Archive for the 'keywords' Category

The Digital Walt Whitman Theory

Published on May 30, 2008 in buzz, community, digital, keywords, networks, personal and social media. 3 Comments

In the days of BI (Before Internet), poets would scrawl in their notebooks chosen words that would carefully compose a masterpiece of creativity. It was an age-old tradition, and these notebooks are sacred testaments to the accomplishments of man. Their notebooks would wither, rip and turn into relics of a past time; the knowledge passed down to the next generation to inspire in a creative cycle.

Those days are long gone and a new trend is emerging in its place. What is this trend? I am tentatively calling it the Digital Walt Whitman Theory. Its analysis based on my observations as both a creative person and researcher of sorts.

The main gist of the theory is: the creative arts adopt new technologies at a much faster rate than the general public due to above average overlap between technology and art. For example, artists are problem solvers, which leads to experimenting with new technologies as forms of expression. This insistence on experimenting for solutions to creative problems is common in artist and creative folks from all fields.

Furthermore, as society becomes more connected and digital adoption rates amongst artists’ trends higher than the general publics rate of adoption, will we see more artistic folks take leadership roles as inventors? Consumers are savvier then ever and no touch point is safe yet the fine arts remain a beacon of experimentation into these new technologies. While consumers slowly grasp at the new world, artists are experimenting with Twitter, YouTube and other social networks and learning what works and what fails.

Is Damien Hurst the next Bill Gates?

Finding Great Keywords in the Blogosphere

Published on May 9, 2008 in CRM, SEO, consumer insight, digital, keywords, marketing, social media, tools and websites. 1 Comment

Keyword research can be a daunting task. Relationships between consumers and brands can be like the difference between Japanese and English. Finding an appropriate starting point for setting up your first search campaign can be the biggest roadblock. After determining what product or products to build your campaign around putting together a great set of keywords is the next step.

Keywords form the spine of the your search campaign; getting these relationships right is important to your success. Where do you begin? Corporate websites, brochures and other marketing materials can be a good starting point for relevant terms being used to discuss your brand but they sometimes lack closeness to the consumer. Don’t be alarmed though because consumers have left a virtual digital treasure chest of keywords waiting be discovered in blogs, message boards and forums.

Here is my 5 step process to begin to gain insight in the blogosphere to what is being said and using it for keyword research:

  1. Compile a list of blogs that talk about your brand - Perhaps the most important step is to explore the blogosphere and see who is talking about you. Del.icio.us, Google Blog Search and Technorati are a great place to search your brand and see who is talking about you. Then put together a list of the ones you find to be have the most scope and activity. Look for plenty of comments and large readership. Check for hints including RSS subscribers and comments counts.
  2. Read and look for patterns of conversation - Pay particularly close attention to the comments and specific language being used to talk about your features, models and brands in them. Do they use model numbers or branded terms* to discuss products? Comments are insights straight from consumers about the language that is being developed around you. Tag clouds also hold interesting patterns.
  3. Make a list of terms - Compile a list of terms that you see in multiple places. Segment the list and make sure you don’t forget the long tail.
  4. Rank terms on list - Once you have a master list of all your consumer-driven keywords# put them in order of importance. Focus on consumer talk and how they might search for you not how you would search for your product.
  5. Decide how much to bid on terms - Should you bid more on terms that are from consumers or same? Should they be contextually driven or keyword? For instance, Chevy is used more in conversation than Chevrolet according to BlogPulse. Does this chart mean you should invest much more into contextual advertising for the term “chevy”? One thing is certain you would get more placement due to its increased term use.

These 5-steps are starting points for introducing consumer-driven keywords into your paid search campaign. You can not only increase your paid clicks but gain valuable CRM insights into your brand by adding them into your web strategy. The only question left is. When do we start?

* I remember when I worked at a satellite radio manufacturer we had one radio that was called: XTR1, Jimi and Stream | Jockey. Combing through forums, blogs and message boards would have yielded consumer preference for its name.

# Keywords that originate from consumers of a brand and are not necessarily brand driven.