Well, there’s definitely no shortage of Web Marketing-related articles floating around the net. In getting ready for this month’s carnival, we had a heck of a time just narrowing down our options! There were a ton of great marketing posts and a fair amount of game-changing news articles to choose from, but we think we’ve captured a well rounded bunch. So check ‘em out!

The 17 Commandments of Setting Expectations in SEO

In SEO, we frequently come up against people whose expectations are WAY out of line, but handling those misguided expectations can be a challenge. That’s why Wil Reynolds of the Seer Interactive blog decided to poll the experts on how they do it, which led to the creation of this awesome post and PDF.

Official: Google Now Lets One Domain Dominate Search Results

Earlier this month, Google launched a significant change to the way they display search results from a single site. Previously, only two results from a single domain would appear on a single search result page. Now, Google is allowing more results for a single domain if the query indicates a “strong user interest in a particular domain.” Google hopes that these improvements, “will help users find deeper results from a single site, while still providing diversity on the results page.” A lot of people are skeptical though, claiming this new algorithm creates an even large brand bias – what do you think? Has Google turned to the dark side?

The Predictive Power of Social Media

An interesting post from Dan Woods, of Forbes.com, discusses how cluster analysis of social media content can help us find the “unknown unknowns,” i.e., questions we wouldn’t think to ask.

Visualize this type of analysis as a display of circles that get larger and brighter red as the relationships get stronger and as the cluster is found in more and more documents. The circle gets bigger as the strength of the relationships grow; a brighter shade of red indicates the amount of documents involved. [...] The predictive payoff comes from seeing when the circles start to get bigger and redder faster and begin to provide clues to future trends.

Niche Analysis: Where to Start?

SEO campaigns typically begin with some sort of website analysis or audit, but depending on the nature of the site, it could be harder to get answers than you think. Dmitry Gushchin, guest blogger for the Daily SEO Tip blog, suggests a few nifty tools and techniques for analyzing these niche websites.

New SEOmoz Web App Now in Beta for PRO Members

If you’re not already an SEOmoz Pro subscriber, we highly recommend it as a great resource for some very powerful SEO tools and uber-informative pro-webinars. As if those features weren’t enough – they just launched the Beta version of their SEOmoz Web App, an automatic data tracking and recommendation tool with multiple campaign tracking abilities. We set up a few of our campaigns and have already discovered some great areas for improvement. Check out the post for a complete overview of how the app works.

Buzz Kill

TWiT‘s Leo Laporte recently had a falling out with the “vast echo chamber” that we call Social Media after he discovered that none of his Google Buzz posts from the last month had been seen by anyone – not even by himself. “No one noticed,” he said, continuing with:

It makes me feel like everything I’ve posted over the past four years on Twitter, Jaiku, Friendfeed, Plurk, Pownce, and, yes, Google Buzz, has been an immense waste of time. I was shouting into a vast echo chamber where no one could hear me because they were too busy shouting themselves.

While Leo’s given up on social media, we’re pretty sure that it’s here to stay, and that there is now and always has been significant value in keeping a presence. So what do you think? Is social media worth it??

Next Month’s Issue: Ruby On Rails

Thanks to all of you who submitted posts this month! We appreciate hearing from you and hope you’ll tune in next time as well. Our next carnival will focus on our favorite web framework: Ruby On Rails! Ruby On Rails is a powerful open-source framework, “optimized for programmer happiness” – and we sure do love it! If you’d like to submit a post for next month’s Rails carnival, please send it to media@metaspring.com.

Our first MetaSpring blog post in February of 2008 promised that our blog would act as a hub for communications between our company and the rest of the world. Since then, we’ve tried to stayed true to that commitment while also implementing some changes improve this communication.

The majority of these improvements have been pretty abstract, in terms of how we approach blog posts and what content is discussed. Well, we’ve recently launched a physical evolution of the blog in order to help our readers find the information that’s most relevant to them.

Our Creative Director, Ian Wilson, who oversaw most of the changes, explains:

We do a lot of different things for our clients and we like to share our knowledge and experiences in those fields with our readers through the blog. As our readership grew and we began to dedicate more energy to keeping the blog up to date, we quickly realized that breaking our blog out into more discrete categories would help our readers to more easily get to the content they want. On top of that we were also itching to update the design of our blog, so with that in mind we put together the three sections to focus on their specific topics and give our readers a little more eye candy.”

As Ian mentioned, the MetaSpring blog will now be broken up into four distinct categories, each with its own RSS feed (we’ll still have the cumulative feed available on the blog home page – so make sure to update your subscriptions):

• 

  Design

  The design process involves a lot of hard work and dedication in a constantly evolving industry. In this section, we’ll share advice on overcoming obstacles and keeping up with trends in the design world.

• 

  Development

  New trends in web and application development are constantly popping up, so in this section, you’ll find posts on new trends and technologies, code snippets, industry news, and a lot of Ruby-related goodness.

• 

  SEO & Marketing

  We are constantly exploring the marketing aspects of the web, and this is the home of our ruminations. Posts in this section will illustrate ways to capitalize on new methods to market your website or yourself on the web.

• 

  Company

  Are you a MetaFan? One of the best parts of a company blog are the conversations that spark up between the public and the organization. This portion of our blog will highlight some of the great things happening at MetaSpring, such as new job postings and site launches.

This new layout is designed to facilitate better discussion so if you are having any difficulties, please let us know. As we continue to adjust the style of the blog, you can look forward to the same high quality content. We’re happy that you’re here and look forward to many great conversations. Talk to you soon!

“Your website is an amazing branding tool!”

How many times have you heard that? Hundreds, if not thousands of blog posts, start off this way, but often trail off when it comes to the details. It’s true though, a successful business is fueled by a great web presence. Unfortunately, the brand of a company website or personal profile is often times lost in the clutter of the web. In today’s Web 2.0 world, your message must balance informational web pages with a viable and exciting social media identity.

The Office: A Case Study

Although there are only around 23 episodes of NBC’s The Office per year, the show has become far more than just 30 minutes of weekly airtime. In fact, these half-hour installments have proven to be the axis for a very extensive and enthusiastic leap into new media.

The Office’s years of sustained success stems from its documentary-style format, taken from Ricky Gervais’ original version of the show running from 2001-2003 in the United Kingdom. This hand-held camera angle makes the characters come alive in an authentic way and makes them perfectly transferable to social media.

Even though I know Michael Scott is a fictional boss of a fictional branch for a fictional company, there’s a lingering feeling that I could drive over to Scranton, Pennsylvania and ring his doorbell. As mentioned earlier, much of this “realness” comes from the way the show is filmed, but it is reinforced by the bevy of blogs, Flickr accounts, character Twitter handles and many other media devices associated with the show.

A sample of the discourse The Office characters exchange on Twitter,
adding to their character development and reinforcing the brand overall.

Brand Loyalty

By giving each of the show’s most beloved characters a blog or social media account, The Office is able to interact with their audience and provide additional mediums to create a fanatic connection. It’s a marketing tactic focused on building brand loyalty through an emotional connection. Viewers tune in because they care about the characters, and understand the essence of who they are.

Traffic Boosters

The Office and the NBC fat-cats didn’t setup all this content for their health though. No sir. The Office homepage on NBC.com is both a forum and a billboard. The new media devices act as a magnet, bringing devoted fans to the site. Even though Season 6 wrapped up last month, fans are still getting engaged with the show through the website. Advertisers spend great amounts to acquire the coveted ad space on this site. It’s a win-win for everyone.

But I’m Not In Entertainment…

So where does your business fit in? This case study on The Office’s new media usage is an example that businesses of all types can follow. Even though The Office is a hit network TV show, the themes of the show and the social media campaigns tied to it are modeled around the personnel within the the fictional company. Your social media campaign should try to do the same. Of course, your company (probably) shouldn’t name their blogs The Diabolical Plan or The Halpert Baby Blog, but the point is that you can make fans out of your customers by providing insight into the things that make your company tick.

Where to Get Started

Tweeting for Fun

During our latest round of networking and public events, we heard the same question over and over – how do I get started? If you’re getting into social media for personal use, I always recommend starting with friends and then moving on to your passions. Connecting with friends will help you learn the ins-and-outs of networks like Twitter and Facebook. If you make a mistake, who cares! Only your friends will see. Then start following your passions by following major brands and important people within your area of interest. I found the following instructions to be helpful as I built my Twitter account (@MetaCase):

1. Start with what you know…or what you want to know
2. Stick to it! Devote between 15-45 minutes a day to building connections and posting content.
3. Show, don’t tell. Make sure you keep credibility in mind when Tweeting. It may be therapeutic to complain, but you won’t win followers that way.

Tweeting for a Company

Starting a Twitter or Facebook account for your company is a bit trickier. Although social media accounts are generally operated by the marketing/PR teams, corporate social media usually start with the Legal Department. Work with your legal department to see what kind of interactions you can perform without getting sued. Then, start listening and providing customers with interesting content that starts a conversation.

Sharpie, the permanent marker giant, is pretty nimble when it comes to using social media to increase brand loyalty and advocacy. Their campaign entitled, Sharpie Uncapped, focuses on the thousands of ways Sharpie customers use their markers to express themselves. Need new detailing on your motorcycle? How about some new sneakers? These ideas and many more are chronicled across their blog, YouTube, and Flickr.

Choices, Choices: Twitter or Facebook?

Some companies, like Sharpie, like to use all forms of social media as they attempt to canvas the web and fill every niche. But there are still other companies that choose to focus on one network. Jerry Kozak, Owner & Marketing Director at the Ann Arbor T-Shirt Company, explained why his organization devotes much of their marketing energy on their Facebook page for products like Screen Printing & Custom Shirt Design:

When we get a Facebook fan page to adopt one of our designs, it is presumably there forever. New members see the design indefinitely. Twitter is more like someone standing on a corner announcing something…If you weren’t there to hear it, it’s unlikely you’ll get the message at all.

He goes on to explain the disconnect between Twitter and his image-based designs. All Twit-pics aside, Twitter is mostly text based. Additionally, Twitter is more-or-less a publishing platform, whereas Facebook is a sharing platform. “If your goal is to get your product to go viral, the path is much more fluid on Facebook,” Kozak explains. Whether your company chooses Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc., make sure the network represents your brand effectively.

Get Going!

We’ve talked enough about what other people are doing. It’s time to make sure your company is branding effectively through its online presence. So get out there and make sure to let us know how you’re doing!

West Hall (“SI West”) on the U-M
Central Campus in Ann Arbor

“Dive in and stay local.”

That was the unanimous message from a panel of Ann Arbor’s digital marketers who gathered last Friday at the University of Michigan School of Information’s Career Development lecture. The lecture called, “A Day in the Life of an SEO and SEM Professional,” featured industry insights from Chad Wiebesick, Nate Lewalski and MetaSpring’s own marketing extraordinaire John Paul Narowski.

The lecture was part of a series of career development lectures put on by the U of M School of Information (UMSI), designed to help students stay up to date on trends and strategies being utilized in potential career paths. Search engine optimization (SEO) and Search engine marketing (SEM) are two of those trends that are rapidly expanding, with businesses of all sizes taking notice – especially the highly digital companies in Ann Arbor, MI.

Here are some of the concepts that each speaker covered:

Chad Wiebesick

Chad, President of the Ann Arbor Ad Club, nationally recognized author, and award-winning digital marketing strategist, had plenty to offer this group of future job applicants. Some of his key points included:

• SEO and SEM are growing, exciting fields to get into these days. About 60 billion dollars are spent in online advertising each year and that number is constantly increasing, so there is plenty of room to step into the market.
• Skills for those looking to get in this field or find success include analytical abilities, hard work and a desire to learn. Most SEO/SEMers learn on the job.
• Social media is now the 4th most popular internet activity, outranking email. This means that social media is the “go-to” way for communicating with peers. Email is becoming a very formal communications method.

Nate Lewalski

Nate is an Interactive Marketing Planner at Enlighten, an interactive marketing firm. Since graduating from Western Michigan University in 2006, he’s been immersed in the digital marketing field and so he wanted to discuss some of the trends happening (literally) right now. Here are some of his key points:

• Real-Time search is an up-and-coming space in marketing. Given the deals with Twitter, Bing and Google, advertisers, marketers and branding experts need to find ways to master this new concept and get results for clients.
• Digital media is extremely track-able and thus, an easy sell to clients.
• SEO/SEM is fun! Accounts are live and constantly being updated, so you can get results in real-time.

John Paul Narowski

JP began his discussion by recounting a few of his initial trials and tribulations as a young SEOer at Amish Tables in Ann Arbor. He followed this up with his thoughts on today’s trends and the lessons that he learns daily in his work at MetaSpring.

• The beauty of SEO is that you can learn from your results. By conducting optimization tests and beta trials, the internet can teach you how to gather clients and impact target audiences.
• SEO and SEM are only successful through “constant interaction”. SEO are SEM are processes that seemingly never ending…and that’s a good thing!
• Anyone looking to get into the emerging field of SEM/SEO should have a solid understanding of search engines and strategic thinking. As the industry grows though, these requirements will surely progress and mature.

An Informative Event

This career development lecture series was a great example of the proactive steps I begged the academic community to take in my Web 2.0 post a few weeks back. As an audience member at the lecture, I was impressed by the wealth of knowledge Nate, Chad and JP presented to the class and the size of the audience as well. About 25 students showed up ready to learn and discuss the growing field of SEO and SEM.

Special thanks to Joanna Kroll for assembling the panel. For more information on the University of Michigan School of Information and their Career Development series, visit their website at: www.si.umich.edu.

Additional Resources

• SearchMarketingNow
• OneUpWeb
• AdAge
• SEOMoz

One of the main debates in the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) revolves around the type of tactics used to get results – this is the White-hat vs. Black-hat debate.

White-hatters tend to employ a more organic and genuine approach to link building, whereby links are generated through authentic, human relationships. Black-hat SEOers, however, often rely on bots and spammy tactics to derive inbound links and deceive search engine ranking algorithms.

On either side, most of the pros will tell you that one key factor in any good link building campaign is article marketing – the process (or art) of submitting original articles to online directories where they’ll reappear for others to syndicate and ultimately increase traffic back to your site.

