Podcast Archives - Page 12 of 28 by Mark Murnahan

Lighthouse Candles: A Flicker from Search Engine Obscurity

I know, you may be thinking to yourself, “Lighthouse Candles, Mark, really?” Yes, it is true that I am generally likely to write about something more exciting and manly, and include things like guns, race cars, and motorcycles. That is mostly because I draw things right out of my real life, and my life is manly. Don’t make me prove it!

Not this time, my friend. Today, I am taking “SEO and Social Media Marketing Blog” to a whole new level of lace pink pantie-waist and foo-foo good smelling stuff. Just go with it, because if I have my way, Lighthouse Candles will be researching gunpowder and locker room scented candles by day’s end.

I realize that a lot of small companies are struggling with their marketing. It is very confusing to a lot of people. A common statement I hear is “We just can’t afford marketing.” The trouble with that statement is how stressful and difficult it is to keep paying all of those other expenses without marketing. Marketing is what sells products and services. It becomes a chicken and egg question of which comes first. Without marketing, there is not enough money to afford marketing. Something has to give, because unless a business does afford marketing, they can’t afford marketing. Without marketing, a company is better described as a costly passion than a business.

Lighthouse Candles SEO Marketing Example

Like so many other companies, Lighthouse Candles in Salt Lick, Kentucky has a strong case for marketing their business online. They produce a consumer product, and in order to earn profits, they must sell that product. In very familiar fashion, their market potential is huge, while their market reach is comparatively minuscule. In fact, I was challenged to find them at all.

Lighthouse Candles is representative of many small companies in some respects. So, I am using them as an example to pose some questions about business, and why some companies thrive, and others fail.

If the product is as good as they say, then why is their reach so small? Is it because people don’t like them? Sure, that happens with some companies, but it is more likely that the company is better at what they do than they are at marketing what they do. These people make and sell candles. They have done it for over a decade and a half, so let’s assume they have become pretty good at it. It is their specialty, and they are smart enough people to concentrate on that specialty. They make candles … but they are not a marketing company.

It is easy to wonder why they don’t take more care to market their company better, but I think it is really foreign and scary to many companies. I frequently find the cause of under-marketing to be fear of the unknown, apathy, finances, or a combination of these. It is seldom because they want to keep their revenue and profit low.

It is a big challenge to help companies like Lighthouse Candles to stop being afraid, start caring more about their business, and to grow their finances. When that challenge is overcome, it brings consistency to a company, and levels the ups and downs in business, and that takes knowledge!

Reducing Lighthouse Candles Challenges With Basic Education

It is hard to make good decisions based on bad information, or information that is hard to understand. When it comes to marketing, especially online, there is a lot of confusing information. I think it brings a lot of people to see marketing as risky, rather than to understand it as an investment. So let’s clear that confusion a bit and make some sense of this.

Many companies treat their marketing budget like risk capital, instead of a required operating cost. Marketing should not come from a slush fund, and it is not a luxury item. It is an essential component of business, and it is what makes companies more profitable.

I have to admit that there are levels of understanding of the Internet, and of marketing, that I tend to forget. I have been in my industry for many years, and it is a constant challenge to explain things in ways that both novice and experts will benefit from. If you will give me your time, I will try to deliver on both counts.

A friend told me, only yesterday, that some of my topics are “way over his head”. I really didn’t understand it, at first. I guess I often just assume that people in business know that being more visible, with the right message, to the right people, will increase sales, profits, and make a company more successful. Good marketing accomplishes those things, and the Internet is an extremely good tool.

I am sorry for the instances when I get too deep with my geekish chatter about SEO, customer modeling, propensity marketing, data analytics, and anything else that makes your eyelids heavy. The thing is, I really want to make this easy. I seriously, with every cell in my marketing brain, intend for people to benefit from the tips and advice I write about here on my blog.

Today, I want to break this down and make it easier than ever, while providing a good reminder for the experts. The SEO acronym stands for search engine optimization. There is a lot that goes into those three little letters, but let’s keep this simple.

Being listed at the top of the page when somebody searches the Internet is one big piece of that success. Being listed for something obscure is not good enough. Knowing what the people interested in buying your products or services are inclined to search for is another big part of the job. Then, after they search the Internet, find you, and click over to your website, you must give them something interesting, useful, and trustworthy enough to become your customer. Even when all of that is done, good SEO marketing includes giving them reasons to come back, and to tell their friends about their great experience.

OK, but this is about Lighthouse Candles, right? Yes, that is correct. Lighthouse Candles is a company I will use for my example. The example is intended to get you thinking about their missed potential, and how you would run things if it was your company.

Useful Observations About Lighthouse Candles

I have not spoken with Lighthouse Candles, so I am working with what I know of them from the Internet. I have the same information that any customer or potential business partner finding them online would have, if they looked for it. The first challenge was just finding them. It was seriously not easy, and their website was buried deeply from view.

Note that this is not picking on Lighthouse Candles. It is absolutely not one of my “Suture Express” jobs where I take over 50 percent of the top ten Google search results for their company name. It is more similar to the examples I have made with fearful Smart Slate retailers, apathetic online cigar stores, and lazy car dealers who fell asleep at the wheel and missed huge opportunities.

This is just observation, and it is an example that I find extremely common with companies that buy a website and are left wondering what to do with it. It is what often happens when a company realizes they need a website, but decide that the cheapest website price will be the best option for them. Then, their misinformed question of “How much does seo cost?” leads them to realize that marketing is much less about cost, and is better addressed by how much it pays them. It is called return on investment (or ROI for short), and it is based in mathematics and science, not unicorns and fuzzy bunnies.

How I came across Lighthouse Candles in the first place was when I saw a visitor to my blog that seemed to really pay attention and read what I have to teach about online marketing. Of course, every visit to any website is logged. Since I know what to do with my user data, I will often go through and take a look at people who are looking at me. I learn a lot from their actions, such as how they arrived here, what they do while they are here, how long they are on each page, and much more. I filter through and find users who visit certain pages, with a special interest toward anybody verging on an hour in a given week, and viewing 20 pages. These are the kind of website visitors I just want to reach out and hug. These are the kind of website visitors you should be reaching out to hug, too!

