Lilia Shirman Managing Director, The Shirman Group Author: 42 Rules for Growing Enterprise Revenue Twitter: @B2BGuru; Blog: Revenue Orchard

I had the pleasure of moderating a recent SVAMA discussion about the use of social media for generating B2B leads. The panel included three veterans of social media: Brian Halligan (CEO of the award-winning marketing software startup, HubSpot, and new author of Inbound Marketing), Mike Linton (most recently the Chief Marketing Officer at eBay and formerly the CMO at Best Buy), and Zack Urlocker (Vice President of Lifecycle Marketing at Sun Microsystems).

My first question to the panelists was how to convert on-line engagement (through blogs, twitter, facebook, etc.) into qualified leads. The initial replies were about the importance of great content and ubiquitous presence at the major social networking hubs. All of which helps engage prospects, but doesn’t really answer the question. It took more probing from me and the audience, and eventually we were able to build a picture of what it takes to turn social media into qualified leads.

Here is my take on it, step by step:

1. Create lots of content – You don’t have to be a brilliant writer to get your idea across, so don’t spend hours refining. You also don’t have to hire a department-full of writers. Even one person writing regularly can create a critical mass of ideas and insights that your audiences want to read.

2. Promote the content – Be present on the major social media hubs (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) and SEO on Google to drive traffic back to your own site and content

3. Create more content, and market it some more via major social media hubs and Google

4. Create and market more content… (ok – you get it. This is ongoing, and the more the better.)

5. Do lots of testing of different content, marketing, wording, etc. to learn what creates the greatest response

6. Add a call to action to every single piece of content. You don’t need to suggest a purchase. Do give people a next step – viewing more content, participating in a webinar, subscribing to a list, following you on twitter. Always leverage the attention to grow your relationship with the reader.

7. Give your audience opportunities to self-identify. Some of your calls to action should lead to content or an activity that asks for OPTIONAL registration. This is where the transformation from casual contact to lead takes place. Test which questions get replies, and if want high quality data, don’t require that anything be filled in. (Hint: if you email them the content, they will give you good email addresses.)

8. Track interactions to identify the most engaged people. Identify people who have interacted with you in multiple ways. Target them with stickier or higher value interactions and campaigns.

9. Use analytics to determine lead quality based on combining registration data and interaction history.

10. Integrate social media with other tactics. Based on lead quality, respond with a combination of social media, email, webinars, on-line and live events, and sales follow-up.

If you’re a small business, then steps 1 through 7 may be sufficient to produce the desired number of leads. For bigger companies, the more sophisticated, analytics-based integrated marketing approach that includes all 10 steps can drive an orders of magnitude increase in lead volume. Either way, the critical thing to remember is that social media lets you inspire interest and enable interested customers to declare themselves. At the end of the day, those are the best kinds of leads to have.

What do I always tell clients, family, friends, cocktail party-goers (whose eyes glaze over as they get the answer), etc. when they ask about how social media can really benefit a non-consumer-products company (i.e. B2B social media)?

Build relationships.  Strengthen relationships.  Be genuine.  Add value.

I always add something like “social media can help with driving traffic to your site and building links for SEO, but that isn’t the main goal.” (clients seem to enjoy this; friends, family, cocktail-party-goers – not so much).

And I believe it when I say it – and I believe it now.

So, why did I start using LinkedIn Groups to push links to our news content over the past couple of weeks?  I wanted to see what kind of traffic that activity would bring to our site.

Lazy.

Lazy and dumb.

Lazy, because I simply submitted the URL to the news story (from our tailored news feed) and edited the lead-in to the article.  No time spent adding value to the story, or time spent initiating a conversation.

Dumb because there is absolutely no value created.  Users may see an interesting piece of content, but it’s a quick fix and they move on.  If I had kept up with this over a sustained period of time, I’m sure it would have hurt my personal brand, and KoMarketing’s brand.

I was lucky enough to have someone in one of the LinkedIn Groups comment very simply:

Good insights in this article Andy. Thanks for sharing. Is there anything you’d like to discuss about the article in particular?

I could be wrong, but I took this as a very polite way of saying “got any value to add here, or are you just going to submit your own content here?” If I didn’t read the comment correctly, that’s OK. Simply thinking about how to respond became a valuable exercise for me.

Here is how I responded:

Hi Chris,

To be honest, I did not have an angle when submitting this story. We have an outside service provide us with custom-written news articles that are specific to B2B and I wanted to share that content with the group.

That said, it’s probably a piss-poor way for me to use social media, so I’ll just say “guilty”.

Now that you ask the question, I’ll say that I think many B2B marketers are “getting it” that the way to use social media is to be genuine and not be overly promotional. Sometimes it comes down to an issue of resources in terms of who is going to create that genuine, valuable interaction, and sometimes it comes down to lack of creativity.

Of course, my thoughts here are the epitome of irony, because that is exactly what I was doing by submitting a news article from our website, and not initiating any valuable discussion.

I’m glad you asked the question, as it helped me stop and think about the purpose of sharing our news articles in LinkedIn Groups.

Looking forward to connecting in this Group more frequently!

Andy

http://twitter.com/akomack

I also went to Twitter, found that Group member’s profile there and made sure to try and make a connection that way.

Sometimes it just takes a minute or two of reflection before you realize that you are doing something that you wouldn’t recommend to someone else, and then make a change for the better (now, if my wife ever reads this, I may have to make some other changes at home that won’t be as easy).

On Sep 30, 2009 Google announced a new AdWords reporting feature that measures conversions for display ads in the Content Network (display ads are image-based or rich media ads only – not text ads).

When I first saw this I was excited because it provides an extra level of measurement that was missing.

Many ad networks have had this metric available to advertisers for some time.

In paid search, a “conversion” is typically measured when a user clicks on an ad and completes an action on your site that you have set up for tracking (e.g. purchases, contact forms, etc.).  The visitor does not necessarily have to complete the action on that first visit.  A cookie is set, usually for 30 days, and if the user returns (using the same computer) and completes the action before the cookie expires, the action is counted as a conversion.

A view-through conversion works on a similar premise – a user sees the ad, goes to the site, and has 30 days to take an action in order to be counted as a conversion.  The difference here is that the user “sees” the ad, and has not clicked on the ad.  In Google AdWords, if a user does click on the ad, then the conversion is only counted as a “click” conversion (and, hopefully, never counted twice).

In Sep 2007 Kevin Lee, of Didit, wrote a great article about view through conversions and ad networks.  In that article, Kevin did an excellent job of laying out how you might properly use this metric in evaluating success of an ad campaign.

View-through conversions are an excellent way to evaluate the effectiveness of the ad creative versions you are using.  Serve up multiple versions of a display ad (A/B or even multiple, simultaneous ads), and see which ads receive the best combination of click conversions and view-through conversions.

Here are some current issues with view-through conversions in Google AdWords:

1) Cookies – As with any search engine advertising, the tracking is only as good as you set it up, and only as good as the user “allows” the activity to be tracked (e.g. the user deletes cookies, sees the ad on one computer and converts on another computer, tells a colleague what they saw and the colleague converts after going directly to the site, etc.)  This is not an issue that is specific only to view-through conversions, but worth mentioning at the top.

2) Accountability - Search advertisers love the fact that paid search is so accountable.  It’s the purist form of direct marketing out there.  But, with view-through conversions you may actually see the conversion in more than one place.  For example, a user sees the ad and then goes to a search engine and searches for the website and/or company name/brand.  In an analytics package this would look like an organic search conversion.  Or, if the user simply types the website address into their browser and converts on the site, that looks like a Direct Traffic conversion.  However, in Google AdWords the credit was given to the display ad.

3) e-Commerce - Issue #2 above becomes even more of a thorn in the analyst’s side when there is e-commerce revenue being tracked.  For example, we have a client now who is engaged in B2B e-commerce.  Google Analytics measures e-commerce revenue for the client.  But, Google Analytics does not measure e-commerce revenue for view-through conversions!!!! (I have been told by someone at Google that there are no plans to integrate e-commerce tracking and view-through conversions in Google Analytics).

If we spend $1,000 in click charges and receive only $2,000 in revenue from the click conversions that are measured, then not only is the campaign disappointing, but we are missing the true ROI measurement here.

