Yesterday I had a wonderful conversation with highly successful PR guru, Todd Brabender of “Spread the News PR, Inc.” (website). Todd is a master at taking interesting or unusual products, services and companies and generating wild media buzz. Todd himself has been featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal (article here).

Todd and I hit it off and I think we might be on to something here. Todd generates massive buzz – which translated is “interest” – in a company or what it offers. That buzz results in curiosity that leads to a Google search and/or a visit to the website.

It’s kind of like those giant spotlights that are blasted into the sky when a store has a grand opening. We’ve all seen those and wondered where they originated – and if we were missing out on something really good by not investigating. That’s what Todd does. He gets the wildest, brightest, coolest spotlight to shine in the sky for a business.

But what happens if you do make the drive and find the origination of the spotlight and there is nothing special going on – no reason to stop and get out? While the spotlight was wildly successful, much of the opportunity has been lost.

Most businesses with a spotlight will have a lot of activity at the point of origination: plenty of parking, balloons, coupons, live music, etc. It causes the curious driver-by to say, “Hmmm, let’s stop and see what else is going on!”

This is where our expertise comes in. If Todd specializes in putting the perfect spotlight into the air, we specialize in getting people to stop their cars and get out.

If you are looking at doing a PR campaign, be sure you don’t waste your opportunity! When “the buzz” starts to happen, be sure that you have everything in place to capture those qualified leads, and then nurture them into customers!

We have been watching the news coming out of London these past few days with heavy hearts. Many people have been affected in such a dramatic way by the riots, looting and all-out rampage that has been taking place.

And while I am certainly no expert on the causes and triggers of these riots, it does appear that they are simply violence for the sake of violence.

However, I have noticed something incredibly interesting about these riots – something that has caused them to be vastly different from anything London has ever experienced before (although it is not stranger to rioting). 

Social Media has played a tremendous part in the success of the rioters.  Steve Kavanaugh, the deptuy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said that “inflammatory” and “inaccurate” messages on various social media platforms have helped fuel the riots.  But on the positive side, these same platforms have been a huge help in coordinating help and clean-up.

Let’s take a look at how some of the major social media players have had such a huge impact this week:

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Twitter:

Twitter set itself up during the recent Egyptian uprising as the “medium of revolution.”  According to the BBC, a “number of politicians, media commentators and members of the police force have suggested that Twitter …. had a role to play (in the riots).”  Would-be rioters have spent the past several nights following in real-time tweets the exact whereabouts of the police, as well as other rioters.  It has enabled them to stay ahead of the police – and to meet in places where the police were absent.

But in start contrast, Twitter has now been extremely useful in aiding victims of the riots.  Such hashtags as #LondonRiots and #riotcleanup have allowed people to easily be involved in the clean-up and restoration efforts now underway.

Facebook

There are currently two primary Facebook pages out there that have been created in support of Metropolitan police.  Supporting the Met Police against the London rioters currently has over 932,000 likes (and that number is rising by the minute).  According to the information page, it is “For those that support the Met police against these petty thieves and vandals costing us tax payers even more with their mindless vandalism and theft.”

Post Riot Cleanup: Let’s help London currently has over 19,000 likes and is primarily used for possible clean-up meet-ups.

Flickr and Google Groups

London rioters might want to beware – these sites have been set up as a sort of “modern policing”.  The Metropolitan police have set up a Flickr account with the aim of investigating the riots through identifying and naming suspects.

And a Google group called London Riots Facial Recognition was created with the aim of using facial recognition technologies to identify the looters who appear in online photos.

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All-in-all, I believe that we have seen a vast shift in the way our world reacts to events such as riots.  Add to these tools the almost real-time constant reporting of riots, and our world is certainly a small, highly-informed planet.

There is no single topic dominating the business discussion these days more than social media and online marketing. If your life depended on finding one business magazine at the newsstand that did not have at least one cover story on the topic, we’d probably be wishing you farewell.

With all of the hype and all of the attention, why is it that real-world success stories are so rare, and the businesses whose stories are portrayed in those magazines seem to have simply been lucky?

