps For Launching An Online Marketing Presence

As a teen entrepreneur coach, I work with young entrepreneurs who are often bootstrapping when they start out. They are searching for simple ways to build a presence online to compliment whatever they are doing in the offline space. Even though they are often technologically savvy, when starting a business, marketing a business online can be information overload. So these are the simple steps I share with them so that they can get started. And they can use supplementary resources, advanced programs and tools and fee based 3rd party applications to build on this foundation as they acquire more knowledge, visibility and money.

1. Name It and Claim It. When you decide to build an online presence pick a topic that centers on a theme and try to make sure everything you set up from your social networking sites to your blog, somehow ties back to that theme. It helps to build greater brand awareness. The more niche or specialized the theme, the easier it will be for your target customer and the media to find you vs. you trying to find them. Express your unique voice as it will make you more memorable i.e. Relationship Marketing Expert, Mari Smith, always wears turquoise in her videos, online avatars and at conferences so she can be easily recognized….not to mention she is a 6′ blonde =) When creating a name for your blog or user name, try to think of an all encompassing term that someone might use to search for your site or blog.

2. Choose Your Platform. Think about the behaviors of your customers or do a survey (www.surveymonkey.com) to find out what online tools they are using. The places where your customer are spending their time are the places you need to be active. You don’t need to register for a lot of sites or the latest and the greatest. Register for one or two sites.

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12-Pack of Condoms for WordPress STDs

WordPress STD’s (Security Transgression Defilements) are a common occurrence. WordPress-powered websites are far from being immune to hackers, although the latest release/s address many earlier security issues. WordPress, like other content management systems and forums such as phpBB, vBulletin, is a major target for hackers and spammers. Basic prophylactic measures, or condoms for WordPress STDs, need not be complicated or expensive.

Those involved in hacking WordPress usually want to use the sites as concealed (cloaked) link farms. Its rare that actual damage is done to your site, and often the site owner remains blissfully unaware that there’s been any interference. Some of the link injection systems are extremely sophisticated! Testing for enemy action can be as simple as opening your site and choosing View / Source and reading through the content of the <Head> section down to, and including, the <BODY> tag. The link injections I’ve seen are usually immediately after <BODY>. Is there a long string of HTML code containing links to dozens of sites you know nothing about? If there is, you’ve been violated, and have a WordPress STD (Security Terminated Deficiency)!

This article is not about fixing security violations. Its about simple prophylactic measures most “non-technician” site owners take. This is not slick and professional security strategy, and there are some who will scoff at using  “security by obscurity” as a primary tactic. However, even on a tight budget, the following 12 zero-dollar steps can and should be taken to minimise the possibility of attack.

1 – Always Use the Current Version
Why anyone would persist with an older version is beyond me. Upgrading has always been easy enough, and recent versions reduce the pain to a button click!

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How To Use Articles To Promote Your Business

Have you ever longed for people to knock on your door wanting to do business with you? Um – doesn’t often happen does it?  

Actually that’s not quite true. There is a way to get people knocking at your door, but it doesn’t just happen by itself. You need to influence this. And how you do that is to build relationships with people so that they perceive you as an expert and know, like and trust your approach. 

That sounds so easy doesn’t it? Well, I know it’s not. One of the best ways to help people to perceive you in this way though is to write articles.  

Articles are great for loads of things. They’re great for building your reputation as an expert in your field and they have the added advantage that once you’ve written one article, you can then use it in tons of places.  

Some ideas of where you can use your articles include in your newsletter, in other people’s newsletter, post them on-line to build your presence on the internet and on social networks, send them to the press, include them in a book, put them on your blog, send them out to your clients and contacts as useful information or you could swap your article in exchange for people’s contact details on your website. 

Just in the last few months, articles that I’ve written have been included in three books (two are still being published, but one is on the bookshelves as we speak), got me several clients and I’ve also been ask to speak in several places too. How much free publicity is that? 

I’m not telling you this to boast – I’m telling you this so that you can realise that writing articles is a powerful marketing tool that can really help you pitch yourself as an expert in your field. After all, do you think your clients would rather work with an expert? Yes, of course they would! 

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The Ascent Of Earned Media

Brands and marketers are rapidly leaving the orbit of “paid media” dominance and entering the gravitational pull of the age of “earned” and “social media.” But, first, a definition, compliments of Wikipedia:
Earned media (free media) refers to favorable publicity garnered via efforts other than advertising, as opposed to paid media, which refers to publicity gained through advertising. Earned media often refers specifically to publicity gained through editorial influence, whereas social media refers to publicity gained through grassroots action, particularly on the Internet.

