I’m headed to (hopefully) sunny San Diego today for the annual Online Marketing Summit conference where I’ll get to present on one of my favorite topics: Optimization. Of course, if you read Online Marketing Blog very often, you’ll know my definition of optimization is a bit different than traditional SEO.  My post last Thursday “Are You Optimized?” touched on this.

The competition for attendance during the breakout sessions at OMS is really tough during the time slot I’m scheduled for. SAP, Wider Funnel and SAP are all presenting at the same time as I’m giving the all new “Optimize THIS: Integrating Social, SEO & Content presentation”. This post is a bit of a preview on the presentation so if you’re at OMS this week, make sure you check it out.

In Optimize THIS, I have about 45 minutes (including Q & A) to help attendees learn the principles and best practices of optimizing content and social media participation for better marketing performance.  Most marketers and even consumers face a deluge of information as they look for answers online. Google has morphed itself into an entirely new type of social search engine and the state of flux has many businesses facing new challenges that are difficult to keep up with.

There’s plenty of speculation that businesses like Google that have attracted a huge user base because of their ability to organize and provide useful, relevant information see free or organic information as a problem to the advertising solution. In other words,  SEO is seen as a bug, not a useful way to modify websites so search engines can crawl and index them more effectively to the benefit of all: user, brand, search engine.

Google Dominates search, but should they dominate your online marketing?  What would happen if Google disappeared tomorrow? What if your business disappeared from Google tomorrow? What would that mean to your marketing? What would it mean to your business? There are numerous stories of companies devastated as collateral damage to algorithmic updates.

Google’s market position over-influences SEO practitioners to develop keyword glossaries, create, promote and optimize content solely focused on Google. That’s a reasonable approach, but I for one, am not a big fan of putting all my marketing eggs in one basket. The perceived reward of single stop marketing is also a risk.

Diversification or “Un-Googling” your online marketing isn’t just good for mitigating risk, it’s also a better approach to meeting customer needs, especially when optimization is viewed holistically with the way a business communicates digitally with its customers.

A more customer centric approach to online marketing is the catalyst for integrating content marketing, SEO and Social Media. The icing on the cake of customer centric online marketing diversification is even better organic performance on Google vs. focusing solely on traditional keyword popularity and links.

The road to Social, SEO and Content Marketing integration is through understanding the fundamental shifts in how consumers discover, consume and share information online. Search behaviors are not just inspired by a consumer need, but by paid, owned, earned and share media. The consumer journey online for solutions weaves its way through search and social interactions finding, interacting, reacting, buying and sharing.

Online commerce and content are increasingly a social experience and content is the key to helping companies Attract, Engage and Inspire their target audiences to act: purchase, interact and share with their networks.

What does a customer centric optimize content marketing approach look like? Start by identifying common customer characteristics. Segment that data and develop consumer profiles or personas that describe: Search Keywords, Social Topics, Pain Points, Triggers and Goals. Figure out what information would be most meaningful during the stages of your customer segments’ journey through the buying cycle. Essentially, find out what customers care about and leverage that data in a way that allows you to target your “best” customers as a group.

Translate what you now know about your customers into a content plan that addresses pain points, triggers and consumer goals with brand content optimized for search keywords and social topics. Implement website, blog, social content and engagement marketing to meet your target customers needs with the right context, relevant language and meaningful topics that will inspire them to take action.

Structure your content marketing plan with optimized and socialized channels of distribution. We like the hub and spoke model that can scale to a “constellation” of hub and spokes.

Monitor social channels for community response and engagement with socialized content. Use web analytics to monitor search and user experience impact of your content on engagement, fueling social network growth and of course, inspiring sales.

By formulating a content plan based on consumer segment information needs as they move through the buying cycle, optimization can be more in tune with customer interests than generic keyword popularity. Content is more helpful, usable and likely to be shared socially. For customers prone to use search, you’re visibile. For those that focus on social channels, you’re there too. For those that use both: even better.

There’s a lot more to say on this topic (as I’ve done in Optimize) but you can expect to see plenty of screen shots and some examples in my presentation tomorrow. If your’re ready to get optimized for 2012 and beyond, I hope to see you there.

2/7 OMS – San Diego
Hilton San Diego Bayfront
Optimize This: Integrating Social, SEO & Content
Learn the principles and best practices of optimizing content and social media participation for better marketing performance
11:45 AM–12:30
Room: Sapphire H

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | #Optimize This: Online Marketing Summit 2012 Presentation | http://www.toprankblog.com

This post is about Congratulations, Convergence and Content.

First off, congrats to Aaron Kahlow on his great news, I’m sure UBM TechWeb will be pleased with OMS, it’s an impressive event with a great following. Speaking of OMS, despite the wimpiest Minnesota Winter in years, February is a fine time to go somewhere warm and luckily, OMS and SES Search & Social Accelerator in San Diego are coming up fast Feb 6-9, 2012.

Online Marketing Summit has grown quickly and the annual event in San Diego boasts an impressive roster of topics, training opportunities and speakers. The conference kicks off with an Online Marketing Bootcamp, then 3 days of OMS sessions on every topic under the Online Marketing sun.

OMS is probably one of the most hands on, practical and well-rounded events you could attend as an internet marketing practitioner. When client side marketers, who are often responsible for a range of disciplines within a company from Search to Social to Email, ask me about good events to attend, the OMS Annual conference is one I recommend.

In Avinash Kaushik’s post today, “The 2015 Digital Marketing Rule Book. Change or Perish” one of his 7 Rules for Digital Marketing Revolutionaries concerns the need for marketing practitioners (applies to professionals of all types) to extend their expertise beyond core skills. “You can no longer be good at just one thing, or two. It is a 10-thing world now (and maybe a 20-thing world soon).” Events like OMS and SES Search and Social Accelerator are excellent opportunities for marketers to expand their skill sets.

You’ll get to learn from brands like: HP, Bing, General Motors, Adobe, Salesforce.com, SAP, Caterpillar, AOL, NCR, BabyCenter and many more B2C and B2B marketing experts. There’s also great group of industry experts, too many to mention but they’ll cover everything from online marketing strategy to SEO, to PPC, to Social Media to Analytics and more.

My part of all this fun will include a solo session on strategic integration of SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing. Here are the details:

Optimize THIS: Integrating Social, SEO & Content
Learn the principles and best practices of optimizing content and social media participation for better marketing performance. Customer behaviors and expectations are shifting, platforms are continuously evolving and the moving target of SEO has just put a blindfold on you. You could keep optimizing for individual keywords and pages, or you could take a step back and look at the bigger picture of how consumers Discovery, Consume and Engage with content.

Optimize THIS will reveal an entirely new way to look at the notion of Optimization by presenting a model for Attracting, Engaging and Inspiring customers through optimized and socialized content marketing.  The principles of this presentation come from my new book, Optimize, which will come out in March at SXSW.

The SES Search & Social Accelerator portion of OMS is a full day of advanced topics programmed by Andrew Goodman, aka the guy “Who wrote the book on Google AdWords” and Bill Hunt, one of the SMARTEST internet marketers on the planet. Really, he is. Sessions range from Marty Weintraub preseting on “The Art Of Data-Driven Social Marketing” to “Channel Surfing: Measuring Profit & ROI Across Channels” with Morgan Vawter. This is one of those events where you’ll definitely want to “bring your brain”.

For my part of SES Accelerator, I’ll be presenting on the convergence of social SEO and content with Arnie Keunn of Vertical Measures. Both Arnie and I have written books (Accelerate & Optimize) about this topic that is redefining what SEO really means. We’ll each provide practical ideas on how to develop a customer-centric “optimize and socialize” approach to attracting and engaging customers through search. We’ll be answering key questions about how to best leverage content as a search optimization asset as well as the role of social media and it’s impact on today’s consumer search experience.  I’m biased, but it’s going to be a kick ass session. Here are the details:

Feb 9 – 9:50 am
The Convergence of Search, Social and Content Marketing
The Google Panda update just made great content critical. Social media is grabbing all the headlines. Search gets more powerful every year. But how do they all play together? How do you increase your odds of being found both in search and social media? How will you consistently create content your a will enjoy? Join this panel as they provide case studies and walk you through a step-by-step approach that any organization can follow to grow their business online.

