I have a request that you do not be a stooge, and that you do not treat SEO and Internet marketing professionals as stooges either.
During a phone call a moment ago, I was inspired to point something out about SEO (search engine optimization) and Internet marketing that is obvious to me, but clearly some people do not already understand. This is an extremely basic SEO lesson.
I make a point of asking people who contact me for Internet marketing a very simple question as follows: “How did you find me?” Of course I already know the answer, but so many people do not realize that we can track everything online.
My question has been answered in many ways, and even as silly as “I was just surfing the Internet and came across your website.” Even that answer is just fine. It is usually not a truthful one, and I actually already know when people contact me the exact way that they reached me. You see, when you email me or surf my websites, I can see your IP address, network name, location, what you searched for, and many other details that tell me who you are and how you found me. I ask people this question because of one important follow-up question that either goes right over their head or totally blows their socks off. That question is as follows: “Do you think it was an accident that you found me amongst the millions of other web pages out there competing for your business?”
This is Friday evening and I have a webcast to prepare for, so I do not want to take a lot of time with silly scenarios and rhetorical questions, but I have one more question to ponder. Now pay close attention and answer this honestly …
Do you think that you found this article on this blog about Internet marketing and search engine optimization by accident?
The truthful answer is that it was no accident at all, and I have created the means for you to find my blog. When people contact me about my services, I often have to remind them that if they found me amongst the millions of others out there, it is because I made it happen. If I did not create this article, and if I did not have the means to help people to find me, they would not find me.
When you approach any SEO and Internet marketing professional because you found them, you must question just how and why you found them instead of a website selling pink pantyhose. If you are confused why you found me instead of pink pantyhose, you should probably turn your computer off and get some rest.
Otherwise, perhaps you will be open to this crazy notion. If somebody can be sure that you find them instead of millions of others in the extremely competitive field of Internet marketing and SEO services, they can probably do the same for you.
If you are not going to eat that Digg fame, may I have a bite?
I was feeling a bit down about Twitter yesterday after remembering those days when Twitter was the next big Digg.com-like traffic-generating left-coast geek craze. If you were there, you would know it as the days when everybody who Kevin Rose (of Digg.com) had worked so hard to encourage to get their moment of Digg fame had become Twitter-stunned. It was back when anybody who had been kicked off Digg.com professed that tweets were the new diggs, and it was time to adapt to the new rules.
What The Heck is Digg?
For my readers unfamiliar with Digg, I will explain it in simple terms. Digg.com is a massively important … no, wait … monumental piece of Internet marketing history. It is a largely bullshitopotomus platform for zit-faced Star Wars fans to gain importance by stroking each other’s ego. The primary demographic are 17 year olds pretending to be 30, and 45 year olds still wearing Scooby Doo pajamas. Digg users can be largely summed up as semi-adult with $200 per hour talent getting paid $13 per hour to submit “diggable” stuff without looking like a “business digger”. They will carefully digg a squillion things per day while they sit in their mother’s basement passing time until she kicks them out on the street to get a real job and stop playing on that damn computer.
Typical Digg Users Need Jobs
A typical Digg user would be more inclined to plagiarize somebody’s good resume and hack their way into a real job, but there is a catch. They are hard-pressed to find time in between potentially popular photos of Lego sculptures and celebrity gossip to throw their Digg authority upon and earn another $0.43 per click for that advertisement which is cleverly placed between that badass Lego sculpture of The Empire State Building and Jennifer Aniston photoshopped making out with their buddy. When they have time to eat their bologna sandwich and chips (thanks mom), they sit there thinking “Damn those Lego statues and funny photos of the dude crashing his skateboard. I could have been somebody! … and Damn You Jennifer Aniston!
The Big Point About Digg
So the point of this article was actually this: I wrote something yesterday to tease Twitter users. I titled it “How To Become Popular on Twitter Without Actually Being Useful” and it was pretty well-received. Fame? No, not fame really, because I used to see many times as much attention to an article on Twitter … any article on Twitter. Heck, I could tweet about blowing my nose and see 100 retweets back when Digg was supposedly dead.
Damn it … those zit-faced kids went back to Digg, but I still found some people amused by my Twitter humor and snarky insight. What I have done here is to point out yet another typically popular thing to do. If you have something popular come out of your blog, it is often a good idea to follow it up with something of a similar nature that people can relate to. It really is an important practice, because your audience will tell you what they want, and you should be willing to deliver it.
