Shifting Search Marketing Strategy

Less than two years ago, when I was introduced to the search marketing industry, I (naively) thought I knew what search was.

Today I got my Google Wave invite and floundered around there for a bit. Last week I played around with Google’s new Social Search experiment. With all the new uses, integrations and features search engines are adding to their results, it’s enough to make a blogger dizzy.

Is anyone else left asking, “What’s next?”

Along with the changes to search, the online evolution has brought about a change in user behavior. Turns out that after a rough year of economic uncertainty, Internet users are keeping their eyes wide open to identify scams as well as sales pitches.

Spending any time on the Internet’s watering holes, social networks, reveals that seemingly innocuous games and messages from trusted friends can elevate your participation to victim status with the click of a link. [This is why you should trust no one. --Susan]

Some users may have extended their caution of online content to the realm of the marketer as well. At last week’s Digital Publishing & Advertising Conference (DPAC4) attendees learned that consumers have new-found pride in their ability to bypass marketing messages. As if it weren’t hard enough for a business online, now the audience is actively trying to tune out the message.

Despite the great abuse potential of social media content to harm brands or defame individuals, on the search side, we see the engines eager to integrate social media into main results.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has made it clear that he thinks social media and real-time content plays heavily in the future for search. Determining how to rank real-time social media content is, according to Schmidt, “the great challenge of the age.”

Faced with an mistrustful audience and a new search opportunity, social media is a crucial frontier for any online business to be on. Thought it’s worth considering just where the value of real-time participation lies.

For all the weight put on real-time content within search engines and all the time spent on online social networks, for all the new features being added to search and the lack of trust Internet users have for overt marketing…

As recently as last week, I said SMM wasn’t a requirement of SEO. After connecting the dots with some new information I’m actually reconsidering whether social media marketing has in fact become a vital requirement of search engine optimization. I mean, really… what’s next?

Aggregated Social Media Marketing News. Go to Source

Shifting Search Marketing Strategy

Less than two years ago, when I was introduced to the search marketing industry, I (naively) thought I knew what search was.

Today I got my Google Wave invite and floundered around there for a bit. Last week I played around with Google’s new Social Search experiment. With all the new uses, integrations and features search engines are adding to their results, it’s enough to make a blogger dizzy.

Is anyone else left asking, “What’s next?”

Along with the changes to search, the online evolution has brought about a change in user behavior. Turns out that after a rough year of economic uncertainty, Internet users are keeping their eyes wide open to identify scams as well as sales pitches.

Spending any time on the Internet’s watering holes, social networks, reveals that seemingly innocuous games and messages from trusted friends can elevate your participation to victim status with the click of a link. [This is why you should trust no one. --Susan]

Some users may have extended their caution of online content to the realm of the marketer as well. At last week’s Digital Publishing & Advertising Conference (DPAC4) attendees learned that consumers have new-found pride in their ability to bypass marketing messages. As if it weren’t hard enough for a business online, now the audience is actively trying to tune out the message.

Despite the great abuse potential of social media content to harm brands or defame individuals, on the search side, we see the engines eager to integrate social media into main results.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has made it clear that he thinks social media and real-time content plays heavily in the future for search. Determining how to rank real-time social media content is, according to Schmidt, “the great challenge of the age.”

Faced with an mistrustful audience and a new search opportunity, social media is a crucial frontier for any online business to be on. Thought it’s worth considering just where the value of real-time participation lies.

For all the weight put on real-time content within search engines and all the time spent on online social networks, for all the new features being added to search and the lack of trust Internet users have for overt marketing…

As recently as last week, I said SMM wasn’t a requirement of SEO. After connecting the dots with some new information I’m actually reconsidering whether social media marketing has in fact become a vital requirement of search engine optimization. I mean, really… what’s next?

Aggregated Social Media Marketing News. Go to Source

Bye Bye, Old Media Thinking: CNN Leads the Way in Online Video Strategy – SEM Synergy Extras

The rising importance of online video is the topic of the day on today’s episode of SEM Synergy.

CNN — a media outlet that before a few years ago was best known for its 24-hour television news coverage — launched a newly redesigned site last week. Central to the new design is the prominence of video.

On the home page, the editor’s choice of must-watch videos runs across the screen. Head to any category landing page — Politics, Entertainment, Tech, and so on — and you’ll see a number of videos featured above the fold.

CNN isn’t the only site looking to capitalize on the presence of video in online properties. A study by social media analytics provider Sysomos uncovers the wide-spread adoption of video embedding by bloggers and overall video viewing trends.

Examining video embeds and links to videos on blogs, Sysomos looked at 100 million blog posts published from July to September of 2009 along with twelve major video platforms. Findings showed that men and women across the world are including links to videos on their blogs. As a friend said to me the other day, “Videos are the new pictures.”

I’m already late to the party. Typical.

Now, if I’m not alone, let’s back up a second and listen to Bruce’s perspective on why video is an increasingly important element of any site, shared during an interview with ReelSEO, a video marketing and SEO company, earlier this year. Check that out and come right back, okay?

Videos are engagement objects™, or elements and applications that cause the user to actively participate on a Web site. Google’s Universal Search highlights the need for videos, images and other engaging content as such features are featured prominently in page-one search results.

My guest Topher Kohan, SEO coordinator at CNN, talked to me during the podcast about CNN’s Web 2.0 strategy, what the process of redesigning the site was like, and how he managed to keep SEO in the loop from the very beginning.

One point that really stuck out to me during our convo but didn’t get a lot of time during the podcast was CNN’s approach to the Web, not as an alternate channel, but as a critical appendage of the holistic-minded media organization.

While some news organizations push Web visitors to the television, CNN sees Web users as an influential audience, deserving of at least the same amount of time and effort as is given to catering to TV viewers.

As a television news org, CNN has a lot of video in its archives. If users can find, view, and share video online, and all those interactions can be tracked and measured with unprecedented accuracy, isn’t online video an investment worth at least investigating?

Retailers are facing the same situation. Once upon a time Web site visitors could be directed to call or visit a brick-and-mortar location. The Web was a tool for funneling people down a non-Web-based conversion cycle.

But business models have necessarily evolved as confident shoppers aren’t going to put in the time and effort it takes to bounce from your site to the store when an online alternative is available.

The Web is no second-class citizen, and video holds a high place in the court of the king. Get the picture?

Aggregated Social Media Marketing News. Go to Source

10 Proven Applications For Social Media

Tenured digital marketing professionals have been applying social media for end business and marketing objectives for years. But what is clearly valuable to some is still a mystery to many.

Whether you’re a marketer trying to get buy-in for social media from the top or a small business owner wondering why you should bother, knowing high impact applications of social media are helpful. If you’re looking to build relationships with connected, influential individuals (and what business isn’t?) then it’s no longer a question of if you should engage in social media, rather it’s the how and the why.

If you’re wondering how, a great starting point is viewing TopRank’s social media roadmap presentation. But let’s take a step even further back and consider the why: directed application of social media can accomplish some seriously valuable objectives.

Following are 10 tried and proven applications of social media:

1. Change the conversation in your industry, even if you’re not at the top
The social web is the great equalizer, in that good ideas permeate a niche in as close to a democratic fashion as you can get. Certainly those with a following and a strong reputation can spark whatever conversations they want. But in reality anyone with ideas worth sharing can impact the global conversation. Influence is multi-directional and frequently occurs horizontally or from the bottom up.

2. Reputation management
As noted in our post on B2C Marketing and social media, social media allows you to go direct to consumer with your news. If you’ve got a megaphone to your fans – such as a popular blog read by your entire industry – you can counter pesky rumors floating around about your brand with a simple post backed up with the real facts.

3. Build your tribe
Seth Godin has popularized the notion of having a tribe – aka a following or community – interested in seeing you succeed. Social media does not make this easy, rather it makes it possible at scale if you’re actually worth following.

4. Organic PR generation
As Lee noted in answers to social media questions, TopRank’s blog generates anywhere from 10-20 quality organic PR placements monthly. Some months this can be much higher. By participating as a contributor to the social web and consistently adding value, organic PR is a byproduct. This is possible for your brand too and shifts your PR from the infinite treadmill of push to the natural growth of pull. This strategy is scalable, authentic and let’s you be yourself – what’s not to like?

5. Use social as part of your SEO strategy
At TopRank, we’re big on the SEO and social media intersection. We frequently help clients uncover opportunities embracing the fact that both SEO and social are intrinsically linked. Being white hat SEOs, it’s a crossroads we’re especially fond of. Social content plays such as linkbait are tactics the engines publicly endorse, the engines thrive on the addition of fresh content and social media participation forges relationships with others likely to link to you as those relationships strengthen.

6. Listen to key stakeholders
The wide array of social media monitoring tools available make listening to the topics you’re interested in a snap. Get the right setup in place and you can have your finger on the pulse of your niche, learn frequently articulated pain points and deliver solutions that truly resonate.

7. Become a David to your industry’s Goliath
Social media lets you tell the stories you want to tell in an unrestricted fashion. If you’re a brand willing to step outside the box, it is possible to position yourself as the David to your industry’s Goliath. And if there is one thing social web users across niches love, it’s an up-and-comer that’s organized around openness and being social. That was a huge part of Zappos’ strategy and reason for their success.

