Business Consulting

Social media marketing is fast emerging as a must-have in search strategies. In this session, industry experts Vanina Delobelle, Global Product Director for Monster, Erik Qualman from Search Engine Watch and Global VP of EF Education, along with Brnet Csutoras, Online Marketing Consultant offered some tips to successfully integrate social media into your search marketing […]

Social media marketing is fast emerging as a must-have in search strategies. In this session, industry experts Vanina Delobelle, Global Product Director for Monster, Erik Qualman from Search Engine Watch and Global VP of EF Education, along with Brnet Csutoras, Online Marketing Consultant offered some tips to successfully integrate social media into your search marketing mix.

Vanina kicked off the session this morning discussing what social media is and how, when used correctly, it can benefit your business.

So, what is social media?
- Social networks like MySpace, Facebook and Xing
- Forums such as Phorum and phpBB
- Microblogging with twitter or pounce
- Multimedia sharing sites like YouTube, Flicker and Slideshare
- Diggs with Wikio and digg
- Blogs and live casts
- Virtual Universes like Second Life

Social media is a user centric approach to online marketing and each of these sites are built with the user and community in mind.

Use social media to:
- Connect with people
- Maintain brand positioning
- Generate more traffic
- Enlarge the targeted segment
- Increase the user experience

And also…leverage current marketing results to get better brand awareness, get better brand management, get better user stickiness, get better quality products, and get more sales.

Requirement for social media include:
- Global means local. Because we deal with communities we need to be close to them
- Resources. Community managers need to get more focus
- Consistency. The effort should start and last
- Content. Content should get more focus

Because social content is updated more often and users link to the content, social media sites rank within the search engine results page, providing businesses another opportunity to increase visibility online.

Erik addressed the users specifically within the social media communities and lessons learned to launch a successful social media campaign.

Lessons learned:
1. Don’t treat social media like every other channel you use. Community members don’t want to be added to your database, they want to have a conversation.

2. Figure out what users want and what you offer, don’t provide irrelevant information, or applications if your customers don’t want it. Identify what it is that only your company can provider the user base.

Erik addressed some of the common questions businesses have regarding social media:

Where should I start?
Look at where your audience is, where you think you have the most chance for success and test one social site to see what works.

When should I start?
Today! Get out there, interact and figure out what people like and don’t like. Don’t push marketing right away, provide value to the community through conversation.

Can search engines crawl social media / networks?
Yes – absolutely! Social sites have a lot of inbound links and rank highly in the search engine results page

Does Facebook PPC work?
Test it out for your business, but don’t treat it like direct response ad. It’s better to build a community on Facebook first, send them to your Facebook page and include a link to your site.

What’s the easiest way for my company to use Twitter?
Start up an account, be transparent, and start to figure out what people are talking about. Start following people that are talking in a relevant context and respond to posts as you become integrated.

What else is new and exciting?
Search. The future of social media will include a search function, allowing you to search for ratings and reviews from your network base.

Brent Csutoras talked to the panel about how to use search in conjunction with your search marketing campaigns.

One of the most viable aspects of social media is to increase visibility, rankings and links by pushing content and services through your communities.

The biggest benefit social media adds to your marketing campaigns is organic links. Social media is a natural method to spread your content to others and gain natural links.

There are two main types of links coming from social media:
- Community links from the social media / networking sites
- Inbound links from other sites that ‘pick-up’ or share your content within in their networks

Social media tips
- Have a site that is social media friendly
- Pick communities you relate to
- Check what worked before
- Create high quality, link worthy content
- Understand how to submit and push social campaigns
- Understand what to do with success
- Be social!

How are you incorporating social media into your search marketing campaigns?

For more photos from SES San Jose, be sure to visit TopRank on Flickr.

Sponsored By: 2009 Search Marketing Benchmark Guide All New Report from Marketing Sherpa

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Update (3/30): Yeah, right. I try to avoid blog feuds like Black Death, but I became so intrigued, I decided to blog about it. Someone calling “herself” Amanda Chapel started a blog called Strumpette. This person started off on the wrong stiletto by going after, in a very trite manner, Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion. […] Continue to read more…

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Blogs have been abuzz for at least 4 years in the tech space and in the past 2-3 years in the business marketing world. Like many new marketing/communication channels, there continues to be a need to demystify shiny new objects and what they mean for businesses. Blogs and search engine optimization are no different. One point […]

Blogs have been abuzz for at least 4 years in the tech space and in the past 2-3 years in the business marketing world. Like many new marketing/communication channels, there continues to be a need to demystify shiny new objects and what they mean for businesses. Blogs and search engine optimization are no different.

