Sitting in a rented Car with a borrowed iPhone, here we are! On our way to a longed for skiing vacation. First stop: Järvsö.
The gods are already smiling on us - we are in a gorgeous new Audi A6. Sitting in this car it is easy for me to understand why Audi broke sales records when the competition broke loss records.
Half of this day went to a seminar/workshop focusing on the editorial aspects of search engine visibility, and visibility quality. I had been preparing for this day for e-v-e-r.
And it worked.
The audience had worked little to nothing with hands on SEO, or at least that was their thought going into the meeting. After a while, I feel that it dawned upon them that this is not magic, this is not rocket science - this is simple, and this is fun. And the modifications made in the process of creating content for the web is really not at all focused solely on search engines, but improving the quality for the website visitors.
It was a long time ago that I saw a group of people get so excited about the Adwords Keyword Tool, and the dramatic truths it sometimes told. Luckily, this company is not enslaved by corporate jargon restrictions, so the move from outside-in to inside-out thinking was simple, and resulted in the active optimization of several pages.
I learned a lesson here as well: I will from now on always spend the extra time necessary to prepare a presentation together with the buyer, and ensure that she or he is fully aware, and fully satisfied, before the live presentation starts. The two meetings I had prior to today with the client were likely the primary factor in today’s success.
And on another note - when I have been tense and charged up for this long, I always seem to crash completely after successful delivery. So, I went home. Slept for two hours. Then played Guitar Hero for 2 hours. Then played with my daughter until she went to bed.
The life of a sole proprietor might on occasion be stressful and demanding beyond belief. But for me, it is worth it by far. You will not find me on a corporate payroll for a long time. (With the one standing exception, of course. If Thomas Downey gives me the opportunity to take charge of the social media presence of the worlds best company, I will. For free. And it would be awesome.)
I am preparing a half day seminar for a bunch of great editors in the art of “writing for search engines”. I have spent significantly more time than I am paid to spend, but with good cause: I have been racking my brain over the challenge of communicating this monster that SEO is to people who, in essence, are journalists.
Not that journalists are mentally challenged or anything, just that I need to consider the wording I use - naturally, talking about H1-tags and XML-sitemaps will not make me any friends. I have found that buzzword bingo:ing will alienate a crowd quicker than almost anything.
So, I have been working on making SEO simple. Really, really simple. And just now, just a minute ago, I fell for it! I actually had an epiphany - I saw my presentation and realized that is actually IS simple.
First, this made me happy. Now, I am sad. I am starting to realize the horridness of the SEO sales peoples advantage taking of a knowledge gap compared to the average buyer.
I wish that, from now on, each and every SEO pitch will begin with the magic words “SEO is not rocket science. It is not magic. It is technology and content in harmony, and it is hard work.”
I tried this, pre-epiphany, with this great client of mine, and I beat out all big agencies, practically because of this statement. I really hope that the days of SEO sales being of a pushy snake oil are over.
And I will do my part. I am meeting with a colleague in the field tomorrow (much bigger than my little agency), to have some resource sharing discussions. I am glad that this opportunity has risen, but not primarily for the obvious business benefits but rather for the fact that this might be the first sign that the Swedish SEO market is turning into the warm, sharing and caring SEO market I left back in San Diego.
When competitors share, everyone wins.
Case in point: SIBA. After checking with all the electronics store on the local drag, I went with SIBA for an Ipod Touch. They have a queue system with little numbers, that after a while let me access a salesperson.
So there I was, with number 85. 83 was up for an eternity (ok, maybe not an eternity, but at least 10 minutes). Then, to my surprise, I heard three quick beeps, and now it said 86. I rushed to the desk and asked for service, expecting that the mass gathering of sales personnel indicated that three customers would be served at the same time.
But, alas, my eyes failed me. This was not a mass gathering of sales personnel, rather a gang of monkeys in clown outfits.
They blamed a sales rep who had just taken number 86 out on the floor and indicated that I should take another number and wait again. After this disgusting remark, the SIBA representative turned his back, and started talking to his colleague, completely ignoring me.
A customer service consultant with US experience could make a killing in this country.
So, I left my little number on the desk and left. Mumbling on my way out. Next time, I will try to be more constructive in my critique when in the store.
Well, I will not have a chance to do that: I will never again allow myself or my circle of influence to support this type of behavior.
SIBA, I bid you adieu.
I remember when I stood in front of all my colleagues 2 years ago saying “I bet you all money that you will be faced with Twitter shortly”.
Boy, was I wrong.
It has not happened until now in Sweden. Big explosion of usage. I have seen a few companies jump onto the trend-train, but so far it is mostly media agencies.
I will shortly, together with Alexander Drewniak, (and a developer who will remain anonymous for a while) I will unleash a great awesome new corporate communications service with ties to Twitter. We will bust this market wide open, even more so now that the world is ready. More to come!
And in this case, I mean “User Generated Content”.
To the story: there is an online and mobile “yellow pages” service here in Sweden called 118100. Send a name or number there, and hopefully you will get some additional information. These services are a dime a dozen.
But these guys are going out and in TV commercials claiming that “we can answer ANY question”. So I gave it a test. I asked them if all Boeing 747-400 variants had winglets.
They got it wrong.
So here I was, having payed for a service and not gotten what was promised. I went to their website and soon found that anyone can sign up to become an “expert”. I signed up, and instantly I was put into the middle of their incoming stream of questions. I could pick any question and answer it. (Their system is somewhat buggy, but it seems as if all answers are moderated first.)This was incredibly addicting. And difficult. And disturbing. Many seriously depressing questions, many seriously dumb questions, and a huge amount of impossible questions.
But there I was. Answering like a madman. And then it hit me: this is UGC defined. I am donating my time and service to make them money. Awesome, right? But then I started to think about the fact that there is absolutely full transparency here. Although I can not see who sent the question, it does not take a detective in many cases. People leave their numbers, names. Questions like “I have cheated on my husband. Should I tell him?” signed by a real name and number.
Do people who send their questions expect this? I think not. Is this the only way to get a service like this to work? I think so.
Give it a try! Swedish only, I’m afraid!
Tada! Inspired by a friendly comment, here is a slightly updated version.
And if you want to download a version you can actually see, simply click here.
I went out on a huge limb with my praise of Airbus’ crisis management online earlier. But now, more than an hour after the total loss of a 320 in the Hudson River, their site remains without mention.
Seriously, PR people, take care of this. Now.
Looking for a link to their Chief Information Officer I noticed that dear Airbus has no clear communications role in their Executive Committee. Give me a break.
Argh! Give me a break for real! Airbus has a login requirement for their press room?!
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