I enjoyed the history that Joe shared with the audience as well as his practical tactical tips that can be implemented by an organization of any size.  However, I think the true takeaway is determining a way to differentiate yourself from your peers and your competition.

A Brief History of Content Marketing

Content marketing is not a new concept.  In fact, one of the first slides in his presentation showed a newsletter from 1931 published by John Deere.  Their print publication the “Furrow” was created as a way to educate their customers about their products and services, and provided a way to solve some of the common technology issues that they were facing.  One quote from Joe that stuck out in my mind during the presentation was:

“From the days of cave men writing on the walls, brands have been creating stories to sell their product and form a connection.”

The Barriers to Entry are Gone

The issues that our content marketing forefathers faced are far different than those we face today.  The barriers to entry or our ability to get in front of potential customers is no longer a hurdle.  Where are we now?

• Content Acceptance: prospects and customers can accept a piece of content online within 3 seconds.
• Talent: Journalists that would have previously worked as editors or writers for major publications have now shifted to the brand side.
• Technology: We can now execute a content strategy that will not cost an extravagant amount of money to distribute.  Often times the technology we use is at no charge.

Pulizzi stressed that we must do what we can to make a difference for our audience.  But how can we accomplish this seemingly difficult task?  Through storytelling!  A well-formed story is an essential part of an online marketing strategy.  If you are trying to figure out why you aren’t having much interaction, it’s probably because you don’t have compelling stories.  Online tactics including search engine optimization, lead generation, and social media should al be focused around telling a compelling story to engage your audience.  After all, we know that facts tell and stories sell!

One of the examples shared was that of Coca-Cola.  The brand has recently released a series of videos that provide their take on the future of content marketing and more specifically the importance of storytelling.

If you’re interested you can find links to the videos below:

Content Marketing 2020: Part One

Content Marketing 2020: Part Two

Six Characteristics That Separate the Good to Great Content Marketers

#1 – The focused Non-Sales Content Mission and Platform

People do not want to be constantly bombarded with sales material.  If you are in a competitive industry (which lets face it most of us are) try to find a super niche way to attract your customers.  Create content that is not sales focused but customer centric.

#2 – Opening up New Content/Media markets

Create content that doesn’t pitch your product but focuses on what the audience wants to know.  Try experimenting with different types of content.

#3 – The Chief Storyteller

We are seeing great brands that are hiring people to tell some great storytelling.  Many teams are now made up of managing editors, content producers, chief listening officers, and content creators.

#4 – Leveraging Employees in Content Creation

By encouraging they participation of your employees in content creation you can accomplish a few things.  First off content creation on a regular basis will continue to educate your employees on the industry and provide them with increased exposure online as an advocate for your brand.  Secondly you can eliminate the need to hire a content creation team all at once.

#5 – Removing Your Brand From the Story

Joe said that someone once told him “your story travels further the less you mention your brand.”  Therefore, the more you provide quality content that is relevant to your readers the more likely they are to read and share that information.

#6 – Building the Influencer or Customer Community (a focus on referral traffic)

Search is still very relevant but we are seeing the switch to increased referral based business.  If you have an influencer ripe for you on your site and they share with their network and that will in turn send even more people back to your site.

Key Takeaways: Social Media 4-1-1 From the Content Marketing Institute

Content Marketing Mix: For every 6 posts shared on Twitter or Facebook CMI follows the following formula:

• 4 shares of other influencers/company content
• 1 original piece of CMI content
• 1 sales pitch

Make It Easy to Share: Have you ever wanted to share an article and spent more time looking for the social share buttons than you did actually reading the content?  Place your social sharing buttons in a visible place that makes it easier for your audience to share your content with their network.

Start Small:  If you focus on creating a lot of content versus quality content it will hurt your brand.  If you believe that it is more realistic to post great content once a week you will be far better off than posting mediocre content five times a week.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Good Content Marketing vs. Great Content Marketing: Learn the Difference From Joe Pulizzi #OMS12 | http://www.toprankblog.com

"Google taught us how to search." - Paul Vallez

Paul Vallez admits that when he started at HP less than a year ago he had just come from Ask.com and was pretty cocky about what he knew.  Vallez also shares that he wasn’t very open to new ideas and wanted to step into his new position at a big brand and immediately demonstrate value. What was his approach?

• 75% Cocky
• 25% Open to new ideas

In Vallez’s presentation he identified what he called “3 Key Learnings” that he shared with the audience for improving the way that your search strategy is implemented for improved engagement.

Key Learning #1 – Enterprise Search is Ripe for Disruption

According to Vallez, Enterprise Search is constantly going through a cycle and that emerging companies and established companies alike should expect changes, be prepared to take action, and run for the opportunity.  The different phases that were identified included:

• Creation: In this phase organizations are experimenting with different platforms and their may be limited use or capability.
• Survival: This phase shows some growth with a small community of partners and vendors.
• Growth: At this point their is a solid value proposition in place as well as vendor consolidation.
• Equilibrium: By this phase the vendor community can be leveraged, benefits and risks are known, and there is a flat growth.
• Decline: The final phase presents an opportunity for other companies to begin working their way onto the Search playing field.

When we reach the “Equilibrium” phase of the cycle what you will typically see happen is the beginning of the decline.  At that point there is the opportunity for other organizations to disrupt the cycle and begin rolling out their own Search solutions.

Are you prepared for this disruption?

“By the end of 2012 over 90 percent of information flowing through the internet will be reach media (audio, images, video)” – Cisco

Search today is largely commoditized.  Companies will feature a product page that contains images, pricing, and product specs but not much more.  What these pages wont show you is what the product is good for or what problems it will help consumers solve.  When we talk about content we need to start talking about which content will better engage our customers.  At this point the majority of us know that if  they can’t find it from you they WILL look elsewhere.

Key Learning #2:Enterprises Need to Facilitate User Research

Facilitation of user research is key.  After all the internet is all about information.  How it is consumed, shared, and what affect it has on our prospective clients.  The question we were urged to ask ourselves was: What is the right information for your customers?  Vallez encourages us as marketers to make our information less about the product and more about the customers needs, stressing that customers also need to understand why your product is right for them. A 2010 DMA Study found that 43.7% of buyers admit that they are taking more time to research purchases while 66% of buyers say that vendor content/website influences their purchasing decisions.

Key learning point #3: Deliver the Right Balance of Content and User Experience

It is recommended that we focus on search results that bring up the right TYPE of information for our customers.  It should be as easy as possible for customers to  find anything related to your products so they know if they are making an informed buying decision. An example of some objectives that you may want to set forth to target your consumers could include:

• De-commodotize the search experience
• Better engage user
• Faciliatate research
• Increase Conversion Rate

What Did We Learn?

• Prepare for a deeper level of engagement beyond text
• Segment your audience and develop customer centric content and experiences
• De-commoditize your search experience
• You should spend at least 75% of your time being open to new ideas

After the presentation I asked Paul Vallez the following question: “With a shifted focus on providing customers with a combination of targeted content and user generated content how do you handle negative feedback while still presenting a real picture of your products?”  Vallez shared that obviously no brand wants to see anything negative being said about their products.  However, customers can tell when something is too curated or moderated.  HP has implemented a response button so that if customers don’t like the results they can send feedback to the company.  He has found that you will consistently get a more positive reaction from your customers if you take an open and honest approach.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Innovative Search Features Drive Engagement – Paul Vallez #OMS12 | http://www.toprankblog.com

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

This was the first SES for our new Marketing Manger at TopRank, Ashley Zeckman, who stepped up to the plate and liveblogged the event for us. She did a great job and her posts were well received by Online Marketing Blog readers as well as other online publications that picked up her posts. Below is a summary of her blog posts, an embedded TopRank Online Marketing presentation on Social, SEO & Content Marketing, responses on Twitter and a few of my favorite photos from the event.

• Grab Your Jacket – The Windy City Blows In Big Talent For SES Chicago 2011
• What Chicago’s Best Restaurants Can Teach Us About Search & Social Media Marketing
• Are You A Guilty Marketer? Opening Keynote at #SESCHI by Mikel Chertudi of Adobe
• 7 Principles for User Generated Content: Michael DeHaven SES Chicago 2011
• Search, Social, & Content Work Together at SES Chicago 2011
• Hello Local, Meet Social – Learning the Basics at SES Chicago
• 5 Essential Tips on Content Marketing & Optimization #SESCHI

The room was absolutely packed for the Convergence of Search, Social & Content session with Aaron Kahlow, Arnie Keunn and myself presenting. Here’s an embed of my portion of the panel presentation covering Optimization as a State of Mind and focusing on optimizing for customers as well as content discovery, consumption and engagement.

