Search engine optimization (SEO) is a powerful tool for managing many aspects of your organization’s online marketing. One of the least use of SEO, but also one of the most important, is online reputation management.

A simple search for your name and keywords associated with your name and products will reveal things about your company that you may not be aware of. There will be things that you can easily fix, while others are harder to resolve, but more often than not, all can be managed. If you’re already doing SEO for your website, then the technique is directly applicable for reputation management. The only major difference is normal SEO is a marketing and sales function. When applied to reputation management, you add public relations (PR) to the team.

Here are few ideas to get started. 

• Know what’s out there. Do a thorough search of terms related to your business name, products and services, like you’re doing a keyword analysis. Be sure to pay attention to the blogosphere and social networking sites. These are the places where you’ll find people discussing and sharing their own experiences about your products and services, both positive and negative.
• Know your battlegrounds. You may find sites and blogs where your reputation is being discussed in positive or negative lights, and you’ll also find sites and blogs where there’s no discussion about your name and products at all. These are both valuable sites to get involved in, as your team will need to not only create marketing and PR campaigns to deal with (or take advantage of) the conversations, but also to create presence where there is lacking.
• Know your online social etiquette. Whatever your campaign goals are, you must adhere to proper social networking etiquette and mind your online social manners. Be yourself, be truthful, be honest, be helpful, and above all, be respectful and understanding of the public’s viewpoints. There are many ways to tell your story, and it’s much better to take the join-and-conquer approach instead of going in with your guns blazing.
• Know where the action is. If you can join a discussion to tell your side of the story or to do damage control, by all means do it. This will allow you to head off a problem straight on, or prevent an issue from blowing out of hand. By doing this, you’ll be seen as part of the solution, as you are actively managing your reputation at the same time. Additionally, you’ll leave a trail of written communication representing your company’s viewpoints around the web. This means when these discussions are found in search results, then your company is also found. This is effective SEO at work. 
• Know your first rule of SEO: content. Applying other SEO techniques such as writing keyword-rich content in comments, responses, blogs, forums and chat rooms will further help get your story found in relevant search results. Make it a habit, no, a policy, to always be helpful to the group with good and useful information about your company, products, services and industry. Doing this without being and sounding pushy will get your content found by your potential customers.

Actively managing your reputation through SEO and social networking will bring back immediate and measurable benefits. Reputation management should be an ongoing process. Don’t wait until you really have to manage your reputation, but manage it before you need to. Your name, and the reputation tagged to your name, is so important, you need to start managing it with the utmost urgency. After all, if you don’t care about your reputation, why should your customers?

So what are you doing to manage your reputation, online and offline? Whether you have a campaign or plan in place, try adding SEO and social networking to the mix. And don’t forget to share your experience with us in the comment below. We need all the help we can get. Thanks.

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Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

SEO and Social Networking as Reputation Management Tools

Updated 02-20-09. I took part in a mobile marketing campaign without realizing it until later. I just used an electronic coupon straight from my iPhone the other day. In the transaction I got what I wanted quickly and conveniently, and the merchant made a quick sale because the business took to online marketing. It’s cool, easy and simple, and I think companies will do more of it.

Whether or not you’re a fan of the restaurant Souplantation, you have to love their “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons. I must admit that we only go there when my wife finds a coupon in the mail. There are times when our cravings for soups and salads had to be overcome with some other alternative because we didn’t find a coupon that week, or didn’t have one on hand – I assured my wife that we’re not the only ones doing this.

Anyway we signed up for their Club Veg membership and now we receive special offers directly in our emails. So on a mid afternoon the other day while we were out on some errands, on a whim, she wanted to get some soups and salads. I remembered receiving something from Club Veg a few days ago, so I pulled out my iPhone, checked the email and guess what, there was a very nice looking coupon staring back at me, with bar code and everything!

Now normally you’d print the coupon out and take it with you. But I said let’s just go straight there since I wasn’t going to stop anywhere to print the darn thing to save a few bucks. I reasoned that they should be able to scan the barcode off of the iPhone if they must, or they can always key in the coupon numbers by hand. No big deal.

