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SOCIAL MEDIA & SEARCH MARKETING: An Optimized Content Strategy

Social Media Content Strategy

So what is an Optimized Content Strategy?

An Optimized Content Strategy is the art of deliberately producing content, based on keyword phrases that are driving organic search traffic and conversions, that demonstrates an understanding of your target customer’s knowledge acquisition at various stages in their buying cycle. Then delivering that "optimized" content to them in a relevant and compelling way to grow your business by socializing the content through your organization’s social networks. In this context, content can consist of: website content, blogs, press releases, case studies, white papers, how-to guides, emails, news and events, videos – whatever it is your prospects and customers want to consume, in the format they will best be able to consume it, and on the various platforms on the web they may be receptive to consuming the content.

Search Rankings: Optimized Content Strategy

Here are a few reasons why producing and distributing fresh, relevant, optimized content must be part of your marketing strategy, if you want to rank in organic search and be relevant in the social networks.

1. Social Signals
December 2010: both Google and Bing announced that they factor social signals into their organic search algorithms. According to Google, social media and social networking are about relationships and relationships prove relevance and relevance is at the core of organic search. Social signals are the new back links. It is becoming apparent that social signals will continue to rise in importance as the lines between social media and search continue to thin.

Optimized Content Strategy Approach: Distribute your optimized content strategy to your social networks and give your website visitors and content consumers every opportunity to socialize your content including: tweets, re-tweets, Google +1’s, Facebook Likes and Shares, YouTube views and LinkedIn Shares. Of course, you need to build out your social networks too – not just more followers, but each platform offers different content formats and offers an opportunity to spin your message.

2. Google's Panda
March 2011: Google starts penalizing sites for manufactured back links.

Optimized Content Strategy Approach: For long-term success with your SEO and social media strategies build out your back links by producing and distributing relevant fresh content such as optimized press releases and blog posts. Optimize your content for the keywords you know your prospects are using to find you and that they are converting on. Point back links in the press release, blog post or case study to your website, or better yet, a conversion page. Then socialize the content through your social networks including: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

3. The Freshness Updates
November 2011: Google launched an algorithm change called the Freshness Update that gives priority to fresh, timely content such as press releases, blogs, news and events.

Optimized Content Strategy Approach: Give Google, and your customers, fresh, relevant, timely optimized content.

Conclusion

So while the fundamentals of organic SEO remain important – such as ensuring you have a strong technical website with keyword optimized pages, good site architecture, and building local search and industry-specific directories for back linking purposes – a real shift is taking place in the on-going approach to traditional SEO. That shift is the creation, publishing and distribution of an optimized content marketing strategy. This is only possible after the base is built - your website - but the conceptual aspects of a content strategy are actually the foundation for your entire Internet Marketing Strategy. And developing the conversations with customers is an ongoing process....

Posted: 3/2/2012 9:32:10 AM by Shepard Morrow



How to Develop Your Internet Marketing Department


As a business owner, you recognize that your company isn’t growing at the rate it could, and you know the internet is the key.

Maybe you’ve already seen inklings of the potential through running a PPC campaign or starting a company e-newsletter. Or perhaps you’ve just started dabbling in internet marketing by assigning certain tasks to existing employees – someone in sales writing a blog now and then, or a tech-savvy receptionist running your social networks. It’s also possible that you have barely dipped your toe in the water; maybe you just have a static website that hasn’t been updated in years.

Whatever the reason, you recognize the value of finding leads on the web and you’re ready to develop an internal internet marketing department, but you’re not sure where to start.

Internet Marketing StrategyOrganize your department around processes – not functional tasks. When initially designing the department, it can tempting to make a list of all the tasks that need to be completed and simply hire a person to fill each function: a web designer, a writer, a social media manager, a graphic designer, an SEO expert, and someone to manage them all.

For most companies, though, it makes more sense to outsource some of these capabilities, and instead hire talent internally to manage the processes and keep them running smoothly. Not only will you have lower overhead, you’ll see better results. These employees will be focusing on the ends (revenue generation) – not the means (designing a landing page).

Outsource your setup. When you’re first building the system, you’ll use different resources than after it’s up and running. For instance, it will take a lot more manpower to initially build your website than to update and maintain it later.

Many companies make the mistake of hiring a single internal web designer permanently, but this simply doesn’t make sense. If you hire a web design company, you’ll get your website up and running faster, likely have a better product in the end, and have less overhead. If it’s developed with a content management system, you’ll have no need for an internal web designer since knowledge of coding isn’t required to make an update. And if you do need a more complicated update in the future, you can simply hire the web design company on a contract basis again.

Below is a list of tasks that you should consider outsourcing, either entirely or partially.

  1. Content Development: Copy for web pages, blogs, e-newsletters, etc.
  2. Social Media: Socializing/distributing content that matches the conversations and keywords
  3. SEO-PPC: Link building, business listings, on-page optimization
  4. Site Development: Web design, graphic design, and programming
  5. Strategy Development: Including organizational training, analytical data review, and adjustments

Get guidance for infrastructure development. What tasks should be handled internally? What can be outsourced? Who are your customers, and how can you reach them on different channels? How can the overall sales process be improved to handle these new leads and convert more of them into sales?

These are the types of questions that I help my clients with as they first develop an internet marketing plan for their business. Like the example above about web design, creating the initial design and infrastructure requires a different set of skills than using dynamic data (analytics) to fine-tune the lead generation and conversion system possible with the internet.

It amazes me how often companies launch a new website, only to find that a good-looking design is not the only factor in getting leads. Hiring the right consultant can save thousands of dollars and lost time by getting it right the first time.

Once a proper web strategy is implemented, continual improvements are needed to adapt to the market and to company initiatives. Once a system is up and running, I meet with clients regularly to review the leads they’re getting (are they the right leads?) and how they are getting converted. I don’t just look at how the internet marketing department is functioning on its own, but also how it fits into the larger picture.

The potential with the web is unlimited. Many of my clients recognize that their internet marketing strategy is scalable, enabling them to grow into new fields, move into new territories, and continually leverage their brand for competitive advantage.

But it’s crucial to get the right strategy in place initially, develop an ongoing marketing effort to create the momentum for leads, and maintain constant vigilance about what customers are looking for and how best to meet their needs.
 

Posted: 3/25/2013 9:14:24 AM by Shepard Morrow