The presentation was well received by the attending audience and on Twitter:

Also, here are a few of my favorite photos from the show. You can find more on our Flickr set for SES Chicago as well.

Mike Grehan opening up the Conference

Opening keynote by Mikel Chertudi of Adobe

Technorati President Charles Black, Jonathan Allen of Incisive Media and Aaron Goldman of Kenshoo presenting on the Automating Social Media panel.

Bryan Eisenberg, Lee Odden, Aaron Kahlow, Matt McGowan & Bill Hunt

The Expert Roundtables were a bit hit throughout the conference. Here’s Bill Hunt holding court on Enterprise SEO.

TopRank Online Marketing’s Ashley Zeckman liveblogging the conference

Audience ready and waiting for smart insights on Social Media, SEO and Content Marketing

Thank you to the gang at Incisive Media that make the SES conferences possible including (but certainly not limited to) Marilyn Crafts, Laura Roth, Jonathan Allen, Mike Grehan, Matt McGowan the other members of the SES Board of Advisors and especially attendees and sponsors. Our next SES event with be SES Accelerator in San Diego Feb 2012 along with Online Marketing Summit (congrats Aaron!).

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | SES Chicago 2011 Wrap-Up – Best #SESCHI Ever | http://www.toprankblog.com

Can Customers Find Your Content?

Content creation is so much more than marketing, it is a way of engaging and enticing potential customers to take action.  Optimized content can make sure that customers interact with your brand.  There are many types of content that companies publish and many different audiences that a company should interact with.  Content creation is one of the most effective form of online marketing, it also happens to be the most difficult.

Tip 1: Popular B2B Content Tactics

If 90% of B2B marketers are using content creation as part of their tactics what are the most popular tactics for releasing this information?

• Social Media
• Articles
• Events
• eNewsletters
• Blogs

Tip 2: What Can Be Searched Can Be Optimized

Any type of content that shows up in a result from a search engine is an opportunity for optimization.  What are some examples of content that can be optimized?

• Products and Services
• Corporate Information
• News/Press Releases
• Help, FAQ
• Knowledgebase
• Job Listings
• Landing Pages
• Fulfillment
• Curated/Aggregated
• Media: Video, Audio, Images
• Blogs
• Tweets
• Status Updates
• Comments
• Tags
• MS Office Docs
• PDF files

Tip 3: Customers Use Multiple Resources

Odden asked members of the audience if they have ever asked for something such as a restaurant recommendation from their social network and then took that information and validated it using a search engine.  It was a unanimous yes!  Be aware that accuracy and multiple points of communication and information will make it much easier for customers to find and interact with your brand.

Tip 4: Identify Your Customer Segments & Personas

There is a set of questions that each company should ask themselves about their customer’s online behavior before launching a content strategy.  Those questions would include:

• What are your customers content preferences?
• How do they discover, consumer, and share content?
• What are they looking for on search engines and discussing on the social web?

Tip 5: Ideas For Creating Better Content

In addition to content planning and an implementation strategy there are six very helpful ideas for creating content as part of an online strategy.

• Engage with your community an pull from that experience
• Don’t be afraid to ask for topics
• Look at popular questions on sites such as Yahoo Answers and LinkedIn Q/A for inspiration
• Mine web analytics data to determine which keywords and questions drive traffic
• Review the logged queries from your internal search engine
• Turn to your staff to see what they are being asked most often
• Monitor Journalist queries on HARO for story ideas

Key Takeaways

A holistic approach to content creation and optimization proves to be more sustainable long term.  As we saw there are many ways to optimize current content (in multiple forms) and create better content based on the information that can be collected about your customers.  Were there any other tips that members of the audience found to be useful in our journey through content creation today?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | 5 Essential Tips on Content Marketing & Optimization #SESCHI | http://www.toprankblog.com

A Best Practices Approach with Gregg Stewart

Did you know that roughly 20% of all Google searches have local intent?  When you look at mobile data that number is even higher.  These statistics alone should show us as marketers how important a online local strategy is for improving engagement.

Checking the Box Won’t Work

While website All Facebook says that 96% of small businesses are on Facebook, Mashable.com says that 64% of small businesses think that social media is unnecessary.  Part of what this data tells us that many companies are simply checking the box, but aren’t sure how to properly utilize social media marketing channels.

Caution: Mistakes Ahead

Stewart stated that the biggest mistake that advertisers trying to go local make is focusing on the wrong data.  Often advertisers will say that the number of clicks on the website are not improving, or the e-commerce on the website isn’t that great.  Consumers are looking for your business in a variety of places and they expect that information to be readily available and accurate.

Local + Social Best Practices

When implementing a local and social media strategy there are some key factors that are part of a best practices approach including:

• Accuracy
• Distribution
• Signal Strength
• Enrichment

A “SoLoMo” Strategy by Benu Aggarwal

Presenter Benu Aggarwal did a great job of highlighting the importance of of a social, local, and mobile strategy and the importance of integration between the three.  A common theme for both presenters was the emphasis on consistency across multiple channels.  In addition to remaining consistent what else should you know about a social and local strategy?

The Why, Who, & How of Social + Local

Successful local and social strategies are built upon a strong foundation.  What questions should be taken into consideration when building a strategy?

• Why should you connect with your audience?
• Who should you be connected with?
• How are you going to connect with them?
• What is your audience talking about?
• Where are they socializing?

Participate in Active Conversations

Relevant and active participation in online conversations can go a long way.  What are some examples of this interaction?

• Connect with brand evangelists in your area
• Respond to direct questions about great places to stay before your competition does
• Connect with users who have the power to influence others

Exploring Local Trends on Twitter

Twitter’s search capacity is better than you may think.  What are some ways you can better utilize twitter from a local perspective?

• Reach out to users instead of waiting for them to come to you
• Explore discussions that are happening in your target markets
• Insert yourself into existing conversations in a productive manner

5 Ways to Enhance your Foursquare Business Page 

Foursquare Business Pages can be tricky.  Aggarwal recommends the following enhancements:

• Optimize your banner
• Use keywords and bullet points
• Link to other key online channels
• Create list of local interest categories
• Leave compelling and engaging tips on local businesses

Local + Social Media Key Takeaways

• Manage your listings effectively
• Continue to place importance on UGC (user generated content)
• Users like both search and social media
• Define your goals, target audience, and know where they are
• Leverage the most popular channels
• Optimize across all channels
• Integrate social, local, offline, and online channels

If executed correctly a local and social media marketing strategy can work wonders for gaining popularity, improving brand awareness, and increasing revenue.  A main focus of this session was on consistency across channels.  Are you incorporating local and social in your online marketing mix? What are some of your best tips?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | Hello Local, Meet Social – Learning the Basics at SES Chicago | http://www.toprankblog.com

• Aaron Kahlow, Chairman & Founder, Online Marketing Summit & SES Advisory Board (@omconnect)
• Arnie Kuenn, President, Vertical Measures (@arniek)
• Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank Online Marketing & SES Advisory Board (@leeodden)

Kahlow Presents the What, Why, How, and Who of Search, Social, and Content

Aaron Kahlow focused on some very basic but essential areas that all marketers should focus on when creating a campaign either online or offline. In regards to search, social, and content he had this to share:

What is Convergence?
According to Kahlow what convergence really means is that it’ is important to understand how these disciplines work together and how they impact each other.

Why is it Important?
If marketers are able to figure out how to leverage search, social, and content efforts the return on investment can be so much greater.

How Does Convergence Make A Difference?
By incorporating search, social, and content in multiple locations you are able to set next steps for prospects. An example would be leading users to a landing page that also allows them to like your Facebook page, follow you on twitter, get a link to a free white paper or fulfillment piece.

Who Should Be Participating?
Each and every one of us as marketers has an opportunity to participate and should take the next steps necessary to get involved.

Research & Idea Generation for Content with Arnie Kuen

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for clients is trying to come up with ideas for content that will engage customers. If a prospect is searching online one of two things will happen. They will find you, or they will find your competitors.

