Transcript My Branding Principles

Blog Champion Meeting
February 2011
Deanna Govoni
Lindsay Hamilton
Global Social Media Marketing Team
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• New branded Cisco YouTube Channel
Video Sprinklr tool – roll out and trainings
• 2.5 Release and Enhancements (Feb 4th)
• 2.6 Release and Enhancements (March 4th)
• Blog Metrics
Recognize the top blogger of the month of January
• How to improve SEO for your blog
• Q&A
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• The blog program is using Sprinklr as a repository for all blog videos
• Each blogger will be given access to the video Sprinklr tool for
uploading videos
• The video’s will be uploaded as ‘unlisted’ and can be submitted to be
published live on
• We are selecting teams to pilot this new interface and will be rolling it
out to all the teams in the next few weeks.
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• Change RSS to Feedburner Feeds
• Update "Data Center" blog banner ad
• Added verbiage in comment form (please include http://)
• Follow Us links should open in a new window
• Adding links to Follow Us, Related Links, What We Are Reading for
Collaboration category
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• Change the backend management of the Featured Bloggers
• Provide navigation to each Blog “home” page when the user is within
that blog (probably via breadcrumb path)
• Update the “Blog Directory” navigation from one fly-out to a more
scalable UI
• Create new blogs: Financial Services, Retail, Government, Open at
Cisco
• Change pagination from “Next/Previous” links to numbered page links
• Remove navigation to “State/Local” blog (keeping it live, but not
providing navigation to it)
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• Metrics Reports will be located on Quad
• Global Social Media Community
• http://iwe.cisco.com/html/index.jsp#url=/web/socialmedia/metrics-andreporting
• Top bloggers for January 2011
Doug Webster -10
Zoya Fallah -9
Alexandra Krasne -9
Brenna Karr -8
• Directions on how to view the new dashboard:
• PC users: To view the dashboard please view it in ‘Slide Show’ mode.
• Mac users: You can view the dashboard using the VMWare desktop app. You must have
Flash in order to view it on a Mac laptop and again you will need to view in ‘Slide Share’.
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How to Improve Search for your blog:
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
• Writing content and obtaining relevant links to specific pages on
Cisco.com
• Search Engines rank content higher that appears both relevant
(content) and important or credible (links).
• Also known as Organic or Natural Search.
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• Using appropriate tags & keywords
• Optimizing your blog title
• Content sharing
• How much time spent writing a blog
post?
• Maximize your return on investment ROI!
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Why Ranking on Page 1 Matters
Google Page 1 Clicks
Position
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
40%
20%
10%
5%
5%
2.5%
2.5%
2%
1%
1%
89% of clicks
from Page 1
Source: http://searchlightdigital.com/guides/guide-serp-click-through-rates/
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Copyright © Gerry McGovern: www.gerrymcgovern.com
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How Search Engines Work
1.
GoogleBot (spiders, crawlers, robots) crawls the Web
2.
Extracts information from each page
3.
Builds index
4.
–
The number of times an important word appears on a page.
–
Where on a page a word appears.
–
The number of times a page is linked to and from other pages.
–
The importance of other pages from which a page is linked to.
Encodes and stores information
Simple right?
But search engines have many rules in place to ensure the most
relevant and highest quality content is presented.
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Search Principle 1 – Use of Links for Navigation
•
There are only two ways that people can get to your content:
1.
They click on a link
2.
They type in a specific url
•
More than 90% of the time people will click on a link.
•
So linking is important for generating traffic – from both navigation and
for crawlers to follow links.
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Search Principle 2 – Content Classification
• Search Engines are in the business of classification and categorization
of information.
• Our job is to play by their rules—feed search engine crawlers with the
correct information to get your content classified and categorized
correctly.
• Otherwise, your page won’t exist to those that use Search Engines.
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Search Principle 3 – Valuable Content is Key
• Content is King, Links are Queen
• If you want traffic, you have to give the world something to click ON.
