Social Media is just an extension of how we communicate today. When we are going to make a purchase we discuss it with peers and friends. When we want information about any specific genre we look for an expert, often asking peers and friends for a reference. When we look for some someone to fill a position in the work place, we look to see if there are common references for the people we might hire. We do all those references and searches online as well as in person. We do it using Social Media.

Google has added Social Search to it’s search engine recently, Yahoo and Bing are showing Twitter results in their indexes. These things are new. They did not exist only a short time ago. Yet today, they are major players in an online marketing strategy.

Search Engines advancements has caused search engines to deliver better and more relevant search results. The evolution of Social Media has caused search engines like Google to include things like dashboard that have linked gateways to services like friendfeed, facebook, news feeds, Twiiter Collecta etc. Those dashboards draw our attention to new channels of discovery and information, and more importantly, they allow us to connect and find people in our network to share and collect this information.

A Neilsen study was fielded in August 2009 and consisted of 1800 participants in which they looked at three main consumer segments using search. The segments were “Searchers”, “Portals / Portalists” or social media “socializers., and the study segments determined what primary vehicles were used for digital content discovery.

Traditional search engines accounted for 37% of search queries, and online portals such as Yahoo, MSN and AOL represented 71% of the sites that serve as the sources for discovery.

Social media sites such as blogs, Wikipedia, and social networks accounted for 18% of where searches begin, outperforming sites that are dedicated to publishing information specifically to help individuals find deeper analysis and details.

Neilsen also discovered that for almost 15% of “Socializers”, the information they  “trusted” the most was found on blogs when researching purchases, and 20% most trusted the info they discovered on forums and message boards. 8% trusted Facebook and Twitter for content discovery.

SEO needs a Name Change to include Social Media

SEO has changed forever, and there is no going back in sight. SEO indicates that content is being optimized for Search Engines only, and perhaps it is time for a name change, because search today is migrating from search engines to Social Media services.

The Web 2.0 landscape made up of blogs, wikis, social networks, content portals, social boomarking, forums, websites, mobiles, multi player games and search engines has become tied together with the advancement and growth of Social Media, and it is now bound by real people linking and sharing through Social Media.

The fusion of so many types of online communications tools has made Social media Strategy more important than it has ever been because those profiles have become our common references for sources of information.

Social Media Strategy is a long term solution for communications, and there is no “quick fix” for that. It is a live and evolving media that requires conversation and updating to be a factor.

Gone are the days of SEO where keyword spamming and directory link schemes could dominate on many terms. Today’s search engines are putting those lame practices to sleep with their application of Web 2.0 and Social Media links in search results.

The bigger picture that has been difficult to translate for some has been the evaporation of control over communications. No longer can slogans speak the message in one direction. Active groups and communities of people using comments and Social Media are running today’s communications. Today it is all about sharing and being transparent and being part of the conversation.

The shift of power to Social Media has impacted SEO in other ways, which include off-site search engine optimization, digital distribution of materials and possibly most important, Social Media has become the best way to gauge how our brands are perceived and how our communications are interpreted.

The explosion of Twitter  on the Social Media Landscape into a live stream of information for discovery has changed our expectations of quickly we can access information, and how fresh and current the information updates we follow should be. Today, our communications strategies have to include constant updating and interactions if we hope to succeed.

Coca-Cola’s new campaign gets it, PizzaHut’s latest new job proves they get it, and yet there are still so many who just don’t undestand how much things have changed in SEO and Web 2.0 communications.

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• How High Will Real-Time Search Fly? (innovationtoronto.com)
• Google Social Search aims to make social networks more useful (infoworld.com)
• Yahoo to integrate OneRiot’s Search (ecombizcenter.blogspot.com)
• Ping: How High Will Real-Time Search Fly? (nytimes.com)
• Yahoo To Launch Real Time Search, Too (techcrunch.com)
• Google search gets social (network.nationalpost.com)
• SEO Optimization Basics And Concepts (ronmedlin.com)

With the new media transition going online has completly changed the way digital content like music and video and pictures are consumed, and so far it has been a real challenge for these content makers to make a transition to monetizing on digital media. For example, 95% of all digital music (like what your would find in the iTunes store), that was downloaded last year, was downloaded illegally.

Chris Anderson’s book discusses the new economy and gives brilliant insight into new age consumerism in the wake of Web 2.0, and discusses the “Freemium” business model that has been adopted successfully online, but has actually been around for over a hundred years. 

From a business perspective, this book outlines what “Frremium” means in the NEW economy, and gives digital content producers and digital publishers some perspective and insight on what type of business model works in web 2.0 and what type of thinking is required to survive the rapidly evolving and sharing world through emerging and existing technology.

From a communications perspective this book basically translates what we as communications professionals have to bring to the table so that our clients can adapt to the new media world and so that we can do things like apply social media strategy and translate those offerings we freely share on web 2.0 into ROI for our clients.

New thinking is required, and if anyone catching this was wondering what social media strategy and web 2.0 strategy could do and how it could produce ROI and save our digital content from becoming valueless, then this read is a must.

Same goes for all you aspiring digital publishers out there, there air is thin these days in terms of being able to monetize on digital content, so you’ll be getting valuable info info from the Chris Anderson book. This is recommended in a big way for you content makers out there. This is an excellent NEW economy business model for you.

The link below is the free audiobook, download it and pop it on you iPod and listen to it on the way to the office. By the time you get to work, you should be brimming with new ways to monetize on digital content and ways to use web 2.0 strategy and social media strategy in the NEW economy.

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The campaign is reminiscent and may be inspired by last years “worlds greatest job campaign” for the Queensland Tourism Board that promoted a job as “island caretaker” in the Great Barrier Reef region, and which was honored with a prestigious Cannes Lions PR award this year for it’s massive success raising awareness about the reef and it’s wonders. The man who the contest did go missing though (you’ll find a link below to a story on the subject).

Adam Brown, Director of Digital Communications for Coca Cola said, “it’s not about having the Coca-Cola brand first and foremost, center of the screen. It’s about telling the story that involves Coca-Cola, that involves the attributes of what Coca-Cola is about, optimism and joy.”

Credit to Mr. Brown and his team at Coca-Cola should be given because the company clearly understands that social media and viral marketing are long term, and not just one off attempts. I predict this one will be a winner because it makes some unlikely heroes out of the bloggers who many wannabes will follow in hopes of one day having the opportunity themselves, it should produce some interesting content, and will likely have many conversations about it like this article and in comments on other sites.

Social Media Marketing and Viral Campaigns are quickly becoming an integral part of many brands communications strategies that it’s impossible to ignore the potential of applying similar social media strategy to smaller companies because social media and web 2.0 are simply so accessible to anyone with some basic tools and imagination. There have been major fails by large brands in the past, but this story is one that looks like winner from the get go.

I’ll definitely be following this campaign to see the results.

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• Coca Cola going social media (ecombizcenter.blogspot.com)
• Blogging from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – Best Job in the World! (businessbloggingtips.com)
• Bad start for British man with ‘best job in the world’ (telegraph.co.uk)

Morgan Stanley’s Mary Meeker was a dynamo speaker this week at the Web 2.0 Summit. She did a great job of drilling home some of the most important facts about internet trends vs. the economy and shared Morgan Stanley research on the internet, mobile, web 2.0, search engines, social media, e-commerce, and more.

Here is the video of Mary Speaking. The facts just pour out of her and you might have watch this twice.

The US has become less relevant in the global economy, internet use continues to grow, search engine are improving, online advertising grew 26% year to year, ecommerce grew 19% year to year, facebook is the seventh busiest site in the world in minutes, web 2.0 growth is massive…..oh my, just watch the video and try to wrap your head around this info.

Here is the Morgan Stanley slide presentation from Monday on internet trends and the economy at the web 2.0 summit.

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• Microsoft strikes search deals with Twitter, Facebook (infoworld.com)
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If you have read some of my posts here or elsewhere on SEO then you are probably aware of my view on the importance of newsworthy Press Releases and wire services in SEO. Press releases and wire services are the single most important tool in SEO in my opnion.

Nothing trumps the news in search engine results or creates more buzz to improve your website traffic then fresh and good news.

Writing a good Press Release is no easy task and there are plenty of people who have been perfecting that art for years. And writing a good press release with SEO in mind is just a little bit trickier because the goal is to produce quality relevant search results and to create a newsworthy press release.

When writing your own press release it is easy to fall in to the trap of blatant self-promotion which actually works against you in terms of media picking it up and running the story. That is why you have stay objective and write something you would want to read, that is relevant and delivers important facts about your news.

Today there are so many quality free press release services that make this important form of communication an affordable means of promotion for anyone. I won’t go into giving links because that topic is so well covered on other sites it would just be filler.

Today there are two key parts to writing a good press release beyond the actual content and the channels or services you use. They are the structure and formatting of the press release and the other is what we are covering here, the process of Search Engine Optimizing for a Press Release.

This article covers how to Search Engine Optimize your Press Release.

SEO tips for writing your press release:

• • →Using Keywords and phrases. What you want to do is pick a few of the most relevant keywords/phrases for both the news you are publishing in the press release and the keywords/phrases that are most relevant to your business, organization or individual website. You want to use those keywords a few times each throughout your press release, and you want to incorporate the most important one in the Press Release Title. Needless to say, you should research keywords/phrases to see if they are popular search terms for users to find relevant search results (but that is another article).
  • →If you are introducing a new product or service like “gummy-dummy-yummy-pops” you will want to add a short description of what that product is like “gummy-dummy-yummy-pops are the newest wine gum candy product from “your company name” that come in three flavors including cherry, strawberry and banana.
  • →Use the name of relevant products and people instead of pronouns like “it”. It’s ok for it to read a little long because press releases are not for mass consumption, they are intended to be bare bones facts about your news for other media looking for stories to publish.
  • →Post your press release on your website first. Search engines like Google can tell where the story was published first and you certainly want to be the authority on your own article. Although PR and link-juice factors are falling in terms of importance (ex. Google recently cut PR from webmaster tools to illustrate that point), you do want to be recognized as the legitimate origin of the information (especially considering things could easily change down the road).
  • →Include an “About the company” paragraph at the end of your press release that mentions important key phrasing like “your company name is “the company slogan”, a maker of candies that was established by the owner’s name in some year. Your company name sell candies at some number of stores across some country”. This paragraph will be re-used in future press releases.
  • →Do not spam your releases to every press release service. Target the services that best suit your target audience. If you are for some reason compelled to use more than three services for example, write a variation of your press release (title could change for example). It is not advisable to spam the release.
  • →Be sure to leave contact information with the press release as it would appear on your website. A companies contact information should be easy to find and you want to be repeating it in a memorable way that will come up in search results.
  • →Be sure to link to a specific url. A home page is fine, but if you are selling a new music product at a company that is known for films, you’ll want to direct the audience to the new music related url right off the bat.
  • →Mention your most important social media / web 2.0 links that would be related to you press release if you have them like a Facebook group and your Twitter profile. If you don’t have those things going, get on it already, your kind of late to the party.
  • →Once your release is out put it through the web 2.0 treatment and tweet the keywords/phrases and news with a link to your release, and publish a link to it on your other social profiles.
  • →Publish your press release early in the morning. Having a jumpstart on the daily news is key when possible. Your target market should be reading about it by 7am (which means releasing at 3-4am sometimes).
  • →When you publish your press release you should also be cognizant of other competitive factors in your field. A new Operating System may want to avoid publishing a press release during a Mac Keynote Speech for example. The bigger fish will eat you up every time, especially when your are competing for the same keywords and marketplace. The importance of press releases is no secret, and all major media outlets and companies are aware of this, including your competitors. What keeps you from drowning in the crowded sea is the uniqueness and relevancy of your keywords/phrases.

That’s it really. With those tips you should be rocking if your news is good and be able to improve your website traffic. If you followed those steps and took the time to research and had good news, your press release stands a very good chance in the marketplace for SEO.

You may as well bookmark this article on how to Search Engine Optimize your Press Release so you have the tips handy when you are producing your next Press Release. And remember, good SEO is about fundamentals (which this article is), and great SEO is about using a wide array of resources on the Web 2.0-scape (some call it SMM-Social Media Marketing) and employing fundamental SEO practices.

SEO Press Release Service

If you want to release your SEO press release to get to 28+ quality portals in one shot, save some time, and don’t mind paying $79.00 dollars (Cheaper and better than PR Web by a long shot), then I recommend you visit this service http://tinyurl.com/ycnaqgc. Save time (which is money for some of us). I can’t beat their rates, although I do have access to more portals, in some cases better. It’s recommended, I have used it, and know it’s a great service that saves time and headaches. You are basically paying about $2 per release, and getting it all done in one shot as opposed to individual submissions which is a great value unless your time is worth less than $6/hour (I estimate from experience).

Using the service you can publish a press release to Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK, AZ Feeds, Congoo, Feed 24, Feedage, FeedFarms, HighBeam Research, MillionRSS, My RSS 365, Octora, Syndic8, Visimo, Zuula, Topix, Redtram, Icerocket, Comcast and more.

You can build anchor links within the press release, add optimized media, add social bookmarking, choose 10 industry targets, have a keyword rich url and for a couple extra bucks insure front page publishing and even keep it in the cycle for up to 3 days.

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SEO news in 2009 is not in short supply, most recently Google took a bite out of Page Rank.

Google has cut PageRank data from Webmaster Tools. In a thread on Google Webmaster help, Google employee Susan Moskwa, said this:

“We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it.”

