What is digital trust and why should you care?

What is digital trust and why should you care?

Before we talk about DIGITAL TRUST,  we need to examine trust as an interpersonal issue, then using the insights of trust between people, we need to understand how a search engine may use these trust issues between different digital entities.

The big issue that we need to come to grips with, is SEMANTIC TRUST between different digital entities, and how this impacts on the SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators), which are carried across with hyperlinks between different digital platforms, as well as the semantics and  related context of the content at each end of the link in question.

So what do you Understand about interpersonal trust?

This is a very loaded question, and everybody that I have spoken to during my research on the issue of interpersonal trust,  has come up with a different answer, using their own personal life experiences as a guide line for their answer.  There is no right or wrong answer here, as different culture groups, different religious communities, and different social classes all have their own rules and evaluation processes when dealing with trust.

People of the same groups will always trust each other before trusting an outsider, and past history of interpersonal conversations and interactions between individuals and groups or communities,  will always have a big influence on trust flow patterns. The difference in social standing and educational status between two individuals will also have a very large impact on the relationship and trust flow issues between them.  People of higher social status such as teachers, lawyers, managers or law enforcement officers will usually be trusted before ones peers or those lower down the social ladder.  Known persons would normally be trusted before unknown individuals, and family will usually be trusted before outsiders.

Now trust itself is a very delicate thing, and it does not just suddenly have a very high positive value without a long track record of positive interpersonal interactions.  Just one minor breach of trust, be it a true breach of trust or only a percived breach of trust, can cause a total collapse of all trust between two individuals.  Once the trust between two individuals is broken, it takes quite some considersble effort to repair the trust factors between them, and the breach of trust is not easily forgotten, though it may or may not be forgiven.

When any breach of trust is not forgiven, these two individuals may never have a trusting relationship of any nature again, and the individual who stepped outside of the trust zone and breached the trust between them may also have a host of new problems, The agrieved party may or may not inform other members of their commuity, and many others of the wrong doing, as well as requesting others to also  adopt a bad trust attitude to this specific individual.

Search Engines

Search Engines have evolved over the years and are constantly looking at new and novel ways to improve the quality of their SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages). During 2015 Google, as well as other search engines started using digital trust, as well as related SEMANTIC trust issues as SEOVI (Search Engine Optimization Value Indicators) in more aggressive ways.

Digital trust is like standard human trust in  many ways, except that there is no intuition, such as that when people look into the eyes of those who they are evaluating from a trust perspective, and then base their trust flow issues on GUT FEELING, either positive or negative.  Search engines do not have the luxury of being able to eyeball information in the same way that we as humans eyeball each other. That does not mean that search engines do not have tools and algorithms that evaluate information from a trust perspective, because many search engines have worked hard at developing AI (Artificial Intelligence) specifically to evaluate all online content for a large number of different trust signals.

Links used to be the primary source of digital trust, until the Black Hat Search Engine Optimization fraternity worked out how to game links through the use of link farms, and thin content, with many identical pages in the same website.  Google then developed trust factor algorithms like PANDA and PENGUIN which carried punitive implications for those on the wrong side of the trust equation. Both Penguin and Panda  have built in forgiveness factors, but they do not forget about your transgressions, and keep your web site listed as a past cheater within their trust tables and associated data bases. The forgiveness factors are directly linked to your SEO cleanup efforts  by doing things such as removing thin content, duplicate content and irrelevant links from your pages, and following the recommended procedure to have inbound links either removed or added to your "DISAVOW FILE" .

Links are still vitally important, and the REL = XXXXXXX HTML attributes carry many extra high value SEOVI (Search Engine Optimization Value Indicators) along with them when used in the right manner. It must be remembered that search engines nowadays look at both ends of the link, and evaluate the content on both sides (out bound link and inbound link) as well as the SEMANTIC relationships and context matching issues, for both sides of the link, among many new SEOVI.

AS an example if the REL = AUTHOR attribute is used properly

within the HTML structure of your online content it should  point to the Authors bio page, and have links to all other areas where the specified author contributes within the online environment are listed, and include but is not be limited to the following list:

·                    any Social media profiles that this individual may own

·                    Social media business profiles where this individual is a contributor, owner or manager

·                    blogs where this author contributes as a guest author

·                    web sites where this author is a copy writer, or where his / her work is shared and distributed.