Fortunately, I discover a whole lot of users like this, which feels great, because it means I am doing my job well. Certain visitor actions will catch my attention when I don’t get a call or email. Here was a visitor who caught my eye.

Whenever I see this level of activity, and when specific pages are viewed for given amounts of time, there are a couple of likely conclusions as follows:

a.) Somebody is really trying to learn and implement suggestions I make.
b.) They are finding out what I know about SEO and social media marketing before they contact me to do the job.
c.) They have a rogue SEO next door who has hacked into their wireless network and is reading my blog.

There are just not a lot of other reasonable possibilities. I don’t know which is the case here just yet, but those are each distinct possibilities. So, let’s split a, b, and c into some likely conclusions.

First, I want to applaud Lighthouse Candles for being more proactive in their business and trying to improve their online market. I think it is a grand idea for them to try and reach out to capture a larger market share. There is a reason Yankee Candle has hundreds of thousands of website visitors per month. They sell candles, and although race cars and motorcycles are popular, people apparently really like candles.

So, we must ask the real questions about why Lighthouse Candles is not making a more aggressive play at that Yankee Candle market. Some companies will say they just don’t want to grow, out of principle. We can rule that out, because Lighthouse Candles is researching how to grow. They wouldn’t be on my blog otherwise. We could assume their budget is insufficient, but budgets must begin somewhere. That “somewhere” is what determines how well a company reaches its market growth objectives. That can mean reaching several different market potentials such as the market of investors, the market of retailers and distributors, and the market for potential acquisitions. There is a lot more possibility than just setting a goal of keeping the lights on.

The first reliable market to reach, in order to attract those other potential markets, is the consumer market. After all, who wants those candles in their stores, distribution networks, or investment portfolio, if the consumer doesn’t want them?

I know that it is a scary thing to believe in your own company, and to see things from a clearer view of potential. I have built successful businesses for over 20 years. It will age you faster than nearly anything else. However, success would not be so alluring if everybody could do it. That would cause the whole complex of “survival of the fittest” to come crashing down! Let’s not make it that scary. Instead, I will try to offer my possible answers and solutions to the a, b, and c speculations listed above.

Speculation is guesswork based on limited evidence. When that evidence is enhanced by experience, its feasibility increases. So this is based on calculated guesses, rather than just randomness. Breaking this into simple terms, in my estimation, the answers to those earlier possibilities are as follows:

Speculation About “a” (trying to learn and implement): This often happens when the company either does not have enough funds, or belief in their market potential to hire a professional. You can give them all the facts, case studies, and trustworthy reputation, but their confidence will not waiver. Their hopes to gather enough knowledge from reading blogs and do it themselves is what gives them confidence, because if they fail, it was probably just “fate” anyway.

Possible Solution to “a” In this instance, I would suggest an investor, or a bank loan, or pulling their teeth and selling their gold dental fillings. Just like any field, an experienced and accomplished professional will do a better job 100 percent of the time. No, not 90 percent … don’t even go there.

Example: Suture Express tried to cut their expenses and do things the cheap way. Search Google for them and look at the top ten search results to see how well that went.

Speculation About “b” (seeking the right option): This shows a diligent business person who understands that one of the greatest assets a company can have is the right people to do the jobs they are trained for. Many famously successful businesses have credited their success to discovering the right people, and knowing when to delegate what is not within their area of expertise.

Possible Solution to “b” Try driving a car like in this video. If you crash, it should help to emphasize the importance of training and the difference between a professional and somebody “testing the water”. If that doesn’t work, a frontal lobotomy may be in order, but I am not qualified to give medical advice.

Example: I don’t try to make candles, and I don’t do my kids’ dentistry either. I know when to hire outside professionals, and I am far more successful for it!

Speculation About “c” (rogue SEO): I suppose “c” is a good example of just how badly they need somebody on their side who understands the Internet from every angle.

Possible Solution to “c” Buy a better firewall, use better encryption, and change all passwords to something a little more challenging than “candles123”. Then, spend some more time at that computer to find out how easy it really is to hack a network.

Example: This is what a password looks like … o*D#kV$j2X&c7X

Some Painful Truth About Lighthouse Candles

In the case of Lighthouse Candles, there is such a huge opportunity, but why aren’t they doing things right? Why is their first marketing statement on their website a disclaimer. Yes, seriously, the first word after their company name is “DISCLAIMER”. Is it likely that a professional marketing consultant suggested that, or is it the work of a candle maker? Would Yankee Candle do that?

Why did they hire an inexperienced website developer who does not have good design or programming skill? They hired him for an ecommerce site, no less! I mean, surely he is a nice fella, but my guess is even stronger that he is cheap … very cheap! Not surprisingly, the one outside link to the Lighthouse Candles website I found was an accidental link placed on the privacy page of another company that their web developer built. If you are HTML literate, you will love this:

Why does Open Site Explorer only show three total links to the website? Yes, the total domain-level link count is three! Heck, even my little one man blog about boring marketing stuff shows 115,452 total subdomain-level links. Can you imagine what some great smelling candles could achieve with some effort?

Lighthouse Candles Subdomain-Level Links According to Open Site Explorer

aWebGuy.com Subdomain-Level Links According to Open Site Explorer

In the real world, marketing, and all of those tedious related tasks like feasibility studies, customer modeling, strategy, planning, budgeting, psychographic analysis, making good connections, and all of those other eyelid droppers really do matter. They are what make up the biggest differences between Yankee and Lighthouse.

If you like candles, maybe you’ll like this song, too. Candles by Hey Monday. It is something to listen to while you add your comments.

Photo Credits:
Candle by oneilkwangwanh via Flickr
Candle Smoke by The Ewan via Flickr

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Social Media ROI, Marketing Cost, and the Willingly Confused

Social Media Sends Mixed Signals

Many people have a very confused view of social media, and I can understand why. If you just look at all the ways social media is used, there should be little wonder how people confuse the issues. Some of the most bewildering concerns I notice surrounding social media are the return on investment (ROI) and the cost of social media marketing.