If we had an additional 12 view-through conversions, how much revenue should be credited to the campaign?  At the moment, the only option we have is to take the average revenue per transaction for that campaign and multiply it by 12 (the number of conversions).  But, what if there was a significant, large order?  Or what if the orders from this user audience are much smaller than average?

This becomes an issue of “faith”.  Even if the click conversions are not paying for themselves, we have to have faith that the view-through conversions added enough revenue to justify the PPC spend.

4) Identifying Domains - Google AdWords currently only reports on view-through conversions for specific domains/URLs if the conversions occur within a Managed Placement.  Data for view-through conversions in Automatic Placements are not currently available from Google.

I have been told that Google does plan on making view-through conversion reporting availale for Automatic Placements “soon.”

In the meantime, without this information, how can you make intelligent decisions about which sites in the Content Network to target for Managed Placements, bid more on, exclude, etc.?

All of these issues lend themselves to  my question – “Are Content Network View-Through Conversions Real?”

As Kevin Lee suggests in his 2007 article, use the information to inform strategic decisions about creative ad versions and the effectiveness of a particular network of sites.

Other Resources:

• What’s View-through conversion tracking, and why should I use it for my campaign?, Google AdWords Support
• View-through conversion reporting on the Google Content Network, Google Conversion Room Blog
• Google Introduces the View-Through Conversion Tracking Tool for Display Ads, Arnold Zafra, Search Engine Journal
• View Through Conversion (overview), Philip Pollock, Just Search
• View Through Conversion Metric in Google Adwords, Alban G., SEO Sydney Blog
• PPC ROI Calculator – B2B version & B2C version, KoMarketing Associates

Related Blog Posts:

• PPC Checklist (for moderate AdWords management)
• 3 Things I Love About the New AdWords Interface
  
• Reactions to Google’s Latest White Paper: CPA Performance Trends on the Content Network
• Changes to Tracking Conversions in AdWords
• 9 Generic PPC Ad Copy Tests to Boost CTR

CJ Boguszewski Chief Marketing Officer, Hiconversion Twitter: @CJBogus

SEO vs. Conversion Rate Debate Shouldn’t Exist — Three Reasons CRO Complements SEO & SEM

Rand Fishkin, whose SEOmoz.org blog frequently has industry-leading commentary on a wide variety of optimization topics, entitled a post in January 2006 “SEO versus Conversion Rate Debate Shouldn’t Exist.”

In October 2009, the debate is still ongoing.

While the Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) discipline continues to mature alongside the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) categories, most eBusiness organizations frame their understanding of CRO in SEO/SEM terms.

We continue to see mounting evidence that CRO is at least as important an activity for eBusiness as SEO/SEM, and yet traffic generation and search engine Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as visits, page views, and cost-per-click are seen as higher priorities, and optimization of conversion rates (i.e., how many visitors did what you wanted them to do when they got to your site) is a lower one.

Seems odd to the casual reader. Do eBusinesses really care more about how many people visit their site than the amount of revenue, subscriptions, leads, etc. that their sites generate?

That simply cannot be.

And so, given the reality that SEO/SEM is a higher priority for most than CRO, this begs a question – what form does this relative prioritization take? In other words – what is the prevalent perception of CRO in the wider market, and is it contributing to that internal prioritization debate in eBusinesses?

A simple analysis finds that it centers on three things, let’s call them “CRO is less important because it is”:

1) Traffic-Hungry – in order to get the ROI benefit that CRO brings, lots of visitors must be shown the page combinations in order to achieve statistical reliability, and therefore many (hard-earned) visitors will be shown “losing” page combinations.

2) Expensive and Hard To Do – nobody but statisticians can do the multi-variate testing (MVT) and analysis that CRO entails, and those people are expensive/hard-to-get.

3) Financially Risky – without showing visitors lots of “losing” page combinations (see “traffic-hungry”), the test can’t be executed, and each “losing” page means one more visitor who’s not converting into a customer.

Are these the reasons that CRO is seen as a lower priority than SEO/SEM? I’d argue this is 95% of it.

What do most eBusinesses do about CRO, when faced with these perceptions?

