Digitalia | Indianapolis Social Media Marketing

PR professionals: 6 things to help get your content found online

An interview with Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Marketing

I caught up with Lee Odden recently, whose widely regarded as on of the most influential online marketers. We talked about the relevance of value of blogs especially in the context of public relations that is focused on traditional media, bloggers, analysts, and, increasingly, consumers. Lee makes some great points. Here's the recap. Watch the interview (recorded on the fly at a conference hence the somewhat hushed tone in both our voices).

1. Use blogging software as your newsroom CMS

2. Archive everything - press releases, case studies and more

3. Categorize your content by topic

4. Categorize your content by keywords

5. Use keyword rich tags

6. Use RSS feeds for the newsroom and categories

News rooms can be link magnets and can dramatically improve search results. While push marketing is still important, there are more and more situations where writers, editors and producers under deadline are mostly turning to the web to find information and people. Optimized content can make a world of difference - that is getting your content found on search!

Do you have questions? Do you have a story of how a journalist found you because of your optimized content?

Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz | Blip.fm

The time has come

Yes, everyone. It's time. Time for this little intern to spread her wings and fly from Firebelly (or be pushed out of the next unexpectedly by Duncan. You choose the visual you prefer!) and venture back into the world where commoners don't understand social media and all of the opportunities it presents; back into the world where aren't thinking about what they need to Tweet or how they can update their status every second of every day; back to a world where I must defend my social media obsession and repeatedly explain why it's so important to thrive as a functioning human being in this computer-driven day-in-age. I have been so spoiled here at Firebelly and learned so much. 

What have I learned? Can I write a novel to answer this question? No? Well, then I'll summarize a few of the major things:

Social media is a conversation, not a lecture: As I've written in a previous blog, social media can't work as a marketing tool if there's no response. You can tweet or update your status all you want about what's coming up next or something new going on at your company, but if you don't respond to comments/advice/feedback from your followers/friends, they'll lose interest. They won't feel connected to you or your company, which is a major purpose of social media marketing. So respond. Be interactive. Take the time to reply to at least one response each day. It will pay off in loyal followers and more personal communication between producer and consumer.

Video is an extremely effective marketing tool: People read and comprehend. They see and comprehend. If they can do both at one time, that's most effective for the company marketing to people. Studies show that people remember 10 percent of what they see, 20 percent of what they hear and 50 percent of what they see and hear. Utilize that statistic by registering for a Youtube page and updating it frequently. Furthermore, people recall 80 percent of what they see, hear and do. So if you can make your videos interactive (i.e. instructing them to click links, get up and do this, anything at all interactive), your videos will be the most effective they can be towards your marketing goal.

Twitter is a legit obsession: Yeah, yeah, I know everyone said this about Facebook, Myspace and every other social media networking Web site that's out there and will be out there in the future. However, Twitter is a rare breed. When you learn how to use it properly, you can't live without it. My TweetDeck is my best friend. As a news junkie, I visit at least 10 news-based Web sites daily. Because I follow them on Twitter, TweetDeck allows me to collect all of those sites' updates in one place and have them fed to me as they are updated. It's pure heaven! I also RT people consistently as a way of giving mad props to someone's thought or Internet find. On the marketing side, #hashtags make searching for what your customers are talking about extremely simple. Learn how to use Twitter to your marketing advantage. You won't regret the time (and/or money, since time is money, as smart business people say) spent on the effort.

Lastly, and most importantly, I learned I love social media and wish to continue working with it in the future. Based on how popular it is now, I don't think that wish will be difficult to grant. I will be continuing my interning life in New York City this summer at an organization that is in the rookie stages of incorporating social media into its marketing strategy. I know I will take the lessons I learned at Firebelly to help that currently small component of the organization to grow into a driving force (like a heard of cattle, right Duncan?)

I send so many thanks to Duncan and the rest of the Firebelly team for allowing me so many opportunities and being so willing to teach me everything they know in the short time I was here. I hope to continue writing/editing/blogging/social media'ing for them in the future.

Alyson (@ Twitter)

Time to call it quits?

Earlier this week, Facebook CFO Gideon Yu parted ways with the popular online networking Web site. Why? Facebook headquarters claimed it was because the company needed someone with more public-company experience (Keep in mind this is the man who previously held the CFO spot at Youtube and negotiated the video sharing Web site’s $1.65 billion acquisition with Google). But that must only be part of the reason. A later memo Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg sent out says the reason involved family: “Gideon’s family is his highest priority and it’s certainly not the usual cliché to say that he plans to take some time off to be with his wife and son.”