The Web Pro News interview with Google’s Matt Cutts about Page Rank below.

Searchers are going to get more honest results because this should at least quell lame link building techniques in the near future. This also means web 2.0 is growing in SEO importance and searchers are getting closer to more relevant search results.

SEO keeps evolving and getting better. If you are looking for help with your sites SEO make sure you have someone that is keeping on top of the major changes like this one.

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SEO with fries = Search Engine Optimization Services | Wordpress Expert Services | Viral Marketing and Digital Content Distribution | Social Media Management | Web 2.0 Strategy | Social Media Marketing | Film & Video Production | Video Post Production | Blogging + Blog Creation | New Media Services & Communications in Toronto & GTA

For those moments some digital audio may be the way to make it easier. And for those wondering about the spelling of Marcian (it’s someones name).

Marcian Said – DJ set by Cameron Urban.

Recorded in Toronto on Oct 1st, 2009.

Download away.

This is a very basic introduction to going viral. You’ll have to research each step on your own, and I won’t lie, if you are a novice, you are going to need a lot of dedication, some money to buy tools (good ones are not cheap like a computer with editing software to begin being efficient) and legal advice (you may have to reference an entertainment lawyer with interactive experience for things like talent releases, distributors agreements, etc), and a substantial investment of your time to learn the ins and outs and acquire technical knowledge.

I read some tips on WebProNews about going viral the other day that I completely have to disagree with. One of the things they wrote was “do not spend a lot of money”. What this was based on I’m not sure, but I assure you if you are a film maker you know the gear alone is not cheap. If you are handling other peoples materials, and you don’t have good, well written legal agreements to be able to distribute content, you could end up loosing your shirt in a court room. I don’t even want to link the article because it was full of terrible advice for anyone doing this professionally.

This basic introduction features more information on some accounts then I had when I first started. And this will be the best blog post I have ever seen on the topic (no, I have not read everyone’s blogs, and I encourage people to leave links in the comments to other good resources, especially if they are better, provide more detail or argue potentially better practices, all of which will have follow attributes, provided they link to good resources, that are not black hat, malicious or feature adult content in nature).

Why I wrote this post about Viral Marketing and Viral Video Distribution

I wrote this for anyone who wants to read it, I wrote it to give a piece of me that anyone considering me for their viral marketing needs should read to understand my methods, and so that they know they are getting more than see. I wrote this because some people think this game can easily be done b anyone, anytime. In a few distinct cases, it is easy. But to ensure a broader chance for success, there are many steps to proceed with. To monetize there are many agreements to understand.

I know these steps inside out. I have done them all numerous times. I have done them over the years and the portals, tools, services and styles I employ have changed many times, and will keep changing. Twitter, the best tool today, was not major factor just one year ago. This article is begging for recommendations and good arguments, so start promoting your opinions.

The Basics of Releasing a Viral Video

1) Prepare unique tags and labels for videos (and make sure they are relavent to the content). Spamming tags and labels will produce very poor results because the audience you are looking for is not going to be “your audience”. Pick labels only related to your content. It’s ok to get creative, as long as it is relevant. Seriously, do not abuse this, you won’t be helping yourself. Your goal should be to target potential audiences, while satisfying their search needs, as opposed to appearing in every search. For some clients I will spend a day or more just doing this and editing the list.

2) Have proof and credit people. Be prepared to certify that you own the content, have rights to distribute and have releases for on camera and audio talent (very easy to produce yourself or there are plenty of releases that are available online for a small fee-mine was written by an entertainment lawyer). Some of the channels / portals you will be using will require that you supply proof of ownership / copyright or the right to distribute and talent releases, especially the ones that pay. That is something you should actually be collecting before you begin rolling on any video or recording audio. Credits don’t need to be on content, sometimes they just annoy the audience, but your submission information must mention them, and credits can also provide satisfaction for many viewers, who may want to reference the creators. More importantly, credits on materials can prove how content went viral in many ways.

3) Convert your content into the various file types you will need (ie. flash-swf or flash-flv, mov, mpeg, avi etc). Make sure you output various sizes for each and label them well accordingly. When dealing with MOV and MPEG file formats, make sure you enter the ID3 tag information (ie. author, date, title, notes=description that should be 100 characters average in sentence from-very important). ID3 tags are generally just audio information, but on some video portals they are going to make or break you). Check to make sure all your outputs are synced and up to par for picture quality, color, sound and frame.

4) Register and contact the Portals you will be using. Start your sign up process for all video portals almost immediately. If you are distributing content for another person / third party, it is going to take some extra time (up to a month or two in some cases) because you are going to have to phone or email a request to many portals to send you a distributors agreement. That is when you will need your releases, and believe me, you want to make this as painless as possible for all parties involved, so have the paper work you need ready to go and a fax machine ready to go. Read the requirements of every portal carefully, and personally I suggest you make a hard copy file of requirements and paper work for every portal.

5) Know the rules. Always read about what different portals are looking for (ex. don’t send a music video to a how-to site). Abusing the rules will get you banned very quickly. If you are planning on putting in pre roll, mid roll or post roll advertising (not recommended if you are trying to push a video for your own branding or a clients) like what you might see on long tail video, find out if you are permitted to do so by the video portal(s) you are submitting to. If you are placing the advertising in yourself, be sure to visit the IAB and read the section on Digital Video Guidance(http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676/digitalvideo). Try to adhere to recognized and decent standards whenever possible without fail.

6) Prioritize file formats. There is a priority when it comes to making choices on video sites that will help your viewers. It goes something like this. HD, MOV, MPEG, Flash FLV, Flash SWF, AVI. No, I did not forget about the other formats, you should really be avoiding them. When it comes to codecs (very important), that is a lesson, possibly a book in itself and will not be covered here. Those using Final Cut Studio or Adobe Premiere will probably already have a handle on codecs and outputs. The most common one that will be requested is h264.

7) Make a note of approval times for submitted content for each video portal you are submitting to. You will want videos to be approved as close together as possible across all channels. You may have to run a test for each one individually. This is extremely important, and I learned this the hard way. It can make a 5000% percent difference in my experience for some content.

Check approval and Submission standards. When doing hard copy submissions (ie. tape or DVD), inquire about submission approval times early and confirm closer to release date (these can change quickly and often). Make sure all hard copies are submitted with documentation, contact information, labeling and meet the various portal requirements and match or exceed minimum standards when possible (ex. if the portal is wants PAL, you can also send an NTSC version-it has come up in the past as a useful practice).

9) Negotiate. Just because someone says they pay $XX/ per play or per video does not mean it’s not negotiable. Everything is negotiable friends. Everything. You won’t have luck if your content sucks, and you will just turn people off if you are pushing garbage, but every portal wants quality. Those with a good track record are always the first ones through the door.

10) Prepare your press release. Don’t write blatant self promotion. Write news that people want. Don’t stuff the wires with the same press release. Write 2 or three variations tops, and only pick a few good services. If you are really betting on this, go all the way and hire a PR person or publicist. Press releases are a major part of success. Don’t rely on bloggers for advice for this, no matter how popular they are. Trust people who have been editors at major news publications, and PR companies that represent major brands and public figures. Ignore bloggers and SEO’s with no public relations experience or interaction, those folks are going to be working for you in a minute. Computer jockey SEO’s are 4th tier players in this game. Your press release is going to create the keywords they use to help you go viral in headlines, not the other way around. Don’t fail at producing a scintillating and informative headline. Don’t fail at producing highly informative and efficient copy. Don’t fail at producing good contact information where someone is standing by to answer the queries regarding your release (or brand). Don’t fail to be on time to meet the dates mentioned for release on materials like press releases. Don’t use wires or press release services that appeal to everyone, unless you have the time to do a little extra, start with pro services like VPO that will likely come with a fee. Pay the piper(s) or risk failure.

11) Create your supporting materials. Prepare all your subsequent blog posts, Tweets, article submissions, supporting media like pictures or “making of” footage in advanced, if you are using a CMS like Wordpress, or Mambo, get your content ready and save it as a draft (remember to change dates later if you have to). If you are hand coding web pages, have them edited and ready to go, and hire an editor to check the content.

12) Social Bookmarking Accounts. Oke doke, you are getting warmer. Now sign up to ALL RELAVENT social bookmarking services you want to use, and create your profile, and be active bookmarking related content by OTHER SOURCES that are both relevant and quality. Practice tagging, labeling and commenting on each service. THERE IS NO SHORT CUT.

13) Prepare personal invites to (a) business associates (b) friends (c) people you want to see the video but don’t know about you, the brand your represent etc. BE PERSONAL! TAKE THE TIME. This core group is your greatest ally and should contain people you want to work with or already work with. They are your most precious commodity on the first, second and third round of release. Don’t abuse them or treat them like cattle. If you are dong this for a client, do not advertise yourself, you are insignificant, and you did not build the brand they are staked on. The only exception is when you are the primary contact, which you should only be on your materials. Do not separate clients from their customers by throwing yourself in the mix. It is not your right. With clients you are representing ALWAYS GET APPROVAL ON EVERYTHING. Every little thing, no matter how much time it takes and don’t worry about schedule, it is their brand, their right and their responsibility. While frustrating at times, do not break this rule. You should also prepare MMS text messages with something like a picture if you have a lot of contacts. IF YOU CAN PHONE PEOPLE PERSONALLY, DO IT.

14) Prepare social networking and link up all your appropriate social bookmarking accounts, email accounts, web pages and blogs. Test to make sure you are linked up and use tools to tie your accounts together so that publishing across things like MySpace, Twitter, Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr, etc is done in a click!. You don’t have time for a mess or individual submissions. Personally, I could publish to 1400 digital portals in 8 hours (which is never required), and believe me, I don’t do them individually.

15) Prepare for launch. You are basically ready to go if all these steps were followed and researched well and your accounts for the services you will be using are standing by.

16) Send out Hard Copies. Fed EX, UPS or use your favourite courier with package tracking to send hard copies to meet target dates for release. Remind people (using phone, text, email, fax etc) that you are sending the materials and encourage them to contact you when they have received them if possible without being pushy.

17) Release Press Releases on Monday morning and 1 AM (in the time zone your key target audience is in) announcing the arrival of the new content. Contact some exclusive news outlets and send them the materials (if you don’t have contacts and are not comfortable making them, your PR person would have really helped here).

18) Begin digital submissions to the most popular, useful and key portals.

19) Publish supporting materials. Once your major submissions (to the most important or popular portals is done, publish your blogs and webpages and link up the video to the posts / pages.

20) Now put your email campaign on the job (I use Email Campaign), attach press releases and links. Use at least 1 minute between messages or risk being junk mail, and use separate emails (not bulk CC). Don’t worry about the timing (even if it is going to take a week).

21) Now put you mobile text service on the job, and send out those prepared MMS messages.

22) Get those social bookmarks cooking and start bookmarking your content with the established accounts and pre-prepared labels and tags.

23) Notify your client their campaign is active within 2 hours of start.

24) Finish submissions to smaller portals, and use those bookmarks again.

25) Use the live stream. Use Twitter. Your Tweets should be going and encourage re-tweets. Direct Message twitter followers that will be interested with personal messages and links.

26) Do steps 16 through 25 again for supporting materials like “the making of”.

27) Follow the metrics and support your content by responding to comments on the most popular portals for your video.

28) Eat something. Shower, you probably need it.

29) Stay on those comments, getting live users is super important.

30) Download your metrics every 12 hours for clients, if this is for you, you might want them for future reference.

31) Take a break. Go to bed after 24 hours of commenting and submissions (if you didn’t have shifts of people helping). It’s out of your hands now.

32) Prepare day by day analysis for clients with suggestions for future releases or do it for yourself.

33) Find yourself. You are not done. Now look for blogs, tweets, news and reference of your materials online.

34) Plugin your new Web 2.0 Ecosystem of information. Start linking to them your yourself on your blogs, web pages and social media accounts (ie. Facebook, Twiiter, Digg etc). Let your friends, co-workers and associates know what is happening socially/virally and provide links to the places the content is doing best. Don’t pitch. That is weak. Don’t sell, that is not Web 2.0 communication. Do get people involved, inspire them, invite them and be personal. Your goal is to involve them and make them part of “it”.

35) By now you should have some “authorities” interested your content. And they will likely begin to contact you. Here is where your short viral video now gets to really experience the power of true viral communications. This is where you get to discuss details about your viral materials content with people who want more than just a snack sized piece of information. If you were a software company for example that created a better way to create a common product like documents for example, you get to highlight the programming and tools used to create your software, or more importantly, discuss why your product is better because of unique features like sharable libraries or templates and more accessible because you employed “freemium business practices” and more usable because of better interfacing and more efficient because it perhaps created a better workflow that could commonly be related to non-users of that document software that maybe needed to understand the process of creation to better understand potential uses. These communications can produce things like print articles that will extend your viral campaigns life, promote the brand, and introduce a new audience. These communications will also lay a foundation for future releases for the brand you were promoting using a viral campaign.

36) Keep linking, keep updating, keep interacting through things like comments and forums, and don’t try to CONTROL your campaign. Even misinformation has its uses like a producing reasons to begin a thread in a forum that dispels myths and displays your brands best qualities like educating and entertaining your audience, and can do things like add a friendly face to your brand that will have wide appeal for solid PR value.

37) Do it all all again with a new angle, some fresh information and stay on top of it. Keep track of the channels that allowed you to monetize and see solid ROI. Keep in touch with the authorities that got involved and showed interest in your content and brand.