I was going to blog about something totally different today. Blame the 40-something year old in the Scooby Doo pajamas and those knucklehead Twitter people who surprised me with their signs of a heartbeat yesterday.
By the way, I should add that those zit-faced fellas on Digg really don’t have a sense of humor. They just act like it for $0.43 per click. Sorry … this is one blog post the Digg fellas probably will not like very much, but you are welcome to Facebook it!
If you have used Twitter for very long, you surely know the type. It is the popular Twitter user like that jerk in high school all the kids wanted to be like but nobody could really say for sure just why. Fortunately for you, I have taken it upon myself to tell you how to become popular on Twitter without actually being useful. This is that secret recipe all the cool and popular people on Twitter did not want you to know about, but I am telling you. Let the death threats begin.
Now Let’s Make You One of the Popular People on Twitter
Follow along, because you don’t want to do this wrong. If you tweet the wrong thing, people will hate you. They will rip you up and make you wish you left your iPhone on the night stand and never downloaded that fancy-schmancy Twitter application. They may even unfollow you, and the “unfollow” on Twitter is worse than a bad fart on an airplane.
If you follow this list without deviation, you are sure to become massively popular. Just remember that if anybody says “I hate you and hope you die a miserable death” or “You deserve a really bad case of herpes” … those people are just jealous because they will probably never be as popular as you. Just as long as they don’t “unfollow” you … that is when you know it has gone beyond jealousy and they may actually hate you.
Here is the secret list. It is not an all-inclusive list, but it will get you started. If you want the whole story, I guess you will just have to buy the book.
Become Popular on Twitter: Tip One
Tweet everything you ever see about breaking news. Those news sites like Google News, CNN, and etcetera, just don’t seem to have enough ways to reach people. If you put it on your Twitter, people will respect you more as an authority because you will always seem to know everything before anybody else.
Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Two
Tweet anything new about techie stuff. If it is about an iPhone, iPad, or anything else with a partially eaten apple on it … Tweet it! If you see it on Mashable.com or TechCrunch.com, tweet it twice … per hour. That stuff is hot, and any popular Twitter user knows it. If it includes people complaining about something techie, it is even better. People love to join into bitter battles over Google security vulnerabilities, Facebook privacy, Mac vs. PC and other juicy stuff like that.
Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Three
Tweet about a cause. It does not really matter if it is just another charity to feed starving kittens in the latest place with a natural disaster. Twitter it with passion (preferably with frequency and urgency) to show that you really are a person who cares. Those kittens are getting more hungry by the hour, after all.
Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Four
When in doubt, retweet it! People love people who retweet (repeat) things they say! Didn’t you hear about those starving kittens? You should pass that along, because it is a really important cause. Any extra funds raised will go to buy the latest iPhone for the kittens.
Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Five
Watch what is trending on Twitter. Trending means it is hot stuff that nobody else on Twitter knows about yet, and you should tweet it over and over … but only until something new is trending.
Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Six
Create a trend on Twitter. It is best to seek something from other networks, because Twitter has not heard about it just yet. Watch Google Trends, Digg, and Alexa’s “What’s Hot”. This stuff is practically un-twittered, and can make you look like a totally amazing Internet Einstein!
Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Seven
Get more Twitter followers. It is like a virus! If you get more Twitter followers, you will look more important and then more people will follow you which will make you look even more important … and all of the sudden you will be so popular it will blow your friends’ minds. Best of all, you don’t even have to ever actually be useful and do anything unique. Just be sure to retweet anything that says “#followfriday” in it.
Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Eight
Join one … no … ALL of those programs to get more Twitter followers. They will even send out automated messages to tell people the stuff you sell, and there is a good chance you will get rich with that!
Become Popular on Twitter: Tip Nine
Remember … It is all about the numbers! Marketing is just a numbers game. If you can put yourself in front of enough people, you can sell damn near anything. Trust, creativity, and talent do not matter if you can get enough spam out there. People say they hate spam, but the secret truth of Twitter experts is that those haters are just jealous of you for being more popular than them!
Summary of How To Become Popular on Twitter
If this does not make you more popular, just don’t blame me. If you use this list, you are the one trying to imitate instead of being an individual and doing something different. I can’t fix that. The best I can do is to offer some encouragement. Do something different and stop worrying about being popular.
