Social Media Content Marketing

Winning an Olympic medal is an amazing achievement by athletes who have dedicated years to win the highest honor in their chosen sport. For businesses, the Top spot on a Google search in their product or service is now viewed as their digital Gold Medal. With talent, proper training, great coaching, and perseverance over time, finishing in the gold for an Olympic athlete is possible . Getting to the top of a common Google search may not be tougher, but it certainly isn't as straightforward. Longevity weighs heavy in Google algorithms for search engine results page (SERP) placement. If you have been established selling your product on the web longer than anyone, that bodes well for you. The main factor is of course relevance.  In addition to your website's age is it's relative content.  Then add in the basics of the desired keyword in your domain name, several other meta data factors, and the relevant companies and organizations that link, but that's just t...

In Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror film The Birds , a town is paralyzed when birds viciously attack unsuspecting citizens. A remake of sorts is being done online and it's called The Tweets. Designed to give the common man a voice to be heard, Twitter has now become a loaded gun for politicians and celebrities with which to shoot their feet. Everyday, bad tweets seem be pecking their way into the media creating more havoc and ill-will than promotion. Certainly some are bigger offenders than others, but it's not just the orange-crested loons making bad tweets. It's companies too. So what's a bad tweet and how do you rebound from them? Think of Twitter as a ticker tape to the world. It's a great way to quickly communicate with customers, vendors, fans, etc. Recently a well known marketing automation company released a tweet with "four-letter" words. It was trying to stand out with a catchy play on words, maybe appeal to a younger crowd I suppos...

Watch a millennial's face when their cell phone rings.  First, it takes them a second to realize what that sound is. Then you may witness a range of emotions, anywhere from confusion to annoyance to complete panic. One thing's for sure though. They won't answer. Actually fewer and fewer people do use their mobile phones to talk.  That's why phone carriers give you unlimited minutes now. ( And you thought it was because you were a loyal customer .)  Oh sure, that annoying business guy with the double non-fat, two Splenda upside down latte, who likes to broadcast his "win/win, no-brainer" deal to you and everyone else in earshot at the coffee shop still yaks on the phone but it's just part of the image he's brandishing.  But "live audio messaging" as it is better described now is passe. "So who are you listening to these days?," they ask as I walk on by with my earbuds on. "Uhm...another pe...

I did a search, clicked a link, and that website I just visited wants to know who I am. And when it asked, I ran. Or least, close the tab and moved on. Though their intent is most likely not for nefarious purposes, many websites want to know as much about their visitors as possible. They want to target content to me and marketing pitches. But there's a right and wrong way to go about this. Or better, effective and non effective methods. A common way now is to place a pop up ad to cover the content requesting your name and email before you can read their content. Think that will work? Only if you're trying to chase away visitors. Imagine going into your local market that offers free samples. "Sorry. Before you can have a taste of that ice cream, I'll need to see some ID?"  The hidden content method simply won't work because there are just too many alternatives out there for information. Do a search for topic, product or service and you'll get thou...

It's that time of year again when your Facebook feed and Twitter roll gets inundated with post after post condemning candidates in one political party or praising those in another. I've posted the occasional political cartoon and meme: Hillary tweeting dark thoughts in her dark glasses; The Donald being The Donald. Many would argue it was with the intent to influence or persuade. I maintain it's because it made me chuckle, but political commentary on social media has become no laughing matter. Outrageous comments expressing our views to anyone who listen.are what social media is for, right? Our candidates do it so why shouldn't we? It sure is tempting to share that observation you heard on the drive into work, that statistic you read online, that funny meme that lambastes that candidate you've never trusted, so why hold back? It's your page to rule. Delete those posts and opinions that you find outrageous and promote the ones that champion your caus...

Ready for one last social media prognostication for 2016? (Yes I know it's mid-January 2016, but that's just how I roll. *sunglasses drop in slowly over eyes*) Good, because there are social media trends that are starting and 2016 will see many changes in the landscape. And the sooner you see them, the sooner you'll be ahead of everyone else.  And topicality is what social media is all about, right? Social Media is now just media .  This should not be a big revelation because to be honest, it has always been just another form of communications  it's just that the terms public relations, marketing, and advertising were already taken. When you launch a new product, or in this case, a new medium, you need to simply explain what it is, how it differs with similar products, and list its benefits. At risk of sounding like a famous premature declaration let me just say: Mission Accomplished. The change has been gradual but more and more media outlets are avoiding the te...