There is an element of planning when you step beyond the SEO curtain. SEO marketers focus primarily on niche marketing in pockets of “opportunity”. Because of this, the concentration is on things other than content. But the really successful blogs and websites integrate their world view into their brand and find others who support and believe in their world view.
I think that that is the key to utilizing so called “social media” into your marketing. It’s also the element that so few talk about.
- You determine what you believe in and are willing to fight for.
- You find others who believe in the same things as you
- You create a “movement” by trumpeting your world views to the world with others that agree with your views.
Movement is a bit grandiose. Usually, it is the smaller views that people take to….
So, your niche may be DIY home improvement. But your “world view” may be how you do it if you are completely broke.
In my case, I may be in SEO and web design. But my world view is that anyone can do it and I am willing to show artists how to do it themselves so that they don’t have to lean on nerds like me for help. So, if I want to share my world view, I would need to find artists and musicians that want to do things themselves (actually I find them quite easily). My niche is web design. My world view is easy web design for musicians and artists who want to learn it themselves.
So, your World View creates a specialty. It sets yourself apart from all the other people out there that are in the same niche as you. It gives you a voice that is different from everyone else.
Here’s a world view from Lis Sowerbutts. She tends to talk about making money online and creating passive income. But that is her niche. Her world view is that she shows regular people how to make passive income. Her movement has people who mow their own lawns…just regular people with regular lives… believing that it is possible. So, in that respect, her world view is different than someone who is going to come from the place that says that they will make you rich (and beautiful).
If Lis wanted to build a social following, she would simply have to find people who share her world view.
Jeff Goin’s world view centers around people who have a passion for writing. He is in the niche of writing. But his world view is that to be a writer, you just need to get writing. There are a lot of people who want to believe that this is possible and because of this, share his world view.
How this relates to SEO
SEO is primarily link building, once you understand on-site infrastructure. Marketers have a choice when they go down this road; they can either link build themselves or they can connect socially with people who share their same world views.
To use the links I shared above as an example- I didn’t have to link to Lis or Jeff. But I did. Because in many ways, they share my same world views. And I am just one guy out of many potential people who have the power to pass link authority to their websites. In many ways, provided I don’t blow this website up, the link will be not only good for referrer traffic (although no one reads this blog just yet), but also for link juice to help them stand against competitors in their niche.
And it’s legit meaning that chances are good these links won’t wind up being one of the artificial links detected in their webmaster tools. Over time, the link itself will age, become more powerful and help them either rank for what they want to rank for or give their website more authority than the usual route most SEO’s go.
It’s a Wrap
This is primarily what SEO marketers miss when they say that their market isn’t social. All markets are social when you go for the broad market within their niche. Plumber widgets are social once you broaden the scope to bathroom design and then add a world view that you deal with bathroom design for people who don’t like HGTV. It changes the perspective. You go from dealing with keywords to dealing with people who support your world view. They believe in you because it is what they believe themselves. They join your movement.
Image attribution- http://www.flickr.com/photos/villes/2865833414/
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Very good point and very well stated!
I’ve been reading your stuff since the start of good old leodimilo.com… since I was probably 16 years old… you’ve helped me in some ways, I still remember your article on keyword sniping being revolutionary to me at the time when I was trying to earn me some adsense trickle for cider money… but (unrelated to this article) why did you stop leod.com just to start up a similar albeit broader blog? I only really followed you and splork (more for his rants than advice) as well as few others.
Either way, I’ve got your most useful articles saved… authority site well underway!
Hey Jonny,
I always appreciate it when someone tells me that I did something good for them. Thank you.
We will just leave it at sometimes you need a change and sometimes the best change is to wipe the past away. My past is tinged with black hat strategies and other stuff that has been not so great. As a result, a lot of people who followed me shared my mostly negative philosophy to online business. I wanted a change.
This blog wasn’t intended to go down this rode again..you know, where I talk about marketing online, seo and other stuff.
To be perfectly honest, I still am not sure where I want to take this blog. I figured that I would let it decide for me where it would go and evolve naturally.
But here’s the problem- Marketing is what I do. It’s what I love. It’s what I’m good at. In a lot of ways, it’s who I am. I’ve been doing it for longer than most. So, obviously, it is very hard (maybe even impossible) for me to divorce myself from something that is a core component to who I am.
Thanks for comment, Jonny.