80. Social Networks
Data and charts of our Facebook and Twitter account performance via http://export.ly
81. Social News / Bookmarking
http://news.ycombinator.com, http://delicious.com, http://stumbleupon.com and
http://reddit.com have historically performed best for us, but you should test results
83. Conferences & Events
Days at the Office
7%
Days in Transit
43%
32%
Days Speaking at Conferences
Other Days Out of Office
19%
Distribution of Gillian’s Workdays 2011
89. Design Like an Award Winner
Check out http://google.com/search?q=css+gallery for tons of great galleries and inspiration
90. Involve a Sharing-Incented Community
The brilliant strategy by http://www.urbanspoon.com made them one of the biggest players in
the local restaurant business and got them acquired by IAC
112. Q+A
iStrategy2012
60 days to play w/Mozzers
(…and kick off your own community)
• Twitter: @SEOmom
• Blog: www.seomoz.org/blog
• Email: gillian@seomoz.org
Editor's Notes
We’re the world’s most popular provider of search marketing software, covering everything from technical SEO issues to social media monitoring, We serve SMBs to Fortune 100 enterprises with actionable information, community support, tools and monitoring platform to make search marketing faster, easier, and more effective. We don’t do any consulting.
Social Media does not create or change the story of a company
What is the ‘truth’ that Social Media is spreading so efficiently? It’s the truth about the nature of a company or brand. That’s what it’s spreading
The nature of a company can sometimes be found in its guiding principles
But whether it’s nature is codified in written tenets or not
The nature of a company is always found in its processes and the nature of its customer service.
It merely increases the speed with which the message travels
…and the breadth of the coverage of the message
The common conversation around Social Media is often centered on tactical advice
Select platforms
Target markets
Likes are the new links
Depth + breadth of engagement = ROI
Etc. And these conversations ARE important… and we’re going to hear a lot about the tactics that work and those that don’t from amazingly transparent and generous marketers of some pretty powerful brands here today. In advance, I’m going to say, “thank you.” What you share today will not only improve the professional lives of us in your audience, but elevate your brands in our eyes.
To kick things off this AM, I’m going to talk about the Nature of Social Media – what it does and how it does it…
Let’s begin by taking a long view on the word ‘community’ and some related terms. Here’s a cosmic cluster… perhaps a ‘community’ of stars. Are clusters community? Perhaps not.Photo credit: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?&t=25161
From the infinitely great to the very, very small. Is a cluster of cells a ‘community’? Perhaps not as well. But I hope you’re already beginning to think more deeply about the concept of community and communication between organisms.http://talk-technology.blogspot.com/2012/01/biologists-replicate-key-evolutionary.html
This aspen tree cluster is very interesting. The trees on the surface appear to be separate organisms, but in truth, everything you see here and for many miles around is connected by a single tree root system. Is it a single plant? Many plants sharing a survival resource system? A ‘community’ of organismsperhaps able to survive on their own, but ‘choosing’ to connect – ‘choosing’ to be interdependent In order to truly thrive?
Here’s the story of how SEOmoz built the world’s largest brand in search marketing software using Social Media - Inbound marketing.
1981. I opened a small consultancy
I raised 3 children under my desk
I taught the children, “If you share, you will get more”.
In 1993, I became involved in a web startup. That made me a Grand Dame of Internet Marketing… you know: I was there 60 seconds before the next guy.
In 1999, Rand Fishkin joined the company; we added websites to our corporate identity work
Rand was already searching for the idea that would make his mark in the new economy
He wrote in his first online bio on our website:The future of the Internet is as unimaginable today, as the future of flight at the turn of the last century. We have the opportunity to populate this new universe, unfettered by the laws of physics. I take that opportunity as an obligation.”I cried. I (kid) down. Two to go.
In 2001, the dot-com bubble burst and I wet out to make the rain fall while we continued to search for our BHAG.
We designed, authored, developed, deployed, managed, marketed, and maintained our clients’ websites. We made our living by taking a percentage of adjusted gross online sales.
That meant the sites had to be found in the SERPs.We farmed out the SEO project to 4 companies, none of which could do the job.
So Rand studied the subject.He learned it so well, that a competitor of one of our clients posted this help wanted ad:Anyone who wants to go head to head against Rand Fishkin for the term Hard Money, apply here.
We climbed out of ‘The Dip’, into profitability
2003 Rand begins to write SEOmoz.org to share what he’s learning about SEO with others. Opening comments and allowing others to blog generates interest from intelligent, capable SEOs
2002. Rand blogs every day
2003. Rand continues to blog every day
2004. Rand continues to blog every day
2004. Rand continues to blog every day
2005.Danny Sullivan invites Rand to attend SES NYC
MysteryGuest suggests wearing Yellow Shoes
November, 2005. A colleague suggests Newsweek interview Rand and SEOmoz. Issue: Dec 2006
2006. Rand publishes SEOmoz income numbers on the blog.
2007.Brand of Rand Fishkin / SEOmoz.org increases and gets on VC’s radar and the company is funded.
REPUTATION IS STICKY2011. People still remember this amazing transparency. When Rand ‘live blogged’ our 2010 and 2011 failed forays into additional investment, people around the world remembered the first publication of our SEO consultancy numbers and applauded our continued transparency.
Rand increases his social reach. Sharing good news, bad news, shockingly poor news… transparency became the hallmark of the ‘Moz brand.
So far, sharing and being transparent about what would seem to logical human beings to be disastrous choices, have started to pay off.
With 20-20 hindsight, I can tell you this story with some clarity and insight into how you can create and leverage the value of online brand communities.
SEOmoz’ basic stats – without placing a single ‘paid ad’ until late 2010.
Tactics.
We accomplished it through ALL the pieces of inbound marketing. This includes SEO and email marketing as well as what we’d now call ‘traditional’ social media marketing.
There are now about 15 regular paid contributors to the SEOmoz blog, some inhouse and some outsourced.
We cull industry leaders to develop industry-standard information around the subject. Think about information about your industry that you’d give your eye teeth to know… and share that.
Humans thrive on regularity. A good piece of video content is good. A REGULARLY SCHEDULED good piece of content is sticky.
Pssst… these are the MONEY SLIDES!
Comment deeply. Liking something or saying, “That’s cool” is insufficient. Damned it vs. damned you: never cross the line.
We track social activity using SimplyMeasured.com – free analytics reports.
http://news.ycombinator.com, http://delicious.com, http://stumbleupon.com and http://reddit.com have historically performed best for us, but you should test results
Stay focused on the basics. Don’t ignore good site architecture, valuable, well written and displayed content, solid link building by connecting with trustworthy domains with solid Domain Authority. You don’t beg for links – you EARN them. Hence the term, Earned Media Marketing.
Stay focused on the basics. Don’t ignore good site architecture, valuable, well written and displayed content, solid link building by connecting with trustworthy, strong domains on the web.
Be the center of the conversation. Since the blog must be of the highest order (Exceptional Work), we created YOUmoz to accept the ideas and research efforts of our community. We use ‘game theory’ to vote up and promote excellent posts to the main blog. Keep it fluid. Your community manager must have discretionary power.
It’s not interesting if you talk to your facebook fans.
It’s also not interesting if they talk back to you
Communities become interesting – in other words, solid and valuable – when the members talk TO EACH OTHER.
Be the center of the conversation. Since the blog must be of the highest order (Exceptional Work), we created YOUmoz to accept the ideas and research efforts of our community. We use ‘game theory’ to vote up and promote excellent posts to the main blog. Keep it fluid. Your community manager must have discretionary power.
Mozcation, Post-It Wars, and RogerBot are all demonstrations of the FUN concept at SEOmoz. Be sure you mindfully create representations of the message you’re trying to portray. Fun IS perfect for esoteric b2b products and services.
Post-It Wars – sometimes we create social media events even when we’re not trying.
Post-It Wars, a demonstrations of the FUN concept at SEOmoz.
Linkscape is the flagship tool of SEOmoz. It powers not only the ‘Moz toolset and platform, but many of the other toolsets via our API. Roger Mozbot was created to explain that we don’t scrape Google or any other Search Engine to provide Linkscape data.
Cartoons - Linkscape, the thing that could not be done – the BHAG. IMO, for an esoteric B2B company, having all the ‘fun’ elements without having some serious game under the hood would backfire.We have fun with the product launch. And we get as ‘salesy’ as we’ve ever been.
2010 – We attempt to raise money and share how we do it. That was easy.
2011 – We blow it again. And share it again. That’s not so easy.
Mozilla has another billboard on Union Square that reads: Dot com brains. Dot org heart
Build it form the inside out. We hire for TAGFEE first
If you start your community as a for-profit company, consider creating a ‘pirate ship’ inside your organization to create the community around it. Keep it silo’d. Connect it when you’re ready.
Build the dot-org first. Keep thinking like a .org
Mozcation, Post-It Wars, and RogerBot are all demonstrations of the FUN concept at SEOmoz. Be sure you mindfully create representations of the message you’re trying to portray. Fun IS perfect for esoteric b2b products and services.
Support your most loyal fans, regardless of how they express themselves.
Build it form the inside out. We hire for TAGFEE first
Build a culture of: "These are the right traits for the people who work here. These are the people who work out and the people who do not.”
Build it form the inside out. We hire for TAGFEE first