Brands that want to generate “coverage” in a world where professional and consumer-generated media live side-by-side, they either must “earn” it (PR) or stimulate a conversation (social) based on action, in-action or mis-actions (mistakes). Traditionally, earned media coverage was largely facilitated through public relations campaigns – professional editors assigned stories to journalists who wrote about something “newsworthy.”

While that process is still at work in an ever-expanding media universe, today products and (customer) services that delight consumers by exceeding, or failing, to exceed their expectations earn voluminous word-of-mouth (social media) coverage from armies of bloggers, tweeters, and Facebookers, who magnify the brand message virally.

While earned media has been around since the first campfires, the Internet and social media networks make it much easier to earn media for a brand, product, or oneself. But earning digital media doesn’t mean it’s free. Instead of paying for media placements (advertising), marketers pay for the time and resources of people who will investigate what’s being said about your brand and then engage on your behalf. These can be employees, contractors, agencies, etc.

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Will Your Content Change The Internet Weather?

“Hey, come take a look at this storm system. It’s enormous.” – Hideki, Japanese astronaut, The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Lots of people missed the big news of the Beijing Olympics.  It wasn’t that Mark Phelps won 8 gold medals.  It wasn’t that the U.S. edged out China on the total number of medals.  It wasn’t the hundreds of personal tragedies and triumphs.  Some of the competitors undoubtedly felt like Laura Chapman … “I know you always thought I took the competition too seriously … you were right. It was all for nothing.”  The big news was that nothing happened.  Sure The Chinese government and China’s CCTV was afraid.  NBC was afraid.  AT&T was afraid.  BBC was afraid.  Microsoft was afraid (they had a lot riding on Silverlight’s success).  Limelight and Akamai were afraid.  Afraid the video pipes of the world would collapse. 

Didn’t happen!

The estimated 1.3 billion worldwide Internet users were more than four times the number of potential users that tried to access Mark Cuban’s broadcast.com “airing” of Victoria’s Secret show a decade ago. 

The Games Begin

This online video challenge streamed more than 2200 hours of live competition in 25 sports.  More than 112 video streams were often available at one time.  All told 336 streams could have been sent out simultaneously.  The content was available to 77 countries.  The great thing was online viewers around the globe didn’t have to watch NBC’s version of the Olympics.  Use your search engine, type in Beijing (or 2008) Olympics + country name and BAM!

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Online Video … But Different

“This show as prerecorded earlier, because it didn’t make much sense to prerecord it later.” – Gary Owens, announcer – Rowan & Martin Laugh-In (’68-’73)

The writers’ strike was all about giving their members a “fairer” proportion of the growing volume of online content.  Since it appeared to be a prolonged affair Tellywood focused a lot of attention and money on indie films at Sundance.  At the same time more than a few analysts wondered aloud if there might be a mass migration from TV to online videos and folks would be less than enthused in returning to the family room set.

On a recent dive trip to Kona we met a couple who said they were part of the second wave of hippies to Santa Fe and were writers / artists / videographers.  We asked if they had shown the work at any of the growing number of film festivals around the globe.  The videographer part of the duo said no but he had been turned down by a lot of them.   Then he added that in the past few months he had had a lot of interest in his work from both Tellywood and online outlets.  In fact five had been sold … two to Tellywood, three to online firms.  It made us wonder or as Laugh-In’s Arte Johnson would say, “Veerrry eenteresting…”

In markets such as the U.S., homes have more TV sets and DVD players than broadband access.  It may be growing but if it weren’t for our wireless card in Kona we’d have been stuck with dial-up (don’t even ask!). 

Screen Differences

A number of folks like to say convergence is taking place and soon we’ll be three-screen households.  Maybe yours but not ours!  They’re different.  They’re viewed differently.

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Content Contention – Entertainment Flexibility … Big Iron Doesn’t Matter

Television production used to be pretty straight forward.  You had HUGE, HEAVY cameras three people pushed around.  In the control room you had sliders and BAM! magically the signal went over the air. At home you turned on the set.  Had dinner (families ate together then) and a half-hour later the tube was lit and you watched the Sid Caesar or Lone Ranger show.  It was so cool.

