using social media and content to improve seo

1

Maximum Search Results with Rich Content and

Social Media

March 9, 2010

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What you will learn

• Step-by-step tactics used to cause viral sensation with social media

• How to leverage fire starters to get your message out

• Different tools used to create results• How to create viral content• How you can replicate these type of results• How to Track multiple marketing channels

and respond timely and appropriately

©2010 WhitePaperSource Publishing • Do NOT distribute •

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Poll question…

Have you read or heard about theSocial Media Marketing

Industry Report?

Yes, No, Not Sure


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Interesting stats

Source: Stelzner, M. (March 2009), WhitePaperSource. Social Media Marketing Industry Report.

72% of marketers have either just started or have been using social media for only a few months.

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Interesting stats


64% spend 5+ hours weekly on social media & 39% 10+ hours

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Social Media Marketing Benefits


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Most common tools


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Create great content

• Best stuff for social media has:– No requirement for

registration– Includes valuable

information– Minimal promotional aspects

9©2010 WhitePaperSource Publishing • Do NOT distribute •

What we did

• Objectives:– Generate exposure for event– Collect intel (for event agenda)– Get list of interested folks (prospects)– Create something that would go viral

• Conducted a survey– Target: Social media marketers

• Created a report from survey• Used social media to promote report

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Results after 4 weeks

• More than 40,000 people read the report

• 500+ media outlets and blogs wrote about it

• First page of Google for social media marketing

• Hundreds of comments on page• Multiple internet radio shows• Many requests from high profile

organizations to speak / hire me


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Total costs

• Marketing costs– Zero!

• Production costs– Analyze open-ended results: $500 – Design cover: $350– Edit document: $450– Press release: $350


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Phase 1: The survey

Ask and ye' shall receive…


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How it started…

• As a crazy idea while driving to work on a Thursday morning in Jan.– Previously we'd discussed doing a general

survey

• Within 24 hours, we were underway


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The survey

• SurveyMonkey.com• Key actions:

– The tweet: Take the 2009 Social Media Marketing Survey http://tinyurl.com/8yhneh Participants get free copy

– Asked for help in study: We need at least 1,000 survey participants. Help us spread the word by linking to http://tinyurl.com/8yhneh

– Used same pic as on Twitter– URL on survey page


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Key survey questions

• 95% included email and name• Imported into Aweber

– Double opted in• Sent automated "we'll notify

you when results are ready" message

• Result: Army ready and waiting to know results and help promote


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Fire starters

• Defined: Someone with access to your ideal audience

• Objective: Have them help you • Path:

– Build a strong relationship by first doing a LOT for the fire starter before asking for anything

• Interview them, review their books, retweet their posts, comment on their blogs, …

– Then ask for some favors• Rule of reciprocity

• Should have many fire starters


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How we got survey takers

• Angle: Help the community, get free copy • Used fire starters: Mari Smith, Denise

Wakeman & Chris Garrett– 10 day promo– Tweeted Factoids: Announced growing # of

participants– Wrote blog posts

• Also direct messaged 10 key friends and sent Facebook messages


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Recurring tweets

• Used TweetLater (Now SocialOomph.com) to schedule automated recurring tweets

– Can create a set and have it cycle in regular intervals

• Example– Take the 2009 Social Media Marketing Survey

http://tinyurl.com/8yhneh Participants get free copy– WOW! 300+ people took 2009 Social Media

Marketing Survey http://tinyurl.com/8yhneh Participants get free copy

– Have you taken Social Media Marketing Survey? http://tinyurl.com/8yhneh Participants get free copy


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Viral results

• First hour on Fri– 11 people retweeted & 33 people took survey

• By Sat: 377 people• Kept announcing each 100 people milestone on Twitter

– Amazing! 400 marketers took ZYZ link.com

• After about 10 days: stopped with 880 people


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At end of survey

• Alt. Goal: Gain Twitter following of marketers– Auto pointed to my Twitter

page– Made sure I had interesting

stuff on that page– Added about 500 followers

in two weeks• Only had about 1200

followers at start


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Phase 2: The report

Optimized for social media


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The report


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The retweet button

• Hired an artist• The precrafted tweet:

– RT: @mike_stelzner Social Media Marketing Industry Report (Free, must read) http://cli.gs/QYEpY2 #smreport

• Placed in doc in 3 places and on website


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How to create a RT link

• Key points– No spaces, replace with +– Just create as an HTML link– Edit PDF using Adobe Acrobat Professional– Use a URL shortener

• http://cli.gs or http://bit.ly

http://twitter.com/home/?status=RT:+@mike_stelzner+Social+Media+Marketing+Industry+Report+(Free,+must+read)+http://cli.gs/QYEpY2


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The cover

• Bought an image through iStockPhoto.com and had my illustrator modify it– Made some guys women– Changed orientation– Altered name of coaster

• Objective: Look good as thumbnail


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Letter from author

• Page two of document– My picture (important for social media)– Hello "fellow marketer"

• Conversational, engaging tone– Instructions on how to link to

• In case it was posted elsewhere– Creative commons license

• To help spread– Twitter link– Signature

• First name only


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Sponsorship placement

Free on free


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"How to use this report"

• Important!– Tell people what to do and they will– Addressed three different readers and told them what to do

• Note what I said to social media gurus


29©2010 WhitePaperSource Publishing • Do NOT distribute •

About us page

• Summary of author• Links to related articles

– Allowed reader to learn more about social media

• Twitter link• Email

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Phase 3: Landing page

Super optimization


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The short video

• Purpose: Keep people on site• Located at top of content

– So folks would watch it first

• Shut off the time indicator• I was very energized!