38) Take advantage of the hype. Finally, produce exclusive information for some authorities, non web media outlets (ex. radio or tv), partner companies and premier retailers that speaks to their audience and offer it to them.

39) What are your results like? If your content was good (defined earlier), it’s probably been a month or more, and you should have seen more than a million impressions already.

40) ROI and Brand Awareness. After you cross the 60 to 120 day period you should try to do the impossible. Back track, and attempt to see what your viral campaign impressions add up to. If you had a client, they will only care about the bottom line (ROI), but you want to be able to show something else, a little thing called brand awareness. That brand awareness is what fuels the attraction to viral campaigns, because if your client was selling something like software for example, their sales peoples jobs should have just been made easier to do because they will now be able to start a sales pitch by saying “I’m from Company X that makes XX”, rather than, “I’m from Company X that makes software that does X and is called XX and is like Company Z that you have heard of”.

Some Basic Viral Marketing Tools and resources

This is not nearly all of the tools you can use, it’s just a list of some great tools I have used.

Final Cut Studio (Mac editing software).

TubeMogul – Syndication tool for videos that can unite several video portals and accounts, offers social promotional tools like bookmarking in the interface. The premium version supplies important metrics than can assist in showing ROI.

Adobe Premiere (PC editing software).

Email Campaign (Mac) – To send email notifications.

Adobe CS4 – for content creation and supporting media creation.

UPS – For sending hard copies out.

Cannes Lions – Awards. Learn about the best PR tactics and most successful advertising campaigns for inspiration. If you are viral marketing and experience great success, submit your campaign for consideration (if you are allowed to).

Meda Futurist – Gerd Leonards blog about web 2.0.

Media Buyer Planner – See where major brands are purchasing media or make the news here.

New York Times – Don’t get crushed by someone elses headlines, Keep up with world, and learn the language of the world’s finest journalists.

Tech Crunch – Michael Arrington’s killer blog about anything tech related. Often covers important trends and news about the services and tools you will be using.

ARS Technica – Online tech resource that covers topics and trends about the tools you will be using.

IAB – Everything interactive advertising based. They set industry standards and recommend good practices.

Video Content Portals

This not my complete list, in fact its an old list, I have an updated one with rankings for clients, but its pretty darn good if your just getting started. And quality considering it’s for a free tutorial on how to avoid having to hire me.

A to Z directory list of Video Portals – DIGITAL:

#

* 3DD Digital – Produce and license/publish Live footage, Music, Documentaries.

* 5min – DIY (Do it yourself) videos and instructional content

* 7digital – MP3’s and Music Videos for the UK market

A

* Ahora LLC - Wholesale to the Spanish Market

* Alluc.org – A movie portal. Links with illegal bit torrent searches.

* Arcor – German Digital TV Broadcaster

B

* Balkan News Corporation – BTV owns and operates cable and satellite channels in Bulgaria.

* Black Entertainment Television (BET) – Mostly music video’s. Urban programming.

* Black20-Unique video portal and place for vlogs.

* Blastro.com – Music Videos on-demand featuring renowned artists from today’s urban, dance and latin music scenes plus movie reviews and original shows.

* Blip.tv – Made for Podcasting and Vlogging posts. Allows publishers to share in ad revenue.

* Break – Video Sharing network that shares ad revenue with users.

* BrightCove – Brightcove is a video distribution platform and service

* British Film Institute

* Broadband Television Network Corporation-Broadband Television Network Corporation, 1001 Penn Ave Nw Ste 600s, Washington, DC 20004-2505

C

* Code 7 Entertainment, Inc.(Movieflix)

* Country Channel – Anything country life based goes here. Farming, music, events and more

* Crackle – High quality video portal for wide variety of content.

* Crackspace - Hip-Hop and urban content portal

* Crave Online Media

D

* DailyMotion – Youtube-like video sharing network where original content producers can brand a channel and portal HD content

* Der Spiegel – German News portal

* Diversion Media – One stop shop for quality content. Production, Encoding, Syndication, Casting, Post-production, Online Distribution

* Dragon New Media – Content for web and mobile.

E

* earthTV – One of the coolest projects on the web. Timelapse and live video of places all over the world. This is a marketing opp dying to happen.

* eBaum’s World – Video sharing network.

* Espresso Group

* EVTV1.com – EVTV1 brings you the best and most diverse video clips. From history and news, to comedy and bizarre

F

* Filmnight Digital – Feature Films.

* FORA.tv – High quality international video portal and sharing network.

* Free.fr – French cable portal.

* FunnyOrDie.com

G

* Globe7 – Popular desktop or mobile application for all content.

* Graspr – Instructional Content.

* green.tv – Green news portal.

* GUBA LLC. – Video sharing.

H

* Heavy.com – Most funny videos, music related.

* Howcast – How-to videos. Producers can share ad revenue.

* Hulu – A Quality content portal, not available in many regions outside of USA yet.

I

* i2TV - Users can upload videos and get them broadcast on the i2TV channel.

* Imeem – For iPhone users

* India Broadcast Live

* Internet Broadcast Corp – A News Portal

* Invision – Video

* Io Group/TitanMedia – Gay Adult video and pictures.

J

* Jokaroo Entertainment – User generated funny videos

* Justin.tv – Users (Producers) can form their own private channel and broadcast live. Great uses possible for live events.

K

* Kush TV -Independent online broadcaster.

L

* LATV – Mexican videos.

M

* MediaScrape – News Portal

* Megavideo – Various videos. HD capability.

* Memocast – Russian Videos and films

* MetaCafe – Youtube style video portal that allows publishers/producers of original video content to share in Advertising revenue.

* Modern Times Group (MTG) – A Swedish broadcaster that broadcasts in 29 countries and reaches more than 100,000,000 people.

* Mojo Supreme - Network of various sites with various niches.

* Moviebeam – A high quality content provider network.

* MuchMusic – Mainly music videos (rock, pop, hip-hop, metal, alternative, dance).

* My Damn Channel – Internet TV Channels with unique, better than average quality content.

* MySpace – Portals for various kinds of video.

* MyVideoDaily – High quality news video content portal

N

* Nautanki.tv

* Network Live – Broacasts live events.

* Network2 – Video Sharing network. Still in beta.

O

* Oak Pacific Interactive

P

* Penthouse Media Group

* Porn.com – Adult Videos

Q

R

* Rainbow Media – Rainbow media produces, distributes and manages content for brands like AMC, IFC, Sundance Channel, Voom HD Networks.

* Rakuten, Inc. – A Japanese Shopping and information portal.

* Reeltime – Still in beta. Films and TV stations available online.

* ResearchChannel – Educational, news worthy, scientific. This portal is for education content.

* Revver – A youtube like site where content producer can share ad revenue.

S

* Sclipo – An educational learning social network. Eductional content.

