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In this brief year end podcast I reflect on our 2008 podcasts and look ahead to 2009.

In 2008 Chuck Palm and I have brought you podcasts on SEO, paid search marketing and social media marketing trends. We always strive to bring you web marketing content that helps marketers create actionable strategies for measurable results.

In 2009 we’ll bring you more of the same as well as interviews with interesting guests. In February I’ll begin podcasting content from my forthcoming book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap Between Seller and Buyer on the Social Web.

Best Social Media Podcasts in 2008

On December 21st, social media strategist Lee Odden posted a list of the best podcasts on social media of 2008 on his popular TopRankBlog. I’m proud to say that the Find and Convert podcast is on this list!  Please visit this list and please vote for the Find and Convert podcast. I will greatly appreciate your support!

Thank you for your loyalty in 2008.  I wish you many blessings this holiday season.  And, I wish you blessings of health and prosperity in 2009.

I look forward to reaching out to you with our first podcast of 2009 in a couple of weeks!

Cheers,

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Tags: @berniebay, best social media podcasts, Chuck Palm, Lee Odden, Marketing 2.0 book, Podcasts, social media marketing, TopRankBlog

I argue that SEO is becoming social media optimization (SMO). We devote a lot of attention to details to gain high rankings in search engines. Of course, this process is known as organic search engine optimization. But, when people search on a keyword in a search engine are all the search results limited to web pages? No!

A new organic SMO strategy is all about being found on the web by people who want your products or services. It’s great to be found by people doing a Google search. But, I don’t want to limit relevant traffic to my website only to those doing a Google search. I also want people to visit my website who are engaged in online conversations on the social web and visit it simply because of a referral by someone or a link from interesting content on the social web.

When I study my website analytics over the past 30 days I see the top referral source is Google organic, followed by a recent link building blog post on Hubspot and referrals from Twitter and Facebook.

How do I work at organic SEO? I still focus on relevant content and all the SEO basics pertaining to search engine friendly website architecture and organic link building strategies. These SEO fundamentals help get Google rankings which are still very important and very desirable.

But, as evidenced above Google is not the only valid referral source of traffic to my website.

When I find good content on the web I share it with others. On average for every 10 links to good content that I share, 9 of them are links to interesting articles from social media industry experts such as Hubspot, Lee Odden, Andy Beal, Paul Dunay and Chris Brogan among others. About 1 out of 10 links that I share are to my own blog posts because I sincerely believe that I provide interesting content too. I can say this with humility based on comments received from people on the social web.

The point I’m making is that organic optimization on the web is not limited to being found in search engines. Marketers who focus all their attention to being found in Google are potentially limiting their traffic.

This is more true in some industries than others. But, in most industries you’ll find people having online conversations, sharing links to content and generally engaged in communities on the social web. If your organic web strategy includes being engaged and found by these communities then it qualifies as a social media optimization (SMO) strategy.

So what’s your organic web strategy?

Tags: Andy Beal, Chris Brogan, Hubspot, Lee Odden, Paul Dunay, SEO, SMO, social media strategy, social web

Lee Odden wrote a great blog post about 5 ways to re-purpose content for blog SEO.   I will add a 6th way here inspired by Lee’s blog post.

While reading Lee’s list of 5 suggestions, he reminded me of how many times I encounter smart people in a business who have so much domain expertise.  I often marvel at it and think “man, if only we could get him or her to write a blog!” 

Lee’s suggestions include re-purposing content that smart people have previously created in the form of PowerPoint slides, press releases, articles, old blog posts, etc.  Great suggestions.

One observation I have made in my career is there are two types of people in a business: those who like to write and those who hate to write or are not good at it (no wisecracks please).  :)  Ok, so there are other attributes, but for this topic these two attributes are the key point.

When someone who likes to write interviews someone with domain expertise and writes it up as a blog post, it leverages the great content inside the head of the person with the domain expertise without placing the burden of writing on him or her.  And, the person who likes to write gets to write.

If the domain expert is someone high up the ladder like the CEO, the writer will gain good recognition.  If the blog content produced (and this could be a big “if”) is good content and gets good SEO results, the likelihood of making a habit of this approach is pretty high, resulting in good blog content with SEO value.

If this approach sounds like ghost writing, that’s exactly what it is.   As Lee Odden said in his post, using something old to achieve blog SEO success is a fine strategy.  Right Lee?

Tags: blog SEO, Lee Odden