Using LinkedIn for marketing

iMediaConnection has a good interview with the co-founder, CEO and Chairman of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman.

He talks about various topics including the LinkedIn Advertising Network, the plans for the company and how individuals can use it to promote themselves.

I liked his advice regarding the last bit: Get prepared and Get involved. Excerpt below or read the full article.
First, invest some time in making sure your profile is complete. We offer a lot of advice on the site and at our learning resource, and there was a good piece loaded with advice here on iMedia Connection recently. But at the very least, make sure you provide a descriptive headline for what you do, provide a summary of your professional accomplishments and skills, and provide your entire work history. Be selective in the recommendations you make and those you solicit and accept, and also be selective in building out your network; who you're connected to (and who you're not) says a lot about you as a professional.

Secondly, get involved with your network. Share advice and insights in Answers, join the professional groups that matter to you, and use the Status feature to let your network know what you're up to. Put the LinkedIn Application Platform to work -- you can use the SlideShare application to share presentations, you can track what's being Twittered about your company using the Company Buzz app, and you can share recommendations about books with your network.

SEO- ensure consistency in marketing message

In a recent article titled "Cheap SEO tricks and how to use them", writer Tom Crandall comments on how search engine marketers are consciously using the word "cheap" as part of their SEO strategy to attract traffic during these economically tough times. His point is that companies were previously reluctant to associate the word 'cheap' with their brand, but seem to be more pragmatic now considering the huge demand for products/services that best describe themselves as 'cheap'.

Personally, I think the question that search engine marketers need to be asking themselves is not whether the use of the cheap adjective will cheapen the brand, but whether the use of that term will accurately reflect the company's positioning of their product/ service. If the answer to the latter is "No", then there is not much point in attracting traffic using the 'cheap' tactic.

For example, does the company really believe that its products are cheap? Even though cheap and expensive are very relative, how does the product/service really compare against others in the market place? Luring visitors to the website with the promise of being cheap is one thing, but what is the cost of not delivering on that promise? Afterall, the objective of SEO is/ should not be limited to traffic acquisition, but conversion as well.

Regarding the cheapening of the brand with the use of the word "cheap", I think marketers will continue to be extremely cautious when they use it. I don't expect to see a search engine optimization specialist for Rolex trying to optimize for the keyword "cheap watches" [though I don't entirely rule out the possibility of the same guy trying to optimize for "cheap Rolex watch"]. Premium pricing is a key attribute of products/ services targeted at the 'premium'audience and I doubt if marketers dealing with those will ever embrace the word 'cheap', no matter what.

Afterall, it ultimately boils down to really knowing and understanding your target audience.

Display advertising boosts results from search: study

For those who can afford it, a combination of display advertising together with search marketing will make a lot of sense. There is a direct correlation between the two, according to a new study which has been reported by eMarketer.

That such a correlation existed was always taken for granted by marketers, but it is good to see numbers demonstrating it. An excerpt from the eMarketer article:

David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, agreed that display can boost search. “There is a connection between display and search ads,” he said. “Marketers know this intuitively. Often it’s not the search ad alone that gets consumers to act, but the context of all the marketing that preceded it.”

eMarketer predicts that search and display ads will retain the highest share of online ad spending formats through 2013, and will be the only formats to maintain double-digit share through that period.

Social media marketing: Should we or shouldn't we?

Is social media marketing another fad or is it the real thing? It is certainly something for real --absolutely no doubt about it-- but the fact that not everybody uses it correctly, does pose question marks.

For those who are wondering if they should play in the social media marketing game, this interview with Sandy Carter, author of The New Language of Marketing 2.0 [is marketing still in version 2.0, by the way?] is worth reading.

Sandy lists the many benefits of participating in social media marketing, three of which stand out:
a) Speed/ Nimbleness - companies will increasingly be forced to be nimble and be proactive;
b) Access to insight previously unavailable, because of all the types of 'conversations' that take place in these social networks
c) Cost

In the course of the interview, Sandy also highlights the three main challenges for corporate blogs. Lack of honesty, not really listening to the audience feedback and consistency are the biggest problems, she cites.

Based on our experience with companies wanting to "start a blog as it will boost SEO", we believe the three reasons cited above are really a consequence of a bigger gap: not defining / understanding clearly the objective of blogs and the rules of that medium. Once again, we think it is because the medium and method take precedence over the market. As Sandy says, "The best way to communicate isn't about using new media types to be hip and cool; it is about understanding your customers and how you can immerse yourself into their conversation."

Another thing about social media marketing that Sandy mentions as well in her interview: "I do not advocate for just using social media techniques however, but rather combining them into your marketing mix (which) allows you to optimize the places where you can maximize their impact.".

Everything ultimately does boil down to optimizing the marekting mix!

SEO: Durable marketing

With marketing and advertising spend tightening by the day, the value of a good organic search marketing strategy is even greater.

Companies that invested in SEO activities in the past will continue to benefit from the visibility, traffic and leads/sales they get, without having to shell out instant cash for the instant gratification that other forms of marketing, including paid search, provide.

Granted, continuing to do well in organic search results is not without consistent SEO effort--- but then, given a choice between spending time or spending money in times of cash crunch, "time" is invariably the choice.

SEO is an investment; it is akin to medical insurance for marketing. A regular investment of "small premiums" in terms of both time and money will stay one in good stead during the hard times.

Of course, SEO results in the form of traffic and click-throughs will undoubtedly be affected by the economic environment; for example, a real estate company is likely to get fewer sales leads because fewer people have the 'intent' and urgency to buy houses. However, you can be sure to at least capture the attention of those who are still interested and looking for what you offer. The business will not suffer because you could not be found by the target audience.

Even when the money tap runs dry, the leads pipeline doesn't have necessarily have to.Which is why SEO is durable marketing.

Google SearchWiki & SEO

About 10 days ago, Google formally launched SearchWiki, which is designed to make search results even more personalized. (As of this writing, we have not seen the SearchWiki features here in Singapore, even when searching on Google.com; but we expect that to change soon).

The official Google notification says this about SearchWiki:
"A way for you to customize search by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results. With just a single click you can move the results you like to the top or add a new site. You can also write notes attached to a particular site and remove results that you don't feel belong. These modifications will be shown to you every time you do the same search in the future. SearchWiki is available to signed-in Google users."

The question that immediately crops up is: how will this affect search engine rankings? Well, at least for now, Google says that the changes will not affect rankings for others. "The changes you make only affect your own searches."

We would be naive to believe that all the user actions that will be captured with such a tool will not become a factor in actual search rankings at some point. We reckon it will be sooner rather than later.

Not just rankings, but boost clickthroughs too
With (the likelihood of) personalized search behaviour impacting rankings on the SERPs by the day, SEO professionals will have to expand their role significantly. The role of a SEO expert, until recently, was seen to be to help a website gain in the search rankings, with the assumption that as rankings went up, traffic would also grow automatically; however, as long as the rankings went up the job was done. The evolution of search algorithms mean that getting clickthroughs from the search results will become even more important; a conscious effort will have to be made to generate clickthroughs. The quality of titles of one's landing pages and the description that shows up on search results gain even more importance.

SEO: Think more traffic, conversions

We've always believed SEO is a marketing function and less of a technical function and that's how we have approached SEO projects. With the evolution of search engines, particularly Google, into much smarter, all-knowing beasts, it becomes even more imperative for SEO practitioners to think beyond top keywords and achieving top rankings for those. Certainly, trying to obtain higher search rankings for relevant, high-demand keywords will continue to be among the key milestones to be passed for a SEO, but it can't and won't be the be-all and end-all.

More experts are increasingly echoing the same sentiments at various public platforms. In fact, Bruce Clay, President of well-known SEO firm Bruce Clay, Inc. , recently went so far as to say that "rankings are dead". The reasons for that: universal search, personalized search and intent-based search. SEO experts now have to be understand the implications of how search engines use the above three and be prepared with appropriate responses if they have to succeed, he says.

Matt Cutts of Google says something similar in an interview he gave to WebProNews.com. Here's an excerpt from the interview:
"Universal is really useful and I think it will continue to expand and what that means in 2009 you can't just think of yourself as an SEO. SEOs are starting to embrace the fact that they are marketers. It's a broader spectrum. You have to think about how you build buzz, how do you get loyal customers, how do you optimize your ROI. All those different things and that can include how do I make good videos, do I have a book, things like that."