I doubt there is anyone reading this that is not already at least aware of the hit US TV series, Breaking Bad. You probably already know that the last 8 episodes ever are about to be broadcast on August 11th. Even the BBC are newsjacking a show that is not on their network.
But what has this got to do with seo?
Well, we publish content around what people are talking about to get their attention and engage them.
Although I use the term “seo” in its broadest terms.
What I am really talking about is publishing and networking or even content marketing. The debate about “seo” is currently a topic in the industry. http://insocialwetrust.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/were-missing-the-point/ which we can comfortably leave to others a the moment.
Lets explore the reason of whether you should newsjack Breaking Bad.
The problem
You have a website where you need to increase the rankings in Google for specific webterms.
The Objective
Produce attractive, engaging content that gets links, social signals and branding awareness.
The Solution
Publish content on your website about the Breaking Bad show and promote
How do we implement the solution?
The key is in the word “publish”, get rid for a moment of all those fancy pants marketing terms and stick with the basic concept that you are going to publish something and other people are going to experience it and react to it.
It is vital you keep the approach to the creation process as simple as possible and deal with the fundamentals.
Implementation should not be looked at as a one off thing. You need to build a publishing machine, because the competition for attention online has become such that you need to have the most efficient process possible.
It is no longer about producing that one great piece of content, it’s about publishing a continuous stream of great content that gives a good return on investment.
Therefore any solution that is implemented should be part of a wider process, You implement the solution by first building a process to that can efficiently solve this and any future publishing problems.
This raises the issue of content management. Having run a number of large budget operations I know that you have to organise your infrastructure similar to that of a tabloid newspaper. You then have to optimise every link in the chain, trim the fat and make sure the right people are doing the right thing.
But the process is the same, whether you are an in-house seo with a staff of 100 or a piratical, death dealing, do or die affiliate marketer who builds his website whilst downloading Breaking Bad on Piratebay.
Agencies too are no different, it does not matter that you have multiple clients. The solution is always going to be the same, the process is the same for any client but produces a different output.
It’s actually very simple
- Establish your ability and resources
- Develop a realistic objective
- Create and publish the content
- Promote the content
- Use content to further build network and resources
One person can and often does do this, but larger websites have to delegate specific actions to specific people who have a certain skill set. This can be done both in-house and outsourced. I know of many one man bands who outsource everything and basically run a large agency in the cloud.
The problem suddenly becomes one of management and quality control, this can be alleviated with giving well defined tasks that are simple enough to understand and to track.
The bad news is, this is now the default setting. You have to have a publishing machine behind you to compete on a level that is going to make you a decent living if going solo.
And larger organisations need to build the publishing machine at the core of their marketing operations.
Newsjacking is one component of a content marketing strategy, a strategy that must be underpinned by a road map that has been thought out and designed by someone familiar with such things.
I’ve put together several Content Marketing, Road Maps for clients, they are not cheap and require a huge blob of time thrown at them. But it’s amazing the results a publishing machine can get when it is heading in the right direction, knows its destination and knows when it has arrived.
In future posts I will be talking about how to build your publishing machine and how to create a content marketing roadmap.