Why Should You Focus On Content?
A study conducted by GroupM Search found the following:

• 93% of all buyers online or in stores use search prior to making a purchase
• 86% of searchers conduct non-branded queries.
• 94% of buyers click on organic links versus 6% on paid links for branded queries.

What is the Path to Success?
Kuen provided a series of steps that will not only build foundational success but allow for killer implementation. Included were:

• Start with keyword research
• Do online research
• Determine types of content to create
• List the possibilities
• Put together a calendar

If Peanut Butter & Jelly Could Talk with Lee Odden

Marketers often get in the habit of optimizing strictly for keywords. What marketers should focus on is optimizing for customers and optimizing for outcomes. Odden went on to compare search, social, and content to a PB&J sandwich. It simply wouldn’t be the same without all of the ingredients. According to Odden Peanut Butter is the SEO, Jelly is the social media, and Bread is the content.

Optimized State of Mind
The evolution of SEO will continue to keep marketers on their toes. It is important that marketers understand that anything that can be displayed in search results can be optimized. By making sure that your content is optimized for keywords related to the audience you are trying to reach will put you on the path towards success.

Optimize For Consumer Behavior & Engagement
Knowing what it is that influences your customers is key in determining an content marketing strategy. Some examples of optimizing for consumer consumption would include determining the following:

• What devices do your consumers use?
• What format of information do they prefer?
• What different types of media can be used?
• What types of information would be useful?
• What time of day and frequency would they prefer?
• What topics and keywords are important to them?

Search, Social, and Content Takeaways

• Always know what, why, how, and who of creating a search, social, and content strategy.
• Research is essential in creating an educated marketing plan.
• Build the foundation for success.
• Take a customer centric approach
• Practice proactive optimization

Trying to find the forest through the trees can prove very difficult as it relates to marketing search, social, and content planning. However, what we learned from the speakers today was that doing your homework and building your plan the right way can produce enormous return on investment. I’m curious to know what process you as marketers have found works for creating an integrated online marketing strategy?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | Search, Social, & Content Work Together at SES Chicago 2011 | http://www.toprankblog.com

What Was the Response?
The chocolate was called everything from waxy, to too sweet, messy, and melt in your mouth goodness. In contrast the packaging created by the Ghirardelli marketers was quite different, “take time to slow down and feel yourself melt with each bite.” As you can see the professional marketers took a much different approach than the consumers.

The Marketer vs. the Consumer
According to DeHaven 80-90% of total content on many major ecommerce sites is written by end users who come to the site and give their opinions or post reviews. He then proceeded to provide a few examples of what companies believed the best keywords for their product or services were and the actual keywords consumers used to describe the business. In both of the examples listed below the keyword lists were not at all aligned.

Restaurants
Marketing Keywords: romance, fine dining, gourmet food
User Generated Keywords: great drinks, partying, view

Cosmetics
Marketing Keywords: cleanser, gentle, healthy looking
User Generated Keywords: soap, younger, looking great

7 Principles of User Generated SEO

#1: Don’t Forget SEO Fundamentals
While user generated content can be extremely powerful it is important not to forget the basics such as link building, optimization, and proper tagging.

#2: Search Engines Get Bored
When Google bots are crawling your website they are looking for fresh and relevant content. If the bots return week after week and the content has not changed they become “bored” and will be less likely to return. In order to remain competitive in the online marketplace frequent updates are a must.

#3: The Primanti Principle
A Primanti sandwich is unique because of the French fries inside the sandwich. If you add too many fries to the Primanti it can become overwhelming for the user. Similarly as a marketer you want to make sure that you aren’t overwhelming Google with too many “French fries” but a reasonable combination of foundational information and user generated content.

#4: Beware of Dilution
Typical product descriptions are optimized and written by professional marketers, user reviews are not. While user generated content is important it has it’s place. Beware of what too much user generated content can do for your SEO.

#5: Unlock the Long-Tail Vault
Marketers are constantly working to determine what keywords users are typing and which ones will drive the highest ROI. An additional challenge is determining which content should be housed on the top-level domain and which ones are better suited for microsites.

#6: Ask For Content at Relevant Times
Spending time to determine when your audience will be most willing to write a review and determining their level of qualification for submitting a review is key. If you’re promoting a concert emailing attendees the morning before the concert and asking them to share their photos on the site is a great way to entice user generated content.

#7: Convert Reviewers into Advocates
It is important that marketers set next steps for reviewers. An example provided was that of a user that wrote a laptop review and then spent the next hour (in the middle of the work day) answering over 130 laptop questions asked by other users. If that user had a great experience using the laptop think of the number of people they are reaching and advocating to on behalf of the company selling the laptop.

I really enjoyed that DeHaven’s presentation covered the ways that content can be generated by users but also what we must do as marketers to facilitate, moderate, and encourage user generated content.

I’m curious to know how much of your content you believe is generated by users? If the number is low, do you have a plan for increasing interaction? If the number is high, what have you done well that encourages users to generate content on your behalf?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | 7 Principles for User Generated Content: Michael DeHaven SES Chicago 2011 | http://www.toprankblog.com

• How the value of what marketers do is often viewed incorrectly
• Mistakes that many marketers are guilty of
• What questions marketers should ask themselves in order to invest marketing dollars appropriately

Changing the Marketing Conversation
Often times, as marketers we talk too tactically

Many marketers today still refer to marketing dollars as “spend”, “budgets”, or “cost centers”. One of the things that Chertudi urges online marketers to do is change the conversation. What does this mean?  Organizations should begin considering marketing costs as an investment and not just a cost. Instead of focusing on the “burn rate” we are urged to focus on determining if our investment is large enough to fuel the growth of the company. This will enable marketing to be properly viewed as a means of growing the organization instead of being perceived as a cost center.

Alleged Counts of Being Convinced Guilty
What we know we should do better, but don’t

Marketers often are aware of the areas within their department that require improvement but they simply don’t take the time to make adjustments. What are the different types of marketers and what are they guilty of?

• Guilty Marketers: Those knowingly operating in a suboptimal fashion and wasting budget.
• Wishful Marketers: Those hoping their efforts are positively impacting business but are lacking evidence.
• Clueless Marketers: Those that should know better, but no one has stated the obvious.

The 7 Counts of Marketing Guilt
1. Lack of clear strategy and objectives
2. Sloppy efforts to track and measure
3. Assuming Too Much
4. Too much science
5. Too much art
6. Short-term vs. long-term oriented
7. Unauthentic

Negligent Acts of Wishfulness aka Cluelessness
According to Chertudi there are 3 types of negligent acts committed by marketers on a regular basis.

Misunderstanding the Business: Organizations often invest funds into the top of the funnel without understanding how it truly impacts the bottom line. As marketers we need to really understand how it is that our business operates.

Organizational and Tactic Silos: Considering the impact that one form of marketing has on another is key in forming strategy. By properly utilizing technology we can better understand these silos and how they work together.

Improperly Attributing Attribution Models: The majority of marketers are not aware of what models they are using. If you don’t understand the difference between last click, first, all, even, and weighted models you are leaving money on the table as a result.

Investing Correctly
Questions that every CMO should Ask

1. Which words do we use? As marketers it is important to shift focus from marketing spend to ROI by quantifying results in terms of sales.
2. Do we validate what we assume to know? If we are making assumptions we should be aware of how largely these assumptions impact our bottom line.
3. Do we have a clear way to measure and track results? Proper implementation of marketing measurement tools and the diligence to de-duplicate results if needed will help us to track our results.
4. Attribute to the real results and what are the financial outcomes? Tracking the impact of marketing results and the financial outcomes is essential for proper measurement.
5. Can we attribute attribution correctly? Over 98% of marketers cannot do this correctly because they do not have the right set of tools.
6. Is your marketing department behaving like a team? Each segment of your marketing department is working towards a common goal of increased sales. Knowing how each of these marketing initiatives works and what impact they have on growth something that all marketers need to know.
7. Can you balance the left brain and the right brain? There needs to be a proper balance between art and science. Just because something works doesn’t mean that it is always the correct course of action.

Depending on the size and nature of your business there are many impacts large and small that marketing investment can have on your company. It is imperative that marketers continue to focus on accountability and real measures of attribution as they impact the bottom line.