8. Social proofing
We’ve previously discussed the importance of social proofing and its application as part of your online marketing growth strategy. Social media allows you to attain directed social proofing for use to accomplish specific business objectives. Whether you want to inspire comments/ratings about a new product and leverage that for marketing materials or share compelling metrics such as the popularity of your community publicly to inspire even more growth, social media application can play a large role in establishing your brand’s social proofing.

9. Attract talented, passionate employees
Participation in social media shows the human side of your company and in time it shows your brand’s true colors. Bearing your company is truly remarkable and communicating that to the world, this will attract attention from quality employees. And with hiring paradoxically harder in a downturn, yet no slowdown in demand for A-list employees, social media can position your brand as a better choice for top talent.

10. Become a media company
In a previous post on influencing the social web we mentioned the fact that every company is now a media company. It’s something many others have noted, a great example being Techdirt. They’ve fully embraced this – their popular blog with more than 600,000 subscribers is easily their launching point for complementary services. Mike Masnick, Techdirt’s CEO recognized this so much he even state it directly: advertising is content, content is advertising.

Conclusion
The 10 potential applications of social media listed above are merely a primer to get you thinking. There are far more than these 10 – the use of social communications tools are limited only by your creative and technical know-how.

As a marketing professional or business owner, realize that at its core social media is not Twitter, Facebook or any single tool despite what your peers are buzzing about. It’s merely the opening of communications and connections through technology. And the buzzwords, tools or tactics are meaningless without end applications/strategies in mind.

What applications of social media are you applying for your business or marketing objectives?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2009. |
10 Proven Applications For Social Media |
14 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

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How Social Media Email Marketing Boost Customer Reach

For years, rumors have circulated that email marketing is dying and teenagers the world over have proclaimed email as, “something old people do”.

Whether you agree or disagree that email has one foot in the grave, many online marketers are finding effective ways to leverage email as part of a social media marketing mix. Integrating email and social media was the topic of discussion at a session during the MIMA Summit last week with Loren McDonald, VP of Industry Releations, SilverPop and Brian Brown, Director of Modern Marketing, ideapark.

Social sharing options embedded in online content have helped increase distribution and reach for thousands of web sites. One of the most common ways email has been used in a social context is “Forward to a Friend”. However, the tried and true ‘Forward to a Friend’ link has less than .1% CTR, so many marketers have taken it upon themselves to find a new way to circulate content amongst networks.

Alternatively, there is the ‘Share to Social’ (S2S) link. While S2S is relatively new, a .5% CTR gives early reason to be optimistic according to a Silverpop study.

The Silverpop Share-to-Social study also reported that S2S is likely to result in sharing of content with 150 to 200 people on average. In contrast, a “forward to a friend” link may reach an additional 1 to 2 people. Share to social use results in a 24% increase in reach on average.

How does Share-To-Social (S2S) Work? S2S is a call to action such as ‘Share this Newsletter’ followed by graphical links to various social network or content sharing sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, StumbleUpon and so forth. all within the email message.

If you look at most blogs and online publishers, social sharing buttons are not anything new. In fact, TopRank created one of the first tools for blogs to embed social bookmarking buttons over 3 years ago. Posting them within email messages, however, is catching on and there are a few guidelines to follow for successful integration:

Understand what motivates subscribers to share
People share for different reasons including:

• Self Interest: People share because they think they will be rewarded. i.e. sweepstakes
• Altruism: sharing makes them feel good
• Validation: sharing feeds the ego
• Affinity: sharing makes people feel more a part of the community
• Prurience: sharing makes people feel less guilty for gawking

Target the right social networks and media
Is the use of 4 or 5 networks the right number? If not, how many is?

Be sure to do your homework and identify on which social sites your target audience is spending time. Of those, on which sites are they interacting or sharing content the most?

Once you have this identified, don’t shut down the research. Continue to follow the target audiences to make sure they aren’t migrating to a new site leaving you unaware.

Keys to targeting the right networks:

• Utilize 3^rd party research
• Survey subscribers/monitor network activity
• Test and analyze click/share activity
• Identify subtrends i.e. high value sharers
• Kill the losers

Educate subscribers on how/why to share
Despite the growth, ‘sharing’ is still early among some audiences.

Alongside the ‘share this’ buttons, consider adding a ‘what’s this’ button and give them instructions on how and why to use the feature.

Encourage people to share. Placing the links on the page/email may not be enough. Just like with anything marketing, you need to include call to actions to get people interacting.

Once you have integrated S2S, the next step is to identify high value sharers. Who are the ‘few’ people that often share your content and have a larger than average network?

