What is online reputation management? It is what marketers and public relations pros used to call crisis management. Frequently being called "online reputation management" today, MarCom started seeing this challenge back around 2005. It was when many chief executive officers started seeing negative listings, comments or articles about them and/or their company’s products and services on the Internet.
Back then, about ten years ago, marketers spent their time training executives in major corporations on how to handle a crisis, but when the worldwide Web was born,things changed. And today, social media channels like Twitter or Facebook, a crisis can travel at the speed of light, and potentially put a company out of business overnight.
In those days CEOs and many company officers unwittingly responded to people in blogs or news forums and to journalists online – and often times their comments were perceived in a negative way. If anyone anywhere online would say bad things about a CEO or their company and products online, it showed up on page one of the search engines when the CEO's name and his company was searched for online. These kinds of complaints or bad reviews that were showing up in a search meant a loss of revenues, and in some cases, lost businesses period.
These days, most CEOs know better than to say bad things online. The problem being that anything you write on the worldwide Web remains on the worldwide Web. Reputation management services promise to highlight positive pages and bury offending sites deep in search results. Most reputation services work by tracking what's written about a client on the Web, then doing search engine optimization (SEO) and promoting the positive pages, thereby pushing damaging references off the first pages of search results.
Even worse, if you EVER had a bad rap sheet from a prior crime or offence that shows up on the Internet. In one case, a book was written about a group of men that were sent to jail for a crime. That book was reviewed in a national business magazine, and to this day it remains engrained on page one of Google and the Internet, mug shots and all. The bigger the website with a negative listing, the harder it is and longer it takes to remove it.
Today this is known as "reputation management" -- a job that typically falls upon marketing and PR people to make what these CEOs said vanish. Five years ago it only took a couple of months to “bury” negative comments online because Google was less sophisticated and there was less content out there. But then it all depends on the business category. Some categories have more content posted on the Web than others. As just one example, optimizing for "purple hearts" is going to be easier than "wireless technology" becaus therer is less out there about purple hearts.
Therefore, online reputation management was born to deal with a businessman, celebrity, or a politician's negative listings. In addition to using basic public relations strategies, SEO and link building became the way to solve these challenges.
The marketing and SEO firm must determine the new key messages for use online. Then they will use these optimum key words in all written content online and offline. That includes website copy, press materials, and optimized press releases that are posted on electronic wire services; syndicated articles for the Web; blogs and newsletters. And nowadays, we also use Facebook, Twitter and bookmark sites like DIGG, and Stumble Upon, to create links back to the client’s website pages with relevant content.
Within weeks negative listings will start to be pushed back off of Google’s first page, and by three to six months a company’s ranking by the search engines should be showing a significant increase in organic listings based on the key words used, and the negative listings will be pushed down on the pages of the se4arch engines, although they may never be completely gone.
Reputation management services have become mainstream because of the growth online. What took a couple of months to "fix" an issue in years past now takes more time, and a bigger team. We have trained and put people in place globally to assist in this effort. And since we have managed online reputation strategies for other clients too.
Today we use bigger teams to create more links faster, along with newer more sophisticated (and time consuming) tactics like short optimized video postings on YouTube, the syndication of many optimized content articles, and an array of interlinked websites and social media marketing platforms to create RSS mashups, hubspots, and a synergistic approach for moving negative listings back to the back pages on the Web.
Showing posts with label los angeles SEO consultants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label los angeles SEO consultants. Show all posts
Monday, August 16, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Has Social Media Marketing Replaced Public Relations?
We have entered a new era of what has been called public relations over the years. I remember when PR became corporate communications, then marketing communications, and now many are saying that they believe PR has become social media.
I believe that PR is here to stay - although it is not the old school publicist in a telephone booth dialing the media to share the latest news tip on the street. It has changed from one way publishing and broadcasting to two way conversations.
Over the last year and a half, more than 300 newspapers have folded. Around eight magazines with a circulation of 1 million or more stopped their presses, while more than magazines completely shut down. 600 top-tier publishing employees were laid off. In the radio business alone, more than 10,000 jobs were lost. Bankruptcies have overtaken 100 plus television stations after their parent companies filed Chapter 11 bankrupsy.
It is no surprise. 2010 started out as the year of transformation. Whether it is due to the economy, in part, or just a social uprising - we are in early stages of a re-engineering of business as we know it, driven by social networking which has almost replaced the traditional media. (Source: Vocus Media Research Group.)
Today, people interact online in real-time dialogues with each other. Businesses now speak to customers with the hopes of influencing them. And people listen watch and read what other peoople have to say about products and services. Full disclosure. No longer can companies hide behind brand messaging.
However, marketing and public relations do go hand in hand with online strategies today, helping to launch and maintain social media campaigns. As a Los Angeles public relations agency, MarCom will always believe in synergistic campaigns and using the foundation built by yesterday’s public relations strategies.
As of today, 65 percent of marketers have only been involved with social media marketing for a few months or less.; 56 percent, are using social media for six plus hours every week; and only one in three – do social media for more than 11 hours per week. 85 percent of marketers indicated that the number-one advantage of social media marketing is generating exposure for their business.
For more information on MarCom's social media marketing services, call 323.650.2838.
I believe that PR is here to stay - although it is not the old school publicist in a telephone booth dialing the media to share the latest news tip on the street. It has changed from one way publishing and broadcasting to two way conversations.
Over the last year and a half, more than 300 newspapers have folded. Around eight magazines with a circulation of 1 million or more stopped their presses, while more than magazines completely shut down. 600 top-tier publishing employees were laid off. In the radio business alone, more than 10,000 jobs were lost. Bankruptcies have overtaken 100 plus television stations after their parent companies filed Chapter 11 bankrupsy.
It is no surprise. 2010 started out as the year of transformation. Whether it is due to the economy, in part, or just a social uprising - we are in early stages of a re-engineering of business as we know it, driven by social networking which has almost replaced the traditional media. (Source: Vocus Media Research Group.)
Today, people interact online in real-time dialogues with each other. Businesses now speak to customers with the hopes of influencing them. And people listen watch and read what other peoople have to say about products and services. Full disclosure. No longer can companies hide behind brand messaging.
However, marketing and public relations do go hand in hand with online strategies today, helping to launch and maintain social media campaigns. As a Los Angeles public relations agency, MarCom will always believe in synergistic campaigns and using the foundation built by yesterday’s public relations strategies.
As of today, 65 percent of marketers have only been involved with social media marketing for a few months or less.; 56 percent, are using social media for six plus hours every week; and only one in three – do social media for more than 11 hours per week. 85 percent of marketers indicated that the number-one advantage of social media marketing is generating exposure for their business.
For more information on MarCom's social media marketing services, call 323.650.2838.
Monday, November 30, 2009
The Paradign Shift in Online Marketing
We are in the earliest stages of a massive paradigm shift among the corporate world and our institutions - and it is all being driven by social media marketing and the Web.
Ie seems like social networking has been tagged as a better way to work. Many experts agree it will become an essential utility to do business, so the faster businesses use social media tools, the better they will do in the New Year. But if your website isn't optimized properly for the search engines, it won't help you on your Google rankings.
In the past, we didn't necessarily think that Twitter was a great of a corporate tool as other networks like Facebook. But now we can see, that both have their places - especially with re-Tweeting capabilities, and tiny urls which fit the 140 character format. We have set up corporate accounts and ghostblog, ghostTwitter, and have corporate fan pages for all of our clients. We also do corporate social bookmarking of content that we write and post all over the Web in spots like DIGG, StumbleUpon, and others.
Our clients' YouTube videos are a smashing success. Check out www.YouTube.com/Bioidenticals where we have more than 90 videos for client T.S. Wiley, who sells the Wiley Protocol bioidenticals. The fact is, all of these online social media marketing tools are great for content building and linking back to websites, which ultimately gives you first page results in the search engines. But you must know how to link properly.
The 2010 New Year - some time in January with a national roll-out - is when Caffeine launches, a next-generation architecture for Google's web search. So far we are seeing great results for our clients rankings with the Beta version.
What's more, Google's Social Search is a new program that integrates content from a user’s social network into their search results so they can easily find relevant blogs, reviews and other information from within their own social networking groups.
If there's relevant web content written by people in your circle when you sign into Google, it will show up at the bottom of your search results under an area called "Results from people in your social circle." This means that search marketing is going to become more targeted to individuals, as people seriously organize into groups and communities on the Web. It is also becomming more localized.
Overall, today people just want direct communication with the brands, products and services they like and uchoose to use. People want messages that address their individual needs, even if it is only 140 characters in Twitter.
The era of mo more mass marketing is over.
Call Los Angeles SEO company, MarCom New Media at 323.650.2838 for more information on how we can help your business.
Ie seems like social networking has been tagged as a better way to work. Many experts agree it will become an essential utility to do business, so the faster businesses use social media tools, the better they will do in the New Year. But if your website isn't optimized properly for the search engines, it won't help you on your Google rankings.
In the past, we didn't necessarily think that Twitter was a great of a corporate tool as other networks like Facebook. But now we can see, that both have their places - especially with re-Tweeting capabilities, and tiny urls which fit the 140 character format. We have set up corporate accounts and ghostblog, ghostTwitter, and have corporate fan pages for all of our clients. We also do corporate social bookmarking of content that we write and post all over the Web in spots like DIGG, StumbleUpon, and others.
Our clients' YouTube videos are a smashing success. Check out www.YouTube.com/Bioidenticals where we have more than 90 videos for client T.S. Wiley, who sells the Wiley Protocol bioidenticals. The fact is, all of these online social media marketing tools are great for content building and linking back to websites, which ultimately gives you first page results in the search engines. But you must know how to link properly.