If you’re considering OMS and SES Accelerator, I’d highly recommend it. When you register, use the code: TOPRANK10 and get 10% off.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Convergence & Integration of Content Marketing with Social Media & SEO | http://www.toprankblog.com

Content Marketing is a hot topic and deservedly so.  According to an AOL Nielsen study in May 2011, 53% of all time on the internet is content consumption. In the U.S. alone, 27 million pieces of content are shared per day.  In the Junta42 and MarketingProfs B2B Content Marketing study, it was reported that 90% of marketers use content marketing and 51% plan to budget more than the previous year.

To help businesses, strategists and practitioners make sense of the opportunity, the first Content Marketing World conference in Cleveland, OH this week will bring together an impressive mix content marketing smarties, strategists and practitioners.  My little slice of this content marketing pie concerns the intersection of Social Media and SEO as assets for an effective Content Marketing Strategy.

Specifically, I’ll be covering:

The Importance of a Holistic Approach – Organizations are achieving certain levels of effectiveness by employing Search, Social Media and Content Marketing strategies independently vs. not at all. However, the opportunity to really master the ability to optimize for consumer/buyer content preferences for discovery, consumption and sharing is too significant to ignore. A holistic approach to Content Marketing leverages optimization of content for user experience that includes search visibility and social sharing as well as engagement that inspires business outcomes for marketing, public relations, customer service, human resources and other functional areas.

How Exactly Do Social Media, SEO & Content Marketing Work Together? – The possibilities are exciting when you think about how both search and social media optimization can elevate relevant content visibility, especially to target audiences that are actively looking.  The path from research to purchase involves interaction with search and social influences at an increasing rate. A study by GroupM and comScore reports that 48% of buyers were led by a combination of search and social media to purchase. The effect of interacting with search and social influences can vary by topic, phase in buying cycle, geography and person. Companies that incorporate Social Media and SEO in their Content Marketing Strategy can amplify their ability to be the most visible and relevant resource throughout the customer lifecycle. Additionally, social content and links can be influences (directly but more likely indirectly or conditionally) on standard search visibility.

7 Step SEO Strategy - Understanding relevant customer preferences for topics, customer pain points, position in the buying cycle and behaviors helps content producers and marketers research keywords, plan, optimize and promote content with purpose. Integration with other departments can co-opt resources for common benefit and of course no marketing initiative is effective without measurement – KPIs to conversions.  The specific 7 steps I’ll cover include:

1. Audience
2. Keywords
3. Content
4. Optimize
5. Socialize
6. Integration
7. Measure

Tactical Best Practices and Examples – Rounding things up includes a few examples B2B and B2C that illustrate at a high level, the implementation of these 7 steps and the resulting outcomes.

Readers of Online Marketing Blog know how enthusiastic and persistent I’ve been at promoting Social Media SEO and Content Marketing. The number of companies operating these functions independently is simply astounding. The opportunity to amplify or “Optimize” online marketing effectiveness towards reach and engagement is too significant to keep Social, SEO & Content in silos. I greatly appreciate opportunities to share this perspective at events like CMW.

If you’re attending Content Marketing World, I do hope to see you Thursday, September 8th at 2:00 PM for my presentation, “A Content Marketer’s Guide to Social Media & Search Strategy”.

For a deep dive into the subject, you might also want to check out,”Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing” to be published by Wiley early in 2012.

Infographic from Go-Globe.com

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | A Content Marketer’s Guide to Social Media & Search Strategy | http://www.toprankblog.com

OMS Minneapolis is focused on practical advice for marketing practitioners with a promising agenda covering: best practices community management from Best Buy plus hot tips & tactics on mobile, display, re-marketing, PPC, video, email, affiliate, user experience from local and national experts.

Of course you can also tap into a Killer Social SEO Strategy with TopRank Online Marketing at 10:15am where you can learn how large and small brands alike have integrated Social Media, SEO and Content Marketing to increase sales and improve customer engagement. This “Killer” session will provide practical examples of both BtoB and BtoC companies overcoming the competition with an agile, customer focused content marketing strategy.

Sounds good, right? Here’s how you can win a free pass to the June 7 conference day, which is selling tickets at about $300 each.

Just write comment below offering one Killer Social Media Marketing and/or SEO tip. The best tips will be selected by TopRank Online Marketing staff and we’ll notify the winner after 5pm today.  We’ll also mention the best tips during the presentation (with credit of course) during OMS Minneapolis.

We’re looking for great tips as well as which comments get “liked” the most too, so be sure to share your comment on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  The 2 free passes are for the June 7 conference day and do not include any other expenses.

Winners will be notified via email, so you must include your email address when you write your “Killer Social SEO” tip below.  So what are you waiting for? Show your Social & SEO smarts and leave a great tip below and win a pass to OMS Minneapolis!

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | OMS Minneapolis & A Killer Social SEO Strategy | http://www.toprankblog.com

Is blogging dead? A number of high profile bloggers and news media sites from Scoble to Wired to the New York Times have opined the demise of blogging as a consequence of growing social destinations like Twitter and Facebook.

The reality is that like many other forms of media, blogging is evolving and with the right strategy, highly effective. Short attention spans are served by short form content like Tweets and status updates. When it comes to influence on business, longer form content like that found on blogs serves an essential purpose. Rather than displace the most valuable attention spent on blogs, social sites like networks, microblogging, media sharing, news and bookmarks facilitate awareness and engagement with blog content.

Smart online marketers see this and are putting their budgets and priorities where it matters. According to eMarketer, 1 in 3 businesses publish blogs for marketing and HubSpot’s recent  2011 State of Inbound Marketing reports that more companies rated blogs as “critical or important” (62%) than any other social channel. These investments are paying off: AdWeek’s “Changing Scope of Advertising” infographic cites blogs as the leading source of customer acquisition over any other social channel.

Key Messages of Your Niche Provide Focus for Content Promoted from the Blog to Networks and Channels of Distribution.

Blogs are perfectly suited as social media information hubs for companies or individuals that want to dominate their niche online. Blogs can play an essential role in an integrated search, social media and content marketing strategy that directly influences consumer information discovery, consumption and sharing. But with literally millions of blogs published online and mainstream media getting involved, how does a blog stand out, let alone dominate their niche?

The first step is to understand what your niche is.  Formalize your unique selling proposition (USP):  How is your content unique and how does it serve the needs of the people you’re trying to reach better than any other blog?  What does your blog stand for?  What specific can you focus on that represents demand (search keywords) and topical discussion (social)?

The mechanics of a coordinated blogging effort that leverage search, social and content marketing involves:

• Goals & objectives
• Key message and differentiator – USP
• Persona development
• Search and social keyword research
• Editorial plan mapped to search and social content
• Optimization
• Link analysis
• Social channel development
• Intersection with online PR, media relations, advertising
• Content promotion
• Real-time, adaptive
• Monitoring, measurement & refinement

Whether you’re frustrated with the performance of current blogging efforts or you’re starting a new blog and want to maximize effectiveness, following a coordinated online marketing approach with a focus, can force multiply the effect of a company’s ability to “Be where customers are looking” (search), “Be where customers are talking” (social) “Be a source of influence, trust and engagement” (content). The result? You dominate your niche because all signals of credibility point to your social hub whether it’s via search, social, media – push or pull.

For the full presentation, you’ll have too attend BlogWorld New York this week. Hope to see you there.

Sometimes I like to open presentations common questions people have on the topic. What questions do you have about making more out of your business blogging effort? What challenges do you have in your efforts to dominate your niche?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | Dominate Your Niche with Social SEO & Blogging – BlogWorld Expo New York | http://www.toprankblog.com

It was close, she won by just 2 votes over Josh Braaten and Patrick Garmoe.
Congratulations again Rebecca and thank you for a clever and compelling post!

TopRank Online Marketing is proud to be a founding sponsor of the first Minnesota Blogger Conference. Tickets for this event “sold out” within a few hours and there are over 100 people on the waiting list. Thanks to conference founders Melissa Berggren, Arik Hanson, Suzi Magill and Katie Schutrop, it’s already one hot event.

The date is Saturday, Sept 11 (the day I fly to Hong Kong) and the location is at CoCo MSP in Saint Paul. Topics to be presented range from “how to blog” to “how to get your blog published as a book” to “how to make money with a blog” to “blog analytics” to a “business blogging panel” that will include Adam Singer from TopRank Marketing.

If you’d like to attend this networking rich and information packed event, you can’t. It’s sold out!

However, what you can do is win a free pass from TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog.