The answer is simple, while the implementation is a bit more complex.

The Reality: Dispersion

If a business is an automobile and sales & marketing is the engine, most businesses set out to assemble their car by laying out the various systems on the ground and trying to get them operational by themselves.  They try to get the engine running without a timing belt, or have the alternator charge the battery without a belt connecting it to the engine, or have the fan and radiator separated, so that the necessary cooling cannot take place. The most mechanically challenged among us knows that such a car is not going to go anywhere. Why? Because everything that goes under the hood must operate in an integrated and cohesive manner – working as one organism.

The Answer: Integration & Cohesion

Online marketing is usually constructed like the engine described above. One department works on engaging customers on Facebook. Another compiles offers to send via email each week.  While yet another updates the website with current content. Then management is frustrated when the “car” doesn’t seem to have any forward motion.

The answer is in conducting all of your marketing efforts as a single process: streamlined, executed, measured, adjusted, repeated.  Your website is populated by a growing body of good content on a daily basis, you are building compelling offers that connect you with your prospects, and your social media efforts constantly point prospects to both that content and those offers.  You are measuring every aspect of the process and adjusting course as you proceed.  You will suddenly find you have an engine assembled and propelling your business vehicle forward.

Over the past couple of blog posts, I have looked at some of the great benefits of blogging. Part 1 dealt with the SEO benefits of blogging, and Part 2 outlined the ability to connect with buyer personas.

These are both great reasons to be blogging, but in business, it all comes down to the sale. In other words, how does blogging convert to actual sales?

While blogging itself generates traffic to your site (companies that blog typically show 55% more visitors to their site than those that don’t), you must have a way to capture the information of those who are willing to take that next step with you.

White papers, webinars and videos are great places to begin in moving a potential customer through the sales funnel. And these are easier than you might think. Take one of your blog posts, or an idea or product that is unique to your company (we all have things that set our company apart from the competition) and flesh it out a bit. It doesn’t have to be long, just helpful enough to show potential clients that you stand out.

Simply add an area to each blog post that allows you to collect contact information of interested parties as they request information from your company. This simple tool has been found to be extremely effective at helping move prospects through long sales cycles.

Those companies that blog easily generate more leads than those that don’t. Statistics have shown these numbers to be impressive: 80% more leads with B2B companies, 67% more leads with B2C companies!

Blogging does take time and effort, but you would be hard-pressed to find something as effective for today’s competitive business!

Last week I began a series of posts about why blogging is important to your business.  (Read here for the first post in this series)  I suppose the very fact that you are reading this could be considered one good reason for blogging.  It is one of the most effective uses of the internet to inform others about your company, product or idea.

Today I want to continue to unpack this idea of blogging with a couple of statistics that are very eye-opening:

• More than half of all internet users read blogs at least monthly

• Sixty percent of business decision makers say that company content helps them make better product decisions

If I promised you the ability to directly reach out to those who were both in the position to make decisions for their company, and the ones who were in need of your services, my guess is that most of you would be asking “Where do I sign up?”

Let’s begin here: Do you know who your “target market” is?  Have you created what David Meerman Scott calls  “buyer personas?”  Buyer Personas are created when you break your buyers into distinct groups and then catalog everything you  know about each one.  The purpose of this activity is to then have the ability to create content (through your blog) that is specifically targeted to each important demographic.  Once you understand your audience, then you can set out to satisfy their information needs by focusing on their problems.  You can then create and deliver content (again, by blogging) accordingly.

Through blogging, you have the ability to regularly publish content that is relevant to potential buyer’s needs and interests.  Blogging can allow you to connect with them on an emotional level.  The buying decision will almost always tip to the business or person the buyer likes the most.  And once you have made an emotional connection with the buyer, and they feel they understand and trust you, the scales are already tipped well in your favor.

One last benefit that I want to touch on – as you blog, you are setting yourself and your company up as both a thought leader and an industry expert.  This will increase the likelihood that prospects and customers will turn to you for solutions.

Blogging – a simple concept with huge returns!

If you need help beginning a blogging campaign, please contact us at Stone Creek Consulting.  We would love to help you!