Optimize email sharing design and link location
Where to put the links?

Test different placement of the ‘share this’ links. Top, Middle, Bottom, Sidebar etc.

At the very least, by moving it around you can avoid users getting used to seeing it and therefore ignoring it.

Eight ways to create shareworthy content:

1. Trustworthy - Brand and source of content or offer is widely known and trusted
2. Tap into Tribes - Message content speaks to tribal groups within subscriber base
3. Obvious - Essence of the email content to be shared is obvious, simple to grasp
4. Easy to Share - Sharing links are easy to find and use
5. Social Acumen - Targets the right social networks and social acumen of subscribers
6. Creates Value - Must provide value or recipients will not share
7. Rewards/Incentives
8. Great Content

What B2B emails are shareworthy? Articles and statistics.

What’s not shareworthy? Long newsletters, negative news and highly personalized emails.

Analyze, test and refine for increased sharing

Test – what’s working and what’s not including:

• Copy
• Link style
• Link location
• Broad vs narrow focus messages
• Viral-only messages
• High-value sharers

Key Takeaways for integrating social networks and email:

• Narrow your network focus
• Make it easy to share
• Determine what your subscribers find most ‘shareworthy’
• Identify and reward your key influencers
• Test everything and don’t be afraid to fail

At our agency TopRank, we’ve been implementing email marketing programs in conjunction with other online marketing and lead generation efforts including social media for 5 years. A good starting point to improving email effectiveness is to read some of the better email marketing tactics online and this recent post from WebProNews on why social media isn’t replacing email.

Are you implementing email marketing with social networking? (outside of the emails that occur within the social network) What have you found to be the best/worst practices?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2009. |
How Social Media & Email Marketing Boost Customer Reach |
15 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

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Social Media in Healthcare Marketing: Making the Case

For marketers in any industry—from manufacturing to real estate to banking, and everything in between—making the business case for social media isn’t a quick and easy process.

But in healthcare marketing, it’s an understatement to say that gaining buy-in for social media isn’t easy.

Consider for a moment just what healthcare marketers are up against:

• A multitude of privacy regulations
• Nursing and support staff shortages
• Increasing demand for services thanks to the quickly aging Baby Boomer generation

It’s not difficult to understand why some healthcare decision makers may be slow to adopt social media. But instead of throwing in the towel, consider these 5 tips for making the case for social media in healthcare marketing:

1. The movement has started. Healthcare may not be as quick to adopt social media as some other industries. But there are many hospitals and healthcare organizations that are quietly innovating on the social web, as Digital Influence blogger Rohit Bhargava suggests.

In a recent post, he points out that there are 367 US hospitals using social media. They are responsible for 10,000 Tweets from 267 Twitter accounts. When making your individual case for social media in healthcare marketing, leverage some of the great examples out there:

• Patients Like Me is an online community site created in 2004 by MIT engineers to allow patients to share information and their personal experiences. The goal is to connect patients with the same or similar diseases so they can rely on one another for support.
• The Center for Connected Health community website is designed for healthcare providers and policymakers. Community members can discuss controversial topics, and share best practices, new ideas, upcoming events and research.
• Individual hospitals are involved in social media efforts as well, Bhargava points out. The Sarasota Memorial Hospital uses Twitter to answer patient questions and provide immediate customers service. In March, the Henry Ford Hospital used Twitter to connect with 1,900 people and answer questions during an actual brain surgery.

2. Patients—and potential future patients—are involved in social networks. A March 2009 report (pdf) from Nielson Online found that 67% of the global online population takes part in online communities. Plus, time spent on social media sites now accounts for almost 10% of all time online.

Clear and simple, patients use social media. Hospitals can utilize social channels to answer healthcare- or illness-related questions or simply provide medical information—just as the Sarasota Memorial and Henry Ford hospitals have done. If the numbers aren’t convincing enough, consider this: Patients are comparison shopping for hospitals, CNN reports.

With the increasing cost of healthcare and a growing number of available hospitals, it’s only natural. Social media is just one tool for hospitals and healthcare organizations to stay top of mind and relevant for patients.

3. Patients are online, and so are physicians. Consider a few statistics from Manhattan Research:

• As much as 89% of US physicians rely on the Internet as an essential part of their professional practice
• Approximately 64% of physicians now use smartphones
• 41% of physicians’ research takes place online The bottom line is physicians and other healthcare personnel are already spending time online.

Additionally, Doctors have their own social network, Sermo, which has over 110,000 practicing MD’s participating.

By embracing social media, hospitals and healthcare organizations can provide their current staff with a mechanism to share information and best practices. Plus, organizations can use their social efforts as an incentive when recruiting new employees.