For our readers, I’m curious to know what marketing “sin” are you most guilty of? What do you know you should be doing better but haven’t been able to? Is Marketing viewed as an “investment” or a “cost center” in your organization?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | Are You A Guilty Marketer? Opening Keynote at #SESCHI by Mikel Chertudi of Adobe | http://www.toprankblog.com

I’m going to be visiting the windy city for SES Chicago this week and have been trying to figure out where to explore if I can find some time while I’m there. I always enjoy a great meal so turning to search engines and social media platforms was an obvious answer for me to find great restaurants.

Understanding how end consumers use search and social to find and discuss your business online is key in creating an effective online marketing strategy.  The more that you study and adapt your strategy to positively impact new customers, the more successful your social media strategy will be.

What Would You Search For?

When assembling an optimized social media strategy it is important to get in the mindset of your audience. That means thinking about search as well as social since the discovery experience often involves both.  Put yourself in the mind of your customer: What search phrases would you use to find what you were looking for?

The easy choice for researching keywords is the free Google AdWords Keyword Tool. If you’re a restaurant owner in Chicago that expects online customers to find the restaurant and book reservations, it’s essential to know the most relevant and popular keywords searched on a monthly basis.

Below is an example of a keyword search that I completed as it relates to finding a great restaurant in Chicago. Many social media strategists don’t consider researching keyword phrases, but it is imperative that you are aware of the different variations of keywords that can be used to locate your business. Customers might start the process of finding a restaurant with search first, before going to their friends and asking for recommendations.

Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool will show keyword competitiveness, monthly searches per month and additional keyword ideas. Now you can use those phrases as inspiration when creating social content that is a little more search friendly (optimized) socially. Other keyword research tools include: WordTracker, Wordstream and Ubersuggest.

Takeaway #1: Know Your Audience.

By getting into the search mindset of your audience you are more equipped to develop a need based social media marketing strategy.  Customers looking for services and things like restaurants often go to their social networks and ask for recommendations and then to a search engine like Google to get more information. Other customers will start the process at Google and then ask their friends for opinions about what they found in the search results. Either way, it’s important to use the tools available to you in order to understand how customers are using search and social so your marketing can be present at the moment of need.

Provide Value To Your Followers (and prospective followers)

Twitter provides a great deal of information when it comes to seeing what users (and businesses) have to say about a phrase like the “best restaurants in Chicago.” What I typically find is a good mixture of user generated content as well as businesses that have incorporated my search term into their social keyword strategy. In fact, one of the  top 5 tweets related to my search term was published by a restaurant.

Rosebud Restaurants (@RoseBud_Chicago) is a search result created by a business as part of a social strategy. Marketers within any industry can take note of the way that RoseBud Chicago has optimized for keywords and worked to provide useful information to their followers. The content is clever, engaging, and links to their Facebook page which displays mouth watering photos of select menu items.

Takeaway #2: Provide Value.

Worthwhile content can go a long way.  Although you may not have photos of your products or services on display there are still things of great value that you can provide.  Perhaps a series of white papers or news articles that are relevant to your audience will entice them to research you further and take next steps.  If you don’t provide valuable information to your potential customers someone else will.

Don’t Sit and Wait: Be Sure to Engage Your Followers

Interaction is key when executing a social media strategy.  I think that sometimes we lose sight of the fact that social media should be a combination of sales and marketing.  Simply pushing out information will not get results.  The more that you can engage your audience and encourage them to share and act, the more willing they will be to come back for more and tell their network to do the same.  Another Chicago establishment that I think is doing a good job of this is Protein Bar Chicago (@proteinbarchi). Not only is Protein Bar Chicago responding to tweets but they are also asking engaging questions to inspire next steps.

Takeaway #3: Engagement is good for business.

Simple acknowledgment of fans and followers helps build the relationship between a customer and a service provider.  Asking engaging questions and providing timely response to questions can have a very large impact on brand loyalty and business.

User Generated Content Can Have a Large Impact

Think outside of the box when it comes to online sharing.  While it is true that some users (like myself) will turn directly to their social networks, others may not.  If someone goes to Google and searches for the “best Chicago restaurants” are the results on the first page likely to be typical social media profiles? Chances are that they wont.  By utilizing sites that allow for user generated content this opens up a whole new world of possibilities.  For review websites such as Yelp, Zagat, and UrbanSpoon, users provide detailed information about the restaurant atmosphere, price, menu, service, etc.  Remember, happy customers can equal brand advocates.

Takaway #4: Keep customers happy and encourage them to share.

Do you know what sites your target audience uses to voice their opinions about products or services such as yours?  By identifying these platforms in addition to standard social media sites that you should have an active presence on you are poised to cover bases that your competition may not have considered.

What Now?

I know that in this post I have provided a very small example of how one industry can connect and engage customers through search and social media, but I challenge you to apply it to your own company and to think about the following questions and how they relate to your target audience:

• What is your audience searching for?
• What are the problems that your product/service solves?
• What makes your product/service different from competitors?
• What can you do to differentiate your business and engage prospects and customers online?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | What Chicago’s Best Restaurants Can Teach Us About Search & Social Media Marketing | http://www.toprankblog.com

Since launching in June, Google+ has already acquired over 40 million active users.  Users have also uploaded over 3.5 billion photos in those short months.  According to Oestlien the goal of Google+ for enable marketers to interact with their fan base in a way that they never have before.  When developing Google+ the team set out to see how they could influence and impact as well as improve that way that marketers are utilizing Online Marketing today.

Google identified 5 key problems that marketers are commonly faced with including:

• Fragmented Marketing
• Recommendations Lack Staying Power
• Comments, Not Conversations
• Impersonal Messages
• Limited Insights

Determining Problems Is Only the First Step

After only a couple of days on the market Google+ Pages have already been adopted by some very influential brands

Current Problem: Fragmented Marketing
More often than not what marketers are doing socially is vastly different than how their marketing plans are executed. Google is aiming to change the way that you market both online and offline. Oestlien also notes that Google is not trying to bring something completely new to the market. They are simply trying to transform the way that your information is shared.

Google Solution: Google+ Page, Direct Connect
Google has never had a specific place for users to connect and communicate with brands directly. Now with Google+ Pages you can easily interact with your favorite brands. Direct Connect is also a new feature that has recently been introduced. With Direct Connect you simply type the + symbol and then the name of the brand to be sent immediately to their page without having to sift through search results.

Current Problem: Recommendations Lack Staying Power
We’ve all experienced a moment where we have tried to think of a recommendation that was given to us by a friend or colleague and no matter how hard we’ve tried, we just can’t remember the exact details.

Google Solution: Google +1 Button
Google plus pages allows brands to connect +1′s around their brand and anchor them to your brand at Google. This enables Google to take recommendations that the brand has received and disperse them through the internet, enabling marketers to extend their brand and get in front of users in everything that they are doing online. For end users Google has discovered that if a brand, product, location, or event has been recommended by someone they personally know (in their circle) they are much more likely to trust that recommendation.

Current Problem: Comments, Not Conversations
It has been difficult for many marketers to find a way of engaging with prospective customers.  Strategies are often centered around pushing information out onto social networks vs. engaging prospects on social networks.

Google Solution: Google+ Hangouts
Google+ Hangouts which was mentioned at the very beginning of the keynote has many practical B2B applications for business owners.  Imagine the ability to interact live with your customers, record live testimonials, facilitate customer service questions, gather a group of industry thought leaders, the list goes on and on.

Current Problem: Impersonal Messages
In daily life you have the ability to change or tweak your message depending on who you are talking to.  Unfortunately, that has not been the case with social networks.  Marketers have been able to cast a wide net and attempt to personalize the message slightly to included all members of the audience.

Google Solution: Google+ Circles
Circles is by far one of my favorite Google+ features.  This solution consists of intuitive groups which will allow marketers to directly target individual segments of their prospect or customer base.  It also solves a question many marketers ask regarding managing a professional and personal social networking platform.

Current Problem: Limited Insights
It is extremely important to understand and gather insight into how people are interacting with your content.  Why is this important?  According to Oestlien “over 77% of content around brands is being shared by the users not the brand.”

Google Solution: Google+ Ripples
Ripples creates a timeline of how posts are shared and interacted with.  Not only can you see who shared what information with who but you can also replay this information via a timeline to see what led to the success even if it is weeks or months down the road by the time you have discovered it.

I for one, found the keynote to be very helpful and practical for business applications.  If you haven’t already signed up your company for a Google+ Page, check it out here.  The team at TopRank Online Marketing will be sure to update you as frequently as we can on the changes that are sure to follow from Google+ and of course you can visit our Google+ Page for Online Marketing Blog.

