Conversational Marketing in the Age of Social Media
23 Nov
Last week I presented to the SEMNE professional organization in Rocky Hill Connecticut to a room full of search engine optimization experts. In surveying the crowd in advance of delivering this presentation, many attendees wanted to know how social media can help build a website’s inbound links. To explain how this works, I used the following analogy.
How many cereal boxes do you have?
We have all noticed the remarkable variety of cereal types in the grocery store. An entire aisle has been dedicated to only a few cereal companies, who each have dozens of brands on the shelf. Cereal companies provide this varieties to increase the the amount of shelf space the own, and the likelihood of sell at least one box to each shopper. The aisle is a finite space, and they want as much of that space as possible. It is this same philosophy the SEO expert should consider in leveraging social media. Every employee profile created on Linkedin, the Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Slideshare accounts, and blog post that mentions the brand, give the company one more item in Google search results. So, like creating another brand of cereal for the aisle, each property is an opportunity to get your brand in front of your customer or prospect. These properties also build an inbound linking program to help raise the quality of the website overall.
Create a Sustainable Content Strategy
It is important to note that setting up these properties is only the beginning. You must have a content strategy that considers your audience and what they are interested in. Your content should be helpful and interesting, not advertising stuffed with key words. This strategy should be sustainable, and relevant to your audience. You should monitor what people are commenting on and sharing, and tweak your content to reflect what you are continually learning from your audience.
Below are my slides from the presentation. Soon I will post the talk itself, with the slides incorporated. Let me know what you think.
3 Responses for "How Many Flavors Do You Have? Harnessing the SEO impact of Social Media"
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Enjoyed your analogy regarding cereal boxes. It makes me think about what I’ve tried to accomplish regarding marketing and management; and how I might improve. Incredible how General Mills or other brands push so many “sub-brands” and have their products in almost every household. What might we do as bloggers, this year, to push our brands?
Hi Christian-
Thanks for coming by and letting me know you enjoyed my talk. I just spent three days talking to Dogwatch Hidden Fence dealers about how they can collectively raise awareness of the Dogwatch brand by creating their own Facebook business pages and extend customer touch beyond the face-to-face meetings to weekly interactions. Many big companies try to control their brand by keeping one website and one Facebook page to represent the entire company, when the local/ personal interaction is what the customer wants, appreciates and remembers.
Of course, each local property (a Facebook business page is one good example) broaden the company reach and making the experience real for the customer, but also support a successful SEO strategy. So I would say, developing a strategy that makes the experience real for your audience. Incorporate new marketing habits into your daily activities and these new strategies will become routine over time.
Best.
Catherine
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