Millions of the world’s businesses understand by now that an investment in social media is vital to their success. Tragically, many of the same businesses are generally clueless about how and why they spend money with social media, and how to optimize their spending for the best results.

These same confused companies are further complicated by misguided notions that social media is limited to, or primarily intended only for personal socializing. They are the companies who question why a business would use Twitter, because that is where people announce what they had for lunch, LinkedIn is just for job-hunters, and Facebook is where old high school friends swap stories. That is social networking, and networking is important, but it is only one facet of social media. If you confuse this, and think that social networking is the basis for social media marketing, you will waste a huge amount of energy trying to sell to your friends, and others who already know you.

Believing that social media is just for personal socializing is a costly absurdity. It is the kind of absurdity that some companies will only discover after competitors have stolen away enough market share to demand attention.

Because of a lot of confusion, some people will say that the return on investment (ROI) of social media marketing is difficult or impossible to accurately calculate. I don’t think that is the case at all. If you have the right variables, calculating the ROI of social media becomes just another mathematical equation. The trouble is that so many people neglect or overlook the measurable data that really counts.

Social Media ROI Causes for Confusion

A first step to calculating the ROI of a social media campaign is to have a clearly defined campaign. That means having a strategy in place, and not just a list of tactics. It means producing a plan with a set of measurable outcomes. It requires creating and collecting customer modeling data, and using that data to reach your target audience.

Read the Social Media Signals

I have read and participated in a lot of conflicting discussions and possible answers about social media ROI, and most of it is very inaccurate or misleading. Many people will intentionally leave it open for a lot of confusion. After all, if people are confused, it is a lot easier to charge them money for things that are of little or no benefit. Calculating the ROI of social media is actually very basic, but that’s not what the failed real estate agent turned instant marketer wants you to believe. If they can convince you to just wait a little longer to see measurable results, they get paid more. Because of ignorance and greed, the debate of return on investment may never end.

In order to try and bring a little more clarity, let’s address two huge variables.

Social Media Branding vs. Increased Sales

Two very popular considerations for growing a business using social media are branding and increased sales. The two should work well together, but let’s face it, a brand can be really popular and still have a bigger drain hole than spigot. Even the most brilliant branding does not always make the sales hose filling your bucket as fast and powerful as the money drain leaving your bucket. There has to be a balance in order for the efforts to be sustainable and valuable to the company.

I find it very common for companies to lean too far in one direction or the other in their goals and attempts for successfully reaching their market. Confusing the value and cost of branding with the value and cost of increased sales is often when measuring social media ROI becomes completely muddled. Producing a balanced strategy is simply not as intuitive as most companies expect.

Building your brand name is extremely important. It builds recognition, trust, and sets your tone among the many other competing brands. It does not always have a proportionate result in sales. If you doubt it, look at it like this: You have probably encountered many great brands via social media, while it still didn’t bring you closer to buying from them.

In many instances, building your brand recognition will seem like it takes on a life of its own. When it gets to a certain point, it will grow and change, even without your input. People will talk about you more, and they will pass along your virtues by way of social media. They share your brand on Facebook, tweet about your brand, and they will become an influence to your brand (if you are paying attention).

Now, what about building those social-media-induced sales? All of the touchy-feely great branding and kind words about you can still lack a good reason to buy from you. There are a lot of companies I really like, but I am simply not their target audience. When I know somebody who can benefit from those brands, I pass them along. The brand reaches their target through me, and others like me, who become their connectors to their ideal target audience.

This is a fantastic outcome, but let’s face it, it is not always as efficient or as easy to come by as you may wish. It takes a lot of effort, and a lot of brilliance to produce a sustainable and self-propagating level of branding. It is a highly effective strategy for long-term growth, but it is also a very ambitious and frightening marketing endeavor in the beginning. Thus, a need for a balance between short-term and long-term marketing strategy.

Social Media Marketing is Branding, Advertising, and Much More!

I believe that some of the worst points of confusion in social media marketing come back to what marketing is, or is not. Both branding (long-term) and advertising (short-term and long-term) are extremely valuable when they are done well, but they require very different measurements to accurately calculate their respective ROI.

Which Way is the Right Way?

Companies often skip steps in their marketing, and then wonder why it is not measurable. This is especially common in smaller companies, because it is nobody’s full-time job to understand, monitor, and measure the company’s successes in this area. Instead, a lot of companies will try and “wing it” by assigning marketing tasks as an add-on to other job descriptions.

This is most profound as it applies to social media, but often because the people actually writing the checks have never had somebody explain the value and potential of social media from a marketing perspective. So they often just pin a badge of “Marketing Expert” on an unsuspecting employee who seems to have some aptitude (has a Facebook account).

When you decide how to set your prices for something, it is marketing. When you perform a market feasibility study, it is marketing. When you accumulate customer modeling data and use that information to better understand what people want and need from your company, it is marketing. When you set up a new Facebook or Twitter account and cross your fingers and hope for amazing business results, that is not marketing. That is dreaming. Dreaming is not measurable, and only seldom is it profitable.

Aside From Being Social, Why Should People Buy From You?

Without an expressed reason for people to become your customer, efforts will generally fall into the category of branding. This includes when they are right there on your blog, where you want them to be. As an example, I use my blogs and social networks for reaching out to be helpful, and that emphasizes my branding. When I say “I take coffee and cigarettes and turn them into better SEO and social media marketing.” … that is my brand. All of that helpfulness and broad recognition in my industry is great. It leads to many opportunities, but it is not what actually makes the sale.

On the other hand, when I say “Call me to find out how I can help you to grow your business with a measurable return on investment” … that is advertising, and that is also marketing, but it is not branding. It is how I earn a living, and it is what improves my social media ROI. The branding is just what makes more people comfortable to call, and confident when they write me the check.

As you can imagine, when it comes to spreading a word far and wide, branding statements and being useful to others will often reach further and faster. This is because they are generally non-threatening to anybody. While, although this information is good food for thought and useful to many, I have already diminished much of its social media reach by making an advertorial statement (above).