If you are attending ad:tech New York, be sure to catch TopRank Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden and the Search Marketing Masters sessions with Intel, Volkswagen, REI, Salesforce, Bazaarvoice and Marin Software this morning at Room 13, Hall 1E, Level 1, in the Javits Center.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | Is it Time to Make Google+ Your Plus One? 5 Key Problems Solved by Google+ Pages @adtech NY Keynote with Christian Oestlien | http://www.toprankblog.com

Earlier this year the amazing Melanie Mitchell, SVP of Search at Digitas, was serving as a conference Marketing Master for the Search Engine Marketing track and she asked me to speak at my first ad:tech in San Francisco.  When I was asked to perform those same SEM track programming duties for the ad:tech New York show, I had to say yes!

ad:tech New York features some very impressive keynote presentations including: Christian Oestlien, Head of Social Advertising Products at Google; David Fischer,VP Advertising & Global Operations at Facebook; Wendy Clark, Sr. VP of Integrated MarketingCommunications & Capabilities at The Coca-Cola Company and many others.  Our roundup of pay per click and search engine optimization expertise is also impressive. You can check out two of the planned sessions below that I’ll be introducing and moderating:

Search Marketing: Integrating Search with the Rest of Your Marketing
Thursday, Nov 10 at 10:15 AM

Lauren Vaccarello – Director of Search, Display and Social Advertising, Salesforce.com
Title: Better Event Marketing With Integrated Search & Social Media
Presentation: Online marketing can be used for more than driving online demand. See how you can use search and social media marketing in every phase of offline event marketing from pre event registration to post event follow up.

Sara Devine – Manager Digital Media Integration, VW Marketing, Volkswagen of America, Inc
Title: Utilizing Search in Integrated Product Launch Campaigns
Presentation: As the announcement to launch journey unfolds, search is instrumental in capturing hand raisers and prospects leading up to the actual product launch where search maximizes the reach of what is often a large advertiser presence.  At this point, search is not only utilized as the “catcher’s mitt” for the other advertising efforts, but also becomes a barometer of those efforts – measuring in real time consumer awareness and interest in the product.

Matt Lawson - VP Marketing, Marin Software
Title: Taking Paid Search to the Next Level, Tips for Advanced Marketers
Presentation: As paid search advertising becomes increasingly competitive and complex, search marketers are constantly looking for the next trick to squeeze additional volume and ROI out of their campaigns.  In this informative session, Marin Software will reveal new professional tips to help sophisticated marketers improve the financial performance of their paid search programs.

After our first session that focuses on paid search, we’ll transition to a session that’s more focused on Search Engine Optimization:

Search Marketing: Cases and Best Practices for Maximizing SEO 
Thursday, NOV 10 at 11:30 AM

Corey Carrillo - Global Media Worldwide Search & Online Programs, Intel Corporation
Title: One is the Loneliest Number: SEM, SEO, Social Integration and Insights
Presentation: The role of Search Engine Marketing at Intel with specific examples, consumer and business about applied best practices/insights and programs for SEM campaigns/data to help bolster results in SEO, Social and PPC Social.

Jonathon Colman – Internet Marketing Program Manager, REI
Title: A Case Study on How to Increase Search Engine Crawling and Online Conversion
Presentation:  A discussion of the “silver bullet” when it comes to SEO and user experience (UX): Site speed and performance. A faster site reduces the costs of both infrastructure and releases by 50% or more.  Efficient sites simply cost less to run and provide for a better user experience. This presentation provides 4 site speed optimization steps and a case study on how REI saw a significant increase in site speed and overall conversions after optimization was implemented.

Michael DeHaven - Bazaarvoice
Title:  Social SEO: Strategic Optimization of User Reviews
Presentation: For many top online retailers, user-generated review content comprises 80 to 90% their site’s total rich content.  Michael DeHaven of Bazaarvoice will outline a proven strategy to organize and leverage review content to drive substantial increases in traffic from search.  This talk will open your eyes to a valuable, new segment of search traffic that often goes unnoticed when developing a search optimization strategy.

As you can see, this is going to be a fantastic set of sessions and a great group of speakers.  I’ll also be moderating an Exhibit Hall session of several speakers from Local.com, ideaLaunch, Brafton and  a few other companies serving the search marketing industry. If you’re attending ad:tech New York, I hope you’ll stop by Room 13, Hall 1E, Level 1 at the Javits Center.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | ad:tech New York Search Marketing Masters | http://www.toprankblog.com

Did You Know?

• There are 46 SMB chapters nationwide
• #SMBMSP has officially consumed 3,751 pieces of bacon
• October 28, 2011 marked the 40th SMB for the MSP chapter
• MSP is the largest chapter (and according to SMBMSP Director Mykl Roventine, the Twin Cities has the most attractive members)

#SMBMSP40 Speakers

Lisa Grimm (@lulugrimm)
Digital Brand Manager at Mall of America and one of TopRank’s 25 Women Who Rock Social Media in 2011

Meg Knodl (@DotMeg)
Senior Librarian at Hennepin County Library Communications and Community Engagement (Who also rocks social media)

Social Media Breakfast #40 was a fantastic combination of examples that Lisa and Meg face in their daily life as community managers as well as questions from the audience for practical application.  A community manager is responsible for many moving pieces and must react very quickly to feedback.  Below I have included 6 essential tips for community managers.

6 Essential Community Management Tips

#1 – Tips For Engaging With A Community
Community Management has become a large part of social strategy.  A successful community manager will ensure that the social media strategy is aligned with business objectives and that proper tools are in place to measure goals and objectives.  A defined social media strategy can provide guidance on how to encourage and engage interaction as well as a plan for providing your followers with relevant content.

#2 – Should You Separate Your Personal and Professional Life Online?
It’s important to always have your brand in mind when you are releasing  content or interacting online.  Experts warn against sharing information that can negatively effect perception of your brand.  There is a time and a place for sharing personal opinions and as a community manager both panel members recommend thinking about who you are representing and how your actions affect that entity.  Lisa’s approach to community management is fairly traditional (given her PR background) and she sums it up by saying “What you see is what you get with me.”  She notes from personal experience that if someone representing a brand makes a comment that she disagrees with she is going to form a judgement and will hold it against your brand.

#3 – Addressing Tough Issues
There is only so much planning that can go into reacting to a serious situation.  A proper way to react is to be as factual and respectful of the online community as possible.  Another tip is to wait for the community to come to you before reaching out.  Otherwise you may start conversations and panic around things that people weren’t aware of before you brought it up.

#4 – Determining Which Sites Are Right For Your Brand
In order to effectively connect with an audience a community manager should create an in depth analysis of which sites the target audience is spending the most time using, how they interact, and what type of communication they appear to be the most receptive to.  Meg Knodl gave a great example when she began speaking about her companies previous use of MySpace.  In the beginning it was a great tool for interacting but she also said “You reach that moment where you have to decide if it’s time to leave a community.”

#5 – Don’t Get Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen
Should you have multiple contributors or stick to one consistent voice for your company social media strategy?  Both speakers recommend sticking to one consistent voice.  However,  is that scalable?   Recommendations were made for mapping out a strategy and training additional community managers or contributors according to that strategy and set of standards.  Mall of America for example makes sure that all users tweeting on behalf of the company put their initials after their tweets so that they can be identified.

#6 – Choosing Between Your Brand and Your Community
Both speakers loudly proclaimed “your brand” almost in unison when a question was asked about whom you should choose when faced with a decision between your brand and your community.  You have been hired by your company to be their voice online, it is their interests that you have been hired to protect.  At that end Meg Knodl also stressed the importance of believing what you’re representing in order to effectively promote it.

Looking for more tips?  Listen to the podcast with Lisa Grimm and Meg Knodl from #SMBMSP40.   My first social media breakfast was full of useful information and I look forward to attending many more.  If you would like to attend a future breakfast,  SMBMSP offers a complete listing of all upcoming events.

Community management can be a tough job that requires constant and immediate attention.  What are some of the hurdles that you’ve faced as a community manager or a social media strategist?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | 6 Essential Community Management Tips from #SMBMSP40 | http://www.toprankblog.com

#1 – Winning! Measuring Social Media Success

While I doubt that Eli Goodman and Tami Dalley will be channelling Charlie Sheen I am still very interested to hear their take on measuring the success of social campaigns.  I would recommend having your social media metrics handy if possible ( I know I will), so that you can apply the speakers instruction on estimating the value of your fans and followers in real time.  Who knows, we may find that we score better than anticipated.

