Online Marketing Blog

[Note from Lee: User Generated Content for SEO is something we haven't written about in a while, but now more than ever, marketers need to find efficient ways to generate content assets for search engines as well as the ability to meet customer needs to interact and share. Michelle takes an updated look that I think companies would do well to consider.]

You’ve heard it before: Content is king. But there won’t be much of a kingdom unless that content is optimized. But who is going to create it? Useful, relevant content doesn’t come cheap, especially when your goals are to publish on a consistent basis. As an internet marketer, if you haven’t tapped into the power of user generated content, you may be giving up a goldmine of SEO assets to your competition.

Being somewhat of a fan of buzz marketing, day two starts with a panel I’ve personally been looking forward to.  Igniting Viral Campaigns:  Leveraging Consumer-Generated Content promises to unveil the “secret techniques” and technologies that enable companies to stand out and be talked about through a viral word of mouth buzz.

Aaron Kahlow, Chairman & Founder, Online Marketing Summit moderates this panel of speakers:

• Brian Ellefritz, Senior Manager, Social Media Marketing, Cisco Systems
• Matthew Liu, Product Manager, YouTube Sponsored Videos
• Greg Finn, Director of Internet Marketing, 10e20
• Barbara Coll, CEO, WebMama.com Inc.
• Bill Leake, President and CEO, Apogee Search

Will they give away their secret sauce?

Each presenter shared a presentation, and following all 5 was a quick Q&A:

MyBlogLog Glamour Shots

As both an active participant (first and foremost) and a consultant in the ways of social media, it occurred to me that we should engage the communities of interest we’re involved with for tips. Who better to get tips on social media from than people who are actually USING social media?

Online Marketing Blog, which has a top 50 MyBlogLog community, is fairly active and even interviewed MyBlogLog CEO Scott Rafer. Today I pinged the members of our MBL community and within a very short period of time received about 20 responses. Here are 17 that made the cut and one of our own.

Our first tip on MyBlogLog is from none other than Robyn Tippins, Community Manager at MyBlogLog and a blogger at Practical Blogging.

At SES San Jose, I spoke on a panel with Matt McGee and Andrew Goodman about user generated content with SEO benefits. During the conference and after, the topic of UGC has continued to stay top of mind and therefore, I have this post to share, which discusses the trends towards information consumption involving user generated content (UGC) and why it may be a good fit in the search marketing mix.

In the world of natural search optimization, content is King but there’s a price to pay for the ongoing creation of useful, relevant content. Passionate customers and communities are increasingly tapped by web site owners for their content creation benefits but it’s still new territory for most marketers as to what works best. Is it forums, reviews, blogs or social media?