The 2010 New Year - some time in January with a national roll-out - is when Caffeine launches, a next-generation architecture for Google's web search. So far we are seeing great results for our clients rankings with the Beta version.
What's more, Google's Social Search is a new program that integrates content from a user’s social network into their search results so they can easily find relevant blogs, reviews and other information from within their own social networking groups.
If there's relevant web content written by people in your circle when you sign into Google, it will show up at the bottom of your search results under an area called "Results from people in your social circle." This means that search marketing is going to become more targeted to individuals, as people seriously organize into groups and communities on the Web. It is also becomming more localized.
Overall, today people just want direct communication with the brands, products and services they like and uchoose to use. People want messages that address their individual needs, even if it is only 140 characters in Twitter.
The era of mo more mass marketing is over.
Call Los Angeles SEO company, MarCom New Media at 323.650.2838 for more information on how we can help your business.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Search Engine Optimization Strategy: Essential for Optimization for a Website
Today, a colleague made a comment about the fact that many of the new open source software and web design applications have built-in search engine optimization. This may be true, but typically the optimization will not work like that of a customized website - the likes of what our SMM guru Mike Keesling does.
Content management sites these days usually are SEO friendly, which means that the page name rewrites a redirect to a file name with an html on it, so it makes search engine friendly urls. Ssecond, alot of these open source CMS sites do come with the ability to individually define Meta tags and title tags, as opposed to before, where we got global tags. They give us a form field, to do individual Meta and title tags -- but you still need to input the correct wording or tag. One still has to do the work and know what you're doing. There is no button to click to optimize your site without doing the work.
Many website designers do not know how to do detailed search engine optimization (SEO). Custom Web site meta, alt and description tags that tie-in with relevant content on each page, and properly characterized. We create a Web site search engine optimization strategy for each of our clients. In fact here's a recent example for client David Gross, founder of Movie Review Intelligence, Inc.
We met with David early in April, and realized that his new movie review aggrigation website would have dynamic content with the new movie reviews each week. MarCom's Mike Keesling knew he would have to be creative with the Website's SEO and come up with a clear onsite search engine optimization strategy.
We typically use the SWAT approach for a new client's launch. That includes:
Search engine optimization
Writing content and linking back to the site.
Analytics to track visitors.
Tracking SEO results.
After conducting a competative Keyword Analysis, he figured out a formula to add the Meta tags dynamically. It worked like a charm and the site was recognized within a week on Google.
Meanwhile we added an RSS press room using Press-feed (http://www.press-feed-com/) and wrote all the press materials, including key words with links to relevant pages on the site.
Next we began the offsite linking strategy, which meant creating a social media marketing strategy, and beginning all the activities of posting tweets in Twitter, Facebook, and the social bookmarketing sites like DIGG. These too include links back to the relevant content on the website.
Currently we are tracking visitors to the website, which are increasing every day. We will do a hard launch with an announcement press release next week on MarketWire. After the second month we will track our search engine optimization results.
Content management sites these days usually are SEO friendly, which means that the page name rewrites a redirect to a file name with an html on it, so it makes search engine friendly urls. Ssecond, alot of these open source CMS sites do come with the ability to individually define Meta tags and title tags, as opposed to before, where we got global tags. They give us a form field, to do individual Meta and title tags -- but you still need to input the correct wording or tag. One still has to do the work and know what you're doing. There is no button to click to optimize your site without doing the work.
Many website designers do not know how to do detailed search engine optimization (SEO). Custom Web site meta, alt and description tags that tie-in with relevant content on each page, and properly characterized. We create a Web site search engine optimization strategy for each of our clients. In fact here's a recent example for client David Gross, founder of Movie Review Intelligence, Inc.
We met with David early in April, and realized that his new movie review aggrigation website would have dynamic content with the new movie reviews each week. MarCom's Mike Keesling knew he would have to be creative with the Website's SEO and come up with a clear onsite search engine optimization strategy.
We typically use the SWAT approach for a new client's launch. That includes:
Search engine optimization
Writing content and linking back to the site.
Analytics to track visitors.
Tracking SEO results.
After conducting a competative Keyword Analysis, he figured out a formula to add the Meta tags dynamically. It worked like a charm and the site was recognized within a week on Google.
Meanwhile we added an RSS press room using Press-feed (http://www.press-feed-com/) and wrote all the press materials, including key words with links to relevant pages on the site.
Next we began the offsite linking strategy, which meant creating a social media marketing strategy, and beginning all the activities of posting tweets in Twitter, Facebook, and the social bookmarketing sites like DIGG. These too include links back to the relevant content on the website.
Currently we are tracking visitors to the website, which are increasing every day. We will do a hard launch with an announcement press release next week on MarketWire. After the second month we will track our search engine optimization results.
Search Engine Optimization Strategy: Essential for Optimization fo a Website
Today, a colleague made a comment about the fact that many of the new open source software and web design applications have built-in search engine optimization. This may be true, but typically the optimization will not work like that of a customized website - the likes of what our SMM guru Mike Keesling does.
Many website designers do not know how to do detailed search engine optimization (SEO). Custom Web site meta, alt and description tags that tie-in with relevant content on each page, and properly characterized. We create a Web site search engine optimization strategy for each of our clients. In fact here's a recent example for client David Gross, founder of Movie Review intelligence, Inc.
We met with David early in April, and realized that his new movie review aggrigation website would have dynamic content with the new movie reviews each week. MarCom's Mike Keesling knew he would have to be creative with the Website's SEO and come up with a clear onsite search engine optimization strategy.
We typically use the SWAT approach for a new client's launch. That includes:
Search engine optimization
Writing content and linking back to the site.
Analytics to track visitors.
Tracking SEO results.
After conducting a competative Keyword Analysis, he figured out a formula to add the Meta tags dynamically. It worked like a charm and the site was recognized within a week on Google.
Meanwhile we added an RSS press room using Press-feed (www.press-feed-com) and wrote all the press materials, including key words with links to relevant pages on the site.
Next we began the offsite linking strategy, which meant creating a social media marketing strategy, and beginning all the activities of posting tweets in Twitter, Facebook, and the social bookmarketing sites like DIGG. These too include links back to the relevant content on the website.
Currently we are tracking visitors to the website, which are increasing every day. We will do a hard launch with an announcement press release next week on MarketWire. After the second month we will track our search engine optimization results.
Many website designers do not know how to do detailed search engine optimization (SEO). Custom Web site meta, alt and description tags that tie-in with relevant content on each page, and properly characterized. We create a Web site search engine optimization strategy for each of our clients. In fact here's a recent example for client David Gross, founder of Movie Review intelligence, Inc.
We met with David early in April, and realized that his new movie review aggrigation website would have dynamic content with the new movie reviews each week. MarCom's Mike Keesling knew he would have to be creative with the Website's SEO and come up with a clear onsite search engine optimization strategy.
We typically use the SWAT approach for a new client's launch. That includes:
Search engine optimization
Writing content and linking back to the site.
Analytics to track visitors.
Tracking SEO results.
After conducting a competative Keyword Analysis, he figured out a formula to add the Meta tags dynamically. It worked like a charm and the site was recognized within a week on Google.
Meanwhile we added an RSS press room using Press-feed (www.press-feed-com) and wrote all the press materials, including key words with links to relevant pages on the site.
Next we began the offsite linking strategy, which meant creating a social media marketing strategy, and beginning all the activities of posting tweets in Twitter, Facebook, and the social bookmarketing sites like DIGG. These too include links back to the relevant content on the website.
Currently we are tracking visitors to the website, which are increasing every day. We will do a hard launch with an announcement press release next week on MarketWire. After the second month we will track our search engine optimization results.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Google Bans Duplicate Tags and Content
MarCom’s search engine optimization (SEO) expert Mike Keesling has been telling us for some time that there would be a shakeup about duplicate content on the Internet, and as usual, he was right, because Google is not standing for duplicate content anymore. This includes the Internet, but more importantly, it means no more duplicate META, ALT or description tags on websites.
Recently MarCom New Media looked at a B2B company’s website and noticed that they had their name in all their title tags, which dilutes the effectiveness of the title tag. Google will not give full value to your pages, unless each page has a different title tag. ALL website pages need their own unique description tag. Tags should be keyword rich.
What is a title tag? Interestingly, there are no definitions in the online dictionaries for “title tag.” Not in Webster’s or Wikipedia. However, you will find many other descriptions if you type those words in Google. A title tag is a piece of HTML code that describes a specific web page of content. Title tags guide the search engines in determining what is in the content of specific web pages. TIP: Creating a relevant title tag is one of the most important variables in achieving high search engine positioning.
One of the most common mistakes that we see on 80 percent of our new clients' sites is that they put their company name as the first thing on the title tag for each page. Once we fix that, search ranking results begin to inprove. Most often the url for the site already includes the company name, so wasting valuable characters on constantly repeating the name of the company doesn't accomplish anything in terms of search engine optimization. It also usually ends up making at least 50 percent of each title tag identical which is NOT a good thing.
The other new Google slap is that Social Media Marketing (SMM) content must also be unique. This means that Google's cracking down on social media, just like it did last year with link building farms and bots. The rap is that content in social media sites needs to be original. You need to do the work. Or hire experts like us to do the work. Google will not accept it if you use a service that posts 100 Stumble Upon items that are all the same, from the same IP address or are posting hundreds of other tags, for other clients at the same time they do yours.
