(This post originally appeared on Spin Sucks August 8, 2011, written by Jayme Soulati). And, the 162 comments (love that!) are worth their weight in gold.
credit: Modern 8
Public relations practitioners strive to develop authentic relationships; we want genuine and sincere romance with our tiered audiences, and we get there with engagement.
The word “authentic” itself begs for definition. It was used in a variety of ways by a variety of practitioners when I launched an effort awhile back to define public relations on my blog. Social media allows for creating real communities with give and take, with nurturing and education, and with growth by engagement. Combined, these contribute to authenticism (I often coin words).
Enter automation.
My growing fear is social media automation is quickly winning over authenticity. If you follow me online, this statement comes as no surprise. I have been lamenting scheduled tweets, the success of Triberr, and the disappearance of Twitter banter (nowadays that’s just about anything without a link!).
- Automating Tweets: I freely admit I schedule tweets on occasion; in fact, I was encouraged to do more of it to push attention to the blog. You can’t get traffic if you tweet a new post once. So, I did, and lo – more traffic. I also use Triberr religiously. I automate post distribution in the three tribes I’m in. In fact, I’m kind of jazzed; I recently launched Globe Spotting – a tribe with seven bloggers from seven countries.
- Optimizing Writing: I’m struggling with the whole optimization thing; it compromises authenticity! (While optimization is not automation, there are enough automated tools to enhance optimization, so they’re, like, kissing cousins.) A recent blog post over at Live Your Love by Brankica Underwoodhad me stewing. (She’s an expert about writing with keywords and measuring web analytics.) Bran shared how she wrote a keyword rich post and watched the traffic roll in. Then, she increased her traffic by writing a how-to post because keywords and search terms told her the market was seeking that information.
- Quantifying Influence: How about Klout? I predicted recently that employers and clients would begin reviewing Klout scores and select candidates with the higher scores. I just read a blog post where that prediction rang true. People on Twitter who schedule unique content, RT consistently, and write about keywords can automatically boost Klout scores – even when the keywords for which peeps are being considered influential mean nothing, such as “cougar,” “heavy metal,” or “sheep.”
All my fears for the future are likely a yearning for the past. As I’ve been pondering this preponderance of push marketing, others have stated, “nothing stays the same…to grow we need to automate.”…OK, but at what expense?
I agree about Klout – too much emphasis placed on its importance. But I think automation and Triberr are great tools, when used correctly. No one wants to interact with a robot, but when used in conjunction with real, personal, responses, i think they are great tools to maintaining a reputable online presence. great post! (PS – come here via Tribrr lol )
@libgrl Have you tried Kred?I tried to log in via iPhone, but nothing happened. Hah. I really don’t need a number to tell me about my engagements. My followers are organic; I’ve never gone after thousands of people, nor have I ever bought them. You can’t measure that, right? And, if someone sits there and shares 100 posts in their stream willy nilly, their Klout score goes up. Is that genuine engagement?
Not sure I can sustain my usual ways with the attention of late since the power sharing tribe, but I’m going to try!
Thanks for coming over, LibGirl! I am loving being able to meet so many more people, too!
Happy Sunday Jayme : )
I think there are many, many folks on the social web not building relationships.
I would imagine there are many monetizing their non-authentic ways as well. There wouldn’t be anyone building these types of tools if they weren’t being monetized in some way.
When it comes to the way ‘we’ interact in our social communities, automation and tools like Klout don’t offer much by way of building relationships.
Our communities thrive on it; but I would have to say from what I see is we are a very small percentage of the whole.
And also from what I see from those effectively building relationships – there isn’t much money being made by social efforts alone for most.
Networking and collaborating on projects certainly happens, but many great, smart folks in our community aren’t involved in many new product and/.or service offerings that make money.
Relationship building is hard to scale. It requires an investment of the very best part of you into others and there’s only so many strong relationships one person can build and maintain.
While the activities you mention aren’t authentic, I would imagine (not from experience) that many folks are probably making thousands, tens of thousands, possibly more by leveraging automation tools and flaky influence status.
Again, that is just my observation and rational thinking out loud 😮
@Mark_Harai I love rational thinking out loud! Thanks for sharing a bit of your Sunday morning in my house!
You’re right, of course. Our community isn’t great at monetizing; we’re in the service business…our product is our creativity and service offering.