* Shanda Interactive Entertainment - Content for China

* Stupid Videos – A video sharing network with a wide variety of content.

* Supernovatube – Video sharing network.

* Subaye – Various types of content for the Chinese market.

T

* TasteTV – Recipes, Cooking and just about anything you wood expect from a Food based portal.

* Televisa – Portal for Spanish content.

* Teacher Tube

* Ten Alps

* TinselVision

* Titan Global Entertainment

* Turning Point

* TV Links

* TVRI Free Record Shop

U

* Usen Corp – Content Portal.

* UUSee

V

* Vakaka

* VBS.tv – Five stars from Pulledin. Mix of domestic and international news, pop and underground culture coverage, and the best music in the world.

* Veoh – Video Sharing network

* VeryFunnyAds – TBS powered TV commercial website.

* Vibe – Professional Urban content.

* Viddler – Video Sharing network.

* Video Arts – Business related.

* Vimeo – Video Sharing network.

* Voddler

* VODone

* VVSky Broadband – Various services. HQ video ondemand for broadband users in China.

* Videoegg – Serves advertising and runs popular video portals.

* vlaze.com – not quite sure, but it looks a vlogging and short clip site.

W

* Webcastr – Video Sharing network

X

Y

* Yahoo – World’s second largest portal.

* Yam.com – Korean portal

* YouAreTV – Video Sharing network.

* Youtube -World’s biggest video sharing network.

Z

* Zango – Content portal.

* Zattoo - TV station portal with lots of European content.

Wow that is a lot of work! Who can do this for me?

Firstly me, if you have professional content. I can’t make people watch what they don’t want to see. I can’t, and will never again push junk (I admit I have pushed less than quality content in the past). But I would love to manage viral campaigns for brands I admire, especially those involved in film, music and gaming. As a film maker, I have used many premium tools like Final Cut 2 Studio. As a marketing company director I have created unique solutions and forms of communication. As a former live event producer I have also worked with cutting edge (bleeding edge) visual display technology and produced visually stimulating presentations. There is no way I am saying I am among the greatest artists, I live in Toronto where many far more talented artists live, but I am an efficient all-in-one solution that can do all the work required myself or manage and consult on the production of such a campaign. I am also a work-a-holic when I am passionate about something, which goes a long way in this field and that character compels me to keep learning.

Digital distribution is something I have been very passionate about for years. I’ve gone to major Trade Shows like Midem, Nab, Web 2.0, GSMA, Canadian Music Week and many more premium and industry leading events around the world to find out who the real players in the business are, which is why going with me is as your viral campaign manager is a wise choice. I have put the time in, spent significant resources and have played on the field before. There are truly few SEO experts, marketing experts, web gurus and advertising creatives that can say they have done the same tour. My knowledge is built on my obsession to learn, and my attraction to genius.

Major Advertising agencies and PR companies do an amazing job. They are much larger than me, and have the resources to make you soar, can offer a full package starting from creative to execution and the experience to communicate your brand very effectively. They know the major players and can provide more detailed reporting, metrics and strategy than me. Because they have more minds working on campaigns, it is very safe to say they have me beat hands down. This of course comes at a price.

When it comes to SEO’s and Web 2.0 professionals, I am far more competitive. I have worked in web, mobile, film, television, commercials, music videos, documentary, music, live production, news and print. That is one area other SEO’s and Web 2.0 professionals are going to have a hard time competing with me. Of course there are better people than me. Who is the greatest in my opinion? Gerd Leonard, hands down. If you can get him, you’d be nuts not to hire him for things like consulting on major brands, PR and Web 2.0. I’ve heard him speak, read him and seen him at many of the places that make a true expert. He is a futurist that has been right on many counts, and you can really learn from this man from Switzerland. He could train an army, if only there was an army willing to learn. I actually attribute much of my discovery to the Swiss futurist.

Why would I sell the other people? Am I getting some kind of residual or commission from them?

The answers are because I want clients to see and learn about the resources I learn from and people that led me to my understanding of things in Web 2.0 and SEO like the live stream (ie. Twitter) and new media business models like freemium (Both Mr. Leonard and Wired Mag’s Chris Anderson have written brilliant books and resources about the topic). And I DO NOT get any residual or commission for referral. I just share quality information because it makes me valuable, and is actually the fundamental new media practice that makes me an expert. No secrets, just good information. It’s a lot of work, dedication, passion and experience that has forged my knowledge. It’s also creative thinking and challenging so-called experts on theories by actually playing in the field that has enabled me to sort the junk out from the quality. And there is so much trash in the Web 2.0, new media marketing and SEO world that I shudder to think what some people are getting when hire another SEO or Web 2.0 person at times.

My rate for consulting starts at a very affordable $75/hour (55 hour minimum + presentation tools + venue rental + expendibles media production + travel and accommodation if required).  This is a serious service for top brands, even if we are talking about putting a logo on the moon or an alien invasion of a ballpark or putting bulls testicles in energy drinks. You will laugh, you will learn about your competitors, you will learn about premium tools you need and about how to, you will learn about the best services to help you be efficient, you will be asked to think of ways to make your brand business model more new media friendly, you will learn about being in control by completely letting go of it, you will walk away in less than a week with information that took me years of research (still ongoing) to produce, and you will be able to produce a custom strategy that is unique for your brand.

1) Go to your FTP program or server file viewing interface and log in to your server.

2) Go to the folder where your Wordpress website is located (mine is /html/seowithfries.com, yours will likely be similar)

3) Find the file named .htaccess. If you can’t see it, enable the “show hidden files” option on your FTP Client.

4) Choose only one of the following options here, and stick to either option A or B in the following steps. Basically any file on your computer that begins with “.” (period/dot) will be hidden (.htaccess will not be visible when moved desktop).

option a) Drag it to your desktop (or download it to a folder of your choice) and remember where you got it from on your server.

option b) Rename the .htaccess file something like temp.htaccess and drag it to your desktop (or download it to a folder of your choice) and remember where you got it from on your server.

5)

option a – if you chose option a above ) Make sure your desktop (PC/Windows) or FINDER (Mac / OSX) is set to SHOW HIDDEN FILES. If you are unsure how to do that please see the attached tutorials below for your operating system. Open the .htaccess file to for editing.

option b – if you chose option b above ) Open the renamed temp.htaccess file in a text editor for editing.

6) At the bottom of your .htaccess file add the following (replacing 201.192.28.1 with the IP number you wish to block).

order allow,deny
deny from 201.192.28.1
allow from all

If you want to block multiple ip address using the .htaccess file simply add one ip address per line as below (replacing 201.192.29.01, 201.192.29.11, and 174.192.25.44 with the IP addresses you wish to block).

order allow,deny
deny from 201.192.29.01
deny from 201.192.29.11
deny from 174.192.25.44
allow from all

To block a range of IP addresses (on the same network) using .htaccess (something you should only do if you are sure the entire network is corrupt or risk loosing valuable readers) (replacing: 201.0.0 with the network range you want):

order allow,deny
deny from 201.0.0
allow from all

7)

option a) save the file as htaccess.txt (without the dot in front)

option b) save the file as temp.htaccess.txt

Move / Upload the edited file back to your server using your FTP of server backend interface (remeber the location, mine was /html/seowithfries.com)

9) Right click on the edited file you just uploaded and rename it .htaccess

10) You are done superstar.