Regardless how useful what I wrote here is, many people will be far less likely to share it with others. Part of that is due to cynicism, and part of it is due to competition. It takes a lot of branding to make up for and repair cynicism and people’s disinterest and distrust toward advertorials, even within a useful context. This is why I say that a balance is very important.

If you do not understand and differentiate the value measurements of branding and the value measurements of other areas of your marketing, calculating your return on investment will always be a bit cloudy and confusing.

Am I wrong? Go ahead and tell me why and we will hash it out until one of us agrees. 😉

Related Articles:

Photo Credits:
Confused Traffic Signal by caesararum via Flickr
Confusing Signals by Luis Argerich via Flickr
Confusing Signage by Tara Hunt via Flickr

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Social Media Profiles: Keywords, Company Names, and Humans

Have you ever seen those social media profiles on Twitter, Facebook, or elsewhere that use a company name and logo instead of a human name and a photo? Of course you have seen those. Pepsi, Doritos, McDonalds, Ford Motor Company, and a good number of others do that.

What about those profiles that are based on some presumably important industry keywords? You can see those on Twitter, and even more prominently on blog comments, but not likely from successful companies.

If you don’t know what I mean, you can see some comments from people such as “Custom Logo Design” right here on my blog. I let some of those remain, when they are not offensive, and when they don’t just drop links to their agenda in the comment text. All the same, they are missing a much greater benefit. Until they learn the importance of human connection, they will never know just how much they don’t know.

There is a right place to use a company name, and there is a wrong place. For example, Facebook profiles are not for companies (Facebook Pages are). If you don’t know when to act as a company or when to be a human, you are surely wasting a lot of effort.

Even if you are communicating on behalf of a company, there are many instances when placing your company name first is like shaking somebody’s hand and saying “Hi, my name is Acme Widget Company. It is nice to meet you.” Maybe you do that, but I’ll bet big money that you could sell a lot more widgets if you were a person.

It seems that many people misunderstand this concept of human instincts, and the importance of emotion in business. In fact, this article was inspired by a question I recently received questioning the best usage of Disqus when commenting on blogs. The question was as follows:

“One question if I may ask, is it better to have co. name in discuss profile or keywords?”

At first, I thought it was the worst question I heard all day. Then I realized how common it is for people to think that spreading their company name will be more helpful than giving people a reason to like them as a human.

Why Do We Prefer Humans? Because We Can Choke Them!

Companies build respect and trust much more effectively based on actions of people than by advertising the company name. This goes for huge corporations, and it goes for small “John and Mary Lunchbucket” companies. A big brand may have implied trust, and you may not worry about whether they are going to rip you off at every turn. Even in those cases, there is a far greater level of trust when there is a personal contact at the company who you can complain to, complement, or reach out and choke.

When you have a name, face, or voice, to go with the company, you have a real person you can hold responsible for doing what they say. It creates a feeling of personal accountability, and that builds trust. That person, whether in reality or perception, binds the company to doing what they tell you, and they become the company. Have you ever tried to wrap your fingers around the neck of a company? It just isn’t as satisfying.

Big Brands Get This, and We Appreciate Them!

Maybe you didn’t notice this, but three of the four companies I mentioned at the top of this article have names and faces prominently associated to their brand name. Below are some examples of companies putting names to their social media profiles. This not only benefits the company by adding a name and a face, but it also creates the understanding that even if they screw up, they are human. Humans make mistakes sometimes.

Pepsi Shows Who is Currently Serving Tweets

Ford is a Classic Example of Making Personal Connections

Yes, Humans Make Mistakes … Just Ask Red Cross!

Some companies worry that if they put a face with the company name, the human may make them look bad. After all, if Scott Monty from Ford was arrested for running naked through Central Park and screaming “Buy a Ford or I punch the old lady!”, it could look like Ford made an error in judgment. Of course, I doubt that is going to happen … right Scott?

Embarrassing moments do happen in social media. A classic one was when Gloria Huang of American Red Cross accidentally tweeted the statement below using the the wrong Twitter account.

Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch Beer…. when we drink we do it right #gettingslizzerd

Red Cross had a great response for that, just as they do for natural disasters. I suspect that even the most critical Red Cross supporters were forgiving after Social Media Director, Wendy Harmon’s response. Here is what she said:

Even today, just as I was writing this, they are not hiding the incident. I asked a question as follows:

Nearly immediately, I received two replies, first from Gloria, and then from Wendy. Here are the replies:

There were several other exchanges to follow, including birthday wishes to Ryan, and even Dogfish Head Brewery chimed in.

It was all a very human interaction, and a lot more friendly than communicating with a faceless institution.

Humans Achieve More in Social Media

Even with all the reasons people dream up to hide behind a company name or their favorite keywords when interacting online, humans win! Maybe you think that using your company name will bring more recognition to your company. Maybe you think that using your keywords will bring more web searches your way. Maybe all of the successful instances of being a human in social media are just lucky accidents.

Believe what you will, but my name is Mark Aaron Murnahan. I will take that over SEO and Social Media Marketing Consultant any day!

Oh, and one more thing! You may send your birthday wishes to Ryan, c/o Gloria Huang.

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9 Bloggers Who Teach the Value of a Strong Blog Community

There are some blogs I feel bad to neglect, yet delighted when I make time for them. They are the blogs where I intend to be more active, and I want to share some of those with you. These are blogs by people who truly understand the many good reasons to blog, and they work hard to be useful to their communities.

First, I want to explain a bit about why I am recommending these blogs, and how I think you can learn a lot from them. If you don’t have time read, just hit the play button (top of page) to flip on my podcast and skip right to the list.

Did you ever go to a blog and find that the other people there were actually communicating with you? I don’t mean just a short and pithy answer, but rather an actual conversation that takes place. I mean the kind of blog where you see the same people every time, answering questions, solving problems, sharing ideas, and actually conversing just like they would in a coffee shop, or over lunch.