• Nothing – in other words, they do “what makes common sense,” or whatever the Highest-Paid Person’s Opinion (HiPPO) is. Trouble is, the customers know best.

• Some A/B Testing – try out two, and only two pages, to see if people prefer option A or option B. Problem is, it’s the many little changes to a page that add up to a big increase in conversion rate.

• Spend lots and do a full MVT – get an expensive product and spend lots of (1) time, (2) money, and (3) traffic trying to draw meaningful conclusions. Issue with that is, not many companies are big enough to be able to afford those three things.

Each of these three options are distasteful. Most companies simply de-prioritze CRO in the face of other, more well-defined areas of business over which they feel they can exert more control, hence KPIs from SEO/SEM coming out of the mouths of most business executives, and not conversion rates.

Software innovation that overcomes these barriers exists, and is poised to revise these options with a fourth possibility:

• Adaptive Multivariate Testing – adaptive MVT at a traffic level that suits the “rest of us”, at a price the “rest of us” can afford – bringing CRO to its rightful place alongside the SEO/SEM disciplines

Driving traffic is important to the health of your website, but so is converting those visitors into customers. You can’t really rely on a HiPPO or “just two options” to be sure that you’re getting the maximum ROI possible on your website, and most businesses simply cannot afford the full MVT.

If you think of the web traffic you get to your eBusiness site as an asset, then “sweating” that asset – getting more out of it – is one of the most important ways that you can increase operational efficiency. That’s exactly what CRO does, and it’s why eBusinesses need it. After all, eBusinesses (well, most of them, anyway) aren’t in business to be glorified billboards.

Four years after Rand’s post, we agree – the SEO versus CRO debate shouldn’t exist. CRO complements SEO, and they are not mutually exclusive disciplines by any stretch of the imagination.

Twitter helps …as a function of our link building efforts. Twitter will help us (build) relationships with bloggers and site owners who may be interested in linking …an additional benefit is that both the profile and individual updates (may) get indexed in search. As a result, there are opportunities for both to rank for various keywords (the brand for the former and long-tail keywords for the latter).

Twitter profiles usually rank very well in search engine results, especially for name based queries. Individual updates appearing in results are much less common, but I have seen them appear from time to time.

Of course, there are additional, considerable benefits to Twitter, but since our client pays us for SEO, first and foremost they want to make sure our focus is with traditional search engines.

That was Tuesday; then came Wednesday.

A little after 10 AM EST, Bing announced their new real-time search engine, featuring results from Twitter (and likely soon from Facebook). A full review and close up can also be found on Search Engine Land.

Here are the write-ups:

• Bing is Bringing Twitter Search to You
• Now Live: Bing’s Twitter Search Engine
• Bing Goes The Dynamite!

Less than four hours later, Google announced a partnership with Twitter to include updates in search results as well.

Here are those write-ups:

• RT @google: Tweets and updates and search, oh my!
• That Didn’t Take Long: Twitter Search Is Coming To Google

What does this mean to you?
If you were on the fence about getting invested in real-time social tools like Twitter (and Facebook), because there was a difficulty tying them to SEO (or ROI, or marketing strategy), it’s time to reconsider that position.

The top two players in the space are getting invested in real-time search. Bing Twitter is live today and Google will be rolling out their integration in the coming months. With a combined 8 billion+ searches per month (as of August 2009), there are a lot of additional reasons to consider Twitter as part of your SEO (and online marketing) strategy.

Oh, and that doesn’t include the highly anticipated launch of Google Social Search as well

Source: Wikimedia Commons Symbiotic Creatures Playing Nice

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Note for geeks and sticklers:  While parasites can have a mutually beneficial relationship (mutualism) with their host, I am questioning whether or not there is a parasitic relationship (parasitism) where the host does not benefit.

I’ve been in the SEO trenches since 2000.  Not as long as many, but long enough to form an opinion.

I’ve pretty consistently felt that SEO practitioners who follow best practices, and don’t spend time gaming the system for short-term gains, have helped organize the Internet.  This goes for SEO consultants, in-house SEO practitioners, business owners, etc.

But, we have provided this organization and structure based on the rules of the game that Google has established.

