SEO Is Dead. Pinterest Goes Business. Blogging Is Beautiful. Just Another Week In The Life of Social Marketing…

The more things change, well the more they change. Online that is.

Accept the value of blogging. Blogging is still beautifully consistent in driving your brand and your business conversation.

But the way you use your blog is going to change and keeping up is daunting! But I’m here to help. So let’s dig in.

Recent Social Marketing Changes That Impact Blogging – For Better or Worse

Google+ and Who Killed SEO?

Well, search engine optimization (SEO) is nearly dead anyway in the old school sense of the term. In the early days of web management there were tips and tricks to manipulate Google into ranking you higher and better than your competitor. If you could pay for someone to get all SEO-ed up on your site, your site would emerge the Google rank leader. This is not so much the case anymore. The power is all yours. The “new” SEO is still based on keywords, but driven through you content. In my Blog for Business courses, I get into this in great detail. It’s all about content strategy.

Google+ is playing catchup to Facebook and pretty platforms like Stumble and Pinterest. They are the inventors of SEO and they are the ones killing traditional SEO. They are turning it into a content focused algorithm (the math of SEO) that means what you write and how often you write it and share it impacts your rankings. And, the more consistent you are in your branded (key worded) content, the more Google likes you. So what I’m saying is – have a brand, own your brand, build your brand with consistent and frequent language online – and you’ll have new school SEO.

Don’t believe me? Take a peak at my new video “Why Bother Blogging?” (below)

Pinterest Invites Business!

It was only a matter of time. Facebook used to pretend to not want business. But business wanted Facebook and they adapted. Small business users drive Pinterest, so they adapted. And it’s now exceptionally easy to become a Pinterest for business user.

In fact, you can easily convert an existing Pinterest account over to a business one, like I have. Mine is a work in progress as I am going to extract off some of the personal boards now, but all in all, I’m in love! Thank you Pinterest. The link to get started for the first time, or convert, is here. http://business.pinterest.com/

Why am I digging Pinterest for business? Well it helps me share my business content with less clutter of my personal interests  —  a clean Pinterest profile of all your boards is a more attractive one for business. And it’s about brand too. The clearer I am about the content I want to share for business, the more helpful it is. And my brand is about being helpful, you know what I mean?

Pinterest for business has new features. One of my FAVOURITE features of the new Pinterest boards is the easy creation of thumbnail images like the one to the right up in the sidebar over there >>> .

It’s as easy as following instructions:

• choose the board you want to profile and copy the URL,
• then go under “Getting Started”,
• then choose “Add Follow Button”,
• Click “Board Widget”,
• paste the URL you copied,
• copy the code from Pinterest that they give you,
• drop it anywhere on your site where HTML is allowed.

I am not a code-queen at all! But for that graphic over there I knew I could use a “text widget” in WordPress to drop code. Voila! I chose to place my main profile. But I could have just as easily placed my Blog for Business or Brand board or anything else I wanted you to link directly to in my sidebar.

Or here. Like this:

Imagine the possibilities for showcasing these beautiful thumbnail graphics of your well-branded, beautifully strategized Pinterest boards! Imagine linking them to your regularly updated blogs to create a conversation circle between your blog and all your social marketing platforms because you can now showcase your work visually like never before.

I have goosebumps! Exciting times. Thanks Pinterest.

Blogging Is Beautiful!

I don’t think I’m going to stop talking about how important and powerful blogging for your business is anytime soon.

So much so I created the “Why Bother Blogging” video above.

If you are just curious, or if you are desperate to understand blogging better, I strongly encourage you to attend one of my classes – both are found here:

Blog for Business retreat and 8-video Blog for Business on-demand course

In the courses I cover:

• How to write in the “content strategy” way that drives your entire online conversation.
• Keyword creation and the easy way it builds your brand.
• Social marketing how tos — how to write a blog and leverage it across your social marketing channels.
• And much more!

Are you a blogger? Do you use Pinterest? What do you think about Google+. Please take some time to post your thoughts about the changes in social marketing. And feel free to share your blog URL below!