Digital PR Archive

Representing Majestic SEO in the US as their Brand Ambassador, I not only get to work with some of the smartest minds in internet technology, big data extraction and actionable analytics, but I get to keep my hand in one of the oldest disciplines that exists in web marketing.

SEO (or Search Engine Optimization if you have stumbled upon this post in error but are still reading) has brought to my professional career some of the best conversations and most endearing relationships I’ve ever had. So when the chaps at the SEO software company, Linkdex, asked to interview me for an eBook on the state of SEO right now, I leapt at the chance to express some of my thoughts on where we are with SEO and what I’ve learned from those conversations and relationships, and what I’ve picked up over the last 18 months through client interaction at Delightful Communications.

You’ll hear not just from me, but read wisdom from people like Danny Sullivan, Bruce Clay, Marty Weintraub, Dixon Jones, Andrew Girdwood, Cedric Chambaz, Eric Enge, Marcus Tandler, Sara Clifton, Rhea Drysdale, Josh Braaten and Aleyda Solis to name but a few.

It maybe 300 plus pages but the insight you’ll glean from its pages will carry your understanding and effectively equip you to navigate SEO for the next 300 years (well almost).

Download the SEO NOW eBook……….NOW!

Some of you might know that one of my many Delightful hats is actually more of a crown.

A Majestic SEO crown.

For over a year now, I’ve been lucky enough to act as Brand Ambassador for Majestic here in the USA, and speak at conferences about their incredible “big data” toolset.

My remit is to help broaden the audience for the brand and get other digital marketers enthused about getting smart with link data and using it for more than just SEO (search engine optimization).

I’ve done a couple of presentations this year and a couple of blog posts too about how best to use what Majestic has to offer, and on Friday 6th December at 9.30am PST (5.30pm GMT) I’ll be delivering a webinar on how businesses can use their tools for influencer discovery, digital PR and competitive analysis.

If you’re interested in hearing some top tips, feel free to register for FREE below:

Beyond SEO – Loving Link Data for Social Media Digital PR and More

If you know anyone in PR or social media that you think might benefit from a talk like this, please share this post!

Starbucks have launched a cool new way to gift a friend a skinny latte via Tweet a Coffee.

This morning, I’d just sparked up my laptop and logged on Twitter to find a very clever surprise from my friend Kelley Myers.

Kelley, who is a friend and former colleague from Microsoft who now works in digital marketing at Starbucks, is jolly generous (as well as smart), so I clicked on the link and kaboom:

To set it up and Tweet a Coffee, you have to connect your Starbucks account with your Twitter account and Tweet.

That’s it! Genius?

Love how more people are getting creative with Twitter.

What will we see next? Tweet a Pizza? Tweet a Hug? Tweet a Beer?

Might have to put a bigger order in for some of those Twitter shares!

Oh…..and thanks Kelley!

Next week is my birthday and I’ll be spending 4 nights in Las Vegas at Pubcon too!

This must be about the 6th Pubcon conference I have attended and I’ll be there with Dixon Jones and the guys from MajesticSEO.

Brett Tabke, who founded the conference way back when, has kindly asked me to speak at a session on Thursday about online brand management. I’ll be focusing on digital PR and social media tactics and weaving a little bit about search too!.

They’re also letting me sign some of books with Barnes and Noble as well, so I’ll have an action-packed week.

If you’re going to be in sin city, drop by and say hello.

I’m looking forward to catching up with you all again!

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Thursday sees a milestone for me as I travel back to San Francisco to speak at BrightEdge’s Share 13 event at the fantastic-looking Palace Hotel.

Last year, it was the first conference I attended as Brand Ambassador for Majestic SEO after Dixon Jones asked me to join their ranks after I left Microsoft.

Now, a year on, I’m speaking in a session about search and earned media, giving a talk entitled “Loving Links Beyond SEO”.

I’ll be blowing away the fog that surrounds link data when it comes to other uses other than link building, and focusing on the relationships that can be made between not just the rich data available, but the people behind the content that marketers can uncover and build even deeper relationships with.

Really looking forward to spending time with some old friends too, like Andy Betts, Jim Brigden, Simon Heseltine, Mike Grehan, Elisabeth Osmeloski, Lisa Williams, Todd Friesen and Matt McGowan.

Given that line up, it should be an excellent event, so follow the hashtag on Twitter: #Share13 for all the wisdom coming from that corner of the US of A!

Now I may not be at Cannes Lions this year, but that’s not stopping me watching all the coverage pouring across the Atlantic from the Cote d’Azur.

