a really good day in SEM is

Karen    Uncategorized    

when all your stats come up roses!

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would you watch an advert only channel?

Karen    Uncategorized     advertising channel

Here’s a thought that popped into my head during a presentation the other day (I was listening, not presenting) … how paradigm shifting would it be if we put all the tv adverts on their own special channel?

So I did a little research and apparently a woman in the UK did exactly that – launched an advert only channel in 2004. Which seems to have disappeared with little trace and a placeholder website using her domain name.

Does that mean this is an idea with little merit? Or perhaps just that her timing was wrong … or the facts that she was under-resourced and had no television experience might have had something to do with it.

Why do I think it could be a good idea in the current environment? Because television channels are struggling to sell advertising space, devices like Tivo and MySky are making it a breeze to never watch another tv ad again … and yet there is a huge creative industry that is vested in making advertising.

Some of it now shows on YouTube of course … and the creatives get to make longer and more subtle ads in the hopes of them going viral. So perhaps there is a place to air the best of what is made – and a chance for us to view them in high-res, without waiting for endless buffering before we can appreciate the work that has gone into each one.

What I am thinking is, how many of our movie makers/directors/camera peeps etc etc got their starts making ads for the telly?? Many many I am sure, to say nothing of the employment and experience it provides for our actors who are struggling to make a living.

So if pay-TV is the model that is making money, while free to air is losing revenue on a daily basis … where to from here?

Of course, an advert only channel could also show those compilation programmes with the best of international advertising humour etc … there is plenty of scope to create interesting viewing.

Love to hear what you think- does this idea have legs in 2009??

Please comment below.

cheers

Karen

there’s a rooster on our back lawn!

Karen    Uncategorized    

no really, there was a rooster.

giant rooster on lawn

but it didn’t look quite like this.

It was a real one – my son sent me a text at work the other day saying “there’s a rooster on our lawn – wtf?” – lol!

I was slightly bemused, and had no idea where a rooster would have come from in suburban Christchurch.  About a week later I was hanging out the laundry and heard the unmistakeable sound of hens clucking someplace over the fence – so it would seem one of our neighbours has taken up the egg production business.

So next time the rooster turns up, a little bit of door-knocking should quickly solve the problem.

And the point of this post?

An eye-catching headline can work wonders!

Don’t be afraid to be creative and put it out there.

That’s all for tonight.

Ka kite ano (see you tomorrow).

Karen

But what about credibility?

Karen    Building trust, Uncategorized     awards, connection, credibility, testimonials, trust building

Well might you ask – over the years the catchwords of professionalism, credibility and reputation have all been very important in corporate communications in particular.

The words passion, dynamism, excitement, connection, engagement and fun seem a lot way away from the often stuffy world of corporate speak.

But finally companies are coming to realise that what readers/viewers connect with is real people – connecting the way real people connect.

Which is not through carefully selected sentences from the corporate phrase book. Stilted, formal, corporate brand speak that endeavours to never be personal, never be “inappropriate”.

But in reality, that kind of word-smithing takes the reader so far away from the humanity that should be behind it … if they even stick with it long enough to get the point.

Chances are that today’s readers will simply scan the words, not even try to understand, and move right along to something more engaging.

Because there is always something more engaging – be it a viral video, a i can haz cheezburger image, the next tweet popping up on the screen … or your competition, who have somehow managed to capture the essence of what they have to offer in a way that is far more dynamic and interesting than your approach.

So how do we build trust?

Ok, so if you shouldn’t be building reputation and trust through stuffy language, stilted layouts and anonymous photo library images, how do you do it?

Your potential clients need to know that other people have used your products and services, and that they got a good result. They were happy with your service and would recommend you to their friends, family and associates.

We are all very familiar with this formula by now. Amazon.com  and eBay were among the very first e-commerce sites to make it popular. It is the new democracy – the equalizer, particularly on the auction sites, where the opportunity exists to provide mutual feedback.

Whatever the structure, users of a service and consumers of a product now have the opportunity to share their experience with the whole world, but especially other potential consumers of that same product or service.

(Actually marketers have been using testimonials for many years, but the web makes it possible for those recommendations to be read by a massive audience, and for readers to dig down and find out much more about the recommenders than ever before.)

Which is great.

Especially great for you if what you are offering is up to scratch.

• So let’s assume that it is (and if it’s not, you are making your best efforts to get that issue sorted asap) … customer feedback, testimonials and case studies on your website are a great place to start building that trust.

• Awards for excellence, innovation, success are also great – make sure you have them up there. And if you don’t have any, think about entering ones in your industry sector.

• Stories from local media about your business doing well are also great ways to share a third party view of your company. Make sure you include a News section that not only has room for your own press releases, but also has room for you to put up any media mentions.

• Links to and from your site from other reputable sites are also valuable ways to build trust by association.

I am sure you can think of other ways to build trust on your site – pictures of your products/services being used in the real world; feedback widgets like Trip Advisor that give travellers the chance to give feedback on hospitality providers around the world; forums and blogs with commenting facilities and the chance to offer real time customer service through the net. So many different ways to demonstrate that people trust you, buy from you and come back again for more of your products and services.

Of course you don’t have to use them all, and you don’t have to put them all on your site right from day one. But there is a great selection here of ideas to get you started and give you something to work towards.

So tell me, if your site is already up and running – how do you build trust?

Karen

Welcome to my mind …

Karen    Uncategorized     awesome content, inspiration, SEO, website

Some of its inner workings at least.

For a long time I have been thinking about starting a blog that provides a chance to share some of the things I have learned along the way about marketing and communications.

For many years (I started in PR early in 1987) I struggled with the label PR consultant – and even after being their parent for 17 and 19 years, my sons still don’t really understand what a PR person actually does.

That’s because when a PR person is really doing their job well, they are invisible. Ironic really – biggest marketing problem you could ever have – no visibility. But, the fact that the industry survives and thrives is largely due to referrals between those businesspeople in the know. And these days, a lot more profile due to the fact that bloggers are now being exposed to the PR practitioners skills.

So one of the interesting things about transferring my skills to the world of SEO and online content is that to an extent, SEO is really the same. If you are doing it well, it is seamless and invisible to the casual viewer.

Ultimately, great SEO helps website owners create awesome content that naturally draws lots and lots of viewers, keeps them in the site for a while, encourages them to come back, and inspires them to recommend your site to other people.

That’s what works.

So what do you do as a business owner if you don’t have that kind of website?

My suggestion is to spend some time with yourself (and your business partner/s, senior staff, stakeholders) really thinking about what it is that inspires you about your business. What keeps you in the game, what do you have to offer your clients or customers on a daily basis?

Once you have worked that out – and you might record it in pictures (of happy, excited customers perhaps), words, video or audio … then it’s time to really get creative about how to instil that inspirational content into your website.

If you are excited about what you have to offer, then other people will pick up on that if you communicate it well.

Thing is, communicating something exciting is hard to do with words alone.  The more ways you can convey that excitement via your website, the better.

• Think tangible.
• Think interactive.
• Think compelling images that are worth more than thousands of words.
• Then find the right web maestros to help you make that happen.

Get it done, then keep feeding it with your personal source of excitement and inspiration. Don’t just put it out there and forget about it. Treat your website like your children – it needs your care and attention every day.

Whew!

So that’s it.

My first post in Stream of Consciousness SEO … and it was!

Look forward to streaming some more with you very soon.

Karen