They had talked to a great many so-called SEO experts and were not satisfied with any of them.

They were tired of two things.  First not being told what really would help their SEO long term.  They were told many mysterious ‘voodoo’ explanations on how SEO was accomplished.

Second they were frustrated that none of the previous SEO experts would provide a method for on-going training and coaching along with thorough explanations on what they were actually going to do.

The company wanted to not have to keep paying over and over for something they could do themselves.

We had a great discussion where I not only stressed my level of service and commitment to their organization, but also explained that I WANT them to learn and to handle things themselves.

I want to consult with them – advise them, coach them, help them improve and get better and better – but I want them to OWN their own SEO process.

I also showed them that SEO is not rocket science.  Google is doing it’s best to provide the results that people want. And people want answers for their inquiries.  They want relevant results for their searches.

Therefore if they provide good quality content – the answers that their customers and prospects want – then over time they will have excellent results.

Yes it is not quite as simple as that.  There is good keyword research, buyer behaviour analysis, on-page formatting and tactics, as well as getting the word out through linking, social media and other strategies.

But at the core – any SEO strategy is nothing if you don’t have good content.

It is distinctly different than the ‘publishing industry’ which as its name suggests – publishes content and then distributes that content.

The web at one time was simply an arm of the publishing industry – just another medium to distribute content.

But with the publishing model, it is all about what I call the BRUTE force formula:

Volume of People X Volume of Content = Success.

The web has changed the information and content landscape. The brute force model is not competitive online. There are too many automated ways to do it better, outsource it, etc.

Most of all people want content related to a specific niche.  They want information that has unique value when they search and read online.

Thus emerged the Social Transition – or Web 2.0 – where people could impact what is produced. This was the start of two-way communication online as a way of doing business.

Web 2.0 led into the social revolution.  This ere allowed the people to actually be part of the content creation process.

That is how success on Twitter, Facebook, and other social mediums is done – by having people take part and lead the creation of the content.

Both areas still exist online (publishing model and social model) but the social model is harder to emulate, but more sustainable.  Best of all, if done correctly, the social model can be viral in many examples.

Many online sites, especially news related sites are still following the publishing model.  They are moving slowly towards a social model with bloggers, live reporters, citizen reporters, video, etc.  But they have a long ways to go.

Facebook (and other social media sites) offer online space to businesses and organizations.  Majority of organizations strategy on Facebook has really been 90% publishing. They post links along with brief commentary out to friends and hope someone reads it.  They intersperse this ‘news’ or ‘ads’ with a mixture of un-related content design to gain attention, or at the very least entertain their online readers.

Some of the content gets comments which a good organization will then be allowed to interact with their visitors. This methodology has been accepted by some, but no viral growth like the social model can accomplish.

I mentioned the Brute Force Formula for publishing above – well here is the social model formula

Inspired Unique content x (Interaction + Engagement) x ‘Secret Sauce’ = Viral Success

For a business it needs one more to be a function of their brand / product:

Function (Viral Success, Brand, Product)

Inspired Unique Content: The Social model is not about publishing lots of content.  It is about discovering what your audience feels, and turning that into some form of expression (article, post, picture, video, quote, sentence, conversation, etc).

Interaction: You must join in the conversation – others peoples conversation – not only your own.

Engagement: You must make the conversation multi-dimensional and personal. You must speak with people not AT people.

‘Secret Sauce’ – many are looking to define this.  Go to any meeting, night club, bar or social gathering and you will see that guy who is good looking and lots of people around him, beautiful girl on his arm, everyone wants to be his friend.  Easy to define in this case (why Shakira, JB and Vin Diesel are viral on Social Media).

But you also see that guy sitting at another table, again with a very successful lady on his arm, a number of friends joined in conversation, and as he moves around the room, always engaged and interacting with others.  He is not handsome, rich, or a superstar, yet he has ‘it’. What he has is that ‘Secret Sauce’.  Social media has examples as well (Bob Marley, Mari Smith, etc).

In majority of cases – the ‘Secret Sauce’ has some common ingredients, but also has unique ingredients to every person or organization.

Your social media strategy must be aimed at determining factors that increase the level (not volume) of Inspired Unique Content.  It must have interaction and encourage engagement.

Your social media strategy must also work to identify the ‘Secret Sauce’ for your company and when found – use it to create your own viral success.

If you plan to expand your influence a strong brand online is necessary.  Here are the tools you need to create and build your online personal brand.

Facebook – yes Facebook can be powerful for brand building.  It is the number one social media site, therefore if you want to reach a hungry crowd – that crowd will be on Facebook somewhere.

LinkedIn – although not as big as Facebook in shear numbers – the business aspect of LinkedIn makes it one of the top tools for building your personal online brand.

YouTube – I believe that creating a channel on YouTube and adding videos regularly to that channel should be your number three strategy.  Primarily as videos are now ranking very well in regular Google searches.

Twitter – although I am on Twitter, I am not a Twitter expert. I still believe that it is a piece of your personal online brand that you need to have in place.

Blog – Yes you need a personal blog.  You don’t need to write 3 page essays – simple short paragraph or two posts on a regular basis will help your personal online brand immensely.

Other tools that are very helpful in this process include Klout, Namecheck, Squarespace, HootSuite, Rapportive and tumblr.

I received two cheques in the mail – for $50 each.

I was only half expecting to receive these cheques – and now that I did it is time to honor the business that sent them.

You see I have a car – and that car needs tires every once in a while.  So before X-mas I purchased a set of tires for my car from the local tire dealer – OK Tire in Innisfail.

They had Toyo Tires on for a good price and along with the good price, you could send in the sales information to get a $50 rebate for each 2 tires purchased.

OK Tire staff gave me the forms and even printed off extra copies of the tire receipts so that I could send it in.

Well when I got home – those forms sat around, and sat around, until I got around to thinking about submitting them.

And when I did I noticed that I was a few days past the deadline (I think it was 4 days past the date).

Well I sent them in anyway – hoping for the best, but expecting a ‘Sorry you were too late’ letter.

But today I opened up two envelopes with $50 in each and a nice letter from Toyo Tires.

So HAT’S OFF to Toyo Tire for doing the right thing – even when their customers don’t!!