All you have to do is:

• Write a blog post explaining the most important thing you’ve learned from blogging yourself
• Or if you don’t blog yet, write a comment below on one thing you’d like to learn
• Also, why you should get to attend the MN Blogger Conference (instead of the other 100 people on the waiting list)
• Use the MN Blogger Conference logo above in your post and also include a link to the page you’re reading right now: http://tprk.us/mnblog

All blog post entries must be published and we must be notified (mnblog at toprank dot org) by Friday 9/3 at noon Central. Once received, all posts will be linked to from the bottom of this page and the TopRank Online Marketing staff will read the entries and decide the winner. THE WINNER of a free pass to the sold-out MN Blogger Conference will be announced at 5pm on Friday.

So what are you waiting for? Get started now on a compelling, creative and persuasive blog post that explains why you should be the winner of a very rare MN Blogger Conference pass.

Entries:

• Why I Need to Attend the MN Blogger Conference – Bella the dog or Phil Wocken
• I’m Desperate to Attend the Minnesota Blogging Conference – Patrick Garmoe
• Caprese Kabobs with Balsamic Vinaigrette – Brenda Score
• Minnesota Blogger Conference – Bonnie Korman
• Mama Wants To Go Mn Blogger BAD!!! - Becky Flansburg
• My Humble Plea to Attend MN Blogger Conference – Josh Braaten

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | Win a Free Pass to MN Blogger Conference | http://www.toprankblog.com

Watch as Brian talks about the importance of planning content and understanding its purpose in order to be effective with blog copywriting. He also mentioned that traditional media is still doing some things right and we new media types would do well to identify what those things are and use that insight for our own publishing and content marketing efforts.

I think Brian’s presentation on content planning and editorial was a perfect setup to the marketing of content presentation that I gave afterwards, but of course I’m biased.  Of course you can find a cornucopia of copy writing and content marketing advice at Copyblogger.

My next and last post from OpenCa.mp will include a summary of my presentation along with the actual PPT deck embedded within the post.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | Brian Clark on Content Marketing with Blogs | http://www.toprankblog.com

Gio says “Black hat is simply another way to automate a time-consuming process. In other areas of marketing and life in general we encourage automation in order to maximize efficiency and get a leg up on our competitors”.

According to the conference session description, the nature of this session doesn’t allow liveblogging or tweeting, which i think is a load of crap, so I’ll liveblog it anyway.

Speaking of liveblogging, I am writing this on an iPad and the brilliant WordPress app deleted the first version, so I am writing now from memory on a notepad app.

The session is basically about what Gio does on a daily basis for his SEO clients. Based on insights from Woopra analyticz Gio says these are 5-6 social media sites you need to focus on to drive traffic and affect your search visibility:

- Media sharing: YouTube and Flickr
- Social Bookmarking: StumbleUpon
- Social Networks: Facebook & Twitter

When you undertake your social media marketing efforts, don’t let “little people” and naysayers hold you back. Gio gives Cali Lewis as an example with her growth of online shows and current success with GeekBeat.TV

As far as as Geolocation services like Gowalla, Foursquare, Whrrrl, etc Gio says these are cute and fun, but that there’s not much measurable social media marketing value to them. (If you don’t buy that, check out Mashable.com for FourSquare case studies)

We’re 15 min into the presentation and thee’s no black hat SEO yet

YouTube lists are unreal for driving search traffic. Organize your individual videos into lists and optimize them. Find other videos that are highly trafficked and add them to lists that include your own videos. If you’re not creating video, you’ve got to get started.

Tools: tubetoolbox.com (Now we’re getting into the automation and almost black hat stuff). With YouTube ToolBox, Gio says you create a message in 2-3 sentences, mail merge their username and then create multiple versions of the message with different content and the same call to action. Then you can schedule the sending of messages to YouTube users that have been harvested at the rate of about 20 messages per hour. Something like: Hey “username” I saw that you commented on a video about XYZ and wanted to let you know about another similar video and would love your opinion.”.

I have to note, using automation tools like this must be done by someone that REALLY knows what they’re doing or you will suffer consequences. Managing risk vs. reward is important and for the record, my agency doesn’t use automation in this way.

The key to getting YouTube videos ranked high is activity on YouTube. with Flickr, you can add comments with a link back to your content.

Take advantage of current events. Gio shows a video of ComicCon geeks talking about how comic are not geeky anymore. Thee’s some irony to a code geek making fun of comic book geeks.

When going somewhere offline to get photos or video for content, blend in. Gio tells a story of buying a cowboy getup to blend in at a rodeo or maybe it was somewhere else like that where there was a concentration of cowboy types.

Keep it fresh. For example, make a presentation the day you give it.

Tool: tweetaddr 3.0. Using this tool makes it appear as if you’re communicating with Twitter via a web browser (when you’re not and actually using an automated follow tool).

“Can’t is not an option”. Gio gave an example of a how a school with only 200 kids earned 68,000 votes on a list of top schools.

“Show up and just get it done”. If you look like you’re supposed to be there, no one will bother you. (Regarding collecting content or promoting online content in the offline world).

Tool: Bookmarking Daemon – Put in your social boomarking accounts and it will randomly pick your content and promote it.

According to the room monitor, that’s all the time we have. You can find out more about Giovanni on his blog: Blog.gallucci.net and get a copy of his social media manifesto at: gallucci.net/smm

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | OpenCamp Blackhat SEO with Social Media | http://www.toprankblog.com

If you have any tips for San Francisco, Skydiving with the military or fun things to do in Hong Kong, please feel free to share:

Marketo Revenue Masters Webinar Series
8/17 How B2B Marketers Generate Revenue Through Search & Social Media (Panel)
In this session I will discuss how B2B marketers can use search engine marketing to drive significant revenue goals.
Moderator: Steve Ennen – Managing Director of Wharton University
Speaker: Lee Odden – CEO at TopRank Online Marketing
Speaker: Paul Dunay - Global Managing Director of Services and Social Marketing for Avaya and author of Facebook Marketing for Dummies

Search Engine Strategies, San Francisco
8/17 Content Marketing Optimization (Solo presentation)
This session provides unique insight into content based optimization strategies and processes as well as tactics for sourcing, creation and promotion of optimized content on the social web.

8/17 SEO Through Blogs & Feeds (Panel)
In this session I’ll share insights into blog content SEO & link building and share two fantastic case studies.
Moderator: Craig Macdonald, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Covario
Speaker: Sally Falkow, President, PRESSfeed
Speaker: Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank Online Marketing

8/19 Selling Search to the C-Suite (Panel)
This session will cover many of the challenges found in communicating the value of search marketing to senior marketing executives when search is but one slice of the overall marketing budget. This is a Rock Star panel and a can’t miss session.
Moderator: Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank Online Marketing
Speaker: Paul Wilson, Chief Revenue Officer, iProspect
Speaker: Rich Lesperance, Director of Online Marketing, Walgreens
Speaker: Laura Lippay, Partner, Nine by Blue
Speaker: Vivek Chaudhuri, Director, Search Marketing, Digitas Health

Skydiving with Army Golden Knights – Dallas
8/26 I won’t be speaking, I’ll be falling from the sky! Watch for a blog post about the experience.

Open Camp, Dallas
8/27 Social SEO for Blogs (Solo presentation)
I’ll be presenting an hour of blog SEO, including keywords, content planning, copy optimization, social networking and outreach, link building, content promotion and a few excellent case studies.

Minnesota Blogger’s Conference, St. Paul
9/11 I decided to be a sponsor of this inaugural event to help support our local blogging community but it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to present due to my flight to Hong Kong. However, TopRank Marketing will be represented.

Search Engine Strategies, Hong Kong
9/14 The Business Value of Social Media (Panel)
I”ll be sharing overall social media trends and our four step model for effective social media marketing: Listening, Content, Socialize and Measure.
Moderator: Adaline Lau, Asia Editor, ClickZ
Speaker: Scott McBride, Regional Business Director, 360 Digital Influence Asia Pacific, Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific
Speaker: Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank Online Marketing

There you go. That’s my next 30 days or so. If you’ll be at any of these events, please say hello and share any tips you might have.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | Upcoming Social SEO Events: San Francisco, Dallas, Hong Kong | http://www.toprankblog.com

Sponsored by JenKaneCo, well known social media evangelist Brian Solis recently gave a presentation to an enthusiastic group of marketers in downtown Minneapolis to introduce the concepts behind his new book:  Engage! The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate and Measure Success in the New Web. The following is an overview of his presentation:

Relations vs. Relationships

There’s something interesting that’s happening right now on the web:  relations are starting to matter more than relationships.  The key lesson for marketers, and what the rest of this overview discusses, is that people will engage around content that compels them in networks where that content spreads.

