Don't rely on social media

I spoke at the ConnectNow conference in Sydney yesterday & got myself into trouble again oops. I probably shouldn't have told an audience of social media gurus that social media is not the answer to all your marketing needs. A lot of social media experts have been prematurely announcing the death of SEO They claim that they get better results asking their network for answers than Google Here's a few things I won't ask my social network for advice on. A gift for my wife - Roberta would know pretty quickly what I was planning. Social is public. If I developed a nasty rash, I'm going to google it first before I let the world know about my inconvenient itch. Legal advice, financial structures, dumb technical questions that I really should know the answer to. Basically anything that I want to keep private. Anyway it didn't go down too well! What do you think? Also the book 'American Psycho is banned online for Aussies to access. I access it.

 

Social Media & SEO.

I've discussed our approach to social media marketing & why we think it so important. In response to a tweet by Chris Brogan I also illustrated why I felt SEO was more important than ever and how SEO & Social Media work together.

Has anyone ever said to you, "I think I just googled..." or "Just do a search for..." ? They say it to me all the time. Maybe that's just a reflection of the company I keep.

How good is your memory? Can you remember this URL? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY It's the Susan Boyle video. Why should I walk back to my desk and copy and paste & send you that link when you can just Google her name? Or how about "Saw a funny video on Youtube the other night, I think I was searching for...." ? Whilst I spend far too much time online I often say those things to people in the real world. I talk to people I meet all the time, (most of them don't appreciate it). There was a bloke at Sydney Airport last night who I overheard say to a mate "Nah can't download music on my Mac there not much software around for them being a Mac" . I just told him to Google Cabos or opensource mac. There's a heap of stuff.

That is why SEO is more important than ever. We are connecting more, we're sharing more & search is the gateway to new discoveries.

The more you are involved in Social Media the more opportunities you have of others connecting with you via the replacement of the Yellow Pages. The Search Engine.

SEO is important

Chris Brogan posed the question a few moments ago on Twitter "Is SEO *AS* important". I completely understand the not so subtle emphasis on "as". The implication Chris is making here, is that it's probably still important but not as much as it used to be. With the rise of social media (whatever that is defined as this week) I have had conversations like this before with clients. I would argue that it is now more important than ever.

Trust agents, trusted networks etc are of course monumentally important but if one of my mates starts asking me questions and wants recommendations about a product or service BEFORE they've done their own homework, I'll explain I am not their Google bitch. Google it yourself first, get some information, then if you still want my opinion, let's talk. Search engines drive the bulk of traffic on the web. Consider Google Social Search. If you are not keyword optimising your social media presence you are not going to turn up when I search my network for a particular phrase.

SEO is about discovery. If I can't find what I want in Google I'll then go to my social networks, as I did earlier in the year when I vlogged Twitter is bigger than Google

Have a look at these numbers from Google on the amount of searches for the phrase "Social Media"

 

More people than ever are searching for that phrase. If you are selling Social Media services of course you want word of mouth recommendations but what about those people looking for a solution, right now that you can provide.
Think of SEO as having the best shelf space in the supermarket. Who doesn't like discovering something new & sharing (or in my case bragging about) that discovery with their friends? It's human nature.

Here's the kicker though. We can accurately measure the return on investment of SEO activities. How do I do that with Social Media? We can tell you what a word is worth in $ terms to your business. Once you have setup SEO publishing KPIs for your online properties, the search engines will continue to send you new visitors OUTSIDE your current social circles. This is incredibly important as detailed in the doco "How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer". The most important & valuable connections are the ones on the fringe of your networks. As they will help you connect to other networks you would not have otherwise been exposed to. The old "you tell 10 people and they tell 10 people, then they tell 10 people" promotion technique doesn't work. The reason being is that there is a lot of cross over in those networks. Basically the same people get told the same message a number of times.

SEO is one way to open up your message to people who otherwise didn't know you existed AND if you have  good social media strategy in place perhaps you will become one of their trust agents that they introduce to their networks.

What do you think? Can social media become insular? How do you measure the return to your business on social media activities?

Social Media Marketing

Is Social Media the new black? That's what I heard Cam our Social Media Administrator say the other day. For me social media marketing is a lot like web site building back in the mid 90's. I used to sell web sites back then and people would ask me "well how is this going to make me money?" back then we had no idea but we knew websites were a necessity for business. That's all changed now with SEO & online marketing more generally.  I feel Social Media Marketing is at the same point. Most of us in the industry are convinced of the benefits to business & whilst there are plenty of case studies that demonstrate individual success stories for business the strategies certainly haven't matured as much as website marketing strategies have. It's partly because social media is primarily about relationships. Not necessarily between you and your customer or you & your community but between your customer and their social circle.

