Creating buzz around a product on an external forum or blog can be very effective, especially if the blog is full of relevant links to deep product or service pages on the brand site. But it’s not always easy…

It’s also not hard – just time consuming, and you need to know what you’re doing. Here’s one way that won’t break the bank, or deviate too much from any social presence or initiatives you already have running:

• In order to facilitate and encourage participation in brand related product forums and social networking sites to gain decent anchor text backlinks, you might consider starting an unofficial blog where you provide interesting information about your brand, your direct and indirect competitors and suppliers.

• Include insights and mentions of complimentary and supplementary products and services highlighting faults, advantages, customer service and other relevant feedback from all related forums, social media and industry sites. Nofollow non-prime site external links; there’s no value to sharing out your newly gained link-juice, but there is value to providing those external resources to your knowledgeable, info-seeking visitors. Open those links in a new window.

• Build a solid reputation as an objective industry source of information and pay attention to regular commentary contributors – positive and negative – building a brand game plan to deal with both on the brand site itself.

• The potential for YouTube exposure is infinite if you offer brand based prizes for (examples) ‘funniest’, ‘weirdest’ or ‘most innovative’ use of your product, or ‘most extensive use’ of your service. The potential is limited only to the brands legal and social responsibility, and your ability and innovativeness as their lead.

ABDUCTION OF THE INFLUENTIALS… This is one of the best vids I’ve ever seen to explain UGC… Just CLICK!

Harness the Power of Social Networks

There are social networks for pretty much everything; Go Green, IT, design, architecture, SEO, electronics, home goods, kids stuff, books – you name it, it’s out there. Find a few really targeted and relevant networks and integrate. Again this can be in the form of both main brand and pseudo-brand.

• Create a FaceBook/MySpace account – invite people via search, and incentivize them with an offer; e.g. a draw; once we reach 1000 we will send 15 random entrants a Starbucks discount… It depends on the brand, your insights, your involvement, and how you handle your SMM. NEVER be in the position where you can be accused of bribing.

• Create a Twitter account – if you’re really big, offer a free software package, but offer daily/weekly tidbits of info to folks who have already purchased it, including updates and engage.engage.engage.

• Digg both detractor and evangelist type articles.

Social networks can be particularly powerful for brand-building. If you are a brand and want to engage the power of consumer feedback, take an active part in those communities that work best for you and link to them from your blog or your prime product page/s.

Enabling your users to find ‘more’ information from their peers via your facilitation might generate a bit of a flux in the social network, but if you have a name in the network, not only can you answer them, you can expect your brand evangelists and followers to take part in dealing with their queries as well, even if it is simply to the point of linking them back to an FAQ or review page.

Problems With UGC And How To Deal With Them

To help site owners manage the potential avalanche of UGC headed their way a number of platforms have been developed which allow companies to add UGC elements to their sites. Ensure that whichever option you choose you stringently evaluate the SPAM management offering. Most CMS enable spam monitoring and blog creation; setting goals, expectations and limitations is up to you. It is advisable if you are unsure to check the full disable functionality of any CMS or blog software.

Spam hurts everyone...

Anonymous commentary or feedback must always be run through a stringent spam detection program which prevents spam blog or review commentary prior to live publication. Simply ensure you have a disclaimer on the page that is very direct and simple indicating that if feedback doesn’t show within a set period of time, to contact you by email and include a link to your spam definition. Never allow profanity, blasphemy, or plain vileness through. Filters sort that, don’t make the mistake of enabling it – it’s in your power; it’s your brand.

Transparency is good, enabling ‘hate’ or plain disrespect and bad manners is not. Make your filters as transparent as possible – that’s what the filter is for, and that’s what the disclaimer supports. You can’t stop what other sites say about you, but you can – to an extent – ensure that your commentary, while transparent, is palatable.

It is absolutely vital to monitor your online presence, and take the initiative wherever possible and/or necessary. For example; if a well known industry blog writes about your product in a less than flattering manner, detecting that mention of your product or brand name quickly is imperative. It allows you to be proactive in two ways:

1. Copy the negative feedback from the blog on your own product site with a link to the blog post, with immediate, genuine company feedback, including a link to the other reviews or UGC (hopefully positive) on your site.
2. On the ‘offending’ blog itself post a comment to the effect that you have seen their post, thank them for their time, and urge them and their other readers to view your full response and other user commentary on your product review page via a link.

While there are numerous online reputation management tools if you are going ‘free’ I personally recommend Google Alerts; if you are prepared to spend money, then TrackUR.com is a paid service, but far superior, and affordable.

Conclusion

The boost of interest in UGC and the need to implement it while watching for on-site spam has intersected very nicely with the desire to monitor both positive and negative commentary around the web. Monitoring what is being said about your business on the net and in the blogosphere also enables businesses to discover what people do and don’t like about their company, brand, product line, specific product, customer service, affiliate, brick and mortar store, and more. It’s a great way for a business to be knowledgeable while at the same time proactive, assuming the strategic ability deal quickly, diplomatically, carefully, and positively with brand detractors and evangelists as they gather insights for R&D and insight and planning.

This is Part 3 of a 3 part series on UGC. Part 2 is UGC and Small Business – What Works & Why and Part 1 is  UGC – Maximize Your Online Exposure with People Power!

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1. How do I make sure UGC is optimized and ranks well?
2. Are there strategies I can use to get the most out of my UGC from an SEO point of view?

The simple answer is that the optimal solution will likely be different for each business and/or site, but in general you should begin by controlling the pages on which the UGC will display, as well as the primary pages within your remit that link directly to them. And remember, your target market may be more tech savvy than you think and ready and willing to start engaging more actively, especially if you have a large loyal return base.

(this is BIG because this is both a really big pain point and a really big stumbling block; funny yet just a smidge tragic if you like)

A common example that comes to mind when thinking about a business and the ways users provide feedback about an online offering are ‘Customer Reviews’. These reviews are enormously important in that they have proven to be the primary medium used to facilitate the transition of the traditionally powerful word-of-mouth referral system from offline to online. The question remains: How best can you make use of the power of reviews on your site?

For product reviews and commentary, there are two main approaches to enable UGC integration on product pages (the most relevant place to put them). One; it is possible to list a few reviews on the page with a link to a full review/feedback page; or, two you could simply include a hyperlink on the product page linking to the reviews. If you choose the former, ensure feedback is provided by registered purchasers if you sell online, or via registration or captcha requirements for non-purchasers.

The next step would be to ensure that you optimize the review pages themselves. Conduct keyword research on the product or brand, targeting words of negative and positive association. For example; this is one way to encompass the issues (in summary):

Scenario: I conducted some preliminary keyword research on iPhone looking at very generic research phrases like ’good iphone’, ‘bad iphone’ [sounds like a puppy in training] ‘great iphone’ and ‘iphone fail’. It generated a number of insights; we’ll look at three (please note, these findings are drawn from an external keyword research tool, and do not reflect the opinion of the magazine, nor those of the author of this article, regarding the iPhone’s ability or lack thereof to send emails, to deal with mobile messaging, or to work ‘overseas’):

1. A common question: ‘is the iPhone good overseas?’
2. Some people are concerned about iPhone email failing
3. iPhones are ‘good’ with mobile messaging

 How might you deal with this information?

1. Create one optimized page for each issue,
2. Link to each page from a hub area on the primary product page.
3. Generate external buzz and links to these pages by monitoring online conversation around the primary topic and answering and linking back using nofollows where warranted.

There are, of course numerous other strategies you can utilize to optimize your UGC including:

· Use featured reviews, where you place the reviews that receive the most ‘votes’ in a defined top area nearer to the fold included by date and possibly subtly. Never place your most positive reviews at the top and your negative reviews at the bottom; users may become wary of manipulation. If you’re getting a lot of bad reviews, think about your offering or the associated service, investigate and rectify. It’s great for R&D, for in-house cleaning and for in-house acknowledgement when individual people get named as ‘stars’!

· Inviting ‘opt-in email’ purchasers to review with a non-monetary incentive to do so

· Ensuring that ‘cleared’ reviews go live immediately. Frequent updating is important to rankings due to the fact that fresh content encourages more ‘frequent’ crawling by the ranking algorithms. Frequent caching has been found to impact positively on search results. Use webmaster tools if you don’t already.

· Minimizing bounce rates; those who surf to a review page are usually more qualified than those who bounced or left somewhere in their visit without clicking to the review page. They have already moved along the pathway in their quest to find a product to satisfy their need or want. Time spent on site is usually greater with reviews than other types of content, and conversion rates are higher than those who only visit the product page.

Consumers want to know what’s great about a product. If positive reviews include objective emotional feedback, the review can ‘speak’ to potential consumers who are looking for the same kind of experience. For example, a book review written by a mother highlighting the positive emotional bonding she experienced sharing the book with her teenager will be a sure hit for many moms trying to connect with their teenage daughters. 68% of consumers trust ‘people like me’ first for product advice. (Edelman Trust Barometer).

Dealing with Questions

· FAQs are an area that can be enhanced by UGC to make your site more usable and more valuable to visitors. Enabling an advanced UGC based FAQ hub can not only provide a more satisfying user experience while facilitating R&D via disclosure, it may also facilitate actual transactions due to easy question-response detection and direction, and decrease product returns. Also, include post sales service UGC as a primary link off the main product page.

· Live Q&A with a tech support member dedicated to all FAQ and other support issues should be enabled, with the option to allow the question and to be published online, incognito, or with some or full disclosure at the users discretion. If you service multiple time-zones, ensure you have staff to deal with the potential service requirement.

Negative vs. Positive Feedback

Don’t silo negative and positive feedback into separate areas. Negative feedback must be included with positive. In most cases, the majority of feedback will be positive, unless it is a really bad product or service in which case you withdraw it from the market, but keep the reviews live as Amazon did with the apparently diabolical HotWheels Slimecano;

· ‘My six year old son bought this with his own money and has already offered to give it away,’ and

· ‘ATTN: Do not buy this toy, even if it is on sale for 5 cents…’ are two relatively mild reviews.

Despite being discontinued, Amazon retains product information along with the more than 170 reviews which most certainly contributed to the Slimecano’s withdrawal from the shelves and halted production.

Bear in mind that negative consumer feedback provides authenticity and an opening for brand evangelists to offer alternative solutions; such as other consumers mentioning to potential iPhone customers that, even though the surface scratches easily, you can simply buy a case – thus providing great feedback for R&D and rebuttal.

This is Part 2 of a three part series on UGC. If you’d like to read part 1, it’s here UGC – Maximize Your Online Exposure with People Power!

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Online UGC is something that has been growing in incidence and importance over the last few years, but it’s only recently that search marketing practitioners have seriously begun to consider the impact of UGC on SEO, and actively tried to harness its power to boost search engine rankings, exposure and enhance site usability. The growing importance of UGC can be seen in the following data:

1. Consumers are relying more on UGC

• 83% of shoppers said online product evaluations and reviews had some level of influence on their purchasing decisions. (Opinion Research Corporation, July 2008)
• As of October 2008, almost half of US online adults read ratings and reviews at least once a month (Forrester)

2. Marketers are relying more on UGC

• In a BazaarVoice Case Study of a major electronics retailer site search visitors landing on user review pages converted 60% more often, spent 50% more time, and viewed 82% more pages than search visitors to other pages.
• The Shop.org State of Retailing Online study, conducted by Forrester Research, found only 26% of the 137 top retailers surveyed offered customer ratings and reviews, but 96% of them ranked customer ratings and reviews as an effective or very effective tactic at driving conversion.

3. Offline sales are influenced by UGC

• According to eMarketer (a 2007 study), for every $1 in online sales, the Internet influenced $3.45 of store sales.
• More than 75% of review users in nearly every category reported that the review had a significant influence on their purchase, with hotels ranking the highest (87%). (comScore/The Kelsey Group, October 2007)

From a purely SEO point of view, a telling statistic is that 26% of search results link to user generated content (Nielsen Buzz Metrics). The fact that users are increasingly turning to UGC is compounded by evidence that the engines are displaying this information. It is vital that online marketers actively and proactively investigate and integrate user generated content into their online mix.

If you think your site might be ready to benefit from UGC (and almost any site can), then its time to consider how UGC can best fit your online offering. You need to determine which of the multitude types of UGC will most effectively and efficiently complement, supplement and/or push your online SEO initiative including:

· product reviews (e.g. Amazon.com)

· service reviews (e.g. Google Local),

· seller reviews (e.g. eBay),

· blog comments,

· news comments,

· forum posts or comments,

· video/audio and photo sharing sites (e.g. YouTube and Flickr),

· social networking sites comments or posts (e.g. Twitter, SecondLife, Facebook, MySpace),

· wikis and composite review sites (e.g. ConsumerReport.org)

Targeting for Acquisition

Once you have determined where and what UGC you wish to employ, it is vital that optimization be applied to reap the full benefit.

Optimization can take many forms; UGC help you rank higher in search engines, particularly through manipulation of the long tail according to a recent Search Engine Land post. There is also the fact that effective navigation and internal linking based on a UGC acquisition and inclusion initiative will make your UGC both more visible on your site and more useful (or applicable) to visitors. The two are not mutually exclusive, and working together they can increase your visibility in the SERPs and rocket your conversion rate and ROI.

What is important is that you don’t mess with the actual UGC itself. In other words you target optimization efforts at the review page’s URL, Title, META description and header. Then let the UGC flow freely, within reason.

User generated content – it’s all about YOU!

I only made it to the Bat Cruise (awesome, live music, cruising on Lady Bird Lake, great people) and then to the incredible Salt Lick thingey-do. Picture beer-donkeys, chicken s**t bingo, mechanical bull riding, live western band, great Tex-Mex and fantastic hosts, great people… and you can’t do it justice.

I wanted to put a summary of my key learning’s down for everyone, and hopefully show you how much you all missed and how much you really should try to go to next years.

First, if you didn’t see their see zany intro on ‘The Forbidden Zone: Missing Influentials’ I highly recommend it (+/- 5 minutes excluding outtakes).

CONTAGIOUS MEDIA

This is basically the media you apply to any viral strategy you employ online via the socnets, or aimed at the social network market.

It works best when targeted at personality types (I particularly liked the “mullet” definition applied to personality – work in the front, party in the back!). The idea is to split your target market within a social network by personality type and target those personality needs and wants via different approaches.

The Huffington Post co-founder Jonah Peretti explained how they apply real time metrics and template movement facilitation to their editors to move popular topics up the page, less popular topics down the page, and offer front page real time involvement based on user interaction. In the background they have links to popular socnet conversations, sites, topics and offer great web-wide interaction for all readers. A measure of their enormous success is in their growth, and in Jonah’s incredible entrepreneurial ability and foresight regarding socnet interest including the Nike Sweatshop initiative featured on NBC.

Apart from targeting personality types, it also works best when the expectations are set to those types regarding rewards for involvement: for some folks it is reward enough to be part of a community – for them pure collaboration is the name of the game. Others want something tangible; so you can think contests, rewards, sweepstakes etc… it is well worth exploring your social network targets, defining your markets and then nailing your personality types and developing your engagement strategy based on those learnings as well as your objectives. If you want pure collaboration, that market is approached differently to a market that you may want to engage to encourage pure viral spread in the form of open sweepstakes.

YOUR INFLUENTIALS

A big take-away for me was the fact that it is possible to identify your major influentials; your multipliers. In the case of the speakers on this topic, affluent middle-aged women were their target multipliers. How to target them? Well, I’m not going to spoil next years conference for you, but apply basic target marketing based on demographic strongly salted with socnet requirements, and peppered with the online bus objective for your initiative.

Another big take-away was that supporting evangelists and dealing with detractors is not the be-all and end-all of your approach. What you really need to be doing is turning your neutrals into fans, and then your fans into ambassadors.

Determine what these folks want, apply an open stealth campaign to integrate and engage them, push the engagement into collaboration via a securely defendable social media plan, and make tactical refinements based on learnings.

1. social media is not that new that there are not a lot of very strong, very savvy players
2. social media is still new enough that even the biggest folks are learning and make mistakes.

If you make a mess of something, own up straight away, apologise and offer an alternative. If something works, give kudos to your socnet members and participators; especially your multipliers.

WHAT ABOUT THE ENGINES?

Another take-away was to make use of the SERPs as a playground for social media target research. Pick some phrases you would like to be associated with, and some you do not want to be associated with… this is very different to traditional keyword research as it is based on wording and commentary you will have picked up in the socnets via reputation management tools (like Radian6).

Check out what Google listings are for those top 10-20 positive and negative terms and proactively target those terms in the social networks, including online PR.

CONCLUSION

This is a small sample of stuff from only 3 sessions I attended (and takes up 3 slides of my 17 slide feedback ppt presentation). Obviously as my employer (Intuit) paid for me to go, my learnings in toto will be applied to our offerings, and I can only strongly encourage anyone who reads this blog to attend next years BazaarVoice Social Summit. It’s interesting and groundbreaking, and the insights are all easily applied and implementable – if you have a progressive management team willing to let you play in the Social space. Read more about how you can encourage your management to do just that!

BAZAARVOICE MENTION

Customer reviews are the way to go regarding UGC integration from a marketing insights and R&D learning platform direction at the very least. Quite simply, these guys rock.

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter and let’s see what we can continue to do together to make social networks a legitimate point of customer collaboration, communication and learning, not just for marketing, but for R&D… better products and better services will make for a greater global competitive advantage for our businesses… we need that, and we can do it, together!

Disclaimer: nothing I say here may or should be attached to any employer, current or previous. This is my personal blog. The views expressed on this page are mine alone and not those of my employer.

Before I go off on a slightly different tangent, entirely prompted by my reading of Steven’s thought’s, I highly recommend reading the post that started me thinking, the comments alone are enormously interesting. The primary point here will deal with one element Steven commented back at me regarding corporations and their potentially inherent ‘fear’ of social media, and I’ll answer with what I believe they can do to embrace social media – effectively.

Of course my ideas are not everyone’s cup of tea. I’ll simply start with saying that a company, or brand, needs to be somewhat proactive, and somewhat non-anally retentive (there just is no nice way of saying that) in the legal and ‘messaging control’ department if they even hope to attempt a successful foray into the socnet space in the first place.

Biggest Fear #1

“You want to WHAT? Over my bloody dead body. Do you think for one moment legal or branding will let you message at random on the internet? Do you not know about our PR requirements regarding disclosure, our editorial requirements our….*sputter**hiccough**burp**wheeze*….”

Yeah I know, over-dramatization, but you get it… and come to think of it, I actually do know of a few folks in rather big brands who would – literally - nearly have a heart-attack at the thought of engaging openly, irregularly and in an non-brand-dictated fashion online - and dare I say - it in a live PUBLIC arena. Oh, the horror…

Solution, Its actually not at all hard…

The decision makers need to understand a few salient points:

1. Social networks are not subject to disclosure regulations.
2. If anyone in a social network sees you using the words ‘aptitude’, ‘due diligence’, ‘decree’ or sees you using poncy typically non-social terminology in your (all of 140 characters) tweets for example, they are likely to not follow you, unfollow you, take the piss, or ignore you.
3. It’s social; define ‘Social’: composed of sociable people or formed for the purpose of sociabilitymarked by friendly companionship with others [wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn]
4. it’s a ‘network’; define ‘Network‘: [to] communicate with and within a group [wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn]
5. Let’s take points 3 and 4 and define ‘Social Network’:

A web of interconnected people who directly or indirectly interact with or influence the student and family. May include but is not limited to family, teachers and other school staff, friends, neighbors, community contacts, and professional support. [http://rrtcpbs.fmhi.usf.edu/rrtcpbsweb/glossary.htm#Shttp://rrtcpbs.fmhi.usf.edu/rrtcpbsweb/glossary.htm#S]

    5.  It’s ’online’; define ‘Online Social Network’:
…actually, there was no definition according to my search on Google for “define:..”, and so I asked some folks on Twitter for their thoughts. A simple, insightful and unbiased answer was simply this from @cyandle:

• A community where you can engage with others online…

Actually, in a nutshell, that is exactly what it is; a means of getting and maintaining the attention of others online by:

• interacting with them, 
•  responding to them,
• answering them,
• collaborating with them

… engaging them; but within the boundaries of what is considered to be socially acceptable, if not in the real world, then in the very real online social world where the rules may be unwritten, but they are very clear, and woe to the faint-hearted or ignorant. Yes, I’m talking to you Mr. Company.

 Can you apply these points to interacting on the social networks as a brand or corporation? YES! In 6 clear ways:

1.  Be transparent. Transparency is good, but not overtly so. Posting comments about or sending people to disclaimers and terms and conditions or privacy policies is not what it’s about.

2.  Be open to negative comments and feedback, and deal with it in a friendly, open manner. If it carries on to the point where it is affecting your profile – just stop communicating with the individual and escalate it to PR or support. You can do that in the social networks. People don’t expect anyone to be online 24 hours a day, not even a big brand due to the inherent nature of ‘sociability’. The people being social on the part of your brand are not supposed to be legal experts, they’re supposed to be real people. They may even have an account that is their own, and not a pure brand profile like @TTaxChristine.

3.  It is possible to communicate with your client base or target market as a brand profile in an open way that does not detract from your brand, breeds humor and awareness, and integrates you into the community.

4.  Forget disclosure rules and editorial limitations and realize that this is a live environment. You don’t have time to check with legal, run to brand messaging, or wait for a deploy date to get an answer out to a confused socnet member, nor to anticipate that PR control will pick up on every negative mention of the brand, or be able to thank evangelists as they mention the brand. Social networks are a powerful tool that allow you to do just that, if you give your social team the flexibility to do so, in real time.

5.  The surprise and often frank thanks of socnet members when you do reply to them in a timely manner is in many cases exceptionally rewarding. Even if they had a negative comment, the fact that the brand took the time to check, apologize, rectify or promise a rectification or pass-on to a department who will get back to them is enormously empowering for the individual, and gives them a more favorable impression of the brand than they had when they made their comment in the first place. If your company is one that never admits failure online or in public, I need to warn you that if it is real, and you don’t admit it, especially to a detractor that has raised a point, and offer a solution or apology, they are likely to have a far more negative influence on your brand than if you do, especially if they have a large following, or are popular in their selected network.

• My 6th and final point on this topic is this; no individual, group or brand can control what is said of them online in the social networks. They cannot answer every detractor, nor build loyalty by answering every evangelist or supporter in a press release.

Thoughts for big brands to take-away…

 Give up some control corporates:

·     Hire social folks

·     Set some ground rules (no swearing, no personal brand detraction, no overt promotion of competition etc)

·     Develop some processes (which networks, when and where; where and who to escalate to for highs and lows) and let them do their thing.

·     Get a decent social network monitoring tool, just as I assume you have a reputation management tool already, even if it is just Google Alerts (check our Radian6, TruCast and TrackUR for starters).

If you let go a bit, you’ll find that the social networks will become a good place for you to interact, get feedback and most importantly collaborate with and gain trust from your core group of followers, and you will find that – if you play right – that group will grow, along with your profits.

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It’s not a case of the chicken-before-the-egg or vice versa. They are two completely different disciplines, though each can benefit from the other much as SEO and paid search can benefit from other online and offline advertising.

Let’s look at each of these terms in isolation:

SMM:

abbreviation for:

social media marketing

definition a’la SEMI:

An internet marketing practice involving the participation of a company/brand/identity on social media* sites to pursue marketing & brand objectives online via social bookmarking*, media* and professional networking sites.

*Bookmarking sites traditionally allow you to bookmark and share sites, while social media sites offer bookmarking capabilities along with advanced voting ‘rights’ to ‘thumbs-up’ or ‘thumbs-down’ a post.

achieved via:

1. Finding relevant social sites around your online offering. For example;

·    Sphinn is pretty much utilized and targeted by search marketing bloggers and professionals involved in SEM;

·    Care2 is for businesses making a serious attempt to ‘go green’;

·    NetParty for younger SMM practitioners to connect online & organize real meets to network in the flesh;

·    Autospies focuses on everything auto related;

·    NowPublic focuses on citizen journalism;

·    Twitter is a ‘mini-blog’ site allowing users to post short messages on new products, posts & ideas.

2. Determine if the sites you see as ‘relevant’ actually have a following of people that will make engagement worth your while.

It’s easy to get fixated on the ‘popularity’ element of these sites, but if you don’t find and interact with your target market, it’s ultimately a waste of time.

·    Look for brand evangelists or competitor evangelists on the sites. Read what they have to say. Follow the commentary for a while. Determine if you can get mileage out of being involved, or if it is too contentious, too combative, too irrelevant, too targeted, too whatever. You need to plan your SMM strategy with clear objectives, just as with any other media. Just because it’s free to join, does not mean that your time is free. And building and maintaining your presence on the social sites does take time. A lot of it.

3. Create a realistic, robust, ‘cool’ profile and engage the community

·    Develop your social persona as a brand evangelist with a personality

·    Keep the same handle on all sites for recognition

·    Use your logo as your avatar, or your picture – how ‘big’ or ‘recognised’ are you at the start? You can always change your avatar. Start with easy identification one-way or the other. Be as ‘personable’ as you can if you are a new entrant with little to no social brand recognition.

·    Be fair

·    Never be judgmental or rude

·    Never ignore negative commentary

·    Always acknowledge positive feedback

·    Deal with detractors as soon as possible either via your persona, or by directing them to an ‘answering’ official blog post on the brand site as soon as negative comments arise

·    Empower your brand evangelists by giving them new story heads-up early, by giving them acknowledgement on your official site, and by following their social media profiles and commenting as warranted

·    Consider promoting test market products not only through geographic areas, but also through your social media network. If you’ve built your persona up right, they’ll be fair and impartial in an effort to assist you in your R&D

·    Offer contests & competitions around your brand embracing online media – the best humorous amateur video promoting a specific product or service gets a free ‘whatever’ and a month’s free publicity when you include it in your newsletter and on your News page; a bit like ‘iReport’ on HNN

·    Drive media to your social profiles via other online and offline media

·    Use your social profiles to link to your feed, blog, site, microsites, videos, mobile sites etc

·    Offer (limited) printable, redeemable-on-site ‘coupons’ to community members

·    Keep engaging to build your reputation, your recognition, and your authority

SEM

abbreviation for:

search engine marketing

definition a’la SEMI:

SEM involves the use of search engine optimization (SEO), paid search, and web analytics.

·    The objective of SEO is to rank a site in the organic listings for a sample (defined population) of the universe of relevant terms;

·    the objective of paid search is to list the site in the sponsored results across the engines for the universe of performing terms;

·    the objective of web analytics is to monitor the efficacy in terms of return on investment, profit and exposure for either or both of these practices.

SEO and Paid Search complement each other to a significant extent. Neither is cheap, and neither is easy. It’s not a case of rocket science, it’s a case of experience in an increasingly competitive and combative environment as web site numbers climb into the multi-billion numbers, and paid search advertisers reach into their comparative stratosphere.

achieved via:

·    effective keyword research

·    integration of SEO with IA, copy, web design, development, and analytics

·    relevant, aggressive targeted and relevant backlinking campaigns for SEO (where SMM plays part of it’s related and enormously important role)

·    tactical refinement of both SEO and paid search (more immediately) via web analytics data from all sites including referral sites, some based on SMM personas

·    web analytics reporting on conversions, profit and exposure via both impressions (on placement), CTR and messaging of paid search ads

·    integrated analytics reporting where provided for to monitor effect of other online campaigns and offline campaigns on paid and SEO listed pages

·    overall increase in exposure and recognition of brand online in the search engines including listings and exposure due to SMM efforts

Conclusions 1 & 2:

1. The only time SMM can be seen to be boosting SEM strategy without dedicated spend on a paid search campaign to persona pages which may, or may not (in most cases), be worth your investment is when SMM profile pages, blog posts or reviews start moving into viably ‘visible’ pages of the engines (from a CTR pov), and begin to generate traffic of their own. This is when SEM would step in, as warranted, to boost that exposure, assuming it was worth the additional investment.

2. The only time SEM can be seen to boost SMM is when the SEO or paid search efforts are actively targeting prfiles.

My by-line for these two disciplines is this:

‘united-but-unique; related but mutually exclusive’.

My disclaimer is this:

This is for folks new to SMM. If you are a fundi and find fault, please say so in the comments, but please link to a relevant respond page on your site to substantiate your answer for the newbies. Thanks – (it’s all about the readers – and if you’re new – Welcome! – L)

After over an hour of interview time the actual live segment was less than 6 minutes long, but the reporter, consumer advocate Tony Tighe, really managed to convey the most salient points in that short space of time.

This post is about those points and how SEO was described to a mass, un-SEO-educated audience by an exceptionally talented and experienced reporter:

1. The report touched on internet market research and the importance of understanding the search query language of your online target market.
2. The importance of ranking on the first page for core converting terms was covered, as was the fact that in most cases 60% of searchers are likely to conduct a new search if their search query is not sufficiently answered on the first page of results.
3. The necessity of conducting an aggressive backlink campaign targeting industry related, authority websites with relevant anchor-text was also mentioned.
4. The fact that revenues from online businesses grew 26% to exceed $60BN last year in Canada was explained, as was the fact that only 8% of private Canadian businesses currently have a piece of the pie.

The client interviewed for the segment was one of Epiar’s Canadian clients, AxeMusic.com. What was not aired but was covered prior to cutting and editing was the following:

• AxeMusic has been an Epiar client for over 3 years. They invested in SEO, and have seen incredible results. 
• They rank number 1 for the generic term ‘online music store’ out of 12 million results
• They rank number 1 for the generic term ‘drum kits’ (1.4 million results)
• They rank number 2 for the generic term ‘acoustic bass guitars’ – after Wikipedia (4.3 million results)
• They rank number 1 for ‘electric guitars Canada’ (1 million results)
• They rank number 1 for ‘digital home pianos’. (3.7 million results)
•  Of the 256 phrases for which they were initially actively optimized (we are reoptimizing), they currently rank number 1 for 83, in the top 5 for 183, and in the top 10 for 217 – we expect that to increase
• The client is pleased with the results and was very gracious in the interview. They are, in fact, currently conducting renewed market research with Epiar for tactical refinement and a site upgrade.

I am thrilled that the media is taking an active interest in search engine optimization and beginning to assist in the mass education of its potential as an effective marketing tactic.

In closing, and on a more personal note, I can say that I now fully appreciate what they mean when they say the ‘camera adds 10 pounds’, and I’ve decided that I definitely have a not-so-good-side.

Nonetheless, being interviewed was a blast (entirely due the fact that Tony Tighe made me feel totally at ease from the outset), and my kids were entranced watching me cavort around on TV. I will not share the family comments due to the embarrassment factor any possible legal ramifications.

I also want to apologize for my recent lack of blogging. The flu is a bad thing. Very bad, and not to be repeated. I am considering moving to Barbados… Dreams are a wonderful thing

To make it a bit easier, I made a list of everyone with a twitter I could find in various discussions. (Note: If your not on this list, I probably missed you, or your Sphinn profile doesn’t have your twitter – it’s not because I felt you to be un-deserving.)

• @tighefighter – Mike Tighe (heck-yeah I’m first).
• @lauracallow – Laura Callow, SEM Insights super-poster.
• @doshdosh – Maki, doshdosh.com (props to Canada).
• @davidmihm – Awesome recent post on Twitter.
• @toddmintz – Great twitters.
• @briancarter – Fuel rocks!
• @ShaneEubanks – Awesome insight on our Big Brands & SEO post.
• @hugoguzman 
• @johnandrews – Another great POV on the Big Brands & SEO post.
• @martinbowling – Always seems to beat me to Sphinning articles…
• @javaun
• @kevincheng
• @melaniephung
• @danperry
• @Terra111 – She agreed with me in a discussion, and an admitted twitter addict.
• @andybeard
• @utahseopro 
• @SebastianX – You can’t beat a crab avatar!
• @status_girl – Always interesting twitter talk

• @jonkelly
• @kevinheisler
• @pyeman73
• @TheNanny612
• @theGipsy
• @andymurd
• @Hawksdomain
• @torka
• @seowoman
• @gyutae
• @patrickaltoft
• @gsicotte
• @djlitten
• @viperchill
• @martindale
• @dedmond29
• @akomack
• @saadkamal
• @swags2804
• @SlightlyShady
• @dazzlindonna
• @hamletbatista
• @searchbuzz
• @portentint
• @kalena
• @TimDineen
• @nickwilsdon
• @semscholar
• @dobata
• @BWelford
• @makakman
• @wingnut
• @yojspew
• @TannerHobin
• @colinwalker
• @charnellpugsley
• @Madlid
• @Incrediblehelp
• @parkerfathi
• @leeodden
• @ChrisSandberg
• @websuccessdiva
• @ciaranj
• @vingold

• @spyros
• @tappingcreative
• @osquid
• @SexySEO
• @agersh
• @chiropractic
• @mvandemar
• @nowsourcing
• @naturalwoman
• @therealburgo
• @baiduyou
• @TheKenJones
• @lorenbaker
• @sem4u
• @clickfire
• @bhartzer
• @seofactor
• @danthies
• @jfaris
• @CarrieHill
• @brianchappell
• @JeremyWeiss
• @eddings

SPHINN IT

In my opinion there is no better time, nor ever has there been a greater arena, for harnessing the consumer impulse associated with brand identity, than through the new web, the social web, the viral voice of the consumer in real time.

Research* indicates that embracing both external and internal SMM provides significant benefits.

Benefits associated with employing external-facing social media technologies:

• 68% cite increased customer engagement
• 64% cite increased brand awareness and loyalty
• 58% cite effective market research

 Some benefits of embracing internal-facing social-media technologies include:

• 91% cite improved communication and collaboration
• 81% cite an increased ability to effectively locate and engage in-house experts
• 78% cite an improvement in knowledge management

 More than 74% of companies with less than 500 employees embrace Web2.0. 96% of these report that all Web2.0 marketing efforts have been successful. The most used, and the most successful uses of Web2.0 technologies, can be attributed in order to the use of blogs, communities and wikis. And yet around 50% of all enterprise sized businesses remain unconvinced. The question that begs answering is why.

While there are numerous concerns raised by brands about the return, efficacy, ROI and other aspects of SMM, the top excuses or points of reluctance center around the following 3 issues:

1. Lack of Control
2. Brand Integrity Concerns
3. Legal and branding issues

1. Lack of Control

The fear of not controlling public content associated with a big brand name is enough to instigate a flight or fright reaction in many big brand web owners.

Lack of exposure to the social web, and education about it, means that these big brands are either not aware of the fact that people will blog about them or review them regardless, or they really don’t think that unofficial content is likely to harm their online reputation.

There are a few things they should know**. Here are 8 of many:

1. When asked what sources of information they are “very likely” to consult before making a decision about their entertainment options, 62% named Web sites with user reviews as their top choice, even beating out a knowledgeable friend (59%). (Marketing Sherpa, July 2007)
2. Review users noted that reviews generated by fellow consumers had a greater influence than those generated by professionals. (comScore/The Kelsey Group, October 2007)
3. 64% of consumers reported wanting to see user ratings and reviews, based on a study of 5,000 online shoppers. (Forrester, 2008)
4. More than eight in 10 (82%) of those who read reviews said that their purchasing decisions have been directly influenced by those reviews. (Deloitte & Touche)
5. 59% of their users considered customer reviews to be more valuable than expert reviews. (Bizrate)
6. 63% of consumers indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has product ratings and reviews. (Major consumer electronics retailer/iPerceptions study)
7. When asked to note their most trusted information source, 60% of Canadian online buyers said consumer reviews compared to 31% who said newspapers or magazines.
   (J.C. Williams Group)
8. 84% of consumers earning more than $150,000 annually visit sites where customers review and rate products and services including restaurants. (The Luxury Institute)

Many of the brands fear that the content will be negative. This is not true. Among the 46% of respondents who had posted or planned to post reviews about their online shopping experience, 88% said those reviews either were, or would be positive. (Nielson, 2007)**

The point is that people are going to blog and write reviews regardless of whether the brands enable or empower their customers to do so on the official branded website. And there is the fact that if they do write a review, it is likely to be positive. Most negative posts or reviews are cathartic for the consumer who has often had a very bad or even traumatic experience. It is far more pleasurable for consumers to express their appreciation of a brand, product, service or experience. There is also the trend towards positive that can dissuade possible negative reviewers from ultimately posting their feedback in an open forum.

The optimal way a brand can approach the world of bloggers and reviewers is to enable and encourage online reviews, and empower brand evangelists.

• By enabling reviews it is easier for brands to effectively deal with detractors in a timely manner, and to manage their reputations more directly on an official, interested basis.
• By empowering brand evangelists with widgets, games, podcasts, support & incentives, the ‘inside scoop’ and a host of other tools, the brand cements the relationship with these bloggers and firmly establishes powerful allies in the online space.  This is also immensely positive due to the fact that bloggers tend to be transparent, and transparency is vital.

2. Brand Integrity Concerns

Many brands are so mired in the requirements imposed by legal and marketing to only have their brand referred to and presented in a certain way online that the thought of enabling every day people to promote their brand is simply not a thought to be even vaguely entertained.

Cindy Krum of Blue Moon Works opened her SMX Advanced presentation in 2007 with a fantastic quote. She said this:

“Ubiquitous adoption of web technologies means customers will demand a higher level of interaction with brands, online.”

It is not impossible to present and promote a big brand via a social profile. Simply structure and present the social profile via a supporting sub-brand specifically created to cater to the needs, wants and online activities of the members of your target market; those who are active in the realm of online social media. Target these users, meet their news, gratify them, empower them, answer them, engage them. By doing so you enable and encourage them to eagerly assist you in the creation of your positive SMM sub-brand.

3. Legal and Branding Issues

The number of times informative onpage copy, or a positive link-bait press release, or some other bit of potential publicly available online copy has been rejected by a legal department cannot be overestimated.

A brand’s online market is exactly that; a market place, not a law room. Lighten up on the legalese on-page and provide linked T&C or other legally relevant information on robots.txt excluded pages as required.

The ideal scenario occurs when there is an effective marrying of the official legal based blog to a less official promotional blog; simply create the aforementioned sub brand, headed by a real go-to recognizable persona. Offer up-to-date newsworthy or simply interesting insights, and provide considerate and considered feedback to all comments.

Conclusion

SMM is growing daily in importance to the established web community. It is also becoming more and more important to newer users as they themselves gain confidence and respect for the social web as a place to find insights, information and feedback on products and service of interest.

SMM is no longer an early adopter’s tool. It is a medium that needs to be embraced by all companies with an online presence, especially those with a big brand that requires protection and online reputation management.

If you would like to find out more about online reputation management, I highly recommend Andy Beal’s new book, Radically Transparent.

The last post in this three part series will look at why many big brands eschew Paid Search.

* AwarenessNetworks

** BazarreVoice

You can contact Laura at semcanada dot org

Or follow her on Twitter