talk with jeremiah owyang of podtech and ian lurie of portent interactive

Just got off a call with Jeremiah of Podtech and Ian of Portent (my CEO).

Here are two questions that arose:

1. Old measurements aren’t working as well as they used to. This is not new information. What is new for me is seeing how Jeremiah (who deals with social media and larger companies) sees the future as compared to how Ian sees the future of measurement.

At Portent we are advising small and medium size companies about their overall internet marketing strategy, so we say “out of all the options available, we recommend putting resources here,” and then we carry that out. So for us measurement is how we decide which of the many things we do that we should do more of.

Example: should we put more hours this month into email marketing or SEO? To decide, we look at verifiable ROI from each source, but we also look at the larger picture of how email and SEO influence the company overall.

For Jeremiah, he is asking a variety of people how they plan to measure. His most recent conclusion:

“So what will me measure?
We each define and measure it in different ways, and it really leads me to suspect that the future of measurement (and Eric agrees) that will likely be a flexible type of measurement that depends on the environment, client and industry.” -Jeremiah

2. How do you communicate the value of social marketing? This discussion is just beginning. Jeremiah has been involved in this for years, at Hitachi and now at Podtech. At Portent we are including more of this as one of the many ways we market for our clients. Yes, if you are a client of mine, we will discuss blogging at some point. Should that be separately mentioned? We will also look at PPC, SEO, how you respond to blog posts about you on blogs, email marketing, usability, how you follow up with customers, and other things… so when does social marketing get its own line?

Good conversation.. thank you, Jeremiah.

web strategy for 2007 | jeremiah owyang, podtech.net

Jeremiah lists out the many forms of web strategy for 2007. As someone who has been in the game for some years, with a focus on community marketing, I appreciate his perspective on the big picture.

In the comments you can see my feedback on his thoughts on Search Marketing, SEO, PPC, Email marketing, and the big picture.

What I hope Jeremiah will answer in a future post is, how do we get started? Say you are a mid-sized corporation, and have dabbled in web marketing. Now you see this list of 20+ aspects of web strategy. Where do you start?

I have definite ideas, partially because I address this question every day. The answer is to think about what your long term goals are before you start spending a lot of money. Is getting high rankings your goal? Not really- ROI is your goal, in some form. High rankings can often help with that, but not always.

And if you go to a search engine optimization firm that focuses on getting high rankings, then guess, what, they will tell you that your goal should be to get high rankings.

Go read Jeremiah’s list again. At Portent, we have this consulting package where Ian (our CEO) talks with you and helps you figure out what your goals are and how to achieve them through internet marketing, resulting in a playbook that will tell you what to do, when, and why.

jeremiah speaks on social media

Jeremiah posts his interview with Jennifer Jones on his blog. When he asked for questions, one I asked was how long before blogs become as ubiquitous as Google?

He does a top-notch job of answering questions precisely, and then breaking down his answer so that everyone can understand his point.

My second question remains unanswered: how do you make the decision between how much resources to dedicate to social media vs. traditional internet marketing like PPC/SEO?

title tags and description tags: a case study | podtech.net

I was writing an email to Jeremiah giving some tips on his site’s metatags, but figured I would post it hear instead.

The site is Podtech.net, a podcasting website. See my previous post about what they do.

Right now, Podtech’s title tag and description tag are not optimized for search engines or for users. Search google for Podtech, and the first result you see is them. The title tells you something about what they do:

PodTech.net: Technology, Business, Media, and News Podcasts

But the description tells you very little:

Experience CES Las Vegas 2007 with PodTech.net at the Bellagio as we provide … SAN FRANCISCO, December 5, 2006 (PodTech News) — Search competition may be …

Looking through the HTML (I will save you that fun) you can see that they do not have a description tag.

How important are search engines to your business? If the answer is anything other than “not at all,” then you should put the effort in to making a title tag and description tag for your homepage. Yes, ideally they should be on every page, and all different, but that can take hours. Make those two tags for your homepage takes less than 10 minutes, and can have a long term impact on how many people click through to your site.

Consider Portent’s tags. Search for us in google under “internet marketing agency,” and our title tag reads

Seattle internet marketing and search engine optimization agency …

Read below the title, and it says

Portent Interactive, a full service internet marketing agency located in Seattle, combines web site design, search engine optimization, e-mail marketing and …

That real estate is crucial, and if you are not using it to market your company, you are throwing sales away.

What if Podtech’s read like so:

Technology, Business, and Media podcasts, served fresh daily | Podtech.net
passionate, authentic voices: PodTech Network is a growing network of audio and video podcasts for influencers and leaders in the global technology and media industries. Our rapidly expanding roster of top-quality programs can be easily experienced on a personal computer or portable media player.

Not all of that description would show up in a search engine results page, but you would have a much better idea of what they were about, and be much more likely to click through to the site.

Jeremiah, feel free to use that text. It is taken from elsewhere in your site, after all. And I bet you will see traffic go up as a result.

Anyone who wants a 1-minute title tag/description tag review, leave a comment, and I will post about you.

podcasting 101: what it is, why it matters, and how you can use it to build community

Jeremiah over at Podtech talked with me about podcasting and how it can help our clients.

Podcasting refers to mp3 files that are syndicated using RSS, so someone can subscribe to your podcast like they would subscribe to a blog or a newsletter.

There are three main benefits Jeremiah pointed out.

1. Anybody can podcast. In old media, like radio, some people controlled the medium. Now everyone has a voice.

2. Information is time shifted. The nightly news is on the TV at 11. But a podcast is on whenever you the user want to listen. This means that most advertisements are much less effective. Think Tivo. Any marketing that is effective has to provide real value to the user.

3. Information is location shifted. Podcasts are an ambient medium, and people can play them wherever they want. While most podcasts are listened to through a browser, people may also listen while doing almost anything. Unlike reading or watching a video, a podcast does not demand someone’s full attention.

So Podtech fits in by helping people and companies understand how to use podcasts to build their business and their community. They provide podcast production and video production, media talent (so even if your product is not the most exciting in the world, it will sound like it on your podcast), and distribution.

This last is the most important, in my opinion. Jeremiah points out that, as time moves on, my company will start producing podcasts, so the lasting value is in having the distribution channel.

As for building community, I can’t speak much to this just yet. What we plan to do is connect some of our clients with Podtech for interviews, which will then go on Podtech’s site. If you are setting the standard in your industry, and you want to talk about it, then Jeremiah wants to hear from you.

I am sure Jeremiah could send me to one of his posts detailing examples of building community through podcasts. It would be much appreciated.

To learn more, visit http://www.podtech.net.