This human element of marketing is part of the SEO Success Pyramid, and can come in several forms: buzz/viral marketing, word-of-mouth, community development, and more. These aren’t found among the pyramid blocks, but they help you along as you work your way up the pyramid. They’re the gray arrows on each side pointing from bottom to top.

Community was the focus of Wendy Piersall’s excellent presentation last month at the Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference in Houston.

Wendy runs Sparkplugging.com, a super-successful blog network with a large community of readers; your situation may be different, but you still have a community of customers and need to take care of them. So, in the points below, I’ll add “customers” next to each mention of community to show how the ideas apply to any business.

WIIFM? (What’s In It For Me?)

One of the key points Wendy emphasized is the need to take good care of your community. With every decision you make, ask yourself what’s in it for your community (customers). Because that’s what they’re always asking: “What’s in it for me?” If your community (customers) wants something, give it to them.

Making happy customers is your primary goal; happy customers are the ones most likely to tell friends about your product or service. Strong word-of-mouth marketing always begins with happy customers.

Communicating with your Community (Customers)

Wendy emphasized the need to respect your community when communicating with them. She shared four things under the heading, Really Important Stuff:

• People want to connect with people. Be authentic, be personal to maintain relevance.
• Lay out the welcome mat. Create sections on your site for new members (customers), encourage stupid questions, make it OK to feel uncomfortable. “You’re only a stranger once.”
• Give members (customers) a voice. Community is a conversation, not a lecture. (I would say that marketing, when it’s great, is also a conversation.)
• Make your members (customers) Rock Stars. How? Reward their participation: give public recognition, create membership levels in a forum, showcase their talent, etc.

You may not be building a blog network, or creating the next great niche forum, but the concepts of community development apply to any business. And they’re an important part of the SEO Success Pyramid. A strong community of happy customers will push you up the pyramid more quickly, helping all aspects of your online marketing plan.

You can download Wendy’s “Building a Community” presentation on Sparkplugging.com.

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business SEM.

Community: The Human Element of SEO Success

Here are the details you need to know:

Date: May 20, 2008
Registration & Networking: 5:30 PM
Program: 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Location: Hotel DeLuxe (729 SW 15th Ave. Portland, OR 97205)
Food & beverages included. Yummm!

There are different prices for members and non-members, so check out the SEMpdx site for all the details. Come on out and say hello, would ya?

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business SEM.

I’m On the Hot Seat Next Week

Since Mother’s Day arrives in just a couple hours, and I’ll be spending the day with the best two moms in the world (my wife and my mom), here are a couple links both of my favorite moms would be proud of:

One of the things I came upon while trying to catch up is my latest SEL “Small Is Beautiful” column, an interview with Cathy Hillen-Rulloda. Cathy is a florist in Anaheim and very smart when it comes to local search and online marketing for small businesses. I’m not stretching imagination in that interview when I say she knows as much or more about local SEO than a lot of local SEOs.

And I also came upon a Q&A I did with David Mihm right before this vacation began. It was fun to do because we talked about a lot more than just the regular SEO and online marketing stuff.

Back to vay-kay I go…….

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business SEM.

Links To Make a Mom (and Wife) Proud

If you were to follow the link above the photo, and then scroll down just a tiny little bit, you’ll find this little content widget in the right column which — at the moment I’m typing this — is showing 16 photos from MY Flickr photostream. Yowza! Four photos appear at a time, and there’s a nice Ajaxy scrollbar that will show the rest of the photos when you click the arrows. It looks like this:

What’s the Point?

This opens up yet another door for any local business with a photographic/visual element to acquire eyeballs. Keep in mind that Yahoo News is the No. 1 news site online (wish I could find a link for that), so this is not an opportunity to ignore. I’ve written before about how to market on Flickr, so that’s a good place to get started if you’re not on Flickr yet.

Optimizing Flickr Photos for Yahoo Local News

From what I can tell, this is really simple. It doesn’t matter what title or description you give your local photos. Links don’t matter. Comments, favorites … who cares?!

There’s only one thing you need to do to have a shot at showing up in this Yahoo Local News widget: Geotag your photos via the Organizr tool on Flickr. All 16 of my photos appearing on the Yahoo Local News page above are geotagged to a specific location.

But, are there any traffic benefits?, you ask. Well, I only heard about this because my photographer friend, Phil, noticed some of his Flickr photos were getting increased traffic from the Pittsburgh, PA, page on Yahoo Local News.

