Author : Bharati Ahuja

The digital world has changed the way a brand image is created in the minds of the people. People today are creating an image about your company by going through the company website, reading the buzz on social media and reading what you post on your blog and the company social media profiles.

Many times by the time your potential customer reaches your online store or real time shop to buy the product he already has a lot of information about you, your company, products and services. This information does not only come from the content that you post on the web but also from the content which others post about your company , products and services.

Armed with so much of info. and a platform to discuss about the brand openly the customer is more confident of taking a decision but at the same time has very high expectations depending on what impressions he has created about the brand in his mind.

In such a situation it is very important that the sales staff or the online buying procedure on the site clarifies each and every expectation realistically.

So, basically it is the content, which is creating the brand. Content in all forms images, text, videos, audio, news, PR Releases, etc. and also the content on social media which gets linked because of the connectivity and all this thus leads to a brand image.

If your content is directly related to the image of the brand then having a content strategy is a must. Hence, it is not only about adding blogposts, videos and images to your website or go on a posting spree on the social media sites.

Having a content strategy is the first step. The strategy has to come before the technology you select to host and promote it.

A Content Strategy should define:

· The audience for whom the content is created

· What type of content is right for which type of message

· It has to be on a regular basis with the quality improving over time

· It should preferably in a continuous , engaging, interactive story form.

· It should encourage and make people add to the existing content via comments, social media posts and discussions
The ultimate goal of all this content creation should be the conversion of this digital content to a digital asset. As acquisition and maintenance of any asset requires investment, content creation and promotion also requires strategic investment and planning.

Hence, investing in a right team to create , correlate and promote content is one of the important online marketing decisions.

The following video puts forward this idea very creatively.

Coca Cola Content 2020 : We will move from creative excellence to content excellence. The purpose of content excellence is to create ideas so contagious that they cannot be controlled….

Is your content contagious enough to create or promote your brand?

SMX East 2011 conducted from the 13th of Sept. to 15th of Sept. in New York had the agenda focusing on the following categorized topics Day-wise:

The complete agenda can be viewed on http://searchmarketingexpo.com/east/agenda

My main area of interest was organic search  hence I attended  the sessions focused on SEO.

An SEO conference is a platform for multiple sessions and it is very difficult to make a choice of what to attend but the main highlights and takeaways of what sessions I attended are as follows:

Day 1 – 13th Sept. 2011 

The Big Picture Track - The Great Correlation vs. Causation Debate Presented by:

· Eric Enge, Stone Temple Consulting

· Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Become, Inc

· Mitul Gandhi, seoClarity

· Kristine Schachinger, SitesWithoutWalls.com

· Tony Wright, WrightIMC

• Correlation is: A mutual relation between two or more things where one has a measurable effect on the other.
• Causation is: A relationship in which one action or event is the direct consequence of another.
• In every Causal relationship there is a Correlative One, but there is not a causal effect in every correlative one
• We sometimes perceive something to have an effect but it may not have an effect as that can be a misperception.
• The only way to eliminate false positives are is to measure test everything over a period of time with a wide array of data.
• Almost everything in SEO is correlative not causative.
• In causal relationships, you can directly measure that A does CAUSE B
• In correlative relationships, you can only measure the STRENGTH of the effect of A on B
• Correlations are a place to start not an end. Have a sanity check and and question its sensibility before coming to conclusions.
• Before testing be sure of what is the return on your investment to collect and test this data?
• Make sure that you are considering all important variables in time and do not rely only on snapshots in a short time span.
• Be sure you have enough data and factors to run a linear regression
• SEO is on a time line on a linear position. A single trend is not a pattern or a causal relationship.

The Big Picture Track 

· Justin Briggs, Distilled

· Horst Joepen, Searchmetrics

· Heather Lloyd-Martin, SuccessWorks Search Marketing

· Chris Silver Smith, KeyRelevance

• Only 12% of websites in Google index were affected by Panda update – Matt Cutts
• We are content marketers if we have a blog or a site.
• “Panda isn’t simply an algorithm update. It’s a platform for new ways to understand the web and understand user experience.” (Vanessa Fox)
• “It’s not a new algorithm – it’s a new factor.” (Danny Sullivan)
• “It is easier to reliably detect social spam than link spam.” (Stefan Weitz and Maile Ohye)
• Combination of automated metrics and human factors;
• It’s a method for modelling webpages and websites which have certain usage profile combinations, scoring those combos, then using the scores to rank pages. (Chris Silver Smith)
• When you produce cheap content then it is not meeting any goal
• Create Quality content – Search Engines do not pay your bills your customers do.
• Stop asking what Google wants. Find out what your users want.
• Evaluate your content assets
• Plan the Repurpose of content
• Develop an  editorial calendar
• Watchdog the quality
• Leverage it when properly planned and evaluate
• Get everyone on the same page about SEO content. This could be a quick discussion - or an in-house training. Consider what works best for your team

