Google's New Linking Guidelines

I am incredibly lucky to have connected with a great Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company, Search Optimizers. The Account Manager I work with is incredibly diligent about keeping his clients updated on the newest algorithm changes impacting search. He recently sent me an email with the following information:

Google published a blog post covering the new linking guidelines; we recommend reviewing it carefully as many of these tactics are still ubiquitous. Verboten activities listed in Google’s article include, among others:

1. Purchasing links (any form of purchasing, including free product in exchange for a link)
2. Link exchanges (I'll link to you from my site if you link to mine from yours)
3. "Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links”
4. “Using automated programs or services to create links to your site”
5. “Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites. For example:There are many wedding rings on the market. If you want to have a wedding, you will have to pick the best ring. You will also need to buy flowers and a wedding dress.”
6. “Low-quality directory or bookmark site links”
7. “Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature, for example:Thanks, that’s great info! - Paul paul’s pizza san diego pizza best pizza san diego”

Remember, even if you don’t do any of those types of activities for your clients, they may have done this with other companies in the past, and it could still negatively influence their site. The affected sites experience significant drops in organic traffic when their site gets picked up by Penguin. Google also published a post detailing steps to take to remove toxic links. Due to the SEO importance of eliminating toxic links, Search Optimizers reviews our clients’ link profiles to determine if a significant number of unnatural backlinks are attached to their sites.

While I am a huge proponent of white hat SEO practices, I recognize that some businesses aren't savvy enough to realize they're paying a fraction of the cost for services that employ unsavory linking practices. I personally had to dissuade a former employer from hiring a firm that was significantly less expensive based on the admission that they would buy links to our pages and build links between our pages and the pages of their other clients. 

As I told the president of the company I was working for, it's not worth risking the penalties Google will impose on us. Sometimes we can go back and wipe those links clean from sites, but it can be incredibly difficult to improve a website's standing with the major search engines. 

Elements of a Killer Digital Portfolio

I recently dove headfirst into the world of digital self promotion and started a Squarespace website to house my digital portfolio. There are lots of great platforms available to creative professionals, and if Squarespace isn't for you, check out Behance, Coroflot and Carbonmade.

After a lot of research into how to make a killer digital portfolio, these are the 8 must-haves for digital portfolios:

1. Claim Your Vanity URL. It is so easy to acquire vanity URLs there's no excuse for not pointing one at your digital portfolio. To be easy, make your URL your name if possible.
2. Showcase Your Creative Style. Your digital portfolio should reflect your style and personality, so make sure you choose a design template that you feel comfortable with. Text, colors and images can be used to convey your personality as well. This is a great way to stand out against other applicants.
3. Be Consistent. I hadn't quite pulled all of the pieces of Top Shelf Digital Marketing together when I decided to launch a digital portfolio and it inspired me to create a logo to give all company materials a unified theme with a cohesive look and feel.
4. Create Clear Categories. Some people organize their work by brand, something that works well if you've got renowned clients. Some people organize their work chronologically, which is great if you're an entry-level applicant without much to show. Since I'm not currently targeting global brands or a specific industry, I decided to showcase each skill with a variety of projects from several clients.
5. Be Your Own Client. Remember that a well-organized digital portfolio will be easier for potential clients and companies to view, ultimately making a better first impression for your personal brand. Treat your digital portfolio as you would a client project, identify your target audience and be strategic about how you'd like them to experience your work.
6. Use Your Latest and Greatest. Choose the very best samples of your work, from the biggest brands you've supported over the last five years. Exceptions can be made if you have an exceptionally impressive campaign or project that is older.
7. Show Versatility and Adaptability. For each skill you'd like to showcase, show versatility, breadth and depth by giving several different examples. For example, try to use examples of your work from a variety of clients, unless you're targeting one specific industry. Also, don't stick to one kind of example, copywriting could include press releases, advertorials, infographics, marketing materials, website text, etc. 
8. Use Strategic Copywriting. Yes, digital portfolios are heavily reliant on visuals. But text is also a powerful tool and should be used to convey additional details such as e-newsletter open rates, website analytics, social media engagement statistics, etc. 

Digital Advertising Trends to Watch in 2015

We may be a couple of weeks into the new year; however, the creative geniuses over at The Creative Group have published their list of digital advertising trends to watch in 2015.