·                    communities, groups and forums where this individual is active in some way, like a moderator, an owner, a manager or a major contributor.

This allows search engines to build a vast trust base, in the form of a trust table, which would allow the search engine to compare all online content associated with this individual author and then form an opinion on this individual authors trust factors and knowledge base, giving them individual trust scores for a host of issues ranging from subject matter to personal representational issues and inter personal relationships with other authors, publishers and general contributors to the online environment amongst the more important SEOVI (Search Engine Optimization Value Indicators)

Trust between individual pieces of online content is a complicated issue, where things like authors, publishers, contributors and information consumers (actual viewers) are all evaluated for semantic relationships as well as a host of other network related issues. The relationships between the platforms where each side of the link is hosted are important variables here, and the expansion of the conversation is the primary issue at stake.  If the search engine determines that there is no semantic linkages between the two linked pieces of online content, then the trust factors may be negative, depending on the inclusion or not of the NO FOLLOW attribute .

This is an important issue that needs to be clearly understood by your marketing team, which should be recommended by your SEO team, and implemented by your design team. Any non related links need the attention of the SEO team, who should have a clear marketing brief discussing the purpose, aims, objectives and intentions of the content in question, so that they can do thorough keyword and target market research.  Most websites and blogs carry advertising and marketing links that are not directly related to the online content that they are housing, and these may need to carry the NO FOLLOW attribute, and possibly also the NO INDEX attribute, or perhaps only the NO INDEX attribute, so as to give search engines very clear signals of the focus area and topics that your online content is offering the public at large. 

These two attributes are very powerful trust generators, as they indicate to a search engine that the linked content is not related to the IN-PAGE content, and it should be standard IPSEO (In Page Search Engine Optimization) PRACTICE to include the NO FOLLOW and NO INDEX attributes in all advertorial links, except those which promote the services, information  or products contained within the page itself.

In 2013  just before Google introduced the HUMMING BIRD algorithm they tried to encourage the use of the REL= AUTHOR and REL = PUBLISHER HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) attributes. The way that Google went about this was not well reprieved within the online environment, and very limited number folks actually used this extremely powerful SEOT (Search Engine Optimization Tactic)  At this stage of the game, in 2013,  Google was getting quite good at identifying individual digital entities, and they needed a tool to help them identify publishers and authors a lot faster than they were.

The Black Hat Search Engine Optimization crew picked up on this and abused the REL = AUTHOR and REL = PUBLISHER attributes to achieve better rankings for stuff that should not even be indexed in the first place. Google then advised folks that they were no longer making use of these two HTML attributes, and took steps to punish folks who they caught out abusing the REL = AUTHOR and REL = PUBLISHER attributes within the HTML code of links.  These two HTML attributes are however now used extensively to build trust factors between online content and specific contributors to online content, and those who break the trust through making use of BLACK HAT SEOT's are labled as cheaters who deserve to be lower down in the trust table.  The impacts of this are HUGE  If you are not using the REL = tags in all hyperlinks within your HTML code you are losing out on a vast pool of trust factor signals that would enhance your search Engine Optimization in many different ways, from the added author and publisher trust scores to the added tread depth of semantic footprints associated with the NO INDEX and NO FOLLOW attributes

The depth of a semantic footprint is dependent on the digital trust factors associated with the semantic context of each page that is linked to from a specific page (outbound links) as well as the semantic context of all inbound links. The digital trust scores between the in-page content of two linked pages is one of the primary factors that influence the depth a a semantic footprint.  You need to remember that SEMANTIC TRUST is just one element of the many diverse issues that make up digital trust.

Digital entities

Digital entities are a strange mix of all online stuff. Some digital entities are stand alone entities, but most are  actually a collection of other digital entities rolled into a new digital entity as a group.  Each and every HTML page within the online environment is a complex digital entity. some examples of stand alone digital  entities are

·                    PDF documents

·                    images

·                    music files

·                    videos

·                    text documents

·                    social media posts

Most web pages and blog posts are considered to be both stand alone digital entities as well as complex digital entities.  This may sound confusing, but needs to be interpreted from the perspective of a search engine, and not us as humans.  As an example a book is a stand alone entity, but it consists of typed pages that are bound together, which can be separated or torn loose.  When the pages are torn loose the book looses value, and may not make sense to future readers as some information will be missing. It thus follows that the pages need to be joined at the books spine, other wise the book has little value.  In the same manner all the components of a web page can not be seperated from the page, as they may not make sense on their own.

People who can be identified, through their online contributions as authors are also considered to be digital entities, which are a collection of all their identifiable digital contributions which can come from a number of sources, including but not limited to the list below

·                    blog posts

·                    web page copy-writing

·                    social media profiles

·                    social media posts     

·                    forum posts and contributions

·                    comments in social media posts

·                    comments to blog posts

·                    in app consumer education  matters

The various sources of information that link an author to specific content, such as but not limited to the list below help the search engine to build a trust graph of authors, showing their expertise and niche areas of interest, along with trust levels, which are used extensively by Google, and possibly all other search engines as well.

·                    A blog post discussing online content which the author contributed to, with a link to that online content, where the author is listed as a contributor, preferably using the REL = AUTHOR TAG within the HTML code associated with the hyperlink (LINK)

·                    A social media post within the authors profile, discussing the content in question, along with a link to that content.

·                    A social media post by a business page where the author is listed as a manager, a contributor or the owner

·                    A social media post by the authors profile within a group, a community, or a forum discussing the content in question with a link to that content

·                    An article or social media post by a third party which explisitly defines the author as  a contributor to the content in question.

·                    A social media profile page, aweb page or a blog page listing a profile  of the author as an author of online content through the REL = AUTHOR method , where links to blogs, websites and other relevant online content contributions by the author is discussed.

 

Just as authors have trust graphs and related info stored in a data base by search engines, so to do PUBLISHERS.  These trust graphs for publishers are considerably larger and more complex than the trust graphs for authors, and carry considerably more weight within the Search Engine Optimisation equations.  Publishers and authors are also linked up, and a single publisher may have many diverse points of publication, which include but is not limited to

·                    many websites

·                    numerous blogs

·                    a plethora of social media profiles within different social media platforms

Authors may write for more than one of these different publication points, as well as other publication points for other publishers. This allows search engines to gather more data and have a deeper understanding of the semantic linkages between the different publishers and diverstity of authors.  This understanding is enforced and complemented by the semantic trust that is developed over time between all these groups and many other digital entities.

Digital trust is built up over time where search engines keep track record of many different issues, and use these in complicated algorithyms to develop many individual trust facors which   are later worked on and processed by a final stage  trust algorithym that has feed back loops into  both the early stage search algorithyms and the final stage search algorithym where the search engines SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) are generated from the search engines data bases.

Digital trust is thus a very important part of the current (Jan 2016) Search Engine Optimisation equation which you as an information provider need to manage and where possible manipualte through careful well managed cross platform marketing. 

cross platform marketing is a form of content marketing, where you market social media  posts,   posted in one platform, in a second platform, so that the orginal content marketing post can aquire larger trust factor signals, and in turn push these larger trust factor signals through to your original online content in your blog or web site.

Example of cross platform marketing.

1) you write a blog post and be sure to use the REL = AUTHOR attribute in a link to your author bio page within the inpage content.

2) you write about your blog post on your FaceBook page with a link to the specific blog post

3) you tweet about your blogpost, but use the link to your Facebook post as the destination URL (Uniform Resource Locator or web address)

4) you write a post in linked in discussing your blog-post, and include a link to

·                    your tweet

·                    your Facebook post and

·                    your blog post

·                    You write a Facebook post discussing your linked-in post with a link to your linked in post.

5) you tweet about your blog post but use the linked in post as the destination URL

Note here that you need to list your social media profiles and all places where you contribute within the online environment in your author Bio Page.  You need to take some time here and do all the home work... be sure to include every where that you have an active social media profile as well as all the blogs and web sites where you are an active contributor.  Your profile page which is accredited with author status through the REL = AUTHOR attribute needs to be well maintained and current at all times, remembering the query freshness issue.

The main purpose of cross platform marketing is to improve your OPSEO or Off Page Search Engine Optimization scores and trust factors within the online environment for all your content.  Cross platform marketing is the best way to grow your online trust factors, so be sure to remain on topic and reply to all comments on your social media posts, as well as comments on your blogs.