I’m a little bummed I’m not there now, as this’ll be the third time I’ve narrowly missed seeing Jack Black in the flesh.

Next best thing is to watch this hilarious video interview with him backstage after a Yahoo! seminar.

Intertwined with the funnies is a serious message:

Don’t count on a video going viral when you’re creating it. Just do what you think will make people laugh and don’t try too hard.

“Keep it tight and trim the fat….keep it short because on the smaller screen you don’t want to go too long. I’ve found that 10 minutes is the optimal length of a nugget of entertainment.”

I remember the CDO of Dentsu saying similar things 4 years ago at Cannes. He said you have to have a good idea and it’s that that people pick up on aand want to share, the idea and how it makes them feel.

Or just be unexpected!

Nice work Yahoo! getting Jack to the south of France! You didn’t screw this one up!

It must have been like working on the proverbial second music album.

You’re a new kid on the block and your first attempt at making marketing history goes stratospheric – 10 million views on YouTube and counting!

Everyone wonders if your next release is going to top the first.

You’ve told a major magazine that it’s coming in weeks.

It gets delayed for months.

And then this happens…

Pretty funny huh? Maybe (I’m sorry Mike) not has funny as Number 1, but still UNEXPECTED!

Who expected botty wipes from these guys? Who expected nearly a million views in a little under a week either?

And WHO expected a name like One Wipe Charlies?

You see Michael Dubin is all about being UNEXPECTED and quite rightly so.

In a crowded market like men’s personal stuff, you need to stand out, be agile and, dare I say, delightful.

His “unexpected” mantra can be applied to any market, especially when you’re looking to shine head and shoulders above your competition using social and digital media. You just need to be creative and not give your audience something, “they could have written themselves.”

You often only get one shot. A split second to draw people in and keep them engaged as your carefully thought out brand idea unravels before their eyes and captures and holds their attention long enough for them to want (no NEED) to share your content.

This is what Michael Dubin and his Dollar Shave Club empire do so well and I hope books will be written about them in years to come! (There’s an idea!)

They’ve also helped me find a use for Klout! I got pinged last week with a perk that meant I could watch the video again and then get sent a free trial pack of the butt wipes. Thank you Joe Fernandez!

If you’re looking to get ahead of your competitors, remember it’s not the technology that will propel you into the lead, it’s the idea.

Don’t let myths about stuff going viral because of YouTube or Twitter or Facebook distract you from focusing on the big idea.

If you do, you might just get left………behind!

A couple of weeks ago I presented on a panel called “Nobody Clicks on Boring!” at Pubcon in New Orleans.

On stage with me were the fabulous Krista Neher and Jeff Cohen, who gave rousing talks on what I frankly thought was one of the best session titles I’ve ever seen!

Ever since I started my own consultancy nearly 8 months ago, I made myself a promise that I would try and learn new skills every day.

Just because my new job was to advise and help others understand social media, digital PR and get the most from their personal brands, it didn’t mean I knew everything, and I should see this as an opportunity to keep up-to-date with all the latest tools and trends.

That might seem an obvious discipline to stick too, but in my 13 years in online marketing I have met many people willing to take money from others who were not as current as they might have been.

My mantra has always been to be as transparent as possible, and if I don’t know something, admit it and go and learn whatever it was I needed to know.

Life’s a Long Path of Learning

What has helped me keep learning is taking on clients from which I’ll learn in spades as well as help them improve in the areas they hire me to.

John Gagnon from Bing Ads last week published a post outlining a bunch of PPC and SEO Tools for Excel. He’s been speaking about these Excel tools and how to use Excel to distil oodles of data and present it in an actionable way at conferences for a while now.

Finally getting it all down on his ClickZ column, it’s a fantastic resource for anyone who knows they should be using Excel in new and smarter ways.

The other piece of content marketing I’ll be pouring over this week is on Majestic SEO’s blog: Webinar Recording: 7 Secrets To Getting More Quality Links

This is a free webinar from Ken McGaffin and Garrett French who talk about how to be smart with link building and get wholesome links to your site that the search engines will sit up and pay attention to.

A few months ago I gave some insight about how you might use Majestic SEO for link building and influencer outreach, Ken and Garrett’s webinar goes into lots more detail and offers some really smart tips.

So there you are. It’s not even 9.30am on a Monday morning and I already have my learning cut out for me for the week.

How about you? Seen anything recently that you want to help educate our readers with?

Comment below and share this post with your ideas.