I am impressed how several of the bloggers in the power sharing tribe are monetizing, and I think I’m going to write on that.
As for authenticity…more than a year ago, I was upset when these apps began to crowd the ‘sphere. Today, I can’t imagine living without Triberr; Klout? Not so much.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing I got a little more serious about Klout over the last month… Here’s what has happened:
Mark Harai 77 bones 13 tribes 1034 tribemates 14,024,495 reach
It’s been interesting to say the least. It’s a lot of work just to keep up with sharing and pre-screening posts I share.
But, I don’t think it has led to one meaningful relationship; which is on me of course.
Before Triberr I was maintaining probably close to 100 relationships… And that was a stretch to maintain. I don’t invest enough of myself into the existing relationships I’ve already established and people like you and many others deserve more from me.
I’m not going anywhere… One of these days I’m going to figure out how to monetize my existing relationships and the social web overall.
My problem is that every business I’ve ever done is with people I SEE and TOUCH everyday. That’s my issue and certainly one that can be overcome.
I’ve just never done business online to make money, other than taking social media relationships offline and developing the feely touchy kind : )
I will figure it out though, sooner than later – I’m working on it!
@Mark_Harai Fascinating…we are much the same. My goal was never to monetize; however, I’ve accomplished phase 1 goals and phase 2 IS/HAS to be more $$.
Now I fear my engagement will diminish with the volume, and I’m unsure how to manage that. If I throw up my hands and take a week off, then I come back and try to play catch up; like going on holiday.
The inability to disconnect becomes harder with growth. And, that said, we are our own companies — no one to manage this, yet how can I trust anyone else outside of re-tweets??
So, you got involved in Klout and you’re sharing Triberr stats? Did you mean to say you got more involved in Triberr? Because I want to know what you did to push Klout, if you did!!
And, never believe I DESERVE more of you; you give yourself freely and I’m always appreciative, Friend! XO
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Well, I think I established a Triberr account like a year ago, but never really understood what it was or what I was suppose to do… Just never participated, but now I am.
I have an account on Klout too, but I never go there… Wouldn’t have a clue what my Klout score is… Just a second;
Ah, I have a 53 Klout score and have no idea what that really means… Sounds low out of a possible 100??
Makes me below average I guess… If one of my kids came home with a 53 on a test score, they would be grounded – LOL!
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Ya know Jayme, I just realized I said “more serious about Klout,” HAHA! I think you probably figured out I meant Triberr, duh!!!
@Mark_Harai That’s why I said that! Silly.
@Mark_Harai @Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing That is some really interesting data. Though you didn’t build any new relationships, have you gained some new readers? Were there any benefits to all the work you’ve done with your tribes?
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing @Mark_Harai I am very curious about who is monetizing and what their model is. You know I am skeptical about it, not because it can’t be done but because some of the “options” people advertise don’t add up.
@thejoshuawilner @Mark_Harai Have you written on that topic yet? Seems like you of all peeps should know how its done with your track record?
@thejoshuawilner @Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing @Mark_Harai I’ve monitized in a sense. I’ve used my blog to write four novels. During that time I wrote a book about the 86-87 Iowa Hawkeyes’ Men’s basketball team/season. The blog motivated me to write and though only 2 of the 5 books are out, the basketball one has sold over 1300 copies, so that is something. I hope to have the other 3 Henry Wood novels out in the coming months.
I also intend to do a book of my guest blog posts, possibly titled, “Howler Monkey Angst: A Look at Guest Blogging”…or something like that.
I do also have an Amazon ad for my books and it generates $15.00 or so a month, because if someone clicks on the link and buys ANYTHING, I get a little bit. So, some of my friends/family, who like to shop on Amazon, always go there through my link and thus I reap the small rewards.
I think of my blog as being a part of a social media grouping that will continue to let me grow as a writer.
Can I use the same response? If so, here it is:
Cool beans then because I’m about authentic as they come. I do have some posts that go out through Triberr but that is as automated as it gets for me. I have a hard enough time trying to do my posts without worrying what keywords to drop in this week. Is there a website for that? Beer, sex and food seem to be pretty popular though.
Is that a good thing, bad thing or no thing at all for me? I can no longer play dumb about keywords, SEO, increasing tweets, etc. But I have also done ZERO about it up to this point. Can I do it? Oh, I’m sure I could figure something out but I can be so lazy about stuff like that. I’m waiting for HowieSPM to give me the condensed version so I can just flip the switch.
