In preparation for Online Marketing Summit in February, where I will be hosting a pre-conference SEM training and participating in an SEM expert panel, I’ve outlined what I feel are the biggest challenges companies will face in 2010, in terms of SEM programs execution.

Bigger Expectations, Fewer Resources

As marketing budgets and teams get trimmed, executives are putting increasing pressure on SEM to deliver. While SEM has been able to meet or exceed expectations of even the most skeptical managers the past few years, marketers are being asked to improve ROI, despite limited budgets and resources. 2010 may be the year the Grim Reaper comes reckoning, when SEM budgets get cut too close to the bone and is unable to meet aggressive marketing goals.

Validating SEM Efforts

As the old saying goes, what gets measured gets managed. This statement is particularly true for SEM, which means increasing accountability and scrutiny.  In response, internal SEM teams and vendors are providing metrics favorable to their job security.  Corporate marketers are now facing increasing pressure from executive management to validate SEM program efficacy. A cottage industry consisting of SEM audit software and services will emerge in the coming year, providing insights into the true performance of in-house and SEM vendors.

Bringing It Home

2009 was the year of “taking SEM in-house.” Unfortunately for SEM vendors, what we’ve seen thus far is likely the tip of the iceberg. SEM consultants and vendors will continue to face significant challenges in client retention, particularly with larger corporations that are most likely to build SEM teams in-house. While a general migration is unavoidable, there will always be a place for high-value SEM consultants.

True Integration

Although we predicted better integration between search and traditional marketing in 2009, we’re barely beyond the starting line. On the plus side, traditional marketers are finally acknowledging the power of SEM, even integrating it into various advertising campaigns. Unfortunately, the depth and breadth of integration is lackluster at best. Once SEM has a dedicated voice at the table and is integrated into all marketing activities, the ROI on marketing will become truly compelling.

The ‘A’ Word

Although analytics tools and techniques continue to evolve and improve across the board, challenges remain. A significant measurement challenge facing online marketers, is understanding attribution. The ability to track all marketing touch-points in the sales process, in order to understand which activities influence conversions and why, is the secret sauce. SEM professionals that master attribution have ultimate job security.

Search Meets Social

Perhaps the largest sea change in corporate marketing over the past year, was the embrace of social media.  Unfortunately, the social media gold rush has created confusion, poorly implemented and measured campaigns. SEM professionals find themselves at ground zero with opportunities to incorporate social media into their area of responsibility, but what does it mean and how will it work? Look for more definition, improved process, integration and accountability in 2010.

Keeping Up

Although SEM professionals continue to add responsibilities like social media to their plates, the associated increase in budgets and resources is not necessarily materializing. With limited bandwidth, keeping up with a dynamic, evolving and growing industry becomes increasingly challenging.  Marketers must get increasingly creative about how they identify, analyze and distribute valuable information to team members. Smaller in-house SEM teams will suffer the most in this scenario.

Managing Reputation

Although the growth of the online reputation management industry didn’t materialize in 2009 as we’d anticipated, it is still an unavoidable aspect of any SEM program. With the launch of Google’s social search, high visibility of customer reviews and related social media sites in search results, brands large and small can’t afford to ignore what people are saying. A company lacking a proactive reputation management program will not fare well in 2010 and beyond.

Going Global

Although International SEM has been a reality for many years, 2009 was a banner year in terms of adoption. With advances in translation technology and search products, even smaller regional companies have opportunities to go global very cost-effectively. Look for even greater levels of adoption of international SEO & PPC programs, particularly beyond Google to country-specific search engines. The challenge will be allocating proper resources to localize SEM programs for optimal ROI.

I’ve outlined nine of the biggest challenges SEM professionals will face in 2010, but it is by no means an exhaustive list and I encourage you to share your thoughts below. I look forward to seeing you at OMS 2010 in San Diego.

For years, I’ve recommended that companies purchase anti-brand domain names to keep them out of the hands of haters and competitors. The growth of social media has led to a shift in culture and ownership of brands. With that, comes a significant opportunity for bold companies. Dell IdeaStorm and My Starbucks Idea, powered by Salesforce.com, have all received recognition for creating communities where customers can provide feedback to each other and to the company, but I don’t think that’s revolutionary by today’s standards.

As Andy Sernovitz points out in his 1-5-10 Rule, each unhappy customer shares his experiences with 5 others. Companies able to turn that customers negative experience into a positive benefit two-fold, as that customer will tell 10 people how the company addressed their concerns. So how about combining the two concepts into one convenient solution: creating an online for unhappy customers to voice their opinions and share experiences? By controlling the domain and community, the company is able to moderate comments and route issues to relevant parties in sales, marketing, product development or customer service. Engaged customers and partners may also step in and offer insights and address complaints or concerns, keeping costs down.

In the end, it’s not about the technology or the resources, it’s about having the balls to put your brand out there and being willing and able to listen, learn, respond and apply the resulting insights. So what are you waiting for? I think YourCompanySucks.com is available…

Social Media Profile Optimization
Assuming you have active LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook profiles, there are a few key steps in leveraging your social presence to help secure that dream job. The first step is to optimize your profiles so they gain visibility within the network and on Google when searching for your name. This means ensuring your name appears prominently and regularly throughout your profiles (and blog), along with other keywords that describe your previous experience, expertise and desired position.

Profile Syndication
Once your profiles are keyword-optimized, ensure they are properly integrated and syndicated. For example, you can add an automated Twitter feed to Facebook and your blog (and vice versa). You can also automate the communications process with tools like HootSuite, TweetDeck and Ping.FM. The objective is to minimize the time you spend managing your profiles, while still maintaining an active presence.

Social Resume Development
Only the savviest of employers research a potential employees’ social media presence. Depending on your level of experience, activity and philosophy, this can be a blessing or curse. For example, which would be less desirable to a company looking for a savvy sales person: a candidate with no social media presence, or one with an active presence, yet with some inappropriate content? Perhaps neither, depending on the company and job requirements.

Based on my experience over the years as a manager, marketer and host of a monthly career networking event, I believe the resume of the future will integrate your social media credentials. Below are a few examples of critical social media elements to incorporate into your social-savvy resume:

• Profile handles/URLs (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, blog, etc.)
• Statistics on each profile (connections, content quality & quantity, overall engagement within the community)

Metrics That Matter
When incorporating your social media profiles into your resume, don’t forget that the major platforms provide free analytics. Key metrics that may matter to employers (particularly those looking for sales, business development or marketing types) include: original content, connections and votes.

Ideally, the profiles will have a high ranking in searches for your name, and will be easy for employers to find. While not all metrics listed above are possible for an employer to validate, they are relatively easy to compile and update on your resume. Below are a few specific insights for the top platforms:

LinkedIn
While a greater number of connections shows breadth, it’s also important to show depth, which can be measured by the number of recommendations or endorsements by those in your network. Additionally, a higher number of Best Answers in Q&A shows engagement and thought leadership.

Twitter
Similarly to LinkedIn connections, followers show breadth, but not depth. To get a better feel for influence, analyze the volume of tweets, retweets and references. One tool, Twitalyzer, provides an algorithmic approach to analyzing these holistic factors when giving each profile a rank out of 100.

Facebook
Due to the nature of the platform, Facebook is not conventionally known as a business networking community. That said, you can learn a good deal about a potential employee based on their friends, wall posts, likes and photos. As a potential employee, you need to be aware of the possibility your profile is being viewed and ensure all questionable content is removed or privacy settings are properly set.

Blogs
There are a few core metrics you can use to evaluate the credibility of a blog. First and foremost, look at how long the blog has been around (archives should be accessible), the volume and consistency of posts, the volume of comments, Diggs, retweets and trackbacks. Additionally, you can evaluate overall influence by looking at the Technorati ranking for any given blog, as well as its overall visibility in search results.

Your best bet is to create a compelling story around your metrics. For employers unable to decipher these metrics, Google has developed a single number that illustrates your overall social media influence. Instead of having to include the number of LinkedIn connections or Twitter followers, Google may save you trouble by unveiling their new social rating system in the near future, which will illustrate your holistic influence.

If you are looking to secure your current position, or looking for a new job, building, optimizing, syndicating and managing your social media presence will be increasingly important to employers looking for more strategic hires. So update your resume today and start managing your profiles carefully and thoughtfully with your dream job in mind.

Social Media Consolidation
While we predicted a degree of consolidation in the social media Web 2.0 world, it didn’t come to fruition to the degree we expected in 2008, but 2009 will be a different story entirely. A lack of viable revenue streams (including advertising) combined with non-existent funding sources will spell the end for hundreds of Web 2.0 platforms and portals. Those with the largest audiences or best technology will get acquired on the cheap, while a majority will vaporize overnight. MySpace and Facebook will take tremendous heat from regulatory bodies after cases of identity fraud and theft receive attention from mainstream media. The players that best address data portability, privacy and security will have the best shot at weathering the storm, and an elite few may even become big winners. The winners will likely be polarized, with niche vertical communities on one end of the spectrum and full-blown aggregators on the other end.

Online Brand Reputation Management
Consumer generated content is increasing in prevalence and in visibility with searches, which means companies large and small can no longer ignore it. Progressive companies will proactively monitor, market to and engage with consumers in the Web 2.0 world (i.e. Comcast on Twitter). Internet reputation repair for companies, executives and celebrities that get into trouble and pay top dollar to make negative listings in search results disappear, will continue to bloom as a service. Larger corporations will continue to invest in automated tools that track trademarks, competitors and industry buzz, building or buying expert teams to interface with sales, marketing, HR, legal and the executive suite.

Resurgence of Display & Rich Media Advertising
Online display advertising (i.e. banner ads), long been criticized for being expensive and largely ineffective as a driver for sales, will undergo a bit of a renaissance. Driven by Google’s growing adoption of display advertising options, industry consolidation (Google/DoubleClick) and evolving technologies will enable improved targeting, measurement, and possibly, ROI. Furthermore, there will be an increasing number of rich media ad options, complete with more robust metrics for engagement.

Local Search & Geo-targeted Advertising
A greater number of small businesses need to market in the down economy and are naturally turning to the Web. While existing localized and geo-targeted search services are fairly robust, they will continue to expand and evolve to meet the needs of one of the largest contributors to the US economy: small business. Small companies that understand SEO, PPC, social media and Google’s OneBox will gain tremendous competitive advantage. Similarly, agencies that provide a customized service set for local SEM will fare well in 2009 as larger companies compress marketing budgets.

Mobile Search & Rescue
For the past two years, Anvil has predicted the “year of mobile” with little success. Perhaps we’ve been too optimistic in this area. However, since the adoption of the iPhone, the smart phone market has exploded, giving marketers unprecedented opportunity to target end users. While applications are the hot new thing, offering a whole new level of brand engagement (and revenue potential for developers), mobile search is our area of interest. Google is now pushing PPC through mobile platforms, which means new opportunities to test. Look for a handful of breakthrough case studies to spur interest and growth in mobile search in 2009, with even greater growth in 2010.

International Search Expansion
The US economy is forcing companies to get creative. Beyond careful management of domestic marketing dollars, there will be a growing interest in expand to new markets abroad. The still weak dollar means International markets are more interested than ever in American products & services. The Internet can lower barriers of entry into global markets, but it does require translating and localizing Web content. This will be a big opportunity to for search marketers with International experience and service offerings.

Googleopoly: More Pain with Gain?
As Google continues to build and buy technology and eyeballs, extending its monopoly on the Web, concerns about the “Big Brother” aspects of the “do no evil” company are under increased scrutiny from legal, financial and regulatory bodies. Search engines like MSN and Yahoo! continue to lose market share of the US search market, while Microsoft fears their deepening integration into the operating system with powerful free tools like Google Apps and Chrome. As Cuil and Mahalo have proven thus far, Google is all but impervious to new engines (let alone established engines) from threatening their stranglehold on search. Google continues to extend its reach in the advertising market too, with tentacles into print, radio and mobile. The downside, according to advertisers in particular is the Google’s control over inventory and pricing means greater potential for increased price and decreased selection. Despite criticism and legal battles, we predict Google will recover a majority of the loss in stock price sustained in 2008 that took them from $700 to $300 per share.

Key Metrics: Beyond Search
We predicted a vast improvement in Web analytics tools back in 2006, but 2009 will see greater adoption of the affordable, yet robust tools by businesses large and small. Free applications like Google Analytics, Webmaster Central and Website Optimizer will be more expertly used, particularly by smaller companies looking to stay competitive in a down economy and globalized market. Metrics typically reserved for big budget consumer brands (i.e. audience segmentation, behavioral targeting, user engagement and customer loyalty) will be adopted by progressive small businesses, with the end goal of increasing conversion rates. The more advanced metrics will extend into the world of social media and reputation management, areas in need of greater validation in order to fuel further growth. Savvy search marketers will embrace new forms of measurement and extend services offerings beyond generating traffic. On one end of the spectrum, search will be used to a greater extent to test naming, positioning and key messages in early stage brand development. On the other end, SEM professionals will extend into integrated marketing, Web development and post-sale business consulting. Few search marketers will be able to successfully adapt, having bloated infrastructure, obsolete talent and tools.

Improved Integration Between Traditional and Online Marketing
Although the SEM industry will continue to grow, it will be at a much slower rate than in the past. As mentioned earlier, savvy SEM professionals will adapt and thrive by expanding and deepening skills in marketing, business and analytics. The net result will be search campaigns that incorporate video, rich media, mobile and social media advertising, along with traditional elements like print and broadcast advertising, events and public relations. 2009 will be the first year that small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) will launch effective and measurable integrated marketing campaigns with search as a key component, vs. an afterthought.

Slow Death of the Agency Commission
Although I’ve worked in full-service agencies that have paid for beautiful downtown offices and executive perks, I’ve never been a big fan of the traditional media commission structure. When we first started managing pay-per-click (PPC) for clients back in 2000 or so, I made a conscious decision to charge time and materials, not a commission. The SEM agencies that have built a small fortune on 10% to 12% media markup are going to experience the first cracks in a crumbling foundation this year. Those that can’t adapt to lower commission, hybrid model or time and materials, will slowly (or quickly) go out of business.

I encourage you to bookmark this post and visit in December to see how effectively the team at Anvil Media has predicted SEM trends for 2009. I hope to see you in San Diego.

Content
As outlined in an earlier SEO article, content is indeed king. Without keyword-loaded HTML text on all key pages, there is little chance for a Web site to gain high visibility in search engines. Search engine spiders can’t read what they can’t see. Without eyes, the spider does not inherently know what an image or Flash animation depicts or contains, and therefore it will never give that content as much weight. In a similar fashion, sites with frames are a problem because the spiders have trouble locating multiple frames and only tend to index one frame before leaving.

When a spider indexes a Web site, it looks for HTML text, as it can be easily read and understood. In order to show up in the top 10 (or even top 30) search engine results for any given search phrase, it is important to ensure your target phrases are embedded regularly throughout the page in question. Remember to include the phrases in the headline, high up in the body copy and again at the bottom, as engines like Google like the standard thesis approach to page layout. Also, look for opportunities to emphasize the phrase throughout the body copy by bolding, italicizing, underling or hyper-linking to other relevant content (example: search engine optimization).

Code
With the proliferation of database-driven content management systems (CMS) and WYSIWYG editors, much of the source code behind a Web site that helps define the content and layout is large and clumsy. Spiders have trouble with some forms of programming languages that may make it easier to build or manage a Web site, like Javascript. The ideal solution to ensure your site is thoroughly indexed by search engines is to design it to widely accepted Web standards (basically less is more).

In addition to designing for spiders, the benefit of a Web standards-compliant site is that it will be accessible to the broadest set of browsers and connection speeds, improving the experience for visitors. To round out source code optimization, ensure that each and every page has keyword-optimized title, META and ALT tags. The keywords you select should be the same ones you focused on for the body copy on that page. For bonus points, ensure your domain is keyword-loaded, especially if the URL has a dynamic string of database parameters (all of those nonsensical letters, numbers and symbols after the .com should be replaced with keywords).

