This post is about what everyone writes about when they write about SEO – Title Tags!

I was making Title Tag recommendations the other day. I was a bit out of practice, so I decided to Google a few terms and see what others were doing with Title Tags this season. I found something interesting…

A lot of ranking pages weren’t using keywords in their Title Tags at all.

So, I did a 10-minute unscientific study in which I Googled 10 competitive keyword phrases and counted how many of the 1st page results used keywords in the Title Tag.

I purposely chose keywords I thought would be over-optimized and disprove my theory. The results:

As the MythBusters would say: Myth Busted!

Well, not scientifically – my little chart doesn’t prove anything. But, personally, I’m over Title Tags. Only 50% of ranking pages used the entire keyword phrase in the title. 25% of ranking pages used an unordered or disrupted version of the keyword phrase (ex. Cable TV, High Speed Internet and Telephone Service) And 35% of ranking pages didn’t include the keyword phrase or only had a partial phrase.

So, can we please stop writing about title tags as if there is some super secret SEO art to writing one.

In 2007, a bunch of SEO experts pulled together and ranked Google Search Engine Ranking Factors. Keyword Inclusion in Title Tag was hands down number one.

Rae Hoffman wrote: I still think the title tag is one of the most important on page elements from an algo perspective as well as a click through perspective.

Jill Whalen wrote: Probably one of the most important factors in determining rankings.

Christine Churchill wrote: If you have time to do only one SEO action on your site, take the time to create good titiles.

I think times have changed.

Back in ’07, SEOs were writing Title Tags that looked a lot like: Brand Name | Keyword Phrase #1 | Keyword Phrase #2 | Keyword Phrase #3.

And then everyone was saying “LOOK NATURAL! LOOK NATURAL!”

Now, I’m saying don’t sweat Title Tags.

If you have an old domain and a shitload of backlinks, well yeah, you could change a few title tags and rank just fine.

For everyone else, investing a bunch of time in writing that perfect natural-looking title that includes all your keywords is a waste of time. Title your page whatever it’s about and move on to finding links. Your time is better spent there.

When someone fills out a form on your website, what happens? Do they receive an automated email and then a string of monthly newsletters/announcements? Do they get a sales call a week later? If they do, then you’re probably missing opportunities and losing leads.

You have to follow up on those filled out forms - quickly, personally, and hopefully with another medium.

Examples of Form Follow Up

My friend signed up as a volunteer on my.barackobama.com. She was required to fill out her name, address, and phone number. Within an hour someone called her to discuss volunteer opportunities. Talk about fast.

Now, his campaign is a very large organization with an urgent purpose and the resources (both monetary and human) to be that fast and responsive. Can any volunteer-based organization afford not to be though?

I’ve given all my contact info to more than a few organizations with the intent of volunteering. I’ve never once been called. And truthfully I haven’t volunteered with a few places because a) I was too lazy to look for a phone number or b) My temporarily philanthropic spirit wore off. Even when organizations do call, they tend to do it slowly, taking up to a week to respond.

Following up quickly and by phone is so important for any business that depends on recruitment (i.e. education, staffing, etc). But it can also be beneficial to any business. Following up isn’t about selling. It’s about inviting people into your brand - giving them a branded experience - communicating what you’re about.

MyShape.com’s form follow-up attempt was all about communicating the idea behind the brand. Notice I said attempt. I still haven’t received my tape measurer. On with the example though…

MyShape.com is a great concept. When you set up an account you can enter your body measurements, not only will MyShape show you the types of clothing flattering for your body type, they will automatically determine your size across all the different brands they carry. Brilliant, right?

Like most e-commerce sites, MyShape.com, doesn’t require you to fill out your address when you set up an account. But, they offer a free tape measurer if you do. (I’m not sure if they still do, as I signed up a few months ago). Sending a gift like this is a small thank you. It keeps the brand top of mind and differientiates it from the competition.

The Bottom Line

If you are only sending automated emails, you are not doing enough.

1. Make a friendly phone call.
2. Mail a free gift…everyone loves free stuff!
3. Mail a hand-addressed letter for that personal touch
4. Send a personal email…people know when it’s fake.

If a new lead does not hear from you within a week, you are not fast enough.

Your response needs to be immediate. If you’re mailing a package, mail it the same day. If you’re calling or emailing, do it within 3 days. Don’t leave people hanging.

Remember: A lead will not become a customer without a little love and attention.

