SEO Expert, Evangelist and SEO Consulting Services - Tony Adam

This is a continuation post as a follow up to Blogging for Customers, not Dollars. I felt this was important for corporations and in-house talent to look at when writing a blog. Sometimes we tend to think about a blog as a way to push products, which is what I talked about previously. The truth is, this is o.k. to do, but ONLY as part of your blog content.
Being at a large organization, you are already at the advantage of having a following, your blog will benefit from this. You want to make sure that you are keeping your readers interested. Continuously blogging to your users only about changes to the company or new products, etc. are a way of losing readers and interest.

Swinging to a more positive note, you need to start thinking of your blog as the “Thought Leader” for an industry. There are many ways to do so and it will dramatically improve readership and reach. People expect this out of a large company that is an industry leader already, so, being that thought leader that I speak of, will really set you at the top.

Pay attention to the industry: Listen for what people are looking for. If identity theft and security on the web is a big part of your industry, then use that to your advantage. Write an article about how it applies to your company and how to prevent it, or something along those lines.

Don’t spam: As I mentioned above, do not…and I’ll say this again…DO NOT write solely on new products or what your company id doing. This is boring, tends to decrease interest, and looks to much like an advertising tool.

Write great content: By paying attention to the industry, you know what your readers are looking for. This is crucial info, now go out and apply it. Write articles about the industry, keep people informed of the industry news, etc. Then, every so often, you can write an article that is great and increase visibility.

Linkbaiticize: As apposed to publicizing, you want to write great content that leads to great link bait. Also, get to know the top evangelists, sites, etc. around your industry in the blogosphere. Hopefully they will pick up your article and maybe even submit it to digg/reddit/etc. user that could submit your story is another way to increase readership. Doing this and getting this kind of traffic is of course, one of the best ways to increase your blogs overall ROI. The amount of in-links and subscribers alone is worth the time and money invested, then you have the users that actually follow through on product specific blogs and convert into real $$.

Keep it Fresh: Don’t stop there, continue to fire away and keep content fresh. Stagnant content will lose readers…so keeping it up to date will keep people interested and looking for more.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to follow the 5 rules above about being an industry thought leader. There is definitive ROI through the amount of link popularity, subscriber-ship, and readership that is gained through Social Media. All that, plus, conversion and click-throughs to product subscriptions, etc. that could quite possibly lead real dollars.

Here are some good resources to check out for an understanding of the power of social media are:
A Visual Tour Through the Basics of Social Media Marketing by SEOMoz
SEO Book Bloggers Guide to SEO

Sometimes it is very hard to meet people at conferences, networking events, etc. I’ve been doing this for quite some time as a consultant, so there are a lot of lessons that I have learned and even some that I still can’t quite get over. That being said, it is always important to be mindful of a few things are very important.

Be courteous: No matter who it is you are talking to, treat them with respect and a little bit of class. There is worse than that feeling. The truth is, you never know at any point in your career that you might cross paths with that person and that first and lasting impression could make or break that meeting.

Listen & Pay Attention: Stop talking and listen! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done this or been victim of this. In the past I would totally just blabber away and not really pay attention to the person I am talking to or have someone do this to me. It is quite annoying and as with anything else, leaves a bad impression

It’s o.k. to be nervous: Sometimes people tense up and get nervous at these events. This is completely fine and normal, there is absolutely no need to freak out. I remember my first conference, I was so nervous to talk to anyone because I didn’t feel “good enough” to be there, that I basically just curled up in a ball with my laptop and worked. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT do this!!

Business cards: Recently at PubCon 2007 someone told me…”ohhh, I don’t do the whole business card thing…” also at a couple of other events in the Bay Area recently I have run into countless situations where people were not prepared. The truth is, if you are at an event where you are trying to build on connections, business cards are crucial to staying in touch with people.

Follow Up: Always, Always, Always follow up with the people that you meet at an event. My best practice for this is doing a mass add of people to LinkedIn and send out an email the night of or the day after an event. I would say within 24 hours is a good rule of thumb. To add to that, if you are at a conference, definitely continue to add and get in touch with the connections you make because they are fresh on the mind at that point.  Also, if someone gets in touch with you, the same rule should apply, follow up with that person within 24 hours.

A lot of times the rules above can be tweaked and adjusted per industry and your needs.  But, just be sure that you are applying them in whatever way you see fit.

Since going back to Los Angeles in August, I have noticed a craze in the frozen yogurt industry. To be more specific, the number of places opening up and doing “Italian Frozen Yogurt” is unbelievable. They are popping up on every corner like Starbucks in the 90’s and Sushi restaurants shortly after. This craze started in 2005 and is going quite strong.So, pinkberry opened its doors and the fludgates opened right up. People crowding in the stores, lines out the doors. My trip had me visiting the pinkberry in Pasadena, CA with my sister and was I in for a shocker. I had no clue the madness behind it all, a 30 minute wait, just for frozen yogurt?!

Truthfully, it was worth it at the time and I would probably do it again. It lived up to the hype and was actually amazing. So much so, that I started LOOKING for places similar in the San Francisco Bay Area, to which I ran across absolutely nothing. Now, it is understandable that the Los Angeles and New York area would be the ones to start the trend and have it grow like it has.

Now that we know how much people like it, there is also many new stores popping up and trying to compete in the now, ever so popular frozen yogurt market. Although Pinkberry is under much scrutiny for “not really being frozen yogurt.” Apparently a lawsuit has been filed to debunk the mystery behind the recipe and ingredients, yet they still keep it quite a secret. See Eater LA article)

And the buzz goes on, publicity is running rampant and it is being talked about on radiostations, blogs, tv, old media, new media…you name it…it’s getting buzz and attention. Since being in L.A. in August two new “italian frozen yogurt” stores have opened in my home town and I am sure TONS have opened all over Los Angeles.

So, will the trend continue?? Is pinkberry the hottest company of 2007 moving into 2008?? Henry Schultz, founder of Starbucks, seems to think so, as his venture capital firm invested $27.5 million according to CNN Money.

We will see where the trend goes, for now, the lines continue to be long and the yogurt, ever so good.