I know some blogs like that, and I enjoy them very much. It is not only because of their topics, either … I enjoy the people. Of course, I don’t spend a lot of time with blogs about things which don’t interest me, but if these blogs were about termite ranching or how to grow poison ivy, I would still be there … time permitting. I learn from them, and on good days, they learn from me.

Tip: Acquaintances will come and go, but if people genuinely like you, they will not just watch you succeed. They will make you succeed!

Take a Lesson from These Blogs!

If you have ever wondered why your blog is not as active as you would like, as a community filled with familiar faces who subscribe and come back regularly to read your work, there is probably a good reason. If it is filled with stuffy language about your industry, it will make many people yawn. If it is packed with a bunch of “buy this now” language, it will make people feel like the vacuum salesman just arrived at the door.

News Flash: It is easy to throw you out and slam the virtual door on you. All it takes is a click! If you want to avoid that “click” of people throwing you out the door, I suggest doing some reading and participating. Yes, of course I want you to read every one of the 300+ articles in my blog archive, and I want you to share your thoughts on every last one of them. I also want to help you to meet others to inspire you, teach you, and keep you moving forward.

If you want to learn how to build a blog community where people come to read what you have to say, and to see what all their friends are up to, take a lesson from the blogs listed below. I am not listing them in a specific order, or even by their topic. I am lumping them together as blogs where you can meet and get to know great people … people you will probably like. In fact, if you like my blog, and if you like me, you will find a lot of similar thinking people in these blogs.

These are blogs where people interact, learn, and share ideas. Some of them represent overlapping service offerings, but they don’t compete … they collaborate. They are blogs where people come together, and not just to spam a link to their website, or wear people down by being a blog troll. They are blogs where the community is consistent, and where that kind of thing would be pinched off like a wet turd.

A couple of these may not have the highest level of community involvement, but in those cases, I listed them based on the people writing them, and their involvement elsewhere in blogs. I read these blogs and pay attention as much as time permits, and they are on my RADAR … right near the center.

How Do These Bloggers Do It?

I am an observant guy. In fact, it is an important part of my job to be observant. A commonality I see in these blogs is that they each have a lot of the same people. This makes it pretty obvious that it is not all just about the topic of a specific blog, but largely about the people. They meet and interact across many blogs, and it becomes very social. After all, this is social media we are talking about. So let’s be social, people!

You will see many of the same people commenting and interacting with each other at several of the links I will provide. It is not some kind of secret club with a membership application. The application is just to come and get to know people and not act like the new kid in town who has to prove that his bicycle is faster than the local kids. These are very real and human communities that represent the greatest value of online communications. They are about the people, and not about the technology that so many people treat the Internet as.

Why Building Your Blog Community Matters

Let’s look at this from a business standpoint. A lot of business blogs focus on how to get people to buy their stuff. They want brand recognition, and they want a return on their investment of blogging. That is the focus of a business … more business. A common, yet tragic result is that they overlook the even greater value in finding people who love, love, love them enough to recommend them to every friend, acquaintance, and complete stranger. Those other people are the ones you want buying your stuff!

Do you want to know why the friends, acquaintances, and complete strangers matter more? They add up … huge! There are multiple reasons, and I will give you some examples.

I will use myself for the first example. If you think you want to sell me something, just imagine how much more potential you have of selling your goods or services if you make me a fan and I spread it to the squillion people I encounter and who read my blog, my Facebook, my Twitter, and my honorable mentions of others. You don’t really just want to sell me something do you? Sure, maybe that is good enough if you are short sighted in your marketing, but the real value is in my community. If you grab my attention with your community, my community becomes your community. Now doesn’t that sound nice?

Neglecting and Irritating vs. Cultivating and Nurturing

Now, to snap you into a seriously messed up potential reality, consider what happens if you are doing this all wrong. How tragic it is if, instead of making me a fan, you creep me out. Maybe you come and lurk around my blog, and maybe even get comfortable enough to spam my readers.

What if you never took the time to know more than just that my blog ranks really highly for a squillion different industry terms, and you want to throw your name and website link in my comments. Consider the example of a company that does not comprehend the value of community, or how to work with others. I made a case study of a company called “Suture Express“. Search Google for Suture Express (Google search) if you don’t already know that story. I hold roughly half of the top 10 listings on Google for their company name and the names of each of their corporate officers. Trust me, it is not the stuff that helps companies sell more, but it is what happens when companies get SEO and social media all wrong, and ignore the value of building their network, and working within a community.

It is my community that slaps the piss out of companies who cheat, lie, and spam. Companies such as Suture Express and Ray Skillman Auto Dealerships simply cannot match the power of a community.

Why do I tell you this? Because it shows the value of community, and the value of having more people who know you, like you, and defend you than you have people who are indifferent, or even despise your brand.

What if They Say You Are an Awesome ‘Possum?

Next, I want you to consider how much more valuable it is for somebody else to say you are awesome than when you say you are awesome. As an example, I will say it right now … I am awesome! I am awesome like sex, bacon, and a cold grape soda. Awesome is my job. In fact, my new mantra is this: “My job is to create marketing as awesome as sex and bacon. Even when I fail, it is at least as good as ham and a hand job.”

Fine, some people will believe it if you say you are awesome. Some people will do the research to see that it is true, but there is still a much better way!

Now consider how valuable is it if somebody else says “Mark is awesome!” It kind of sounds more valuable then, right? There is an implied credibility when it comes from a third party. I hope you get the point.

Stop Playing Opossum, and Be More Awesome

Is Your Blog Community a Waste of Time?

When you hear words like “blog community”, it may seem like a completely crazy concept. It may almost sound impossible, or a complete waste of time. Where does it begin? Where do those bloggers meet all these great people?

Building your community will not happen very efficiently if you are just sitting there staring at your own blog waiting for people to come and add their comments or to send their friends. It will happen when you get out of your shell and make time to meet people elsewhere. Spamming your blog to anybody and everybody will not help, either. I could write a squillion page dissertation on that formula for failure. Here is some thought candy on the topic for you to consider: “How to Comment on Blogs and Why You Should (or Should Not)“.

The SEO lies you may have heard will not help you, either. Good SEO (search engine optimization) happens when people such as some of the ones listed below whip out their keyboard and say the equivalent to “Mark is Awesome” about you.

Awesome Bloggers Who Attract Other Awesome People

If you want somebody to say that you are awesome, you had better get started building a community. I said I have some blogs to list, and I don’t plan to let you down. Here are some good people to learn from. Watch them, get to know them, and meet the great people who contribute to their blogs. Find out why I took the time to commend them. If you do that, you will better understand the value of reaching out of your shell, and why building a community by participating instead of siting like a bump on a stump is worth every bit of the effort.

Ingrid Abboud’s Nitty Griddy Blog

Ingrid Abboud (a.k.a. Griddy) shows many signs of being nothing short of awesome. She is a great connector of like-minded people, and deserves the description I once gave her of “sweet, silly, and super smart”.

In a recent version of Ingrid’s “Superpost Sunday Weekly Roundup“, the blog is compared to Central Perk from the hit television show, Friends. It really is that kind of a place where all we need is Gunther the barista to bring coffee and we are all set. Do you make a great cup of coffee? Read this blog and find out why it is loved by many, and nobody is a stranger.

Erika Napoletano’s Redhead Writing

Erika Napoletano is a witty, intelligent, outspoken blogger who is a bit aggressive by some measures. I like her. In fact, I like her a lot.

Erika recently landed a gig writing a business column for Entrepreneur Magazine, and her rants draw people to communicate, for better or worse … usually better. You can give her a hard time about how loose she is with dropping the F*bomb, but she knows how to bring a crowd to their feet.

Considering that she is the author of “The Bitch Slap”, there should be little wonder about Erika’s free spirited style.

Mark Harai’s Blog: Define. Imagine. Master. Execute.

Mark Harai is a great guy. He lives in Costa Rica and, I’m not sure if he knows it yet, but I die just a little more every time he is on a beach while it snows here in Kansas.

Mark is the father to a squillion kids (actually just seven), and he is one of those guys you just know this kind of stuff about … because you like him. His likability sets him apart from others, and his blog consistently offers up thought provoking articles about business growth and better human relations.

When I find more time to break away, I will meet up with Mark for a tour of his local beaches. For now, we have the Internet.

John Falchetto’s Expat Life Coach

John is very active with several of the blogs in this list, and a heck of a cool guy. Here is his take on being active within the communities he supports: “Why commenting isn’t for you“.

If you can’t like a guy like John Falchetto, your problems are much worse than blogging.

One day, when I make it back to France, or he makes it here to USA, we will go and enjoy a day at the gun club. Until then, we will enjoy our two-way communications across multiple blogs we each frequent, as well as Twitter, Facebook, and anywhere else I can track him down.

Mark Schaefer’s {Grow} Blog

I have made a number of interesting trips to Mark’s blog, and I am a bit guilty of lurking without jumping in with my comments. I am not sure why this is the case. I am doing the same thing I wish people wouldn’t do with my blog (keep their thoughts to themselves).

We have a lot of the same friends, and I hope to get to know Mark more and become more active at his blog. A recent visit turned up this article titled “How do you REALLY build a blog community? A love story.“

If you like my community, I think you will like Mark’s as well.

Gini Dietrich’s Spin Sucks

This is another of those people, and blogs that I am a bit ashamed to neglect. It is all my fault, but it is on my “To Do” list, and blinking away on my RADAR.

Have a look at this recent article titled “Executives and the Ostrich Syndrome“ It is so sickeningly familiar to me that I didn’t even know how to reply … but I plan to … when I stop procrastinating.

Spin Sucks … and Gini knows it! Check her out and find out why I respect her work.

Ruhani Rabin’s Technology, Lifestyle, and Interestingness

Ruhani does not blog as much as he used to, but I like him, and I like his style. I have to give him a serious shout out here, because of his active participation across multiple social media channels. He has built a community that sticks with him wherever he goes, and whether he blogs often or not.

What do I really think of Ruhani? Well, I can say this: Ruhani is one of only a few people I put on the back cover of my 2009 book “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends“, and not just because he said something nice about me.

It seems very appropriate that Ruhani is VP of the company that created “Friendster” (friendster.com), because he sure knows how to make friends. Ruhani Rabin is one of the most friendly guys with a blog you could ever know.

Marcus Sheridan’s, The Sales Lion

Some call him Mufasa. Actually, maybe only Griddy (Ingrid Abboud) calls him that, but most call him Marcus. I don’t directly communicate with Marcus very much. I am not sure just why that is the case. I hope it is not because I gave HubSpot a harsh review once upon a time. I know he is pretty tight with HubSpot.

We bounce into each other on a lot of the same blogs, and we have a lot of mutual friends and acquaintances. I read his blog, time permitting. I kind of feel like I know him. That is a mark of a blogger who “gets it”.

Here is a recent article by Marcus about building a blog community: “Massive Blog Growth: Do You Really Have the Time it Takes?”

Jim Rudnick’s Canuck SEO: Canadian SEO for Google Success!

Jim Rudnick is one of those guys who soaks up information like a sponge. He is an “old-timer” like myself, who has been in the SEO business since most search engine optimizers were in diapers, eh?

Of course, with Jim being a Canuck, he feels more comfortable if you end each sentence with an “eh?” You know, because that’s what they do up there in Canada, eh?

Jim is active across many channels of social media, outside of his own blog, and because of that, I think it would be awesome to see Jim’s own community at Canuck SEO grow like a weed. Jim gives more than he takes, and you can find a lot of great blogs just by keeping a close eye on him.

Here is a recent article by Jim: “Affiliate Scams: I Must be Lost!” Stop by and say “hi, eh?”

My Summary:

I don’t read every article from every blog I subscribe to. I also sometimes forget to subscribe to some of the blogs I encounter. I have found many great blogs over the years, and I simply cannot read and respond to everything on the Internet. I try my best to keep up with the good ones, and I try to participate in the community, as my limited time allows. I will be working on this, and trying to give closer attention to these blogs. I hope that you will, too.