Since it only takes about 3 minutes to geotag Flickr photos, and you can do it in batches, why not spend the time and see if you can get some photos into Yahoo Local News?

(This post was written last week and scheduled for posting today.)

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business SEM.

How to Put Your Flickr Photos into Yahoo News

It’s true: Due to a reorganization at Marchex, my position was eliminated. Yesterday was my last day. It was a great 18 months, and I was fortunate to work with some of the smartest people I’ve ever met. To compare where my career was 18 months ago to where it is now … it boggles the mind. Night and day. I’ve been blessed.

Perhaps someday down the road I’ll look back in more depth, but this post is about looking forward (and helping another search marketer with a career question).

What’s Next?

That’s the million dollar question. Should I start my own SEO consulting business? Should I go to work for another search marketing company? Should I apply to be the overnight janitor at Pixar? Should I take some time off? I’ve had very close, trusted friends suggesting all of those things to me this week. (Except the Pixar one; that was all my idea.)

Here’s What I Know

I’m going to take a couple weeks before making any decisions. I have some personal travel coming up soon and will be away from a computer for about a week. (Quelle horreur!) Might as well use that down time wisely.

I’m open to job offers from high-quality search marketing agencies or search-related companies. I love SEO, social marketing, local search, blog consulting, writing, training, and things like that. I’ve successfully managed client accounts and employees. I’m not a PPC guy, so count me out if that’s what you need. If you have a job that involves sales, I’m not your guy. (I’m a terrible sales person.) Also, and this is really important, if your job requires me to move the family, I’m not your guy. (Relocation is not an option, sorry.) If you’re a great company with an opening that might fit, send me an email.

I’m open to opportunities to do some freelance SEO consulting/training. Need some help via email or the phone? Need a site review, or some questions answered? Want me to come visit and train you and/or your team? Get in touch.

I’m open to accepting advertising on this blog. A guy’s gotta pay the bills while figuring out what’s next, and it would be pretty easy to change out those 125×125 speaking gig graphics on the right to advertisements. Your ad link will be no-followed. It will also be seen about 20,000 times per month - that’s my average pageviews since the start of 2008. Email me for rates. (One more change: When I get back online after this little break, I’m going to take down the registration wall on this blog and have open comments.)

If you have something to say or share that doesn’t involve job or consulting opportunities, but just want to offer some advice or words of wisdom, go ahead and hit one of those links above and get in touch. I’d love to hear from you! Meanwhile, if I’m going to ask for SEO Career Advice, I should be kind enough to share some, too, don’t you think?

From the SBS Mailbag

Ironically, the SBS Mailbag this week included a note from Josh, who’s having some career issues of his own:

I am fairly new to the industry. I have attended an SES and an e-Metrics. I keep up with about 60 SEM/online marketing blogs and I just recently began my own blog. Recently I interviewed for a search account manager at [company name redacted] and am interviewing this week with [company name redacted]. [The first company] felt that I was too inexperienced for the position, but gave me a whole new perspective on interview processes. Any advice you have for me would be much appreciated.

Josh, here are some thoughts based on my experience:

1.) Keep blogging. Regularly. Blogs are the new resumés. It’s an ongoing record of who you are and what you know. Blogging also makes you smarter, because it forces you to clarify and explain strategies and tactics that you use. Make sure you’re reading Darren Rowse, Brian Clark, and Dosh Dosh to learn to be a better blogger, and a better blog marketer. Last year’s SEMMY Blogging nominees list is also great reading.

2.) Speaking of reading, do it. A lot. I think you have to spend at least an hour a day following the industry’s trusted writers. And don’t just read; test the strategies and tactics you read about. Draw your own conclusions.

3.) Network with your peers via their blogs. Dropping me an email was a great start. If you’re not doing this already, start joining the conversations on other search marketing blogs. Get your name out there. Include your URL. As people read intelligent comments from you, you’ll get a trickle of click-thrus to your blog. Make it easy for them to find your best content and subscribe to your feed.

4.) Create “flagship” content on your blog. You’ll want to develop great content that will define you and your blog. Chris Garrett wrote about this a while back, and it still stands. In the summer of 2006, I wrote the Local Search Marketing Guide, emailed some new contacts about it, and Rand wrote about it on SEOmoz. (Others followed suit.) This blog has been on the map ever since.

