Today, the Greater Dayton Advertising Association (formerly known as the Dayton Ad Club) made an effort to finally bring it’s members into the year 2003. The speaker was Matt Bailey from SiteLogic- a Search Engine Optimization consultancy.
Matt did a decent job of explaining the power of social media in his alloted 45 minutes- using eepybird’s Mentos/Diet Coke video as a viral example, discussing how Price Rite Photo got destroyed after a bait/switch deal and the Pork Producers failed attempt to slam a breast feeding support site for using the phrase “the other white milk.”
All great stuff- all stuff we’ve been trying to get the ad club to discuss for over 2 years. All the stuff that we’ve been offering in our Websitetology seminars- but, of course, if you aren’t from out of town, you can’t be an expert.
Matt had a hard time coming up with business to business blogs as an example of generating business- yet, had we been the presenter- we would have been able to point to this blog- to show the b-to-b results. I looked at Matt’s blog- and found this bit:
SiteLogic - Marketing Logic » Why are Analytics so Difficult? by Matt Bailey
Building a website requires an understanding of search engines, as search engines are one of the primary methods of acquiring visitors and customers. However, once the search engine’s information requirements are met, the site has to be able to communicate a different message to the human visitor.
We agree- since 80% of Internet use begins in search, search is key. And, once they get to your site- they need to engage. Apparently Matt’s blog isn’t providing him the kind of traffic he needs. We think we know why.
In the Q&A, someone asked if “tags” in a blog are like Meta tags of old- and he answered they weren’t the same- which is true. Metatags were for the machines; blog tags/categories/taxonomy are for the user. He got that straight- but then, he took what I call a Guru Nosedive- he said that he didn’t use them much, they aren’t that important- content is.
WRONG. At least with WordPress, categories are a way to supercharge a search term, by grouping a bunch of posts into a single post. It’s probably one of the most important SEO techniques we teach- but, alas, the Dayton Ad Club people won’t learn that. Their Executive Director still won’t attend our seminar- and is still building sites the old fashioned way.
It was particularly telling of the 2.0 literacy in the room when there was only one other person in the room that knew what the Long Tail was (besides yours truly) and only a handful (including SAA students) had heard of Digg.
If the Greater Dayton Advertising Association and it’s members (and SAA students) hope to survive, they are going to have to do some serious catch-up. Web 2.0 is only the beginning of The Next Wave, and they aren’t there yet.
These are difficult times we live in.
And I’m not talking about the threat of terrorism. I’m talking about the fact that there are multiple levels of knowledge and competence existent right now regarding website creation and maintenance.
You’ve got your businesses – some mom-and-pops, some multi-million dollar companies – who don’t have websites and don’t see a need to.
You’ve got your businesses that DO have websites — but ones that look like they were built in 1995. That perhaps were built in 1995, and haven’t changed since.
Then you’ve got your uber-professional websites. These may have a gorgeous look and feel – contain tens or hundreds of pages – and be built with the most sophisticated code yet typed out by a geek. Yet they may still suck, we know now, in terms of searchability – if they’re not dynamic (that is, having their content regularly updated) and if they don’t actively engage customers in conversations (i.e., provide customers some sort of participative venue, such as a place to blog or a place to write product reviews).
As communicators, creatives, and marketing types, how do we know where to wade into this mess? How do we effectively talk to customers whose knowledge ranges from a ton to none? How do we help individuals with nary a website understand that (a) they gotta get one, (b)they’ve got to disregard the little that they THOUGHT they knew about what a website should look like, and (b) they’ve got to jump over traditional websites and dive feet first into the world of Web 2.0?
I know we can’t start by scorning individuals (especially the dear E.D. mentioned above) or companies who haven’t fully incorporated social media into their communications strategy. Let’s face it – few have. (Even the biggies, we learned yesterday, like Coke.) And effectively telling folks that they’re clueless because they don’t have a cutting-edge website – I would argue – just makes them more resistant to building one.
Which is unfortunate. Because social media is real. And companies need, rather desperately, to know how to respond to it, and create websites that TAKE ADVANTAGE of social media rather than being crushed by it. Companies need know how to create interact websites, rather than static ones. How to engage in conversations with their customers, rather than letting customers dish them left and right.
The world of user-generated content – and that includes everything from people writing blogs and wikis, joining social networking sites, or posting photos or videos to Flikr and YouTube — ain’t going away. In fact, all evidence shows that social media usage is increasing – rapidly – across all age groups and both genders. (See http://www.boozallen.com/capabilities/Industries/industries_article/26060199?lpid=660614), for example.)
I know you’re frustrated, David, because you’ve been trying to take this message to the Dayton advertising community for a long time – and you feel like you haven’t been heard. And I agree wholeheartedly that people who want to learn about Web 2.0 would be well served to take your Websitetology class (http://blogosopher.com/) – or attend the April Shel Holtz seminar (http://iabcdayton.com/calendar.htm#ShelHoltz) that you were kind enough to plug in your Websitetology email this week.
But let’s let bygones be bygones and hope that yesterday’s session simply served as a wake-up call for all of us. Because if it was ever unclear before, it was crystal clear after yesterday’s talk that social media indeed can’t be ignored. Companies – and ad agencies, PR firms, and corporate communicators – who do so, do so at their own peril.
And- if you are looking for an example of how to write eloquently for your business website- you’d be well served to contact Samantha at Dragonfly Editorial (click on her name above her comment)- because she gets it- and writes like a dream.
Thanks for the great comment- and content (yes, comments count as content)- and maybe the bitterness will wear off when the lights come on in the local business community about web 2.0.
Tags — and even more specifically, microformats — are the future of search. they’re the basis of edge content. They’re more than importaant. They’re critical.
Well- at least the speaker for the next Ad Club event knows the value.
We’ve mentioned microformats before on this site-
and, yes, they are important.
Thanks for your comment Shel.