Depending on your buyer personas the social media outlet that you should participate will vary greatly. If you are in B2B you probably won't get as much benefit from a Facebook presence as you would from say a LinkedIn presence but that could change too.

For me I love twitter for business and also Youtube for social media video marketing. Both of these are classed as social media outlets (even though we had Youtube before we had social media :-) )

Social Media - Networking

If you operate in the B2B space a helpful way to think of social media marketing is to treat it as business networking. At a business networking event it's not a good idea to go there to try and find buyers. You go there to expose your brand to others and maybe you can pass on details of people you meet at an event to your social circle. I quite often say to business associates, "Have a word to -insert contact- they'll be able to help you." By me recommending others I meet at business networking events they recommend me to their circles. Social Media marketing is very similar. By adding value to the networks you participate in, it increases your brand value in those circles.

Social Media Sponsor

If you are unsure how to get involved with social media why not sponsor an event. Don't try to control it, just try to help a community like a local tweetup group in your area. Buy the drinks and the nibblies. Don't insist on speaking your piece at the event so you can get your key corporate message out. Explain to people that your learning about social media and one way is be a Social Media facilitator.

Social Media Facilitator

You can extend this idea into online events too. Maybe pay for a community website to be developed. The only way you will get yourself into trouble on social media is when you try to manipulate. You need to "paint it red" . Basically be honest. The reason I'm writing about this is because I want people to find us when they search for social media help

Social Media help

If you are a business that needs help with social media marketing then we can help. As we have over 10 years exp in Internet Video as well as 6 years in search marketing our focus with social media activities is always on the goals. You can spend a lot on social media and not see a return especially if you don't know what the return should be.

IN case you are unconvinced of Social Media's influence, watch this video.


are convinced

Google Social Search

Google launched Social Media Search yesterday which incorporates results from your social media circles. I take it for a test drive.

A Melbourne bloke in digital strategy for the Ad industry talks smack about SEOs on Twitter. I give a little pushback :)

On SEO Helpdesk this week I take a look at @melvindbout 's site

Video in Social Media

I spoke last week at the Marketing Now! conference at the Sofitel in Melbourne. I'll gradually be uploading the video of the event here but you should also check out the Posterous page that was set up for the event.

Social Media Administrator Roles.

David Meerman Scott picked up on my Social Media Administrator post and I really loved his expansion on the idea and what he would see the job description including. David's highlighting of the need for Social Media Guidelines is of course imperative. I think the Social Media Admin might be the guidelines cop to some extent.

As we need someone to fill this role internally I have been mind mapping what I think the duties would include. I'm not as articulate as David. I need visual aids.

Social Media Administrator

Before computers became part of every day business we never had such roles as Systems Administrator or WebMaster. As the business benefits of the technology emerged though, it became good financial sense to have those roles in your organisation. We needed someone to be responsible for those areas of the business as they played such a crucial role in the growth of our business. Some businesses now out source these roles others employ them directly. Whether we have someone dedicated to their function or not, the duties of the roles exist. Usually someone in the organistion is performing them.

I've reached the point where I think we need a Social Media Administrator. Not someone to be the company mouthpiece (although that may be part of their function) but to be manage our social media activity. In our org they would liase with the dev team to get our presence more polished visually and research communities where we should be involved. Not to sell stuff but contribute to the discussion. Yes they would be under the umbrella of alll our social media marketing but their role would be primarily one of administration. If you haven't watched "How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer" I suggest you do if you are interested in Social Media. The doco is a about the science of networks and how they permeate every part of our universe even down to a molecular level. What that doco demonstrates to me is how important it is to connect with other networks (Marc Victor Hansens "One Minute Millionaire" illustrates this from a business perspective also).

The job of the Social Media Adminstrator would to not only update our various SM Outlets but also monitor trends and discussions. Unlike the Prosperity Principle idea of "seeding" blogs with commercial posts, the job of the SocAdmin would be to alert the relevant person in our company of a community they may want to contribute to. The key here is to contribute. Business flows when you give it away. This is my primary reason for giving free advice in the Vlog every week for the last 10 years.

I know @problogger is a genius at this stuff and others as well. Have you found a need for that role in your organisation? I spend so much time researching posts & tweets that it is starting to make sense to appoint one of the team as our SocAdmin. We are already doing it for some of our clients. Would you outsource this role or keep it in house? Or do you have a better way of handling the volume of social media work?