I recently returned home after an all-day meeting with a company in need of my SEO and social media marketing services. I wrote about them in my recent article titled “99 Percent of Marketing Fails, But Eleanor Can Fly!“. The company asked me to come to Chicago and meet with them at length about their needs, and get to know them. They don’t just want a consultant, they want me to share in their vision and help them to achieve some really big goals. They want my commitment to their long-term success.
We had a great time, and I learned a lot about things which make the company really great. The culture of the company is to do things with purpose. They do meaningful things and they do them for the right reasons. Their purpose is not all about the money, but the money is all because of the purpose. I suppose it is easier for them to come by their purpose, because they are a family-owned company in their fourth generation. The culture was passed down, and there is a strong sense of responsibility that comes along with that. I am still optimistic that a greater purpose can be developed in newer companies, too. They must first understand that greater rewards come from a bigger vision than themselves, and not just a clever business plan.
Tangent Thinking Creates Great SEO and Social Media
While I was meeting with these fine folks, we often spoke in tangents. We let our minds wander with our ideas. Thinking and sharing your tangent is often the best way to discover your greatest creativity. I told the guys that if I was there in the office each day, much of my best work would not be sitting at a desk and doing geeky stuff like reprogramming their websites, but rather pacing the sidewalk smoking cigarettes, and chugging coffee. I forgot to add the telephone. I need cigarettes, coffee, and a telephone so I can call for more inspiration and ideas from that perfect person in my giant network of creative and resourceful friends who can help me think through my latest flash of genius.
I explained that good SEO takes a lot of hard work, data analysis, and understanding of technologies, but that great SEO requires something a whole lot different. It requires creativity, passion, and doing something truly exceptional and showing people what makes your company amazing. Yes, SEO is a whole lot more than just picking some keywords and putting them on a perfectly crafted website. Really great SEO (search engine optimizers) know that asking for a link from other webmasters is a huge waste of time. They know that if you do something really out of the box that people love, more people will link to you because they are compelled to share the value you provided them. Yes, there I said it. I just gave you the single best tip in my SEO bag of goodies.
When the SEO Light Bulb Comes On
While I was on a tour of the company’s facility with the VP of Marketing, his right-hand man, a brilliant note-taking scribe who goes by the title of “Director of Innovation” came to re-join us on the tour. The three of us stood in the “bird cage” high atop a huge facility where employees were working hard to do their jobs. As we talked about them, it really began to feel like they were not just there to get the job done, but that the culture of this company allowed them to all be a part of a bigger picture. They worked side-by-side with family members, and I don’t just mean the strong family which is the company. They worked with people they had known since birth … you know, actual family members. Many of them had been there for a very long time. Sure, jobs are harder to find these days, but I don’t think these people came to work each day just because this was the only job out there for them. They understood the vision, and if any of them question their corporation’s intentions, they shouldn’t. I don’t. Hearing it from a guy with the founder’s same name, I can say that the higher-ups really have a whole lot of heart wrapped up in that staff. They really do care about the employees, and they feel a huge sense of responsibility to the thousands of people it can affect if they make bad decisions. It gave me goosebumps more than once.
While we stood there talking about these hard workers and sharing our visions for the company, the Director of Innovation had a moment which really came to seem like a light bulb turning on. He knew that what I do is more than just things he had read about SEO and Internet marketing, but had not put his finger on it just yet. In this light bulb moment, he really started seeing how the initial perceptions of SEO as a technical trade went a lot deeper. He noticed that it also has a lot greater than expected roots in people, talent, creativity, networking, and so many other branches of a marketing tree. It was in this conversation when he realized that there really is a lot more to the job description of search engine optimizer than he thought. It is not just about getting a bunch of website traffic. It also has a lot to do with being able to express the value of something, and doing it in a way that people can relate to. It has to do with building a brand and sharing that great culture of the company with other people who will appreciate it and benefit from it. It has to do with building consumer confidence, which often takes a lot more than just being the first search result when people search for what you offer.
Social Media Seeds SEO, But Here is How!
In our discussions, I mentioned that social media is like seeds of SEO. Actually, SEO is social media, and I will explain that briefly. If you consider that Google’s most important SEO ranking factor is quality links pointing to your website, you can see that it is all about the people’s opinion. People who have confidence in your brand, and see value in your message, will link to your work. Google is just a bigger tree in the social media forest. It reflects what the people like, and what the people want. It is largely based on the same principle of great things being popular.
