Archives for July 2010

Currently I am preparing to publish a series of posts that teach marketers how to develop a Keyword Strategy. A Keyword Strategy is crucial if you want to drive quality traffic to your website.

Before that however, I will first publish some posts on basis SEO knowledge. Today: the importance of ‘incoming links’ aka ‘backlinks’ to your websites findability.

Links to your website is a major factor in getting great organic search engine results.

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As a marketer, you or your department, will sometimes be dealing with nastly little executional issues related to publishing content on the web.

In my blog post last week I discussed adjusting the code from SlideShare presentations, so they look cleaner when you embed them.

Another problem you might encounter is the size of the object not fitting your blog. For instance a YouTube video might be too wide for your blog. This way the video will overlaps the column next to your content area.

The same could happen to a SlideShare presentation or to any content (video, image) you are embedding in your blog or social media newsroom.

Here’s how you solve it:

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SEO Roadworks signNext week I will start publishing a series of posts on SEO. About what you need to know as a marketer. Followed by a series that helps you develop a Keyword Strategy.

But as a marketer you might be wondering what SEO has to do with you.

Isn’t SEO done by the IT department?

Well, yes and no. Yes, because your website needs to be technically optimised for search engines. That means ensuring your website is in compliance with the protocols and guidelines as set by World Wide Web Consortium (w3c).

But there’s more to optimising your website than just technical protocol.

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A good part of my work involves helping my clients publish content, such as presentations, pdfs, videos, and so on, in social media channels.

In the process I often encounter messy tactical issues that need solving. To help you become a better marketer on the social web, I’ve made it a habit to share the solutions with you.

Here’s one:

I was embedding a SlideShare presentation into an article on a social media newsroom. As a default, SlideShare includes additional information – such as title and author – in the embedding code. Makes my newsroom look messy and ugly. Me no like.

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Recently my business partner Steve wrote a post about Zappos generating more than 1 billion USD in sales over 2009 with more than 75% being repeat business. They sell shoes and clothing online. But as he points out, they actually sell customer service. It truly is at the heart of their business model.

When you see their amazing level of customer service, it automatically makes me think of all the times I haven’t been treated well as a customer.

A recent personal experience

I’ve been a loyal Vodafone customer for years. When I wanted the new Google Nexus phone, I called them. They told me they didn’t stock it and suggested I go somewhere else. That’s it. Nothing else. They didn’t ask me why I wanted the Nexus, suggest an alternative, point me in the right direction. See if they could help. They just told me to go elsewhere. That’s definitely not what I call good customer service.

I ended up getting my free Google Nexus One phone through an online vendor. But guess what? I still prolonged my subscription with Vodafone.

Why?

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Hello, and thanks for visiting my blog!

About 18 months ago my partner Steve Seager and I started our business, we do communications. We help businesses sell their ideas, products and services on the social web.

Selling stuff in traditional media is one thing. But to do this on the social web is another. It takes a radically different view on things. You need to get out of the mass marketing headset and start thinking targeted.

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You can spend a lot of time deciding which RSS reader to use. But Google Reader is still the bomb. Google Reader is fast, easy to install, easy to use and has everything you are looking for.

So let’s get going! These are the steps you need to go through, to set-up your Google RSS Reader:

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Normally you go out to your favourite news sites and blogs to see if there are any new articles out there. RSS flips that! It makes this content come to you.

How does it work?

All you need is a RSS Reader. This easy to use piece of software aggregates all these RSS feeds in one place.

It saves you valuable time and makes it easier to keep up to date with what’s happening in the blogosphere and on news sites.

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