4. Healthcare is top of mind, in the news and constantly changing. Particularly since the last presidential election, healthcare has been thrust into the public spotlight. From universal healthcare to electronic health records to patient privacy, there’s a new healthcare news item in the headlines every day. Social media can provide an effective mechanism for hospitals and healthcare organizations to stay involved in healthcare legislation discussion.

Take the lead from Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The hospital CEO is using his blog to discuss and comment on potential health insurance legislation – among other topics.

5. Social media efforts don’t have to involve a lot of costs. Budget cuts have become a common business practice across nearly all industries—hospitals and healthcare organizations are no exception. But social media campaigns don’t have to include a significant financial investment.

Consider the healthcare marketing success story from the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic in 2005 began utilizing social media channels to promote and increase downloads of its podcasts. The clinic posts the podcasts, along with video and text, on its blogs. It also leverages a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account and a YouTube channel. Downloads of the podcasts have increased by more than 8,000%, thanks to using three free social channels.

Be sure to read this recent interview with Lee Aase, the manager of syndication and social media for Mayo Clinic, where he offers specific advice for other companies on his “MacGyver-style” testing , developing a social media strategy, winning management approval and measuring social media ROI.

Post Script: Here’s a newly launched blog in the B2B Healthcare category of Medical Imaging from McKesson (a TopRank client). It integrates with a Picture Archiving and Communication System web site.

These tips, of course, are just a starting point to help healthcare marketers make the case for social media in healthcare marketing and creating better connections with the healthcare community, hospitals and patients. What examples of social media in healthcare have you found worth pointing out?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2009. |
Social Media in Healthcare Marketing: Making the Case |
9 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

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Why DIY SEO Can Fail

It’s crazy how often we can draw parallels between seemingly incongruous pieces of our random daily adventures. And it’s cool, too, because sometimes these parallels lead us to an eye-opening revelation or down the path toward enlightenment.

I’ve recently been negotiating with what I can only describe as a blinding, burning, evil demon of pain that has taken up residence in my back — not to be overly dramatic or anything.

I fell asleep wrong on the plane ride home from SMX East and a wicked gnome that must have been hiding in the floatation device under my seat took the opportunity to wiggle its way into my awkwardly curled body. I can only assume that he’s since invited a hundred of his closest friends and family to stay the week at the vacation resort that is my back — and, man, are they an inconsiderate, messy bunch.

All that’s to say that I’ve been searching for solutions to my life-consuming pain problem, and first off, I want to thank everyone who offered me their well wishes and their experiences of what worked and didn’t work when faced with a similar problem themselves. I don’t think I’d be dealing with my uninvited guest so civilly if I wasn’t so encouraged by everyone’s stories of having been there and getting through it.

Secondly, I learned a very important lesson following my failed and desperate attempts at do-it-yourself pain fixes. In short, there are times when you should leave it up to the professionals. Also, there are times when trying to do it yourself can end up making things worse.

It’s not because I’m dumb or cheap or frantically grasping for relief, any relief — okay, that last one may be true. But the monetary cost I’m willing to pay to relieve the pain knows almost no bounds.

And I talked to at least 20 people who had experienced back pain, and I weighed their solutions thoughtfully to decide which might be right for me. But in the end, deciding that procedure X was the saving grace I had searched for ended up causing me more pain, simply because I had failed to get an accurate assessment of the problem before selecting the solution.

Now procedure X can offer incredible relief to back pain sufferers. I had no less than ten impressive reviews of how procedure X has changed their life for the better. And I had a glowing recommendation about one procedure X practitioner in my area. I made an appointment and headed to the office as soon as my work day was over.

But here’s the rub. I’m no expert, but I think it’s safe to describe procedure X as a method for correcting misalignment of the vertebrae. When the bones of the spine are out of place, they end up irritating the nerves in the area, which is what causes a sensation of pain. Turns out procedure X was the solution to a problem I didn’t have.

There are other sources that can create similar sensations of pain. For instance, a pulled muscle in the back can result in swelling which can also affect the nerves in the back area and cause pain. Addressing a muscle problem with a method that affects the bones is a bit misguided. But hey, that was me 48 hours ago.

I had decided on the solution before having a complete understanding of the source of my problem or my final goal. It’s a conundrum the marketing world is all too familiar with.

How often does an organization approach an Internet marketing company and say, “I want to be involved in social media,” only to answer the following “why?” with “I hear it’s good for business.”

There’s this all-too-common drive to jump on a technology bandwagon before fully understanding the benefits, drawbacks, and resources required for implementation. I heard a good example during a session at SMX East last week: “Should I be hosting my videos on my site or on YouTube?” to which the panelist replied, “Well, what are your goals? Driving traffic to the site? Garnering video views? Brand visibility? Having your site show up in blended search results? Answer that question first, then you’ll discover the answer to the question you just asked.”