When presented with my electronic coupon, the guy at the register froze for a moment, then said he’ll have to check with the manager. When she came over, I showed her my coupon on my iPhone screen. She immediately approved the transaction. I paid and we were off to our table. My wife was very happy.

This is one perfect example of why mobile marketing should be in your company’s marketing mix. When executed correctly, everybody wins. The customers win with convenience, instant gratification and on-demand savings, and the merchant wins with quick sales resulting directly from their marketing campaigns targeted to customers’ real needs and demands.

I guess there is one loser in all of this mobile marketing excitement. Eventually, the U.S. Postal Service will see their business fall off even more as people find more ways to do business electronically.

Here are a few quick and easy tips to get your organization on the mobile marketing bandwagon quickly:

• Keep your message simple, relevant, timely, and take advantage of and exploit mobile behaviors. The offer and call to action must be clear. Try this quick 1-2-3 approach in your message:
  1. State what the offer is, clearly and quickly,
  2. Explain how to get the offer immediately from the mobile devices in their hands, and
  3. Suggest that they share the deal with their friends.
      
• Start with quick download or coupon offerings because they are simple and easy to implement, and satisfy the need for immediate gratification.
• Use short deadline offers to drive consumer action. Do daily deals, hourly deals, etc.
• Never take the mobile marketing medium for granted. Assuming you did the proper front-end opt-in process to ask your customers’ permission for mobile communication, you must continually respect their time and privacy, and never abuse your mobile messaging privileges.

So have you experienced or been involved in mobile marketing in some capacity, from either business or customer side? What is your favorite mobile marketing campaign you’ve seen? Share with us in the comment below.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Buy One, Get One Free Electronic Coupons: Mobile Marketing at Work

I missed the webinar and a chance to win his new book, but, courtesy of Hubspot’s Internet Marketing Webinars, here’s the video with David Meerman Scott discussing viral marketing, Feb 13, 2009.

David Meerman Scott’s World Wide Rave rules:

• Nobody cares about your products (except you).
• No coercion required.
• Lose control.
• Put down roots.
• Create triggers that encourage people to share.
• Point the world to your (virtual) doorstep.

Viral marketing. World wide rave. Looks like Mr. Scott is trying to brand a new social media phrase. I have no problem with this, but here’s real social media at work: he can do this because he’s become a “thought leader”, and we’re virally spreading his message. 

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Viral Marketing: Create a World Wide Rave with David Meerman Scott

“Three stories from my life.” Began Steve Jobs at the 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech. Inspirational then. Still inspirational and relevant today.

“You can only connect the dots looking backward”… “You have to trust that your dots will connect in the future.”

“You’ve got to find what you love”… “Keep looking. Don’t settle.”

“Death is the single best invention of life”… “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 (14:34)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech: Still Inspirational

Could it be that communication itself is a hindrance to corporations in adopting social media and blogs? Sounds counterintuitive but definitely possible. Consider the following.

What are some characteristics of getting involved in social media or maintaining a corporate blog? Is it being honest with your message? Is it being involved in the conversation regularly? Is it allowing comments, feedback and critiques to come back to you whether or not you want them? Is it having to take risks that you may lose trade secrets, private information, etc.? or is it all of the above?

Yes it’s communication itself. It’s the fear of getting or receiving something back unexpectedly – good is OK but what if it’s bad? It’s the fear of the unknown that’s outside of the normal outbound marketing, which marketers have control over. It’s the fear of the unknown and the what-ifs. It’s the fear of inbound marketing.

Admittedly, getting involved in corporate social media and blogs does require attention to the details mentioned above. These are in addition to the POST Method that I blogged about last November – People, Objectives, Strategy and Technology. But the reality is, if you have to take time thinking about each and every message or structuring and molding every communication piece before relating to your customers, then you may not understand your company, company culture, and value propositions as well as you should. Of course there are important and proper communication channels for corporate announcements, press releases and the like, but day-to-day relationship with your customers and prospects should be a tactical strategy in the same vein as public relations (PR). It should be constant.