Google says “unique, quality page titles” and  “great meta descriptions”, and we do it.  Google indicates that content should be both unique and valuable, and we create content that users actually will read (often enough).  Google indicates that cross-linking between pages within a site builds thematic relationships, and we cross-link.  Google says that inbound links should be from trusted, authoritative, and relevant sites, we find ways to build those relationships.

What’s the end result?

Relevant categorization of Web sites and a higher number of usable/valuable Web pages.

Google monetizes this organization.  SEO’s monetize the work needed to achieve these results.  Companies monetize the search results they garner.

There is a SYMBIOTIC relationship between search professionals and Google.  Each helps the other achieve their goals.

But, does Google develop/maintain a PARASITIC relationship with SEO’s?  Possibly.  I believe that the following is unstated, but implied – “Do the work we ask for and we will make money from your efforts.”

Do search professionals act as parasites in relation to Google?  Sure.  “We make money from the power you [Google] exert on the Internet.”

But, SEO-consulting revenue is spread across the market very broadly, and that money pales in comparison to Google’s $21 Billion in 2008 revenue.  SEMPO’s annual The State of Search Engine Marketing (2008) estimates that $1.4 Billion was spent on organic SEO efforts (organic SEO is what’s relevant in this discussion, although one could argue that paid search guidelines from Google AdWords also help organize information in search results).

In talking about this blog post with my partner, Derek Edmond, he brought up an excellent point – SEO practitioners that find loopholes in Google’s algorithms live off of Google’s power as the most-popular search engine.  I won’t call this category of SEO’s “black hat”, because there are too many sticking points in that definition.  It’s enough to say that when loopholes are exploited, there are two outcomes:

1) These SEO practitioners make money

2) Google finds ways to tighten up their algorithms, and continues to enhance the quality of its search results

In a sense this is a mutualistic parasitic relationship between the two – loophole-exploiting SEO’s feed off of the host, and the host gets stronger through a self-defense mechanism.

Bottom Line

There is a definite symbiotic relationship between SEO practitioners and Google.

It’s hard to argue against Google being the host in this relationship.  But, it feels completely uncomfortable to label SEO’s as parasites.  There is such a negative connotation to this label.  However, there is no denying that the SEO community “feeds” off of Google.

Perhaps it makes the label more palatable when you consider that SEO’s provide incredible benefits to Google.  And, Google has brought considerable benefits to the public at large.  So, by extension, SEO’s enhance those benefits for the searching public.

(In writing this post, I gave up on the notion that Google is the parasite.  I’d be interested in your thoughts.)

As I sat reflecting on the ideas and discussions had at the Inbound Marketing Summit, I grappled with finding an appropriate voice for providing review. I concluded that it might be best to look to Twitter for perspective from some of the talented individuals who joined me in experiencing #IMS09 last week.

What I found was an impressive collection of quotes, ideas and links from those in attendance and presenting at IMS09. Hopefully, you’ll agree

So without further ado…

Inbound Marketing Summit Boston – Day One

• Ground Rule #1: There are NO social media experts #ims09 @gameplanhayden
  
  
• I agree with @gameplanhayden “Silos Suck!” #ims09
  
  
• Content is king, but marketing is queen & she runs the house – @garyvee at #IMS09
  
  
• How to beat the competition: Outcare them. – @garyvee at #IMS09
  
  
• Gary Vee #ims09. “It’s insane to me that companies won’t talk to the people who are talking about them.” (via @DowntownWoman)
  
  
• RT @aaronstrout: Thoughtful response by @bhalligan to pushback he got at #IMS09 on “PR is dead” slide. http://bit.ly/QIUcD
  
  
• here are my slides from #ims09 http://bit.ly/2JdBRz
  
  
• New blog post with highlights from my PR 2.0 panel at #IMS09 … http://bit.ly/Rws7A
  
  
• RT @billlublin: RT @InnovateMarCom: You are who you are. Put it all out there. ~CC Chapman #ims09
  
  
• My #buckets slides from #ims09 are now up as part of the latest episode of Managing The Gray – http://bit.ly/IzfR7
  
  
• …”If there are a bunch of kids in a playground, and there are no toys there, they’re going to leave” ~@cc_chapman #ims09
  
