Lisa's Virtual Ramblings

There has been a lot of talk about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMM (Social Media Marketing). The talk has been going on for a few years but working in my new job, I find it quite amusing when people think they understand what SEO is as well as SMM. Throw out a few words which you think you understand and keep repeating them but honestly, that doesn’t help the fact that SEO or SMM are real items and driving forces in business revenue today.

Placing keywords into content is SEO. Yes. BUT that is not the only SEO strategy, there is so much more to SEO than this.

SMM is chatting on Twitter and Facebook and posting links. No, eerrr wrong! It’s about engagement, connecting and having a conversation with people, not talking at them.

To continue on my quest to get people to understand about these two ways of online marketing, I will continually create real life scenarios and for some reason love using the word puzzle. As the conversation begins, I already know and get excited that I will be able to use my favorite puzzle analogy! For those who understand SEO understand why a puzzle analogy works so well.

When wanting to hit each outlet and grab the most from your SEO efforts, each piece of the puzzle needs to be in place. If not, then you will not see the results you want. SEO takes time and many people think, Poof! I did it now where’s my money!?!

Social Media Marketing also takes time. To create a following, to get the visitor to trust you, everything takes time. If it was that easy then don’t you think everyone would be engaging each other? Throwing links out into the Twitter feed doesn’t engage anyone but yourself…maybe. (I mean some people do talk to themselves, I don’t know, just sayin…)

In the perfect world, both SEO and SMM would work simulatenously but we don’t live in a perfect world. Some people feel they get more business through SEO, others SMM and some feel both work. I have experienced both for my business where SEO has worked well and for many years SMM worked amazing. What I found was it didn’t make a difference which I focused on, just that both strategies needed to be worked on a daily basis. Once you stop, so does your inquiries and engagement.

Back in 2006 when we moved to Arizona, all I seemed to hear from everyone there was the word Passion. What is your passion? Are you living your life and working at your passion? Passion this, passion that, blah blah passion BS!

Now 4 years later I am back living on the east coast in South Florida and I haven’t been bombarded with this passion word. I am also going to assume it is because there was no book called The Secret that recently came out either. But regardless the whole passion phenomena either died down or I am just not in the right circles to be hearing it.
When I think of passion, I first think of love and relationships. Then I think about what I desire to do with my life and my future. I have been blessed to follow multiple passions from being a dancer to teaching, traveling, being a small business owner to teaching myself about online marketing and Organic SEO for the past 10 years. Thanks to me following my “passions” (which I NEVER used this word prior to living in Arizona), I have been given a great opportunity to work for a company full time as their SEO Editor. I will still continue my consulting for Organic SEO but the fact that I followed my gut 10 years ago and learned about Organic SEO and Google without an official college program, now has opened doors which wouldn’t have happened had I been scared to jump on the online marketing playing field back in 2000.

So what’s your passion and how will you make your dreams a reality? Will it be through a JV? Will it be through a mentor? Think about what you want from your life and go after it no matter who or what boundaries may lie ahead. If I listened to everyone 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have been given the opportunities that I have encountered. From speaking at expos about Organic SEO and online marketing to working with some amazing people, keep your chin up and be patient because no attempt is wasted if you learn from it.

Be well,

Lisa