1. Did you see the last episode of LOST, the TV show? It was crammed full of commercials. You want your Facebook presence to be LOST (the show, the content, the experience) itself, not the marketing/advertising of LOST.

2. With Facebook, facilitate existing relationships. You want to be making those friendships better than they were.

3. Important! Profiles – people have profiles, brands (companies) have pages. To do marketing on Facebook, use a page, not a profile. You create pages from your profile.

4. Know your audience (do your research-what do they like, what are they doing?)

5. Avoid buzzwords (that includes SEO, optimization, marketing, advertising, integrated, leverage) You dont have a beer with a friend and talk about leveraging. We tend to talk socially about fun, positive interesting things (usually). When I talk about this blog post on my Facebook page, note that I won’t use the word “marketing”.

6. Food is awesome on Facebook! Ice cream, choc, milk, fruit, and sugar rank highly.

7. Most liked page types
movie
TV show
book
musician or band
television
athlete
actor

8. Least liked pages
religious organizations (some do really well though)
pets
bars
pharma
writer
nonprofit
retail
education
restaurants
hotels
websites

9. Is Facebook a good way to market a blog? Yes it is. The share button on your article within your blog site is becoming more used, an important channel for marketing.

10. Emphasize social proof. Make sure your like or recommendation buttons for your articles etc are in super prominent positions.

11. Video Sharing. Effect of the word video on sharing: the word video in the title is shared 30% more on FB and 30% less on Twitter. Video is more embedded on facebook than Twitter. Facebook is more video friendly, and people use Facebook more on the weekends when they are likely to watch online video. Twitter users are a more geeky and techy audience. Twitter is often used in the office, where people are less likely to watch a video that is not work related.

12. When writing for Facebook, plain and simple works best (avoid excessive use of adjectives and adverbs).

13. Most Facebook shareable words (words that encourage people to share what you wrote with others)
facebook (don’t overuse this word on Facebook — on Twitter, fine, there is lots of talk about Facebook and Twitter on Twitter).
why
most
world
how
health
bill
big
says
best
video you
apple
media
top (lists do well — note that I used the word top in my article title here)
first
obama

14. Least shareable words
vs
apps
review
down
poll
game
york
twitter
social
time
iphone

15. Think Mainstream (ask yourself–why do people like the jersey shore, for example).

Some final thoughts:

Again, don’t use your profile for marketing. Use your profile when you are connecting with people. You can friend a customer or thought leader from your personal profile. For instance, you may be interested in your customer’s favorite book or an article they shared.

Is Facebook relevant to Business to Business marketing? Yes!
We can drop the perception that people in companies are in the office all the time. They are consumers in other settings, they are people like ourselves, they like movies, have their favorite books and other interests.
Make your page something people will want to interact with on a personal level.

I thought it would be interesting to go to the root of the meaning.

From the freedictionary.com: Meta — A prefix meaning one level of description higher. From answers.com: Tag — A sequence of characters in a markup language used to provide information, such as formatting specifications, about a document.

So, meta in terms of markup language, means html code that is “one level higher”. And yes, with meta tags in WordPress, you will find them “near the top” and in fact, in the header.php of your WordPress site. Go to the theme editor from your WordPress theme dashboard and select header.php to begin work on your meta tags.

Codex.wordpress.org describes meta tags: “The word meta means information about. Meta Tags were created early on to provide concise information about a website. Meta tags list information about the web page, such as the author, keywords, description, type of document, copyright, and other core information.

In the interest of good search engine optimization practices, we need to pay some special attention to meta tags, but how much and how?

Meta tags no longer hold the level of importance with search engines that they used to hold, and quality content is more so than ever the biggest contributor to your search engine rankings. Do you want to rise higher in the search rankings? Improve the quality and relevance of your content.

Keywords still matter in your meta tags, though. Despite the fact that Google and other search engines discount sites engaged in “keyword stuffing”, and no longer look to keyword meta tags with the same level of regard when indexing your site, there is at least some value as long as your keywords match your content. At this time, your title and description tags will hold more weight than your keyword meta tags with the search engines, particularly Google, so careful research and selection of your keywords for those tags will make a larger difference.

The site at codex.wordpress.org gives a succinct description on where to place your WordPress site meta tags:

“To add meta tags to your site, simply add them to the header.php template file in your WordPress Theme, specifically in the head section near the link for the style sheet. At the top you will see the DOCTYPE tag and below that you will see a couple more tags and then the title tag…

Below this line you can add your meta tags. You can add meta tag information such as the content, language, author, contact, and copyright, since these are basically the same on every page of your site.”

Keep in mind that the dynamic types of information–and we are talking about description and keywords–is unique to every web page on your site. If you put them in the header.php, the information will not change throughout your site. This will compromise your site’s optimization for the search engines.

To optimize your site for the search engines, you need to dynamically add keywords and descriptions on every post. You can choose from ways to do this: you can add them as generic references or you can use plugins. In this way, your site will have added a description, keywords, and other meta tags that are unique to each generated post or page.

You can find additional information about meta tags, meta tag plug-ins and other resources at the codex.wordpress.org site . These plug-ins allow you to customize your meta tags and choose them for each post.

So, yes, Virginia, not only are there meta tags for WordPress, they are still a part of an effective search engine optimization strategy.

Installation and Activation–WordPress, Themes and Plug-ins
Being open source, WordPress is free. One advantage of using the Web hosting services of a company like Media Temple is that you can install WordPress and other applications with one click. Updating with later versions is equally simple. To transfer files between your computer hard drive (local) and your host server (remote) files locations, and to work directly with your files on the host server, you’ll need an FTP client. I use FileZilla, it’s free open source software and has a nifty interface. There are many FTP clients for which you can purchase licensing rights. Go to http://filezilla-project.org/ to download the program. They also offer a FileZilla Server version (Windows only).

Once you have WordPress installed and activated, you’ll likely want to replace the default theme with the theme of your choice. There are literally thousands of themes available for download on the Web. Some are free but you may find that the premium themes available for a fee will suit you better. You often get more robust support from the theme developers that can include support forums and better, more timely responses to your inquiries and requests. Here are some links to compilations and reviews of free and fee-based themes and plug-ins:

• Best Free Magazine WordPress Themes-wphacks”
• 16 Free Premium WordPress Themes That Don’t Suck”
• Best Video and Multimedia WordPress Themes | Premium WordPress Themes – PremiumWP
• DailyWP – Free WordPress Themes, Premium WordPress Themes, JobPress, Classipress
• www.press75.com/ – Top 10 Similar Sites and Reviews
• 20+ Great WordPress 2.7 Compatible Plugins
• Themes and Plugins For Extreme WordPress Functionality | W3Avenue

I chose the Solostream WP-Chatter Premium theme for the Breakaway Media Web site. Solostream also offers a choice of other themes including magazine-style, portfolio, and two newer themes–Sublime and Genius. Again, full disclosure: I’m an affiliate of Solostream. In a later article, I’ll talk about affiliate programs and how you can develop revenue streams by selling other companies’ products and services through your microsites and landing pages.

Premium themes will generally cost anywhere from $49 on up for a single site license and $79 on up for a multi-site or developer’s license. Get the multi-site license unless you are buying the theme specifically for one site. With your new theme activated, download the recommended plug-ins and get them installed and activated. These plug-ins and their associated widgets expand your functionality and greatly increase your choices, allowing you to customize the look and capabilities of your site or landing page. I’ll get into WordPress plug-ins and widgets in more detail in WordPress for Microsites and Landing Pages – part 3.

With your tools at the ready, now you can begin to add the content and sales vehicles which you have developed and tailored to your target/niche audience. Read more about the importance of content in my article on this site, Microsites and Landing Pages.

Go for it!
So get started — sometimes the hardest part is beginning to move forward. Once you do, you can always change or reverse course or take a “side street” and try something different. Keep trying different things until you get a winning system. A bit of advice–don’t let the drive for perfection or having the “perfect” combination of elements and tools keep you from starting. It’s a learning process, but with WordPress you’ll find the rewards of running your e-commerce business with microsites and landing pages will come in time.

In WordPress for Microsites and Landing Pages – part 3, I’ll get into specifics on how you can use microsites and landing pages to increase your revenues, build new revenue streams and support for your organization and otherwise meet your sales and marketing goals.

Getting it Going
Getting your microsite or landing page set up with WordPress is a several-step process. It may seem somewhat complicated at first, but with some dedication to learning the basics and a dose of persistence, virtually anyone can do it.

We assume that you have first done your search engine marketing homework and judiciously selected your domain name(s) based on targeted, relevant keywords. Go to a domain registrar like GoDaddy.com and register your domain. I have several domains registered with GoDaddy–the fees are reasonable and their services are good quality. A dot-com domain will set you back all of several dollars and you can buy multiple domains at a discount. You can get dot-biz or dot-info domains for even less.

You don’t have to register your domain with your host server company, in fact, I recommend you don’t–I think it’s better to keep the two separate and you’ll probably save money in the deal. All you need to do is use the domain name system settings of your host server company wherever your domain is registered. Once you’ve reset the DNS, propagation of the domain at your host server will take anywhere from an hour to a day or so, and you’ll be ready to move forward and install WordPress.

You’ll need a host server account with a company like Media Temple, BlueHost or HostGator. Full disclosure here (if you haven’t heard, there are new FTC rules governing endorsements and testimonials) — I use Media Temple and you may have noticed the mt-media temple banner ad on this site. I get a referral credit sent to my account when people sign up for their service through the link. I’ve used Media Temple since 2005 and their (gs) Grid Service is superb.

(gs) is a cluster-based service powered by hundreds of servers working in tandem to ensure power, burstability and reliability. I’ve also used BlueHost at the University of Arizona and their service also performed admirably. Hosting service fees will vary from about $75 to $250 a year or more, depending on how robust a service you need for your business, whether you pay upfront annually, and other factors.

In WordPress for Microsites and Landing Pages – part 2, we’ll talk about selection and installation of your WordPress themes and plug-ins and customizing your microsites and landing pages.

This short guide presents a concise overview of SEO for PR, boiling it down to five steps:

• Research Keywords
• Content Optimization
• Digital Asset Optimization
• Link Building
• Measuring Success

TopRank opens the piece with a quote from David Meerman Scott (The New Rules of Marketing & PR) that alludes to the new paradigm for journalists, bloggers and consumers who are using search engines to look for subject matter experts, trends and news, and information of all kinds.

Scott said he’s received over 25,000 email pitches to write stories on products, innovations, and tech solutions. Not one has resulted in a story written by him. He uses search engines to get ideas and information for his stories.

In his book, Scott talks about “The New Rules of News Releases”. Note that he uses the phrase “news releases”, not “press releases”. In a disintermediated Web world, communicators are reaching buyers directly with news releases distributed through the Web. Journalists and bloggers are finding these news releases with keyword (and keyword phrase) searches and using them to develop their stories and blog postings.

Many PR professionals who continue to invest themselves heavily in distributing press releases to the news media resist the idea of reaching huge audiences of consumers who are reading news releases directly on the Web and exercising that power on a daily basis.

It’s heartening to know that now it’s possible to get news of your product or service to your target audiences without having to hire a top-shelf PR agency to get your story placed in The New York Times. Of course, it’s a huge boost when NYT even mentions you in an article, but for Internet marketers, investing thousands and thousands of dollars in achieving that goal often makes little sense, especially when those same journalists are trolling the Web, looking for you.

In a future article, I’ll talk about how to write news releases for the Web and some ways that you can distribute them so they pop up in the search rankings.

• Develop a content strategy
• Keep track of the keywords visitors use to find you.
• Pay attention to new services search engines are rolling out.
• Adopt a long-term strategy and ongoing commitment.
• Start early with your site design.

James has some great free materials on his Web site geekmanuals.

Back to Keywords……
So finding and applying targeted and relevant keywords is absolutely critical to developing and implementing a successful search strategy. I just spent the past few days researching keywords for the Breakaway Media Web site and for thriller author M.J. Hawk for whom I am developing a new site. With Breakaway Media I did it in reverse, putting up the site before completing my keyword research. It’s okay to go back in with your keywords and in fact, as James Gonzales says, this is an ongoing effort, not a one-time deal and you’re done.

Be aware that the term “keywords” refers both to single words and keyphrases so you can have keywords ranging from “bike” to “mountain bike” to “mountain bike tours” to “New Zealand mountain bike tours”. You can see the progression from broad to highly targeted and relevant keywords in those examples.

Where do you start in researching your keywords? Some suggestions:

• Do some brainstorming. The more you know about your subject/topic the easier it is to come up with a list.
• Tap into the knowledge and expertise of your co-workers, clients, and customers.
• Go to your competitors’ Web sites and see what keywords they are using in their content. View Page Source (Firefox) or View Source (Internet Explorer) to view their use of keywords in the title tag, metatag description and the copy contained within the top of the page.
• Analyze your server logs with Google Analytics to see how your visitors are finding you, what keywords they use.
• Use the keyword search tools.

There are many research tools available for your use. I just completed a 7-day free trial of Wordtracker, one of the top keyword research tools. I like this tool, but before I commit to the monthly subscription fee, I’ll do some more research into other tools and report back to you with reviews in a future blog post. Another tool mentioned in the VTC SEO course is Trellian SEO Toolkit. Trellian appears to be more of a comprehensive SEO application. These tools are designed to help you drill down to the most relevant, targeted keywords and find those keywords that don’t have the heavy competition of other sites.

The search engines offer free tools for keyword research. Just be aware that they tend to skew those results in favor of their own business models, but they are still very useful nonetheless. I’ve used the Google AdWords keyword tool to develop PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising campaigns and do some general keyword research. With Google AdWords, you can enter your Web site url and get suggestions for keywords. The Website Content function indexes the words on your site and makes recommendations based on that. This works well in combination with other keyword tools.

