The truth is, you cannot really predict what will happen next week in social media, but nonetheless here are 12 predictions and thoughts we have going into 2012.

1. Content is (still) King - Over the past few years we’ve seen brands become their own publishers and content curators. The trend will continue in 2012, and brands will find more and more ways to integrate content with commerce and their communities. Brands with the most authentic, engaging, integrated, and useful content will find the most success. Those who tumbl just to tumbl will not find the digital community they hoped to build.

2. Digital Punch Cards in the form of Recommendations and Rewards -  Have you noticed when you “like” pages on Facebook now you are offered the ability to recommend that brand to all of your friends? This feature and digital recommendation trend around social media will evolve in 2012, and brands, small businesses in particular will find a way to take advantage of it. Surprise and delight your fans perhaps? The key for brands will be to thank the audience they’ve accumulated and authentically encourage them to digitally recommend them to other friends. No need to carry those buy 40 get 1 free yogurt punch cards!

3. Brands will try to take advantage of Pinterest, and many will fail. – As any pinner knows, Pinterest is amazing for finding pretty things, new recipes, new looks, and overall inspiration. And many bloggers know that Pinterest drives a ton of traffic to their blogs. Brands are paying attention to this trend, but have not yet discovered how to use Pinterest as a proactive social media channel. 2012 will be the year of Pinterest for brands, “Like” will be replaced by many with “Pin it”.

4. Tumblr will roll out metrics (hopefully). – Early brand adopters of Tumblr have since voiced their frustration with the company’s business practices and its lack of an analytics dashboard. In 2012, Tumblr will should roll out some metrics, and/or brands will continue to devote more of their efforts to Facebook with its newer Tumblr-esque visual and re-sharing properties.

I heart glitterguide.tumblr.com

5. The 2012 Elections will be Social - If the 2012 election stays on trend with the 2008 election, increasing the votes cast by a demographic of younger voters, politicians will need to socialize. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 83% of Internet users ages 18-29 use social networking sites, and 65% of adults use social networking sites, most of whom form opinions of restaurants, styles, and even politics amongst friends. Notice, even Obama uses F-commerce (Facebook commerce).

6. Less is More. As brands and social gurus continue to refine metrics, we believe 2012 will simplify the actions of brands and their respective social communities. Instead of being spread across multiple channels and being a little bit effective in each, they will find the channel(s) that is best helping them achieve their marketing goals, and spend less time with all the other noise.

7. Your web experience will become more responsive – Everything you experience online with your iPhone, iPad and computer will be optimized for that platform more and more. As more shoppers do their research with mobile, companies will invest more dollars enhancing those handheld experiences, and allowing you to quickly share that experience with all of your friends on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

8. Social will continue to integrate with all arms of marketing. – Social media will be painted on all digital and printed collateral, and more CMO’s will be asking how social media is woven into their overall objectives. Remember Dodge’s Find a Journey YouTube campaign where they hid 3 cars throughout America? The big brands are on board already, small to mid-size businesses will follow suit in 2012.

9. Twitter will be less social - Gasp I know! As Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and other niche communities continue to drive traffic and awareness to brands in 2012, Twitter just may become more and more what it really is. A place for quick information, news dissemination, and networking with like minds. Unless brands use Twitter as an in the moment customer service channel, or have a robust social media team, we think brands will devote less time and energy to the channel in respect to bandwidth and ROI.

10. The Olympics will be digital – In 2010, the Winter Olympics scratched the surface with fans experiencing the games through social media. Brands will roll out the red carpet for bloggers and fans to interact with them socially during the London games. Instagram will probably tell a pretty amazing story of the games.

11. Spotify will take over the world – Well maybe not the world, but it will definitely gain a serious amount of subscribers and go toe to toe with Pandora. There really is nothing like having a best friend miles away create a playlist for you and keep your tunes up to date. Not to mention your ability to see what all your friends are listening to constantly on Facebook. More companies and brands will try to find ways to follow Spotify’s lead in genuinely making their user’s experience “sharable”.

12. We can “like” Emails – This is really more of a wish of ours than a prediction. Although we do think more brands should pay attention to their email strategy and how it integrates with their social media efforts. We would LOVE if you had the ability to “like” an email instead of having to reply with “thanks”, “sounds good”, or the other. Could you imagine the time and amount of emails you could save if you just had to “like” it to send your “I got it and have read it all” message?

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What do you think will happen within the realm of social media in 2012?

Yesterday, on our esteemed colleague Jay Baer’s site Convince & Convert, I read about the free e-book just released by Julien Smith, co-author of Trust Agents, entitled The Flinch. The book is being released for free with the support of Seth Godin’s Domino Project. Now, I have always thought of Smith as a social media and marketing pro, who helped point the way for a lot of people, including me, about connectors and influencers. So, a marketing guy, really. The Flinch isn’t about marketing, it’s about pushing yourself beyond what makes you flinch in order to be that better person. Cool, we can all use a good push every now and then.

Then I started thinking about Peter Shankman’s keynote at Blogworld. Again, a marketing guy who spent his hour giving us tidbits like Eat Your Fear and  Don’t Give Up and Have Fun. It was all good, I enjoyed his presentation but there was a lot of self help mixed into the marketing tips.

This was followed later in the day by Amber Naslund’s keynote about how we social media folk are wayfarers. She espoused that this is the era of inquisitors, the era of the curious. Amber, who co-write The Now Revolution with Jay Baer, a book I consider visionary in many ways, believes that we must not be afraid of blame, we can’t always be sure and have proof before we execute. We have to take risks and lead people into the future of what marketing will become.

I don’t disagree with any of this. But I do wonder how much of it has to do with our jobs and how much of it is has to do with where these folks are in their personal and professionals lives. Bored? Tapped out on the whole social media thing? Looking for the next important thing to talk about? Ready to make a career change? I don’t know for sure, but it is definitely a trend that makes me go hmmmm….

(Gasp) Dare we say our beloved Facebook could be destroyed or taken down momentarily?  Back in August, the world’s largest and most powerful hackivist group, Anonymous, responsible for taking down Sony’s Playstation network, threatened to take down Facebook on the 5th of November due to Facebook’s lack of regard for our privacy. Though we are not here to debate whether Facebook respects our privacy, Anonymous did get us thinking about just how much Facebook is involved in our daily lives and our efforts as “social media gurus”.

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Can you even imagine a world with no newsfeed? Or insights? Remember when your Aunt wished you a happy birthday by sending you a card with $1 inside, instead of writing “Happy Birthday xo” on your wall? Remember when you actually had to write down your friends’ birthdays to remember them?

It was so 2003 really, a time of Myspace… And no one wants to go back there and hear the lame song that played automatically when we wanted to check out your Spring Break photos. But, we’re going to take a trip to that darker time anyway, where Facebook does not exist, since it could technically happen tomorrow (hypothetically speaking, we know the Zuck is backed up).

WARNING: If you love Facebook and cannot bare a moment of life without it, do not continue reading.

What a day without Facebook would be Like

• You may have to actually call your mom, or text her, let’s be real no one uses the phone anymore.
• You can’t link your client’s blog to their Facebook page, guess interactions will be down this month. Good luck explaining your ability to increase their brand awareness month to month.
• Your dad won’t be able to tell you about the latest development in Kim K’s divorce over dinner, unless he’s on Twitter of course. But probably not, he doesn’t fit the Twitter demo.
• Better load HootSuite, CoTweet and fire up Tumblr, your client’s website is not going to feed traffic to itself.
• Your cousin’s daughter in St. Louis was born this morning at 12:15am?  Yep, you missed that because your cousin’s husband could not add a mobile upload of the bundle of joy mere minutes after little Lilly’s arrival. (P.S. Call your cousin you have not seen in 10 years, she’d like to hear from you.)


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• No “Sponsored Stories” to increase your client’s fan base and affect brand awareness amongst all of their friends.
• You missed out on coordinating happy hour with an old coworker because how else will you get a hold of them? It’s awkward if you call them, you weren’t that close, and email takes too much time.
• How will everyone hear about your client’s friends and family holiday sale without everyone “liking” their post, and increasing it’s viral reach right to millions of eyeballs? Back to beefy mailed out catalogs. I guess increasing e-commerce sales for your client is out. (And that was your best metric!)
• Your friend acquaintance Leanne has exciting news, she is having another child. Too bad you are not close enough to receive this news via text, email, or phone call. You will never know about her expanding family.