Credibility
Now that we’ve talked about what site visitors see, and what goes on behind the scenes, it’s critical to understand one more element that affects how search engines like Google determine which site out of millions is displayed for a term like “luggage.” Even if every page of your site has a reasonable occurrence of that term, and the URL and tags in the source code are optimized for the term, you still may never appear in the first 100 pages, let alone #3 on the first page.

According to research conducted by SEOmoz, 70 percent of Google’s search rankings factors relate to a Web site’s credibility. These key factors include: global link popularity of Web site, age of site, link popularity within site’s internal linking structure, topical relevance of inbound links to site, link popularity of site in topical community, global link popularity of linking site and topical relationship of linking page. Lesser factors to consider include domain expiration and IP neighborhood.

Of the top 10 ranking factors, inbound link credibility typically generates the most interest and attention. The best way to boost inbound link credibility is to acquire links from relevant industry sites that are ideally popular and are also visible in search results for your target terms. The more popular and relevant a site is that links to you, the higher your link credibility (or PageRank) will be with Google. Sites that use link farms to boost their rankings often get penalized due to the lack of relevance or popularity of the pages that link to them. Quality over quantity is the mantra when undertaking a link development campaign.

Bonus C: Conversion
While 3Cs is relatively simple yet comprehensive, it doesn’t cover the last mile. Even if you follow the above steps, you may still fall short for a variety of reasons. A common side effect of a poorly executed SEO campaign is a lack of additional leads or sales. That usually indicates your keyword terms missed the mark and need to be re-evaluated for relevant to the target audience. The right keywords = leads and sales.

The best way to ensure your keyword phrases are relevant is to closely monitor and analyze your site traffic via a Web analytics package like Google Analytics. It can tell you what phrases generate traffic and from what search engine. If you have the proper setup and configuration, you can tie those to conversions (leads or sales). You can also utilize free tools from Google, KeywordDiscovery and WordTracker to evaluate new phrases and you can implement their conversion tracking tools to see which phrases convert via paid search and apply those learnings to your SEO efforts.

Your Web site is much more likely to increase in search engine visibility (and revenue) now that you are armed with the 4 Cs of SEO: content, code, credibility and conversion. To learn more about SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) fundamentals, as well as more advanced techniques like SEM PR and online reputation management, attend my session at OMS on February 4th. See you there.

Kent Lewis is President of Anvil Media, Inc., a search engine marketing agency based in Portland, OR and can be reached at 503.595.6050.

Before we dive into the fundamentals of integrated marketing, I feel it’s important to ensure our readers are on the same page when it comes to the differences between traditional, online and integrated marketing. For starters, traditional/offline marketing relies on corporate and agency-driven messaging, broadcast in a one-to-many fashion, over long-lead, expensive and difficult-to-measure media.

By comparison, online/interactive marketing may utilize a collaborative message development platform with two-way conversations, and provides a real-time, cost-effective and measurable media format. On the other hand, integrated marketing offers community-based conversations and collaboration, as well as consistent, media-appropriate messaging.

Now that you have a better understanding of the nuances of integrated marketing, let’s talk about how you can leverage SEM & SMM strategies and tactics to amplify the effects of traditional marketing. The five areas we’ll cover include search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), social media marketing (SMM), online reputation management (ORM) and measurement/analytics.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Long seen as the most affordable method of generating awareness, traffic and sales, SEO has been under-valued in its ability to turbo-charge traditional public relations (PR) efforts. SEO can leverage online news rooms, press releases and article syndication to increase visibility in organic search engines. By integrating unique URLs, toll-free numbers or tracking codes into a release, you can transform SEO into a direct response vehicle. It’s not about column inches of ink or associated ad dollar value…it’s about tracking leads or sales against a press release or PR campaign.

Pay-per-Click (PPC)
While SEO is commonly associated with unpaid placement (ala PR), PPC is logically associated with advertising, direct response, events and promotions. Any time you create unique creative for advertising or direct marketing, it’s an opportunity to repurpose the content as landing pages for PPC campaigns. Print or broadcast ad/DM creative can be used for text, image or video ad content, if not for the associated landing pages.  Similarly, content developed for events and promotions can also be utilized for PPC efforts. In fact, all advertising, DM or event campaigns should incorporate, in at least a limited PPC program, to capture interested parties that slipped through the cracks, or happen to be looking for specific information the campaign addresses. Additionally, PPC is highly effective when targeting “tail terms” and localized/geographically-specific audiences.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social media marketing is still in its infancy, but the art is quickly becoming a science. Now that Google OneBox (aka Universal Search) is prevalent in targeted search results, marketers can no longer ignore the impact social media. When integrated properly, SMM offers a multitude of benefits, including brand-building and reputation management. Social networks are ideal for personal brand-building and proactive online reputation management (ORM). Similarly, content syndication sites (i.e. Flickr, YouTube, iTunes, etc.) offer opportunities to distribute existing media assets (photos, videos, audio and more) to a much larger audience. Last but not least, blogging and micro-blogging (i.e. Twitter & Plurk) offer an opportunity for competent writers and technologists to spread the company’s messaging and engage in direct conversations.

Online Reputation Management (ORM)
Online reputation management is truly a compendium of all of the above efforts, including traditional marketing.  ORM is basically the net result of effective integrated marketing.  Proactively managing search engine result pages (SERPs) to mitigate undesirable listings through SEO can be enhanced with strategic use of PPC. Ensuring a company and its executives are proactively managing their profiles and syndicating desirable content will further mitigate the impact of negative listings in targeted search results. The easiest way to manage your reputation (online and off) is to create remarkable projects and support customers with excellent service. Too bad more companies choose not to make our jobs easy.

Measurement
When it comes down to measuring the overall effectiveness of an integrated marketing campaign, it’s important to choose the proper metrics and set benchmarks. While traditional media rely on third party measurement, focus groups and surveys to gain insight into a particular ad or campaign’s effectiveness, online measurement (aka Web analytics) are more affordable and timely. Common metrics for online marketing campaigns include visibility in SERPs, total impressions generated by PPC ads, resulting clicks from all forms of online marketing, and last but not least, conversions.  Conversions can include registrations, downloads and inquiry forms for B2B or lead generation and online sales for B2C or ecommerce companies, as well as offline leads tracked by unique toll-free number, URLs or promotional codes.

In the end, integrated marketing is about leveraging existing assets (usually from traditional media) on the Web for additional visibility, leads and sales. There are additional benefits to online marketing efforts: first and foremost being reputation management. Utilized seamlessly and intelligently, integrated marketing strategies and tactics and move the needle for your business quickly and effectively.

Why should SMBs care about social media? Because they can’t afford to ignore the fact that Web 2.0 technologies have changed the way we research, communicate and collaborate. The adoption of universal search (embedding social media into results) has forever and profoundly affected how companies can and must market.

Most significantly, Google’s adoption of the OneBox has essentially minimized the impact of a top 5 list in target search results by pushing down organic listings and replacing the top 2 or 3 spots featuring news, blogs and/or a Google Map featuring local businesses that meet your search criteria. There is hope, however. I’ve outlined 5 simple but effective strategies for marketing your business in the Web 2.0 World.

Networking
Do you have a profile on LinkedIn? What about Plaxo, Biznik, Bebo or Facebook? Have you optimized your profile to appear in organic search results? These social networking sites are targeted at business professionals, are largely free (or low cost) and require only a few minutes to set up. The benefits are plentiful and well worth the effort. Obviously, the sites are designed to network virtually with professionals that share your interests, can answer your questions as subject matter experts or offer you an opportunity to return the favor by answering questions from others. It’s more than just creating “friends” or “connections”…it’s about building meaningful relationship, endorsements, reviews and ultimately business. My primary reasons for creating and managing social networking profiles are twofold: proactively manage my reputation (aka online reputation management) and build my personal and company brand as thought leaders by participating in questions & answers.