Replying to comments within your social media posts and having on-going conversations within the comment streams of other authors or publishers who discuss semantically similar topics to your web sites and blogs is seen in a very favorable light by most search engines. By showing an interest and keeping the conversations active you increase your trust factors within the search space considerably.

These issues of keeping the conversation alive and active within the social media space can only be seen and used by search engines when your profile is public and you post to the public domain.  Most search engines only have permission to see your public profile, how ever if you are a Google User and are logged into your Google account, then you will get a very different approach, as Google will then personalize your SERP (Search Engine Results Page) using your

·                    Google plus profile

·                    G-mail contacts

·                    Google drive documentation

·                    blogger profile and any blogs that you may own or contribute to

·                    Google sites, where you may have created, both public and private

·                    any other Google service that you may use.

These are all used to evaluate your trust factors, with a primary concern for your SEMANTIC TRUST FACTORS which will be used to determine your authority as an author, and your feilds of expertise where you may need some recognition as an expert or not.

Digital trust is a very complex issue, where there are many different parties invloved in supplying trust factor signals, which are interpreted, scored, ranked  and then transferd to a data base for future use by the many different algorthyms which are run to determine a match between a search query and a specific piece of online content.

Links,  both out bound and inbound are the primary sources of all trust factor signals, and as such both sides of the link are evaluated in a number of different ways to determine a host of SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) which are then processed to determine a new set of variables where the different areas of digital trust, such as semantic trust, network trust, context trust and many others are carried forward to other algorithyms.

Digital trust is divided into many components, some are burried within your in page content, while others are connected to the context and semantics of your Off Page Search Engine Optimization efforts.

It thus follows that digital trust is a very powerful Search Engine Optimisation value Indicator, that you need to manage and manipulate as best you can.  To be able to manage and manipulate this digital trust is no easy task.

One needs to keep in mind that SEMANTIC TRUST is one of the larger trust elements within the digital trust stock pile that accumulates over time.  Keeping your digital trust stockpile in order, and ensuring that the negative elements within your digital trust stockpile are constantly weeded out is a task that should not be taken lightly.  Here we are talking of addressing PANDA and PENGUIN type issues, as well as addressing your reputational issues through well policed repuation managment strategies.  These actions of removing the bad influence factors,  all add to the digital trust factors for all your online content where ever it may reside.

All you need to remember is that trust takes time to develop and grow, but is instantly destroyed by a single breach of protocol, or the use of Black Hat Search Engine Optimization tactics.

Content marketing, the social media and SEO

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating, distributing and maintaining valuable, relevant, and consistent online content to attract and retain a clearly-defined target market audience — and, ultimately, to drive predictable, well managed end user reactions, through careful management of conversion funnels and associated calls to action statements, that resonate with your intended target market audience, in a manner that this marketing adds value to the SEO efforts, so that your intended target market audience finds your original online content in search

Most content marketing falls within the Off Page Search Engine Optimization space, and Social media marketing forms the bulk of these efforts 

Off Page Search Engine Optimization or OPSEO  is a powerful set of  tools that allow search engines to improve their understanding of the context and semantics of your content through a variety of different techniques. The semantic linkages between the different subsets of online information and the various creators, distributors and consumers of information allows search engines to develop algorithms that interrogate ultra  large sets of data and extract trust factors as well as networked connections between different digital entities with a focus on specific elements within any individual online content, and then match these specific elements with individual search queries in ways that make sense to the individual who initiated the search query.

Off Page Search Engine Optimization is a vital element within the search industry, which allows search engines to better understand the specific purpose, aims, objectives and intentions of all online content.  Once the intentions and purpose of any online content is understood by a search engine then it has the ability to match that purpose and intent of your content to the purpose and intent of a search query.

IPSEO or In Page Search engine Optimisation is a very complex issue that allows for the application of many different tactics, and and a wide range of different criteria to be implemented within any single piece of online content, be it in a web site, a blog or any other online resource, with the primary aim to improve the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages) associated with that online content.

Nearly every item of IPSEO is reflected in the HTML code of a page, where some tactics remain in the <HEAD> section and others remain in the <BODY> section of a page. Many of these different sections are pre-coded as widgets that the web page / blog design team include with ease and little actual coding is needed by most online content creators these days.

Many web design packages these days allow for easy insertion of specially designed widgets that add a wide variety of specialist coding , such as the latest specialist mark up of SCHEMA for specific types of data. 