#2 – Information Architecture for the Modern Website

This session featuring Shari Thurow really caught my attention.  Why?  As marketers and SEO professionals we are mostly aware of best practices for optimizing a site and making it search friendly.  But what about the site structure and content flow?  Is it user friendly? Does it allow my audience to get to where they want to go as hassle free as possible?  As the online landscape evolves I for one intend to learn as much as I can to help my company engage our audience.

#3 – Conversion Tools of the Master Crafstman

Having the right tools in your arsenal can quantify a companies social media strategy.  However, when shopping around the question always arises: do I use the tools that are free and might have limited capabilities, or go for the Ferrari that may be outside of the current budget?  Author Bryan Eisenberg will be providing the audience with the lowdown on tools (free and paid) that assist with identifying and fixing web conversions.  Also, be sure not to miss Bryan’s guest post on the TopRank Online Blog next week which will have a preview of some of the tools he recommends.

#4 – The Convergence of Search, Social, and Content Marketing

Working with Lee Odden I’ve come to realize just how important the combination of search, social, and content really is.  I am curious to hear the methods that the panel moderated by Anne Kennedy and featuring Aaron Kahlow and Arnie Kuenn recommends for combining the three to target and engage an audience.  I am also very interested in the step-by-step case studies that will be provided as examples for compiling a list of our own successes for our clients.

#5 – Keynote – Search: Where to Next?

I have my own ideas on where search will be within the next year or two, but five to ten years?  No clue!  Thursday morning’s keynote moderated by Anne Kennedy and featuring speakers Eli Goodman, Zephrin Lasker, Alan Osetek, and Dana Todd will provide insight into the next generation of search and what it means for marketers.  I would be prepared to take great notes during this session so that you can begin dialing in your strategy for not only 2012 but what you should be on the lookout for in the years to follow.

#6 – Content Marketing Optimization

If it can be searched it can be optimized.  Makes sense right?  So much of the social web has become focused on content creation, promotion, and optimization.  What is the point of creating all of this useful content if your audience can’t find it?  This session by Lee Odden will provide strategies and tactics for executing on a successful content strategy while keeping optimization and search in mind.

And Don’t Forget To Network

As a conference attendee I’ve found that I often learn just as much while networking as I do during the sessions.  While I wouldn’t recommend charging at the presenters from across the room when you spot them I would ask that you keep a couple things in mind:

1. If you have a question that you would really like answered be sure to write it down during the session so that if you do catch the attention of a presenter you have a clear and concise question to ask.
2. Attend the conference organized meals if possible.  This is a great opportunity to get to know other people within your industry and learn from their experiences.

I hope to see all of you at SES Chicago in a few weeks.  Be sure to follow the conference buzz on twitter under hashtag #SESCHI.  Check out SES Chicago’s information page for a full schedule of sessions and training.  TopRank will also be live blogging and tweeting at the event @toprank, @leeodden, and @azeckman for those of you who don’t already follow us.

Are there some great sessions you’ll be attending that I didn’t include?  Feel free to share your top picks for SES Chicago by commenting on my post.  Also, if you’re a foodie like me and you have an opportunity to explore the city, Chicago Magazine recently released a list of the 22 best new restaurants in Chicago.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | Grab Your Jacket – The Windy City Blows In Big Talent For SES Chicago 2011 | http://www.toprankblog.com

When Mack Collier asked me to join #BlogChat to talk about liveblogging in anticipation of the upcoming BlogWorld Los Angeles conference, I had no hesitation. Liveblogging has helped TopRank Online Marketing and myself personally achieve numerous business and marketing goals at a fraction of the cost and far more effectively than many traditional marketing, advertising and content creation tactics.

Despite the practice being around for quite a long time, many people have no idea what liveblogging is. In fact, technology and tools have evolved to change much of what it means to liveblog events. It used to be that you’d sit in on a session, write notes into an article and file the story/blog post within 1/2 hours or so after the presentation ended. Now, liveblogging can take the form of live tweeting and then taking those tweets and compiling them into a post later or curating tweets through tools like Storify.

During the #BlogChat focused on Liveblogging on Sunday night, Mack wanted to focus on two key questions. I’ve taken a stab at listing insights, advice, processes and suggestions for each.

What are the Top 2-3 things you should know before you attempt to live-blog an event?

Thanks Mack! Appreciate the opportunity & really looking forward to this. I have a lot more than 2 or 3 (fortunately and unfortunately) I’d like to split my 2-3 things answer into suggestions relevant to pre, during & post even liveblogging. This is by no means a comprehensive post about liveblogging – but a summary and elaboration of what came up during the #blogchat about it.

Let’s get a handy link out there right away: 12 Live Blogging Tips for Better Event Content Creation

Pre Event Live Blogging:

• Answer why, who, what, when, where – Plan for specifics but be open to spontaneity. It’s really useful to have firm ideas about the purpose of liveblogging. For some it’s just a way to capture content for personal use. For others, it’s a way to create content for a blog or even repurpose into a compiled guide of tips for conference attendees. Or it might serve multiple purposes as in my case where I needed to build my writing skills, attend events on a budget and create content. Also, liveblogging can create connections with speakers.There’s an expression I’ve used many times – If you want to get into the media, become the media. Liveblogging was the proxy for me to do that here with Online Marketing Blog.
• Create suspense - Write a pre-event post, reach out to session speakers for tips, crowd source sessions to cover. I learned this from Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable. Create a grid of sessions you (and/or your team) will be covering during an event.  Pre-event posts will inform your readers and subscribers what’s coming. This can be important if your blog posting frequency goes way up. It also gives you the opportunity to mention the speakers in the post. Their Google Alerts for their names will put you on their radar.I’ve had success with reaching out to speakers beforehand, advising that I’ll be liveblogging their session and to see if they have any tactical tips to share for a pre-event blog post that will promote their session.  A small number of tips from each speaker is easy for them to do, and results in a great compilation.  Here’s an example of where I’ve done that: 37 Tips for Optimizing Blogs and Feeds – SES New York. Obviously it helps if you a c0-speaker or moderator, or if you know at least one of the presenters.
• Be a media sponsor. TopRankBlog was the 1st Blog Media Sponsor for SES, Pubcon, SMX, eMetrics. Although, we are currently only sponsoring SES and OMS. Being a media sponsor is more than a press pass. It’s mutual exposure for the blogger and the event: online, offline and through email. Advertisers pay huge $$ for sponsorships and media sponsorships used to be reserved to print magazines and large email lists.Not just any blog can become a media sponsor. You really need to be a credible blog in the category with a pre-existing audience. Size and quality of other social networks come in to play besides blog subscribers as well as a healthy email subscriber list. However, getting started liveblogging events that you’re already attending is a great start.
• Duplicate yourself. There’s only so much you can cover on your own, so recruit other people to liveblog with/for you and you’ll provide mutual exposure as well as another source of great content. Find out if other people are already going to attend the conference or if you have secured a media sponsorship, see if you can give away a free pass as part of your event promotion. Then require the winner to liveblog with you.
• Be open minded about what “event” means for live blogging. “Real world” conferences, workshops, press events and training sessions are common situations for liveblogging, but also consider virtual conferences, webinars, tele classes (where allowed). There’s a ton of archived content that’s never been blogged. In fact, if you can’t afford to attend conferences, get started with free webinars.  Video archives of conference presentations are also a great opportunity to practice liveblogging skills with the added benefit of being able to replay the video as often as you want.  With webinars, be sure to mention speakers, the event and link to the brand site that hosted the webinar in your blog post. That can get you on their radar.As a speaker in webinars, I’ve suggested to participants that there’s nothing wrong with liveblogging the presentation I’m giving and that has turned into blog posts (and links).
• Identify specific sessions, topics, approach and a “hook”. Think about style: transcription, running commentary, pure reaction, real time article. There are a variety of formats for liveblogging, so pick a format and even an angle to the session beforehand if you can. This will provide structure to fill in the blanks, providing you know about the topic and the speakers.
• Live tweeting running commentary can be used as liveblogging. It was suggested during the #blogchat that maybe live tweeting has replaced live blogging. That is true to some extent. As you’ll see from the links at the bottom of this post, curating those live tweets has also replaced roundups and liveblogging to some degree.  It’s easier to do, but not quite as valuable as summarizing highlights and takeaways.  There’s no reason you cannot mix a little of both live tweeting and blogging together.
• Pre-write portions of the post such as intro, speakers and other language that is fairly predictable.  Having static information pre-written can save time and also adds to the format you’ve decided to follow for liveblogging.
• Use Evernote then post to WordPress or your blogging platform of choice. Evernote is awesome because you won’t lose your work as can happen with a WordPress glitch or bad internet connection – an inevitability at most conferences. Plus Evernote synchs between devices, which can be handy.
• Have the right equipment – charged laptop, camera or phone, backup internet source and a power strip. A computer that runs out of battery power just as the keynote speaker finally says something interesting can ruin your entire morning. Same for internet access if posting in a timely manner is important to your liveblogging goals.