Content posted online must be: Unique and from different IP addresses; posted by unique people. That’s true social media...and if this all sounds like Greek to you, then please give MarCom a call at 323.650.2838 and we'll translate it for you.
PS Google LOVES articles these days. Here's just one example of a search optimized article for one of MarCom's clients - The Interface Financial Group. Credit Repair Tips for Small Businesses. But make SURE none of your articles are duplicates. Each article must be a specific percent different than the next.
As the recession forces many consumers to buy less—search engine marketing is key.
Recently MarCom New Media looked at a B2B company’s website and noticed that they had their name in all their title tags, which dilutes the effectiveness of the title tag. Google will not give full value to your pages, unless each page has a different title tag. ALL website pages need their own unique description tag. Tags should be keyword rich.
What is a title tag? Interestingly, there are no definitions in the online dictionaries for “title tag.” Not in Webster’s or Wikipedia. However, you will find many other descriptions if you type those words in Google. A title tag is a piece of HTML code that describes a specific web page of content. Title tags guide the search engines in determining what is in the content of specific web pages. TIP: Creating a relevant title tag is one of the most important variables in achieving high search engine positioning.
One of the most common mistakes that we see on 80 percent of our new clients' sites is that they put their company name as the first thing on the title tag for each page. Once we fix that, search ranking results begin to inprove. Most often the url for the site already includes the company name, so wasting valuable characters on constantly repeating the name of the company doesn't accomplish anything in terms of search engine optimization. It also usually ends up making at least 50 percent of each title tag identical which is NOT a good thing.
The other new Google slap is that Social Media Marketing (SMM) content must also be unique. This means that Google's cracking down on social media, just like it did last year with link building farms and bots. The rap is that content in social media sites needs to be original. You need to do the work. Or hire experts like us to do the work. Google will not accept it if you use a service that posts 100 Stumble Upon items that are all the same, from the same IP address or are posting hundreds of other tags, for other clients at the same time they do yours.
Content posted online must be: Unique and from different IP addresses; posted by unique people. That’s true social media...and if this all sounds like Greek to you, then please give MarCom a call at 323.650.2838 and we'll translate it for you.
PS Google LOVES articles these days. Here's just one example of a search optimized article for one of MarCom's clients - The Interface Financial Group. Credit Repair Tips for Small Businesses. But make SURE none of your articles are duplicates. Each article must be a specific percent different than the next.
As the recession forces many consumers to buy less—search engine marketing is key.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Email Marketing Report in From Forrester
According to a March 13, 2009 alert from Forrester, a report entitled, "Optimizing Email Marketing In An Economic Slowdown And Its Impact On Vendor Selection," by David Daniels
with Lauren Jesuitus, Corina Matiesanu, Dave Frankland and Emily Murphy, makes it clear we need to take heed. Following is an excerpt from that document. Marcom New Media, a Los Angeles Internet marketing company, believes that Forrester reports are a good indicator of the marketing marketplace.
"The current economic environment puts increased pressure on email marketers against which they must adjust their practices and strategies. A July 2008 JupiterResearch/Clickz survey of 286 email marketing executives reveals classic challenges of constrained staffing resources and data integration challenges. Driven by staffing challenges and the need to drive further cost efficiencies, 24% of marketers plan on switching their email service providers (ESPs) over the next 12 months. Email Marketers will need to quickly respond to changing consumer communication patterns and social marketing opportunities and must prioritize tactics to create efficiencies within their email marketing practices, such as improved use of targeting, leveraging automation and customer generated content as well as removing non-responsive subscribers from ongoing mailings."
with Lauren Jesuitus, Corina Matiesanu, Dave Frankland and Emily Murphy, makes it clear we need to take heed. Following is an excerpt from that document. Marcom New Media, a Los Angeles Internet marketing company, believes that Forrester reports are a good indicator of the marketing marketplace.
"The current economic environment puts increased pressure on email marketers against which they must adjust their practices and strategies. A July 2008 JupiterResearch/Clickz survey of 286 email marketing executives reveals classic challenges of constrained staffing resources and data integration challenges. Driven by staffing challenges and the need to drive further cost efficiencies, 24% of marketers plan on switching their email service providers (ESPs) over the next 12 months. Email Marketers will need to quickly respond to changing consumer communication patterns and social marketing opportunities and must prioritize tactics to create efficiencies within their email marketing practices, such as improved use of targeting, leveraging automation and customer generated content as well as removing non-responsive subscribers from ongoing mailings."
Friday, February 27, 2009
The Future - 2009 Marketing Trends
-In case you are wondering, or curious, the outlook for 2009 advertising remains pretty upbeat for certain types of online media and marketing - including search, video and multicultural initiatives. However, traditional media and some social networks can expect to face serious difficulties going forward, says eMarketer.
Here are that firm's key trends for 2009:
1. Marketers will continue to stretch their budgets by making use of cost-efficient online ad placements. In addition to the Internet’s accountability and targeting, which permit more-focused media buys, lower prices for most display ads and less competition for many search keywords will make online a buyers’ market.
2. Search Marketing Remains Recession-Resistant: While search marketing is not recession-proof, it is recession-resistant, with estimated spending growth in 2009 at 14.9%, to $12.3 billion.
The reasons for search’s strength:
Search is highly measurable and will help retain many budgets and increase some others, as advertisers look for secure and effective marketing methods to combat the fear inherent in an economic meltdown.
Consumers who monetize search ads by deciding whether or not to click, will be both taking money off the table (by shopping less) and putting money back on the table (by searching for deals).
Search advertising will grow less in 2009 than in any previous year. Its inherent strength means greater spending gains than for any other major form of advertising, whether online or through traditional media.
3. Video Ad Spending Will Run Counter to Economic Trends: Video ad spending growth will run counter to overall economic developments, rising by 45 percent in 2009 to reach $850 million.
Check out these two key factors: First, the sharp escalation of professional video content on the web — coming mainly from TV networks — is creating a viable base for brand marketers. Second, even though most advertisers are increasingly cautious with their budgets, they still need to reach online audiences, and woo their shrinking wallets, with messages that reach their hearts and minds. This should add up to more video, according to eMarketer.
4. Social Network Shakeout: With US ad revenue growth slowing, smaller and niche social networks will have a tough time gaining traction and several may close down or be acquired by larger players. In addition, marketers that have built standalone social networks tied to their brands will either shutter them or migrate them to existing social network platforms where they can reach a broader audience.
5. New Revenue Streams for Social Networks: E-commerce will be a growing revenue stream for social network sites. Expect both MySpace and Facebook to enhance their self-serve advertising systems to allow consumers and businesses to buy and sell real-world goods and services. Facebook, already a de facto business networking site because of the number of businesspeople who use it, will develop ad programs aimed at B2B companies. This will directly affect LinkedIn.
6. E-Commerce Sales Growth From Existing Online Buyers: Online retail sales (excluding travel) will grow by only 4% in 2009—the first full year to feel the impact of the economic crisis. Over the long term, online sales growth has been on a downward slope as the number of online buyers approaches saturation. So, the economy accentuates an existing trend. Most retail e-commerce sales growth in the future will come from increased spending by current online buyers.
7. Seismic Shift in TV Ad Sales: US TV ad spending will decline 4.2% to $66.9 billion in 2009. This precipitous drop in spending reflects not only expectations of a continued poor economy but a seismic shift in the way television advertising is bought and sold, eMarketer said.
Like other traditional media, TV advertising was already suffering, and now the climate will be even tougher. Fragmentation on TV and declines in viewership have made it more difficult for advertisers to reach audiences. Broadcasters will be pressed to redefine their businesses in an increasingly digital world. They will focus on expanding programming to the online realm and will continue to test business models.
8. Newspaper Companies to Become Casualties: Newspaper advertising will decline in 2009 more than any other medium. Industry-wide cutbacks will continue, and there will be some consolidation, while firms will be forced to undertake drastic measures to stay afloat. The industry was limping before the recession and the market can expect more newspaper companies to become casualties.
9. User-Generated Content Aggregation: With so much user-generated media populating the web and mobile channels, content aggregation will become more important than ever. In 2009, expect to see the emergence of real-time aggregation tools that combine algorithmic approaches with human input. These aggregation tools will develop from the ground up, much like the content itself.
10. Multicultural Marketing Will Gain Intensity Online: Although white Americans make up about 70% of the US internet population, more and more African-Americans and Hispanics are going online through their PCs and their mobile phones. Marketers will follow, targeting these segments with language and culture-specific messages, which will evolve from their general-market campaigns.
Here are that firm's key trends for 2009:
1. Marketers will continue to stretch their budgets by making use of cost-efficient online ad placements. In addition to the Internet’s accountability and targeting, which permit more-focused media buys, lower prices for most display ads and less competition for many search keywords will make online a buyers’ market.
2. Search Marketing Remains Recession-Resistant: While search marketing is not recession-proof, it is recession-resistant, with estimated spending growth in 2009 at 14.9%, to $12.3 billion.
The reasons for search’s strength:
Search is highly measurable and will help retain many budgets and increase some others, as advertisers look for secure and effective marketing methods to combat the fear inherent in an economic meltdown.
Consumers who monetize search ads by deciding whether or not to click, will be both taking money off the table (by shopping less) and putting money back on the table (by searching for deals).
Search advertising will grow less in 2009 than in any previous year. Its inherent strength means greater spending gains than for any other major form of advertising, whether online or through traditional media.
3. Video Ad Spending Will Run Counter to Economic Trends: Video ad spending growth will run counter to overall economic developments, rising by 45 percent in 2009 to reach $850 million.