Enterprise & In House Track 

· Laura Callow, intuit

· Simon Heseltine, AOL Inc.

· Erika Mamber, Demand Media

· Ulli Muenker , Bloomberg

• Use SEO as one of the fundamental building blocks in everything you do on your website.
• Ensure SEO is a part of the DNA of your organization.
• Build buzz and cultivate mindshare.
• Tailor the buzz for the relevant audience and add your spin
• Make it actionable
• Be seen, be heard, be involved
• Educate, Elaborate, Excite, Empower, Evangelize
• Share the SEO why behind the what, because understanding builds a sense of ownership
• If opportunity cost > available resources + cost of vendors Then hire vendors Else don’t hire vendors
• Ensure your team works according to an accountable system for delivery. Boil up to meet company / business objectives and vision

Author : +Bharati AhujaImage via Wikipedia

Every online marketer today is harping on the social media mantra but everyone is still experimenting with this media for getting the outreach, visibility and that extra mileage which is possible from this marketing platform but there is no sure shot formula to achieve these objectives.

Hence, it is highly important to focus on the purpose of using the social media sites and have a strategic plan else it is very easy for your voice to go unheard inspite of you putting in so much time, effort and resources.

I am sure every one who has experimented with this media has made mistakes, got carried away with the tweeting and realized the futility of just having a presence on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and now Google+ and not achieving anything out of it despite all the efforts and time which has been invested by them.

Every SEO recommends that the company should have a social media presence and thats a valid suggestion indeed, because the search engines have integrated the social data and signals with search results to add more value, quality and are also adding the preferences of your social network to the search results.

So The Questions That Need To Be Answered By Businesses Are –

• what is the purpose of our presence on social media sites?
• Is our target to create more klout on the social media site in our niche industry or to make our search presence stronger using social media as one of the options?

The Difference Between Social Media Marketing And Social Media Optimzation

Social Media Marketing is usually creating content and distributing content by sharing it on the social network for maximum out reach. It is usually in the form of a corporate message for its targeted audience which if effective gets shared further just like an advertisement. Its like pushing the message across to more and more people .

Whereas in Social Media Optimization is sharing the content usually in the form of a link so that it gets further shared and people come back to the site so it pulls the targeted visitors to your site via the social media platform.

The selection of the social media platform entirely depends on this purpose .

Social Media Marketing focuses mainly on:

· Advertising

· Direct Selling

· Customer Support

· Public Relations

· Branding

· Communication

· Direct Marketing

· Sales Promotion

· Publicize An Event By Using # tags To Make It A Trending Topic

Social Media Optimization Focuses Mainly On Driving Inbound Traffic From Social Media Sites By:

· Having URL Links For The Content In The Posts So It Can Generate Inbound Traffic

· The Content Can Be In The Form Of Images, Infographics, Videos, News, RSS Feeds, etc.

· Sharing Content Related To Your Industry – Which In A Way Promotes Your Company Beliefs And Value

· Connecting To Communities

· Make Sharing Content Easy So That It Becomes Viral

· Having Rewards For Sharing The Content

· Setting Up The Social Media Profile With A Focus on Linking To The Other Web And Social Media Presence Of the Company To Create Corelation And Improve Quality External Linking.

· On The Proper Bio Description On The Social Media Site In Order To Establish Online Identity And Also Link To The Relevant Site, Blog Or Profile.

Hence , depending on the purpose of your presence on the social media platform the efforts have to be focused on that particular activity to achieve the right objective of either marketing directly or get inbound traffic .

Every business activity needs to have a plan and a purpose , engaging on social media for a business purpose without planning the task is a sheer waste of time and other resources  and may harm the social business image of the company rather than heal it and leverage it.