B2Blog

Rex Hammock blogs: “Don’t do anything you’d be embarrassed to read about on the front page of the newspaper,” is one of those truisms I picked up early and used a lot back two decades ago when I used to run a PR firm and needed to have such quips in my back pocket. #

This, his reaction to a fascinating article about JC Penney gaming Google: The Dirty Little Secrets of Search, in The New York Times:

“When you read the enormous list of sites with Penney links, the landscape of the Internet acquires a whole new topography. It starts to seem like a city with a few familiar, well-kept buildings, surrounded by millions of hovels kept upright for no purpose other than the ads that are painted on their walls.”

Rex, like myself, like to play things clean. Most of us do. But sometimes the temptation is too great, and the line too grey. Link building? Sure all SEOs do that. Link farming becomes a whole ‘nother strategy at some point … but when?

Sounds like JC Penney was contracting-out their optimisation, and probably not paying too close attention to what was being done. The link-farming is nearly invisible. Heck, Google even has a hard time detecting it.

Over the years, we’ve all had competitors just too willing to see what they can do to rank higher. It started with meta-tags, keyword stuffing, then doorway pages, and today link-farming.

The thing is, our bosses have no understanding of how SEO works. They have no idea if we are cheating or not. Likely, quite a few bosses can’t tell the difference between a paid link and an organic link in Google SERPs.

So, really, the decision (and responsibility) is ours as marketing managers. As Penney’s learned, and Rex said, you never know when what you do may end up in the paper. Play clean, play smart.

First step after setting your moral compass, is to get educated. NYT can’t cover the nitty-gritty, but Rex was nice enough to add a bonus link. Start here:

“Bonus link: On Search Engine Land, former Googler Vanessa Fox breaks down the New York Times article and explains what J.C. Penny’s now-fired SEO consultants were doing. #”

(And, yes, you can turn in a competitor who isn’t playing by the rules. Obviously Google can’t catch them.)

Are engineers using Twitter? Here is a post from Duane Benson at Screaming Circuits (who says he is studying Twitter) about what those who are, are doing:

It can lead to interesting activity though. Recently, one tweeter, Jeri (twitter.com/jeriellsworth) suggested a design contest centered around the old stalwart 555 timer. Chris (twitter.com/Chris_Gammell) picked up the ball with her and In about three days, just over Twitter, they organized it, other tweeters chimed in, sponsors offered prize money and they’ve set up a website for it. Fascinating.

So, this is what’ is going on on Twitter? Where is the ‘social media’ opportunity? How about being a sponsor of the contest?

Social media … is getting right up there in my hated marketing terms along with webinar, buzz, needs, and solutions.

Us industrial manufacturers are nonplussed by the buzz (shoot, I used one myself) of social media. But truly it is a case-by-case basis. Some marketplaces lend themselves to social media. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Are some of your staff already involved in social media for your market?
• When you go trolling for mentions of your company or a competitor, do you find anything interesting?
• Does your product require programming or constant use so that operators want to talk about solutions?
• Do you have an email newsletter that you send out already?
• Are there changes in your market? Do people want to know about them?
• Are you interested in social media because it is ‘free advertising’?
• Is there a specific trade-pub or website that embodies the whole of your market?
• Does the one video you posted on YouTube have more than 25 views?
• Are prospects curious about your technology, but not always ready to buy?
• Does the trade pub in your market have more than 175 Facebook fans?
• Do you have the time, content, and energy to put into such a program?

These are just off the top of my head. The last question is really the zinger. Because if you can’t do it right … strategically … you are going to fail. Publicly:

• Everyone can see how many Twitter followers you have. How many Facebook fans there are. When you last blog-post was. How you responded to a upset customer.

So give it some thought. Drag out these questions to anyone bugging you to do SMM in 2011.

Personally, I’d invest my time in making videos. They are for the ages, and much more versatile. And your customers will appreciate them much more than a fan page regardless of their use of social media.