Author Archives: Ryan Clark

About Ryan Clark

I'm the CEO of Linkbuildr Marketing and the brains behind our branding and blog content. I specialize in effective marketing strategies for hotels, luxury brands and real estate. If your brand is in need of a boost then don't hesitate to contact me for a free proposal. Follow me on Google+: +Ryan Clark Twitter: @Linkbuildr on Twitter. You can also come ask me a question on our Facebook Page.  

Facebook Contest Case Study

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February 8  |  Social Networks  |   Ryan Clark

As more and more companies and brands are scrambling to gain Facebook followers, the more requests we’ve had from clients to get on it. We’ve had a lot of success lately and I thought I’d share a few contest angles that work really well in the local and global market. Local companies though an really hone in their user-base quite easily, so listen up if you’re a smaller company wanting to hit big numbers.

While I cannot let you know which client it was I’m using the numbers for, I will let you know it was for the Vancouver BC area. The company is a contractor of sorts and beforehand, didn’t have much of a social media presence. I’ll run down what we recommended, and luckily got a generous budget of $3000 to play with which included the cost of the prize.

Step 1: The Prize

You’re going to need to really wet the appetite of the user, and giving away a coupon card for $25 just doesn’t cut it…not for the numbers we’re going after. For this client, we recommended two options, both he liked so much that we’ll be running the second come next month.

First up was an easy call, the iPad. Everyone wants one whether you’re in the cult of Mac or not. This prize is also worthy enough you can expect to get a lot of noise written about you, and it should attract the followers when they see your friends post about it on their wall.

In this case study, we did not have a 2nd and 3rd place prize set, but I would recommend that to juice it up a bit. But by the looks of the results, it isn’t needed when you have such a kick ass 1st place prize.

Step 2: Planning The Attack

The contest participation factor is key to getting the viral aspect of it all going. Make sure the contest requires the person to Like and post something to their wall pertaining to the Facebook contest. This is where the friends of friends will spread it like wildfire! So make sure the rules are clear as day and this alone is almost good enough to handle the rest…but we didn’t stop there.

Depending on your budget left over, you’re going to want to get the word out through the web and nab some links and social media buzz. There are many ways of doing this and I’ll list off a few of things we did that have resulted in huge return on our time. The CEO of the company literally sang our praises which always makes one feel good.

– Get a press release out to spread the word and nab a few more links
– Submit your contest to contest listing specific sites
– Submit your contest details to deal forums, most of which have a section for these
– Spread the word to local bloggers to see if they’ll make a post about it
– Get your Twitter followers RTing the good word
– Take out Facebook ads about it for your local area
– Do a Video talking about the contest and its rules
– Write about it on your blog..don’t forget this one

After doing all of the above, the company got a whole whack of traffic, and while it’s still too early to tell, over 50 link thus far. Those links were all natural and look great to diversify his link profile. The branding that has been set out is also just as powerful! They may not nab a lot of clients now, but down the road a lot of those people will turn into a lead. If not, they’ll at least be able to recommend you to a friend when they ask for a recommendation for services you offer. Chances are really good you’re going to be the only company that they remember.

Step 3: During The Contest

While the contest is running, make sure you’re actively chatting with the new followers, as well as the current. Keeping the buzz going is key and nows a good time to let the people get to know your company a little better. Be friendly, have fun and as well throw in some tips about doing what you do best.

This is also a great time to divert some of that traffic into your Twitter and get some more followers there. The company in this case study had a lot of followers trickle into their Twitter account which was pleasing. We found that the client had to get quite active in RTing and chatting via that media stream because a few good RT’s from powerful users sent us a lot of other contestants.

Last but not least, now would be a good time to offer discounts on your services to try and get some business right away.

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If you’d like our help designing, implementing and launching your next social media contest don’t hesitate to get in touch. We offer a wide range of affordable options that will get your company results. Even if you just want to quickly pick our brains, we’re more than happy to lend a digital hand.

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BBC Does Reputation Management Right!

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February 7  |  Reputation Management  |   Ryan Clark

I’m loving this topic and the amount of real world examples I can showcase here are endless. I really appreciate big brands who get their hands dirty and respond to either true or false statements made against them in the real “social” world. I was sitting down this morning @Starbucks, doing my morning blog trolling and came across a very interesting topic. The post by Sam Rutley over at PushON, an awesome example of link bait, titled “Paid Links On The BBC?” has gone from bad to good for the BBC.

Whilst carrying out competitor backlink analysis for a client I noticed a number of high value links pointing from the BBC website, after further investigation it appears that the BBC/someone at the BBC is may be selling links in the footer of this page: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/default.stm.

This is a serious accusation for any small or big brand to see come across their stream, but sadly you usually won’t find anyone responding. A company like the BBC has a huge number of websites within their umbrella, so I was overly impressed to see the BBC Sports webmaster, Lewis Wiltshire, respond intelligently and thoughtfully to the accusations.

The key to handling something like this is of course to be to the point, non confrontational because you’re representing your brand. The BBC should be thankful for having someone like this on their team, especially since reputation management is not Lewis’s job at all….the man is a sports editor!

The links in question are editorial, and the fact a site like that would link to interesting sites in the niche is awesome. While the links didn’t look “iffy” to me, I can see how Sam and other SEO’s might speculate that they were indeed evil paid links.

I don’t want to dupe too much of Sam’s content, but here’s the gist of what Lewis replied with in the comments;

I’m Lewis Wiltshire, the Editor of the BBC Sport website and therefore responsible for the pages you mention.

The first issue to deal with is the question you raise in your headline, and then again in your closing paragraphs. To suggest that the BBC sells these links to external websites, which as you rightly say would be against the BBC’s charter, is clearly a very serious allegation. It’s also totally untrue.

None of the links to external websites from the BBC’s UK-facing website are sold. All of them are editorially selected because we believe they offer useful onward reading for our audience.

It’s part of our public service remit to link to other websites, partly for the benefit of the industry and partly for the benefit of our users who trust us to lead them towards useful services on the wider web.

There’s a lot more discussion in the post and I highly recommend reading of all it, taking it in and learning a thing or two.

Read the entire post: http://blog.pushon.co.uk/search-engine-optimisation-seo/paid-links-on-the-bbc/

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Linkbuildr @ The Excel Tire Conference

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February 5  |  Brand Building  |   Ryan Clark

Geoff and I (Ryan) had a blast this weekend with the Excel Tire Company for their AGM. We had the pleasure of speaking to the company about the delights, and blights of marketing online as they shy away from print advertising and media. While we had to talk to a room full of owners and staff who had all ready taken in over 8 hours of meetings, we’d like to thank them for their patience and time.

We’ve been helping their company re-brand themselves and get not only a more more search engine friendly web platform, but something more socially integrated. This is obviously a hot topic for businesses in all local communities, and they’re certainly taking it to a level above their competition. While you can imagine the last thing on a mechanics mind is sending out a tweet to his peeps, they certainly embraced the options we presented during our speech. The theme was to help them understand how they can reach a more targeted local user, both with a nicely built WordPress site, as well with a mindful social media campaign to engage the local clientèle.

The event was hosted at the River Rock Casino & Resort just outside of the Vancouver area. This is quite the place and the staff was great at the casino despite not having any time to waste some company money at the poker tables. The conference was thoroughly and thoughtfully planned by Jennifer @ The Finer Details, and had everything running smoothly. If you’re running a conference in the Vancouver area, she’s the go to person to keep everything organized so they deserve some link props!

The highlight of the night was when Excel Tire graciously took us out to a dinner theatre called The Giggle Dam. They do a themed event which includes a lovely dinner, but even better, one hilarious show. I’ve been to a lot of events in Vancouver before, but this one took the cake! If you’re not one to enjoy being made fun of, or put on stage and embarrassed then this place isn’t for you. I however will be going back the next time I visit Vancouver!

For anyone else in the same boat, wanting to bring their company into 2011 with a bang then don’t hesitate to give us a shout. We are able to do on-site training and presentations all over North America and Europe. We are located in both Vancouver and Victoria BC if you’re wanting easier access to our team.  We provide a mix of fun marketing ideas with the usual boring statistics and marketing data. We encourage drinking during our presentations, so keep that mind if you’re thinking about hiring us to speak with your brand.

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Snowmageddon For Building Links

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February 3  |  Link Bait Tactics  |   Ryan Clark

While the US is getting pounded by snow left, right and center, how many businesses are taking advantage of it? There are plenty of you out there who would benefit from this situation. Products that come to mind are candles, blankets, battery powered heaters and so forth. I’m making this post as more of an inquiry to our readers, I’d love to see who actually saw it as a business opportunity?

There is a whole host of opportunities to take advantage of before a storm like this hits. Group deal sites would have been my #1 choice for getting the word out quick on your deals, not to mention the plethora of other coupon/deal sites you could have used. Social media obviously could have played a huge role here, especially if you utilized a viral marketing campaign from your blog/website. “Top 10 Products You’ll Need To Survive Snowmageddon?”

Here’s a great example of the Weather.com network getting a stink load of attention thanks to their anchorman Jim Cantore. This single video got the Weather Network a whole lot more traffic for free despite the amount of people glued to their website and channel. It’s interesting just to see how much more traffic an event like this will show up, sadly I have to use Alexa for the meantime.

If you’re able to catch some amazing content to utilize for business then all the power to you. I’d start thinking of what you can do for the next snowstorm. While our clients kept asking us how much snow we were getting up here in British Columbia, they were shocked to hear we get snow maybe twice a year. Not all Canadians live in a winter wonderland, although we do live in a rainy blunderland :)

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5 Internet Marketing Youtube Users Worth Following

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February 2  |  Link Building Videos  |   Ryan Clark

I’ve been posting a lot of great videos from the fine folks in this industry, and I thought I’d do a roundup post to let you all know of my favorites. I constantly download these videos and take them with me while I travel, but mostly watch before I go to bed at night. I’d like to pay back some of these content producers with some link love, as well as some publicity because they deserve it. Not everyone an get on video, especially at a conference, and put forth a fresh and unique presentation. There are already thousands of SEO and marketing videos on Youtube, but only a small percentage are worth the viewing.

While I wish we could list ourselves on here, I have not yet made the effort to start video blogging. To those who have, you got some gusto because getting on camera isn’t the easiest thing in the world. When you work as much as I do, you also don’t also look good enough to appear behind the lens. Those who can do it for more than 20 minutes just blow my mind, so hopefully I put you folks onto some of the best of the best.

Chris Cemper’s Youtube Channel

:
http://www.youtube.com/user/cccemper
How Chris makes the time to do his amazing videos beyond me. If he isn’t busy running his marketing firm, or working hard to promote his Link Research Tools, you can find him on his channel giving away some great insight. He has a handful of videos and thankfully, he gives away tons of useful advice that’s more than helpful.

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Wil Reynolds from SEER Interactive:

http://www.youtube.com/user/wilreynolds
Wil has been featured on the blog many times with his videos, and this won’t be the last. He definitely over does himself in a good way when it comes to presentations. He’s the guy who can do an hour in front of a crowd or video camera and always bring something new to the table. You won’t find him recommending the latest auto blog posting software, that’s one thing for sure. Wil’s topics cover advanced link building tactics that make big brands think outside the box.

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Search Marketing Expo(SMX)

http://www.youtube.com/user/searchmarketingexpo
One of the best known Internet marketing conferences happens to also have one helluva Youtube channel jam packed with tons of videos. I find they’re also great at showcasing what kind of content you’re going to get if you so happen to choose to attend a SMX event. For those of you have their own videos from the conference, you should subscribe and share your content with them to help build the channel even more.

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ReelSEO’s Youtube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/reelseo
I’m a huge fan of the extremely good content that just oozes from all social orifices of ReelSEO’s blog and social accounts. I’m sure they’re just going to just love my description, but oh well it was the first thing that came to mind(I’m not Shakespeare). This company is the go to people for video marketing for anyone, so make sure you bookmark their site and stay informed on one of the most effective SEO tactics you can utilize today.