———–

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I’ll start off with a few facts about myself. I write short fiction for fun. None of it is publish-worthy, but I find it’s an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Between the desktop, laptop, and school computer labs I probably work on 10 different computers within one week. On a rare day, I can also be clumsy and forgetful. (Translation: I forgot my flash drive was on the floor and stepped on it.) I can also be cheap. (Translation: The thought of spending 20 bucks on a replacement is killing me.)

All that being said, I try to keep most of my work online.

I discovered Writely.com, the online word processor, the same month it was acquired by Google. Writely.com stopped accepting new members because it was slowly being converted to Google Docs. I didn’t have a membership at Writely, so I was out of luck. I began searching for another online word processor and discovered Zoho Writer.

I eventually did test out Google Docs for a few months and came to the conclusion that Zoho is better than Google Docs, period.

A list of all the things you can do with Zoho that you can’t do with Google.

1. View margins as you type
2. Pick one of 19 fonts, vs Google’s 11
3. View as page
4. Add Anchors
5. Insert HTML
6. Insert Layers
7. Create a table of contents
8. Insert emoticons

That may not be much, but Zoho also has a better design - usability wise. Google Docs requires you to use two windows or tabs. One with a list of your documents and the other your document. The more documents you open, the more windows/tabs you have open. Zoho is in one window. Zoho also uses small, recognizable icons so almost every feature is one click away. Subscript in Google Docs is two clicks. A simple page break is two clicks. Both are one click away in Zoho. Changes to the margins can only be made under the print menu in Google, while you can do the same visually by moving bars in Zoho, as you can in Microsoft Office.

Zoho seems like a pretty complex online application, but even with its constant background saves, it has never made Firefox unresponsive on my computer. And with my tiny 128MB of RAM, I can’t say the same for applications as simple as Gmail.

And how does this all relate to internet marketing?

Months ago, I wrote the following blog post in one of my writing communities:

30+ Online Tools for the Amateur Writer

Hey, I came across this post in one of the blogs I read: http://mashable.com/2007/10/25/30-tools-amateur-writer/

I thought some of the writers on my flist might find it interesting.

It’s a list of a bunch of tools. I haven’t checked many of them out yet. They listed Zoho Writer, which is cool. If you’re currently using Google Docs, formerly known as Writely, I would suggest switching to Zoho. Way more functionality.

Not a raving review of Zoho by any means, right? It’s actually a bigger pimp for Mashable, one of the blogs I read. Yet I still got this response from Arvind Natarajan, Zoho’s blogger:

Thanks for recommending Zoho to your readers!!

Isn’t that nice and simple? I just noticed the comment today, months later, but it did make my day. I’m guessing he saw the pingback in Mashable’s comments or used Google Alerts to find my post. He took the time to leave a comment, which made me want to write this post.

Many companies have this “build it, and they will come” attitude about blogging. They write a few posts, hear the crickets, and then ask their marketing guy “Why aren’t people commenting? Where are all those brand evangelists you keep talking about?” The answer: Your brand evangelists are doing their own thing. Creating a community around a brand takes work. It requires reaching out and finding people that will support you and your brand.

Arvind reached out to someone that had already written about his brand and his results were tri-fold:

1. I geeked out over his comment, and now I love Zoho even more than before and will recommend it to anyone who will listen.
2. I was so geeked about his comment that I had to share my love of the Zoho brand with all my (very few) readers.
3. The next time I fire up Zoho, I’ll probably check out their blog for updates and leave a comment or two.

If you’re a blogger, personal or corporate, and haven’t used Google Alerts before, I’d recommend it. Go to www.google.com/alerts, sign up for your company/brand/given name, and you’ll receive emails, at your desired frequency, listing links to where your name appears on the web. It’s like eavesdropping on what everyone is saying about you behind your back, good and bad. It’s a great way to find brand evangelists and maybe get a little feedback.

bookmark to:

I’ll start off with a few facts about myself. I write short fiction for fun. None of it is publish-worthy, but I find it’s an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Between the desktop, laptop, and school computer labs I probably work on 10 different computers within one week. On a rare day, I can also be clumsy and forgetful. (Translation: I forgot my flash drive was on the floor and stepped on it.) I can also be cheap. (Translation: The thought of spending 20 bucks on a replacement is killing me.)

All that being said, I try to keep most of my work online.

I discovered Writely.com, the online word processor, the same month it was acquired by Google. Writely.com stopped accepting new members because it was slowly being converted to Google Docs. I didn’t have a membership at Writely, so I was out of luck. I began searching for another online word processor and discovered Zoho Writer.

I eventually did test out Google Docs for a few months and came to the conclusion that Zoho is better than Google Docs, period.

A list of all the things you can do with Zoho that you can’t do with Google.

1. View margins as you type
2. Pick one of 19 fonts, vs Google’s 11
3. View as page
4. Add Anchors
5. Insert HTML
6. Insert Layers
7. Create a table of contents
8. Insert emoticons

That may not be much, but Zoho also has a better design - usability wise. Google Docs requires you to use two windows or tabs. One with a list of your documents and the other your document. The more documents you open, the more windows/tabs you have open. Zoho is in one window. Zoho also uses small, recognizable icons so almost every feature is one click away. Subscript in Google Docs is two clicks. A simple page break is two clicks. Both are one click away in Zoho. Changes to the margins can only be made under the print menu in Google, while you can do the same visually by moving bars in Zoho, as you can in Microsoft Office.

Zoho seems like a pretty complex online application, but even with its constant background saves, it has never made Firefox unresponsive on my computer. And with my tiny 128MB of RAM, I can’t say the same for applications as simple as Gmail.

And how does this all relate to internet marketing?

Months ago, I wrote the following blog post in one of my writing communities:

30+ Online Tools for the Amateur Writer

Hey, I came across this post in one of the blogs I read: http://mashable.com/2007/10/25/30-tools-amateur-writer/

I thought some of the writers on my flist might find it interesting.

It’s a list of a bunch of tools. I haven’t checked many of them out yet. They listed Zoho Writer, which is cool. If you’re currently using Google Docs, formerly known as Writely, I would suggest switching to Zoho. Way more functionality.

Not a raving review of Zoho by any means, right? It’s actually a bigger pimp for Mashable, one of the blogs I read. Yet I still got this response from Arvind Natarajan, Zoho’s blogger:

Thanks for recommending Zoho to your readers!!

Isn’t that nice and simple? I just noticed the comment today, months later, but it did make my day. I’m guessing he saw the pingback in Mashable’s comments or used Google Alerts to find my post. He took the time to leave a comment, which made me want to write this post.

Many companies have this “build it, and they will come” attitude about blogging. They write a few posts, hear the crickets, and then ask their marketing guy “Why aren’t people commenting? Where are all those brand evangelists you keep talking about?” The answer: Your brand evangelists are doing their own thing. Creating a community around a brand takes work. It requires reaching out and finding people that will support you and your brand.

Arvind reached out to someone that had already written about his brand and his results were tri-fold:

1. I geeked out over his comment, and now I love Zoho even more than before and will recommend it to anyone who will listen.
2. I was so geeked about his comment that I had to share my love of the Zoho brand with all my (very few) readers.
3. The next time I fire up Zoho, I’ll probably check out their blog for updates and leave a comment or two.

If you’re a blogger, personal or corporate, and haven’t used Google Alerts before, I’d recommend it. Go to www.google.com/alerts, sign up for your company/brand/given name, and you’ll receive emails, at your desired frequency, listing links to where your name appears on the web. It’s like eavesdropping on what everyone is saying about you behind your back, good and bad. It’s a great way to find brand evangelists and maybe get a little feedback.

Interruption: When people think of advertising, they think of interruption advertising. Television commercials, radio commercials, print ads. Interruption advertising involves taking a piece of media, such as a television show, and interrupting it with a completely unrelated marketing message. The main criticism of interruption advertising is that it’s becoming less effective. Consumers “tune out.” DVR is becoming more popular and users are fast forwarding through commercials. While there is some truth to this, a recent study showed that only a very small percentage of people use DVR and over 95% of the television watched in the United States is watched live.

People are more than ever looking for ways to avoid marketing messages though - DVR, satellite radio, popup blockers, etc. Yet marketers have approached new media the same as they have old - with interruption advertising. Commercials are played before we watch some online videos. YouTube and Revver use pop-up video overlay ads for their videos.

Advertisers have a unique opportunity when it comes to new media. People fast-forward through television commercials because they want to get back to their show and commercials are by nature unrelated to the show. Commercials are unrelated to the show for two major reasons.