Am I being naive, probably but even though I feel like an aged veteran at this point, I’m really still just a rook.
Good to see you over at Lisa and Gini’s. Hopefully that was some kind of contribution.
Wow, we’ve been around for awhile haven’t we? I see I haven’t changed much………..:)
@bdorman264 You’re so funny…you always negate yourself and act like an aw shucks kinda guy. You know you’ve grown on this journey; we all have! You’re also incredibly smart to have mastered what you have.
You know what it’s gonna take to get to the next level and it’s not gonna be easy, but then is selling the insurance you do easy?
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Uh no………selling insurance isn’t easy; but since everybody is going to buy it, they might as well buy it from me, right?….:)
Jayme, you better be careful about building relationships and fans through personal engagement, because you’ll get people calling you for free advice… (ahem… )
Kidding aside, you’ve elicited some great responses here. @Mark_Harai ought to write a book.
I have absolutely no problem with scheduling tweets. Microblogging is not exclusively a real-time tool. You don’t have to be available for immediate response.
As far as optimization, that could be a very important factor in reaching the people you hope to reach. So a lot of this goes to your goals.
Klout? Now there’s a tough one. I find it pretty appalling. I don’t think social media is a popularity contest. I’d rather have “clout” with 100 people who I care about, rather than thousands of strangers. But then maybe I just misunderstand it. I think we better be well prepared to tell clients how easily it can be gamed… Maybe we should game it for an interesting blog post?
@barrettrossie @Mark_Harai Thanks for the confidence booster, Barret… I wish I was writer; maybe I can hire you to write it for me?
Hope you had an awesome weekend, sir!
@Mark_Harai Mark, I see your comments here and there and they are without fail clear and full of insight. Now… don’t disappoint me on your next round of comments. 🙂
@barrettrossie @Mark_Harai My ear is always open for anyone needing sage counsel, and I can always fake it if I don’t know…!
When Klout first entered the scene, we did game the system; it was easily gameable, too. Its had to go through many iterations to get where its at, and now look at LinkedIn…it went Klout on us.
Personally, I think a business needs to decide what they want from social and depending on that answer drive their engagement to align. I don’t see anything wrong with any of the above if you get something or somewhere with it. It’s business after all and yes, great writing, caring and sharing are important but so are the business tools when used to build your business.
I agree with Mark. Building relationships is huge but the tools to gain reach should not be overlooked. Neither should take precedent in my book.
@rdopping No business knows what they want in full when they launch social marketing. They jump in on a few channels and test the waters and then try to figure out Facebook while thinking that Google+ is dead; meanwhile, ROI is illusive and boom, that’s their experience.
Social marketing has to be integrated into an entire strategy; it’s not a one off by any stretch.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Not sure if you are agreeing with me or not but that is bang on (and I think what I was getting at – it was early and I didn’t have my coffee yet). Cheers.
@rdopping Heck, I’m not sure, either? I think we both sound good, eh?
@rdopping okay, I get you now. You’re right – not everyone is trying to do the same thing with social. Although help me understand one thing: if you’re not talking back, how are you being “social” in social media? If I can get my head around that, I know I’ll agree with your strategic thinking even more.
@jennwhinnem Ha. Are you making fun of me?
I hope I didn’t leave the impression that “not being social in social” is where I was going. I was trying to say there needs to be a balance and with the time constraints we all set for ourselves automation plays a strong role. I haven’t used it well up to now and focussed mostly on engaging personally (like here). I wonder if it has limited my growth. Maybe not.
Am I making any sense to you?
Good points Jayme. I think people need to give more serious thought to why they write and what they hope to achieve. Everyone wants traffic, and its a fine line shifting some of the tasks to automatic for visibility.
Most people, I think, want authentic relationships, and this is easily achievable when you start out. But it ultimately reaches a point where for some it becomes an overwhelming task to respond to each tweet and every comment. I have no such issues but I understand it.
One of the problems is when people get caught up in the numbers and the hard sell to virtual strangers.
As all things, automation and optimization must be tempered.
But still it comes by to why you are out here, what do you hope to accomplish, and what value do you add to people’s lives.