• Starbucks holiday cups are back! But this won’t make you nauseous today since you won’t see 100 photos of those red cups.
• Your friend Catherine is getting a massage right now as you sit at your desk at work, but she couldn’t check-in on Facebook, so you will never feel the rage boil over as you punch your eight. Really there’s such thing as a massage at 3pm on a Thursday?
• There’s a new cute/inspiring/funny/heart warming kid that will never get to meet his hero because you and your thousand friends could not re-post his video.
• You can’t give your client feedback on their latest product, since crowd sourcing through status updates and questions are out. Back to focus groups and paying people for their opinion.
• Your co-worker is listening to Christmas music and it’s the first week of November. You cannot call them out because Spotify doesn’t exist.
• You’re a social media strategist? Clean out your desk, your job is officially irrelevant.


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All jokes aside. Life without Facebook is a world many of us are not prepared for. So if Facebook is taken down tomorrow, maybe brunch will make a comeback. Mmm mimosas, which Facebook has yet to offer. That’s one point for the offline (insert jumping heel click here). From one social media strategist to the others, good luck in the real world.

P.S. I hope someone will read this blog, since we can’t share it on Facebook and increase our views…

You have a great product, you’ve done your research and you’ve hired the best PR agency out there. The ball is in the agency’s court, but it seems to be taking forever to get that first placement. What’s the hold up?

There’s a lot that goes into this “ramp-up” period and it can seem long and discouraging, if this initial planning stage isn’t explained and expected beforehand. I hope to alleviate this misconception and shed some light on everything that goes into these beginning days and why it’s crucial to the overall success of any PR campaign or project. Hopefully, these tips will help speed things along for you in the long run.

Setting goals and strategy:

Your PR company needs to know what your goal is. Is it traffic? Sales? Awareness? Social media interactions? Are you just dying to be on Oprah or do you want to saturate one local market? Are you interested in being featured in the food section or the living section or the business section? Are blog placements more important than traditional media placements? Arm your agency with the answers to questions like these before they even have to ask and they’ll be able to put together a strategy you love on the first try.

On the flip side, if you’re at an agency and not getting the answers you need – then get the conversation going and ask those necessary questions straight out of the gate.

Getting to know the product and becoming passionate:

It seems simple but it can take time. A PR person needs to be as well versed as the client and there’s a good chance the client has spent years getting to know the product. In PR, we don’t just need the pitch, but we need to be able to carry on a conversation about your product and that doesn’t always come easily. Be sure to arm your PR agency with all the tools, information and experiences they could possibly need to be well versed – and passionate – about your product.

Successful PR pros will continue the learning process even after this initial start-up period. Keeping up with industry news and constantly monitoring what’s going on in the client’s world.

Sifting, researching, brainstorming and compiling:

Once you’ve sent all the info you can, realize that it’s going to take some time for the team to sift through it to find what’s most relevant to the media. If they’re really good, they’re going to do some brainstorming and maybe even some research to determine the pitch that’s going to best resonate with the media you want to target. They’re also going to do a lot of research to determine relevant trends, round up and stats that may add to their pitch to ensure that your product has a place in the media’s story. Fill them in on the industry details that they may not be well-versed on. Tell them what trends you’re seeing in the industry, stats that support your position and where you think your product stands out.

Drafting press materials:

The media moves fast. If we pitch a daily publication or TV station and they like the pitch, they expect that we can turn around all the information for tomorrow’s news. That said, all press materials should be ready to go and approved before any pitching begins. Press releases, fact sheets, bios and images, all need to be at the ready. Speed along the process by responding quickly to your agency with information and approvals.

Finding just the right media:

Keeping up with media changes is getting out of control these days. There are more blogs and websites being created every day. Freelancers are working for different publications all the time. Layoffs, buyouts and folding magazines complicate the process and no matter how well-established your agency is, their media lists will need to be refined before every use. On top of that, research should be done to find people at each publication that write about just what you’re aiming for. This may require trips to the magazine store, sifting through articles, blogs and TV segments to determine the home-run contacts that are going to love the pitch idea. Show your agency any media placements you’ve already secured or any example articles that would be ideal. Let them know if you have any already-established media connections and how they may leverage those relationships into quality PR placements.