Your IPSEO starts with product / service research, then flows through to target market research and associated topic and keyword research. Your copywriter takes care of the textual and visual layout of the page, while a host of other specialists each contribute in various ways to the hidden aspects of the in-page content, such as the meta data and EXIF data embedded in images, video or audio files, and the extra info added to hyperlinks which include things like the REL = AUTHOR and REL = PUBLISHER tags which are inserted into the code of the hyperlink in question.

Many other issues are hidden in scripts that perform specific tasks such as including interactive spreadsheets, forms and clickable buttons that add value to the viewer experience. these items all need to be understood by the OPSEO (Off Page Search Engine Optimisation) team so that they may be exploited during the social media and cross media marketing efforts of the rest of the marketing team.

These scripts and related coding issues need to be put together with your SEO in mind, where variable names and related filing and naming issues need to be adjusted or changed to reflect the keywords and topic selection processes that were conducted at the beginning of the SEO process. By using the selected keywords as variables within scripts and code, an added layer of SEO can be sneakily introduced, but this takes a deeper understanding of SEO and the implications of using file names, coding variables and related naming procedures to manage this. It also requires that those who are doing the coding attend marketing meetings where SEO and the integration of SEO into the bigger marketing picture is discussed. 

These issues need to be brought to the attention of your social media marketing team so that the IPSEO (In Page Search Engine Optimization)  issues which are in place,  can be expanded on,  within the Off Page Search Engine Optimization space,  focusing on the social media, through careful  and well managed use of the In Page Search Engine  optimization tactics that have been implemented, by making use of the research data and related  decisions, including but not limited to  the following information

• EXIF data for embedded
• images
• videos
• audio files
• text files
• alt text and related image titles, image descriptions as well as other image related info
• any specialized SCHEMA MARK UP along with notes on the implementation of this schema markup along with any research done to establish 
• all keyword and topic research notes along with decisions of what to exclude and what to include
• all target market research notes, as well as decisions made by other marketing personnel based on this information.
•  the purpose, aims, objectives and intentions of the original online content which is being marketed in the social media.

All this information needs to  accompany the marketing brief that the social media marketing team are issued, which should include  a document discussing the purpose, aims, objectives and intent of the social media marketing campaign, showing how this content marketing effort will interact with the SEO process, and how its impact will be managed.

Content marketers thus need to be well informed of all the sneaky and devious tricks used within the in page search engine optimization process, so that they may make use of these elements, by specifically referring to them within their social media posts.

Here we are talking of things such as prices which may have been added to product information within the page by making use of SCHEMA MARK UP,  so that the social media post uses the same format and actual in-page price including the specific currency used within the SCHEMA MARK UP  these exact match textual issues will add real strong SEMANTIC TRUST FACTORS to your content, both within the social media platform as well as the original on;line content in your blog or web page.

It thus follows the content marketing within the social media space can be used to improve a host of different Search Engine Optimization Value  Indicators in very powerful ways, provided that your marketing team work together and follow a #FUFISM based marketing strategy, where the power of the social media is understood and managed through careful use of selected keywords that appear in the <HEAD> section of your web page or blog post.

Many online marketers do not understand the semantic reach of the <HEAD> section of your web page or blog post, and this is because they have been hearing the rumors that these items have no value for a number of years and most marketing folks do not even know that the <HEAD> section of all online content exists.

• the meta tag - page title
• the meta tag page description
• the meta tag  keywords
• other devious and sneaky stuff inserted in the <HEAD> section of your page by the web site or blog design team

The issues relating to the <HEAD> section of your web page or blog post are seldom discussed, but this is one of the main reasons that bloggers make use of their own custom domains instead of using the free services such as blogspot.com.  Unfortunately there are many hidden costs involved in hosting your own domain, and having your blog on a sub domain or subweb within your primary web site.

having your own domain and hosting your own online content instead of using a free service has many strange and powerful advantages within the SEO industry, but these all come at a price.  Out sourcing your hoisting is an issue that needs careful attention, and unless you are a very large business that has the necessary security staff who are able to perform the necessary network security functions, you should out source your web site hosting.  this needs careful attention and you do need to discuss this with a number of different folks to get their views, and take a decision based on your needs and resources available

Having your own domain gives you many advantages within the SEO industry, and most of them are new trust factors where semantic trust is the most important issue. You also need to remember to link to deeper pages and specific blog posts,  as well as specific ever green pages in both your blog and your web site.  This is a vital part of content marketing, where you need to remember to perform cross platform marketing, where your would mention your Facebook post in a tweet, and your twitter profile in your Facebook posts.   Performing this action in other social media platforms and mentioning your other social media profiles should be done at least once every two weeks, and if you have a busy blog or web site, your should consider doing this more often, even once a day.

