TopRank Internet Marketing News

TopRank Online Marketing has worked with PRWeb for many years and helped to launch their first Twitter Chat #prwebchat late in 2010 by having TopRank CEO Lee Odden as the first host. PRWeb’s parent company, Vocus, tapped Odden for the first #vocuschat this week. Below is an archive of the correspondence on SEO and Public Relations between Cassie Pean from Vocus and Odden during this social conversation.

Vocus will be publishing a roundup post from the inaugural Twitter Chat on their blog that will include the dialog between participating members.

Q1: Why is #SEO for #PR important? #vocuschat

Search Engine Optimization and Social Media are no longer distinct channels. They are forever intertwined, each affecting the other in terms of how digital information is discovered, consumed and shared. The subsequent impact on reach and engagement means the integration of these channels is as relevant for Public Relations as it is for Marketing.

I was asked by Melanie Mitchell, SVP of Search Marketing at Digitas to give a presentation on holistic SEO at ad:tech San Francisco where I caught up with another amazingly smart friend, Susan Bratton. She recorded an interview with me on the Social & SEO for Public Relations topic for her popular DishyMix podcast and shared the transcript with me to repost.

John Jantsch & Lee Odden at BlogWorld New York 2011 - Photo thx to @ducttape

Blogs are perfectly suited as social media information hubs for companies or individuals that want to dominate their niche online. TopRank Online Marketing has been an active proponent and pioneer of blog marketing as the centerpiece of social content strategy for many years. We’ve been working with companies ranging from B2C retailers like J&O Fabrics to Fortune 15 company, McKesson on blogging, social media and SEO with impressive results.

Search Engine Optimization as an online marketing discipline has been in effect for over 10 years and at the speed the internet changes, that’s multiple lifetimes of change.  The ad:tech conference in San Francisco this week is featuring a series of Marketing Masters sessions, one of which is focused on modern search engine optimization.  What are current best practices and where does SEO fit in today’s social media world?  These questions and more will be answered Tuesday 4/11 by a super panel of SEO experts including TopRank Online Marketing CEO, Lee Odden.

Here’s the official session description:

Are your social media and search marketing teams talking to each other? They should be.

In an upcoming webcast, Rand Fishkin and Lee Odden will explain why, plus share practical tips on how to boost your SEO results through blogging, online PR, and smart coordination between social media and search. We’ll look at:

• How brands are coordinating Search Optimization and Social Media efforts
• A content marketing model for implementing a coordinated Social SEO program
• Why Google & Bing’s Love Affair w/ Twitter & Facebook is Just Beginning
• What Signals Matter in a Tweet / Share

What good is great content if nobody ever finds it? In December 2010, Google and Bing confirmed that social media signals are being factored into search result rankings. Content is being created at breakneck speed, over 110 million tweets per day and 24 hours of video uploaded each minute to YouTube, and that content can be a boost to companies seeking to standout online. SEO can be the difference between being the first option for customers or falling off the page never to be found again.

Social networking continued to gain momentum throughout 2010, with 9 out of every 10 U.S. Internet users now visiting a social network in a month, and the average Internet user spending more than four hours on these sites each month. And a staggering one out of every eight minutes online is spent on Facebook.*

Learn how to take advantage of social media as part of an online marketing strategy from TopRank CEO Lee Odden. Get valuable insight on three of the common problems that trip up successful social media execution for brands online.

You’ll get practical tips on:

The nature of customer engagement has changed forever. No longer will customers accept buying any product or service by just hoping it will meet their needs. It is a process of search, reviews, and social input all before a sale is made. Post-sale will likely include reviews and online sharing.

Make sure you don’t miss three chances to hear how to maximize the online content available about your company and deliver for customers. Learn from TopRank Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden, whose company walks the talk of online visibility with content marketing, social media, and SEO to drive an AdAge Top Ten blog  with over 25,000+ keywords sending traffic monthly and more than 600,000 links into the blog.

Measuring the impact of social media on a marketing plan is critical. Even though spending on social media will reach over $3 billion in 2011* a study by Bazaarvoice and The CMO Club reports that no social network rated higher than a 15% response from Chief Marketing Officers on providing “significant ROI”.

How can businesses move from just driving traffic and reach actual engagement with customers and prospective customers? By following the advice from a recognized online marketing professional that has worked with companies ranging from a $100 billion corporation to one of the fastest growing SaaS companies ever.

The core of any search or social media marketing program centers on content. Digital assets, rich media, web pages, MS Office and PDF docs as well as content created and shared by consumers all offer opportunities for optimization. If it can be searched, it can be optimized!

Online marketing is increasingly competitive and brand marketers world-wide are seeking real advantages that will improve the efficiency and impact of their Social Media and SEO efforts. TopRank® Online Marketing CEO, Lee Odden, provides unique insight into content based optimization strategies and processes as well as tactics for sourcing, creation and promotion of optimized content on the social web.