We are all going to have to shift from relationships to relations:  having more, thinner (but still relevant) connections is starting to matter more.  As a marketer, this shifts the power balance.  People are connecting around psychographics rather than demographics, and this means four degrees is the new six degrees of separation.  In plain English:  we’re all becoming better connected and users are vitally important to the equation of how information spreads.

A way for your marketing to succeed is to take the approach of a sociologist, an anthropologist and a philosopher rather than a traditional marketer.  That’s because it is people who are in control of the ideas that spread.  The web has changed things and marketing and PR have changed along with it.

Context Becoming as Valuable as Content

The challenges go deeper than marketing approaches.  When you join a company, you’re not given a Facebook page and Twitter account like you are an email account.  You already have those things.  And companies aren’t sure what to do or how they can leverage their own team members to increase their digital presence.  Your team members are vitally important because “content being king” is evolving into an era where context is king (yet, content still remains quite the powerful queen).  Context is proven to show who you are connected to and why around every conversation.  Your team members are a key ingredient to providing context, their actions equating to a type of social currency for your brand.

Speaking of content, how people react to your company’s content (something now public) equates to the stature of your community.  Reputation, trust and relationships are earned through these reactions and how you connect contextually is the experience prospects seek.

Content and context define the future of successful marketing.  You’re no longer marketing to individuals, you’re now marketing to “an audience with an audience.”  And every time they react to something you do, it shows the power of relations vs. relationships.  But without remarkable content and relevant context, you can never reach “an audience with an audience” effectively because you’re missing part of the equation of why people share ideas.

Getting Started

One of the easiest things to do is see what’s happening right now.  An approach that can be used is a “30 day window” to see a snapshot in time of what’s happening around a brand.  For a brand unsure about how much conversation was happening around their products – a sample search can reveal a staggering amount of messages across social platforms.  In many cases it’s a shock and can result in disbelief from management teams.  A social media monitoring service should be required for every brand to monitor the situation in an ongoing fashion.

Getting at least a snapshot is a good first step, and ongoing monitoring is even better, but equally important is to consider the data in perspective.  Or to put it simply:  share of voice vs. share of conversation.  Share of voice only gives you a partial view as it assumes everyone is talking about companies in a given industry.  A more relevant approach is to look at share of conversation.  As an example, consider  Old Spice – in the discussions on the social web regarding “body spray,” how well did they do?  While the overall conversations and reactions generated, putting it into context truly provides meaning of share of conversation.

Share of conversation matters more than most consider.  People are actively using the social web as part of the decision making cycle, and so this is the socialization of more than just marketing, but business as a whole.

Conclusion

How are you adapting to the socialization of business to help move these things in the right direction?  You need to extend divisions so that they are responding to consumers at the right point to become trusted and a part of the community.

All companies need to realize the fact that they are now in the media business, and that every company is now a media company.  This strategy is potent enough several companies embracing it have developed brands of media so popular they’re putting out best-selling books.  The influence they have over their markets is that big.

Influence is the ability to inspire desirability and measurable action and outcomes.  It is more than a click or more than a view.  As marketers, creating content and context to ultimately form influence is how to achieve long term, sustainable social media success.

For more on getting started in social media, consider creating a social media roadmap to plan your social media strategy.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | How to Cultivate the Socialization of Your Business | http://www.toprankblog.com

Analytics can provide a wealth of information but marketers often look at high level indicators such as: top content, bounce rates, entrance sources and keywords without tying it all together. In most cases, there is a tremendous amount of insight that can be used to make smarter marketing decisions, but most companies barley scratch the surface. At the OMS Minneapolis event last week  Adam Proehl gave an excellent presentation on analytics failures and successes. I’ve taken my notes from that presentation and combined them with my own opinions to create this list.

10 reasons why your web analytics are failing:

You speak numbers to non-number people.

It takes a numbers person to dig though large amounts of analytics data, figure things out, and draw conclusions. However, most people aren’t “numbers” people.

Many marketers like charts and clear, action orientated data. Charts are good, numbers in red and green help, and so does simplification. Don’t present tabular data just because it make sense to you. Try and think about who you’re presenting the information to and how they like to consume information. Some people like tables, others like graphs. As online marketers make an effort to understand the audience on the web they’re trying to reach, so should they understand the internal audiences that they report results to.

The statistics are fuzzy.

It’s easy to combine different pieces of data and come out with a great conclusion, even if they don’t go together.

For example, did you know that Michael Jordan and I have a combined total of 6 NBA championships?

While that statement is true, the conclusion is a bit skewed. Yes, Michale’s 6 plus my 0 do equal 6, the fact is that that I didn’t do any of the work for those championships, but I’m still getting the credit as I was included in the statement.

In analytics it’s important to break out the data so that it makes sense, not just so it looks good. It’s easy to combine two pieces of information in ways that make things look really good, but in reality, is something being hidden?

The averages are flawed.

Averages are great unless there is a major spike or dip. Then they have a tendency to skew the data a bit too much.

Based on the graph above, you could say that we’re averaging 1652 people from StumbleUpon a day. But in reality, most days there were less than 50. The big spike just screwed up the average.  As quickly as that spike came, it can also disappear and making decisions based on the daily average isn’t a best practice.

Sometimes things just don’t work.

There are lots of things that can go wrong with the analytics from a website and that has to be taken into account. The tracking code could be implemented incorrectly, maybe some special tagging was setup improperly, there could be issues with site architecture or maybe there are just things that are out of our control.

Analytics isn’t perfect and the reporting is never going to be 100% accurate, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the numbers are wrong.

The important thing is to fix the issues you can and work with the numbers you have.

You don’t understand the customer.

Why are people visiting our site? What are they doing while they are here? What stage of the buying cycle are they in?

Thinking that you know your customers is one thing, but you really need to watch their behavior and see what they are actually doing.

Maybe visitors are focused on research or maybe they can’t find what they’re looking for when they get to your site. These are things analytics can tell you if you look and once you know what your customer is doing, you can modify your site to fulfill their needs.

You don’t connect the conversion dots.

Getting visitors to the site is one step. The next step is making sure you have content that is going to satisfy their need. As stated above, analytics can help with this, but once prospects fill out the contact form, what happens next?

How many decisions are made by looking at top level analytics alone? Someone has to tie leads back to the website to determine what is working and what isn’t.

For example, in a B2B situation, a whitepaper download may be bringing in lots of leads, but none are qualified. Maybe there is a CTA (call to action) form that is bringing in few leads, but they convert very well. Analytics can’t tell you what happens with a lead after filling out a form, and connecting that data is very important.

You don’t dig deep enough.

Looking at one metric in analytics and making a decision seems like a good idea unless you’re not seeing the whole picture.

A good example would be bounce rates to a landing page. Just because the bounce rates are high, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. You need to dig into the data and find out the conversion rate as well.  Changing a landing page because the bounce rate is higher than normal but that also has a higher than normal conversion rate may result in lost sales.

You don’t tie in outside data.

Marketers should be looking at other online and offline marketing efforts and tie them into web analytics wherever they can.  Ideally, an online marketing program should track different sources for different outcomes such as: people from Twitter to conversion, knowing which conversions came from email campaigns and what offsite marketing tactics are working.

You don’t take the time.

Analytics isn’t easy. It’s not something anyone can do in an hour a day (except maybe those that read this book of course). If website marketers really want to get valuable information out of analytics, they need to invest time and resources into talent that can make that happen.

Analytics can seem complex and yes, it takes time and talent to make sense of them, but in the end analytics can paint a picture of how users are interacting with a site, what the user behavior is, and point out ways to make your site more successful and profitable.

Bonus: 13 analytics tools to help you out.

• ShareThis – Social sharing button that can tie data into Goggle Analytics.
• Snip and Tag – Firefox extension that allows you to easily copy a URL and tag it with Google Analytics code.
• GA? – Firefox extension that quickly shows if Google Analytics is installed on the page or not.
• Better Google Analytics – Firefox extension that enhances Google Analytics.
• Enhanced Google Analytics – Another Firefox extension that enhances Google Analytics.
• Twitalyzer – Analytics for social relationships.
• Bit.ly – URL shortening with analytics.
• Google URL Builder – A way of tagging URLs with Google Analytics code so they can be tracked on external sites.
• Excellent Analytics – Microsoft Excel plugin to pull Google Analytics data directly into Excel.
• Site Scan GA – Scans a website to find out what pages have analytics installed and which ones don’t.
• Web Analytics Solution Profiler/Debugger (WASP) – Firefox plugin that debugs analytics.
• Crazy Egg – Heat mapping tools that allow you to visually understand user behavior.
• ClickTail – Heat mapping tools that also track where uses are when they bail on a form.