If your blog or web site gets fewer than 1 000 visitors every day, then keep your cross platform posting to once or twice a month.  Always remember to document all your social media posts, with a time line and other relevant data in a spreadsheet so that you can evaluate the impact of your social media posts on your SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) and your web site / blog traffic flow stats.

You should make a habit of keep records of all your content marketing efforts in a spread sheet, with time lines and other relaxant data . this will allow for better management and control of  any traffic flow audits that you may perform.

Remember that Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach, and that this is not a stand alone strategy.  

Content marketing is a subset of your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and those who tell you different need to explain very clearly how and why content marketing is excluded from the SEO stable.

Understanding what SEO is and how the different sections of your SEO strategy  interact with each other is not an easy task. the three SEO sections are

1. IPSEO or  In Page SEO
2. OPSEO or Off Page SEO
3. OLSEO or Off Line SEO

Online Content marketing allows you to integrate your IPSEO (In Page stuff) with your OPSEO (Off Page stuff) through your social media posts, where link building is the primary SEO feature, that binds your social media posts to the content that is being marketed with a hyperlink. 

Off Line Content marketing allows you to introduce your selected keywords and related semantic terminology to your target market audience.  Here we are talking of using TV, Radio, news papers, magazines, flyers, bill boards and other adverting  or marketing to get your intended target market audience to talk about your product, service, company, web site, blog or other online content.

If done right,  both your off line content marketing and your online content marketing will use your In Page Search Engine Optimization notes and data research conclusions  to construct the required information flow patterns within your intended target market audience.

This  should l result in your intended target market  audience using a search engine to locate more information about your business, using the keywords and semantically linked words, within their search query.  This use of your selected keywords and semantically related linked terminology will result in better SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages.

#IPSEO  #OPSEO  #OLSEO #FUFISM #CONTENTMARKETING #SEO

SEO and the C-SUIT team

Getting the C-SUIT TEAM to buy into the value of SEO is a tough nut to crack.

 

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is a very poorly understood concept, but it's implications within the online marketing industry are so massive that your SEO can make or break a company in terms of online exposure, and the costs involved in getting the right target market group to actually fall into your online conversion funnels.

 

Getting your executive staff  (the C-SUIT team) to buy into this understanding, and accept the fact that SEO needs to be integrated into your online marketing through a #FUFISM based  marketing strategy is essential, as they need to support this and ensure that the many different marketing tactics that a company use, are all integrated into a single well managed holistic marketing plan.

 

The introduction of the Google Humming Bird in August / September 2013 was the point at which this started to become important, but most marketing folks, both online and off line have not yet adopted  new strategies that incorporate the necessary thinking that came along with the introduction of SEMANTIC SEARCH and its many new Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators (#SEOVI) that now need to be incorporated in all your marketing, both online and offline.

This recent post by +Eric Enge  of STONE TEMPLE CONSULTING discusses some of the real tricky issues that need to be addressed in getting the C-SUIT TEAM (CHIEF SOMETHING OFFICERS) to buy into the value of SEO for your marketing efforts, both online and off line.

I have written about the value of SEO before, and I suggest that you take a peep see at some of my older posts just to remind you of the way that I think, and help you to understand why it is so vitally important that the C-SUIT team buy into the many different issues associated with a +fufism  based\marketing philosophy. This post discusses the value of SEO

Getting a buy in from your senior management is a very difficult task for those within the SEO industry, and breaking down the individual SILOS that exist for each marketing field is even more difficult, but these two issues need to be attacked with some vigor by the SEO team to ensure that there is cohesion and cooperation across marketing platforms, and also across individual marketing campaigns within the same marketing mediums.

Those who have  marketing silos for print media, radio, web sites, blogs and social media platforms are in for a shock as the SEO values of individual  digital entities become more important within the search space due to semantic profiling and all the other issues associated with the SEOVI (Search Engine Optimization Value Indicators) that have been introduced by the Google Hummingbird algorithm and its close associates. 