Writing just the right pitches:

Once the media lists are in place, it’s time to write the pitches. Maybe we discovered that this product has an angle for family writers, food writers and feature writers – that’s three pitches to craft and a pitch is not to be taken lightly. This pitch is like a handshake, it must impress upon first impression. The subject line is a science, the first sentence must be strategic, just the right information must be included and each pitch must be catered to each individual outlet. If your product is especially complicated because maybe it’s hard to explain why it’s different, it’s name doesn’t quite explain what it is or it’s something that must be experienced to be understood, then it’s up to your agency to determine how to get heard through all the noise in somewhere between 2 and 15 seconds (the time the media will likely give you for that first impression).  This may require your agency to come up with a great visual, an event, a video or just a creative way of talking about your product. Let your agency know what you’re willing and not willing to do. If you can allocate funds to creating something to mail or deliver, if you have great video capabilities or if you’re willing to send products to media, make sure your agency takes that into consideration at the beginning.

Agency folks looking for ways to get creative with the pitch, start with a team brainstorm and don’t be afraid to step outside of those traditional media relation boundaries of an email pitch and phone call.

Been there, done that:

If you’re thinking, “we went through this when they gave me the proposal,” you’re right. We did. We probably asked you some of the same questions and gave you a great idea of what our pitches would be and who we would pitch but when it comes time to get things rolling, there’s much more detail involved. The pitch idea is one thing, the actual pitch that grabs the writer’s attention is far more developed. The media list likely included the outlets, not the contacts and their email addresses and phone numbers. The more information your agency digs up, the more successful they will be in placing your product.

So in sum, to achieve the best results for your product, plan ahead, allotting about a month for your agency to “ramp up” and prepare for great things to come. On the agency side, being clear about these ramp-up projects beforehand is key. Letting the client know realistically what your time frame is moving forward, is never a bad thing. After all it’s better to be thorough and successful, than quick and mediocre. If all goes as planned then, the PR placements should come rolling in.

If you work in fashion you’ve heard of Tumblr, and have had a discussion about whether you should incorporate the platform into your marketing plans for your brand or client. In short, Tumblr is a micro-blogging community filled with visually rich content, and a network of users who love to share their experiences and interests, and obsessively reblog other content from those they follow. The fashion industry quickly jumped on the Tumblr bandwagon because their fans were there, searching for trends, fabrics and awesome fashion bloggers to follow and spread their findings to their own networks.

Now more general consumer facing brands,and multiple news publications, have incorporated Tumblr into the mix for its ability to quickly and effectively disperse content and information across the web. What’s more, Tumblr really gives a brand or entity an opportunity to personify itself as if the brand was a person, and/or provides legs and nimble content in support of integrated marketing campaigns. The people behind a brand can share with fans exactly what the brand’s interest would be outside of the standard product offering, and what inspires the brand, which gives marketers both more to create and relate to the various interests and emotions of their fans.

Some of my favorite tumblogs include Kate Spade, Maybelline, Topshop, GQ, and of course Vogue, so check out what they’re up to.

Tumblr for an Integrated Campaign

Recently we launched a campaign to encourage young bucks to release their “Inner Jockey” at the Thoroughbred racetracks of California, and wanted to create a microsite for our fans to learn more about the brand and interact with the fun content we created such as videos and a quiz to help you listen to your Inner Jockey. Here are a few reasons why we choose Tumblr to serve as a microsite for our Inner Jockey campaign:

• Because of the playful nature of the campaign and our targeted younger demographic, we decided Tumblr would be a great platform to really bring Cal Racing’s Inner Jockey to life, in addition to bringing Cal Racing’s digital community to fruition on Facebook and Twitter.
• Allows fans to playfully interact with the brand and discover all that Cal Racing has to offer within and outside of horse racing.
• Encourages more user generated content at the racetracks themselves.
• We want to highlight the joy and fun that takes place at the racetracks, and found that much of this content was already being created by fans on Tumblr.
• Fans do not have to sign up with Tumblr in order to view our content, take a quiz, or find out about the latest food truck festival. To the naked eye, it just appears as a normal website or blog. Win!
• Tumblr gives our brand an authentic personality that relates to our demographic, and if we can create that relationship with potential and existing fans online, we know it will only strengthen our relationship with them trackside!

Release your Inner Jockey!