Being that advertising isn't as much my speciality, I'm going to go ahead and just direct you to their post.

Enjoy!

Happy Anniversary!

Well, little blog, it's your first anniversary.  When I started you a year ago I wasn't exactly sure what I would do in this space, but I knew I wanted a place to store my thoughts and comment on marketing, public relations and social media - the trends, lessons and experiences I came across in my personal and professional life.

I also knew I needed to write as much as possible since my job as a marker is primarily focused on communicating clearly and concisely.

Here's to another fun year ahead!

5 Ways Small Businesses Can Boost Their Google Analytics

There has been a lot of talk about how Google's Hummingbird algorithm had changed Google Analytics over the last several months.  I can find a lot of high level conversations between industry gurus, but there hasn't been a whole lot of basic nuts and bolts that is easily understood by laypeople.  In fact, a friend of mine asked me just the other day if I could explain SEO and Google Analytics.

So what does Hummingbird mean to small businesses?  Hopefully not a whole lot if you're engaging in above the table, white hat SEO.  Hummingbird is meant to reward user-friendly, frequently visited websites.  How do you ensure your website meets those criteria?

1. Write engaging, helpful content that your readers can easily comprehend.  Regular Joes don't speak in tech-talk, they don't understand industry-specific acronyms, and they certainly can't handle pages with solid blocks of text.
2. Make sure your website structure makes sense.  Think about your website from a user's perspective.  What will they search to find each page?  From the landing pages, what questions will they have, and how can you provide clear links to that information? 
3. Links should go to pages, not photos, whenever possible.
4. Draft a strong call to action (CTA) on every page so that prospective clients know what you want them to do and how they should do it.
5. Put articles and white papers about your subject matter on your website.  It's better when you commission these documents yourself so they angle the products and services you want them to, but third party content will serve your purpose.  Customers trust white papers more than any other type of content.  If you position yourself in the same line as "unbiased" professionals, you're more likely to sway the masses.

Blogging for Business

Pop Digital Marketing created a great infographic explaining the blogging to businesses.  They cover everything you need to know about blogging: benefits, best practices, topic development and promotion.

6 Tips for Successful Email Marketing

Email Marketing can be a quick way to reach out to a large group of people when it's done appropriately.  As with all digital marketing, email marketing requires a clear set of goals, strategy for achieving the goals and a plan for measuring success.  If something isn't working, make changes and measure again.  

If you're struggling to find success with your email marketing campaign, here are six best practices for email marketing:

1. Take the time to format a nice template for your recurring email marketing efforts.  Not only will it help your readers identify what you're communicating - monthly newsletter, industry alert, etc. - it will also reinforce your brand's professionalism. 
2. Graphics and formatting will only go so far, content generation is the key to successful email marketing campaigns.   Your audience wants to receive information that's interesting, useful and relevant to them.  If you email campaign isn't successful, it's probably not because of your formatting, graphics or the time of day you sent your message.  In the words of Seth Godin, "Don't waste time looking for a better pencil--learn to write better."
3. If you have to choose between having "Dear [name]" on your emails or not having personalized emails at all, go without the personalization.  There is nothing that turns readers off faster than seeing your sloppiness and laziness in the very first line.  If you're not willing to take the time to go through your list and check the contact information for every individual it's unlikely your readers are going to spend the time to read your email.
4. Avoid fancy HTML images and use text in your emails wherever possible.  Yes, the HTML looks very polished, but your readers have to download the images in order to see what you're trying to communicate.  Create content that is easy to digest and doesn't require work on the part of your readers.  Additionally, if you're going to archive your work online, text is SEO friendly whereas graphics need to be properly tagged to appeal to search engines.
5. Before you ask me to do something for you, ask yourself if it's fun, if it's worth my time and if I'm going to being compensated appropriately.  It's unlikely you'll get a high rate of participation if the answer to two out of those three questions is "no". 
6. Set expectations about how often your readers are going to hear from you and what you're going to say, but most importantly, live up to those expectations.  If you're publishing a monthly newsletter, send it on the same day of each month, e.g. (the first Wednesday, Second Tuesday, etc.).  If you're sending out a security alert email, have a criteria for how serious something needs to be before you send message out.  

