The dark arts of the Search Engine Optimisation business need to come under scrutiny for the simple reason that many small – medium businesses that have invested in this type of “service”, and continue to invest, are paying money for something less than old rope.

There are a number of questions that one should ask of one’s SME since just wanting to be on the front page and at the top of Google listings is NOT a good enough reason!

Do I sell a product or service through my site?

• Whatever it is how do you measure where your enquiries have come from and do you do it regularly and honestly? If not you’re wasting your money.

Do I run campaigns that are targeted through my website?

• If not then you’re wasting your web space as this is the most effective way of projecting your goods and / or services to the world and no amount of SEO will make your business substantially better.

Do I have access to statistics of web traffic?

• If not tell your website provider or hosting company that you want access because, after al,l it’s YOUR information and with it you can see what your potential and existing web clients are looking at; with that  you can see what works and what doesn’t. If you’re being charged for this by an SEO company, you shouldn’t be.

Do I run PPC (pay per click) web advertising?

• If you do this it’s fine however PPC does NOT enhance your Google rankings as Matt Cutts, Google’s’ principal engineer has stated –

“Displaying Google ads does not help a site’s rankings in Google; and
buying Google ads does not increase a site’s rankings in Google’s search results.

These principles have always applied, but it’s important to affirm they still hold true.”

So if you’ve been told it does, someone’s telling you porkies!

Follow this link to Matt Cutts Wikipedia pages  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Cutts

Can I affect my rankings without using a third party?

• In short yes, simply take a look at your business and see how it’s described on the screen; every business has key words, for example an accountancy firm probably has “Tax Planning” as part of its’ offering so using this in the text on the site would be sensible. If you don’t have technical web-knowledge, your developer should be able to insert any key words or phrases that you see relevant. Remember to keep it readable though!!

These are just a few of the questions you should ask, we’ll be delighted to offer free advice to SME’s who’re uncertain of this murky territory.

Here is a very informative and helpful article from Hubspot Blog , a must read!

Martin McGuinness

Rev Ian Paisley

The term “Rules of Engagement” (ROE) usually refers to two sides facing each other in adversity.

To quote Wikipedia “In military or police operations, the rules of engagement (ROE) determine when, where  and how force shall be used.”

Of course engagement can be seen as a much more positive subject as in a betrothal, a promise to marry or purely people capturing others attention and using it to mutual benefit.

Social media channels are conduits in which people and businesses, who otherwise may not have met, can “meet” and converse on different levels, on widely ranging subjects and in exactly the way that they do when engaging face-to-face.

My point is that there can be different levels of engagement at different times and when needs prevail; for example one may have an online conversation during the business day which aims to satisfy the buy/sell needs of two people however, come the hours of darkness, the discussion can change to a less formal level much as one may do in a social gathering  out of business hours.

Many Twittter users seem unable to recognise the need for different levels of conversation and then, much like in a social environment, others choose to ignore them; they may not think of themselves as “spammers”  but by using automated, incongruous messaging and failing to recognise and engage with others they ARE the ones who become ignored in the same way that the pub-bore does (we all know one!).

Should we ignore these types or should we attempt to engage, converse and adjust their behaviour?

Take a look at Martin McGuinness and Reverend Ian Paisley, two men who swore they would never  share a conversation, or anything else for that matter; they found their middle ground and achieved historic change by NOT ignoring each other !

The critical factor is that people buy people and like-minded souls bond together in communities; the social-media community is vast, cosmopolitan and growing bigger by the hour so what a great opportunity to meet and engage with a world waiting to do the same with you; DON’T be a stranger, ENGAGE.

The Happy Couple!

Dreaming?

On Friday 4^th June Duncan Bannatyne the well known TV personality from BBC’s “Dragons Den” (Twitter name @DuncanBannatyne) decided that he should become a Twitter evangelist and, generously, offer all of his 94000 followers (now over 96000) the chance to follow each other and thereby everyone would have 94000 followers.

Dreamer?

He was so “successful” that his TV colleague Peter Jones (@dragonjones with 56000 followers) jumped in to the fray with this Tweet “RT @androidfearn: @dragonjones please RT come on people let’s get #peterspeople trending above #duncansdream” further ridiculing the situation.

This was seized upon by many Twitter users greedy for followers and, to give him credit, Duncan achieved top trending over the next couple of days, with his tag of #duncansdream, even more than the BP oil spill disaster and the World Cup.

Some may say that this demonstrates the power of the social media however what it does is prove the power of “celebrity” influence by someone who knows little of it’s structure, it’s social and business benefit and who is generally seeking further recognition from a fickle public.

The issue is of engagement, connection, education and recognition from like minded souls and not developing thousands on marginally potential “friends” who aren’t interested in your conversation and don’t say anything you want to hear.

When I walk into a restaurant, bar or other social venue I don’t expect to suddenly know, talk to or even perhaps make eye contact with everyone there; I’ll consciously and subconsciously measure people around me, make assessments and over time establish connections with people who I can relate to and with.