1. Producing a commercial is expensive and as a result commercials are reused in different time slots.

2. Creating relevant ads would require teamwork between show producers and advertisers, which is impossible.

The nature of podcasting would allow producers to work with advertisers. Commercials and marketing messages could be integrated into show content. Advertisers could easily create commercials for podcasts that listeners and watchers wouldn’t want to skip.

Background: Sponsorship is the best example of background advertising. It involves an advertiser taking its product, finding a somewhat relevant show or event, and bringing the two together. The best examples are the Bowls. We have the Capitol One Bowl, the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, and a handful of others. Sponsorship is a closer merging of messaging and content. It used to be the most popular form of advertising during the infancy of radio and television. Sponsorship has been making comeback in recent years though. USA television network has started providing commercial-free programming sponsored by advertisers.

The majority of online advertising is background advertising. Banner ads and sponsored links are both in the background. Like interruption advertising, background advertising has been criticized for its decreasing effectiveness. Computer users are “banner blind.” They’ve learned to ignore the clutter and focus on the content. The only way to avoid this is to make the clutter part of the content.

Seamless: The best advertising is the advertising you can’t recognize. It’s seamless. We’re used to seeing cans of Coke, screenshots of Google, and luxury vehicles in our television shows and movies. In the past few years there’s been a lot of speculation about contracts between hip hop artists and big advertisers. In 2006, rapper Monica came out with “Dozen Roses,” which had an amazing 5 brand names mentioned within its 4 minutes of lyrics, and additional 2 brands included in the music video.

The most used form of seamless advertising is public relations. Traditional PR involves getting journalists to write about your brand. PR for new media is about getting opinion leaders to write about your brand, which turns your marketing message into media content.

In conclusion, the argument of old media vs. new media isn’t important. They’ll both be around for a very long time. It is important for marketers to recognize the shift media is taking though and adapt…quickly.

bookmark to:

Interruption: When people think of advertising, they think of interruption advertising. Television commercials, radio commercials, print ads. Interruption advertising involves taking a piece of media, such as a television show, and interrupting it with a completely unrelated marketing message. The main criticism of interruption advertising is that it’s becoming less effective. Consumers “tune out.” DVR is becoming more popular and users are fast forwarding through commercials. While there is some truth to this, a recent study showed that only a very small percentage of people use DVR and over 95% of the television watched in the United States is watched live.

People are more than ever looking for ways to avoid marketing messages though - DVR, satellite radio, popup blockers, etc. Yet marketers have approached new media the same as they have old - with interruption advertising. Commercials are played before we watch some online videos. YouTube and Revver use pop-up video overlay ads for their videos.

Advertisers have a unique opportunity when it comes to new media. People fast-forward through television commercials because they want to get back to their show and commercials are by nature unrelated to the show. Commercials are unrelated to the show for two major reasons.

1. Producing a commercial is expensive and as a result commercials are reused in different time slots.

2. Creating relevant ads would require teamwork between show producers and advertisers, which is impossible.

The nature of podcasting would allow producers to work with advertisers. Commercials and marketing messages could be integrated into show content. Advertisers could easily create commercials for podcasts that listeners and watchers wouldn’t want to skip.

Background: Sponsorship is the best example of background advertising. It involves an advertiser taking its product, finding a somewhat relevant show or event, and bringing the two together. The best examples are the Bowls. We have the Capitol One Bowl, the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, and a handful of others. Sponsorship is a closer merging of messaging and content. It used to be the most popular form of advertising during the infancy of radio and television. Sponsorship has been making comeback in recent years though. USA television network has started providing commercial-free programming sponsored by advertisers.

The majority of online advertising is background advertising. Banner ads and sponsored links are both in the background. Like interruption advertising, background advertising has been criticized for its decreasing effectiveness. Computer users are “banner blind.” They’ve learned to ignore the clutter and focus on the content. The only way to avoid this is to make the clutter part of the content.

Seamless: The best advertising is the advertising you can’t recognize. It’s seamless. We’re used to seeing cans of Coke, screenshots of Google, and luxury vehicles in our television shows and movies. In the past few years there’s been a lot of speculation about contracts between hip hop artists and big advertisers. In 2006, rapper Monica came out with “Dozen Roses,” which had an amazing 5 brand names mentioned within its 4 minutes of lyrics, and additional 2 brands included in the music video.

In conclusion, the argument of old media vs. new media isn’t important. They’ll both be around for a very long time. It is important for marketers to recognize the shift media is taking though and adapt…quickly.