What are some of your favorite web analytics tools?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | 10 Reasons Why Your Analytics Are Failing & 13 Tools To Help | http://www.toprankblog.com

The agenda covers everything from Social to SEO to B2B Blogging to Email Marketing. You’ll be able to learn from a mix of client side marketers and agency subject matter experts on cutting edge strategies for more successful online marketing programs.

Companies presenting include HubSpot, Cargill, Exact Target and many others. I’ll be giving the opening keynote presentation on SEO and the Social Web:

Core to many search marketing strategies is “Fish where the fish are” and the fish are decidedly hanging out on Google. YouTube, Gmail, Blogger.com and other online services from Google make its presence ubiquitous in the online marketing world. Now imagine if your website disappeared from Google tomorrow. What would that do to your marketing, your business? Google and search engines present a tremendous opportunity to attract new business, but it’s important to diversify online marketing in a way that also benefits overall search marketing. For many companies, a relationship with customers is worth a lot more than a click, pageview or inbound link.

In this presentation you’ll learn the value of diversification from the development of channels of distribution for optimized social content that is independent of, yet complimentary to search engines. Social SEO enables companies to realize search engine marketing benefits as well as long term, meaningful connections with a community of customers.

The cost for the 1 day event is $369 but we’ll give a pass away today to the most compelling Tweet that links to this post or comment below explaining why they should attend. The cutoff for making your tweet or comment is 4pm CST June 23rd and the winner will be announced at 5pm CST or after the same day.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | Win a Free Pass to Online Marketing Summit Minneapolis | http://www.toprankblog.com

This post includes liveblog notes from the presentation given by Adam Singer of TopRank Online Marketing. Adam opened up noting that according to a research study by Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law, 14% of executives are unsure of social media, yet 70% expect to spend more.

That set the stage for some of the common obstacles and barriers to social media adoption which he focused on in: 7 Common Social Media Problems and their Solutions.

1. Flying blind

Many companies chase social media tactics with no idea about the who, what, when and where of the social web. It’s essential that companies first develop a listening program to answer those “W” questions.   Listening through social media monitoring is critical to understanding brand, competitors and key terms relevant to your audience on the social web. Without a smart listening effort, companies miss key opportunities: marketing, customer service, sales, recruiting, partnering and public relations.

2. Unsure where it fits – who owns social media?

As companies develop their social media programs, responsibilities and resources need to be allocated and that leads to accountability and “ownership”.  For successful social media adoption within organizations, it’s important to establish social media goals and responsibilities in different parts of the organization.  As resources and accountability are identified, the different departments can work to cross pollinate efforts, and work together as a team. Doing so helps leverage combined efforts and from an implementation standpoint, avoids conflicting representation of the brand.

3. Inconsistent participation

Companies need to be consistent with their social participation. Our clients at TopRank Marketing with the most successful blogs are those that post consistently. The solution to more consistent participation is to lead from the top, get executive buy-in. Establish goals and provide a feedback loop to contributors. As they grow, the community will provide feedback. Set aside resources, plan who will create content, monitor and engage. Tap passionate community members and activate them to be brand ambassadors. Create efficiencies through the repurposing of content.

4. Not individual or confident

Believing that people will listen to and find value in what you really want to say requires confidence. Whether you’re right or wrong might not matter as much as being passionate. Now, more than ever, is the time to show leadership and conviction when it comes to social participation and engagement.

5. Digitally unsavvy team

Modern marketers need to understand social media.  Companies don’t “do social”, they “are social”. That means being savvy participants.  There’s good reason for that. According to “Social Technographics of Business Buyers” from Forrester Research:

• 91% of business buyers read blogs, watching user generated video, participate in other social media
• 55% of decision-makers were in social networks
• 43% are creating media (blogs, uploading videos or articles, etc.)

“If you’re a B2B marketer and you’re not using social technologies in your marketing, it means you’re late.” Josh Bernoff, Forrester.

The good news is that you can learn to be social media savvy through training, participation, listening and engagement.

6. Data paralysis

Data should help drive decisions, but don’t let it get in the way of creative ideas from your team. Adam relates the story of one of his clients, Joffrey’s Coffee where he recommended campaign changes based on his personal experience with the social web vs waiting for data to prove a concept. The result was a successful program by all accounts which is often cited as a social media marketing case study by others in the industry.

7. Lack of personalization

Use real team members in your social media efforts. Don’t use some faceless person behind “Brand X”. Forge relationships with others. Put others in the spotlight. “Give to get” and be focused on serving and being useful.  Don’t send in legal right away as an initial reaction to social dissension. Read the “Streisand Effect” for more on what happens when that backfires. Embrace personal brands, don’t worry about them getting too popular because their allegiance is to the brand.

In the end, companies can win on the social web by developing a strategy, experiment and iterate. And if you get lost, you can always get help.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | 7 Common Social Media Marketing Problems and Their Solutions | http://www.toprankblog.com

Joel Book from Exact Target introduced the case study:  Creating brand advocates is as important as creating brand awareness. [I would say more important. An advocate proactively shares the brand experience]. Funny, Google “brand tattoos” to see some serious brand advocate activity.

How are marketers using digital media to engage?

• email + crm
• email + social

Email and CRM help to automate interaction. Automation is the key because marketing staff and budgets are not increasing. In order to continue deliver personal and timely messages to customers, you need to automate.

Social participation brings customers together and provides an opportunity to include a call to action to join a newsletter.

Brands are aligning themselves with a specific cause, to add to their brand image.

Genworth Financial case study:

Genworth sells their insurance products through brokers, not directly to consumers.

Reduced marketing resources along with the expectation to have successful marketing campaigns let them to realize that more is not always better. It’s more important to send the right message to the right customer at the right time. Genworth understood the need to personalize communications and to offer in multiple mediums.

They started their email efforts with a business unit and have now expanded to 20 businesses. In 2006 100k emails were being sent and now 3.79 million emails are delivered as part of their program.

Personalized messages are critical to their email marketing. Email newsletters are personalized for the customer and according to the Genworth sales person. Open rates are 7-10% higher when the email comes from the sales person.

Email has realized cost savings as an alternative to print direct mail. Most new product introductions are launched only via email.  Emails were highly personalized and customized, which is very expensive to do in print. $3 million in print and direct mail cost savings were realized in 2009 for one of their marketing efforts.

Increased productivity is attributed to email and Genworth is able to use dynamic content and salesforce.com integration to create 700 highly customized emails every Friday.

Email – high ROI. Example: A co-branded campaign delivered highly personalized emails with Genworth customer logo, contact info and was distributed on behalf of Genworth customers (insurance brokers) resulting in a 12% increase in sales ($ millions) with only a $420 spend.

Efficiency of data integration and dynamic content. Customers used to receive 1-5 emails for each product. Now they only receive 1 with all info consolidated. Genworth used to have 4 FT employees and now only need one to manage email. This is as result of integration with salesforce.com and using exacttarget.com.

Timeframe to get completely setup including installation and testing: 1-2 months.

Creating self serve email templates for sales teams helps them become more efficient.

Enhanced reporting and metrics are available with data integration based on salesforce.com custom objects. Ex: what type of customers open and click the most. What’s working and what’s not.

Email Integration with Social Media has been tentative because of working in a regulated industry. However, the need to better engage with customers motivated them to move forward, albeit, tentatively.

One example is an email newsletter and blog. The blog is hosted on Active Rain (a real estate community). The newsletter gives a snippet of information and then links to a longer form of content on the writer’s blog. On the blog, readers can make comments and ask questions.  A loop is created by including a call to action on the blog to subscribe to the e-newsletter for people that get to the blog via other means.

A Facebook fan page was used as a destination for a national brand advertising campaign designed to recognize caregivers.  Genworth used online advertising, PPC, SEO, social advertising and Genworth producer and consumer web sites to promote. They now have over 7,000 fans. Most successful was Facebook advertising.

Email was used to drive traffic to Facbook and inspire participation and engagement. More awareness and education for products are expected to increase sales.

It’s essential to deliver content in the formats and mediums that your customers want. Integrating data with dynamic content in a combined Email, CRM and Social Media effort can help marketers become more efficient, effective and profitable.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | MarketingProfs B2B: Case Study on Email, CRM & Social Media | http://www.toprankblog.com

MarketingProfs B2B Forum is coming up quickly next week and I will be presenting about an hour of essential search engine optimization tips and insight specifically for B2B web sites along with Vocus Product Manager of PRWeb, Jiyan Wei.