@Martina McGowan Well said, Martina! And, thanks for coming by, too. This comment is also relevant for today’s post on Why You Should Thank Your Twitter Followers!
Are you going to be authentic about it, or are you going to automate somehow or ignore everyone. “Total strangers” are what Twitter is about, though…and, they could become your new boss, client, employee or BFF!
One of these days I’m going to do an ebook on how Twitter changed my life and try to teach it. It is the coolest channel ever in my book, and I’m always real there. But, maybe with growth, that will have to change…and, it will make me sad, too.
I’m going to pick on bone here regarding “optimized writing.”
Ready? Here goes.
What you think of as “optimized writing” isn’t optimized.
This get sunder my skin every time I see it written or hear people complain about SEO. Highly repetitive copy created just for search engines is not going to rank well. Experts will claim it certainly won;t rank now and I’m not really sure it ever dis rank well.
One of my first actions when I assumed control of the SEO division of on of the biggest web site production houses in the country was to stop writing highly repetitive “SEO copy” and start writing highly converting, natural copy that also happened to be key-word focused.
Know what happened to our search engine traffic?
NOTHING! There was no drop off. We continued to grow search engine traffic 30%+ year over year for three years straight.
What you (and many others) call “optimized content” I call shoddy SEO.
@Sean McGinnis I am soooooo glad I’m in your tribe; I relish your expertise on this stuff, Sean. In the legal profession, I see so many law firms being marketed by SEO shops; then I read their content and it’s littered with key words repeated all over in the first graph. Sigh.
Try to get in with what I do and these lawyers want nothing doing with the content marketing approach. I just read a post a minute ago from a gent who said the exact same thing you just did above. If “optimized writing” was the secret sauce, then why aren’t all these sites #1?
In PR, the key word competition is too fierce for me to even think about; I ignore it. Shoddy SEO. Good to know.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing I should probably clarify a bit more.
I react to “optimized content” the way Gini and you react to people who discuss PR in terms of “press releases” or “publicity.” There’s MUCH more to both.
Sadly, the crappy SEOs have dominated the scene in much the same way as the spin-meisters dominate the public perception of the PR industry. The quality work goes unnoticed because of confidentiality agreements or because the competitiveness of the industry does not reward you for sharing your best tactics.
If you had a secret sauce to guarantee #1 ranking in Google, would you share it? 😉
@Sean McGinnis @Soulati | B2B Social Media MarketingSean, you explained SEO copy better than I know how. I have similar feelings when people talk about “optimized copy”.
I feel there is a lot of bad advice out there because people are overly focused on gaming factors that seem important. Instead it would be better to focus on improving your writing skills so that you avoid writing repetitive and meaningless copy.
@susansilver @Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing I totally agree with you. I’m fond of saying “Think like a search engine” when it comes to understanding SEO.
People insist on focusing on beating the algorithm and it’s such a mistake. the algorithm is there because a search engine can;t think like a human. All google wants is to recommend great stuff. Finally, they are getting better at understanding what that actually is (from an algorithmic standpoint).
Think like a search engine really means to think like a human. Create great content. And built great relationships/communities. That way your stuff will get shared and linked to.
Yes, there’s a lot more to it than that, but that is at the core of real SEO today IMHO.
@Sean McGinnis Great analogy, Sean. Thanks for returning to clarify further.
@Sean McGinnis @Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing What a great comparison. Thanks Sean.
@susansilver @Sean McGinnis @Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing I would like to learn how to better improve my posts, SEO wise, but reading stuff like this, that there is so much bad advice out there, causes me to pause.
I’m not at all interested in key words, but I’ve started adding a link or two to my posts, when it applies. I hope that is moving in the right direction. (Note: I do work in one key word, frequently. It is the most powerful key word in the universe…bacon. So yummy, so key.)
@ExtremelyAvg @susansilver @Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing I’m curious to know more about what you mean when you say you are “not interested in keywords.” Can you elaborate?
@Sean McGinnis @susansilver @Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Yes, I suspect they are valuable, but my lack of interest comes mostly from impression that the point is to include words that people search for, in order to bring them to my site.
If I am correct in that assumption, then presumably I would need to do research to find out which words are popular. I’m not sure where to begin on such a project or if I would take the time to do that on a regular basis.
So, maybe “Not interested” isn’t as accurate as “Too Lazy”, but I think you get the idea.
@ExtremelyAvg @Sean McGinnis @Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing This is how I see the keyword debate. Keywords match with what we know about good writing practices. We naturally repeat particular words and phrases when we write on specific topics. We also add related phrases so that the writing is not repetitive.
Think of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech”.
If you are looking for more visibility in organic search than focusing on keywords is important. Avoid adding as many keywords as possible because that will not help you.
Treat keywords more like a guide for your content creation and let the search engines do their magic.
@susansilver @ExtremelyAvg @Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Like anything in marketing, there are a lot of nuances in this issue.
I think of it this way….
Using keyword research is like defining a target market. It helps you select what to wrote about. Taking a disciplined approach to keyword selection can also help you avoid shooting “too high” or “too low” when figuring out what to target. Knowing what you CAN rank for can help you plan what to write so you are not pursuing phrases you’ll likely never compete successfully for.
If you’re writing JUST too write, the keyword selection is unimportant. But if you are writing to drive business results, I believe keyword research and selection is an important first step in defining what success will look like when you revisit your campaign to determine the results.
Each of those three tactics is a neutral tool…in the right hands, it can enhance our experience and in the wrong hands, it can destroy it. And I’ll be trying to work the word “authenticism” into a conversation today 🙂
@rosemaryoneill I’m thinking you absolutely need to do that, Rosemary! LOL! So great to have you over today; thanks!
#2, this gets everyone that writes online. Some people seem to have mastered the art of writing for search engines.Somehow they get numerous shares and like too.
It is far more than that . If you look at the top of the heap you can see all the effort they put into networkng, running their business, and building their brand. That has to be factored in when you read their advice. It just isn’t that easy.
That is why I appreciate Triberr. It gives us at the lower levels a chance to make it to the top. As long as we are building quality and value for our readers.
@susansilver Don’t forget…everyone started from nothing! There’s always someone ahead of you helping direct those in the back through the quagmires!
@susansilver Thank you, Susan, for submitting content to The SMB Collective! You’re live today! Please check those links, though? Not sure they translated from your document to the CMS.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Looks good to me. Tested the links and they are all good!
I read a post at Spin Sucks a while back, about fake RTing. It really hit home and since then I’ve made sure to read all the posts I’m tweeting. Now that I’ve found Triberr, I do the same. Triberr recently added a limiter on the number of shares one can have queued up at a time to 100. In their explanation they said there were people sharing hundreds of things per day. These people were obviously NOT reading them all. I call them cheaters.
I don’t think that everyone will become completely automated and kill the social aspect of social media, because there will always be some people who just like to mingle. 🙂
@ExtremelyAvg Same here! I used to RT interesting headlines, but after skimming a few articles I was about to RT and seeing the poor writing, I have made sure I read through everything first! I do, however, automate using Buffer App, to spread posts out more during the day. Maybe that makes me a bit less authentic, but I find it helps with engagement.
@lpmikov @ExtremelyAvg OK, that’s a good exercise — using Buffer to spread it out. My problem is, I know many writers quality is good; I can easily get up to 100 daily but maybe I need to be even more discerning now.
One dude said, “if I don’t see you reshare my stuff then you’re gone, your loss.” I felt that pressure, but he wasn’t even in my vertical!
But, there is that expectation! Not sure what to do about it, really.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing @lpmikov @ExtremelyAvg That “dude” does not seem to care about you or your content. Just getting shares is akin to spam.
I wonder if there is a bit of blinding going on here. I feel the pressure to spend time on Triberr and the more i am involved the more I feel obligated to be there.
You said this somewhere but maybe it’s time to be a bit more discerning.
@rdopping @lpmikov @ExtremelyAvg This whole Triberr power sharing thing has changed it all up for me. It’s fast becoming the new normal; no way have I gotten over 100 tweets on a post in my life; now the last 3 posts have that on average.
We have to take it back to the goals; what are you trying to accomplish? That’s the only way i can lend any sense to what’s happening right now. Yes, it’s making me crazy — I don’t know whether to log in or not, share or not, am I pissing off people whose stuff I’m not sharing enough or those in my stream getting the shares?
It’s an exciting roller coaster, but then, that’s my Type A PR agency mentality — the more exciting the better; the more drama and deadlines and overload the better. Odd, eh?