So what ‘s the solution? Maybe start with the following:

• Understand that social media and blogs can be valuable corporate tools.
• Create clear and flexible policies that foster more intimate communication with customers and prospects while minimizing risks to the company.
• Empower the right individual(s) to carry out social media and blogs, working closely with every other departments within the organization.
• Constantly monitor results (quantitatively and qualitatively) and be nimble to change direction as needed.

So what’s your experience? What have you found working successfully at your organization? Share with us in the comments.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Reason Companies Fear Social Media and Blogs: Maybe It’s Communication Itself

The new Pepsi logos are on the bottles and in the market, so I thought I’d give Pepsi logos a revisit.

I said logos because apparently there isn’t one Pepsi logo, but several in fact. More on this in a little bit.

Back in early November 2008, I wrote about how Pepsi was using social media to promote its logo change with relative decent results. Here’s the link to that article Pepsi 25 Social Media Rebranding Campaign. Despite some discontent from a few people in both social media camp and branding camp, I thought the Pepsi campaign had guts, creativity and potential for great success.

Now that I see the new Pepsi logos on actual products, I do have some hesitation to call the new look great, though I think the rebranding effort remains generally good. There are plenty of discussions around the web about why people like or don’t like it. See some examples in this post Pepsi, New Bottles at underconsideration.com, and this post Thoughts about Pepsi on LoveDesignLove.com.

Here’s the deal with the multiple logos. According to AdAge.com and reported on underconsideration.com, Pepsi “pour some $1.2 billion over three years into a push that will include sweeping changes to its brands, including what Chairman-CEO Indra Nooyi characterized as a revamp of ‘every aspect of the brand proposition for our key [carbonated soft drink] brands. How they look, how they’re packaged, how they will be merchandised on the shelves, and how they connect with consumers.’”

“The white band in the middle of the logo will now loosely form a series of smiles. A “smile” will characterize brand Pepsi, while a “grin” is used for Diet Pepsi and a “laugh” is used for Pepsi Max. Also, Mountain Dew will be rebranded as Mtn Dew. The news was first reported in Beverage Digest.”

I guess the “smile” version is the official corporate logo, as used on the Pepsi website, while the “grin” and “laugh” are only product variations. Beverage companies traditionally have different logos/brands for their different product lines (Pepsi, Mtn Dew – not Mountain Dew anymore, and Gatorade, to name a few), but never within a line. It looks like Pepsi is taking a big step to have different logos for a regular, diet, and the Max drinks. This is a big change and signifies an expanding viewpoint that could allow them lots of flexibilities in the future.

In the end people will just have to give themselves time to not dislike the new Pepsi logos. Just like the Honda Element or Mercedes-Benz G-Class. People hated them when they first came out. Now they’re popular vehicles. On the other hand, I can’t say the same for the Pontiac Aztek, which I don’t think ever escaped from its ugliness. Anyway, I think the new Pepsi logos will not follow the fate of the latter. And for Pepsi fans, as long as they get their fix, nothing else matters much. For the non-fans, they’re already helping Pepsi by talking up the new logo. So Pepsi can’t lose. For me I think the smile, grin and laugh may be cute, but they dilute the impact of a strong single logo usage.

By the way, Pepsi fan or not, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the images below: Pepsi logo evolution and the classic Pepsi cans. For an interesting overview of the history of the logo, head over to Pepsi Logo at logoblog.org.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

New Pepsi Logos – Smile, Grin and Laugh

Want to make a customer happy even before s/he becomes your customer? Make your website site navigation easy to navigate. It’s really low-cost marketing and even easier customer service.

A website’s navigation is important for several reasons. It helps visitors find information faster and more efficiently. It can also help search engines understand what you consider important on your site.

