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Using Communication Strategy to Align Social and SEO CHICAGO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING GROUP – FEB 2015
Using Communication
Strategy to Align Social
and SEOCHICAGO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING GROUP – FEB 2015
“I knock down
walls, create
brand belief
systems and
design
performance
plans that deliver.”
Former journalist, internet pioneer and
entrepreneur, thought leader, chief
executive with vision and execution chops
Dana Todd
Digital CMO
Outline
How Communication Strategy is natural and strategic
convergence platform
My “Bucket Framework” in excruciating detail
Case Study
@danatodd
CONTENT WITHOUT
CONTEXT & STRATEGY =
NOISE
SEO-Forward Strategy Limits Opportunity
“Be found for X” is narrow focus, bottom of funnel
People search for nouns, but their decision processes
are based on adjectives and emotion
Misses opportunity to mesh with brand communication
strategy
Promotes commoditization in search results and brand
communications
@danatodd
Social-Forward Strategy Ignores SEO
Focuses on short term attention, not long term links and
searchable content
Many social conversations & impacts aren’t indexed
Can easily become chaotic and unfocused
Keywords are an afterthought, hashtags are dominant
@danatodd
SEO-Forward Workflow
KW Research: “car insurance” Write blog post “how to buy car
insurance”
Make an infographic
Optimized video
Socialize & Syndicate
(spray, pray)
Measure ranking &
NBOT
Social-Forward Workflow
Promotional Plan: “Valentines Sale”Creatives and
calendar
Outreach to influencers
Post on site/blog (SEO’d? Maybe)
Repeat for reach &
frequency
Measure engagement
SEO is not Dead, but it’s Different Now
SEO is not just links and keywords, BUT the right kind of links and
link signals are still crucial
“Author” tag is sort-of dead
Social signals are somewhat important, variably, primarily around
authority of signaling “entity”
Hummingbird and semantic search are influenced by
CONTEXTUAL KNOWLEDGE
Your brand in context of conversations is VITALLY important
@danatodd
Convergence: Impact in SERPs
SERP for product
query “shoes”:
Google seems to
be testing
“Authority” of
social on first
page results –
older “news”
content ranks if
highly shared or
from authority site
w/social clout.
Found this in US
and Canada
results.
Converge @ Communication Strategy
Usually defined and used by the PR department
Aligned to brand strategy, it’s “what do we want whom
to believe and say about us?”
And, “In what media or channels do we play?”
Values quality over quantity
It’s all about evolving belief systems, aligned to market
share and reputation goals
@danatodd
Dana’s Easy Bucket Framework
Flexible and fast to set up
Automatically builds in participation from PR, social and SEO teams
Primary Buckets should be in place for 3 years to get the best possible return and impact
Why? Belief systems, like change management or grief cycles, take 2-3 years to move beyond “sprout stage” into entrenched outcomes and thought patterns
You’ll need time to build relationships with the most impactful influencers
You are enacting wholesale changes to the SERP if successful
@danatodd
Step One: Beliefs
WHAT DO YOU WANT THE PUBLIC
TO BELIEVE?
- About your company
- About your products
- About your competition
- About your industry or market
- About time and urgency
- About risk and rewards
2. Build Strategy Buckets from Beliefs
No more than 5! (3-4 is better)
Business decision maker buy-in: align to big business goals –
prioritize beliefs that will impact sales or traffic the most
Examples:
“Company X is the most trustworthy car insurance company”
“Buying this product provides shoes to poor people”
Research review sites & forums to hear “voice of the customer” and emotional triggers
3. Fill the Buckets
All Play! Social, SEO and PR
For each bucket, brainstorm the campaigns or content storylines that can
best help “prove” the belief statements:
“Pays Auto
Insurance Claims
in Full” (claim satisfaction)
- Research & facts
- Anecdotes / human stories
- Humor
- Applications / use cases
- Controversy
- Celebrity endorsement
- Testimonials / reviews
- Altruism / corporate social responsibility
- Data streams / Knowledge Graph
A
Your SEOs should help on this one! Use KW research to find best target sites and influencers:
JD Powers
Consumer Affairs
Forbes
Autoinsurance.org
DMV.org
Edmunds
CNBC
Investopedia
4. Map the Influencers across Buckets
A B
“Is Financially
Fair with its
Rates”
“Pays Auto
Insurance
Claims in Full”
5. What Content Type to Use Where?
Get your PR group involved here – they can often help you identify what
works best with a publication or author/journalist/blogger.