5.) Continue to attend search marketing conferences when possible. Do it for the networking and learning. Whether it’s SBMU, SMX, SES, Pubcon or something else, conferences are another great way to network with your peers. Introduce yourself to people. Don’t be shy.

6.) Get on Twitter, Sphinn, StumbleUpon, Facebook, etc. More great ways to meet and chat with your peers.

7.) Get active on a marketing/search forum. More networking & learning. It’ll take time to develop, but the best job strategy I can think of is to have a network of peers/friends who want to help you along in your career by pointing you toward open positions, by giving you recommendations on Linked In or elsewhere, and so forth. Todd Malicoat kicked me into gear two years ago on the importance of networking, and trust me — this week was much easier thanks to great industry friends.

8.) Keep interviewing. You hinted at this in your question, and it’s true: the more you interview, the better you get at interviewing.

9.) Volunteer to help a local non-profit or small business. It looks like you have a job already, so I’ll put it at the end of the list. But if I were new to the industry and needed some work to put on my resumé, I’d take this route. There’s no better teacher than experience, and you have to get experience somehow.

Josh, I hope this helps. Readers, what advice would you share with Josh?

(Josh asked me not to share his last name. And because he’s looking for work, I won’t reveal his identity by linking to his blog.)

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business SEM.

SEO Career Advice from an Out-of-Work SEO

Oh, before you read, another reminder to please follow me on Twitter! (Remember, it’s for charity.)

Small Business

• David Mihm: The Ten Commandments of Online Marketing for Small & Local Businesses
• Andy Beal: Advice for Managing Negative Reviews of Hotels or Small Businesses

Local Search

• Steven Brier/SEJ: How to Optimize Local Business Profiles for Free Local Directories
• Rob O’Daniel/Problogger: Geoblogging - How to Geotag Your Blog
• Lucy Langdon/Distilled: Local SEO’s Share Geo Location Tips From Around The World

SEO

• Marty/aimClear: Measuring SEO Success: Solve Personalized Search Misperceptions
• Barry/SERoundtable: How Google Views Four Ways Of Hiding Content
• Bill/SEO by the Sea: Same-Site Duplicate Pages at Different URLs
• Mason/Small Fuel: SEO Explained for Small Business Owners
• Bill/SEO by the Sea: Do Domain Ages Affect Search Rankings?
• Mark Jackson/SEW: How to Tell if Your Domain is Banned in a Search Engine
• David Berkowitz/MediaPost: Search Marketing By The Book (I’ll be using some of these techniques when I start promoting U2, A Diary.)

PPC

• Brad Geddes/SEL: What Yahoo’s New Minimum Bid Means to You
• John Lee/PPC Hero: Learn How to Track Your MSN adCenter PPC Keyword Data in Analytics
• John Lee/PPC Hero: The Secret of Tracking Yahoo! Keyword Data in Google Analytics

Blogs & Blogging

• Teresa Boardman/Real Estate Tomato: Finding Time To Blog As A Real Estate Professional
• Skellie: How to Get Piles of Links, Subscribers and Comments
• Jennifer Osborne/Search Engine People: 10 Golden Rules of Blogging
• Courtney Tuttle/Problogger: 10 Ways to Improve Blog Traffic in 30 Minutes or Less
• Pete Caputa/Hubspot: 13 Ways to Use Your Blog to Improve Your Sales Process

Social Media

• Jeff Quipp/Search Engine People: 4 Pillars of Social Media Algorithms … Trust x4
• Brian Provost/Scoreboard Media: How To Make A Small Fortune With Twitter (#5 and #7 make this eligible for the LOL FUNNY section, too)
• Scott Clark/Finding the Sweet Spot: 20 Take-Aways from SMX Social Media
• Scott Clark/Finding the Sweet Spot: Link Building, Search, and Influence: Not So Silly After All
• Wendy Piersall/Sparkplugging: 10 Social Media Blunders that Can Destroy Your Brand
• Brent Csutoras/SEL: Tools For Engaging In Social Media
• Jason Falls/Social Media Explorer: The Next Generation Of Social Media Experts
• Maki/DoshDosh: Building a Popular Social Media Profile: Seven Essential Characteristics
• Rebecca/SEOmoz: How a Good Title and Description Can Make or Break Your Social Media Submission

Reputation Management

• Andy/Marketing Pilgrim: 12 Reputations Every Company Should Monitor Online

Google

• Aaron Wall: Google Thinks YOU Are a Black Hat SEO. Should You Trust Them?