@lpmikov @ExtremelyAvg Oh, P.S. Thanks for coming over both of you!
@ExtremelyAvg Oh, boy, then I’m a cheater. Extraordinarily. Since joining these power sharing tribes of more than 100 each, it is impossible to read everything. There’s an expectation that you’re in a tribe and thus you share. I started over the weekend to become acquainted with a few dozen of the bloggers’ writing quality, and then I fell off doing that, too. Then, I muted a bunch b/c they wrote on family Halloween dinners and coupons for diapers. Then I went back consistently to keep the stream clean and, and, and…now I’m backlogged and can’t send anything out until my stream clears…I had uhm, 172 posts in queue to go out.
There you have it.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Power sharing, to me, feels like the people who have #TeamFollowBack in their biographies. When I see #TeamFollowBack, I know what they are really saying is, “I followed you because you followed me, I don’t intend to go to your site, read your blog, or engage in any way, but I know that you will RT all my posts, tell your friends how great I am, and devote all your waking hours to me…signed…the center of the universe…p.s. Do you like my shoes?”
I just can’t imagine there is value in mass blind sharing. I suspect that the folks who are on the receiving end of this, the Twitter, FB, and Linkedin followers, will soon turn a blind eye to all of it.
I have spent a lot of time building a following of 2,400 (blocking around 3000 people from following me on the way, to ensure that the people who follow me are real and engaging), it would be a shame to throw all of that down the drain by earning a reputation for spamming.
This is just my opinion and my blog isn’t very successful, so I might be wrong.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing For the record, you don’t seem like a cheater to me. You are very engaging. 🙂
@ExtremelyAvg @Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Amen brother. Excellent point!
@ExtremelyAvg I will ask that you read what I just wrote to Ralph above, Brian. I believe you just joined Triberr this week. I’ve been on Triberr since the beginning — what? Nearly 3 years ago?
As my business is social media marketing and my brand requires more engagement within the sector AND I run a small B-to-B social media marketing firm….blah, blah, blah…then look at how this new Triberr experience MAY benefit my goals (as opposed to yours)?
It goes directly back, back, back to the goals you have as a blogger. I’ve already accomplished my first set of goals and I’m now working on the second; this Triberr thing fell in my lap, and I have to go with it. I see what’s happening, can’t yet make heads or tails of how to lasso it; yet, it’s lending itself nicely to the strategic plan.
Does any of this make sense? Whew; I’m tired.
Hey Jayme
As much as Triberr is the new buzz thing and I like the idea of being in a tribe it does make me feel like I have to go in an share things regardless as to whether I have read them or not.
I usually read every post that I share but I don’t get that as being the concept with Triberr for most people. Go there, share post, leave. That’s what it’s become for me even! I eventually do end up reading the posts but I don’t want to be the Triberr party-pooper.
I do automate Tweets as I’m based in the UK most of the rest of the world aren’t awake when I’d be Tweeting so I have a couple of programs I use to find the best times to get the Tweets out there.
@timbo1973 You’re right; for the first 10 days, I really, really felt the pressure of that power sharing tribe. Then, Triberr got smart and limited shares to 100/day. I can’t believe I was up to 172; you can see I was in the moment, sharing everything and trying to be a good mate.
That saved me, so I’ve been trying to go to my backlog and visit the site and share it and then delete it from Triberr stream. Hmm, perhaps I’ll become a higher Klout scorer, eh?
At any rate, these last several days, I’ve been totally not on Triberr; I have too many obligations to clients. I have to remember, I’m not getting paid to push others’ content, but what a good job it would be!!
I think optimization is important. It’s a shame not to perform certain tweaks when it can have huge effects. But I like to say that you should “write for people, then optimize for search engines.” For instance, it takes seconds to optimize your URL slug. Meta tags are something you should be doing either way. Throwing in a few sub-headers make for better user experience, so why not use a couple of keywords in there too. I think what Brankica did is pretty smart. People are looking for that information. You are providing a service by giving it to them. Nothing wrong with that as long as the information is actually quality like she usually provides.
@EugeneFarber Thanks for coming by…do you know if Brankica is still working in the SEO world? Last I saw she was becoming a fitness guru!
What you suggest sounds so simple, yet people in the PR world migrating towards search marketing have a heckuva time learning these things. And, as for me, I like to know it all; hence, my frustration that I don’t.