During Event Live Blogging:

• Get yourself in the right frame of mind and bring the skills. Focus on what you’ll be doing and type FAST. If you don’t type very quickly, then learn. Or you’ll be miserable. Same goes for multi-tasking. Taking photos (and resizing them), live tweeting and writing a 800 word liveblog post within 45 minutes is very doable, but only with lots of practice.
• Sit in front, take photos, (video is usually a no no at conferences). Smart speakers love livebloggers and may even call you out during their presentation, which helps when you network with others. I’ve never left a conference thinking I’ve taken too many photos or networked with too many new contacts.  I have however, regretted not sitting closer to the front to get a decent photo.  Most people are afraid to sit up front and those are the best seats. Do what others are unwilling or unable to do and you’ll create a competitive advantage from the start.
• Follow a format. Trying to capture everything that’s said can be boring & impossible, especially if speakers don’t follow any kind of structure. To get a good liveblog post from a session with speakers that ramble, or a topic you’re not super familiar with, just listen for the best quotes, stats and highlights for a “10 tips about topic XYZ post”.
  You can also use some of those nuggets to live tweet with the conference hashtag during the session.

Post Event Live Blogging:

• Share your post via social channels & use the event hashtag in the title tag and the body copy. Great content isn’t great until it gets consumed and shared. Over and over again. Help that along by promoting your liveblogging efforts and of course, make it easy to share.
• Do a roundup post of all that you covered each day or at least at the end of the conference including images, video interviews and tweets. Link to other livebloggers that are covering the same event.
• Add a post-session video of yourself giving commentary. Do an interview with speakers or with attendees.  Adding multiple media formats can really spice up your liveblogging efforts.

What are the advantages to live-blogging an event versus simply doing a recap post once you get home?

Real time isn’t a luxury, it’s expected at events. People are going to get the information from somewhere, why not from you? If you can consistently provide quality live blogging coverage, you’ll win many new friends: speakers, event, media, subscribers and maybe even prospective clients and employees.

Live coverage meets a need for event attendees, speakers/brands (they view as news coverage) & those not attending However, there’s no rule that you can’t do some kind of real time coverage AND do a recap post once you get home.

Liveblog coverage is treated as media coverage by many Public Relations departments and that means a link from company newsrooms.

Live blogging events can take many forms and there are so many ways to gain value from it that there’s really no “right” or “wrong” way to do it. Like anything, if you set goals, make a plan to reach those goals, execute and evaluate the results to refine future efforts, you’ll undoubtedly discover what flavor of live blogging is right for you.

More about press passes: Since 2005 I’ve been able to attend numerous events due to liveblogging. Initially, I was able to get “sponsored” to liveblog on a press pass. Once basic credentials were established, I was able to secure a press pass for several other events in exchange for pre-show promotion and liveblogging during the event. Then Matt McGowan agreed to have TopRank’s Online Marketing blog as the first blog-based media sponsor of the SES conference and we’ve been working with SES in this regard longer than any other blog. Media sponsorship agreements allow me to bring 1 -4 of my staff to each event to liveblog.  These passes are not a given and must be earned through quality work. The agreements must be renewed each year.

Today, I rarely ask for (or get) press passes because I speak at nearly all conferences I attend.  However, we do still send staff to liveblog events as part of our media sponsorship agreements.  Over nearly 6 years of liveblogging events, my team and I have benefitted from about 54 press passes. This was not a steady number over each year, as it has fluctuated like a bell curve. 2007 through 2009 were highlight years and the number of staff we send has decreased since. We do plan to increase again in 2012.  I wanted to clarify this from the #blogchat thread, since the 50-60 press passes mentioned includes my team and I.

Thanks again to Mack Collier for having me on #blogchat and also for everyone that participated. I was great to see friends like @copyblogger, @heidicohen, @ed & @rochelleveturis stop by

Here are links to a few creative curation and recaps of the Live Blogging #blogchat:

• Mack Collier Tweet stats, contributors & transcript via Hashtracking
• Socialscraps curated and organized tweets from the #blogchat via Storify
• Kristof Top links shared via Tweetreports
• SmartCollegeVisit collection of tweets from the #blogchat via Storify

Are you a conference live blogger and what are some of your live blogging tips?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | Liveblogging Tips from #BlogChat | http://www.toprankblog.com

Blogging has been cited as one of the most effective forms of social media marketing for achieving top visibility in search and on the social web and corporate investment in social media is growing significantly. This is as true for agencies like TopRank Online Marketing as it is for any business with a good story to tell. We’ve promoted blogs as the centerpiece of a hub and spoke model that has been adopted by many other agencies and corporate marketers.

While there are numerous success stories and sources of best practices, most companies handle their business blog in a way that disappoints. Even those corporate blogs that do manage to implement a customer-centric editorial plan, neglect to leverage key discovery and engagement channels like content optimization for search engines and social media optimization.

On November 5th, I’ll be giving a presentation to help business bloggers solve that problem and more, with “Optimize & Socialize for Better Business Blogging“. This presentation  will identify key principles and specific tactics that I’ve learned over the past 8 years of blogging here and for other sites, plus working with numerous client blog consulting projects. The session will provide hard won insights into leveraging SEO and Social Media as key tools for blog content planning, creation and promotion from the editor of the only 3 time #1 ranked Content Marketing Blog (Junta 42), #2 Social Media Blog (Social Media Examiner), top marketing blog (Advertising Age).

Key takeaways for the session include:

1. Plan your way into an infinite number of compelling and relevant content ideas that boost search traffic & engage readers
2. Create campaigns that incorporate blog content with other marketing tactics for extended search & social visibility
3. Promote blog content that inspires social sharing, link building and search traffic

In each area I’ll break it down into:

Blog Content Ideas & Planning

• Key Problems:  Running out of ideas, Lack of effective ideas, Difficulty in sourcing contributors
• Solutions: Tapping into front line staff, community and the competition using a feedback loop that will boost effectiveness and motivate others to join in.

Blog Content Creation

• Key Problems:  Corporate narcism, inconsistent publishing and quality as well as content that does not result in the desired outcomes.
• Solutions: Audience empathy and guidelines for content strategy that result in content that inspires action and sharing.

Blog Content Promotion

• Key Problems: Great blog content with low subscriber counts and poor engagement.
• Solutions: A process to integrate blog content distribution and syndication as well as engagement that will leave readers waiting to see what will come next.

As I’m prone to do, I’ll pack as much actionable information as possible into the session and provide a copy of the PPT deck to attendees. I hope to see you there!

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | BlogWorld LA: Optimize & Socialize For Better Business Blogging | http://www.toprankblog.com

Information production, sharing and consumption is accelerating faster than marketers (or consumers) can keep up with. A lot of that information is user generated content from social sharing and networking sites. Internet Marketers have long been savvy about creating, optimizing and promoting content that’s findable and relevant for target audiences.  Marketers aren’t the only corporate departments creating content in need of an audience though.

Public Relations, Media Relations, Corporate Communications, Investor Relations and many other groups part of corporate MarCom publish content to the web. Audiences may vary, from journalists and reporters doing story research to investors and potential business partners. Increasingly, PR departments are publishing direct to consumer news content, ala “brand as publisher”.

