Posts from the ‘SEO’ Category

Dec 5

Testing Out New Equipment – Vermont Video Solutions

Cameras don’t make videos. People do. Well, sort of.

I just recently got my hands on a new Canon XA10 and have outfitted myself with three different microphones, a new tripod and found a used camera bag that will hold all the cords and cables as well. There’s always a learning curve when you upgrade to new equipment and the fastest way up that curve in my experience is to watch tutorials and put the equipment to use in the field. We are now underway!

Tight editing keeps viewers watching.

I generally have three primary deliverables as far as video is concerned:

Marketing driven storytelling that focuses on turning unstaged real life and real people into tightly edited and entertaining videos across your online channels. Any topic.
Business overviews to allow for customers to “press play” on your homepage and learn it all.
Newsy segments from either a journalistic or branded point of view. Read more

Dec 22

How Many Hats Do You Wear?

Getting attention for your product or service used to be simple. There were customers you could reach and some you could not, based mostly on geography. You had a sign out front and maybe bought some ads in the mainstream media. If your business model was sound, that system worked out. Now that consumers have been empowered by ease of research via the internet, wearing the two hats of operator and advertiser is nowhere near enough to remain viable among your competitors.

Geography is much less of a barrier, costumer reviews and content driven business websites are paramount, and the business toolbox requires a nimble plan and diverse skill set. Sure – Nike, Pepsi, Kleenex and Carl’s Jr, etc can pay huge marketing shops or multiple boutiques gobbs of money to drive their SEO, SEM, social, display ads, print, tv, radio, merchadising, and outdoor.

But what about the local hardware store, hairdresser, B&B, golf course, vineyard, RV park, bike shop and the like? They need to wear many hats or work with a someone who does to assess their needs, solve some challenges, teach some tricks and not break the bank.

In our upcoming trip I look forward to taking my experience in SEO, PR, digital marketing, social media, video production, advertising, promotions, tourism, and events to folks who need a little help, without all the hype and overhead of large marketing firms that require large commitments or time and resources.

Speaking of many hats – check out Baby Kaylin wearing many hats a few nights ago as we pack for the trip. We hit the road Jan 4thish. Napa Valley, CA region is first destination. If the weather is decent, we’ll stay a few weeks.

Nov 4

Google Places (One of the ABC’s of Marketing)

Since we’re going mobile soon on our trip back to New England, I have been narrowing down the services I plan to pitch to RV parks, golf courses, and other small business scattered around the country. The easier to explain and deliver they are, the more likely I am to find interested proprietors along the way. Sure I could make them a homepage video, maybe write some copy or a press release, set them up a facebook page or advertising campaign, show them how to use twitter for business, but help with their search engine visibility might be one of the most in demand.

The most simple, obvious and deliverable item is helping folks fill out their Google Places listing. It’s amazing how many legit businesses do not have a viable listing. Hopefully I’ll find some folks who want to change that. I covered this topic in June. Here’s a link to the Google Places post.

When’s the last time you used the yellow pages? They keep getting delivered, and somehow sales people keep selling ads in them, but their usage has dropped off to almost none. Search engines have replaced them nearly to extinction. The question then becomes, how do you show up when people type in “your service Bend Oregon” into google. If you do show up, how do you improve your listing, or make needed changes if they are required? Maybe you’d like to add photos. Maybe your location on the map is incorrect (this is common).

You should add your business to Google Places, which used to be called Google business listings. There are also a number of ways to help your business start to rank higher than others in this space. Some are related to whether your site is registered with google, or properly sitemapped, or the weight of your inbound links, or the metatags associated with your pages, or a variety of other factors.

Either way, find out how you do on a number of terms, decide if you are happy with it, and either do something about it or work with someone who can do it for you. That is.. if you’d like customers to be able to find you properly. Want some help? I’d be happy to.

Aug 16

1 Comment

Public Relations Strategy – Then, Now, Later

Just finished reading a rather long article on Mashable (worth reading if you have 5 mins), that goes in-depth into the topic on how social media is changing the landscape for the marketing communications professional. It has. Building trust with maintream media by being a viable content publisher in social media and pitching them in the mediums where they live and breathe, is destroying the cold call email pitch, and phone calls are even less effective.

The tip of the PR sword for many years was the press release. It was faxed, emailed and distributed via online wire services to add backlinks to a website and rank well for SEO. Today being an adept PR pro on social media is the new tool of choice for smart PR pros looking to break through into the mainstream media’s field of vision. Build cred, build trust, think like a journalist, then reach out.

Here are my top 3 quotes from the article that IMHO you can take to the bank. The challenge remains wading through the surplus of information to get to what is relevant to your business, or simply even accurate. So here are mine:

Heather Whaling – Geben Communication
“It’s critical that we’re innovative and staying on top of the latest and greatest; however, we also need to avoid ’shiny object syndrome’ and instead make recommendations based on the client’s business needs.”

Scott Bauman – Greenough Communications
“In the end, the real change is a more fluid, immediate, and nimble PR/communications practitioner, instead of one who simply follows a PR plan and rigidly adheres to it.”

Nichole VanScoten – Pixl
“It’s amazing to me that I get a MUCH higher response rate when pitching reporters via Twitter than e-mail. I would actually go as far as to say that every time I’ve pitched a reporter via Twitter, I have gotten some sort of response (often resulting in a story for my client). Via e-mail, I have maybe a 50% response rate. The phone call response rate would be my lowest.”

Jul 2

Meta Description Tags – Easy and Important

Though they do not play an active role in where you land in search, they are the primary item displayed in any search result. They are the snippet of “more info” that will decide first impression. Would you leave that up to chance? The answer is, “of course not.” But many do unknowingly as meta description tags are often the afterthought. If no meta tag is given, then search engines populate one on their own. Gasp!

Let’s take a look at a random example:

I google “oregon banking” and see both quality and nonexistent meta tags.

You’ll notice Liberty Bank and Northwest Community Credit Union have very on message desciption below their link, and The Commerce Bank of Oregon does not. Take a look at your area of business and see if the auto generated tag is what you want, if not consider adding meta desciption tags to your pages.

This is the primary decision point where you are likely standing alongside your competition, so focus on not only what describes the page well, but what will make you stand out from the others on the page. Don’t be afraid to be a little different.