Here’s the article: 50 Top Niche Social News Sites and Their Power Accounts

I had a lot of fun with it. I found some cool new diversions sites to hang out at. Now, you can find me over at MOG for music lovers, Gooruze for internet marketers, and Sphinn for search fanatics. I’m not very active at Sphinn. But I’ve been hanging out at Gooruze for awhile now and I’m totally obsessed with MOG.

Check them out.

Here’s the article: 50 Top Niche Social News Sites and Their Power Accounts

I had a lot of fun with it. I found some cool new diversions sites to hang out at. Now, you can find me over at MOG for music lovers, Gooruze for internet marketers, and Sphinn for search fanatics. I’m not very active at Sphinn. But I’ve been hanging out at Gooruze for awhile now and I’m totally obsessed with MOG.

Check them out.

bookmark to:

1. The Spammers

These are the marketers that tell you to create several del.icio.us, ma.gnolia, furl, etc accounts and bookmark your own site content for the links. These people don’t understand SEO. The higher class of spammers will give you the PageRank of social networking websites, how many links are allowed in the profile, and whether they’re followed or nofollowed. These spammers would have you do something like this.

Avatar is a member of 11 social networking sites. Their site profiles have little to no information. They do have links to their own site and their profiles on other social networking sites though. Profiles like Avatar’s are spam profiles. The only thing keeping these profiles from being deleted is the fact that Avatar isn’t using anchor text for SEO or pushing Viagra.

Now, I’m not going to lie. A link is a link is a link. Sites need links. That’s 11 links back to their site. Every link counts, especially with something difficult like finance. No one wants to link to a boring financial site, right? Not exactly. Avatar actually has a halfway decent blog and they did an interesting post on web etiquette last year. With a little revamping, it would be the perfect kind of thing to push through social media. Maybe Avatar did. I don’t know. My point is that if Avatar had actually used the social networking sites they belong to, they probably could have gotten more than 11 links.

2. The Diggers

These marketers have several names. They could also be called the Sphinners, the Newsviners, the Redditers. All these marketers know how to do is get to the front page of their respective news site. They’re social media optimizers. They know that Digg users like to see Ubuntu, iPhone, and [PIC] in the titles of submissions. They know that if you seed your own news on Newsvine, you’ll get nowhere. These guys are like anthropologists.

Getting to the front page of a site like Digg is awesome. You’re most likely to receive a lot of traffic and inbound links from that. The problem with some Diggers is this: they are so obsessed with Digg that they’ll do whatever they have to in order to get on the front page. They’ll create off-topic content to make the front page of Digg. For example, a Digger might own a site all about baking bread. Digg users aren’t interested in bread. So the bread baking Digger will create a page about Ubuntu and iPhones on his site, submit it to Digg with the title “Ubuntu and iPhones [PIC],” get to the front page, and get tons and tons of links.

Good for him. I think Dave Naylor made a few good points on SEOmoz’s Whiteboard Friday (Part 3) though. He said that eventually, Google will have to stop using links as a way rank websites because everyone knows how to game that system. I’m pretty sure I’ll be dead before that happens. I do think topical relevance will become more important though, as Dave mentioned. Topical relevance is already important. One link from a site on the same subject is worth more than 3 from irrelevant sites.

Back to my bread baking and Ubuntu example. If you’re trying to rank for bread baking in the search engines and everyone is linking to you for your page on Ubuntu, will that help you rank for bread baking? No. And the traffic you get from Digg and other links will be completely worthless if you’re looking at conversions. People going to your site for that one Ubuntu article are not going to stick around to read about bread baking.

3. The Power Networkers

These are the marketers that tell you to immerse yourself into a community to understand it. They tell you the more friends you have, the more power you have. These marketers are the ones that use the Digg Shout feature weekly and actually know about Social Thursdays. They subscribe to 200+ blogs and remember to comment on all of them. When I think of the Power Networkers, the phrases “wasting time” and “inefficient” come to mind.

I’m a bit of a power networker in the sense that I like participating in communities, reading blogs, commenting on blogs, etc. But, I can do that because I have the time. In house marketers, business owners, single bloggers can be power networkers and be wildly successful. If you’re at an smaller agency handling multiple clients, you don’t have the time. If you’re handling a pharmaceutical company, an architecture firm, and a pet food store, do you really have the time to immerse yourself into each of these online communities? I doubt it.