There’s a tremendous opportunity for B2B marketers to leverage SEO to increase prospect acquisition and to facilitate after the sale support and upgrades.  Most B2B marketers create a substantial amount of content to guide prospects through sales cycles that are much longer than companies selling consumer products/services.

While much of that content is published online, most of it isn’t optimized for search and digital assets are often ignored as potential traffic drivers via search.  In this session, we’ll focus on core SEO to help make a website’s content search engine friendly and talk about best and worst B2B SEO practices for processes to optimize content for better search results. The PRWeb case study will show how they worked to refine their content management system overall so it would be technically search engine friendly. Other topics include: large website issues, duplicate content and what to consider when planning a website redesign.

Specific topics we’ll be discussing include:

B2B Content Optimization Strategy & Core SEO

• Optimized Content Strategy
• Core SEO (Keywords, Content, Technical & Links)
• B2B SEO Best & Worst Practices Examples

Large B2B Website and Publisher SEO

• Challenges you may run into if you have a large website
• Duplicate content issues
• Planning a redesign of your existing website (Migration Plan)

PRWeb as a Case study

• PRWeb experience with SEO during site design, CMS updates
• Technical SEO tips, sitemaps, site architecture

Focus on B2B SEO Best Practices

• Best Practices Content SEO for B2B
• Best Practices with Content Management Systems
• Best Practices B2B SEO Measurement & Analytics

Then we’ll wind things up with about 1/2 hour of Q and A. If you’re a B2B marketer with a small or enterprise level web site, this is a must attend session and definitely an important conference to attend. We hope you can make it.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | B2B Search Engine Optimization: Focus on Content SEO | http://www.toprankblog.com

The outcome exceeded all expectations thanks to the excellent promotions by PRWeb and SEW plus Mike Grehan’s smooth handling of moderator duties amidst technical difficulties. Over 7,000 people registered, there were over 400 questions and 650 Tweets using the #prweb hash tag during the webinar.

The way it goes with many webinars when you’re invited by an organization to participate, is that the topic and title/description are determined beforehand. The speaker adapts themselves to that.  This presentation content focused on optimizing writing for the web with a particular emphasis on optimizing content common to public relations.

As promised, I’ve sorted the bulk of the questions out and will present several here along with my responses. I hope they are useful.

If I’m not currently optimizing my site and I have a limited budget, where do I start?

The first thing any marketing activity needs to start with include setting goals, understanding your audience and the market. The lowest cost method of outsourcing that kind of activity where search engine optimization is concerned, would be to hire a consultant or agency to do an audit.

An SEO audit represents the initial evaluation and research along with recommendations to be implemented by the client. Typically this involves: competitive research, keyword research, web site code/template evaluation, content optimization recommendations, link building research and recommendations, tips on content creation/promotion/repurposing and to varying degrees, social media recommendations. Web analytics, monitoring and ranking tools are also often recommended.

An audit does not take the place of consulting since it’s an evaluation and recommendation, not implementation and guidance on an ongoing basis. It is however, a cost effective start. Here are a few resources:

• Top 3 Tactics To Improve Search Engine Rankings
• Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
• Do’s and Don’ts of On-Page SEO for Public Relations
• 5 Online Marketing Resolutions for 2010

Should your newsroom blog be placed under the site’s domain, or maintained separately under the blog software’s domain to allow for incoming links to your main site that are coming from a different site?

There are two parts to the answer for this question. First, the reference to “blog software’s domain” sounds as though the blog is hosted with a third party service such as blogger.com or typepad.com. Example:  yourblog.blogspot.com or yourblog.typepad.com

My advice is to avoid using third party hosting services for your blog. If you’re too invested in such a service or have other reasons for using them and cannot use something like WordPress installed on the server where your web site is hosted, then use domain aliasing options so that your blog URL is part of your company domain name or a domain name that you own. Example:  yourblog.com or yourblog.companydomainname.com. This puts you in a position of more control since the blog content lives under a domain name you own vs a domain like blogspot.com, which is owned by Google.

While links from your blog/newsroom hosted on a blogspot.com to your company web site do count as inbound links, there’s not as much value from many links to your site from one other site vs many links to your site from many other relevant web sites.

Which leads us to the second part answer to where the newsroom should be hosted. My preference is to host the newsroom either as a sub-domain or a sub-directory of the main company web address. Example:  newsroom.redcross.org or in the case of TopRank, it’s toprankmarketing.com/newsroom/

The links that you attract from other relevant web sites to your newsroom pages will build PageRank back to the rest of your web site. This is more true with the subdirectory than the subdomain. Also, keeping your newsroom address as part of your company web site address is useful for branding and user experience.

Some advice on subdomains and subdirectories from Matt Cutts of Google and here’s a good post discussing the SEO pros/cons.

Should you post press releases on your own website (before distribution)? How do search engines deal with the duplicate content issue in this case?

If you’re a publicly traded company, publishing financial announcements need to happen on the wires first, or at least at the same time as publishing the press release on your own web site.  For other companies not constrained by such requirements, posting a release to your own site first is fine.

As for dealing with duplicate content when your press release is published on your own site as well as on the wire service, it’s a pretty common situation. In fact, it’s often a goal for companies that distribute their releases through a newswire service to get as many other sites to copy and republish the release as possible. If the release is properly optimized, each time another web site with a unique domain name publishes a copy, it creates a link back to whatever web page on your corporate site you’re trying to draw attention to.  This sends more traffic and can affect the search ranking of the destination page.

A long standing problem with situations where the same content is hosted on different domain names has been debated and worried about by many, many webmasters. Search engines like Google don’t like to show multiple copies of the same content in the same search results. It’s not a good user experience. Therefore, when duplicate copies of the same content are detected, Google likes to pick a canonical version and only show that one.

Duplication with press releases is quite common because of distribution on wire services and to influence search engines to rank a certain version of your press release, there are a few steps you can take. One piece of advice many webmasters try to follow is to publish the release on your own site so Google crawls it there first.  However, if there are more links to another version of the same release hosted elsewhere, the other copy might be perceived as deserving to rank in search results instead.

For more tips on how to deal with duplicate content in a press release situation, watch this video interview with Adam Lasnik of Google that I took at SES London. Adam offers advice on making sure copies of your content attribute the source and all link back to the original to provide Google information about what version is canonical.

Is it useful to submit Press Releases to Social Media sites in addition to submitting to PRWeb.com?

Deciding what to share on social media sites should take into account what types of content members of the social community are best responding to.  Press Releases are often formal marketing communications, not exactly conversational. As you understand the community you’re trying to reach with the press release, you should know whether it’s appropriate to share a press release with them in a social media setting.

The big mistake many marketers and PR professionals make is to register with a variety of social network, news and bookmarking sites and then self submit, vote and rate their own press releases without having ever participated in the community.  With no network paying attention to what you’re sharing, few will ever notice the press release. If you do have a network on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg and others, then you will know first hand whether it would be acceptable to the community to share content in a press release format.

Outside of social media news release, your best bet to take advantage of social media distribution of a press release would be to make it easy for the press release to be saved, shared and submitted by interested readers. You can do this with widgets or plugins offered by ShareThis and similar services. Many wire services already support those features as well.   Additionally, you should monitor pickups of the release on the social web.

If you see someone submit or share a release you’ve sent out on a social media site, reach out and thank them, answer any questions and show interest. That can generate interest from others in the community.  One tip I recommend is to write a blog post version of the press release and share that content with social media communities. Then include a link to the full press release within the blog post for people that want more information.

What you should not do is treat social media sites as a place to dump press release content thinking it will get a lot of exposure because there are many members of the community.  Here are some additional newsroom SEO tactics.

What is a good Social Media approach for a company which generates little in the way of genuinely newsworthy material?

Companies that say they have nothing “newsworthy” to publish are more common than you might think. There may be deeper issues to deal with than a social media strategy if there’s nothing new, innovative or unique to talk about.  A good social media marketing program cannot fix a broken business.

A business exists to make money fulfilling unmet customer needs. A perspective to consider would be to take the focus off the company and put it on the customer. Use social web participation as a way to better listen with and connect with customers to find opportunities to serve them better. Develop relationships with influentials and encourage feedback. Innovation can certainly come from a customer base as can the spread of a great idea. Focus on connecting with customers and helping customers connect with each other in a social context and there may be more newsworthy material than you ever expected.