“Pays Auto
Insurance
Claims in Full”
Supporting Content What assets can we
make?
Influencer + preferred
content, channel
Research study
comparing us vs. top
competitors for
customer satisfaction
with claims process
Charts, full study, press
release, infographic, video
• Forbes – Jim
Gorzelany – wants full
study, graphs, images
• Autoinsurance.com –
press release, video
Reviews and
testimonials
“My hero” FB and Twitter
campaign, submit user
testimonials and photos
• Angie’s List – customer
list + $ ad campaign
• Consumer Affairs –
submitted testimonials
A
Consider all the possibilities…
Graphic / photo
Animated gif
Infographic
Raw data feed
Research study / chart
Instagram pic
Video
:30 spot
Google Hangout on Air
Blog post
Interview Q&A
Tweets
FB events, posts
Polls
Game / quiz
Article / longread
White paper / application paper
Press release / press kit
**Many of the above can end up in search results easily!
Add a column for methods of contact
6. Synthesize, Prioritize and Calendar
Short-list the most useful assets that can best prove the belief statements and are most likely to connect with influencers
Connect with a large “theme”, rather than random bits!
Identify secondary resource needs: chopping up, create variants, or support with other assets
Compare to your marketing calendar: events, product launches, etc.
Decide if you’re going to play linear, one bucket at a time, or cross multiple buckets simultaneously
7. NOW THE SEO FULL COURT PRESS!
Before you start producing any asset, involve the SEO teams
Fully understand the keyword priorities, localization and other SEO goals
Get lists of top keywords and a copy of the page-level strategy (what
pages are targeted to what keywords, so you can plan effective link requests and content placement)
Let them help tag blog posts and assets, name image files and write
captions, write YouTube headlines, suggest hashtags, and build pages
with appropriate <h1> and other important markup
Discuss advanced tactics like creating data feeds and mashups that
can be utilized for powerful partnering and link building
Quick case study
Original brainstorm
doc for ideas,
rationale & targets
Details on Two Buckets & Campaigns
Campaigns Assets Targets
Aftermath Cares charity program
Press releases, charity golf and law enforcement events, K-9 contest in custom FB app, photos, FB posts
Consumer, press, police, police press, police social, local news
Meet our techs Videos, blog posts, FB, Instagram Local news, Google Local
“Aftermath is a compassionate and caring company” (TRUST)
Campaigns Assets Targets
“3 Rs: Risks, Rights & Responsibilities
Infographics, health risk data, long form articles, research, slideshare deck, downloadable safety posters and brochures
Consumer, schools, national news, safety blogs, police, police press, police social, cleaning industry trade press
“How WouldAftermath Clean…?”
Seasonal infographics (Halloween, Valentines)
Consumer press (HuffingtonPost), bloggers
“Blood is a high risk to anyone exposed” (FEAR)
A
B
Results: Press Impacts + Links + SEO
Most of the pickups above included social
amplification (Twitter, FB, blog pickup)
#1
Multiple
listings
reflecting
compassion
Outcomes
Any new ideas can be filtered for value: do they pass the
bucket test?
Everyone gets to measure what they want to meet tactical
metric goals
Links, rankings, engagement, traffic, followers etc.
BUT, they’re automatically aligned for long term brand benefit
Think like a CMO: perform baseline market research to
understand impacts on recall, awareness and belief
statements; re-check annually
