Altwebmedia – Is Social Media Beating SEO In Online Branding?
April 23rd, 2009Altwebmedia poses the question on Twitter: Social Media seems to be beating SEO in online branding??
Personally, I think that social media is a form of organic link building. Whether you are a business or an individual, when you socialize online you spread the word about your cause. If the subject matter that you’re talking about generates a stir, other people in turn will talk about you and many will link to your website or comments.
If social media is considered “online branding” and is a type of link building; and link building is a main part of SEO; then SEO is certainly online branding. Social Media and SEO are not at odds with each other. They compliment and support one another.
Every time your brand appears within search results and is relevant enough to generate clicks, you are interacting with your target market. Your brand is being associated with terms that demonstrate people’s intent. It’s like the TV advertising campaign that Cadbury did a number of years ago. If you thought of chocolate, they wanted you to think “Cadbury”. However, have they applied this same tactic online?
Through social media, Cadbury can influence people to talk about chocolate and by providing relevant content about this topic, they will receive links that will help them achieve natural search results for that exact term. In Google UK, Google Australia and Google New Zealand, Cadbury lands the first spot for the term “chocolate”.
Brand marketers – SEO and Social Media go hand in hand. This is why SEO practitioners are most likely calling social media, Social Media Optimization.
We hired AltWebMedia to customize a site for us. They were paid, but did not complete the work contracted and refused to refund the amount paid.
Hi Rob,
It sounds like you need to go to a disputes resolution service. Sometimes web agencies are not very good at defining exactly what their clients will receive for their money, so there ends up being a disparity on both sides of the camp between what is expected and what is actually delivered.
Also, as a commercial rule of thumb, it is a good idea to pay a deposit rather than the whole fee upfront. Reputable SEO and Social Media agencies only require deposits for project work with progress payments or a monthly retainer for an ongoing program of work.
It is also your responsibility to monitor exactly what you are receiving for the money you are paying. It makes it tricky if 6 months later you realize that you are not getting your monies worth.
Keep in mind that SEO and Social Media agencies can not guarantee rankings or specific results. It is best to stay clear of companies that do make such guarantees.
I recommend in future that you request a list of tasks that will be completed and quantify what you will receive in terms of time or deliverables. Such deliverables could be 10 articles written or optimized, an seo audit, 10 inbound links placed on relevant external websites, title tags optimized throughout the site or creation of a video. Request how much time that will be spent on your account each month. Is it 10 hours, 20 hours or more?
If you expecting specific results such as increased traffic or sales, then another approach is to pay on a performance basis such as cost per click or cost per action.
SEO is a mid to long term strategy and depending on how competitive your online industry is, ranking results can occur in a matter of weeks to even years.
I’m happy to answer any further questions that you may have.
talk soon
Jacqui
Dear Jacqui,
Greetings and thanks for your comments.
Actually the site in question is a different site that is now being customized by another company. We did indeed specify what work would be done for the contracted amount. They asked for 1/2 up front which was charged to our account immediately. We had specific, marketing-schedule-tied deadlines to which they agreed. I was to roll out the site at a national conference in May (where I was speaking) and they agreed to at least have the front page completed for marketing purposes. When I got on the plane nothing had been done. The day of the event they had pasted some graphics together, but the links did not work because they failed to cut and paste basic code.
We have investors and a revenue stream related to this site. Obviously, we take the hit for AltWebMedia’s failure.
I have filed a complaint and asked for resolution from the Better Business Bureau in Phoenix.
Thanks for your response and ….
Regards,
Rob Kurz