Internet Week Europe: We need to stop talking about Kevin

Why your social media strategy needs more thought and less chatter

That was the rather lengthy, title for my Internet Week Classroom talk in November.

Possibly, I got a little carried away when it came to naming it. I won’t deny it.

But really, the premise was pretty simple (honest).

If we spend a little more time thinking, and a little less time tweeting, (or attempting to make virals, or updating the company website, or paying SEO agencies to write drab copy that gets our Page ranking up, or plopping promo links onto Facebook) we can do something sustainable, special and maybe even a little bit sexy with our brand’s online presence.

Better social media strategies are simple

It might shock you to discover how often we’re invited in by companies who have a whole social or digital media campaign about to launch but who can’t really tell us why they’re doing it (hint: the answer is not because everyone else is doing it, or because you need to increase sales, or because the PR agency had a really neat idea for a microsite).

But it’s actually a fairly simple to get the basic elements of your social and digital media marketing right. So I may have made the title complicated, but the contents were entirely straightforward:

Brands can turn their digital media presence from bad to brilliant by asking THREE simple questions.

And what are those questions? Why? Who? and How?

And that’s all there is to it!

Internet Week Europe

How content fits into your social media strategy

Penn Olson recently ran a story about The Big Social Media Marketing Plan, which featured the above diagram. As you can see, content is central to the social media strategy, encouraging engagement and communication. Willis Wee, who penned the post, created the infographic to help those who are new to social media marketing develop a suitable strategy.

Content is key

Knowing the tools is great, but if you don’t have the high-quality content to back it up, you’re unlikely to be successful. Editorial that your community can sink its teeth into lies at the heart of your social media strategy. You can see that the community here are putting in as much as they are getting out and the most engaged and “noisy” of those will act as your brand ambassadors.

It’s also worth noting that without that unique editorial web content, you have a lot less to feed out to your social networks. Being active online isn’t just about making as much noise as possible — even your most faithful followers will tune you out eventually — it’s about working to excite and enthuse your key influentials so they feel they’re getting something out of the relationship.

Want to know more? Keep an eye out for the announcement of dates for our Miramus Secrets of Blogging Success Workshops, We only run them from time to time, so you’ll need to snap up a place quickly!

Recommended Reading:

Want 55% more visitors to your company site? Some pretty amazing stats from Hubspot analysing over 1000 companies. Upshot? Companies with editorial content performed significantly better than those without.
Blogging and social media marketing. Original content is key to success
CEOs are recognising the need for original content — 85% say it’s key to success.
Search Engine Optimization Guide for Beginners – Content is King [Article Intelligence] A really helpful, simple explanation of why editorial content on your site is so important for your search results.

Source: [Penn Olson]

The growth of business blogging in the US

Still unsure about the future of blogging for your business? A recent survey by eMarketer.com shows a huge shift towards the social media practice in the US, with 43% of businesses expected to be blogging by 2012 — almost half the market.

While personal blogging has seen a decline thanks to micro-blogging sites like Twitter, business blogging has seen a surge in popularity. Businesses are embracing blogging as it can suit the needs of their customers who refuse to tweet and shun Facebook, whilst improving their customer service and Google page ranking.

It certainly helps that marketers and PRs identify blogging as the most effective way of spreading news of their products and services, in particular in creating and launching virals.

Considering how quickly the UK tends to follow the lead of our friends over the pond, we’re likely to see similar statistics over here.

So the question isn’t really whether you should blog, rather can you afford not to? If your competition is optimising their target market with a blog filled with high quality SEO content, can you really justify not doing the same? This is particularly relevant to SMEs, who are the leading the pack when it comes to blogging.

Don’t forget you can find out more about business blogging and see some great case studies on the Miramus “Why Your Business Needs a Blog” presentation [4:28, needs audio]

Related: Blogging and social media marketing. Original content is key to success

Find the rest of the report on eMarketer.com

Blogging and social media marketing. Original content is key to success

If you need any further evidence that blogging should be a central part of your social media strategy, a handy new research report has shown just that.

A survey of 450 CEOs revealed that 85 percent of  respondents feel original content is critical to the success of their social media campaign.

Original content

If you’re trying to drive traffic to your site, a blog is not only excellent at natural SEO, it’s also a great way to bring in a new audience via both search and social bookmarking — not to mention traffic from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Blogging for SEO

If you’re just writing about the latest new products your company offers, you’re unlikely to see a huge increase in traffic or sales, but by producing something that is worth reading, you’re adding valuable content to your site that can be shared amongst online communities.

For more great ideas on how you can add valuable rich media to your site to increase traffic and sales, check out the case studies in the Miramus “Why Your Business Needs a Blog” presentation [4:28, needs audio]

Read full report on HubSpot [via Gold Coast Social Media]

Recommended Reading: Blogging for SEO. Improve your Google ranking with good content.

Blogging for SEO. Improve your Google ranking with good content

Everyone’s talking about SEO these days. And while it’s started to sound like a dirty word for some web purists, there’s no shame in wanting people to be able to find your website when they run a search.

The key is to create content that’s actually worth reading. You can stack up the keywords, optimise the life out of your headers, merrily chuck in celebrity names and wave around as many search-friendly statements as you like, but if what you’re saying is ultimately pointless, you’re not really doing much to make that traffic stick.

The web is a weird and wonderful place. Make something marvellous, and people will love you for it — which is good news for your Google rankings, and even better news for your brand.

So, yes, you should be writing a post a day, engaging in social media, getting excited about social bookmarking and making free and easy with the outbound links, but most importantly of all, you should be feeding the internet with something tasty, filling and more-ish. Not something full of empty calories with a strong odour of spam.

What the SEO world has to say about blogging

Blogging for SEO
The Top 10 E-commerce Blogging Tips to Skyrocket Sales