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Phraseology – using social media as SEO to boost search engine ranking

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Phraseology - by Chris Sheehy

Is social media only about being social – or is there more to it than that?

While it is true that social media can convert Twitter or FaceBook followers and friends into customers; and it is also true that these social media channels offer a great way of staying in-touch with these customers as well as cultivate new ones through lead-generation – but there is something else social media can do – and it’s a game changer.

Social media activity can increase your ranking on Google and nearly every other search engine and drive more traffic to your website and ultimately to your door – and that’s exactly why we have a web site; isn’t it?

I’m sure to get some comments on this statement, but it’s OK to post on social media sites with the sole intention of effecting higher search engine rankings and without intending on being social.

The job of crafting words on a web page (or online profile or social media post) with the purpose of increasing search engine ranking is referred to as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  The art of word-crafting is referred to as “phraseology”, and it’s interesting to note that SEO is an integral part of phraseology – literally.

Understanding the specific set of standards and using phraseology when posting messages on social media channels – like Twitter and FaceBook, are a great way to boost your search engine ranking AND give you more exposure on the search engine results page – referred to in the marketing industry as SERP.

Google recently made some significant changes in the way it ranks websites and in a surprising statement cited – among other things – that being active in social media will positively reward a website’s ranking.  I’m paraphrasing here, but that’s the gist.

Google, Bing, and Yahoo! are the three biggies when it comes to search engines – nearly everything else is somehow connected to them.  Each search engine has a different set of rules and standards when it comes to website listings, and these standards change often.

The days of establishing a website and leaving it there to do its job are gone.  Today’s websites need up-keeping to stay current with the latest code and listing standards in order to maintain good search engine ranking.  For instance – a website title needs to be crafted within a specific character length and of sufficient keyword density (having enough relevant key words – aka: search words) to be considered by Google for better ranking, too short or long in character length and you’ll suffer a low ranking.  Bing will ding you for having too many characters in apage description, and Yahoo! will drop rank for stuffing too many key words into a web page – a tactic called “keyword stuffing” which was a widely published SEO strategy until recently banned by Google with their new Caffeine algorithm (that’s the tool that spiders websites to rank them for inclusion on the search results page).

The kicker here is that there are no playbooks for this SEO stuff as each search engine considers the details of how they rank businesses to be proprietary and confidential business intelligence.  Hiring an experienced SEO marketer for your online activity who keeps up with these standards and best-practices can really pay dividends…

So, the next time you’re crafting words for your website, your social media profile, or the next time you post a message on Twitter or FaceBook consider phraseology and remember – you don’t always have to be social in social media.

By: Chris Sheehy – Auto Body Consultant at Autobody Consulting Group LLC www.AutobodyConsultingGroup.com

Autobody Consulting Group, a business operations, administrative, production, estimating, management, marketing, and social media consultancy serving auto body collision repair businesses and vendors to the autobody industry.

Twitter | FaceBook | LinkedIn

Primer On Public Speaking

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I often speak to groups of people and over the years have gotten quite comfortable with it, but that wasn’t always the case – to be honest, it used to freak me out at first.  Having had a lot of experience and having received so much great advice from others over the years, I have crafted speaking/presenting into a deliberate routine which has enabled me to be so comfortable with speaking and presenting in public that I yearn for the next opportunity.

Whether I’m speaking to two or two-hundred; the technique is relatively the same(content aside), I make adjustments based on the environment and audience size – other than that, it’s a choreographed event that doesn’t look at all like its deliberate or planed – and that’s exactly the plan…

Here are some of my personal best best-practices for presenting or talking to a group; I hope you find these helpful for your public speaking engagements…

