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Posted on March 12, 2010
Social Search Optimization
BY JASON CORMIER
I had the pleasure of talking with Charlene Li from the Altimeter Group last night - and she brought up the point of how search engine optimization is completely changing.
At the risk of paraphrasing, she basically indicated the importance of optimizing web pages is going away. If you consider how referral traffic is migrating from search engines to social networks, I'd say it's easy to agree.
Of course, what we are seeing is search engines staying relevant by indexing social content. Case and point: I do a quick search on Google for "iPad" - and what do you know: My friend and business partner, James Clark, shows up on the first page of the search results. 
Wow, over 48 million results, and his mug comes up on the first page? Yes, because Google is now recognizing and leveraging the relevance of social connections.
And although the optimization of web pages may be bearing less weight, I'm not throwing out the baby with the bath water (ugh, I used that phrase). Keywords, for example, remain foundational to online visibility from both a topical search, and monitoring perspective.
There is a great deal more to the social search discussion recently written by Brian Solis. One of our (Room 214's) responses has been to create a formal Social Search Optimization program for our customers.
What are you doing to optimize for social search?
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Posted on November 14, 2008
The 7 Deadly Sins of Social Media
BY JAMES CLARK
The 7 Deadly Sins of Social Media: Summary
Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride. Yuck - the power of the word is evident in just looking at this infamous list.
The forces of good and evil are universal principles both online and offline. We all come into the real world (and the virtual one) as innocent babes. But once we arrive, our actions can bring us glory or shame.
In the world of social media, are you going to be a force for good? Or are you going to turn to the dark side - ruining your chances and infuriating those who cross your path?
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Posted on October 23, 2008
7 Tactics for Successful Online Events
BY JAMES CLARK
A good partner of Room 214's recently asked if we have any good learnings about how to run successful online events. Come to find out - we sure do.
Following is the email I sent (sans the names and companies, plus some spelling fixes).
Wanted to give you a brief recap of what we have seen to be successful with running events online.
1. Find Your Audience Online
This is basic and practical I know, but many companies don't really get a good lay of the land far enough in front of the event to be successful. The idea is NOT to be a total new comer to the conversation and expect people to ride in and support the effort.
Part of this effort should be around ad support and potential sponsorships in those key communities months before the event.
As part of monitoring the online audience, look for themes that arise as part of the conversation. This gives you content fodder for mini-events (#3 below).
So getting some brand visibility is key. The visibility needs to be focused on the influencers.
2. Set Up Your Online Presence
Social media is fueled by reciprocation, be it tagging, friending, commenting or viral applications. But, there's got to be some place for people to see who you are what you're doing. Options (among others) could be a blog or microsite, Facebook group or page. Somewhere that gives you the ability to post content, notices and updates about upcoming events.
3. Create Mini-Events
Trying to get large audiences online is dependent on either: (a) celebrity draw, or (b) unique, interesting and relevant content. In front of the event itself create mini-events such as online chats using UStream or Kyte player. So you can take some people involved with the main show and start creating content and events that would be of interest to your crowd. During these mini-events your always throwing messaging forward to the main event.
4. Cause Marketing
This one has potential to work extremely well. Through cause marketing you can tie the event to a charitable cause. You can leverage the non-profit network to promote the event, and you can do something around say attendance numbers. So for each online viewer we will donate $1 up to 100,000 dollars. Obviously this costs money, and we only recommend this strategy if the organization itself is building a sustainable online community. With cause marketing you're driving lots of visibility and traffic and if the idea is to sustain a community beyond the event then it's an effective and comparatively inexpesnive way of doing it.
5. Main Event
In the online world, we have found promoting an event by communications outreach too far in advance is a waste of time. For exposure use brand advertising or site sponsorships as mentioned in point #1 above. For the event itself use the mini-events as a way to keep people interested then do your outreach online max four days in advance. Have something interesting and exciting to talk about for the outreach (see point #6 below) is critical.
6. Post Main Event
Another great tactic we have used is a post-event community program. That is a live call or online chat after the event where people who just watched the telecast can then get on and talk about it. This gives great reason to do outreach: "Don't forget to tune into the Telecast at 9 p.m., and then join in the Live Chat/Audioconference/Blog Radio Show with XXX immediately after."
7. Create Calendar Items that Can Go Viral
Calendaring for events is one of the main reasons we like Facebook. Events are one of the most viral applications in Facebook. So if I'm interested in the event, I'll click on attending the event, and all of my contacts will see: "James is attending the XXX event at 9 p.m. on Thursday". So if my circle of friends on Facebook are also passionate about the topic, they now see it.
Now, one point not raised is e-mail. This discussion was based on the assumption the client didn't have an active email list.
BTW, most people stumble and fail miserably at Step 1, never giving the following six steps a chance.
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Posted on October 16, 2008
Leadership in the Era Social Media
BY JAMES CLARK
I was just on Amazon checking out the reviews on Seth Godin's book: Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us, and came across a quote from Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching providing a unique perspective of leadership in the era of social meda:
"Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people will remark
We have done it ourselves. "
This goes back to the root of any social media program. LISTEN first and learn what your group is thinking, what motivates them, where they spend their time and then and only then can an organization plan its engagement strategy.
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Posted on October 10, 2008
Consistency With Your Online Identity
BY JAMES CLARK
Maintaining consistency with your online identity is one of those mundane, but effective strategies for building out your social media footprint.
If at all possible don't be JohnHucksCliffs on Delicious and JohnnyRockStar on Twitter. Try to keep your identity consistent across as many platforms as you can.
Sometimes that's easier said than done. Being graced with a common name like James Clark can have its benefits. For instance, I can pretty much go to any major sporting or entertainment event, walk up to the Will Call window and say, "Tickets for James Clark please", show my ID and I'm in. Now I won't admit to doing this, but for those of you with common names it's a plus.
But in the social media world it's a pain in the.....
A common name, be it personal or a corporate, is often difficult to come by for a username ID. So prior to setting up personal or company profiles, plug potential ID names into UserNameCheck.com and see what is available and what is taken.
Our recommendation is to make sure you're covered on the bigger sites:
Delicious, Digg, Flickr, Friendfeed, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Twitter and YouTube.
So in case you're interested JohnHucksCliffs is very available:
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