4. The Experimenters

You could also call these marketers the Creatives or the Idea Guys. You’re likely to hear them say things like “Well, we had this idea that we could maybe use Twitter, so we did, and now we have some followers, so it was a success.” Experimenters come up with some really great ideas.

My one problem with Experimenters is that a lot of them take an unbusiness-like approach to social media. They don’t set goals or determine the definition of success before they start. They don’t start with a clear purpose - are we doing this just for branding or to increase sales? They are very hands off. Experimenters just put it out there and see what happens. Their social media plans are short term. It’s just an experiment. When it’s done it’s done. And one problem you see a lot, especially with Facebook apps, is that they’re not integrated with other internet marketing efforts like the website, email, SEO, etc.

The Experimenters are just lacking strategy.

5. The Strategists

Strategists are a quiet breed. I didn’t know they existed until a few days ago when I read a post from Maki at Dosh Dosh. Strategists understand the value of a link, like a spammer. They can work Digg as well as a Digger. They don’t waste as much time as a Power Networker. And they are as creative as an experimenter. In addition to all that, strategists implement all that old-school marketing stuff you learn in Marketing 101.

A strategist sets SMART goals and objectives before they start, and they measure the effectiveness of their strategy based on those goals. In determining their “target market,” a strategist might look at quality vs quantity. A strategist will target the most influential people within a community, whereas a Power Networker will target as many people as possible.

Social media doesn’t have to be an experiment. It doesn’t have to be time-consuming. You don’t have to learn the ins and outs of every community nor do you have to be spammer. You can be strategic with your social media. Now, where are all the strategists?

bookmark to:

1. The Spammers

These are the marketers that tell you to create several del.icio.us, ma.gnolia, furl, etc accounts and bookmark your own site content for the links. These people don’t understand SEO. The higher class of spammers will give you the PageRank of social networking websites, how many links are allowed in the profile, and whether they’re followed or nofollowed. These spammers would have you do something like this.

Avatar is a member of 11 social networking sites. Their site profiles have little to no information. They do have links to their own site and their profiles on other social networking sites though. Profiles like Avatar’s are spam profiles. The only thing keeping these profiles from being deleted is the fact that Avatar isn’t using anchor text for SEO or pushing Viagra.

Now, I’m not going to lie. A link is a link is a link. Sites need links. That’s 11 links back to their site. Every link counts, especially with something difficult like finance. No one wants to link to a boring financial site, right? Not exactly. Avatar actually has a halfway decent blog and they did an interesting post on web etiquette last year. With a little revamping, it would be the perfect kind of thing to push through social media. Maybe Avatar did. I don’t know. My point is that if Avatar had actually used the social networking sites they belong to, they probably could have gotten more than 11 links.

2. The Diggers

These marketers have several names. They could also be called the Sphinners, the Newsviners, the Redditers. All these marketers know how to do is get to the front page of their respective news site. They’re social media optimizers. They know that Digg users like to see Ubuntu, iPhone, and [PIC] in the titles of submissions. They know that if you seed your own news on Newsvine, you’ll get nowhere. These guys are like anthropologists.

Getting to the front page of a site like Digg is awesome. You’re most likely to receive a lot of traffic and inbound links from that. The problem with some Diggers is this: they are so obsessed with Digg that they’ll do whatever they have to in order to get on the front page. They’ll create off-topic content to make the front page of Digg. For example, a Digger might own a site all about baking bread. Digg users aren’t interested in bread. So the bread baking Digger will create a page about Ubuntu and iPhones on his site, submit it to Digg with the title “Ubuntu and iPhones [PIC],” get to the front page, and get tons and tons of links.

Good for him. I think Dave Naylor made a few good points on SEOmoz’s Whiteboard Friday (Part 3) though. He said that eventually, Google will have to stop using links as a way rank websites because everyone knows how to game that system. I’m pretty sure I’ll be dead before that happens. I do think topical relevance will become more important though, as Dave mentioned. Topical relevance is already important. One link from a site on the same subject is worth more than 3 from irrelevant sites.

Back to my bread baking and Ubuntu example. If you’re trying to rank for bread baking in the search engines and everyone is linking to you for your page on Ubuntu, will that help you rank for bread baking? No. And the traffic you get from Digg and other links will be completely worthless if you’re looking at conversions. People going to your site for that one Ubuntu article are not going to stick around to read about bread baking.

