seobridges.com

Over the last couple of years, SEO Bridges has served a two-fold purpose. To generate income and to be a marketing engine for myself and my writing. When I started writing my novel, an author friend suggested I begin marketing. I had wanted to start a business, and I figured starting a business that allowed me to focus on the needs of readers and writers would help me market myself and my writing.

Over that time, I have treated myself as I would any other client. Or at least that has been my goal. For the first year, @SEOBridges maintained a larger following than @ErickWrites. Then, my personal Twitter feed began to outgrow my business Twitter feed. I had adopted a new strategy. I started to focus more on conversations, rather than just dissemination of information.

Once I started doing that, I found more Twitter followers who Tweeted well and just liked to chat. Now, as I continue to chat, I am changing my Twitter strategy once again. I will continue to use Twitter to find conversationalists and get into conversations, but I will also use it for market research.

If you feel your Twitter strategy has become mundane repetition, you might want to consider changing your Twitter strategy. If your Twitter strategy is all about you and not about your followers, you might want to change your Twitter strategy.

Have you considered changing your Twitter strategy? How has your Twitter strategy changed? Is your Twitter strategy working for you? Do you have a Twitter strategy and what is it?

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

#Borders tried to save themselves from pending #bankruptcy by offering Build-a-Bears with book purchases. I sent Borders an e-mail to let them know that was a bad idea.

Here are some excerpts from that e-mail:

If you haven’t done so yet, I’d suggest doing a study on what percentage of your customer base you lost because those people purchased an e-reader.

Those people who purchased e-readers most likely bought for one or more of three reasons: convenience of carrying their library in one device, to save bookshelf space, and because they have the money. Those people want to clear off shelf space of books they’ve read (I know I do), so offer to buy all of those people’s left over books at higher prices than they’re valued at according to top used book stores and used book websites. Then turn around and create a new customer base of those people who can’t afford a $200 e-reader [Yes, the prices have dropped since this e-mail] or who consider a $20.00 book a major investment by selling “refurbished” books that are “Slightly used” or “Just like new” at prices slightly higher than the used book store down the road.

Since much of your new customer base will be students, tell those students you’ll buy the book back at a higher price than their college or the used book store down the road if they bring it back in good or better condition (without highlighting, writing, etc). This will work for majors, such as Lit majors, who are many times required to read novels opposed to text books. This will allow you to target a new customer base and create residual capital at the same time.

Just as real estate investors make money off of buying houses for low prices that people can’t afford, buying books from the customer base you’ve lost will allow you to create a new customer base from those people who can’t afford an e-reader. Think of that customer base in the same way that real estate investors think of banks and lenders.

Here was Borders response:

Thank you for contacting Borders Customer Care with your comments.

Feedback from valued customers like you is essential to us as it allows us to keep in touch with areas where we can improve our services. Your suggestion will be included in our regular reporting to our various departments and in information presented to the executives at Borders. While I cannot guarantee that a change will be made, we appreciate your sending us your ideas.

Thanks again for taking the time to write to us. If you should have any other thoughts on how we can improve the shopping experience at Borders stores, please don’t hesitate to share these with us.

Thanks for the form letter, Borders!

E-readers are changing writing, publishing, and book selling. Craig Teicher of Publishers Weekly called my idea “Brilliant & hilarious.” Do you think Borders could have saved themselves had they gone this route?

Stay social my friends,

Erick

#Panera #brandidentity #socialmedia #businessmodel #marketing

Yesterday, I went to Panera Bread in Vista, CA. I’ve only been to about half a dozen of Panera’s 1300 US locations, but their Vista location is my favorite. I’ve also been to the original Panera in Boston, which is much more compact.

Every once in a while, I like to explore new places and find quaint coffee houses or cafés where I can sit and write, read, or just relax. For me, the quieter and roomier, allowing me to spread out my work, the better.

San Diegans are a laid back, casual group. When we go to Padres games, we don’t go expecting them to win the world series.  We go because Petco Park is one of the nicest baseball parks in the US, and it’s an enjoyable place to spend time with friends and family.  Likewise, when we go out to coffee, we go to relax.

I am not going to say Bostonians are not a laid back casual people, but Boston is a subways culture and San Diego is a beach culture.  That culture reflects well in the Panera Bread at Boston’s Coolidge Corner. That location, like many Boston cafés and coffee houses, is much more compact.

I prefer the more spacious Panera’s, cafés, and coffee houses of San Diego.  That’s probably because I’m a San Diegan. People who live in subway cultures, and are used to rubbing shoulders with other train riders, probably enjoy bumping elbows and getting into conversations with new friends at cafés and coffeehouses that cram as many tables and chairs into their establishment as possible.

When you’re writing content for your website or working on your company’s social media marketing plan, consider your audience. Sure, your clientele may consist of people from beach cultures, subway cultures, and various other subcultures, but they all have one thing in common—You.  And how you brand yourself and/or your business matters.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

The closer I come to the publishing side of my writing career, the more I think about the importance of a marketing plan.  And the more I ask myself if I should look for a traditional publisher, self-publish, publish on demand, or other.