These new new search engine optimization variables, especially those connected with individual digital entities semantic footprints, and the network linkages between separate identifiable digital entities, such as authors, publishers, image creators, video editors, social media practitioners and so many others, are now beginning to have bigger and bigger  impacts on search results as search engines gather more data and look at ways to eliminate poor quality results form their SERP's.

Those who have been using the REL = AUTHOR and REL = PUBLISHER  tags are seeing the positive results as these help improve the STFSEOVI (Semantic Trust Factor Search Engine Optimization Value Indicators)  

Those who have been using the EXIF data options for images, videos, PDF documents and other embedded files  are also seeing the positive results (see #10blueinks )   

Getting the C-SUIT TEAM to understand this and buy into the SEO value of an integrated marketing plan where SEO plays a leading role is a very difficult task, how ever the fruits that grow within your SERP's are truly worth the effort to convince the C-SUIT TEAM of the value of SEO and why SEO needs to be integrated inot all your marketing, both online and off line.

some related posts  on the 4U brand blog are listed here

http://4ubrand.blogspot.co.za/2015/03/what-is-opseo-and-why-should-you-care.html

http://4ubrand.blogspot.co.za/2015/07/what-is-purpose-of-your-online-strategy.html

http://4ubrand.blogspot.co.za/2013/06/where-does-content-marketing-fit-into.html

http://4ubrand.blogspot.co.za/2015/07/what-is-seo-value-of-offline-marketing.html

http://4ubrand.blogspot.co.za/2013/11/the-value-of-local-seo-from-fufism.html

http://4ubrand.blogspot.co.za/2015/05/is-seo-important-to-your-company.html

The power of BLAB needs to be harnessed!

The dawn of a new social media giant  #BLAB

The social media platform +blab  is a new entrant into the social Media space that really only got noticed by me in   July / August  2015.  

 

 #BLAB is quite a powerful tool with in the conversation expansion tool kit that any marketer, or business professional  should consider using,  to expand their influence within the public domain.

 

BLAB is a very powerful communication platform that needs to be understood and managed as part of your personal enrichment strategies, as well as a tool,  to extend personal and meaningful conversations into the public domain in a manner that any invited prospect or like minded person may join at any time.

Blab must not be underestimated as a tool to build your personal relationships with existing customers, colleagues  , friends or other acquaintances including  with new and unknown persons who can join your BLAB experience at any time.

A new platform #BLAB

To use #B LAB you need to have an active functional twitter account,  as Blab is associated with Twitter and you need a twitter handle to log into BLAB.

BLAB is basically a video chat app that allows you to chat with up to three other folks  at a time, with the options to record this conversation so that you may re-purpose it to,  extend the conversation into other spaces,  such as here on G+, in twitter, on Facebook, in your blog or any where else where it may expand your reach and influence your intended target audience, or educate the public.

BLAB is not a stand alone strategy, as BLAB does not yet have a clear way to invite outsiders (the public) to join you and your guest, or  guests without using other platforms or other media

It thus follows that you need to have an established network, and then use this network to get the word out about your conversation and where to find it within the BLABOSPHERE.

 about FUFISM based  marketing

The power of the BLAB social space must not be underestimated, and in my personal opinion, this will soon be used by Google and other Search engines to extend, focus and   strengthen their STFSEOVI (Semantic Trust Factor Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) of individuals who make use of this platform to expand the conversations about their work and connected online resources.

The comment stream that is associated with each BLAB should also not be forgotten about, as this can, and should,  be used very effectively as a link building tool, to build a link profile of specific pages, blog posts or other online resources that are directly relevant to the blab in question.  This platform is thus a very unique opportunity to build your personal semantic footprint, and link it to your blog, your web site and other online resources,  where you are a contributor in very deeply connected and meaningful ways, that Google Hummingbird, and its cousins in other search engines can use with confidence to link you to specific topics, categories or industry specific fields.

Only those who have an interest in the topic in question for each individual blab will find and then perhaps comment, and this will allow for better understanding by search engines of who your intended target audience is ,  and what your industry specific niche is.  There is thus a very clear and distinct opportunity for marketers to use the BLAB platform to expand the online reach and related SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) of any specific individual who makes use of the BLAB social media space , through clever and well thought through supplemental marketing  OFF PAGE SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION of your BLAB video conversations.