Now that you have the list, and I gave you some thinking points about working as a community, are you going to sit there like a bump on a stump, or are you going to kindly introduce yourself to my community of readers? You may just end up being the tenth blogger on the list. Go ahead … impress me!

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How to Add Facebook Comments to a Blog and Improve Search Ranking

Facebook for Blog Comments

Perhaps by now you have seen a few blogs using Facebook comments. If you have not seen it yet, you can witness it in action here on “SEO and Social Media Marketing Blog”. Go ahead and look, if you must … but we will get to that part anyway.

When I recently added Facebook comments I was so excited about the increased commenting and Facebook sharing that I knew others would want to know more about it, too.

I want to tell you about some really useful features of this free service, including SEO (search engine optimization) benefits, enhanced user-experience, increased social interaction, and more. Then, I will give you step-by-step instructions on how to add Facebook comments to your blog (or any website).

So, let’s get started. Before I give you the step-by-step “How To”, I want to explain some huge benefits. After all, it really doesn’t make sense to do this if you don’t know why, or how it can benefit your website.

Maybe I should have split this into two articles, but if you are just here for the installation, jump to the installation now. It could get a little geeky around here for some people, but haven’t you ever really wanted to know what makes geeks tick? Read on my “non-geek” friends. I have some love here for you, too!

Facebook Comments Search Engine Ranking Benefit

It is not a secret that Google and Bing use information from social media for ranking websites. Since December of last year, it has been speculated that one of the strongest individual signals Google uses is the number of Facebook shares. That is, the number of times somebody actually shares your website on Facebook. It is really hard to qualify this, and there is a lot of contention in the matter.

Regardless of any potential direct SEO value, when you use Facebook comments, it greatly increases the probability of people sharing your blog on Facebook. Of course, they don’t have to share it on their Facebook wall when they comment, but the option is selected by default. The way I see it is that unless I am ashamed of something I am reading, I will usually share my comments on Facebook, along with the originating article. Other people seem to react the same way, and since the option is so simple and right there in front of them, is it easy to see why it will increase the probability of a blog article receiving more Facebook shares. Facebook shares can lead to blog posts, Twitter conversations, and a whole list of other possibilities. So, in the end, the SEO benefits can come in many forms.

Although Google cannot see much of the information shared on Facebook, there is still a lot of reason to suspect that the crawler can find at least some of it. In case you are doubtful of the value of Facebook sharing to SEO, here are some influential third party references on the matter:

“Facebook + Twitter’s Influence on Google’s Search Rankings” SEOmoz
“What Social Signals Do Google & Bing Really Count?” Search Engine Land
“Correlation Data for SEO and Social Media Analysis” SEOmoz

Below is a video from the third article in the list. If you don’t have time for it, just know that Facebook sharing can potentially benefit your search engine rankings, and that Facebook comments are a huge step toward a more interactive user experience … another big step toward good SEO.

Let’s not forget that in addition to the benefit of Google and Bing using Facebook sharing in their rankings, it also opens the floodgates to more people seeing your website. That means more people to potentially share it along to their friends. Oh, it all gets so exponential and mathematical … I think I may need another cigarette!

Facebook Comments Enhance User Experience

User experience sounds so cliché and empty to me, but you understand the notion. Making your website easy and familiar is imperative to its success. The end-user is why we all work so hard to make our websites feel easy and familiar, like sweatpants and a pair of flip flops. It has to be comfortable, or people will stop coming back … or coming at all.

On the other hand, if you focus the website on benefiting the end-user, before you know it, that hard work all starts to make a lot of sense. People start blasting it out to all their friends about how they almost peed their shoes when they found the one website on earth that actually smelled like bacon, and rubbed them like a teenager in the back seat of a Camaro.

Add More Nasty Camaro with Facebook!

If you want to call it “User Experience”, go ahead … I am thinking about the party in the yellow Camaro with steamy windows! Then, before I fall asleep, I will paw through the fridge in search of that bacon I smelled. That is how I see “user experience”, and you can flop on my virtual couch any time. It’s comfy, isn’t it?

Here is how Facebook comments improve the user experience: Let’s face it, everybody who ever wrote a blog wants to see comments … even if only to point out a typosnaphical error. They want to know that they didn’t do all that work for nothing. If you are reading this, you probably have a blog, so you know what I mean. The challenge is in making comments an easy and natural response for the people who read your work.

Of course, you could look at it this way: Maybe everybody except you is a lazy, no-good, deadbeat blog lurker who soaks up your hard work, and laughs in your face when they click away to their next victim.

-or-

You could consider that there are a lot of busy people, and even a lot of them who really don’t know much about blogs, or the benefits of participating. They don’t all know the value of getting to know all of those other readers with the same interests. This makes it your job, the blogger, to fix the challenges. You need to make it easy, and natural to leave a comment, and Facebook comments do just that!

Shoe-peeing, Camaro-sweating, bacon-scented, unicorn-kissing, all-you-can-haul-out-the-door-for-a-dollar brilliant content is not always enough. You have to make it so easy that getting up to deal with a bad case of diarrhea can wait just a few more seconds while they shower you with their lovin’ words.

Facebook Comments Increase Social Interaction

With well over half a billion people using Facebook, it is a lot more recognized than your blog. People know how to use it. Facebook is a comfy, cozy, snugly, familiar place for many people. Those Facebookey people are not so shy to communicate on Facebook. They do it all the time. That is what Facebook is there for, and that is also why it is on my blog (and probably on your blog soon).

Facebook comments meet the challenges of familiarity and ease of use like a hungry blogger meets a greasy bacon sandwich. If people aren’t talking to you, and each other, with Facebook comments on your blog, you can believe it … they really just don’t like you, or other people … At All.

Some interesting things to note is that when somebody comments and elects to share it (along with the article) on Facebook, it will appear simultaneously on the blog, and on Facebook. Replies to that person will then be visible to them on their Facebook Wall, as well as a link back to the article.

