Social Media and Blog Marketing Strategies and Measurement

We recently had an inquiry from a new business client about doing blogger relations, and or blog marketing. As MarCom has been doing search engine marketing and blogs since the beginning, we have some sweet case histories, or success stories, if you will, but what came up is that it is often hard to write a case history when you don't even know how many bloggers have picked up your story without tracking them on Google. This era of new media marketing is still processing some of the measurement techniques - and the reality is - these results can take more than just a few months to track.

So as an exercise to do a "Client Successes" document for blogger relations, we used our client The Wiley Protocol, and believe it or not, even just in this year of 2008, I tracked back on Google - at least ten pages - and found that we have logged about 50 plus blog mentions since January. Some of these hits were picked up from our SEO press releases and articles. That said, blogger marketing actually goes hand in hand with SEO. And, that said, it should be part of, not separate from, your SEO and Social Media Marketing strategy. Figure out your objectives first - such as reaching brand advocates, or reaching consumers versus young medical doctors online. Or it could be getting more media, or promoting a special offer for a specific product or service.

As for how we can measure our successes? My associate Mike Keesling suggested that some measurement can be quantitative (such as the number of mentions on blogs below) and also qualitative. For example, you can measure traffic stats on your website and track (using HitsLink or Google Analytics tracking) how many people come to your website because of a blog post. Did traffic increase? You can also measure key words used on the blogs, and the SEO results. Again a strategy is required. And the results must be reviewed over a couple of months. It all takes time.

Another one of our clients - Peternity.com - has been optimizing mostly for the key word pet urns, or pet urn, dog urn, cat urn. Of course we also optimize for the words "pet memorials." It is working. She is finally getting customers buying more urns when their pets die. She writers her own blog, but if she didn't, MarCom would ghostwrite it for her, and the bottom line is that we are all on the same page with the SEO and social media marketing strategy. I write optimized press releases and SEO articles as well for this client. Check it out. Also note how I am linking in this blog (see links) for MarCom as well as our clients.

Our excellent results are below for The Wiley Protocol (www.thewileyprotocol.com). We started working with her on SEO about a year and a half ago. Now, our key word strategy has paid off, because she is in the top pages of Google for most of her most important key words. This client now has tens of thousands of consumer customers. The list of close to 50 blog mentions is below – mostly since Jan 08. And this may be only part of them.
http://www.bobyoungmd.com/wiley.htm
http://www.womensvoicesforchange.org/2007/01/ask_dr_pat_bioi.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/94472.php
http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Wiley_T._522431849.aspx
http://www.therealcougarwoman.com/2006/11/wiley_protocol_.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/fashion/15suzanne.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=health&pagewanted=all
http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Wiley_T._522431849.aspx
http://health.propeller.com/story/2008/06/01/ts-wiley-showcases-the-wiley-protocol-bio-mimedic-bio-identical-hormone-restoration-thera
http://www.riverwalkma.com/womenhealth.htm
http://www.topix.com/health/womens-health/2008/01/t-s-wiley-showcases-the-wiley-protocol-bio-mimedic
http://www.thespiritedwoman.com/newsletter/2005/10/august_2004.html
http://www.blogtoplist.com/rss/wiley.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0049567.html
http://www.onlypunjab.com/fitness/fullstory-insight-fitness+healthcare-newsID-247310.html
http://www.exploringcollege.com/article.cfm/id/179879
http://menopause.gaia.com/blog/2006/8/bioidentical_hormones_-_the_wiley_protocol
http://www.nature.com/ijir/journal/v20/n1/full/3901622a.html
http://online-pharm-review.blogspot.com/2008/01/ts-wiley-showcases-wiley-protocol-bio_18.html
http://www.griffinmedical.com/thewileyprotocol.htm
http://www.health78.com/health-news/TS-Wiley-Showcases-The-Wiley-Protocol-Bio-Mimedic-Bio-Identical-Hormone-Restoration-Therapy-BHRT-At-The-Integrative-Healthcare-Symposium-IHS/83796/
http://menopause.gaia.com/blog/2006/8/bioidentical_hormones_-_the_wiley_protocol?printable=1
http://www.westmoreland-pharmacy.com/retailer/store_templates/ret_custom_page2.asp?storeID=EE488B11DB25472285D10D6CC02CA42A
http://spa-namaste.com/article.cfm/id/252071
http://www.tummytucksurgery.co.uk/news/article_t_s_wiley_offers_physicians_039_two_days_back_on.php
http://www.myhormonereplacement.info/article.cfm/id/207103
http://www.myhormonereplacement.info/article.cfm/id/181820
http://menopause.gaia.com/blog/tags/bioidentical+hormones
http://www.escapecollege.com/article.cfm/id/179879
http://www.bobyoungmd.com/documents/OHN10-FemaleHormoneReplacementTherapy.htm
http://www.bio2000.com/article.cfm/id/252870
http://www.searchdisease.com/article.cfm/id/252870
http://personallifemedia.com/guests/740-ts-wiley
http://digg.com/podcasts/Beauty_Now_The_Intersection_of_Cosmetic_Surgery_Longevity_Bio_Medical_Innovation/318151
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/stlog/2006/11/weird_and_wiley_science.php
http://www.mjmls.com/viewtopic.php?t=86004
http://www.blogcatalog.com/posts/replacement%20protocol
http://www.heartlandhealing.com/pages/News/flier_OHE.pdf
http://www.bionity.com/lexikon/e/?ps=T.+S.+Wiley&didsearch=1&defop=and&wild=yes&d=none&dienst=lexikon

Oh and just FYI there are also blog posting services for $20 to $75 per blog where you are guaranteed blog posts. So just like anything else in life, you can buy your way onto a blog, and it would be a legitimate link (back to your site) which is great for your SEO results. But that requires a strategy and money. You can get a couple of hundred blogs with a good budget, or you can hire MarCom for blogger relations for much less per month.

