EdgeRank. It’s a mythical beast in many ways, not because it isn’t real but because it is very misunderstood by many. It’s one of those things that makes total sense once you get it but that can be very misleading before the light bulb ignites.

The basic way to understand it in one sentence is this – when your content gets positive engagement, it can be seen by more people, but when it gets negative sentiment, it gets hidden. There is a science behind it but that’s not really necessary for success. When you post good content and the people that do get to see it interact in a positive manner, the chance that others will see it too goes up. The opposite is true as well.

This is where posting the right content and “earning” the right for your business to market on Facebook comes into play. Some will say that Facebook can only be used as a branding tool, that if you focus on putting out high-quality content and never actually talk about the business, that you’ll get the maximum benefit. It’s a fair strategy, a safe on, but not necessarily the best, particularly for local businesses. A good mix of engaging content with marketing material mixed in is the best strategy, but that takes more than a blog post or an infographic to explain fully.

In the meantime, here’s an interesting infographic by PostRocket to get you started.

* * *

“Hidden Under Hat” image courtesy of Shutterstock.

… you should only care about the ones that can buy from you.

With global brands, it’s a different story, but when we’re talking about localized businesses trying to use social media to make an impact, the community itself is all that’s important. In fact, having too many fans outside of your market area can actually do more harm than good.

This hasn’t always been the case. There was a time a couple of years ago when it made some sense to go big, to build a strong fan base on Facebook or to accumulate followers from around the world on Twitter. Those days are well behind us, particularly with Facebook. Quality trumps quantity by a mile when it comes to Facebook for local businesses. This isn’t even really debatable anymore, but for those who aren’t sure, here are some reasons for this which we’ll be covering one by one in future blog posts:

• Local Interaction Boosts Local Interaction
• You Probably Can’t Sell to Someone in Jakarta
• Don’t Take Away Your Most Reliable Facebook Tool
• A Robust Page is Tight, Not Spread Out
• When You’re Ready to Truly Market on Social, You’ll Want to be Localized

We’ll be covering these each in detail, but let’s start in this blog post with the first point…

Local Interaction Boosts Local Interaction

It’s not double talk. A car dealer that has local fans as the vast majority of their following will be more easily able to get interactions on their social media profiles because they have the opportunity to take advantage of their localized content. In the example above, this stunning image of Honolulu posted on a Honolulu dealership’s Facebook page was able to get traction quickly because it resonated with their fans. This page is one that started off with 27 fans, a perfect scenario for a managed account that was pushed up with local Facebook ads only.

As a result, their fans are hyper-targeted for the local area. The post was promoted, but I’m actually regretting making that decision because it appears as if it had the merits to stand on its own. With 18 likes in 23 minutes on a page with just over 1000 fans, it’s clear that the bump (small as it has been in the early stages of the campaign) wasn’t necessary.

Don’t forget, Facebook works on an algorithm based upon actions and relationships. The actions that it takes into account are these:

• Positive: People “talking about” a post through likes, comments, and shares
• Positive: People interacting with a post by clicking on the image, video, link, or post permalink
• Slightly Negative: People seeing a post in their news feed and not interacting with it at all
• Very Negative: People reporting, unliking, or hiding a post or page

The relationships component comes into play with the users themselves. It’s a pretty complex algorithm, but the concept can be broken down pretty easily. If Sally likes a post from a local business and Suzie likes a lot of the things that Sally likes and posts, Suzie can be exposed to the content that Sally likes. This is the “viral” component that’s shown in the stat graphic above and it’s one of the most important reasons that you want localized fans. In this example, Sally lives in Honolulu and liked the post. Suzie also lives in Honolulu (as do 64% of Sally’s friends) and sees the image. As a local, she’s more inclined to like it as well.

When you keep your fans local, you’re able to get the benefit of familiarity and focus your posts on things that will be of interest to the local market. When you expand and have pages that are too far outside of the realm association with the local market, you can hurt even the interactions within the community. In the example above, it’s possible that Sally liked the image, but if there were thousands of non-local fans who liked the page but fell into the most likely scenario of negative interaction above – seeing posts and passing them by – then it’s very possible that Sally’s algorithmic boost that exposed the content to Suzie could get superseded by the other fans whose negative effect on the algorithm pushed the content down further on news feeds. In essence, too many fans who don’t really care about your local business area can keep the locals from seeing the posts at all.

Many businesses that start using social media for marketing do so because of the sheer bulk of the various networks. They demand a lot of time and attention of potential customers and just as television advertising works because people are watching it, social media marketing works because people are using it. However, do not get caught up in size issues. Your local business needs to stay as local as possible on social media. Arguments to the contrary are invalid.

… you should only care about the ones that can buy from you.

With global brands, it’s a different story, but when we’re talking about localized businesses trying to use social media to make an impact, the community itself is all that’s important. In fact, having too many fans outside of your market area can actually do more harm than good.

This hasn’t always been the case. There was a time a couple of years ago when it made some sense to go big, to build a strong fan base on Facebook or to accumulate followers from around the world on Twitter. Those days are well behind us, particularly with Facebook. Quality trumps quantity by a mile when it comes to Facebook for local businesses. This isn’t even really debatable anymore, but for those who aren’t sure, here are some reasons for this which we’ll be covering one by one in future blog posts:

• Local Interaction Boosts Local Interaction
• You Probably Can’t Sell to Someone in Jakarta
• Don’t Take Away Your Most Reliable Facebook Tool
• A Robust Page is Tight, Not Spread Out
• When You’re Ready to Truly Market on Social, You’ll Want to be Localized

We’ll be covering these each in detail, but let’s start in this blog post with the first point…

Local Interaction Boosts Local Interaction

It’s not double talk. A car dealer that has local fans as the vast majority of their following will be more easily able to get interactions on their social media profiles because they have the opportunity to take advantage of their localized content. In the example above, this stunning image of Honolulu posted on a Honolulu dealership’s Facebook page was able to get traction quickly because it resonated with their fans. This page is one that started off with 27 fans, a perfect scenario for a managed account that was pushed up with local Facebook ads only.

As a result, their fans are hyper-targeted for the local area. The post was promoted, but I’m actually regretting making that decision because it appears as if it had the merits to stand on its own. With 18 likes in 23 minutes on a page with just over 1000 fans, it’s clear that the bump (small as it has been in the early stages of the campaign) wasn’t necessary.

Don’t forget, Facebook works on an algorithm based upon actions and relationships. The actions that it takes into account are these:

• Positive: People “talking about” a post through likes, comments, and shares
• Positive: People interacting with a post by clicking on the image, video, link, or post permalink
• Slightly Negative: People seeing a post in their news feed and not interacting with it at all
• Very Negative: People reporting, unliking, or hiding a post or page

The relationships component comes into play with the users themselves. It’s a pretty complex algorithm, but the concept can be broken down pretty easily. If Sally likes a post from a local business and Suzie likes a lot of the things that Sally likes and posts, Suzie can be exposed to the content that Sally likes. This is the “viral” component that’s shown in the stat graphic above and it’s one of the most important reasons that you want localized fans. In this example, Sally lives in Honolulu and liked the post. Suzie also lives in Honolulu (as do 64% of Sally’s friends) and sees the image. As a local, she’s more inclined to like it as well.

When you keep your fans local, you’re able to get the benefit of familiarity and focus your posts on things that will be of interest to the local market. When you expand and have pages that are too far outside of the realm association with the local market, you can hurt even the interactions within the community. In the example above, it’s possible that Sally liked the image, but if there were thousands of non-local fans who liked the page but fell into the most likely scenario of negative interaction above – seeing posts and passing them by – then it’s very possible that Sally’s algorithmic boost that exposed the content to Suzie could get superseded by the other fans whose negative effect on the algorithm pushed the content down further on news feeds. In essence, too many fans who don’t really care about your local business area can keep the locals from seeing the posts at all.

Many businesses that start using social media for marketing do so because of the sheer bulk of the various networks. They demand a lot of time and attention of potential customers and just as television advertising works because people are watching it, social media marketing works because people are using it. However, do not get caught up in size issues. Your local business needs to stay as local as possible on social media. Arguments to the contrary are invalid.

Facebook has been a promising venue through which to market a dealership ever since it reached a high level of popularity back in 2008. Back then, it was just breaking the hundred million user level and was showing signs that it would be able to be business-friendly in contrast to its rival MySpace. Now, it’s 10 times bigger and commands more time of humans than any other website.

The problem is that it’s not the easiest marketing platform to master. Unlike Google, Twitter, and other players that are used on a daily basis, Facebook has algorithms that keep dealers from finding success. Google has an algorithm, of course, but because people go to it to find businesses, they make it very easy for those willing to pay money or play by the optimization rules to get the exposure they need. On Facebook, users aren’t going there to engage with businesses so trying to “sneak in” marketing and advertising is an act that goes contrary to the desires of the users. This is why the algorithm can be so harsh.

It’s difficult, but it’s not impossible. There is plenty of advice on the internet that tells businesses and marketers how to have success on Facebook. Unfortunately, some of it is poor advice. Others are simply antiquated. Most make general assumptions. There aren’t very many specifics that small businesses can use to make an impact.

The best way for a local business to move the needle is to get to a point of local exposure and built up trust that allows them to give their marketing messages exposure and that promotes communication with customers and potential customers through the network itself. Accomplishing this takes a process.

The first three steps in the process are the easiest, the ones that can all be described in a single blog post. The stages beyond the first three get much more complex, not because they’re so much harder but because they become very specific to the goals of the dealership as well as the personality of the team. We can’t go into those, but the first three should be enough to get you going:

1. Grow locally

Here’s the bad news. If you have accumulated a ton of fans outside of your market area, there’s a good chance that you’ll have to dump everyone and start over. It’s not fun. It’s not easy (unless your following is so extended that you have to delete the page altogether and start from scratch – that’s easy). It can be one of the most gut-wrenching decisions you’ll ever make pertaining to your social media marketing, particularly if you’ve been doing it for years. All that effort, wasted. It hurts.

The good news is that building back up from scratch isn’t as hard as most think. It requires money – Facebook advertising is the best way to get a local following built up – but not much. Many businesses are already through this stage and can boast having a mostly-localized following. Regardless of how you get there, this is the first step – get your following up to acceptable level.

2. Get engagement

This is always the scariest piece of advice and the most challenging stage to implement. First, the term “engagement” is so overused and misunderstood. To so many, it means cats. The internet is loaded with cats. People post pictures of cats all the time. It seems like a great place to start.

On a local business page, there should be no cats allowed unless you’re building a page for a veterinarian.

Every business has some sort of relevant content that can be posted. No business is so boring that they can’t find interesting things to post that pertain to what they do. This is paramount – car dealers should be posting cars, automotive tips, and localized events because that’s what the people who liked their page expect. There’s no need to get too clever. Strong content doesn’t have to be contrived. It doesn’t have to be shared from George Takei’s awesome Facebook page.

Keep it organic. Keep it real. Keep it relevant. Your fans will like it and become engaged (whatever that really means).

3. Earn the right to market

There was a question asked on a forum about how to judge success on a Facebook page. They had built up to a nice number of fans. Their fans were mostly localized. They had engaging content on the page (though there were some cat-like posts that we don’t recommend, but otherwise it wasn’t bad). Now, they wanted to see where the ROI was.

Unfortunately, there was none, at least not that was noticeable. They had made it through to stage three but hadn’t taken it to the next level.

Facebook users aren’t as silly as we often believe. They don’t like a local business page without the understanding that they’ll likely see some marketing materials cross their feed from time to time. If they don’t want the marketing content, they wouldn’t like a business in the first place.

Some take this to the extreme and post only marketing stuff. This is a huge mistake based upon what was mentioned above – the algorithm. Marketing content does not perform very well under most circumstances, so having only marketing content won’t work. You’ll lose fans. You’ll move down in the news feed based upon poor EdgeRank. You’ll be broadcasting messages that nobody will ever see.

In stage three, local businesses have to earn the right to post marketing content by doing a couple of things. First, they have to be very proficient at step 2 and have an audience that is engaged. Then, they have to craft their marketing content in a way that can get the message out there while doing minimal damage to EdgeRank or following. There is no way to post marketing content that won’t turn some people off. You simply want to minimize the damage. Done right, there are more positive effects to EdgeRank from the right marketing material than any of the negatives that are bound to happen.

It must be timed appropriately. That timing is based upon the activities on the page on a regular basis, but the right mix of conversational and converting content should be worked in. Too much and you lose too many fans. Too little and there’s no ROI. Finding the right mix is the key and it’s something that must be diagnosed on an individual basis rather than prompted in a blog post.

* * *

These are just the first three stages. There are more, but again they are really dependent on more factors than that can be described in a post. Whatever you do, don’t jump ahead. Engaging content is worthless if you have 20 fans. Marketing content is worthless if you have the fans but they’re not engaged. If you start here, you can get to the next level which is true return on investment. You have to start somewhere.

Facebook has been a promising venue through which to market a dealership ever since it reached a high level of popularity back in 2008. Back then, it was just breaking the hundred million user level and was showing signs that it would be able to be business-friendly in contrast to its rival MySpace. Now, it’s 10 times bigger and commands more time of humans than any other website.

The problem is that it’s not the easiest marketing platform to master. Unlike Google, Twitter, and other players that are used on a daily basis, Facebook has algorithms that keep dealers from finding success. Google has an algorithm, of course, but because people go to it to find businesses, they make it very easy for those willing to pay money or play by the optimization rules to get the exposure they need. On Facebook, users aren’t going there to engage with businesses so trying to “sneak in” marketing and advertising is an act that goes contrary to the desires of the users. This is why the algorithm can be so harsh.

It’s difficult, but it’s not impossible. There is plenty of advice on the internet that tells businesses and marketers how to have success on Facebook. Unfortunately, some of it is poor advice. Others are simply antiquated. Most make general assumptions. There aren’t very many specifics that small businesses can use to make an impact.

The best way for a local business to move the needle is to get to a point of local exposure and built up trust that allows them to give their marketing messages exposure and that promotes communication with customers and potential customers through the network itself. Accomplishing this takes a process.

The first three steps in the process are the easiest, the ones that can all be described in a single blog post. The stages beyond the first three get much more complex, not because they’re so much harder but because they become very specific to the goals of the dealership as well as the personality of the team. We can’t go into those, but the first three should be enough to get you going:

1. Grow locally

Here’s the bad news. If you have accumulated a ton of fans outside of your market area, there’s a good chance that you’ll have to dump everyone and start over. It’s not fun. It’s not easy (unless your following is so extended that you have to delete the page altogether and start from scratch – that’s easy). It can be one of the most gut-wrenching decisions you’ll ever make pertaining to your social media marketing, particularly if you’ve been doing it for years. All that effort, wasted. It hurts.

The good news is that building back up from scratch isn’t as hard as most think. It requires money – Facebook advertising is the best way to get a local following built up – but not much. Many businesses are already through this stage and can boast having a mostly-localized following. Regardless of how you get there, this is the first step – get your following up to acceptable level.

2. Get engagement

This is always the scariest piece of advice and the most challenging stage to implement. First, the term “engagement” is so overused and misunderstood. To so many, it means cats. The internet is loaded with cats. People post pictures of cats all the time. It seems like a great place to start.

On a local business page, there should be no cats allowed unless you’re building a page for a veterinarian.

Every business has some sort of relevant content that can be posted. No business is so boring that they can’t find interesting things to post that pertain to what they do. This is paramount – car dealers should be posting cars, automotive tips, and localized events because that’s what the people who liked their page expect. There’s no need to get too clever. Strong content doesn’t have to be contrived. It doesn’t have to be shared from George Takei’s awesome Facebook page.

Keep it organic. Keep it real. Keep it relevant. Your fans will like it and become engaged (whatever that really means).

3. Earn the right to market

There was a question asked on a forum about how to judge success on a Facebook page. They had built up to a nice number of fans. Their fans were mostly localized. They had engaging content on the page (though there were some cat-like posts that we don’t recommend, but otherwise it wasn’t bad). Now, they wanted to see where the ROI was.

Unfortunately, there was none, at least not that was noticeable. They had made it through to stage three but hadn’t taken it to the next level.

Facebook users aren’t as silly as we often believe. They don’t like a local business page without the understanding that they’ll likely see some marketing materials cross their feed from time to time. If they don’t want the marketing content, they wouldn’t like a business in the first place.

Some take this to the extreme and post only marketing stuff. This is a huge mistake based upon what was mentioned above – the algorithm. Marketing content does not perform very well under most circumstances, so having only marketing content won’t work. You’ll lose fans. You’ll move down in the news feed based upon poor EdgeRank. You’ll be broadcasting messages that nobody will ever see.

In stage three, local businesses have to earn the right to post marketing content by doing a couple of things. First, they have to be very proficient at step 2 and have an audience that is engaged. Then, they have to craft their marketing content in a way that can get the message out there while doing minimal damage to EdgeRank or following. There is no way to post marketing content that won’t turn some people off. You simply want to minimize the damage. Done right, there are more positive effects to EdgeRank from the right marketing material than any of the negatives that are bound to happen.

It must be timed appropriately. That timing is based upon the activities on the page on a regular basis, but the right mix of conversational and converting content should be worked in. Too much and you lose too many fans. Too little and there’s no ROI. Finding the right mix is the key and it’s something that must be diagnosed on an individual basis rather than prompted in a blog post.

* * *

These are just the first three stages. There are more, but again they are really dependent on more factors than that can be described in a post. Whatever you do, don’t jump ahead. Engaging content is worthless if you have 20 fans. Marketing content is worthless if you have the fans but they’re not engaged. If you start here, you can get to the next level which is true return on investment. You have to start somewhere.

The statistic or something similar to it has dominated the sales pitches and marketing materials of search engine optimization companies for a very long time. I just saw a mention of it in an article from 2005 and it’s been reiterated again and again ever since. Nearly every study seems to come to the same conclusion. Nearly every study is wrong, at least from a business perspective.

If you torture statistics long enough, you can make them say anything you want. I could go into a long-winded breakdown of why this is a completely bogus statistic, but I’m going to appeal to common sense instead. If you take a second to think about it, the reality of search engine optimization becomes very clear.

If you include all searches, the number is probably accurate. The problem is that the majority of searches should not be considered when judging the importance of the top ranking in Google. They aren’t the type of keywords that need to be optimized. For example, the top keyword for 2012 was “Facebook”. It was searched for over 3 billion times a month in 2012. People wanted to go to Facebook, so they searched for it in Google. It’s the safest way to avoid the challenges of typos that take you to the wrong place, so they search for it. Guess what the first listing is for that keyword? What percentage of those 3 billion monthly searches do you think clicked on the top listing?

The second most searched keyword was “YouTube”, followed by “Hotmail”, and then “Google” (yes, people searched for Google in Google). Again, the top listing gets the lion’s share of those searches.

From a business perspective, the top keyword for the vast majority of companies will be by name. People who do a search for Dell with find dell.com at the top and that’s exactly what they’re going to click. People who search for “Richmond Ford” were looking for Richmond Ford and will click on the top listing which is.

The other searches, the important ones that people type in when they’re looking for something other than a specific company or website, are the money terms. They’re the ones that you will want to rank for in order to drive additional traffic to you website. These are the searches that drive down the numbers from being so high (near 100% when people do a search for Hotmail, for example) all the way down to 42%. Why? Because when people do these types of searches, they’re looking for choices. They’re not looking for a single website in particular. They’re looking for the right website. They will scan the listing and pick out pages that seem to match their needs.

People who are searching for “Richmond Ford” know what they want. People searching for “Virginia Ford Dealers” want options. It’s easy for richmondford.com to rank at the top for “Richmond Ford”, but the ability to rank at the top for “Virginia Ford Dealers” is the key to moving the needle. For those searches, the top listing does not get 42% of the clicks. The top listing gets more than the second listing, which gets more than the third listing, which gets much more than the fourth and fifth listings, which get much more than the next five listings. I’m not saying that being at the top isn’t important.

I’m saying that the right search strategy for the majority of businesses that have a diverse range of keywords that can drive relevant traffic to their site is to get the top spot for as many keywords as possible, but also top 3 listings for other keywords and even top 5 listings for others. Getting more keywords is more important than getting the top listing for fewer keywords.

The same effort that it takes to get the top listing for a challenging but semi-relevant keyword can be used to get top 3 or top 5 listings for dozens of other keywords. This is where the needle is moved. This is where the traffic is increased. Once the wide strategy is in place, it’s good to go back and move them up even further, but don’t get hung up on getting the top listing for single keywords. It’s good for ego but not necessarily for traffic.

The statistic or something similar to it has dominated the sales pitches and marketing materials of search engine optimization companies for a very long time. I just saw a mention of it in an article from 2005 and it’s been reiterated again and again ever since. Nearly every study seems to come to the same conclusion. Nearly every study is wrong, at least from a business perspective.

If you torture statistics long enough, you can make them say anything you want. I could go into a long-winded breakdown of why this is a completely bogus statistic, but I’m going to appeal to common sense instead. If you take a second to think about it, the reality of search engine optimization becomes very clear.

If you include all searches, the number is probably accurate. The problem is that the majority of searches should not be considered when judging the importance of the top ranking in Google. They aren’t the type of keywords that need to be optimized. For example, the top keyword for 2012 was “Facebook”. It was searched for over 3 billion times a month in 2012. People wanted to go to Facebook, so they searched for it in Google. It’s the safest way to avoid the challenges of typos that take you to the wrong place, so they search for it. Guess what the first listing is for that keyword? What percentage of those 3 billion monthly searches do you think clicked on the top listing?

The second most searched keyword was “YouTube”, followed by “Hotmail”, and then “Google” (yes, people searched for Google in Google). Again, the top listing gets the lion’s share of those searches.

From a business perspective, the top keyword for the vast majority of companies will be by name. People who do a search for Dell with find dell.com at the top and that’s exactly what they’re going to click. People who search for “Richmond Ford” were looking for Richmond Ford and will click on the top listing which is.

The other searches, the important ones that people type in when they’re looking for something other than a specific company or website, are the money terms. They’re the ones that you will want to rank for in order to drive additional traffic to you website. These are the searches that drive down the numbers from being so high (near 100% when people do a search for Hotmail, for example) all the way down to 42%. Why? Because when people do these types of searches, they’re looking for choices. They’re not looking for a single website in particular. They’re looking for the right website. They will scan the listing and pick out pages that seem to match their needs.

People who are searching for “Richmond Ford” know what they want. People searching for “Virginia Ford Dealers” want options. It’s easy for richmondford.com to rank at the top for “Richmond Ford”, but the ability to rank at the top for “Virginia Ford Dealers” is the key to moving the needle. For those searches, the top listing does not get 42% of the clicks. The top listing gets more than the second listing, which gets more than the third listing, which gets much more than the fourth and fifth listings, which get much more than the next five listings. I’m not saying that being at the top isn’t important.

I’m saying that the right search strategy for the majority of businesses that have a diverse range of keywords that can drive relevant traffic to their site is to get the top spot for as many keywords as possible, but also top 3 listings for other keywords and even top 5 listings for others. Getting more keywords is more important than getting the top listing for fewer keywords.

The same effort that it takes to get the top listing for a challenging but semi-relevant keyword can be used to get top 3 or top 5 listings for dozens of other keywords. This is where the needle is moved. This is where the traffic is increased. Once the wide strategy is in place, it’s good to go back and move them up even further, but don’t get hung up on getting the top listing for single keywords. It’s good for ego but not necessarily for traffic.

Let’s first take a moment to let the cover image of this story wear off a bit. It’s pretty freaky, I know. Once that’s done, let’s talk about how the evolution of search marketing has come to the point that we need to use freaky images to get your attention.

SEO and PPC are very different which is why for years it has been okay to have one company running one and another company running the other. They have always been complementary of each other but they didn’t necessarily have to talk to each other. The separation between paid and organic has for some time been considered a positive – trying to do both is hard because of the potential conflict in strategy and purpose.

Things have changed in 2013. The two must talk to each other. Whether it’s two different companies working each separately or through a single company that handles both with different departments, the best way to have a solid search marketing strategy is by making sure that efforts on both fronts are truly working together. When done properly, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Here’s why:

• PPC Focus on Organic Weaknesses – SEO takes time. PPC is instant. When there are important keywords that are lagging from an organic perspective, the fastest way to bridge the gap is through PPC.
• Organic Cannibalization – This is a debate that I would love to have with any search professional. If you’re ranked at the top organically for a mid-level search term, you don’t need to pay as much for it (or even buy it at all). Studies have shown that for the types of mid-level search terms that garner clicks based upon choice rather than position, PPC can take organic clicks away and yield the same basic results as not buying that keyword in the first place. In other words, the money is spent but the clicks don’t measurably increase. There is a very specific strategy behind identifying these types of keywords that would take more than this blog post to flesh out, but when the two sides are communicating, money is saved on the same number of clicks. In essence, ROI goes up as a result.
• Double Down Principle – There are certain keywords with which it makes sense to dominate from both a paid and organic perspective. This is where having a shared understanding of the analytics driving both comes into play. For example, is a page ranks at the top organically, a consolidated strategy would have the paid listing pointing to a different landing page. When people click through to one, then the other, they’re greeted with two different types of propositions.
• Rightsized Budgets – This is arguably the most important reason to have organic and paid talking to each other, even being the same entity. There are times when services should compete, but this isn’t one of those times. When the dollars are being managed separately, both sides want more of the budget to prove success. When the budgets are consolidated, the goals align to achieve the most high-value clicks for the amount of money being spent regardless of which hand is doing the spending. It’s the best path to achieve the highest ROI on search marketing spend.

Take a look at your paid and organic search companies. Are they talking to each other? Are either saying that they don’t need to talk to the other because they work independently? If so, it may be time to look at someone else because that sort of thinking is antiquated. Get the two hands talking to each other as soon as possible.

Let’s first take a moment to let the cover image of this story wear off a bit. It’s pretty freaky, I know. Once that’s done, let’s talk about how the evolution of search marketing has come to the point that we need to use freaky images to get your attention.

SEO and PPC are very different which is why for years it has been okay to have one company running one and another company running the other. They have always been complementary of each other but they didn’t necessarily have to talk to each other. The separation between paid and organic has for some time been considered a positive – trying to do both is hard because of the potential conflict in strategy and purpose.

Things have changed in 2013. The two must talk to each other. Whether it’s two different companies working each separately or through a single company that handles both with different departments, the best way to have a solid search marketing strategy is by making sure that efforts on both fronts are truly working together. When done properly, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Here’s why:

• PPC Focus on Organic Weaknesses – SEO takes time. PPC is instant. When there are important keywords that are lagging from an organic perspective, the fastest way to bridge the gap is through PPC.
• Organic Cannibalization – This is a debate that I would love to have with any search professional. If you’re ranked at the top organically for a mid-level search term, you don’t need to pay as much for it (or even buy it at all). Studies have shown that for the types of mid-level search terms that garner clicks based upon choice rather than position, PPC can take organic clicks away and yield the same basic results as not buying that keyword in the first place. In other words, the money is spent but the clicks don’t measurably increase. There is a very specific strategy behind identifying these types of keywords that would take more than this blog post to flesh out, but when the two sides are communicating, money is saved on the same number of clicks. In essence, ROI goes up as a result.
• Double Down Principle – There are certain keywords with which it makes sense to dominate from both a paid and organic perspective. This is where having a shared understanding of the analytics driving both comes into play. For example, is a page ranks at the top organically, a consolidated strategy would have the paid listing pointing to a different landing page. When people click through to one, then the other, they’re greeted with two different types of propositions.
• Rightsized Budgets – This is arguably the most important reason to have organic and paid talking to each other, even being the same entity. There are times when services should compete, but this isn’t one of those times. When the dollars are being managed separately, both sides want more of the budget to prove success. When the budgets are consolidated, the goals align to achieve the most high-value clicks for the amount of money being spent regardless of which hand is doing the spending. It’s the best path to achieve the highest ROI on search marketing spend.