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The video script

• Video:– Introduced myself, "Hello there

fellow marketer, my name is MS, author of XYZ…"

– "You've been wondering about social media…"

– Asked them "If they like it, share it" up front

– Quick highlights– Purposely kept the text too small to

read


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Tools I used to make video

• ScreenFlow (for Mac)– www.telestream.net/screen-flow/– Camtasia for PC

• JW FLV Media Player - Free– http://www.longtailvideo.com/

• USB Headset– Telex USB Headset

• Hosted video: Amazon AWS– http://aws.amazon.com/


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Creating the page

• Used key words in URL– Also embedded page keyword

• Hosted on WordPress– Optimized for SEO

• Put video first– Wanted them to hear me

• Added rich content– Created keyword-rich content– Did not reveal results on page

• Later added Tweetmeme button– Added social proof– Was not fully accurate on count

• http://tweetmeme.com/about/retweet_button


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Creating page…

• Thumbnail of cover• Different links to report

– Want to make it easy at different points in copy

• Retweet button• Ways to reach me

– Email & phone– Important for press

• Tell a Friend– http://tellafriend.socialtwist.com/


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Stage 3: The promotion

Tip: Make it easy!


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Targets

• First: Marketers via direct channels– Survey takers– Twitter and Facebook fans– Fire starter fans

• Press that covers social media– PR– Direct contact via fire starters


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Anticipation Email

Subject: UPDATE: Social Media Marketing Industry Report...

Thanks for taking the Social Media Marketing Industry Survey a few months back. We've been working hard to put the final touches on a 26-page report derived directly for your comments and the feedback of nearly 900 other marketers.

In the next few days I'll email you the link to your complimentary copy of the report. I'm sure you'll find the results fascinating. Thanks for being patient.

All my best! Michael A. StelznerSurvey Editor, WhitePaperSource Publishing

P.S. Some of the results are VERY surprising.


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2 days later

Subject: Firstname, your link to Social Media Marketing Industry ReportHey Firstname;Here's the link I told you to be on the lookout for. Get your immediate access to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report here:http://www.whitepapersource.com/socialmediamarketing/report/

Thanks for participating in this study back in January. I think you'll agree the results were worth the wait. Here's to your success with social media marketing!

Michael A. StelznerSurvey Editor, WhitePaperSource Publishing

P.S. If you find the report valuable, please help spread the word by clicking the "Retweet this" button on the above page.


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Predrafted Tweets

• For my fire starters– RT: @mike_stelzner Social Media Marketing

Industry Report (Free, must read) http://cli.gs/QYEpY2 #smreport

– RT: @mike_stelzner Top 10 social media questions marketers want answered (Great stuff) http://cli.gs/QYEpY2 #smreport

– RT: @mike_stelzner Most marketers spend 5+ hours w/ social media (New free report) http://cli.gs/QYEpY2 #smreport

– RT: @mike_stelzner Twitter #1 tool for marketers, finds new free report (check it out!) http://cli.gs/QYEpY2 #smreport

– RT: @mike_stelzner 72% of marketers new to social media, finds new report (interesting stuff) http://cli.gs/QYEpY2 #smreport

– RT: @mike_stelzner WOW! Social media marketing improves search rankings for 52% of marketers http://cli.gs/QYEpY2 #smreport

• Tips– Include comments in

brackets (must read!)– Consider using hash tag

for trending #smreport– Include your Twitter ID – Use key words people

search one– Vary headlines


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Facebook video

• Had Mari post my video on Facebook– She has 5000 Facebook friends– Quickly went viral– Included a link to report


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Comments

• Added social proof


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Results: 9am, day 1

• Number of reads: 5662 • Retweeted 235 times (#1 most on Twitter)

– Picked up by @Problogger

• Blog posts: 10– Picked up by WebProNews

• Podcasts: 1• Comments on page: 51


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Results: 1:30pm, day 1

• Number of reads: 8423 • Retweeted 323 times

– Picked up by @Mashable

• Blog posts: 18• Pending Radio Shows: 3• Comments on page: 86• Leads for summit: 136 double opted in


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Twitter stats

• #1 most tweeted link on Twitter after 2 days– Released on Tue. 24th – By Thu. Thursday 26th @ 9:08am

1374 RTs– This created more traffic

• Trenders picked it up


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After 1 week

• Number of reads: 21994 • Retweeted 1500+ times• Blog posts: 100+• Comments on page: 207• Social Media Sources of Traffic (ranked)

– Twitter– Facebook– Delicious– LinkedIn– StumbleUpon


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Summit related interest

• 24 percent of people that clicked on Ad, "opted in" via email to find out more about summit

• About 3000 people


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Unexpected results (few weeks)

• 40,000+ readers• 300 blog comments• First page of Google• 500+ unique blog posts• Used cli.gs tracking URL


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Summary

• Make great content!• Build relations w/ fire starters• Be strategic and intentional

– Have a plan and execute on it– Leverage social proof

• Make it easy for people– Precrafted tweets– Video and text


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So, What Does This Mean to Marketers?

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What does this look like

Drive to Website

Convert via form

Nurture

Alert Rep of Buying Behavior

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Questions?

To learn more:• SocialMediaExaminer.com (free online

magazine)• The Connected Marketer:

genius.com/marketinggeniusblog• Social Media Marketing Industry Report:

– http://bit.ly/XEbPB

• Follow Barbra: @barbragago @connectdmarkter

• Follow Mike: @mike_stelzner


53

Maximum Search Results with Rich Content and

Social Media

March 9, 2010

using social media and content to improve seo

Business