Anyway, one of the goals for this trip was to gain a better understanding of how social networking and the "web 2.0" phenom can actually benefit businesses. In addition to being somewhat "cool", there are many businesses out there that have realized that being connected and engaging with their customers in the conversation is a great way to deepen the relationship, which in turn can result in greater sales and more revenue. They always have said, you do business with people you like, know and trust. Well, the way that happens (at least in the "offline" world) is to become friends first, and that takes time to get to know each other.
During class I created a sample video and uploaded it to my "new" YouTube account entitled, Internet Marketing for Community Banks. Granted, the video is not that good, but the important lesson here is not the quality of the video, but the fact that it was indexed by Google and ranked #1 for the search phrase in about six hours (out of over 550,000 search results).
The next day in class I created a blog posting (the one before this one) and also called it Internet Marketing for Community Banks and just two days later, not only did my video remain in the top, but the blog I created was moved to #1, which left my video at #2.
Image 1: Here his a screen shot of a Google search for "internet marketing for community banks" and as you can see, I'm nowhere to be found. Granted, you will probably have to click on the image to read it, but trust me, at this point Google has no idea I exist. But wait...
Image 2: I create a very simple video (with free tools) and uploaded it to YouTube and after only about six (6) hours the same search phrase found ME in #1 position in Google! Notice, it got syndicated to AOL videos, which is actually the video that got indexed. One of the many things we learned in class was that search engines are really starting to LOVE video because it tends to be engaging and great (fresh) content. This was all done on Thursday, so in the second day of class (Friday) I did a blog posting about it. It just keeps getting better...
Image 3: Ok, it's Sunday and I'm home (getting caught up on rest) and just checked Google again and found out that my video was "bumped" to #2 position. But, the "bumper" was my blog posting. So, I'm now taking up 20% of the front page of Google (out of 502,000 results) for my chosen search phrase and did it in about three days leveraging some of the new techniques I learned in my social networking class.
Now, think about the implications of this if you are a business owner. Is there a search phrase that you'd like to dominate the search engines for? Since I work a lot with banks, the industry is experiencing some of the biggest challenges it has ever faced. Maybe your bank would like to get recognized for "How to survive this financial crisis" or "Will community banks survive the financial meltdown". Or, maybe you're not a bank, but I'm sure there are other search phrases that you would like to be found for where a social networking strategy may help to get you ranked well.
If you're interested in chatting about how your business may be able to leverage social networking and the new social media tools available on the Internet, let's chat. You can click on the new "call me" button to the right of the page or feel free to swing by my website at www.PoweredByWSI.com to learn more. You can also leave a comment to this post, I'd love to hear what you think. Hang on, this thing called the Internet is going to get a LOT more interesting...
Eric