3. The Power Networkers

These are the marketers that tell you to immerse yourself into a community to understand it. They tell you the more friends you have, the more power you have. These marketers are the ones that use the Digg Shout feature weekly and actually know about Social Thursdays. They subscribe to 200+ blogs and remember to comment on all of them. When I think of the Power Networkers, the phrases “wasting time” and “inefficient” come to mind.

I’m a bit of a power networker in the sense that I like participating in communities, reading blogs, commenting on blogs, etc. But, I can do that because I have the time. In house marketers, business owners, single bloggers can be power networkers and be wildly successful. If you’re at an smaller agency handling multiple clients, you don’t have the time. If you’re handling a pharmaceutical company, an architecture firm, and a pet food store, do you really have the time to immerse yourself into each of these online communities? I doubt it.

4. The Experimenters

You could also call these marketers the Creatives or the Idea Guys. You’re likely to hear them say things like “Well, we had this idea that we could maybe use Twitter, so we did, and now we have some followers, so it was a success.” Experimenters come up with some really great ideas.

My one problem with Experimenters is that a lot of them take an unbusiness-like approach to social media. They don’t set goals or determine the definition of success before they start. They don’t start with a clear purpose - are we doing this just for branding or to increase sales? They are very hands off. Experimenters just put it out there and see what happens. Their social media plans are short term. It’s just an experiment. When it’s done it’s done. And one problem you see a lot, especially with Facebook apps, is that they’re not integrated with other internet marketing efforts like the website, email, SEO, etc.

The Experimenters are just lacking strategy.

5. The Strategists

Strategists are a quiet breed. I didn’t know they existed until a few days ago when I read a post from Maki at Dosh Dosh. Strategists understand the value of a link, like a spammer. They can work Digg as well as a Digger. They don’t waste as much time as a Power Networker. And they are as creative as an experimenter. In addition to all that, strategists implement all that old-school marketing stuff you learn in Marketing 101.

A strategist sets SMART goals and objectives before they start, and they measure the effectiveness of their strategy based on those goals. In determining their “target market,” a strategist might look at quality vs quantity. A strategist will target the most influential people within a community, whereas a Power Networker will target as many people as possible.

Social media doesn’t have to be an experiment. It doesn’t have to be time-consuming. You don’t have to learn the ins and outs of every community nor do you have to be spammer. You can be strategic with your social media. Now, where are all the strategists?

What Sticks by Briggs and Stuart:

Some big companies, marketing gurus, independent researchers, and more of the like did this great big study on what makes effective advertising. What Sticks was a report on the results. A lot of the book is about researching, testing, metrics, etc. Needless to say, it’s a bit dry. If you don’t mind a lot of stats and a few media planner-ish graphs on diminishing returns, then it’ll be right up your alley.

The one thing I do remember about this book is what it had to say about effective reveal banner ads.

Reveal ads are like the one below. They slowly reveal pieces and parts of an ad until you have the full picture.

Still frames of a Kraft LiveActive Cheese reveal ad:

Now, what’s wrong with this ad? I won’t even mention the content. I’m just talking form here - the ad takes too long.

No one pays attention to banner ads. No one will sit and wait for a banner ad to “reveal” itself. No one is waiting for the punchline.

The effectiveness of the ad could be greatly improved by simply putting the LiveActive brand name in every frame of the ad. Briggs and Stuart’s study tested reveal ads with logos in every frame vs. ads with logos only in the last frame. When Olay added their logo to every frame of an ad, sales increased by 14%. When Volvo tested the two different ads, the one with a logo in every frame had 86% more value across several “branding metrics,” meaning things like brand awareness, perception, and image.

I decided to write about this when I saw a poorly executed reveal ad done by the AdCouncil. I couldn’t find that one again, so I went on a hunt for another bad reveal ad. It didn’t take as long as it should have. I found quite a few in less than a few minutes. The worst part of it all is that Kraft participated in the Briggs and Stuart study. Did someone at Kraft miss a memo?

In Summary: Make sure the brand name is present in every frame of the reveal ad. Connect the imagery to the message to the brand as soon as possible. Read a book every once in awhile. You might learn something.

bookmark to:

What Sticks by Briggs and Stuart:

Some big companies, marketing gurus, independent researchers, and more of the like did this great big study on what makes effective advertising. What Sticks was a report on the results. A lot of the book is about researching, testing, metrics, etc. Needless to say, it’s a bit dry. If you don’t mind a lot of stats and a few media planner-ish graphs on diminishing returns, then it’ll be right up your alley.