Find The Right Voice For Your Brand

As a millennial, I have been crafting my image on social media for longer than I've been of legal US drinking age.  Finding the right voice for a brand comes relatively easily for me, and there are a couple of things you think about to help you find the right voice for your brand.

1. Define your target audience - Are you talking to men, women, children, or a combination of all three?  Do you want your brand to appeal to males, females or both?  Do you want to target people in a specific geographic location?
2. Set your tone - Are you having a serious conversation or is your brand lighthearted?  Even if you're dealing with sensitive or professional issues, it's good to try to lighten the mood in a tasteful and appropriate way when you can.
3. Provide value - fans of your brand do not want to hear you talk about how great you are on your social media platforms just like you don't want to hear your friends brag about how great they are.  If you think you might be getting annoying, take a step back and evaluate your brand.  Are you posting interesting, relevant industry information?  Useful tips?  Short cuts?  How To videos?  Make your social media platforms a place that your target audience wants to go.
4. Treat your fans like friends - No, you should not (in most cases) offer to take your social media followers out to happy hour.  But you should talk to them in the same way that you'd talk to your friends, in an authentic and genuine way.  
5. Be consistent - all of your posts should sound like they are coming from the same person... the persona of your brand!  You want your fans to know what to expect when they come to your social media platforms so be sure that your team knows the brand's voice so everyone is working toward the same cause.  

If you follow these five steps you'll be well on your way to creating a voice that reflects the personality and values of your brand that will help drive engagement with your fans.

Promoting the Brand Called "You"

I'll admit it, I struggle to promote my personal brand, which is pretty ironic when I think about how well versed I am in digital and social media marketing.

I'm told this is a struggle many millennials experience because we grew up hearing how special we were and received far too many "participation trophies."  We use digital media - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. - on a daily if not hourly basis for all kinds of mundane announcements and yet we keep the really important stuff offline... and I'm guilty of this just as much as the next person. 

I started this blog as a way to comment on the digital media trends I experience in my professional life and I have yet to share this blog on my Facebook or Twitter for fear of making myself look stupid in front of my peers.  Yes, I know that if I don't invest in me and share my posts, nobody else will either.  I'm caught in a lack of confidence catch-twenty-two.

Luckily, I was catching up on Six Pixels of Separation podcasts and came across Mitch Joel's conversation with Dan Schawbel, the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding - a Gen Y research and consulting firm. He has authored two bestselling business books, Me 2.0 and the recently published, Promote Yourself - The New Rules For Career Success. Dan is also a contributor for Time and Forbes magazine, as well as being a sought-after media pundit on the topic of personal branding and Gen Y.

Dan is an authority on the practice of self-promotion and everything he mentioned in the podcast resonated with me so much so that I purchased both of his books on my nook as soon as I reached my computer.  Stay tuned for the reviews!

How To Use Social Media At A Tradeshow

Scott Monty posted five tips from trade show product supplier Display Wizard to help readers succeed at their next trade show.  Read the entire blog here.

The Five Tips:

1. Use Facebook and Twitter to build anticipation
2. Promote your competition using social media
3. Comment on blog posts and news stories
4. Reach out to bloggers and journalists
5. Contact attendees via Twitter and LinkedIn

The SEO Guide to Google's Hummingbird

Search Engine Journal posted a very cool infographic detailing how to craft content for Google's Hummingbird algorithm that will help search engine optimization efforts be successful.

You can see their original post here: How to Thrill Google Hummingbird: The SEO’s Guide 

Avoiding Project Apocalypse

Seth Godin's blog post today, The three toxic stooges of the project apocalypse, really resonated with me.  Seth names the three components that contribute to project failure: over promising, under sharing and lack of polish.

I cannot agree more with the first two components: over promising and under sharing or lack of communication are fatal to projects.

In my experience, people who excel at managing expectations and have strong communication skills tend to be good project managers because they minimize the chance for disappointment.

In my own career I have often been faced with the unpleasant task of bringing a team - or my boss - back to reality.  This is probably partly because I have been a part of companies that aren't well versed in digital and social media marketing, and so the constraining resources are less obvious to those around me.

