How to Make the Future of Search + Social Marketing Work for You

Submitted by josh.braaten@ra... on 11/04/2011 / 0 Comments

In the old days, search engine optimization meant getting some links, doing some keyword optimization on the page, and calling it a day. SEOMoz Co-Founder and CEO Rand Fishkin said those days are gone during the 2011 MIMA Summit, and shared his model for tomorrow’s online marketing success in his session, How to Make the Future of Search + Social Marketing Work for You.
The 4-Step Inbound Marketing Model of the Future
The future of organic marketing involves not one, but four steps that involve much more than just search:
Content - Inbound marketing requires great content to fuel the strategy. Fishkin pointed out that great content can be traditional “great content” (e.g., blogs, articles, infographics, etc.), a community (e.g., forums, discussions and profiles), great products (e.g., how awesome is this?) or even distribution (e.g., data, syndicated reviews, etc.).
Search - Optimize content for search by smartly integrating keywords into it, then building links to it through outreach and white hat link building practices. Fishkin opined that SEO isn’t going anywhere because search demand continues to grow each day.
Social - Fishkin then turned to social media as an important phase in the buying cycle. He pointed out how social media is higher up in the buying funnel and can drive awareness and links for your brand and the content you create. Great social can lead to amazing outcomes in organic.
Conversion - The last step is getting consumers to convert. Fishin asserted that all the traffic in the world is worthless unless it converts. Any SEO worth their mettle will want to include testing more and more into their tool set. A frequent and comprehensive testing plan will ensure inbound marketers are doing the most with the traffic they drive through content.

It’s clear that the future of search is about more than just traffic. Rand Fishkin is a legend within the SEO community, and he certainly proved to be a highlight among search engine professionals attending sessions within the Measurement, ROI and Search track. Personally, it was my favorite break-out session and ties with Avinash Kaushik’s keynote for my overall 2011 MIMA Summit favorite presentation.
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A special thanks to Josh Braaten, a MIMA volunteer, for this blog post. Josh is an Online Marketing Manager at Rasmussen College. He has worked in marketing and on websites for over five years. Josh also has a B.A. in Economics from St. John’s University. Josh loves Internet marketing and blogs about SEO, web analytics and related topics on his Internet marketing blog. Connect with Josh on Twitter,LinkedIn, and +Josh Braaten.