Google is just a bigger tree in the social media forest. It reflects what the people like, and what the people want. It is largely based on the same principle of great things being popular.
There is a lot more to it, but it is the whole forest that I want you to see. Sure, you can swap a bunch of links and ask people to link to your website. If you think that works so great, consider how long it would take to get thousands of incoming links to your site by asking for them. Then consider how much more effective it would be for your business to do great things and provide great value, then present it in a way that people will love to share. Getting this wrong is why I say that most SEO fail at link building.
How Does a Good Business Become Great?
A wise man who knew about making a good business great described it as feeding the gorillas. You must give them what they want, and they want bananas. Give them bananas and they will be happy gorillas who will be loyal to you. I think there was a lot more wisdom in this than just the picture you have in your head right now of a silly man throwing bananas to a gorilla (you saw that guy in your mind, too … I know you did). It means giving people what they want in life and realizing that is the most effective path to getting what you want. This holds true, whether it is a link to your website, a purchase from a customer, love of another person, or becoming a massively successful brand. Feeding bananas to gorillas is what made the company I met with yesterday a great one. They have been giving people what they want for a long time, and the success is evident.
I really enjoyed my trip to Chicago and the day I spent getting to know these guys. I hope they see just how much similarity we share in our methods and motivations. I suspect as they read through the copies of my book, “Living in the Storm” that I left with them, they will see that I strongly believe in feeding the gorillas, too.
Mark’s Side-Note
This may seem a bit outside of the topic, but it does relate. I want to add that while I visited with my wife on my way back home, she sensed an emotional attraction that I have to this company. She said that from all I told her, I could not have dreamed up a more suitable and exciting opportunity to do the things I love than what this company has in mind for me. I was not looking for this, and I have been a CEO for two decades. The company found me, and has expressed an interest in making me an employee of their corporation. This is certainly not something I would normally even consider. At the same time, it really proves that if you do great things, with great purpose, and you present it in a way that people love, nearly any goal can become reality.
Marketing Makes Eleanor Fly!
I have heard percentages of marketing efforts that do not work. I have witnessed those statistics enough to reach the top of my throat, and to declare that most marketing is little more than miserable failure, like the last squeak of a mouse in a trap. In fact, if you held my job for a day or two, you could even taste it like bad acid reflux. It is really true though, that most marketing falls on deaf ears, and the masses are immune to it. This is largely because these days, anybody with a computer and an Internet connection can bill themselves as an expert marketer. The barrier of entry no longer requires aptitude, experience, or even desire for anything other than somebody else’s money.
The odds of a marketer to recognize the root of our field as helping others with respect, dignity, and a desire to serve them has diminished to a point that skepticism is allowed to take over as a prevalent factor. This means that trust … hard-earned and well-deserved trust is due for a resurgence. A recall to the very root of the word “sell” is what it takes to be really great in a marketplace. If you have not learned this from your marketing pedigree just yet, the word “sell”, in this context, owes its origin to the Norwegian word “selje”. The literal translation is “to serve”, and that still means a lot to some of us.
The job of a professional marketer is to figure out that tiny fraction which does work. What we do is to serve our clients in a way which reflects our desire to benefit more than only ourselves, and to serve others at our highest capabilities. It means that a great marketer must look beyond the benefit of a few bucks today and understand the greater benefit of tomorrow.
A Happy Marketing Success Story
As the economy spooks many companies into bankruptcy and executive fears of failed marketing reach the brim of my digestive system and invoke my gag reflex, I want to tell you a success story. Yes, amongst all of the corporate scaremongering and enterprise torment, there really is success in the mix. This story is a real one, and if it is what I believe it is, it exemplifies success in the hardest market ever, which is to find personal and professional satisfaction.
Join with me and jump on board with my excitement for a moment. Raise your hands and start cheering while I share an exciting story of enterprise SEO success.
There is a company, a tried and true success in their marketplace, who picked up the mouse and found me. They searched for what I do, they took time to read a small share of my facts, figures, and persona, and we met by voice over the telephone. The story has more detail, which I will share as it unfolds, but for the moment, I offer you a piece of my expectedly upfront social media transparency.