Info4u offers better marketing tips

If you do your marketing right by making use of your other social media platforms to market when you will be on blab,  supply the link to your blab, and ensure that these are well optimized and are highly placed within the SERP's for the topic and related key  words of the conversation that you intend to have on blab, along with who your co-host or guest will be , then you have a great chance of  random folks who have an interest in the topic under discussion.

These random folks who find your BLAB conversation should form the core of your intended target market audience.  Many may want to join the conversation directly, but be prevented from doing so due to the numbers issue.  Remember that only 4 people may be present in a #BLABCONVERSATION at any one time.   this is not a major train smash, as there is a comment stream that is live and interactive where these folks can inject their views and related links into the conversation.  also as soon as any one person leaves the BLAB CONVERSATION any body from the public may take his  /  her place.

Once again this is a very powerful communications tool, and its power within the SEO industry and related\  online marketing environment needs to be understood and managed so that it may be harnessed to promote you as an individual, as well as all the online resources where you as an individual are active or a contributor or some sort.

TAKE A PEEP SEE HERE    http://blog.blab.im/

BLAB is a very neat communications tool that I recommend that you evaluate for your self...

 

I like this tool, and suggest that you start working out how you will integrate your blabs into your other marketing from a #FUFISM based marketing perspective.

What is the purpose of your blog?

The purpose of a blog is not easily defined, and every business should  have its own set of documents describing the purpose, aims, objectives and intent of  their own company blog.

 

When documenting the purpose of your blog be sure to have your business plan handy, as the company purpose, aims, objectives and intent will be used to describe the purpose, aims objectives and intent of your blog.

 

Document your blog and change your attitude to blogging

Once you have taken the time to document the purpose, aims, objectives and intent of your blog, you will find it an awful lot easier to  write clear instructions for your content creators , and ensure that the content that they create and assemble is more suitable for your intended target market audience.

 

From a FUFISM based  marketing perspective the primary purpose of your blog is to act as a supplemental marketing strategy to your website, and support the purpose, aims, objectives and intent of your website.  Your blog will of course have many secondary purposes just as your website has many different secondary purposes.

Your blog should be viewed as an essential asset that acts as part of your online presence, and be treated as the second most important online communication channel that you own, remembering that your web site is the primary online communication channel that you own.

One of the more important purposes of your blog,  should be to act as a link building, and content marketing  channel for your web site. Your blog and your web site are owned by you, making them your digital assets, whereas your social media is just leased online space, where you have very little control over the activity that takes place there.  You have total control over your blog and your web site, so you can dictate the activity that is allowed to take place within these two digital assets that you mange and control.

Your blog should also complement your website and act as a content marketing platform for your web site, where you add extra value to the content and context  of your web site by expanding the conversation started in your web site, through posts and pages in your blog,  that attract comments and on going conversations around specific topics as listed and discussed in your web site.  These conversations should then be extend to the social media, so that the social media may then be used as an extension of your blog to market your online content within your web site further and in more detail,  to the search engines as well as  your intended target market audience.

Your blog should also be used to solve consumer issues with your products, services and related information flow patterns , by answering specific questions picked up through your social listening tools, or queries raised by your audience within the online environment.

 Your blog is not a sales house, and you should not be pushing sales within your blog, but rather sending viewers to your sales pages within your web site, from blog posts that form part of your sales funnel, or pages within your blog that are dedicated to sending visitors to specific landing pages within your web site.


You should have a blogging policy, and a set of documents describing the purpose, aims, objectives and intent of your blog.  This set of documents should also descibe where your blog fits into your totsal marketing plan, along with who is in charge of the SEO issues, and how these are integrated into your web sites SEO issues, as well as how your blog will be integrated into your social media marketing tactics along with the marketing roles played by
1) your web site
2) your blog
3) your social media tactics
4) your offline marketing tactics and staregies


Besides direct marketing, content marketing, link building and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)  issues your blog should also play a number of other important roles in many other areas of your business including but not limited to

• public relations issues
• after sales issues
• customer education issues
•  community building issues
• business networking issues

The power of your blog should not be underestimated, and you should review and update the documentation describing the purpose, sims, objectives and intent of your blog at least once every three months, but once a month would be best practice.