One thing that I’ve noticed since working for this particular SEO company is that the reality inside the industry is very different from outside the industry. Businesses who have just heard about SEO typically hear that it’s a necessary part of the business — that’s true. Others hear that it is a gold mine and their wildest dreams will come true — that’s not true. Still, SEO should be a major part of any marketing initiative, and without it, you’re missing out on a good chunk of business.

But is SEO dying? Yes, but like spiritual teachers have said, death is just a a transformation. Here’s how SEO is changing:

1. SEO is part of a larger marketing plan

SEO is now shifting to being a support player — it’s necessary, but it should be part of a larger marketing plan. Why? It’s a chicken before the egg problem. Just because you SEO a site doesn’t mean it’s going to rank; but if you are a major brand and already have good recognition, you can SEO a site and capitalize on sales you weren’t getting before. Someone is probably going to argue with me on this. I’m not saying it’s not possible — we’ve definitely done SEO for clients with no brand equity and drove sales — but these days, it’s getting harder to do that. Make it easier on yourself and think about a holistic marketing plan.

2. Conversion rate optimization

This is sort of a bad word in some SEO circles. People don’t like it because it’s difficult, time-intensive and it comes down to cold, hard numbers. At Ocean, that’s the kind of thing we like. Conversion rate optimization is really huge now, and it’s taking over as the priority. Bring as many people to the site through SEO as you want, but if your website isn’t developed properly, those visitors aren’t going to turn into sales. Our advice to potential clients: take a look at your site first and invest the money for a good web development agency.

3. Social Search + Facebook Open Graph = Popularity Contest

How popular is your brand? That’s the question Google will be asking with social search, and you better believe Facebook’s Open Graph is going to be a major influencer. This is really a more relevant question for users when they’re searching for hot dogs in Chicago. They’re actually looking for the best a.k.a. most popular. If everyone in your social sphere is talking about Timothy’s Chicago Hot Dogs, you’re going to want to try it. What does this mean for your business? Social media is even more important. Get yourself out there, engage, and interact. Or hire someone to do it for you.

Influence evolves as the social media landscape changes. How is influence changing? How do we target influencers in a world where just about everyone has the potential to have an immediate impact? This panel attempted to answer many of these questions, and was one of my favorites of the entire week. Here is the full recap.

Major takeaways: Anyone has the potential to become an influencer on the web overnight. While this is a rarity, it also creates an environment where more voices than ever matter. As a brand, how do  you move beyond responding to the loudest voice and identify the quieter voices that carry a lot of impact?

2) Will Web 2.o Kill Real Estate?

Do we even need real estate agents in this day and age? How do real estate brokerages maintain a cost effective model while incorporating new technology. This round table discussion got pretty heated with developers, agents, and technology consultants from brokerages in attendance.

Major takeaways: Theoretically, with equal access to information, home buyers, sellers, and realtors are on an equal playing field. There is also bureaucratic structure between listing services, brokerages, and realtors that creates an a-symmetry of information. While this a-symmetry of information has been slowly eroding, it still exists. As it continues to erode further, realtors need to focus on networking and relationships, over controlling information and antiquated notions of expertise.

3) Social Search Panel:

Social search has emerged as a way to capitalize on our social graph to answer subjective questions more effectively than traditional search.

Major takeaways: Social search fills a need, as we look for more reliable and trusted answers to subjective questions. Social search also aggregates real time information in a way that is valuable for news rooms and advertisers alike. These two approaches and uses of real time search are exemplified by OneRiot, and Aardvark.

4) Web Video Thunderdome!

Web Video Thunderdome, a panel led by Bud Cadell and Mike Aruz from undercurrent, took a look at “viral” video content. They compared branded and unbranded successful online video, and invited the audience to participate in choosing a winner for internet video of the year. They also made a strong case for killing the word viral once and for all, focusing instead on creating content that is “spreadable” and remarkable.

Major takeaways: Brands are competing against more than competitors, they’re competing against things like bunnies, kittens, and hilarious kids singing along to popular songs.

Brands can compete through video, but they need to focus on creativity, video brevity, and remixing pop culture phenomenons. Be remarkable, tell more complex stories, collect your fans, invite participation, and start small riots.

My favorite branded video from the panel:

5) Connecting with Chicago — In Austin

Chicago has been rated by Hubspot as the number 3 social media city in the world, and it was absolutely apparent at SXSWi. I got to meet such fantastic, smart, and creative digital Chicago folks. People from well known digital PR folks, the SEO team from the Tribune, digital creatives,  or developers. Ocean feels more connected to the digital world in Chicago than ever, and we have SXSW to thank.

6) Yelp versus Foursquare versus Gowalla Discussion w/ Dshan

Geo-location was the star of this year’s SXSWi. Gowalla and Foursquare were consistently battling each other for users attention. Gowalla and Foursquare even had their parties on the same night. Foursquare has added 100,000 users in the last 10 days, and Gowalla used its home turf advantage (it’s developed in Austin), to create innovative give-aways and brand tie ins.

Regardless of who won, Derek Shanahan, the creator of the 20 something bloggers Ning network, opened my eyes to an aspect of location that I had never though about before: The power of geo-location lies in influencing purchasing decisions.

Foursquare has been so successful because they sell themselves as a service that influences pre-purchase, while review services like Yelp market themselves as a post-purchase review site. As a business marketing yourself online you need to evaluate your options:

Yelp may influence purchasing decisions more than Foursquare, even though Foursquare is the service that sells itself as something that changes behavior.

As a business what is your geo-location strategy? How are you targeting customers both pre and post purchase to drive business?

7) A world of streams

I’ve spent more time looking down at my phone this week than ever before. I found my friends by their foursquare check ins that got pushed to twitter, was reminded of panels and parties through emails that got pushed to my phone, and stayed in touch with the office through gchat. It was a week of constant connectivity, and one that helped me formulate a better idea of what a future of social interaction based on streams may look like.

8 ) The Parties

There were so many amazing parties with fantastic friends, both new and old. Of all the parties, 3 really stand out as special:

1) Len Kendall’s meetup for the365 at the Gingerman.

• The 365 is a website where a new creative person enters a 365 word post, image, or video about a day in their life. It is a fascinating site. At the meetup, I was lucky enough to talk with Len as well as other Chicago developers, SEO specialists, and marketing professionals whose work we can all learn from. It also helped that the Gingerman has a beautiful outdoor patio and it was a 70 degree and sunny day in Austin.

2) The Beer Sphere/ Town Holler Party at Club Deville

• A single post by Faris directed a couple of hundred people to Club Deville in Austin. As I walked into the partyI was stopped by someone who turned out to be Faris himself and Rosie, who showed off an iphone application called “tabbed out“, which connects your bar tab to the credit card in your Itunes account, and allows you to pay the bar right from your phone (at select locations). Definitely my idea of a party: Cool new Iphone app and thought leaders in the advertising industry, who turn out to be extremely nice.

3) The Big Omaha party:

• I tried to stay away from most of the big parties, as I don’t do extremely well in crowds. However, I had a lot of support at the Big Omaha party on the rooftop at Lanai. I met some fantastic people and had a blast. Until Gary Vaynerchuck decided to show up and throw his secret wine party, which quickly turned the party into a sweaty swarm.

9) Taking part in an enormous social media campaign

• I was lucky enough to be party of the Chevrolet and Onstar sponsored road trip to SXSW. I will always remember my ChiChevySXSW experience.
• It was also amazing to be in the center of an enormous social media campaign, to see the metrics that are reported, and to talk with Christopher about the campaign.
• Being part of the Chevy social media campaign really made  me think about buzz versus content, and about the need to re-evaluate social media metrics, but that’s for another post.

10) Talking with both Jason Kinzler from Pitch Engine and Justin from Made by Many.

• Pitch engine is a tool that we love here at The Ocean Agency, which incorporates new media into traditional press releases. It was cool to talk with Jason and learn more about what drove him to create Pitch Engine.

• Made by Many is an agency our size from London who sent their entire team to SXSW. They built an entire website for the endeavor. I had the pleasure of talking to Justin, who explained that the value of SXSW for his team lies in both becoming closer as an agency and the creative atmosphere which leads to new and innovative ideas for clients.

11) Learning about Spotify and BandCentral, among hundreds of other tech products

• I wish I spent more time at the SXSWi trade show. There were so many amazing products and companies on display that I couldn’t take everyting in.
• Spotify is a music service based in Sweden that has millions of users in Europe, and combines both a free and paid model. Many in the music industry and tech world see Spotify as a music industry savior, and many expected owner, Daniel Ek, to announce the U.S. version of the service at the conference. He didn’t, but he did have a fanastic Keynote.

I realize that this post was absurdly long, but I felt that all of these 11 highlights were worthy of some text. Looking forward to SXSWi next year!

What would you add to this list if you went to SXSWi? What did you think I missed?

If you were so inclined, you could say it’s a battle of sorts. And who better to listen to during battle than the great generals of old?

No one.

So this begins our General Series. We’ve looked at three different authors–Ernest Hemmingway, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and Mark Twain–that have unwittingly given advice for SEO. Now let’s look at the advice of some generals. The first one on our list is General George S. Patton, Jr., an American general during World War II who was so tactically and logistically clever, he repositioned an entire army corps during the Battle of the Bulge in less than 24 hours.

He leaves us with a bevy of great quotes, three of which are particularly applicable for SEO companies.

“Infantry must move forward to close with the enemy. It must shoot in order to move … To halt under fire is folly. To halt under fire and not fire back is suicide. Officers must set the example.”
One of the biggest problems campaigns face is a lackadaisical attitude toward SEO. Posting articles sporadically or linkbuilding at random can possibly offer small boosts in rankings, but these are not sustainable. There must be constant motion on the battlefield. This is why so many corporations choose to hire SEO firms to help their Google rankings. It requires daily attention and constant motion for Google to see the value in a website and therefore to rank it higher. Remember, the end goal is for Google to see value in a site and then want to rank it higher.

Google wants people to use Google. So it is going to list the highest quality and most useful websites first in search results. If a website is sporadically halting content creation and online activity, it is not the most useful, and it will not ever be ranked first.

“It is only by doing things others have not that one can advance.”
Innovation is important in battle, and it is important in SEO. Remember, there are tons of companies out there trying to do the exact same thing you are doing, often times for the exact same keyphrases. So you have to do it a little differently. To understand how to do it differently, you must first know what others are doing. Check out blogs like Seomoz. Sites like this offer insight into the industry and into your competition for you to study and learn from. For example, Glenn Alsopp recently posted a fantastic article on some off-kilter SEO tactics (whitehat).

One especially creative move of his is to check Flippa.com’s marketplace of highly ranking websites. “Instead of buying these sites in all cases, I’ve simply looked at where the backlinks are coming from and figured out how the seller is able to duplicate them so easily,” Alsopp writes.

Little strategies like this can win the SEO war and get your website to the number one spot. Just remember what General Patton famously said, “If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn’t thinking.”

“Success demands a high level of logistical and organizational competence.”
This is extremely important. There must be a plan in place to have an active and innovative SEO campaign. Timothy has written about the importance of SEO strategy, and those organizational skills are the first step to putting a keyword at the top of page 1.

That, having been said, it’s also important for clients to allow SEO experts to achieve the set goals. As Patton put it, “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” Once you’ve chosen an active, innovative and organized SEO company, tell them where you want to be and sit back.

Of course, you’ll want experience on the battlefield … let us win the battle for you.

Before you make you business promotion, advertising, or messaging go “viral” you first need to understand why people share online content.