Here are a few useful resources on Social Media and PR:

• Improve Public Relations with SEO & Social Media
• Why Use Social Media For Public Relations
• 3 Steps for Effectively Using Social Media For PR

There are so many shady SEO people and firms – how do you pick a good one?

There are no more “shady” SEO people than there are “shady” clients. Professionals that provide effective SEO consulting are reputable, experienced and in my experience, probably more talented than most traditional marketers you’ve ever worked with.  People doing shady things in the name of SEO are NOT professionals and the absence of that word, professionals, in the question is the problem.

Picking a good consultant or agency means doing homework. Know your market, set goals, understand your competition in search and start asking for referrals from others who have hired SEO companies. Word of mouth is powerful both for companies that need to hire good SEOs and for good SEOs to attract business. Our agency, TopRankMarketing.com for example, has relied mostly on word of mouth to attract new business since 2001. We also get a lot of new business from search itself (practice what you preach) and from networking on and offline.

Here are a few resources on hiring a SEO and one on “shady” SEO:

• How to Hire a SEO Firm – According to Google
• 5 Tips on Hiring and Getting the Most Value from SEO Consultants
• Dear Fox News: SEO Is Not Search Engine Scamming (Unless You’re Scamming Yourself)

Part of the issue is demand.  Take the next question for example:

“Can you use article spinning software to publish Press Releases? Or is there an Press Release spinning software to create many press releases based on one press release? Other words, is there a difference between article marketing and press releases?”

Article spinning software for press releases? Demand for shortcuts, silver bullets and “we want everything now” helps create the shady side of SEO as opportunists take advantage.  Automatically generating garbage pages in press release format will help NO ONE.

That’s it for this round of questions. I’ll post another round next week. Thank you to PRWeb and Search Engine Watch for having me participate on the webinar. What are your questions about optimizing news content?

If you’d like even more in-depth information about SEO and Public Relations, AND you happen to live in the Louisville, Kentucky area, be sure to check out the event Social Media Club Louisville is having next Tuesday night, Feb 16th.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | 7 Answers to News SEO Questions You Should Know | http://www.toprankblog.com

Last year OMS came through Minneapolis and I had an opportunity to present on building a case for social media through a Social Media Roadmap. Feedback comments like “lived up to the hype”, which is a compliment not too dis-similiar from, “it didn’t suck”, renewed my appreciation for Minnesota Nice.

But I digress. Back to the upcoming OMS in California.  The annual OMS conference is, to my great pleasure and happiness, in sunny San Diego.  I’ve had a chance to connect with the event organizer, Aaron Kahlow several times and appreciate the invite to present at OMS a great deal. One of my goals for 2010 is to vary the conferences that I speak at to reach different audiences.

OMS is held in conjuction with ClickZ Feb 22-24 at the Paradise Point Resort and Spa with a day of pre-conference training and a Search Engine Strategies day on Feb 25th.  I will arrive in the morning on the 23rd and will unfortunately, miss the morning sessions. But I do plan on attending “Social Media Inside The Brand: DuPont Case Study” which promises to cover the legal aspects of Social Media, how to develop a proper Social Media Marketing policy, and how to sell a “word of mouth” project internally. Sage advice for client side marketers.

There are some big names in search that will be presenting at OMS such as John Battelle, Tim Ash and Marshall Simmonds as well as marketers from brands including: Planet Holloywood, IBM, REO, New York Times, Jack in the Box, Eastman Kodak and Ogilvy 360.

Later in the afternoon (3:40 pm) on the 23rd I will be on a Social Media Forum which is part of a new “Leaders” track with a total of 5 savvy social media marketers on the panel. (Chris Baggott, Lee Odden, Michael Senger, Caitlin McCabe, Ben Hanna)

Luckily, we have Jason Baer as moderator who has taken the “Twitter approach” to Q and A in light of the inevitable time constraint. Jason will be asking questions and we are to provide answers in 140 characters or less.  Topics to be covered include:

It should be a great panel!

Day two OMS includes a great mix of sessions. I’m looking forward to:

• Social Media in the Enterprise
• Wharton Dispels Myths of Social, Viral and Online Marketing through Cold Hard Research
• Social Media Measurement Best Practices
• Integrated Marketing Forum
• Lunch Keynote: “How We Used Data to Win the Presidential Election”
• Acquiring New Customers with Email and Social Media
• Demand Generation Secret Sauce (Jon Miller from Marketo, our client)
• Using Social Media for eCommerce

On Feb 25th, Search Engine Strategies Day, SES has programmed a series with Search Engine Strategies conference speakers covering the gamut of SEO, PPC, Local, Social, Analytics and of course, PR/Social/Search.

I will be on the “PR, Social Media and Search” panel at 3:15 to discuss the intersection and future of these complimentary channels. If you know my agency TopRank Online Marketing and the content we publish here at Online Marketing Blog, you know the subject matter of this session is a perfect fit.  Panelists include: David “dk” Klein, Dana Todd, Rand Fishkin, myself and moderator duties will be handled by Sally Falkow.

I know there are a lot of people attending OMS and there might even be some tickets left if you’re not.  I’m really looking forward to it (and not just because I get to escape the snow for four days at a resort in San Diego).  If you’re attending OMS later this month, please say hello. I’d like to get feedback from other attendees on this conference for our blog coverage.

If you’ve been to an OMS event, what was your favorite thing about it?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | Online Marketing Summit San Diego 2010 | http://www.toprankblog.com

Feb 9, 2010
Webinar: Secrets to B2B Marketing Success
TopRank, along with our client Marketo and Ion Interactive will be collaborating to educate B2B marketers on best practices before and after lead generation with an upcoming webinar focused on pre-click, post-click, and post-conversion optimization.

The free webinar takes place Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010 at 11:00am Pacific / 2:00pm Eastern and features Anna Talerico of Ion Interactive, Maria Pergolino of Marketo and moi. Register here.

Feb 11, 2010
Webinar: The Inside Scoop for a PR & Marketing Strategy
TopRank’s Jolina Pettice along with Marc Harty, Editor, 30MinutePR.com will provide the lowdown on Integrated marketing and public relations communications offering case studies and practical tips. Our client PRWeb/Vocus is sponsoring this free webinar.

This free webinar occurs February 11, 2010 2:00 PM EST and you can get more information here and register here.

Feb 16, 2010
Social Media Club Louisville:  10 SEO Tips Communications Professionals Must Know
The excellent Jason Falls reached out and invited me to present best practices search engine optimization strategy, process and tactics for corporate communicators to Social Media Club in Louisville and of course I said yes.  Now more than ever, Communications and Public Relations professionals are in need to best understand digital communications and the intersection of Search and Social Media.  The presentation will identify essential SEO tactics for communicators to implement for optimum search visibility on search engines and within social media content sites.

Event info: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET at the Louisville Visual Art Association at The Water Tower. More info and register here.

Feb 23, 2010
Online Marketing Summit San Diego: Social Media Leaders Forum
The big OMS show in San Diego presented an opportunity to talk about what’s driving the Social Media space forward and since we’re in the thick of developing those types of programs for companies, it seemed a great fit. The panel will talk about cutting edge Social Media tactics and strategies that can give marketers the competitive advantage they’re not finding on their own.

Panelists include: Chris Baggott, CEO, Compendium Blogware; Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing; Michael Senger, CEO & Founder, StoneMass; Caitlin McCabe, Founder, WhiteLabel Marketing; Ben Hanna, VP Marketing, Business.com and Moderator duties will be handled by Jay Baer, CEO, Convince and Convert.

Event info: Tuesday Feb 23rd at 3:45pm PST at the Paradise Point Resort and Spa. Register here.

Feb 25, 2010
OMS San Diego – Search Engine Strategies Forum: PR, Social Media and Search
OMS and SES have partnered to add a day of SES programmed content including this promising session on the intersection of Public Relations, Social Media and Search Marketing. Hmm, Social SEO and PR? Damn that sounds right!

Check out the panelists which include:  Dana Todd, CMO, Newsforce; Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing; David Klein, CEO, Purpose Inc; Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz and Moderator duties handled by Sally Falkow, President, PRESSfeed.

Event info: Tuesday Feb 25th at 3:15pm PST at the Paradise Point Resort and Spa. Register here.

March 4th, 2010
Webinar:  Social SEO
Alterian, a provider of an integrated marketing platform and suite of services, is having me do a presentation on how to amplify reach and efficiency of digital marketing efforts by incorporating social media and SEO strategies holistically. This webinar is a focus for companies that want to better reach (via search) AND engage (via social) customers online.