With so much dialogue on the topic of article marketing and how it fits into the white-hat vs. black-hat debate, we’ve done our homework and have had the opportunity to put the concepts to work. We’ve learned what works best for us, and more importantly, what SEOers on either side should avoid. In this post, we’d like to share a few of those discoveries with you and let you in on part of our white-hat SEO process – getting your articles listed in directories to achieve maximum exposure.

The WHY of Article Marketing

Article marketing is ultimately a win-win for everyone involved – as the directories grow, they rank higher in search results and see increased traffic; authors gain credibility and see increased traffic, both through the directory and the syndicates who’ve picked up the article; and like authors, syndicates gain a bit of credibility and see increased traffic, too.

The key to all this increased traffic is backlinks. Most directories allow authors to nest links within their articles and since syndicates must copy submission as they are, those links show up on every site that syndicates the article. You get links, the directory gets good, free content, and syndicates get to attract readers to their site, too. Win-win.

The HOW of Article Marketing

Once you’ve got a good article ready for marketing, you must select the most appropriate bundle of sites to submit it to. As all directories cater to a different set of readers and have different review processes, you’ll need to submit your article to at least a few different directories in order to achieve maximum reach.

Additionally, article review time can vary between directories so by submitting to several directories at once, you can extend the exposure cycle of each article.

The WHAT of Article Marketing

Many directories allow authors to submit a few additional details along with their article, usually a summary and resource field. Summaries show up in search results and thus should allow users to make a quick assessment of your piece. Unsurprisingly, a tactfully written, keyword-rich summary will get you noticed more often than not.

Resource fields can really boost link-building exposure by providing authors with a space to enter contact or background information and share links to their website and other resources. This is a great way to gain a few deep-links to your client’s site. For maximum exposure, you should try to tailor these details to fit each directory that you submit to.

The WHERE of Article Marketing

Article directories exist in both all-purpose and niche formats, and can either be free or paid for services – so you’ll need to do a bit homework to figure out which directories are best for your needs. For the sake of simplicity, I’ll just be covering a few of the more popular and free all-purpose forums.

EzineArticles

EzineArticles is a leader in article marketing, some of their strong points are:

High Standards – The Ezine editors take the submission process very seriously. They maintain a high editorial standard in their guidelines section, allowing only the best articles to make it through. I’ve actually had to re-submit some of my articles up to five times due to minor discrepancies that the editors caught. There is no room for black-hat marketing in this system.

Expert Status – To ensure that only the best articles get in, authors are limited to eight submissions until reviewers have approved four of their articles. The review process can take up to eight weeks, but once four articles have been accepted – you reach expert status which allows for vastly more submissions. Expert status also gets your articles displayed on the EzineArticles “High Traffic” page – a great bonus for your client and a boost to link-building.

DoFollow Links – When someone republishes your article through EzineArticles, any links that you’ve included in the article are made into “DoFollow” links to help boost your search engine rankings.

Analytics – EzineArticles helps you track where and when your article gets syndicated with a very easy and helpful monitoring processes.

GoArticles

GoArticles is one of the directories that I couldn’t quite figure out. Here’s what I mean:

Maybe I’m just missing something, but if you’ve had any experience with GoArticles – please feel free to share your thoughts and tips in the comments!

ArticleBase

ArticleBase is my personal favorite. When I’m assigned an article to market, I save ArticleBase for last, like a dessert.

Fast, Quality Review – ArticleBase reviews and publishes articles at an amazing rate, while still maintaining high standards. While many of the free submission sites take up to eight weeks to review your article for editorial standards, ArticleBase’s review cycle is usually less than 24 hours.

HTML – ArticleBase outdoes GoArticles in this regard, allowing for much higher level HTML customization. ArticleBase allows three links in the body of the article and another three in the author section. Not many sites are this flexible.

Reach & Audience – As ArticleBase’s FAQ section is proud to announce, their site is growing rapidly. Although I submit articles to many directories, many of the ones that have been syndicated began at ArticleBase. As an added SEO bonus, content from the ArticleBase directory tends to rank pretty well in Google searches.

Analytics – Not many clients would allow you to work through the tedious and lengthy article marketing process without some sort of return on their investment. ArticleBase has great tracking metrics that help determine exposure and linkbuilding success for your client.

Preferences – Many site preferences can be saved, such as bios for each of the authors you set up. These saved preferences mean you spend less time on the busy work and more time optimizing your article.

A Few More Directory Sites We Like

• ArticleDashboard
• ArticleBiz
• ArticleCity

Additional Tips & Tricks

With all that said, we by no means know everything about article marketing, but we strive to keep up to date on the latest helpful hints – we’ve even set up a Google Alert keep us in the loop!

If you’ve got any experience in article marketing, we invite you to share any tips or tricks might have in the comment!