To elaborate on this chart, let’s work with an example:

Let’s say that you own a dive bar and have created a humorous 15 second video that promotes your bar. At the end of the video there is a coupon “password” that will get people a free pitcher of beer on a Monday night. Beyond questions like “is the video entertaining” or ” is the coupon effective” you need dig a little deeper and get at the motivations for online sharing.

Where are people going to share this information?  How will sharing impact their percieved value among their digital networks? To make matters more complicated, everyone utilizes their online networks differently, and shares accordingly.

When you share a piece of content it means something. We all know that “sharing is caring”, but with online content sharing is usually more about caring about yourself and your image than anything else.

So next time you’re looking to make a branded piece of media and you want people to share it, make something that will make the sharers look and feel cool, intelligent, and in the know. Don’t worry, you don’t have to come up with it all on your own, The Ocean Agency can help you out.

For more great discussions of “viral” campaigns check out these other posts from The Lost Jacket, and  Big Spaceship.

Remember a couple years ago when the term “Social Media” was foreign to all of us. Now, everyone and their mother (literally – my mom friended me on Facebook last week) is on the bandwagon trying to get the hang of this Social Media thing.

It’s become much more than a tool to stay connected with your old high school buddies, or to update your friends on what you ate for dinner last night. Social Media has become a regular part of our daily lives, and for businesses, an integral part of their marketing and PR strategies.

So with everyone on board – how does a business stand out from the rest? At the end of the day – Social Media is about forging, nurturing, and promoting relationships. The one on one connection Social Media allows between businesses and their consumers are allowing small businesses to not only compete with larger corporations, but thrive and succeed where the competition falls short.

Here in Chicago – there are a lot of businesses who “get” Social Media –
Threadless
Foiled Cupcakes,
GroupOn and
Grubhub to name a few.

Our generation is wise to the corporate act – and very rarely do we buy into a straight up sales pitch. This is why, when it comes to online advertising, we’re seeing more affiliate geo-targeted campaigns rather than pure Google ads. Businesses that get it focus on building a relationship first, helping us realize that there is a need or want there, and then acting on it.

Mari Luangrath, founder of Chicago-based Foiled Cupcakes, connected with me as a friend. She followed me several months ago and since then, we’ve become good friends both on and offline. Not once did she sell me on her product – not once did she throw a sales pitch my way. She focused solely on building a genuine relationship and friendship with me. Now I’m days away from signing a contract to have Foiled Cupcakes cater my wedding.

So what can business learn from this? What’s the take away? Here are some basic takeaways to implement into your Social Media marketing strategy:

Be personable

This is above all the most important thing. As a representative of your business, yet also a “regular” person – there can be a delicate and sometimes difficult balance between your personal and professional self. The trick is to not let the balance beam sway to heavily in either direction – you must represent your business but also be yourself. Be someone people want to talk to – even if you’re selling running shoes, it’s OK to talk to your community about the Lady Gaga concert last weekend. When you become a “real” person instead of a corporate identity, people will forget you’re even trying to sell them something.

Know your audience

A critical piece to the puzzle is knowing your audience –and spending a lot of time LISTENING to their conversations. What are they talking about, what are they interested in? Take note of who’s talking to who and what they’re talking about, before jumping into the conversation yourself. Listening is key, but taking action at the right time by monitoring your communities behavior is even more important.

Invest in social media

Social Media isn’t something you can throw in as an afterthought. To be successful, you need to be present and engaged. Whether this means hiring an online “Community Manager” on your staff (a growing trend amongst businesses) or outsourcing your Social Media Management to an outside firm, you need someone who can and will be engaged in the community and actively involved in conversation. With Social Media, the old adage is true – you get what you give.

The point is simple – relationships are the foundation of any good business and Social Media allows us as individuals and businesses to establish those relationships easier than ever before. Connect first, sell second – a simple recipe small businesses are using to dominate the local market.

What businesses can you think of that are “doing it right” with Social Media?

And so, in honor of being whatever you want to be, let us celebrate the holiday of disguise with some festive videos. Be warned though, some creative monsters are scarier than others.

Happy Halloween!