One point I would make is that companies are wasting their long term time when setting up blogs purely for SEO purposes. It’s short term thinking and over time, results in difficulties with keeping momentum, new ideas and content. How do I know? Been there and done that, many times.

It’s far more realistic to implement blogs for specific purposes such as product communications, online newsroom, thought leader/strategy, customer support/communications, news, branding, advice/tips, aggregation of content in specific topics and many more. Regardless of the purpose, each blog implementation and ongoing management should have an intentional SEO effort.

Our session at SES San Jose on Blogs and Feeds included Amanda Watlington who gave a litany of advice and insights on strategic considerations for blogging ranging from goals to content sourcing to URL. She also offered an impressive list of specific tactics for optimizing both blogs and feeds. Amanda has been presenting on this topic at SES since the session was first implemented 3-4 years ago.

Chris Boggs gave advice on linking from blogs with examples of why not to link to press releases since they can get removed and not linking to other types of content because of archiving and lack of proper redirection.

Daron Babin made an argument based on his personal experience with the new WebmasterRadio.FM site on why it might be better in some cases not to use a blog platform, but to use a custom CMS (content management system) that publishes feeds. He offered numerous ranking examples and technical details of how the publishing platform automates many SEO friendly features of the web site.

My presentation on blog SEO focused on the value and opportunity with links specific to blogs and also offered 3 case studies.

In 2007 there were approximately 70 million blogs tracked by Technorati and this year they post 112 million, although there are likely far more than that. Out of all those blogs, 100 million have less than 20 inbound links. 400,000 blogs have more than 20 links and the top 2,600 blogs have over 1,000 inbound links.

Think about that. To be one of the top 1% of all blogs according to Technorati, it takes (among other things) 1,000 inbound links. That’s a number any competent search marketer could achieve in a reasonable amount of time provided there’s good content to work with. It represents a good illustration of the opportunity for SEOs to leverage blogs as a compliment to search engine optimization programs.

The first case study I presented concerned a Senior Housing Development Company, that wanted to provide an informal communications channel to address topics of interest to their target market and also to motivate a shift in thinking of their industry from “old folks homes” to “senior communities, senior living”.

Tactics included updating their blog and optimizing with keywords as well as leveraging categories to offer an online newsroom to archive optimized press releases both chronologically and by keyword-rich category.

Results included the blog becoming a top 5 source of referring traffic to corporate site, a huge increase in keyword rankings and a 500% increase in unique visitors.

The second blog SEO case study involved an online book and games retailer that wanted to tap into the passionate communities of games and puzzle enthusiasts online.

The tactical approach involved creating robust online game content include taking old style carnival games and having them made into Flash games to be played on the blog itself. A presence was created on Facebook as well as social media promotion efforts on StumbleUpon, Digg and bookmarking sites. Also, Twitter data was mined for users talking about games, puzzles, learning etc and followed to create a channel for promoting the latest games posted to the blog.

Results for the online puzzles site included a doubling of unique visitors from organic search, a quintupling of monthly traffic and more than qunitupling of page views to well over 400,000 per month. Now the site not only sells books and games but monetizes content/traffic with contextual advertising.

The third blog SEO case study involved our own blog, Online Marketing Blog. Our strategy was to transition a news blog into a unique content destination that would demonstrate TopRank’s thought leadership on topics ranging from Push and Pull Public Relations to Digital Asset Optimization. Increasing awareness in the search, PR and direct marketing industries as well as with prospective clients were specific, long term objectives.

Tactics for Online Marketing Blog include a regular schedule of unique content: industry and SEM agency insights, interviews, conference coverage, surveys, blog reviews and blog tools, photos & video.

Results include being ranked in the Technorati 100 (#31 favorite out of 100 million + blogs) and in top 15 on the AdAge Power150 list of top marketing blogs. However, the more meaningful results according to objectives include media coverage in influential publications:

Additionally, our blog ranks in Google on many, difficult keyword phrases such as “online marketing” #2, over 13,000 RSS subscribers and about 80k monthly web visitors. However, the most meaningful results are that we get daily advertising requests, weekly requests from the media, weekly requests to speak at conferences and daily new business requests.

Blogging alone can be a long term productive marketing channel. Blogging, optimizing and promoting great content delivers a far greater competitive advantage.

Other blogs covering or mentioning this session include:

• Search Engine Roundtable
• Search Engine Journal
• Web Mama Blog
• Erik Cunningham
• Simarprit
• StoresOnline

Be sure to check out all of TopRank’s coverage of SES San Jose as well as the SES San Jose photos on Flickr.