My presentation at PRSA International in Orlando focused on how PR practitioners can realize the emerging opportunities for shifts in consumer information trends, how PR content can be optimized and socialized, tools to scale and practical social media optimization tactics to elevate search visibility of social media and social news content. Here’s the embedded deck from Slideshare:

Here are the specific SEO tactics for social media in this presentation and links to other more in-depth articles on those topics:

• Blog SEO Tips – Blog Optimization – also check out our Blogging category with nearly 8 years of blog marketing tips.
• Facebook SEO - Facebook SEO Tips: Optimizing for an Audience of 800 Million
• LinkedIn SEO – Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile to Improve SEO for Your Company
• Twitter SEO –  How to Use Twitter for SEO
• YouTube SEO – 5 Basic Tips for Video Optimization
• Google+ SEO – How Google+ Will Affect SEO for Your Website

Kikolani has some great social content SEO tips posted recently as well.

Also, here are the tools mentioned in the presentation:

• RavenTools – Paid tool. For basic SEO project management & reporting.
• SocialMention – Free social media search engine and social topic search tool.
• Google Keywords Tool – Free. Basic tool for researching which words/phrases are most used on Google and how competitive they are.
• Google Insights – Free. Shows trends and comparison of keyword phrase popularity (interest) over time plus geographic information.
• Ubersuggest – Free. Handy tool that makes Google autocomplete suggested search phrases usable. Works for Google.com and Google News queries.
• Scribe – Paid tool. WordPress plugin and standalone web service that provides real-time feedback on article keyword optimization.
• Majestic SEO – Paid tool. Think of this as a clipping report for links, including information about quantity, quality and type. Has a historical feature that’s quite handy for trending.
• SEMRush – Paid tool. Want to know what your site or your competitors’ sites are ranking for organically on Google? And their pay per click ads? This is the tool. Also has a trending and comparison feature.

There are many, many more Social Media Optimization and straight SEO tools out there – certainly many more that are advanced, private or for enterprise sized sites. These are basic, easy to use tools that are free or low cost that Public Relations and Communications professionals can use to optimize their news and social content for better keyword relevancy. More relevant (and links) means better visibility in search and a better user experience.

Thanks to PRSA for another great International conference!

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | Boost Your Digital PR & Marketing Skills with Social Media Optimization | http://www.toprankblog.com

Photo from our interview with Avinash at SES Hong Kong

The morning keynote speaker for the 2011 MIMA Summit was none other than Avinash Kaushik co-Founder of Market Motive Inc and the Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google.  Avinash was a very funny and engaging speaker.  Nothing was off limits during his keynote.  Caught in the crosshairs of Avinash’s presentations were what he called “small” local companies (General Mills, 3M, etc) that dared to provide a “less than ideal” user experience.

Innovation was the topic of the morning’s keynote, ranging from which companies are a good (and bad) example of implementing innovation to proper metrics to show success.

What Are the 3 Definitions of Innovation?

Kaushik on innovation: “One of the great sexy things about the Internet is that everything you knew about the Internet 6 months ago is now irrelevant. “

• Incremental
• Incremental with Side Effects
• Transformational

How Can You Participate In Innovation?

Kaushik on measuring success: “If you only measure clicks, page views, visits, video views, touches, emails, and number of reports you are SUPER LAME.”

1. Accountability: Focus on the metrics that matter.  Do not let irrelevant data cloud your vision.  Increase loyalty by giving customers what they want.
2. Multiplicity: Losers only focus on the 2% of conversions they receive from their website.  Winners focus on the 98% that didn’t convert.  Social, Search, Content, Email are all things that drive value but should not be considered a stand-alone marketing strategy.
3. Influence: Traditional Marketing Strategy: shout to customers and hope that something will happen.  Internet Marketing: Create a flow of conversation between your brand and the end user.  Social Marketing Revolution: create not only a flow of communication between the brand and the consumer but encourage the consumer to share with their network.
4. 4. Fail Faster: Each one of us has an opinion.  Often the worst ideas are created by H.I.P.P.O’s (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion). If you’re going to fail do it quickly.  Don’t let ego’s get in the way of making adjustments and tweaks to the original plan.

4 Ways Data Can Help You Do The Right Thing

• Conversion Rate = # of audience comments or replies per post
• Amplification Rate = # of re-tweets per tweet = # of shares per post = # of share clicks per post
• Applause Rate = # of favorite clicks per post = # of likes per post
• Economic Value = sum of short and long term revenue and cost savings

Create A Better User Experience

Kaushik on improving user experiences: “Be better each day than we were the day before.”

The Unreachable Coupon

How much time and effort would you spend to gain access to a .60 cent coupon?  Some corporations think that the answer is: 13 steps and 30 minutes spent filling out personal information (with no error checking) only to find that you have to install another program in order to actually print the coupon.  If companies only focus on the data they NEED they will avoid angering the very customers they were trying to engage.  Why does the Internet bring out the worst in us?

You Say You’re Innovative But You’re Not

The example used was that of a company whose homepage screams the word innovation…literally.  However, their design screams 1940’s.  What we learn from this?  If you’re going to use strong words to describe yourself make sure that your branding reflects your message.

Measuring Suckyness

If you want to form a long-term relationship with your audience you need to provide them something of value first.  Sites that bombard browsers with too many advertisements, links, and paths are “puking” so to speak on their users.   Filling your site with 400 links on one page is not a good strategy.  Avoid suckyness by providing value in a way that is easy for your audience to digest.

I Love This Website!

Websites that allow you get to where you want to be as quickly as possible provide a much better user experience.  By segmenting consumers as soon as they reach the home page they are much more likely to frequent your site because they know exactly how to navigate and will be provided information that only pertains to what they are looking for.

What Did We Learn?

• Extract Insights From Things You Do Every Single Day
• Force companies to provide us with the things we need to make educated buying decisions
• Be authentic!
• Stop guessing and start using the data available to you

For another blog post covering Avinash’s MIMA Summit keynote, visit Lisa Grimm’s blog: Communications Passionista.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | #MIMASummit: Avinash Kaushik Keynote on Improving Engagement Through Innovation | http://www.toprankblog.com

Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance

There are 5 key steps that each marketer must take to create a successful social media campaign.  What does this include?

• Listening to what is being said online
• Assessing the marketplace
• Engaging with current and prospective clients
• Measuring is a way for us to optimize
• Improving our strategy as we learn more

According to Hemann listening and measurement are the two most important ingredients for success.  You cannot successfully execute on one without the other.  Below are a few of the best practice approaches that Hemann shared with the audience at today’s session.

Understand What Simply Listening Can & Cannot Do

• Optimize your content in real time
• Create a better customer experience
• Quickly learn about potential product issues
• Marketing through conversation
• Gain valuable business intelligence

Create A Solid Social Media Strategy

• Planning and beginning and ending stages is essential
• Internal resources for facilitating and executing is critical
• You can’t listen to everything so fine tune your process
• Don’t rely on just one tool for quantifying results

Tools & Reporting: Questions Every Company Should Ask Themselves

• Has your internal team decided on the tools you want to use?
• Is there a training and implementation schedule in place?
• Has a process for reporting been scheduled?
• Do you know what your competition is doing?

Myths & Misconceptions To Avoid

• Social media cannot be measured: You collect dozens of data points each day that assist in measuring your social media efforts.
• ROI stands for something other than return on investment: ROI does not refer to influence or engagement it is directly related to gaining or saving the company money.
• Social media measurement is different than traditional media measurement: Social media is measured by utilizing a series of strategies and tactics just as you would with any other effort.
• Social media is meant to be organic and we already have too much data: You can never have too much data!

Never Forget the Five W’s

• What people are saying about your brand.
• Where they are talking about your brand.
• When people are talking about your brand.
• Who is talking about your brand.
• Why people are talking about your brand.

Common Measurement Questions You Should Always Keep In Mind

• How many people did we reach?
• Did the program create conversation?
• How do I get ad equivalency so the brand can compare this to our advertising?
• Were our fans/followers engaged?

What Is Our Take Away From This Afternoon’s Session?

• No subject is unapproachable
• This is a step-by-step process
• Gaining access to quality data provides a huge competitive advantage

[Note from Lee: Chuck has published his presentation online so take a look below for the full presentation. Thanks Chuck!]

There are many ways to effectively track social media metrics for B2B sales.  What tools have you found to be effective for social media measurement?

Stay tuned for more posts from MIMA Summit 2011.  Follow the hashtag #MIMASummit on Twitter and watch for any posts on @toprank or @azeckman to see updates and photos from the conference.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | #MIMASummit: 6 Tips for Developing a Best Practices Approach to Social Media Measurement | http://www.toprankblog.com