Who is in control of your brand?

You may or may not know that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is more of an art than a science whilst it’s well known that there are things on your site and things off your site that impact your ranking in Google.

The most important concept to understand is that Google see’s it your website very differently to you. Google loves text & links, images & videos are OK and flash (as a general rule) is BAD. Without getting into the details of how to develop content, links and a site structure that helps your ranking in Google (there are many people who talk at length about this) I’ll show how you can quickly see your site how Google sees it, and the results may not be pretty.

Once you’ve done the quick audit below the best way to resolve any issues is to talk to an SEO consultant or your digital agency or web developer, they will help you understand what keywords should be in there, how to structure it and write the content for you.

Approach 1 – Quick and dirty

1. Go to Google.com

2. Search for a term your know you already rank on

3. Click ‘cached’ just below your listing in Google

4. Click ‘text only’ in the top right hand corner

5. Now you’re looking at the text & link component of how Google see’s your site. If there’s not much there, or it’s not accurate then you’ve got some work to do.

Approach 2 – More detailed analysis

1. Go to http://www.seotoolset.com/tools/free_tools.html

2. Add your website URL to the Keyword Density Analyser

3. It will provide a comprehensive analysis and provide some direction for you

Approach 3 – Employ a SEO specialist

You can spend days, months and years analysing and optimising your website, if you want to be at the top of your category you may need a team of them.

There is a lot of people debating/assuming the definition of what social media really is, and it feels like its being way over complicated.

DEFINITION: Social Media
A place where two or more PEOPLE communicate

Its nothing to do with marketing, but Social (Media) Markeitng can utilise the communications through tools like Social Networking Sites, Word-of-mouth, PR (PR agencies should own social media) and many more.

As a marketer you can use these tools to communicate with your potential customer to increase sales, grow your database, manage your brand perception and all the normal marketing outcomes.

Companies can be involved in the following ways:

1. Get involved in the conversation/communication already taking place

2. Create a new place for people to have a conversation/communication

3. Listen to the conversation/communication for research purposes

4. Stuff it all up

Rules? Well they’re defined by the people having the conversation, and I’m sorry to say there’s no blanket rules for social media, as different people have different ‘rules’.

Attitude! It’s all about the attitude you have and how it effects your approach to utilising social media. People don’t like people who’s attitude is arrogant, or rude, or evil. Think about the attitudes that are important to you, and then think about what is important to your potential customers.

Related articles:

• Social Marketing – Improving Corporate Image
• Your goal for social media marketing and marketing in 2009
• Social Media in 2009 is as simple as this…
• Why Social Media isn’t

Here’s the key points from a good post over at extanz.com that summarises social media marketing in its simplest form…

Social Media Marketing… it doesn’t bite …really… it’s as respectful as you are… now rock on!

But before you start out, here are some basic ideas:

- Content is KING: the best content in your industry is worth gold.
- Numbers count: everyone understands that the more connected you are, the more relevant you are.
- Distribution: you OWN distribution of your content, there is no barrier between readers/prospects and your company – There is no editor in chief privileging your competitor story.
- It’s about being Human: We are gregarious by DNA. We like social contact and we’d rather buy stuff cos our friends told so and it is fixin’ our basic and not so basic needs.
- ‘It’s business, (stupid)’: If you doubt it, just look at the valuation of those puppies…. The so called Social Graph will soon have more power than any other sales force.
- Authenticity rules: Be true to your brand and your customer or you’ll go to hell.

[youtube=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc]

The guys at common craft are fantastic at explaining complex technical concepts in plain english. Check out more of their stuff here: http://www.commoncraft.com/