  
• “The opposite of marketing fluff is not hard data, it’s clarity & decision.” @conversationage #IMS09
  
  
• Inbound Marketing Summit – my presentation http://ow.ly/tlhG #ims09
  
  
• Kodak in the process of hiring a “chief listener” reports the “chief blogger”. WOW #IMS09 @kodakcb
  
  
• critical to have a calendar that for content creation. Kodak coordinates with PR & Mrktg
  
  
• Kodak “comped” their blog to get approval by execs. Helped alleviate blog fear. Good idea for those that need C-level approval. #IMS09
  
  
• Social Media Tips (pdf on the right) from @kodakCB is located here: http://www.kodak.com/US/followus #IMS09
  
  
• A good conversationalist listens more than they talk. #ims09 (grow bigger ears panel)
  
  
• Spectacle, Story and Emotion can Make Your Video Go Viral – Recap of Tim Street presentation. #ims09 http://bit.ly/2L3M2o
  
  
• Inbound Marketing Summit – Day One Recap http://bit.ly/3CrbXt #IMS09.
  
  
• New blog post: Inbound Marketing, Outbound Marketing, and Spam: #IMS09 day one http://bit.ly/l63yi
  
  
• If you missed it yesterday, here’s my mini recap of the conference/summit – http://jeffcutler.com/jeff – most recent post is an #IMS09 eval.
  
  
• A quick recap of some of @KodakCB’s 20 min talk at #ims09 http://bit.ly/1vGHMS

Inbound Marketing Summit Boston – Day Two

Source: Flickr photo by decli

• Really enjoying the opening presentation by @tmarklein, setting the bar high right away #IMS09
  
  
• Here are @tmarklein’s #ims09 slides from @slideshare http://bit.ly/17r2r6 enjoy
  
  
• #IMS09 @JasonFalls points out that most corporate websites are still brochures, not dynamic. People want to be engaged with good content.
  
  
• if you’re not taking care of your home on the internet, what the hell are you doing anyway? @jasonfalls #ims09
  
  
• For those interested, my slides from #ims09 this morning – http://bit.ly/13egBS
  
  
• Kaspersky uses “threatpost” blog as front-line engagement, followed by Kaspersky web site, then marketing materials #ims09
  
  
• Always say thank you when someone praises your brand online. @davidalston #ims09
  
  
• Humana Social Fundamentals – authenticity, active listening, going where they are, personal voice, learning through action, sharing #IMS09
  
  
• Tweet Positioning System // Another Humana Innovation http://bit.ly/4hixlL #ims09
  
  
• “It’s not the newspapers dying, our readers are” – Great, poignant quote from @pgillin here at #ims09
  
  
• #ims09 Taxonomy is how you define yourself. Folksonomy is how others define you. (via @pgillin)
  
  
• Steve Garfield is having a video flash mob at #IMS09 @stevegarfield
  
  
• My video from the second row of Steve Garfield’s video gathering: http://blip.tv/file/2699216 #IMS09
  
  
• @newmediajim Jim, it was so nice to meet you today. Your #IMS09 presentation went a long way in demonstrating the value of brand ambassadors
  
  
• Blogs/Social Media interactions can change the internal debate — great insight! Paula Berg from Southwest Airlines #ims09
  
  
• great panel at #IMS09 – “End the Social Media Hype.” @pgillin – transparency isn’t about disclosing your trade secrets, it’s about honesty.
  
  
• Introducing the Social Compass http://bit.ly/46AW0D #ims09
  
  
• Build your database of interesting, powerful people. Carry it with you. @chrisbrogan at #ims09
  
  
• The purpose of a business is to create a customer who creates customers – Shiv Singh #ims09
  
  
• Examples of companies doing social media well: @comcastcares @garyvee (winelibrary) @BreakingPoint and @ducttape #ims09
  
  
• wow, @cspenn is rockin’ the stage at #ims09 – incredible energy, enthusiasm, and a loud voice! #rock!
  
