Greg and I did an hour on an overview of content marketing.
We discussed what makes good content marketing. We also looked at examples of how other companies are doing content marketing. And then we wrap up with different kinds of content marketing you can do.
The complete session is here:
With any kind of luck I’ll be live streaming this session from 6:30-8:30pm Eastern time, Thursday, March 21 on Ustream.
I did! I did get to stream it!
If you didn’t make it to the Hudson Library and need an SEO refresher, you might give these videos a look:
I’m speaking as part of the Hudson Library speaker series they do.
This has become a very well regarded series in our region. They always have really cool people speaking.
I’ve been lucky to be part of the series 3 times now.
Tonight, I’m doing a presentation on: The top 10 things you should know about SEO for your small business.
I’m seriously considering doing a live stream of the session from my phone on my Ustream channel. The biggest issue with that is what kind of Verizon service they have there. If I can get a solid 4G signal I might just try it.
If I stream it live I’ll post the link to the live session at the top of this blog post and I’ll tweet it out.
This is a two hour session. So getting to 10 points in two hours makes for a bit of a whirlwind. But it should also make it pretty fun.
I thought I’d wet your whistle for the event by listing the top 10 of these points.
I’m pretty much just going to bullet point them here. But we’ll go into more detail of each at the event.
OK. Here you go the top 10 things your small business should know about about SEO:
Youtube suggested search
Google Suggested Search
Google Related Searches
Google Places for Business
This is the most important thing you can do in local search.
Claim Your Business Listing On Yelp
Bing uses Yelp for its local listings. So having a good local listing at Yelp is going to help you on Bing.
8. Understand why people buy things. If you understand why they buy, you can understand what will motivate people to think you have compelling content. Read this article: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2118094/makes-people-reasons
9. Use Slideshare to get ideas for content. There’s a ton of great content over there… probably in your industry. You can use those presentations as inspiration for content for your site.
10. Write in-depth, long, thoughtful articles. Google is looking for the most relevant content. That is usually the most thorough article. “How to” articles are great. You probably will have better luck creating one great article a month versus 20 quick articles.
So there you have it: The Top 10 Things You Should Know About SEO For Your Small Business.
I’ve been yelling about businesses needing to become publishers.
Unless you’re a big brand, it’s going to be the only way to get into Google’s organic results.
Please read this and check out the example businesses:
Stealing images interests me a lot.
I often ask classes of marketers what they think of the act of using other people’s images.
I mean Pinterest made an entire business out of letting people steal images.
The general consensus seems to be that today you expect and hope people steal your stuff.
It is the hopeful part of your marketing plan… That is until a giant corporation steals your stuff to make tons of money.
Like this:
Pacific Northwest dance-rock act YACHT have accused big-box store Kohl’s of ripping them off.
http://pitchfork.com/news/49831-yacht-accuse-kohls-of-ripping-them-off-big-time/
That’s against every socially accepted practice in the book.
The rule is: steal stuff as much as you want, until you start making money off of it. That’s the line.
That line is becoming thinner and grayer every day. But a big box store taking your stuff and selling it without your permission is in a whole other world.
Just the same: this is one of the best thing that will probably ever happen to this band. We should all be so lucky to have a major retailer stupidly steal our stuff. This is PR gold for YACHT.
Bing It On: Win, Lose, or Draw?
We’re not sure if you’ve heard of the latest marketing campaign by Microsoft or not but they have recently released “The Bing Challenge.” It’s also known by the catchphrase “Bing It On.”
Regardless of what you call it, it’s pretty straightforward and here at SageRock, we’ve decided to reward you for participating. (No, neither company is paying us to do this.)
Here’s the deal:
Bing wants you to use their search engine instead of using Google (duh), and is proposing to take it on one search at a time. You put in a search term, and Bing shows you two separate results: one from Google, one from Bing. You then are asked to choose which one you liked the best. The catch? You aren’t told which is which until the very end.
Want to Participate in the SageRock Contest?
Don’t worry, it’s very simple. You are going to take the Bing Challenge with your own searches, but based around our suggestions. Why? For science! (or something) After you complete the Bing It On Challenge, take a screenshot of your final screen and send it to: bingiton@sagerock.com
The winner (chosen at random) will get either a Google or a Bing Coffee Mug, depending on their results*
Here’s the Step by Step Guide:
We will compile all entries into a blog post giving the results at the end of March. We will also give the winner(chosen at random) either a Google or a Bing coffee mug depending on what their results were.
Best of luck to all of you!
*The Winner will be chosen at random but we will combine all entries into a future Blog post to showcase the outcome and determine who the winner really is!