Though, in retrospect, that sounds a little harsh. I had only the best intentions when I decided on how I’d fix my issue. I did research. The solution was highly rated. But my first problem was failing to have my problem accurately diagnosed — which, in truth, only an expert can do.

There were some other ideas I considered back ups if procedure X didn’t work. But I’m not fooling around with prescribing my solution to self-diagnosed issues any more. I’m going to my doctor, darn it. And she’ll be able to use her expertise and resources to identify the cause of my problem and offer up a fitting solution.

Funny thing is, a Web site has uncanny parallels to the human body. There are problems that will display for all to see, and there are problems that lie under the surface and occur deep within. Irritation in one area of the body can resonate in another part of the body just as an obstacle on one page of a site can send a ripple effect down the entire conversion funnel. And like a doctor treating a patient’s ailment, a competent SEO trained in identifying the source of problems and weighing the risk and benefit of possible solutions can work wonders on a poorly functioning Web site.

Aggregated Social Media Marketing News. Go to Source

Social Media, Search & Reputation Management

We’ve reached my last liveblog post of SMX East 2009. But it’s not the last of my reporting from the conference. Don’t miss today’s SEM Synergy podcast straight out of SMX East.

I had an opportunity to interview conference speaker and president of paid search management platform ClickEquations, Craig Danuloff, and conference interviewer extraordinaire, Mike McDonald of WebProNews. Tune in to WebmasterRadio.fm at 3 Eastern/12 Pacific today!

Craig shares highly-actionable tactics for a query-based approach to PPC as well as insights about the state of many organization’s search campaigns and a synergistic approach to SEO and PPC. Mike offers up his tips for making connections and getting information from leaders of the Internet marketing space. Bruce and I also share some candid observations about our time at the show. Check it out later today or download it anytime from WMR or iTunes.

Following that public service announcement is another great service — technical and strategic recommendations for online reputation management. Here’s the panel:

Moderator: Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land

Speakers:
Brent Csutoras, Social Media Consultant, Brent Csutoras, Inc
Rhea Drysdale, COO & Co-Founder, Outspoken Media
Jordan Kasteler, Co-Founder, Search & Social
Chris Silver Smith, Director of Optimization Strategies, KeyRelevance
Marty Weintraub, President, aimClear

Chris Sherman says that in the online environment you have to react to things quickly and with little preparation. There’s a form of chaos that, despite the preparation and everything you do, still comes up.

Brent Csutoras starts us off. He’s going to talk about social’s role in rep management. It’s always a nightmare to get attacked — even if you DESERVE it. But social media can come to the rescue. There is professional social networking, social networking, social media, social aggregation and informational sites.

Remember that social media isn’t just a fad — it’s the direction we’re moving in. It’s good to have these platforms as a way to clean up your search results and gain more search real estate. And it’s also good to have them as a means of presence on the Web and visibility.

He spends most of his time on social aggregation sites so he’s going to stick with what he does most. In some of these cases, it may not be a direct takeaway. It may be more intensive and require the work of a creative team. Because with social aggregation sites, it’s about quality. Think outside the box and be creative.

Using Social on Social

You can use social aggregation sites on your own social media campaigns. We’re starting to see tweets show up on top social aggregation sites. That gives you more links to the Twitter profile. It doesn’t take many links to get your Twitter account to move up the search rankings.

Videos are very popular. It can be corporate, as long as it’s interesting. Getting good links to your social media profiles will help them rank. Flickr pictures can have links. You can write questions on Yahoo! Answers — and even answer them yourself, if you want. Provocative and edgy questions/answers can also be submitted to aggregation sites. It only takes a couple quality links to get a submission on a social aggregation site to rank.

Launch a Social Campaign

IKEAhacker.blogspot.com is an idea like this. IKEA lets people submit ways they have modified IKEA products. Not only will it be viral, but it can speak to the social community. Modifications are very popular in certain spaces. GM’s FastLane Blog is another good example of this.

Submit Third-Party Content

It doesn’t have to be yours, it just has to be positive.

Chris Silver Smith is up next. He once knew someone who was wrongly targeted by an animal rights group and had to get his information wiped from search so the group wouldn’t come after him at home. He’s helped school districts and small towns being vilified in Wikipedia. And Wikipedia is the focus of this presentation.

Addressing reputation management issues:

• Pushing negative content off page one of SERPs

Generating strong neutral / positive content
Filing complaints to remove negative content
Link-building to push up good content

To push down the negative results, you’ll need to seek out strongly ranking sites. Wikipedia fits the bill. Having an article page link in Wikipedia does wonders for a result you want to move up.