  
• Loving @cspenn preso — I don’t know what it is. The content is great, the enthusiasm is great. But his voice is like comfort food. #ims09
  
  
• RT @vanhoosear: Here’s the link to @cspenn’s #ims09 excellent preso on ROI 101: http://bit.ly/23×8Tt
  
  
• A special #FF to @miriamkutcher for her great presentation at #ims09 on community launch at IDC – http://bit.ly/MFie8
  
  
• From @NoOneYouKnow , my audio from #IMS09 http://bit.ly/BroganIMS09 (phone quality, sorry)
  
  
• Boy, I’m really impressed with @chrisbrogan and his raw ability to catalyze, inspire and motivate. Humbling. Thanks #ims09.
  
  
• Recap and highlights of Inbound Marketing Summit Boston Day 2: http://bit.ly/3mNL4K: #ims09
  
  
• Good stuff here – RT @amanda_pants: #IMS09 recap of day two – This is Not Important http://bit.ly/nBna9

Additional #IMS09 Updates via Twitter

• 1 Question 1 Minute vids from #ims09 – tx to: @chrisbrogan @justinlevy @cspenn @jasonfalls @cc_chapman @briansolis http://bit.ly/35djd0
  
  
• #ims09 panels: End of Social Media Hype http://bit.ly/LhzZB | Listening & Monitoring http://bit.ly/7r9Vl | PR 2.0 http://bit.ly/iSs6N
  
  
• @derekedmond I finished mine this morning. Nothing has changed…it’s still all about the relationship. #ims09 http://bit.ly/1AHqWM
  
  
• @derekedmond Everything I’ve found so far for #ims09 is here – http://delicious.com/justin…

Additional Blog Posts

• Inbound Marketing Summit 2009 – Day One
• Steve Garfield’s Video Experiment at IMS09
• 12 Things I Learned at the Inbound Marketing Summit
• Nuggets From the Inbound Marketing Summit
• Inbound Marketing Summit 2009 Video Roundup
• Inbound Marketing Summit Live, hosted by Awareness, Inc.

Final Thoughts
Thanks very much to Chris Brogan, Justin Levy, the team at New Marketing Labs, and all of the people I was able to meet and/or reconnect with (both online and offline) at the event. It was a fantastic experience and I only wish I had more time to spend with those in attendance while we were there.

Did I miss something important? I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions via the comments below or send me a message anytime on Twitter @derekedmond.

This past May I left the world of consulting (and my good friends here at KoMarketing) to take an in-house SEO position at Grasshopper.com, a virtual phone system provider for small businesses.  After four years of being on the agency side, I thought it would be interesting to get a new perspective.

There are certainly some big differences when it comes to in-house and agency life but I have been learning that each side has its own advantages. Lucky for me, KoMarketing was nice enough to let me come back and share them with you:

In-House SEO Advantages:

Team Collaboration

The main difference has been having all facets of the business in one place; Marketing, Design, Engineering & Decision makers. One of the most frustrating things as a consultant is waiting on approval and implementation.

Recently I needed some new pages created for SEO. I worked with our usability expert in laying them out and then our design team put a template together. Our PPC manager was able to test them out to see if it the design would convert and then adjustments were made. All-in-all the process took about three weeks from start to finish and I was able to add new content-rich, converting pages to the site. Having everyone in one area can make it much easier to get things done in a timely manner.

Time Time Time

The biggest difference between working at an agency and working in-house has to be the amount of time spent on a site.

As an agency you have a designated amount of time you can spend on a client based on cost and man-hours. When you are in-house and only have one client (aka your company), the entire week/month/year is dedicated to that business. There is more time to do research, come up with ideas, implement ideas and make changes.

SEO Agency Advantages:

SEO Team

One of the greatest advantages an agency has is the people; Experts that work next to one another and have years of experience with SEO/PPC. These people get to sit with each other, bounce ideas off one another and work with each other during those times when your brain just can’t think of what to do next.

Sometimes when you spend so much time on one site, it can be easy to get caught in a tunnel. Having another search marketer to talk with and generate ideas with is a huge asset. Plus, having several SEO nerds in one place means that they have probably worked on a number of clients and in turn know what works and what doesn’t.

Time Time Time

Wait a second Casie, I thought you said that was an in-house advantage? Well, truth be told it can be an advantage for both sides. An agency may have a limited amount of time they can spend but that means they have to really prioritize and figure out what will have the quickest and most effective impact for a client.

