SEO, social media, and a full-time job

There is SO much to learn about search engine optimization (SEO) and social media. It’s a full-time job!

I met a host of prolific bloggers at BizJam Seattle 08 today. I heard as many points of view of “what works” as speakers who took the stage. I understood DL Byron of Textura Design say that blogging monthly makes you irrelevant; and weekly, passable. It’s not until you blog five times a day that you really break through.

Jason Swihart, also from Textura, said that your business blog should be all about your business and your products. Aliza Sherman, named by NEWSWEEK as one of the “Top 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet,” disagreed.

She said that if people only wanted to read about your product, they could look at your website or a brochure. “Make it interesting, reveal part of yourself,” she said. “Humanize yourself and your company.” Then she went on to share dozens and dozens of social media sites including Utterz — you phone a number, leave a message, and it gets uploaded to your sites — and Hellotxt.com, “the one site to remember if you only remember one today.”

Matthew Haughey, who writes for the New York Times Technology section, said that SEO “consultants” pretty much waste their clients’ money. Five percent of what they teach is good: Flash doesn’t work in search, basics of wireframes and tags, but 95 percent of it is trickery and “Google changes its algorithm all the time,” so most of the tricks will be irrelevant in a few months.

They did agree on one thing:

Blogging is vital to your business.

Blogging is vital to your business. Your website serves a function: it showcases your products and services. Your blog enables you to reach out to your customers and demonstrate your expertise.

They also said that your blogs — my blogs — don’t have to be perfect. They don’t have to all wrap up with a pretty bow at the end. You don’t have to be clever all the time. Just let the readers know what you’re learning, doing, and why they might care. And invite them to comment.

And so, Readers, any comments? Are you blogging yet? How are you using it?

…

…