Sponsored By: Digital Publishing & Advertising DPAC II Next wave of digital content & ads October 27th & 28th NY Marriott Marquis

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Download Episode 15 {How to Recruit the Very Best People} In business, we all compete for the very best people. We visit with two experts today to gain insight into real-world techniques for recruiting the very best staff. My first guest is George Lessmeister. George has fourteen years […] Continue to read more…

Take a moment to think of all the great people you’ve known. Family. Friends. Teachers. Classmates. Coworkers. Clients. Within moments, you can bring up vivid memories of hundreds, probably thousands of people you’ve met over the years. You can see their face. You can hear their voice. […]

Take a moment to think of all the great people you’ve known. Family. Friends. Teachers. Classmates. Coworkers. Clients. Within moments, you can bring up vivid memories of hundreds, probably thousands of people you’ve met over the years. You can see their face. You can hear their voice. You can remember conversations you’ve shared.

Why then, do so many companies invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in figuring out how to promote themselves with traditional media, and then hire mediocre people to be the face and voice of their company?

John Windsor, author of Beyond the Brand, relates an experience that left a last impression on him:

When I asked Chipper how to get there, Chipper started off by saying, “You’ve got it bro, ” and then gave me detailed, simple instructions on how to get there. When I told Chipper thanks, he said “Believe it!” It was magical.

Soon after we talked, I realized I was going to be early so I called back looking for a friend to borrow a surfboard and get some exercise before my meeting. I called Chipper back and he paged my friend. Unfortunately, my buddy was in a meeting. When Chipper asked what I needed, I told him I wanted to borrow a surfboard. Chipper said, “No worries, come see me and I’ll have a board ready for ya, bro!”

When I arrived, there was Chipper, stoked to see me with a board ready to ride.

Who is this mysterious “Chipper” guy? He’s the receptionist for Patagonia, an outdoor apparel and gear company.

If you saw a tremendously expensive ad for Patagonia products in a glossy outdoor sports magazine, you probably wouldn’t remember it for more than a few seconds. John Winsor, however, will probably remember Chipper for the rest of his life, as well as the positive mental associations he brought to the Patagonia brand.

Many years ago, I did most of my banking through a small supermarket branch of Wells Fargo. I usually went after work, when the branch manager wasn’t there. The late-shift tellers were young and notoriously silly. They laughed, exchanged jokes with customers, and had a great time doing their job. I loved going there.

I remember walking in one afternoon and finding them more somber than usual. I asked one of them what was up, and she indicated that they had been “caught” by the branch manager, who had arranged a secret shopper to observe their behavior after he left.

Now my favorite banking experience was reduced to boring sterility. They went back to calling me “Mr. Archer.” Banking was returned to its previous status of being a necessary chore, rather than a pleasant experience.

From a business perspective, that branch manager probably congratulated himself on making his tellers more efficient and professional. He optimized their performance by removing the minutes they spent chatting with each customer.

He also lost at least one customer, as I no longer had any particular attachment to Wells Fargo (and the wonderful human brand those tellers had created), and I eventually switched to Bank of America.

As social animals, our brains are hardwired to understand and appreciate the people around us. We respond to them on a profound level that can’t be approached by mailers, television commercials, or viral ad campaigns.

Who is the voice of your business? Are they imperfect? Are they memorable? Are they lovable?

Or are they merely professional?

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“Quality over quantity” applies to almost everything we encounter, from the foods we eat to the people we interact with. It certainly applies to pay-per-click ads, in which the quality of your campaigns, from keywords to ads to landing pages, takes precedence over the quantity of money you bid. Your keyword quality scores can be […]

“Quality over quantity” applies to almost everything we encounter, from the foods we eat to the people we interact with. It certainly applies to pay-per-click ads, in which the quality of your campaigns, from keywords to ads to landing pages, takes precedence over the quantity of money you bid. Your keyword quality scores can be either a barrier of entry to ad rankings or your free pass to the head of the line. This session explores everything quality score, from what affects your score to how to improve it.

Dana Todd, CMO of Newsforce, directed a panel of four industry leaders in quality score, who take the discussion from the basics to detailed, actionable advice.

The Basics of Quality Score

Ron Jones, Search Engine Watch Expert and President/CEO of Symetri, gave a basic overview of quality score to those in need of a quick tutorial. He defined quality score as a dynamic value assigned to each keyword in your campaign which measures the quality and relevance of your ads. The higher your quality score, the lower your minimum bids.

Ron also outlined which factors influence your quality score in terms of minimum bid, ad position and placement on content sites.

• Historical click-through-rate (CTR) of each keyword, ad and display URL
• Relevance of each keyword to ad and search query or content site
• Your AdWords account history (CTR of all ads and keywords in your account)
• Ad performance on content site

The relevancy of your landing pages applies to minimum bids and content sites but does not affect keyword quality scores.

Ron also points out that other factors beyond marketer control can impact all of these things as well. As a key takeaway of his presentation, Ron recommended allocating 10-15 percent of a pay per click budget purely to testing, as testing will help you uncover which ads and landing pages result in better quality scores.

Brian Geddes, founder of bgTheory.com, continued the discussion of quality score basics with a look at why quality scores matter.

“Every time your ad could potentially show, quality score matters,” Brian said. He pointed out that a high quality score can ensure your ad is ranking higher than your competitors, even when you are paying less in your bids.

He also recommends looking at minimum bids as an indicator of quality score. By organizing your keywords from highest minimum bid to lowest, you can begin to diagnose quality score issues. Brian advised marketers to focus on keywords with a minimum bid between 0.25 and 0.50 cents, as small changes can have a big impact on quality scores in this range.

Relevancy and Quality Score

Digital Marketing and Convergence Media Consultant Kendall Allen moved the discussion beyond the basics with a look at relevancy. She gave a brief overview of the history of quality score and how ‘relevancy’ became a major player.

“With the onset of quality score, the bar has been raised and relevancy has become much more scientific if you want to approach it correctly,” Kendall advised.

Kendall focused particularly on landing page relevancy, and gave recommendations on how to improve your landing page’s relevancy in five main areas.

• Content Content should be descriptive, clear and unique to your site.
• Usability Your landing page should be useful, relevant and a direct response to the user’s search query.
• Navigation Your site should ease a user’s passage and give direct connections to what they seek.
• Transparency Landing pages should be upfront about the nature of your business and the use of a user’s personal information
• Load time Minimize any landing page redirects and create synergy between content and design.

Kendall finished her segment by suggesting marketers collaborate with all involved parties, be they the client, webmaster or whomever, to ensure all interests are aligned in creating a relevant, high quality landing page.

Improving Quality Score

“Quality score takes search back to the basics, back to the fundamentals…providing the users the direct access to finding the content they want at the time they want it,” Misty Locke, president and co-founder of Range Online Media, said.

Misty outlined a detailed plan for creating a high quality score ad campaign, from keyword selection to creative.

• Keyword building Build out all variations on trademark keywords, non-brand terms, and all product-specific long tail terms using keyword research tools, product feeds, etc.
• Keyword structure and organization All four experts agree that organization is key, and that keywords should be sorted into extremely granular groups that match up closely with corresponding ad copy.
• Keyword match types In the beginning of a campaign, include all match types for all keywords. As your campaign evolves, it should be moving towards the goal of all keywords being exact matches.
• Creative Use of dynamic keyword insertion should be limited. In an ideal situation, your ad copy and keyword groups should be so specific to one another that dynamic keyword insertion isn’t needed.
• Landing Pages Misty reminded the audience that unlike Google, MSN and Yahoo will disapprove landing pages that aren’t specific enough. Ad copy and landing page content should relate very closely to one another.

While this session was listed in the track for advanced advertisers, defined by moderator Dana Todd as those involved with pay per click for three or more years, I felt the information was comprehensive enough to apply to advertisers at all stages of the pay per click process. From learning the basics of quality score and what it impacts to how to achieve high quality scores, the four speakers in this session covered all levels of quality score understanding.

Stay current with the SES San Jose conference by checking in regularly with the TopRank Online Marketing Blog, and view more photos from the TopRank Team at TopRank on Flickr.

Sponsored By: Follow TopRank on Twitter Get daily updates, insights and links

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I’m generally a huge fan of new Web 2.0 offerings for several reasons, the largest of which is probably that I enjoy all the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit surrounding this mini gold-rush we call “Web 2.0.” Ironically, it’s for this very reason that I am advising against new startup “Competitio.us.” The site’s sole mission is to […] Continue to read more…

Download Standard Podcast Alan and I had a chance to interview Buzz Marketing guru Ron McDaniel about his latest book Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing - 57 Word of Mouth Marketing Challenges for the Entire Workforce.You’ll have to wait about seven more weeks before the book hits stores, but our podcast interview with Ron should hold you over […] Continue to read more…

A business advisor once gave me a great piece of advice: “Any time you read a magazine, newspaper, journal, etc., always ask yourself ‘Who do I know that could benefit from this information?’ Cut out the article and send it along to that person with a little personal note.” What great advice. Just asking the […] Continue to read more…