Awareness Building
While social network profiles can help build awareness for you or your company, there are more effective means of achieving this objective. There are a variety of content creation, sharing and syndication platforms available for free. If your small business is in an industry where images, audio or video are an output (i.e. a film production company or photography studio) then there is no reason you shouldn’t have profiles on sites like FlickR or YouTube. Once uploaded, your multimedia content can be embedded or syndicated to other sites (including your corporate site or blog). Even if your business isn’t intuitively connected to multimedia, you can create training or demo videos (remember Blendtec?). Additionally, don’t forget the king of content: text. Developing a series of articles for distribution to article syndication sites and industry publications can be highly affective at generating visibility.

Thought Leadership Development
As mentioned earlier, I’m a big fan of questions & answers on sites like LinkedIn and Yahoo Answers! Each site has a slightly different audience, business and consumer respectively, but both offer highly targeted communities sharing similar interests. By simply committing time to monitor and engage when you have information of value to share, you can quickly move from general awareness to though leader status. The 10 to 15 minutes I spend each day on LinkedIn has resulted in new partners, business leads, press coverage, and best of all, a keynote speaking engagement in Austin. Did I mention it’s also a great resource of experts who can answer your burning business and marketing questions? Even if you don’t ask or answer questions, expert communities are still fantastic for market research. Additional thought leadership strategies and tools include the time-tested blog, as well as newfangled Twitter. While Anvil has two blogs, one for SEM news and another focusing on brand reputation management, I have my own personal blog and Twitter account, which I use to keep my constituents updated.

Collaboration
Many of the platforms I’ve mentioned have multiple applications or value propositions. So far, I’ve mentioned LinkedIn as a networking and expert community platform. It’s also a wonderful collaboration tool (beyond Q&A), in its Groups capability. Anyone can start, promote and manage Groups on LinkedIn and Facebook. Similar to forums, groups offer an opportunity for like-minded individuals to join a community, share information and encourage collaboration. There are other tools and platforms developed strictly for collaboration, like Basecamp and Jive ClearSpace, but they are meant primarily for internal/exclusive/private group projects or communities.

Revenue Generation
It took me awhile to get to the point, but here it is: social media marketing is measurable and can generate revenue on its own. For example, relationships you develop through networking or thought leadership can turn into revenue-generating clients or partnerships. Video demos and watermarked images can be used to lure in potential customers, if not used to generate revenue by being sold on revenue sharing platforms like Revver. Laying on additional marketing strategies like public relations (aka SEM PR) can be utilized to generate customers through measurable channels (unique URLs, promo codes or phone numbers).

At the end of the day, the five social media marketing strategies listed above can be utilized to grow your SMB and take your marketing to a new level. You know where to find me. Good luck!

To make sure we get off on the right foot, I’d like to ensure we’re all on the same page about what social media marketing is, and why you should care. I’ve written a primer on social media marketing, Idiotproof Social Media Marketing Optimization Strategies for Businesses, which I encourage you to read, so that you’ll get a feel for our (or at least my) philosophy and experience. The next logical question after “how do I get started with social media marketing” is typically “how do I measure it?” My response comes in the form of another article, Social Media Monitoring and Analysis: Brand Building or Corporate Crusher? Between these two articles, you should have a solid foundation regarding developing, implementing and measuring a social media marketing program.

Unfortunately at this point, your eyes may be slightly glazed over. If that’s the case, I suggest starting small by taking a step back and reading up on the discipline of social media marketing via industry publications like ClickZ, MarketingPilgrim, SearchEngineLand and SEOmoz. I also recommend starting small, as in creating, optimizing and managing the two most important social media sites of all (according to me): LinkedIn and Twitter. If you’re asking yourself how to get started, need not worry. As you may have guesses, I’ve written an article for you, LinkedIn and Twitter Profile Optimization for Dimwits.

The above articles and resources sites should keep you busy for awhile, at least until my next blog post. Feel free to share your comments and suggestions as to what you’d like us to cover in future posts. Welcome and talk to you again soon.