So, if you are trying to get your site to rank higher in search results, what kinds of things can you do? There is a lot of false or poor information regarding tactics that work. I want to add my voice to the many SEO technicians who are trying to correct a common misconception regarding META Keywords.

1. What are META Keywords?
In the hidden code behind every web page are special tags. Some are used by the browser to render various items, such as the “title” tag, and others are used to pass information to search engines. One of these tags is the META keywords tag, which looks like this:
<meta name="keywords" content="SEO, OtherKeywords, Marketing" />

2. Keywords! Hey, that’s what Google/search ranking is about!
Well, yes, but not these. When we talk about “keywords”, we are usually referring to the terms people type into a search box when looking for something. We typically optimize our web pages by including these terms in the content. But including them in the META keywords tag does not help your SEO efforts.

3. By who’s authority do you make such a claim!?
Well, actually Google itself (and Yahoo…and Bing). Google stated years ago that they no longer use this tag for ranking a web page because it had such potential for abuse and skewing accurate ranking of pages.

4. Does this tag serve any other useful purpose?
Not really. Other than the early days of search engines, the keyword META tag has had no other use. Some advocate using it simply because it takes so little time to add to your page and maybe some search engine somewhere might use it. The reality is that if Google and the other prominent search engines are not using it, there is no reason to take the time to insert it into your code.

5. So should I scrap META tags altogether?
No. Explaining each tag is beyond the scope of this post, so be sure you research the purposes of the other tags. Some are used by the browser, some are used by search engines for other purposes. Just don’t waste your time with the keyword META tag.

6. Supporting Documentation
For further reading, I suggest two posts: one from Google itself, and the other from another company that keeps up with search engine trends.

Google – Keyword META Tag Not Used in Ranking

Yost – META Keywords – Why I Don’t Use Them

What can you accomplish in 30 days?  Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, offers a few thoughts on trying anything for 30 days.  Watch this three minute video, and then I’ll give you a few ideas of how to kick your online marketing up a few notches with noticeable results after 30 days.

So what can you do for 30 days that will make a difference?  Any one of these ideas will make a noticeable difference to your business:

1. Blog every (business) day for 30 Days.  If you have a blog, but only post occasionally, boosting the amount of blog posts (especially when the title and content contain keywords related to your business) is like yelling “bomb” in the Google airport (but in a good way!) – they are going to notice and boost your site ranking.  If you don’t have a blog, it is super easy to set up one up at WordPress.com or using Google Blogs.

2. Add a new person to your LinkedIn network each day for 30 days.  LinkedIn is a business resource that cannot be over-emphasized.  But don’t stop at adding new contacts.  Once they accept, contact them!  Send them a message thanking them and suggesting coffee (if they are local) or a 10 minute phone call to “catch up” or get familiar with each other’s business.

3. Post an update or offer to Facebook & Twitter every day for 30 Days.  These days, you never know where your prospect is most likely to find you.  Some are already interested in your business and just need that extra enticement to take the next step.  Facebook & Twitter are great places to get word out about a special offer or new product.

There are any number of things you could do for 30 days just to “give it a try.” You might find the uptick in business is so good that you’ll go for another 335 days!

We often have clients  who want to know why blogging is so important to today’s businesses.  It’s a good question – and one that has several very important answers for anyone who is trying to grow their business.  I am going to spend the next several blog posts looking at different reasons why this crazy world of blogging is quite possibly the lifeline your business is looking for.

Get Found!  Better Ranking in Search Engines!

We’ve all see these kinds of ads.  They promise to boost your ranking in the search engines – some even going so far as to promise a “top of page one” boast.  But, as is always the case, if something looks too good to be true, it usually is.  However, with some concentrated work and a little effort at consistent blogging, you CAN move up in search engines.  Let me throw out a few interesting statistics for you:

• More than 90% of purchasing decisions begin online
• There are 34,000 searches on Google per second
• 75% of those searching never scroll past the first page
• Traditional search engine optimization (including on-page SEO tactics such as meta tags, descriptions and keywords) account for only 25% of how Google ranks a site

We have seen over the course of the past several months how all of the things we used to do for our SEO clients have less and less impact.  But the one thing that consistently rewards our efforts is blogging.