Show or Hide Hidden Files on Mac OSX

1) Locate your Terminal application (located in your Applications/Utilities directory) and double click to launch it or type terminal in spotlight to locate it.

2) Enter the following Command into your Terminal application window:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

3) You have to Log out of your Mac OS X session and log in again or restart your computer to see the changes.

4) To reverse the effect (hide the hidden files in the finder, enter the following terminal window command:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

Show or Hide Hidden Files on PC / Windows

Windows 95

Enable viewing of Hidden files:

• Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
• Double-click on the My Computer icon.
• Select the View menu and then click Options.
• After the new window appears select the View tab.
• Scroll down until you see the Show all files radio button and select it.
• Press the OK button and close the My Computer window.
• Now your computer is configured to show all hidden files.

Windows 98

Enable viewing of Hidden files:

• Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
• Double-click on the My Computer icon.
• Select the View menu and then click Folder Options.
• After the new window appears select the View tab.
• Scroll down until you see the Show all files radio button and select it.
• Press the Apply button and then the OK button and close the My Computer window.
• Now your computer is configured to show all hidden files.

Windows ME

Enable viewing of Hidden files:

• Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
• Double-click on the My Computer icon.
• Select the Tools menu and click Folder Options.
• After the new window appears select the View tab.
• Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files and folders.
• Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide file extensions for known file types.
• Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files.
• Press the Apply button and then the OK button and shutdown My Computer.
• Now your computer is configured to show all hidden files.

Windows NT

Enable viewing of Hidden files:

• Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
• Double-click on the My Computer icon.
• Select the View menu and then click Options.
• After the new window appears select the View tab.
• Scroll down until you see the Show all files radio button and select it.
• Press the OK button and shutdown My Computer.
• Now your computer is configured to show all hidden files.

And now a word from my guest

If your need Wordpress, SEO or WP plugin help in Toronto you can always hire me, and if you like getting SEO tips and Wordpress tips you can follow me on Twitter.

F3 | Cameron Kuc | SEO with Fries | Serving Wordpress, SEO, Viral Video, Handy Tips and Custom Hacks with a smile.

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SEO with fries = Search Engine Optimization Services | Wordpress Expert Services | Viral Marketing and Digital Content Distribution | Social Media Management | Web 2.0 Strategy | Social Media Marketing | Film & Video Production | Video Post Production | Blogging + Blog Creation | New Media Services & Communications in Toronto & GTA

Actually, I just told you the secret. I mentioned it in the title and I mentioned it in the first paragraph. The Ace friends, is becoming a News Maker and being the “it” factor.

Computer jockey SEO experts usually phrase it differently, that is because they are computer jockeys that have trended so deeply away from human nature and traded the real world in for a bunch of search engine garble on blogs, in social media and cheap parlor tricks, that they have lost sight of what humans are all about.

You read articles that state “Content is King”, that is true. You will read that things like being the “authority” and “trust” and “relationship” building are SEO fundamentals, that is also true. You will read that major search engines punish duplicate content for search rankings, and that is completely the case. You will read that the “H1″ tag is what search engines see as the most important content on your page and it should be used properly. That using”-“ between words instead of “_” is better. You will read that permalinks and keyword rich titles like”yourdomainwithcontent.com/seo-news-ace-secret“are better than generated urls like “yourdomainwithcontent.com/post=id6” and that “alt” and “title” attributes on pictures are hugely beneficial. You will read that placing “noindex” attributes on pages like login and register pages and admin pages is good because it’s not the content people are searching for, drains your “link juice” and adds security. All are true. There are even more fundamentals I could list.

None of the things in the previous paragraph will ever trump News Making, the Ace in SEO. And they will become even less relevant than news making as time goes on. With the emergence of the “Live Stream” in form of things like Twitter, and the fact that Tweets are now showing up in search results, this is really becoming a reality much faster than some may expect.

Let me put it in perspective for you. Search engine engineers are not trying to make search engines more SEO tactics friendly; they are rather using SEO tactics to make search engines more people friendly.

Another perspective is that there are simply new practices that must be considered for good SEO like using Twitter. And while these tactics are not yet considered conventional in some cases, if the desired result of performing SEO is to appear in the search engines and on other web pages, then SEO has simply evolved. With the addition of search to Twitter and the fact millions of users are already search Facebook for offsite references, we have got to accept that using these services is part of SEO. Perhaps, SEO is the wrong name, because the fact is many people would argue that Facebook and Twitter are not “search engines”, yet these web 2.0 juggernauts are becoming increasingly significant in linking to sites, driving traffic and producing references people trust. Fact is, it already has a better name, that is “Web 2.0″ which describes the entire living and breathing ecology of search engines and social media and other interactive online components.

Because search engine algorithms are getting smarter, meaning that they are getting increasingly better at serving up content people want, things like link directory submissions to build PR value are declining in search placement importance. They have been for years. Search engines are becoming more human, because humans make search engines.

The purpose of search engines is to serve up the best results to improve user experience. Real people, not coded web pages, want satisfaction and to get the results they were looking for and results that even increase their awareness of other related content and, related results that educate them about whatever topic the search is for.

Are you doubting me? Let me prove it to you.

Michael Jackson was undoubtedly one of the largest brands on this planet. His legendary publicity antics, his music, his family dynamic and his tribulations fascinated millions of people, probably billions.

Michael Jackson never spent a year out of the news. His music was well catalogued, played everywhere and promoted by the greatest minds in PR (Public Relations) and the music business. His merchandise was sold everywhere, in form of thousands of different products.

Online, Michael as a brand and as a person had been blogged about and chronicled by both professional wordsmiths and amateurs alike. The online content about Michael Jackson had been linked up, listed, search engine optimized to tears.

And when Michael Jackson passed, every result on the first page of Google was about him passing with the exception of Wikipedia, which was already being updated with the news.

People didn’t search for Michael Jackson on search engines because there was content about him. They searched for Michael Jackson because he fascinated them and his passing was News that interested them.

Another example. In Toronto this year, the Much Music Video Awards (MMVA’s) took place.

Millions of people watched it on TV, read about the awards and Much Music was practically an infomercial about the event leading up to it.

Lot’s of stars turned up, lots PR people stressed over  “sound bite” recommendations for the acts they represented, coordinating EPK’s and show staff kept the acts running through the show schedule on time so that every act could get face time.