I think I am a decent writer, and I am pretty confident I have a captivating story.  I have spent the last couple of years getting to know potential readers and people who could be helpful in the publishing process.  I even started SEO Bridges as a type of engine to help in the marketing process.

So, now that I am close to the publishing side of my writing career, it is not so much about gathering more logs for the fire.  Instead, it is about using those logs, and maybe some new ones along the way, to help me fan the flames.

So, how do I fan those flames?  Well, it’s all about having a marketing plan.  When I started working on this novel, I knew I would need to write well, have a captivating story, and market myself and my book.  The more and more serious I became about writing, the less and less people considered my endeavors wastes of time.  I’d tell them, “Writing is a business.”  The more business like I became, the less cynical they stayed.

Why am I telling you this?  Whether you’re writing a book, starting a business, or just living your life, you need a plan.  Know where you’re going, how you’re going to get there, and whom you can trust to help you along the way.  As the saying goes, “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”

Stay social my friends,

Erick

Our Free Search Guide lists 19 search factors users can use on Google to deliver more personalized results to save them time and money, increase their efficiency and profitability, and lead to better search and user experiences for everyone.  Google is the most popular website in the U.S., but so few people realize its absolute power.

The search factor we use the most is the “Related” factor.  If you find a site you like, and you want to find more like it, type “Related:http://www.anysite.com”.  Some of the results may have nothing to do with the original site, but the feature is meant to be like “Similar” button on your Google results page.

You can also use the “Related” factor to find similar sites with a specific features.  For instance, we wanted to find a site like Constant Contact that allowed us to keep in better touch with our friends and fans on Facebook.  We typed “Related:http://www.constantcontact.com Facebook,” and the first result was VerticalResponse.com.

We offer a personalized search engine on our Free Search Guide page.  For now, it is tailored to people who want to search for anything to do with SEO, Internet Marketing, Online Marketing, Technology, and other related searches.  We will update it within the next several weeks, and we’d love to know how we can make it more user friendly for you.  Of course, we may add another search engine or two for those users with different purposes.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

Traditional and social media marketing require brands to identify their audience and a common denominator within that audience.  Unlike television and other traditional forms of advertisements that are targeted to a specified group of people, blogs and articles are available to almost anyone, anywhere, at any time.  For that reason, the social media marketer must identify and identify with an active audience through social media monitoring.

The social media marketer must write and distribute authoritative information in order to attract an audience, and then they must continue to write and distribute authoritative information that is useful to their audience’s common denominator. The traditional marketer goes into an established culture, identifies an established common denominator, and integrates their message to appeal to those establishments.  The social media marketer must identify their attracted audience through social media monitoring and set themselves up as being the most useful brand by writing and distributing the most authoritative information.

Since the investment of traditional marketing is to identify with an established audience and appeal to the common denominator of that audience, the return on their investment is that they will become part of that audience.  Since social media marketing requires a social media marketer to attract an audience that can and does change, they must adapt their message to their audience’s whims.  So, what’s the difference in the returns?  Just as the investment of one is established and the other is changing, the return of one is established and the return of the other is changing.

In quantifiable terms, since the traditional marketer identifies an established audience and an established common denominator, the return eventually levels off into a predictable pattern within a set of measurable parameters.  The quantifiable measurement of social media marketing is that just as social media marketing must attract an audience and determine ever-changing common denominators, the return on the investment of social media marketing must be measured according to the whims of people, using social media monitoring.

Of course, there are exceptions to these rules, but in social media marketing the exception to the rule is the rule.

Here’s a few more social media monitoring services.

Infegy

• See who your brand influencers are
• Measure real-time results of any given topic or trend
• Experienced analysts will notify you via e-mail of changes in your brand’s message

Collective Intellect

• snippet-level analysis enables you to determine who your brands key influencers are
• Receive customizable alerts according to predetermined dimensions
• Receive reports that highlight key findings through social media metrics and qualitative analysis

Note: There are videos on their products page.

LogicBowl

• Logicbuzz tracks consumer generated content
• Logicbeep is a real-time online reputation management alert system that is available to any authorized person anywhere
• Logictrends monitors Web trends by monitoring search engines queries across various channels

Stay social,

Erick

Over the next three days, I’ll talk about using social media to listen to your audience, adjust your brand message, and stop crises from adversely affecting your brand.  Each day I’ll list a few services to help you in that process.

ViralHeat

• Discover new Twitter leads and potential Facebook fans
• Follow conversations about your brand or product as they happen
• Set up alerts that allow you to monitor your brand, topic, or product

Crimson Hexagon

• Measures statistical patterns in words used in blogs, forums, Tweets, etc.
• Monitor real-time, global conversations that affect your brand
• Monitor the ROI of online marketing and PR investment

There’s also a video on their site.

Visible Intelligence

• Monitor wikis, video sharing, and custom RSS feeds
• Monitor what people are saying in over 50 languages
• Monitor historical trends going back to 2005

Imagine paying thousands of dollars for an advertisement during the David Letterman Show. You can use a service like Nielsen Rating to conduct a study of your potential and actual audience based on demographics. The problem is that just because a certain population set’s televisions are on doesn’t mean they’re watching or paying attention to the commercial. Web analytics gets a little more personal, in that it not only allows you to monitor the segment of a given population that comes to your website, but you can also monitor things like bounce and click rate. Therein lies the problem that people Web surf like they channel surf. Social media monitoring allows you to identify specific people within a given population who engage with your message, how they engage with your message, whether or not they engage with your competitor’s message, and much more.

Traditional marketing measures potential ROI according to what has and has not worked. Web marketing measures potential ROI according to the Web statistics of anonymous users’ computers. Social media marketing monitors actual ROI according to the ability to engage with one’s audience through the social Web. While all three forms of marketing require financial and time investments, traditional marketing and Web marketing require greater financial investments, whereas social media marketing requires a greater time investment.

In many cases, people are so used to the greater financial investment of traditional and Web marketing that they can’t imagine that free or low-cost social media marketing would have long-term ROI.  Those who are skeptical of the value of using social media marketing must understand that since the values of the investments are different, the returns on those investments are also different.

Come back tomorrow, and I’ll tell you more about those differences.

Stay social,

Erick

Our Social Media Marketing (SMM) philosophy is to keep every interaction relevant, personal, and conversational.  Start by determining who your target audience is and focus your SMM endeavors on your target audience.

Once you determine who your target audience is, formulate a relevant message and stick to that message. One suggestion is to find useful blogs, articles, and other sources of information to Tweet or retweet.

Make your SMM personal by letting your audience see your real side, but don’t fall into the trap of sharing TMI (Too much information). I see too many people giving constant updates about where they are and what they are doing.  Unless you’re famous, no one cares.  And if they do care, you probably don’t want them to know that information.

Now, your conversational Tweets and other forms of virtual conversations, may not be relevant to everyone, but they will be relevant to the person you’re having a micro-conversation with.  Others will see you’re not just using Twitter or other platforms to send out advertisements, but that you’re trying to get to know your audience. Thank people who retweet you, interact with people who interact with you, answer questions, and get into conversations with people on the Web.

Whether you use our Social Media Marketing philosophy or one of your own, build your audience around that philosophy and brand yourself with that philosophy.  It will pay off in the end.

Go ahead and comment, Tweet me, or e-mail me.

Erick

I’m not a publisher, agent, or published author. I’m an aspiring author, who listens to the wisdom of those who have gone before him and pays attention to literary trends. With that said, please do not take this blog as authoritative or having come from first hand experience. Rather, take it as a student of the written word, passing on what he has learned to you.

Almost 40 years ago, Dan Poynter couldn’t find a publisher, so he went straight to the printer and started the trend of self-publishing. Four decades later, self-publishing and the Internet have led to e-publishing. Now, websites like FastPencil, iPadPublishing, and Blurb help people self-publish their books in paper or as e-books.

Over the last decade, because of social networking, it seems agents and publishers have turned their attention more toward finding marketable writers with compelling stories. And it seems the success of writers has been determined more by writers’ writing good content and reaching out to readers.

Now, the advent of e-books and e-publishing will cause a new literary trend. Self-publishing and e-publishing have lowered the publishing bar, and because of that people can’t assume a book is good simply because it has been published. They need to rely on that book’s content. But they won’t know anything about that book’s content unless others who have read that book give them their thoughts.

From my vantage point, I foresee e-publishing causing the roles of the writer, agent, publisher, and even reader to change.  Ever hear that saying, ‘Everyone’s a critic’? The role of the publisher and agent will merge into one marketing entity (publishing consultants). The writer will reach out and listen more to the reader through traditional and social media marketing. And the reader will become like the agent, reading critically, and passing on their opinions to other readers.

All of this means that rather than the writer trying to seek the approval of a few people in the publishing industry, they will have to find an audience and seek the approval of their audience. And as that author’s audience approves more and more or less and less, that author will need listen to their audience (or the lack thereof).  I foresee the writer’s insurmountable publishing mountain will become a daunting literary mine field. Tread carefully, fellow writer.

Whether you’re a writer, agent, publisher, or even a reader, I’d love to hear from you.  How do you think the advent of e-books and e-publishing will change the literary world? Do you think lowering the publishing bar will even the playing field, forcing writers to write more well-written content and compelling stories? Or, do you think a lower publishing standard will simply water down good content, allowing anyone to become an author? I encourage your thoughts.

For more on me and my literary endeavors, follow me on Twitter @ErickWrites, befriend me on Facebook, or just e-mail me and ask.

Erick