First make sure you get the basics down by making available a sitemap (a webpage on your site displaying the structure and a hierarchical listing of all important pages on your site, otherwise known as HTML sitemap) and a Sitemap (a file submitted to and utilized by major search engines to easily discover pages on your site, otherwise known as XML Sitemap.) Here are a few easy ways to ensure your navigation is user friendly:

• Create site navigation that flows naturally from general content to specific content. This means giving the readers an overview of the subject matter before showing detailed information. Do this without forcing readers to make too much effort in finding what they want, including making them click through 4, 5 or more levels down from the top. I would recommend no more than 3 levels deep in your navigation.
• Create site navigation that is not complex where all pages are linking to all other pages. If this is the case, then each page will be laden with navigation links, crowding out your real content. Practice selective linking by using keyword rich text links within your content to relevant pages when appropriate.
• Create site navigation using mostly text instead of images. Search engines especially like text content, and this will aid them in going through your site to find them. You can do your site a real disservice if you only use drop-down menus, images or animation in your navigation.
• Create site navigation with breadcrumbs links to help readers see exactly where they are on your site at any time, and to quickly go back up the navigation structure. A typical breadcrumb navigation (below) starts with a “Your Are Here:” or some other similarly user-friendly phrase, and is normally located just under your site’s navigation/header area, and above all main content.

• Create site navigation that gracefully handles errors, incorrect urls, nonexistent pages, and the ‘page not found’ faux pas. One way is to ensure these problematic pages will be taken care of by a custom 404 page. Your custom 404 page then will kindly guide readers on what to do next, including offering a list of popular links on your site, a search box to find the content, or other suggestions. In any case avoid having just the “Not found” showing, or even worse, no 404 page, leaving your readers stranded. Here’s a link to nowhere on our site which will serve up our custom 404 page.

It’s all about making it easy for visitors to find what they want. It’s no different from providing easy way for customers to find products a brick-and-mortar store. They’ll love you for it. This is low-cost marketing and easy customer service.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Give Customers What They Want: Easy Site Navigation

How does an organization implement social media? A better question: How do you implement social media with resources at your disposal or do you go outside for help? The answer lies in who owns social media in an organization.

Ownership of social media can cross several organizational lines, at the same time it may require specialization in new sets of skills and disciplines. The line of responsibility is fuzzy at best and confusing at worst. As Jason Baer writes over at the MarketingProfs in an article called “Who Wins the Struggle for Social Media Control?” there are four combatants who may rightfully claim social media ownership. Although the article looks at the struggle between outside agencies or specialists rather than that within a company, I think the struggle is just as valid for internal departments. The 4 combatants are, in Mr. Baer’s words:

• Advertising. Because social media often requires making stuff, and can impact overall brand perception, advertising should be in charge of social media. The rising importance of video within social media also favors advertising types.
   
• Digital. Because social media is (at least for now) an online construct, the Internet marketing agencies should be in the driver’s seat. Plus, social media has major SEO implications in some cases, and most SEO is still handled by digital specialists.
   
• Public Relations. Because social media is ultimately about conversations, and is non-linear, public relations is best equipped to manage social media efforts. Especially so given the demise of traditional journalism, the importance of blogger relations, and the blurring of the lines between customer and reporter.
   
• Client. Because social media is ideally an extension and manifestation of the brand’s operations and culture, and requires near-constant vigilance and engagement, the client is best able to oversee social media. Comcast is a good example of this philosophy.

In closing the article, Mr. Baer advocates that public relations should be the gatekeeper for social media, but admits that PR still has a long way to go. To me this is a valid conclusion, but I would go a few steps further to clarify the issues and offer more realistic solutions that enable successful corporate social media thrusts.

Social media itself can have variations in definition depending whom you talk to. As Wikipedia defines it,

Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings. The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories and experiences. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).

The key words to take away here are: sharing, discussing, communications, social, human beings, interaction, Internet and mobile-based, communities. Social media was clearly embraced by the public/consumer. Millions are already participating in “social media” activities as a way of life. All this while corporations are still trying to figure out how to get involved.

The answer is to keep it simple. From a corporation’s viewpoint, social media should really be part of marketing and PR, but the rules are really set by the consumers or the audiences. So you’ll need to get in the game, provide the resources to do so, and make sure you follow established rules of the game and not insist on pushing your own rules. If you’re talking about a specialty agency, then I think it’s still about marketing and PR, and the rules are still set by the consumers or the audiences. The only difference is what you want your agency to specialize in, in the same way that advertising agencies decide to specialize in print, radio, TV, Internet or a combination of these.