Yet what made the biggest splash online? Was is some stunning performance? Was it perhaps the award winners? Was it the massive turn out? Nope. Not at all friends. Let me give you a hint, it wasn’t even a musician, it was a blogger. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about yet, here is a kicker, the person is a publicly despised blogger.

I’m writing about Perez Hilton being hit by the Black Eyed Peas manager at an MMVA after party that took place at Cobra nightclub in Toronto. Read the whole story here.

Now some of you SEO experts reading this are thinking this guy is full of beans. And that is was good old fashioned SEO fundamentals that got those Michael Jackson links on the first page of Google results, and that only the top bloggers scored the best real estate in search results for the MMVA after party debacle. Yup, your right, kind of, unless of course you get jobs like me and understand brands and retail friends in which case you may already know where I’m going with this.

Michael Jackson was a brand, something you could buy into. Same with the MMVA’s (they sell commercials). Same with Black Eyed Peas. Same with Perez Hilton (he sells advertising, words and his persona).

Those brands have various ways consumers can buy into them; they have things like affiliate programs and retailers attached to them on thousands of well ranked channels. Not just one website with really amazing SEO. All of those brands value something called “brand awareness”. Today’s web 2.0 environment (if you don’t understand web 2.0 start reading Gerd Leonard, the media futurist who consults for major labels and even Google) is about getting connected and connecting the web. Computer Jockey SEO professionals miss the boat philosophically, starting with fact they even call it “link building”, so passé.

The smartest SEO professionals were not out there writing blog pages, twittering like tools or wasting their time when these News flashes happened, they were thinking and researching their clients lists, sending private emails, texts and making phone calls letting their clients know now is the time to focus their selling, retailing and marketing efforts on unique products and services that were related to the brands making the News. In many cases they were the news makers, and the blogging and Twitter use was a secondary product performed to support the news they were creating and releasing. They were not out there doing traditional keyword research, they were sending press releases or encouraging PR professionals to hit the wires with smart headlines that attracted bloggers, Twitter users and the like web 2.0 community to link up their stories and headlines with related brand products. The smartest SEO professionals make their clients millions of dollars every time related News fit to make top headlines hits. The best SEO pros let the web 2.0 world do it for us and take advantage of the news. The best SEO’s take advantage of the news, rely on user generated content and follow the trends. Perosnally, I only call it SEO for marketing reasons, I’m pretty quick to inform people of the fact I primarily consider myself a web 2.0 professional and my “link building” methods are just called web 2.0. and rely on user generated content being produced from the information (ex. Press Releases) our clients give us to send out, link to and optimize.

Top level search engine optimization relies on an ecosystem of intelligent media professionals including Advertising Agencies, Magazines, Bloggers, Public Relations and Communications companies, Agents, Managers and Marketing Directors.

Can good top tier SEO be done if you have real news but no money to pull it off? Yes. The reason is that Advertising agencies can be slow moving large beasts. Some are simply dinosaurs. And some are already brilliantly making the transition in new media. Some public relations people are still not up to speed on what’s available to them (the best ones are all in on the game), and in my experience they can be very nimble and fast acting if they are good. But like any profession, there are those who are still those hanging onto to a fading past and relying on dated communication methods because it was once a tried and true method. Bloggers are still easy to reach out to, but amateur-ish. Agents and managers can be hard to reach, stand offish and in some cases unapproachable, often working against the client with the exception of a few great ones, and Marketing Directors, brilliant as some may be, have to answer to a board of directors whose operating procedures may not be nimble enough to jump on the news. Also standards for producing content have fallen in recent years (ex. Average Joe YouTube video popularity or Leno moving to a 8PM slot).

I imagine the communications profession won’t take too much longer to optimize itself to the new world web 2.0 communications. But right now there are still unique and phenomenal ways the “average joe” can make a mark.

If you are planning to make the news because you have good content and important information that you want to share, and you are doing it with few resources, you are going to have to plan well ahead of time, which is no easy task. You are going to have to time the release and probably pre-produce things like press releases, blog posts, emails, videos, pictures, text messages, print media etc. All of those things should be well tagged and labeled with well-written copy . Your news distribution portals and sites should be preselected, and you should have the various submission information and formatting ready to go.

If you have somewhat of a budget to work with you should probably find a great PR person or firm, before you spend your dollars on an SEO firm or SEO freelancer if you are not sure about how to shop for one. In Toronto alone there are several brilliant PR people and firms ready to help you (sorry guys, you are not getting my link juice). Beyond an education in communications (which is not required in my opinion), they have real experience dealing with brands and news. They know where to publish press releases, how to produce enticing copy and they know about where to look for web 2.0 strategy like SEO. The best ones will likely have things like Clio Awards or Cannes Lions award in their resume. The shady ones are fairly easy to spot because they have no good work on the shelf.

Personally, I talk to clients about the world of SEO and the basics of search engine placement in the context of the real world, I don’t flood them with technical mumbo jumbo to appear smarter, and I tell them all that SEO is very simply to achieve and learn about if they are using great tools like Wordpress as a CMS or WP as a Blog. I tell them because this because it is true, heck, in one simple paragraph above I basically gave them 75% of the fundamentals. I always offer to teach or explain what I mean and am prepared to show examples. You’d think that costs me work, just giving it away. Quite the contrary. Clients come because I get past the BS immediately. In the SEO profession honesty and a real desire to provide help works better than any pitch. By nature I like sharing, being kind, helping people and being honest. That is why it was easy to stop being a commercial producer for me and to make the transition to doing SEO and Web 2.0. I can’t  summarize how rewarding it is when my clients see the results. All of them have used someone else, and they come to me with work, sometimes just for advice, but when they are with me they are there because I am giving them something of value constantly. If you are an SEO professional reading this, you may have been through the whole pitch thing with potential clients. Stop pitching, stop showing off, and if you’re capable, start sharing and relating, start teaching, start really learning about what and who your client is so that you can speak to them about there interests and goals. Do that so you can create a solution that is unique enough to rock the Casbah for your clients search engine placement. I swear, if you are good at SEO, creative, honest and take that advice your ratio for success will improve.

If you are just shopping around for services don’t settle for cookie cutter services. You are unique, your brand is precious to you and your solution must be unique. Incorporating Web 2.0 is crucial, and today I believe it accounts for more than 50% of your final results.

Never forget, you do get what you pay for. The diagram below shows you the “triangle” that can be applied to so many things in life, including choosing how to go about making news and hiring SEO and PR professionals in Toronto.

Cameron K aka Freeze aka SEO with Fries

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SEO with fries = Search Engine Optimization Services | Wordpress Expert Services | Viral Marketing and Digital Content Distribution | Social Media Management | Web 2.0 Strategy | Social Media Marketing | Film & Video Production | Video Post Production | Blogging + Blog Creation | New Media Services & Communications in Toronto & GTA