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Google’s Webmaster Help

http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleWebmasterHelp
With over 300 videos tackling the SEO questions from real webmasters, this channel is a great addition to anyones subscriber list. You can see Matt Cutts here, as well as other Google employees helping site owners get over problems and clearing up issues. This channel is also updated at a great pace so I like to check back here monthly to makes sure I’m up to date on the issues at hand.

Outdoor Adventures Whistler & Howling Dog Tours: Reputation Management Nightmare

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February 1  |  Reputation Management  |   Ryan Clark

There is a hot new topic going around about the slaughtering of around 100 sled dogs in Whistler BC. While everyone is currently calling on a full out Boycott of Adventures Tours Whistler, they’re saying they had sold the dogs to Howling Dog Tours of Whistler BC. Howling Dog Tours has already place the blame on some other bloke who is supposedly the killer of all those cute puppies. While it’s almost too late for them to recover in the next few years, it sure makes for an interesting reputation management post. Regardless of this, living in Whistler BC is still one of the best spots in North America!

The quickness of social media, and the power of viral marketing has currently spawned boycotts of the companies, endless blog posts and REALLY bad looking press. If you search for both companies in Google, you’ll see a plethora of news posts ranking right below regarding the dog slaughtering. This is going to hurt them big time no matter what they do, and even if they didn’t kill a single dog. This is a VERY important lesson to be learned because one slip up can bring your company to its knees. It’s too bad the same didn’t happen for some Wall Street firms I remain to not name…

So you wanna see just how badly this is effecting them within 24 hours of the news coming out? Sure you do! I can only imagine this is going to get worse before it gets better, but at least Adventure Tours has already got a press release fired off and ranking in the top 10. Howling Dog Tours has put up a statement on their website to tame the angry visitors, but I’d expect this not to relent for some time to come. Lets take a look at Twitter and Google, and when you look at these results, put yourself in the mind of a potential customer.


Outdoor Adventures:

and


Howling Dog Tours:

All I can say is I hope the person responsible for the dog shootings gets some jail time or a huge fine, and that the future social media director for any of the companies gets a big paycheck. So keep in mind the next time you’re thinking of doing something stupid, illegal or shady with your company that you remember this post.

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Google Algorithm Change January 26th Confirmed

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January 28  |  News  |   Ryan Clark

The cat is out of the bag and a major algorithm change has been launched within Google. Matt Cutts has come out and stated the news on his blog which you can read here. This is definitely a post everyone should be reading but to do a slight bit of dupe content myself, this is what their focusing on:

This was a pretty targeted launch: slightly over 2% of queries change in some way, but less than half a percent of search results change enough that someone might really notice. The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content.

While I’ve been ranting about our problem with content scrapers, but this week we’ve been seeing a huge improvement of the scrapers not even registering. I’m hoping this is the start of a cleaner search result, and a rise in revenue for everyone, including Google.

There is a huge amount of web chatter going on in the forums, on the blogs and Twitter so I’ll do my best to round it up here for your reading pleasure. Google and Matt are not always crystal clear on the entirety of a algorithm change, so the best course of action is to of course read up and view results for yourself. Take note of any problems your site is having and keep detailed notes of a more positive, or negative SERP result experience. Here is all I could find talking about the change, but feel free to drop some links that I missed in the comments.

January 2011 Algorithm Change Resources:

– Confirmed: Google’s Content Farm Algorithm Live! Sites Are Dropping! via Search Engine Roundtable
– Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO via Matt Cutts
– Matt Cutts: Google Algorithm Change Launched via Webmaster World
– Google algorithm change launched via Hacker News
– Google’s War on Spam Begins: New Algorithm Live via SEW Blog
– Google Launches Algorithm To Fight Content Spam via Search Engine Journal

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Link Building Keynote @ CeBit 2010

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January 28  |  Link Building Videos  |   Ryan Clark

I was very excited to have found this link building speech by Dan Petrovic, a name most of you should be quite familiar with. Dan does a great 30 minute presentation on link building in 2010 during CeBit Australia and it is very well worth the watch. Dan is the the go to man at Dejan SEO based out of Australia, a company which provides high quality link building among other services.

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