Either way, there is a final critical element to the answer of who owns social media in corporations: leadership. Corporate leaders must understand what social media is, what it’s for, why it can be a powerful tool, and how it can help. Alternatively, entrust it to and empower someone who understands it. This is important because only with informed knowledge comes informed decisions; deciding not to pursue social media because you don’t understand it is really an uninformed decision. Social media is already an important communication tool chosen by the consumers. Therefore it must be a part of corporate marketing and PR tools used to reach those consumers. There just is no other way.

There are still a few outstanding questions. Companies, by competitive nature, have been very aggressive in bringing messages to the consumers using whatever new communication tools to get an edge on the competition. And marketing and PR, by definition, are very creative groups of people. So why is social media, as a communication tool, not being looked at as another important tool for marketing and PR? Are we sleeping at the wheel, or what’s really holding us back? Is the social media concept so difficult to grasp that we’re still scared of it? Share your opinions and comments.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Social Media: Who in Your Organization Should Own It?

A page’s meta description tag is one of the most important elements of your search engine optimization activities from Google’s standpoint.

When you’re marketing your site online and hope that people will find their way to your content or offering, most of the traffic coming to your site will be through organic searches. In a typical Google search engine result, as shown below for the search phrase “hybrid cars compendium”, what you normally see are the page title snippet (from the meta title tag), description snippet (from the meta description tag), url and page size, then the cached version of the page followed by the “Similar pages” link.

It’s clear that Google tends to choose the title and description metas as snippets to show in search results, although there’s a caveat to keep in mind. Obviously Google is not going to tell us what it does or does not do exactly. However Google does indicate that it might use other relevant sections of your page’s visible text if those do a better job matching up with a searcher’s query (in Google’s eye of course). So if you want control then write your own description that is relevant.

According to Google, the description is important because it gives search engines a summary of what your page is about. The description can be a couple of sentences in length and should be relevant to your content as explained above. From my experience it’s probably a good idea to load all your important keywords within the first 170 or so characters of the description. Anything beyond that may get cut off and not shown in the search result snippets.

And here’s a bonus, courtesy of Google itself. You can use the Google Webmaster Tools to analyze your title and meta description against Google’s expectations. This handy tool tells you if your meta tags are too short, too long or even duplicated. Just log in to your Google account, select Webmaster Tools, find your site and go to Diagnotics/Content Analysis area. Then you can fix any problem listed in the analysis.

Writing proper meta description should always be part of your best practices in search engine optimization and search engine marketing efforts. It’s time well spent to ensure visitors find what they’re looking for. In summary here are some simple rules:

• Write relevant, focussed description that accurately summarizes the page’s content to inform and attract searchers.
• Write unique description for each web page on your site.
• Avoid descriptions that are too generic.
• Avoid filling description with only keywords. 

By the way, because good descriptions attract visitors, you’ll get improved click-through rates (CTR) from the search engine results pages (SERPs), but no effect for your search result ranking.

It’s always a good idea to begin working your SEO before a new site goes live. But what if you already have a functioning site with lots of pages? Should you go back to your pages to redo/improve description metas? It’s probably worth it, at least for those pages with the best/most relevant/unique content.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Use Meta Description Tags to Improve Search Engine Marketing Results

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important element of getting a website found by the Internet content reader. After all, without a reader to consume your content, there’s no reason for anyone or any organization to have a website, thus no reason for online marketing and SEO.

The reader, or consumer of content, normally uses some kind of search engine such as Google, Yahoo, MSN (or a whole host of others) to find the information s/he needs. But we as marketers must always keep one thing straight: SEO and search engine are only a mean to an end. SEO is not the end goal itself. It is the content that is the end that serves the readers. This is the reason why providing relevant, useful information for visitors to consume is a crucial step in the SEO process.

Think of it this way. Decisions you make and things you do to attract visitors to your site must be based first and foremost on what’s best for the visitors. If this is not the case, even if a visitor somehow finds your site, s/he can and will immediately leave if the content searched for does not exist. Good content attracts high traffic. Conversely, useless content repels visitors.

In summary, if you do nothing else but just concentrate on creating great and captivating content, you already have a winning SEO strategy in place.

So are you spending a good amount of time on developing great content as part of your SEO strategy?

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

One Secret to Successful SEO, If You Don’t Do Anything Else