  • Rule #1 is most important – if you find yourself speaking in front of a group of people it’s because they want to hear what you have to say – just be truthful and say what you know.
  • Start your speech/presentation by asking the people in the back of the room if they can hear you clearly, if they can – chances are good the folks in the front can hear you loud and clear too.
  • Let the audience know what knowledge they will gain from your speech/presentation.
  • Set the expectation that you will periodically ask the room for questions at the end of a topic or at periodic intervals.  This is especially helpful for me; I tend to get distracted when people interrupt my mojo with a comment or a question but I am completely on-game if it’s done during a scheduled Q/A time.  I think the audience also prefers this to random questions as these Q/A breaks become much more interactive and group participatory.
  • If you’re going to be performing for a while, let your audience know at the start of your performance (and it is a performance) of any scheduled break times.  Take it from me, this is especially appreciated if your serving coffee or other refreshments.
  • Provide notepads and pens for everyone (branding opportunity) to jot notes during your presentation.
  • I usually get prepared for my presentation by writing some key-topic notes just before I speak as a way to get myself ready, I find it puts me on-game.
  • Say your name  s l o w l y  and spell your last name if it’s not common.
  • Pace yourself, not too fast, not too slow.  A good way to rehearse your speech and it’s timing, is to practice in front of a mirror.  I always do a timed mirror run-through before I complete my speech or presentation draft.  I often find myself doing this in a hotel room and will ask for an end room when I book so as not to disturb other guests (I learned this lesson the hard way).
  • Props are great if they are relevant and are not distracting.  That said, I typically stay away from the pass-around props but if I do have a single example I will make it available at the next break for the audience inspection.
  • If a person in the audience is speaking when they shouldn’t be – simply walk to them and stand behind them for the first offense – that usually works within a couple seconds.  If they continue to be a chatterbox, simply ask them if they have something to contribute or have a question.  There, now that’s sure to silence them and any other flapper in the room.
  • It’s OK to walk around the room, just not too much.  Some movement will keep your audience alert and focused on you.  It’s important however not to pace but to walk with purpose, this is an especially a good visual when discussing movement or the passage of time.
  • Hands out of your pockets.
  • Speaking of hands, hand gestures are OK if it’s not distracting, but playing with your hands gets an instant penalty point.
  • Make eye contact with people throughout the room and keep eye contact for a second or so with some identifiable key players, it makes the presentation more personal
  • When a question or comment is made from the audience, acknowledge the questioners name (you may have to ask them for it) then repeat the question to the room before answering.  This assures everyone can hear the question and also ties that willing-participant (and likely everyone at their table too) deeper into your presentation.
  • It’s OK not to know all the answers.  For those times when you don’t know the answer tell the room you will be accepting email addresses after your presentation and will get back to those people as soon as possible with the answer.
  • The big picture view – don’t sweat the small stuff.  I usually feel totally satisfied with my performance as a speaker while at the same time can always find elements of my planed presentation/speech which were not heard because I got off-track or forgot to say them.  No biggie – only you will know!  Don’t sweat it…
  • When wrapping up, don’t forget to announce your website and any social media channels your audience can follow you through (remember the notepads and pens – it should be there too)
  • Relax, be humble, speak from the heart, say what you know – have fun!

By: Chris Sheehy – Auto Body Consultant at Autobody Consulting Group LLC www.AutobodyConsultingGroup.com

Autobody Consulting Group, a business operations, administrative, production, estimating, management, marketing, and social media consultancy serving auto body collision repair businesses and vendors to the autobody industry.

Twitter | FaceBook | LinkedIn

Collision Blast – What Is This All About

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It’s All About You

You may be asking yourself, What is Collision Blast?  We are different that most sites, as we not about what we are, we are about you, the subscribers.  Youtube’s slogan is to broadcast yourself, well, we’re similar.  We are here to help you (the collision repair industry) blast your video, article, or message to the social medial world.

It’s More Than A Blog
There are a lot pieces of the puzzle to making it all work on the social media world.  There are blogs.  This is a series of websites that provide a way for readers to find and read your message online.  Collision Blast is a blog too, but it is on steroids.  We have found ways to  take a normal blog post and use different software to get blast your message to social bookmarks and search engines.  Therefore, Collision Blast is not your ordinary blog.

It’s Not A Social Network
A social network is an important piece as they provide like minded people a place to meet and collaborate ideas.  The collision industry already has a great social network, which we are working with to help provide training to the members of Collision Blast.  We’ll be sharing how you can get a free account with Collision Hub soon.  The obvious networks are MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter.  Collision Blast is definitely  optimized to blast your message to these social network, but many more as well.   Therefore, Collision Blast is not a social network, but works closely with them to help get your business message out to the readers.

Do What You Do Best
There is so much to keep up with all of the changes to modern day cars.  Not only do you have to stay updated with the new technology, you also have to deal with insurance companies, provide top notch customer service, and everything else that comes with a auto body shop.  This may make it a challenge to keep up with internet marketing.  You have website, blogs, facebook, tweets, SEO, page ranking, etc.  That is a lot to keep up with.  By using Collision Blast you can write your blogs here or copy and paste your pre-written messages and post them on our site.  That is it!  From there we take over.  We will work on getting your message heard and read by readers.  This will free up more of your time to do what you do best…repair vehicles.

All it takes is to subscribe to CollisionBlast.com and post your messages or videos and Blast It Out!