February 14th, 2009 — life
My 13-year-old son came home from his bowling league this bright Valentine’s morning and dropped a ziplock baggie full of candy hearts on top of my Macbook on top of my chest as I lay on the couch.
I reached into the bag of colorful goodies - and what to my wondering eyes did appear…?
These three candy hearts. No, really.. that is their message!
Sigh, is this Valentine’s Day trying to tell me I should love more than, um, my job?! 
February 12th, 2009 — public relations
Yesterday I was at an annual conference of one of my clients - a national company with decades of history with the Canadian consumer - and I was impressed by more than the 1,500 attendees and great speakers.
I loved what the president said to me: “We’re a small company - with a big brand.”
Now, this client is not a traditionally “small” business, given they have dozens of staff at head office alone. But benchmarking his company against other national organizations in his industry, he says his company weighs in on the light side re: resources.
Small company. Big brand.
What the president’s comment meant to me was the fact that search engine optimization and social media optimization are the great leveler for small business competing against global brands whose ad budgets are likely greater than all the revenues of a small business put together!
That’s precisely why this savvy CEO hired me to work on his company’s social media strategy, working hand-in-hand with his internet marketing team that has organic and paid search strategies already in place.
What a pleasure it is for me to work with leaders like this - who GET that size truly doesn’t matter online; that listening to your consumers, and having a honest dialogue back, is what matters.
And any company, of any size, can do that!
February 4th, 2009 — social media
After a few days’ labor, and a relatively painless delivery, we are proud to announce…
It’s a bouncing new social media business site!
PROsocialmedia.com - younger sibling to writingSEO - has undergone a transformative redesign that reflects the kind of dramatic growth we’re seeing in clients wanting social media services.
SEO still sells - how could such a rock-solid generator of page 1 Google results not? - but SMO (social media optimization) is sizzling right now.
Why?
So now, the line of logic is: Get Found. Get Read. Get Followed. Get Leads.
(That could be your business… Email for a free social media consultation.)
January 30th, 2009 — social media
Does Captain Cook look like he likes sauerkraut (or anything)?
Apparently, when famous British explorer James Cook wanted to combat scurvy on his ship, he tried to make his men eat sauerkraut. They hated the taste and refused.
In a flash of insight, he said only the officers could dine on it, the crew was forbidden from eating it….
The crew immediately requested it be put back on the menu!
OK, let’s say today the sauerkraut is social media - only now it’s the officers who don’t want to consume it. (That can often be the case with captains of industry, who tend to be older and more conservative.)
Nowadays, crew members (young navvies swabbing the corporate decks) are first to taste and enjoy social media. Indeed, they’re having it for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Using the same reverse psychology as Captain Cook’s, if we make social media off-limits to the officers will they want it more?
How do we get them to take the first bite or, better yet, make a meal of it?
Social media consulting and optimization companies like mine are dealing with that challenge every day. Here are my tips - gleaned from experience in boardroom and “on deck”:
Whether you’re crew or officer, let me know how the art of persuasion is coming along in your organization when it comes to social media.
(P.S. It worked: Because they ate the sauerkraut, not one of Cook’s crew died of scurvy!)
January 18th, 2009 — writing
Content is King - we’ve all shouted from the turrets for years. But now the kingdom is realizing that the content is wearing no clothes (or very shabby ones). You could say, the crown is crumbling…
Good-quality content is the single best way to increase website visibility and increase the time folks stick around your site and DO stuff - read, share, vote, download, comment, inquire… buy!
According to a UK agency, the best way to achieve search engine ranking success is to employ professional copywriters:
“If we’re placing as much importance on the content as we do on the design itself, then why do so many people pay lots of money for design and then write the content themselves?”
Ah, Do-It-Yourself Copywriting - the ole “If I am literate, I must be able to write…” syndrome. Seems the road to poor web analytics is paved with good intentions.
I am lately getting a ton of work copywriting for sites - the keywords, site map, page subjects handed over by frustrated wannabes- so I can dive in and do what I do best. Write. Professionally. So People Read it.
So, to site content DIY-ers, I say… [apologies to Home Depot]:
No You Can’t. We Can Help.
January 13th, 2009 — social media
Most of us know the expression, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.”
Same principle with Social Media: Teach a company/individual how to blog, Facebook, Twitter, use forums, share links, photos, videos, documents, etc. - and that student will be reeling in leads long-term. (Vs. a quick fix - “Here are your blog posts, links delivered to you… oh, you’re hungry again? We can do it for you again!”)
I write this in sheer frustration as I witness some profit-hungry schemes to get money from businesses by playing on the Fear Factor - i.e., “I’m scared to use social media… can you do it for me?”
Yeah, sure we can. Does that mean we should?! I don’t think so.
Training and education - such as hands-on demonstrations, personal coaching by phone, email, F2F, leave-behind training materials, glossary of terms, online forums, webinars, workshops, etc. - is so important with Social Media Services.
Mack Collier of Search Engine Guide, writes in “How Do you Decide if Social Media is Right for your Business?”
“…If you decide that you do need to hire a social media consultant or agency to help you, please promise me that you insist on having them TEACH you how to use the tools that they will be implementing. If you are going to hire someone to create a blog for you, make sure that they are also willing to train you on how to properly blog, how to build community on your blog with your readers, and how to use the blog as a tool to raise awareness and build your business…”
Two fundamentals touched on here; LEARN IT, then… USE IT - or truly, you’ll lose it (the business value of social media).
Fish on, my friends… the juicy, big customer leads are out there!
P.S. Does anyone know the source of the quote: “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime”? I Googled it, to no avail, and no one knew even at Yahoo! Answers and the like!
January 6th, 2009 — ethics
I recently heard that a Social Media Optimization competitor is selling blog comments and questions/answers online, masking who he is and who he’s working for. I almost fell over from shock….
He’s going in, on behalf of a paying client, and making up a comment at a prominent blog, with a link back to the client’s site. And he’s going to big sites like Yahoo! Answers and fabricating a “question” then “answering” it with a promotion of his client’s product/service, again with a link to the client’s site.
The motive: The more your company is mentioned on prominent social media sites (the bigger blogs, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, Delicious, Yahoo! Answers, etc.) the more likely you will make Page 1 of Google search results, and therefore generate more site traffic and more leads. It’s SEO-driven Social Media.
(For an interesting, different perspective on link building via Q&A sites, see this article at Vertical Measures.)
So, what’s wrong with that? Nothing is wrong with the goal of Search Results as ONE outcome of social media participation. Of course, SEO and Social Media go very well together…
But what my competitor is doing by FAKING comments/questions/answers online goes completely against the Code of Ethics in the Blogosphere - Transparency, Authenticity, Honesty at all times! It’s understood by everyone worth their salt online that you always full disclose who you are, who you work for, and any conflicts of interest.
My competitor’s SMO practices will very likely damage the online reputation of his clients. The social media scene is full of savvy, cynical users who can smell a fake a mile away. (Remember the Walmart ’shoppers’ blog that was outed by the blogopshere as the company posing as Mr/Mrs. Average America?) That kind of rep damage can be extremely difficult to change, or indeed, irreversible). Ouch!
Google warns against social media “schemes” to get good Google results in their Nov. ‘08 “Google-search-engine-optimization-starter-guide” (PDF), Google writes, on page 20:
Know about Social Media Sites… Avoid involving your sites in schemes where your content is artificially promoted to the top of these services.
Sounds like the local sham-SMO practitioner. Of course, he is inadvertently, helping me sell social media strategy and implementation; PROsocialmedia makes ethics an integral part of our services… really, it’s the only way to sell the real value of Social Media: gain the TRUST of your customers and prospects online.
‘Cause everyone knows that once trust is lost, it’s darn hard to regain…in any relationship, including those you forge online.
December 24th, 2008 — blogging, social media
I was on a conference call last week with my business partner explaining our Social Media Optimization services to a prospect; the client was afraid he wouldn’t have time to write his blog, to Twitter, Facebook, etc. - even once we showed him how to set up the profiles, optimize, and teach him the rules of the road in social media. Without his active participation, we told him, all the social media sign up in the world won’t get him fan-sumers, links, PR, online reputation management and all the other social media goodness!
To speak to our client’s quandary, my business partner came up with a great analogy; he said “It’s like when you get a gym membership, and then you can’t figure out why you haven’t lost weight…(but, you hardly ever go to the gym!)”
The gift at the end of all that sweaty effort? That trim waist and defined biceps!
David Armano, VP, Experience, Critical Mass, observes in a cool, group-sourced white paper about Social social media predictions 2009:
“Each [successful] social media initiative is supported by LIVE people, employees or representatives who will respond to a tweet, e-mail, phone call, blog post etc. This is what’s becoming known as a culture of rapid response…. The reason organizations will grapple with this is because we’ve become used to “launch and walk away” i.e. sites and e-mail blasts which which don’t require a response…. although it is now cheaper to launch an initiative leveraging Web 2.0 technology—it requires qualified and passionate people to make them successful.”
Amen, social media brother! (Note: that is my bolding on certain words in this quote.)
December 16th, 2008 — writing
Last week, I advised a client - paying thousands of dollars to get their site optimized for the search engines - to submit me enough raw content that I can write a bare minimum of 250 words per page (ideally, at least 400).
The response (sadly, not atypical): “Oh, we don’t have that much content. We can get you, maybe 100 words for some of our pages, they’ll have to be even shorter.”
My response: “Say what?” (well, I did think it).
If you cannot find 250 words to say about your product/service on a web page… how well do you really know that product/service? How are you selling it? I doubt your sales pitch - verbally - is less than 250 words.
So, some ideas to bump up that web content, when you hit a wall:
Oh, and by the way - this post is 250 words. Exactly.
December 11th, 2008 — blogging
Gotta blog, right? RIGHT!! However…
Are you dog-tired of coming up with blog post ideas? Weary of nagging co-workers/employees to get the lead out and blog? Worried sick about getting in trouble in the blogosphere? All of the above?
If that sounds like you, you have lots of company… and solutions to the problem.
Firstly, Plan, Plan, Plan! It’s not counter-intuitive to have an ‘editorial schedule’ of topics you’ll be tackling on your blogs in the months ahead. (I had one client who said, “But aren’t blogs supposed to be spontaneous?” Well, whatever pops into your addled mind when you’re blogging about your cat or latest diet, maybe.)
Check out this advice from Lee Odden in his Online Marketing Blog:
“After the honeymoon of starting a blog wears off, those tasked with writing content often get distracted by their other responsibilities. Bit by bit, posts look less and less like keyword- optimized web pages and sink back to the familiar writing styles common to public relations and corporate marketing. Gone are the keywords that consumers are searching on. Gone is the traffic that used to come from search engines. If SEO efforts persist, they can get sloppy without ongoing oversight either by an outside SEO consultant or an internal blog champion.”
Blogging is the supreme form of communication online - for anyone. Why? Because it covers off:
So, roll up your white-collared sleeves and dive on into your corporate blog:
