CHAPTER 14

Optimize and Socialize: Processes and Training

With a solid content marketing strategy and tactical mix in place, it’s time to think about how to integrate an “optimize and socialize” approach into your overall online marketing program. Many companies start content-focused SEO and social media marketing efforts within specific departments like marketing or public relations. For larger organizations, a particular business unit or division might serve as a test case. Regardless of where you start, once those initial efforts are under way, the next step is to gain broader adoption and momentum by understanding how to incorporate social media marketing and SEO best practices with your company’s overall online content-creation efforts.

When supporting your company’s resources for implementing a scalable “optimize and socialize” content marketing approach, consider the following: (1) where SEO and social media optimization fit within the content planning and publishing process and (2) the social media and SEO skills of content creators.

We’ve identified a number of processes and best practices in both phase 1 (planning) and phase 2 (implementation) of optimization. In this chapter, I will expand on several of those processes as they might apply to a few different situations. I also explore implications for training:

SMALL BUSINESS: NO TIME FOR CONTENT

Tom started his own video game accessories business five years ago and has enjoyed steady, yet modest, growth despite a fluctuating economic environment. Tom is a very hands-on boss with his small business and is doing most of the marketing himself, through his website, which attracts about 75 percent of the orders. He also manages an e-mail list and does some pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which contributes to the remaining new business. Tom has tried starting and maintaining a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and several industry forums, but his time available for social networking has been reduced considerably. As a former corporate marketer, Tom realizes the importance of content for his website as well as a social presence. However, he simply doesn’t have the time or resources . . . or so he thinks.

Recommendations for Tom’s Video Game Accessories Business

If Tom plans to continue to perform the marketing tasks for his small business himself, he’ll want to be more intentional about how he uses his website to reach ideal customer segments instead of simply maintaining the site with content about products and services. Paying an outside resource to conduct an audit of his website and online marketing efforts may be a consideration. With a road map in place that identifies goals, key customer segments, and what motivates them to engage and buy, Tom can prioritize his time to work efficiently with the highest impact.

For the sake of this example, let’s say Tom has determined to focus his efforts on content that answers key questions his ideal customers ask during the consideration and decision portions of the buying cycle. Knowing that it would be very difficult to achieve industry authority for generic search terms and social topics, Tom decides to capture prospective customers with content that answers important prerequisite questions before purchase. Tom’s online marketing audit has identified search keywords and social topics as well as the content types and formats that will best attract, engage, and inspire his ideal prospective customers. With a more intentional plan in place, he understands what types of content he’ll need to create and the channels where that content should be visible in order to attract the right customers.

Training

Tom will need to consider his current skills and what he’ll need to know in order to make better choices in regard to content planning, optimization, social promotion, and measurement. For example, if the audit indicates customers will be motivated by video content, then he’ll want to brush up on his video editing skills or find a reasonable vendor he can outsource to. If Tom has other employees that have product expertise, he’ll want to offer some kind of training in order for them to help with SEO copywriting, social network development, and engaging with customers on industry forums and social networks. One of the most important online marketing training investments Tom could make is with social media monitoring and web analytics. Google offers free online classes with Google Analytics that can be a great way to build a foundation for understanding how people find and engage with content on his website. A simple social media–monitoring tool like Trackur could give Tom a quick heads-up whenever the gaming community mentions his products or talks about his company.

Process

An editorial plan that is thoughtful about customer needs and pain points will be instrumental for Tom’s content-creation effectiveness, in both the short and long term. He can identify what content will be created and by whom, and he can determine the particular media formats to use. Content repurposing can be planned out with his customer e-mail newsletter and any other social or editorial promotion he’s involved with. Along with planned content creation, optimization, and social promotion processes, Tom can schedule time between himself and several members of his staff for community engagement and social network development.

Following a schedule and set of processes will help Tom implement search- and social media–friendly content that best attracts, engages, and inspires his ideal prospects when they are looking to buy. Growing his skills at content creation as well as monitoring and measurement will help Tom better evaluate the performance of his content marketing efforts and make adjustments accordingly. The longer Tom follows his plan and processes for content creation, optimization, and social network growth, the more entry points he’ll create for customers to find out about his business through search engines, links, and social media referrals. Following a plan, improving skills, and enlisting help will provide Tom’s business with improved search and social media visibility without taking too much time away from other responsibilities.

MIDSIZED BUSINESS: SOCIAL COMMITMENT ISSUES

Melosa Software has hired search engine optimization (SEO) consultants for audits on its website in the past and has taken much of the SEO work in-house for handling by its IT and marketing departments. Content optimization efforts involve using keywords identified by a past SEO consultant in new content and with link-building efforts. SEO performance is measured with monthly keyword ranking reports and by monitoring keyword referrals to the company website using Google Analytics.

Internal employees in charge of both marketing and public relations initiatives are responsible for the creation of any new web pages, writing blog posts, and managing a handful of social media accounts, including Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Blogging consistently has been a challenge, and there simply hasn’t been enough time to determine whether adding new social networks like Google+ makes sense. Turnover has caused gaps in continuity with blogging and social media involvement. The IT department provides basic monthly web analytics reports, and there is no social media reporting. There’s speculation among the management team that blogging and social media participation aren’t worth it if they can’t measure the return on investment and if they can’t keep up with blog posts. Management is also concerned that if social engagement and blogging are not consistent, the company will look out of date and inattentive to its customers. It’s a classic case of, “If we don’t try, no one will see us fail.”

Recommendations for Midsized Melosa Software

As with many midmarket companies, marketing and PR staff wear many hats at Melosa Software, and, while there have been previous efforts to develop a meaningful approach to attracting customers through search, the fast pace of change in the search marketing industry has exceeded the internal IT and marketing staff’s ability to keep up. Information that was valid two years ago related to SEO or current social networking platforms and best practices is unlikely to be as valuable today, especially with significant changes that have occurred with Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

Melosa Software will benefit greatly from an update to its online marketing mix in terms of an evaluation of current marketing efforts and updates to its target customer profiles to account for consumer and technology changes in the search and social media landscape. With multiple departments creating content for the website, an overall content strategy would help identify target audiences for departmental content and define content topics, expected outcomes, and how multidepartmental content can work together. An assessment of search demand on important keywords as well as the nature of conversations within social networks on relevant topics will help Melosa Software identify where SEO and social media content will fit in the marketing mix. A social media, content, and SEO plan that identifies key topics, customer information needs for purchase and referral, appropriate social channels, and key performance indicators (KPIs) will help mitigate “social media failure” concerns, especially with solid social monitoring and web analytics in place to measure content, search, and social media performance.

Training

With an updated content marketing, SEO, and social media plan, Melosa Software’s marketing and PR staff can identify appropriate, high-impact tasks to manage, as well as which tasks can be performed by other staff and, potentially, outside resources. Many companies find they already have employees acting on behalf of the brand through their Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ accounts. Initiating an internal program to identify social media–savvy staff can reveal a useful internal network of resources. Direction, training, and support can be made available to those interested and qualified employees, and social media guidelines can be provided for all staff.

Marketing and PR can serve in an editorial capacity with internal subject matter experts in each product group contributing to blogging and SEO copywriting efforts. A coordinated content strategy will involve a content plan for departments across the company, including marketing, public relations, corporate, human resources and recruiting, customer service, and sales. Fundamental SEO copywriting training and social networking can be provided for content creators in each department, along with tools for measurement and feedback so they can see the impact their contributions are having at the departmental level and to the business overall.

Information technology staff can be provided with up-to-date technical SEO, social integration, and web analytics training in order to better support the rest of the organization. Tapping an outside consultant for a content marketing strategy review and recommendations quarterly or annually can give Melosa Software up-to-date insight into best practices while enabling the vast majority of implementation to be handled in-house.

Process

A breakdown of responsibilities should be outlined in the content marketing, SEO, and social media plan, allowing better coordination among content producers across the Melosa Software organization. Workflow processes for content creation, optimization, social promotion, and measurement for each department will enable best-practices “optimize and socialize” content to scale. Search and social media management software may be a consideration to help provide centralized management portals for social content and asset optimization, promotion, and monitoring. The marketing and public relations group can provide content governance over all departments with input from editorial leaders within each function. A breakdown of the content production and marketing process will identify the role for each participant in terms of ensuring messaging, keyword optimization, content segmentation for relevant social channels, and where content will be repurposed.

By evaluating its current online and content marketing approach, Melosa Software can develop a customer-centric content marketing plan that integrates with search and social media best practices. Clearly defined goals, responsibilities, workflow, and reporting will enable interdepartmental cooperation that makes implementing relevant, consistent, and impactful content for search engine visibility and social media engagement an integral part of the marketing program.

