Sunday, March 11, 2012

3 Billion New Minds

In his recent TED Talk, Peter Diamandis gives us all a sense of hope for our future. 




He points out that for all the difficulties we face in this modern era, our world is, in fact, better than it has ever been. Much of the optimism he exudes is based on the exponential growth of technology. This enthusiasm for technology is not for technology’s sake, but for how it can solve challenges of the human race. 

Our technological advancements have given rise to global literacy, and we’ve just gotten started. In the next decade, another 3 billion people will become part of the digital economy. This means nearly three quarters of the world will have access to resources like Kahn Academy, MIT OpenCourseware and the XPrize Foundation. It also means that as the space between all of us becomes thinner, there will be the opportunity for us to connect to and serve a wider, more diverse audience. 

So, what are you going to show and give to these 3 billion new minds…

Monday, March 5, 2012

SEO ≠ BFF

Some organizations speak dreamingly of SEO or Search Engine Optimization as if it were their best friend, their means of achieving happiness and fulfillment in their professional lives. So why is it that many organizations struggle in leveraging SEO for its true intent: to attract and retain more followers.

A recent survey completed by MarketingSherpa outlined the multiple challenges organizations face when deploying SEO tactics. The report indicated that creating meta tags, keyword research and XML site mapping (the basic building blocks) were simple enough, but that there were other key areas that brought about significant challenges. The top ranked difficulty was that of external link building (having inbound links from authority and relevant websites) and the other two areas were centered on content creation and blogging.

It would seem that the technology component would be the greatest stumbling block, but 70% of respondents felt that the top three challenges were in the area of business relationships and creating meaningful content. The lesson is clear: you will probably need a good technology partner to look after the inner workings of SEO, but you will also need to invest time and energy in the art of creating compelling content (writing stuff that matters, that influences people to take action) and have partners that believe in your message, and are willing to share their good name (and website) creating greater visibility for your message.