The one thing I do remember about this book is what it had to say about effective reveal banner ads.

Reveal ads are like the one below. They slowly reveal pieces and parts of an ad until you have the full picture.

Still frames of a Kraft LiveActive Cheese reveal ad:

Now, what’s wrong with this ad? I won’t even mention the content. I’m just talking form here - the ad takes too long.

No one pays attention to banner ads. No one will sit and wait for a banner ad to “reveal” itself. No one is waiting for the punchline.

The effectiveness of the ad could be greatly improved by simply putting the LiveActive brand name in every frame of the ad. Briggs and Stuart’s study tested reveal ads with logos in every frame vs. ads with logos only in the last frame. When Olay added their logo to every frame of an ad, sales increased by 14%. When Volvo tested the two different ads, the one with a logo in every frame had 86% more value across several “branding metrics,” meaning things like brand awareness, perception, and image.

I decided to write about this when I saw a poorly executed reveal ad done by the AdCouncil. I couldn’t find that one again, so I went on a hunt for another bad reveal ad. It didn’t take as long as it should have. I found quite a few in less than a few minutes. The worst part of it all is that Kraft participated in the Briggs and Stuart study. Did someone at Kraft miss a memo?

In Summary: Make sure the brand name is present in every frame of the reveal ad. Connect the imagery to the message to the brand as soon as possible. Read a book every once in awhile. You might learn something.

bookmark to:

Instead of posting your video to the vastness that is YouTube, try posting your video as a response to a more popular and relevant YouTube video, so that there’s a link to your video every time someone views the popular one. When choosing tags for the video, find other relevant and popular videos and use the same or similar tags. With any luck, your video will be listed in the Related Videos section. It’s basically piggybacking off another video’s success, and there’s nothing wrong with that, especially if your video is good.

It sounds like basic stuff, but I think some marketers are in such a rush to get their video onto YouTube that they overlook the simple things.

Good Example: Two no-names on YouTube were able to gain 4,000-7,000+ views for very crappy videos because they tried to walk it out fosse style and used appropriate tags. Their videos are in the related videos sections of the original 180,000+ viewed video.

Bad Example: There’s this great video, created by Steve Delahoyde of Coudal Partners, about a guy that is inspired by the song “Spoonman” and wants to become a spoons player. It’s an awesome video - well written and filmed, but hasn’t gotten as much attention as I think it deserves. The tags on the video: regrets, funny, angry, loud, schadenfreude, sandy, marshall. What do these tags have to do with the video? Not much. With tags like Soundgarden, Spoonman, Spoons, McGee, etc…anyone interested in the song “Spoonman” could have found the the video and Steve could have piggybacked off the success of a 25,000+ viewed video of Soundgarden playing the song live.

In summary: Stop using tags that don’t make sense. Stop posting videos without looking to see what’s already on YouTube. When you post your video, try to connect it to as many relevant videos as possible.

bookmark to:

Instead of posting your video to the vastness that is YouTube, try posting your video as a response to a more popular and relevant YouTube video, so that there’s a link to your video every time someone views the popular one. When choosing tags for the video, find other relevant and popular videos and use the same or similar tags. With any luck, your video will be listed in the Related Videos section. It’s basically piggybacking off another video’s success, and there’s nothing wrong with that, especially if your video is good.

It sounds like basic stuff, but I think some marketers are in such a rush to get their video onto YouTube that they overlook the simple things.

Good Example: Two no-names on YouTube were able to gain 4,000-7,000+ views for very crappy videos because they tried to walk it out fosse style and used appropriate tags. Their videos are in the related videos sections of the original 180,000+ viewed video.

Bad Example: There’s this great video, created by Steve Delahoyde of Coudal Partners, about a guy that is inspired by the song “Spoonman” and wants to become a spoons player. It’s an awesome video - well written and filmed, but hasn’t gotten as much attention as I think it deserves. The tags on the video: regrets, funny, angry, loud, schadenfreude, sandy, marshall. What do these tags have to do with the video? Not much. With tags like Soundgarden, Spoonman, Spoons, McGee, etc…anyone interested in the song “Spoonman” could have found the the video and Steve could have piggybacked off the success of a 25,000+ viewed video of Soundgarden playing the song live.

In summary: Stop using tags that don’t make sense. Stop posting videos without looking to see what’s already on YouTube. When you post your video, try to connect it to as many relevant videos as possible.

bookmark to: