For a very long time I've espoused the notion that intent is the core to a good content marketing strategy. Having good intent means you are creating a good resource for your current and potential customers. This will lead to revisits and sharing. While good intent remains incredibly valuable, the meaning of your content has rising value that may someday eclipse intent. Meaning is the collective value that is placed upon your content. Collective being the filter of people placing value on your content by listing it or sharing it.
Search will likely remain very important but its influence will continue to erode as personal networks create the meaning filter consumers are craving. As self-described webthropologist Stowe Boyd puts it "Google is only the echo of our linking behavior, a second-order derivative of our combined gestures." This is, of course, true. If you think about how a search engine works, most web properties are spidered by a search engine 'bot. What the spider "sees" is put into an algorithm that spits out a result when we search for a topic. Part of that algorithm addresses the content on the page. Another part looks at the linkage that your content has with other sites. As hard as search companies try, they can't completely remove gaming from blackhat SEO marketers and others who are trying to manipulate the results. Sadly, spam and lower quality/manipulated search results start to bubble to the top instead of well intended content.
Add user behavior and expectations to the mix. With the increased role of social networks - and their inspired link sharing from friend to friend - you have a recipe for a new way for people to locate content. This points to a future we know is coming where the generations that will soon be in the consumer driver's seat have finely-honed BS filters, the smarts to get to the truth and the willingness to share what they know. This type of customer behavior will sink businesses that hide from their customers and thwart their employees from truly engaging internally and externally. Yes, via meaning.
So what to do as a content provider? First up and low hanging: Continue to hold to your intent to provide helpful, resource-rich content and make it simple to interact with and share. The value of owning your hub of information will not diminish.
More long term, include your people in the process so they can be willing, helpful filters for your content within their networks. This means you will need to trust. At the end of the day, it is because of mistrust that people are relying more and more upon their trusted connections to filter the world. Why not provide a reason you can be trusted by trusting the very people who make up your company?
In the end, meaning will provide the elusive means by which to find, maintain and nurture customers for long-term enriching relationships. Now's as good a time as any to start down the meaning path.
The power went out at my house in Arizona a couple hours ago. Apparently a transformer exploded. I threw blankets on the fridge, grabbed my 'puter and drove to a Starbucks to continue working. Oh - I forgot to mention it's 110 degrees out.
As QR codes become mainstream, there remain many questions about what a QR code is and how best to add them to marketing campaigns. If you've decided to actually implement a true campaign, be certain to include these thoughts in your planning:
Social Marketing is a customer-expectation more and more each day. Businesses are acknowledging the value SM brings but have taken differing paths implementing how they are getting there. Some are "doing" social while others are "being" social. Which are you?
While good intent remains incredibly valuable, the meaning of your content has rising value that may someday eclipse intent. Meaning is the collective value that is placed upon your content. Collective being the filter of people placing value on your content by listing it or sharing it.
The Twitterverse is abuzz with pronouncements regarding the need for email marketing in the post-social media world. Platitudes of "Email marketing is dead" fall in the stream almost as often as "Emails get more website traffic than Social Media" - as with most arguments, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
7 blogs that have impacted my view of online marketing in ways I cannot begin to describe - nor give proper thanks for sharing what they know. Trust me on this one, my friends, if you don't subscribe to these blogs, you will miss out on some of the best online marketing information available.
If you haven't followed Google search lately, you are in for a couple surprises. Not long ago, Google announced implementation of Instant and Place Search - both of which will impact your site's search results in pretty big ways.
-Use your customer's perspective -Use simple, conversational language -Ensure facts are accurate -Run a spell check -Use Images/Video reflecting content -Use humor appropriately
This is the start of a series of posts about creating good online content. I'm pretty certain it will be helpful to most people just starting out - and the experts may learn a thing or two as well... Read More
SaveOurStarbucks.com played a role in Starbucks' good decision to reach out to its customers with a smart customer trust rebuilding campaign. And further proof that creating an easy way for direct customer communication is critical for success in today's environment. Read More
When discussing what marketing strategy is most effective, the concept of Content Marketing cannot be overlooked as it is the core for any online marketing strategy. Content Marketing's aim is to provide a resource for your customer so they with engage with you, visit you repeatedly and purchase your goods or services. New research shows how critical this is now and will be in the future.
To prove this point, we created an experiment that tested what Odden calls "frugalism" - in this case we were frugal with engagement time and resources and proved how deadly that sin can be.
The moral of the story is that you need to cultivate your online conversations in a way that reflects your in-person conversations. This means you need to conduct yourself in a way that makes you attractive to others. Don't be a broadcast bore. Don't only talk about yourself, Don't forget to say thank you now and then. And most importantly, think of two way communications as worthy of your time and energy. If you don't, you will lose out on the value of maintaining relationships.
As I've discussed over and over, social media communication should be viewed no differently than real life communication. As such, the basics of people skills will serve you well. Read More
My thoughts on this subject remain pretty strong - no matter how much advice a person can read or hear, failure is the best teacher when it comes to a Social Media Strategy. Read More
This article came about because of client reaction to another post and points out the importance of responding to client feedback. It also addresses 4 very important Social Network realities.
Using social media to distribute the content of your website is a proven formula for success. However, don't just think of adding content as one-way communication - that is so old-school... Read More
This series of articles were originally published on www.loudclick.net. They have become some of the most popular pages on the site. In this series. we concentrate not on every detail but on the features you will interact with frequently and those that provide you a basis to know how it can make your website successful. Read More
Social Marketing is a customer-expectation more and more each day. Businesses are acknowledging the value SM brings but have taken differing paths implementing how they are getting there. Some are "doing" social while others are "being" social. Which are you?
While good intent remains incredibly valuable, the meaning of your content has rising value that may someday eclipse intent. Meaning is the collective value that is placed upon your content. Collective being the filter of people placing value on your content by listing it or sharing it.
7 blogs that have impacted my view of online marketing in ways I cannot begin to describe - nor give proper thanks for sharing what they know. Trust me on this one, my friends, if you don't subscribe to these blogs, you will miss out on some of the best online marketing information available.
If you haven't followed Google search lately, you are in for a couple surprises. Not long ago, Google announced implementation of Instant and Place Search - both of which will impact your site's search results in pretty big ways.
I recently sent my 1000th Tweet, an occasion allowing me to revisit the 
SaveOurStarbucks.com played a role in Starbucks' good decision to reach out to its customers with a smart customer trust rebuilding campaign. And further proof that creating an easy way for direct customer communication is critical for success in today's environment. 
When discussing what marketing strategy is most effective, the concept of Content Marketing cannot be overlooked as it is the core for any online marketing strategy. Content Marketing's aim is to provide a resource for your customer so they with engage with you, visit you repeatedly and purchase your goods or services. New research shows how critical this is now and will be in the future.
To prove this point, we created an experiment that tested what Odden calls "frugalism" - in this case we were frugal with engagement time and resources and proved how deadly that sin can be.
The moral of the story is that you need to cultivate your online conversations in a way that reflects your in-person conversations. This means you need to conduct yourself in a way that makes you attractive to others. Don't be a broadcast bore. Don't only talk about yourself, Don't forget to say thank you now and then. And most importantly, think of two way communications as worthy of your time and energy. If you don't, you will lose out on the value of maintaining relationships.
As I've discussed over and over, social media communication should be viewed no differently than real life communication. As such, the basics of people skills will serve you well. 
This 2-part series focuses on making your site's content as searchable as possible. Some may call this Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 
Using social media to distribute the content of your website is a proven formula for success. However, don't just think of adding content as one-way communication - that is so old-school... 
This series of articles were originally published on 