We’re certainly not the first to use “Social SEO” to describe the intersection of optimization and social media, but it’s probably the most succinct and meaningful way to explain what should be a key marketing focus for companies in 2010 and beyond.

Event info: Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 10:00am CST. I’ll update the link for registration information once it goes live.

March 8, 2010
LeadingRE Conference: MarTech in Las Vegas
TopRank’s Adam Singer will provide the opening presentation for the MarTech event, “Architecting a Web 2.0 Marketing & P.R. Strategy”. He’ll explain the core elements and strategies of architecting an effective Web 2.0 marketing and public relations program to drive meaningful brand positioning and messaging in the eyes of both clients and consumers.

Event info: Monday, March 8, 2010 at 2:30 PST. More information here.

March 12-16, 2010
SXSW Interactive, Austin Texas
TopRank is not presenting at SXSWi but I will be attending. You’ll no doubt find me in the blogger lounge or one of the many digital media/marketing sessions.  There will be a sizeable Minnesota delegation at SXSWi as in year’s past, so watch the SMBMSP.org site for updates.

March 22-26, 2010
Search Engine Strategies New York: Digital Asset Optimization
We started publishing thoughts on Digital Asset Optimization in 2007 in publications like DMNews and Target Marketing Magazine. Much has changed since then. To us, the notion of optimizing digital media or assets, or “DAO”, concerns the changing digital media presented in search results and what companies can do to optimize the various types and formats of digital content they publish.  You know the drill: “If it can be searched, it can be optimized.”

Panelists for this session include:  Mark Knowles, President & CEO, Pixelsilk, Inc.; Chris Boggs, Director, SEO, Rosetta; Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank Online Marketing.

Online Marketing Blog is a media sponsor for SES New York, so you can count on a mix of blog posts, video interviews and plenty of tweets and photos.

Event info: Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 10:45am at the Hilton New York. Full agenda and registration information here.

And that’s it for the first quarter of 2010 for TopRank speaking events. If you’re attending any of these, especially offline, please be sure to say hello. Nothing is better than meeting readers of Online Marketing Blog in person!

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TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2010. | Upcoming TopRank Social SEO & PR Events | http://www.toprankblog.com

1. For people who think Facebook is just for kids, go search for groups relevant to you and you will find them!  Facebook offers many targeted marketing opportunities.

While there are hoards of people, both professional and not, look for niche social sites where you can reach 100% of your target audience as well as an audience that is more engaged than perhaps the average Facebook user.

People with more friends aren’t necessarily more valuable. Do they know all their friends and who are they? However, on a niche social network like BakeSpace.com, the friends are much more targeted than a big brand like Sara Lee.

2. Check out the IKEA video channel on YouTube. Creating video content, if relevant to your target market, is excellent. In addition, the video content can create more for your target audience to bump into online.

3. Launch a blog if you have the time and resources to allocate to it. Think about how big  the conversation is that you want to have. Do you have something to say every day, every other day or every other week. This should help you determine whether or not to start blogging.

Do the planning before you do the blogging. If you outline a content plan and you don’t have content beyond month 1 or 2, you are going to run into problems. Get going on aligning your blog to overall marketing initiatives to help you create a content plan that extends 6 months and beyond.

If you do start a blog, keep in mind that in the first 2 months no one will read it, comment or maybe even care. But don’t give up! Give it the time it needs and socialize. Go comment on other blogs and bring those bloggers back to your content.

4. If you aren’t tweeting yet, start listening. What are Tweeple saying about your brand. And what are industry thought leaders saying?  Knowing what people are talking about can help you decide how and when to engage. At the very least, go register your Twitter handle so a competitor or money-minded company doesn’t do it first.

5. You can connect Social Media to ROI, but only after an extended period of time and not your first priority. The first priority is connecting with the target audience via conversations, not marketing messages.

Questions from the Audience:

Q – How do you find niche social sites?
A – You can find niche social sites by searching, looking at blogrolls and sites that target market friends are talking about.

Q – Can you reach out to bloggers as an individual or as the company?
A – You can do both, dependent on the blogger. If the blog you are talking to is small, then tailor the message and reach out with a non-mass email type note.

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TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2009. | Online Marketing Summit: Social Media Basics | http://www.toprankblog.com

Topics during these events will emphasize the practice areas of our agency: Search Marketing, Online Public Relations and Social Media Marketing. Locations will range from New York to San Francisco to Minneapolis.

May 19: Media Relations Summit, Crowne Plaze Hotel in NYC (event info)

4:30 pm: Mastering SEO, Google AdWords and Other Search Tools to Increase Visibility
If you’re ready to vault your website, landing pages, corporate videos, blogs, press releases, and online newsroom into the top of the search rankings, take in this one-hour bootcamp. You’ll learn all the latest tools, tips and tricks for making Google and Yahoo love you.

Panelists:  Howie Jacobson, Consultant/Author, “Google Ad Words for Dummies”, Bill Barnes, EVP, Business Development, Enquiro and Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing 

Tweetup Monday 5/18

May 28-9:  Private Company Training Engagement, San Francisco (Contact TopRank for our on-site training services)

• Social Media Monitoring and Brand Positioning
  
• Search Engine Optimization Skills for Corporate Marketing & Public Relations
  
• Social Media Roadmap: Strategies and Tactics for Large Organizations

Presenters: Susan Misukanis, President, Jolina Pettice, Senior Account Manger, Lee Odden, CEO (All from TopRank Online Marketing)

Tweetup Friday 5/29, location TBD 

June 2: ClickZ Online Marketing Summit, The Depot in Minneapolis (event info)

3:30 pm: Twitter and Advanced Blog Strategies
The Social Media Road Map:  Many companies are jumping off the cliff of Social Media, while others fear directly engaging customers.  Learn how to strategically align your marketing objectives with long-term social media strategies that work.

4:40 pm: Big Brands, Big Plans Panel
This is the highlight of the day… join a  round-table panel comprised of  the world’s leading brands and practitioners and get the inside scoop on how leading brands are driving success through social media, SEO, websites, and testing, and how you can apply these principles to your own initiatives. 

Panelists: Jeanniey Mullen, CMO Zinio, Founder of Email Experience Council, Kevin G. Espinosa, eBusiness Platform Manager, Caterpillar Inc., Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing, Keith Dieruf, Manager, Online Marketing, Ameriprise Financial, Matt McGowan, Vice President of Marketing and Publisher, ClickZ

Tweetup – meetup 6/2

June 4-5:  Social Media Smarts, DMA Seminar Facility, NYC (event inf0)

9:00am – 5:00pm Introduction to the Intersection of SEO and the Social Web Through Strategy, Tools and Tactics
Intensive, 2 day workshop will help companies better understand the social web and how social media and SEO can help increase brand awareness, improve customer relationships and compliment both PR and marketing efforts at growing business.

Tweetup June 4, location TBD

June 10: PRNews Webinar (event info)

1:30pm (EST):  Boosting Your Bottom Line with Online News & Other Cost-Effective PR Tactics 

From savvy email marketing campaigns to press releases that attract media attention, there are simple, cost-effective strategies that will help you increase revenue. This webinar promises insight from a mix of expert practitioners in a wide range of areas including: 

• How to generate buzz and word of mouth around your small business
• Integrating PR efforts with marketing and advertising to increase sales
• Driving traffic to your website through search engines
• Building a strong community around your brand
• PR’s role in uncovering customers’ needs for new products/services
• Getting buzz and coverage among bloggers and citizen journalists
• Best/worst tactics for holding media or customer events for your business
• How to effectively leverage Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook & MySpace
• Blogs and Video sites: what you need to know
• Pitch your stories to bloggers and to the Twitter community
• Writing social media press releases that work
• Conducting keyword research and finding the keyword sweet spot
• Optimizing PR content online, posting it and building reciprocal links
• Linking techniques: from blogs to social networking pages
• Identifying the most popular search terms for your campaigns
• SEM tools, resources and SEM for-hire checklists
• Email marketing Do’s and Don’ts

Panelists: Idill Cakim Vice President, Golin Harris, Sally Falkow Principal, ExpansionPlus & Senior Fellow Society for New Communications Research, Greg Jarboe President, SEO-PR, Lee Odden CEO, TopRank Online Marketing, Sophie Shiatis
Vice President Ecommerce, PRWeb, Moderator: Courtney Barnes Editor, PR News

If you’re attending any of these events and you would like to connect, please @ or DM on Twitter: @leeodden

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2009. | Learn SEO, Social Media, Digital PR from TopRank | http://www.toprankblog.com