Copyright©2011byArnieKuennAllrightsreserved.

ISBN:1456479997ISBN-13:9781456479992E-BookISBN:978-1-4392-8808-5LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2010919315

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TableofContentsTitlePage

CopyrightPage

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter1:TheShift toContentMarketing–UnderstandWhat’sHappeningOnline

YourClientsareSearchers

HowPeopleSearch

TheSearchEnginesHaveaGoal

RelevanceandRankingintheSearchResults

UnderstandingtheSearchEngineResultsPage

EveryoneisSocialandThey’reTalkingOnline

LocalSearchandReviewSitesMatter,Too

GoingForward: SearchersAreTellingYouHow toMarket toThem!

Conclusion

Chapter2:YourCustomersAreOnline,LookingforYou!

BetheExpert

BuildaHolisticMarketingStrategy

ALotofContent…JustSucks!

Research:TheStartingPointforCreatingYourStrategy

ContentDevelopment:YouAreNowaPublisher

ToBecometheTrustedSolution,YouHavetoBeanExpert

SearchEngineOptimization:UnderstandingtheAlgorithm

PromotingthatAwesomeContent

DistributingandRepurposingYourContent

LinkAttractionvs.LinkBuilding

Conclusion

Chapter3:InformationAboutCustomersisatYourFingertips

CheckTrendingTopics

TwitterforResearch

Yahoo!andMSNOfferTrendingData

AnswerSitesCanbeaMiniGoldMine

You’veGotQuestions?Yahoo!Answers

LinkedIn:WhereNetworkingIsBigBusiness

You’reonFacebook,Right?

Quora:ANewEntryIntotheQuestionandAnswerField

SocialNewsSitesandSocialBookmarkingSites

What’sNewsworthyisWhat’sCool:Digg,RedditandMixx

Digg

Reddit

Mixx

When You Love It, You Keep Coming Back For More:StumbleUponandDelicious

StumbleUpon

Delicious

WhatAreYourCompetitorsDoing?

KeywordResearchasMarketResearch

Conclusion

Chapter4:TargetingYourTrafficthroughKeywordResearch

BrainstormforKeywordPhrases

Use Keyword Research to Build Targeted and OptimizedContent

AToolkitforKeywordResearch

KeywordSuggestandInstantSearch

GoogleAdWordsKeywordTool

GoogleInsightsTool

GoogleTrends

SEOmoz.orgKeywordDifficultyTool

BingCommercialIntentTool

SomeAdditionalToolsforYourKit

HoninginonKeywordCombinations

LeveragingtheLongTailSearch

Conclusion

Chapter5:DeterminingYourContentMarketingObjectives

WhyCreateContent?

HowDoIPutMyContenttoWork?

CreateYourMindshareandBranding

GenerateTraffic,LeadsandSales

ProactivelyManageYourOnlineReputation

ContentforSearchEngineRankings

ShareofVoice:KnowYourCompetitorsandCommunity

DevelopingaContentMarketingMindset

Conclusion

Chapter6:DevelopingEngagingContenttoMeetYourGoals

GetGoingwithContent

WhyStorytellingIsSoImportant

ContentInventory:EvaluateYourCurrentAssets

TheEssentials:EditorialCalendarandStyleGuide

IdentifyGoals

ConductResearch

BrainstormforIdeas

ConceptualizingandDrafting

EditandLaunch

CanYouRepurposeIt?

GetInspired!

DevelopingContentStrategiesThatGarnersLinks,Too

Conclusion

Chapter7:SixteenExamplesofContentforYourBusiness

BuildaBLOG,BuildYourBusiness

CaptureSuccesswithCASESTUDIES

JointheConversationwithCOMMUNITYFORUMS

CURATION,theMostEfficientContent

WinBigwithCONTESTS

eBOOKS:TraditionalPublishingOut,Self-PublishingIn!

KeepThemEngagedwitheNEWSLETTERS

INFOGRAPHICS,theCoolestWaytoDisplayData

LookLikeanExpertwithINTERVIEWS

WalktheTalkwithPRESSRELEASES

ProvideConveniencethroughPODCASTS

SellwithProductPages

VIDEOS,StoriesinMotion

WEBINARS,theNewConference

ShowOffYourExpertisewithWHITEPAPERS

WIDGETS&BADGES,OhMy!

Conclusion

Chapter8:ContentMustBeMaintainedtoBeSuccessful

MaintainYourContenttoGettheMostValuefromIt

DefiningSuccess

MeasureProgress

TakeWhatYouHaveLearnedandAdapt

ForContinuedResults,UpdateYourContent

ValueofOutsourcingandWhentoOutsource

Conclusion

Chapter9:OptimizedContentGetstheBestResults

OptimizingYourContent

OptimizingthePageHeader

OptimizingthePageBody

FittingKeywordsIntoYourContent

HeadersandFontsintheBody

LinksinYourContent

OptimizingthePageFooter

OptimizingImagesforSearch

OptimizingVideosforSearch

OptimizingforNewsSites

OptimizingforLocalSearch

OptimizingforSocialMedia

Conclusion

Chapter10:Putthe“Marketing”inContentMarketing

HowtoUseSocialMediaInteractionstoPromoteYourContenttheRightWay

Facebook–theSocialMediaJuggernaut

Twitter–theInformationEngine

LinkedIn–theBusinesstoBusinessConnection

DevelopingRelationships,BuildingPartnerships

ForumParticipation

BloggerEngagement

BloggerPitches:HowtoApproachTheseSitesforBestResults

PressReleasesandMediaOutreach

EmailMarketing

UtilizeSocialVotingandBookmarking

Conclusion

Chapter11:FindingtheRightDistributionChannelsforYourContent

CreateSocialProfilesandGetThemReadyforYourContent

Squidoo

ArticlePublishingtheRightWay

Don’tForgetToOptimizeIt

RSSforNewsandBlogFeeds

Video,PhotoandPodcastSharingSites

VideoisBooming

DistributionPossibilitiesforImages

Podcasting:YourOwnPrivateRadioBroadcast

Presentation-SharingSites

Conclusion

Chapter12:LinksMeanMoreOpportunityforVisibilityandSuccess

RemembertheAnchorText

InternalLinks–theEasiestLinkstoGet!

Juice Up! How to Prioritize Your Efforts Based on a Link’sValue

BlogandForumParticipation

UsingBookmarkingSitesandVotingSitesforLinkBuilding

CompetitiveResearchandBacklinkAnalysis

TheRealMeatandPotatoesofLinkBuilding:SearchOperators

HowtoSendaLinkRequestthatDoesn’tGetDeleted

Conclusion

Chapter13:Conclusion

MarketingthatMovesYouFacebookContest

AFinalNote–It’saDigitalPublishingWorld

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThiswillbefilledwithclichesjustlikeeveryotherbookonthemarket.But,now I knowwhy.An author’s name goes on the cover, the author gets thecreditforthebook,andtheauthorgetsalltheattention.ButInowrealizeittakesa teamtogetabookpublished.Belowis that team,andIsurehopeIhaven’tforgottenanyone.

FirstIwouldliketothankPattyAdams, theDirectorofClientSolutionsatVerticalMeasureswhoinonesimpleinstantmessagegotmestarteddownthepathtocreatingAccelerate!Wewereonawebinartogether,eachinourownoffices, when the topic of writing a book came up, she IM’dme and saidsomethinglike“youshouldwriteabook,callitDon’tBreakTheChain,layoutthestepstodocontentmarketingtherightwayandexplainhowimportantall the steps are.”Wewere encouraged to change the title, but the conceptstuck.Itallmadesensetome.

I could never have accomplished this without Sarah Moraes and EliseRedlin-Cook.OncePattymadethesuggestion,SarahandElisewouldnotletitdie.WhenIwanted toquit theywouldn’t letme,whenIhaddumb ideasthey toldme,whenIhad toomany ideas they tackled them,when theyhadgreat ideas theyletmetakeall thecredit (seefirstparagraph)andwhenwedecidedtoself-publishtheytookcharge.Thankyoubothsomuch.

At Vertical Measures, it didn’t stop there.LizGessaman, our Director ofClientServices,pushedtoturnAccelerate!intothecompany’splaybook.Bythe time this book is published, we will have updated our presentations,methodology and website to reflect the step-by-step process I write about.Some of our staff sat through interviews covering their areas of expertise,tolerated my follow up questions, and helped create the graphics usedthroughoutthebook.SothankyouJamesConstable,ArdalaEvans,AbbyGilmore, David Gould, Kristi Hines, Ann-Marie Jancovich, MichaelSchwartz,KailaStrong,andKrysVanSlyke.

Afewotherpeoplereallyhelpedoutquiteabit,butinanindirectway.Ihaveread the books andwatched the presentations ofKristinaHalvorson,AnnHandley,SimonKellyandJoePulizzisomanytimesoverthelastcoupleofyears, that Iamcertain their influence is reflected throughout thisbook.AllfourofyouhavebeentrueinspirationsandIappreciateyourleadershipinthisindustry.

I also required the help of a few experts, after all I have never done thisbefore. We turned to Jake Johnson andBen Snedeker, two experiencedauthors.Their expertisewas invaluablewhileworkingwithme through the

entire writing and editing process. They dealt with my excitement, fears,impatience, inexperience and self imposed deadlines with patience andprofessionalism. JohnWolfe edited the entire book one last time before itwenttoprint.Abigthankstoallthreeofyou.

Most importantly I would like to thank my family. My parents whoreenforcedthatweallhaveawonderfulopportunityinthislifetoseeandfeelandthinkanddo–theyencouragedustodothemall.MybrotherAl,andmysisterKathy have always been supportive and loving, instilling in me thecouragetotrynewthings–likewritingabook.

MydaughterHillaryandmysonBrad,youarethereasonIlookforwardtoeveryday.Iencourageyoutotakeamomentfromtimetotimetorememberthatyouarealive.Iknowthisseemsobvious,butitisamazinghowlittletimewe take to reflect on this amazing fact. By astounding luck, an incrediblysmallportionofall thematter in theentireuniversecametogether tocreateearthandushumans.Youwillonlyexistforanincrediblysmall timeinthegreatspanofeternity–treasurethisgreatgift.

And lastly,mywife, business partner, best friend, and one heck of a proofreader–Andi.Youaretheloveofmylife.Youremindmeoftenthatpeopleareashappyastheywanttobe.Icouldn’tbehappier.

FOREWORDYou see that gravestone? It reads “information intermediary.” For decades,we’verelieduponmiddle-menintheguiseofmediatocarrymessagesfromour companies to our customers.We’ve created “news” and handed it off,hopingthattheall-powerfulpresswouldfindenoughworthinourscribblingtotweakandredistributeittothemasses.

Thateraisover.

Thefirstnail in thecoffinwas in1997,whenTimothyMcVeyconfessed tothebombingsinOklahomaCity.Thatday,theDallasMorningNewsbecamethe first newspaper to ever “scoop itself” and run breaking news on itswebsiteinsteadofholdingitforthenextday’sprintedition.Ingeologic–orJoanRiversterms–fourteenyearsisn’tthatlong.ButtoevenconceiveofanerawhenmediaALWAYSandPURPOSEFULLYheldbacknewssothattheycouldprintitondeadtreesthenextday?ItseemspositivelyAmishtomodernsensibilities.

The speed and searchability advantages of online content has madeinformationintermediariessuperfluous.Theyareexacerbatedbythefactthatthe business model to support these middle-men evaporated faster that apuddleofsweatinJulyinPhoenix.ThePaperCutsblogtrackslayoffsinthenewspaperbusiness. It’s a somewhatgrisly, yet fascinating reflectionof thetimes.Justsince2007, thesitehasdocumentedmore than35,000 layoffsatnewspapersintheUnitedStates.

Yetduringthesameperiod,anyobjectiveexaminationwouldfindthatinsteadofnewsbecomemorescarceduetothedecimationofthenewspaperindustry(andtimeshavebeentoughformagazine,radio,andTVtoo),thatconverselythe quantity of content has soared.We are surrounded bymore content, inmoreformats,frommorepublishersthaneverbeforeinhumanhistory.

And that’s because of two inexorable trends that make the book you areholdingincrediblyimportant.

First,everycustomerisapotentialreporter.

Second,everycompanymustbecomeitsownTVstation,radiostation,magazine,andnewspaper.

What’sincrediblyexcitingaboutthesetrendsisthattheycreateanewbreedof winners. Content marketing is a meritocracy. You don’t have to be the

biggestcompanyinyourindustrytocreaterelevant,compellingcontentthatcreatesnewcustomersandbreedsloyaltyamongexistingcustomers.Infact,mostofthecontentmarketingcasestudiesinthisbookareaboutcompaniesof modest size and means who didn’t win with budget, but rather withcraftiness, strategy, and understanding what types of content resonate withpeople.Youcandothattoo.

Thefirststepinbeingasuccessfulcontentmarketer–inbeingyourownTVstation, radio station, magazine, and newspaper – is recognizing that youactuallyhavesomethingvalidtosay.It’salltoocommonforcompanyownersandmanagerstooverlooktheincrediblycompellingstoriescontainedwithinthewallsoftheirorganizations.Yougetsoclosetotheforest,youdon’tseethe trees. If I had a dollar for every time a Marketing Director told me,“customersdon’twant toknowhowwemake that; it’sboring,” IwouldbewritingthisforewordfromavillaonAruba.

Recognize that the story you believe to be banal is actually fascinating tosomepeople.Okay,maybenoteveryone.It’snotlikeyou’reLadyGaga.Butto your customers and prospects, the stories of your company and itscustomersareimportant,andcompelling,andinteresting,anduseful.Thekeypsychological leap in content marketing effectiveness is to not be so darnmodest.There’snosuchthingasboringcompanies,onlyboringpeople.

Thesecondkeytocontentmarketingeffectivenessistoremovethefear.Andthat’swherethisbookisflat-outamazing.Byofferingadefinableprocess–achain – Arnie gives you the day-to-day playbook you need to create andoptimizeyourstorieseffectively.Asyou’llsoonlearn,contentmarketingisn’tnecessarily hard, but it can be complicated.And that’swhy this book is soindispensible.Itshowyoupreciselywhere,when,why,andhowtocreateandmerchandisecontent,measure theresults,andimproveyourresultsover thelonghaul.

Thebigadvantageofthisbookisthatitrecognizesthatcontentisjustonelegofathree-leggedstoolthatincludessearchandsocial.Youcanmakeallthecontentyouwant,butifnobodycanfindorshareit,you’respittingintothewind.Contentmarketingisn’tjustabouttellingyourstories(althoughwithoutthat,youhavenochanceatsuccess). It’sactuallyabout tellingyourstories,making them findable, and ensuring that the people that consume yourcontentwanttotellothersabouthowawesomeitis.

This is themagic triangle of contentmarketing.This book is all about thattriangle.

Preparetobeamazed.

JayBaer,Co-AuthorofTheNOWRevolution:7ShiftstoMakeYourBusiness

Faster,Smarter,andMoreSocial.CreatoroftheConvince&Convertsocialmediablog

INTRODUCTIONIknowalittlebitaboutyou.Youunderstandthattheworldofmarketinghasbeen radically changing in the last few years to a new kind of marketing.There’sbeenagrowingshifttosomethingcalledcontentmarketing.Youwanttoengagethisphenomenon.You’vedonesomehomework,maybereaduponthesubjectorattendedseminars–butyou’restilllookingformore,thatonekeythatwillfinallyunlockthesecretsofthisnewapproachtomarketing.

You’veheardthattodaylessmoneyisbeingspentontraditionaladvertising–print,television,etc.,becausemarketersaremovingtheirmoneyonline.Butwhenaskedwhatonlinemarketingmeans,youmightthinklikemanypeople,“AdvertiseonGoogle.Getdisplayadsup!”Butthat’snotit.Thecompaniesthataresucceedingrightnowaretheonescreatingcontentthatengagestheircustomers and brings in the business. Content marketing is in the verybeginningstagesandstillevolving.Thetruthisthat,tosomeextent,everyoneinthisindustryistryingtofigureoutthebestapproach,eventheexperts.Thiscanmake creating your own content strategy a confusing endeavor. That’swherethisbookcomesin.

Manymarketingbookspresentthemselvesliketheconsultantwhocomesinand says, “Here’s the strategy you need, but I don’t implement. I don’tactually do it. That’s for you to figure out.” But if you’re going to besuccessful, you need to understand how to create and promote compellingcontentthatbringsinthecustomers–notjustthatyouneedto.

Peoplelikeyoupaythousandsofdollarstohearpeoplelikemespeakfor45minutesatconferencesaboutwhat itmeans tocreate thatawesomecontent.Weputup15or20slidesandtellyouwhatyoushouldbedoingandgetyoupsyched about the possibilities. So, you walk away from the conferenceexcited,readytoimplement.Thenyougetbacktoyouroffice.

Nowyou’re staring at your screen, saying toyourself, “Wheredo I start? IthoughtItooknotes.Ihavetheslides,buthowdoIgetgoing?”

ThenyoustartthinkingabouthowthespeakerscitedexamplesofFordMotorCompany doing this, or Microsoft doing that, and now you start to tellyourself, “Sure, they have a $10 million budget, but I’m a twelve-personcompanywith a $40,000 budget.”So you give up; thinking it just can’t bedonewithoutabigbudgetandsubstantialresources.Well letmeassureyouthat companies like yours and mine are creating effective and compellingcontent–andthey’redoingthissuccessfully,withoutbigbudgets.Toprovemy point, I am going to give you a few examples of small businesses thatbecamebigbusinessesthroughonlinecontentmarketing.

Iwantthisbooktobetheoneyouhaveonyourdeskthatsayshere’showyoudoit.WhatI’mofferingisalittledifferentfromwhat’soutthere,andIthinkit’swhatyouneed.Youneedtounderstandthatacontentmarketingstrategyis a chain, so to speak, and the links in the chain are each critical to itsstrength.

Thelinksinthechainare:

Strategy

Research

ContentCreation

Optimization

Promotion

Distribution

LinkBuilding

Measurement

Eachlinkis importantbutcanonlyworkwhenyourstrategynurturesallofthem. Think of a bicycle chain: When the chain is working your efforttranslates toacceleration!Break thechainandyou’regoingnowhere—yourcontentmarketingstrategyfallsapart.

Look,ifyouownawebsite,you’reapublisher.Period.Andweallknowwhathappenswhenapublisherstopspublishing.Astheysayinpublishing,contentis king. A strong content strategy requires that you know how to develop,promote, and distribute your material. You need to find ways to get greatcontenthappening–andkeepithappening,overandoveragain.

Mybookaimstogiveyouacomprehensiveunderstandingofwhatittakestoexecuteasuccessfulcontentmarketingstrategy–nomatterhowbigorsmallyour organizationmight be.Any one of the chapters in this book could bebooksuntothemselves,butratherthanwriteamulti-volumeencyclopediaonthe subject, I want to give you a portable field guide for your marketingstrategy.Sayingitanotherway,thiswillbeaplaybookforgettingitdone.

My goal is to provide a book that can be there for you when you’rebrainstormingforyournextpieceofcontent,whenyouaregettingready touploadthatcontent,andwhenyouarereadytopromoteit.Iwanttokeepyouexcited. I want to help keep the ideas coming. In our company, VerticalMeasures,wedo this for a living.And sinceyou’renowapublisher in thenewworldofmarketing,youneedtodothisforaliving,too.

Thegoodnewsisyoucan,botheasilyandeffectively.Let’smakeithappen.

1

TheShifttoContentMarketing-UnderstandWhat’sHappeningOnline

“ThenumberofInternetuserssurpassed2billionin2010.That’s30percentof theworld’spopulation.Andagoodportionof themarecreatingcontent,addingtothealreadygiganticdelugeofinformationthatcanbefoundonline.Tomake sense of the billions of documents andmedia that can be found,searchengineshavediligentlyservedasourguidetorelevantcontent.Tothatend,Googlealonehandles88billionqueriespermonth—morethanallothersearchenginescombined.

However,therichnessofsignalsfromthesocialweb,siteslikeFacebookandTwitter, are too powerful to ignore. Social behaviors are gaining increasinginfluence on the search experience. As consumer information discovery,consumption, and sharing behaviors change, so must social Search EngineOptimization(SEO)andcontentmarketing.

Consumers expect more than the right answers in the search results. Theyexpecttointeractwithwhattheyfind.AstheInternetandsocialwebevolveand grow, so must marketers evolve their content marketing strategy. Thequestionis,“Areyouready?”

LeeOdden,CEO,TopRankOnlineMarketing,

TopRankMarketing.com,TopRankBlog.com

AsLeepointsout in the introductionto thischapter,nearly2billionpeopleworldwideareonline.Whentheywantaproductorservice, theydon’tpickup a phone book.They go to the Internet and search via search engines orsocialsitesbecausethesemethodspromisefastresultsandrelevantcontent—andgenerallydeliveron thatpromise. It’s the foremostway thatpeoplegettheirinformation,whetherit’sinformationonaproductorserviceorifit’stofindoutmoreabouttheirindustryorcurrentevents.Younameit,peoplearelookingforit.

Butyouknowthisalready,right?Ithinkit’sagoodideatorevisitbrieflythe

phenomenonofwhat’s reallyhappeningonlinebecausewe tend to take forgranted that the Internet is part of our culture now.Andwhenwe take thisphenomenonforgranted,wetendtomisstwoimportantthings:

1. Theexcitementthatcomeswithbeingattheforefrontoftechnology.

2. Thefact thatthisisnewtoallofus,andeveryone is trying to figure it

out.

Tosomeextentwehaveeveryright to taketheInternetforgrantedbecauseit’s so embedded in our lives. But if you think about it, the Internet has arelativelyshorthistorycompared to theradical impact ithashadonus,andwe’restillintheinfancyofthistechnology.Thehumanracehasnotyetfullyrealized the potential of this kind of connectivity. The growth curve forInternetusecontinuestobesharp,eventoday;thepercentageofpeopleonlineworldwide increased18percent from2008 to2009.Driven in largepartbytheabilityoftheInternettodelivermorecontentatfasterandfasterratesforlower and lower costs, this explosive change to Internet usage has led to amassiveculturalchange.

Not only are new users figuring this out and getting on board, but astechnologies change seasoned users need to adapt. Take, for example,blogging. In effect, a blog is nothing more than an opinion columndemocratizedsothatanyonecanhaveone.Bloggingbegantotakeoffaround2004. Today, with an estimated 180 million or more active blogs on theInternet, it’s amajor source of shared information. Blogging has redefinedhow we understand our contemporary life, so much so that major culturalevents(onoroffline)aremeasuredinpartbytheireffectontheblogosphere.Take the Egyptian Revolution1 in early 2011 for example, much of it wascreditedtotheuseofsocialmedia.

With thecustomer’sattentionshiftingonline,sohas thefocusofmarketers,andithasrequirednewmarketingstrategiesaswebegintounderstandhowusersinteractwiththeInternetandhowtheInternetworksforusers.

Simply put, web users are consumers of content. Therefore, you need todeliver compelling content thatwill engage your customers and keep themcomingback formore.People are calling this “TheNewMarketing.”Mostsignificantly,webusersaresearchingforcontenttoconsume.Thisiskeyforany business’s relevance and branding. In fact, Vanessa Fox in her bookMarketing in the Age of Google emphasizes, “Those businesses that don’trealize that we’ve experienced a shift in consumer behavior and that

customers and customer data are now centered on search will lose marketsharetothosethatdo”(302).Fortunately,itisn’ttoolatetogetonboard.Youhaven’tmissedtheboat,butyoudon’thavetheluxuryofwaiting tobuildacontentmarketingstrategy,either.Toputitabitmorebluntly,inthewordsofBrianSolis,youneedto“EngageorDie!”(Engage,xiii3)

People spend their time online, and that’s where your marketing strategyneedstogo.Yourpotentialcustomersareonlineforavarietyofreasons.ThepublicrelationsfirmRuderFinnconductedasurveyasking,why,exactly,dopeople go online? They categorized their results into the following sevenreasons people use the Internet, descending from most common reason toleastcommon:

ToLearn(self-education,forresearch,tokeepinformed)

ToHaveFun(topasstime,tobeentertained,toescape)

ToSocialize(toconnect,toshare,todiscuss,tobepartofacommunity)

To Express Yourself (to opine, to entertain others, to emote, to becreative)

ToAdvocate(toinfluenceothers,toactivatesupport,tojoinacause)

ToDoBusiness(towork,tomanagefinances,tosell)

ToShop(topurchase,tocompare)

Thesurveyfoundakeydemographic:“More than twiceasmanypeoplegoonlinetosocialize(82percent)thantodobusiness(39percent)ortoshop(31percent)4.”Surprised?Here’sthething:Theshifttoreachingouttocustomerswhilethey’reusingtheInternetmeansthatyouhavetoengagetheminwhatthey’redoingonline.Fromthelistabove,it’sevidentthatthecriticalmassforyourcontentstrategywillcenteronthetopthreereasonspeopleareonline:tolearn,tohavefun,andtosocialize.

Youmaywantthemtoshoponyoursite,forexample,butyouconnectwiththembyprovidingsomeformofentertainingcontentthatleadsthemtoyoursite.Userswanttoengagewiththecontenttheyfind;thatis,theywanttostayon the page and interact with it. If the content doesn’t engage them, they

moveon,orbounce,andcontinuesearching.

YourClientsAreSearchersInternetusersarecontentconsumers.Theyrelyonsearchenginesandsocialsites tomeet theirneedsquicklyandefficiently. Ithasbeendetermined thatpeopleare less likelyto typeawebaddress into theirbrowser’saddressbarbut instead will search for it with Google or Bing. In this way, the act ofsearchingisthepointofentrytotheInternetforauser’ssession.Therefore,this isalsowhereyourmarketingneeds tostart. It’scritical thatyourpagesrankhigh insearchbecauseyouneed tobeavailable to themrightaway,atthe moment their session begins. Think about it: When your potentialcustomersearchesonline,thereareonlytwopossibleoutcomes–eithertheyfindyouortheyfindyourcompetitor.5

When we talk about surfing the web, think of the search engine as thesurfboard. The goal of the surfer is to catch a great wave and ride it out,cuttinganddivingasitcurls,masteringthepowerofthewave.Ifasurfrunendswithawipeout,thesurferwillgetbackontheboardandpaddleouttothenextwave.ThesamecanbesaidforInternetusers.Thesearchengineislike the board that brings the surfer to the wave – it’s the primary toolwherebyusersexpresswhat their interest is in the formofaquery, and thesearchenginefindsrelevantcontenttomeetthatrequest.Thewaveislikethecontent they find. Internetuserswant tobeengagedwith thepages that thequerybringsback.Agoodrunkeepsthesurfermovingthroughthewave,andthesameistrueofgoodcontent.Ifthecontentthatthesearchenginebringsback isn’t relevant, or isn’t engaging, the userswill bounce, going back totheirquerytolookatotherresultsorrefiningthesearch.

Asyoudevelopyourmarketingstrategy,itiscrucialthatyouunderstandthisdynamic,whichiscomposedoftwokeyfactors:

Searcher’sintent,orhowpeoplesearch

Thegoalofsearchenginesandhowtheywork

HowPeopleSearchFirst, let’s get to know your searcher. Internet users are impatient, but thisshouldn’t surprise you.Theywant the best resultswith the least amount ofeffort.Searchersdon’tspendtimewadingthroughpagesofresultsaftertheirquery. In fact, people tend to not go past the first page at all. The searchpopulation has largely caught on to howGoogleworks and users aremore

comfortable refining theirsearchrather thangoing throughpagesandpagesoflessandlessrelevantresults.

Thesimpledefinitionofasearch,orquery,isarequestarticulatedintheformofashortkeywordphrase,generallynolongerthanthreewords,enteredintoasearchengine.Aqueryisdrivenbythesearcher’sneedforsomethingthattheybelievecanbefoundontheInternet.Sincethereisamassiveamountof“stuff” on the Internet, there are, consequently, a number of ways that wecould classify the kinds of searches people perform. A very usefulclassification comes fromAndrei Broder’s seminal essay, “A Taxonomy ofWeb Search,”6 which has become the industry standard. In his essay, hepresentsthreekindsofbasicwebsearches:

Navigational: These are queries that have a specific, targeted intent.Users expect the search engine to go straight to a specific site on theInternet“eitherbecausetheyvisiteditinthepastorbecausetheyassumethatsuchasiteexists.”Anexamplecouldbesearching for“ford.com”whenthesearcherwantsthehomepageforFordMotorCo.Thesearchercouldenter“FordCars”forthesamereasonandwouldclickonthesameresult because the intentwas the same– to go directly toFord’smainwebpageandbeginexploringFordfromthere.Generally,thereisonlyone result that the searcher expects. Another example would be, forinstance,asearcherwhoisawareofabreakingnewsitemthatherlocalbroadcaststation,KPNXPhoenix,iscovering.Shesearchesforherlocalstationinthesearchengine.Theresultsmightincludethehomepageforthenewsstation,butitmightalsodisplayalinkstraighttothebreakingnews item.Shenavigatesdirectly to thebreakingnews item; though itwasnotexactlyaplaceshehadbeenbefore,itwasspecificallyherintenttogotherewhensheapproachedthesearchengine.

Informational (also commonly called Research): These queries areaboutinformationretrieval,andwhenthetypicalsearcherthinksofwhatasearchengine“does”forthem,thisisthekindofquerythatcomestomind.Informationalqueriescoverabroadrangeofquerytypes,andcaninclude searches for specific places, like “Washington, DC”, or facts,suchas“whenwas theFrenchRevolution.”Informationalsearchescanalsoincludeproductreviewsandcomparisons,wherethesearchermightenter“golfclub”tocomparetypesofnewgolfclubsonthemarket.Thissearchmight lead users not only to articles on the subject but also tovendorssellingtheproductorlocalstoreswheregolferscouldtestsomeof the brands they are considering. As the user conducts pre-purchase

research,alloftheseresultswouldbeuseful.

Transactional: Here, the searcher is looking for a site on the Internetwherefurtherinteractionwillhappen;thatis,thesearcherwantstoshopfor clothes,downloadmusic,orviewavideo.This is akindof searchsimilar to the informational type, but the distinction is the searcher’sintent.Thesearcherexpectsaspecifictransactiontooccurasaresultofthe query and is less willing to explore alternative options. If, forexample, the searcher wants to see a video clip of the running of thebullsinPamplona,thesearcherwouldnotbesatisfiedbygettingresultsforphotoimagesorlinkstopurchaseHemingway’sTheSunAlsoRises.Theintentwastohaveatransactionwithavideo.

Inallcases,auserentersthequerywithsomedegreeofknowledgeofhisorherownintent forperforming thequery,aswellassomeexpectationof thekind of content that will satisfy the request, whether or not this can bearticulatedattheoutset.Infact,particularlywithinformationalsearches(lesssowithnavigational), a searcher’s intentmayhavebeen sogeneral that theresultsthatcomeupactuallyhoneinthesearcher’sintentbysuggestingmorerelevant results thanthesearcheranticipated.Here’sanexample.Asearcherperforms a query inGoogle using the keywords “CharlieChaplin” becauseshe’scurioustoknowmoreabouttheactor.Intheresults,shefindsanumberofusefulbiographysites,includingcharliechaplin.com,butalsoontheresultspage are images of Charlie Chaplin and YouTube videos of some of hisperformances.Alloftheseresultsarerelevantbecausetheycomposeaspectsof his life and because other searches for these keywords have resulted inclicksforthesetypesofcontent.Shemaynothaveintendedtoclickanimageoftheactorattheoutset,butshemayfindwhatsheseesinterestingenoughtofirstclickonanimageandengagethecontentthatshefindsthere,ratherthanclickonatextlink.

AndreiBroder’sessaywaswrittenbeforetherealadventofsocialmedia,butif social media had been around, he would have certainly included searchwithinsocialmedia.It’sanewerphenomenon,andrightnow,it’satechniqueusedbymoresavvyusers.Butwiththeexplosionofsocialmedia,thegeneralInternet user is gaining more savvy. In fact, Twitter – one of the big fivesocialmediasites–hasbeengettingsearchactivitythatexceedsthatofBingandYahoo!combined(asofApril,2010).Thismeansthatyouseriouslyneedtounderstandhowsearchworksinthatarenasothatyoucanbefoundthere.

Searchinsocialsitesisperformedsomewhatdifferentlythanthroughasearchengine. The search is somewhat informational in nature, but rather thanseekinginformationacrosstheInternet,theuserislookingforresultsthatare

specifictothesocialmediabeingsearched.Thiscanbeincrediblyusefulforasearcherandcanleadtoaddingthesocialentitytothefeedlist,incorporatingupdatesbeyondtheoriginalsearch.Forexample,assumeyouwant toknowabout the upcoming concert schedule for the Dave Matthews Band, andyou’rehopingyoucanlandsometicketswhenthetourdatesareannouncedandsalesbegin.YouareloggedintoFacebook,soyouquicklysearchfortheband’sprofile,you indicateyou“like” it,andyoustart to followtheband’supdates.Suddenly,you’regettingcontentdirectedtoyoufromtheband.Thesame can be done forTwitter, but in that case you can search topically forwhatpeopleare“tweeting”andjointheirconversationsbyfollowingthem.

The end result of any search is essentially the same from the searcher’sperspective.Regardlessof thekindofsearchtheyperform,searchersexpecttheirsearchtoendwithrelevant,engagingcontent.Ifthesearcherlandsonapageanddoesnotfindrelevant,engagingcontent,hewillleaveandrevisethesearch.Searchersdon’t stickaround.Thisholds true forsearchenginesandsocialmediaalike.

Our clients often ask us, “What is content, exactly?”We’re always glad tohear themask thisquestionbecause itmeans they’restarting to think likeapublisher.Contentisnotjusttext,despitetheknee-jerkdefinitionpeoplewantto give it. Content is any multimedia experience that engages the user,enabling him or her to interactwith it. If users stay and interactwith yourmedia–ifitholdstheirattention–thenthey’reengaged.

There are a ton of content possibilities that you can use to engage youraudience, including video, infographics, audio files, and photos. A quicklaundry list of text-based content shows there’s also a wide range of otherpossibilities, such as technical papers, news articles, blog posts, and top-10lists.Later in thisbookwe’llgetdownto thenittygrittywithyouroptions.I’vegotalistofcontentideasthatwillmakeyouacontent-producingchamp!

Inthemeantime,asyouworkyourwaythroughthebook,remember:ContentissimplyanythingthatcanbeproducedontheInternetforhumaninteraction.Engaging content matters enough to the user to cause him to stay andexperienceit.Sothat’swhereyourcontentneedstobegin.

TheSearchEnginesHaveaGoalThemissionofanysearchengine–particularlyGoogle,thegiantinthisarena–istofindthebestandmostrelevantcontentforaperson’ssearchterm.HereisGoogle’sstatedphilosophy:“Theperfectsearchenginewouldunderstandexactlywhatyoumeanandgiveyoubackexactlywhatyouwant.”Thisisaprettyhighbar,butit’sexactlywhateverysearchenginetriestodobecausethat’swhatusersdemand.Thecompetitionamongsearchenginesisdrivenby

theresultstheycanbringback.

In order to provide search results, search engines need to know first whatcontentisavailableontheInternet.So,programsweredevelopedtotrawlthewebwith thegoalof readingeverypage.Theseprograms,calledwebbots,web crawlers, or spiders, actively read and analyze the content across theInternetandstoreitforretrievalinqueries.Aspartoftheircataloguing,botsmeasure the updating activity that occurs on a site, which affects thefrequencyatwhichitwillreturntoreadeachsitetolookfornewcontent.Forexample, bots check CNN.com almost continuously because the content isalwaysupdating,andgenerallyuserswant the latestheadlinesandbreakingnews. On the other hand, the bot might read the website for, say, Todd’sGarageandseethatnothinghaschanged,soitwillcheckbackaweeklaterand see that still nothing has changed, and again check back amonth afterthat.Thefrequencyofattentionfromthebotsreducesasthewebsiteremainsstagnant. To a search engine, this can be a signal that the pages are lessrelevant.

Whenbotsreadapage,theylookforcertaininformationonthepageinorderto understand it. In away, bots read the text content on the page just as ahuman would. Page headers, or H1 Tags, and the page’s text content aremajor sources of keyword matchups. Just as humans do, bots (and thesubsequent algorithm processing the data) seem to pay attention to boldedwordswithinthetextcontent.Thetitletagatthetopofthepageisactuallyatool for thehumanuser (this iswhat cluesyou into thepagewhenyouarejugglinganumberoftabbedpagesinyourbrowser,orwhenyourpagesareminimized on your computer desktop), but bots also take advantage of it,deriving from this information that you want this page to be known at aglanceasbeingaboutthisinformation.

Figure1:SiteProPPCOptimizedWebpage

Sincethebotandalgorithmisacomputerprogramandnotahuman,italsolooksatthepageinadifferentwaythanhumans.AlgorithmspayattentiontotheURLpagename,whichhumanuserscare littleornothingabout.To thealgorithm,however,thisinformationdefinesthepagefromanorganizationalstandpoint and can indicate how thewebmaster views the page’smeaning.Keywords in URLs help the algorithm identify keyword relevance. Unlikehumans, bots can’t see images, so the title and the metadata that describeimagesarecriticaltoabot“knowing”thattheimagehaskeywordrelevance(though in the near future users will probably be able to search by image,rather than by image metadata). This is true for video as well. In thebackgroundofyourwebpageismetadataaboutthepageitself,whichisyetanotherwaythatthebotcandeterminecontent.

Usingalloftheseclues,botsareabletogatherahugeamountofinformationaboutapieceofcontentanddetermineitsrelevancetosearch.Therefore,thisistheplayingfieldwhenyouaredevelopingyourowncontent.AswegetintoSearchEngineOptimization(SEO)laterinthebook,we’llconsiderdifferentmethodstooptimizethewaysthatbotslookatyourwebpageandhelpthemunderstandhowyouwanttoberelevant.

RelevanceandRankingintheSearchResultsFrom a short keyword query, a search engine’s job is to determine thesearcher’s intent –what kind of search is being performed? Is the searcherperforming an informational search? Or is the searcher shopping for aproduct?Whatkindofresultdoesthesearcherwanttogetback?Thesearchengine then must compare all the available content on the Internet to thequery and produce a set of results that are relevant to the query, ranked indescendingorderofrelevance.Allthisgetsaccomplishedwithinafractionofasecond,somethingthatcontinuestoamazeme.

Obviously,theGooglealgorithm(aswithanyothersearchenginealgorithm)isproprietary, sowecan’tknowexactly how itworks, butwe can see it inoperationandmakesomeverygoodassumptionsaboutwhatitdoes.Becauseakeywordphrase isnota standalone indicationof specificmeaning, searchenginesneed touseothermeans formakingadeterminationofmeaning sothattheycandeterminerelevance.Effectively,thephilosophyfordeterminingrelevancewithinaqueryisbasedonthesepremises:

Peoplewill not spend timewith irrelevant content.Theywill stay andengage,ortheywillbounce.

People tend to search for the same kinds of things, but people are

individuals,too.

People will share relevant content with one another by linking theircontenttootherrelevantcontent.

As I’vementioned, youwant to engage your audiencewith every piece ofcontentthatyouproduce.Notonlyisthisimperativefortheuser’sexperiencewith your product, but Google records each search session as part of itsalgorithmfordeterminingrelevance.Thishasbecomeincreasinglyimportant,as implied by theGoogle Panda update in February of 2011.By recordingsessionsandanalyzingtherateofbounceorengagementbypage,Googlecanderive the relevance of that page for the average searcher relative to thatparticular keyword query. Sites that have high rates of bounce might beranked lower in the result set. Conversely, sites that have high rates ofengagementwillberankedhigherintheresultset.

Aspartofthisanalysis,Googleofferskeywordsuggestionsinthesearchtoolwhen a searcher begins entering a keyword. Based on popular searches,Googlesuggestspopularkeywordcombinationsthatrelatetothekeywordthesearcher is currently entering. By offering this kind of help, searchers canhavetheirqueryrefinedwithouthavingtospendtimerefiningitthemselves.

Bounceratealoneasthedeterminerofpagerelevancewouldonlyworkifallpeople intended to find the same kinds of content when they performed aparticular keyword search. It goes without saying that this is not the case.Afterall,peopleareindividuals.So,tohelptailorresultstoparticularusers,Googlerecordsindividualusersessions,therebyattemptingtoidentifytrendsinindividualsearchactivity.AnindividualcanhaveaGoogleaccount–andin this case, Google has a larger set of information about the searcherwhenever he or she is logged into the account – but Google also recordsindividualswhoarenotloggedin.Aparticularuser’sday-to-dayactivitywillinformGoogleofthatperson’sinterestsandwillinfluencetheresultset.

Ultimately,Googleconcludedthatlinkingfromonewebpagetoanotherisaparticularlygoodwaytodeterminerelevancebecausecontent that isgettinglinkspointing to ithasbeenevaluatedbyahumananddetermined tobeofhumanvalue.Thus, links tocontentshould represent relevanceandactasasort of votingmechanism.Google has become the dominant search enginebecause its engineers figured out this liking scheme before anybody else.Yahoo ranked websites differently, and with the arrival of Google peoplemoved away from Yahoo because they felt that Yahoo’s results could beunreliable.

Thedownsidetolinkingisthatmarketersquicklyfiguredoutthisschemeand

begantodeveloplinkfarmsandothertactics,wherelinkscouldbeacquiredwholesaleinanefforttoincreaseasite’srankings.Googleconstantlyadaptsits algorithm to penalize link farms and other paid-link approaches. Thealgorithmattemptstoidentifythequalityoflinksasitindexespages.

Links to a page and search activity help comprise a page’s value whendeterminingrelevance,countingas“votes”forthepage.Themorevotesforapage, the higher itwill rank against competing pages.One of the goals foryourcontentstrategyistoincreasethevotesforyourpagessothattheywillbethemostrelevantandengagingcontentforyourtargetsearchterms.

Asmentioned earlier,Google rolled out in 2011one of itsmost significantalgorithm updates in years, named Panda for one of the engineers on theproject. The focus of the update was to penalize or remove low-qualitycontentfromthesearchresults.AccordingtoGoogle,thisimpactedalmost12percentofallsearchqueries.Thatishuge.Millionsoflow-qualitypagesthatused to be found on page one of Google searches are now nowhere to befound.Googlehassincestatedthatlow-qualitypagesonasitecanevencausethe rankings for the entire site to decline, even the high-quality pages.Themessage from Google is loud and clear: Quality content just became kingagain.

UnderstandingtheSearchEngineResultsPageLet’stakealookattheGoogleSearchEngineResultsPage(SERP)fromthesearcher’sperspective.We’llfocusonGoogle,sinceitgets70to80percentof search traffic, but Bing has a very similar search results page.When aqueryisentered,lessthanasecondlater,pagesofresultsappear,andtheballis now in the searcher’s court to identify what results are relevant to herparticular needs. Search engines are continually reorganizing their results-page layouts inaneffort tooffersearchersanexperience that leads themtotheirdesiredcontentfaster.Despitetheseadaptations,theoveralllayoutoftheSERPhasremainedrelativelyconstant.

Searchresultscanbebrokendownintotwolargecategories:PaidresultsandOrganic results.Paid results–orSponsoredLinks, asGoogle labels them–are segregated at the top of the page and highlighted in pink (Bing’s arehighlightedinteal)sothatsearcherswillknowimmediatelythattheresultsinthissetare,infact,boughtandpaidfor.Theseresultsgetapremiumfrontandcenterlocationintheresultspage,buttheyarelimitedtothreeorfourresultsperqueryonthetopline.Morepaidresultsappearinanarrowercolumnontheright.Whilesponsorspaytohavetheirpageslistedinthiscategory,theseresultsstillundergoasimilarkindofanalysisthatorganicresultsundergosothattheyremainrelevanttothesearchterm.

Organic results, on the other hand, represent the complete set of resultspossibleforthekeywordsearch.Organicresultsforsomequeriescanamounttohundredsofpagesofresults,butthevastmajorityofsearchersneverleavethefirstpageandpracticallyneverseepagethree.

Figure2:GoogleSearchResultsHeatMap,basedonDid-it,Enquiro,andEyetoolsEyeTrackingStudy

Takealookattheheatmapshowingthemovementofasearcher’seyeonaresults page. The highest concentration is in the upper left corner, andincludes the top organic search results. The fact is that the number onepositionintheorganicresultswillgetclickednearly40percentofthetime!And organic search results receive the bulk of clicks ahead of paid results,almost across the board. For that reason, this book will focus only onoptimizingfororganicresults.Thecompetitionforpageone isstiff,but thegood news is that you can get in there if you produce different types ofcompellingcontentandthenoptimizethem.

Figure3:OrganicClickThroughRatebySearchPosition,Source:Optify,Inc.2011

Clearly, searchers are more interested in organic results. For this reasonsearchenginesincorporateanumberoftoolstohelpsearchersunderstandandrefinetheirsearches.Whentheresultsappearaslinks,theURLalonewouldbe almost useless to the average searcher because it contains little or noinformation about the content behind it. So you need to understand theconceptofmetatags.Theresultsetusesthepagetitletagtextforthelinktothecontent(andappearsonthewebpageatthetopofthebrowser).Beneaththelink, thedescriptionmetatagisashortpieceofcontent thatcontains thekeywordsfromthequerydisplays,giving thesearcherasenseof thepage’srelevance without forcing the searcher to go to the page to make thatdetermination.

Asearchercanspecifyattheoutsetofaquerythatheorshewantstheresultsettobelimitedtoacertainkindofcontent.Googlewillfiltertheresultstoonlythosespecificresultsthatmatchthatcategory.Forexample,aresultsetcan be limited to images, videos, blogs, news items, and so on. This samefilteringcanbeappliedafter the initialsearchqueryhasbeenenteredin the“Everything”set. If thesearcherwas, infact, interestedonlyinblogs,heorshecouldclicktoblogsrelatedtothesearchwithoutrekeyingaquery.

For searches that Google assumes are transactional, or location-based, theresultswillautomaticallyincorporateamixtureofresulttypes,inadditiontorowsoflinks.Amapidentifyingnearbyretaillocationswilldisplay.

Figure4:GoogleLocalSearchResults

Or, depending on what you search, the search engine might display somevideos,ifpeopletendtogostraighttovideosearchforaparticularkeyword.Itmightbringupasetof images for thesamereason.Take, forexample,asearchoftheterm“LeonardoDiCaprio.”Basedonthealgorithm’sassessmentof theavailablecontentandtherelevanceto thesearchterm,people tendtowantimagesofthemoviestaraswellasinformationabouthim.Theresultsetautomatically includes images in addition to the text links, even though thesearcherdidnotspecifythatimagesweresought.Theamazingfactaboutthiskindofrelationshipbetweensearchengineanduseristhatthesearcherwantsthebestresultsbutmaynotbeabletoarticulatewhatthebestresultsmightbeintermsofthesimplequery.Searchersrelyonthesearchenginetodothatforthem.

Thismeans thatbydiversifying thecontentyouproduce– for local search,images,video,etc.,–youwillcreatemanymorewaysofbeingfoundonline.In an offline context, this would be like putting out ads on multiple TVvenues,billboards,and inmagazines. It’s thesame for the Internet;youarecreatingmore opportunities for people to see your brand, and engagewithyourproductsandservices.

EveryoneisSocialandThey’reTalkingOnlineSince we’re talking about what’s happening online, we can’t ignore socialmedia. What began with computer-geek chat rooms has evolved into aworldwideculturalphenomenon.TheInternethasbecome,notsurprisingly,azoneof social interaction.Referringback to theRuderFinn survey,wecanseethatanenormouspercentageofpeoplearedrawntotheInternetforwhatcouldbroadlybecharacterizedas“socialreasons.”PeoplegototheInternetspecifically to socialize, which Ruder Finn describes as connecting withpeople,sharinginformationormediawiththem,participatingindiscussions,

andbeingpartofacommunity.Butwecanexpandthissocialphenomenontoacertainextenttothecategoryofself-expression;thatis,opinionsaregiventobeheard,aswithsharingemotionsandcreativity,andoften theonewhoengages in self-expression does so on a social media platform, such asMySpaceorFacebook.Theadvocacycategoryisaverysocialone,too.Theadvocateinfluencesothersandworkswithgroupsforacause—theadvocateisnottypicallyalonecrusaderbutratheramemberofamovement,andoftentimesmovementscall for support,which take the formofgrassroots, socialcampaigning.Themembersofthemovementthemselvestendtohaveforumsfor discussion or blogs to keep each other updated on the current eventsconnectedtotheircause.

Youmightask,“Sohowdoes thatmatter tomybusiness?”Well,here’s theskinny: It’s pervasive, so chances are your customers are already engagedwith social media. The number of people using social media has grownrapidly in the last few years and doesn’t show signs of slowing down.According toa January,2010Nielsen survey, thegrowthof socialmedia isoccurringonaglobalscale.WhiletheUnitedStatesleadsthechargewith142million unique visitors to socialmedia sites inDecember, 2009,Australianusers spent themost time on social media sites, at nearly seven hours permonth.Thinkofsocialmediaasaformofword-of-mouthadvertising–whichis thebestkindof advertising–but it’s anewwordofmouth,wherewordtravelsmuch,muchfaster.

Perhapsthemostincredibleresultofsocialmediaisthatit’sbecomingaplacefor search. Searching Twitter, for example, is like picking the brains ofmillions of people at once.When people are talking about your product orservice, and they search the social media where the conversation ishappening,itbecomesanotherplaceforthemtofindyourbrand.Infact,ifIwastomakeapredictionaboutthefutureofsearch,I’dsayit’shere,onsocialmedia sites. So, just as you need SEO for search engines like Google andBing,youalsoneedtokeepSMO,orSocialMediaOptimization,asapartofyourstrategy.Youneedtohaveasocialmediapresence,andallyourcontentonsocialmedia(yes,yourprofilecountsascontent)needstobeoptimized.

In light ofSEOandSMO,your contentmarketing strategywill bebarbell-shaped,inasense.Youneedtonetworkviasocialmediainordertodevelopyouronlinepresenceasmuchasyouneedtopayattentiontosearchranking–ifyou’replanningonsucceeding.It’sthroughsocialmediathatyourcontentwillcirculatemostrapidlyandyouwillgetsomeofthebestlinkspointingtoyour pages. A successful social media campaign will increase your searchrankings,whileat the same timebringing traffic toyour site. Inaddition tocontent development for search engines, this bookwill look closely at how

your content and social media presence will interact and how you canoptimizeboth.

LocalSearchandReviewSitesMatter,TooAsthewebhasbecomemoreandmoresocial,websiteshavetakenadvantageof thewisdomof crowds, creating niche sites that open up possibilities formanybusinesses.Oneboomingnicheislocalsearchandreviewsites.

LocalsearchonGoogleandreviewsitessuchasYelp.comarelikethephonebooks of the 21st Century.When location-specific searches are conducted,oftenlocalsearchresultsappearintheresults.Notonlydosearchersuselocalsearch to findbusinesses in theirmetropolitan area, they can access reviewsites to give them customers’ feedback on their experiences. These providethesearcherwithevenmorerelevancetotheirsearch.Obviously,thereviewsthatbusinessesgetonthesesiteswillhaveamajorimpactonthetrafficthatcomesnotonlytotheirwebsitesbutalsototheirdoorsteps.

Reviewsites,inparticular,haveastrongsearchcomponentaswellasastrongsocialmedia component.Review sites oftenpull aggregateddata fromwebpagestocreateprofilesforthebusinessesthatareoptimizedforlocalsearch,whichmeansthatjustbyoptimizingyourwebsite,yourbusinesscouldendupon review siteswithout you having to do anything at all. Thiswill expandyour footprint in the search resultsbecauseyourwebsite couldappear rightnexttoyourlistinginYelp.com.Eventhoughawebpagethat’soptimizedforlocal search can get onYelp, Iwould recommend that any businesswith abrick-and-mortarestablishment registerwithYelp (basic registration is free)and other review sites. Registration allows you to optimize some of thecomponents of your business’s page, and you can engage as the businessownerwiththereviewers.Bytakingadvantageofthesocialmediaaspectofreview sites, you canmakeyourpagemore customer-friendly, andyou canshowyourcommitmenttotheopinionsyourcustomersexpress.

GoingForward:SearchersAreTellingYouHowtoMarkettoThem!BetweenGoogleandBing,wehavethebigtwosearchenginesdeterminingsearch relevance by a very similar set of criteria. This is fortunate for usonlinemarketersbecausewecan,toalargeextent,standardizeourmarketingstrategiesforthewebandnothavetospendanenormousamountofenergymanagingmultipleapproachesfordifferentsearchengines…atleastfornow.Thekeytorankinginsearch,aswellastocreatingabuzzinsocialmedia,isgood, solid content. Period. So, as a producer of content, you are now apublisher.Youneedtoseeyourselfthatway.

Publishersneedtomakeengagingcontenthappen.Iftheydon’t–ifyoudon’t–youwon’tsucceed.Astheysay,publishorperish.Thismeansyouneedtocreateengagement.Youneedtocreaterelevance.Inasense,youneedtolearntoreadthemindsofthesearchersinyourmarket.Thegoodnews,thereallygoodnews,isthatthewebgivesyoufreemarketingdatathatwillguideyoutowardcreatingrelevantsubjectmatter.It’slikeasneakpeekintothemindsofyourcustomers.

Insomeways,yourcustomersaredoingyourworkforyou.Sweet!

ConclusionSo, nowyou have a better understanding ofwhat’s happening online.Nowyoucanseewhythe“new”marketingisfastoutpacingthe“old”marketing.It’stimetobuildacontentmarketingstrategythatengagestheusersthatyouwant to reach. This book is about a marketing process that integrates keycomponents,whichwhenapplied togetherwillgiveyoua strongposture tomarketyourbusinessontheInternet.Thecomponentsofthisstrategymustbeusedtogether,likelinksinchain.Whenthechainisstrongandbeingusedatitsfullest, theresult isarobustonlinepresence,bothinsearchandinsocialmedia. But when the chain is broken… well, just don’t break the chain,okay?

2

YourCustomersAreOnline,LookingForYou!

“Rememberthegoodolddaysofmarketing?Wehadalimitedsetofchannelsthroughwhichtopushamarketingmessage.Anadvertisementhere,adirectmailpiecethere…thenaddonakillersalesteam,andwewereset.

Today,wehavenocontrol.Our customersdo.Theyget99percentof theirinformation from search engines, social media referrals, online news sites,and targeted informational pieces. If our business is not there among thesolutionswhenourcustomersarelooking,we’relost.Andevenifwedogetthem in the sales funnel somehow, we lose if we don’t have compellingcontentthatmovesthemthroughthebuyingcycle.

Alas,wemustpublish.Wemust tell stories.Wemustbecomeinteresting toourcustomerssothattheyfind,shareandtrustus.Whowouldhavethoughtthatthecoreofthenewmediarevolutionisoneoftheoldestpracticesintheworld–publishing?”

JoePulizzi,ContentMarketingEvangelist,ContentMarketingInstitute.com,Junta42.com,SocialTract.com,JoePulizzi.com

BetheExpertRobynhasaTrek touringbicycle that she’sused inher commute for aboutthree years. It has served her well, but she’s just now getting to the pointwhere she needs to take it in for a littlemaintenance. It’s time to get newbrakepads, tightenthederailleur, truethewheels–theworks.Shewantstokeepridingherbikeforafewmoreyears,andshe’swellawarethatithasagreatchanceofa long life if she takescareof it.Whatsheneeds isagoodbikemechanictodotheworkforher.

So,Robyngoesonline and searches theweb for abike shopnearby. In thesearch results, she finds a YouTube video on do-it-yourself bicyclemaintenancepostedbyJohnny’sCycleworks.Shealsofindsavideoonbrake

work,anotherontighteningupaderailleursothatthegearschangesmoothly,even one on tweaking the spokes to true awheel.Robyn’s first thought is,“Wow!Theseguysreallyknowwhatthey’redoing.”Hersecondthoughtis,“Thevideosaregreat,butnowayamIgoingtodothismyself!”Infact,she’sneverevenseen the tools thatarebeingused in thesevideos.Solution?ShecallsJohnny’sCycleworkstomakeanappointment.

Robyn is able to trust Johnny’s Cycleworks because they demonstratedcompetencethroughtheircontent.Theyshowedthattheyaretheexpertsandcaught Robyn’s attentionwith their content in search. This is the directionyour content strategy needs to go. In your industry, you are the expert;therefore,youcanbethetrustedsolution.

Like Johnny’s Cycleworks, many organizations are just now starting tounderstand that, alongwith their “traditional” products and services, oneoftheir new products has to be information. In fact, in the age of the NewMarketing, information is fast becoming a core product for manyorganizations. The trend is no longer about interruption-driven marketingtechniques like television,radioorevennewspaperads.Businessesarenowfocusingonproducinginformation–intheformofonlinecontent.

Intoday’sworld,peoplearewillingtogatherinformationandnewsfromnon-traditionalsources.Mostprintnewsoutletshaveseentheirreadershipshrinkandmoveheavilytoonlinecontent.Insomecasestheyhavemadeacompleteshift to online content, shutting down their print operations altogether.Televisionnewshasmadeasimilarshifttoonlinecontent.TheresultontheInternet has been to blur the line between what was traditionally threedifferentmediaforms(print,radioandtelevision)intoone:onlinenewswithmixedcontent forms, including text, images,audio,video,blogs,andmore.Consumers have responded by demonstrating a willingness to takeinformationfrommultiplesources.Internetusershavedemonstratedthattheyarewillingtoweighcontentfromtraditionalmediaoutletsalongwithcustompublishing venues, such as blogs, RSS feeds, social media, and evenmarketingcontent.Amongonlinecontentconsumers, thebottomlineis thatthecontent’squalitydrivesthedecisiontoaccepttheinformation.

Foryourbusiness, thismeans that you canbe seenbyyour customers as areliable source for information about your market if you publish engagingcontentinavarietyofforms.Ifyourcontentishighquality, itwillpositionyou as the trusted solution for your customers. The goal, then, for yourcontentstrategyissimple:

Provide quality content that solves the toughest problems yourmarket

faces.

Positionyourselfasthetrustedsolutionsproviderforyourindustryandspreadthewordaboutit.

Have people rely on you for your expertise as they become yourcustomers.

Your content strategy is about creating and emphasizing your business’spersona.Asyoushift toacontentmarketingstrategy,yourbrandawarenesswilltakeonanotherdimension.Anengagingcontentstrategyenablesyoutobeseenasasourceofinformationforyourcustomersandcontinueonastheirsourceforproductsorservices.SinceInternetusershaveundergoneashiftinwhattheyacceptasauthoritative,youneedtomakethesameadjustment.Youneedtobecomeapublisher.

Demonstratingyourexpertisemeansdemonstratingtotheworldwhatyoudoand how you do it. Back to Johnny’s Cycleworks: In the videos theydemonstrated how towork on bikes,which is the very thing their businessdoes. You might think to yourself that they’re not doing themselves anyfavorsbyrevealingtheirhandthatway.Theymoreorlessoffertheirpotentialcustomerstheabilitytoworkontheirbicyclesthemselvesandneverspendadime at Johnny’sCycleworks. In away, that’s true.But Iwould argue thatJohnny’s has actually done three very good things for their business bypublishingthisvideocontent:

1. TheygeneratedaleadandgotRobyn’sbusinessattheirphysicalstore.

2. Theydemonstratedthatthey’retheexperts,sodo-it-yourselferswillvisit

theirsiteformoreinformation;ifthewebsiteisreallyrockin’,theycouldoffer some products to purchase online for these kinds of visitors,becausethecontentgottheirattention.

3. Because of their content, they increased the traffic to their site so that

they’remore likely to get others to link to and share their pages, andtheirpositioninthesearchresultswillmoveup.

This is the kind of value that comes from a successful content marketingstrategy, and it works in anymarket, whether it be a small bike shop or aglobal corporation.Thekey for anycontent strategy is todevelopengaginginformation,whether it’shumorous, informationalorboth,andtoput it into

actiononawebsite.Thebestcontentwillgetpickedupandshared.Tohaveshareablecontentthatworkssuccessfully,youneedtobeorganized.Youneedastrategy.

BuildaHolisticMarketingStrategyInformation is now one of your key products. So, just like your otherproducts,itneedstobevaluable.Youneedtodistributethisproducttoyourcustomers and potential customers.When they look for it online, youwantthemtofindyournewproduct,yourcontent.Tomakethathappen,youhavetojugglecontentresearch,creation,promotion,distribution,andoptimizationallatonce.Unfortunately,youdon’thavetheoptionoffocusingonanyonepartwithoutconsideringalltheothers.

Tobe successful, then,youneed to thinkofyouronlinemarketing strategyholistically,eachpartworkingtogether,asinachain.Eachlinkinthischainplays a critical role in themarketing of your products and services online.Bookshavebeenwrittenfocusingoneachoneoftheselinksorsteps,butnotas much attention has been given to them working together.When all thelinks in the chainwork together, just as in abicycle chain, thenet effect isacceleration.Foryourwebcontent,thisaccelerationmeansdirectedtraffictoyourwebsite, top spots in the searchengine resultspage, andcirculationofyourmaterials around the Internet.Toaccelerateyourbusinessonline,yourstrategyneedstoconsidereachofthelinksinthechain.

Figure4:VerticalMeasuresChainDiagram

Asyoubegintounderstandthelinksinthechainofcontentmarketing,you’llbe able to understand the chain itself. We’ll lay out the strategy in thischapter,andcover thebasicsofeachof the links.Then, ineachsubsequentchapterofthebook,we’lltakeanin-depthlookateachstepintheprocess.

ALotofContent…JustSucks!Inthelastfewyears,contentcreationhasexploded,allbecauseoftheInternetandhowweuse it.Contentmarketing for the Internet is relatively low-costandcanbehighlyeffective.Anunfortunateresultisthatsomepeopletryingtoexploitthewebpumpoutcontentwithfervor,andoftenwithlittlecareforitsqualityorevenwhetherit’stargetedtotherightaudience.Itshouldcomeasnosurprise,then,thatsomuchofthecontentonthewebsucks.

I’mtalkingaboutcontent thathasnoappeal to itsaudience– it falls flat. Ithas no chance of going viral. Right out of the gate, it’s a dud. The realquestionis:Whydosomanyofthesewebpagesstink?

Theanswerissimple.Intheearlydaysoftheweb,aswebsiteswerespringingup, content was actually an afterthought. Traditionally, when a companydecidedthat theyneededawebsite, theywouldtell theirstaff to“buildusaweb site.” The team would get together with a focus on creating a webarchitecture.Onlyafterthesitehadbeendesignedwouldthelightscomeon.The team would look around the room and someone would admit whateveryonewas thinking:we need to get text on our pages! In a last-minutescramble,theywouldhavesomeoneslapsometextoneachpage.Thepartofthesitethattheuseractuallyengagesendedupwithminimalattentioninthewebdevelopmentprocessandtheoverallqualityofthesitewouldsuffer.Andthosearethepeoplewhohadthebestofintentions,nottheonespollutingthewebwithjunk.

Itcanbedifficult forawell-meaningbusiness to recognize that someof itspagesactuallystink.Atfirstglance, theymayseemfine.But thefact is thecontentcanfailtoengageitsviewers,asmostcompaniestendtowriteaboutthemselves, bragging about this accomplishment or that product offering.Whattheyfailtorealizeisthatconsumersprimarilycareaboutthemselves–not you.Without understanding their target audiences,manywebsites havecontentthatslipsintoblah.Evenifthesebusinessesworkedhardtopromotetheirproducts,thepagesthey’vecreateddonotdothemselvesjustice.Letmegiveyouanexample.

Let’s say you have an ecommerce site, and you sell accessories for pickuptrucks.Ononeofyourpagesyouaresellinga toolboxforaToyotaTundrapickuptruck.Yourcontentincludesanimageofthetoolboxandabulletedlistofitsfeatures:lockinglid,stainlessdiamondplatesteel,removabletrays.Youhaveapricelisted,andabuttontoaddtheproducttotheshoppingcartandmovetopurchase.That’sit.Blaséandprobablyrepeatedonhundredsofsitessellingthesametoolbox.

Sowhat’s theproblem?Onthesurface, itseemsfine. Itcovers thebases, it

identifies the product and its features, and I can buy it from that page. Itcommunicateswhatitneedsto,right?Isayno.

Here’swhy:Thereisnothingonthepagetoengagethecustomerinauniqueway,nothingoriginal.Thecontentoffersnoevidence–apartfromtheproductitself–thatwouldleadthecustomertobelievethatyouareanexpertinthismarket,nothingthatcompelsthecustomertocontinueshoppinghereorevenshareyourproductinformationwithanyoneelse.Atnopointdoesthecontentencouragethecustomertocontinuemovingthroughtheprocess.Themessagehereseemstobe“thisisthetoolbox,buyitandbedone.”Whywouldanyoneshareorlinktothis?Chancesare,theproductdescriptioniscomingstraightfromthemanufacturerandisthesameasanyotherpagethatsellsthesameproduct.Viewerswanttosharesomethingbecauseit’scool,oritshowssomekindof information that theycan’tget anywhereelse.This toolboxproductdescriptiondoesn’tofferanythingworthyofsuchalinkormention.

Believeitornot,thissimple,pragmaticpagecouldbeampedupfromboringtomagneticbymakingafewtweaks.Herearesomesuggestions:

Writeanoriginal,detailedproductdescription.Thismakesadifferenceandengagesthecustomer.

Add user reviews. Now you have a conversation going about theproduct,andyou’veinvolvedthecustomers.

How about a short editorial piece on the use of the toolbox and theadvantagesitofferstruckowners?Thisdeepenstheconversation.

A how-to video, for example, on the installation of the new toolboxwould be an excellent way of demonstrating your expertise with theproduct.

Addmoreimages.Youcouldhavemultipleimagesfrommultipleangles,multiplecoloroptions,etc.Youcouldshowtheboxopened,closed,andinstalled.Youcouldhaveadynamicimagethatshowstheboxin3-Dsothattheusercanlookattheboxfromanyangle.

A section on related products in case this toolbox is not exactly whattheyhadinmind.

Let’s take a look at another example. Say you sold shoes on yourwebsite.

This isaverycompetitivespaceandyoucannotafford toslackoffwhen itcomestocontent.Zapposisabrandknownthroughouttheworld.Theyhavebeenoneoftheleadingshoesitesforseveralyearsnow.

Figure5:ZapposProductPage

Figure6:BadShoeProductPage

By providing interesting and engaging content on an otherwise utilitarianpage,youcanbringyourcontentoutof“stink”anduptostellar.Whenyougeneratecontentforyoursite,youneedtorememberthat ithastoworkforyouinmultipleways.It’snotjust theretoshowyourproductortodescribeyour service. Your content is out there because you want engagement thatleadstoapurchase.Youwanttocreatesomethingthattellseveryoneyouaretheexpertinyourmarketandthereforecanbethetrustedsolutionsprovider.Thisisthetypeofinformationthatgetsshared.

There’samovementinthisindustrytogetthecontentpeopleinvolvedatthebeginning stages of web development. For a website to be successful, thecontent isasimportantasthearchitecturethatcontainsit.So, itonlymakessense that your web team needs to include a content specialist at thedevelopmentstage.This isan idealplace toget thecontentspecialist’s takeon thekindofcontent thatwill fill thesite,blending it into thearchitectureand incorporating it into theoverallmarketingstrategy.Excellentcontent isshareable andcriesout for links fromotherwebsites (moreon thevalueoflinkslater).

In aworld of low-quality content, exceptional content stands out andhas agreaterchanceofachievingsuccess,especiallysincetheGooglePandaupdate(February 2011). A successful content marketing strategy is centered onexcellent content on every page. That’s why I tell people, above all, don’tcreate“junk”.Peopledon’twantit,andtheywon’tengageit.Junkcontentisthewrongwaytodomarketingandit’sjustpollutingtheInternet.It’screatingpagesthattrytotricksearchenginesintobelievingthatyoursitehasrelevantcontent.Junkcontentisstuffedwithkeywordstothepointofbeinglaughabletothereader.Marketingstrategiesthatuseblack-hattrickslikethistoboostpagerankingsorspamtactics inanattemptatpromotionwon’twork in thelongrun.Justlikeahumanwould,searchengineswillquicklyfigureoutthatyou’vecreated junkandpenalizeorremovethatpieceofcontentfromtheir

indexes.Thinkofitthisway:ifsearchenginesweretocontinuouslybringupjunkresults,peoplewouldstopusingthesearchengineandswitchtoamoreusefulone.

Instead, you should create compelling, interesting stuff.Keep the bar high;your pages should be not only good enough to get ranked by the searchengines,buttheyshouldalsobeinterestingenoughtogettheusertoclickonitandengageit.Searchenginestrytomatchthesearcherwiththebestcontentavailable,so you need to be therewith the best content. This is the key torankings.Makegoodcontenthappen.

If you invest your time and energy into conducting your contentmarketingstrategytherightway,Ihavenodoubtthatyouwillseeamajorreturnonthatinvestment in the form of higher rankings, more traffic and betterconversions. By incorporating the strategy outlined in this book, you candiscover your potential customers andwhat interests them, and target themwiththeinformationthattheywant.Ultimately,asuccessfulstrategyisaboutembracingtheentireprocess.

Research:TheStartingPointforCreatingYourStrategySearcherssearchwithkeywords.Aswediscussed inchapterone,keywordsaretherealgutsofsearch.Inasense,searchersthinkintermsofkeywords,just like they articulate their thoughts in terms of words. In many ways,understandingkeywords andhow theyworkon the Internetwill driveyourmarketing strategy, aswell as the kindof content youproduce.Bydoing alittlekeywordanalysis,youcandiscoverhowpeopleseeyourproductsandservicesinyournichemarket.

Youdomarketresearchforyourproductsandservices,right?Youneedtodomarketanalysisforyourinformationproductaswell.Youcandeterminehowpeople are searching for the products and services you offer by analyzinghowtheysearchandbycheckingthetrendsonthesitesonwhichtheyspendtheirtime.Onceyouunderstandthetrendsandkeywordphrasesthatareused,youcandevelopyourcontenttomatch,tailoringit tothewaytheyseeyourproductoffering.Goingonestepfurther,youcanresearchwhat’sworkingforyourcompetitorstoenhanceyourstrategy.

Trends can be like a thermometer of your customers’ interests, giving youcritical data. The real work is to understand how users interact with theInternet and then to spot the trends.Trending data can come frommultiplesources: social media, social news, answer sites, and bookmarking sites –places where conversations are demonstrating your potential customer’s

interest inyourproductsandservices.Keywordsearchanalyticsrevealhowyourpageswillbefound.Incombinationwithtrendinginformation,keywordresearchonsearchenginescangiveyoumajorinsightsintohowyourcontentcan be found by the people looking for it. Knowing how keywords aretrending,knowingwhatkeywords inyournichearegettinghits,willenableyoutooptimizeyourcontentanddirectittothedemographicyou’retryingtoreach.

AsImentionedinchapterone,searchersforthemostparthavebecomeusedto the way keywords drive search engines. For example, say a man looksonlineforhikingbootsbeforehegoestoaphysicalstoretotrythemonandmake a purchase. He uses online search to find stores in his area that sellhikingboots,aswellasinformationonproductssothathecanwalkintothestorewithaworkingknowledgeofwhathe’slookingfor.Heentershissearchwithakeywordphrase–“menshikingbootsboston”–tonarrowhissearchdownrightoffthebat.Hisopeningsearchisalreadyrefinedsothathedoesn’tneed to start with “hiking boots,” getting worldwide results, mostly onlinesalesportalsforhikingbootsofallgenders,andfewlocalstores.Hemaystillhave to narrow down his search further, but he’s already in the rightneighborhood.Whenhehassettledonaproduct,hemightaskhisfriendsonTwitteriftheycouldrecommendthatboot,orifthere’ssomethingbetteroutthereheshouldbelookingat.

Ifyou’reoneofthephysicalstoresinBostonthatsellshikingboots,youwantthisguytoseeyourwebpage.Youwanthimtowalkintoyourstore.Chancesareverygoodthatifyoudon’tpayattentiontothewayheandall theotherhikers like him inNewEngland are searching and discussing hiking boots,youwon’tbeabletotargetthattraffictoyoursiteortoyourstore.

Whenyoudoresearch,you’reinvestigatinghowsearchersperceiveproductslikeyoursandhowtheyare trying to findyourproductsandservices.Withthe information derived from your research, you can then optimize yourcontent and promote it where it’s being discussed. That’s how, mostimportantly,searcherswillfindyourcontent.Yourcontentstrategywon’tbesuccessful if you drop the ball in the research department. Research isfundamentaltotherestofthechain,influencingeveryaspectofyourcontentstrategy.

ContentDevelopment:YouAreNowaPublisherIfyouhaveawebsite,youareapublisher.Websiteownersneedtofindwaystocreateawesomecontentonaconsistentbasis,justlikeapublicationwould.Businessescan’tbesatisfiedbyhavingadozengoodpagesofcontentontheirsite.Likeitornot,you’reinthepublishingbusinessnow.

Obviously, a marketing strategy centers on consistently developing usefulcontent.I tellbusinesses that theyshouldthinkof themselvesasapublisherbecauseIwant themtounderstandthatcontentdevelopmentneedstobeonyourmindallthetime.Thekindofcontentthatyouproducewillbelimitedtothedemographicthatyouwanttotarget,butyouneedtoproduceavarietyofcontent typeswithin the spectrum that appeals to thatdemographic. In fact,youneedtobeliberatedtoexperimentwithformsofcontentthatmightseemedgyoreveninsomewaysoutofbounds.

Inthechapteroncontentcreation,wewilldiveintocontentideasthatwillgetyou thinking aboutwhat content possibilities are out there.Yourwebsite isnotjustaplacetoinformyourcustomerbaseofyourproductsandservices,leadingtoasale.Yourwebsite isyourplatformforpublication,andthat’sabeautifulthing.Publicationonthewebshouldnotbeafrighteningendeavor.Instead, it shouldbe,well, fun. It isnot about inflatingyour sitewith fluff.You’re adding interesting media that engages your visitors. Let’s start byaddingablogtoyoursite.Boom!Youhaveaplacetoaddyourcontentonafrequentbasis.Ifyouseeyourselfasapublisher,thisisanythingbutboring.Yourblogisavehicleforyoutoputupamixtureofcontentonyoursite.Thecontentcan takemany forms: lists, contests, images,video, infographics…younameit.

Publishing is about consistency. Sporadic bursts of creative energy won’tworkwell.Instead,modelcontentproductionaftertheperiodicalindustry.Atthe heart of the publication process is an editorial calendar.This is nothingmorethanacalendarthatplotsoutproductionplansandduedatesforallthecontenttheorganizationwillproduce.Bysettingandestablishingatimetableforregularcontentrelease,yourbusinesswillgainafootholdonyourcontentproduction.Whenyouseeyourcontentproductionplottedoutonacalendar,itwill quickly give you a sense of howmuch time and resources youwillneedtomeetyourobjectives.Forexample,youmayplotyourgoalstowriteablog post twice per week, write an article once per month, comment on aforum or industry blog every day, and spruce up three product pages perweek.Nowyouhavemanageablegoalsandcanbegin tomove through theprocess.

Aneditorialcalendarisn’tmuchgoodwithoutaneditortooverseetheprocessanddirecttraffictoensurethatyoumeetthegoalsyousetforyourcompany’snewmarketing endeavor.Designate someone to oversee content productionand toassign tasks.Thiswillbeespeciallyhelpfulwhenyouare relyingondiversemembersofthestafftopulltogetherandcontributecontent.Aneditorcangathertheteam,developcontentideas,andcoordinateallaspectsoftheprocess.Withoutaneditor(orcontentstrategist)andaneditorialcalendar,no

publicationcanlast.

Asyoudevelopyourcontentforpublication,it’simportanttobefamiliarwithyour target demographic. This is where you apply your research toproduction.Thekindofwebcontentyouuse inyourcampaignwilldependdirectlyonthekindofaudienceyouhave.Webcontenttakesmanyforms,andpeople engage Internet communications in diverse ways, particular to theirdemographic.Forinstance,malesover50yearsoldtendtobelessinvolvedwithsocialmedia.Broadly,wecanthinkoftheirdemographicasspectators,notjoiners.Theylikevideos,soYouTubeisgoodforthem.Theyread.So,ifyourtargetdemographichappenstobemenover50,yourcontenthadbetterincludematerial that they can read, like articles and blog posts, aswell asvideosaboutyourproduct.Often,webcontentproducersmakethemistakeoftryingtogeneratecontentthatappealstoeveryone(let’sjustgoaheadandsaythat’simpossibletodo).Ortheyfloptheotherway,creatingcontentthathassucha lowstandard that it doesn’t appeal to anyone.Remember:Yournewkeyproductisinformation.Informationonlyhasvaluewhenit’sabsorbedbythepeopleit’sintendedfor.

ToBecometheTrustedSolution,YouHavetoBeanExpertYourgoalaspublisheristogenerateengagingpagesthatpositionyouastheexpert in your industry. See, there’s this one enduring problem that comeswithanopenandfreeInternet:anyonecanputanythingoutthere.Whilethisisgreatforfreespeech,ithasmadewebusersabitwaryabouttheclaimsthatare made online.Web users are famously cynical about advertising on theweb.Adsthatmakeclaimsofexpertisefallshortontheconsumer.Youcangain your customers’ trust by being the expert, demonstrating in yourmaterials that you are the trusted solution in your industry. In theworld ofpublishing, there’s an old saying: “Show, don’t tell.” This describes thepostureyourcontentneeds to take.Don’t just tell the consumer that you’rethe expert and expect them to buy it – everyone on the Internetmakes thesameclaim,sowhat’sthedifferencewithyou?Youneedtoshowthatyouaretheexpert,proveitupfrontinyourawesomecontent.

Content that tells theaudience that it’scomingfromanexpert feelshollow.That’scalledadvertising,andthewebisfullofit.Anyonecansaythatthey’retheexpert.Howdoyouknowittobetrue?Expertsproveitbyshowingyou.Whenyourpagesreflectanunderstandingoftherealneedsofyourpotentialcustomers, and responds to them with solutions, you’ve demonstrated youknow your stuff, and your knowledge can be trusted. For example, expertcontentisyourblogtalkingaboutthecurrentatmosphereinyourindustryand

how it could affect your customers. It’s an article that solves a commonproblemthatyourcustomersexperience. It’s theslideshowyoupresentedatyourlastconference.Thiscontentexudesconfidenceinyourabilitytosolveyour customers’problems. It evengoesone step further, demonstrating thatyou are the leading solutions provider in your industry, and that othersolutionsprovidersareactuallylookingtoyourcompanyforexpertise.

SearchEngineOptimization:UnderstandingtheAlgorithmCrawling

As you produce your remarkable content, you need to be certain that it isoptimized forsearchengines.Asmentioned inchapterone, search isby fartheprimarywaytogenerate traffic toyoursite.Thatmeansthateverypageonyoursite,everypieceofcontent,needstobeoptimizedforsearchengines.

Inourbusiness,whenwesay,“Youneedtocreategreatcontenteverytime,”we mean not only great for the human audience but also for the searchalgorithm that will be reading and analyzing the content as well. SearchenginebotscrawlnearlyeverypageontheInternetandstoretheinformationthattheyfindontheirservers.Fromthere,thesearchenginebreaksdownthedatathatitfindsandbeginstoderiverelevance.

Yourgoalistohavethebotcrawleverypageofyoursite.Tofacilitatethis,yourwebsite’sarchitectureneeds tobeoptimizedasmuchas the individualpages.Akey aspect of optimizingyour site’s architecture is having a cleansitemap.Thesearchenginebotsusethesitemaptounderstandandrecognizethepagesonyoursite, followingthemapandindexing thecontent.Agoodsitemapwill aid the search engine to crawl every piece of content on yoursite.AccordingtoGoogle’swebsite,“Sitemapsareparticularlyhelpfulif:

Yoursitehasdynamiccontent.

Yoursitehaspagesthataren’teasilydiscoveredbyGooglebotduringthecrawlprocess–forexample,pagesfeaturingrichAJAXorimages.

Yoursite isnewandhasfewlinks to it. (Googlebotcrawls thewebbyfollowinglinksfromonepagetoanother,soifyoursiteisn’twelllinked,itmaybehardforustodiscoverit.)

Yoursitehasalargearchiveofcontentpagesthatarenotwelllinkedto

eachother,orarenotlinkedatall.”7

Byensuringthatyourwebmasterunderstandsthevalueofacrisparchitectureandawell-organizedsitemap,youwillmakeyourpagesmoreaccessible tohumans and bots alike, and you’ll encourage the crawler to explore everypageonyourwebsite.

Indexing

Google organizes the content that it has crawled on its indexing servers.Theseserversworkliketheindexinabook,byorganizingtheinformationbykeywordsothatitcanbebroughtbackinaparticularquery.Whenaqueryissubmitted to Google, the keyword runs through the indexing servers andmatchesittoalltheavailablecontent.

Googlepaysattentiontohowsiteschangefromoneindexingtothenext.Ifasite has frequent updates, then Google will increase the frequency that itcrawls and indexes the site.Google interprets frequent updates to a site asmore relevant than a site that has stagnant content,meaning that frequentlyupdatedwebsitestendtogetbetterrankinginthesearchresults.Thismeansthatyourwebsiteneedstohavenewcontentpostedtoyoursitefrequentlyinordertoencouragefrequentcrawlingandup-to-the-minuteindexing.

Ranking

The Google search appliance uses two primary factors when analyzing anindexedpageforrelevance:PageRankandHypertext-MatchingAnalysis.

PageRank isGoogle’s key feature. It’swhatmadeGoogleGoogle.DrivingPageRankisthenetworkoflinkstoandfromwebsites.Infact,Googleboastsof knowing the entire link structure of theweb. By understanding the linkstructureoftheweb,Googlecantrackthisnetworkoflinksandbacklinkstodetermine relevance of a given page. This means that a major aspect torankingwellinsearchistogetlinkstoyoursite.

TheotherkeytorankingcomesfromGoogle’sHypertext-MatchingAnalysis,whereGoogleanalyzesthecontentonyourpagesforrelevance.Here,Googlelooks for keywords within the content to determine relevance to a query.Googleexplainsthat“insteadofsimplyscanningforpage-basedtext(whichcan be manipulated by site publishers through meta-tags), our technologyanalyzesthefullcontentofapageandfactorsinfonts,subdivisionsandthepreciselocationofeachword.”8Effectively,Googleissayingthatthecontentitselfis,inaway,understoodbythealgorithm,andthereforeyoucan’treallytrickitbecauseitfactorssomuchofthepagecontenttogether.Therefore,thebestplanistoincludeyourtargetkeywordsnaturallywithinthebodytextandstrategically within the metadata. Google’s algorithm works to deliver real

contentinthesearchresults,andweedoutjunk.Thisisgoodforthesearcher,since the searcher relies on Google to bring back only relevant content.Ultimately, this is also better for you, the website owner, because you areforcedtoputtogetherqualitycontent.Qualitycontentisbestforyourbrandandwillfindyouthemostsuccessinthelongterm.

OptimizingYourPagesfortheWeb

In their bookAudience, Relevance, and Search, JamesMatthewson, et al,9offeraguidingphilosophythataddressesthewayyououghttoapproachyourcontent in the context of SEO. They state: “Writing for search enginesapproximateswriting for people” (2).Yourpages shouldwork for a humanfirst–thatis,ahumanshouldbeabletounderstandyourcontentandderivemeaningfromit relative to thesearchquery thatwasperformed. If thatcanhappen,itwillworkforthesearchengine,too.

Whenyoucreateyourmetadata,itshouldalsoberecognizableandrelevanttoahumanlookingforcontentrelativetothekeywordsinyourmetadata.Yourcontent’smetadata ispartof the larger frameworkforyourcontentandwillhelp boost the content’s relevance in search. It follows, then, that contentdevelopmentshouldincludeanoptimizationplantobesurethatallcontentisoptimizedattheoutset.

Optimizingmetadataisamatterofknowingwhatkeywordsyouaretargetingfor each page and getting them into the right places on the page. If yourbusinesshasanSEOandacontentspecialistmanagingcontentcreationandlaunch, those twowill need to be in close communication.You can ensurethatyourpageswillalwaysbeoptimizedbyinstitutingaplanthatgovernsthehandoff of the new page from the content specialist to the optimizationspecialist for launch. That way everyone knows who’s in charge of theprocessandcanrestassuredthatit’sbeingimplementedproperly.

Bynurturingyour content throughSEO,youwill bedoingyourself a hugefavor. If you ignore SEO, your awesome content ideas will have less of achanceofbeingfoundinsearchandwon’tbeabletopacktheirfullpunch.Ifyouincludeoptimizationaspartofyourcontentdevelopmentprocess,ratherthan as a separate round of work, you will be forced to think of keywordusage in the title, body and metadata. This will lead to more naturallyoptimizedcontentandultimatelymoreefficientoutput.

PromotingThatAwesomeContentWhenyouhavecreatedthat totallyawesomewebcontent,don’t let itsitonyoursitewaitingforsearcherstofindit:getabuzzgoing!Bypromotingyourwork,yougenerateinterestinyourcontent,andwhenpeoplefindinteresting

stuff,theyshareitinsocialmediaandlinktoitfromtheirwebsites.

Todispelthemythofviralcontent,Iwanttomakeitclearthatyourgoalinpromotingyourcontentistospreadyourcontentinanactiveway,ratherthanfocusingoneverypagegoingviral.Ifyourcontentdoeshappentogoviral,itwillhaveachievedwebmarketingnirvana,butthat’snotsomethingyoucanmakehappen.Theverynatureof“viralmarketing”haseverythingtodowiththeunpredictablenatureofmasssocialobsession,whichyouhavenocontrolover.Ithastosurpriseus.So,don’ttrytomakeeverycontentpieceabighit.Rather, focus on making every piece interesting and engaging. You wantpeopletobeinterestedinandinvolvedwithyourwebpages.

There are lots ofways topromote content. Itmightbeginwith establishingrelationshipswithbloggerswhowillbewillingtotalkaboutandlinktoyourpagesfromtheirblogs.Byreachingouttobloggerswhohavefollowingsand“pitching” your new content page to them, you can tap the network thatthey’vealreadyestablished.Eachblogger’sfollowerswillgetexposedtoyourexpertiseandmayclickthroughtoyourwebsite.Byfindingbloggerswhoarefocusedonaspectsofyourindustryandbynetworkingwiththem,youmightfind thatyourpagescanoffer solutions to theproblems that their followersareexperiencing.

Today, the big enchilada for promotion is social media. Among the manysocialmediaoptionsout there,youshouldbecertaintohaveaprofileonatleast someof thebigones, likeFacebook,Twitter,YouTube, andLinkedIn.Asyoudevelopyoursocialnetworks,youfosterrelationshipswiththepeoplewhowillshareyourcoolstuffwhenyouaskthem.

Promotion is about communicating the value of your content to the peoplewhowillbeabletoshareitwiththeirownnetworks.Alotofpromotionisamatter of actively connectingwith other people and beingwilling to sharetheircontentonyoursite,aswell.Whenyoulinkfromyoursitetoothersites,youenrichtheexperienceyourfollowershavewhentheyareonyourpages,andyouwillbenefitthesitesthatyoulinkto.Whenyou’velinkedtosomeoneelse’scontent,they’llrecognizethefavorandwillbemorelikelytoreturnthefavortoyouwhenyourequestit.

Byproactivelyfindingwaystospreadyourcontentoutsideofyourimmediatesphere of followers, you can draw awider audience to your site and growyourownbaseoffollowers.

DistributingandRepurposingYourContentThebeautyoftheInternetisthatmuchofitcaterstodistributingcontent.Tobesuccessful, themorechannelsyouhavefordistribution, thebetter.Don’t

limit yourself to one or two. Look across the spectrum – there are manydistribution channels out there that you can take advantage of. You’rebroadcasting, so use as many appropriate channels as you can manage totargetyourmarket.Youcandistributecontentthrough:

Socialmedia

RSS

Content-sharingsites

There are plenty of options in social media, and nearly all of them aredesignedtocommunicatetothenetworksthatfollowyourprofile.Whenyouhaveanewpieceofcontent,youcaneasilydistributeittoyoursocialmediachannelsthroughupdates.Notonlywillthepeopleinyournetworkseeyourpostingandbedrawntoclicktoit,butiftheylikeit,theycanquicklypassitalongto thepeople in theirnetwork.Ifyourcontent isreallygood,youcanwatch it circulateexponentially. Itpays tonurtureyour socialnetworksandofferplentyofopportunities forpeople to signupand followyourupdates.Thinkof it thisway:Thesepeoplearealready interestedenough towant toknowwhenyournextpiececomesout,sodon’tkeepthemwaitingtoolong.Youdon’twant toneglect them, since theyhaveactually signedup tohearfromyou!

ReallySimpleSyndication,orRSS,feedsareanotherwaytodistributeyourcontent topeoplewhohaveaskedtoreceiveit.RSSisanawesometoolforblogs that instantly broadcasts any new content. Feed catchers receive theupdatesandalertthefollowersthatnewcontentisavailableforviewing.ThebestpartaboutRSSisthatonceyou’vesetitup,you’regoodtogo.TheRSSfeedwillautomaticallydistributethecontentforyou.

There are tons of distribution channels out there. Some of the best arecontent-sharing sites. These sites are designed for sharing specific types ofcontent. YouTube and Vimeo are video-sharing sites, and SlideShare is aslideshow-presentation-sharingsite.Mostcontent-sharingsitesofferuserstheability to have branded profiles where all of your uploaded content isaggregated.Ifyoucreatecontentforyourwebsitethatcanalsobesharedononeormoreof thesesites,post it simultaneouslyso that itgets thegreatestopportunityforbeingdiscovered.

LinkAttractionvs.LinkBuilding

Uptonow,we’vetalkedaboutcontentmarketingstrategyprimarilyintermsof creating content that gets found in search and gains traction around theInternet. Your objectives depend heavily on search engine rankings andexposurethroughlinksfromotherpagestoyourown.Amajorcontributortosearchenginerankingsisthenumberoflinkstoyourwebsite.Ontopofthat,linksfromreputablesitestoyourshelpincreasetraffictoyoursite.Needlesstosay, links toyourcontentprovideamajorbenefit toyourefforts.Soyouhavetofindawaytogetpeopletolinktoyourcontent.

Certainly, links are the bestway to determine relevance. Theoretically, andlargely in practice, links arewhere humans identify relevancepage to pagebecause if they like it, theywill link to it.Manybusinesses,however,havehadtodeveloplinks“unnaturally”byrelyingonlinkbuildingschemesor–gasp – paying for links. Some campaigns have made use of computerizedforumandblog commenting for the sakeof getting a link. It turns out thatspamisareallygoodwaytoannoyawebmaster(andGoogle),anditwon’thelp your reputation. To do link building the right way, you have to getpersonal.

I’msuggestingthatyouignoretheselessthanethicalpracticesandfocusonlinkattraction.Ifyougenerateawesomecontentandthenpromoteit,you’regoing to attract natural links. In effect, if you develop really compellingmaterial, linkswill followas the content gets shared.That’s link attraction.It’sreallyquitesimple,anditservesasonemoreverystrongcasefortakingcare topublishmagneticcontent.Theprocessofpromotinganddistributingyour content gives you an edge in link building because in those cases it’sreaching a targeted audience that will be compelled to share your page bylinkingtoitfromtheirsite.

Figure7:MagneticContent

Link attraction plays a key role in making a link request, too. You won’tattractalinkwithoutprovidingsomekindofvaluetothesitethatyouwanttolink toyou.The rightway to request a link is to researchbloggers that are

bloggingontopicsinyourindustry.Ifyourcontentcanrespondtotheissuestheyaddressintheirblogs,youcanofferupyourpageasasolution.Alinkrequestthatistargetedandcustomizedwillanswerthequestion,“WhyshouldI?”beforethewebmasterorbloggerhasachancetoask.

ConclusionMany books go deep into the specifics of the particular components of thecontentmarketingchainthatI’vedescribedinthischapter.You’llfindbooksonSEOandonlinkbuilding,andtherearemanybooksonsocialmediaandcontentstrategies.Butyouwon’tfindanythatpullitalltogetherholisticallyand give readers a chance to look at contentmarketing as a function of alltheseelementsworkingtogetherasinachain.Mygoalistoshowyouhowtoapproacheachlinkinthechainandremindyouthateachoneaffectsall theothers.Tobesuccessful,youneedtopayattentiontoeachlinkandnotbreakthechain.Inthefollowingchapters,we’regoingtodiveintothecomponentsand look closely at how you can start engaging yourmarket, develop yourownstrategy,andbeginimplementing.

3

InformationAboutYourCustomersIsAtYourFingertips

“One of my favorite stories in my SEO career comes from time I spentworking with NPR (National Public Radio). It was 2005 and theirorganizationwasunderheavycriticismfromright-wingpoliticalgroupsandpundits for being “too left-leaning.” To assuage this perception, NPR’seditorial team tooksomedramatic steps in languageusage;oneof themostprominent of these was the switch away from using the words “globalwarming”todescribeclimatechangephenomena.Theirnewcontentonthisissuewaskeptonthewebsiteinasectioncalled“climateconnections.”

Perhapsnotsurprisingly,searchtraffictookaseriousdipfortheworseinthisarena. Hundreds of thousands searched on Google, Bing and Yahoo! for“global warming” and related topics (there was, indeed, a “long tail” ofsimilarqueries, too),butveryfewsearcheson“climateconnections”oranyrelated vocabulary. NPR may have helped soothe some critics but in theprocesstheylostalargequantityofpotentialvisitors.

Thelessonhereissimple–knowyouraudience.Thewebisfulloftoolstodetermine what people are talking about, what they’re searching for, whattheircommunitytoleratesanddoesn’t,andhowyourmarketingcouldfitintothemix. Ignoringor rejecting thecriticalprocessofmarket researchon theweb leads to terrible decision-making and lost opportunities. In webmarketing,don’tgowithyourgut;gowherethedataleadsyou.”

RandFishkin,CEOandCo-founder,SEOmoz

Marketresearchisaboutidentifyingwhatthepopulationisinterestedin:whatneedstheyhave,whatdesirestheyhave,andespeciallywhattheyarewillingto buy to fulfill those interests. To get information about what consumersweredoing,market researchershad to findways tounderstandwhatwouldappealtoconsumers.BeforetheexplosionoftheInternet,thewaytoconductthiskindofresearchwastosurveyconsumersandtocreatefocusgroups.Itwouldhavebeenimpossibletoaskeverypersoniftheywereinterestedinaparticularkindofproduct,soinformationwasgatheredthroughdemographicresearchandsampleswithindemographics.

TheInternethaschangedthegame.Informationaboutyourcustomersisnowatyourfingertips.Thebulkof thepopulationisonline,andthismeansthat,while sampling can still be useful, it isn’t quite as necessary any more.Becauseifyouknowwheretolook,youcanseethatconsumersareactuallymakingitquiteclearwhattheyneedandarewillingtobuy.

Chances are the demographic you want to target is interacting with theInternetinwaysthatwillenableyoutounderstandtheirinterestsandneeds.You can use marketing data gathered online to see how consumers arebehavinginyourmarket.Thisresearchisvaluabletoallkindsofbusinesses,whethertheyarecompletelyonlineorhaveabrick-and-mortarstorefront.Asyou conductmarket research online, you’ll be able to spot trends on local,national, and even global levels. These are some great ways to conductmarketresearchusingdataavailableonline:

Checktrendingtopics

Lookatanswersites

Checksocialnewssitesanddiscoveryengines

Findoutwhat’sworkingforyourcompetitors

Answer sites, social news sites, and discovery engines reveal in real timewhat interests your potential customers. On top of that, by checking in onyourcompetitors,youcanseehowtheymeetthesedemandsandwhatthey’remissing. All of this can be enormously valuable to your business as youdevelopyourcontentideasandevenproducts.

Researchthroughsocialmediaisaneffectivewaytogetdowntothe“streetlevel”andbetterunderstandhowyourpotentialcustomersthink.You’llgetagreatsenseof the language theyuse todescribeyourproductandhowtheyperceiveyourmarket.

Asyoupayattention to thebuzzaround the topicsandconcepts relating toyourbusiness,you’llbegintoseetrendsnotonlyinwhatpeoplearesaying,butyou’llstarttobecomeawareofthesubtletiesinthewaysyourcustomermightphraseasearchrequest,whatcontenttheyrespondto,orwhatcontentinvites user comments. People outside of your industry probably aren’tattunedtothejargonthatcomeswithbeinganindustryinsider.Ifyouwanttoreach those customers, you have to understand how they perceive yourproduct.You couldmiss them in search if you optimize formore technical

insider language that you may take for granted. By understanding thedynamics in your potential customers’ conversations, you can develop richanswers to theirmostpressingquestionsanddeliver theseanswers in termsthatmakesensetothem.

Toremaincompetitive,keepabreastofthetrends.Thismeanskeepingclosewatchonkeywebsitesthatyourconsumersareusing,andreturningoftentocheck again. As you create content, you should continue to do marketresearchonline tokeepcurrentwith the trendsso thatyoucanengageyourpotentialcustomersrightwheretheyare.

CheckTrendingTopicsSocialmediasiteslikeTwitterandwebportalslikeYahoo!havemillionsofusers postingmultiplepersonal updates everyday.Theseusers tend topostand repost on the same topics, and within this activity, trends emerge. Bylookingattrendingtopics,youcangetasenseofwhat’shotinyourindustry.You’llfindoutwhatpeoplearetalkingabout,tellingeachother,andsharingwiththeircommunity.Knowingthisinformationiskeytohowyoutailoryourcontenttorespondwithsolutionstoyourpotentialcustomers’needs.

Fortunately, there are tools that can help you monitor multiple channelssimultaneously to trackmentionsof thekeywordsyou’re interested in.Twosuch tools that really stand out are SocialMention.com and Trackur.com.Thesesitesletyoupeekatrelatedconversationsacrossmultiplesocialmediachannels.

Figure8:SocialListening

SocialMention.com is a free site, but all the data it provides is on demand.YoucanuseSocialMention to runqueriesbykeywordorbrand tomonitorwhoandwhereusersaretalkingaboutthosespecifictopics.Thesitepresentsanalytic data – including sentiment, top related keywords, and a graphic

breakdownofvolumebychannel–aswellasthemostcurrentsocialmediaactivity.SocialMentionalsoallowsyoutosetoptionsformonitoringcertainmentionswith email alerts, but all-in-all the site is geared for keyword andbrandmonitoringondemand.

Trackur.com offers a free one-month trial and a paid subscription.Trackur.com monitors keywords and brand mentions, tracking the dataconstantly. The analytics that Trackur.com provides includes trending data,breaking down mentions by media type. It’s true that Trackur and SocialMention are very similar, butTrackur allows users to sit back andmonitortheirmentionsconstantly,whereasSocialMentionrequiresusers todomostoftheworkforthemselves.

Trackingmentionsisacriticalpartofmarketresearchinsocialmedia,butit’sbeneficial to digdeep and check the trendson siteswhereyou expect yourcustomerstobeactive.Let’sgooversomeofthebigones:

TwitterforResearchTwitter, in a nutshell, is a social microblogging site that originally was allabouttellingtheworldwhatapersonwasdoinginlessthan140characters.Itwasquicklyembracedbymarketersandhasbecomeamajorcommunicationtool for any entity looking to connect with constituents, customers, andinterestedfollowers.

TweetingistheactofuploadingcontenttoTwitterforaperson’sfollowerstoview.Ifthecontentisinterestingorcatchy,itcanbere-tweetedtootherusers.A tweetcanhaveembedded in ita link tomorecontent, so, forexample,atweetcanincludealinktoawebpage,aFlikrphotooraYouTubevideo.Aretweetiswhenauserforwardsatweetontohisorherfollowers.RetweetingisamajorwaythatcontentpicksupmomentumandgoesviralonTwitter.

Twittertracksthecontentinthe“twittersphere,”takingstockofpopulartermsand phrases. In a marquee, current trending topics are displayed andconstantlyupdated.Youcanclickonatopicandviewthetweetsthatmadeupthetrend.Payattentiontothenitty-grittyofthecontentyousee.Remember,thisiswhatactualpeopleareactuallytellingoneanother.

Go further in your market research by using Twitter’s search function(http://search.twitter.com).Youcansearchdirectlythetopicsorkeyconceptsthatyou’refocusingonandseehowtheyaretrending.Twittersearchactivelyupdates as new tweets are sentwith the keyword you’ve entered. This is achance to seeaconnectionbetween thekeywordsyouwould like to isolatefor your content and howpeople actively use these keywords.Not only doyouhaveachancetogetdowntothestreetlevelwherepeoplearetalking,as

we’ve been saying, but you might also find some great inspiration forkeyword-specificcontentbuiltrightintothetweets.

Danny Sullivan, Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land, talks about the“anyoneknow” research that canbedoneonTwitter.Twitteruserswillusethe “anyone know” phrase to poll Twitter users for information on theirproblems. “Crowdsourcing,” as it’s called, taps the massive base ofknowledge that has become accessible through connectivity on Twitter. Anexample of an “anyone know” searchmight look like this: “Anyone knowwhere I canget good running shoes for less than$100?”People frequentlypose suchquestions,hoping thatwithin theirnetworkof followers theycanget a quick and credible answer. These questions may or may not getanswered,butwhenuserscrowdsource,theymaketheirinterestsknown,andthiscanbevaluablemarketingdataforyou.

BysearchingTwitter for“anyoneknow”searches incombinationwithyourtargetkeyword,youcanseejusthowmuchinterestthereisoutthere,aswellashowthequestionsarebeingasked.So,ifyou’restudyingtrendsinrunningshoes, you can search [“anyone know” running shoes].Tweets like the oneabovewillfilltheresults,andyoucanderivethatsomepeoplearelookingtokeeptheircostsbelow$100.Thiswillgiveyousomegreatideasfortailoringcontentthatcananswerthisinterest.

Resultsforanyoneknowrunningshoes

Figure9:TwitterSearchResultsfor“AnyoneKnowRunningShoes?”

Whenwegetintopromotionlaterinthebook,we’lldiscusshowyoucanalsoengagethesequestionsonTwitter.Whenyouhavecontentat theready,youcananswertheserequestsdirectly,leadingsearchersrighttoyourpages.

Yahoo!andMSNOfferTrendingDataYahoo! and MSN are web portals that offer news and entertainmentinformation to tens of millions of users a month. Web portals provide anumber of services for their clients, but on the front page they offer anewspaper-like setup.With all varieties of news, sports, and entertainmentorganized for browsing, web portals are capable of tracking thismedia forwhat’s popular, and they offer a snapshot into the top trends in news andentertainment.

On their home pages, bothYahoo! andMSN show current top-10 trendingphrases. While Yahoo! content tends to lean toward entertainment, MSNcontent tends tobe focusedmoreonmainstreamnews.Bothcangiveclues

intowhatpeopleare interested inat the time,whichcanhavean impactonthe kind of content you produce or provide an angle you can take in yourcommunicationstrategy.It’salsoagreatplacetoseewhat’sgoingviralontheInternet.Ifit’sbig-time,itwillfinditswaytothetrendsonthesesites.

Trends for MSN are driven by top searches in Bing. Digging deeper,dependingonwhatrelatestoyourindustry,youcancheckthetrendsinsomeofthesubcategories.TheNewssectionisMSNBCnews,andhereyou’llseetrendtopicsinnews.Someoftheothercategoriesalsooffertrendingtopics.

Yahoo! uses Buzz (buzz.yahoo.com) to track trending news, scrolling toptrendsinamarquee.Buzzisasocialnewssite,whereuserscan“BuzzUp”thenews,increasingitspopularity.Thetoptrendsinnewscangivethesametypeof insight that youget fromentertainment news, showing thekindsofinformationandstoriesthatthepopulationfindsinteresting.ThemostpopularnewsarticlesscrolluptheBuzzLogandcanbesortedbycategory,suchasscience/technologyorsports.OneveryusefulaspecttoBuzzisthatyoucanfilter the results to show trends and top news in nations such asAustralia,Brazil,India,andtheUK.Unfortunately,withasearchinthesecountries,youlose the trending topics marquee, but you can still gain valuable insightsthroughthenewsthatisbeing“buzzedup”inthosenations.

AnswerSitesCanBeaMiniGoldMine

Figure10:PopularQuestionandAnswerSites

Answersitesmight justbe theperfectmarriageof socialmediaandsearch.Thebasicconceptbehindananswer site is thatpracticallyeverybodyhasaquestion to ask that can be answered by someone else. Everyone knows alittlesomethingaboutalotofstuff,sotheanswerscanbepoweredbypublicknowledgewithconsensusdeterminingthe“best”answer.Answersitesofferuserstheabilitytobeboththeinquisitorandtheexpert.Generally,inhuman– shallwe say, analog – interaction,we can answer each other’s questionsbasedonourvarietyofpersonalexperiences.Answersitesmakeitpossibletodothisonamassivescale.Thisoftenmeansthattheturnaroundforaquestionisrelativelyfast;manyquestionsgetanswersinlessthanaday.Infact,mostquestions have already been asked and answered, so getting an answer tocommonquestionscanbealmostinstant.

People ask questions about all kinds of things on nearly every topicimaginable,andasyouanalyzewhatpeopleareasking,youcanspottrends.From a market research perspective, this means that you’ll focus on thepeople that have been asking questions relating to your industry and yournichemarket.You can derive usefulmarket data about the peoplewho arelooking for solutions to their problems in this manner. By searching forquestions that include your keywords, you can discover how experts areperceived and how questions get asked. You can see just how hot yourindustryreallyisrightnowbycheckingoutthevolumeofsearchesforyourproductsandservices.

Ontopofseeingthetrendsthatarehappening,youcanuseanswersitestogetrealtimefeedbackaboutyourindustryfromtheconsumersthatareengagingwith it.Askaquestion to an answer site that relates toyourproduct to seewhatkindofresponseyougetfromtheansweringpublic.Theseanswerscangiveyouenlighteningmarketingdata.

Wordtracker Labs10 offers a great little tool for helping you narrow downyoursearchesonanswersites.Thistoolallowsyoutoenteraqueryandfindthequestionsthatarebeingaskedonthattopic.It’sastraightlistthatdoesn’toffer depth of analytics, apart from the number of times each individualquestionhasbeenposedinthelastyear.Thisgivesyouagreatstartingpointasyoucheckoutanswersitesandsocialmediaforparticularquestionsrelatedtoyourindustryandyourproducts.

OntheInternet,thereareavarietyofanswersitesthatattractdifferentkindsofusers,andthequestionsarecharacterizedbytheplacewherethey’reasked.Let’sgothroughafewpopularanswersites,findouthowtheywork,andlookatwhatmakesthemunique.

You’veGotQuestions?Yahoo!AnswersYahoo! Answers11 is one of the biggest answer sites, getting hundreds ofmillionsofquestionsandanswers.Thesitegetsahugevarietyofquestions,ranging from dating to homework to home and garden. Because of itspopularity, during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, candidates BarackObama,HillaryClinton,MittRomney,andJohnMcCainsubmittedquestionstothesite,leveragingtheircampaignsontheInternetandgeneratingahugeresponsefromthepublic.

ThewayYahoo!Answersworksissimple:participantswillsubmitquestionsto be answered by the community.When asking a question, the participantcategorizesitbytopic,makingiteasiertosearchandeasiertoanswer.Asanincentive to ensure that answers are accurate and free of spam, Yahoo!developedapointsystem.Answersare rankedbyotherusers,and the“best

answers”aregiventhemostpoints.Usersthataccumulatepointshaveproventobereputableandaregrantedcertainprivileges,suchas theability toask,answer,vote,andratemorefrequently.

WithYahoo!Answers, you can browse by category and seewhat kinds ofquestionsaremostpopular,newest,orhavereceivedthefastestanswers.Andyoucangetspecific,too.Becauseeveryuserhastocategorizeaquestionbytopicbeforesubmittingit,it’seasierforyoutoresearchquestionsthatpertaintoyourmarket.Youcansearchkeywordphrasestobrowsequestionsthatarebeingasked,eitherwithincategoriesoramongallcategories.

Forexample,aftersearchingforthekeyword“swingsetideas”thetopthreequestionswere:

1. “Shopping for swing set, any ideas where to get a good one on a

budget?”

2. “Looking for do-it-yourself plans for a shortmonkey bar structure for

ourbackyard–anyideas?”

3. “DoesanyoneknowwhereIcanbuyanicebutaffordablewoodenswing

set?”

If I sell playground equipment, these questions giveme a few ideas aboutwhatpeopleareafter.Allthreeofthesequestionsrevolvearoundlow-costordo-it-yourselfsolutions.So,rightawayIcaninferthattobesuccessfulinthismarket,Ihavetofindwaystoprovideswing-setpartsorplansthatfocusoncostsavings.Manyquestionsinthissearchrevealthatpeoplearelookingforcreative ideas when building their own backyard swing set. Notice anopportunity forsomecontent thatwilloffer solutions to thisproblem?Howaboutatop-10listofcoolestswingsetideas?Answersitescanbebountifulsourcesforcontentideas.

LinkedIn:WhereNetworkingIsBigBusinessLinkedIn12 is primarily a social networking site aimed at businessprofessionals.Membersonthesiteposttheirresumetotheirprofileandaddfriendsandindustrycolleaguestotheirnetwork.Membersareencouragedtoincludeintheirnetworkcolleaguesfrompastprofessionalexperiencesaswellas current assignments, and then to develop a network of colleagues byindustry.

Withmore than80millionnetworkedindividuals,LinkedInhasbecomethe

first placemany people gowhen they think aboutmaking amove in theircareer, and thewebsite has seen an explosion of activity during the recentspikeinlayoffs.Byhavinganindividual’sresumeandcontactinformationuptodateandaccessibletobusinesses,it’savaluabletoolforhiring.

But LinkedIn is used more broadly than simply for job hunting. The siteboasts the ability for linked professionals to collaborate on projects andexpand their ability to communicate across their industry throughLinkedInGroups.Thiskeycommunicationtoolbringsnetworkedindividualstogetherthroughinvitationtothegroup.Thegroupfeatureconnectsthemembersonadiscussion board, and updatesmembers by email when new information isaddedtotheboard.

LinkedInoffersanAnswerschannelasoneofitstoolsforcollaboration.TheQ&Afeatureofferstheabilityforindustryexpertstoshowofftheirexpertisetoanetworkuptothreedegreesdeep(yourcontacts,yourcontact’scontacts,andyoursecond-level-contact’scontacts).Dependingonhowwideeachlevelis,thiscouldamounttoaveryextensivenetwork.

ThedrivingforceinQ&AissimilartoYahoo!Answers,asthemotivationforanswering is driven by a user rating system for credibility. Here therecognition is professional, where the best answers demonstrate a workingknowledgeoftheindustry.LinkedInfurtherrewardsmembersbyrecognizingthetopanswerer inaweeklyranking.Themotivationformakingthis list isindustry-wideexposureastopexpertinthefield.

To answer a question, you need to be networked into the Question-and-Answergroupbythreedegrees,butyoudon’tneedthatrelationshiptoviewquestions and answers. As with Yahoo! Answers, you can search thequestions that are posed in a particular field because each question isorganizedbycategorywhen it’s submitted. Included in thecategorization isthepostalcodeofthesubmitter’slocation,helpingtogiveeachquestionandanswermorerelevancetoageographic-specificsearch.Becausethequestionsstartoffcategorized,youcanquicklynarrowdownthesearchtokeepwithinyourareaofinterest.

LinkedInAnswershasparticularlygooddataforBusiness-to-Business(B2B)marketing.Youcanfindquestionsyourpotentialcustomersareaskingaboutas they try to solve their toughestquestions.Byspending time inLinkedIn,you’llgetaninsider’sviewintotheproblemsthatyourbusinesscansolveforyourcustomers.

You’reonFacebook,Right?FacebookissortofliketheBeatlesfortheInternet,everybodyseemstolike

it. Facebook users create a profile and update their status. Typically, statusupdatesareannouncementsaboutwhatthepersonisdoingorhowthepersonis feeling.Updatescanalsobeused to sharecontentwith friends– suchasblog posts, images, articles, video, etc. Friends can comment on and “like”eachother’sstatus.Ontheirprofile,userscanseealltheactivitywithintheirnetwork.

Withmorethan500millionusersworldwide,about50percentofthoseusers,according to Facebook, are online at any given time. Primarily the site isabout networkingwith friends, and the average user has about 130 friends.Beyondthenetworkingoffriends,thesitehashadahugeamountofsuccesswith platform applications. Ranging from games to contests to promotionstargetedtotheuser’sprofile,Facebookclaimsthatmorethan70percentofitsusersengagewiththevarietyofapplications.

A Facebook profile is designed to accept a huge amount of personalinformation.Beyondgenderandage,itcapturestherealinterestsofitsusersas they “like” pages. “Public Profiles” are pages for public entities,businesses, non-profits, and brands. Public profiles can keep followersinformedonnewsrelativetothepageastheupdatespopulatethefollower’sprofile page. Interest pages capture human interest topics and createfollowings based on those interests. For example, Public Profile pages caninclude “Aerosmith” or “Tylenol.” Interest pages can express sentiments orinterests suchas “Going tobedaftermidnight,” “hiking”or “travel.”Usersselectthesepagesby“liking”themandinteractwiththeminsuchawayastocapturethevariousthingsthattheylikeintheworldaroundthem.Userscanlike any number of pages and by doing so they generate a comprehensivepersonalizedprofile,someofthedatabeinggenerallyavailabletomarketers.Userscanalsocreatetheirowninterestpagestolikeiftheydon’tseeoneoutthere.Whenauserlikesapage,allthefriendsofthatuserseethelikeandcanlikeit,too.Thisgivesthesepagesthepossibilityofgoingviral,asfriendsoffriends like them, causing the page to gain momentum and spreadexponentiallythroughouttheFacebookcommunity.Whenauserlikesapage,theymake their profile data available to the page creator, somany interestpagesareusedtocapturemarketingdataontheuserswhoselectthem.

Because of the volume of activity on Facebook, it’s a great place to gaugehowpeople think about topics and how they perceive your product, and tolearn the questions they ask. By going to the Facebook Pages section(facebook.com/pages) you can browse all the object pages that have beencreatedandseehowmanyusershavelikedthem.Initially,thetoppagesthathavethemost likeswilldisplay.Byexploringthesepagesandcheckingoutthecommentsonthepage,youcangetafeelforwhatthelargestnumberof

users is interested in. For more popular pages, you have to weed throughspamcomments,especiallywithunmoderatedpages.

Togaininsightsintoyourmarketarea,youcansearchbykeywordsthatrelatemorespecificallytoyourmarketniche.Becauseanyonecancreateapageandduplicatesareallowed,youmightfindseveralpageswiththesamenameorasimilarname,suchas“MountainClimbing.”Perusethecommentsinseveralofthesepages,notjustthehighlypopularones,beforeyourefineyoursearch.Thelesspopularobjectpagestendtobelessclutteredbyspam,butthemorepopularpagescanbehubsforcommunitiesthatshareacommoninterest.

Asof thewritingof thisbook,Facebook’sQuestions13servicehasnotbeenfully rolled out, but it’s anticipated that within 2011 it will be. Similar toLinkedIn’sversion,userswillbeable toaskquestionsoranswerquestions,showingthemselvestobeanexpertortosparkaconversationwithpotentialcustomersor interestedfriends.WeanticipatethatonceFacebookQuestionsis fully rolled out, itwill offer a similar kindof searchable functionality asothersocialquestion-and-answersites,allowingyoutosearchquestions.Thiswillgiveyouideasforthekindsofanswersthatyourcontentwillbeabletoprovide.FacebookQuestionswillbeanotherplacethatyoucanpromoteyourcontent by answering questions. We anticipate that in the future thesequestions and answers will show up in search engine results pages likeYahoo!Answers,addinganother instance thatyourcontentcanbe found insearch. Keep your eyes on Facebook and be ready for when Questions isreleased. It promises to be a popular arena in which you will want toparticipate.

Quora:ANewEntryIntotheQuestionandAnswerFieldAlso,duringthewritingofthisbook,Quora14cametothemarket.WefeelitmaybecomeanimportantplayerintheQ&Aspace,thuswefeelitdeservesamentionhere.

ItappearsQuoramaybethenextevolutionarystepasfarastechnologyandsocial media goes. Like the others, it is meant to be a useful knowledge-indexingtool,adatabaseofinformationprovidedbyusers.However,Quoraisacontinually improvingcollectionofquestionsandanswers, reviewedbyusers, edited by users, flagged as useful or not by users, and organized byeveryone who uses it. The creators’ goal is to have each question pagebecomethebestpossibleresourceforsomeonewhowantstoknowaboutthequestion.

SocialNewsSitesandSocialBookmarkingSites

Figure11:PopularSocialBookmarkingSites

Social news sites likeDigg15,Reddit16, andMixx17 and bookmarking siteslike StumbleUpon18 and Delicious19 use voting to help users discover -content of interest to them. Whether it’s blogs, news articles, images, orvideos, participants submit the content and vote it up (or down).Themorevotesapagegets,themorevisibleitbecomestootherusers.

These kinds of sites put amore social spin on news and other consumablecontentthan,say,Yahoo!orMSN.Inthissensetheyareeffectivelyahybridof news sites and social media like Twitter and Facebook, where usersrecommendcontenttooneanother.Thecontentthatrisestothetopisdrivenbyhumanreviewandsharing,therebystirringupcontentaroundthewebforuserswhomaynototherwisefindit.

It’s a really good idea to get familiar with these kinds of sites and payattentiontowhattrendsarehappeningthere.Notonlywill theygiveinsightintowhatkindofnews,blogposts,andothercontentispopularoutsideofthemainstream,butthey’realsoagreatwaytoseewhatcontentisgoingviral,givingyouaclueintowhatmaterialyoucanproducethatwillbemorelikelytogetvotedupinthesearenas.

What’sNewsworthyisWhat’sCool:Digg,RedditandMixxSocialnewsisnotaboutold-schooljournalism.It’snotaboutbreakingnewsdrivenbyanidealisticvaluesetorcenteredonaprescribednotionofwhat’simportantornewsworthy.At leastnot exactly.Socialnews is ademocratic,Internet-basedwayofknowingcurrentevents.Theunderlyingphilosophyisthatifsomethinghasappeal,it’sworthspreading.

Social news sites recommend news topics to each user based on thepreferences and history of that user’s account. Once they’ve reviewed theheadlinesandthenthecontent,usershavetheopportunitytoreviewthemandvote themupordown.Because socialnews is,well, social, thenews that’sbeingvotedup in theuser’snetworkplaysa role indeterminingwhatnewsthealgorithmsuggests.Userscanrecommendanycontenttothesitethattheycomeacrosswhileonline.Asthecontentgetsrecommendedtoasocialnewssiteandtheusersvoteonit,itwilleitherriseinpopularityorfalltoobscurity.Userswhorecommendcontentthatgetsconsistentlyvotedupgaincredibility

andcanearnbadgesorotherrecognitionfortheirparticipation.

DiggDiggisthebiggestofthethreesocialnewssitescoveredinthischapter.Asnewsisshared,usersvoteupthecontentby“Diggingit”orvoteitdownby“Burying”it.WithDigg,submittingcontenttothesiteis,shallwesay,abigdeal,andthereisfiercecompetitionforhavingthecontentyou’vesubmittedget“Dugg.”

“Upcoming”contentonDigg is content that’s rising inpopularity.AsusersDiggitup,itgetsmovedoutofthe“Upcoming”categoryandintothe“TopNews”category.Bothareasareworthexploringwhendoingmarketresearch.

Whenever users contribute a link, they categorize it by topic for relevance.Look atTopNews in “AllTopics” to seewhat’s trending, then look at thetopics that fit your market for a narrower view. In the Top News andUpcomingareas,youcanalwayssearchforkeywordsrelatedtoyourindustrytoseewhat’strendingthere.

RedditLike Digg, Reddit categorizes submitted content, though the categories onReddit can be a tad irreverent. Content can take any form, from a simplephototoalinktoanewsarticletowantads.Asuserssubmitcontenttheygetkarma,goodorbad,whentheircontentgetsvotedupordown.Ifauserself-postscontent,theywon’tgetkarmaforthatpost.Theideawithkarmaisthatit is a demonstration that a user is a good citizen, contributing useful,interesting content to the site. Reddit users take their voting seriously, andthey will quickly vote down content if it doesn’t fit the category it wassubmittedfor,sometimeswithcolorfulrantsinthecomments.

Redditusesgenericcategories,orReddits,forcontentsubmission,aswellasuser-generated categories, called Subreddits. Subreddits categorize contentintosmallernicheareas.Hundredsofsubredditcategorieshavebeencreated,ranging fromAtheism to Programming to Canada. Because they are nicheareas, they generally don’t get as much activity as the popular categories.UserscansubscribetoanyRedditorSubreddit.

For every Reddit or Subreddit category, there are subcategories, whichinclude“what’shot,”“new,”“controversial,”and“top.”Contentthat’sgettingvotedupmoves to the“what’shot”category. “New” is forcontent thathasbeen recently submitted and needs votes. You can also sort “new” to see“rising” content, which is getting votes and is close to moving to “what’shot.” “Controversial” content is content that might be off-color or that

expresses strong opinions that others could find offensive. “Top” featurescontentitemsthathavegottentopscores.Youcansortthislistbytopscoresfortoday,thisweek,thismonth,alltime,oreventhishour.

Remember, while you review the content that’s being voted up, be sure toread thecomments thatpeoplearemaking togetaclue into thestreet-levelconversationthatthecontentgenerates.

LikeDigg,youcangetagood ideaofwhatkindofcontentgets interest inyourfieldbybrowsingthroughthegenericRedditsthataregettingthemostactivity, as well as the Subreddits related to your industry. You can useSubredditfinder.com to search for Subreddits that might be in your nicheindustry.Subredditscanbeveryusefulforgettingapeekintowhatpeoplearesayingonanichetopic.Subredditshavealreadydonetheworkoffilteringthecontentexclusivelytotheniche;allyouhavetodoisbrowsethem.

MixxPracticallyspeaking,MixxisquitecloseinconcepttoDiggandReddit,andmarket research can be done here inmuch the sameway as the other twosites. With Mixx, users recommend news and categorize theirrecommendations, and they create their own news feed, or “Mixx.” Profilepagesbecomeapersonalizedfeedofcontentthattheuserisinterestedin.Ascontentcomesintotheirfeed,usersreviewandvoteonit,movingithigherorlowerintherankings.

AswithReddit,usersgetkarmapointsforbeingagoodcitizen.Mixxrewardsthe best users with awards, which are symbols of status within thecommunity.IntheMixxLounge,youcanviewtheactiveusersandcheckoutthe awards they’ve received. To get a sense ofwhat’sworking on the site,visit theprofilesfor thesesuccessfulMixxers.You’llseetheirnewsMixxesand the content that’s earning themkarma.You can also get a sense of thecommunityvaluesystem.

To seewhat kind of news is generally ranking, you can visit the topMixxcontentbycategory:News,Business,Entertainment,Sports,Life,andmore.Liketheothersocialnewssites,Mixxhastabbedsubcategoriestodefinetheincomingcontent.“Popular”contenthasreceivedwavesofvotes;“OnDeck”content is gaining traction but needs more votes to move into the popularcategory; and “Recent” content is newly added, having not receivedmanyvotestodate.

Eachcategoryofcontenthasa“Comments”tab.Here,youcanseewhatnewsisgettingcommentsandwhatpeoplearesayingaboutthecontent.Again,thisistheplacetoseehowthecommunityisrespondingtocontentandtogeta

viewintowhatkindofcontentgeneratesusercomments.

Mixx has an added feature that is great for gathering interestingmarketinginsights, as well as some content ideas that you might be able to curate.“Polls”areuser-generatedpolls for theMixxcommunity.This is aplace toseehowusersaredigestingtheworldaroundthemandgainingconsensusontheopinionsofthecommunity.

WhenYouLoveIt,YouKeepComingBackForMore:StumbleUponandDeliciousImagineI’vehadmylaptopstolenandallmyfavoriteplacesonlinethatI’vebookmarked onmybrowser have just disappearedwithmyhard drive.Myinsurancegotmeanewcomputer,butIhavetorebuildalifetime’sworthoffavorites.WhenitcomestogettingthemostoutoftheInternet,bookmarkingismybiggest time-saver. Idid theworkof finding theseplacesandaddingthemoncealready,andIdon’twant todo itagain.Wouldn’t itbegreat if Icouldstoreallmybookmarksinthecloud20andnotworryaboutlosingthemagain?

SayhellotoStumbleUponandDelicious.Beyondtheconvenienceofstoringmybookmarks inoneplace, I canget content suggestions that complementmy favorite places. Brilliant! (Note: there are many other similar sites butthesearetwoofthebiggestandbest.)

StumbleUponStumbleUponisacontentdiscoveryengine,emulatingandgreatlyenhancingthewaythatpeoplefindcontenttobookmarkinthefirstplace.StumbleUponstarts by getting to know the user’s personal interests. Initially, this comesfromashortsurveywhentheusercreatesaprofile,butitgrowsincomplexityastheuserengagescontentthroughtheservice.

When using the service, users click the “stumble” button on the toolbar,whichgivesthemanewwebpagetointeractwith.Iftheylikewhatthey’vebeen offered, or “stumbled,” they can give it a “thumbs up”. If they don’t,theycangiveita“thumbsdown”vote.Iftheuserwantstobookmarkthesite,they can tag it. They can return to tagged sites for more content. TheStumbleUponalgorithmincludesasocialnetworkelement,whichtakesintoaccount what the user’s network also has tagged and given a thumb’s up.Content that is voted up by the people in the user’s networkwill bemorelikelytoappearinthenext“stumble”forthatuser.

TogetmarketingdatafromStumbleUpon’smassivebankofactivity,youcanviewanumberofdifferenttrendingdata:

Checkthe“RecentlyHot”tags:Thesearethecurrenttrendsthatpeoplearetagging.Drilldownformorecontentunderthetag.

Check the “Most Popular All Time” tags: These tags change lessfrequently but will change. To seewhat is gaining themost attention,lookthroughthesetags.Again,drilldownformorecontent.

Check stumbles by topic: You can see what activity is happening bytopic.

ChecktheTopRatedwebsites:Theseare thepages thataregetting themoststumbles.

DeliciousDelicious is a simplerversionofStumbleUpon.Delicious ismore strictly abookmarking site, the primary functionality being that users can bookmarktheir favorite places on the Internet. As users view web pages, they “tag”them.Deliciousdescribestagsas“keywordsthatpeopleusetodescribetheirbookmarks.”

Delicioustagsarehelpfultotheuserwhencategorizingtheirservice,buttheyarealsoanawesomewaytoseehowpeopleactuallyperceivethecontentonthepage,andtheproductsandserviceswithinthecontent.Tagsaren’tjustforpagesthatuserslike.Peoplewillactuallytagpagesthat theywanttoavoid,whichcanbeevenmoreinformativeformarketers.

WhenitcomestogatheringmarketingdatafromDelicious,youhavetoreallydive in and get your hands dirty. You can search popular tags or tags bykeyword.Deliciouskeepsarunningtallyofthetoprelatedtags,whichmeansthatyoucanfindanumberofkeytermsthatrelatetoyourbrandorproductsearch.Herearesomeotherideas:

CheckoutthemostpopularbookmarksonDelicious.Thiswillgiveyoumorecluesintothekindofcontentthatisbeingtagged.

Browse the “Fresh Bookmarks.” These are the most recently taggedpages, andwill giveyouanup-to-the-minuteglimpse atwhat’shottestaroundtheInternet.

ExploreTags.Youcansearchthemostpopulartagtermsrightnow.Drilldowntotagsthatrelatetoyourindustryandseewhat’shappeningthere.

Search tag terms that relate to your industry. If tags relating to yourindustryaren’tmakingthetopterms,searchthem.

Whenever you search by tag, explore the content that is being tagged,andkeeptrackoftherelatedtagstoseehowyourcontentandyourbrandcanfitintothescene.

WhatAreYourCompetitorsDoing?Someof thebestmarket researchcomesfromkeepinganeyeonwhatyourcompetitorsaredoing.Yourcompetitorsareonlineengagingtheircustomersandgenerating content that promotes their products and services.Using theresearchstrategywe’vediscussedinthischapter,searchforyourcompetitionby name. By looking at what your competitors are up to, you can gain anunderstandingofwhereyourcontentcanfitintotheconversation.

Onegreatwaytomeasurethesuccessofyourcompetitor’scontentistoseewho’s linking to theirpages.Aswe’vedescribed,onekeyway thatGooglemeasures content relevance is by links to pages. It follows that if yourcompetitors are getting links to their content, then it must be working.SEOMoz has a free tool that can quickly answer the question “howmanylinksisapagegetting?”Checkoutwww.opensiteexplorer.org.Usingthistool,andbyspecificallysortingbystrongestpages,youcanseethelinkspointingtoanyparticularpage(aslongasit’sintheSEOMozdatabase),andyoucananalyze exactly the typesof content that aregetting themost linksonyourcompetitors’websites.Thisalsoimpliesthat thiscontentisbeingsharedthemostonline.

Asyouinvestigatethepagestheyareproducing,askyourself:

Whatkindofcontentseemstobeattractingthemostlinksontheirsite?

Howareyourcompetitorsengagingtheirvisitors?

Istheircontentgettingrankedupinnewssites?

Aretheirblogspopularonbookmarkingsites?

Howaretheyusingsocialmedia?

Byanalyzinghowyourcompetitionengageswiththeiraudiences,thinkaboutwaysthatyoucanreplicatetheirsuccess.Mostimportantly,howcanyoudoitbetter? You might find places where your competitors are missingopportunities,givingyoutheadvantageasyoufillthosegaps.Whenlookingthrough this backlink data, you will see who is actually linking to thecompetition’s content.Because these links represent interest in thosepages,the sites that are linking to your competitors could be just as interested inlinkingtoyourcontent.Laterinthebook,we’llalsotalkabouthowtotargetsomeofthosesamepeopletogainlinkstoyourcontent.

KeywordResearchasMarketResearchIn the next chapter, we will dive into keyword research for searchers onGoogleandBing.Forcontenttobefoundinsearch,it’scriticaltoknowhowsearchersbehaveon thebig searchenginesandhow they findwhat they’relookingfor.Keywordsplayapowerful role inacontentmarketingstrategy,goingbeyondSEO.Theyarecriticaltoyourmarketresearch,aswell.

Whenyouconductkeywordresearch,you’reactuallyexaminingwhatpeopleare searching online – literally what they’re typing into Google and othersearch engines when they want to find something. From this standpoint,keywords are like a window into the psyche of your potential customers,showing you how they view your product. Knowing how people search iscriticaltounderstandinghowkeywordresearchworksasmarketresearch.Byanalyzinghumansearchbehaviormetrics,youcanspottrendsthatwillenableyoutoplaceyourproductofferinginthemostcompetitivepositionpossibleonline.Asyoutrackyoursuccessandcontinuetomonitorsearchtrends,youcanworkyourproductupinsearchresults,andwatchassalesfollow.

ConclusionAsyoumayhavenoticed in thischapter,keywordsandmarket researchareclosely connected. Much of your market research involves examining keyphrasesthataretrendingandbeingusedinsocialmediaandanswersites.Asyou conductmarket research in socialmedia and look at your competition,you’llapplyyourfindingstoyourkeywordresearch.Thewaythatpeopleseeyourproductsandservicesiscrucialtohowyoucandeliverusefulcontenttothem.

Yourmarketresearchgivesyouaground-levelexperiencebyexploringhowyour potential customers share content that interests them and how contentgets delivered to them through social media and your competitors. The

keywordstheyuseinsearchareaproductofthewaytheyinterpretthemarketandwilldeterminehowtheyfindcontentwhentheysearch.Bytakingwhatyoulearninyourmarketresearchandapplyingittokeywordresearch,you’llincreaseyourpotentialforgettingtargetedtraffictoyourwebsite.

4

TargetingYourTrafficThroughKeywordResearch

“Twofriendsshowupatyourdoortohelpwithahome-improvementproject.Onebringsahammerandtheotherbringsapaintbrush.Ifthefirstfriendhaddonehis research,hewouldhaveknownyoudon’tneedahammer topaintyourhouse!

Beforeyoubegintosculpt,design,outline,write,andoptimizeyourwebsite,youhavetoknowwhatyouraudienceissearchingfor.Youcan’trelyonsomeuninformedhigher-upwhohasa“pet”keyword,butyoucanrelyonsearchersthemselves.Thisiswherekeywordresearchcomesin.Itshowsyoutheactualwords and phrases that your target audience useswhen they search for theproduct,service,orinformationyouoffer.

Insteadofofferingahammerwhenwhat’sneededisapaintbrush,keywordresearch allows you to not only know how much paint but what color aswell.”

StoneyG.deGeyter,PolePositionMarketing

Keywordsplayapowerfulroleinacontentmarketingstrategy.Theyarethebasic means of communication between searcher and the search engine,representingthesearcher’svoiceandinterest.Bylookingatsearchdata,youcandeterminejusthowpeoplearegettingtotheproductsandservicesinyourindustry.Thischapterisgoingtocoverkeywordresearchindepth.Keywordsarethecornerstoneoftheweb,thustheydeservedetailedcoverage.Itisalsodesignedtobearesourcethatyoucanreturntotimeandagainasyoubecomemoreskilledatconductingyourresearch.

Searchers enter the best keyword phrase that will most efficiently connectthemwith the information theyneed.Because searchers tend to refine theirsearches less often today than just a few years ago, keyword phrases arebecomingincreasinglylongerandspecific.Theaveragesearcherisawareofthetacticsthatcanbeusedtosavetimeandefforttogetthemtheresultstheywant.Thismeansthatnowkeywordphrasescangivebetterinsightintowhat

thesearcherintendedtofindandwhatkindoftargetedtrafficthosekeywordswillgenerate.Ifyouknowtheintentbehindaparticularkeywordsearch,youcan develop quality content pages that are optimized to the right keywordsandefficientlydrivetargetedtraffictoyoursite.

Tostartanalyzingkeywordtrends,you’llneedtolookatallkindsofmetrics.GoogleandBingmakeavailable to thepublicmuchof thesearchactivitiesand trends that have occurred on their sites.Because there is somuchdataavailable,searchenginesandotherindependentorganizationshavedevelopeda number of useful tools that offer further insights into the correlationbetweenkeywordandintent.

Thesetoolshelpyoutoanswerthequestion,WhataremycustomerslookingforthatIcurrentlysell?Andespecially,Howaretheylookingforit?Throughrelated search phrases, you will also be able to identify your competingproductsandyourcomplementaryproducts.

Searchenginescantrackdemographics, too.Somekeywordsareabletotellyou ifmoremensearchone thingorwomenforanother thing.So, let’ssayyourproductofferinghappenstobemen’ssocks.Youmightassumeyouhavetomarkettomen,butafterdoingsomekeywordresearch,youmayfindthatthemajorityofpeoplesearchingtheterm“men’ssocks”areactuallywomen.Thiskindofinputwillcertainlyhaveaninfluenceonthetypeofcontentthatyouoptimizearoundthatterm.

Goingfurther,youcanevenidentifythekeywordsthataremorelikelytoleadto a sale, andwhich keywordswill not, so that you don’twaste your timeoptimizing for a term that might get hits to your site but fail to lead toconversion.

It’s important tokeep inmind thatkeywordoptimizationgoesbeyond text-basedcontent.Webcontentincludesimages,pressreleases,video,andsocialmedia (seeuniversal search results inFigure12).Whateveryourcontent, itcanbeoptimizedforthekeywordsthatbestfit thesearchesthatwillfindit.Imagesandvideoshavemetatagsanddescriptionsthatcanbeoptimizedforkeywords. Press releases and socialmedia offer great opportunities to takeadvantageof keyword research aswell, and canbeoptimized, even thoughtheyaren’tonyoursite.Awordofcaution:Rememberthatyourendgoalisto provide engaging content whenever you optimize for keywords. Includethemnaturally.Don’tcreatealousypagestuffedwithkeywordsjustbecauseyou have a new term to optimize for. Think about creating quality contentfirst.

Figure12:UniversalSearchResults

Thesmarteryouarewithkeywordoptimizationinyourcontent,themoreyouwill be able to gain targeted search traffic and increase conversion on yoursite. The insights you can derive from the tools that we’ll discuss in thischapterwill:

Helpshapeyourorganization’sbrandonline

Influenceyourproductofferings

Targetyourcontentdevelopmenttothecustomerswhoaresearchingforit

Helpyourcontentriseinthesearchresultsandsocialmediapages

BrainstormforKeywordPhrasesWhenyou setout researchingkeywords, it’sgood to start offwith a list ofkeywordsthatrelatetoyourproduct,industryandbrand.Thiswilltakealittle

brainstorming. As you research each term and discover the data behind it,you’llquicklyrefinethisinitialbrainstormlist.

Grabacolleagueortwoandgetreadytoputyourheadstogether.Drawingonyourmarketresearchandwhatyoualreadyknowaboutyourindustry,makealistofkeywordsandtopicsthatyourclientswillusetosearchordiscussyourproduct.Atthisstage,don’tholdback.Getitalloutthere.

Thinkaboutyourproductsinamyriadofways.

Whatarethekeytermsthatyouidentifywithyourindustry?

Doyourproductscomeindifferentstylesorcolors?

Do you have model numbers or serial numbers that a searcher mightsearch?

Wouldyour product or servicebe categorizeddifferently by region, oreven by country? For example, one searcher might search “autoinsurance”andanothermightsearch“carinsurance.”

Consider your products or services by component parts. Let’s say yousell playground equipment; think about the components of theplaygroundequipmentyousell,i.e.swingset,slide,monkeybars.

Fromyourmarketresearch:whatkindsofquestionswerepeopleaskingaboutyour industry?Did thisgiveyouanynew insight intohowyourproductsareseenthatyouhadn’tconsidered?

Asyoubrainstorm,thinklikeasearcher.Putyourselfintheirshoes.It’snotuncommontogetstuckinsideyourownindustry’sjargon.Whatyouandyourcolleagues think are obvious keywords may not be what your prospectivecustomersusewhen theysearch.Becauseyou’rebrainstorming,writedownthejargontermsbutputalittlestarbythem.Gobacktoyourstarredwords,andbreakthemdownfurther,thinkingoflesstechnicalwaystosaythesamething.

Don’tgettoohunguponparticularkeywordphrases.Forthebrainstorming,writedowneverythingandthinkmorebroadlyaboutwhoyourcustomersare,andhowtheywouldengagewithyourbusinessinindirectways.Youshouldendupwitharelativelylongandbroadlistofkeywords.

The goal in brainstorming is to get a starting point for keyword research.You’re going to take this list and run some analytics to see how thesekeywordsaretrending.Mostlikely,you’llendupchoppingoutquiteabitofyour list. Even as your brainstorm list gets refined during your research,you’lllikelydiscovernewkeywordstoaddtoyourlist,honinginonkeywordcombinationsthatwilltargetthesearchersyou’reafter.

UseKeywordResearchtoBuildTargetedandOptimizedContentKeywordsareallaboutgetting therightpeople toyoursite.Toget targetedtrafficthatengageswithyourproduct,yourpagesneedtorankonpageoneofthesearchengineresultspageforthekeywordsthatsearcherswillmostlikelyuse. If the searcher intends to findproducts in yourmarket, youwant yourcontent to be at the top of the results. Landing solid, targeted traffic is allaboutfindingtherightkeywordstooptimizeyourcontentfor.

People don’t always search the same way for the same things. It’s thosenuancedadjustmentsthatpeoplemaketotheirsearchesthatgiveyouleverageinfindingkeywordstooptimize.Imagineifeverypersonwhowantedtobuyagardenhosetypedonly“hose”intothesearchbar.Everyonesellinghoseswould be forced to compete for that single term. You’d never have otherterms to optimize for, like “garden hose,” “durable rubber hose,” “100 ftgarden hose,” or “hose that won’t kink.” Fortunately, the possibilities arepracticallyasendlessasthereasonspeoplesearch.

Therearemanyvariableswithoptimizingforkeywordsthatmakeeacheffortunique,suchas:Whatisyourcompanybudget?Howmuchtimedoyouhaveto get results? What are your company’s goals? How intense is thecompetition?Howgoodisyourcurrentwebsite?Howmuchcontentcanyoucreate in thenextyear?And soon. Ifyouhavea strongpresenceonline, agreatwebsite,andsomemoneytoinvestinyourcontentmarketingstrategy,youmightbeabletocompeteforsomebigterms.But,ifyou’rejustgettingstarted, itwill takea littlewhilebeforeyou see somesignificant results, soyoushouldstartwithmoretargetedterms.Generallythesearelongersearchphrases,oftencalled“longtail”searchterms.

Keywordresearch isamatterofknowingwhatyouwantandwhatyoucanachieve. Sure, you want to be ranked number one for the biggest volumesearch term, but you’re probably not going to be – at least not right away.There is only a small number of ranking slots available for each term, andcompetitioncanbefierceforpopularterms.However,ifyoucangetnumberone for a few terms with lower competition and modest volume by nextDecember,let’ssay,thenyou’llseesomerealresults,whichyoucanreinvest

intoyourbusiness.Inthisway,yourcontentmarketingstrategycangrow,andasyougrow,youcangetmoreandmoreaggressive inattackingevenmorecompetitive terms. You would be surprised to know howmany businesseshave made small fortunes focusing on a “long tail” keyword phrases in anichemarket.

Keywordresearchgivesyoutheabilitytodeterminewhichsearchtermswillworkthebestforyourcontentmarketingstrategy.Bylookingatthevolumeofsearchactivitybykeyword,andthenanalyzingthelevelofcompetitionforthoseterms,youcanstarttoevaluatewhichtermsyououghttobegoingafterand optimizing for.Keyword research can showwhat related terms are outthere, giving you plenty of ideas for additional content and more ways tooptimize.Infact,behindkeywords,there’salotofdemographicinformationthatcangiveyouevenmorespecificinsightintothekindoftrafficakeywordwill generate. This kind of analytical insight will help you build contenttargetedtothecustomerssearchingforyourproduct.

AToolkitforKeywordResearchExpandingonourbicyclemetaphor,considercycliststakinga100-miletrek.Theywould load theirbikeswithall thenecessities toget themwhere theywant to go.They’d have a spare pump clipped to the frame, holsters filledwithhydrationonthedowntubes,andthesatchelonthehandlebarswouldbestockedwithPowerBars.Thepanniersovertherearwheelwouldhaveapairofsparetiretubesandacompacttoolkitthatweighedmereounces,servingtohandleanyadjustmentsthatmightbeneededonthefly.Beforesettingoutonanylengthyride,agoodcyclistwillinspectthestateofthebiketobesureit’sintip-topform,breakingoutthetoolkit totightenanuthere, tweakaspokethere,andmakingsuretotakeitalong,incaseanyadjustmentsareneededontheride.

Keyword research tools work in the sameway for your content marketingstrategy.Mostpeoplesettleinontwoorthreetoolsthattheyreallyloveanduse those to find keywords to hone in on for a particular content piece, orseries of pieces.Many times a littlemarket research, in conjunctionwith afewgoodkeywordresearchtools,canleadtosomegreatcontentideas–andultimatelythesearchersyouseek.Findingtherightkeywordsforyourcontentisamatterofknowingthetools;eachonetellsyousomethingalittledifferentfromtheothers.Ifyouknowhowtousethem,muchofthiskindofresearchcanbedoneonyourown.Theeffortyouputintokeywordresearchwilldrivehowmuchyougetoutofit.

Whileyouwillprobablysettleonafewtools that tendtoworkforyou, it’sgoodtobefamiliarwithsomeoftheothertoolsthatareoutthere,too,sothat

you can augment your routine keyword research. Sometimes, you needdifferentkindsofinformationaboutyourkeywordsthanyounormallywouldget fromyourday-to-day tools, justasacyclistonoccasionhas to take thebiketotheshop,putitontherack,andbreakoutthespecialtywrenches.

On the following pages, I’ll break out some great tools that you can startusing right away. There are a lot of services for researching keywords outthere, but I’m going to cover the big, basic tools thatwork reallywell forgeneralkeywordresearch.Then,I’llgoontotouchonafewspecialtytoolssothatyoucangetabroadersenseofwhat’spossibleinkeywordresearch.

KeywordSuggestandInstantSearchGoogleandBingbothuseakeywordsuggestionfeaturetohelpsearchersfindwhat they are looking for more efficiently. Keyword suggestion instantlyoffers popular related keyword phrases as the searcher types the keywordphraseintothesearchbox.Thesuggestiondynamicallychangestorefreshaseach letter is typed in the search box.When the phrase appears that mostcloselyexpressestheideathatthesearcherwantstoexpressinthesearch,thesearchercanselectitfromthelistandgorighttothoseresults.

ForusersthatareloggedintoGoogle,InstantSearchisafeaturethatGooglerolled out in the fall of 2010 that has revolutionized the idea of searchsuggestion. Instant Search goes one step beyond keyword suggestion byactually populating the entire search results for the closest related keywordmatch. Instant Search is so fast that the resultswill update instantly as thesearchertypesnewlettersintothesearch.

Whilethesearen’texactlytoolsdesignedforkeywordresearch,youcangetalotofinformationfromlookingathowKeywordSuggestandInstantSearchworktodrivetraffictowardparticularkeywordphrasesinthesearchsession.

Type a keyword phrase you’re researching into the search engine and takenote of how the refined search leads you to your goal search. Look at thealternativekeywords that are suggested.Keyword suggestion isdesigned tohelpthesearchertargetthesearchtotheresultsthatmatchhisorherintent.Anunfortunatesideeffectmaybe todrive trafficawayfromkeywords thatyou’veoptimized,whileatthesametimedrivingtraffictowardkeywordsthatare more competitive where you wouldn’t easily rank. Youmight even bedissuaded from using creative long-tail search phrases, at least in the earlyround of search, if Keyword Suggest points searchers to a more relevantkeywordphrase.

Ontheotherhand,youmightfindsomekeywordphrasesinthesuggestionsthatyoucouldoptimize for. Ifakeyword thatyou’ve ranked forappears in

thesuggestionlist,ortheInstantSearchresults,youcouldbenefitfromuserswhostoptherewhentheytakeadvantageofthesuggestions.

GoogleAdWordsKeywordToolTheAdWordstool21allowsyoutoentermultiplekeywordstocomparesearchvolume data. The results show all synonyms and related keywords for thetermsyou’veentered.Googlerefers to theseresultsas“ideas”andforgoodreason:thehugeamountofinformationthatisreturnedcanofferalotofideasfor honing in on keyword combinations that relate to the query you’reinterested in. For example, a search for “keyword research” brings up allsearch terms that include thewords“keyword”and“research.”Youcangethundreds of results for a term. You can also enter multiple terms to getvariations on a number of ideas. By adding the term “long tail” to theprevioussearch,theresultsnowincluderelatedtermstobothentriesaswellas combinations of both, such as “long tail keyword research,” “long tailkeywords,”etc.

Figure13:Resultsfor“MountainBike”inGoogleAdWordsKeywordResearchTool

Theanalyticdatathatthistoolincludes:

Thecompetitionforeachterm

Numberofglobalmonthlysearches

Numberoflocalmonthlysearches

Abargraphdepictingsearchvolumebymonth

Estimatedaveragecostperclick(forpaidsearch)

Theresultsetof“ideas”isanexcellentwaytoidentifynew,relatedkeywordcombinations. By entering a single term, you get hundreds of possiblevariationswithusefuldataoneachtermlistedforeasycomparison.

Monthly search volume is likely the first piece of data you’ll look at. Thenumbers in thesecolumnsare the12-monthaveragenumberofuserqueriesforthekeyword.Themonthlysearchvolumeisgivenintwocolumns,andit’simportant to know what they mean. “Global” monthly searches refers toworldwide searches across the Internet, while “Local” results refers to thenation that you’ve selected (defaulting to the country you’re in). In theKeywordsTool,youcan’tnarrowthelocalresultsanyfurtherthannation,butyoucantakekeywordsyou’reinterestedinfromthistooltoothertools,suchasGoogleInsights,togetmoredetailedgeo-specificdata.

The Local Search Trends column displays at a glance the fluctuation ofkeywordtrafficoverthepastyear.Eachbaronthegraphrepresentsamonthofthecalendar.Thisallowsyoutoroughlycompareononepagesomeofthetrendinformationbetweenkeywords.

Thecompetitionforeachtermisalsorepresentedbyashadedbargraph.Themoreshadedthebar,thehigherthenumberofadvertiserswhoarebiddingonthe keyword. Competitiveness is relative to all keywords across Google,rather than the set of results you are working with. This standardizes themeaningofthecompetitivenessfactorsothatitdoesn’tchangewiththeresultset.

Whilethecompetitionindicatorisderivedfrompaidsearchdata,itworksforapplicationtoorganicsearch.Businessesthatwanttorankinpaidsearchwilloftenoptimizeforthesametermsinorganicsearchsothattheirresultsappearonthepagemultipletimes.So,thecompetitionfororganicsearchwillstillbeintense for highly competitive terms. The average cost per click gives youanother indication of the paid search value of each term. The price for akeywordgoesupaswebsitesbidforit.Sorelativelyhigh-dollarkeywordsarealsogoingtobecompetitive.

The biggest advantage to using this tool is that it allows you to quicklycomparemultipledatapointsforalargenumberofkeywordvariations.Youcan use this tool to isolate a handful of terms that have good volume andcompetitionandwhicharetrendinginawaythatyouwouldwanttosee.Asafirst-roundkeyword tool, theAdWordskeyword tool is especiallyvaluable,helpingyoudiscoveravarietyofkeywordsyoumightwanttohoneinonandfurtherinvestigatewithsomeoftheothertools.

GoogleInsightsToolThe Google Insights22 tool gives you a detailed look at search volumepatternsovertime,bygeographicregion,bycategory(finance,sports,news,etc.), and by product. This is a fabulous tool because it brings together avarietyofmarketinginformationthatcanrevealwhykeywordstrendandcanhelpyoupredictthenearfutureofthesearchvolume.

Youcanfilteryourquerybyanumberofdifferentfactors,includinglocationbycountry,andevenasspecificasmetropolitanarea;anytimerange,asfarbackas2004;andtypeofsearch,whetheritbefornews,images,products,ortheentireweb.Theresultsgiveatonofinformation:

Theinterestovertimegraphshowsfluctuationsinsearchvolume.Thisisarelativevolumebetweenterms.

Risingsearchesshowrelatedkeywordsthatareontheuptrendandmightbeofinterestforfurtherinvestigation.

Peaksinthevolumearetiedtonewsheadlinesthatoccurredinthesametimeperiodwiththesamekeywords.

Regionalinterestisalsorepresentedbyamapandgraphshowingtop10regionsthatsearchedtheterm.

The top 10 keywords for the term you entered are displayed andgraphicallyshowwhichkeywordsreceivedthemostvolume.

Theinterestovertimedatashowshoweachtermhasbeentrending.Youcanuse this to spot high and low points that may be cyclical. Here, you cancompare volume between terms, though you can’t compare actual searchnumbers.Fortermsthathaveseasonalorcyclicalpatterns,thegraphprojectsfiguresforthenextyearbasedonthetrends.Whentermsemergethatdonothaveaclearpattern,suchasarisingorfallingtrend,oracyclicalpattern,thegraphwillnotattempttoprojectforit.Tiedintosearchtermsthathavespikesinactivityarenewsheadlinesforthedayofthespikes.TheNewsHeadlinesfeature shows you the triggers that caused bursts in search activity. Thesetriggerscanbevaluableinformation,tippingyouofftowhatkindsofeventswillcauseburstsofactivityinthefuture.

Insights is loaded with geographic distribution data, showing you regional

interest in the termsyou’veentered.Thegeographicdatagetsveryspecific,downtometropolitanregion.Ifyou’re interestedindatabyregion,youcanfilteryoursearchtocomparesearchesbyregionforaterm.

WithaGoogleaccount,whichisfree,youhaveaccesstotheRisingSearchesfeature,givingyouasetof relatedkeywords thatare trendingup.Thiswillgive you clues to other termsyoumight be able to tackle andwhich termsmightberisingincompetition.

Google Insights isagreat refining tool to lookatkeywordsyou’re ready toisolate.Becauseyoucanfilteryourqueryinsomanyways,youcangetloadsof data on keywords inmultipleways.You can compare terms that you’reinterestedinandseehowtheyhavebeenrelatingtoeachotherovertime,andhowtheymaytrendinthefuture.

GoogleTrendsGoogleTrends23offersfastcomparisonsoftheperformanceofkeywordsovertime.SimilartoInsights,Trendsusesasearchvolumeindextoshowsearchvolumeovertimeaswellasatop-10listoflocalizedsearchvolume.Thisisagreat tool for checking trending data for a query and comparing trendsbetweentermsataglance.

Inyourmarketresearch,youlookedattrendingsites,butGoogletrendsgoesbeyondthemarketresearchtogivetrendinformationbykeywords.Hereyoucan compare terms to see relative search performance. As you look at thedata,youcansee if termsare risingor falling inpopularityso thatyoucanprojecthowthatkeywordwillperformgoingforward.Sincemanytermsaresearched seasonally, you can use Trends to spot search cycles andmake areasonableestimationforthenextyear’ssearchactivity.

BecauseTrendshas lessdata thanInsights in theresults, there’s lessclutter,andsoyoucanmakedecisionsonprojectedperformanceforkeywordsmorequickly.Inadditiontothesearchvolumeindexgraph,Trendsgivesthetop10regionalandcitysearchlocationsataglance.

SEOmoz.orgKeywordDifficultyToolThe SEOmoz.org Keyword Difficulty tool24 will help determine thecompetitionforrankinginaparticularkeywordsearch.Thetoolallowsyoutocompareup to five terms to see the relative levels of competition for thoseterms. A high percentage indicates a lot of competition, thus, as thepercentagegoesup,itgetsmoreandmoredifficulttorankforthatterm.

When you used Google AdWords to compare terms for volume andcompetition,youmayhavefoundakeywordthathadalowcompetitiverank

withahighervolume.KeywordDifficultyisagreatfollowuponceyouhavesometermsyouwanttoconsidertargeting.WhiletheAdWordstoolgivesaroughideaofthecompetitionforakeyword,theKeywordDifficultytoolletsyoumakeamuchcloseranalysisofthecompetition.

Terms getting difficulty ratings above 50 percent are starting to get prettycompetitive.Asyourtermsleantowardaniche,difficultytendstogodown.The lower the difficulty rating, the lower the competition and the betterchanceyouhavetogetrankedforaterm.

The tool also letsyoudrill down to seewhichpages aregetting the top10rankings for the term so that you can see which websites are competing.Competition for keywords tends to increase for termswith high conversionratespairedwithhighvolume.Bylookingatwhatpagesarecompetingforaterm,youcanalsogetapictureofhowwellyou’llbeablecompete.

Keyword difficulty does not necessarily help you find the goose with thegoldenegg,sotospeak.Therecouldbeaverygoodreasonwhyaparticularkeyword is not very competitive, even if it’s getting decent volume. Forexample, itmay not be the kind of search term that leads to conversion. Itmight be a term that searchers are using only to do their own productcomparison.Oncetheyhaveresearchedalltheproductofferings,theirfollowup search – when they’re ready to commit – will be the particular brandthey’vesettledon.Thisisoftenthecaseforlargepurchasesandinvestments,ratherthanforsmallercommonplaceones.

BingCommercialIntentToolOnceyouknowthesearchvolumeandcompetitionforakeyword,you’restillmissingakeycomponent ifyouare looking to target traffic forconversion.Bing’sCommercial Intent tool25 offers you this by showing the probabilitythatagivenkeywordsearchwillleadtoconversionorwilllikelynotleadtoaconversion. The result will either be a Commercial Intent probability or aNoncommercialIntentprobability.Aresultof1.00meansthatthetoolis100percentconfidentinitsanswer.

Forexample,ifyousearchfortheterm“tires,”theCommercialIntentcomesback at .99. So it’s very likely that searchers using this term intend topurchasetires.Ontheotherhand,asearchfor“howtochangeatire,”bringsback a Noncommercial Intent of .88. From this result, it’s clear that thesearcherismoreinterestedingainingnoncommercialinformationratherthanpurchasingaproductrelatedtothesearch.

Thisisagoodtoolforcross-checkingtermsthatarelesscompetitiveandhavetraffic volume that you’d like directed to your site – especially terms that

you’ve found to have a low keyword difficulty. If your goal is conversion,then you want to be sure that there’s a high probability for the terms youoptimize toconvert.Otherwise,youcouldendupoptimizingforakeywordthatdoesn’tbringinrevenueinthewaythatyouwerehoping.

Even though this is a Bing tool, the probability can be applied to termssearchedinGoogleaswell.ThedataisderivedfromBing’ssearchvolume,but searchers tend to search in the samewaysbetween search engines.Theway to lookat thiskindofdata is tocompare termby term, rather than theactualnumbers.That is, lookat the likelihoodofcommercial intentashighprobability or low probability rather than as, for example, 67 percentprobability.Youcanusethisdatatoseethatatermisprobablygoingtoleadtoconversionornot.

SomeAdditionalToolsforYourKitAsyoudiveintokeywordresearch,youwillmostlikelyneedtoacquiremoreinformationthanthestandardresearchtoolsgiveyou.Youshouldbefamiliarwithothertoolsoutthere,aswell,sothatyoucanjumptothosequicklyandkeepyourkeyword ideahot. Itcanbeabuzzkill tohave toslowdowntheprocesstofindanewtoolthatwillgetyoutheansweryouneed.

Tokeepyourolling,I’veaddedsomeadditionaltoolsyoucancheckout.Thisisashortlistthataimstogiveyouapictureoftheotherkindsofinformationyoucangetfromkeywords.

SEMRush.com will estimate what traffic your competitors arereceiving. This is an awesome tool for analyzing the traffic yourcompetitorsaregetting,andtheyofferanumberofwaystoanalyzethedata.You’llneedtoestablishandpayforanaccount,butthedatayougetcouldbeworth it.Upfront,youshouldknowthat this tool isdesignedprimarilyforpaidsearch,buttheinformationyougetfromthissitecanalso be applied to organic search, since aswe said before, often timeswebsitesusingpaidsearchalsooptimizefororganicresults.Twoofthebestfeatures,anduniquetothesite,are:

1. Searchbykeywordtoseewhichofyourcompetitorsarerankingfor

thatterm.

2. Enter your competitor’s domain to findwhat keywords they have

optimized

KeywordDiscovery.com/search isasearchtermsuggestiontool.Enterakeywordtoseethetop100relatedsearchterms.Googlegivesyouthiskindofinformation,too,butthebonusofKeywordDiscoveryisthatitcompilessearchdatafromanumberofenginessothatyourdatahasthepotential forbeingricherandmorebroadlyrepresentativeof thewholesearchpopulation.

BingMutationDetection26Thisisaclevertoolforidentifyingcommonmisspellingsusedinsearch.Notonlymightitbegoodtoknowhowthekeywordsyou’veoptimizedaremisspelled,butyoumaybeabletocomeupwithsomegreatcontentideasthroughmisspellings.

Bing Demographics Prediction27 is an awesome tool for getting toknow your search population. Enter a keyword and the predictor tellsyou if it leans toward male or female searchers. With this kind offunctionality,youcanseehowthistoolstraddlesthelinebetweenmarketresearch and keyword research. Demographics Prediction comes inhandy when you want to optimize a gender-specific piece of content.From amarket research angle, youmay be surprised to find that yourentireproducttendstogetmoresearchesfromonegender,whichcouldgreatlyaffectthekindofcontentyouproduceforthatterm.

Yahoo! Clues28 was rolled out in November of 2010. In a nutshell,Yahoo!Cluesgivesdemographicinformationbehindthekeywords,suchas gender distribution by age, distribution by income level, anddistribution byU.S. region,with a list of the top 10 stateswhere thatkeywordsearchwasconducted.Youcanreallygainalotofinsightfromthiskindofdata,andagain,thisisinsomewaysmoreamarketresearchtoolthanakeywordresearchtool.Onesignificantdownsideisthatitcanonlysearchagainst themostpopularqueriesonYahoo!Therefore,youwon’t be able to get data formore refined searches. For example, youcan compare the terms “lawn care” and “gardening.” (You’ll find thatboth terms are searched by peoplemaking less than $75,000 per year,and that lawn care is generally a male keyword, while gardening isgenerallyafemaleone.)Butyoucan’tgetanalyticsontheterm“lawn&garden”becauseitisn’tinthesearchdatabaseyet.AsYahoo!continuestoimproveandexpandontheservice,it’sexpectedthatthisproblemwilloccurlessoften.

HoninginonKeywordCombinations

Findingtherightkeywordcombinationsforyourcontentisanuancedeffortthat takes into accountmultipledatapoints for each search term.Primarily,search volume and competition drive the process for determining whichkeywords to optimize for the best results possible. Often the more searchvolume a keyword gets, the stiffer the competition for ranking. There aresome keywords that youwill never be able to rank for, short of amassivecampaignandsomebigdollars.Butwithsomecreativethinkingandthoroughresearch, you shouldbe able to findkeywordphrases that youcan use andthatyoucanrankforrelativelyquickly.

Thekeytohoninginonkeywordcombinationsthatwillworkforyourwebcontentisintheanalyticdatafromyourresearch.Asyouresearchthetermsonyourkeywordlist,considerthefollowingforeachterm:

Volumeofsearchesforeachterm

When in the course of the year people search for a term (Has apredictablecycleemergedforsurgesinsearchactivity?)

Where those searchesare takingplace (Are theregeo-specific searchesforthekeyword?)

Who’s searching with this term (Are they men, women, teenagers,retirees,etc.?)

Thecompetitionforeachofthoseterms(Howmanypageshavealreadybeen optimized for that term or are solidly fixed in the rankings andwouldbeincrediblydifficulttoleapfrog?)

Isthistermlikelytoleadtoconversion,ifthat’swhatI’mafter?(What’sthe commercial intent? If it doesn’t tend to lead to a sale, is it worthoptimizing?)

Ideallyyou’retryingtofindtermsthathavedecentvolumebutthatveryfewhavetargetedyet,sothatthere’slesscompetitionforthatterm.Ifyouweretojoineveryoneelsegoingafter the termwith thebiggestsearchvolume,youcouldgetstuckonpagethreeoftheresultsandreceivenotrafficordataforyoureffort.

It’s good to startwith comparing the volume and competition numbers andthendigdeeperbylookingattheotheranalyticdata.Bytakingintoaccount

all the factors, youwill be able to narrow down your list to the keywordsyou’rereadytotackle.

Toeffectivelynabthekeywordsthataregoingtoworkbestforyourbusiness,youneedtohaveaplanforhowyourkeywordswillworkinyourcontent,fornowandthefuture.

Whenyou incorporatekeywords intoyourcontent,you’redoingsome levelof search engine optimization.Whenwe get to SEO strategies later in thisbook,we’ll dive in to some best practices for optimizing themetatags andpagecontentforkeywords.Whenitcomestooptimizingkeywordsperpage,thequestionweoftengetis:“HowmanykeywordsamIoptimizingpagetopage?”Theanswer:Youwanttotargetoneortwophrases,butnomorethanthreekeywordphrasesperpage.

Honing in on keyword combinations is a bit like a puzzle with a hundredpiecesthatyouhavetofittogether.Manyfactorsplayintoselectingkeywordcombinations,anditcanoftenbeamatteroftrialanderrorasmuchascarefulplanning.Ifakeyworddoesn’trankasyouexpected,youmayhavetorevisityourresearch.Everytimeyoucreatemorecontent,keywordresearchshouldpartoftheprocess.

LeveragingtheLongTailSearch“Long-tail”keywordsarethesetofkeywordsearchesthatcanbedescribedas“niche searches.” By practical definition, a “short tail” keyword includesthree or fewerwords in the term, and a long tail keyword includes four ormore.Longerandmorespecifickeywordstringsgenerallyhavemuchlowervolume per term than short-tail searches. Long-tail searches happen all thetime,buttheyarehardtotrackbecausetheydon’toftengetenoughvolumetoregister in the analytic data. The sum total volume of these small-volumesearcheswithinamarketcanactuallyrival, inmanycases, thevolumeforapopularshort-tail term.Itcan’tbesaidacrosstheboardthatlong-tailsearchtermsare low-volumebecause some long-tail searchesdoget quite a lot ofvolume;however,asageneralrule this is true.Researchwillmake it clearwhen a particular long-tail keyword bucks the trend and gets high searchvolumebecauseanalyticdatawillbecomeavailablefortheterm.

Thelongtailisawayofdescribingnotjustthenumberofwordsinasearchtermbutmorespecificallythesumtotalofthelow-volume,orniche,searchesgoingonwithinamarket.Theterm“longtail”wascoinedbyChrisAndersonofWiredMagazine.29Referring to the chart he developed, the vertical axisrepresents popularity and the horizontal axis represents products (or in ourcase,keywordterms).Theredpartofthecurverepresentsthecommon,high-volumetermsorproducts.Thesearewherethecompetitionlies,becausethis

iswherethemasseshaveflocked.Buttakeacloselookattheyellow-shadedlongtail.Itbecomesclearthatthesumtotalofnichesearchesishighenoughto be a strongmarket on its own. If awebsitewas able to rank for a largepercentage of the long-tail searches, it could actually compete with thevolumeofpopularshort-tailterms.

Figure14:LongTailChartbyChrisAndersen,Wired

Forobviousreasons,thisishardtodo,sincelong-tailsearchesareuniqueandsomewhat unpredictable, with scant analytics behind them. Nonetheless,leveraginglong-tailkeywordsisthewaytoboosttraffictoasiteandbeatthecompetition.

Tostartleveraginglong-tailsearchterms,youhavetobeabletoanticipatethecomplexvariationsonsearch that individualswilluse.Youcangetclues tothesevariedsearchesthroughanumberofways.

Market research is a great way to start. Look at the questions people areaskingaboutyourindustryonanswersites.Thephrasesthatpeopleusetoaskquestionscanbethesamekindsofquestionstheyenterdirectlyintoasearchengineforanswers.Note,too,thetrendsinhowtheyshareinformationaboutyourindustrythroughmedialikeTwitter.

Believeitornot,manycluesarealsoactuallysentdirectlytoyourbusiness.Look at your customer service emails and other correspondence fromindividualsseekinginformationdirectlyfromyou;theymayusephrasesthatwouldappearinsearch.

The comments youget onyour company’s blogposts are fantastic clues tohow people communicate about your product or industry, what they’reinterestedin,andwhatspecifictermsthey’reusingtoexpresstheirinterest.

By setting up Google Analytics for your website, you can gain a lot ofinformation about the inbound searches that have landed searchers on yourdomain. It’s a great tool for checking up on your keyword optimization

efforts.Analytics reveals all the keyword searches that landed searchers onyoursiteandwhetherornottheyconvertedwhilethere.Inthelistyou’llseewhichlong-tailkeywordsinparticulararebringingtraffictoyoursite.Ifyousee long-tail searches that are bringing quality, converting traffic, you canstartincorporatingthosetermsintomoreofyourcontent.Thesearchtermsinthislistcanalsohelpyouanticipatevariationsonthetermsandconsiderotherwaystoexpandthelong-tailphraseswithinyourcontent.

Ultimately,thewaytoleveragelong-tailkeywordsistohavealotofcontentpages.Thewaytomakethishappenistofocusonbeingthesourceofexpertinformation inyour industry.Anexpertconsistentlyprovidescontent that isengaging,fresh,andtimely.Bytargetingyourpagestothelong-tailkeywordsyou’vediscoveredinyourresearch,you’lldirectmoreandmoresearcherstoyoursite.

Findwaystoincorporatelong-tailkeywordsintoallthecontentyougenerate,especiallytext-basedcontent.Blogpostsareafantasticwaytoleveragelong-tailkeywordsasyouaddressthepressingissuesyourcustomersface.Inyourblog, offer key details about your industry – details that people might besearchingforwithlong-tailterms.Whenyouregularlyupdateyourblog,youexpandthecontentonyourdomainandgiveyourselfnumerousopportunitiestoincorporatenewtermsintoyourcontent.

Productdescriptionsareanothergreatway to incorporate long-tailsearches.Productdescriptionsthatspelloutthemake,model,color,andotheroptionsgivecustomerssearchingforspecificproductdetailstheabilitytofindthem.

Product descriptions are a very practicalway to optimize for long tail, andmayevenbeoneofthemorepredictablekindsoflong-tailsearchesyoucanoptimizefor.Forexample,not too longago, theprojectorbulbformyDLPtelevisionsetdied,whichisnotuncommonforthesekindsofsets.Iwantedtosavealittlemoneyanddecidedtoreplaceitmyself.So,Ienteredthemodelnumberforthereplacementbulbformysearchquery.Intheresults,IfoundaYouTube video from FixYourDLP.com, which was optimized to mymodelnumber. The video gave simple instructions for the do-it-yourselfer whowantedtoreplacethebulbintheirtelevisionset.Attheendofthevideowasalinktotheirwebsite,whereIcouldpurchasetheexactbulbIneeded.Itturnsout that FixYourDLP.com has aYouTube channelwith instructional videosoptimizedforeverymodelnumber,forwhichtheysellparts.

Figure15:FixYourDLPYouTubeChannel

Themoral of the story is that FixYourDLP.comwas able to use a long-tailsearchforamodelnumbertogettargeted,convertingtraffictotheirsite.Thevolume for a particularmodel number is generally low,whereas competingforahighervolumeshort-tail term, like“DLPreplacementbulb,”wouldbemorechallenging.Nonetheless, theycapitalizedona logical long-tail-searchstringandwereabletogainasale.

And it turns out they are able to gain many, many sales. I was recentlyspeaking at an ecommerce conference and told the FixYourDLP.com storyabovetotheaudience.Loandbehold,thepresidentofMITechnologieswassitting in thefront row– theyownandoperateFixYourDLP.com.Ali Irani-Tehrani came up to me afterwards and told me the rest of the story. Hiscompany has grown from $1million in sales in 2007 to an estimated $22million in sales in 2011 to become one of the world’s largest replacementlampresellersfortherearprojectionTVmarket.TodaytheyarephasingouttheiroldcorebusinessasaTVpartsdistributorandfocusingtheirstaffof100exclusivelyonthereplacementlampmarket.

Iftherewereanydoubtersreadingthisbook,thatshouldmakeyousitupandtakenotice.Youcan’tgetmuchmorelong-tailornichethanthat,andvideocontent focused on those phrases has driven the amazing growth of theircompany.

By having a lot of great content on your site that anticipates long-tailsearches, your content can be foundwhen those terms do get searched.Asyoucontinuouslyaddnewcontentwithfreshlong-tailkeywords,youincreaseyourchancesofgrabbingmoreandmoretargetedsearchtraffic.

ConclusionKeywordsplayamajor role inyourcontentmarketingstrategy. Iargue thathaving more content means more opportunities to optimize for differentkeywords.Itmeansmoreopportunitiestooptimizeforlong-tailsearches.Ofcourse, all of this means more chances that your pages will be found in

search.Whenyou’restrategicaboutwhichtermsyoucantarget,yourcontentwillstarttoriseinthesearchresults.Youjusthavetoknowhowtofindtherightkeywordsandusethemtoshapeyourpagesforthesearchersyouwanttotarget.Fromthetoolkitprovidedinthischapter,you’renowreadyjumpinandmakealistofkeywordstobegintargeting.

5

DeterminingYourContentMarketingObjectives

“Oneofthebiggestcontentdevelopmentchallengesforbusinessesofallsizesis,“Whatdowewriteabout?”

Focusingthecontentmarketingstrategyaroundprimarycompanyobjectiveshelps simplify this process. The road map is clearly defined. The writingprocessisstreamlined.Thequestionshiftsfrom“Whatdowewriteabout?”to“Howcanwe tailor thiscontent forour readerswhilemeetingourbrandingandmarketinggoals?”

Theresult?Smartcontentmarketingstrategieshelpcompaniesincreasetheirbrand awareness. Their search engine traffic increases. They sell moreproductsandservicemoreleads.

Most importantly, their contentmarketing strategy helps them deepen theirrelationshipwith theirmarket, encouraging a higher level of engagement –andhappiercustomers.

It’sawin/winforall.”

HeatherLloyd-Martin,PresidentandCEO,SuccessWorks,SEOCopywriting.com

Now that you have keyword research under your belt, it’s time to consideryourcontentplan.

Keywordresearchwillshapehowyoudevelopcontentintwoways:ononehanditshapeshowyourproductisperceivedorhowyourbrandfitsintothemarket as a whole, and what niche you can fill. On the other hand, yourkeywordandmarket research is anongoingprocess that takesplaceasyoudevelopindividualpieces–oraseries–ofcontent.

Thankstoyourresearch,youknowthetrajectoryyourcontentwilltake.Butit’s necessary to understand that keyword research has informed but notformed your content marketing strategy. Your overall strategy drives thecontentcreationandpublicationprocess,answeringthequestions:

Whycreatecontent?

HowdoIputmycontenttowork?

WhyCreateContent?Ifyourbusinesshasbeenaroundforthelast10years,you’veprobablygotawebsite. It’snothard to imagine that thecontentonyoursite–oreven thewaythatyouhavebeenmanagingyournewpages–hashardlychangedsinceit first went live. In the last several years, the philosophy behind websitedesignandcontentcreationhasevolved.Hasyourphilosophyevolvedwiththe times? Contemporary websites offer more than just information aboutyour company, contact information, and your product offerings. They nowprovide resources for solving customer problems, can be hubs for socialactivity,and,mostimportantly,arerichwithfreshandengagingcontentthatisregularlyupdatedsothatcustomerswillfrequentlyreturn.Contentstrategy,then,beginswiththequestion:What’sthepointofyourwebsite?

Manybusinessownersthinkthatthepurposeoftheirwebsiteisself-evident,thatthequestions“Whydoyouhaveawebsite?”and“Whydoyouproducewebcontent?”arerhetoricalonesthatdon’tneedanswering.I thinkjust theopposite.Businessesmustanswerthesequestionsfirstandforemost.

At our company, when our clients come to us for help with their contentstrategy, we ask them right off the bat why they want to create a contentstrategy.Many times, at the beginning stage, our clients don’t have a greatanswer.Theytellusthingslike,“Weknowthatcontentisking,soweneedtoaddsomemorecontent.”Or,“Ourcompetitorsareputtingsomereallygreatthingsontheweb,andweneedaresponsetokeepcompetitive.”Whilebothanswerscontaintruth,theymissthemarkwhenitcomestothestrategy.Wetellourclientsthatthequestionisactuallyquitesimple,buttheanswerisnot.Organizationsshoulddevelopacontentstrategybecause:

Webcontentprovidesthecustomerwithclean,logicalaccesstoproductsandservicesandshouldfunnelthemtothesite’sconversionpages.

Web content provides information that answers some of the toughestproblemscustomersface.

Web content positions the organization as the trusted expert in itsindustry.

Notice that the purpose of your web content centers on the customer’sexperience. Just like keyword research attempts to identify what yourcustomers are searching for in your industry, yourwebsite can provide theanswertothosesearches.Asmartcontentstrategybeginswithunderstandingwhatthecustomerneedsratherthanwhatyouwanttoofferthem.

HowDoIPutMyContenttoWork?In order for your content to deliver, you need a strategy with specificobjectives that guides your content creation. By implementing measurableobjectives,youwillbeabletoassessthesuccessofyourvariousprojectsanddiscoverwhat’sworkingforyouandwhat’snot. Inchaptereightwefollowup our content development section with a discussion on assessing yourcontent and measuring its success. Before we can get there, we need toconsiderthemeasurableobjectivesthatwilldriveyourcontentdevelopment.

Theobjectivesforyourcontentapplybothatthemacrolevelforyourwholecontententerprise,andatthemicrolevelforeachindividualpieceofcontent.Yourcontentwillbeworkingforyouwhenit:

Developsandincreasesyourbrandawareness

Generatestraffictoyoursiteandgarnersnewcustomerleadsorsales

Enhancesyouronlinereputation

Encouragesnaturallinksandoptimizesyoursearchenginerankings

Increasesyourcompetitiveadvantage

Whenyouproduceanysinglepieceofcontent, it shouldaccomplishoneormoreofthesegoals,andthesumtotalofallyourcontentshouldaccomplishallofthem.Aninvestmentinacontentmarketingstrategyislargelyamatterof timeandeffort,andyouwant tobesurethateveryminuteyoudevotetocreating content yields a product that works to your advantage. By basingyour content creation on your main objectives, your content developmentcampaign will be much more efficient, maximizing the return on yourinvestment.

Keep your objectives at the forefront of every piece of content that youdevelop. Before you create new content, hold it up against your objectivesandask:

Willthiscontentpositionmycompanyasathoughtleader?

Doesithelpsolvemymarket’schallenges?

Willitgeneratequalifiedtraffictomysite?

Isthiscontentbetterordifferentthanwhatmycompetitorsareoffering?

Begin by taking a step back and looking at your overall content portfolio.Determineifyou’vecreatedcontent thatfulfills theseobjectives inonewayoranother.Arethereanyholes?Haveyouneglectedanyparticularobjective?Forexample,hasitbeenawhilesinceyou’vetendedtoyourproductpages?

Yourobjectiveswillguideyou,notonlyasyoucreatenewcontentbutalsoasyou evaluate the current content you have. It’s critical that each piece ofcontent works toward your objectives. Let’s go through each one of theobjectivesindetailtounderstandhowtheyworkinyourstrategy.

CreateMindshareandBrandingHow do you want your customers – and the world, for that matter – toperceive you?On a philosophical level, your branding lives in the content.Thisiswhythefirstobjectiveforyourcontentistoincreaseyourmindshareand hone your brand. BusinessDictionary.com defines mindshare as the“Informalmeasureoftheamountoftalk,mention,orreferenceanidea,firm,orproductgeneratesinpublicormedia.”Foryourcontentmarketingstrategy,you need to get people talking, mentioning or referencing, linking to andespeciallysharingyourbrandedcontent.Asyourbrandconsistentlyprovidesvaluable information to your customers and potential customers, you willincreaseyourmindshare.

Before you can increase your mindshare online, you need to assess yourcurrentstate.Bysearchingforyourbrandonlineandtrackingallthementionsitgets,ascomparedtosimilarsearchesforyourcompetition,youwillbeabletoquantifyyourmindshare.Thiskindof assessmentneeds tobedonewithsomedegreeofregularitytokeeptrackofhowyourbrandandyourproductfitinwithyourcommunity.

Increasing mindshare is all about distribution and promotion of your webpages. By consistently generating shareable content and ensuring that youdistribute it through multiple channels and promote it throughout yournetwork,yourvoiceandyourbrandwillmakeupanever-increasingpartofthe conversation about your industry.Themore you promote and distribute

your content, themore youwill boost yourmindshare online, while at thesame timestrengthening themessage thatyourbrand is theexpertsolutionsproviderforyourindustry.

Believeitornot,I’veheardsomeprofessionalssaythattheirsuccesswithintheindustryspeaksforitself;thereisnoneed,theysay,torestatethatthey’retheexpert.Itellthemthatconfidenceisgreat,andtheirtrackrecordmaybegreattoo,butiftheywanttoremaintheexpertintheirindustry,theyneedtobecomeasourceof informationfor theircustomers.Thereality is thateachorganizationiscompetingwithallkindsofcontentthatattemptstoengageitspotentialcustomers.Ifthatorganization’scontentisn’twherethesepotentialcustomers are looking, they will go somewhere else for expertise. Bypromoting their brand, businesses can remain a trusted solution in theirindustry.

Moreandmorepeoplelookonlinenotonlyforproductsandservicesbuttokeepcurrentintheirfield,findingwhat’shotrightnow,sharingtipsonhowproblemsaresolved,andwhattoolsworkbest.Ifanorganizationwantsbrandrecognition,thewaytodoitistobeasourceofinformationonlineandjointhe conversations that are happening in the industry. The best way toemphasizeanorganization’sexpertiseistoproduceanddistributecontentthatdemonstratesaninsideknowledgeofthekeystosuccesswithintheindustryandthatofferssolutionstotheproblemscustomersinthatindustryface.

GenerateTraffic,LeadsandSalesYoumightthinkthattrafficandultimatelyrevenueshouldhavebeenthefirstpoints on the list. After all, isn’t the fundamental goal of a website to getpeopletodobusinesswithyou?Yes,itis,butit’smuchmorethanthat.Manytimes,businessesendtheobjectivesfortheircontentrightthere.Theyleaveitat,“Wehavetohaveasite,right?Weletpeopleknowwhatwedoandhowtofindus,right?”

Youwantyourcontenttobepresentinthesearchresults.Youwantuserstoclicktoyoursite.Youwantthemtoconvert.Butthestorydoesn’tendthere.Agoodstrategyencouragesvisitorstothesitebycreatingengagingcontent.Thisdoesn’thappenby justhavingacoolwebsite.Contenthas tobefoundwhere people are looking.Remember, from the search engine results page,searchersonlyhavealimitedamountofinformationattheirdisposaltomakeadecisionaboutclickingonyourpage.Byoptimizingyourpagesforsearch,youincreaseyourchancespeoplewillfindthem,andthatwhentheyappearin the results page, theywill communicate the nature of the content to thesearcheranddrivetraffictoyoursite.

Youcanincreasetraffictoyoursitebytakingadvantageofsocialmediaasa

promotional tool for spreading shareable content exponentially (one friendshareswith twofriends,whoeachsharewith twomore friends,andsoon).Promotion and distribution proactivelymove content into the arenaswhereyourpotentialcustomerswillfinditevenbeforetheygotoasearchengine.

Certainly, increasing traffic is important for your site; however, unless youhaveadvertisementsonyoursite,andyou’regettingpaidforpageviews,youwon’t get much out of increased traffic apart from reinforcing brandrecognition.Theultimategoalforincreasingtrafficistoincreaseconversionand generate sales for your business. For example, your Twitter accountworks for you in many ways – it can be found in search, it keeps yourfollowersinformedaboutyourcontent,andallowsyoutointeractandengagewiththemonmanylevels–butforallthegoodstuffyougetoutofTwitter,the bottom line is that it does not convert by itself! The content that youpromote on Twitter, then, will need to invite conversion from your pages.Yourcontent shouldalwayswork to funnel the traffic thatyou’regetting toyourconversionpages.

Ifyourcompanyprovidesaservicethatdoesn’tnecessarilysellproductsonyour site, lead generation is especially important. When it comes to leadgeneration, or LeadGen, quality leads are the best. There are a number ofwaystogetleads,andmanyofthemarenotthatgreat.Forinstance,theleastvaluableleadyourcontentcanprovideisanemailaddressthatyouobtaininexchangeforapieceoffreecontent,say,awhitepaper.Thiscouldbeseenbythecustomerasahurdle toobtaining thecontent,and theymayhavegivenouttheaddressconsciouslyintendingtooptout.Fromtheirperspective,theyhave exactly what they want in hand: the free white paper. Yes, for thecompanyit’sstillalead,butit’snotthehighestqualitylead.

Thatbeingsaid,therearemanygreatwaystogetleadsaswell.Forinstance,ahighqualityleadisonewheretheuserintendstoengageyourcompanyandwants you to contact them. For this, a conversion page where the usercompletes a formworkswell.Thepagecanask for somedata (suchas thesizeoftheirbusiness, theirbudget,ortheirtitle,forexample)aswellasthecontact information. The best lead forms end with a submission buttonlabeled“ContactMe.”Youknowinthiscasethattheuserfullyexpectstobecontacted when they submit, and should welcome your follow-up. Thatshouldbethegoalofyourkeycontentpages.

Ultimately, your content will only add value to your business when it’srelevant,timely,andengaging.Contentthatfailsinthisregardwon’thaveachance at going viral in social media channels, and rather than gainingvaluable traffic will instead lead to high bounce rates. On the other hand,when you generate engaging content, you will find bounce rates drop and

conversionratesgoup;you’llseeyourcontenttakeoffinsocialmedia.

You can objectively measure traffic increases and conversion rates. Thatmakes this objective a great one for your strategy, not only as youdevelopyour content but also as you measure its success. When you see positiveresults,youcanrestassuredthatyourothergoalsforyourcontent–theonesthatarehardertomeasure–arereapingthebenefits,too.Thatis,ifyouseeincreased traffic to your site and an increased rate of conversionwhen thattraffic lands there, then your brand is strengthened, your mindshare hasincreased.

ProactivelyManageYourOnlineReputationIfthere’sonethingthatcanbesaidabouttheadventofsocialmedia,it’sthatconversations are everywhere on the Internet.These conversations can takethe form of comments on blog posts, forums for customer rants, or userreviews, for example. The topics for these conversations can be aboutanything imaginable – from varieties of tropical fish food to nuclear-wastecleanup.Thismeansthatthereisalreadyaconversationgoingonaboutyourindustry, and possibly this conversation includes your brand.Whether youlikeitornot.Youdon’thaveultimatecontroloverthisconversation,butyoudohavetheopportunitytoparticipateintheconversation.

Online reputation management is all about your presence online. The sumtotalofallcontentaboutyou,includingmentionsofyourbrandinplacesthatyoudon’tcontrol,makesupyourbusiness’sbiomassonline.Asyoudevelopyourcontent,youneedtothinkintermsofthebigpicture:maintainahigh-quality reputation, ensuring that at every turn your customers and potentialcustomerswillfindgoodmentions,excellentcontent,andstellarreviews.Youneed toensure that thecreamof thecrop rises in the search results, soyoudon’tfindanynegativitythereinstead.

Obviously, this doesn’t always happen.The Internet is full of placeswhereconsumers can vent their frustrations with products or services they’vereceived.Therearewholeforumsdevotedtocustomercomplaints.Customersdo,infact,takethetimetocommentonaproductthey’vereceived,updatingtheoriginalcontentwithuser-generatedcontent(UGC)thatiscompletelyoutofthecontrolofthevendor.Whilethisisgreatforconsumerawareness,itcanbechallengingtopresentabalancedviewofyourproductifthereisvocalizednegativepressoutthere,especiallywhenitseemstooutweighthegoodpress.

Keepinmindthatreputationmanagementisamajorindustryinitsownright,and there arewhole strategies to clear up a smeared reputation. This bookdoes not aim to give a crash course in reputationmanagement, nor arewegivingyouacomprehensivestrategyforit.Areputationthathasbeenmarred

oftenrequiresamajorefforttocleanup,monthsofworkand,unfortunately,aconsiderable financial investment. For the scope of this book, I want toconcentrate on how your content strategy can fit into your reputationmanagementplantopreventsuchproblems.

Themantraforreputationmanagementissimple:don’twaitforaproblemtodevelop. Proactive reputation management ensures that the organization’sown content fills the search engine results page when that organization’snameorkeypeoplegetsearched.Byensuringthattheorganization’scontentisvisible,itbecomesmuchharderfornegativecontenttoriseuptothepageone search results. Most searches generally don’t go past page one of thesearch engine results page. Organizations (even individuals) that want tomanage their reputation ought to focus on keeping page one filled withqualitycontentthatreinforcesapositivebrandimage.Whencustomerssearchforyourbrand,theyshouldfindnothingbutpositiveinformationaboutyourfirm,andasmartcontentstrategyensuresthattheywill.

In order for your organizationor you as an individual to achieve this, yourcontent shouldbedistributed throughanumberofchannels.Throughsocialmedia, businesses can communicate to their customers and manage thecommunicationthatflowstothecustomer.Socialmediasitestypicallyallowyou to create your own profile page. Profiles on Facebook, Twitter andLinkedInaregreatexamplesofstartingpointsfordevelopingasocialmediaplatform. Ifyour industryhasany industry-specificsocialmediasites, thesearecertainlyplacestohaveaprofile,aswell.Youhaveanadvantageinsocialmediawhen it comes to addressingnegative content. Socialmedia is aboutcommunicatingtoanetworkandreceivingfeedbackfromthenetworkintheform of comments. Remember: you have the right on your social site todisallowcomments, soyoucanmanage this levelofnegativity fairlyeasilyjustbykeepinguponyoursocialmediasites.Whennegativecommentspopuponyourcontent,makesureyouaddressthemwithcare.

Takeme,ArnieKuenn, for example.A search formy name returnswith avarietyofcontent–mostofwhichIhavecreatedandsharedwithothers.Asearch for “Arnie Kuenn” shows social profiles and articles I’ve createdfillingtheresultspage.TheNo.1resultismyLinkedInprofilefollowedbyour team page on VerticalMeasures.com. Next is my speaker bio for aconferenceIspokeat,andfourthismyTwitterprofile.NearlyallthecontentonthispageiscontentthatIhavedevelopedandpromoted,whichisexactlyhowitshouldbe.

Figure16:GoogleSearchResultsforKeywordPhraseArnieKuenn

Thesamecontentstrategyistrueforthereputationofyourbrandaswellaskeyexecutiveswithinyourorganization.Again,togetyourcontentworkingfor your brand, fill the search page with your organization’s content andmonitortheactivity.Forkeyexecutives,optimizingprofilesorbiopagesonyour company website works well for ensuring that those pages rank insearch.Socialmediaprofilesaretheotherobviousplacethatkeyexecutiveswill find theirway in search.Socialmedia canbe challengingasworkandpersonallivesoverlapinthesespheres.Forthesakeofthebrand,socialmediaactivitywillhavetobekeptatareasonablelevelofprofessionalism.

For the long term,your content strategycanbeatnegative contentbefore ithasachancetoinfiltratethesearchresults.Bykeepingafingertothewind,throughtrackingmentionsofyourbrandinsearch,youcanensurethatyourcontentpositionsyou strategically toavoidanybumps in the road.Monitorthesearchresultsforyourbrandandthekeywordsthatwillfindyourbrandandyourproduct.Bykeepingclose trackof thisactivityona regularbasis,you’ll get an early warning in the event that your content slips from therankings,andofanynegativecontentyoumayneedtomanage.

ContentforSearchEngineRankingsAnysetofobjectivesforacontentstrategywouldbeincompleteifitignoredsearch engine optimization (SEO). Without considering SEO at thedevelopment stage, the possibilities for your content are diminished.Extendingourbicyclemetaphor fromearlier, searchandsocialoptimizationare like the tires of your bicycle. You can have a really hot bike – carbonframe,alloyparts,lowspokecountwheels,aerorims:theworks;butifyourtiresarelowonair,you’regoingnowherefast.Byensuringthateachpieceofcontent isoptimizedforsearchandhas links to it,yougivethatcontent thebestchancetobefoundinnaturalsearch.

Content development and search engine optimization go hand in hand.On-pageSEOisaboutassuringthateachcontentpagehas thenutsandbolts inplace so that the content will have the best chance for ranking highly insearch.Thismeansthatyourcontentneedstogetplentyoflinks,bothinternal(yourpageslinkingtootherpagesonyoursite)andexternal(otherwebsiteslinking to your pages), and that onsite SEO factors – including titles,optimizedmetadata, andassurance that thepagesdon’thaveexcessive loadtime–need tobe takencareof.As thecontent isdeveloped,keeping theseSEO factors in mind will ensure that it goes live in the best condition toimproveyoursearchenginerankings.

On a larger scale, the freshness of the site’s pages can contribute to adomain’srankingaswell.Asmentionedinchapterone,partofSEOincludes

encouragingthesearchenginebotstofrequentlycrawlyoursite.Everytimeasearch engine bot crawls a site and finds fresh content, the site will beconsideredmore relevant, thus increasing its chances for having its contentrankhigher.Botshaveaphenomenalamountofdatatotroll,soinanefforttoconserveenergy,theyrevisitasitemorefrequentlyonlyifthatsitehasbeenprovidingnewcontenttoindex.Ifthebotdoesn’tfindfreshcontentonasite,itwilllengthenthecyclethatitreturnstoindexagain.Ifitfindsfreshcontent,it increases the frequency it returns, even to the point that it may,hypothetically, never leave. Just by frequently producing new content, yougiveyourwholesiteaboostinthesearchrankings.

Ontopoffreshcontent,Googleandothersearchenginespaycloseattentiontolinksinordertounderstandtheimportanceofanypageontheweb.Everylinkisavoteforthatpage,soit’sworthwhiletomakeanefforttoattractlinksto your pages. Link attraction is about focusing on developing content thatusers want to share, which encourages natural linking. When someoneconsciouslylinkstoapieceofcontent, it’s thestrongestwaytoshowthatapieceofcontenthasrealvalue.

Thefirststeptoattractinglinkstoyourwebpagesistoensurethatthecontentyouwanttodevelopislink-worthy.Top-10lists,infographics,andvideosareamong the kinds of content that often garner links from people. But itgenerally boils down to two attributes that work for content: humor orinformation.ForexamplethelasttwopiecesofcontentthatweresharedwithmetodaywereafunnyclipfromaMontyPythonmovieandablogpostabouttheGooglePandaupdate.

However,beforecontentcanattractlinks,peoplehavetoknowthatitexists.This is why link attraction actually centers on content promotion anddistribution,whichisamatterofoutwardcommunication.Inchapterstenandeleven, I go into detail about tactics for promoting and distributing yourcontent.

Inchaptertwelve,Iwalkyouthroughlinkbuildingtherightway.Atthecoreoflinkbuilding,yourcontenthastohavevaluetothewebmasteryouwouldliketoseealinkfrom.Thevaluethatyoucanofferis,onceagain,yourexpertabilitytoprovideasolutiontoaproblemthatthewebmaster’svisitorsmightbe facing. Before you can reasonably make a request for a link from ablogger, forexample,youneed todo some research todeterminehowyourcontentcanaddvaluetotheirblog.

Imaginethatyourcompanyproducesorganicsoilforavarietyofgardenandlandscapingapplications.Youareinterestedingettingalinktoyourcontentfromabloggerwhoseblogthemehappenstobeorganicgardening.So,youdevelop a list of the top 10most importantways towinterize your organic

vegetable garden. The content is useful to the blogger so he links to yourcontent.Nowtoreallymaximizeyourcontent–sayNo.4onyourlistis“becertain to mulch over your perennial herb garden to protect it through thewinter” – include a link from there to the page on your website whereexcellentmulchcanbepurchased.Thatisthewaytodolinkbuilding.

ShareofVoice:KnowYourCompetitorsandCommunityShare of voice refers to just howmuch of your brand is mentioned in thecontextofaproductsearchascomparedtootherbrands.Foryourbusinesstocompete,youneedtooccupyasmuchoftheshareofvoiceforyourindustryaspossible.Byanalyzingyourshareofvoiceandtheshareyourcompetitorshold, you can identify how you fit in to your community online. Yourobjectiveistoproducecontentthatincreasesyourshareofvoiceandengagesthecommunityinawaythatcompetes.

Shareofvoiceisinsomewaysdifficulttomeasure,butthereareanumberofwaystoquantifyit.Youcanbeginbygoingtoalltheplacesthatyourbrandismentioned (blogs, reviews, websites, etc.) and chart your findings, taggingeach mention as positive, negative, or neutral. Also, track the keywordsassociated with each mention. Clearly, this would be a daunting task, andfortunatelythereareanumberoftoolsavailabletohelpyouwiththis,suchasSocialMention.comandTrackur.com.Youcanthenperformthesameanalysisforyourmajorcompetitorstoseewhatpartoftheconversationtheyholdandwhichpartofthatconversationisyours.Arepeopletalkingaboutyourbrandin terms of your product offering? If they are talkingmore about you thanyourcompetitors,arethecommentspositiveornegative?

Knowingyourbaselineshareofvoicerequiresmonitoringitovertime,soyouwouldneedtorerunthisanalysisonaregularbasis,perhapsmonthly.Asyouidentify the areas that need strengthening, you candevelop content tomeetthatneed.

BygoingastepfurtherandrunningaCompetitorAnalysis,youcangetaverycomprehensivepictureofthecommunityenvironmentandyourplacewithinit.Asyoucompareyourselftoyourcompetitors,lookatabroadspectrumofanalytics,including:

Shareofvoiceandtotalmentions

Searchrankingsfordifferentkeywordphrases

Whatkindsofcontentaregettingthemosttrafficandlinks

Thiskindofanalysiswillgiveyougreatinsightintowhatkindofcontenttocreate, especially if you have one competitorwho’s beating you out in oneparticular area. Managing your share of voice and keeping up with yourcompetitors is a bit of a chore, but it’s critical for your content marketingstrategy. When you have the data, it will enable you to see what kind ofcontentisattractingvisitorsbothtoyoursiteandyourcompetitors’.

DevelopingaContentMarketingMindsetAsI’vebeensaying,ifyouhaveawebsite,you’reapublisher,andyouhavetothinklikeone.Thismeansproducingfreshcontentonaregularbasis.Printpublishers create content to survive, because that’s their business. On theInternet,it’sthesameforyou.Youneedtokeepthinkingaboutcontentideasatalltimes.Youshouldencourageyourentirestafftodothesame.

A content marketing mindset means always being on the lookout for newcontent possibilities.Keep a little notebook on hand or a voice recorder sothatwhenyougetagreatideaforatop-10list,youcanrecordtheidea.Whenyouattendaconference,bringyourcamerasoyouthatcanpostimagesoftheeventonyourblog.Youcan’t create somethingcoolonceand let it sit idlyonline, expecting it to be cutting edge or consistently relevant to users.Instead,yourjobistokeepproducingfreshmaterial,evenrepurposingyourbest content, so that it reappears in a fresh form and gives you as manydifferentopportunitiestobefoundonlineaspossible.

The bottom line is that achieving the goals in a contentmarketing strategytakes some serious effort. For any business owner, to add publisher to thenumberofhatstheyalreadyhavetowearandtoaddinformationtotheirlistofkeyproductsrequiresamajorcommitmentoftimeandenergy.I’vefoundthatmostsmallbusinessesdon’thavethebudgettoaddmorebodiestotheirstaff in order to tackle the objectives in a contentmarketing program, so itbecomes a matter of juggling the resources that they already have in theirstaff.So,howcanbusinessesmakeitwork?

Topdownbuy-in iscritical, especially for smallbusinesses.Keyexecutivesneedtorecognizethatacontentmarketingstrategyiscrucialtotheirsuccesson the Internet, and they need to understand that they, too, will have toparticipate. Once the top has bought in, you can get the rest of the staffinvolved.Thereisaplaceforeveryonetohelpcreatecontent.Herearesomeideas:

YoucanengagekeyindustryexecutivesinaTwitterinterview.

Poll the staff to findoutwhowouldbewilling towriteposts foryourblogonarotatingbasis.

Create a video in which the shipping manager explains the shippingprocessfromthefacility.

Haveyourstaffsetupvarioussocialmediaprofilestohelpwithcontentpromotion.

Aboveall,top-downbuy-inmeansthatyoucanlooktoanyoneand-everyoneto provide inspiration and new ideas for content. Foster a fun environmentwherecreativeexpressionisvalued.Themoreyouencouragecreativity, themoreyoucangainfromyourcontentmarketingstrategy.

ConclusionThebestwaytomanagethecreativeprocessistoassignanindividualinyourorganizationtheroleofcontentstrategist,oreditor-in-chief.Thispersoncandevelopaneditorialcalendarandensurethatyourorganizationstaysontrackgeneratingnewcontentona regularbasis.Thecontent strategist canassigntasks and coordinate deadlines for publishing. Factoring in your staffresourcesandbudget,aneditorialcalendarwillhelpestablishafrequencyforcontentpublicationthatyourorganizationwillbeabletomanage.

6

DevelopingEngagingContenttoMeetYourGoals

“Todevelopengagingcontent,Ithinkyouneedtodotwothings:

Appealtohumanmotivations.

Strikeabalancebetweenoriginalthinkingandstructure.

What are the things that motivate us? We want to be liked, appreciated,secure, attractive, comfortable, respected, happy, and healthy. To feelimportantorgainknowledge,makemoneyorsavetime,havefunorgratifycuriosity. As you develop your content, ask yourself, Which humanmotivationamIconnectingwith?

For the“balance”thing:Consider theblogtitle,“TheTop25BestPracticesfor Harnessing the Creativity of the Master Classical Composers.” Theoriginal title appeals to the right brain and the list of 25 appeals to the leftbrain.ThisistotallybalancedandsomethingIwoulddefinitelywanttoread.Makethose25itemsreallyinteresting,andthenImayevenlinktoit.

Utilizetheseelementsandyou’lldevelopengagingcontenteverytime.”

Jon Wuebben, CEO of Content Launch, a web content development andmarketingfirm

GetGoingWithContentEngagingcontentisgenuineandbelievable.Itappealstoourhumansenseofcuriosityandcaneveninspireaweinus.Theverybestcontenthasanun-self-conscious immediacy that makes it accessible to the audience it engages.Contentthatexcelsinthiswayhasatendencytogetnoticed,passedaround,and,yes,attractlinkstoo.

Thecontentdevelopmentprocesscentersontheabilitytokeepinspired.It’saboutseeingopportunitiestonabrawmaterialsandturnthemintomarketablecontent, like bringing a digital camera to a conference or keeping a smallvideocamerainthedeskattheoffice.Allittakesisaproactivementalityand

alittlecreativity.

Sure,inspirationcanbesomethingyoustumbleupon,butitisn’ttheonlywaytogenerateawesomecontent.Youcanproactivelyfindways toget inspiredand stay inspired. Inspiration starts with finding the hidden gems in yourexistingcontentandditchingthecontentthatstinks.Thenit’saboutsettingupaplanforhowyoucankeepthegoodstuffcoming.Keepyourmindandeyesopenfornewideasandyouwillbeonyourwaytomakingithappen.

When it comes to inspirational storiesaboutcontent, I can thinkofnothingbetterthanmyfriendGeorgeWright’sstoryfromhisdaysatBlendtec.He’stheonewhohadthegeniusideatopostvideosonlinefromtheblendertestinglab. Sounds kind of oddball, but these short clips have become an InternetsensationandwererecentlyrankedbyAdvertisingAgeastheNo.1viraladinthehistoryoftheInternet.30IrecentlyhadachancetocatchupwithGeorgeandhegavemetheskinnyonhowhefoundinspiration.I’dliketosharethatwithyou:

Figure17:WillItBlend?

The Will it Blend? story began the day I started up a new marketingdepartmentatBlendtec.Iwalkedintoacompanythathadgreatproductsbutwas largely an unknown brand competing in a highly competitivemarketplace. Right off the bat, our primary goal had to be building brandawareness. With a microscopic budget, it was obvious that using typicalbrand-buildingtechniqueswasnotgoingtobeanoption.

WebeganwithabrandreviewandfoundthateverythingassociatedwiththeBlendtecbrandwasstandardized, fromthewebsite, to the literature,andallthe way down to the business cards. I highly recommend a consistencyreview.Thinkabout it,beforeyou inviteguests tocome toyourhouse,youmakesureyourlivingroomispresentable,right?Withconsistencyinplace,wewerenowreadyforsomeawareness.

Will it Blend? started as a strategy document. I spent several daysbrainstormingandaligningobjectivesandstrategiesforthecompanyandthemarketing department. It was obvious that we needed to show how thisblenderwasdifferentandthatithasunmatchedpowerandperformance.

WhileIwasdevelopingthisstrategy, Ihappenedtovisit theproduct testinglabandnoticedsawdustonthefloor.WhenIaskedwhatwasgoingon,Iwastoldthatthiswasanormaldestructivetest,usedtostressthecomponentstoensurethattheblenderscouldwithstandexcessivestressandforce.

Inotherwords,theyhadjuststuckabroominablender.

The light bulb came on, and the remainder of the strategy quickly cametogether. I asked the owner, Tom Dickson, to come in and perform someextremeblendingexperimentswiththecamerarunning.Wegavehimawhitelabcoatandsomesafetyglassesandaskedhimtoexplainwhathewasdoingand why it was so remarkable. Our plan was to blend anything andeverything.Althoughnobodyatthecompanyreallyunderstoodtheproposal,theywerewillingtogowithit–largelybecauseitonlycostabout$50toput

together.

AssoonasIsawthefirstcutofthevideo,Iknewthatwehadasolidsuccessonourhands.Wecreatedamicro-siteandpostedthefirstfivevideos.Withinjustoneweek,wehadmorethanamillionviewsonYouTube.Asthevideosgainedpopularity,weexperienceda700percentincreaseinonlinesales.Weexperienced massive growth in all areas of the business, including ourcommerciallines,butthelargestgrowthcamefromourweborders.

Buildingthebrandsimplifiedthesalesprocess.Insteadofoursalesmentryingtointroducealittle-knownBlendtecbrand,theircustomerswereaskingthem,“IsthistheblenderthatIsawonYouTubeblendingupmarbles?”

Someofthevideosthatweproducedwereinstanthits.Wegotourhandsonanew iPodwheneverybodywasstanding in line togetone,andwedroppedours inablender.Ourviewsfor thatvideocame insofastwecouldhardlykeepup.Normally,whenwewentlivewithanewvideo,wewouldfirstpostittowillitblend.com,thentoYouTube.IrecallthatforsomereasontheiPodvideo took YouTube several hours to upload and go live. By the timeYouTubefinallyhad thevideoup, sixorsevenofour fans thathadalreadycopied the video from our website and had it uploaded and live on theirYouTubechannelbeforetheofficialBlendtecvideoandweregettingtonsofviews.BeforeWill itBlend?,we had to do all of our promotion ourselves.Nowourfansbecameourgreatestmarketersandtheylovedtheirnewrole!

The secret to the success ofWill it Blend? is simple: Create compellingcontent that fills a business objective. If your content is truly compelling,peoplewillnotonlywatch it, they’llpassyourmarketingmessagealong totheirfriends.

Youdon’t have tobe a large companywith ahugebudget tobe successfulusing thenew tools ofmarketing. It’s been fiveyears since the first videoswent live–and thecampaigncontinues todeliver results.Salescontinue tobreakrecordseveryyear.

This viral marketing campaign literally transformed an old company brandintoanew,excitingentity.Brandawarenessremainsatanall-timehighandtheWill it Blend? campaign is now considered a classic. Advertising AgerecentlyrankedittheNo.1viralcampaigninthehistoryoftheInternet,fiveyears after it launched. Look at the list of companies that Blendtec rankedabove: Evian, Old Spice, Doritos. That’s pretty impressive for a $50marketingcampaignfromasmallUtahcompany.

I know a lot of people hear George’s story and think, “Wow, I need my

content togoviral like that!”Sureyoudo, but if that’s all youhear in thistestimony,youmightbemissingthepoint.Fortherecord,contentdoesn’tjustgoviral;viralissomethingthatnoonecanpredict.EvenGeorgecouldneverhave known on the day he first filmed a broom handle getting turned tosawdustthatitwouldbeatotalsensation.Therealmoralofthestoryisthathe created great content thatcouldpossibly go viral. It was interesting andoriginalenoughtotakeoff.Georgecapitalizedontheexcitementhappeningat Blendtec and took the opportunity to turn it in to quality video content.And,mostimportantly,hedemonstratedjusthowtoughtheirblendersreallyaretotheentireworld.

Let’sbehonest,contentisthefunpartofthisbusiness!It’swhereyougettoshowcaseyourexpertise.It’syourbigopportunitytoinvitetheworldtogettoknowyourcompanyandtoexhibithowyourteamistakingonthetoughestproblemsinyourindustryandprovidingthesolutionspeoplearelookingfor.

Abigpartofanycontentmarketingstrategyistryingnewideas.Whenyou’rewilling tomakea leap intouncharted territory,youcanbe surprisedby theresults.It’snotabouttrialanderror;it’sabouttrialandtesting.Whenyoutryanewidea,measureitssuccess.AsI’lldetailinchaptereight,Irecommendthat every time you create content, you follow upwithmeasurement. Thatway, you’ll discover what works for your target audience, and you cancontinue to produce the content thatworks.The resultswill guide you intoyour next endeavor. If you don’t measure, then you’re just throwing yourideasagainstthewalltoseewhatsticks.Youcan’tbeafraidtotrynewthingsinacontentmarketingstrategy.Heck,that’strueforanymarketingstrategy.Bymeasuringyoursuccess,you’llreducetheriskoffuturewastedefforts.

You have great content to provide and youwant it to be seen by asmanypeople aspossible, right?Most importantly,youwantyourgreat content toreachnotonlyalotofpeople,buttherightpeople.Successisnotjustinthenumber of hits. Ultimately, if your page gets a thousand hits, but only 10peoplebuyyourproduct,itwasthose10peoplethatwerethemostimportantvisitors. Itmay sound like I’mboiling thisdown toqualityversusquantity.I’mnot.Idon’tliketheideathatyouhavetopickqualityorquantity.Inmyopinion it’s a false dichotomy. I’m of the opinion that in this business it’saboutquantityandquality.

Youdon’tneedtoworryabouthavingonebig,fat,fantastic ideathatgetsamillionhitsondayone.Instead,togowithabaseballanalogy,yourjobistogetasingle.Thengetanothersingle,andanother.Yourfourthsingleisarunscored.You’remorelikelytostrikeoutwhenyoutryforthebig,out-of-the-park grand slam. Since baseball is a statistician’s sport, let’s look at somestats.Inthe2010MLBseason:

Therewere165,360totalatbats.

Therewere132grandslams.

Therewere4,620homeruns.

Andbasedontheoverallbattingaverage(.257),therewere42,498hits.

Fromthisdata,wecansay thataboutone in fouratbatswill result inahit(whichimplies3outof4attemptswentfornaught),whileaboutonein36atbatswill result in a homerun.Only one in 1,253 at bats results in a grandslam! Thismeans that statistically it’s better to work your way around thebasesonesingleatatime.I’mnotaskingyoutolowerthestandardonyourcontent.Ifyou’regoingtoworkyourwayaroundthebases,sotospeak,thekeyistoactuallygetthesingleandthenkeepgettingthem.Thismeansyouconsistently produce and distribute compelling, engaging content that’stargeted to your audience. If you get a grand slam, sweet! I just don’trecommendyoubaseyourbusinessplanonit.

So, what is compelling content? Primarily, compelling translates to mean“shareworthy.”Thisisatermweuseintheindustrytomeanthatitappealstoan audience and inspires them to share it with their network. From yourmarketresearch,youhaveaprettygoodideaofwhatkindofcontentalreadyinterests your target audience. You know what they’re sharing, what gets“liked”andwhat they link to.Youknow if theyare intoaparticularmediaform: maybe videos are hot with your audience, or maybe they loveinfographics.That’swhereyoushouldbegin.

WhyStorytellingIsSoImportantAcoupleofyearsagowhileataconferenceinCalifornia,ImetSimonKelly,theChiefEnthusiasmOfficeratStoryWorldwide.Wesatonthesamecontentmarketing panel. At one point, he leaned over to me and handed me hisbusinesscard.Itookonelook,andknewitwasakeeper.ItstoodoutsomuchthattothisdayIstillhaveittackedabovemycredenza.Thefunnythingis,theback of his business card faces out. You want to knowwhy? Becauseprintedonthebackitsays:

I HAD MY TIRES SLASHED BY THE KGB; LOCKED MYSELFWHILE NAKED IN A HOTEL FIRE ESCAPE IN LAS VEGAS;WORKEDASAPASTRYCHEFATATOPLONDONRESTAURANT;

ANDWASADEEPSEADIVER.

Whichoneisn’ttrue?

storyworldwide.com/simon.kelly

WheneverIlookoveratthiscard,Ismileandremindmyselfthatit’sallabouttellingagreat story.People love stories.Whenwe shareour liveswithoneanother,it’sthroughstories.Wemeetovercoffeetotalkaboutwhathappenedto us atwork;we call our friend up to tell a story about our fun night lastnight. Compelling stories persuade and even have the power to changedeeply-heldbeliefs.Toreallyengageyouraudience,deliverstoriesthattheywanttoread,watchorhear–storiestheywanttobeapartofandwillenjoysomuch, that theywill be inspired to share them.One of the fundamentalgoalsofcontentmarketing,ofalladvertising,istocreatefansthatwillspreadyourstoriesforfree,loweringyourmarketingexpenses.Contentthatappealsto our social nature is ideal for storytelling, so find the stories about youremployees,yourcompany,yourservicesandyourproductsandtellthem!

“Story ismorepowerful than thebrand, thebest storywins. Iam–simply,unabashedly,outloud,screaming,andshouting–saying,focusonthequalityof your story telling. Turn that complex idea into storytelling. And if youdon’tbelieveme,talktoaneffectivetriallawyer,evenifsheorheworksoncomplexcommercialcases.”

TomPeters,ManagementGuru,Sept3,2010

Iknowyouareonlyhalfwaythroughthisbook,butthinkaboutthepartsyouhaveenjoyed themost.Thesections that reallystickout. I’mwilling tobetit’sthestories.Sure,foryourmarketingcampaign,youwillhavetogetdowntothenittygrittyanddescribeyourservicesorgivedetailedspecificationsforyour products. Just as in this book, I had to cover the nuts and bolts ofkeywordresearch,forexample,butintheend,themostpowerfulmarketingcontextualizesthedetailsinstorytelling.

Youalreadyhaveall the tools inplace to startdevelopingsolidcontent.Aswe’ve discussed in the chapters leading up to this one, you’ve done yourresearch,youknowyouraudience,andyou’veestablishedobjectivesforhowyourcontentwillpromoteyourbrand.Atthisstage,youarereadytolaunchintocreatingcontent. Ifyoualreadyhaveawebsite andablog,youhaveaheadstartbecauseyouhavecontentassets thathavebeenworking foryou.However, before you can start implementing a new or revised contentstrategy,thebestthingtodoistotakestockofyourcurrentassets.Knowingyourassetswillhaveamajorinfluenceonyourcontentdevelopment.

ContentInventory:EvaluateYourCurrentAssetsWebsites grow by accumulating new pages. As the site grows to meet thecurrent needs of its users, old andunusedpages remain in the background.Rarely,ifever,doesanyonelookbacktoseeiftheolderpagesarerelevant.Acontent inventory of your entire site is the ideal place to start before youlaunchnewpages.Itwillgiveyouaclearpictureofyourassetsandhassomemajoradvantages:

You’ll knowwhich contentonyour site isworking foryouandwhichwillneedsomehelp

The inventorywill help you keep track of SEO concerns, discoveringdiscardedpagesandincorrectmetainformation

You’llgainacomprehensivesnapshotofyoursite,includingallthedeeppagesthatdon’tgetmuchtraffic

When you keep your inventory up to date, you’ll have amuch easiertimekeepingyourpagesuptodate

Take inventory of every page on your domain and assess the content.Obviouslythiscanbetime-consuming,dependingonthesizeofyoursite,butyoucansaveyourselfsometimebybeingorganized.Goodoldspreadsheetswork really well for recording and sorting your findings about each page.TrackeveryURLandidentifythemajorpointsoneachpage.Lookoverthetext,identifyingthecontent’spurposetoseeifit’scommunicatingwhatitwasintendedtocommunicate.ForeachURL,track:

PagetitleandURL

Document or content type (press release, article, product page, salescopy,how-tovideo,Etc.)

Topicandprimarykeyword

Averybriefsummaryofthecontent

Datethecontentwascreatedand/orlastrevised

Dateofwhenitshouldberevisited(orexpectedexpirationdate)

Metadatausage:Areyourpagesoptimized?

Isthepagegettingbacklinks?YoucanchecktherawnumbersbyURLusingtoolslikeSEOmoz

Who’sresponsibleforgoverningthepage,caringforit?

What you will do with the content after the audit: Keep, revise,repurpose,etc.(Youcanmakeagutreactionasyoureadthepage,andthenreassessafteryou’vetakenfullstockofyourcontent)

Identify “R.O.T.”This is a common acronymused to describe contentthat is Redundant, Outdated (no longer timely), or Trivial (serves nousefulpurpose).

A lot of time, the proliferation of content on a site leads to redundancy ortrivialness.EspeciallyifcontentiscreatedforSEOpurposes,therecouldbealotofpagesthatare,shallwesay,lessthanstellar.Youwillprobablyfindanumber of pages about very similar topics.Youmight find keyword-drivenpagesthatwouldqualifyonlyasjunktoday.Userswouldn’tfindthiskindofcontentinterestingorvaluable.Thequestionis,Whatpagesshouldbekeptonthesite?Keepcontentthat:

Isrelevant,timely,useful(theoppositeofR.O.T.)

Meetsyourorganizationalgoals

Addsvaluetoyourcustomer’sexperience.

If the content accurately describes your product offering, or works towarddemonstrating your expertise, then it has passed the first test. A lot ofwebsites get out of date and inaccurate pretty fast, and if the site’s beenaround for a while, chances are there’s content out there that’s long beenforgotten.Muchofthiscontentcanbeupdatedtomakeitrelevant.Butapagethat’sgoneoutofdatemaystillhaverealvalue.Whilethecopyonthepage

mightnotbeperfectly relevant, thatpieceofcontentmaybegetting lotsofexternallinkstoit.

Sometimesthere’snofeasiblewaytoupdatethecontent,anditjustneedstobetakendown.Inthosecases,takeprecautionswhenremovingit.Ifthepagehasalotofbacklinks(Igointodetailonbacklinkanalysisinchaptertwelve),you can set up a 301 redirect31 (ask yourwebmaster about this) to amorerelevantorupdatedpage.Thiswayyoupreservemuchofthebacklinkvalueandstilldeliverquality,relevantcontenttothewebsitevisitors.

Forpagesthatdon’tactuallymeetyourgoals,youmightbeabletorepurposethem to bring them in line with your specific goals. This could mean, forexample,thatyouhavepostedarelativelydullandverytechnicaldescriptionofanewtechnologyyou’verolledout.Thecontentisrelevantanddescribesyour product, but it isn’t something in its current state that gets muchattention.Butmaybeit’sagreatcandidateforrepurposinginto,say,awhitepaperthatyoucanthenpromoteinordertoraiseitsprofileandstartgettingtraffic.

In a content audit, you’re trying to think like a site visitor. Once you getsomeonetolandonyourpage,whatwilltheirexperiencebe?Userexperienceiscriticaltothesuccessofyourbusiness.Youmayhavegreatideas,butifthecontentisdifficulttofindorresultsinaconfusingnavigationalpath,theusermaynot findyourpages tobehelpful in theway thatyou intend.Youmaywanttoreconsiderhowyoupresentmaterialtoyourvisitorssothattheycangettothemeatofyourcontentquicklyandnavigatesmoothlythroughyoursite.

Ontopofassessingyourwebsite,youwoulddowelltoconsideryouroffsiteassets, too.Usingaseparatespreadsheet, lookatyourmediaassets,suchasTwitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Today, companies often have multiplesocialmedia accounts, and sometimes theydon’t evenhave access to themanymore. At one point, for example, someone in the organization set up aprofile and then forgot about it, lost the password, and, to make mattersworse,theyhavesincelefttheorganization.Ifyou’retryingtotakecontrolofyour online reputation and brand, you need to take inventory of all yourcontentassets.Makesureeachone isaccurateand leads to thecorrectwebpage.Alotoftimes,inaccurateassetpageswillleaduserstoyourhomepagewhen itwould have been better to go to a product page. Socialmedia is aplacewhereyourcompanycangetahugeamountofexposure,andaresomeofthebestchannelsforpromotingyourcontent.Itonlymakesgoodsensetoensurethateachassetisunderyourcontrolandservingyourbestinterest.

Afteryour audit is finished, you’ll have a comprehensivemapofyour site,

pagebypage,chartingoutthevalueofthecontentandyourrecommendationsforkeeping it, repurposing it,orditching it.You’llalsohaveacatalogueofyouroffsiteassets.Foralltheworkofcompilingtheseinventories,itmakessense to get more than a one-time use out of the effort. Maintaining theinventory is much easier than building one. By constantly updating andtrackingallyourcontentassets,youcanensurethatyourpagesareintip-topshapeandnothingunderyourcontrolhaslostrelevance.

TheEssentials:EditorialCalendarandStyleGuideSince the dawn of print periodical publishing, editors have used editorialcalendars to manage the publication and ensure timely delivery of newcontent to readers. Just as traditional print publications have an editorwhomanages the calendar, a company should include a content strategist whogoverns theeditorial calendar.Thismightbeanyone from theownerof thesmallbusinesstosomeoneinmarketing,toabrandnewpositioncreatedforthis purpose. Because the content strategist has a wide array of media tomanage–includingthewebsite,socialmediaprofiles,distributionchannels,theblog,offsitecontent,andmore–theeditorialcalendarisamust-have.

Agoodeditorialcalendarplotsoutayearinadvance,everypieceofcontentthattheorganizationintendstopublish,includingnotonlythedateoflaunchbut the steps included in meeting those goals. The content strategist andcreative team frequently review the calendar to brainstorm for upcomingprojects, make adjustments based on results, and manage the creation andlaunchofupcomingcontent.

Figure18:PublishingCalendar

Byusingacalendartomanagetheprocess,youcancontrolpublicationacrossmultiplemediaplatforms.While it’s recommended thatyouplotayearout,thatdoesn’tmeanthatyoucan’tadaptyourcalendartochangingtrends.The

calendarisaguidetokeepyouontrackwithyourcontentobjectives,anditcanandshouldbeupdatedasnecessary.

Without an editorial calendar, you run the risk of producing contentinconsistently and possibly neglecting publishing platforms that neednurturing.For example,without a calendar, it canbevery easy for aweek,twoweeks,evenamonthtogobybetweenblogposts.Andwho’scoveringthe Facebook profile? Has anyone looked at it lately? Publishing is adiscipline that requires constant attention.The editorial calendar helps keepyoudisciplined.

Theeditorialstyleguidelinesarecloselytiedtotheeditorialcalendar.Theseguidelinesgovernbrandconsistencyandgoals,helpingtomaintaincohesionacross your entire content production. Style guidelines are critical whetheryou’recreatingacorporatewebsite,socialmediacampaign,ormultichannelpresence. Developing new, high quality content is a creative act. As withanythingcreative, theprocessand the resultscan takemanyforms.Whenateamcomestogethertocoordinatecreativity,awrittensetofguidelineswillensurethatthecreativeexpressionmeetsyourbrandstandards.

Establishingabrandstylecanhavechallenges,butitshouldultimatelyreflectthecharacterofyourorganization.Oftenthefirstresponseistocreateastylethat is corporate (even rigid) in tone.But thegoodnews is thatyoucanbeyou!Factorinyourcompany’spersonality(everycompanyhasone).Ifyourcompanyhas a senseofhumor, create contentwith a light andentertainingtone; if you’re a law firm, write with vigor and authority. Consider yourmarketresearch,too.What’sthetoneatyourcompetition?Whatisthetoneofthecontentthatpeoplearerespondingto?Thesefactorswillhelpyoufindastyle that’s natural to your organization and meets the needs of yourcustomers.

An editorial calendar and style guidelines detail when, where, and howcontentwillbepublishedonadaily,weekly,andmonthlybasis.Everypieceof content has its own development process, which is managed on thecalendarandgovernedbythestyleguidelines.Let’sgothrougheachstepintheprocess,fromsettinggoalstolaunch:

Goalsforthepiece

Researchandbrainstorming

Development

Editing

Launch

IdentifyGoalsTheinitialconceptionstagebeginswithidentifyingyourgoalforthepieceofcontent you’d like to create. Everything you produce should work toaccomplish a specific and measureable goal. Ultimately, the goal for eachindividualpieceofcontentshouldfitintothegoalsforyouroverallcontentstrategy.

Based on a review of your editorial calendar and referencing your contentinventory,youcandetermine thegoals foryournextpieceofcontent.Mostoften, the goals for a piece of content can be narrowed down to branding,traffic,leads,orsales.Atthisstage,you’veidentifiedaneedthatthecontentcanfulfill,like,“Wewanttoattractmorevisitorstooursite”or“Weneedtopush out some awesome content to brand ourselves as experts.” Based onyourongoingresearch,youmighthavemorespecificgoalsthatyou’reafter.Youmaywanttodevelopcontentthatwillreachacertaindemographicinanewway,oryoumaywant torankforahighlycompetitivekeyword.Onceyouestablishagoal,youcanconsidercontentthatwillachieveit.

ConductResearchMarketandkeyword researchwillhelp to identify theangleyoucould takewiththecontentandthekeywordsthatyoucanoptimizefor.Whetheryou’reconsideringyournextblogpostoraninfographic,you’llwanttodoresearchforeachspecificpiece.

Irecommendthatyouconstantlyconductresearchtokeepontopofthetrendsandtofindkeywordsyoucantarget.Thiswillsavetimewhenyou’rereadytocreatecontentbecauseyouwillalreadyhaveatyourfingertipsaworkinglistofkeywordsyouwanttooptimizefor.You’llhaveyourhandonthepulseofwhat’s trending in social media, too. Consistent research can lead toinspiration,andinspirationcanbeinvaluable.

Ifyouhaveateamworkingonthecontent,assigntaskstoeachpersonfortheresearch.Weallhaveourspecialties.Ifyouhaveasocialmediapersonontheteam,assignhertolistenonsocialmedialikeFacebookandTwitter.Havehercheck out blogs to see what people are talking about. Maybe you have apersononyourteamthathasarealknackforkeywordresearch.Handthejobtohim.Lettheteamknowthegoalforthecontentandsetthemontheirway

togatherandreportbacktheirfindings.

BrainstormforIdeasBrainstorming is a huge part of any creative process, encouraging the freeflow of ideas. If you have a content team, it’s the best way to share theresearch everyone’s conducted and see how the team envisions the finalcontentpiece.Atthisstage,notonlyareyoudecidingwhatyourcontentwillexpress but you’re also consideringwhat type of contentwillwork best toaccomplishyourgoals.

Tohelpyoubrainstormcontentpossibilities,checkoutthenextchapterinthisbook. Ihaveamonster listofcontent ideas thatyoucan reference toguideyourdecision-makingoraddinspiration,helpingyouhoneinonsomeofthebest ways to express the raw idea you’ve developed. For example, if yourgoalis leadgeneration,checkchaptersevenforcontentthat’sgoodforthat:maybeyoucouldtakeyourcontentinthedirectionofawebinarthatpeoplewillregisterfor,givingyoutheirvaluablecontactinformation.

When it comes to brainstorming, there are numerous techniques out there.You’llprobablysettle intoaparticularwaythatworksforyourgrouptogettheideasflowing,butitcanbeusefultoresearchnewtechniques,aswell,inorder to shake up the creative process. Changing the way you think canencouragecreativityandlimitwriter’sblock.

Brainstorming is about gathering ideas and sorting them out. In eachbrainstormingsession,trynarrowingdownyourgoodideasjustfourorfive.Ifyou’reonly looking forone idea tocome fromyourbrainstorm, take thebestoneandworkwithit.Youcanbanktheotherthoughtsforlater:thebestideas lead tomore inspiration.Youknowyou’vehad a goodbrainstormingsessionwhenyouendwithsuggestionsfromalloverthespectrumandwhenyouwalkawaywithideasthatarebothontopicandoff.Forthatreason,bringyour banked ideas to each brainstorming session so you can review yourpreviousbrilliantthoughtsandwarmupthesession.

ConceptualizingandDraftingOnce you have come to consensus on an idea to pursue, it’s time toconceptualizethepieceandputtogetheradraft.Thisisagreattimetoturntotheeditorialcalendarandreviewdeadlinesforthefirstdraft,editphase,andlaunch. With the timetable established, you can then allocate adequateresourcestomeetyourdeadlines,anddetermineifyourstaffcanmanagethetaskorifyou’llneedtooutsourcetheactivitytoawriterorgraphicdesigner.

Moving into conceptualization,you’ll need todetermine the leadpersonon

the project, who will either create the piece or oversee the creative talentyou’veoutsourced.Theleadontheprojectwill:

Determinethemediaformtoexpressyouridea

Draftormockuptheideatoseehowitwillwork

Sharetheideaforfeedback

Revise,ifnecessary,andcomplete

Going into conceptualization, you may already know how you’d like toexpressyour idea.Thedrafting andmockupphasewillmake it clear if theideaworks.

Atthispointtherearetwobasicpaths:youcandotheworkin-houseoryoucan outsource the talent. Most businesses outsource the creative talent tosomeextent,dependingon theskill level required.Forablogpost,youcanprobablyhandlethatin-house,butaninfographictakesgraphicdesignskillsthatwouldbestbesoughtthroughaprofessionalgraphicdesigner.

Thebestway toget a senseofhowyour idea canwork foryourgoal is tokeep current on the kind of content that’s already successful online.Familiarity with the environment will really help you as you join in theconversation.Encouragethepeopleinyourcompanywhowillbedevelopingcontenttokeepcurrentonthetrendsinyourindustry.Themorefamiliaryourteam is with existing online content, the better your chances will be forcreatingengagingcontent.(Thismightbeagoodtimetoaddressthoseofyoureading this from small businesses. I do recognize the fact that you do notalwayshaveateamofpeopletodelegateto.Ofteninasmallbusiness,oneortwo people might have to handle all of the roles being discussed here.Sometimes, for example, the brainstorming even extends to friends andfamilyorjustasimplebusinesslunch.)

Asyoudraft,keepthelengthofthepieceappropriateforthekindofcontentyou’redeveloping.Knowthestandard.Blogsareabitlooser,butbewareoflongblogposts:theybetterbeprettydarninterestingifyouexpectanyonetoread them. If you plan to post a video to yourYouTube channel, then youneedtoensurethatthelengthofthevideoconformstotheirrestrictions.

Asyoudraftcontent,ensureeverythingyouproduceavoidsanegativespin.Whenyouhavesomuchfreedomtodelivercontent,therecanbeatemptationtoget snarkyor sarcastic, especially ifyou’re trying toputout ahumorous

piece. If youwant to positionyourself as expert, you can’t let yourself fallinto negativity and risk losing the respect of your customers. Keep yourcontent professional and retain an air of sensitivity to your subject. Forexample,Ioncecameacrossablogpostthataninsurancecompanywrotethatdiscussed retirees in Florida. Basically, the gist was, “Stay off the roadsbecauseseniorcitizensaregoingtocauseaccidents.”Thecontentwasrelatedtotheinsuranceindustry,butinanattempttobefunnytheyputaspinonitthatwouldhaveprobablyoffendedalargegroupofpeople.Andthesepeoplearepotential customers! It shouldgowithout saying that it’s abadmove tooffendsomeoftheverypeopleyouaretryingtoengage.

That’swhyIliketheideaofcommunicationwithinyourorganizationonthecreative element. Collaboration in the drafting phase helps catch subjectmatter that might go astray of your standards. Ultimately, using collectiveenergy,thecontentwillbeenriched.Trytopasstheconceptordraftaroundthecreativeteamsothateachpersoncangivealittlemoreinformationoraddcommentsforrevision.Bythetimeit’smadetherounds,youwillhaveasolidpiecethathastheteam’sstampofapproval.Theteamdoesn’thavetoconsistof all marketing pros; it could include people from IT, the warehouse, orservicedepartments,forexample.Youcanbounceideasoffindustrypeople,too.Thiscanbeagreatwaytobuildnetworkingrelationships thatcanplayout in other content areas, like interviews. Tip: Offer to help them out;everyonecanuseahelpinghandwhenitcomestocreatingcontent.

Forsomecontent,youmightbeshippingitouttoaprofessionalwriter,sayifyou’recreatinganarticleorapressrelease.Ifyougothatroute,youmaystillwanttoworkshopyourideabeforeyousendthesummarytowriter.Likewise,ifyou’reworkingwithagraphicdesignerforimages,likeinfographics,itwillbeagoodideatorefineyourideawithateambeforeyouhandofftheproject.Thatwayyouhavethebestideacomingoutofyourcompanythatwillfitinwiththeexistingbodyofyouronlinecontent.

EditandLaunchAfterthedraftisfinished,givethecontentafinaledit.Evenifyoureceiveanarticleorblogpost fromaprofessionalwriter, I suggest thatyouediteverypiece of content to be sure it’s the highest quality before it gets posted, toensurethatittrulyrepresentsyourideaandcontentgoal.Theeditingphaseisyourlastchancetoreviewthepiecebeforelaunch.Whenyouedit,rememberthatthisrepresentsyourbrand,soitshouldbeascrispandclearaspossible.

Before you go live with any content, make sure to check for grammar,spelling, andmechanics of style. This is a quick check that someone apartfromtheauthorshoulddo.Oftenawriterwillgetentrenchedincreating,and

whenitcomestimetocheckformistakes,mightnotbeabletoseetheforestforthetrees.Evenifyouhaveoutsourcedtoawriter, it’sbesttoreviewthecontent in detail before launch.Evenprofessionals canmakemistakes! Forsmallbusinesseswith limitedresourcesforcontentproduction, tryhiringanintern from a local university to do your editing. In fact, interns are greatsourcesofinspirationforcontent,andtheyoftenprovideakindofenergythatcanonlybefoundincollegestudents–youmaywanttoconsiderkeepinganinternonboardaspartofyourcontentdevelopmentteam.

Thisisalsoyourlastchancetointercept“salesy”content.We’vebeensayingthisthroughoutthebook,butit’sveryimportant.Contentmarketingshouldn’tcomeacrossasadvertisingorbeallaboutyou.Contentshouldfocusonyourcustomers. If the finaldrafthasanadvertising feel, itmightneedonemoreroundoftweakingtoweedoutanyblatantsalespitches.

Whenitcomestolaunch,makeaconcertedefforttomeetyourdeadlinesandkeep on track with your schedule. Content marketing hinges on frequentpostings of fresh material. Once you launch new content on your site,remember todistribute it across asmany relevant channels as possible, andstart promoting right away. In chapters ten and eleven, I’ll explain the bestways to do both promotion and distribution. Your pages will get the mostattentionwhenyouproactivelyworktogettheminfrontofpeople.Forthisreason,youshouldconsiderpromotionanddistributionpartandparcelwithlaunch.

CanYouRepurposeIt?Repurposingisafantasticwaytocapitalizeonasuccessfulpieceofcontent,ortotakeafabulousideathatmaynotbesohotinitscurrentformandmakeitworkbetter.Afteryourcontentaudit,you’ll likelyhavesomerepurposingto do, but I recommend that you always look for ways to repurpose yourcontenttomaximizeitspotential.

Startingwiththegoalsforyourcontent,seekoutotherwaystousethepieceto reach a wider audience. If the content is currently reaching thedemographicyou’vetargeted,youmaybeabletorepurposeitfordistributionon a different channel that attracts a similar demographic. For example, ifyourYouTubevideoissuccessful,thesamevideocouldhaveagoodchanceofsuccessonVimeo,sincevideositestendtoattractasimilardemographic.This same strategy can be employed for images. If your images posted toFlickraregettingtraffic,youcouldconsiderpostingthemtoasimilarimage-sharingsitelikeGoogle’sPicasa.

Channels that work well for Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing, likeLinkedInandSlideShare,tendtosharedemographics,aswell.Ifyourcontent

issuccessfulononeB2Bchannel,chancesaregoodthatitwillbesuccessfulondifferentone.Whenyoupostcontenttoanychannel,makesuretocreatedescriptions that include a link to the originator site (i.e. your website) todrawtraffictoyourpages.Don’tjustpostthecontentandleave:optimizetodirecttraffictoyoursite!

In addition to repurposing for multiple distribution channels, some contentcan translate to multiple media forms. You can often migrate one kind ofcontenttoanotherformwithminimaleffort.Forexample,imagineyouhaveablogpostthatwasabighitandattractedalotofattention.Yourcompanyisreally active on SlideShare, so why not take this success and reach a newaudiencewithit?SummarizetheblogpostintotoaslideshowandpostitonSlideShare with a link to your original source on your site. Take it a stepfurtherandturnthatslideshowintoavideoanddistributetothosechannels!

Mostideasforcontentcanbeexpressedinanumberofwaysoronavarietyofchannels,and,byrepurposing,youcantakeadvantageofthepossibilities.Youmight be able to repurpose the idea behind an infographic into a slideshow.Or,youmighthaveareallygreatslideshowthatyoucanrepurposeintoawebinar.Manyideasareflexible,meaningthat,withalittlecreativity,youcanreusethemindifferentforms.Asyousetouttocreateapieceofcontent,think of ways that it can be repurposed that will extend the value of yourcontentstrategy.

GetInspired!Beonthelookoutforcontent.Inspirationisallaroundyou.Youengagewithstaff, friends, customers and industry partners all the time. Turn thoseexperiencesintocontentthatlinesupwithyouroverallgameplan.

Makesureyouhavetoolsonhandthatwillallowyoutocreatecontentatamoment’snotice.Byhavingadigitalcameraandadigitalvideorecorderonhand inyouroffice,or inyourbagwhenyou travel to industryconferencesandevents,youcanbereadytocaptureactivitythatmightleadtopublishablecontent.

Atourcompany,wegaveeachpersononourstaffaFlipvideocamerafortheholidays to get them thinking about content. Yes, this was a gift for theirpersonaluse, butwewanted to emphasize to them that they couldgeneratecontentatanytime,andthiswasatoolthattheycouldusetodoit.Wehopedthattheywouldkeepitontheirpersonsothatitwouldbeavailableatworktoshootvideoonthefly.Youcoulddothesameforyourstaff,too.Encourageeveryone to be thinking of content all the time, and provide resources forcapturingideas.

The best advice I can offer is this:Bewilling to have funmaking content.Whenyouloosenupandhavefun,youcantapalotofcreativityandendupwith entertaining content. For example, let’s say your blog post has twostafferscomparingsolutionstoaparticularproblem,andtheyarebothequallygoodanswers.Youcouldhaveatie-breakerfootraceandvideothemracingintheparkinglot32.Itmightbealittlegoofy,butitputsapersonaltouchtothecontent,andyourstaffcomesalivetoyoursite’svisitors.Sinceyouhaveacameraonhand,youcouldquicklyandeasilyshoottheraceandpostitonyourblog.If thecontent turnsout tobeweakorfails tobefunny, thenyoudon’t have to post it. Nomatter what, encourage people to create content.You’lleventuallyendupwithsomegems.

Thegreatestvalue tohavingvideoanddigital camerasonhand is that theycanprovidecontent fromasingleevent thatcanbe repurposed formultiplechannels.Here’sanexample.Acoupleofpeoplefromyourstaffgotoabigindustry-wide conference in Chicago, packing their Flip video cameras ortheirbrandnew iPhones.From the singleevent theygenerate the followingcontent:

Summaryoftheconferenceforyourblog

A “top 10 new things I learned from the conference” list, also for theblog

Photos of the event with interactions between your staff and theattendees posted in the blog articles, to your Flickr account and otherphoto-sharingchannels

Video interviewsof somekey attendees.Posted toyourblog andyourvideo-sharingaccountslikeVimeoandYouTube

And therecouldbemorecontent thatgetsgenerated, too. Ithasa lot todowithhowyourbusinesscreatively responds to theworld it’s engaged in, aswellashavingtoolsavailabletohelprecordit.

DevelopingContentStrategiesThatGarnerLinks,TooWhenyouputyourcontentoutthere,youwantittograbattention,andyouwant your visitors to love your content somuch that theywant to share it.Linksareabyproductof sharing–peoplehaveengagedwithyourcontent,and it’s inspired them to share it with others. The action you’ve triggered

resultedinalinkbacktothepagethathostsyourcontent.

Peoplewillbe inspired to share stuffwhen itmeets theirneeds. In theend,we’reallhumanandweallhaveneeds.Thequestionis,whatneedsdopeoplehave,andhowcanyourcontentfillthoseneeds?

Figure19:Maslow’sHierarchyofNeeds

I think Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can help answer this question. Histheory, represented by a pyramid, is that all humans have a similar set ofneedsthatincreasewiththeirlevelofsophistication.Aswegrowupandourbrainsbecomemoresophisticated,ourneedsbecomemoresophisticated,butweneveroutgrowanyoneofthem.Themostbasicneedisforsurvival(thebaseofthepyramid)andmovesuptopersonalsafety,toloveandbelonging,toesteem,and,finally,atthepinnacle,self-actualization.Compellingcontentthatmeetsthesehumanrequirementshasagreatchanceofbeingshared.

Oneof thekeyneedspeoplehave isacceptance,so ifyourcontentofferingcanmakeyourvisitorsfeellikethey’repartofacommunitythattheycanbeinvolved in, thenyoucan fulfilloneof theirneeds.Self-actualization is themostsophisticatedneed,soifyourcontentisabletoequipyourvisitorstobesuccessful–particularlyas theymakechoicesasaconsumerbasedonyourexpert advice – then your contentwill be recognized as valuable, and as aresultlikelytobesharedwithothers.

Therearesomepracticalwaystofulfillneedsandengageyourvisitors:

Bearesource.Educatethemontheindustrywhereyouaretheexpert.

Engagetheminasocialcontext.Thecontentonyoursitecanhaveawarm,personaleffect thatgivesvisitorsasenseofwelcoming,makingthem feel like they are part of your community.Then, of course, yourpresenceinsocialmediatakesthattothenextlevel.

Beentertaining.Fun,light-heartedcontentgetsalotofattentionsimplybecausepeopleliketobeentertained.

Be controversial. By showing an alternative viewpoint, you can getuserstothinkabouttheissueanddrawtheminforadiscussion.

Engaging visitors is all about keeping them interested, and, at their core,people are interested inwhat they need.As you conceive of content ideas,considerhowtheycanmeettheneedsthatyouraudiencehas.Themoretheyclickwiththeirneeds,themorelikelytheywillbeshared,andyou’llgetthelinks.

ConclusionWhen we talk about great content, we’re talking about content that hasgenuineappeal.Manycontentmarketerspumpoutcontentjustbecausetheyknow that theyneed to, and the result is a lot of limp andboringpages. Ifcontentlacksoriginality,itendsupblendinginandsimplyaddstothenoise.

I’llbehonest,afewyearsagoIfellintothe“crankthecontentout”trap,too.I knew that I needed to get content onmy site and content on theweb ingeneral,butIfeltconstantlypressuredfortime.Iprioritizedotheraspectsofmybusinessbeforecontentcreation.Iendedupdoingwhatmostofushavedoneatsomepoint:Iwroteblandblogposts,articlesjustforsearchengines,and boring press releases. But then I began to reflect on my own onlineconsumer experiences. From the clothes that I bought to the travel plans Imade, and even the entertainment I consumed. I realized I was buyingproductsandservicenotbasedonpricebutbasedonhowwell I trusted thesource. The more useful information they provided me, the customer, themoreaptIwastobuytheirproduct.RememberthatDLPlampstoryearlier?Yep, itwas informative content and I bought the bulb I needed from them.That’swhencontentbecame the focusofour company. Insteadof crankingout content, we started following a much more deliberate process indeveloping content for ourselves and our clients, and it’s been verysuccessful.

Adeliberateprocessforcontentdevelopmenthingesonhavinganorganizedpublication strategy.The backbone of that strategy is the editorial calendar,whichkeepsuson trackbyknowingwhogovernseachprojectandwhen itwill be launched. Pair an organized approach with a content marketingmindset – be on the lookout for opportunities to meet your potentialcustomers’ needs with your content – and you will soon be developingawesomecontent,too.

7

SixteenExamplesofContentforYourBusiness

“Thinkaboutallthecontentyoucreateaspiecesofalargerwhole.Insteadofa“oneanddone”approach,thinkabouthowyoucancreatesmallerchunksofshareablecontentfromthatsinglecontentasset.

Adoptingabroaderapproachtocreatingcontentrequiresashiftinthinking.Most organizations are accustomed to approaching marketing as a singlecampaignorinitiative,andlessasanongoing,long-termmodel–ascontentrequires.

You certainly can create a killer blog or an amazing podcast as thecornerstoneofyourcontent.But it’smoreefficientandeffectivein thelongterm(andnecessaryforlargerorganizations)totakeabroaderview:tocreatecontent that can come to life in various formats, across many differentplatforms,andthatcanaddressmultipleaudiences.

You could think of it as repurposing that larger piece of content into otherformatsorslicingoratomizingit intosmallerbits toshare.Butrepurposingsuggests something that might happen as an afterthought – whereas we’retalking about something farmore intentional, as something that happens inthefirstphaseofyourcontentplandevelopment.Ratherthanrepurposing,tryreimagining. Reimagining your content in various ways, across variousplatforms,willallowyoutoreachaswideanaudienceaspossible.”

AnnHandley,ChiefContentOfficer,MarketingProfs,Co-authorofContentRules:HowtoCreateKillerBlogs,Podcasts,Videos,Ebooks,Webinars(andMore)ThatEngageCustomersandIgniteYourBusiness(Wiley,2011)

Developingonlinecontentcanbeadauntingtaskattimes,simplybecauseoflackofinspiration.Manytimesazealouscontentstrategist,who’sjustcreatedsomegreatcontent,hitsawall.Lookingaround,sheasks,“Whatnow?”It’scertainlynotaquestionofwhetherornotmoreupdatedcontentisneededornecessary;rather,it’smoreanissueofwhatelsecanwedoandhowcanwemakeitwork?Whatoptionsdowehave?Inthischapterwe’regoingtowalk

throughsomeexamplesofcontentthatyoucanusetogetideasrolling.We’llwalkthrough16examplesofcontentthatwillgetyourwebsiterocking.We’llgothrougheachexample,defineit,andshowhowyoucanmakeitworkforyour needs. We’ll contextualize each example in terms of your contentdevelopmentobjectives.

Pleasenote:Thislistisinalphabeticalorder,notinorderofimportance.Eachoptionhasmeritof itsownand shouldbe judged separatelyon itsvalue toyourcontentmarketingstrategy.AndIdonotrecommendtacklingallofthemunlessyouhaveunlimitedresources.Pick just theonesyoucandoastellarjobwithandaddthemtoyourcontentcalendar!

BuildaBLOG,BuildYourBusinessWhat is it? The word “blog” is a blend of the words “web” and “log;”therefore,it’saplace,eitheronyourwebsiteorasastandalonesite,thatgetsupdated frequently, like a log or journal. Blogs are platforms that enableregularcommunicationwithfollowersandvisitors.Forbusinessapplications,blogsarefocusedontheneedsofyourcustomersandtheindustryingeneral.

Aslongastheblogislocatedonyourwebsiteordomain,allthecontentthatgetsgeneratedontheblogwillbecontentforyoursite.Blogcontentcanbeeverythingfromtexttovideotopodcasts(thoughnearlyallblogsarecenteredon textual communication, incorporating additional media forms into thepost).Allthecontentinablogissearchableandcanbearchived,andeveryposthaspotentialforcomingupinthesearchengineresultspage.Oncetheblogisupandrunning, itcanbeasourceofcontent thatcanberepurposedforotherapplications, too.Practicallyanykindofcontentcanbepostedontheblog.

I strongly recommend that you keep your blog on yourwebsite, instead ofestablishingitsomewhereelse.

What’sitgoodfor?Ifyouneedtobeconvincedtohaveablogonyoursite,lookat thesestatistics fromHubSpot:Websites thathaveblogsget twiceasmanyinboundlinksaswebsiteswithoutblogs.Siteswithblogswillgetabout400percentmoreindexedpagesandwillseeamorethan50percentincreaseintrafficoverwebsitesthatlackablog.ThesestatsalonetellyouthatablogisprettyimportanttoyourcontentmarketingstrategyfromatrafficandSEOperspective.

Thebottom line is that having a blogon yourwebsite provides youwith averyeasy-to-useplatformtopublishcontentonaroutinebasis,whichgetstheattention of search engines and gives people content that they can engagewith. I’mcalling it an“easy-to-use”platformbecauseonceyourblog is set

up,youdon’treallyhavetointeractwithyourwebmastertoaddnewpages.Yourcompanyhasalreadygivenyoupermissiontoblog,soyoujustlogintothemanagementtooltosubmitposts.

Ideally visitors find your blog so interesting that theywill be compelled tofollow it and comment on your posts. That’s the really nice thing about ablog. Built into it is the ability for people to leave comments, which thencreatesawholenewsetofcontent:UserGeneratedContent(UGC).VisitorsloveUGC;theylovetointeractwiththeideaspostedonblogs,anditcreatesa community atmosphere on your website. Search engines love UGC, too,whichisanotherreasonsearchengineslikeblogs.

I’llbehonestaboutblogs:Theycanbealotofwork.Youhavetobediligentin maintaining and updating your blog on a regular basis. Start off byacknowledgingwhatkindofcommitmentyoucanmake.Postingonceaweekis awesome; even every otherweek is a place to begin.The thing is, it’s acommitment.Makethecommitmentupfrontandstickto it. Ifyoufeel likeit’s something you are ready to take on, then start your blog today. Don’tprocrastinateonthis!

Ialwaysrecommendthatyousetupablogteamifyouhavethestafftodoit.Thisgroupcansharetheeffortofposting,ideallyonarotation.Remembertolay out your blog posting schedule on an editorial calendar. If your smallbusinessisaone-personoperation,oritdoesn’thavetheresourcesforateam,settingupacalendarwillstillhelpyoumeetyourcommitmenttopost.Trytogetfiveorsixideasontoyoureditorialcalendarandthenstartcreating.

Thefirst fewpostswill feeluncomfortable,butafteryouget in thehabit, itwillbemucheasier.Trustme.You’llsoonfindyourselfthinkinguppossibleblog posts all the time. The idea will come, and you’ll have to stop whatyou’re doing to make note of it or call your phone and leave yourself amessage–whateverittakestokeeptheideafreshuntilyougetthechancetowritethepost.

Whenyou’re startingout your blog, these are the fundamentals you shouldkeepinmind:

Don’tjustwriteandassumeyou’llautomaticallygettraffic.Thecontentneedstoattractvisitors.

Updateyourblogregularly.Rockyourblogbypostingatleasttwotimesperweek. If that isn’t feasible, shoot for one post perweek, or, at theveryleast,onceeveryotherweek.

Personalizeyourblog.Don’tsoundlikeaboringcorporatetalkinghead.People like to hear from you. But remember, it’s not about you; it’saboutyourcustomers.

Assumeyourcompetitorswillreadyourblog,butdon’tletthispreventyou from providing good information. In the blog post “7 HarshRealities of Social Media Marketing,” CopyBlogger.com calls it thebikiniconcept:“Youcangive90%of itaway,but therewillalwaysbepeoplewhowill happily pay to see that last 10%.”You don’twant togive away your essential trade secrets, but you dowant to give someinformationawayforfree–andithastobegoodenoughtokeeppeoplecomingback.

In everyblogpost, try to answer aquestion.Why?Becauseyoudon’twanttoprovidemeaninglesspoststhatproveuselesstoyourreaders.Beavaluablesourceofinformation.

Don’t be concerned if you need helpmanaging your blog.That’swhytherearecontentdevelopmentexpertsoutthere.

A fewof our customers do not have blogs on theirwebsites, andwemakeeveryefforttoconvincethemtoaddone.Often,theholdupforthemis,“Butwhat would we say?” They’re afraid they would do one post and then nomore formonths for lackof ideas. If,afteranhonestassessment,youdon’tthinkyoucancommittoblogging,it’sbettertoholdoffuntilyoucan.Ontheotherhand,ideasshouldn’tbeaproblem(seechaptersthreeandfour).Whatyou’retryingtodo,primarily,istoputyourselfoutthereasanexpertinyourindustry,andtheblogisafantastictoolfordoingthat.Alotofyourcontentshouldbegeared toward thatend:demonstratinghowtodowhatyoudo inyour industry. A blog is also a great place to provide answers to yourcustomers’ questions. In fact, as an example, many of our customers haveaskeduswhattheyshouldwriteaboutintheirblog.Sowepostedanansweronourblog!Thepostwastitled“50TopicstoHelpYouGetStartedonYourCorporateBlog.”Someofthebestideaswesuggestedinthepostare:

Introducingyournewesthireinyourcompanywithabio

Iwenttothisindustryeventandthisiswhathappened,etc.

Publicizearecentcharitabledonationandyourreasonsfordonating

Putanindustryspinontheholidays

Makealistoftoolsyouuseonadailybasisandcan’tlivewithout

Askaquestionofyourreaders

Look at your comments and highlight/answer/discuss a topic yourreadersareinterestedin

Curatesomecontent(seeContentCurationinthischapter)

Providetipsonbeingmoreproductiveinyourindustry

Togetall50ideas,whichyoushouldprintandtacktoyourofficewall,gotothisaddress:http://www.verticalmeasures.com/website-publicity/50-topics-to-help-you-get-started-on-your-corporate-blog.

CaptureSuccesswithCASESTUDIESWhat is it? Broadly, case studies are research reports that isolate a group,event, or individual for in-depth analysis. Theway to use case studies in acontentmarketingstrategyistoanalyzeaparticularsuccessyourorganizationhas had with a customer. A case study would analyze your customer’ssituation, their problem, your solution, and how it led to your customer’ssuccess.Theycanvary in lengthand form, fromabriefparagraph toa fullreport. A case study could include graphics and charts, and even videotestimony, in addition to text. Ideally, a case study should provide shortexamplesofworkthatyourcompanyhasdoneforyourcustomers,showingthesuccessoftheproject.

What’s it good for? Case studies are very good for touting your results,showingpreciselyhowothershave succeededbecause they’veworkedwithyou,completewithtangibleexamplesofyourexpertise.Casestudieshaveanumber of applications, ranging from blog posts to inclusion in aneNewsletter, to a section on yourwebsite devoted to case studies – or youcould repurpose thecase study forall threeplaces. I thinkagreatplace forcasestudiesisthe“aboutus”sectionofyourwebsite.Thisisthesectionthatpotentialcustomerswillgotofindoutwhothey’reabouttodobusinesswith,andthiswillgivethemagreatchancetoseeyoursuccessstories.Theywork

especiallywellwhentheyarequickandeasyforpeopletoread;perhapsyoucouldoffer threeor four brief case studieson apage that is linked to fromyour“aboutus”section.

The main challenge with case studies is actually getting your client tocooperatewithyou.Youneed toget information from thembeforeyoucancreate the case study. Sometimes, it can become difficult tracking yourclient’ssuccesses,and,dependingonyourclient,itcantakesomeefforttogetthemtoprovideyouwiththeinformationyouneedtocreatethestudy.

Asanexamplefrommybusiness,aclienthasaschoolthattrainsgolferstobecomegolfprosforworkatgolfcourses.Ourclientwantedtoputtogethersomecasestudiesonstudentswhowent throughtheircourse,showingtheirsuccess after graduation.Oneof the students actuallywenton tobuildgolfclubs;othershavebecomeprosatprestigiousgolfcourses.Thegraduatewhobuiltthegolf-clubmanufacturingbusinesswasobviouslyproudofhissuccessandwasgladtobeincludedinthecasestudy.Hecooperatedknowingthatitwouldalsobeexposureforhisproduct.Butformanystudentsitwashardtokeep track of them as they moved to various locations and took differentcareerpaths.

Fortunately, though,wehavefoundthatourclientsoftendon’thave troubledeveloping case studies because they tend to knowwhen their clients haveachieved successful results in a relatively short period of time.Aswith thegolf-clubmanufacturer,theyworkevenbetterwhenthecasestudyalsooffersa chance to give your client some positive exposure. For this reason, casestudiescanbesomeoftheeasiercontenttodevelopandposttoyourwebsite,andtheycanoffersomeverygoodbenefits.

JointheConversationthroughCOMMUNITYFORUMSWhatisit?Iwouldventuretoguessthatnearlyeveryonehasparticipatedina forum at one point in their web experience. A community forum is adiscussionsitewherepeoplecanholdconversationsviapostedmessagesonthetopicrelatedtotheforum.Discussionsaremoderatedbytheowneroftheforum or appointed moderators, who ensure that inappropriate posts getremoved.Some forumsallowusers to flag inappropriatepostsor spam,butthemoderatorwillstillneedtoregularlyreviewtheforumtokeepitweededof unwanted activity. The goal is to keep the general user’s experience apositiveandconstructiveone.

Dependingonthesetup,userscanbeanonymousorhavetoregisterwiththeforumandlogintopostmessages.Ingeneral,sitesthatrequireregistrationto

participatewillstillallowvisitorstoviewmessagethreadswithoutloggingin.Thisgivesvisitorsasenseofwhat’shappeningontheforumsothattheymaybemoreinclinedtoregister.

What’sitgoodfor?Hostingacommunityforumaddsauthority,content,andtraffic to your website. Heavily visited forums are a rich source of user-generatedcontent(UGC),whichsearchenginestendtolike.Theyarereallypowerfulifyouhaveatopicthatpeoplewanttodiscuss.

To be clear, what I’m describing here is adding a forum to your website,meaningyourunit.Forumscanbeanevenmoreintensecommitmentthanablogbecauseyouhavetospendeverydaymanagingandmoderatingthesite.Peoplewillsay things thatyoudon’twant themtosay, inappropriate thingsthatyoushouldbemonitoring.Ifyourforumisgettingactivity,thiscanmeanyou’requitebusybecausepostshappenallthetime.

Launchingaforumisalwaysaslowprocess.Forumsonlyworkwhenpeopleparticipate,andthemorethemerrier.Ittakesalotofpromotiontogetthefirstmembers to join,especially ifyouhaveaniche topic.This isnot tosay it’simpossible,butIwanttogiveyoufairwarning.Agreatwaytopromoteyournew forum is with a news release, Twitter and other social mediaannouncements,andblogpostings.

Onceyoudogetitupandrunning,haveadedicatedmoderatorandgetsomediscussionsgoing,thepayoffisnormallywellworththeeffort.Theboostintraffic, the added impression of authority, and increased UGC for searchengines are great reasons to make the push for a forum. On top of that,registrationtojointheforumcouldrequireanameandemailsothatyoucanstarttobuildoutyouremaillist.

CURATION,theMostEfficientContentWhatisit?ThankstotheInternet,weliveinacontent-richworld.It’smind-boggling to think of the number of content pieces at our fingertips. Fromimages to video to text, the sea of web pages is vast.We, as users of theInternet,constantlyseektofindwaystomakesenseofallofit,togetasmuchusefulandrelevantcontentaswecan,whileatthesametimefilteringoutthestuffwedon’tcareabout.Somewebsitesusealgorithmicsearchfunctionstoaggregate content from all over the Internet and organize it by topic, thusmakingitmoreaccessibletousers.SiteslikeGoogleNewsdojustthis.

Curation is similar to aggregation, except that the aggregated content isfilteredbyahumaneditorratherthan,oratleastinadditionto,analgorithm.Having humans review the content before it gets posted increases theassurancethatithasmaximumrelevancetotheaudience.Iwilluse“curation”

torepresentbothtermsforthissection.

What is it good for? Curation is an excellent way to show your industryknowledgeandpositionyourcompanyasathoughtleader.Throughcuration,youcantakethebestandmostrelevantcontentinyourindustryandpresentitinacrisp,easytoconsumeformat.Thevaluetoyourcustomers thatcomesfrom this curation will be attributed to your brand, lending you an air ofauthorityinyourindustry.

Therearemanyways tocurate contentonyour site.Youcanmakecuratedcontent appear occasionally on your site, say as a blog post. In a case likethat, youwould have an exceptional piece of content that youwanted yourblogfollowerstoknowabout,soyou’dpostasummaryofthecontent,giveareasonwhyit’ssogreat,andalinktothefullcontent,citingthesource.Usingcurationasasupplementtoyouroriginalcontentistheleastdemandingwaytocurate,andcanbeverybeneficialtoyou.Youraudiencewillseeyouasacontemporaryorganizationwithafingertothewindinyourindustry.

Withsomemoreeffortfromaneditorialperspective,youcanalsodevelopanentire section of your site as a curated news center. An editor, or team ofeditors,wouldmanage the content, ensuring that it was frequently updatedandalwayshigh-quality.Fora site like this,youwould likely incorporateamix of curated and original content.Your curation pagewould serve as anintelligencehubforvisitorstokeepcurrentonindustrynewsandtrends.Thiskind of page could draw huge numbers of links, get significant traffic, andyou’dbedeliveringtonsoffreshcontent.

Thereareplentyofsoftwareprograms thatyoucanacquirewhichwillhelpyou aggregate content. These kinds of programs reduce the burden on thehumanefforttosearchforcontentbyprovidingaslushpileofcontentthat’sorganizedandreadyfortheeditortoworkthrough.Attheendoftheday,theeditorselectsthecontentthatappearsonthepage.

Youneedat leastoneeditorworking to reviewcontentandensure that it isaddingexcellence toyoursite.Theeditorwilleitherdraftsummariesof thecontent or they will work with a writer. You can get employees in yourcompany toparticipate in the curationeffort byhavingeachone serve as acontent trawler. As with the content style guide discussed in chapter five,you’ll need to definewhat “great content” you’re looking for.By setting astandardforthequalityofthecontentyouwanttocurate,youwillhelpyourcontenttrawlerstokeepthebarhigh.Theycansearchforanykindofcontent–blogs,video,whitepapers,andsoon.Usethecontentideasinthischaptertohelpdefinewhatkindofcontentyou’relookingfor.

Iwouldarguethatcurationcanbeoneoftheeasiestwaystogetcontenton

yoursite,especiallywhenyoucurateforablogpost.UsinganRSSfeed,youcan find content and sift through it to pull out the content you want tosummarizeandcurate.AnexcellentexampleoftheuseofcurationforablogisKikolani.com’sFridayMashupofnewsfromtheweek.EveryFriday,KristiHines (disclosure: Kristi is part of the VerticalMeasures team) curates thebuzzinherindustry,wrappingupthatweek’snews.Thisisherfollowers’bigchance tomake sure they don’t walk into theweekend havingmissed anyimportantnewsthatweek.Thiskindofcurationhasaverynaturalfeeltothefollowers,andencourages themto tune inregularlyfor thatpostbecauseofthevalue itadds to their industryknowledge.Andquiteoften thepeopleorpostsmentioned in herwrap-upwill link to it, Tweet about it or otherwisehelppromoteit.

Since curation is the act of taking someone else’s content andputting it onyoursite,youdon’twanttoviolatecopyrightsorplagiarize.Therightwaytocurateistosummarizethepageyou’recuratingandlinktoit.Inthesummarymake itclearhowthearticle relates toyour industryand thevalue ithas toyouraudience.

Always remember to follow the guidelines of fair use. According to thecopyrightactof1976,whendeterminingwhetherornottheuseofaworkinaparticularcaseisfairuse,thefollowingfourfactorsmustbeconsidered:

1. Thepurposeandcharacteroftheuse,includingwhethersuchuseisofa

commercialnatureorisfornonprofiteducationalpurposes;

2. Thenatureofthecopyrightedwork;

3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the

copyrightedworkasawhole;and

4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the

copyrightedwork.

Tomakefairuseofthecontent,youwillneedto:

Summarizethework

Citetheauthor/originalsource

Encourageyouraudiencetovisittheoriginalwork

Copyright issuescanget sticky, so ifyourcompanyhasa legal staff, checkwiththemonhowtocurateaccordingtoyourcompany’spolicy.Wesuggestyoucheckoutwww.copyright.govformore informationoncopyright in theUnitedStates.

Intheend,curationonasmallscalecanbeahugetime-saver,thatis,whenyou supplement your original content with curated content. If you arestrugglingforideasforyourblog,curatingthecontentforthatpostcanbeagreat way to shake off the writer’s block. It could also be a regularsupplement to your content, such as a “what’s happening industry wide?”feature.Bycuratingcontent,youwillkeep freshcontentonyour sitewhilepassing along the value of your aggregation and editing efforts to yourvisitors,avaluethatthey’llattributetoyourbrand.

WinBigwithCONTESTSWhatisit?Theideabehindrunningacontestaspartofacontentmarketingstrategy is to entice traffic and backlinks to your site. Having a prize canencourage your target audience to participate in some capacity to win theprize.Ideally,theentrantssubmitsomethingthatcanbepostedascontentforyourpage.Byhavingvisitorsjudgethecontest,contestantswouldencouragetheirsocialnetworktovisityourwebsiteandvote.

Figure20:VerticalMeasuresMarketingthatMovesYouFacebookContest

What’s itgood for?Contests create content onyour site and attract traffic

andlinkstoyourpage.Theymayevenbeusefulinaddingtoyourfanbaseorprospectlist.Contestsdon’thavetoincludeover-the-topawardslikeagrand-prize trip to the Bahamas. They can be as simple as targeting journalismstudents,askingthemtosubmitashortpieceexplainingwhytheywanttowina$1,000journalismscholarship,postingthetop10entries,andhavingpeoplevoteforthewinner.AbridalshopthatIknowputonacontesttowinabridalpackage.Inthiscasethecontestdidn’tactuallycostthemanythingextra.Theshopgotlocalbusinessestodonateaveil,flowers,andsomeotherwedding-related odds and ends in exchange for advertising. To enter, all that thecontestantshadtodowassubmittheirengagementstory.Peoplevotedontheentries,andthewinnerreceivedthepackage.

Contestscanbea lotof fun foryourcustomers,but sometimes theycanbetough for you to pull together. They often cost money for prizes, andgenerallytheytaketimetocoordinate.Remember,you’reputtingthiscontentonyoursite.Sometimes,youcandoitonyourblog,butmoreoftenyouneedtocreateawholenewpagefor it,whichcanbe tougher.A lotof times, forlargercompanies,settingupacontestmightrequireadditionalhoopsthatyoumay have to jump through with your legal department to make sure thecontestisallowable,fromtheirperspective.

Runningacontestcanbearealboon,anddependingonyourmarket,couldbeexactlythekindofthingthatwillattractnewcustomers.Theengagementstory and the journalism scholarship were two types of contests that wererelatively simple to run.Give it a try, and if there is a solid returnonyourinvestment,youcanadd themtoyourcontentcalendar to runona frequentbasis.

eBOOKS:TraditionalPublishingOut,Self-?PublishingIn!Whatisit?eBooksarebook-lengthdocumentsforreadingoncomputersoreBook-readingdevices;evenmobilephonescaninteractwitheBooks.Whiletheseoriginatedaselectronicversionsofpaperbooks,theycannowstartoffaselectronicbookswithnopaperpublicationequivalent.eBooksareaverydynamic form.They can be full book length or shorter, something like theequivalent of a novella, but they ought to be substantial pieces of content,something akin to a white paper on steroids. eBooks can be on any topicimaginable,justasapaperbook.Whenitcomesto-developinganeBookforyour business, you are going to do the same thing thatmost of your othercontentattemptsdo:addressyourcustomers’problemsandoffersolutionsasan expert. It’s the kind ofwriting you’d hope your readerwill consumeontheirKindleontheirmorningsubwaycommute,soitneedstoreallyengage

yourreader.

Figure21:“EdFrawley’sPhilosophyonDogTraining”,apartofhisseriesofdogtrainingeBooks

What’sitgoodfor?Whatbetterwaytoshowyourexpertiseinyourindustrythantoshowthatyouhaveabookpublishedaboutit?TherealbenefitofaneBook is the caliber of content that it represents. With an eBook, you’redeliveringaresourcethathasstandalonevalueanddemonstratesyourabilitytoaddresstherealconcernsofyourcustomersandyourindustry.eBooks,ifthey’regood,haveawayoftakingoffandbecomingamarketoftheirown.You get all the benefits in terms of reinforcing your credibility with yourcustomersandyourindustrywithaneBook,butyoucanalsosellit.Yes,youhavetoinvestinthiscontentupfront,butitcouldbeworthit.BecauseyoucansellyoureBook,youcanrecoversome,ifnotall,ofthecostofproducingthedocument. It’soneof the rarepiecesofcontent thathas thepotential topayforitselfonsalesalone.

OnewaytoutilizetheeBookformatistotarget40-to60-pagebooksonveryspecifictopics.ThismakestheeBookalittlemoreaccessible,bothtoyouastheauthorandtoreadersconsumingyourcontent.Themostcommonwaytogo with this length of book is the how-to route, explaining a process andgiving solutions. For example, you could write on “How to Market YourRestaurantBusinessOnline”or“HowtoBecomeaGolfPro.”Aswe’vesaid,you can do an eBook on any topic related to your business, and yourcredibilityinthefieldwillmakethebookbuyable.

Thechallengewithdevelopingafull-oneBookthatyouwanttocompleteasabook is that you need to understand publishing and that will take a bit ofresearch.However,youcanpublishadocumentasaneBook inassimpleaformatasadownloadablePDFonyourwebsite,whichwillmakeitreadableoneBookreadersandcomputers.Itreallydependsonhowyouwanttomakeuse of the eBook.Writing for eBooks – or paper books, for that matter –requiresaspecialkindofwriting;ifyouwantittobesuccessful,you’lleitherneedtohireawriter,orpayverycloseattentiontothewritingstyleofbooksliketheoneyouwanttoproduce.

Ifyoudecidetotrytowriteityourself,beware:it’sabigtimecommitment,and you’ll want to have a trustworthy editor look at your finalmanuscriptbeforeyouproceedwithpublishing.

eBooksseemintimidatingbecauseyouneedwriters.Butyoudon’tneedtobequiteasintimidatedasyoumightthink.Youmightalreadyhavethecontentfor an eBookonyour site. For example,we run an interview series on ourblog,andweaccumulatedabout40interviewswithindustryexperts.Weplanto take all those interviews, compile them, andmake an “Expert InterviewSerieseBook.”

Not long ago, I had dinner with a friend of mine in New York, StoneydeGeyter.Asweweretalking,ItoldhimthathisblogisoneofthefewthatIactuallytrytosetasidethetimetoread.Hetendstowritelongposts,andheonly posts every two weeks or so, but each one is high quality and veryinteresting,soImakesuretoreadeachone.Isaidtohim,“Irecallyoudida16-part blog series; you could turn that into a book.” Stoney said that’sexactlywhatheplannedtodo.Itturnsoutthathetookthetimetowriteblogpoststhatheactuallyplanned tomakeintoabook.MymessagehereisthatsometimesthecontentforaneBookisalreadyonyourwebsite,oryoucandolikeStoneydid anddevelop content inoneway that you intend to compileintoabook later,killing twobirdswithone stone.The secret togeneratingcontent isbeingabletocreatively repurposeit,andeBooksareanawesomewaytorepurposelarge-scalecontent.

KeepThemEngagedwitheNEWSLETTERSWhat is it?AneNewsletter is apublication regularlydistributedvia email.Generally,eNewslettersfocusononemaintopicofinteresttoitssubscribers.In the case of eNewsletters for your business, the topic of interest is theproduct or service that you provide, aswell as industry-related informationsuchasnews,hottopics,andevents.eNewslettersworkverywellasmonthlypublications and help with customer retention. A regular publication willcontinuouslykeepyourcustomersinformedandremindhowgreatitistodo

businesswithyourcompany.

Whatisitgoodfor?Keepingyourbrandinfrontofyourpotentialcustomerscan be somewhat challenging.Much of your content tends to be availablewhenyour customers are looking foryourproduct. eNewsletters areoneofthewaysthatyoucanproactivelyputyourcontentinfrontofyourcustomersandroutinelyreinforceyourbrand.YoureNewsletterremindsyourcustomersthatyouaretheexpertinyourindustry.

The content in an eNewsletter should be easy to digest so that it will getviewed.Wesuggestmakingitshortsothatwhenviewedinemailthebulkofthetextisabovethefold(viewablewithoutscrolling),makingsureanycallstoactionarekeptatthetop.Everyarticleshouldbekepttotwoorthreecrispopeningsentenceswithalinktoreadmore.Byofferingatiporusefulpieceofinformationthatyourcustomerwouldbeinterestedin,youcankeepthemengaged. You want your content to be as relevant as possible so that thecustomerwillbelesslikelytounsubscribe.Ifitworksforyourbusiness,aneNewsletter is agreatplace toofferdiscountsor coupons foryourproduct,whichwouldencouragecustomerstovisityoursitetoredeemthem.

Fromacostperspective,there’snoexcusenottoproduceaneNewsletter.Youcan get newsletter software virtually for free online, which will help youdevelop a template so that all you need to do each month is provide newcontent.Someinexpensiveandeasy-to-useemailnewsletterservicesinclude:

AWeber

ConstantContact

iContact

MailChimp

VerticalResponse

The real cost of an eNewsletter is time, as is the case with most contentdevelopment.Settingupatemplateisnotdifficult.Ensuringthatyouputthetime intowriting foryoureNewsletter, that’swhere thechallengecomes in.Likeablog,it’sacommitment,andyouneedtoconsiderwhetherornotyoucanmeetyourcommitmentbeforeyoustartout.

TomakeaneNewsletterwork,youhavetobuildanemaillist.Ifyou’regoing

toproduceaneNewsletter,youshouldgeteveryemailaddressyoucanonthedistribution list.But, even ifyouhaveonlyahandfulof email addresses tostart, itwouldn’thurttogetaneNewsletterouttothosepeople.Thisishowyounurturetheemailaddressesthatyou’vecollectedinyourlead-generatingefforts.

Another bonus from eNewsletters is that they can also become additionalcontent for your website. Ideally, you would post each new issue to aneNewsletterarchivepageonyourwebsite.Thisaddsyetanotherqualitypieceof updated content, and searchers who come across your eNewsletter pagecansignupiftheylikewhattheysee.

INFOGRAPHICS,theCoolestWaytoDisplayDataWhatisit?Aninfographicisagraphicthatconveysavisualrepresentationof information using images andwords. They are a greatway to capture avarietyofpiecesofinformationandcommunicatetheminaninterestingandcondensedformat.Infographicsoftenmakeuseofchartsandgraphs,buttheycan also include pictures or maps. The possibilities with infographics arenearlyendless.WhenitcomestocontentontheInternet,infographicsarehotstuffrightnow.Everybodyseemstolovethembecausethey’reeasyandfasttoread,andareperfectforpassingaroundviasocialmedia.

Figure22:SampleRepresentationofInfographic

Whatisitgoodfor?Mostpeoplewouldratherlookatapicturequicklythanreadawholearticle,especiallyinthemiddleofabusyday.Timeisvaluable,and infographics save quite a bit of time. Because of their appeal,infographics are a great way to drive traffic and, especially, links to yourwebsite,whichisoneofthebiggestbenefitstheyoffer.Whensomeonefindsaninfographicthattheythinkisreallycool,theywilllinktoitfromtheirpageorembediton theirsiteandpost iton theirblog.Whensomeonegrabs thecontent toposton theirwebsite theycredit thepage theygot it fromwithalink.That’susuallyseenasafairexchange–it’sbasicallygivingcreditwhere

credit isdue.The infographicbenefits thepersonwho’sgrabbingitbecauseit’scontentthatwillinteresttheirviewers,andthelinkservestoacknowledgewhocreatedit,drivingtraffictothesource’spage.

Therefore,itservesyouwelltocreateyourowninfographicssothatyoucanderivebacklinksfromthem.Infographicsmakeexcellentblogposts,andtheyhavethatever-tantalizingpossibilityofgoingviral.

Developinganinfographicisnotashardasyoumightimagine.Comeupwithaconceptandshipitofftoagraphicdesignerwhowillfindacleverwaytopresentthedatainaneasy-to-readformat.Almostanygraphicdesignerwithatleastonefootinthe21stCenturywillknowwhataninfographicisandhowtoworkwithyouon it.Butagraphicdesignercan’tdoeverything foryou.Theycandevelopacolorschemeandsomeofthevisualelements,butyou’llneedtoprovidethemsomeimportantdetailstogetthemstarted.

Comeupwithaconceptfortheinfographic.Thisisusuallyasimpleideathatwillinsomewayendupbeingthetitleoftheinfographic.Let’ssayyouhavea landscaping business. You might create “Best Routes for Fall LeafPeeping.”Makealistoftheinformationyouwanttoconvey,andsettleontheclearest,mostconcisewaytoexpressthedata.

Forourleafpeepingexample,wewouldtieeachroutewe’rehighlightingtoamapoftheUnitedStateswithfactsandaninsetphotoforeachone.Wemighthighlight the Blue Ridge Parkway – 469 miles across two states, withstunningmountainscenery,andslowgoingwith17millionothervisitorseachyear.Afteryouhaveyourfacts,createawireframeofthegraphictogivethegraphicdesignerasenseofwhatyou’retryingtoachieve.They’lltakeitfromthere.

Some websites have actually been so successful with infographics thatthey’ve built whole libraries of them.One of our clients built out awholesubsection on their site devoted entirely to infographics they’ve created.Anyonewhowants a financial infographic can go there and grab one. Thestipulationwithgrabbingoneis,ofcourse,thatyouhavetolinkbacktotheirsite.Theirpageisgettingallkindsofjuicefromthatcampaign.Infact,thereare whole websites that only compile infographics from all over the webbecausetheyareinsuchhighdemand.

Frankly, Idon’t recommendnabbingan infographic fromsomeoneelse.Wealwaysrecommendtoourclientsthattheycommissionalltheirinfographics.By generating your own, you have the right to all the traffic, citations andbacklinks.Ontopofthat,thecontentoftheinfographicshouldbethekindofinformation that demonstrates your inside understanding of the market orindustry your business is in. Fundamentally, there’s nothing wrong with

postingsomeoneelse’s infographiconyoursite,but ifyoucango theextramileandgenerateyourown,you’regoingtobemuchbetteroff.

LookLikeanExpertwithINTERVIEWSWhat is it? This is one of my favorites. Here, we’re talking aboutinterviewing industry experts to find out how they tackle issues in yourindustry,andwhat tools theyusetosolvetheirproblems.Youcanaskthemtheiropiniononindustrytrendsortogiveamarketoutlook.Thepossibilitiesare limitless. It doesn’t hurt to ask the same questions of differentinterviewees, to gainmultiple perspectives, as long as you don’t develop atemplatequestion-and-answerformat.Theideawithaninterviewistohaveafeelofrealcuriosityandinvestigationontheinterviewer’spart.

Thereareanumberofwaystouse interviewsascontentonyoursite.Theycanbeshort,ortheycanbeintensive.Dependingonwhatyourintervieweeiswilling and able to do, you could go big and interview a panel, or have alonger, more in-depth conversation with an individual. Typically, however,time is precious for your interviewee, so conversations should be concise,gettinganswerstoahandfulofspecificquestions.

Youhavethreedifferentmediachoicesforconductinganinterview:

Text-based

Audio

Video

Withtext-basedinterviews,youwillsendacustomizedemailtotheindustryexpertyouwouldliketointerviewwith10to15questions.Youaskthemtoanswer eight or so. Then, post the text of the interview, add a bio and aheadshot,and there’syour interview.Email interviewsarebyfar theeasiestinterviewtoobtain.

Likewise,youcancontactyourintervieweeandaskforaphoneinterviewforaudio. Again, the interview should be about eight questions, netting youmaybe10ormoreminutesworthofaudio.Forvideo,youhavetheoptionofdoing awebcam interview, if the interviewee is up for it, or you can snagthem at a conference for an impromptu interview.Video interviews shouldgenerallystayshortbecausemanyvideositeslikeYouTubelimitthesizeofvideothatcanbeuploaded.

Whatisitgoodfor?Byhavingfrequentconversationswithotherexpertsinyour industry, you rank yourself among the top experts, and you show thatyou are connected to the cutting edge inyour field. Interviewsdemonstratethatyou’rehungry to stayon topof the industry.Theymake fantasticblogpostsandcangeneratetrafficandbacklinkstoyoursite,especiallywhenyouinterviewbiggernames. Justbyassociation, interviews rankyouamong theexperts.Astheysay,youarethecompanythatyoukeep.

Trytodoregularinterviewsandtiethemtoyoureditorialcalendarsothatyoucanbesure tokeepthecontentrolling.Tofindaninterviewee,occasionallywehavetodosomeresearchonlineandseewho’sspeakingatconferencestofind experts and their expertise; other times, we use experts who are wellknown.Outofthe40ormoreinterviewswe’verequested,wehaveonlyhadoneindividualturnusdown,andonlyacouplehavebeenlate.Thereasonis:They want the exposure as well! Interviews are mutually beneficial. I getrequestsforinterviewsperiodically,andIneverturnthemdown.It’sbrandingforourcompany,soifIcanmeetthedeadline,whywouldIsayno?

Video interviews are a dynamic format thatworkswell as content. I go toconferencesfrequently,andIseepeoplewalkingaroundwithvideocameras.Iwatchthemgrabanindustryexpert,pullthemaside,anddoaquickone-ortwo-minutehallwayinterview.Rightthereiscontentforyoursite.Wheneverwehostconferencesandbringinaguestspeaker,Iguaranteethatoneofourstaffmemberswill be therewith a video camera to interviewpeople at theevent.Oneconferencecouldleadtoseveralinterviewsforpostinglateronourwebsite,whichhelpsusmeetourgoalofaninterviewaweek.

Occasionally, interviewscanbemoreelaborate.Forexample, inpreparationforthestartof2010,wedecidedtocreateaninterviewseriestokickoffthenewyear.Werentedagreenroomandbroughtin10localInternetmarketingexperts.Wehadascriptedinterviewwiththem,askingfortheirpredictionsonInternet marketing. In half a day, we cranked out 10 interviews. We thenpublished a different interview each day for the first 10 days of 2010.Ourtotalout-of-pocketexpenseforthiswasabout$1,000,andweendedupwith10fantasticpiecesofcontent.

Another way to optimize your interview content is to transcribe audio(including the audio portion of your videos) to text. Using transcriptionsoftware, this is extremely easy. By posting audio or video with their texttranscriptionsonthesamepage,youcanoptimizethewholecontentpieceforsearchengines.

Youcanalsogotheotherwaybyusingspecialreadingsoftwaretoproduceaudio of your text interviews. Then, all of your interviews are turned intopodcastsforanotherpieceofcontent.

Thefactisthatinterviewsareeasy.WhatImeanisthattheyhaveoneofthehighest ROI’s because the investment is so low and the payoff is so great.Andifyoucanconductoneinterviewperweek,at theendofayear,you’llhave 52 interviews that you can package into an eBook, as wementionedabove.Interviewsoffermajorpotentialforrepurposing.

Twitteroffersamoreinteractive(andfastpaced)waytoconductaninterview.Byplanning ahead, youcan schedule an interview that adds the elementofsocialmedia.Byestablishingahashtagtofollow(example:#pestcontrol)thatidentifies your interview,you can identify aperiod for the interview.Whenyoupromotetheevent,yourfollowersonTwittercanuseaservice,suchasTweetChat.com, to follow the hashtag conversation. You can conduct aninterview that engages the whole community. Come prepared with somespecific questions, but be prepared for the interview to take on a life of itsownasthecommunitygetsinvolvedintheconversation.Aftertheinterviewhasended,youcanuseaservicelikeWTHashtag.comtotranscribethewholeevent.Thetranscriptioncanbepostedtoyoursiteasanewpieceofcontent,capturingtheexcitementofthesocialinterview.

The toughest part of conducting an interview – and most of the timeinvestment–isactuallycomingupwiththequestionsandfindingthepersonto interview. I’ve found that by rotating topics monthly on the editorialcalendar, it eases the strain of coming upwith questions, because the topicitselfsteersthequestions.Foremailinterviews,it’sonlypossibletohavetheinterview if you send the questions ahead of time; however, for otherinterviews(live,audio,video,ortextviachat)youabsolutelymusthaveyourquestions laid out ahead of time. Never walk into an interview and try to“wing it.” Always be ready. If you’re at a conference and conducting ahallwayinterviewwithapanelist,you’dbetterhaveacuecardofquestionsreadyiftheyagreetotheinterview.

WalktheTalkwithPRESSRELEASESWhat is it? Typically, a news release or press release is a writtencommunicationdirectedat thenewsmedia for thepurposeofannouncinganewsworthypieceof information.Foryourbusiness, “newsworthy”doesn’thave to mean headlining in The New York Times. This means announcingeventsrelativetotheactivitiesinyourbusiness.Thesereleasesgoouttotheonlinepress,butiftheyhappentobereallygood,theymaygetpickedupbythe big news outlets. The communication needs to be presented in aprofessionalwayandisusuallyveryconciseforbusinessannouncements.

What is it good for? Press releasemarketingwill help expand your brandandexposurebytargetingthosethatareinterestedinyourindustry’sservices.

ManywebsiteshaveRSSfeeds,whichgrabnewsreleasesoffthepresswiressothatcontentwillkeepflowingontheirsiteandwillkeeptheirviewersupon the latest news in their area of interest. RSS feeds scan the presswireslooking for certain keywords. If your press release has keywords that thesefeeds are looking for, your news will spread. Remember that section oncontent curation? There are websites that you may never have heard oflooking for content that youmay have. Say, for example, a FordMustanghobbyistwebsitehasaRSSfeedthat’ssettocollectanynewscomingoffthewiresthathasthewords“Ford”and“Mustang”init.SoitmonitorsPRWire,andifitseesapostwiththoseterms,thepostgetspostedonthefeed.

Inadditiontoexpandingyourpotentialcustomerbase,pressreleasescanhelpyou gain backlinks by embedding links in the text of your release back toyour site. If that content gets picked up and reposted elsewhere on theInternet,that’smorelinksbacktoyoursite.

Forasmall fee,apress releaseservicewill issueyourannouncement to thepresswiresinhopesthatGoogle,Yahoo!,BingortheAPwireservicepicksitup.And that actually happensmore often than youmight think. If you getapprovedaheadof time,Yahoo!NewsandGoogleNews, for example, say,“You’vegotnews?Great!We’llpostit,keepitcoming.”Ifnobodyclicksonit, normally it’s gone by the end of the day, but if it gets read and passedaround,itmovesuptotheirhotlists,andthat’swhatyoureallywant–trafficandlinksfromthehotlist.

More than likely, for day-to-day news released on the online press wires,therewon’tbeanyoneon thepressside toedit thearticle.Sowhateveryouwritewillhittheonlinepressintheformyousubmitit.Forthisreason,youmightconsiderfindingafreelancejournalisttowritetheactualpressreleaseforyou.Thatwayyoucanbesurethatitconformstopressstandards.Here’sthebasicinformationyou’llneedtoprovidethewriterorfollowforyourself:

Headline: Incorporateyourprimarykeywordphrase in theheadlineofyourpressrelease,andkeepitatorunder10words.Theheadlineshouldbecatchyandactasalead-intothearticle.

Summary: Provide a short summary of the announcement (10 to 20words)highlightingthepressreleasemainsubject.

Optimize: You want to optimize each press release for keywords,because these get picked up by RSS feeds. Try to fit two or threekeyword phrases into the body of the announcement, with the most

importantkeywordsinthetitle.

AddLinks:BesuretoincludetheURLyou’dliketolinktointhepressrelease.

AQuote:Apressreleaseshouldincludeaquotefromapersoninyourcompany.Besuretoincludetheirnameandtitle.

I suggest you incorporate press releases into your editorial calendar so thatyouproduce themon a regular basis, targeting at least one permonth.Theobvious question is, “What do Iwrite about?What do I have to announce,especiallythatoften?”Actually,you’dbesurprisedathowmuchnewsworthyactivityishappeningaroundyourbusiness.Youcanissueapressreleaseonjust about anything that’s happening with your company. Here is a list ofideastogetyoustarted:

Anewemployeehasjoinedyourstaff

An individual inyourbusinesswill serve ina leadershipposition foracharitableorganization

Recognitionofthecompany,productorexecutivesbyapublication

Astatementofpositionregardingalocal,regional,ornationalissue

Announcingtheresultsofresearchorsurveysyouhaveconducted

Makingpublicstatementsonfuturebusinesstrendsorconditions

Announcingthatyou’vereachedamajormilestone

Forminganewstrategicpartnershiporalliance

Expandingorrenovatingthebusiness

Announcingfreeinformationavailableonyourwebsite

Sponsoringaworkshoporseminar

Celebratingananniversary

Thebottomlineisthatyoucanwritepressreleasesaboutyourcompany,yourproducts, your employees, your customers, community activities, and evenyourmarketingefforts!

ProvideConveniencethroughPODCASTSWhatisit?Apodcastisbasicallyanon-streamingwebcast,inaudioorvideoform. Podcasts are typically downloaded through web syndication via aPodcatcher.ThePodcatcherisasoftwareclientthatdownloadspodcastsandcanmanage the transferof files toaportablemediaplayer. iTunes isbyfarthe most popular Podcatcher, but there are many services that can catchpodcasts. Audiences typically subscribe to a podcast channel, so wheneveryoupublishanewpodcast,itgetsdistributedtoallthesubscribers.

What is itgood for?Sincepodcasts canbeeither audioorvideo, theyaregreatwaystopublishthosekindsofmediaandtoeffortlesslydistributethemto subscribers.Thepopular term“podcast,” as opposed to “webcast,” cameaboutwiththeinventionoftheiPod,sopodcastsaregenerallyassociatedwithaudiosyndication.Buttechnologyforhandhelddevicesisconstantlyevolvingand iPods, mobile phones, and other multimedia devices can handle videowithout any trouble, which wasn’t the case when podcasts were firstintroduced. Podcasts have evolved with the device technology and nowincludevideo.So,youcanmakeuseofthesyndicationpowerofpodcastsbysyndicatingthevideosyouproduce,aswell.

Many radio news outlets, for example, make use of podcasts as a way todistributetheirnews,sometimesevenparsingitoutbytopic(music,politics,business,etc.).Podcastsareahugedistributionchannel, so it canhelpwithbuildingyourbrand, image, andauthority.Because theycanget forwarded,podcastsdohavethepotentialtogoviral.

Many people continue to use podcasts for audio. Theywill download theirlatest podcast and listen to the newest audio files while commuting orworking out at the gym. Don’t discount the value of audio in the face ofvideo.

What’sgreat about audio is thatyoucanuse it to turnyourblogposts intopodcasts. You could either have someone read your blog post into amicrophoneandrecordthereadingofthetextifyouwantahumannarrator.Oryoucanuseaspecialreadingsoftwaretooltoreadthetexttoanaudiofile.Dictating blog posts, for example, is a great way to make them moreaccessible. The files can be repurposed to a podcast for an additional

distribution opportunity. Podcasts are a great way to distribute your emailinterviews, too. Any audio you produce for your webpages should bepodcasted. For the minimal effort, you get the huge bonus of expandeddistributionofyourcontent.

SellwithProductPagesWhatisit?Ifyourcompanyisane-commercesite,youprobablyhavetonsof content that serves a very utilitarian purpose: to describe each of yourproducts.Everysingleproductgetsits15minutesoffameonapagetoitself.Ifyourproductdescriptionsare like thebulkofdescriptionsout there, theyareprobably setup to justget the jobdone. “The job” is to showcaseyourproductinsuchawaythatconsumersknowwhattheywouldgetiftheyadditto their shopping cart. Many times, that means giving a product name, agraphicimage,andaprice–andoftentheimage,description,andpricecomestraight from themanufacturer,havingnothinguniqueabout them.So,whywould anyone want to link to or engage with your product pages? Theywouldn’t – unless you give them reasons to, reasons like providinginformationtheycannotfindanywhereelseorgivingthemanopportunitytodiscusstheproduct.

What’s it good for? Utilitarian product descriptions are great for thecustomersthatareintheactofshoppingorpricecomparison,buttheydon’tgenerallygetsharedorinspireyourvisitorstopurchase.Youcanchangethat.Bysprucingupyourproductdescription,youcanmakeitworkmuchmoretoyour advantage. Through original content and some personalized attention,you canmakeyour content catchy and link-worthy.Product descriptions, ifdone well, could be a fantastic way to build links to your page and drawtraffic toyoursite–andawayfromyourcompetitors’.Hereare thegeneralcomponentsofatypicalproductdescriptionthatarefodderforcreativity:

Title/Description

Images

UserGeneratedContent

ProductComparisons

Statistics

Thetitleanddescriptionarethemaintextoftheproductdescription.Thisiswhere you have some flexibility to get really creative and even – ascompanies like Woot33 have done with their product descriptions – getexciting and become a phenomenon. Primarily, you have to keep yourkeyword research inmind for theproduct, especially the title. Ifpeople aresearchingfortheproductexactlybyname,youmaynothaveasmuchroomtomodifythetitle.Thedescription,however,isagreatplacedtogetcreative.Enthusiasticcontentthathaspersonalitycanengagevisitorsandleadthemtolinktoyourpage.It’ssimilartohavinganenthusiasticsalespersoninastore.When you walk in and the salesperson demonstrates his knowledge andinterest in the products he sells, you will be much more likely to make apurchasethaninastorewherethesalespersonremainsbehindthecounterandletstheproductsellitself.

Whyuseonedullphotowhenyoucanhavemultiple,interactivephotos?Getuserstoclickonthephotosandviewtheproductfromdifferentangles.Trytakingyourownphotosoftheproductfromnewandinterestingperspectives.Inanimagesearch,thesameexactphotoforaproductcancomeupmultipletimesfordifferentsites.Betheuniquephotointheresults.Heck,don’tstopthere,betheuniquevideointhesearchresults!

Ifyouprovideaplaceforuserstocommentontheproduct,you’reofferingafantastic opportunity to do two things. First, you will get user-generatedcontent on your page, which search engines love. Second, you’ll get usershelpingoneanotherdecideon theirproduct.Usercomments, evennegativeones,canbeveryuseful.Iftheproductdescriptionfailstodescribetheactualproductinauser-friendlyway,you’llhearaboutitinthereviews.It’sagreatplace to get feedback on how you’re presenting your product.You can getcreativewithyourcommentssectionbyusingformstogetdirectedfeedbackfromyourusers.Youcanaskquestionslike,“Howdidyouusethisproduct?”or“Wouldyourecommendthistoyourfriends?”Therearemanypossibilitiesforusercommentsthatcanmakeyourwebsiteuseful tousers.LookaroundtheInternetatotherproductuserreviewsthatyoumightbeabletoreplicate.

Shoppersspendalotoftimecomparingproducts.Whynothelpthem?Ifyouaddaproductcomparisontoyourdescription,yourpagewillbecomemuchmoreuseful to thevisitors than thestandardproductpage,andyourvisitorsbemore likely to return to your site to shop because they can get researchinformationconsolidatedonyourpage.Theywillseeyourpagenotonlyasaproduct source but also a researching tool. For examples of some excellentproductcomparisonfeatures,checkoutAmazon.comandZappos.com.

With social media, people have become hyper-conscious of trends andtrendingactivityintheworldaroundthem.Anumberofe-commercesitesare

nowaddingstatisticalinformationwiththeproductdescriptionstoshowhowtheproductistrending.Dopeopleprimarilybuythisproductinthesummer?IsitbiginCalifornia?Perhapsshowthetopfivecitiestobuythisproduct.Areally great statistic is to show what people who bought this product alsobought,andlinktothoseproductpagesonyoursite.

Thegoalwithdevelopinggreatproductdescriptionpagesistotakethemfromutility toexcitingandengaging.Make themmoreuseful,morehelpful, andmoreinterestingthanthetypicalproductdescriptionsothatpeoplewillwanttosharetheexperiencetheyhadonyoursitewithothers.Youwantthemtopointtoyoursiteasaresourcefortheproduct.

VIDEOS,StoriesinMotionWhat is it? In this section, I’m talking about simple video that you canproduce yourself rather than high-end production video. With the rise ofYouTube, where average people upload their own videos for massconsumption, low-budget video is now completely acceptable. So, you canpaint-yourselfastheauthorityusingjustahandheldFlipvideocamera.Shorttwo-tofive-minutevideosarebest,particularlybecausetheycanbepostedtoYouTubeandothersitesiftheyarekepttothatlength.Buttheselengthsarealsopreferredbecauseviewers tend tohave short attention spans foronlinevideo content. Within those constraints, video can be used for anything –videoscanbeeducationalorentertaining.Theonlylimitistheimagination.

Thinkaboutvideosyou’veseenontheInternetthatwouldnevermeetqualitystandardsfor televisionproductionoradvertisingbuthaveservedtomakeapointthatyounoddedyourheadto.MaybeyourfavoritebloggerissittingatabistroinSanFranciscoandisleaningintoavideocamerathat’sproppedonthetableandhe’sdiscussingafantasticstrategyforyourindustry.Thequalityandfilmanglewouldneversay“professional”inothermediaoutlets,butit’sgreatonline.Wefeellikewe’rerightthere,gettingapersonallesson.Infact,videothatgetsmomentumandgoesviraltendstobefilmedonthespurofthemoment.RemembertheinstructionalvideoswediscussedinchapterfourforFixYourDLP.com? Those were created with their own employees and ahandheldvideocamera,andthesetwastheirstockroom.

Whatisitgoodfor?Videoscandrawtraffictoyourwebsiteandcanturnablasécontentideaintoawinner.FixYourDLP.comcouldhaveproducedstep-by-steptextcontentforreplacingyourDLPTVbulbwithhandyillustrations,andwouldhave,moreorless,offeredthesameinformationtoitscustomers:instruction. But by making a video, the content came alive and becamedynamic.Bytakingadayortwotogothroughalloftheirproductsandcreatefive-minutevideosforeachone,theyspentminimaltimeandefforttocreate

a huge amount of content that boosted their traffic tremendously. TheysupplementedtheircontentontheirsitebysettingupaYouTubechannelforalltheirvideos,expandingtheiropportunitytobefoundinsearch.

Therearemanyplaces topostvideo.EveryoneknowsYouTube,but there’salsoVimeo,Viddler,andothersites,whichgiveyoutheabilitytopostyourvideosonmultiple channels. Ifyouoptimizeyourvideosandgetpeople totalkaboutthem,theycandowellinsearch,directingtraffictoyouasaresult.

Whileprofessionalvideoproductioncanbeexpensive,do-it-yourselfcamerawork is very low-cost. To start, get your staff some video cameras and geteveryone thinking, “How can this be videoed and how can it becomecontent?”Don’tbetimid.You’regoingtohavetogetinfrontofthecamera.Thismaybeeasiersaidthandone,butyouhavetogetoveritifyou’regoingto do video. Maybe someone in your office has a great presence on thecamera,sotheybecomeabitofanofficecelebrity.Ifyourgroupgetsusedtohavingacameraaround,theywillstarttoeaseupandactmorenatural.Gotowhereworkgetsdoneandfindwaystomakevideocontent.Doyouhavealoadingdock?Howaboutan interviewwithyourdistributionmanager rightthere? Don’t forget the hardhats. You can start filming conferences,whiteboardpresentations,andevenlunchinyourbreakroom.

Tocreatevideos,youdon’tnecessarilyneedavideocamera. If youhaveagreatPowerPointpresentation,youcannarrateitandpostitasvideo.Anyoneshouldbeabletodothat.Irecentlydidthreehour-longtrainingcoursesforacompany in California called the Online Marketing Institute, and that’sexactlywhatwedid.WecreatedaPowerPointpresentation, I came inonaSaturday,knowingitwouldbequiet,andsatandnarratedeachoneusingtherecord feature in PowerPoint. Now the videos are presented as part of anonlinecourse.Thisissomethingthat’softenmissed–youdon’thavetoshootliveactionvideojusttogetavideomade.

Videos–ofallofthecontentthat’soutthere–arethemostlikelytogobig-timeviral.Everyonethatgetsintovideowantstomaketheonethathitsitoutoftheparkandgetsmillionsofviews.However,it’sprettymuchproventhatthecontentthattendstogoviralwasrarelyintendedtodoso.Viralvideoislikealightingstrike.Itjusthappens.

Whileyoucan’tforceavideototakeoff,youcandevelopvideocontentthatisofqualityandhasappeal.Ofqualitymeansitofferssomekindofvaluetothe viewer; it’s not just noise. It shows your industry knowledge andexperience,capturingyourbrandwithinthatcontext.Inthepursuitofcreativevideo,occasionallyyou’regoingtocreateonethatyoureviewandrealizeisjunk. So you don’t post it. But try again, and the next time you’ll getsomethingyoureallylike.Thekeytosuccessistokeeploose;don’tbestiff.

Videoisamediumthatcanbetakentooseriously,butreallyworksbestwhentheatmosphereisrelaxedandfun.Byestablishingastandardforthequalityofyourcontentandhavingfunatthesametime,youhaveagreatchanceofcreatingvideothatwillincreaseyourtraffic,generatebacklinks,andmaybe,justmaybe,skyrockettoviral.

WEBINARS,theNewConferenceWhatisit?Webinarsareweb-basedseminars,livepresentationswhereusersremotelyengage in thepresentation fromtheirdesktops.Theseare fantasticways to bring together customers from anywhere on the planet. ThelimitationsonparticipationareonlyamatterofuseraccesstotheInternetatthe time your webinar takes place. To manage the connectivity andpresentation, you can use a webinar service, such as GoToMeeting.com,InLink.com,orWebex.com.

UsuallyPowerPoint is used for thevideodisplay, though anything that youcan display on your computer monitor can be displayed on the webinar.Because webinars are interactive, anyone who has joined the webinar caninteract with questions or even tag-team the presentation. When we hostwebinars, we also record them, and then post the recording to our site formorecontent34.Inessencewebinarsarevideos,butbecauseoftheirsize,theyare not necessarily something that couldworkwithmost video distributionchannels,likeYouTube.Soyoumighthavetopayforapremiumsubscriptionat a site likeVimeo, or you canpost the videodirectly to yourwebsite fordownloadingorviewing.

Whatisitgoodfor?Yetanothertoolforshowingyourindustryknowledge,webinars are excellent ways to directly engage customers and potentialcustomers with solutions to your industry’s toughest problems. Through awebinar,youhaveanextended timewithyouraudience,and thisgivesyoutheabilitytoshowyourleadershipanddepthofknowledge.

I’m really surprised that businesses don’t dowebinarsmore often.Anyonecandoawebinaronanysubject.Youmightbesurprisedtoknowthatthere’sa wide range of people out there who are willing to attend webinars, too.Webinars aren’t just for business executives. For example, REI hosts anumberofwebinars,withtopicsonchoosingbootstochoosingtents.

Dependingonhow indepthyougowith the subjectmatter,webinarsdon’ttakelongtopreparefor,either.Generally,youprepareaPowerPointandwalkthrough it online.FromyourPowerPoint, you can linkout toother sites orothercontentthatyou’vecreatedonthetopic.

Webinars tend to range from30minutesup to anhour.Becausepeople are

therefortheeducationandthewebinarhappenslive,peoplewillengageforalongerperiod than theywill formanyotherkindsof content.Remember toleavetimeforaquestion-and-answersessionat theend.That’sanothercoolthing about webinars: as people interact with the content that’s beingpresented,youcancaptureallthatactivitywhenyourecordthesession.Thatkindofhuman interaction isanotherway to showyourability tocontributesolutionstoyourcustomersinadirectway.

Webinars require registration in order to participate. So, when participantsregister, you can acquire their name and email,which you can add to youreNewsletterlist,aswellasyourcontactlistforleads.

Therealchallengewithhostingawebinaristhatyouneedpeopletoshowupinordertohavesomelevelofsuccess.Thismeansthatyouwillneedtouseyourpromotiontools–Twitter,Facebook,newsreleases,younameit–togetthemessageout thatyouhaveawebinarcomingup.You’vegot topush it.Havingregularwebinarshelpsestablishasetofreturningparticipants.Iftheylikewhat they’regetting,andtheyknowexactlywhenthenextonewillbe,it’smucheasierforthemtocomeback.

ShowOffYourExpertisewithWHITEPAPERSWhat is it? Normally about 8 to 12 pages in length, a white paper is anauthoritativedocumentusedtoeducatereadersorhelpthemmakedecisions.Sometimes,whitepapersareconsidered research reportsor technicalbriefs.Allwhitepapersdealwithissuesthatrequirein-depthexplanationandarguethat the benefits of a particular technology, product, or policy to solve aproblem.

Businesswhitepaperscantakethefollowingforms:

Business-benefits: Makes a business case for a certain technology ormethodology.

Technical:Describeshowacertaintechnologyworks.

Hybrid:Combineshigh-levelbusinessbenefitswithtechnicaldetailsinasingledocument.

Dependingonthesolutionyouhavetooffer,youcancreateawhitepaperasastandalone document, or you can present a series. If the content is richenough,aseriesmightbeagoodidea,butbecauseoftheirlength,thiscanbedifficult.Many times larger companieswill publish awhite-paper series on

eachofthevarioustechnologiesthey’vebeendeveloping.Forexample,Ciscomight do a white-paper series on wireless routers, with each documentoutliningoneoftherouterstheydevelop.Awhitepaperseriesisastrongwaytodemonstrateyourauthorityona topic. In fact,youmighteven turn themintoaneBookorevenawebinarseries,butyoudon’tneedtoaimforaseriesto have a successful white paper. Standalone white papers are very strongexamples of your industry expertise and require a fraction of the timeinvestmenttodevelop.

What’sitgoodfor?Whitepapersservetopromoteyourcompany’ssolutionsor technologies in response to vital issues that your customers face. Thesekindsofdocumentsareperfectfordemonstratingthoughtleadershiponissuesvitaltoyourbusiness.Yourcustomersareoftenlookingforthesolutionsyourwhite paper can offer, and because of this they work really well onlinebecauseelectronicdistributionissoeasyandinexpensive.

Thewaytomakeuseofawhitepaperforyourcontentmarketingstrategyistoputitonapageonyoursiteandtopromoteit.Youcanalsosetitupsothatwhen someonegoes togetyourwhitepaper, theyhave togiveyouanameand email address in exchange,making it a great lead generator.Your linkcouldsaysomethinglike,“Ifyouwouldlikeourfreewhitepaperonsuchandsuch topic, all we ask is that you give us your name and email address.”Peopletendtobemorethanwillingtodothis,seeingitasafairtrade.Iftheydon’tliketheemailcorrespondenceyousendthem,theycanunsubscribe.

Theotheradvantagewithwhitepapersis that if they’redonewellandofferreal value, they often get passed around. They can become a quasi-viralmarketing tool, demonstrating that you’re the expert and promoting yourbrand. When a white paper offers customers a valuable solution, yourcustomers tend to spread the word, whether by linking to it on their blog,sending it by email, or just handing the printed version off to their office-mate.

The challenge with white papers is the same as with a lot of contentproduction:yes,theypaintyouastheexpert,theycangoviral,theycangetgenerateleads,but theyrequireeffort tocreate.Togetvalueoutofan8- to12-pagedocument,youhavetocommityourselftothebiggerpicture.Ifyoucandedicatethehoursrequiredtowriteawhitepaper,intheenditmayturnout to be a relatively small investment to get you leads and reinforce yourbrand. It just takes the initial effort. For example, we spent several hourscreatingawhitepaperonSEOBestPractices35,andnowitgetsdownloadednearlyeveryday.

WIDGETS&BADGES,OhMy!

Whatisit?Awidgetisamini-appthatdisplaysorupdatesdataeitherlocallyoron theweb.Widgetshaveawiderangeofapplications, including tickersfor news, sports, stocks, or other trending data by certain keyword orcategory.Somewidgetscanhavemorecomplexapplications,suchasinvideogames or photo-editing applications. All widgets have a single, specificpurpose and are intended to be to be embedded on web pages and sharedamongusers.

A badge is a simple graphic, and like a widget they are designed to beembeddedonawebpage.Badges:

Promotecertainstandardsonline36

Referbacktoproductsusedinthecreationofthewebpage37

Canbeawayforausertoshowtheirinterest,support,orparticipationinanactivityororganization38

Orcanbejustforfun,addingabitofflairtoawebpage.

What’sitgoodfor?Thebestthingaboutwidgetsandbadgesisthatthecoolones get shared and can even go viral. Through creative designs andinterestingutility,theycanbegreatwaystospreadyourbrandaspeoplepickthemupandpassthemaround.

Even if you don’t create brandedwidgets and badges, you can still benefitfromthem.Mostincludealinkinthecodebacktotheoriginator’ssite.Thatway, whenever someone embeds your widget or badge to their web page,they’rebuildingalinkbacktoyou.

Not everyone has the kind of business that would benefit fromwidgets orbadges,butbecreativeandyoumaybesurprisedtodiscoverthatyoucangetmore use from them than you might expect. For example, a landscapearchitecture firm might benefit from developing some quality badges thatpromotesustainablelandscaping.Peoplewithaninterestinsustainabledesigncould post a badge on their sites to show their support for that cause.Thissamefirmmightdevelopawidgetthatshowsthetop-fivetrendingflowersontheInternetbyhardinesszone.Anyonewithaninterestinflowers,gardening,orlandscapingcouldpickitupandpostittotheirwebsite.

Conclusion

WhileI’vegivenyouabiglistofcontentideasinthischapter,thisisn’ttheend of the possibilities.Keep researching the content your competition andindustryareproducing toget ideas forother forms.Themainpurpose foralistlikethisistogenerateideaswhenyou’rebrainstormingforaddingcontenttoyourwebsite.Thisisago-toguidethatcaninspireyournextproject.

WhenIpresent,IhaveaslidethatbulletsthesecontentideasandIoftenseethe audience taking note of all the options. So, I know that people areinterestedinalistlikethisandcangetalotofvaluefromit.Butdonotletitoverwhelmyou.Unlessyouhaveunlimitedresources,youcannottackleitall.Instead,getoutyourcontentcalendarand target justa fewtypesofcontentthat you candowell on a consistent basis.Thiswhole book is designed tohelp you through this process, but the key is to dive in. You will makemistakes,youwillproduceboringstuff,butkeepatit.Icantellyoufirst-handthatourbusinesshasgrownsteadilyright throughtherecessionandit isallbecauseofthecontentweproduced.Atfirstitwasjustmewritingblogpostsat night; as we grew we were able to delegate to our staff, and now weproduce new content several times per week, leveraging everything I amoutlininginthisbook.

Don’tdelay,putaplantogetherandstartrightnow!

8

ContentMustBeMaintainedToBeSuccessful

Psychologist and philosopher Paul Watzlawick writes, “You cannot notcommunicate.”Leavenothing to chance, because the effectmaynotmirroryourintentions.

Content strategists, copywriters, you who create, aggregate, curate, orotherwise share content:What are you trying to communicate, and howdoyouknowifyou’resuccessfulinthatgoal?Isitenoughtosimplytestifyourtargetaudience indeed found the rightpage,or shouldyoucheckwhetheraparagraphhelpedtheminatask?Ifithitthemark–ifitinterested,engaged,and truly communicated –when you launched, howdo you know if it stilldoes those things now? That video or call to action that helped pitch theproductorchangemindssixmonthsagoseemstritenow…orworse,ithintsatanunrelatedissue.Andthere’stherub:Ifyoucommittocontenttoday,youcommittoitasitscontextchangesovertime.

Watzlawick’s statement comes back to haunt us if we forget contentcommunicates over time – now, and as your brand, competitors and theoutside world continue to change. It’s a big commitment, but allcommunication is. Read on to explore ways to manage the work and itsimpact.

MargotBloomstein,Brandandcontentstrategyconsultant,Appropriate,Inc.

Imaginethatyouownabicycle.Maybeyoucommutetoworkonit,maybeyou ride it on theweekends, ormaybeyou racewith it.Whenyou left thestore with your new bike, it gleamed. The mechanics were in perfectalignment. The chain worked over the gears in near silence. The brakespinchedtightlywithbarelyasqueezeofthelevers.Afterayearofridinganda couple hundred miles of road grit, the gears are gunked over, the brakecableshavestretchedandloosenedabitsoyouhavetogriphardtostop.Thetiresareatadsoft.Yourbikeneedssomemaintenancetobringitbacktotip-

topshape.Afteragoodwash,tighteningofsomebolts,andalittleairinthetires, it’sbackinbusiness.Tokeepthebikeinitsbestridingcondition,anyrider will tell you that you have to inspect the bike often and correct anyissuesyoufindrightaway.

Figure23:Bicycle

Inasimilarway,contentwillstartofffreshbutasyourbusinessevolves–asyourcontentevolves–oldercontentmaybegintoloserelevanceorlinksmaybreak.Onceyou’ve created apieceof great content andpublished it to theweb, you aren’t done with it. Content needs constant maintenance to besuccessful.Ifyou’repayingattentionandtrackingtheresultsofyourcontentefforts, you’ll discover what’s working and you can work toward creatingevenmore success. Thismeansmeasuring your efforts and governing yourcontent to ensure that your published content is the absolute best that youhavetoofferandisworkingefficientlytohelpyoumeetyourgoals.

Youcan’t ignoremaintenance.Yourcontent representsyourbrandandyourexpertise,yourabilitytomeettheneedsofyourcustomer.Whetheron-siteoroff-, thecontentyoupublishneeds tobekeptup todate inorder to remainrelevant,timely,andaccurate.(Manytimesgovernanceofthecontenttendstoget neglected in favor of new content production.) Governance is aboutknowingwhowilltakecareofthecontentthatyou’veproducedandwhowillmeasure its success to ensure that newcontent has the best chance tomeetyourgoals.

MaintainYourContenttoGettheMostValuefromItSuccessincontentmarketingisgoal-oriented,whichcomesdowntotrackingyoureffortsandmeasuringyourreturnontheobjective.AsI’vesaid,at theconceptionphaseforcontent,theobjectiveshouldbeclearlystated.Youneedto establish clear,measurable objectives and then use analytics to compareperformancetoobjective.Foreachcontentlaunch,youshould:

Definewhatsuccessmeansforyourcontentandhowyouwillmeasureit

Establish a timetable formeasuring and usingweb analytics to gatherdataontheactivityonyoursite

Useanalyticdatatoadaptfuturecontentforoptimalperformance

DefiningSuccessYou can’tmeasure success until you’ve defined it. Content development isdirectlylinkedtothegoalsinyourstrategy.Buthowdoyouknowifyou’remeeting thatgoal?Sayyourgoal is to increase traffic toyour site.Atwhatpointcanyousayyou’veachievedthatgoal?

Theansweristhateverygoalshouldbecontextualizedtoincludemeasurablemilestonessothatyoucanclearlyseewhetherornotyou’vebeensuccessful.Ifyourbasicambition is to increase traffic toyoursite,work into thatgoaloneormoremilestonesthatestablishatimetableandmeasurablebenchmarks.Articulateyourgoals so that they are clearly establishedandmake themasspecificaspossible.So,agoalof“increasetraffictooursite”couldbebetterstated:“Showa50percentincreaseintraffictoour‘ContactUs’pageinsixmonths.”Thisrestatedgoalspecifieswhatareaofyoursiteyou’llfocuson,itgivesafirm,measurabledefinitionofwhatlevelofincreaseyou’relookingtoachieve,anditestablishesadateatwhichyouwillbeabletodeterminethesuccess.

MeasureProgressUsingwebanalytics,youcanmeasurethereturnonyourobjectives.Whatareweb analytics?According to theWebAnalyticsAssociation,web analyticsaredefinedas“themeasurement,collection,analysisandreportingofInternetdataforthepurposesofunderstandingandoptimizingwebusage.”39Byusingwebanalytics,youcangetdetailedmetricsbehinduseractivityonyoursiteandotherpages.

On-site analytics measure user activity as they engage your website. Theytrackusers’paths throughyourcontent, revealingwhat is important to theirexperiencesandidentifyingareaswhereyoucouldbringforwardthecontentyouwant to emphasize.Using tools such asGoogleAnalytics, you cangethugeamountsofmetricsbackon theactivityonyoursite.Youcan identifywhich keyword searches are leading to visits per page and, ultimately,conversion.Usingthesetoolstodevelopyouronsiteanalytics,you’llbebetter

equippedtomakemilestonesforfuturecontentbecauseyou’llknowexactlywhatyoucanmeasure.

By developing web forms on your site, you can drive the analytics withprecision to gather metrics on user behavior. By tracking user interactionswithforms,youcan identifywho’susingyourcontent,whatkindofpeopleareconverting,whattheywantfromyourproductsandservices,andahostofotherpossibilities.Byestablishingawebanalyticsprogramforyourbusiness,you can determine if you aremeeting your goals,what contentworks, andwhat needs improvement. Measurement always begins with establishing abaseline benchmark from your current analytics. Establishing a baseline isgenerallynotdifficult,especiallyifyou’vebeenmonitoringtheanalyticdataalready.Fromthebaseline,establishagoalanda timelineforachieving thegoal.Generateyourcontentandruntheanalyticsaccordingtoyourtimetable.

Hereare someexamplesofobjectivesandsomepracticalanalyticsyoucanruntomeasuresuccess:

Let’simagineacompanywillbelaunchinganewblogandtheywanttogetthewordoutanddrivetrafficthere.Inthiscase,becauseit’snew,thebaseline iszero traffic.Afterasetperiodof time,saysixmonths, theycancheckback to seehow theirpromotioneffortshavebeenworking.Fromwebanalytics,youhaveharddataon thenumberofvisitorsandthenumberofsubscriberstotheblog.

Forwebcopy,youcanuseGoogleAnalyticstocheckbouncerateonthetraffic for that contentpage to seehowvisitorsarebehaving.Are theystaying and engaging, continuing through your site, or are theybouncing?Are they converting by purchasing, or filling out yourwebform?Theanswerwillshapefuturewebcopyandhelpyouimproveittomeetyourgoals.Or,ifthecontentismeetingyourgoals,analyticswillhelpconfirmyourdecisiontocontinueonthesamepath.

Ifyourgoal is to increasebranding,anexcellentmeasuring toolwouldbe share of voice. Use tools like Trackur.com, Radian6.com, andSpiral16.comtogetbaselinemetricsonhowyourproductorbrandnameis gettingmentioned around theweb. Theywill give you a rating, thesentiment,andthenumberofmentions,whichyoucancompareagainstyour competitors’. Essentially, this will show you if the majority ofpeople are talking about you or your competitor. After you’veestablishedacontentplantoaddressyourbranding,setagoalperiod–thistime,maybeayear.Attheendoftheperiod,runtheshare-of-voice

report and checkhowyourbrand is trending. If you seeyour shareofvoiceincrease,oryourpositivementionsgoup,thenyou’reseeinggoodresultsthatyoucanthenstarttoattributetoyourcontentefforts.

An excellent way to benchmark success for a content page is bymeasuringhowmanyquality linksit isgetting(backlinks).Thereareanumber of tools available for measuring backlinks. One such tool isYahoo!SiteExplorer. Just enter theURL for the content page and seehowmanybacklinksyou’regetting.Trackthesemetricsoveraspecifiedtimetoseeifthenumbergoesup.BecausetheseanalyticswillgiveyoutheURLfor thepage that’s linking toyourcontent,youcanalso tracklink juice (the power of the link – more on this in chapter twelve),allowingyoutojudgethequalityofthelinksaswellasthequantity.

Web analytics will give you a vision for future content development. Allcontent you develop should work toward a measurable goal. By usinganalytics to both establish your goal andmeasure your efforts, you can besmartabouteachneweffort,whichwillactuallyfreeyouuptofollowbold,creativeideaswithconfidence.

TakeWhatYouHaveLearnedandAdaptAsI’vesaidbefore,incontentmarketingthemantrais“bewillingtotrynewideas.”But it’s not about trial and error. It’s about trial and testing. It’s notexactlyscience,butyoushouldn’thavetotakeashotgunapproach,either.It’sfarmoreefficienttotakerifleshots.Inotherwords,youcangeneratetargetedcontent that has been informed by experience and research. Throughmeasurement,youcanhoneinonthekindsofcontent thathavehistoricallyworkedforyouandforyourcompetitors.Youhavetheabilitytouseanalyticstoadaptyourcontent towardwhat is likely toworkandnotwasteasmuchtimeproducingcontentthatdoesn’thaveachanceatsuccess.

ForContinuedResults,UpdateYourContentKristina Halvorson said it best: “Your web content will never take care ofitself.”40It’syourjobtoensurethatyourcontentremainsuptodate,accurate,andrelevanttoyourvisitors.InthedynamicworldoftheInternet,contentcanquickly become irrelevant, possibly to the detriment of your brand. Oftenwhenwefocusondeliveringnewcontent,itcanseemlikearealchoretogobackandensure thatwhatwe’vecreatedremainsup todateandrelevant tovisitors.But,asKristinasaid,it’snotgoingtohappenonitsown.Responsiblecontentdeliveryincludesdedicatedoversight.

In the industry, we call this level of content quality assurance governancebecauseit’saboutactivelysettingandenforcingstandardsandpolicythatwillensureyourcontentisatitspeakqualityatalltimes.Whilewebgovernancecanbedefinedinmanyways,we’relookingatitfromacontentperspective.Isuggest that you appoint someone to keep your content updated andmaintained properly. This person will serve as a content governor or webmanagingeditorandwillbeinchargeofensuringthatallpublishedcontentconforms to the standardsyou’ve set foryourcontent strategy. Ifyoudon’thavetheresourcestoappointsomeonetotherole,youwillhavetoaddittothelistofhatsyourcontentstrategistwears.It’snotataskthatcanbeignored.

Whatstandardsarewetalkingabout?Youwanttoensurethatyourbrandisassociatedwiththeexpertindustryknowledgethatyourcontentpurports.Anytimethatasearcherfindsold,inaccurateorirrelevantcontent,itunderminestheexpertiseyou’vebeenworkingtodemonstrate.Yourwebmanagingeditorwill patrol your content looking for content that needs to be updated orremoved.Somefrequentcontentissuesthatneedupdatinginclude:

Brokenlinkswithinthecontent

Outdatedorinaccurateinformation

Policychangesthatmayaffectthecontent

Inconsistencywithbrandingstyle

SEO/metadataupdatestoadapttochangesinsearchtactics.Ifyourbusinessis going to ensure that content is updated, begin monitoring your existingcontentassets.Thismeansyouwillneed toconduct frequentaudits.This istiedtothecontentinventorydiscussedinchaptersix.You’regoingtorevieweverypieceofcontenttoidentifywherecontentneedsupdating.

Theauditscheduleiscyclical.Ratherthanarandomcleanupofyourassets,youshouldconductroutineauditstokeepyourcontentinhealthycondition.Your audit schedule shouldbe incorporated intoyour editorial -calendar; infact,itshouldbethefirstthingthatyoupopulatewhenyousetupforanewyear.Youmightwanttodosemiannualaudits,sayinthespringandthefall.However,conductinganauditeverysixmonthsmaynotalwaysbeenough.Certainmajoreventswithinyourorganization,suchasamajorshiftinpolicyorbrand look,mightmake it necessary to audit off cycle.Whenyou audit,updateyourcontentinventory.Havingacurrentinventorywillmaketheaudit

gomoresmoothlyanditwillcertainlybemoreorganized.

Naturally,themorecontentthatyougenerate,themorecontentyouwillneedtomaintain and keep up to date. Themore you have to keep updated, themorefrequentlyyouwillwanttoconductaudits,perhapssectioningoffyourcontentandcyclingthroughareasofyoursite.There’sanoldadagethatsaysto keep a house painted, you should paint one side every year. Every fouryears,then,you’vepaintedthewholehouse.Thusbybreakingdownalargejobandtacklingportionsonacycle,youmakethejobmoremanageable.Ifyouaregoingtoapproachyourauditschedulethisway,youwillreducetheload for each audit, but you’ll want to increase the frequency within theschedulesothatyou’rekeepingeverythinguptodateandnotlettinganyonesectionsitfortoolong.

Governanceisalsoamatterofknowinghowyou’regoingtotreatcontentthathasbecomeoutdated.Howmucheffortwillyouspendtoupdateit?Areyougoingtotakecontentdownwhenit’snolongeruseful?Manytimesyoucanrepurposeoldcontentintosomethingnew,andbreathefreshlifeintoit.

Itmightseemlikeamajorchore,butatthecoreofgovernanceisquality,andforthatreasonyoucan’taffordtoignoreit.

ValueofOutsourcingandWhentoOutsourceThelessonlearnedsofarshouldbethatcontentproductionisbothdoableandchallenging.Thisbookaspirestoconvinceyouthatyoucandevelopacontentstrategyforyourbusinessandthatyoucanfindwaystoimplementit.

Ialsowantyoutoknowthatasuccessfulcontentstrategyisacommitment.You have to continuously develop a variety of fresh content to engage thepeoplelookingforyourproducts.Eachpieceofcontentthatyoudevelophasa life cycle, starting with the seed of inspiration, through research andproduction,toupdatingandnurturing,tothedayyoutakeitdownfromyoursite.It’squitelikelythatyouwilldiscoverthatyoudo,indeed,needacontentmarketing strategy, but that you may not be able to commit your staff tosetting up and running a program. You might need some help. Why notconsideroutsourcing?

Makingthedecisiontooutsourcecanbeadifficultone.Contentmarketingisa major commitment of resources, namely time and energy of your staff.Large organizations with ambitious goals for their strategy will need toconsiderhow toallocate staff resourcesasmuchasa smallbusinesswithaskeletoncrewandmodestgoalswillhavetodo.

Thebottomlinewithmakingadecisionofwhetherornottooutsourceisthatyouwanttocomplementtheresourcesthatyouhaveonhandandareableto

committoyourcontentmarketingstrategy.Thismeansthatfirstyouhavetotakeacloselookatyourexistingstaffandbudgettoseewhatyoucanbringto the table. If you have holes that you need to fill, how will you fill theholes?Is itamatterofhiringnewstaff toyourorganizationorreorganizingyourcurrentstaff?Doyououtsource?

The fact is that contentmarketing is enormouslyvaluable to the success ofyour business online. If you can’t run a content marketing program, thenyou’llneedtofindsomeonewhocan.Foranorganizationthathasfinancialresources to do so, developing a content marketing team headed by adedicated content strategist could have the strongest impact. But this canquicklybecomeacostlyendeavor.

For the smallbusinessownerwhohappens tobeachronicdo-it-yourselfer,thedecision tokeepcontentmarketing inhousewillmeanthatmuchof theeffortwillneedtobesharedbytheexistingstaff.Aswithanydo-it-yourselfendeavor,there’satradeoffwhenyouopttosavecapital:youspendthetimeandeffortofyourpersonnel.

Outsourcingsomeofthecontentmarketingchaincanhelpfreeupyourtimeto focus on the other aspects of the chain that you feelmore -comfortablewith. After judging the talent within your staff, you might consideroutsourcingforareaswhereyourgroupmaynotbeabletocontribute:

AnSEOexpertwillensureyourcontentisoptimizedtothemaximum.

Alink-buildingexpertcandothelegworktogetlinkstoyourcontent.

Outsourcingthemaintenanceandanalyticsofyoursitecanfreeupmuchofyourtimetobecreative.

After polling your staff, you may not find much enthusiasm for thecreative effort.Outsourcing talent is a strongoption, freeingyouup tomonitoryourcontentprogramforperformanceandtoguideitsdirection.

Ifoutsourcingallthecreativityseemstoointense,agreatwaytoeasetheburdenonyourstaff’stimeistohireawritertoprovideyouwithtextforyourcontentideas.

ConclusionAs I’ve described, information in the formof online content is nowone of

your key products. For many businesses – especially small businesses –addingabrandnewproducttothecorebusinessrequiresashiftinresources.Manybusinesseswouldratherfocusontheircoreproductsandservicesthandeveloptheircontentmarketingstrategy.Forthisreason,outsourcingcanbeacost-effectivewaytomanageafull-fledgedcontentmarketingstrategy.

9

OptimizedContentGetsTheBestResults

“What’s thesecret tooptimizingcontentforsearchandsocialmedia?Solvepeople’s problems. Help them accomplish their tasks. Start withunderstanding who you’re targeting, what they’re searching for, what theyneed.Byfocusingyoureffortsthere,younotonlybuildlong-termvaluethatdoes well in search and social media no matter how ranking algorithmsevolve,butyoualsotrulyconnectwithvisitorswhocometoyoursite,whichresults in returnvisits, conversions, andhigher customer lifetimevalue.Allkinds of data exist aboutwhat people are searching for. Take advantage ofthat data to ensure that you are providing exactly what your audience islookingfor.

Content is only half the battle. You also need to make sure your site isarchitected in away that search engines can effectively crawl and index it,that you’re leveraging awareness efforts for greater visibility and links, andyou’reusingwebanalyticsdatatodeterminewhat’sworkingandwhereyoushouldmakeadjustments.Butlosefocusonsolvingyouraudience’sproblemsandnoneoftherestofitwillmatter.”

VanessaFox,author,MarketingintheAgeofGoogle

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process for making web contentsearch-engine-friendly. SEO facilitates the search engine bot crawling yourpages and makes the nature of your content clear to the search enginealgorithmsothatit’srecognizedashighlyrelevantandwilllikelyappearhighin the search results.This chapter covers a lot ofoptimizationdetail that iscritical for your onlinemarketing success. I recommendyou read though itoncetogetanunderstandingofwhatyouneedtobeawareof,thenreturntoitasnecessaryasanSEOresource.

Searchengineoptimizationisnotanexactscience.Searchenginealgorithmsare proprietary, sowe can’t know exactly how theywork. Instead, SEO isbasedon theories thathavebeencarefully thoughtoutand testedacross theInternet. Therefore, it’s not guaranteed that optimized content willautomatically rank higher in search. But by following good optimization

practices, you will greatly increase your content’s chances to beat thecompetition.

SEOcanseemtechnicalforsomepeople,andthereforeitcangetwrittenoffas the responsibility of thewebmaster or at least someonewith a computersciencedegree.I’mwillingtobet,however,thatyoucouldlookatawebpageand identifywhetheror not it’s followinggoodSEOpracticeswithout everlookingatalineofprogrammingcode.That’sbecauseoptimizationpracticesnotonlyworkfor thesearchengines; theyalsomake thepagereadableandcleartohumans.Searchenginesrewardcontentinthesearchresultsforbeingclearanduser-friendly,sooptimizationisaboutmakingcontentexactlythat.Certainly,youshouldensurethatyourwebmasterunderstandsSEO,butyourwebcontentcreatorsneed tounderstandoptimization, too.Thismeans theyshouldunderstandsomeofthetechnicalstuff–sothateverycontentcreationeffortincludesoptimization(ratherthanleavingitasanafterthought).

OptimizingYourContentFirstthingsfirst,youcan’tavoidworkingwithcodeforsomeofyourSEO,soyoushouldknowhowtoseethecodebehindyourwebpageandbeabletoidentifysomebasicaspectsofit.HypertextMarkupLanguage,orHTML,isthe fundamental coding language for theWorldWideWeb.Over the yearsmanylanguageshavebeenbuiltontopof it,butHTMLtypicallyformstheframeworkformostwebpages.Inthecodeissomebackgroundinformationthat not only tells your browser how to display the page but identifies keyaspectsofthepage’srelevancetothesearchenginebot.

You can display the code for anyweb page by going to your browser andopting to see it. For Internet Explorer, this entails going to “view” in themenu,andthenselecting“source”fromthedrop-downmenu.ForFirefox,goto“view”andthen“pagesource.”Everybrowserallowsyoutoseethesourcecode.Formostbrowsers,likeGoogleChrome,FirefoxandExplorer,thecodewillbedisplayedinaseparatewindowsothatyoucancomparethecodeandthedisplayedwebcontentsidebyside.

Web pages are divided like most paper documents: they have a header, abody, and a footer. In terms of the coding, the information will contain“metadata.”It’sconsideredmetabecauseit’sdataaboutyourpage,andmostof it never displays on the page itself. This is code that bots considerimportant.Soyoumustconsideritimportant,too!

Letmede-mystifycodealittlebit.HTMLisactuallyprettysimpletoreadforthecasualuser.It’sbuiltontagsthatdefinethecontentswithinthem.HTMLtagsarecommandwordssetoffbyanglebrackets.Generallyspeaking,thereisanopeningtagandaclosingtag(identifiedwithaslash).Thetextbetween

the tags is defined by the tags. For example, to indicate that the word“example” should appear in bold, the code would look like this: boldexample /bold .KnowingthislittlebitabouthowtoreadHTMLwillenableyoutotakeaquicklookatyourcodetoensurethatit’soptimized.Youneedtoknowthenamesofsomeofthebasictagsandwhattheydo,butonceyouknowthem,you’reonyourway.Ifyouseeataginyourcodethatyoudon’trecognize, Google it. If you would like to know evenmore about HTML,checkouthttp://www.html-reference.com/.

The sexiness of your page’s coding, believe it or not, actually matters tosearchengines.Inefficient,poorlywrittencodecanslowdowntheloadtimeforyourpage.Search enginesmeasure the time it takes to load apage andpenalize pages with excessive load times. So do humans, who have shortattentionspansandwon’t tolerate slow-loadingpageseither.Youcanspeedup your page-load time by allocating to a separate file certain aspects ofcoding like JavaScriptandother scripting,orCascadingStyleSheets (CSS)andinlinestyledata.(Entirebooksarewrittenonthatsubject.)Makingyourcode crisp and concise can reduce your bounce rates and improve yourrankings.

Optimization isaboutmakingyourcontentunderstoodby thesearchenginebots.Rightnow,searchenginescan’tfolloworindexcertainnon-text-basedsite navigation, such as JavaScript, Flash, or even pure images.While thiskindofcodingcanofferacoolexperienceforyourvisitors,itwon’tdomuchto help your page rankings.When a search engine bot crawls your page, itneeds to be encouraged to explore your pages. If it can’t follow thenavigation, then itwon’tbeable tocompletelyexploreyoursiteunlessyouhavecreatedacomprehensivesitemap.41

It’sbest toavoidnon-text-basednavigationasmuchaspossibleand insteadusetext-basednavigationtohelpyourpagesbefound.Navigationshouldbenaturalandclear,allowingvisitorstofindtheirwaythroughyourcontentandnotmissoutoncriticalinformation.Searchenginesgenerallydonotconsiderthe keywords used in navigation, so there is no reason to try to fit them inunlesstheywouldbetherenaturally.

OptimizingthePageHeaderThe header of your page is set apart in the code by the tag Head . Themetadatawithin the header gives a huge amount of information about yourwebsite to thebots.Themetadata alsoprovides information about thepagethatappearsinthebrowserandintheSERP,whichsearcherswillseebutmaynotconsciouslyrecognizeaspagecontent.

Figure24:TitleTagandMetaDescriptioninSearchResultsfor“Men’sHikingBoots”

The page title tag is set off by the tag title and it serves a number ofpurposes.Itusuallystateswhatthepageisaboutandisviewabletousersinanumberofplaces.Inthesearchengineresults,andonmanysocialnetworks,the titleappearsas the link for thewebsite. Italsoappearsat the topof thebrowserwhenyouareviewingthepage,andifyourbrowseristabbed,itwillbethenameofthetabforthepagebeingviewed.Therefore,it’smeaningfulto humans as the identifier for your page’s content. It also has a majorsignificancetosearchengines.Optimizeyourtitletagslikethis:

Title tags should contain at least one keyword phrase related to thepage’s optimized content. The closer to the beginning of the title, thebetter.

Makecertainthatthetitleisnomorethan70characterslong.

Bestrategic.Don’trepeattitles.Eachpageshouldhaveauniquetitle.

And for your visitors’ sake, as much as for the search engine, titlesshouldmatchthecontentofthepage.

Next,youhave themetadescription.Themetadescription isonesingle tag(ratherthantextsectionedoffbetweentags).Thetagforexampledescriptionis formatted: meta name=”description” content=“example description”/ .Themetadescription typicallywouldbeviewedby theuser in theSERPasthedescriptortextabouttheresult.Forthehumansviewingthesearchresults,thisdescriptionisveryimportantandshouldmakeitquiteclearwhatvisitorswillfindwhentheyclicktoyourcontent(seefigure24).

Therefore,youshouldavoidgenericdescriptors,like“Welcometoourhomepage.”Thedescriptionoughttoincludeyourkeywords,butyoushouldnevercreate keyword-stuffed descriptions. A good description is a completesentence that concisely states the purpose of the page content. It is youropportunity to sell the individual on clicking through to your page. Searchengines limit the amount of real estate they will give to descriptions andnormallyhavelimitofabout150characters.Anythingmorethanthatlimitis

usuallycutoff.

Themetakeywordstagisyourchancetotellthesearchengineexactlywhatkeywords you’re targeting. The search engine algorithms are a tadwary ofthistagbecauseitcanbeeasilymanipulated,butwestillrecommendaddingtwoorthreekeywordphrasesinthisfieldratherthanleaveitblank.Thetagfor example keyword is formatted: meta name=”keywords”content=”example keyword”/ . Use commas to separate keyword phrases.Thistagdoesnotgetdisplayedforhumanvisitors,soitdoesnotnecessarilyhavetobemeaningfultoahumanvisitor.

Asmentioned,metakeywordsdon’tseemtohaveamajorimpactonhelpingpage rankings. Actually, as late as fall 2010, they’ve been known to hurtrankingsifoverstuffedwithkeywords.Somewebmastershavebeenknowntopasteasmanykeywordsaspossibleintothetagjusttogettheminthere,andtheylazilyplacethesamekeywordtagsonallpages.Theyhavefoundoutthehardwaythatthishashadanegativeimpactontheirrankings.Thelessonis:Optimize the tagbutgoeasy.Erron the sideofcautionand includeonlyafewtrulyrelevantkeywords.

Onelastwordaboutmetatags:Whenitcomestooptimizingthem,it’snotthetime to get lazy. Typically, people spend a lot of time creating awesomecontent, then theygo toupload itandsuddenly remember that theyneed tooptimize. Anxious to post, they blast through the last optimization step,givingitverylittlethoughtorevenskippingitaltogether.Butithappenstobea step that needs your close attention. Remember, the description and titlemetatagswillfeedintotheSERPandotherplaces,describingtheresultsthatthe searcher can expect to find. These tags are critical to search engineindexing.Youdon’twant to sell shortyour fantasticwebcontentby lettingSEOslipby.

OptimizingthePageBody

Figure25:SearchEngineOptimizedWebpage

Thepagebody is thepagecontent thatdisplaysas thewebpage.Thepage

body is for people first and search engines second. So, start by providingcontentthatpeoplewant toread.Organize thepagecontent inawaythat isclear andnatural for humans to engage and, especially, share.Natural links(linksthatotherpeoplecreateoutof interest inthecontent)aretheultimateSEOboost,andyouwon’tgetnaturallinksifyourcontentisbadlyorganized,sloppy,orredundant.

FittingKeywordsIntoYourContentIfyou’re targetingakeywordphrase, thenyourcontent should relate to thekeywords.Peoplesearchkeywordsbecausetheywantinformationrelatedtothekeywords,andtheyhavenotoleranceforapagethatoptimizesakeywordand then delivers unrelated content. This will get you nothing but a hugebouncerateandloweredrankings.

Keyword stuffing–overloadingapagewithkeywords to thepoint that thetextof thepageisunnatural,orworse,unreadable–isanotherno-no.Istillget asked about the appropriate density for keywords on a page so I feelcompelledtoaddressithere.Inshort,don’tworryaboutit.Justwriteforyouraudience.Now, ifyoucanworkyour targetedkeywordphrase into the firstsentenceand thenmaybeonceor twicemore throughout thebody,youwillprobablydoyourpotentialrankingssomegood.

Rememberthathumanscomefirst,andcheaptrickswithkeywordscanhurtyour brand reputation.You’ll have little chance of people seeing you as anexpert if your content is not valuable and relevant. For SEO, the list of“don’ts”islong,butthe“dos”arejustasimportant.Keyworduseinthebodytextshouldalwaysstrivetoappearnatural.

HeadersandFontsintheBodyJust like in aword processor,HTML allows you tomanipulate the text bycreatingheadings,boldtextandcolors.Thetagsthatcontrolfontsgetacloseinspectionbythesearchenginebots.

The page headings are tagged H1 , H2 , etc., with H1 as the top levelheading. Search engines pay close attention to the H1 tag, and less to thesubsequentheadingtags.Here’showtousethem:

EachpageshouldhaveonlyoneH1tag.(Ifyouneedtohaveheadingsformultiplesectionsonapage,youshoulduseH2orH3.)

H1 tags should be located at the top of your page content above anyotherheadingtags.

Ifpossible,putyourimportantkeywordsintoyourH1tag.

Aboveall, theH1tagshouldservelikeatitleandshouldcommunicatewhatthepageisabout.

Believe it or not, even font size, color and bolding are considered by thesearch engines, but only slightly. Fonts should be kept to a readable size,whichisintherangeof10to18points.Whenchoosingcolor,readerswanttobeabletoengagethetextwithoutgettingaheadache,sousecolorsthatworkwellwiththebackground.There’sadirtytrickforkeywordstuffingtouseafontcoloredthesameasthebackgroundtohideextrakeywordsinthebody.Humansdon’tseeit,butsearchenginebotsdo.Becausethereislittlereasonfor text that is camouflaged,bots easilyweed thisout andyour resultswillsuffer.Sodon’tdoit!

LinksinYourContentYourpagecontentwillhavelinks in it.Thewaythatyouhandle links isanimportantpartofSEO.Mostimportantly,makeitclearwherealinkwilltakeyourvisitor–don’tsurprisethem.Botsareprogrammedtolookforthesamekindsofclaritythathumanswant.

Fundamentally, you are free to color your links anywayyouwant, but it’srecommendedthatyoumakeitobvioustheyarelinks.Alink’scolorshouldbedifferentfromthemaintext.Mostpeopleexpectlinkstobecoloredblueandbeunderlined,soyoumightwanttokeepthatinmindasyousetupyourstylesheet.Remember,there’snoshameusingthedefaultfontstyleifuserswillbeabletoengagethepagewithease.

The actual text that is linked, i.e. the text that’s colored differently andunderlined, iscalled the“anchor text.”Becauseyou’veset the linkapartbycolorandanunderline,itnaturallydrawsthereader’seye.Thewordsthatarehighlighted,then,canbeaverygoodcluetothecontentthatyouarelinkingto.Youshouldusetermsthatmakeanefforttocommunicatewherethelinkisgoingandavoidsendingyourvisitortoapagethattheyaren’texpecting.Onthatnote, it shouldgowithout saying, then, thatallofyour links shouldbefunctioningproperly.Broken links looksloppyandgive the impression thatyou’veforgottenaboutthepage.Notonlydoyourusersdislikebrokenlinks,butsearchenginesfrownuponthem,too.

Searchengineswanttoseelinksinyourcontent.Aninternallinkisalinktootherpagesonyourownsite.Internallinksareasgoodforyouastheyareforsearchengines;theyarecluestoyourwebsite’srelevance.Byusinginternal

links,youencourageyourvisitorstoengageyourcontentonmultiplelevels,and you’re demonstrating your depth of knowledge as an expert in yourindustry.Whenusinginternallinks,avoidgenericanchortext,suchas“clickhere”or“more.”It’satemptingwaytolinkbecauseit’sfastandeasytosay,“Wanttoreadmore?Clickhere.”Butsearchengineswanttoseerelevanceinthe anchor text. The bestway to ensure relevance is tomake sure that theanchortextforthoselinksmatchesthetitleofthepageitlinksto,whetheritisapageonyoursiteorapageonanotherwebsite.

Aboveall, links shoulddirectusers toapage that is relevant to thecontentthat they are currently engaging. You want to keep them engaged, anddirecting users away from the topic at hand is a surefire way to lose theirattention.

OptimizingthePageFooterAt the bottomof yourweb page is the footer. Like the footer of any otherdocument,itservestosignaltothereaderthatshe’sreachedthebottomofthedocument.Searchenginesgiveverylittleweighttolinksinthefooter.Soit’srecommended that you not attempt to insert keyword-heavy links in thissection. Rather, the footer should be crisp and concise, giving the humanvisitorafewpiecesofcriticalinformation:

Linkstocorepagesonyoursite.

Your fine-print information: links to your terms of use, copyright, andprivacypolicy.

Your contact information (especially if you’re concerned with localsearch,besuretoincludealocaladdressandalocalphonenumber).

OptimizingImagesforSearchBecause images get searched quite regularly – they are perhaps the mostcommonlyusedverticalsearchtype–theimagesonyourwebsiteneedtobeoptimized.ImagescanappearinthemainsearchresultsifGoogledeterminesthatimageresultsarerelevanttoaparticularsearch.Yourimagecouldappear,even when your other content pages don’t. This gives your content morechancesforcompetinginsearch.

Becausesearchenginescan’tderivefullmeaningsfromimages,theyrelyonthecontextofthepageonwhichtheimagesarefoundtoidentifyrelevanceto

thequery.Thesearchengineuseskeywordsonthepageonwhichtheimageislocated,alongwiththemetatagsfortheimage,tounderstandtheimage’scontextualmeaninganditsrelevanceinsearch.

Themetadataforimagesincludessource(i.e.filelocationandname),alt,andtitle tags. For best results in search, all of these tags should be used andoptimizedforyourimages.

Alt tagsserveasalternate text todescribe the imagewhen the image isnotavailable.Ifthere’sanerrorloadingthesourceimage,thealternatetextwilldisplay.Fortext-readingsoftware,alttagsarereadaloudsothatimagescanbe understood by the listener.Though it isn’t as common today, userswithslower Internet connections may turn off image loading so that they canperuse the web faster, and the alt tag lets them know what image wassupposedtobethere.

Theimagetitletagissimilartothealttag,butitdisplaysonthescroll-overbythe mouse. The title will help the visitor to understand the context of theimage,andthereforeitshoulddescribeitaccuratelyandwithdetail.

A good alt tag is a simple phrase that is keyword-rich and adequatelydescribes the image.The title tagshouldbekeyword-richbut it shouldalsogive a better sense of the context of the image. The alt and title tags areimbedded within the image source code as follows: imgsrc=“pepperoni_pizza.jpg”alt=“pepperonipizza”title=“pepperonipizzawithproperdistributionofpepperonis” .Notonlyshouldyouraltandtitletagsbekeyword-rich, but the filename for your image should also contain thekeywordthatyou’reoptimizing.Alloftheinformationcontainedinthetagsprovidescluesthatsearchenginesusetounderstandexactlywhat theimageonthepagereallyis.

Aswithallthecontentyouproduce,trytoprovidethebestuserexperienceonthe page that you can. Thismeans that youwill need to consider how theimageswillhelptheuserengageyourpage.Offeringhighqualityimagesisnot only good for your user experience but theywill also help them retainqualitywhentheyaredisplayedasthumbnailsinSERP.Bytakingthetimetomakethoughtfulcaptionsandtitletags,youenhancetheuser’sexperience.

It’s always advantageous to use unique images that attract interest andpossibly links on your website. For eCommerce sites, make an effort togenerate your own product images rather than use images provided bymanufacturers.This can help your images stand out among the results, andcanmakethemappealingenoughtogetlinks.Ifyoucreateyourownuniqueimages,youmaywanttospecifythatothersarefreetousetheminexchangefor a citation or link back to your website. This way, your content gets

circulatedandyouareabletobuildlinksbacktoyoursourcepages.

Remember, if youuse images fromother sources onyour site, be sure thatyou have permission to use them. You don’t want to set yourself up for acopyright-infringementissue.

OptimizingVideosforSearchShooting,editingandpublishingvideoon today’sInternet issoeasyandsopopular that it can’t be ignored. Video offers a huge opportunity formarketers.VideohasexplodedontheInternetbecauseofsiteslikeYouTubeand Vimeo that have enabled casual users to upload their videos, createchannels for their content, and encourage user comments. Paired with theboom in video recording technology, like the Flip camera and today’s cellphones,creatingandpublishingvideocanbeasnap.

The Internet video phenomenon has made it much easier for anyone,includingmarketers,tousevideoforcommunication.Videodoesnothavetobeprofessionallyproducedinastudiotobeinteresting,enjoyable,orgoviral.Itonlyneedstobecompelling.

Whenavideogetsbigtimeviews,youwantallthebenefits,liketrafficandlinks, coming to your site rather than going off-site to YouTube or othervideo-sharingsites.Ontheotherhand,YouTubegetssomuchviewershipthatitcanofferyoutheopportunitytogetmuchmoreexposure,andasuccessfulvideo can lead traffic back to yourwebsite. The burst of activity around asuccessful video generally remains with the hosting site, so, ideally, youwouldwanttohostthevideoonyoursiteandsimultaneouslypostittositeslikeYouTubetomaximizetraffic.

Forsimultaneouslaunch,youcansaveyourselfsomehasslebyfirstpostingyour video to a video-hosting site and then embedding thevideoontoyourwebpage.Mostvideo-hostingsitesprovideanembedcodethatyoucanpasteinto your webpage’s HTML, allowing visitors to play the video from yourpage.PostthevideotoYouTubeand,whenitgoeslive,grabtheembedcodeand post it to your site. That way, youmake use of your video posted onYouTubebutpublishitonyourwebsite.YoushouldalsocreateandoptimizebrandedchannelsforyourbusinessonYouTube,Vimeoandothers.Thiswayyoucanincreaseyourbrandrecognitionandleverageyoursuccessfulvideostopromoteyourothercontent.

Herearesometipsforoptimizingvideos:

Make sure your video title is keyword-rich, but give it some pizzazz.Drab titles that appear to viewers as onlykeyword-consciouswill lead

them to believe that the video itself is justmarketing propaganda. Byusinganinterestingtitle,youdrawviewersinandmakeyoureffortseemmorenatural.

Forthevideodescription,makesureitclearlyrepresentsthecontentofthevideoandcontainsyourkeywordphrase.Leadthedescriptionwithalink to themost relevantpageonyourwebsite, thatway itwill ensurethatitdisplayssothatuserscaneasilyclickonit.

Aswithimages,whenpostingvideotoyoursite,besuretooptimizethedescriptionandtitletags.

OptimizethevideofilenameandURLinthesamewaythatyouwouldwithimages.Makesuretheyincorporatethekeywordsyou’retargeting.

Herearesometips tousewhenyou’re invideoproduction.Thesewillhelpthehumanswhowatchyourvideos,andwillgiveyourvideosabetterchanceofgoingviral:

During production of the video, consider lighting, camera angles, andaudio. Online video viewers are tolerant of amateur video, but youshould aim tomake your content as viewable as possible and to giveyourproductionalevelofqualitythatsupportsyourprofessionalimage.If you are doing an interview, use a tripod to keep the camera steady.Runatesttomakesurethatthelightingworkswellanddoesn’tblurthesubject of the video.Be sure that the audio is being picked up by themicrophone and that the room doesn’t distort the sound or create anecho.

Whenyouselectyourthumbnailofthevideo,takeanimagethat’sgoingto leadviewers to clickonyour video, especiallywhen they are facedwithaqueueofsuggestedvideos,orwhenitgetssharedonsocialmedia.Thethumbnailshouldbeinterestingandshouldalsoattempttomakeitclearwhatthevideoisabout.

Keep in mind copyright if you usemusic for the background in yourvideo.You’lleitherhavetogetpermissionfromcopyrightholderstousetheirmusic,selectroyalty-freemusic(fromproviderslikeGarageBand),orgenerateyourownoriginalmusic.

Encourage user comments and ratings for your video. Search enginespickuponandfavoruser-generatedcontent.

Allowotherwebsitestoembedyourvideoinexchangeforalinkbacktoyoursite.Also,encouragesharingof thevideobyaddingsocialmediasharebuttons,suchastheFacebook“Like”buttonortheTwitter“TweetThis”button.

OptimizingforNewsSitesJournaliststodayhavefoundthatprintiscompetingwithonlinejournalismatafrenziedrate.Journalistsnowneedtogettheirarticlesdiscoveredinsearchresults rather than just in print magazines and newspapers. In fact, they’refindingthattheyactuallyhavetofighttogettheirheadlinesfound.

Even if you’re not a journalist proper, you might find that you produceindustry-relatednewsall the time,whether itbe throughyourblogorothermeans,andthatyouwanttoberecognizedasanewsourceinyourindustry.Though it’s agreat time to jump intoonlinenews, it still takeswork togetnewscontent to rank in search, so it’s critical toknowofways tooptimizeyournews-orientedcontent.

Ifyou’vebeenbuildingafollowerbase,makesureyougetyournewstoyourfollowers first.BysettingupanRSSfeed,youcanpublishnewscontent toyourfollowerstheinstantit’screated.ManyRSSfollowerswanttoreadtheentirearticlefromthefeed,soifyoucandoitpractically,it’sbesttosendthecomplete article through the feed rather than a summary. Include a link toyourpagecontenttoenableuserstonavigatebacktoyoursite.

IfyoupublishanRSSfeed,thengrowingyourfollowingshouldalwaysbeakeyfocus.ByplacinganRSSfeedbuttonbyyourcontent,youwillmakeiteasy for people to start following you.Other socialmedia applications likeLinkedIn,TwitterandFacebookarealsogreatwaystoshareyournewsandwillmake iteasy forothers topass italong,encouragingothers to joinandbecomefollowers.

Topublishnewscontent that rankswithactualnewssites,you’llneedeacharticle thatyouproduce toexistonastaticURL,meaning thateveryarticleyou produce will be listed on a separate page, rather than havingmultiplearticlescompiledonasinglepage.Inordertohaveyourwebsite’snewsfeedincluded inGoogleNews, you’ll need to submit your blog or press releasesectionsdirectly toGoogleNews.Theywill reviewyour content, andonceit’sapproved,theywillstartincludingyourcontentintheirnewsfeed.Google

News has specific requirements for adding news sites to their pages.42 Toroutinely appear in news feeds, you should produce newsworthy contentfrequently. And to make sure you regularly produce fresh content, theeditorialcalendar,onceagain,isthetooltouse.

News articles should be optimized for keywords in the sameway that youwould optimize other content. The body of the article should have yourkeywords includedbut thearticleshouldnotrun theriskofappearing tobekeyword-optimized.

Article headlines should be interesting and grab your readers’ attention.Sometimes,youwon’tbeabletogetthekeywordyouwantintotheheadline.Be sure, then, that you’ve optimized the meta data (title, description, andkeywords)forthekeywordsyouwanttoisolate.Byincludingthekeywordsthatyouwanttorankforinthetitletags,yougreatlyincreaseyourchancestogetrankedforthatkeyword.

Take advantage of news aggregators like Google News and Yahoo! News.Submityourstoriestothesesites.Freshnewsispublishedatthetopofthesesites.So,whenyousubmita story,you’ll temporarily rankatNo.1 justbywritinganoptimizedarticle.Thisdoesn’t lastfora longtime,especiallyforcompetitivesearchterms,becausenewpostingswillimmediatelyrankontop,butyouhaveagreatchancetogetyourcontentfoundwhenitsitsatthetopofthe rankings. If the content is good, social news sites likeDigg.com couldpick it up as readers begin to share it. Optimizing your content for hot-trendingkeywords is a greatway for your news to get pickedup by socialmediausersandshared.

OptimizingforLocalSearchGoogle Maps, Bing Maps, and even local search and review sites likeYelp.comprovideverticalsearchesforbusinessesbasedon theirgeographiclocation.Notonlydomany search enginesusevertical search for localizedresultsanddirectoryinformation,buttheyhavealsobeguntoemphasizelocalsearch results in themain results data.Certain product searcheswill returnvendor location suggestions in the area near the searcher. If a location isentered into the results, the searcherwill get results relative to the locationspecified.Even if location isnot specified in thesearchquery, if thesearchenginecandeterminewhereyouareandthatthequeryisappropriateforlocalsearch, it will return localized results. This means that if your product orservicehasanapplicationforlocalizedsearch,youneedtooptimizeforit.

Whenoptimizingyour content for local search, you should followmanyofthesameSEObestpracticesasyouwouldforotherpagesonyoursite,suchaskeyworduseinmetatagsandH1tags.Thekeytosuccessistargetinggeo-

specifickeywordsamongyourotherkeywords.Justasyouwouldforallyourother keywords, research geo-specific keywords that you can rank for. Bywayofexample:“Miami-Dade”vs.“Miami,FL”vs.“DadeCounty.”

Ensure that your full physical address appears on your website’s pages. Ifyourbusinesshasmultiplelocations,youshoulddedicateatleastonepageonyoursiteforeachlocation.This isbetter thanlistingallyour locationsonasinglepagebecauseyoucanoptimizealltheon-pageSEOelementsforeachlocation.Youwant your pages at the topof the search engine resultswhenyourkeywordsarepairedwithlocation.Forexample,sayyouownachainofcycleshops insouthFlorida.Youwant tobefoundwhensomeonesearches“bikerentalMiami.”Herearesometipstohelpmakethathappen:

Eachlocal-search-optimizedpageshouldincludetonsofrelevantdetailsabout your business, including an exact address, hours of operation,maps,anddirections.

Getuser-generatedcontent (ratings,comments, reviews)onyourpagesthat are optimized for geo-specific search. This will help raise theawarenessofthosepageswithsearchengines.

Build links to each location page, in addition to your home page andotherpagesonyoursite.Linksspecifictoyourlocationpagehelpsearchenginesrecognizethatit’sapagethatusersareinterestedin,raisingitsrelevanceinsearch.

OptimizingforSocialMediaWhileitisimportanttopayattentiontoonsiteSEO,youroffsitesocialmediapresenceshouldbeoptimizedaswell.Whenyourbusinesschoosestocreateone or more social media profiles, each one should be optimized for thatnetwork’suserexperience.SocialMediaOptimization(SMO)generallyrefersto the social aspect of marketing strategies and is typically applied in twoways.Firstisthepromotionangle,inwhichmarketerstakeadvantageofthepower of socialmedia to promote their content and their brand. This bookfocuses on the promotion angle inChapterTen.Right now,we’re going toexplorethesecondangle,whichistooptimizebrandedsocialmediaprofilestoincreasetheirsearchrankings.

Socialmediagivesyoumoreplacestopostyourcontentandtolinkbacktoyourwebsite. Setting up profiles and encouraging prominent peoplewithinyourorganizationtoengagewithsocialmediaonbehalfofyourbusinessisa

greatwaytoevangelizeyourbrand.

Anyone can set up a business profile and start engaging followers. Just asonsite SEO can be forgotten or lazily overlooked, social profiles can fallvictim to the same kind of neglect. At the veryminimum, if your profilesaren’t optimized, you’llmiss out on somegreatways to communicatewithyour followers and promote your business. At worst, you run the risk ofhaving a generic looking and easily forgettable profile. Instead, this is anopportunitytomakeyourprofilesstandout.

Togetyoursocialmediaprofilesrocking:

Makesureyourkeywordsareinyourprofileorpage,especiallyforsiteslike Facebook and LinkedIn. This will help your profile or page rankhigher in search, whether it be searches within the social site or onsearchengineslikeBing.AswithSEO,youdon’twanttooverdoitwithkeywords.Findwaystoplaceyourkeywordsintoyourprofilenaturally.Summarysectionsand“AboutMe”sectionsareespeciallygreatplacestodescribeyourbusinessusingthekeywordsyouwanttooptimizefor.

Take advantage of websites that allow you to customize the colorschemesandbackgrounds.Useclean,appealingthemesthatcomplementthelayoutof theprofile.Avoidbusybackgroundsorobnoxiousthemesthatdetractfromthecontent.SiteslikeTwitterandSlideshareallowforgraphicoptimization.

Going even further than just the background, some sites let youcustomizetheprofilebanner.Thisisanopportunitytomakeyourprofileshine.Someprofilescanbecustomizedtosuchanextentthattheystartto looklikeanentirelynewwebsiteandless likeachannelonasocialmediasite.Inthebanner, incorporateyourbrandlogoandyourslogan.Sites likeMySpace,Vimeo, andYouTube give you the opportunity tomakefantasticprofiles.

Make sure to give your profile a face. Nothing is more uncool thanencountering a profile that has a two-tone silhouetted bust – or auto-generatedcartooncharacter–togowiththename.Don’tbethatprofile.Nearly every socialmedia site allows you to put a face or logo to thename.SiteslikeLinkedIn,Facebook,SlideShare,andTwitterrelyontheprofile image to attribute visual uniqueness to the content within theprofile.

Link to your website. Nearly every profile allows you to do this, andsomeallowmultiplelinks,sodon’tforgettoaddthem.

Facebookisgreatforcommunicatingyourstatusupdatestoyourfriends,butithasanumberofotherfeaturesthatcangetoverlooked.Makesureyouofferrichinformationaboutyourbusiness.Facebookhasaneventsbox for posting events that youwill host or be involved in, discussionboards,videoandphotoboxes,andmanymore.Youcancontrolwhichboxes appear on your profile. Some business profiles fail to takeadvantageofthepossibilitiesthatFacebookoffersandthusfailtomaketheir profile a destination. They might get liked and updates mightappear on their followers’ pages, but their followers may never comebacktotheirpageformoreinteraction.Bycreatinganengagingprofile,youencouragemoreuserengagement.

Video sites offer multiple formats for displaying your playlist andorganizingyourcontent.Considerways tokeepusersonyourchannel.Feature your coolest related videos in your playlists. Invite usercommentsonyourchannel.

Foranychannelthatgivesyoutheoption,displaythesubscriberlist.It’salwaysgoodforpeopleviewingsocialmediatofeelliketheyarepartofan active community. Showing other members of the community canencouragethatsensibility.

ConclusionAt first, SEOmight feel likeyou’re addingmoreworkbefore your contentcanevengolive.Itmayevenfeellikeabitofadragonthecreativeprocessbut,believemeitwillpayoffinahugewayifyoutakethetimetodoit.Inasense,youcanthinkofyourwebsiteasyourresume.Yourworkexperienceontheresumeisyourcontent.Youwouldn’thandoffaresumetoapotentialemployerwithoutcheckingtobesurethatyourmostimportantdetailsareinthe rightplace, thatyou includedpowerfulwords toexpressyourstrengths,andthatthecontactinformationiscorrect.SEOismuchlikeoptimizingyourresume for an interview. You should give it that level of importance byincludingSEOasanintegralpartofthecontentdevelopmentprocess.Itisn’textra; it’spartandparcel. Ifyourcontentproducersare thinkingofSEOastheydeveloptext,images,andvideocontent,itwillgreatlyeasetheeffortonSEOdevelopment.Yourcontent isn’t finishedand ready to launchuntil it’s

optimized.

10

Putthe“Marketing”inContentMarketing

“Qualitycontent isonlyhalf thebattle.Gettingmaximumexposure for thatcontentistheotherhalf.Youcanhavethebestcontentintheworld,butit’sonlyasgoodashowpervasiveyoucanspreaditsvisibility.

Marketingyourcontentcomesdowntoonefundamentalaspect:networking.LikePRprofessionals,theextensionofyournetworkandrespectforyouoryour company arewhat aids getting the ball rolling. Scratch backs to earnreciprocalfavorsandnetworkatanyopportunity.Aftertheinitialseeding,thesnowballeffecttakescareofitnaturally.

Remember, each online community or individual will react differently todifferentapproachesandtypesofcontent.Doyourresearchfirsttoseeifthecontentisagoodfitorthingsmaybackfire.”

JordanKasteler,SVPofContentDevelopmentandManagingPartner,BlueGlass,Inc.

Up to thispoint,we’vespenta lotof time talkingabout thecontentpartofcontentmarketing.Butonceyou’vecreatedthatgreatwebinar,blogpost,orinfographic,youwantittogetsomeattention.It’stimetoputthemarketingincontentmarketing,andthat’swherethepowerofsocialmediareallykicksin. By leveraging socialmedia interactions, you can circulate your contentandputyourbrandinfrontofpotentialcustomers.Ifyou’repayingattentiontowhereyour target audiencehangsoutonline, youcan interactwith themthere.

AsI’vesaid,traditionalmarketingthroughtelevision,radio,andevenprint,ismoreinterruption-driven,whereascontentmarketingengagesyourcustomerswithsomething theyarealready interested in,oftenproviding themcreativesolutions to their problems. This makes the social web the ideal place topromoteyourbusinessas the sourceof information thatyourcustomersarelookingfor.

Promotionistheworkofannouncingwhatyouhavetoofferandensuringthatitgetsdistributedtothepeoplethatyouwanttoseeit.Manytimes,thisisa

matter of sharing media within a network of relationships that you’veestablished and nurtured. To make the most of social media, you need toknowhowtheserelationshipscanbenefityouandhowyouneedtocarefortheminordertosustainthem.

Everybusinesswillhaveauniqueapproach tohow itpromotes its content,basedontheindustryandcustomerprofiles.Smallbusinesseswithverysmallstaffsmay not be able tomanage a huge social media campaign. Inmanycases,you’llneedtopickandchoosewhatkindsofsocialmediayouhavethetime to work with. There are a number of possibilities to choose from,including:blogging,commentingonblogs,participatingindiscussiongroups,andpostingstatusupdatesonsocialnetworkingprofiles.

Toidentifywhatyoushouldbedoingforyourindustry,startbytakingalookat howyour competition is using socialmedia.The cool thing about socialmediaisthatyoucanmoreorlessspyonyourcompetitorsbecausecontentisallout in theopen.So, ifyourcompetitionhas3,000people interested inasubject,youmightwanttostarttargetingsomeofthosepeople.Youmaynotbeontheirradarrightnow,buttheyareinterestedinyourindustryandtheycouldbeyourpotentialcustomersinthefuture.

Lookcloselyatyourcompetition’sactivity in socialmedia. Ifyousee theiractivityisn’tgettinganytraction,thenitprobablyisn’tworkingforthem.If,ontheotherhand,youseelotsofactivity,youknowthatit’sanetworkthatyoushouldgetinon.Whatchannelsaretheyusing?Howmanyfansdotheyhave on Facebook?Howmany followers do they have on Twitter?Maybeyourcompetitorsareworkinginblogsandforums.Ifnot,whynot?Arethereany niche forums out there that have audiences thatmight be interested inyourwork?Checkoutthemediaandbloggersthatnormallywriteaboutyourindustry.Makefriendswiththesebloggers.Thenpitchyourcontenttothem!

HowtoUseSocialMediaInteractionstoPromoteYourContenttheRightWayThegreatestvalue in socialmedia is,ofcourse, that it’s social.Thismeansthat you have the opportunity to engage customers in a way that wasn’tpossibleinthepast.AkeyexecutiveinyourbusinesscouldpostanupdateviaTwitterandinteractwithpotentialcustomers,industryexperts,andanyotherfollowers.Thiskindofengagementcanaddasenseoffamiliarityandcomforttoyourbrandimage.Onthesocialweb,wherecontentisinstantlyaccessible,people want to engage with the brands in much the same way that theyinteract with everyday people. This means that by engaging throughinteresting, conversational content, you can keep your brand in front ofcustomers so that when they’re ready to look for products in yourmarket,

they’llthinkofyou.

Facebook–theSocialMediaJuggernautYour profiles are communication tools that you can use to maintain brandawarenessbypromotingyourbusinessaswellasyourcontent.Keepinmindthat inorder tobe social,youhave tohave statusupdates that are social innature.Engagewithpersonalityinawaythat’sappropriateforyourbusinessandworksforyour industry.Here’safantasticexampleofwhatI’mtalkingabout.

InPrescott,Arizona,ahip,revitalizedmotelcalledTheMotorLodgeisdoinga bang-up job using social interactions the right way – engagingwould-becustomers and using interesting Facebook updates to create an engagingpersonality for itself. The coolest part of their success is that The MotorLodge isa two-manoperation,managing to runaboutiquehotel andat thesametimeacquiringnearly1,200fansontheirFacebookpage.

Figure26:TheMotorLodgeFacebookPage

Checkoutafewpostsfromtheirprofile,andyou’llgettheidea:

AkerMusicalFestivalistomorrow5:30-8:30pm.Downtownbusinessesstayopenandhostavarietyofdifferentmusicalgroups…funandveryfestive!StartoutatTastebudsPizzaforapluckin’goodtimeastheyarehostingtheguitarmastersfromMercyGuitar!

Beat the crowdswith a sneakpeekof theCourthouseChristmas lightstonightfrom5:30-6:30pm(theofficialLightingCeremonyisSaturday).

Timetogetshoppingso,forourFacebookbuddieswewilladd15%toanygiftcertificatethatyoupurchaseforholidaygiving.Thinkofit,youprovideafunplacetostayforyourfavoritepeoplewhileappearingtobe15%moregenerousthanyoureallyare…It’sawin,win!

We thought you should know thatwaterboarding at TheMotor Lodgehasstopped!Incaseyouneverhadthechancetoexperiencethetorturethat was our showers, imagine standing in a phone booth while a 55gallondrumofwaterwasdumpedonyoufrom8’up(aclassiccaseofform over function…sorry). New and improved, …adjustable andreachableshowerheadsmakecleansingyourbeautifulbodyanabsolutepleasure.Enjoy!

Timetonamethecatthatadoptedus3monthsago!Whoevercomesupwiththewinningnamewinsafreenightinourswankiestroom,#6(getyourfriendstobecomeafanofTMLandvoteforyoursubmission).Thecatisaneuteredmale,veryfriendly,greeneyesandhasaholeinhisleftear.VotingendsSundayat5pm.(Thepostincludedavideoofthecat.)

TheMotorLodgeisagreatexampleofasmallbusinesstakingadvantageofits online persona. They’ve generated a following on their page and arekeeping that following engagedwith life at the hotel, even thoughmost oftheirfollowersaren’t,atthemoment,lookingtospendthenightinPrescott.Youcanbet thatwhen theydodecide tomakeagetaway frombusy life inPhoenix,they’llthinkofthishotel.

The success of TheMotor Lodge comes first from a qualitywebsite43 thatdemonstrateswho theyare, is appealing tovisitors, and is easilynavigable.Second, they consistently post interesting content on their social mediaprofile,inthiscase,Facebook.44Noticethat thefirst twoupdateswesharedfromtheirFacebookpagearen’tnecessarilyaboutthembutinsteadfocusonreasons to come to Prescott. This is about enticing potential customers toPrescott, which gives them a reason to stay at the hotel. These kinds ofannouncements don’t sound like advertising, but for last-minute getaways,thisquaintlittletownwillbeontheradarfortheMotorLodge’sfollowers–and they’ll have a reason to stay at the lodge.This tactic is about buildingrelationships via social media so that when you have some content topromote,youhaveanaudiencethat’sreadytoreceiveit.

Theotherstatusupdatesonthislistdirectlypromotethemotel(i.e.,cat,cometoourplaceforagoodshower).Alltheupdatesareengagingandinterestingand treat followers as friends. Most importantly, the down-to-earth postsencouragecommentsandcommunityinteraction.

If youwere to approach a small hotel about using socialmedia to promotetheirbusiness,99percentofthetimetheywillsay,“WhatwouldIsay?”Or,theymay take you up on it, and end upwith a profilewith somuch radiosilence that they attract few followers. The Motor Lodge is an awesomeexampleofhowtousesocialmediatherightway!Noticehowtheeverydaylifeofthehotelbecomesareasontopostandupdate.Withacreativespin,itcanbecomefunandengaging.

Socialmedia interactionswork bestwhen they invite the social network toactively take part in the ongoing, vibrant life of your business, just as TheMotor Lodge does. With a mix of incentives to visit their website andengagingcontent,theMotorLodge’sownersfindawaythroughregularpoststoconsistentlydelivercontenttotheirfollowersandkeeptheminterestedintheirbrand.

Social media updates that encourage comments serve to keep followersactively engaged with your profile. Furthermore, when updates generatecomments,other followers in thenetwork takenoticeand register thatyourbrand ismaking a buzz.That kind of excitement is contagious, and peoplepickuponit.

To nurture comments and facilitate active participation in your updates, besure to circle back to posts that are getting comments and reply withcomments of your own. This is true for all forms of social media, fromFacebook to blog posts.Your participation demonstrates your social savvy,andmakesabigdifferencetoyourfollowers.

Twitter–theInformationEngineTwitterisaself-proclaimed“informationengine.”Thatmonikeraloneshouldtellyou that itcanbeanawesomeplatformforpromotingyourcontentandsubsequently your business. The primary application for Twitter is to keepyour followers informed about the cool products and services that yourbusiness can provide. The secondary application is to actively engage thephenomenon of crowd-sourcing. By meeting the needs of individual usershead-on, you can actively promote your content to the potential customerswhoarelookingforanswers.

TomakethemostofTwitter,it’simperativetobuildafollowing.YourTwitterhandleshouldappearoneverypageofyoursite–ofcourse,thisrulegoesfor

allthesocialmediayouuse.Ifyourpagevisitorslikethecontenttheyfindonyourpages,theyshouldbeabletofollowyouinaheartbeat.Nooneshouldhave to search for your handle. Keep in mind that page visitors may bereluctant to follow you if they don’t knowwhat you’ll be tweeting. If youmake it clear what to expect – “Follow us for coupons and specials onlyavailabletoourfollowers,”or“Wetweettonsofinsideradvice:followus!”–you will be more likely to get followers who are truly interested in yourcontent.Don’tlimityourhandletoonlyyourwebpages.Putitonyouremailsignaturelineandputitonyourblog.Everyonewhoseesyourcontentshouldbeabletostartfollowingyouandshouldknowwhatthey’reinforwhentheydo.

Your content pages with your handle can attract followers, but to build afollowing proactively, you can do yourself a big favor by catching theattentionofinfluentialTwitterusersandgettingthemtofollowyou.Togainthe followingofsomeone, follow themfirst.ManyTwitteruserswill returnthefavor.Youcancontactapersondirectlyandsuggesttheyfollowyou,butbesureyouhaveacompellingreasonforthemtoaccept.Iftheyareshowinginterest in your niche industry, let them know that your tweetswill benefitthem.Youcanusedirectories, suchasWeFollow.com, to findTwitteruserswho have registered themselves by category. The directory allows you tobrowse by categories related to your industry and to find users who areinfluentialandtowhomyoucanreachout.Whileyou’rethere,registeryourhandle!Anyonelookingforthecategorytagyou’veregisteredforcouldfindyour name, especially if you have been building a significant followingrelativetotheotherusersregisteredforthattag.

Promotionbeginswithyourfollowers.Whenyoudevelopnewcontent,tweetit. Your followers will be expecting it. If you tweet your content, yourfollowers can retweet it, bringing traffic to your pages and expanding yourbrand recognition. Some third-party applications like TweetDeck andHootSuite can help you schedule tweets so that you don’t bombard youraudience over a short period of time. This can be a life-saver with apromotionpush that needs frequent attention.Whenyou set upyour blog’sRSS feed, add it to your Twitter feed, too. Every time your blog has newcontent, your Twitter followers will know about it. Of course, you shouldpromoteyourcontent,productsandservices,butI’mabigfanofjustbeingyourself and tweeting about your interests too, which gives people theopportunitytoknowthepersonorpeoplebehindyourbrand.

Figure27:PromotionalTweet

You can take advantage of Twitter as an information engine to activelypromote your content to userswho aren’t currently your followers. This isyour opportunity to use your content as a resource for the peoplewho arecrowd-sourcing via Twitter. Using search.witter.com, you can find peoplewho are tweeting your keywords. By searching for questions that you cananswer,youhave theability to respondwithyourcontent.This isnot tobeconfusedwithanopportunityforasalespush.Rather,it’sachancetopositionyourselfastheexpert,providinguseful,engagingresponses.

Attheendofthedaythisisaboutmakingandmaintainingconnections.Thismeans that if your followers tweet at you, you should make an effort torespondinatimelyway.Asyourfollowinggrows,itwillbemorechallengingtorespondtoall tweets.Besure tocheck in toseewho’s tweetedatyouormentionedyou,andmakeanefforttorespond.TweetDeckorHootSuitewilladd functionality to help manage your Twitter account and keep youconnectedtoyourfollowers.Forexample,youcansetuplistsbykeywordsothat you can track and engage in conversations that are happening in realtime.

LinkedIn–theBusinesstoBusinessConnectionRecently, I reached out to my buddy, Neal Schaffer, author of WindmillNetworking:MaximizingLinkedIn45.HehadalottosayaboutusingLinkedIntopromoteyourcontentandyourbrand.Here’swhathesharedwithme:

People

Figure28:LinkedInProfileforNealSchaffer

By now you probably understand that LinkedIn is the premier socialnetworking site that is devoted solely to professionals. It is said thatLinkedIn’s 100 million members include an executive from everyFortune 500 company. There is no other social networking site whereyou have a greater chance of being able to interactwith an influentialdecision-maker. LinkedIn remains the best social networking site tomarket your business-to-business (B2B) products and services becauseof this special demographic. Even for business-to-consumer (B2C)companies,LinkedInisimportant.Notonlyarewealthyconsumersalsomembers of LinkedIn but even B2C companies have B2B marketingactivities with regard to distributors, agents, and strategic alliances.Imagineifallofyourkeymanagementforsales,marketing,andbusinessdevelopmentwere all contributing toLinkedIn in anyof the followingways. It could be a powerful way to obtain mindshare and eventualthoughtleadership,whichcouldgeneraterevenueforyourbusiness.

LinkedIn Companies: Inbound marketing on LinkedIn begins withensuring that your company can be found in the LinkedIn Companiesdirectory, a database that comprises information that is primarily user-generated.LinkedInCompaniesisquicklybecominganalternativefreesourceofcompanyinformation.

Should someone be searching for a companywith your expertise, youwant toensure thatyouare foundand thatyourbest information isondisplay for potential customers. You can do so by optimizing your

companyprofilesothatisinsyncwithyourcompanywebsite.Usethe“specialties”section toaddanykeywords thatyouwantyourcompanytobefoundunderbutthataren’trepresentedinyourdescription.Makesure you choose themost appropriateMainCompany Industry sectionbecausethisisafieldthatmaybeusedinasearchtofindyourcompany.LinkedIngivesyoutheopportunitytoenteruptofivelocations,somakesureyoutakeadvantageofthis.Enteryourcorporateblog’sRSSfeedtoshow your latest blog entries. If your company has a Twitter account,makesureyou includeyourusername to includeyour latestTweetsonthispageaswell.

Every Employee is a Sales Person: Since LinkedIn is a socialnetworking platform, many people seek out those with expertise bydoing a keyword search under “People.” Every employee representingyour company that is on LinkedIn increases your chances that yourcompany will be found indirectly. And the more connected youremployeesaretoothers,theeasieritwillbeforthosewantingtocontactanyofyourcompanyemployeestodosothroughtheLinkedInplatform.

StatusUpdates: Justas tweetscanbeapowerfulwayof sharingyourknowledge, so can the LinkedIn Status Update. While only yourLinkedIn Connections will see your status update in their networkupdates,youcandisplayyourstatusupdate forpublicvisibilityso thatthose that view your profile can see what you are saying. Obviously,LinkedInisnotTwitterand,therefore,itisnotaboutquantityofupdatesbut quality. Aim for one update a day on information that you findcompelling,newrelevantcontentyouhavetooffer,ornoteworthynewsaboutyourcompanythatmightbeinterestingtoyourtargetdemographicthatyouarealreadyconnectedto.

LinkedInAnswers:LinkedInAnswersisaQ&Adatabasethathasmorethan 2million answers submitted byLinkedIn users.Many businesseswith real problems areposingquestionsonLinkedInAnswersbecausetheyknowthatanswerswillcomefromtheprofessionalcommunitywithreal profiles attached to their name, not anonymous submissions likeother Internet Q&A sites. There are a total of 22 LinkedIn Answerscategoriesthatcovermostindustriesanddisciplines,andsomeofthesecategories havemultiple sub-categories.This is the forum for you andyourcompanytodisplayyourexpertisebyrespondingtoquestionsthatappearinthecategory(orcategories)whereyourtargetaudienceismostlikelypresent.NotonlydotheanswersyousubmittoLinkedInAnswersbecomepartofyourprofile shouldyouwant them tobe, theyarealsoindexed by Google and thus may come up in future search results.

Furthermore,iftheansweryouprovideischosenasthe“BestAnswer,”youhavethepotentialofbeinglistedasan“Expert”onthepageofyourtarget category and/or sub-category. LinkedIn allows you to create a“widget” on your home pagewhere you can subscribe to anAnswerscategoryoryoucansimplyimporttheRSSfeedintothereaderofyourchoice.Allittakesisaonce-a-daychecktostayontopofyourcategory,seekingchancesforyourorganizationtodisplayitsexpertise.

LinkedInGroups:CreatingaLinkedInGroupissurprisinglysimple,asis indicatedby the sheer numberof groups that exist.That being said,thereisoneveryimportantthingtoconsiderthatwillmakeorbreakyourgroup:YourLinkedInGroupname.NoLinkedInuserwants tobesoldto; therefore, the name of your group should NOT be your companyname,insteadtrysomethinglike“HikingtheSouthwest.”OnceyoustartaLinkedInGroup,whatdoyoudonext? It’s all aboutpromotion, andthatstartswithintroducingyourcommunitytorelevantprofessionalsinyour own LinkedIn network. This is where you are already at anadvantageifmanyofyouremployeesarealreadyestablisheduserswithLinkedIn connections. Of course, your employees should only beintroducingyourgrouptothosethatareinyourtargetdemographicandthat would feel it is a valuable resource; otherwise, your innocentintroductionofyourLinkedInGroupcouldbeperceivedasspam.

Socialmediamarketing is really about relevance, so it is important tokeep your group relevant by actively managing and keeping theirrelevant information out. To be at the forefront of your targetedaudienceand tobe foundby them, thereareusuallymultipleLinkedInGroupswhere you can be participating outside of your own.LinkedInallows you to join up to 50 groups, so why don’t you and youremployees join themaximumif thereareenoughrelevantgroups tobefound?ThiscanonlyhelpyouandyourbusinessgetfoundonLinkedIn.

Don’tknowwheretostartwhenjoininganewgroup?Lookatthe“MostPopularDiscussions”sectionandcheckouthowmanycommentsithas.If those who already commented are still subscribing to receivingfollow-upcommentsbyemail,youcanmakeaquicksplashbyaddingarelevantand thought-provokingcomment to thediscussion,which thencouldgooutbyemailtohundredsorthousandsofpeople.

SlideShare:TherearemanyoptionalapplicationsthatLinkedInprovidestocustomizesothatyoucanutilizethewebsite,butifthereisonethatIwouldrecommendtohelpmarketyourbusinessitwouldbeSlideShare.SlideShare is a social networking site of its own and is the leadingwebsiteforsharingyourPowerPointpresentations.SlideShareclaimsto

get 25 million visitors a month to its website, and many companiesaimingatgettingbusinessfromademographicsimilartoLinkedInhaveestablished custom “Channels” there.When you install the SlideShareapplicationonyourLinkedInprofile,youhavetheabilitytodisplayyourlatestcompanyPowerPointpresentationsonyourprofile.TheSlideShareapplicationalsogivesyoutheabilitytouploadaYouTubevideo,whichmight be appropriate for your company if you spoke at a recentconferenceorhaveavisualproduct.What’smore,yourcontenthasthechance to be discovered both by other SlideShare application users aswellasontheSlideshare.netwebsiteitself.

BecausetherearesomanythingsyourbusinesscouldbedoingonLinkedIn,marketing your business there can take some time.Until you can say “WelandedthisaccountbecauseofLinkedIn!”itwillrequirealittlesweatequity.Like any other social media marketing effort, becoming an active andcontributinguseronLinkedInwill undoubtedlyhelpyourmarketing effortsandassistyourcompanyingainingthoughtleadership,whichwillcontributetogreaterbusinessclosed in thefuture.Justbesure tomeasureyourresultsvs.yourtimeinvested.

DevelopingRelationships,BuildingPartnershipsLike social networking sites, forums and blogs are community-centeredmediawherecontentcanbeshared.Throughactiveparticipation,youbuildtrustandrecognitionwithothermembersinthosecommunities.Ifyouearnareputationasanupstandingmemberofthecommunity,theothercommunitymemberswillbemorelikelytoshareyourcontentandpromoteyourproductswith theirsubscribersandfollowers.Asyou-establishrelationships throughengagement, you’ll have the opportunity to leverage those relationships topromoteyourcontent.

Leveraging social media for content promotion boils down to nurturingrelationshipswithin online communities and findingways to put content infront of potential customers. For small businesses, thework of tending thesocialgarden,so tospeak,couldseemlikea fulltime job.Adaily to-do listliketheonebelowcanappearexcessivelytime-consuming:

Updatingone’ssocialprofilestatus

Respondingtocomments

Contributingtoforumdiscussions

Commentingonotherblogsandbuildingbloggerrelationships

Bookmarkingcontenttoenhanceyourprofile

How do people keep up? The answer is thatmuch of this can be parceledthroughout theweek,addingup toonlya relativelysmall timecommitmenteachday.Thekeyisbeingdisciplinedwithyourtime.Ifyouhaveto,blockoffspecifichoursforthisworkandsticktoyourschedule.Thehardestpartofsocial media is setting up a profile and optimizing it. Maintaining it andcommentingcanrequireacommitmentofonlyanhourperday,dependingonthe level of engagement. This is a modest investment given the potentialreturn.As you develop your social persona throughmultiplemedia outlets,you’llopenupavarietyofoptionsforpromotingyourcontent.Themoreyouareabletotakeon,themoreopportunitiesforpromotionyou’llcreate.

Engaginginsocialmediamayalsorequireashiftinperspective.Historically,socialactivitywasseenasmutuallyexclusivewithefficientworkpractices.Socialmedia isnoexception. (Youmeanmyemployeesaregoing tobeonFacebookallday?)Thetruthisthatyouremployeescanbeexcellentsourcesfor branding and promotion. Your employees’ social networks effectivelyexpandyourcorporatereach,andyoucanleveragethesenetworksforcontentpromotion. Tomanage social media at work, it’s good to have a companypolicy that covershowandwhy socialmedia is useful to the company andhow it’s to be used on the job. Try to have a relaxed policy so that youremployeescanengagewiththeirnetworksinanaturalway.

The bottom line is that you need to use social media in some capacity topromote your content. Establish your baseline by identifying what socialmediayouneedinordertocompeteinyourmarket.Here,again,researchiscritical.Byknowingwhat your competitors are doing andwhat your targetdemographicuses,youcanfindoutwhatyouneedtoprioritize.Youcanthenweighthatinformationagainstwhatyou’recapableoftakingon.Becauseyoucan’taffordnottoengageinsocialmediapromotion,startbyfocusingonthechannels fromwhich you’re able to derive themost value.Hone in on thecommunitiesthatarereallyengagingwithyouandyourindustry.

Contentmarketing is all about trying, testing, andmeasuring results. SomebusinessesmightfindthattheirFacebookprofileisn’tgettingalotoftrafficbut that their YouTube channel is. So, they may want to focus on videos.There aremany socialmedia channels toworkwith, and there are tons ofcontentoptions.Thekey is tofindoptions thatareworkingandinvestyourpromotionaleffortsthere.

ForumParticipationForums are the evolutionary descendants of chat rooms. They aren’tnecessarilyaspopularasotherformsofsocialmediainteraction,buttherearesome avid users of Internet forums. Many industries have niche-relatedforums. It’sworthwhile to dedicate some time and effort to participating inindustryforums.Throughforumparticipation,youcan:

Demonstrate your expertise by offering answers to participants’questions

Promote your content pages by linking to pages thatmight interest orbenefitthegroup

Develop relationships with other forum participants, who might bewillingtopromoteyourcontentintheirnetworks,suchastheirblogsorothersocialmediaspaces

BloggerEngagementThe essence of blogger engagement is networking. By networking withbloggers,youcanpitchyourcontent,andevenask themtowriteapost foryourcontent.Practicallyspeaking,youbuildyournetworkbysearching forthe bloggers with whom to network through media lists and Google blogsearch. At the center of blogger engagement is commenting, which fostersrelationship-building. Bloggers welcome good comments that are on topicwiththeirpostsbecausetheyenhancethequalityoftheblogandincreaseitsfavorability with search engines. This means that you can leverage blogcommenting to your advantage in order to promote your web content andyourbrand,ifyouengageblogsintherightway.

Byengagingbloggerswithgreatcomments,yougettheopportunityto:

Reachouttopotentialcustomerswhosubscribetothoseblogsbyjoiningintheconversationsthey’rehaving,demonstratingtothebloggeranditsreadersthatyouareanexpertinyourfield

Continue your link building and promotion efforts by including a linkbacktoyourwebpages(butnotallthetime)

Build partnerships with other bloggers, which can lead to more linkbuildingandcontentpromotion

Whenyouhaveanewpieceofcontent topromote,seekoutblogposts thatyourcontentcancomplement.Ifabloggerwithlinksto10greatinfographicsin your industry, for example, you can respond with a comment, saying,“Awesomepost!”These infographics really rock. I really like the third oneusing the timeline to demonstrate how fast things are changing in ourbusiness.Here’salinktoonethatwecreatedthatIbelieveyourreaderswillenjoy.Checkitout.”Then,linktooneofyourinfographics.

Makesurethatyourcommentisthoughtout,ontopicandcontributestotheconversation. Remember, your comments brand you among the othercommenters,visitors,andbloggers.So,it’sonlytoyouradvantagetotakethetimetomakethecommentcount.

Ittakessomeefforttofindqualityblogpoststhatyoucancommenton.Youcanstartbycommentingontheblogsthatyousubscribetoasaninvestmentinyourrelationshipswiththosebloggers.Eventually,however,you’llwanttoreach out beyond that circle, and you’ll have to actively search outappropriate blog posts. Once you start interacting with bloggers throughcommenting, keep track of the individuals you’re working with. Use aspreadsheettokeeptrackoftheblogger’snameandwebsite.Youmaywanttosegment(bytopic,etc.),dependingonwhatyourengagementislike.

Overthelongterm,bloggerengagementandforumparticipationwillprovidetheopportunitytofosterrobustindustryrelationshipsthatyoucanleveragetopromote your content. Keep in mind that, just as with any relationship,blogger partnerships require give and take. If a blogger in your networkapproachesyouwithapitchforsomecontenttoincludeinyournextpost,trytoaccommodatetherequest.Youproactivelyboostyourfavorwithabloggerbylinkingtotheminyourcontent.Whenabloggergetslinkedto,WordPressandsimilarblogplatformscanalertthemtothenewlink.Bloggerstakenoteoflinkstotheirblog,andtheprevailingcultureistoreturnthefavoratsomepoint.You’llbuildareputationasafriendlybloggerandotherbloggerswillbemorelikelytodothesameforyou.

BloggerPitches:HowtoApproachTheseSitesforBestResultsBeyondcommenting,youcanpitchyour contentdirectly tobloggers togetthem to include your content in a post.You can search for bloggers out ofyour network and pitch your content to them, but you’ll likely find moresuccesspitching toyournetworkofbloggers.This, of course, reiterates the

importanceofnurturingyourbloggerrelationships.

Thekeytopitchingcontenttoabloggeristostartbyexaminingthekindofpostsandcommentsthatthebloghasbeenproducing.Yourgoalistoensurethatthecontentyou’repromotingisinlinewiththeblogyou’repitchingto.Youhavetheoptionoffindingblogsthatsuityourcontent,ortailoringyourcontenttofitinwiththeblog.

Onceyou’veidentifiedabloggertoreachoutto,developacustomizedpitch.Makeeveryefforttoaddressyourpitchtothepersonalemailoftheblogger,rather thanawebmaster’smailbox.Themorepersonalyoucanmake it, themorelikelyyouwillbetogettheirattention.

Tell the blogger that you have a great piece of content that you think theaudiencewouldreallylike.Askifthebloggercoulddropalinkinapost,oreven write a full post about it. If all goes well, your content will becompelling,andthey’lltakeyoursuggestionandwriteawholepostaboutit.Why would a blogger post something about your content, you ask? Thebenefit to theblogger is thatyourcontent iswhathisvisitorswantandwillgenerate more traffic to his site. The more you know about the blogger’spostinghistory and a little about the subscribers, themore specificyoucangetabouthowyourcontentwillappealtothecommunity.Youdon’tneedtogo over the top, but you shouldmake a clear case how the content you’repromotingwillbenefittheblogger.Youcouldalsooffertowritethepostforthem,tosavethemsometime!Youcanincreaseyourchancesofpromotingyour content if you’rewilling to do the legwork ofwriting the post,whichsavesthebloggersomeeffort.

Whenyou’recreatingcontent fordistribution,youwantcontent thatpeoplearegoingtofindandsay,“Wow,that’sawesome!Ihavetosharethiswithmyfriends!”Don’ttrytopitchadvertisementsforyourproductsbecausebloggerswillneverpickitup.Infact,ifyouwritethepostforthem,muchofthetimeyou shouldn’t evenmention your business’s name in the text. The contentshould contain a link to yourwebsite, and that’s all. For example, imagineyour company sells beddingmaterial.You produce a piece on the “Top 10Things Needed to Decorate a Dorm Room.” Within the list, one of thesuggestionscouldbe“useavibrantbedspread.”Fromthere,youlinktooneofyoursite’sproductpages.Thereaderlikestheideaofavibrantbedspread,and follows the link to your product and makes a purchase. The contentfunneledthereadertoyourwebsitebutneverappearedasovertadvertising.

Thisisexactlythekindofcontentthatbloggerspickupon.Inthisexample,thebeddingcompanywouldpitchtobloggerswhocatertocollegestudents.The bedding company’s top 10 list lines up with the kind of content thebloggerwants toprovide.Thebloggerwinsbecause thecontenthelpsdrive

traffictothesite,andthebeddingcompanywinsbecauseitgetsalinktotheproductpage,whichtheyhopewillprovidetargetedtraffic.

PressReleasesandMediaOutreachStarting from scratch in a media outreach campaign, including pitching tobloggers,canseemdaunting.ThereissuchaplethoraofmediaoutletsontheInternet that it would be nearly impossible to keep track of who’s writingwhatandforwhichtargetdemographic.Fortunatelytherearepublicrelationsfirmsmanagingallofthisdataonmedialists,andtheycanhelpyoupinpointyourmediatarget.

Companies like Vocus and Cision specialize in media outreach and haveactive databases that can help you target pitches and press releases.Medialists provide detailed information for a wide range of media outlets, fromtelevision to newspapers, to magazines, to blogs. While these lists arecomprehensiveandincludeofflinemedia,forthepurposeofthisbook,we’refocusingonthebenefitsoftiestoonlinemediaoutlets,specificallylinksandtraffic.

When you want to make an announcement in the form of a press release,medialistscanconnectyouwithnichenewsoutletsthatmightbemorelikelytopickupyourreleasethansomeofthelargeroutlets.Whenyourreleasegetspickedup,yougetthebenefitofalink,exposureandthepossibilityoftraffic.It’sworthwhiletopursuenichenewsmediathatmightrunanarticleonyourrelease,creatingaURLthatlinkstoyou.

Usingamediadatabasecanalsogiveyouanedgewhenyou’redevelopingcontent that you want to promote through blogger pitches.Media lists notonly contain information on the outlet, but include contact points for eachoutlet. Knowing the blogger’s name and contact information is a majoradvantageasyoucreateyourcustompitch.

Whenyoudevelopapressreleaseorabloggerpitch,keepinmindthatalotof journalists and bloggers like the fast approach. If the press release or apitch contains enough information, they will often repurpose it with a fewtweaks and post it up, rather than rewriting an entire article. Therecommendation?Provideenough information inyourpitch tomake iteasyforthemtorepurposeit.Itwillgiveyouabigedge.

InChapterSeven,wediscusspressreleasesindetail.Inshort,pressreleasesshould conform to press standards and be article-readywhen youmake therelease. Bywriting a professional news release, you’ll greatly help smallermediaoutlets,whicharemorelikelytopickupyourstory.You’llsavethemtheneedtofollowupwithyouforfurtherdetailsbeforetheyrunthearticle.

For blogs, frame the pitchwith the same information that a bloggerwouldnormally give when posting a piece of content. Namely, why would theaudience like it?Brieflydescribe thevalueof thecontent to the readership:“This is agreat top10 list thatgetsus thinkingabout thehealthywaysweshouldbespendingourtimeafterwork!”

Newsoutlets andblogs aredrivenby similarmotivationswhen it comes topicking up content to publish. Theywant content thatwill attract traffic totheirsite.Whenyoupitch,yourgoalistofindtheoutletthatwillbenefitthemostfromthecontentyouhavetooffer.Thatis,yourcontentwillmostlikelyattractthevisitorsthattheyarelookingtoattract.Asyouworkthroughmedialists, keep inmindwhat kind of traffic themedia outlet is targeting. If thecontentyouhavetoofferislikelytogeneratetraffictotheirsite,theywillbemorelikelytogowithyourpitch.

EmailMarketingEmail can be a great way to ensure that you deliver content to a specificcommunity.YoureNewsletteristhebestwaytoalertyoursubscriberstoyourlatestcontent,promotions,andtips.

You can deliver your eNewsletter and other promotional material to themailing list that you’ve built through your lead-generating efforts andnetworking.Theverybestemaillististheonethathasindividualswhowantyour email to begin with. You can build up an email subscriber list byprovidingampleopportunities forvisitors toyourwebsite tovolunteer theiremailaddress.Evenbetter,offerthemanexchangebygivingawayfreeandusefulcontent–suchasawhitepaper–inreturnforanemailaddress.Peopleareoftenmorewilling togiveanemailaddress if theycan immediatelygetsomethingthattheywant.

As a means of promoting your content, eNewsletters are great tools forannouncing content and promotions that you’ve recently developed. SomeexamplesforyoureNewsletterinclude:

Wehaveagreatwhitepaperon______youcandownloadfromoursite.

Ourblogpost about________isgeneratinga lotofbuzz.Check itouttoday.

We’rehavingacontestwhereyoucanwin______!Entertoday!

We’rehostingourmonthlywebinaron_______.Joinusat12p.m.July

8th!

UtilizeSocialVotingandBookmarkingSocial voting and bookmarking sites are a fantastic way to promote yourcontent.With someof these sites, contentcangain seriousmomentumas itgetsvotedupbythesite’susers.Everytimeyourecommendawebpagetooneof these sites, it createsabacklink to thatcontentpage.Sharing in thismannerisaneasywaytogetattentionforyourcontentwiththebenefitofthelink. At the very least, you shouldmake sure to share every piece of newcontentwithmultiplebookmarkingandvotingsitesforthatreasonalone.

Withalittlelegwork,however,youcanmakeevenbetteruseofthesesharingsites.Leveragingthesocialelementofvotingandbookmarkingcanbeveryadvantageous.With most sites, like Delicious.com, Digg.com, Reddit.com,andStumbleUpon.com(forthesepurposeswewillcallthemallvotingsites),youcannetworkwithusersbyfollowingthem.Theserelationshipscanhelpyougainvoterattentionforyourrecommendations.Themorevotesapageorpieceofcontentgets,thehigheruptherankingitwillgo,continuingtoattractevenmore attention.Themore attention your content gets, themore trafficyou’llget.

Onceyou’vepostedanewpageorURLonDiggandothersites,especiallyapage that you’re really proud of, reach out to your voting community.Announcethatyou’vejustrecommendedapieceofcontent,andaskthemtovoteforit.Andifyouhappentoknowsomepowerusersinanetwork,youmightsuggestyourcontenttothemonceinawhile,too.Theseareinfluentialuserswhohavea significant following, and they tend toget things to rank.Because they have somany followers, power users can boost your contentexposureexponentially.

IknowabloggerwhopostedsomepicturesofarareThailandParrotFlowertohis site (yes, theParrotFlower isa flower that looks likeparrot, and it’sawesome).Thepost tookhim just15minutes toput together,beingmostlyjustimagesoftheflower.Severalmonthslater,apoweruseronStumbleUponfoundtheblogpost,thoughtitwascool,andstumbledit.Within48hours,thepagehadreceivedanunprecedentedspikeintrafficof12,000visitors!Imageshavearealpropensityforviralsuccess,andcanoftenbesomeoftheeasiestcontenttocreate.Ifyoucanattracttheattentionofpoweruserswithcreativecontent,youcanincreaseyourchancesfordrivingtraffictoyourpages.Forapost like theParrotFlower,15minutesof effort could lead to thousandsofvisitorsifitgetsinfrontofapoweruser.

Togainafollowing,youneedtobeanactiveuserandbeginfollowingother

users.Establishinganetworktakesalittletimetogrow.Beagoodcitizenbyrecommendinginterestingcontent(andnotjustyourown)onaregularbasis,and you’ll soon develop a following. Active users on these sites aren’t aslikely to follow other userswho exclusively recommend their own contentandappeartoengagethecommunityonlyfortheirowngain.Tobeacredibleuser, your recommendations should be industry-related, but not exclusivelyyourowncontent.Mixitup.Interactregularlywithotherusersbyvotingupcontentthey’verecommended,too.

Ifyoudevoteenougheffort toestablishing relationshipswithin thesevotingsites,yourpromotioneffortscansnowballandyourcontentmayevenlandonthefrontpage.

ConclusionThesocialwebprovidesgreatopportunitiestoserveyourcontenttopotentialcustomers.People love toshare thecontent thatappeals to them,andsocialmediahassimplifiedsharing.Ifyougetyourcontentinthehandsoftherightperson,itcanspreadlikewildfire.Throughtargetedpitchesandsocialmediainteraction, you can increase your chances of landing your content in thespaceswherethatpersonislikelytobefound.

11

FindingtheRightDistributionChannelsforYourContent

“Great content is food for themind. It feeds the deep desires of people. Itenricheslives,solvesproblems,educates,andevenentertains.Greatcontenthas amagneticquality thatpoints the internal compassesofpeopledirectlytowardyourbusiness.

Peoplelovetodiscovernewideasthatcanhelpthemimprovethemselvesortheir businesses. Great free content – designed to provide your readerspreciselywhattheyseek–ishighlyvaluabletopeople.It’sagift.

Thecontentyousteadilyproducebecomesapowerfulfueltohelpyougrowamassiveaudience.Thatverysamefuelwillquicklytakeyourbusinesstonewplacesasyourreader-baseeatsitupwithgreatjoy.”

MichaelA.Stelzner,authorofLaunch:HowtoQuicklyPropelYourBusinessBeyond the Competition, Despite the Odds and founder ofSocialMediaExaminer.com

Atthispointyouhaveawesomecontentonyourwebsite.It’sgreatstuff–youshouldbeproudofit!It’stimetoopenupchannelswhereyoucandistributeyour ideas and claim even more real estate online. Distribution channelscreate more opportunities to deliver content to potential customers and topossiblyincludealinkbacktoyourproductsandservices.

I’mtalkingaboutfindingwaystoputyourcontent in thehandsofpotentialcustomers; inaddition tocreating freshcontent specifically topostonotherwebsites where potential customers can find it. The difference betweenpromotion and distribution is that promotion is all about generating a buzzaroundyourcontent,anddistributionisamatteroffindingalotofdifferentways toget your content to appear in the search results.Tomaximizeyourability to distribute your content, diversify or repurpose it so that you canreachavarietyofchannels.

Diversifyingyourdistributionchannelsgivesyou theopportunity to fill the

search results with your content. Your branded social media profile onFacebookoryourarticlepublishedattheHuffingtonPostmightjustoutranksimilar content on yourwebsite. If you have a diverse distribution strategyandyoutargettherightkeywords,youcouldpotentiallyfillthesearchresultspagewithyourcontent!

In this chapter, we discuss how to distribute content through social mediachannelstoanetworkoffollowersandhowtouseanRSSfeedonyoursite.Beyond distributing to social networks and followers, content can bedistributed through article publishing sites, video sites, and other kinds ofsites looking for specific content. By distributing content on numerousproperties,yourbusinesscanclaimmorerealestateonline.

CreateSocialProfilesandGetThemReadyforYourContentSocial media sites are not only great for promoting your content andgeneratingexcitement,theyareagreatwaytodirectlydistributeyourcontenttoyourfollowersandthesearchengines.Bysettingupbrandedsocialmediaprofiles,youcanupdateyourfollowersonnewcontentthatyou’vecreated.

Toexpandyourfootprintevenfurther,considerWeb2.0siteslikeSquidooorPosterous.Ineffect,thesesitesaskmemberstogeneratewebcontentintheirareaofexpertise,buildingaresourceforanyoneseekinginformationonanynumberoftopics,rangingfromfoodtophotography.

Thesetypesofsiteshavebeenaroundforquiteawhile,sustainedbyrevenuegeneratedthroughadvertisinginaquidproquorelationshipwiththewriters.However,thisisagoodtimeforawordofcaution.TheGooglePandaupdatein February 2011 targeted sites generally considered to be “content farms.”Sitesthatwerelitteredwithadvertisingandpoorcontentwerehammered,andrightfullyso.Myrecommendationisthatyoufindonlythestrongestsitesforyourspecificmarket, sites likeCafeMomandFanNation.Therearea lotofreallygood sites inyour industry looking forprofessional articles andevenblogposts.Takethetimetofindandbuildrelationshipswiththem.

Those niche sites, and even some sites likeSquidoo, allowyou to promoteyourcontentontheirsitebybeinganactivememberofthecommunity.Thesocialelementisincrediblyimportanttoyoursuccessonthesesites.Becausemembersarenotrequiredtobeexternallyrecognizedasanexpert,thesocialaspectofthesitehelpstovetthelegitimacyoftheindividual’sexpertise.Bybeingactiveandengagingwiththecommunityyouwillbedemonstratingthatyou’rearealpersonandnotspamming.Becauseofthesocialaspecttothesesites, great content always has the potential to get picked up and passed

aroundbythesiteusers,increasingitsoddsofgoingviral.

Toparticipateinthesedistributionchannels,memberscreateoriginalcontentabouttheirindustryandpostittothesite.Asanoffsitedistributionchannel,thewebsiterequiresthatyoucontributecontentspecificallywrittenforit.Thepublishers of these channels intend for the content to be unique and notsimply cut-and-pasted from other websites, including your own. Becausethese are social sites, spam gets called out very quickly. So, when youdevelop content for the site, make every effort to create new, interestingcontent that engages the social network. However, allow me to take thisopportunityonceagaintopraise thebeautyofrepurposing.Youcantakeanexistingpieceof textcontent, tweakitwithsomenew,originalcontent,andsubmitit.

So you can get the feel for this, let’s take a closer look at one example:Squidoo.

SquidooSquidoohasasomewhatunique takeonwebpages,describingusercontentpages as “lenses.”A lens is a page that is centered on a particular area ofinterest,andcanbeupdatedmultipletimeswithnewcontent.

Lensesarespecificallydistinguishedfromblogsbecausethecontentoughttobefocusedonthesubjectofthelensandupdatedonlytotheextentthatthetopiciscovered.Eachuser,or“lensmaster,”cancreatehundredsoflenses.

WhenworkinginSquidoo:

Besocialonthesite,andlearntheetiquetteforsocialactivity.SquidUoffersa lotof informationonhow tobesuccessful inSquidoo’s socialcircles.ThesocialaspectofSquidooistheNo.1waytogaincredibilityanddistinguishyourcontentfromspam.

Ask other lensmasters for feedback on your lens. This will get trafficcomingtoyourlensandhelpbuildafollowing.

Post multiple lenses. Establish keyword-specific lens titles that arespecific within the topic you’re targeting. Each lens is a single URL,whichmeansthatevenifyou’vepostedmultipleentriestothelens,theywillonlyamounttoasingleresultinthesearchengines.Bygeneratingmultiple lenses, which most lensmasters do, you will have moreopportunityforyour lenses tobefoundinsearch.Forexample, ifyour

topic is “Food & Cooking,” you can create a lens for “Over the TopBirthdayCakes,”andanotherfor“Knock‘EmDeadGraduationCakes.”

Consider donating income through Squidoo to a charity, if you don’tnecessarilyneedittorecoverthecostsassociatedwithmaintainingyourSquidoo activity. Your charity selection shows on your profile, and itneverhurtsabrandtobealtruistic.

TherearemanyothersimilarsitessuchasAbout.comandeHow.com,butthisexample gives you an idea of what can be possible with this kind ofdistribution media. By opening up places to create original content, yourbrandcansoarinsearch.

ArticlePublishingtheRightWayPeople turn to the Internet to find expert information for solutions to theirproblems, and you need to find as many outlets as possible to get yourinformation in front of them. As we discussed previously, sites such aseHow.com,About.comandSquidooprovidechannelsforexpertstodistributeadvice,instruction,andevencautiontothecuriouspubliclookingforanswersin their respective industries. The businessmodel for these sites is simple:Articles respond to a real need and, therefore, drive traffic to the site. Byrunningadssurroundingthesearticles,theycansustaintheirbusiness.

Because articles have a benefit to marketers, too, an entire industry hassprunguparoundarticlemarketing.Articlesareperceivedasexpertcontentandlendthatexpertauthoritytotheauthor.Ataminimum,mostarticlesitesallowwriters to include a link to awebsite at the end of the article in thebyline. So, every well-written article has the potential to strengthen abusiness’sbrandandfunneltargetedtrafficbacktothatbusiness’ssite.

Unfortunately, the article industry also has a dark side. Online marketersquicklyrealizedthepotentialforgaininglinksandbegansubmittingthesamearticletohundredsofthesesites,ignoringthequalityofthearticlealtogether.Asaresult,therearemanyarticlesitesthatsupportcontentthatisutterjunk.Thebettersiteshaveactualeditorsandpublicationpoliciesthatdisallowjunk,sharply cutting down on spam and raising the bar on article quality. Everyday, the search engines are working at determining the best sites and willdisplaytheircontent,whiletryingtoremovethejunksites.Googleisonthewarpathtocutdownonarticlesandcontentthatisjustpollutingtheweb.Inmyopinion,Google’sPandaupdatewasahugestepintherightdirectionandmadeawesome,compellingcontentmoreimportantthanever.

Articlepublishingtherightwaytakesa“rifleapproach”bydirectingquality,

targetedarticlestoreputablepublisherswiththeobjectiveof-positioningthewriter as the expert and funneling targeted traffic back to a website. Topublisharticlestherightway:

Writecreative,compellingarticlesthatconformtoallofthepublisher’sstandards.

Submitonlytoreputablesitesthathaveaneditorialprocess.

Takethetimetoeditandoptimizethearticlebeforeyoupublish.

Bymaintainingahigherstandardforthearticles,theywillbemorelikelytoappear in the search results and drive quality traffic to your site.Authenticarticleswill grab the reader’s attention andkeep them reading.Your articlewill take off when you get inspired and provide creative solutions to theproblems your potential customers’ experience. As an expert that offerscreative insights, you demonstrate your insider knowledge on how yourindustryworks,andyoubecomethetrustedsolution.

Don’tForgetToOptimizeItIt bears mentioning that the critical factor in article distribution is to haveyour article discovered in search. Obviously, this means it should beoptimizedforthekeywordsyou’retargeting.Hereareafewideastokeepinmind:

Keywords must appear in the article’s title, near the beginning of thetitle.

Writeforthereaderfirstandforemost,buttrytousethetargetkeywordphraseinthefirstparagraphandthenacouplemoretimesthroughoutthearticle.

DonotunderscoreorboldwordsinanefforttomakethemstandoutforSEOpurposes.

RSSforNewsandBlogFeedsReallySimpleSyndication,orRSS,hasbeenapartof theInternetformorethan a decade. In technology terms, that’s some serious longevity. As

technologyhasimprovedoverthoseyears,RSShasupdatedtokeepup,butthebasic ideahasremained thesame.Therearemillionsofblogsandotherprovidersofnewscontentontheweb.Whowantstospendtheirtimegoingdirectly toeverywebsiteandblogtocheckfornewcontent?Itmakesmoresensetohavenewcontentsentdirectlytoreaderssothattheycancheckintoone central location and then read the new stuff at their leisure.Asmobiledevices have grownmore sophisticated, and e-readers have hit themarket,RSShasbecometheultimatewayforpeopletokeepupwithnewsandblogs–anywhereandanytime.

Figure29:RSSFeeds

So it goes without saying that RSS and blog feeds are awesome ways todistribute your fresh content to the masses. Not only does RSS deliverupdatednewstosubscriberswhoarefollowingyourfeeds,butitcanalsobepicked up by feed catchers, widgets, and other applications that aggregateRSScontentbyspecifickeywords.RSSensuresthatyourcontentwillgettothepeoplewhowanttoreceiveit.ThebonuswithRSS,thankstoaggregators,is that ifyourposts areofgreatquality, it justmightcompel thatperson tofollowyourblogwhentheyfoundyourcontentintheiraggregatorinbox.

Encourageyoursitevisitorstostartfollowingyourfeeds!AllofyourpagesshouldhaveanRSSfeedicontoencourageRSSsubscriptions.Everypageofyoursiteshouldencourageuserstosharethecontent theyfindaswellas tosubscribetothefuturecontentyouwillprovide.

Withoutadoubt, ifyouhaveablog,you shouldmakeuseofanRSS feed.Most blog platforms such as Typepad,WordPress, orBlogger already havefeedcapabilitybuilt in.Allyouhave todo issetup thefeedandyourblogwillstarttransmitting.Allyournewpostswillflowthroughyourfeedsothatit immediately gets distributed to your RSS subscribers. Once you’veestablishedanRSSfeed,themaintenanceisminimal.Yourcontentgoesouttoyour subscribers and to feed-catchers looking for yourkeywords. Just as

fastasyoucandevelopcontent,yourRSSfeedpumpsitout.

RSS is great for getting content to subscribers, but wouldn’t it be great tohavesomeanalyticsonhowyourRSS isworking?Historically, ithasbeenchallengingtoknowmuchaboutsubscribersandtofindoutwhatarticlesarecatching their attention and which ones they skip over. Fortunately, onlineconverterslikeGoogle’sFeedBurnercanprovideyouwithanalyticsthatcanhelpshapethecontentyoudistributethroughRSS.Theseanalyticswillhelpyoudeterminewhichfeedsaregettingattentionfromsubscribers,andwho’sclickingthroughtoyoursitefromafeedtogetthewholearticle.Analyticsonwhat’sgainingthemostinterestfromsubscriberscanbeenormouslyhelpfulasyouconsiderfutureposts.

Video,PhotoandPodcastSharingSitesHopefully,bynowyouareeitherexcitedtostartorarealreadyproducinglotsof audio, video, and photo content for your site.Whether you’re reportingyour success at conferences in photos, interviewing industry experts withvideo,orissuingaudioversionsofyourcontentforthevisuallyimpaired,youwillhavesomefantasticcontentinavarietyofmediaformats.Itonlymakessensetoopenupdistributionchannelswhereyoucanpostthatsamecontentsimultaneously.

Figure30:ProduceContentinManyFormatsIncludingVideo,PhotosandPodcasts.

Once you’ve opened up these channels, you now have an incentive tocontinueproducingthesemediaforms.Asyouthinkofcontenttoputonyoursite, think in termsof thechannelsyouhaveopenedelsewhere (off-site) sothat you can distribute it broadly. If you have aYouTube channel, think ofcontent ideas that include video.When you have events, bring a camera topostphotostoyourFlickraccount.

Whenyou create customized, branded channels for showcasingyour video,photo, andaudiocontent,youaddmoreopportunities for that content tobediscoveredinsearch.Trytocreatecontentexperiencesthatcanbepostedonmultiple channels. The more channels you can employ, the larger yourfootprint.

Let’slookatsomeofthewaystoopenupthesechannels:

VideoisBoomingYouhearalotaboutvideo,inthisbookandeverywhereelse.Videocontentishighly visible and easily digestible. It’s a greatmedium for communicatingyour thought leadership, your expert know-how, and it’s probably themostentertainingwaytoconnect toyouraudience,openingupthepossibilityforcreative,funcontent.

Notonlyshouldyourvideosappearonyoursite,butyoushouldalsogetthemonto sites likeYouTube,Vimeo, and, if possible,MetaCafe.Video is easilyshareable, and for this reasonyou shouldmake asmuchuseof distributionchannelsaspossible.Videochannelscreatenumerousopportunitiesforyoutoengageyourviewersbeyondsimplypostingtotheirsites:

YouTube andVimeo both offer the ability for users to create brandedchannelswhereyoucanuploadyourvideocontent.Ifyouhaven’tdoneso already, set up branded channels for both sites. You can set upbackground images to showyour brand logo, and coordinate the colorthemetomatchyourbrandstyle.Whenyouoptimizethechannel,makesuretolinkbacktoyourwebsite.

Promote your video channels to gain followers. When you post newcontenttoyourchannel,yourfollowerswillbealertedtoit.

YouTube allows users to recommend content to their followers.Recommendingisaformofpromotion,andit’sgreatforafewreasons.First,it’safantasticwaytonetwork.Bypromotingotherusers’content,theymayreturn thefavor.Next, itkeepsyourchannelon theradar foryour followers. Ifyoudon’thaveanynewvideocontentofyourown,you can provide other, useful content that your followers might beinterestedin,givingthesensethatnewcontentisstillflowingfromyourchannel. As with any form of content promotion, if you keep therecommended content relevant to your audience, you reinforce yourthoughtleadershipinyourindustry.

Vimeooffersagroupfeature,similartoLinkedIn.Thecoolthingaboutgroupsisthatyoucanoftenpostnewvideostoagroupwithouthavingto be amember of the group. If you have relevant content, search forgroupsbykeywordandpostyourvideoto thegroup.Groupsmakeforexcellent targeteddistribution.Ifyouareactivelyproducingvideo,youshouldengageVimeogroups,bothby joininggroupsandhostingyourown. If you host your own, as with LinkedIn, the name of the groupshouldnotbeyourbusiness’sname;instead,useanindustry-relatedandkeyword-optimized name that will get people interested in joining thegroup. As a group owner, you’ll be responsible for moderating thecontent–soyou’llneedtoremainactivetokeepituptopar,especiallyifyouallownon-groupmemberstopostcontent.

Vimeoalsogivesyoutheability tocategorizeyourcontent.Makesureyou optimize for the relevant categories. Many video searches arenarrowed down by category. Without optimizing your category, youcouldbemissedinthesesearches.

MetaCafeisnotsetuptobeanopenvideo-sharingsitelikeVimeoandYouTube. Rather, it’s designed to be an entertainment hub for shortvideos.Userscanuploadvideocontentbycategory,butitwillgetpostedonlyafter review.So there’snoguarantee that itwillbeposted. Ifyouhave content that is going to be entertaining andhighquality, you cansubmitthecontenttoMetaCafe.Dependingonthequalityofthecontentyouproduce,youmaybeabletojoinasamediapartner,inwhichcaseyou can have a branded channel. The bar is pretty high for quality atMetaCafe, asmuch of the content is derived from television and filmclips. But don’t discount it if you are developing quality, entertainingvideo.Thesitehasahow-tosectionthatcouldprovideopportunitiesforyoutopromoteyourexpertisewhileprovidinglight-heartedcontent.

When it comes to video, remember to repurpose.Repurposing a videointerview to textor toaudio isagreatway togetmoremileageoutofyourvideocontent.Likewise, ifyouhaveagreatpieceof textcontent,try having a dynamic person in your organization present it in videoformat.When you repurpose other media content to video, rememberthat thepresenter shouldn’t dictate themessage into the camera.Makesuretheydosomethingtokeepthevideofrombeingboring,evenifthatmeanstheysimplyworkatawhiteboard.

DistributionPossibilitiesforImagesIfyou’vedevelopedsomecool,originalphotos,youshouldbesharingthem.Photo-sharing is a great way to keep people engaged with the excitementthat’s happening in and around your industry. Photo-sharing sites center onthe concept of the photo album. Many users engage these sites to collectphotosoftheirmemoriesforthepurposeofsharingthemwiththefriendsintheirnetworks.For this reason,photosand imagesareextremelyshareable.When you take advantage of photo-distribution channels, like Flickr,Photobucket,andPicasa,younotonlyraisethevisibilityofyourcontentbutalsoencourageittobeshared.

Photo sites offer a lot of ways to organize, optimize for search, and shareimages.Whenyoudistributeyourcontentonthesechannels,takeadvantageoftheoptions.Optimizingimagesmightseemlikeextrawork,butthepayoffcanbewellworththeeffort.Notonlywillyouincreaseyouropportunitiestobefoundinsearch,butyou’llalsoenliventheexperiencefortheviewers:

Almosteveryphoto-sharingsitemakesiteasytopublishphotostoothersocialmediasiteslikeFacebookandTwitter.Thiscanmakeitasnapto

expandyourdistribution throughoutyoursocialmedia footprint.Whenyoupublishcontenttoaphotosite,sharethephotostoyoursocialmediaplatforms to let your networks know that you have newphoto contentavailableforviewing.

Mostsiteshavea“places”taglinkedtoGooglemapsandothermapsforphoto albums. This is a fantastic way to add dimension to photos,especially when you bring them back from an event away from yourheadquarters. Say your staff attended a conference in Dallas and tookphotosoftheexperience.Optimizingthealbumforlocationwillmakeitmoreengagingforusers,andasearchforyourcontentbythatcitywillbringupyourimages.

Make sure to use the description feature for each photo you publish.Makeyourdescriptionnatural,butbekeyword-conscious.Descriptionsare the critical information that search engines use for identifyingrelevanceandcangetyourphotosintothesearchresults.

Sites like Flickr use category tags to aid searching. Make sure youoptimize your images for tags. Category tags are another way to getimagesfoundinsearchbyaddingrelevance.

Podcasting:YourOwnPrivateRadioBroadcastPeoplealloverarekeepinguponindustrynewsthroughaudio.Bydeliveringaudio files to these listeners, you can capture an important niche audience.Typically,people listen topodcastswhenit isn’tpossible toengage inotherformsofmedia,liketextandvideo.Byprovidingyourcontentinthisformat,youcanmakeyourcontentavailabletoyourpotentialcustomersevenwhenthey are away from their computer. To take full advantage of podcastdistribution:

Keepinmindthatpodcastingevolvedrapidlywiththeinventionof theiPod. Essentially, podcasting centers on an audio RSS feed from yoursite.When you set up a RSS feed for your audio, you are effectivelybroadcastingyouraudiofileovertheInternet.Anyonewithapodcatcherthat’ssettosearchforyourfeedorkeywordsinyourfeedwilldownloadyourfile.Butthat’snottheonlywaythatpeoplepickuppodcasts.ManyusersgotopodcastdirectorieslikeiTunesandPodcastAlleytobrowsepodcasts to download. You want to ensure that you’ve established

accountswiththesesitesandsetthemuptoreceiveyourfeed.Thisway,yourfeedwillgonotonlytoindividualswithpodcatchersbutwillalsobeavailabletoanyonebrowsingthedirectorysites.

When you set up the feed from your site, be sure that the metadatadescription of the episode is optimized for your target keywords. Asalways, the title should be natural for the human reader browsingdirectories,butitshouldcontainkeywordsthatwillget itpickedupbypodcatchers searching for your term. Because most browsers usekeywordstofindpodcaststofollowindirectories,youneedtooptimizeforthem,too.

Foreachdirectoryyouregisterwith,you’llbeabletogiveyourpodcastchannelatitle,description,andalinkbacktoyourwebpages.Thetitleshouldbeoptimizedtobecatchybutalsoexpressataglancethenatureof the content that you’ll be providing. Your description should be ashort,meatydescriptionofyouroffering.Youwanttoattractalisteneratthis point, so your description shouldbebothpragmatic and attention-getting.

Whenyousetupanaccountwithpodcastdirectories,youdon’talwayshavetheopportunitytoestablishabrandedchannel,butwithiTunes,youdo.iTunesistheMeccaforpodcasts,anditmakessensethatyou’dgetsome great features there. To set up an account and a feed, iTunesrequiresanimageascoverart(300x300pixels).Thisisyourchancetoincludeyourbrandlogo,andtosplashsomecolorontothepage.

Themediumattemptstomimictheideaofaradiobroadcast,andforthatreason podcasts are geared toward episodes; in fact, that’s the termiTunesusestodescribeeachfile.Yourbrandedchannel,then,willworkwell as an industry news channel, which will allow you to repurposemuchofyourcontenttoanaudioformatandstillstaywithinthescopeofyourchanneldescription.

Onceyoustarttransmittingpodcasts,don’tslowdown.Whenyougainafollowing,theywillexpectregularcontentdelivery.Infact,iTunesstatesthatitfavorspodcaststhatgetfrequentcontentupdatesandwillreducesearchrankingsforpodcaststhathavenotprovidedcontentinawhile.

Presentation-SharingSites

Forbusinesstobusiness,slideshowsarethewaytoknock‘emdeadwithyourexpertise.Notonlyisthisawaytodiversifyyourdistributionbypostingyourslideshow presentations, but you can also find creative ways to usepresentation-sharingsitestodistributecontentbeyondtraditionalslideshows.The fact is that slideshows are gaining popularity outside of B2B becausetheycontaineasilydigestibletextwithgraphicimages.

ThebulkofcontentsharedonSlideShareandotherpresentation-sharing-sitesisthetraditionalpresentation.However,I’veseensomeverycreativeusesforslideshowsthatgobeyondpresentations.Forexample,traveloguesarefindingtheirwayintotheslideshowformat.Theyworkwellbecausethetravelercanpost pictures from a trip and add text descriptions of the experience. Asanother example, President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address wasturned into a slideshow46, complete with enhanced infographics, todemonstrate the key figures he discussed in his address. Somepeople havedeliveredeBooks,whitepapersandevenproductcomparisonsasslideshows.

Sites like SlideShare.net, MyPlick.com and AuthorStream.com offerfunctionalitythatcanenhancetheold-fashionedslideshowandturnitintoanawesomedistributionchannel:

Somesitesenableyoutoaddandsynchronizeaudiotopresentationstomakethemmoredynamic.

Somesiteswillallowyoutoconvertpresentationstovideoforuploadingtovideo-sharingsites,makingitsimpletorepurposethesamecontentinmultipleformats.

SlideShare allows paying customers, for a relatively low fee, to haveaccesstoleadgenthroughtheshow,addinganotherincentivetousethatsite.

Userscancommentontheslideshow.

Text content is extracted and searchable on some sites, likeMyPlick,makingkeywordphraseswithinthepresentationsearchable.

SlideSharehasawidgetforLinkedIn,puttingyourslidesrightonyourLinkedInprofile.

ConclusionThe core message for distribution is, “Find ways to get it out there!” Themoreyoucapitalizeonthemyriadonlinechannelsfordistribution,themoreyouwillputyourgreatcontent in thehandsof thepotentialcustomerswhoneedit.Distributioniswhereyougettoshowyourbrand’sabilitytodeliverindustrywisdom.Themoreyoucreatecontentfordistribution,orrepurposecontentfordistributiononmultiplechannels,themoreyourbrandwillshowupinsearch,andthemoreopportunitiesyou’llcreateforsharing.Youhavegreatcontent–getitoutwhereitcanbediscovered!

12

LinksMeanMoreOpportunityForVisibilityAndSuccess

“Whenyouthinkaboutit,linkshaveaprettyheavyjobdescription.Theyareworkhorses;movingmillionsofpeopleaday throughbillionsofwebpagesandhelpingbothhumansandsearchenginesdeterminewhata“quality”pageis.

Whenalotoflinkspointtoapage,thepageisseenasavaluablecommodityandbecomesagaugeandaguideforotherstoseekfavorfrom.Thesepagesarehighlydesiredaslinkpartners;youwantthemarketingvaluetheyimpartandthealgorithmicpopularitytheypassalong.

Thischapterwillhelpyouidentifykeyelementsofaqualitypageandprovideacoreofprovenstrategiesandtacticsyoucanimplementtobuildlinks.”

DebraMastaler,Alliance-Link/LinkSpielBlog

ThewayIlookatit,therightkindoflinkbuildingisallcenteredoncreatingexcellent, quality content that has inherent value to the person linking to it(and their audience). The industry term for this kind of content is“linkworthy.” I like to thinkof linkbuildingasa rewardsprogramforyourcontent. Do it right, and you’ll get rewarded with relevant, traffic drivinglinkstoyourcontent.Highqualitylinksaretherightway–andthebestway–tomakeyourcontentriseinsearchenginerankings.

Asignificantpartof contentmarketing involvesachieving these links.Linkbuildinghastraditionallymeantthatyoureachouttoawebsiteandaskthemto link to you. Part of link acquisition today has included paying for linksbecausewebsiteownersunderstandthevalueofhavinglinks.But thisoftenleads to bad practices and low-quality links. In fact, Google will penalizewebsitesthatbothsellandbuylinks.Thebestalternativetopayingforalinkisgeneratinglinkworthycontent.

Thinkaboutit.IfIcontactyouandaskyoutolinktomywebpage,thefirstthingyou’regoingtothinkinthebackofyourheadis,well,whyshouldI?

Linkworthycontentalreadyanswers thatquestion. Ifmycontentaddsvalueto the audience of thewebsite I’m reaching out to, then it will benefit thewebsitebyenhancingthecontentonitspageand,ultimately, theexperienceforitsvisitors.Thecontentstandsoutasinterestingtotheiraudiencesotheywouldreadilybewillingtolinktoit.

Top-notchcontentmakes thestrongestcaseforgettingnatural links, that is,links from genuinely interested website owners or editors. Linkworthycontentgenerallygetsmorelinksfromavarietyofdifferentsources,whichisenormouslyvaluabletoyourrankingsandoverallsuccess.Andthetrafficthatthose links generate typically attracts a better potential customer. Put theeffortinatthecontentdevelopmentstagetomakeyourcontentrock,andthelinkswillfollow.

RemembertheAnchorTextAnchor text (thewords that thesiteowneruses tohyperlink toyou,usuallycoloredblueandunderlined)isoneofthestrongestfactorsthatwillhelpyourankinthesearchresultsforyourtargetkeywords.Unfortunately,youcan’talways control which keywords the website owner will use in the link’sanchortexttoyourwebsite.

Whenthekeywordinalink’sanchortextmatchesthekeywordyourpageisoptimizedfor,Googlerecognizesthatthisisagoodlinkrelationship,givingthelinkahighervalue.Forexample, ifIwanttorankfortheterm“contentmarketing,”Iwanttheanchortextonasmanysitesaspossibletocontainthatphrase in their links tomypage. Idon’tnecessarilywant theanchor text tosay,“CheckoutArnieKuenn’ssiteformore”or,worse,“Clickhere.”

It turnsout thatAdoberanksstrongest insearch for thephrase“clickhere”becauseeveryonelinkstothefreeAdobeReaderdownloadwiththecommonphrase: “To get a free copy of Adobe Reader, click here.” There’s no talkabout “click here” on Adobe’s page, and they didn’t optimize for it, butGoogleseestheaccumulationofallthelinksgoingtothatpageforthattermandthinksthatit’sthemostimportantpageintheworldforthatterm.Clearly,Google recognizes the connection between the anchor text and the URL itreferences, so keep it in the back of your mind when making links andrequesting them. On a refreshing note, most webmasters understand yourneeds,too,andtheymayrespectyourrequest.Chancesare,they’veaskedforlinksoftheirown.

InternalLinks–theEasiestLinkstoGet!Before we get into tactics for building external links to your content, let’sbackthetruckupasecond.Letmeremindyouthatyouownawebsitewith

multiple pages of content over which you have complete control. Throughinternal linking,youhave theability togenerate links toyourowncontent,andyoucontrolexactlywhat’s in theanchor text.A lotofpeople fretaboutbuilding links to their siteandcompletelymiss thebigopportunity tobuildlinksinternally–andthesearetheeasiestlinkstoget!

I’lladmitthatit’snotexactlyobviousthatinternallinkscanbenefityoursite.Weoftenthinkofinternallinksaspragmatic,naturalwaystomoveavisitorthrough our sitewith the goal of funneling them to a sale. That’s certainlytrue.ButGooglerecognizesinternallinkswhenitindexesyourpages,andthealgorithmcountsthemhighly.Internallinksnotonlyguidevisitorstocontentpagesonyoursitebutthebotsfollowthem,too.Internallinkskeepthebotsmovingthroughyourpages,thusincreasingyourexposure.Bylinkingtoyourown content from within your own content, you give visitors – and searchengines–achancetoexploreandengage.

Thebest part about internal links is that you canbuild them right now!Ofcourse,whenyoudevelopthenextpieceofcontentforyoursite,you’llfindwaystostrategicallylinktoyourcontent.ButIactuallymeanrightnowwhenI say “right now.” Go back to your existing pages, and find natural linkopportunities that are there as we speak. Tweak those pages to makeconnections,payingcloseattentiontotheanchortext.Besuretheanchortextforeachlinkisoptimizedforthepageyou’relinkingto.Thismeansthatafteryoufinishthischapter,youcangoimmediatelytocreatelinkstoyourcontentandthatyouhavecompletecontroloverthewholeprocess!

I’ve seenmany people try to cheat the search engines over the years, evenwithinternallinks.Internallinkingaddsvalueonlywhenit’swithinthepagecontent, not filling up the navigation or headers and footers. Sometimes,peoplethinkthatbyaddingabunchoflinksinthefooterorothernavigationalelements,they’rebuildinglinks,butactuallytheycouldgetpenalizedforthis.Thebestinternallinksappearnaturallywithinthetext.

JuiceUp!HowtoPrioritizeYourEffortsBasedonaLink’sValueYour strategy for seeking offsite link opportunities begins with link juice.“Juice”isanindustrytermforratingthevaluethatsearchenginesattributetoany particular link. The more “juice” a link has, the more value searchenginesgiveitasafactorinranking.

Thinkof“juice”intermsofourbikinganalogy.Whenyousaddleupforabigride,youhavesomeoptionsforfillingyourwaterbottle.Youcouldcertainlyfill it with water, but the human body needs more than just water for

hydration.Withoutelectrolytes,wateralonewon’tgetyouveryfar,andifyouover-exertyourselfintheheat,youcanactuallydoyourbodysomeharmbydrinkingwateralone.Ifyou’regoingtoridehard,you’dbebetterofffillingyour water bottle with a sports drink that adds electrolytes and sugars toreplenish what gets lost in perspiration and to add energy to give you theabilitytoperformatyourbest.Linkjuiceislikeasportsdrinkforyourlinkbuildingeffort.

Here’s how link juice works: When search engines evaluate a page forranking,theyhavetodeterminethepage’srelevanceandvaluecomparedtootherpagesthatarerankingforthesamekeyword.Becauselinksmakeoneofthebestdeterminersofoverallvalue, thesearchengine looksat the links toeachpage.Let’s imagine that twopagesarecompetingfor theNo.1searchresult for a given keyword. Now imagine that both pages have the samenumber of sites linking to them. How would the search engine determinewhichofthetwopagesisthemostvaluabletoasearcher?

Thesearchengineeffectivelychecksthebacklinkstoeachpagelinkingtoit.If thefirstpage isgettinga linkfromapagethathas20links to it,andthesecondpageisgettingalinkfromapagethathasonlyfivelinkstoit,thenthefirstpageisgettingmorelinkjuice.Thesearchengineconsidersapagethat’sgettinga lotof linksfromqualitysites tobemoreauthoritative thanapagethat’sgettingfewerlinks,andsoifthatpagelinkstoanotherpage,itaddstheweightofitsauthoritytotherelevance.Linkjuiceissimplyameasurementofthisauthority.

Figure31:LinkJuice,Source:WebsiteRockStars

Linkjuiceisn’tjustaboutthenumberoflinkscomingin.It’salsoaboutthequalityof those links.Spamsites that link toapagecount lowfor juiceor,more likely, for no juice at all. On the other hand, some domains areconsidered by the search engines to be automatically big on link juice.Educational sites (with theextension .edu),government (.gov), andmilitary(.mil)sitesappeartooffermorelinkjuice.Itisgenerallyfeltthatthosepagesarehighlygovernedandwillnotlinktojustanyone(studentblogpagesbeingthebigexception).

Whenyou’rebuildinglinkstoyourpages,juiceup!Lookforpagesthataregoingtogiveyouthemostbangforyourbuckwithsearchengines.Whenyouresearchpagesthatmightconsiderlinkingtoyourlinkworthycontent,checkforjuiciness.Laterinthischapter,we’lltalkaboutwaystotargetsomeofthedomains that have the highest juice, andwe’ll get into targeting pages thathavesuccessfullyattractedlinkstotheirowncontent.

BlogandForumParticipationBlogsandforumsoffersomenicelinkbuildingpossibilities.Notonlydoyouhavethechancetoaddalinktoyourowncontentwhileparticipatinginthesespaces,but asyoudevelop relationshipswithin thesecommunities,youcan

make personalized requests for links, offering you a greater likelihood ofgaininganin-contentlink.

Whenyouparticipateinblogandforumcommunities,don’tmissthechancetodeliveralinkbacktoyourpagethatisrelevantandontopic.Thelinkyouadd should point to interesting content that will actively contribute to theconversationathand.Inyourcomment,engagethetopicandbrieflyexplainhow your content can contribute or is a solution to the problem beingdiscussed. This will not only keep the comment from being disallowed asspam, but alsowill give viewersmore incentive to follow the link to yourpage.Bygivingcommentsthatdemonstrateyourknowledgeof theindustryandprovidelinkstovaluablecontent,you’llbuildlinkstherightway.

Commentingisanimportantpartofparticipationinblogsandforums,butthelong-term benefit is that it will develop relationships with bloggers andparticipants.Yourcommentsandcontributionstotheconversationsofferyourcontent as a solution or enhancement of the topic, positioning you as theexpert.Togetthere,yourcommentsmustbevaluabletothecommunity,andthelinksyouoffertoyourcontentshouldfitinwiththeconversation.Ifyoudon’tparticipatetherightway,itwillhurtyourcredibility.

When you remain in good standing in these communities, the relationshipsyoubuildwillopenupopportunitiesforlinkrequests.Youcanapproachtheindividualsthatyouhaveengagedwithtowriteaboutyourmagneticcontent.And,becausetheyrecognizeyouasanupstandingmemberofthecommunity,thesepeoplewillbemorelikelytohonoryourrequesttoputyourkeywordsintheanchortext.

This strategy for networking with bloggers and forums is a great way toincrease targeted traffic to your pages. By focusing on the network ofbloggersandforumsinyourniche,youknowthatwhenyourcommentsareviewed – and better yet,when bloggers agree to link to your content – thelinksthatarecreatedwillbeinspacesinwhichyourpotentialcustomerswillbelooking.You’llbeprovidingdirectsolutionstothepeoplewhowantthemthemost.

UsingBookmarkingandVotingSitesforLinkBuildingMore than likely you and the employees at your organization arebookmarkingstuffyoufindonline,creatingalistofbookmarksorfavoritesofthe pages you like. So, what’s happening is you’re creating links to thosepages!Suddenlythelightgoeson,“Youmean,IcansimplyrecommendmynewcontenttosocialbookmarkingsiteseverytimeIhavesomethingnewtoofferandI’llgeneratealinktomycontent?Anditcangoviral?Getout.Forreal?”

Yes.Forreal!

Idiscussed thisquiteabit inchapter tenasawaytopromoteyourcontent,butwheneveryou recommendaURL to abookmarkingorvoting site, likeDelicious.com, StumbleUpon.com, Buzz.Yahoo.com, Digg.com, orReddit.com, you generate a link to your content. It sounds pretty simple,doesn’tit?Wellitis.Youcanusesocialbookmarkingasatooltobuildlinkstoyourcontent,justbypostingit.Fortheshortrun,itwillgetyoualink;forthe long run, it’s great to use social bookmarking sites to promote yourcontent.

Since linkworthy content is your goal, social bookmarking is a fantasticshowcaseforyourcontent.Quitehonestly,there’snoreasonnottobookmarkyournewcontent.Itonlycanserveyouwell.Socialbookmarkinggivesyourcontentachancetogetalotofattentionandsomelinks.Themoreenergyyouinvestinbookmarking,thebetterthereturn.

CompetitiveResearchandBacklinkAnalysisIfIcanimpartanythingtoyouonthesubjectoflinkrequests, it isthatyouwanttofocusonlinkswithalotofjuicethatwillresultintargetedtraffictoyourwebsite.Thismeansthatbeforeyoucanmakealinkrequest,youhavetoknowalittlebitaboutthewebsiteyou’rerequestingitfrom:

Whatkindof traffic is thepagegetting? Is it thekindof site thatwillbenefityoursitewithtargetedtraffic?

Whatkindofjuicedoesthepagehave?

Aretheylinkingtoyourcompetition?Iftheylikewhatyourcompetitorsare offering for content, it’s likely that those same people would beinterestedinlinkingtoyou.

Backlinkanalysisisthewaytoanswerallthesequestions.Backlinkanalysisissimplyamatteroflookingatthelinkscomingintoapage.Byinvestigatingwho’slinkingtopagesthataresimilartoyours,youcandiscoveralotaboutwhat’sworking for that page, and then you can inferwhatmightwork foryourowncontent.

UsingtoolslikeSEOmoz’sOpenSiteExplorer47andYahoo!SiteExplorer48,youcanenteranyURLtoseethelinkstothatpage.Yahoo!SiteExplorerisafreeservice,whileSEOmozhassomefreeandpaid-forservices.Nonetheless,bothof these tools offer you the ability to enter aURLand findoutwho’s

linkingtoit.Youthencanrunasecond-levelbacklinkanalysisonanyoneofthepageslinkingtothatpage.Thisway,youcanevaluateoneURLandsee,forexample,thatit’sgettinglinkedtoby,say120pages,whileanotherpageis only getting 20 links of its own. This gives you the ability to track andtargetthestrongestpage.

Figure32:OpenSiteExplorerResultsforHuffingtonPost

On topof linkanalysis,OpenSiteExplorergivesyou theability to see theanchor text associated with the inbound links. This can give you a bigadvantageasyouconsider thebestanchor text tosuggestforyourownlinkrequest.Asyouresearchacompetitor’spagethathascontentsimilartoyours,theanchor textwillgiveyoucluesas tohowthepeoplewhoare linking tothat kind of content are likely to refer to it. This can help you optimizekeywords,andthisdatacanhelpyouanticipatehowthenaturallinkismade,in theevent that thewebsiteownermakes thedecision to link in theirownway.

Agoodlinkbuildingstrategystartswithanalyzingthelinkscomingintoyourcompetitor’s pages, using the tools described above. Competitor analysisservestwovaluablefunctions.First,ithelpsyouseewhatkindofcontenthassuccessfullyattractedlinkstoyourcompetitor’spagessothatyoucangetonboardandtargetsimilarcontent.Second,it’saboutdiscoveringwho’slinkingtoyourcompetitor’spagessothatyoucanapproachthemwithyourcontent.

Links are a great litmus test for the success of a piece of content. If it’sinteresting,chancesareitwillattractlinks;similarly,ifapieceofcontenthasa lot of links to it, it’s probably interesting to its audience.Asyoudevelopqualitycontent,youneedtokeepinmindwhatkindofcontentishotinyourindustry.Onewaytofindoutisbyspyingonyourcompetition.Bycheckingthebacklinkstotheirpages,youcanseewhatseemstobeworkingforthem,andwhat’sworkingforyourindustry.

Asyou look to targetwebsiteowners for link requests, itwouldbegood toknow whether or not those individuals would have interest in the content

you’re offering, right? Through competitive analysis, you can search yourcompetitor’spagesforcontentsimilartothepieceyouwanttobuildlinksto.Then,checkoutwho’slinkingtotheircontent.Mostoftentheselinkswillbefrom others who are interested in the page content or their site’s targetaudience would find the content interesting because it pertains to theirindustry.Theseareexactlythepeoplewhoyouwanttotargetforlinkrequestsbecauseyouknowthey’realreadyinterested.

Yourcompetitorsgiveyouaclearsenseofwhat’sattractingattentioninyourindustry,butyoucangobeyondyourcompetitorsandseekoutsimilarcontentonotherwebsitestoo.Findoutwho’slinkingtothosepages,andwhy.Iftheyareinterestedinsimilarcontent,theymaybeinterestedinyours.

Here’sanexample:Let’ssayyouownahipcocktailsupplyshopsellinghigh-endmixersandaccessorieslikemuddlersandshakers.Aspartofyourcontentstrategy, you’ve developed a video about techniques for muddling certainpopularingredients,likemint,limes,andcucumbers.Nowyouwanttobuildsome links to your new content. So, you go to theweb to find pageswithsimilar content. In this case, you’d be looking for a video or other contentcenteredonbarware,drinkprep,andevenpartyhosting.Whenyoufindpagessimilartoyours,youcananalyzewho’slinkingtothemandwhy.Thepeoplewhohavelinkedtoapageonbarwaremightbeveryinterestedinavideoontechniquesformuddling,andthosearethebestpeopletoapproachforlinks.

At the core of a good link building campaign is research and analysis. Byspendingthetimetosearchoutsitesthatareshowinginterestinthekindofcontent that you have to offer, you can most effectively identify pages toapproachwith link requests.Through trackingcontent that’salreadygettinglinks,youcanidentifywhatkindofcontentsuccessfullyattractslinksinyourindustrysothatyoucanbesuretodevelopcontentthatwillfitin.

TheRealMeatandPotatoesofLinkBuilding:SearchOperatorsNowit’stimetogetatadtechnicalonyou.Whenyou’rehoninginonsitesthatmightbe interested inyourcontent,youcansearchforpagesonlineonwhich to perform some backlink analysis.As youmay have found in yourownday-to-daysearches,standardkeywordsearchesdon’talwaysleadtotheresultsyou’reafter.Ifyou’relookingforsomethingspecific,youcanspendalot of time refining your keyword search and shuffling through pages ofresultswithlittleluck.

Search operators provide a way to narrow down your search in a searchengine that goes beyond simple keyword phrases. Search operators are

commands that are entered with the keyword phrase to refine the searchresultstoamorespecificset.Thereareliterallyhundredsofcommandsthatyoucanemploytorefineasearch.Youcanevenusemultiplesearchoperatorstogetuber-specific.

We aren’t going to go into detail about specific search operators, because,trustme, therearea ton,and it’sbeyondthescopeof thisbook. Instead,beaware thatsearchoperatorsare tools that theprosuse,andyoushouldkeeptheminyourtoolbox.Attheendofthissection,I’llleaveyouwithsomelinkstosomepagesthatbreakdownsearchoperatorsindetailandgiveyousomegreat examples for application. For now, I’ll give you a few examples ofsearchoperatorsinactiontogiveyouasenseofhowtheycangetappliedinyourresearch:

Let’s say I have an infographic that I want to spread around to localcoffee shops. In this case, my business is located in Phoenix, so Iconductasearchusinganoperatorthatwillincludetheterm“Phoenix”and“café”or“Coffee”intheURL.Iwanttotargetpagesthatarelinkingout to or about cool coffee-related content, so I’d start off with anoperatorlikethisandexploretheresults:Phoenixinurl:cafeORcoffee

Whenyou’relookingforblogstoengagewith,youwanttofindablogpost that is on topicwith your newpiece of content. In this case, youwanttofindablogpostthatspecificallyhasyourkeywords(let’ssayinthis case thekeywordsare “internet cafe”) in thepage titleof thepostbecause you think this will get you closest to the topic at hand. Youwould use the search operator to look at BlogSpot blogs:allintitle:internetcafe+site:blogspot.com.

Inanothercase,wewanttotargetcollegestudentsinthePhoenixmetroarea by offering them a discount on our coffee when they use apromotioncodeandshowtheirstudentID.Tofindcollegesthatwillbewillingtolinktoourcontent,wewanttofindcollegesthatarewillingtolinktopagesthatofferdiscountstostudents.Oursearchoperatorwouldlooklikethis:phoenixstudentdiscountsite:.edu

Therearethousandsofcombinationsofsearchoperatorsyoucanuse,andittakesquiteabitofcreativitytousethemwell.Ifyouwouldlikeadeepdiveinto link building and search operators, check out Ontolo’s Link BuildingBook49, byGarretFrenchandBenWills.The following sites are alsogreatplacestobeginlearningaboutsomeofthenitty-grittyofsearchoperators:

http://jameseo.com/13-search-operators-ultimate-link-building/

http://www.michaelwall.co.uk/seo/search-operators-for-seo-linkbuilding/

http://seohimanshu.com/2010/08/10/10000-search-engine-queries-for-your-link-building-campaign/

http://ontolo.com/link-building-tools/LinkBuildingQueryGenerator

HowtoSendaLinkRequestThatDoesn’tGetDeletedNow that you’ve targeted somewebsites to approach, you’re ready to sendthatrequest.

Youmightthink,“Well,theoddsareslimthatmyrequestgetspickedup,soI’ll targetalotofpotentialsitesandfireoffawholebunchofemails.SinceI’mgoingtobedoingsomany,I’ll justmakeabasicboiler-plateemailandsendthat.IfIgetlinksfromafewofthem,I’llbehappy.”Wecancallthisthescatteringourseedstothewindapproach(orspamming).Sure,itcanworktoasmallextent.But the truth is that forall thehardworkofresearchingandidentifying potential sites to request links from, itwould be almost silly tosendoutyour requests expecting sucha lowhit rate.Not tomention that aboilerplateemailreallydoesn’tconvinceanyonethatyourcontentisrightfortheirsiteortheiraudience,nordoesitconveyyourprideinyourwork.

Why not craft a link request that doesn’t get deleted?Whywaste all yourresearcheffort?

Making link requests starts by taking the high road: produce quality,linkworthy content. This is the very first step to getting your link requesthonored. If your content sucks, no onewillwant to link to it, right?Whenyourcontentrocks,it’sjustbeggingforlinks.Allitneedsistobeshowntothe rightpeople.Whenyou’vegot that rockin’ content, follow these tips tomakealinkrequestthatisboundtotakeoff:

TARGETtherightsite.Throughbloggerandforumengagement,andthroughresearch,targetsitesthatarelikelytobeinterestedinthecontentyouhavetooffer.Remembertovisittheirsiteandgettoknowitbeforeyoufireoffyourrequest,inordertobesurethatyourcontentwillbeofinteresttotheiraudience.Whenyoumaketherequest,positionyourselftoshowthatthelinkthatyouwantthemtoaddtotheirsiteisgoingtobe

goodfortheirsite.Youwantittosoundlikeit’ssovaluabletothemthatthey’dmissoutonafantasticopportunityiftheywerenottolinktoyou.You should be able to saywith confidence: “Hey, you should add thislinktoyoursitebecauseIknowyouraudienceisgoingtoloveit.”

Make it PERSONAL. Find a name. If you’re tapping your bloggingnetwork, you probably already have a relationship that you can callupon.Ifyou’rereachingouttosomeonenew,youmayhavetobemoreproactive to findoutwho the real contact shouldbe, i.e.Davehandlesthewebsite,soemailDave,notwebmaster@company.com.Youwanttoprovethatyou’velookedatthewebsite.Aswediscussedinchapterten,youmaybe able to usemedia lists to findout contact information forbloggers,ifyouarehavingtroublefindingarealnameotherwise.

BENEFITthewebmaster.Whileyou’recheckingoutthesitetoseeifitfits your content, see if there’s a little tidying they coulddo.Thiswillhelpstrengthenyoureffort toshowthewebmasterthat theywillbethebiggestbeneficiaryofyourefforts.Forexample,checklinksofthepagetoseeifanyareoutofdateandbroken.Youmightbeabletoofferyourlink as amore up-to-date replacement. By helpingwebmasters updatetheircontent,youmayfindtheywanttoreturnthefavorbypostingyourlink.Evenifthelinkyoumightwanttoreplaceisnotbrokenbutinyourpitch you include a heads-up on some links that are broken, you stillsavethewebmastersomework,andtheyoftenappreciateit.Once,Ihadsomeonesay,“Iwasn’tactuallyplanningtoaddyourlink,butthenyoustartedgivingmeall thisgoodadvice,soIhad to linktoyou;IwouldsuckifIdidn’t,sinceyouhelpedmeout!”(Actualquote.)

Share the LINK LOVE. As discussed in chapter 10, a big part ofrelationshipbuildingbeginswith linking fromyourpage to theirpage.Bloggerswill know that you’vedone this, and they’ll likely return thefavor when the time comes for you tomake a request. If you can begenerouswith linking toother sites, thegoodkarmacancomeback toyou.Asinlove,beagiver.Itonlyworksinyourfavor!

ConclusionIn some circles, link building has developed a bit of a bad reputation, butthat’snothowithastobe.Youcantakethehighroadandbuildlinkstoyourcontentwithaclearconscience!Infact,whenyoushowsomeself-respectandmanagetherelationshipsyoudevelopwithbloggers, insocialmedia,andin

your industry in general, you can earn a reputation for doing business therightway.Whenyoupairupyourawesomecontentwithareputationforlinkbuilding the right way, you’ll only serve to strengthen your position as anindustryexpert.Whenbloggersthinkhighlyofyou,it’slikegettingword-of-mouthadvertisingonsteroids!Webmastersget inundatedwithspammylinkbuildingrequestsallthetime–howmuchmorewilltheyrespectthepersonwhosendsaconsideratelinkbuildingrequestthatstandsoutfromthecrowd?

13

ConclusionWedidit!We’vewalkedthrougheachimportantlinkinthechainofacontentmarketingstrategy.IfIcouldleaveyouwithonepartingthought,itwouldbethis:Youarenowinthepublishingbusiness.

Mygoal inwriting this book is to get you thinking like a publisher and toencourage you to take on a content marketingmindset. By embracing thisapproach,you’llfindinspirationinthepossibilitiesallaroundyou.Aboveall,Iwanttogetyouexcitedaboutcreating.

Successfulpublishingisaboutconsistentquality.Whenyoudoitright–whenyoustriveforquality–you’llproducecontentthatcompelspeopletoshareiton social media, that attracts links, and that meets the real needs of yourcustomers,positioningyouasthecriticalsolutionprovider.Thebottomlineisthat you’re publishing in order to create conversations in which you canengageastheexpert.

Onceyoustart thinkinglikeapublisher,getorganizedlikeapublisher!Justask a sharp content strategist and she will tell you that you’ll never get acontentmarketingstrategyoffthegroundwithoutbeingorganized.Youneedto have a plan.At the center of any publication, and the key to keeping itorganized, is the editorial calendar. I can’t emphasize that enough. Theeditorialcalendaris thehubofactivityforyouronlinepublishingeffort.Bytreatingyourcontentmarketingstrategylikeapublishingoperation,youwillfindthesenseofengagementandcommitmentthat’snecessarytogetthejobdone.Thebeautyoftheeditorialcalendaristhatithighlightsthepublicationprocess,revealingwhereyou’resucceedingandwhereyoucanfindwaystoimproveyourefforts.

WhenyoustepbackandlookatallthelinksinthechainI’vedescribedinthisbook,it’sclearthatthere’salotgoingon.Idon’tdenyitcanseemdaunting.Anditis–ifyouaren’torganized.Therearesimplytoomanymovingparts.An editorial calendarwill help you visualize the process andwill help youmanage the content cycle. From research to content development topromotionanddistribution,itallfallsonthecalendar.Plotoutyourcalendar,andyou’llseetheconvergenceofsearch,social,andcontentmarketingrightbeforeyoureyes.Asyouseethelinksinthechainworkingtogether(strategy,research, content creation, optimization, promotion, distribution, links, and

measurement),itwillbequiteclearwhyIsay,“Don’tbreakthechain!”

Publishing is about finding opportunities to be creative. Every piece ofcontentisanopportunityformorecontent.It’sinspirationforyournextpiece.Repurposing is an awesome way to multiply your creative efforts byspreadingtheexcitementtonewformsondifferentchannels.

BUT YOU CANNOT DO IT ALL. Even though I have tried to covereverythingrelatedtosearch,socialandcontent,youjustcannotdoitall.OurcompanydoesnotdoitallandIdoubtevenlargeorganizationsdoitall.Justpickafewtypesofcontentthatyouthinkyoucanmoveallthewaythroughthechainwithahighdegreeofqualityandconsistencyandfocusonthose.Ifthere is one single thing Iwould recommendyou startwith, it’s your blog.Getoneonyourwebsiteandcommittopostingsomethingnewtwotimesperweek.Ifyoucandothat,youareoffandrunning.

Hey,attheendoftheday,creatingengagingcontentisfun!It’syourbusinesstodemonstratethatyouhaveexpert industryknowledge,andthat’snotonlysomething to be proud of, it’s something to have fun with.We at VerticalMeasuresconsideredthepublishingofmybooktobeanoccasionforcreatingnewcontentthatwouldexciteouraudience,openinganavenuetoputsomeofouronlineaudienceinthebook!Youcouldsaythatthisbookaccomplisheswhatitpromotes.Ontheotherhand,youcouldjustsaythatIhaveacontentmarketingmindset!

MarketingThatMovesYou:TheFacebookContestTo show you just how fun creating content can be, we chose to run aFacebookcontesttopromotemybook.TitledMarketingthatMovesYou,thegoal of the contest was to discover some the best examples of contentmarketing that really excite people. Participantswere encouraged to submitexamples of content marketing from any organization they felt was reallydoingitright.Bulbstorm50developedthecontestplatform,buildingitintotheVerticalMeasuresFacebookpage51.ParticipantssimplyhadtobecomeafanofVerticalMeasures inorder to enter.Wedidn’t require them to submit anentry, but they could engage in other ways and gain points by voting forentries,commenting,sharingthecontest,andparticipatinginotheractivities.There weremore than 500 prizes in the prize vault that participants couldclaimwiththeirpoints.ThetwograndprizesincludedanAmazonKindle,aFlip video camera, recognition in this book, and free passes tomust-attendmarketingeventsaroundthecountry.

By the time the contest closed,more than 100 entries had been submitted,rangingfromvideocampaigns,tocontests,togreatinformationalcontent.Wewereoverwhelmedbytheresponsewereceived.Itbroughttolighthowmany

people and organizations are recognizing the importance of contentmarketing.

Thewinningentrywas submittedby JamesHaddox, fromall places,NorthPole, Alaska. The content James submitted was for a Cheez-It® campaigncalledChoosetheCheese52,createdtoencouragefanstopickthenextCheez-It®flavor.Withachoiceofthreeflavors–Asiago,ColbyorRomano–fanscouldselectafavoriteandmultiplytheirvotebyplayingavarietyofgames.Thetop50votersinthecontestwouldreceiveayear’ssupplyofCheez-It®crackers.

Withsomanycompaniesengagingtheiraudienceswithawesomecontent,itwasdifficultforourjudgestochoosethegrand-prizewinner.WhatdrewustoCheez-It® was that it is a large, established company that has been doingbusiness for years. They have secured name-brand recognition for theirproduct,packagedinthatcharacteristicredbox.Now,withthiscampaign,thecompanywasembracinganewwayofmarketing,exploringthepossibilitiesthatcontentmarketingcancreateforacompanyofanysize, largeorsmall.Whilewe’veallbeenaccustomedtoseeing thesameofoldcheddarCheez-Its®,nowwe,thepeople,havethepowertochoosethenewestflavor!

Thatisexactlywhatcontentmarketingisallabout:Givingyouraudiencethepower tomake themost informeddecisionsaboutyourbrand.Thatkindofcontentexcitespeopleandkeepsthemcomingbackformore.

Andthegoodnewsisyoudon’thavetobeamulti-nationalcorporationtodothat. Anyone can do it with a computer, an Internet connection, anddetermination. You can do it. This book has given you the tools – andhopefullythemotivation.Nowit’syourturn!

AFinalNote–It’saDigitalPublishingWorldYoumightbewonderingwhyIdecidedtoself-publishratherthangowithatraditionalpublisher.Letmeexplain.

OurcompanywasexploringtheconceptofofferingeBookconsultingaspartofourclientservices.SowhynotstartwithourowneBooks?Just tomakethisa full-fledgedchallenge,wedecided towriteandpublishfive“howto”booksontopicsspecific to thesearch,socialandcontent industry.(Youcanfindthosebookslistedonthefollowingpage.)ThenIdecidedtojointhefunbywritingthisbook.

WeliveinthefastchangingworldofInternetmarketingandknewwehadtoget the books published as quickly as possible after writing them, so youcould have the timeliest information possible. In addition, during the 4thquarter of 2010,Amazon announced that theKindlewas their number one

sellingproductof all time.Shortly thereafter,Googleannounced theirbookselling strategy called Google Books and of course Apple has rolled outiBooksfortheirdevices.Theninearly2011,AmazonannouncedthateBookshadjustoutsoldtraditionalpaperbasedbooks,anditoutsoldhardcoversbyafactor of three to one.All of this led us to the decision of abandoning theworldoftraditionalpublisherstogowithselforon-demandpublishing.

While I love my Kindle and the convenience it and other eBook readersprovide,andtrulylovesavingtrees,Iunderstandthereisstillsomethingtobesaidforholdingabook,readingthatbookwhileeveryoneelsehastoshutofftheirelectronicdevicesduringtake-offandlanding,andeasilysharingbookswithyourfriends.Sowearealsoprovidingaprintoptionforallofourbooks.

WhyamItellingyouallofthis?Partiallytoexplainwhyyoudon’tseeahardcoverversionofthisbookfromamajorpublisher,butmostlytoexplainthatyoucandothistoo!I’dthoughtaboutwritingabookovertheyearsbutnever,everthoughtI’dactuallydoit.Ievenjotteddownsomeideasforbooksinthepast,butInevertookitveryseriouslybecauseIthoughtitwascomplicated,wouldneverbeabletoconvinceapublishertotakeonmybookidea,andofcoursedidnotseemtohavethetime.Ifthatsoundslikeyou,Iamtellingyou,youcandothis.Andifyouarereadingthis,itmeansIdiditandnowIcanshow you how to do it too. It’s just a matter of making a commitment -makingitapriority.

This leaves me to my final words. Many years ago, I jotted down thisobservation:

“Thefundamentaldifferencebetweentwoindividualsistheorderoftheirpriorities.”Changeyourstodayandgetstartedonthatbook!

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Footnotes

1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Egyptian_revolution

2VanessaFox,MarketingintheAgeofGoogle,

3BrianSolis,EngageorDie

4http://www.intentindex.com

5KristinaHalvorsonpresentation

6AndreiBroder,ATaxonomyofWebSearch

7http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=156184

8http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html

9JamesMatthewson,etal,Audience,Relevance,andSearch

10http://labs.wordtracker.com/keyword-questions

11http://answers.yahoo.com/

12http://www.linkedin.com/

13http://www.facebook.com/questions/

14http://www.quora.com/

15http://digg.com/

16http://www.reddit.com/

17http://www.mixx.com/

18http://www.stumbleupon.com

19http://www.delicious.com/

20http://www.techterms.com/definition/cloudcomputing

21https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

22http://www.google.com/insights/search

23http://www.google.com/trends

24http://www.seomoz.org/keyword-difficulty/

25http://adlab.msn.com/online-commercial-intention/

26http://adlab.msn.com/Keyword-Mutation-Detection

27http://adlab.msn.com/Demographics-Prediction/

28http://clues.yahoo.com

29ChrisAnderson,Wired,http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/about.html

30http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=145673

31http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=93633

32 http://www.verticalmeasures.com/link-building/race-for-the-best-link-2010/

33http://www.woot.com/

34http://www.verticalmeasures.com/webinars/

35http://www.verticalmeasures.com/resources/seo-best-practices-guide/

36http://www.w3.org/html/logo/

37http://www.apple.com/about/webbadges/

38http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/webbadges

39http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org/?page=aboutus

40KristinaHalvorson,ContentStrategyfortheWeb,155

41http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Site_map

42http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/bin/topic.py?topic=8909

43www.themotorlodge.com

44http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Motor-Lodge/168575485275

45http://windmillnetworking.com/linkedin-book/

46 http://www.slideshare.net/thecroaker/obamas-state-of-the-union-address-2011

47http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/

48https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com

49http://ontolo.com/link-building-book

50http://www.bulbstorm.com/

51http://www.facebook.com/verticalmeasures

52http://apps.facebook.com/choosethecheese/