The caller on the other end of the phone was a bright and cheery executive who revamped much of the delight that I have held so dearly as my ideal marketplace. This was not an intern at the local veterinary clinic asking how they could get a few more sick dogs to treat. It was not even an auto dealer seeking answers to social media marketing. It was a fellow gearhead executive calling on behalf of a gearhead company. He spoke my language, and we held discussions of real marketing beyond just the couple clicks up the roller coaster track that most companies will attempt before they take the chicken exit and get off the ride while the cars roll back into the loading area.
This guy was speaking my kind of language. You know, the language of waking up and smelling gear oil, coffee, and yesterday’s sweat. The kind of stuff that would intimidate Clint Eastwood and force Chuck Norris to turn in his “Man Card” and scream “Uncle” like a crybaby-sissy-bed-wetter. Yes, it was as if the Chairman of Manhood and the CEO of Testosterone were in stereo driving an epic bass line directly into my entrepreneurial earphones.
When I tell you this guy is right up my alley, I only claim that because I actually pictured him taking down six Chicago street thugs with nothing but a toothpick and a rubber band … yep, in an alley … my alley. Indeed, this dude instilled just enough of a masculine man-crush that when I told the story to my wife, she actually recounted it, in jest, with a boy-meets-girl kind of scenario and somebody was about to lean in for the first kiss. She didn’t get to the part where they sweat on each other, but probably just because that made her a bit weak in the knees. The fog of testosterone floating around would be enough to stop most hearts dead in their tracks.
In our encounter, it was as if I was driving Eleanor from the movie “Gone in 60 Seconds” and … well, like we were both driving Eleanor (e.g. Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction LOT: 1287). All but one detail, he actually has yet come to liberate my Eleanor-plus sized budget from the company’s board of directors. He will be working on them this week, and I will assist him in that jailbreak all I can. It will be important that my new gearhead friends understand that there is a vast difference between Lot 1287 and the dozens of other nice 1967 Mustangs in the list, and the difference is not all about the price … it is value which matters.
While we visited, I discovered the most awkward scenario. The company has me pictured as an in-house corporate SEO guy. At first, I felt a little tear on my cheek, because I know there are only a relatively few companies who understand the value that a C-level position in my industry can provide for them, or how much a long-standing CEO requires just to keep feeding his family. Then I started remembering how much I hate selling SEO. I mean, after all, you can Google something as simple as “sell SEO” or “how to sell SEO” and find that I know a lot about this business. My best scenario of how to sell SEO is just to be able to do it, prove it, and earn a squillion dollars from it. I already did that. My selling is over, and what I mostly want is to do the work I love, and to never have to slink my way out of a boardroom because some kid with less talent but a better line of garbage talked them into some cheap SEO. Realistically, any boardroom worth the table where they sit should be able to distinguish real marketing talent from a marketing representative waiting for his next diaper change. If they cannot recognize that difference, maybe a quick Google for “marketing talent” will flip the butter and the bread in the right direction and show them where the real deal lives and thrives. Where that butter meets the bread is with the guy holding uncanny skills (marketing and gearhead alike), a history of success, and a knack for telling what people need to hear even if it is not what they want to hear. That is a guy with the company in mind, whether he is working as their independent SEO consultant or as their boardroom fun department ready to whip out his clown nose and reveal his magic bag filled with market share, acquisition targets, increased leverage, stronger investors, retail fanaticism, and other boardroom delights.
In either scenario which my gear-hugging pals over there prefer, my Eleanor+ (performance bonus, equity, and etcetera) price point is a cheap jailbreak to fire up the passion of a real gearhead marketer who can come to the office and bang out high-compression gasoline flavored treats the way I would passionately provide for these guys.
I doubt they can afford me, but I am just as sure as motor oil and gasoline going to give them every opportunity to try. It really comes down to how their board of directors view the value of the Internet and my impact upon it.
To my new gearhead pals, I have a tip for your use in our synergistic battle in the boardroom. If they want to know how to justify SEO cost, just Google it! They will find the same guy as when you were seeking how to find SEO talent. 😉
NOTE: To my many longstanding and devoted clients, many of which have been with my services for a decade, please be aware that nothing will shake my devotion to you. You will continue to receive the highest attention from my highly capable support representatives, and you can expect the same level of service which you have trusted me with for so long. As you are surely aware, there is no dollar amount which can purchase my integrity.