ENTERPRISE: TOO BIG NOT TO BE SOCIAL

With a corporate headquarters in the Midwest and more than 20 business units operating across the United States, Western Europe, and the Asia Pacific region, Giant Manufacturing has implemented various search, social, and content marketing initiatives across its various businesses with varying degrees of success. Regional marketing leaders take strategic direction from headquarters, but have the flexibility to customize content as appropriate by region and to run search and social media efforts considering regional preferences. Headquarters and five of the largest US operations, along with businesses in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, have developed content plans and an effective social media presence through corporate blogs and on relevant regional networks. However, few have consistently implemented best-practices search and social media optimization, and only three of the businesses have achieved an effective level of integration between content, SEO, and social media marketing efforts.

In contrast with strategic best practices, a lack of global implementation of web and social media content has resulted in inconsistent buyer experiences across regional websites, less-than-ideal search and social media traffic, poor social network growth, and underprojected performance in online customer inquiries.

Recommendations for Giant Manufacturing

When it comes to content, managing editorial initiatives across an enterprise that extends globally can be a challenge. Best practices for one region do not necessarily translate into best practices for all. There are many considerations for situations as expansive as international manufacturers from the need for a consistent global narrative to the importance of regional customization, but I’ll focus on a few key points.

Giant Manufacturing has an opportunity to leverage a global content plan, social media strategy, and SEO best practices in order to bring consistent core messaging to its overall web properties. As with the small- and medium-sized business situations described earlier in this chapter, Giant Manufacturing could benefit from an online marketing audit to bring insight into overall core messaging relevant to customer segments, content plans, social media operations, and SEO guidelines. At the regional level, content marketing plans, social networking, and SEO functions can be coordinated accordingly. A portal that connects the different businesses’ marketing staff with a library of content, media, and training materials updated by headquarters can bring a measure of governance and consistency across global content marketing.

Training

To bring individual marketers in each business up to speed with best-practices content optimization and social promotion, an assessment could be developed to identify learning opportunities among content producers. Outside experts and internal search, social media, and content marketing champions could be enlisted to conduct webinars, which would be recorded, on topics ranging from content planning, SEO best practices, social media engagement, and measurement.

A library of resources specific to SEO, social media, and content marketing, in addition to region-specific content, can be centrally maintained at headquarters. At the local level, informal meetings (e.g., brown-bag training sessions) can be conducted with each business unit’s content producers to create awareness and communicate the role of optimized and socialized content in the context of the broader business objective. Tactical instruction on keyword usage with SEO copywriting, social promotion of that content, and how to use measurement tools to track contribution and progress can be provided for departmental content producers within each business. As the training initiatives gain traction, Giant Software can establish an internal training and certification program for SEO basics and social networking, with individual, departmental, and business unit level scorecards.

Process

The importance of processes to scalable SEO, social media, and content marketing within a large organization cannot be overstated. Process can be as straightforward as incorporating SEO best practices into brand identity guidelines or formulating a social media policy that sets standards and expectations for employees.

Companies like Giant Manufacturing can evolve the best-practices insight from outside evaluations into internal guides for extending processes across departments, businesses, and regions. From an “optimize and socialize” content marketing perspective, here are eight key areas for large companies to consider when it comes to identifying processes:

Each of these areas contains subordinate sequences of tasks, and documenting processes will ensure continuity and quality of content optimization and social promotion relevant to target customer segments for each department, business, and region.

ASSESSING SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA READINESS AND TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

Content development occurs across an organization, and your newfound search and social media smarts will be difficult to scale unless you can extend that knowledge to others who are in a position to create and promote content online. No matter what your staff tells you, they will never know enough. There is no end to search and social media expertise for content marketing. The healthiest perspective toward best-practices search and social media optimization with a content marketing strategy is a cycle of planning, deployment, evaluation, and improvement. It’s a journey, not a destination. The trick isn’t just to identify training opportunities but to plan for ongoing SEO copywriting, content mapping for personas, social media listening, and engagement training for all appropriate staff on an ongoing basis. I’ve never run into a company, from start-up to Fortune 50, that didn’t need help in those areas. The trick is to identify areas of opportunity and then prioritize. (See Figure 14.1.)

FIGURE 14.1 The Training Process

CONCLUSION

The scale of integrated optimization, social media, and content marketing depends on a combination of people, process, and technology. I hope you see how the puzzle pieces fit together. Applying best practices to processes and training is an integral part of scaling an integrated SEO, social media, and content marketing program. On the companion website, at OptimizeBook.com, I’ll be posting videos, reports, and how-to articles covering many of the key principles mentioned in this book, which you can use as a resource in your journey toward an optimized state of mind.

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