Yu’s not the only one who has jumped ship since the company’s beginnings. It started with five founders. Now Zuckerberg’s flying solo.

The question is, what’s going wrong? What is so bad at Facebook that money-minded business moguls are leaving one of the most potentially profitable companies in the world.

Many blogs blame it on Zuckerberg himself. Gawker was so bold to suggest Zuckerberg should resign (or at least back off the leading role for a while) and let someone else take the reins to bring the company back on track and train Zuckerberg to get back in the saddle.

 In case you’ve been out of the social media network, here are some slipups Zuckerberg has made recently:

The Terms of Service Debacle: The Terms of Service was changed to suggest Facebook would keep users’ information forever, even after they’ve deactivated their account. Facebookers were not cool with this. It resulted in Zuckerberg instituting a policy where users can have a say in future changes execution.

The Recent Redesign: Facebook is a following Twitter…literally. The company that had always been praised for being unique and visionary instituted a message delivery system freakishly similar to Twitter’s tweet stream. Facebook asks the question, “What’s on your mind?” rather than “What are you doing?” Again, users were outraged. But did Zuckerberg listen to user feedback as promised after the Terms of Service catastrophe? Just the opposite, actually. He told his staff to ignore user feedback, and Zuckerberg personally deleted any employee concerns from his news feed. And that brings us to...

The Executive Exodus: They’re all jumping ship, as we mentioned earlier. It’s apparently because Zuckerberg is becoming a total tyrant. According to sources quoted in a recent “The Business Insider” article, the Harvard dropout no longer allows open disagreement or discussion of his ideas in meetings. But that was a major contributor to his success in the first place. Now, employees say the company is completely image-focused.. And apparently so is Zuckerberg. The article quotes a source saying he’s “unbearable,” letting all the media hype about his technology genius go to his head.

What do you think? Is it time for Zuckerberg to call it quits for a while so he doesn’t run his business empire into the ground before its even reached its full potential?

~ Alyson ~ @ Twitter

How to rank higher in search

Interview with Brian Halligan, CEO, HubSpot

Recently spoke with Brian Halligan, CEO, HubSpot. HubSpot is an internet marketing company and their product is B2B Inbound Marketing Software that helps their client attract more visitors using SEO, social media and blogs, as well as, capture more leads with landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Whew what a mouthful! What's even more interesting is we're working with HubSpot on one of a project.

Both Brian's presentation (which I'd watched earlier) and our interview (which you can watch below) confirmed my strong beliefs in content. Its clear that companies that are leading in the search race are producers of great content. Great content includes copy, photography or illustrations, video, and applications. Good content can be on your website, your blog, and on other places on the web with links back. Brian actually believes in "remarkable content" (coined in this context by Seth Godin who coins everything that already exists with cool little phrases) which is content that people dig (pun only slightly intended) so much that they are compelled to remark on it. Yeah I know you didn't really need the explanation.

So, while I believe there is a place for paid search, invest in good content FIRST. Whether its on your website, blog or social media assets. Doesn't matter. If you know what you're doing, write it up, get some photos, get some video, develop an application. And if you've got chops - develop it yourself, if not, hire a professional. Remember your content is a reflection of who you are!

Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz

New Directions for the Firebelly "Digitalia" Blog

Send us your thoughts and help us evolve

We've been working and evolving our Digitalia blog for almost 18 months, or is it longer. Hmm. Regardless, it’s been a tremendous experience. We've taken 3 weeks off to revisit what we like and don't like, our favorite posts, the conversations (and sometimes lack of), the editorial calendar, the writing responsibilities, the design, the technology, and, of course, the promotion. We've encountered a lot along the way. Chad's Top Social Media Gurus to watch, Julia's Twitter Frenzy, Angela's m-card post, Lain's exploits in the video world, Ben's social media outposts, and Duncan's Obama post. We even interviewed Dan Adler, CEO of Fanista in LA, a real internet big dog. And just recently, Chad, Lain and I (Duncan ;) returned from SES Chicago with interviews from top-notch experts whose opinions we share or endorse. We've made friends, found some "real" stalkers, and carved our niche in the web sphere.

If you're reading this, you're part of our community (like it or not - you're connected to us) and we're asking for your thoughts. What do you like about our blog? What do you hate? What should we do differently? Send us your thoughts. We're going to randomly (ok somewhat randomly) pick a local person to win some gift certificates to Yats, and if you're out there else where, we're going to send you some love too!

- Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz