Think Basis It's Good For Business

We finally pinned down the elusive Rebecca Kelley and had an opportunity to get her perspective on internet marketing, current trends, and where she sees the industry heading over the next couple years.

Above: Rebecca Kelley at last year's eCommerce Summit in New Orleans

What attracted you to Internet marketing?

Well, I wasn’t immediately attracted to “internet marketing” so much as the job description that SEOmoz advertised. It focused a lot on writing, which I’ve always loved doing and wanted my career to emphasize. I applied for the job and got turned down, but I stubbornly pestered my boss Rand to at least give me an internship. He did, so I worked at SEOmoz as an unpaid intern during my last quarter of college. When I graduated I was offered a full-time job at SEOmoz. I accepted it because I really liked learning about Internet marketing and marketing in general, and I loved blogging and establishing my voice and attracting an audience. Also, I didn’t want to spend money on fancy “interview clothes,” especially considering I was fresh out of college with student loan debt. Fast forward to three years later and here we are–I’m an Internet marketing consultant and the site manager for SEOmoz (and I still don’t have any fancy interview clothes).

What are the most common mistakes you see SMBs make when it comes to online marketing?

A huge recent mistake is that a lot of small businesses are diving headfirst into social media marketing because they heard it’s this “next big thing,” yet they haven’t a) taken the time to really understand how social media marketing works and what it takes to succeed, b) determined which social media marketing strategies are appropriate for their particular business and which aren’t, and c) focused on more important issues, like on-page optimization and technical fixes.

Social media is definitely an industry buzzword right now, what are your thoughts on the type of companies that should be using it? Or do you think it’s essential for all businesses to be on top of the latest trends?

What a lovely segue from my last answer. I don’t think it’s absolutely essential for all businesses to be on top of the latest trends. Some businesses are just now getting a website up and running–they have better things to worry about than launching a full-scale social media campaign. Likewise, an adult diapers company doesn’t need to have a fan page on Facebook. There needs to be some cohesion in a company’s product/service and its marketing strategy. Just like you wouldn’t advertise feminine products to men, you wouldn’t market certain sectors/products/services on certain social media sites/channels.

Above: Rebecca lives it up as her social media alter-ego "Becseppie"

Where do you see the industry heading over the next two or three years?

I think that mobile and local search will continue to snowball due to the increased adoption of smartphones. Social media marketing will also grow, but I think it could get pretty crowded and the people who actually know what they’re doing will stand out head and shoulders above the rest.

And, on a lighter note, what are some of your hobbies? Do you have any side projects? And, what makes Rebecca happy?

Well, food makes me extremely happy. I am a happy camper when I have a belly full of food. I also watch an unhealthy amount of movies and TV. Thank God for the DVR and for Netflix. Best inventions ever.
Also, I enjoy writing freelance for people (crafting link bait content, lists, etc) and have been doing some personal side projects for fun. I also have been getting into triathlons and race training, and I have a hobby blog called Mediocre Athlete that chronicles my training adventures.

Rebecca Kelley has been in internet marketing for over 3 years and has spoken at over a dozen different conferences on topics ranging from social media to linkbuilding and traditional SEO.

Having previously discussed some of the different small business approaches to online marketing, I’ve had several discussions over the past couple weeks with different colleagues about what can be done by the small business owner who falls into the, “We need to be online…” category of thinking. These are the companies that recognize the importance of having a quality website, know they have a lot to learn, but don’t have any idea where to begin.

For companies like this there are several major challenges standing in their way:

1) Time

Most small business owners are very motivated entrepreneurs that shoulder a massive amount of responsibility across almost all facets of their company. As a result, finding the necessary time to educate themselves about a topic which is almost entirely foreign to them is sometimes just too daunting to warrant starting in the first place.

2) Budget

Unlike most medium and larger businesses, there is typically no budget set aside specifically for Internet marketing, or even for building a website, and a lot of times since the money is going to be coming directly out of the owner’s pocket they will do whatever they can to find the best deal. Sometimes sacrificing quality or deciding to table a project they know they should probably complete.

3) Desire to Succeed

Because they are so invested in the success of their business, their passion for what they’re good at can combine with their ignorance to all things online and create a perfect storm of susceptibility to people who don’t have their best interests at heart.

But, what are the mom and pop retailers with an @aol.com email address and a fear of technology supposed to do? Shouldn’t there be somewhere they can turn for unbiased advice?

A Step in the Right Direction

In an article a few days ago, David Mihm discussed the need for more local outreach, and suggested it would be, “to our benefit as an industry to increase awareness of the opportunities in Local Search among our own communities.”

It is this philosophy that no doubt played a large role in both David, and Pat Sexton, creating a resource specifically geared toward helping small business owners learn more about how their businesses are listed online. Officially launching on January 20th, Getlisted.org offers a great starting point for the business owner with a tight budget and a minimal amount of time.

As one of my colleagues put it:

“Local search is one of the easiest ways to get your business noticed. You can often get top rankings in map listings which drive valuable and tangible returns. For someone who usually has to wear many hats throughout a very busy day, the service makes local search a virtual no-brainer.”

Undoubtedly this resource offers a tremendous amount of value to small business owners, but the biggest question is whether the people who need it most are going to have a way to find out about it.

Becoming a Voice in the Community

GetListed.org has already made its way across the SEO landscape, but the most important part is going to be the next step; making its way to local businesses that might be completely unaware they even need to claim their listing in the first place.

My feeling is that as a knowledgeable internet marketer, the best thing a person can do is try to share basic information with as many people in the community as possible. There’s plenty of business out there, and if you know what you’re doing then there will always be people who need your expertise. However, by building a reputation as someone who’s active in the local business community–and even willing to occasionally offer help with no ulterior motive–the rewards are going to be far greater than if you sit around waiting for someone to email you with a proposal request.

I’m challenging myself and others to find a way to reach out to at least a few of the small businesses right in their backyard that need help with some of the basics. This isn’t about doing a pro-bono redesign of someone’s site or giving away countless hours of your time, it’s about taking an hour or two a month to connect with people who have a strong desire to succeed and will be legitimately grateful for your help.

At the absolute worst you’re going to be giving up a couple hours of your time, and at best you’ll be making a lasting impact on someone’s business and building meaningful relationships within your community. Not exactly a bad scenario.

If you’re good at something it’s okay to have a bit of an ego about it. Anyone who’s competitive would probably agree that a great deal of strength can be drawn from a person’s belief in their own abilities. You don’t see a lot of boxers going into their pre-fight press conferences telling reporters they’re going to get knocked out a couple rounds into the fight. If they don’t go into the fight confident in themselves, they’re not going to be very successful. However, imagine that same fighter has been winning for a couple years and is now surrounded by people who are constantly telling him he’s at the top of his game and he’s finally made it. Do you think that fighter is going to stay on top for very long?

Weak boxing analogy aside, the main point is there’s a fine line between having a healthy amount of confidence (good ego) and taking your ego to the point of outright arrogance. And, in an industry that manages to manufacture faux celebrities like very few others, some SEOs seem to fall victim to believing their own hype. If enough people treat you like you’re on a pedestal, it’s very easy to start thinking you actually belong there and forget there’s always something you can still learn.

Buying Into the Hype

A couple common traits of the SEO Super Ego are:

1) They are incapable of making a mistake (regardless of what “lesser” SEOs might say)

2) Anyone who says something negative is just hating on them because they’re “famous.” And,

3) They don’t need the community, the community needs them

As a relative newcomer, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few different mentors who are continuously striving to learn new things and maintain their place at the top. They enjoy debating different tactics and never seem threatened by someone offering a different perspective. On the flip side of that coin, however, anyone that has gone to more than a couple conferences can probably name a few SEOs who might not be so willing to go out of their way to talk to a noob. The ones who tend to only be seen talking to the people they feel have already achieved a similar celebrity status.

I’d venture to say the vast majority of “SEO Stars” have managed to stay well grounded and continue to contribute to the community in a way that benefits a lot of different people. But, it seems like the structure of the industry also creates a slippery slope for the shameless self-promoters in the group, with each additional speaking engagement making them feel more and more like the ultimate authority on whatever topic they discuss.

Celebrity Isn’t Necessarily Achievement Based

The above figure shows a highly unscientific display of “SEO Stars” by achievement

The irony seems to be that with so much of the actual work everyone does taking place in private, sometimes charisma can be confused with talent, and you end up with huge personalities resting on non-existent laurels. The important thing to remember is that unlike the Hollywood model of stardom, in SEO, celebrity is not synonymous with success.

So, is letting the celebrity status go to your head really excusable? Or should you just be grateful you’ve gotten some recognition and leave it at that?

A Simple Benefit to Staying Grounded

In a recent post on “Stroking the SEO Ego,” Chris Hooley made an excellent point about taking the time to invest in some of the up and comers who might be aspiring to reach a higher level;

“There’s a lot more bang for your buck in making a big impression on the next big thing, instead of getting in line to impress the current big thing.”

People like to be liked, and by reaching out to the people who look up to you, you’re actually building a great amount of equity over the long run.

Obviously, as a part of the non-famous, I’m biased toward thinking the approach Chris mentions is probably the best. But, I’m interested in hearing what other people have to say. Do you agree that there are out of control egos in the industry? Also, which “SEO Stars” are consistently contributing to the community in a positive way?

For the most part, SEOs and Internet marketers seem to be a fairly collaborative bunch, especially in the social media realm, where so much of your success is predicated on strong relationships with other like-minded people. However, it seems like there is always a bit of a disconnect between the people who work with clients and the people who spend the majority of their time working on independent projects. The main question usually is, “If you’re truly an expert at something, what incentive do you have to teach others? Wouldn’t you want to just work on your own projects and make money for yourself?”

Well, if money is the main motivator it’s hard to argue with that logic. But, in taking a look at a few of the other factors, it seems like there’s a lot more going on here than just looking at which path can make you the most money. First, let’s look at a few of the reasons a person might choose to teach someone:

1) They’re a Saint

I’ve been told that for whatever reason, there are some people who legitimately enjoy helping others. These are the people that typically make me extremely uncomfortable and leave my inner monologue pinging, “What’s your game…? No one can be this nice,” while I politely thank them for going way beyond what I ever would have expected. These are the born teachers, and the people who just can’t help but pass along a quick pointer to someone if they know it’s going to help make their life easier.

Strangely, they almost never seem to expect anything in return. They actually want to see other people succeed, and are rewarded by knowing they helped contribute to someone else’s prosperity.

2) They’re an Ego-Maniac

These teachers fall on the complete opposite end of the spectrum and typically just want to pass along enough information to make sure you understand they are a genius. Usually they are extremely knowledgeable people, but when they pass along information they tend to be less concerned with whether you understand what they’re saying than they are about making sure you understand how brilliant they are for saying it.

3) It’s a Relatively Safe Option

These are the people who choose to teach primarily because it offers some form of a safety net. For some it’s purely financial, and for others it equates to being able to place the risk squarely on someone else’s shoulders. Either way, these people have enough expertise to be a valuable resource, and are able to carve out a successful career being exactly that. Also, a fair amount of the people in this group probably pull some traits right out of group 1, and take a tremendous amount of pride in seeing their clients succeed. That’s what makes them good consultants in the first place.

Obviously these categories are a bit simplified. But, I’d definitely argue most search marketers that do consulting are at least leaning heavily toward one of the three, even though they may have characteristics from multiple groups.

There are bound to be some people who can’t comprehend why anyone would choose to take a different approach than they do. And sometimes it seems like the more entrepreneurial individual has a hard time understanding the in-house SEO that works a set schedule and is required to put in the same long hours day after day while being inundated with internal meetings. And, on the other side, the more risk averse person can’t always comprehend how someone could pour countless hours into a project with no guaranteed ROI, or have the confidence to pursue their own ideas as a sole source of income.

But, as with anything, there are plenty of pros and cons to both pursuing individual projects and choosing to work with clients. Here’s a quick list I threw together with some of the obvious ones:

My feeling is that neither one is more “noble” than the other. And, whichever side a person feels more comfortable on is almost certainly going to be the right choice for them. It seems if you just examine the reasons behind why someone would choose to teach in the first place, and the basic pros and cons of consulting versus working on your own projects, certain people will just gravitate naturally to one role or the other.

However, I’m interested in hearing whether or not other people agree with this philosophy.

Is there more merit to one than the other, or is it really as simple as “do what makes you happy?”

There are a number of things businesses do that aren’t in the best interest of the consumer. A lot of them are unavoidable offshoots of wanting to maximize profit, but some of them can be shortsighted, lazy, or even dangerous. While I’d never say some of these practices can’t be extremely successful, I would certainly argue there’s a good chance you’re sacrificing long term equity for immediate gain.

1) Trying to Prey on Fear

Plenty of companies thrive on using a consumer’s fear of missing out on the product they’re after by using a manufactured scarcity to push people over the buying threshold. Suddenly the car that’s been sitting on the lot for six months has “several other potential buyers” as soon as you express some interest. Similarly, Gamestop insists you pre-order your games despite the fact that they’ll have dozens of additional copies laying around the store, and has even gone as far as refusing to sell these extras to customers in an effort to instill the value of pre-ordering.

While this strategy might be successful in the short term, it commoditizes the sale and reduces or eliminates customer loyalty. By manufacturing scarcity you encourage your customers to snatch up the product they want as soon as they find it, and it’s likely your competitors will be the beneficiaries.

I was recently in the market for a new bike, and as such, completely expected a certain amount of “used car type sales tactics” that would eventually culminate in someone asking me, “What can I do to get you on this bike today?” Shockingly, I was met with the total opposite, and the sales force practically bent over backwards to prevent me from making a hasty decision. They made some recommendations, helped me narrow it down to two, and then said they’d hold both of them for me so I could come back when it was sunny out and take them both on a “proper ride.” No pressure, no mention of possibly selling the bike I wanted while I was mulling over my decision. The end result is I now have a stronger allegiance to that particular retailer than I probably should…and a sweet new bike.

2) The Perpetual “Ending Soon” Sale

Every city seems to have a furniture store that has been going out of business for the past three years. The commercial shouts about how you better “hurry in this weekend, because everything must go!” The logic is sound enough. Everyone loves a good deal, so if you make people think you’re having an incredible sale for a “limited time only” they will come running. The only problem is, after two-plus-years of the same ploy the sale means absolutely nothing. Not only that, it has now devalued everything in the store to the point where if it’s not on sale, there is no reason anyone would want to buy it.

Allposters.com is a prime example of the perpetual sale. Here’s the last six months worth of sales offers I’ve received:

While the constant barrage of emails have (arguably) kept them “top of mind,” the offers are pretty meaningless and eventually just turn into noise.

Contrast this with Active.com’s considerably more intermittent–and product specific–offers that still maintain some “top of mind” value but don’t give me the expectation that anything I purchase through them should always be at a discounted price.

Granted, the immediate response to any individual offer will probably be less for the second example. However, the long term results will be more items sold at full retail and higher conversions during times when there is no sale being offered.

3) Arbitrary Product Release Dates

Small tech companies seem to be the biggest offender of this particular consumer letdown. Although premiering your latest product at a conference or having a usable demo ready for a board meeting is good in theory, it’s still useful to remember there’s a lot of truth in the whole “one chance at a first impression” philosophy. Ask cuil. Although balancing the strains of needing to drive profits with the need to deliver a quality product is always going to be a challenge, it’s hard to recover from an underwhelming product launch or an application that was hurried into production and doesn’t deliver on the vision you promised.

At a previous company I witnessed firsthand an incredibly disappointing product launch resulting from decisions to start selling something that simply wasn’t ready for consumers. Without going into too much detail, I will say the decision to rush to market had a lot to do with VC funding and a desire to show dramatic revenue growth over the previous year. However, after watching the product devolve from its original scope into a neutered version that could “be ready by January,” it became abundantly clear that none of this was for the benefit of customers.

The end result of this major product launch was an underwhelming amount of sales, a continued retooling of the product that resulting in halting all sales efforts for a one month period, and a number of dissatisfied customers that had been sold a product failing to live up to its initial value proposition.

Obviously it’s ridiculous to think you can keep moving something back indefinitely while you fine tune it to perfection (unless you’re Blizzard). However, if you’re honest about the reasons for your “drop-dead” release date, it might just be better to cope with some internal disappointment upfront to avoid a public disappointment when you launch.

4) Strict Adherence to “Corporate Policy”

While having policies and best practices in place is always a sound idea, failing to allow for some old-fashioned common sense and good judgment can be a huge mistake. Sure, it can be easier to hide behind a generic policy, but when it’s taken too far you’re left with instances like Jo-Ann Fabrics’ refusal to let a customer use the bathroom, or Bed Bath and Beyond not letting a customer use a phone to dial 9-1-1.

This seems like a head smackingly obvious statement, but by filling your organization with quality employees who are empowered to sidestep “company policy” when all common sense and human decency is telling them to do so, you’re sending a much stronger signal to your customers.

Like I said earlier, there are plenty of successful businesses that do some (or all) of these things, and I’m not saying these can’t be profitable (the first three at least). However, as a long-term strategy, and in an increasingly competitive environment, taking a step back every once in a while and making sure your customers’ best interests are aligned with your own isn’t a bad way to do business.

Too much is said about the ulterior motives of some of the submissions on social media sites. From time to time, great content has been called out by people in the community as being “spam” simply because it has a commercial agenda. To me it seems like judging a piece of content based on what its creator hopes to gain is pretty much on par with boycotting a movie because you don’t want the director to make any money. The bottom line is that if you find the content interesting, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to go around complaining about what’s going to happen as a result. Quality is quality and you might as well just enjoy it.

This isn’t to say that there’s not a huge amount of stuff being promoted that is both weak and heavily commercial, it’s just to point out that commercial doesn’t always equal bad. I for one, will never get tired of watching Terry Tate level an unsuspecting colleague.

So, in that vein, here are a few pieces of content I’ve come across (or been “force-fed”) over the past several months that I’d never have found if it hadn’t been for some savvy company leveraging social media to deliver me a subtle advertisement which I happily consumed.

Thule Trail

Despite seeing this a little over a year ago, it still resonates as a great example of what you can do with a relatively straightforward product and a lot of creativity. Thule is probably best known for their ski and bike racks, and–through what must have been some brilliant brainstorming–decided to remake everyone’s favorite elementary school classic The Oregon Trail as modern road trip across the country. The result is an ingenious game that has minimal ties to their product line, but does a considerable amount toward branding their product. Also, it’s a lot of fun.

How Long Could You Survive Chained to a Bunk Bed with a Velociraptor?

Easily the most bizarre of the four, this amusing quiz showed that with a little ingenuity you can take a topic as boring as bunk beds and just add a carnivorous dinosaur to the equation. It’s another great example of a company providing light-hearted content that helps distinguish their brand, but also offers a bit of fun for a huge amount of people that have absolutely no need to ever buy their product.

Salary Madness – 2008 March Madness Predictions By the Dollars

When the NCAA tournament brackets were announced back in March of this year, PayScale, a salary information resource, had the idea of using some of their data to forecast the tourney based on the median salaries of the school’s graduates. Since there’s a natural curiosity surrounding how much money people make, this was a great way for them to capitalize on something that was topical while also showcasing the core strength of their service. It hardly matters that the site itself offers subscriptions, because this was a quick piece of content that could be enjoyed without even taking the time to find out what it is they do.