Check out these two key factors: First, the sharp escalation of professional video content on the web — coming mainly from TV networks — is creating a viable base for brand marketers. Second, even though most advertisers are increasingly cautious with their budgets, they still need to reach online audiences, and woo their shrinking wallets, with messages that reach their hearts and minds. This should add up to more video, according to eMarketer.
4. Social Network Shakeout: With US ad revenue growth slowing, smaller and niche social networks will have a tough time gaining traction and several may close down or be acquired by larger players. In addition, marketers that have built standalone social networks tied to their brands will either shutter them or migrate them to existing social network platforms where they can reach a broader audience.
5. New Revenue Streams for Social Networks: E-commerce will be a growing revenue stream for social network sites. Expect both MySpace and Facebook to enhance their self-serve advertising systems to allow consumers and businesses to buy and sell real-world goods and services. Facebook, already a de facto business networking site because of the number of businesspeople who use it, will develop ad programs aimed at B2B companies. This will directly affect LinkedIn.
6. E-Commerce Sales Growth From Existing Online Buyers: Online retail sales (excluding travel) will grow by only 4% in 2009—the first full year to feel the impact of the economic crisis. Over the long term, online sales growth has been on a downward slope as the number of online buyers approaches saturation. So, the economy accentuates an existing trend. Most retail e-commerce sales growth in the future will come from increased spending by current online buyers.
7. Seismic Shift in TV Ad Sales: US TV ad spending will decline 4.2% to $66.9 billion in 2009. This precipitous drop in spending reflects not only expectations of a continued poor economy but a seismic shift in the way television advertising is bought and sold, eMarketer said.
Like other traditional media, TV advertising was already suffering, and now the climate will be even tougher. Fragmentation on TV and declines in viewership have made it more difficult for advertisers to reach audiences. Broadcasters will be pressed to redefine their businesses in an increasingly digital world. They will focus on expanding programming to the online realm and will continue to test business models.
8. Newspaper Companies to Become Casualties: Newspaper advertising will decline in 2009 more than any other medium. Industry-wide cutbacks will continue, and there will be some consolidation, while firms will be forced to undertake drastic measures to stay afloat. The industry was limping before the recession and the market can expect more newspaper companies to become casualties.
9. User-Generated Content Aggregation: With so much user-generated media populating the web and mobile channels, content aggregation will become more important than ever. In 2009, expect to see the emergence of real-time aggregation tools that combine algorithmic approaches with human input. These aggregation tools will develop from the ground up, much like the content itself.
10. Multicultural Marketing Will Gain Intensity Online: Although white Americans make up about 70% of the US internet population, more and more African-Americans and Hispanics are going online through their PCs and their mobile phones. Marketers will follow, targeting these segments with language and culture-specific messages, which will evolve from their general-market campaigns.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Online Marketing in the New Year
People are always asking us if we do viral advertising, or online advertising. People often think of this as a separate entity ... separate from traditional advertising. But in reality it is all one and the same -- lead generation. That is truly what MarCom New Media is in the business to do. We help get our clients leads that turn into new customers and revenues. It's what marketing and advertising has always been all about.
Today, we just use new technologies like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to make your website show up on the first pages of the engines like Google when people search for what they want. MarCom does SEO basically in two ways: onsite optimization on your website, and offsite via links BACK to your website. This isn't all that different from direct marketing. The direct mail piece was targeted to you, and if you called the company who mailed it, that was a lead generated.
Customers are more sophisticated and demanding these days. We all like to go online and chat about things. And in order to find you online, we now use what is called Social Media Marketing where we target and interact with other people, share ideas and opinions. It is really just like to oldfashioned "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval." Social media is the online technologies and practices that we use to share ideas, opinions insights, experiences and perspectives with other people. There are online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities, while social media technology includes an assorted array of online communications hubs driven by users: Internet forums, message boards, blogs, podcasts, wikis, and videos. And there’s also picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, and music-sharing.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) includes offsite optimization strategies with the intent of distributed content across multiple social media networks. Tools for this include adding links to services such as Digg, Del.icio.us or Readdit. This includes writing unique content embedded with your key words and phrases, so when people search online, there’s a better chance of finding your content via the search engines.
MarCom, a Los Angeles Internet marketing company, has been testing social media marketing strategies in this space for many years, and it all started with forum posting, back around 2000. Now we ghostwrite blogs for clients, shoot video shorts, manage podcasts and conduct creative viral email campaigns.
SMM is about being social so this offsite work includes research, and a social media strategy with specific tactics for getting involved and having two way conversations with target audiences. We want to create pages that provide links back to your website, for inbound traffic and links. We also want these pages to rank well in the search engines under your key words and phrases. This ultimately will build traffic, and bring you return on investment (ROI.)
Today, we just use new technologies like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to make your website show up on the first pages of the engines like Google when people search for what they want. MarCom does SEO basically in two ways: onsite optimization on your website, and offsite via links BACK to your website. This isn't all that different from direct marketing. The direct mail piece was targeted to you, and if you called the company who mailed it, that was a lead generated.
Customers are more sophisticated and demanding these days. We all like to go online and chat about things. And in order to find you online, we now use what is called Social Media Marketing where we target and interact with other people, share ideas and opinions. It is really just like to oldfashioned "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval." Social media is the online technologies and practices that we use to share ideas, opinions insights, experiences and perspectives with other people. There are online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities, while social media technology includes an assorted array of online communications hubs driven by users: Internet forums, message boards, blogs, podcasts, wikis, and videos. And there’s also picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, and music-sharing.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) includes offsite optimization strategies with the intent of distributed content across multiple social media networks. Tools for this include adding links to services such as Digg, Del.icio.us or Readdit. This includes writing unique content embedded with your key words and phrases, so when people search online, there’s a better chance of finding your content via the search engines.
MarCom, a Los Angeles Internet marketing company, has been testing social media marketing strategies in this space for many years, and it all started with forum posting, back around 2000. Now we ghostwrite blogs for clients, shoot video shorts, manage podcasts and conduct creative viral email campaigns.
SMM is about being social so this offsite work includes research, and a social media strategy with specific tactics for getting involved and having two way conversations with target audiences. We want to create pages that provide links back to your website, for inbound traffic and links. We also want these pages to rank well in the search engines under your key words and phrases. This ultimately will build traffic, and bring you return on investment (ROI.)
Friday, November 21, 2008
Why Choose a Los Angeles SEO Firm During a Tough Economy?
There is no question that small to medium-sized businesses often struggle during tough economic times. Over the years we have seen many clients try to cut back on marketing during these times. There are several schools of thought on the topic: 1) A bad economy is the time to spend money on marketing. 2) Don't spend what you don't have.
Well here is another thought. We have actually been getting quite few new business leads lately. Why? Today, more and more people realize that search engine optimization (SEO) is a must, because most people realize that if they are not in the top pages of the engines like Google or Yahoo, their customers may not find them. But with that there is allot of confusion about who they should hire and what the right SEO strategies. Lucky for us we have lots of experience, and in fact are possibly one of the few Los Angeles SEO firms that are also experts in the new Social Media Marketing -- according to guru and author of The New Influencers, Paul Gillin, MarCom is actually part of the ten percent of marketers nationally doing it. The other 90 percent are still trying to figure out what it is.
In 2006, MarketingSherpa did a survey of 3,053 client-side marketers. They determined that SEO was viewed as the most valuable marketing solution in terms of return on investment (ROI.) In other words, ROI is critical during an uncertain economy.
In the past, traditional marketing and advertising meant spending quite a bit of your budget on tactics that typically don't provide tracking methods for figuring out if it works. Today, the beauty of the Internet and new media marketing is that we can track the results, and tweak the campaigns for better results if need be. In other words, we are more of a lead generation company, than just SEO, or PR or marketing.
A good SEO campaign can tell you a lot about your market because when we do our research about your market, we also research your competitors. We can even see how much money they have been spending on Pay per Click ads. We can determine how many visitors go to their website. A keyword analysis will tell us exactly how many people are searching and what words and phrases they use to find what products and services like you offer
We know that our campaigns address a need or a desire - so when we optimize your website, it will be so that the visitors referred from search engines through your target keywords will have a chance to find you and what you're offering on your website. Int he end SEO should help drive quality traffic to your website. And with that you have a better chance of closing the sale.
We use HitsLink for web analytics, which is a great program to tell more details of what people do after they do come to your site. do they stay on one page longer than others? Do they spend enought time on your site? How much time? Where did they come from before they went to your site? Tracking your website allows you to track your users.
So how should you decide if you need to invest in SEO and or Social Media Marketing? In-house employees are going t probably be too pricey. And on top of that, few people in the marketing today have as much experience as we as SEO experts have. So you are better off hiring outside consultants like MarCom.
The bottom line, SEO and social media marketing should not just be an afterthought to your marketing plan, especially during tough economic times. Because with such good ROI, you really cannot go wrong. In fact, you may get more business than you had before.
Well here is another thought. We have actually been getting quite few new business leads lately. Why? Today, more and more people realize that search engine optimization (SEO) is a must, because most people realize that if they are not in the top pages of the engines like Google or Yahoo, their customers may not find them. But with that there is allot of confusion about who they should hire and what the right SEO strategies. Lucky for us we have lots of experience, and in fact are possibly one of the few Los Angeles SEO firms that are also experts in the new Social Media Marketing -- according to guru and author of The New Influencers, Paul Gillin, MarCom is actually part of the ten percent of marketers nationally doing it. The other 90 percent are still trying to figure out what it is.
