CLOUDSPOTTING Blog

Think Visibility is a conference setup for people in the web industry especially catered for the web marketing/bloggers/SEO types. They have been running since March 2009 but this was the first one I have attended. This conference was focused on domain names, Google local, social and mainstream news, viral marketing and the mobile web. The day was split into three with two main speakers in the morning, followed by a choice of three 45 minute slots over two hours and finishing with the final speaker in the late afternoon.

The Arrival

After enjoying the delights (ahem) of a Wetherspoons breakfast I made my way down to Clarence Dock and met with my colleague at the entrance of the Alea Casino in which the conference was held. On entry we were immediately greeted by the conference organiser Dom Hodgson (@thehodge) and team and given a welcome pack. As I usually forget a pen, paper or both to see there was these useful conference tools was a welcome sight.

Local SEO Strategies

Out of all the great speakers of the day this was my favourite. Probably because google local was something I personally knew little about. Tom Critchlow (@TomCritchlow) gave an excellent talk on why Google Local is an important SEO tool and how it will help bring traffic for businesses if done right. The talk covered how to manage both single and multiple business details.

Verify, Verify, Verify

was the main point I learned from this first slot. Basically it is extremely important to verify your business on Google local as it will be given more prominence than if it wasn’t.

Other key points:

• Reviews : Getting people to review your business helps both your prominence and helps potential customers to see the type of company you are.
• Mentions : Details across the web matching those on your google local entry (called mentions) helps your prominence. If you find a site with old details of you business it can help if you ask the website to update them.
• Categories : Its very useful add your business under the correct category and not to add them under lots of categories that do not really state what your business does. Also using googles pre-defined categories as much as possible.
• No Spam : Do not try to add your business type/area in the description, use the categories instead.

SEO Case Studies

Judith Lewis an expert in SEO (and a lover of chocolate) gave a general talk on SEO techniques along with the dos and don’ts.

The key points:

• Target only one to two phrases per page
• Do NOT spam a page with the same keywords.
• Create rich human readable content.
• If you get caught spamming, you can recover from it if rectified
• Lots of free tools out there (such as google analytics) to help you.

Your Brand is more than your URL

Alun Rowe (@AlunR) of Pentangle Internet Limited gave a talk about how important getting your brand image and values are and its not just simply creating a logo. It is about values, experience and reputation.

Key Points:

• Brand values: cheap? expensive? Austere?
• Experience and Reputation – What do people think about you?
• We no longer own our own brands. This is now impacted by things such as Word of Mouth,Blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc

What can you do?

If you cant beat them, join them

To get your brand out there or to improve it you can:

• Expose your brand and values using tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo, Linked in etc
• Specialist forums can be very useful in getting your name out there.
• Viral marketing.

Getting Started

• Define your Brand
• Write down your brand values and refer back to them
• Determine responsibility within your or your clients organisation
• Determine who the decision makers are
• Create a presence on each service you use and start engaging

Rules of Engagement

• Don’t just post news items. Be personal and avoid auto responders.
• Write meaningful responses
• Do not try to be everybody’s friend
• Be passionate about your product/service!
• and finally track what you are saying (very useful for reference in the future)

• Refer to guidelines
• Step back
• Don’t lie
• Create an official response

Finally .. Dealing with Criticism and When the Internet Attacks

Don’t Knee Jerk REACT

The worst thing is to attack back, once it is out there it is very hard to get rid of your response.

However do respond, if you have made a mistake – Hold your hands up and say sorry.

Other points:

Building a successful presence for your website in social news

Andrew Burnett (@andrewburnett) gave a talk on how to build a successful presence using social news.

Key Points:

Get the basics of your site and content right:

• Play by the rules – Conform to the sites Terms of Use/Service
• Is your site engaging? Ensure your site is aesthetically pleasing and semantically structured
• Is your content original?

Make it attractive to social news:

• Is it easy to vote or submit an opinion?
• Can extracts / snippets be taken easily?

Show off your best bits

• Display other posts/articles to readers
• Display related posts
• Ensure your related posts are linked with attention grabbing headlines

Good ideas: Copy ideas that work

• Add social news buttons (twitter, linkedIn Digg etc) at the top and bottom of the content.
• Link featured/golden posts at the top of your site
• Put your RSS feed subscribe links in a visible place on the site.

Making More Hours with Outsourcing and Automation

Al Carton (@AlCarton) CEO of Coolest Media gave a talk on how Outsourcing and Automation can help increase your productivity.

Why outsource?

• Limited hours in the day
• Do what you’re good at and do what you enjoy
• Do not make your self a new job

What to outsource?

• Content creation – Creating content can be time consuming!
• SEO – Link building
• Design
• Coding
• Professional services – accountants, payroll etc

Automation

• The more common or complex task the more beneficial it is to outsource.
• Make sure you enable Akismet, reCAPTCHA and have automated backups enabled.
• Create an automated tool which tags up affiliate links. Install the script on all your sites such as WordPress, Forums etc.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 25th, 2010 at 8:35 am and is filed under Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.