For those who have their employer set up properly and visible publicly on Facebook, another neat feature is that their title and company Facebook Page link will appear. That can create additional possibilities for business networking. Of course, the user’s Facebook security settings still apply.

How to Add Facebook Comments to a Blog

The list of nice features goes on, but we can chat about that in the comments. That way you can see how neat it really is from a user perspective. Let’s get to the part about how you can add these nifty Facebook comments to your blog. I am going to explain it based on WordPress, but it is similar for other websites.

I looked for a a plugin for this, but I didn’t find one, so I may write a Facebook Comments WordPress Plugin (actually just a relatively simple installation script) if I get the time. The closest plugins I found were to import comments from Facebook notes, but that is not the same thing at all. This is how to actually include and synchronize Facebook comments, likes, and shares on a website.

This is really not very hard, but Facebook’s documentation is so lengthy that it could get confusing if you don’t know what you are looking for. So, I am going to include the links you will need to visit on Facebook, and what to do when you get there.

If you need help, that just makes a good case for why blogs have comments in the first place.

Step One: Create a Facebook Application – This does not mean going to school for web programming, and creating an app is much easier than it sounds. All you have to do is click here, then click on “Set Up New App”, enter an App Name (like the name of your blog), agree to Facebook’s terms, and then fill in a few more easy blanks.

Once you have the app set up, hold onto that info for a bit. You will need the application ID number in the next step.

Relax, you can do this … really. If you get confused, just add your questions in the comments below, and somebody will help you … probably me. If you start feeling a bout of rage coming on, just put down the weapon and ring me up. I will do it for you for a song. Well, actually a song along with some of your money, but not all of it.

Step Two: Load the JavaScript SDK – If that “creating an application” thing sounded hard, this one sounds like having to share a sleeping bag with your mother-in-law. It is actually quite simple. I don’t know why they make it all sound so difficult.

In this step, all you are doing is adding the basic information the application will need for your website, in the format Facebook needs it. It looks daunting to some people, but if you just look at the example, and find where it says “YOUR APP ID” replace it (the letters only) with the ID number you received when you created your app.

You can either go and copy the code on the Facebook Developers JavaScript SDK page, or just use the snippet below. I suggest using the version where it says “Loading the SDK Asynchronously”. You only need the one snippet of code, and this is the one I use here on my blog. Just be sure to put your new app ID where it says “YOUR APP ID” in this code.

Here is the code you will need:

<div id=”fb-root”></div> <script> window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({appId: ‘YOUR APP ID, status: true, cookie: true, xfbml: true}); }; (function() { var e = document.createElement(‘script’); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + ‘//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js’; document.getElementById(‘fb-root’).appendChild(e); }()); </script>

Step Three: Copy and Paste the JavaScript SDK – If my mother is reading this, she is probably going to the kitchen junk drawer for glue. That copy and paste thing drives her guano-crazy. I will handle it for my mom when she gets hot on her blogging career, but for you, this will be a snap! Take that snippet of code from above (edited with your new app id) and open your WordPress Theme Editor. It is right there in that place where you add new blog posts. More specifically at http://YOUR-DOMAIN/wp-admin/theme-editor.php (unless you have some freaky-deaky version of WordPress). This is where you can see a list of your theme files sitting there ready to beat up like a row of red headed boys in pink high-water pants.

Pay Attention and Stop Beating Up the WordPress Redheads

The precise placement of this code is not a huge issue. You see … this really is easy! I added mine into the “Header (header.php)” file in my theme. It could have a slightly different name, but you have something like that, where it has all of that header-ish kind of stuff. Within that file, you’ll see words like “head”, “body”, “meta”, and a lot of others. I added my “JavaScript SDK” snippet immediately below the “body” tag. You can see where it is in my source code if you like, but just don’t go giving me any “Grandma Guilt” if you don’t like the html comments in my source code. Just search the code for the word “body”. It’s there … you can find it … I have faith in you.

Paste it your code somewhere right around there (or exactly there), but keep that same page open. You still need to shove some more stuff in there.

Step Four: Add Facebook’s “xmlns:fb” Namespace Attribute to Your HTML Tag – That sounds worse than it is, but we want this to be easy. So, while you have that header file opened, look for this: xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” and add xmlns:fb=”http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml” right behind it … well, with a space, of course.

So it should turn out to look like the example below. Just copy it and replace the old one.

Step Five: Add the Open Graph Protocol – I swear these Facebook guys smoke some crazy stuff to make this sound so darn complex. This is just a series of meta tags … little bits of information about your website and the specific pages, so Facebook knows what it needs to know.

Here is the code you need, with very minimal editing if you are using WordPress. All you need to do is edit the parts in CAPITAL LETTERS. You can pretty it up with line breaks and stuff if you like. It really makes no difference in function.

Step Six: Add the Comments Code – Ahh, this is the easy stuff. You are almost done. You need to paste the code below on your website where you want the comments to appear. In your WordPress theme editor, just click to edit “Single Post (single.php)” or the equivalent in your theme. It may be named differently, but don’t let that eat you up. I added it immediately above my existing comments. Just search the file for the word “comments” and you will probably find it really quick.

The only editing you will need to do here is to adjust the width (520 in my example) to the width you want it to appear on your blog, and also the “num_posts” for how many comments you want showing before the “show more comments” link appears to users.

That should do it. Save everything and start enjoying more comments and Facebook shares.

What About WordPress or Disqus Comments?

To me, WordPress’ built-in comments, Disqus comments, Intense Debate, and etcetera are not replaced by Facebook comments, but rather enhanced.

Disqus is Here to Stay

You cannot import your existing blog comments into Facebook (at least for now), and I still enjoy all of the features of Disqus. So I think it makes good sense to keep an existing comments system in place.

I am keeping Disqus right here where people can embed videos, upload photos, and all the other great networking benefits, but I am also pretty excited about the new addition.

Which one will you choose to use to add your take on the matter? If you don’t leave me a comment, I may just think you are a snob, so please redeem yourself! Oh, and give that share button a whirl, unless you are ashamed of me. 😉

More Useful Facebook Articles:
(You didn’t expect me to stop here, did you?)

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