For years we all went to the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show and the behemoths of the industry dominated the floor.  Big, sexy, expensive cameras.  Big, gorgeous, expensive control panels. TV sets, big/bigger, gorgeous, expensive. Then the cable and satellite folks emerged with “a better TV experience.”   Once you got tired of over-the-air only shows in they “offered” you 50-100 fantastic channels for $100 a month.  Suddenly our wife could watch HGTV, daughter could watch the gut-buster infomercial, and son could watch Telemundo (he’s practicing Spanish and the skirts are short).  According to Nielsen we started watching more TV – 4 hours, 34 minutes a day in 2006-07.  Not bad for the producers, network, cable operators, advertisers. Nielsen found:

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Twitter World – Trust Us … You Ain’t That Interesting

We see the value in Earth Day.  We recognize the importance of World Peace Day. In deference to our wife we think even Mother’s Day is OK. But Twitter Day?  Somehow Oprah coming online and saying “Hello Twitter World.” (or whatever) is not quite up there with the wizard of Menlo Park (Edison) calling one of his assistants for help! For the most part, we don’t really care that Oprah, Shaq,  Parris, Kutcher and a lot of other folks are thinking about or talking about.   Yet a million +/- folks have signed up and track their every 140 character utterance. Our son  – who has an account but is too busy instant messaging with his smartphone and Skyping on his notebook – made the observation that if you Twittered in the real world instead of on the Internet you’d be arrested for stalking! Heck we have people following our updates and all we have is a Twitter account…and we thought we didn’t have a life! But there is a growing Twitter population.  In just a couple of years it has grown to well more than 10 million according to ComScore. As Domino Pizza, Amazon and other firms are quickly realize the mob mentality can be a force to be reckoned with. In the old days you used email, the phone and if you wanted to use the wayback machine you sent a letter.

Hum of Noise

Today people young and old can’t stand the vacuum of silence and we rush to take advantage of every personal and social networking tool that is available.  Twitter and other microblogging tools caught the attention of people everywhere when terrorists attacked the hotel in India and when the US Air plane went down in the Hudson River.  Instantly people around the globe could see the news first hand.  News media incorporated the citizen journalists’ inputs with their coverage seamlessly.

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Social Media…The Hunted Can Become the Hunter

Today’s Web 2.0 social media environment offers a tremendous opportunities for companies to closely engage with customers, prospects and market segments in a positive, mutually beneficial manner.  The problem arises when marketing and communications people view these new 1:1 outlets as a great marketing/sales and PR pitching opportunities.  They forget that the individuals if not treated properly and with professional respect can turn and instead of being the ones who are being hunted can become the hunters.  People – regular folks – can be mean and brutal if they are abused.  Marketeers need to know the pros/cons, challenges/opportunities.  Consumers need to know that they have a powerful platform to strike back and cause real damage. It requires a mutual understanding on both sides and a meaningful two way relationship otherwise…duck.

“Nothing in those files makes their sacrifice worthwhile. You have to let go. We’re professionals, when an operation goes bad, we tie it off. ” – Ward Abbott (Brian Cox) – The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

The world of new media – widgets and social applications – looks like a beautiful marketing hunting grounds.

It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

Imagine people flock to Web 2.0 locations where they blog.

They upload/download audios/videos of specific interest to them.

They congregate at business/special interest web sites to gain information and be entertained.

They twitter.

They gather daily/nightly in online communities to exchange information, news and just hang out.

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Discover the Secrets of SEO

There is so much information floating around out there about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how to get some rankings.  So much of it is contradictory and confusing.   I wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about the secrets of top rankings. 

So, let’s jump right in with the secrets to SEO success…

Search Engine Secret # 1: There are no secrets!  The search engines make it all very public and clear what you need to do to get top rankings.  The success lies in the details and proper implementation.  But there is no top secret, proprietary technique for getting top rankings.

OK, so now we all know there are no secrets, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t information you need to know, such as:

If you don’t optimize your site, you won’t get top rankings.  It really is that plain and simple.  If the engines can’t spider your site and you don’t have links and strong content, you don’t stand a chance against the sites that do have all that in place.  So many people don’t want to spend money on SEO, or are afraid to take the plunge but then they can’t understand why they don’t have rankings.  So maybe there is a secret – maybe the secret is take action and get your site optimized!

Your site structure matters!  I can’t tell you how often people have said to me “I know my site is a mess, but I don’t want to spend the money fixing it, so can’t you just throw up some keywords and Meta tags and get me some rankings?”   Ummmm, no, I can’t.  Your site structure is your foundation.  You would never build a house without a solid foundation, why would you build an SEO campaign without a solid foundation? 

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