So you tweet, Facebook, blog, and write articles. You create pages and groups and blog a little more. You have all the content you could ever need.
Now what?
You need content curation- or a way to pull all your content together into one, cohesive environment. This is also something you probably know, as tools for content Curation are becoming increasingly popular. In a recent article, “Content Curation: Shaping and Influencing your Social Reputation”, Rich Karpinski provides a brief overview of some of these popular Content Curation tools. According to Karpinski, these tools allow you to “express thought leadership, juice SEO rankings, streamline content marketing efforts and even attract and nurture leads.” That’s a tall order for some of these tools, which can certainly act as content-management systems, but sometimes stop there without providing a lot of interactive opportunities, innovation or visual appeal.
Managing a content-curation tool can also be a time-consuming and budget-eating endeavor that can sometimes distract from other important company initiatives. And, these tools don’t create they curate, meaning that you still need to spend time creating new content to supplement what’s being pulled from other resources.
Online Communities can serve as content curation tools if developed and deployed correctly, and if you partner with a third-party company you can receive a few additional perks that you won’t get with a standard content-curation tool.
First, you’ll have the ability to leverage best practices in content sharing, social media integration, thought leadership and branding so you can have a site that actually integrates your different marketing initiatives successfully, with little time or effort actually required by you. Plus, if you partner with third-party with expert writers who actually create content for you, you will further build the credibility of your site by adding original outside content and objectivity- both huge factors in building trust with your audience. This allows you to be viewed as a thought-leader and positions your Community as a comprehensive resource, rather than another advertising vehicle that holds your re-purposed marketing messages.
Most importantly, however, is that you won’t lose the personal touch that matters more and more these days, as content turns to clutter and audiences seek for the most trustworthy sources. Unfortunately, tools alone cannot add that connection. Communities can.
Take the J.C. Penney story. Recently, the popular chain retailer had been enjoying tremendous rankings on Google due the efforts of its SEO consulting firm SearchDex. A wide range of search terms, from luggage to clothing to furniture, all provided to same results on Google -- J.C. Penny was listed at the top each and every time. Suspecting something was awry, the New York Times investigated, sending the results of their research straight to Google. The article exposed that this SEO agency was using black hat link-building techniques which are frowned upon by Google. As a result, Google immediately took “manual action”, and J.C. Penny not only received a tremendous amount of negative publicity, but its rankings on the search engine immediately began to plummet significantly according to the New York Times.
According to J.C. Penny, they were not aware their SEO firm was posting links back to their company website from thousands of low quality pages on the web. And as a result of hiring a search firm and not being aware of what practices were being employed, they have found their future search results will potentially suffer greatly online. According to the article: “One moment Penney was the most visible online destination for living room furniture in the country. The next it was essentially buried.”
In the past, BMW’s German site was banned from Google due to the use of doorway pages (pages that exist solely to provide links that drive SEO) which the search engine frowns upon. While at this point Google has not banned J.C. Penney, individual product results plummeted over 70 spots in two hours.
The Lesson Learned? While focusing on SEO is obviously important, the use of black hat techniques such as paying for links or hiring people to place links on blog comments can get your company in a lot of trouble. Companies should be careful about the firms they hire to help boost SEO, and consider alternative ways to drive traffic, such as utilizing quality, relevant content via an independent Online Community.
If you’re found and reprimanded by Google, your SEO will suffer, as demonstrated by the J.C. Penny event. And since almost everyone goes to a search engine when they want to find something, if your company isn’t showing up on that search engine, you may be difficult to find. As we all know, ranking highly on search engines is imperative. In fact, 34 percent of Google’s traffic goes to the No. 1 result, about twice the percentage that goes to No. 2, according to the New York Times.
How to Build Trusted Traffic Online: This incident has shined a bright spotlight on the traditional link-building practices employed by SEO professionals. So, going forward, the traditional methods of building traffic and leads will likely not work as well as in the past as companies like Google will be less and less permissive of such techniques and will keep a close eye on those they suspect are utilizing them.
A much safer way to build trusted traffic, generate leads and boost thought leadership online is to partner with a respected company who builds highly ranked Online Community websites legitimately and provides relevant and useful content that attracts a targeted audience, which subsequently causes it to rank highly on search engines, organically.
TMCnet has been building these for over a decade for hundreds of customers by attracting a targeted audience via related content. The result? A majority of our sponsored communities rank high, even # 1, on major search engines. If you want to learn more about how your company can benefit from a TMC Online Community, contact us.
Mythbuster facts: If you currently purchase, or are planning to invest in, a search term from a search engine, you might want to think again. Online Communities offer a more credible, cost-effective and comprehensive targeted marketing product that will give you stronger results and consistently high, organic rankings on online search engines like Google and Bing.
What’s an Online Community?
Chances are you already participate in a social Online Community: Fan of a certain TV Show Page on Facebook? Member of a professional social meet-up group through LinkedIn? Then you already know some of the benefits of having a go-to-resource for a certain topic you’re interested in.
Companies are starting to see the benefits of applying this Online Community concept for their own products or industries, and as such an Online Community becomes a news-generated, information-rich portal that positions a company as the leading “go-to” resource for a particular industry group. And, what we’re finding is that most companies are learning that they can use this Online Community concept to drive SEO, generate leads, enhance their social networking initiatives, promote their brand and much, much more.
Pay-Per-Click Ads alone just don’t cut it anymore.
It used to be thought that a PPC Ad on a popular website meant that people who searched for topics related to your Ad word (or “keyword”) would be exposed to your company and click on the ad to get connected with you. If you participate in this program, you’ve probably learned that this simply isn’t the case. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal companies are finding that in addition to being costly and competitive (oftentimes your keyword will be “sold” to the highest bidder), click ads experience a 15-30% fraud rate, and non-targeted placement in web searches are causing them to lose thousands of dollars- up to 10% of their budget – without providing qualified leads. Every click counts as a charge against you and they can be made by disgruntled and past employees as well as competitors who knowingly drive up your marketing costs. Even worse, studies show only 15-25% of people actually click on search ads meaning advertisers are missing out on 85% of the market.
So, how is an Online Community better?
A highly-ranked Online Community will get you seen when someone searches for a topic related to your keyword, but instead of being on the side of the search results with diminished value, you’ll be in them. This is what is known as organic search results, meaning the powerful content on your Community is positioning you as the expert in your industry and pushing your branding to the top of search engine and news search rankings.
We’ve found that most people who have an Online Community with TMCnet rank in the top 10 of search engine rankings organically- around 80% of the time. Plus, they are offered for a predictable fixed fee with full transparency), and once you purchase the keyword, it’s yours to keep. And let’s face it, Online Communities look more appealing, attractive and credible than search click ads; they are surrounded by your branding, populated with relevant content from expert editors and designers, and can be found at the same location on TMCnet at any time, every day. That’s more than you can say for a click ad, which may or may not show up in your results depending on location or time of day.
There’s simply no comparison between a click ad and Online Community. Click ads are a thing of the past, and an Online Community gives you a way to integrate all your marketing initiatives, including SEO and social networking, into one place.
Contact us now to get started building your own Online Community on TMCnet and choose your exclusive keyword before a competing company does!
Anna Ritchie
Product Manager, Online Communities