A good SEO agency will work with you to learn about your business, marketing, sales and what needs to happen to make those sales. Then they will tailor a program to your needs, more importantly to your bottom line. And even more importantly, the success of your business directly affects the success of the agency so you know they will be doing everything they can to improve your business!

Whether a company should outsource or bring their SEO in-house is really dependent on their own needs but you can see that the two do have their own advantages. I am sure those on each side can bring about an argument of which is better but I can tell you this, being in-house, I am glad that I still have my agency and consulting friends. That is one of the best parts about SEO…no matter what side you work on, everyone is always willing to help each other out.

Casie Gillette is the SEO Manager at Grasshopper, a provider of virtual phone systems for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Feel free to shoot her an email (cgillette [at] grasshopper.com) or follow her on Twitter.

The B2B Content Equation, Strictly Business column, Search Engine Land, Sep. 30, 2009

Time + Money = Content? [too simple, and misguided]
Time + Money = no guarantee of Valuable Content
Time + Money + Creativity = Valuable Content
xTime + yMoney + Creativity = Valuable Content [Time and Money are finite variables, while Creativity is infinite and must be part of the equation]

Using Your Search Engine Presence To Benefit Your Customers, Search Engine Land, Sep 21, 2009

What if you were a manufacturer of printers, and ranked very well in search engines for words related to “printing”?  Fantastic, and people will find you who may be potential customers.  But, many of your visitors will be looking for printing services.  Use that search engine power to generate leads for your customers who buy printers.  It can be a valuable tool in closing new sales when you give prospects this information.

7 Ways to Use Website SEO to Drive New Business, RainToday.com, Sep. 10, 2009

Specifically targeted at Professional Services firms.  Companies that rely on their consultants’ and partners’ expertise to help raise the reputation of the firm and generate new business can use specific search engine strategies and tactics to position their people as experts and subject matter authorities on the Web.  When potential clients serach for someone with a specific type of expertise, they should find your experts.

How do you establish trust online? One way is to help other colleagues in their endeavors online as well.

Unfortunately, trust is not established overnight. It’s going to take time, development and sound execution in order to be successful. That said, there are little things the online marketer can start doing today to get the ball rolling.

Here are 20 ways you can help a colleague online today. Most of these ideas can be completed without expending a tremendous amount of effort. Doing things like this on a daily basis is a simple way you or your company can start building trust online.

1. Write a colleague a LinkedIn recommendation
   
   
2. Read a good blog post and provide an insightful comment
   
   
3. Share a blog post or article that you have read and find valuable on Twitter
   
   
4. Retweet another person’s discovery as well.
   
   
5. Complement a colleague on their accomplishments (Buy them a cup of coffee too )
   
   
6. Answer a question online that relates to your specific skill sets (thanks Casey Yandle!)
   
   
7. Or – check out Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn Answers or similar site to find others outside of your network that may need assistance
   
   
8. Contribute to an industry forum or group
   
   
9. Comment on someone’s status update on Facebook
   
   
10. Or – mention someone’s accomplishments via a Facebook status update using the @feature (Just don’t send them a “Mafia Wars” invitation )
    
    
11. Participate in a Facebook group discussion of interest
    
    
12. Introduce colleagues that may be benefit from each others business ideas
    
    
13. Review a friend on StumbleUpon
    
    
14. Write a review on Yelp, CitySquares or other local directory of interest
    
    
15. Rate a good video on YouTube
    
    
16. Write a blog post providing a tactic or strategy your readers will value
    
    
17. Review someone’s blog post for anything from grammatical errors to concept execution (hat tip to Brian Wallace)
    
    
18. Help promote a social media news submission you find of value
    
    
19. Make yourself more accessible, via IM as an example (thank you Greg Finn!)
    
    
20. Ask someone how you can help them today

All of the positive, little ways we interact with others online provide tremendous, long-term value, even if there is not an immediate financial return.

Over time, these little interactions establish the trust necessary to help someone achieve larger goals, in SEO, social media or life in general. What types of interactions have you been a part of that have helped establish trust online? We’d love to hear your ideas, suggestions, and thoughts via comments below.