It comes back to under promising and over delivering, which is an easy way to manage expectations.  When you under promise just a bit and communicate clearly what your objectives are, your clients are more likely to have realistic expectations for their project.  It also gives you just a bit of wiggle room to impress your clients, which tends to make them happy.  And happy clients are usual return customers who are more likely to refer you new business.

Google Hummingbird FAQs by Danny Sullivan

Google announced this week that they had launched a major renovation to their algorithm last month.  The new algorithm is called Hummingbird and it has marketing professionals and search engine optimization (SEO) experts a bit anxious to see how the digital marketing industry will be effected by the changes.

Danny Sullivan posted a great blog answering the frequently asked questions about Hummingbird that is worth reading if you are even remotely associated with digital marketing.  

Balancing Story and Selling in Social Media

Guest Blog by Marlena Ryan

I got into my job because I’m a writer. Not only do I not have a marketing degree. I kind of loathe marketers. I think of them as phonies. Professionals adept at playing a good mind game. And I like to think that writers are the opposite. Writers are good listeners, honest, and exacting.

However, both of these are generalizations. Marketers are not the devil and writers are not saints. And since I’m a social media community manager for music clients it’s important that I walk the line between providing figurative value and monetary value. (Which is like the most market-y sentence ever. I blame my boss… he likes that line)

But what I mean by that double speak is, I try to make my social pages compelling to a reader but also keep in mind that my company is paid to make fans buy more albums and tour tickets. I keep the balance by creating a social strategy that can balance these sometimes competing interests. The three main tactics I employ are:

1) Develop Narrative Tactics

For every client, my fellow community managers and I develop 20-30 social creative tactics. Creative tactics are tailored to a brand. We think about the audience and what they would engage with on social. For example, for a country music boy band, we include Pinterest inspiration quotes based on the band’s lyrics and acoustic performance series.

2) Geo-Targeting and Smart-Urling

For all our music clients, we use smart urls and geo-targeting to generate ticket and album sales. Geo-Targeting on Facebook is great because you can “guard” posts to hit certain markets you specify without inundating other fans with tour dates that aren’t near them. Smart urls help you see if all that geo-targeting is successful and if an album is making an impact with certain online retailers. We create smart urls for each ticket link and online retailer so we can track the click through rate for our analytics.

It’s not sexy, but like I said, it’s a balance and extremely important to remember we’re getting paid to sell records and tour tickets.

3) Social Graphics

The main differentiation between my company and the competition is our design team. Our in-house designers create gorgeous social skins, cover photos on Facebook and other social channels, and unique social graphics… like lyric cards and fan story graphics, our graphics set our pages apart with a look and feel completely different from other brands and artists.

Market Yourself using Social Media

Social media marketing isn't just for your business, it can be a great tool to help you market yourself.  Instead of trying to cram all of your accolades and achievements onto one eight and a half by eleven inch piece of paper, embrace a digital resume using LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has come a long way from being the social media platform for jobseekers and headhunters. Savvy professionals are embracing digital marketing for their own personal brand.  

Not only does LinkedIn store the text associated with your resume, it allows you to add rich media to as well.  My LinkedIn profile showcases PDF documents created by vendors to highlight excellent service provided to clients, YouTube video testimonials and recommendations from clients, vendors and coworkers. 

Creating a Successful Website

Seth Godin has a pretty great formula for putting together a successful website.

I wish I had his blog post, Q&A: What works for websites today?, to refer to when I was designing a website eighteen months ago.

It's really hard to juggle the aesthetics and the expectations of the client but what marketing professionals know is that our personal investment (and that of the brand) doesn't mean a thing.

What matters is what the people who visit your website think, and ultimately if you build a user-friendly site with rich, useful content you'll find success.

The Secret to Digital Marketing Success

The famous line from Field of Dreams applies to digital marketing success:

If you build it, they will come.

You have to continually create content that is interesting, useful and relevant to your audience.  Sometimes your content can be humorous and sometimes you can do some blatant self-promotion, but for the most part you need to provide your audience with information that's relevant to them and easy for them to digest.

And creating content isn't enough, because if content is king, then context is queen.

There's plenty of content out there in the ether that we never see.  Making the right content available to the right audience at the right time is the context that makes marketing successful.  There are so many platforms in digital marketing - websites, social media platforms, blogs, etc. - and it's important to pick the right context for your message so that it hits with the biggest impact.