Next, you want to refine your keywords. With a master list of keywords, begin to pare them down to only the most relevant and targeted keywords. Here are some other suggestions:

• Make sure you include plural words where appropriate. “vintage Trek bicycle” and ‘vintage Trek bicycles” for example.
• Choose phrases rather than single words. “free Arizona hiking maps”
• Upper and lower case: Thriller novels – thriller Novels – thriller novels

Focusing on keywords and phrases that your buyers use works for PR, not just for marketing. By focusing on your customers’ problems and creating news releases in response to that, you satisfy their informational needs and draw them to you. The role that keywords play? Use the keywords that they use and they will find you. In an upcoming blog, I’ll talk more about the role of keywords and SEO in PR.

Okay, first microsite and landing page 101. Use the KISS principle — a microsite may be a site with only 2, 3, 4 or 5 pages. A landing page is exactly that. A page that your buyer lands on when she clicks on your Google AdWords ad, your affiliate link, a link on a blog, or a link in an article you’ve written for one of the e-zines, for example. This is all about marketing to the niches. These marketing pages or sites can be and should be separate from your e-business site, or maybe lie on top of it. For many organizations, this can seem counter to the organization’s Web Strategy, but when you are going for “The Long Tail”, going this route makes an awful lot of sense and serves your buyers needs very well, and that drives sales, support and involvement.

How do you drive organic traffic to your microsite or landing page? It’s probably very similar to what you are doing already. Go to the basics of search engine marketing.

Develop a business case and create your success metrics. A caution–don’t get tied up in or get crazy about analytics. Use them but making them your success metrics (“I need to get 10,000 hits a month on my site”) could be diffusing your focus or getting you off track (why focus on this when maybe there are 300 customers out there in your niche that you need to attract and once you’ve got them, you’ve done your job?).

In whatever you do, lead your Web site visitors and your constituencies to a place where they help you reach your real organizational goals. That means doing your homework and lining out those goals–the real goals (it’s common in some marketing departments and offices to think that attending 4 trade shows, printing up 500 T-Shirts and placing 10 magazine display ads a year are the real goals–they’re not).

Then identify your buyer’s personas. In developing your marketing and PR plan, this is the most important step you can take. Just keep in mind that the product or service you sell takes a back seat to identifying your buyers, who they are, what they are passionate about, and what problems and challenges they face. Really delve into that so that they live for you. Once you get that, then developing the products and services you offer and how you present them becomes a natural exercise and fit to your buyers.

Your search engine marketing process really starts to kick in now. You continue to do your research and find targeted keywords and use them so that the search engines rank your site high in the search rankings for your targeted niche. Post on other people’s blogs with a link at the end so people can contact you (this is a link to your microsite or landing page). Post on forums and build trust with other people on the forums you belong to. Set up your Squidoo page, your blog pages, and finally, your sales page because you are going to want to carry your buyers to the point where they actually buy your product or service, commit to supporting your organization or however you want to close the deal.

Wherever your content appears, so does the link to your microsite or landing page. Here’s another idea: write about your process for the niche you inhabit and giveaway or sell those pdf-formatted reports or e-books (I think giveaways are better). Your landing page could be a free offer to that report in exchange for a name and an email address. Build a list and use an autoresponder like Aweber or Mail Chimp to send targeted, useful emails to people on your list–always giving them useful, interesting, engaging content–the sell takes a backseat until you bring them to the buying stage. Always, always, always, building relationships with your customers so that they will continue to buy from you and help you in your word of mouth marketing.

So your microsite and landing page strategy keys in with a call to action, great content (always great content!) and converts your visitors into customers. I’ve seen many, many campaigns that use only microsites and landing pages to successfully meet their goals. When you are talking about niche marketing, it makes sense, doesn’t it?

So, welcome to the golden age of online marketing. Start setting up your microsites and landing pages and see what a difference they make in your niche marketing. In a later post I will talk about the nuts and bolts of setting up your microsites and landing pages. I’ll use my own microsites and landing pages as examples as I continue to bring them online.

So what do we mean when we use the term “search engine marketing”?  To get the answer to this and other terms, I went to a newly revised book by David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of Marketing and PR.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who is considering marketing their products or services in this new environment.

Here is what Scott has to say about SEM, search engine optimization, and search engine advertising:

“Search engine marketing means using search engines to reach your buyers directly.  (note:  this is the all-inclusive term that includes the two below).

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art and science of ensuring that the words and phrases on your site, blog, and other online content are found by the search engines and that once found, your site is given the highest ranking possible in the natural search results.

“Search engine advertising is when a marketer pays to have advertising appear in search engines when a user types in a particular phrase that the marketer has “purchased”.”

Scott makes some excellent distinctions here that really help us to understand what this is about.  I’ve been researching Internet marketing intensively this year, and while I learned a great deal during that time, The New Rules of Marketing and PR crystallized my understanding of much of that information for me and gave me practical ways of doing my own search engine marketing. 

(Note on blog post graphic: Yes, that is a mouse on the back of a cat on the back of a dog. Only in Bisbee….)