In 2006, MarketingSherpa did a survey of 3,053 client-side marketers. They determined that SEO was viewed as the most valuable marketing solution in terms of return on investment (ROI.) In other words, ROI is critical during an uncertain economy.
In the past, traditional marketing and advertising meant spending quite a bit of your budget on tactics that typically don't provide tracking methods for figuring out if it works. Today, the beauty of the Internet and new media marketing is that we can track the results, and tweak the campaigns for better results if need be. In other words, we are more of a lead generation company, than just SEO, or PR or marketing.
A good SEO campaign can tell you a lot about your market because when we do our research about your market, we also research your competitors. We can even see how much money they have been spending on Pay per Click ads. We can determine how many visitors go to their website. A keyword analysis will tell us exactly how many people are searching and what words and phrases they use to find what products and services like you offer
We know that our campaigns address a need or a desire - so when we optimize your website, it will be so that the visitors referred from search engines through your target keywords will have a chance to find you and what you're offering on your website. Int he end SEO should help drive quality traffic to your website. And with that you have a better chance of closing the sale.
We use HitsLink for web analytics, which is a great program to tell more details of what people do after they do come to your site. do they stay on one page longer than others? Do they spend enought time on your site? How much time? Where did they come from before they went to your site? Tracking your website allows you to track your users.
So how should you decide if you need to invest in SEO and or Social Media Marketing? In-house employees are going t probably be too pricey. And on top of that, few people in the marketing today have as much experience as we as SEO experts have. So you are better off hiring outside consultants like MarCom.
The bottom line, SEO and social media marketing should not just be an afterthought to your marketing plan, especially during tough economic times. Because with such good ROI, you really cannot go wrong. In fact, you may get more business than you had before.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
New Domain Name Controversy for Online Marketing
So would you like a website domain name that ends in dot.bank? dot.hotel, or what about dot. restaurant? Well in the future of the world wide Web, you may get your wish. This may be the situation, and major brands are really worried about having to spend millions in order to protect their brands.
The entity that oversees the Web, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, plans to start selling the rights to an unlimited number of top-level domain names in the year 2009. The names would be those of popular subjects geographic locations, types of businesses.
Think about it this way. If you were a national restaurant with a cool branded name, for instance, like McWeener, and you already owned all the sites you thought you needed to own surrounding that name, like McWeener.com, McWeener.biz, and dot.org, dot.net, etc. Now you have to worry about owning McWeener (dot)restaurant, or McWeener (dot) Los Angeles and every other city where the franchises exist too!
Big companies are really worried that this situation could open the doors to Internet scams and fraud, and drastically increase their costs of doing business online. Brand names could get hijacked, causing millions in legal fees, and loss of business.
The entity that oversees the Web, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, plans to start selling the rights to an unlimited number of top-level domain names in the year 2009. The names would be those of popular subjects geographic locations, types of businesses.
Think about it this way. If you were a national restaurant with a cool branded name, for instance, like McWeener, and you already owned all the sites you thought you needed to own surrounding that name, like McWeener.com, McWeener.biz, and dot.org, dot.net, etc. Now you have to worry about owning McWeener (dot)restaurant, or McWeener (dot) Los Angeles and every other city where the franchises exist too!
Big companies are really worried that this situation could open the doors to Internet scams and fraud, and drastically increase their costs of doing business online. Brand names could get hijacked, causing millions in legal fees, and loss of business.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Online Marketing in Tough Economy
Recent reports say that the percentage of small and midsized home and trade-services businesses with Web sites will increase to 60 percent by 2010, up from just 33 percent today. (Source: Kelly Group.)
And the other trend - social media marketing - shows that there are also a number of consumer referral and home-services community sites like Craig's List or ServiceMagic. In addition, small business entrepreneurs are posting pages on MyFace, while creative talent post on pages in MySpace.
There is much interest in marketing online today, as the costs are less than print or electronic advertising, and more and more customers use the Internet to find what they want. MarCom New Media, Los Angeles SEO consultants, always recommends the business directories for our clients. Yahoo! is around $299, and others include the SuperPages, with a monthly fee at about $75.00
Other tools for small businesses include CitySearch and YellowPages.com to capture those searching in a local geographic area.
And the other trend - social media marketing - shows that there are also a number of consumer referral and home-services community sites like Craig's List or ServiceMagic. In addition, small business entrepreneurs are posting pages on MyFace, while creative talent post on pages in MySpace.
There is much interest in marketing online today, as the costs are less than print or electronic advertising, and more and more customers use the Internet to find what they want. MarCom New Media, Los Angeles SEO consultants, always recommends the business directories for our clients. Yahoo! is around $299, and others include the SuperPages, with a monthly fee at about $75.00
Other tools for small businesses include CitySearch and YellowPages.com to capture those searching in a local geographic area.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Why the Internet is an Awesome Social Measurement Tool?
I have been reading an interesting book that I know some folks would find quite boring. I even think it is boring at times - as I am NOT a numbers person. But the point is that it is a good indicator of this business we are in called Internet Marketing. The book is called Click, by Bill Tancer, and it is about what millions of people are doing online and why it matters. Much of the book is about the fact that companies competing in the online space need to use competitive intelligence data - because that's what Bill does for a living at Hitwise.
This book has taken me awhile to read, unlike Paul Gillin's book called the New Influencers, which I couldn't put down. I think partly because I am not a numbers person, and Tancer is all about statistics, numbers and data. But yesterday I finally got to an ah-haaa moment when I realized that the point of the book will have tremendous value for some of our clients. In a chapter called "Finding the Early Adopters" Tancer talks about why innovation spreads from one idea to mass adoption.
It is the same reason why this target group started getting tongue rings and drinking Hussong's Beer. It was cool. And they shared the news with their friends. Other market
segments include what Tancer calls the Bohemian Mix - that Claris pretty much describes as a bunch of mobile urbanites living liberal lifestyles - and are early adopters of entertainment and technology; Money and Brains; and the Young Digerati. You'll have to get his book to learn more about these guys. But my point here is that as a marketer, the trends we are seeing on the Internet can be measured better than any previous kind of marketing, ever.
The ways that we as a Los Angeles search engine marketing firm doing social media marketing online can track a campaign for our clients, are sprinkled throughout our strategies, and we are getting fabulous results.
This book has taken me awhile to read, unlike Paul Gillin's book called the New Influencers, which I couldn't put down. I think partly because I am not a numbers person, and Tancer is all about statistics, numbers and data. But yesterday I finally got to an ah-haaa moment when I realized that the point of the book will have tremendous value for some of our clients. In a chapter called "Finding the Early Adopters" Tancer talks about why innovation spreads from one idea to mass adoption.
Why for example did it only take YouTube less than six months to host more than 25 million videos and out rank Yahoo!? He says that the reason is probably because the first group to discover YouTube was called "Innovators." The Internet has always been made up of different segments. He knows this because his company has a tool that figures out what websites people were on before they clicked over to visit YouTube. Turns out allot of them were on sites like MySpace, Friendster, Xanga, and even Facebook.
But here is the really cool part. His data showed after about a month, the numbers started shifting and he was seeing traffic from web-based email accounts like HotMail, or Yahoo!Mail. Why? Because YouTube did a brilliant thing. Once a person posted their video on the site, the company let them email their video production with a link to their video to a friend! And when friends clicked on the video, it took them to YouTube, and the data showed that's where the new audience had come from.It is the same reason why this target group started getting tongue rings and drinking Hussong's Beer. It was cool. And they shared the news with their friends. Other market
segments include what Tancer calls the Bohemian Mix - that Claris pretty much describes as a bunch of mobile urbanites living liberal lifestyles - and are early adopters of entertainment and technology; Money and Brains; and the Young Digerati. You'll have to get his book to learn more about these guys. But my point here is that as a marketer, the trends we are seeing on the Internet can be measured better than any previous kind of marketing, ever.The ways that we as a Los Angeles search engine marketing firm doing social media marketing online can track a campaign for our clients, are sprinkled throughout our strategies, and we are getting fabulous results.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Online Marketing Trends: Virtual Learning via Second Life
Apparently there's a group at Second Life called 'Real Life Education in Second Life.' It is made up of people who are interested in the educational possibilities of Second Life. According to them, there are more than 400 universities and 4,500 educators participating in the Second Life Educators List (SLED). And this group is studying how to leverage the benefits of learning in a virtual world in order to assist the students of today.
Caption: From Second Life, students role-play a courtroom scene in Ramapo, Suffern (N.Y.) Middle School’s virtual world campus hosted by Peggy Sheehy in Teen Second Life.
In an article written by a professor of computer science at Colorado Technical University named Cynthia M. Calonge, she notes, "the benefits outweigh the risks associated with venturing into a virtual world educational platform. For me, the virtual world is my preferred learning and teaching environment."
What does this have to do with what our Los Angeles marketing firm can do for our clients? It means is that more and more of our clients need to set up social media networks, to engage with customers, teach them, and share knowledge. And it means that websites need to be filled with content to educate people about what they do and optimized properly with the search engines so that they will come up first on the search engines. And blogs are becomming a way of life.
Imagine the magnitude of virtual classrooms? Futurists like James Canton and author of The Extreme Future, have already said that one of the top ten industries of the innovation economy is, "8. Education and Learning. The creation of immediate, portable, transferable, on-demand knowledge sources on a scale equivalent to the Library of Congress."
Caption: From Second Life, students role-play a courtroom scene in Ramapo, Suffern (N.Y.) Middle School’s virtual world campus hosted by Peggy Sheehy in Teen Second Life.In an article written by a professor of computer science at Colorado Technical University named Cynthia M. Calonge, she notes, "the benefits outweigh the risks associated with venturing into a virtual world educational platform. For me, the virtual world is my preferred learning and teaching environment."