• If you want links, you have to give those that link (internal and external)
something valid to link TO.
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Summary of Search Principles
• In any economy, SEO is a smart web
marketing activity
• Content is King, Links are Queen
• Search Engines are in the classification and
indexing business – and have rules to play
by
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- The Platform blog
140,205
75,060
24,512
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18,863
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Optimization Blend
The Goal: Maximize the "Sweet Spot" to bridge the gap between the
searcher and the search engine
Business Goals/Content
Searcher
Search Engine
To do this:
•Understand how searchers search
•Understand how search engines work
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Brainstorm content ideas
1.
Note phrases mentioned on Product or Solution page
2.
Solve a problem for the customer
3.
Use what Google says
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
4.
Pre-answer questions audience is asking
Blogsearch.google.com, technorati.com, icerocket.com
5.
Incorporate product information/Reference Cisco.com Preferred
Landing Pages (PLPs)
6.
Ask a question
7.
Provide call-to-action
8.
Keyword use (3-5 times in short article, 5-7 times in a long article of
500 or more words)
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Summary of Keyword Research
• Pick those keywords your viewers are
looking for
• Decide what it would take to ‘win’ for them
• Use Google’s Keyword Tool to analyze
demand for related terms
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Important elements of SEO for Blogging
• Blog posts should **include the keyword phrases** actually used by
searchers
• TITLE is most important attribute – Use the keyword here
• Ensure keyword phrase appears in the 1st paragraph
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Use Keyword Phrases in Your Blog Title!
• #1 rule to follow to increase rankings
• Write your title after you write the content
• URL is derived from Title
• Title tag is MOST important element of post!
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Get Other Blogs to Link to Your Blog
• Participation in the
blogopshere is KEY
• Don’t spam,
be genuine and transparent
• Gain TRUST, build relationships
• Provide a link back to
blog when commenting
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TAG Your Blog Posts!
• Help your readers find content
• Increase search rankings
• Use approx. 1-8 tags per post
(try not to over-tag)
• Create a taxonomy within your team
• Required field
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Finding who links to your post
• http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com
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Working with SEO Team
1.
Review our Ciscopedia page at
http://ciscopedia.cisco.com/display/cpda/Search+Engine+Optimi
zation+(SEO)
2.
Most Site Area stakeholders are already working with the SEO
team but if not
3.
Get in touch with them for an initial consultation
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SEO on Ciscopedia
http://ciscopedia.cisco.com/display/cpda/Search+Engine+Optimization+%28SEO%29
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Resources
• Blogging Info on CCoE (Communications Center of Excellence):
http://wwwin.cisco.com/cisco/ccoe/technologies/blogs.shtml
• Blog page on Ciscopedia: http://ciscopedia.cisco.com/display/cpda/Blogs
• SEO page on Ciscopedia:
http://ciscopedia.cisco.com/display/cpda/Search+Engine+Optimization+%28SEO%29
• Blogging Discussion Forums (read FAQs and post questions related to support, technical,
policy,)
External: http://wwwin-forums.cisco.com/forum.jspa?forumID=2612
Internal: http://wwwin-forums.cisco.com/forum.jspa?forumID=15
Governance page on CCoE:
http://wwwin.cisco.com/cisco/ccoe/about/governance.shtml
• Social Networking Policy Handbook:
http://wwwin.cisco.com/cisco/ccoe/files/social-networking-handbook-final-092308.pdf
• Deanna’s internal blog: http://wwwin-blogs.cisco.com/deannab
• Cisco Public Relations (CEC) : http://wwwin.cisco.com/corpcom/pr/
• Daily Blog Tips: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/
• CMO Marketing Workshops: http://wwwin.cisco.com/go/workshops
• Follow Lindsay on Twitter: http://twitter.com/hamilton04
• Follow Deanna on Twitter: http://twitter.com/deanna24
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