Thru blogging, as you create new content on a regular basis, search engines take note and your site begins to rise in rank.  Additionally, if you are using the quality keywords that potential clients are looking for, they are finding you now and, most importantly, staying at your site.  This is doubly-good news – search engines (Google in particular) tracks how long a visitor is at your site (the longer, the better for you).  Plus, you are educating a potential client, turning them into a very valuable qualified lead.  Remember, they came looking for you!  When was the last time THAT happened!

When you are consistently blogging, you are consistently adding to your site, thus making you easier to find by the very people you want to find you.  The more optimized content you have on your site, the better likelihood you have for search engine success.

No one would argue that your high ranking in search engines is a valuable tool.  Blogging goes a long distance in aiding that ranking.  Stay tuned in the next few days as I discuss other benefits of a consistent, relevant blog!

And in the meantime . . . get blogging!

Social marketing – it’s the water I swim in these days.  I spend my work week (plus many evening and weekend hours right now) thinking, developing and talking about how social marketing can change a business.

Sometimes it is easy to see the big picture of just how beneficial it can be to utilize the web (blogs, landing pages, calls to action, Facebook, etc) to bring in qualified leads right to your business “doorstep.”  But every once in awhile, we get bogged down with the specifics.  That first step can be hard to see – how, exactly, do I as a business owner let those around me know that I am putting out some great and helpful content through my blog, etc.  Sometimes, even we at Stone Creek Consulting hesitate on that first step for a moment.

My 15-year-old daughter taught me a valuable lesson this past weekend on getting over that hurdle.  And yes, it pains me some to realize that this is just the beginning of being taught by this next generation of kids who are growing up in a Web 2.0 world.  My daughter is musically inclined.  She lives, breathes and dreams music.  She is constantly writing – both words and music – and is very, very talented (and no, I don’t think so just because she is my daughter – she really is!).  She has decided to create her own fan page on Facebook as a place to showcase her new songs and get feedback from those around her.  Great plan . . . sounds suspiciously like social marketing!  But the question for her was, how do I go about getting “fans” to my page?

Before I knew it, she had gathered a following and is increasing it on a regular basis.  Her big secret to getting the word out?  She simply asked people to join her fan page. Pretty much without exception, everyone she has informed has become her fan (even a family friend that we ran into at a restaurant over the weekend that we don’t see that often!).

Sometimes the answers are so easy we overlook them.  Are you starting a blog?  What about creating a way for people on Facebook to keep informed?  All you have to do is ask – and ask every one you come in contact with.  From your current clients, to past clients, to those who know you in a business relationship, just ask.  Let them know they can follow you on Twitter.  Give them the link to follow your blog.  Spread the word far and wide that there is a reason for people to be looking at you.

You’ll be surprised at how many people say yes.  And before you know it, like my surprisingly savvy 15-year-old, you’ll have a following that wants to know what you are up to and what you know.  It’s that easy!

I recently answered a question in a LinkedIn group regarding the appropriateness of mixing religion and business.  Of course, such a topic elicits strong emotions on both sides of the debate, but I think the answer is fairly simple.

In my opinion the answer is rooted in sincerity and authenticity.  We’re all turned off by religion put on for show or to elevate the one who is religious.  We are equally turned off by the person who puts on their religious hat when talking to a prospect they find out is religious.  Religion for the purpose of making a sale has a certain stench to it.

On the other hand, most of us know someone who is passionate about the impact their beliefs have had on their own life.  Someone who has a desire to do everything in a way that honors God and to treat others with kindness and respect are typically a joy to be around.  The difference is that their beliefs are inseparable from the person and thus are exhibited as a natural outflow of that person’s interaction with others.  Few people are offended by such a genuine, authentic person.

When someone is at the helm of an organization, their desire to USE religion will be amplified and so will the repulsive nature of their hypocrisy.  On the contrary, someone who is genuine and authentic will also find their beliefs influencing the mission and objectives of a company, but often with a positive impact that is well received.