How to follow smart people around

How to stay on top of it... my father use to say to me, "When I was young, we didn't have schools, we followed smart people around."

Well that is actually quite true.

Here is a great email I get every day that just started coming from one of my "rock stars" of the new world of tech  Jason Calicanis.

Sign up is at

http://lnch.is/tckrsignup

2012-13 Trends in Search Change SEO Strategy

Over the last year their have been tremendous changes in the way people search. On a secondary level there have been monumental changes in the way that search engines rank and rate web content. Regarding the way people search, I think the new Siri voice search on the iPhone is one of the major new trends. I use an Android phone and find the voice search working very well. When I am on the road or in the car I can just speak what I want to find and boom there are the choices... neat, easy, simple - effective but a bit rough. With Google's releasing GoogleNOW, a new voice command feature in Jelly Bean, they are about to change everything. Want your socks rocked? Watch this quick video: There are a myriad of other issues affecting your web content rankings through the ever changing way we conduct searches. These trends are going to totally affect the way a business will try and attract customers using SEO techniques. Here is a quick infographic from 7-boats.

Social Search is vying for first place in our new paradigm model so how do you get more people talking about what you are doing? Look at these trends with Bing and now the way rankings of pages are done by Google+ users. These trends will not go away. "search engines are starting to rely on social media to help filter and validate relative content to deliver to consumers," Elliottle Menager (how social marketing and search engine optimization work together) Content is going to be judged on quality, not quantity. If you are abusing the seo tags and titles with stuffing them with key words.... you will be penalized. Focus on useful content that engages your audience and gets them interested in sharing your content (with your links or tags). Create a feedback loop to create content based on the dialog your customers are talking about. Where do you fit in? Mobile. I am sure you are realizing that your phone is starting to replace some or most of your interactions you used to do on a PC. So is everybody else. Mobile search will surpass desktop search sometime next year in shear volume. More importantly, Google and other sites use different metrics to determine what content to present on mobile devices versus your desktop. Are you focused on optimizing your content to be available to be indexed by Mobile Search Bots that Google and others are releasing? Click on the Infographic to view all of the coming challenges companies trying to attract clients will be faced with over the coming year. If you have been following this blog for very long you will already know the single answer I will propose to solve all of these problems... video. Sure it sounds complicated but in reality the new standards are based on more of a home feel to the video. Over produced videos actually don't get viewed as much. Think about ways you can get "user" created videos... they are a hit. Have you asked your customer / channel partner / or supply chain suppliers about aggregating their videos on your channel? Have you created every kind of How-To video that people wanting to buy your product or service should know and are searching for on the net? Doesn't need to be fancy - just useful (or funny). Useful is easier than funny.

View Full Size Infographic

Creating A Plan - GEMatrix And Strategic Planning

This is a little different post.  I wanted to review the backdrop from which you need to start before you optimize your web site or your business plans.  Yes this actually does relate to developing an SEO plan too.

After working with literally thousands of clients over the last 35 years I have often pondered how my client's current process and plans will ever get them from point A to point B.  Often these are start-ups and seem to follow the old rue; "Ready - Fire - Aim".  Sure, when budgets are tight this is an easy method to fall into.

Limited funding is no excuse for not doing a little testing of your hypothesis as well as doing a little testing with real life data.  Recently a great book came out called the "Lean Startup", by Eric Ries where he talks about the basic principal of A/B testing (which is different than trying to get from  point A to point B).   Here is Eric talking at Stanford University (start the video at about 28 minutes if you want to skip ahead).

This is exactly the process that Google has employed when you sign up for their Goolge WebMaster program.   This all revolves around strategic tools you can use to create a plan, then evaluate the plan, then "Pivot" to the more attractive solution (did A or B do better?).  Then the next concept is the "continious path to scale".  Quote: "Today’s software tools are able to both prototype and scale. I call it a 'continuous path to scale' because you don’t have to make these tradeoffs. This is true not just in tech but in marketing, sales, and bizdev too", Eric Ries Entrepreneur, founder of the Lean Startup methodology. http://sprouter.com/ericries?page=5 ).

This process used to be called the "The Strategic Planning Process"  Where you create a Strategic Target and then develop Plans, Policies and Procedures to reach those Objectives (capitalize on opportunities).  


Each SBU (strategic business unit) is made of a myriad of opportunities really.  Now you need to evaluate and prioritize them so that you can create a plan, targeting the mostly likely desired outcome with the available resources.  With everything going to the web these days you can add a few more steps to create a testing (validation) platform and real time feedback loop before you spend any money actually building anything.

So, before you create an elaborate business plan and spend a lot of money, figure out what is the scalability, what is the relevant market size (interest)  for your plans. 

Where I see most people get stopped is not this idea of creating "testing" or landing pages on their web site for different messages it is way back at the beginning...  What business are you in?  What is the size of that opportunity.  What real resources do you (your channel, the market) have to implement and exploit that plan.

This FIRST STEP is often overlooked, hence the Ready, Fire, Aim problem.  The original premise being tested made no sense in the first place.  They started with some idea that came from on high (the boss) and never vetted that idea first.  Eric Riese talks about this here regarding "Test Before You Build"


I use what I call an "Attractiveness" model to develop a value proposition for each SBU.  Historically these models are the result of consulting firms and large corporate MBA teams who have honed these ideas down to just a one page graphic.  Here is what is known as the GE Matrix or sometimes called the McKinsey Matrix

By taking your elements of an individual SBU or as entire universe of all SBUs and placing them into a competitive grid you can develop an attractiveness model for your objective. You can also apply this to competitors and make a competitiveness model or what is sometimes called an "Indifference Model".    Using your "Attractiveness" model simply add values to each cell and find that SBU or element with the highest score which will appear in the "most valuable cell" which on the GEMatrix is the upper left hand corner of the grid.  Comparing resources, talent, market size, competitive landscape and more will give you a more complete model.

Another way to look at this is using the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunity,Threats model - SWOT. 


Using an attractiveness model, then applying an A/B testing methodology may give you some surprises.  OK that means it is time to PIVOT.  Change or modify the original goals and start over... the key here is keep iterating.  Keep testing.

None of this is new except when I talk to clients about generating traffic to their websites using SEO techniques.  Often they are focused on the wrong elements to optimize. Our attractiveness model should be dictating where we want buyers to come from and what we are going to sell them and when (in the cycle).  


Optimizing elements that are too early in the selling process and you only end up with attracting not buyers but "tire kickers".  Most companies don't realize that for the attractiveness model process to work it requires several interactions to bring the prospect back to the desired content site before they will become a customer.  So, not only do prospective customers need to find your organization but they need to want what you offer and you need to be in front of them at the time they are ready to buy.


I have a number of other blog entries (here) that talk about developing the sales funnel and sales process but key to all of this is delivering content that your client wants to consume when they are ready to consume it.  I think a former business partner of mine said it best; "Be Read, Be Remembered, Be the one they call".  Jim Cecil http://www.nurturemarketing.com/.