Blogging is a Top New Year SEO Trend

The world of the blogosphere has grown, matured and diversified as a business communication medium and a tool used by search engine optimization and social media marketing experts like those of us at MarCom Broadband.

Just like websites, blogs are just another way to provide information -- but the difference is that a blog is more dynamic, contentwise. Many websites, even our own at MarCom, are more like portfolios. Although the trends are to have a more dynamic website, many folks still have static information or web copy on websites.

There are several different types of blogs for companys. An executive blog can profile comments and/or blog content from it's management team, or the executives of the company. But it is important that these executives take the time to write -- at least two to three times a week, otherwise you should ghostwrite for them.

Currently I am helping one client with his blog at http://www.roccobasile.blogspot.com/ so you can check out how we talk about his charity work.

You may need to coach your clients and help them with editing their blogs. And they need to learn how to make sure their key words are inserted into the blogs properly, or it won't do any good for their SEO.

There's also another type of blog, which has been tagged by the experts as an "advice" blog. That's what this blog of mine is. I give advice on social media marketing. Sometimes I go off topic, which is fine, and actually encouraged. These kind of blogs do really well in the search engines.

Whatever you blog about, the key thing is that you are consistant, with two to three posts a week. Keep it of interest, keep it real, and add your keywords.

As for how to set up your blog, I like the templates in Blogger.com, but there's also Wordpress, and other blog formats that are free and very easy to set up and use.

Happy blogging in the New Year!

Google Sandbox Controversy

I got a new gig, to be a blogger on another blog - MixCat Interactive, a web hosting company, http://www.Mixcat.com/blog.

My associate Mike had provided the fodder for my frist blog there, about the fact that Google has now extended the timeframe that new websites will stay in their sandbox. We got a number of comments about this from blog readers who disagreed, agreed, etc. Eight in fact, with some questions about search engine optimization (SEO), meta tags, etc. For those of you who don't know what this is -- here ya go.

We all played in the sand box as kids, and now as adults there is a chance we will be at it again. If you have a new website, the latest news is that it may take you about a year to get out of what is known as the “Google Sandbox” or “Sandbox Effect,” as seen in Wikipedia. Until recently the wait was for 5-6 months. With newly-registered domains, Google puts them in this holding area before rankings can begin in the indexes of Google. A site must first be 1) proven, or deemed by Google as appropriate for ranking; 2) legitimate; and 3) have some action taking place. Frequent ownership or nameserver changes also put sites at risk. All the more important to make sure that your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics are in place, so that Google notices action happening on your site. This includes inbound links to your site, the proper meta-tagging of pages, and more.

I also made a joke that perhaps this is Google’s way of getting more folks to sign up for those Google Ad words to kick start it all. Comments came in that disagreed with the 5-6 months wait...and OK, my bad, it used to be as little as 2 to 5 months. This is very dependant and unique per website and the content on it.

Google sandbox does exist. It is now taking up to a year for new sites to appear in search results on Google. For those of us with suspicious minds, we might think this a result of Google greed--obviously if you launch a new site you want traffic and if Google shuts you out for a year your alternative is to buy Pay Per Click (PPC). It is a controversial issue isn't it?

Ron Angels added, "It is also very important to get in as many other search engines as possible. Google appears to pick up these listings in its equation as well. People do use them to find things sometimes…"

Here's what Steve Phillips said, "Don’t worry about the “Sandbox”…just do all of the necessary SEO things you need to do:* write good content rich with keywords.* write strong page titles for each of your pages.* write fresh content.* write a blog* get strong links pointing to your site."

Thanks guys. Well put.

Keyword Analysis - The First Step in SEO

There is a lot of confusion about just what search optimization (SEO) is. There are a number of steps involved, but the first and most important step is to do a keyword analysis to figure out what key words people use when they search for a product or service via one of the search engines like Google or Yahoo.

Here are the basic steps for a keyword analysis:
1) Take a look at your client’s key messages, and jot down the words and phrases that stand out.
2) Go to http://www.webconfs.com/keyword-playground.php
3) Enter your keywords and or phrases and copy the results for searches per month containing the keyword phrase(s) into an excel spreadsheet. One column is for the search term and the other column is for search volume.
4) Go to http://google.com and enter each keyword phrase one at a time. Just above the search results on the right hand side on Google is a line with results 1-10 of about NUMBER for each keyword phrase.
5) Enter the value of this number in the third column (heading of Competition) for each of your keyword phrases. Repeat for all the keyword phrases you can think of. Then sort your spreadsheet under search volume column in descending order.
6) Now look for applicable keyword phrases that have high search volume and low number of competition...these are the keyword phrases you will want to use--the PRIME keyword phrases.

Use your keywords in press releases, online articles, and link to your website with links that use your keywords. All of this will help your website's rankings in the organic listings of the search engines so people can find your site when the use the same keywords.