What does this have to do with what our Los Angeles marketing firm can do for our clients? It means is that more and more of our clients need to set up social media networks, to engage with customers, teach them, and share knowledge. And it means that websites need to be filled with content to educate people about what they do and optimized properly with the search engines so that they will come up first on the search engines. And blogs are becomming a way of life.
Imagine the magnitude of virtual classrooms? Futurists like James Canton and author of The Extreme Future, have already said that one of the top ten industries of the innovation economy is, "8. Education and Learning. The creation of immediate, portable, transferable, on-demand knowledge sources on a scale equivalent to the Library of Congress."
Monday, September 22, 2008
The True Value of Social Media
Finally, advertisers are beginning to realize how valuable social media marketing can be. This is truely exciting because now more than before, our clients are starting to understand the value when we recommend social media campaigns.
Just yesterday at the doctor seminar, Two Days Back on Earth, on environmental endocrinology for our client T.S. Wiley and The Wiley Protocol (http://www.thewileyprotocol.com/), Wiley's book publisher talked about the importance of social media to the traditional publishing industry today. She said they now strategize books that have websites for reference materials and more information, and places where people can host e-books and chapters that are bookmarked pages from new book releases.
This means we can strategize longer term social media campaigns for MarCom New Media clients -- and just like any marketing campaign, it takes hard work, tracking, which the Internet makes easy, as well as maintenance.
We can easily blend direct-response and branding. It is about the objective for the campaign, then fine tuning the right strategy. The good news is that the Web is ideal for measurment.
Today, 70 percent of the ad dollars online are going toward direct-response advertising, but the shift toward brand-building campaigns is starting to happen. Check the following interesting stats from a recent research report. (Source: Awareness, Inc.)
Just yesterday at the doctor seminar, Two Days Back on Earth, on environmental endocrinology for our client T.S. Wiley and The Wiley Protocol (http://www.thewileyprotocol.com/), Wiley's book publisher talked about the importance of social media to the traditional publishing industry today. She said they now strategize books that have websites for reference materials and more information, and places where people can host e-books and chapters that are bookmarked pages from new book releases.
This means we can strategize longer term social media campaigns for MarCom New Media clients -- and just like any marketing campaign, it takes hard work, tracking, which the Internet makes easy, as well as maintenance.
We can easily blend direct-response and branding. It is about the objective for the campaign, then fine tuning the right strategy. The good news is that the Web is ideal for measurment.
Today, 70 percent of the ad dollars online are going toward direct-response advertising, but the shift toward brand-building campaigns is starting to happen. Check the following interesting stats from a recent research report. (Source: Awareness, Inc.)
- The number of organizations that allow employees to use social networks for business purposes has increased dramatically to 69% in 2008 from 37% last year.
- More than six in 10 companies are using social media to build and promote their brands, improve communication and increase consumer engagement.
- There has been a fivefold increase in the percentage of employees who use popular social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn for business purposes, from 15% in 2007 to 75% this year.
- Some 37% of organizations plan to focus communities on specialty areas where they can provide focused business value.
- More than 40% of respondents report using one or more of the following tools: user groups, tags, communities, blogs, social networking and videos.
- The most popular internal tools are social networks, blogs and wikis, with adoption rates of between 50% and 55%.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Don't Let Do-it-Yourself SEO Programs Fool You
Lately it seems we have had some new business clients who contacted us for online marketing or PR services, but when we talk to them about their search engine optimization (SEO), they seem to think that they already know how to do SEO in-house. One prospect even said they know there are all kinds of keyword software programs out there for free, that can tell you what your keywords are, etc.
Here's the thing. Would you tell your optometrist, for example, how to fit you in a pair of glasses? Or, would you feel confident about being able to design your own website in html? And do you even want to learn how to do it and then take all the time required to continue monitoring and doing it? Unless a company has hired a true SEO expert, who has years of experience, it is unlikely that the job will be done properly.
Much of what we do as marketers can always be done by the small business owner "in-house"-- but when a company starts learning and then implementing things like SEO, or PR, it takes vast amounts of time away from what they do. That said, it is often best to leave SEO up to the experts who have been doing it as a career for awhile - like Mike Keesling, our resident Los Angeles SEO expert. He has been doing SEO for more than ten years with excellent results for our MarCom New Media clients. Check out our SEO case histories. As Mike always says, it's best to look for long term results rather than short term instant gratification.
In fact last year we had a client who promised their web development team could be "taught" how to do the website SEO meta-tagging, etc. Mike trained them and we charged our standard training fee. Several months later, their site was still not tagged properly, and Mike had to actually do the job we should have done in the first place. That said we wasted three good months of possibly better search engine optimization results. And yes, in the end we charged more for it than it cost them to be trained. But with this being only a one-time fee, it was worth it because after the SEO started working, their revenues from new leads made up the difference fairly quickly.
Here's the thing. Would you tell your optometrist, for example, how to fit you in a pair of glasses? Or, would you feel confident about being able to design your own website in html? And do you even want to learn how to do it and then take all the time required to continue monitoring and doing it? Unless a company has hired a true SEO expert, who has years of experience, it is unlikely that the job will be done properly.
Much of what we do as marketers can always be done by the small business owner "in-house"-- but when a company starts learning and then implementing things like SEO, or PR, it takes vast amounts of time away from what they do. That said, it is often best to leave SEO up to the experts who have been doing it as a career for awhile - like Mike Keesling, our resident Los Angeles SEO expert. He has been doing SEO for more than ten years with excellent results for our MarCom New Media clients. Check out our SEO case histories. As Mike always says, it's best to look for long term results rather than short term instant gratification.
In fact last year we had a client who promised their web development team could be "taught" how to do the website SEO meta-tagging, etc. Mike trained them and we charged our standard training fee. Several months later, their site was still not tagged properly, and Mike had to actually do the job we should have done in the first place. That said we wasted three good months of possibly better search engine optimization results. And yes, in the end we charged more for it than it cost them to be trained. But with this being only a one-time fee, it was worth it because after the SEO started working, their revenues from new leads made up the difference fairly quickly.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Popular Social Media Marketing Terms
Have you heard of an “RSS feed” or a “mashup?” You know what a“wiki” is, right? If not, you are not alone. In fact, many people are still clueless about social media marketing (SMM), which is defined as the use of the Internet technology tools for the purpose of sharing and discussing information with others. In other words, it is all about going on websites like Facebook, My Space, Twitter, or You Tube and sharing ideas, interests and “gossip” with other people of like mind ... or not. (People do disagree online of course.) But more important is to understand is how marketers use social media in our marketing efforts.
We can control messages and market your products and services online with well thought out SMM strategies, and clever tactics. For example, one such social media site is known as "del.icio.us” which is a social bookmarking website. These sites allow users to store and share your bookmarks online. You can access these bookmarks from any computer anywhere, anytime. Another SMM site is called “DIGG,” where users submit content and then other Digg users read your submission and Digg what they like. In this case popularity rules, and the more diggs you get the better it is for your brand.
Much of what MarCom New Media does is search engine optimization, combined with online public relations and marketing that all ties together. We do keyword analysis to see what terms folks use to search for your company online, then come up with a strategy to use those words in blogs, articles, releases, and on SMM websites, linking back to your website. It builds traffic so you can prosper online.
SMM Definitions:
RSS - Really Simple Syndication. This is the primary way people can syndicate content from Web sites, blogs and social networking sites to be read online by other people in what are known as RSS readers. RSS is very important for a company and its website because it allows people to track current news via their RSS Feeds.
RSS Tags. Simple technology that allows you to bookmark specific Web pages and sites of interest. It is how Digg and del.icio.us work.
Mashups. This brings multiple sources of data together and creates a single application, or Web service which helps manage events, etc. Content used in mashups usually comes from a third party via a public interface that combines data from more than one source into a single tool. One new example is Earthquake! A Google Maps mashup – thanks to the recent worldwide earthquakes.
Wikis. A collection of Web pages allowing anyone to add or edit content. This tool can help company employees, for example, in their collaboration efforts for projects or clients.
Internet marketing tactics continue to change on a frequent basis thanks to the search engines like Google, and new technologies. As marketers, we must learn fast, adapt, and then tweak strategies for what works best.
We can control messages and market your products and services online with well thought out SMM strategies, and clever tactics. For example, one such social media site is known as "del.icio.us” which is a social bookmarking website. These sites allow users to store and share your bookmarks online. You can access these bookmarks from any computer anywhere, anytime. Another SMM site is called “DIGG,” where users submit content and then other Digg users read your submission and Digg what they like. In this case popularity rules, and the more diggs you get the better it is for your brand.
Much of what MarCom New Media does is search engine optimization, combined with online public relations and marketing that all ties together. We do keyword analysis to see what terms folks use to search for your company online, then come up with a strategy to use those words in blogs, articles, releases, and on SMM websites, linking back to your website. It builds traffic so you can prosper online.
SMM Definitions:
RSS - Really Simple Syndication. This is the primary way people can syndicate content from Web sites, blogs and social networking sites to be read online by other people in what are known as RSS readers. RSS is very important for a company and its website because it allows people to track current news via their RSS Feeds.
RSS Tags. Simple technology that allows you to bookmark specific Web pages and sites of interest. It is how Digg and del.icio.us work.
Mashups. This brings multiple sources of data together and creates a single application, or Web service which helps manage events, etc. Content used in mashups usually comes from a third party via a public interface that combines data from more than one source into a single tool. One new example is Earthquake! A Google Maps mashup – thanks to the recent worldwide earthquakes.