Take a look at your paid and organic search companies. Are they talking to each other? Are either saying that they don’t need to talk to the other because they work independently? If so, it may be time to look at someone else because that sort of thinking is antiquated. Get the two hands talking to each other as soon as possible.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's the main point, but it's definitely one of the keys. Exposure on social media is an extremely high-potential benefit of having a strong presence on social media sites, particularly Facebook.

There has been a lot of talk lately about social signals for SEO purposes. This is another key, but it's completely separate from getting exposure. There are other key points and goals - driving foot traffic, driving website traffic, and having a proper communication and reputation management tool are just some of the others. Today, we're talking about exposure. It's the one thing that has been very commonly used in the past by many dealers but it's also something that some have fallen away from in recent months.

In many ways, social media is like television. People don't go there to hear about car dealers, to see the brand, or to hear about the big sale this weekend, but that doesn't mean that the message doesn't reach them. Unlike television, there are algorithms in place to help or hurt your exposure. This is where managing your social media for the sake of exposure comes in very handy. When done right, a dealership can get exposure and help to improve their EdgeRank at the same time. Here are some of the things that you can do to make it easier.

Post Good Content

It sounds simple, but so many dealers and businesses in general simply aren't posting good content. In the car business, it's easy to find good content. We're surrounded by it at the dealership. We're exposed to it all the time on social media itself. It makes the news, fills thousands of blogs, and is the central topic of tons of videos that are posted every day. There's no reason to not be able to find strong automotive content to post on social media.

Local content can be good as well when done right. You have things happening in your community right now. You have places that make for amazing photographs or stunning videos.

The biggest challenge that some face is repetition. Depending on who you're using as a social media partner or the tastes of the people at the dealership who are doing the posting, it's very possible that the content getting posted is good but common. We've seen some vendors that will go so far as to post the same content to multiple dealership pages. This is just lazy. It doesn't have to be absolutely unique, but it shouldn't be so common that everyone has already seen it.

Keep it Steady but Don't Overload

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when social media gurus were recommending posting every single day no matter what. Many have changed tunes do to research, experimentation, and simple trial and error. Today, it's very possible to get a good bump on Facebook exposure without posting more than 2 or 3 things a week.

That's not what I'm recommending. I just want you to know that it can be done and works just fine. Ideally, you're able to post enough on a daily basis at the right pace based upon your fan engagement to get a strong momentum boost going with EdgeRank. However, if you don't have that boost, if you're not gaining momentum, it's better to slow down than speed up. Posting too much can do more harm than not posting enough.

Play in Other Yards

This is something that nobody's really doing. Sure, there might be a few, but for the most part Facebook pages are only interacting with those who are posting to their page. An easy way to get the brand out there, build interaction, and participate in the community is to venture forth onto other pages on Facebook and interact.

Sincerity is key. You do not want to like, share, or comment on local pages without a strong and valid reason. Interacting for the sake of interacting is easy to sniff out, so make sure that if you're representing the dealership with a like or comment on someone's Facebook post, you really mean it.

This helps in that it allows your brand to spread to people other than your fans and friends of fans. It's an ultra-simple way to separate your dealership from your competitors because nobody is doing it.

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There are plenty of ways to gain exposure through social media that we haven't talked about here. Think quality over quantity. Think sincerity over automation. If you do it the right way, you'll get the same type of benefit that you get from television at pennies on the dollar.