Analytics

• Carrie Hill/SEW: Taking the Fear Out of Web Analytics for Your Small Business
• Avinash/Occam’s Razor: How To Excite People About Web Analytics: Five Tips.

Online Marketing/General

• Matt Bailey/SiteLogic Marketing: Make Your Website Content Explode
• Rebecca/SEOmoz: Let’s Talk Landing Pages
• Bryan Eisenberg/Clickz: Three Reasons Your Visitors Don’t Convert to Leads
• Andrew Goodman/Traffick: 5 gaffes that will get you a low speaker rating at any conference, anywhere

Search Tech

• Riona MacNamara/Google Webmaster Central: Best practices when moving your site

LOL Funny!

• Jane/SEOmoz: Google Search Results Missing from OneBox
• Ian Lurie/Conversation Marketing: 17 Internet Marketing Things I Will Not Write About
• Mike Blumenthal: Yahoo Local Bug: San BuenaVentura Ca located just off African Coast (I love the matter-of-factness of the title….)
• Matt Davies/SEOTunes: 21 Reasons Twitter Is Bullshit
• SEO Hack/Worst SEO Blog Ever: You Want SEO Standards? Well, Here Ya Go!

Rants

• Rand/SEOmoz: I’m Getting Pretty Tired of Startup Advice that Doesn’t Include Any Mention of SEO

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business SEM.

April ‘08: Best Search/Marketing Posts

Twittering for Charity

It’s no secret that I’ve been trying to be the last person on Twitter for some time now. You may also know that Jeff Quipp (of the Toronto-based agency Search Engine People) was also not on Twitter, and has been challenging me to see who could last the longest without joining.

Well, we’ve put out heads together and have decided to sign up, and raise some money in the process. Here’s the scoop:

1. We’re both putting up $250 for a total of $500 on the line.
2. We’ve both chosen a charity that we like and want to support.
3. We’ve both (finally) signed up for Twitter.
4. Whoever gets 500 followers first is the winner, and all $500 will be donated to that person’s charity.

So, please follow me and help me win while supporting a good cause!!!

My Charity: African Well Fund

It’s not right that there are legions of people in Africa who don’t have access to clean water — something I can walk into my kitchen and get in unlimited supplies. In parts of Africa, people have to walk miles to find a water source, and when they do, that water source is often shared with animals. They bring the water home and have to let it sit so that the waste and dirt separates, and it’s still not as clean as what we take for granted everyday.

The African Well Fund is trying to make this right by bringing clean water to parts of Africa where it doesn’t exist. Building wells saves lives and is relatively inexpensive — to the point that individuals donations really do make a difference. In fact, since forming in 2002, the AWF has helped bring water to 121 sites serving more than 113,000 people. Every dollar donated goes to build wells; none is used for overhead.

If you’d like to learn more, here’s a short video (less than 2 minutes) that explains what the AWF does.

Call to Action!

Click here to follow me on Twitter!

Whether you’re doing it for the charity angle, or just because you want to follow me on Twitter, I thank you in advance for your support. If you want to follow Jeff, too, that’s cool. It’s money for a good cause, either way.

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business SEM.

Twittering for Charity: Follow Me

Anyway, toolbar PageRank has been updated. Some things I’ve noticed:

• This blog is still a PR=5, as it’s been for a year or more now.
• SEMMYS.org debuts at PR=5.
• MattMcGee.com, my new personal blog, debuts with a PR=2.
• Inexplicably, my U2 site — which was a PR=6 two cycles ago, and then went to PR=5 — is now down to a PR=4. I looked at several of the other leading U2 sites/blogs, and they’ve also dropped a notch. Very weird. Maybe that’s because they haven’t put out an album in four freakin’ years! (Can you tell I’m grumpy about it?)
• My wife’s site and blog are both still PR=3.
• Four new blogs we just launched within the last month or two are showing no TBPR. They’re too new.
• My Flickr photo stream home is still a PR=5.
• Twitter.com is a PR=8. Wow. Has it always been that high?

Remember, much like WWE Wrestling and the sports betting lines published in your daily paper, Toolbar PageRank exists for entertainment purposes only. If you’d like a reminder of what real PageRank is and what it means, Danny S. covered it all last year:

What Is Google PageRank? A Guide For Searchers & Webmasters

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business SEM.

Not That It Matters: Toolbar PageRank was Updated