Lee Odden - Top Rank Marketing

There are 3 situations in which I perform speaking or training tasks. The first is speaking at conferences like Pubcon, Search Engine Strategies, DMA or PRSA events. Blogging, social networking and speaking at events pretty much makes up the bulk of our marketing efforts. Topics at conferences tend to focus on what will draw attendees and what conferences have come to associate TopRank with: SEO and public relations, blogging, social media and online reputation management.

I also get hired to speak or do training for certain conferences or associations such as the Direct Marketing Association with the Search Engine Marketing Certification program, or the 2-day Social Media Smarts workshop.

The third type of speaking or training event I’m often involved with is when companies want to bring someone in to speak at a company event on up and coming topics and strategic focus for search, PR and social media or to do in-house training of interdepartmental teams.

You have often pointed out the necessity of having good fresh content on your blog. Have you ever had writers block? What options does a blogger have when they just can’t seem to focus?

Writers block rears its ugly head a lot more often than people think. I’ve been actively blogging for over 5 years and sometimes it’s not just writers block, but a time and resource issue. TopRankMarketing.com is a respected company and we’re pretty busy. That makes me busy and sometimes spending the kind of time I would prefer on writing and researching a post simply isn’t available.

The way to get around focus or time issues is to be proactive. I keep 10-20 draft posts in our blog at any given time. Rather than sitting down and writing a 1000 word post in one sitting, which still happens at 3 am from time to time, I add to them over time. That makes it a bit easier from a resource standpoint. We also do regular features which are easier posts to do, but also things people look forward to such as reviewing SEO blogs each week, running Reader Polls, interviews or crowd sourced posts from Twitter and LinkedIn.

We know Search Engines are always changing there dynamics and because of this Web Marketing companies always have to be on there toes. I preach that being interactive online is at least equally as important as SEO. What do you think? And what should we watch for in the SEO future?

Yes, being social online is very important as a standalone marketing activity but also because the byproduct of being social creates content. That content might get passed around, attract links and motivate bloggers and journalists to write about you.

As long as web developers keep making web sites that don’t play well with search engines, there will always be a need for SEO as its traditionally defined. What I think you’ll find after talking to other long time SEO consultants is that keyword expertise and pull marketing insight is invaluable in many other online marketing disciplines ranging from public relations to social media. Anything that can be searched on can be optimized. As long as people can search, there will be a need to SEO.

Future SEO is taking more of a well rounded approach to marketing online rather than focusing exclusively on standard search engine rankings. Everything from Universal search to personalized to social search makes what was previously a 2 or three dimensional discipline a multidimensional expertise.

If I was starting a new e-commerce site today with some SEO friendly features already built in, what software should I be considering?

The answer to that question needs some budget insight first. A 500 product store online has different needs than a store with 5 million SKUs. The fundamental features to look for are: unique and editable title tags & meta description tags, ability to include descriptive text on top level category pages, sub category pages and of course, individual product pages, dynamic population of alt text on images, intuitive URLs, flat site architecture – avoid too many levels deep, ability to export HTML and XML site map files automatically, and many, many others.

Also, no matter what, an ecommerce site can benefit via SEO with a blog. Ecommerce site blogs can present new products, tips on using products, solicit customer generated content, run promotions and offer product support information.

What do you do when you have some spare time to yourself? Any hobbies?

Spare time? What’s that? I spend as much time as I can with my 3 little musketeers plus a bit of travel, cooking, working out, watching movies, games, some sports and gadgets.

Q: Our twitter guest question comes from @brandmarken, who asks. “I’d like to know how @MackCollier got his start and how he became a such a guru.”

A: I started blogging in 2005 when I was invited to write for a group advertising/marketing blog that was starting called Beyond Madison Avenue. After about 6 months BMA had grown to about 2,000 visitors a day, and I decided it was time to start my own blog, The Viral Garden. And I’m happy to say it’s been growing like a weed ever since.

As for being a ‘guru’, I dunno about that. One thing I have always done is pay close attention to how other people use social media. And when I find someone that uses a tool/site really well (such as being a power Twitter user, or a power Facebooker), I try to see what is working for them, and adjust my usage accordingly. And I am constantly looking for new bloggers in particular to read, because I always learn so much from fresh voices with fresh perspectives on social media.

But of course the best way to be seen as a ‘guru’ is to have Tom mention you in one of his Ad Age articles ;)

Q: If you could only give a Small Business one method to get involved in Social Media, what would it be and why?

A: First, let me say that I don’t think there’s just ‘one’ right social media site/tool that a small business should be using, nor do I think that every business (of any size) should be using social media. It really depends on whether or not your current and/or potential customers are using these tools to communicate with each other, and if you WANT to communicate with them. If your customers are blogging, fine, you probably need to be a participant in the conversations they are having about you and your industry. If they are on Twitter, you should probably be there.

So there really isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ social media site/tool for small businesses. If I had to pick one that I think the most small businesses could benefit from using, it would probably be a blog.

Q: Most Small Business cannot afford to have a full time Social Media Consultant, how can they go about finding someone to help them and what should they expect to pay if they outsource?

That’s a great question because there aren’t many resources that list or evaluate social media consultants. I would start by doing some research on Google, for terms like ‘top bloggers’ or ‘top twitter users’, and once you have some names, then go and Google those individual names. That will give you a great idea of how actively they are using social media, and will also give you their site/blog so you can find out if they offer social media consulting services. This information should be on their blog and/or site. Or if you are already active on these sites, just ask. Ask your Twitter followers who you should be contacting, or if you are LinkedIn, submit a question to the Q&A section asking who you should be contacting.

As for fees, I think it depends on the rates the consultant charges, and the scope of the work requested. Some charge by the hour, others by the project. I would say a business should expect to pay over $100 an hour for a consultant, with $150-250 an hour being more likely.

One thing I would strongly advise businesses that approach a social media consultant is to make SURE that part of the services they provide include training your business on using these tools. If you hire a consultant to create and execute a blogging strategy for you, make SURE that they also train you on how to properly blog. I make sure that all the social media work I perform includes a training element, because I want to drive my clients toward being self-sufficient when it comes to social media. Otherwise, your business will continually have to hire consultants to help you with your efforts. Insist that the consultant offer training, and don’t hire one that won’t.

Q: You have spoken at my Conference, “Learn About Web” and by all accounts the favorite speaker of the day. What do you think draws your crowd into your message?

A: Well I’m honored to hear that, as I enjoyed speaking at Learn About Web very much. One thing I like to do is add case studies to help illustrate the main points of my presentation. I think it’s much easier for attendees to understand how to successful utilize a blog, if you can show them examples of how businesses are doing just that. Real-world examples also give your teachings more credibility.

Something else I am mindful of is not to be ‘detached’ from the audience. Especially when speaking to audiences that are new to social media, I want to make the audience feels comfortable asking questions, because if more questions are being asked, everyone learns more. For example, at a recent conference, the room I was supposed to present in had a stand and desk up at the very front of the room about 10 feet away from the audience. It was set up like a standard college classroom, which I didn’t think would encourage the type of interaction I wanted. I noticed that the projector stand was in the middle of the room, so I moved my laptop and chair to present from there, which placed me in the middle of the room.

By doing this, and encouraging attendees to ask questions when I started, the tone of the presentation changed from being my lecturing to the audience, to instead leading them in a breakout session. I think it made the session much more informative, because I think it encouraged the attendees to ask questions, and to interact with each other. From my experience, the more involved the audience is in the session, the better it is for everyone.