The Eight Phases of Dating

With some incredibly successful linkbait and an increasing notoriety among social media communities, the dating site Mingle2 has gotten a decent amount of flack from some users that apparently object to having anything they’re looking at tied in with a service they don’t want to subscribe to. Here’s one user’s comment on the Eight Phases of Dating comic:

Admittedly, this one was harsher than most, but it does show the unwarranted disdain some people have for all things commercial. Contrast that with the similarly themed XKCD comic, that will likely receive little flack because it has no specific call to action on the page.

It seems as if many users don’t typically equate sites that rely on ad revenue as having just as much of a commercial interest as those promoting a product or service, and Digg has even gone as far as banning some retail driven websites altogether.

It’s probably not the most mind blowing take away, but it’s hard to look at the above pieces of content and say they don’t have some entertainment value as a stand-alone from the product or service they’re promoting. There’s no reason why each piece of content shouldn’t be judged on its own merit. Anyone should be more than welcome to promote their content across whatever social media sites they choose, they just need to be damn sure they make it interesting enough to stand on its own, because if it’s linked to a commercial site then it’s going to be an uphill battle.

As someone who spends an unhealthy amount of the workday on Digg there are a few mind-boggling trends I’ve noticed. Certain stories seem to pretty much guarantee several comments that are nothing more than variations on “Really? That made the front page?” but they still seem to get consistently dugg up by a large number of people.

Slideshows

It is unlikely at this point that anyone could click through to an AskMen or Forbes.com list without knowing they’re about to endure another painful eye-raping in the name of page views. But still, these one sentence per page lists seem to perform reasonably well, despite a comments section riddled with complaints and an almost guaranteed 100+ diggs to the first person willing to copy the list over in a simple, easy to read format. For other offenders see EW and Maxim.

Huffington Post

For the past several months Digg’s 2008 U.S. Elections category has been redirecting people straight to the Huffington Post. Despite a fair amount of backlash in threads like this and this the Huffington Post has continued its total dominance of all things political.

Web Comics

There’s about a 50 percent chance that any given XKCD comic will have several comments whining about how it seemingly rockets to the front page no matter what, an inevitable link to http://www.isxkcdshittytoday.com/ and a few people simply stating “not funny.” However, there’s an almost equal chance that any other web comic that finds its way to the front page will end up getting called out for being “a cheap knockoff of XKCD.” So, if you want to make the front page, but also get people to tell you how much you suck, make a web comic.

Cracked Lists

Cracked.com is pretty much the Huffington Post of comedy, assuming the Huffington Post’s shameless stealing of NBC’s content doesn’t already qualify it for the title.
Although at least some of their lists can miraculously fit on one page, it seems like the bulk of them are just too funny to be contained on anything less than two. Either way, Cracked gets nearly a list a day on the front page even though a fair amount of them are met with intense, well thought out criticism like the following “That was dumb.”

Mr. BabyMan

This one probably ties in with the a larger category of duplicate submissions, since stealing submissions seems to be treated like the crime to end all crimes. But despite this, Mr. BabyMan continues to drive through a puddle and splash mud all over the weak submissions of us common-folk on his way straight to the home page. However, for the amount of rancor this guy has to put up with I’d say he’s allowed a free pass on stealing whatever the hell he wants. Now would you mind submitting something for me Mr. BabyMan?

Verbatim Comments

Watching a video and then putting a direct quote from the exact same video in the comments section of said video shouldn’t really be rewarded with diggs. And usually you can count on someone to point out that this is a pretty lame thing to do. However, almost without fail, this comment will be given a noteworthy amount of diggs, despite the fact that it contributed pretty much nothing more than some instant nostalgia. For examples see almost every Zero Punctuation review ever.

Rick Rolls

Actually…diggers love Rick Rolls more than they love Ron Paul giving the finger to the RIAA while downloading music onto a Mac.