• Article about company/brand
  • Subject must meet minimum notability requirements
  • Ask established Wikipedian to author
  • Must be written with neutral P.O.V.
  • Have reference citations
  • Categorize to rank quickly
• Other articles pertaining to brand name
  • For example, if a well-ranking celebrity is a spokesperson for a brand, that celebrity’s Wikipedia article may be able to include a link to the company.
• Generate unrelated article for identical name. WARNING: Short-term tactic — avoid.
• Provide Wikimedia Commons image(s)
  • A photo about the subject can be uploaded to an article. In the file name you can include your brand name and a link.

Negative content within Wikipedia:

• Is it cited? If not, request deletion.
• Is it slanted? Request change due to goal of neutral P.O.V.
• Is the page repeatedly defaced? Request lock on edits.
• Is it minor? Request removable as non-noteworthy.

Finding content to push up: Do a search for the term or related terms and start link building to them.

Request removal of unfavorable content:

• File complaints to remove negative content (review terms and conditions)
• DMCA take-down notices to Web host, ISP, Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc.
• Cease and desist letters

Rhea Drysdale is next with an interesting view on taking advantage of negative publicity of competitors. A company she once worked with had an alternative to QuickBooks

What’s the secret to managing your online reputation? Something is going to happen. Don’t pretend it’s not. But besides knowing that, you have to know what’s happening in the brand management space.

Brand trust is falling — 52 percent in 1997 and 22 percent in 2008.

What ORM clients seem to have in common:

• No line of defense: The big problem oftentimes is that your results are just empty, so when something bad happens, it will rise to the top.
• Brand doesn’t want to speak up: When a brand won’t speak up, all the negative stuff will dominate the conversation.
• No intention of righting the wrong: A client that isn’t willing to right the wrong is more-or-less impossible to help.
• They’re making the problem worse: A company will sometimes follow-up negative comments with a comment trying to speak up for themselves. But adding their brand name as fresh content on the page is actually reinforcing the authority of that negative review.
• It’s just a tough industry: If there’s no social areas in your industry, set them up yourself. Launch a help center, for instance.

Outspoken Media has an ORM guide you should check out for more.

Jordan takes the mic next. He’s gong to talk about setting up social profiles across social media sites. First you have to register the social profiles. A tool like knowem.com will show you where your brand name is and isn’t available on social sites, and they can also build out the profiles for you.

Use your company name as the username whenever possible and include the company name as the vanity URL when possible. Both of these steps will get your name/keywords in the URL. Include links to your other social profiles within social profiles. This will give them higher equity.

Keep your profiles active and fresh — add friends, join groups, comment — because it will help your profiles rank. Once your profiles start populating search results, start link building to get them ranking even better. This will likely lead to higher activity on the profiles, and that requires monitoring.

Don’t let things spin out of control. Track and monitor the social space:

• Buzz/trends
• Blogs/RSS feeds
• E-mail alerts
• Social convos
• Forums and message boards

Technorati lets you monitor the blogosphere and you can sort by authority. BlogPulse.com has a good conversation tracker that you can use by keyword. WhosTalkin aggregates conversation based around your selected keywords/brand. Keotag.com lets you search for tagged blog posts across several social sites. Twitter’s advanced search tool looks for emoticons next keywords to help signify positive and negative attitude. Tweetbeep.com, Yahoo! Alerts, Google Alerts, BoardTracker, BoardReader — lots more tools he’s sharing with us.

Marty Weintraub presents next, starting with a cheery note: if it can burn, it will. You have about three days to mobilize. With a nasty PR storm on the horizon:

First: explain personalized search for key executives. Look it up.
Then: do an inventory of your assets. You can use PPC, YouTube, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, PR and lots of money to your advantage.
Next: Define a filtered keyword monitoring grid, confirm general keywords monitored [brand sucks], [I hate brand], etc., and distribute that to the team. Bring in the analytics team to monitor.

Make it known that the brand is listening on all channels. You want to make the point that you mean to serve the public first. Explain that you’re trying to make good and make friends. Redirect damaging inbound links to boost SEO >o< (LOL).

Set up your tactics:

• Optimized On-Strategy Content
• Coordinate Across All Channels
• What Are we Actually Going to DO?

Do a SERP snapshot and report on a daily basis to the client. Sentiment report is good too. Identify if it’s in the Universal Search results and in the news cycle. Look at the related searches. Measure the social chatter in a report. Analyze case-by-case on whether or not to respond. But the number one thing you should do is put your defense in place.