This is human behaviour not mass hysteria; the “celebrity” who has caused more problems than any other was born in a barn and has caused countless deaths, destruction, wars and atrocities than any other through (not his fault) millions of followers blindly jumping onto the bandwagon.

My issue is that if Mr or Mrs Miggins decide to mass-follow someone then that’s fine, if its for their own devices, however when people who have NO knowledge of what they are doing and simply want to boost their own ego’s and “standing” elect to manipulate people’s behaviour this in my mind is fundamentally wrong.

Consider the fact that Duncan B has over 96000 followers and he follows………. 122

Consider the fact that Peter J has over 56000 followers and he follows………. 56

These two have done NOTHING to promote conversation, engagement or interaction with their vast bodies of followers indeed neither will acknowledge nor reply to virtually any message. Please don’t take this as a plea, Dragons, I can’t think of anything worse than having to blow smoke where you want it!

If you are a Twitter, or other social media user, who respects traditional values and who would like to boost their connections, conversations and ultimately opportunities please forward this message to your friends.

If however you just want thousands of followers for your own vanity please:

a)      Unfollow me

b)      Block me

c)       Change your method!

Also check out this article @jemkhan and her scintillating Twitter experiences, which undeline the thoughts above!   http://bit.ly/abRP1O

This is an interesting concept from Saatchi & Saatchi Canada however if anyone should have a handle on this then they certainly should!

The fact is that unless one accepts the pace of change in the 21st century, particularly in digital media, there is every chance that the main opportunity is one of failure. And that means in almost any business.

One of the main issues is the speed and availability of accurate, measurable information; in the past it’s been possible to make statements and to spread messages which were wholly unreliable and, in many cases, grossly incorrect. The tobacco industry evidentially blotted their copybook in the last century and is, possibly, the very worst example.

It’s no longer appropriate to send one-dimensional  messages; consider how thin your local paper has become in terms of news and advertising  in recent years and, indeed, if it is still in existence. The instant access to tens of thousands of willing viewers, readers and buyers,  no longer having to leave their home to interact, has accelerated the growth of sales / distribution media.  eBay and Amazon for example have such a foothold that the traditional advertising media can no longer compete on price, speed or engagement.

Consider also the split-second access to a multitude of alternative information, accessible so easily whilst online, and you’ll realise that it’s going to be hard for the advertising press, in all sectors, to maintain market share. Using one or many advertsing streams won’t work unless there is strategy, planning and campaign involved and anyone who wishes to ignored social networks will do so at their peril; there needs to be a holistic view of advertsing, PR and marketing to make a difference today.

Remember “Innovate or Die” as a mantra from the 90’s? Well let’s look at it again as “Integrate or Die” should be the warning for the foreseeable future; if your agency is still delivering the same ideas today as they were as little as five years ago then you’re getting poor value, and probably bad returns, so you should be asking some leading questions!

The Scream, courtesy of made-in-england.org

Online reputation management and crisis management is about knowing exactly what the local community is saying and helping you to take appropriate action.

Many times negative reviews require action at an operational level, so it helps to have a system for sharing this information with the management team.

An online channel effectively helps a brand or organisation to listen and engage with the community which will come to the fore in a crisis/damage limitation capacity.

Crucially using social media for crisis management will;
Enhance brand reputation (building trust through online communities, conversations and connections) by;
 
• Listening for the point of need
• Connecting, listening, participating and responding in the online community

Initial business goals may start with monitoring conversations about developments, measuring their share of voice, and identifying the communities of influence, the point of need changes everything.

Pro-active reputation management
Brands should as a policy have in place a way of monitoring positive and negative news and reviews. We recommend at Sofiano Digital Communication that tracking tools are set up to be aware of both praise and criticism across Google, blog posts (e.g. Telegraph online, Twitter and other online groups/social media e.g. YouTube and Delicious)

Social media can work with brands and form an important function as part of the crisis team to;

•        Review/ pass to management team/ respond to the reviews

•        Fix what’s broken – from video interviews to a full scale PR campaign

•        Start building a new positive reputation

Monitoring online conversations allows brands to listen in and to respond appropriately/quash any negativity/ threat or potential damage to triggers in real time.

How can this be done?

•        Online conversation tracking to be carried out year round

•        A customer engagement/reputation microsite – linking as a button from the main brand site.

•        Having a site such as this in place is an essential crisis measure. It allows you to have a voice in the community, put things straight and importantly invite comment which users can leave on the site.

•        From a security issue comments can be moderated so that they aren’t posted ‘live’ until they are approved. Transparency however is key, so don’t throw out Mr X from Poole just because he wants to have a moan and leave his opinion.  Your customers’ share of voice should be heard and be transparent on the site.

•        The microsite should only stay active in a reputation management or crisis management situation and brought down once the situation is resolved.

Once the investment and measure has been taken for a response/comments microsite or blog then it can be actioned again – with a different response/message – should another situation (from noise pollution to terrorism) occur. The microsite – once built – can then be actioned again almost immediately in response to any future situation.

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