Wikis. A collection of Web pages allowing anyone to add or edit content. This tool can help company employees, for example, in their collaboration efforts for projects or clients.
Internet marketing tactics continue to change on a frequent basis thanks to the search engines like Google, and new technologies. As marketers, we must learn fast, adapt, and then tweak strategies for what works best.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Online Advertising: Video ad predictions at 1.4 billion for 2010
The online video advertising predictions, according to video ad company, LiveRail, are way up from the $619 million in 2008. The company predicts that online video ad spending will be closer to $1.4 billion in 2010.
Another online research company known as eMarketer, has done another analysis, that puts online ad spending in 2010 at $1.15 billion, up from $505 billion in 2008.
Online video has become increasingly popular on websites like YouTube and Google, so that is partially why online video ad spending predictions are somewhat optimistic. More than half of US consumers currently watch online video, but predictions are that by the year 2012, that figure will be up to nine out of 10 Internet users.
MarCom New Media is not only a Los Angeles SEO firm, but also specializes in online advertising and therefore online video production. We have been busy producing online videos for a number of our clients during the last few years. The most recent one, was a recent project we did for OriginOil, Inc., who shared its vision of the algae to oil revolution with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Green Tech Expo, held in Los Angeles in conjunction with the Border Governors Conference in August. The OriginOil video was not only streamed from the company's website but also placed on YouTube and Google.
Most folks watch TV online because it's convenient, it allows them to watch on their own schedule and many people like the fact that they get to skip the commercials.
Another online research company known as eMarketer, has done another analysis, that puts online ad spending in 2010 at $1.15 billion, up from $505 billion in 2008.Online video has become increasingly popular on websites like YouTube and Google, so that is partially why online video ad spending predictions are somewhat optimistic. More than half of US consumers currently watch online video, but predictions are that by the year 2012, that figure will be up to nine out of 10 Internet users.
MarCom New Media is not only a Los Angeles SEO firm, but also specializes in online advertising and therefore online video production. We have been busy producing online videos for a number of our clients during the last few years. The most recent one, was a recent project we did for OriginOil, Inc., who shared its vision of the algae to oil revolution with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Green Tech Expo, held in Los Angeles in conjunction with the Border Governors Conference in August. The OriginOil video was not only streamed from the company's website but also placed on YouTube and Google.
Most folks watch TV online because it's convenient, it allows them to watch on their own schedule and many people like the fact that they get to skip the commercials.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Why B2B Companies Need SEO
One of the biggest problems facing companies with business to business (B2B) as opposed to Business to Consumer (B2C) solutions is the fact that many B2B sites don’t have sufficient content on their websites to respond to desired search terms that folks are using to find them. What does this mean? Simply put, while consumer driven websites may get more daily searches from prospective customers, B2B sites get their fair share of their own niche of potential businesses or strategic partners, and in some cases shareholders who are on the Internet searching, using certain key words to find the B2B solution they are seeking.
Following are just a few of the steps that MarCom takes as SEO consultants to ensure that our B2B client websites are organized into the most logical, user-friendly architecture that responds to organic searches (e.g. comes up on the first page of Google).
1) Benefits of SEO Sooner- Not Later. Today, with so many companies and individuals swarming the Internet and putting up websites, blogs, and posting to social media sites, the search engines are running out of bandwidth for indexing websites fast and efficiently. What used to take a company just two to three months to be ranked by Google and other search engines for keywords that people are using, may now take eight months or longer. The longer you wait to do the proper SEO for your B2B site, the longer it will take to become ranked. The proof is that we can take a look at your competitors today, and in 3 or 6 months, we'll tell you how ahead or behind your SEO is while they become better and better ranked each month.
2) Keyword Analysis. No matter whether you’re are a B2C or B2B company, the first step is still a keyword analysis. BUT the differences are that a B2B company should not make keyword judgments, but rather create the gross list that is as inclusive as possible of the potential terms their actual prospects might use – and this would include vertical markets, potential strategic partners, the government in some cases, and even shareholders. As SEO experts, we then focus on generic keywords based on what these potential customers call things. You also need to think about whether or not searches will be about a problem they’re experiencing, or the type of company potentially offering solutions? And often times geography may play a role in what people are searching for.
3) Determine Relative Popularity of B2B Keywords. Once you’ve created the gross list of potential keywords, we will determine the relative popularity of these search terms to give us some idea of which search terms are used more often than others. The actual raw number of searches for a given search term doesn’t matter as much.
4) The Value Website Optimization. You can now figure out the search terms by which your site will be optimized. For each B2B solution, there will be one or two relevant search terms that rank highly, three to five more that place as seconds, and many others that also have good potential. You can include terms with lower search volume because in B2B , these may yield less search volume or not as much traffic, but more likely it will yield a more serious potential partner or investor. Website optimization is where most webmasters make their biggest mistakes such as universal tagging, repeating the company name, or NOT using key words in Meta, Alt and Description tagging. This requires a true and experienced SEO consultant for the best results.
5) Building Content to Accommodate Extra SearchTerms. B2B companies often have sparse website content, so they will need to find a home for all of their search terms. As always, each page of content should focus on a specific term. In other words, where else on your site can you create a credible landing page that is going to respond well to organic search for each of these terms?
6) Internal and External Link Building Strategy. Some of the pages might be directly accessible through your site's primary navigation, other pages may be in the sub-navigation, and others may only be accessible through text links in the body copy of pages. Always keep the landing pages for the most popular search terms closest to the home page. Never go more than three layers deep, or the engines won’t look there. Go for the least amount of clicks possible to get to the landing pages with the best key words. Landing pages related to less popular, more obscure terms (also known as longtail keywords) can reside deeper on the site.
7) Inter link Between Related Search Terms. If there are three landing pages for a given product page, a case study page, and a blog posting-make sure that the site visitor can easily get from the landing page to the other “related” pages.
8) Create Content and External Inbound Links. Articles, blog posts from external blogs, videos posted to YouTube or Google and the hundreds of other video sites, and bookmarks on Social Media websites must be created so there is activity generated TO your website from other places on the Internet. And this does NOT mean recripricol links, but just one way inbound links. This will help get your site ranked faster than anything. AND while we build these links, we can also add other versions of this same content with your keywords to pages of your website, so the search engines have a better chance of finding your B2B company among all of your competitors.
In summary, the faster you accomplish all of the above steps, and do them right, while continuing to build content and links, the better your ranking will be in the search engines. MarCom shoots for all of our clients to become ranked on ALL of their keywords, and then STAY in the first page of Google, Yahoo and other search engines. As things change, MarCom New Media will make sure we continue to stay up on all the latest SEO trends.
Following are just a few of the steps that MarCom takes as SEO consultants to ensure that our B2B client websites are organized into the most logical, user-friendly architecture that responds to organic searches (e.g. comes up on the first page of Google).
1) Benefits of SEO Sooner- Not Later. Today, with so many companies and individuals swarming the Internet and putting up websites, blogs, and posting to social media sites, the search engines are running out of bandwidth for indexing websites fast and efficiently. What used to take a company just two to three months to be ranked by Google and other search engines for keywords that people are using, may now take eight months or longer. The longer you wait to do the proper SEO for your B2B site, the longer it will take to become ranked. The proof is that we can take a look at your competitors today, and in 3 or 6 months, we'll tell you how ahead or behind your SEO is while they become better and better ranked each month.
2) Keyword Analysis. No matter whether you’re are a B2C or B2B company, the first step is still a keyword analysis. BUT the differences are that a B2B company should not make keyword judgments, but rather create the gross list that is as inclusive as possible of the potential terms their actual prospects might use – and this would include vertical markets, potential strategic partners, the government in some cases, and even shareholders. As SEO experts, we then focus on generic keywords based on what these potential customers call things. You also need to think about whether or not searches will be about a problem they’re experiencing, or the type of company potentially offering solutions? And often times geography may play a role in what people are searching for.
3) Determine Relative Popularity of B2B Keywords. Once you’ve created the gross list of potential keywords, we will determine the relative popularity of these search terms to give us some idea of which search terms are used more often than others. The actual raw number of searches for a given search term doesn’t matter as much.
4) The Value Website Optimization. You can now figure out the search terms by which your site will be optimized. For each B2B solution, there will be one or two relevant search terms that rank highly, three to five more that place as seconds, and many others that also have good potential. You can include terms with lower search volume because in B2B , these may yield less search volume or not as much traffic, but more likely it will yield a more serious potential partner or investor. Website optimization is where most webmasters make their biggest mistakes such as universal tagging, repeating the company name, or NOT using key words in Meta, Alt and Description tagging. This requires a true and experienced SEO consultant for the best results.
5) Building Content to Accommodate Extra SearchTerms. B2B companies often have sparse website content, so they will need to find a home for all of their search terms. As always, each page of content should focus on a specific term. In other words, where else on your site can you create a credible landing page that is going to respond well to organic search for each of these terms?
6) Internal and External Link Building Strategy. Some of the pages might be directly accessible through your site's primary navigation, other pages may be in the sub-navigation, and others may only be accessible through text links in the body copy of pages. Always keep the landing pages for the most popular search terms closest to the home page. Never go more than three layers deep, or the engines won’t look there. Go for the least amount of clicks possible to get to the landing pages with the best key words. Landing pages related to less popular, more obscure terms (also known as longtail keywords) can reside deeper on the site.
7) Inter link Between Related Search Terms. If there are three landing pages for a given product page, a case study page, and a blog posting-make sure that the site visitor can easily get from the landing page to the other “related” pages.
