When BP was confronted with the daunting challenge of managing the PR crisis after the oil-spill they didn’t just buy expensive TV spots and full page newspaper ads. Like any company with marketing-savvy,  they put in place an aggressive, integrated SEO and social media marketing plan in order to saturate the search engines with “their” side of the story. They bought negative keywords for paid-search, quickly created micro-sites and devoted Facebook & Twitter pages for their message, all this to negotiate the narrative. They topped it all with a series of electronic press releases. The objective was to dominate Google in order to combat the negative buzz! (more…)

Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization work best when synergized. Businesses that employ an integrated search and social media strategy achieve greater web-success at lower cost because they amplify their message manifold simply by combining the power of organic search and viral media. When you search-optimize and add relevant social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (etc) to your media mix the result is far greater than if you had used them as un-optimized channels, independently at different times!  Similarly using SEO without social media substantially limits the potential of organic search.  Synergy is the essential ingredient in achieving high ROI and maximizing the impact of your online media plan. Here are some tips on optimizing one with the other. (more…)

Social media isn’t always the right tool for the job. Not every company needs a blog. YouTube worked for BlendTec, but it might not work for your company. And yet, there’s something to this. Over the last three days, I’ve spoken to four HUGE brands in America that are considering social media for one project or another, and there are many more out there working on how these tools might integrate into their business needs. Here’s a list of 50 ideas (in no particular order) to help move the conversation along.

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