Here’s the wrap:

• Mobilize
• Demystify personalized search
• Inventory of assets
• Define filtered keyword monitoring grid
• Determine and execute strategy and tactics
• Establish analytics and reporting

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Follow Me Follow You: WhyFollow Twitter Poll

With Twitter riding the social media wave to a $1 billion valuation, the attention from celebrities, usefulness for everything from real-time communications in natural disasters to serving as a profitable marketing channel, a momentum of interest has spawned in how to make the most out of spending time on Twitter. Like any tool, Twitter is what you make of it. But Twitter and social communication applications like it are a lot more than just tools. One question about Twitter best practices that often comes up deals with how people (not bots) decide to follow one another on Twitter.

I ran an informal poll (on Twitter of course, another of it’s many uses) to proof a few ideas I had on what factors weigh most heavily for people when deciding whether to follow another Twitter account. My initial influences included location, bio, offline connections and others. You can read the replies to that poll here: #whyfollow. A self-assessment in combination with the informal poll feedback are what power the potential answers in this Reader Poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

By sharing your top reasons for following others on Twitter, we can all learn how to be more useful to the communities we’re trying to reach.

If one or more of your answers are in the “Other” category, then please add them in the comments below. Sharing this poll with others is GREATLY appreciated. Can we get over 200 responses? How about 500?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2009. |
Follow Me Follow You: WhyFollow Twitter Poll |
24 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

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5 Twitter Tips for Staying Authentic and Transparent

Any marketer who’s successfully made the move to social media will tell you the rules of traditional marketing have to be reexamined. That’s particularly true with Twitter, where brands have just 140 characters to inform, evoke emotion and inspire action. One of the most basic and critical rules for brands on Twitter? Be authentic and transparent in all you do.

Check out these 5 Twitter tips for staying authentic and transparent:

1. Reveal who’s behind the Tweets. It doesn’t necessarily matter who it is—the CEO, the social media manager or a marketing intern. It just matters that the person is in fact a person. Putting a face and name behind your Tweets through a photo and brief bio can help followers relate to and connect with your brand.

Kodak is an excellent example of a company that’s put a face to the brand on Twitter. The company’s official Tweeter, chief blogger and social media manager Jennifer Cisney (@kodakcb), leaves no guesses as to who she is and what she does. Her Tweets strike a healthy balance between letting her personality shine through and offering too much irrelevant information (i.e., “Sitting on my couch watching Desperate Housewives and eating popcorn.”)

2. Show some personality. It doesn’t have to be all business all the time. Have some fun with your Tweets by telling humorous stories or poking a little fun at yourself every now and then.

Part of what makes Ford Motor Co. head of social media and Tweeterati Scott Monty (@scottmonty) so successful and popular is his ability to make followers feel like he’s an old college buddy or family friend. His bio tells his followers he’s “a generally nice guy.” But his genuine Tweets—a combination of marketing insight, Ford and auto news, and his own personal anecdotes—lets them know that’s the case. (Scott Monty video interview here)

3. Admit when you’re wrong. With the explosion of social networks over the past few years, bad decisions and unfortunate snafus are exposed sooner rather than later. So it’s important for brands to fess up first and show their willingness to rectify the situation. With that said, why not turn a negative situation into a positive one?

After you’ve admitted to a mistake, strike up some friendly competition by asking your followers to submit their own “biggest oops moment.” Choose—or better yet allow followers to vote on—the best story. Offer some sort of an incentive to the winner, whether it’s a coupon, a free product or a gift certificate.

4. Get to know your followers. Let’s face it: Your followers—and potential customers—have more on their minds than just your brand. Ask your followers questions about themselves, gain a sense of who they are and customize your responses to them based on their personal details.

In the end, not only will you be viewed as an authentic and trusted brand on Twitter, you’ll also obtain valuable information on customer demographics.

5. Don’t get carried away by your accomplishments. With trial-and-error, know-how and a little luck, you’re likely to find much success in your social media and Twitter efforts. But don’t let it go to your head. Keep in mind that it’s your followers who gave you that success.

You’d be hard pressed to find a Twitterati that’s been more successful at using Twitter for customer service than Frank Eliason (@comcastcares) from Comcast. But what keeps them relevant and useful for followers over the long term is their ability to remain genuine and humble amidst widespread popularity. (Frank Eliason interview here)

While there are any number of ways to fail while trying to effectively market on Twitter, social media usage by companies has matured enough for a growing number of good examples to emerge. Being aware of what’s working for others can be priceless insight for how to develop your own genuine communications and brand experience with customers on the social web.

What are some brands that have done a good job at staying authentic and transparent on Twitter? What other Twitter tips do you have for remaining authentic and transparent?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2009. |
5 Twitter Tips for Staying Authentic and Transparent |
19 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

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