8) Create Content and External Inbound Links. Articles, blog posts from external blogs, videos posted to YouTube or Google and the hundreds of other video sites, and bookmarks on Social Media websites must be created so there is activity generated TO your website from other places on the Internet. And this does NOT mean recripricol links, but just one way inbound links. This will help get your site ranked faster than anything. AND while we build these links, we can also add other versions of this same content with your keywords to pages of your website, so the search engines have a better chance of finding your B2B company among all of your competitors.
In summary, the faster you accomplish all of the above steps, and do them right, while continuing to build content and links, the better your ranking will be in the search engines. MarCom shoots for all of our clients to become ranked on ALL of their keywords, and then STAY in the first page of Google, Yahoo and other search engines. As things change, MarCom New Media will make sure we continue to stay up on all the latest SEO trends.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Why SEO firms Know Corporate Blogs are a Good Idea
Corporate blogs have finally caught on in the business world as part
of a company's overall
marketing strategy. Research from May 17,
2008 says that 58 (11.6%) of the Fortune 500 are blogging. However we have noticed that some companies are still "afraid" of using this tactic. We hope this will help clear up any confusion. Why? Because blogs are a great way to keep the conversation going with current and perspective customers, and can often answer questions that people are asking. And blogs are a great Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tool that when used properly, can help get your company ranked in the top pages of search engines like Google or Yahoo.
Yes it is really important to maintain a blog strategy and carefully monitor ANY correspondence on the Internet, as we know because we also do reputation management for clients who may have said the wrong thing online or in a blog. BTW forum posts or responses to other blog posts are not always the best thing for an executive or an officer of a company to do online. We even have one client with a negative mention because of a book he is "badmouthed" in on businessweek.com. So we have a corporate blog that I ghostwrite on his behalf, talking about his charity work and trends in education. His personal website is getting great positioning within the top two listings in Google, and slowly but surely that negative listing is being bumped down to page 2 of the search engines.
But it is time for companies to pay attention when the Wall Street Journal writes about corporate blogs after a new study in June 2008 by Forrester Research. After they reviewed 90 blogs run by business-to-business companies in the Fortune 500, as well as close to 200 B2B marketers, word has it that most B2B blogs are “dull, drab, and don’t stimulate discussion.” Seventy percent focused on business topics, 74 percent do not get many comments, and 56 percent are full of old company news. Forrester does not suggest giving up on corporate blogging, but rather suggests companies spice the blogs up, post regularly, stick to it and give their blog posts some personality. Businesses need to offer visitors something like tips, insight, tidbits on how a product was designed, or something funny. The company says Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s blog is a great B2B blog example.
We have been doing corporate blogs as part of our SEO work for companies for a long time. We can train or ghostwrite blogs. They are a fantastic way to provide link backs to our client's websites. In fact, outside of affiliate websites, and optimized press releases, the blog is the next best tactic for online optimization.
It is always best to have your blog on your own website, because the weekly blogging activity creates a stir that the search engines notice. In fact MarCom has been experimenting with one new blogging program lately, and we are about to put up our own internal blog on our website, as opposed to only using Blogger.com. We'll use both. If your have your own blog on your website you would do internal linking to other pages on your website.
We have been ghostwriting a corporate blog for one client called the Entertainment Career Connection, a company that has recording, film, and radio schools for people who want to learn how to be a recording engineer, directors and producers, or DJS or sports announcers.
There are a number of types of blogs including CEO or executive blogs, employee and group blogs, advice or advocacy blogs, educational blogs, and of course, purely promotional blogs. Two to three posts per week are recommended in the beginning. Tagging and linking of the blog are also important tactics. TIP: Even photos posted to your blog can be named using your keywords.
If your company chooses to do an executive or a group blog, there's no doubt you are opening up to potential issues, so you will need to create and or extend your corporate policies. You will also want a blog moderator, who can go in and "clean up" a posting. Also it is important to give company bloggers a list of the key words and phrases so they can use at least three of the words in their blog posts, which will improve organic search results.
Here are some of the daily challenges of having a blog. Most blogs don’t receive tons of traffic, especially at first - as you can see if you go to http://www.technorati.com/, where you will note what blogs have made it to the top of the list via what is known as "authority." Some have no authority, some like ours have an azuthority of 4, qand others more than 300.
Blogs require time, making it important to consider the cost per hour of any employee - from managers to executives - posting on the corporate blog.
Another concern includes the challenge of CEO blogs in a public company, which require someone to manage. We often recommend adding a safe-harbor provision, which is a boilerplate statement that could prevent lawsuits. CEO bloggers need to be very careful in what they say, and they may not be able to offer strong opinions.
Marketers also need to remember that blogs can be PART of a corporate marketing campaign, but it is not a campaign in of itself, so there is no ending date. It is also important to remember that employees don’t always know how to represent a company or brand properly. Last, it can be difficult to measure specific successes. Although marketers can measure campaign successes by drops in website visits and registrations, and we measure the optimization successes via monthly reports that show increased ranking in the search engines.
At MarCom, our goal as Los Angeles SEO consultants, is to provide our clients with a strategy, then work hard to accomplish our goals mutually. The Internet is constantly changing, so tactics like a corporate blog will always require monitoring and deployment of new better practices for optimum SEO results.
of a company's overall
marketing strategy. Research from May 17,2008 says that 58 (11.6%) of the Fortune 500 are blogging. However we have noticed that some companies are still "afraid" of using this tactic. We hope this will help clear up any confusion. Why? Because blogs are a great way to keep the conversation going with current and perspective customers, and can often answer questions that people are asking. And blogs are a great Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tool that when used properly, can help get your company ranked in the top pages of search engines like Google or Yahoo.
Yes it is really important to maintain a blog strategy and carefully monitor ANY correspondence on the Internet, as we know because we also do reputation management for clients who may have said the wrong thing online or in a blog. BTW forum posts or responses to other blog posts are not always the best thing for an executive or an officer of a company to do online. We even have one client with a negative mention because of a book he is "badmouthed" in on businessweek.com. So we have a corporate blog that I ghostwrite on his behalf, talking about his charity work and trends in education. His personal website is getting great positioning within the top two listings in Google, and slowly but surely that negative listing is being bumped down to page 2 of the search engines.
But it is time for companies to pay attention when the Wall Street Journal writes about corporate blogs after a new study in June 2008 by Forrester Research. After they reviewed 90 blogs run by business-to-business companies in the Fortune 500, as well as close to 200 B2B marketers, word has it that most B2B blogs are “dull, drab, and don’t stimulate discussion.” Seventy percent focused on business topics, 74 percent do not get many comments, and 56 percent are full of old company news. Forrester does not suggest giving up on corporate blogging, but rather suggests companies spice the blogs up, post regularly, stick to it and give their blog posts some personality. Businesses need to offer visitors something like tips, insight, tidbits on how a product was designed, or something funny. The company says Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s blog is a great B2B blog example.
We have been doing corporate blogs as part of our SEO work for companies for a long time. We can train or ghostwrite blogs. They are a fantastic way to provide link backs to our client's websites. In fact, outside of affiliate websites, and optimized press releases, the blog is the next best tactic for online optimization.
It is always best to have your blog on your own website, because the weekly blogging activity creates a stir that the search engines notice. In fact MarCom has been experimenting with one new blogging program lately, and we are about to put up our own internal blog on our website, as opposed to only using Blogger.com. We'll use both. If your have your own blog on your website you would do internal linking to other pages on your website.
We have been ghostwriting a corporate blog for one client called the Entertainment Career Connection, a company that has recording, film, and radio schools for people who want to learn how to be a recording engineer, directors and producers, or DJS or sports announcers.
There are a number of types of blogs including CEO or executive blogs, employee and group blogs, advice or advocacy blogs, educational blogs, and of course, purely promotional blogs. Two to three posts per week are recommended in the beginning. Tagging and linking of the blog are also important tactics. TIP: Even photos posted to your blog can be named using your keywords.
If your company chooses to do an executive or a group blog, there's no doubt you are opening up to potential issues, so you will need to create and or extend your corporate policies. You will also want a blog moderator, who can go in and "clean up" a posting. Also it is important to give company bloggers a list of the key words and phrases so they can use at least three of the words in their blog posts, which will improve organic search results.
Here are some of the daily challenges of having a blog. Most blogs don’t receive tons of traffic, especially at first - as you can see if you go to http://www.technorati.com/, where you will note what blogs have made it to the top of the list via what is known as "authority." Some have no authority, some like ours have an azuthority of 4, qand others more than 300.
Blogs require time, making it important to consider the cost per hour of any employee - from managers to executives - posting on the corporate blog.
Another concern includes the challenge of CEO blogs in a public company, which require someone to manage. We often recommend adding a safe-harbor provision, which is a boilerplate statement that could prevent lawsuits. CEO bloggers need to be very careful in what they say, and they may not be able to offer strong opinions.
Marketers also need to remember that blogs can be PART of a corporate marketing campaign, but it is not a campaign in of itself, so there is no ending date. It is also important to remember that employees don’t always know how to represent a company or brand properly. Last, it can be difficult to measure specific successes. Although marketers can measure campaign successes by drops in website visits and registrations, and we measure the optimization successes via monthly reports that show increased ranking in the search engines.
At MarCom, our goal as Los Angeles SEO consultants, is to provide our clients with a strategy, then work hard to accomplish our goals mutually. The Internet is constantly changing, so tactics like a corporate blog will always require monitoring and deployment of new better practices for optimum SEO results.
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