Although we’ve only been live for a couple of weeks our viewership and interactions thus far have been fantastic. We’ve been able to introduce a brand to users who have yet to have a way of interacting with Cal Racing as a whole, or who simply have not been to a racetrack in California. Thus far, Tumblr is helping us release Inner Jockeys on the left coast, and we are excited to see what form it takes moving forward.

What do you think about Tumblr as a social platform for brands and organizations?

There are times when a pitch is so straight forward that a succinct email to the right person warrants an immediate response. An interview is set, images are sent and a placement is made. Done.

But more often than not, it’s not that easy.

Usually, a pitch that’s going to warrant a great in-depth story is going to require a great, in-depth pitch and email just isn’t always the way to go. So when email isn’t cutting it, here are a few tips I’ve learned to help garner results by phone.

First ask yourself this: Is a phone conversation even going to do it? If not, then ask the media person to drinks, coffee, lunch, or a deskside appointment. Face-to-face time is wildly more valuable and wildly more productive. Just recently, Katie Levien and I set up a meeting with the new editor of San Diego’s Downtown News. The result was an ongoing series dedicated solely to our client, Seaport Village, highlighting a different tenant each month. Had we requested that by email, she may have thought us absurd but our face-to-face conversation led us to this great result.

If a phone call will do, make your call wisely. Is your list of media to call seven pages long? Treat those seven pages one call at a time.  Research the pub and the person to make sure you have a fit and that you know just the way to propose it to the person on the other end.

Then when you do pick up the phone keep the following tips in mind:

• Remain calm and cool. The media person on the other end is likely going to sound like they’re rushing you because naturally, he or she is busy. Respect that, but do not let it get in your way. Remind yourself of this before you pick up the phone so that their quick response is not a surprise that throws you off.

• Talk slowly. Respecting their time can be done with a succinct pitch and a concrete question or request from them. It doesn’t mean that you have to talk abnormally fast.

• Entice him or her to respond. I find it best to start with: “My name is Lizzie Younkin and I work with Seaport Village. Are you familiar with the destination?”

You may get some great info from them to help direct the rest of your conversation, or you may learn that they just did a story on it (shame on you for not knowing) and you can end your conversation before wasting their time. Here are a few other tips and tricks that may help you get the job done:

• Pause. Let them respond and think and talk it through with you. Allow it to be a conversation instead of a pitch.

• Try calling on Fridays. If they’re in the office, people seem to be quite happy then!

• Keep in mind deadlines for different outlets. If you know that one publication always goes to print on Thursday, try calling on Friday or Monday. If you know another is on deadline the last week of the month, respect that week and make your call another time.

• Research new contacts. If you’re not finding the right contact, kindly ask editorial assistants and receptionists to get you to the right place.

• Here are a few key questions to ask in order to get the conversation going in the right direction:

Is this __ and do you cover __?

I know, it sounds so obvious but how annoying would it be to give your whole pitch to the wrong person? Also, if you say what they actually do cover, then they’ll know right away that you have something that likely fits their beat and will be more likely to hear you all the way through. If they don’t cover the beat you’re pitching, ask what they  cover and ask if they know who covers the beat you’re looking for. Consider every interaction an opportunity.

As mentioned earlier, ask if he or she is familiar with your product or brand, or propose your roundup/trend/pitch and ask straight up if they’d ever cover anything like that. Sometimes this isn’t so easy, but if you’re pitching a product for a holiday roundup, the quickest way to the point usually starts with “Hi, this is Lizzie Younkin calling from USAopoly, I’m wondering if you’re compiling any holiday gift guides this year?” This allows you to work your product into something they’re already doing, rather than giving your pitch, and leaving it to them to figure out where to fit it.

In sum, my rule of thumb is to always imagine that you’re sitting across the table from the person, enjoying a coffee. Your phone call should feel like a respectable and succinct conversation. If it’s not working out, but you know you have a great pitch, literally meet for coffee to build your relationship and find ways to work together that are mutually beneficial. While not everyone wants to pick up a phone call when they know it’s a pitch, everyone is willing to pick up a call from a friend.

Lights, Camera, Action!

I recently participated in my first commercial shoot.  We have been putting together a branding campaign for CalRacing, our statewide horse racing client over the last several months, and it officially launched last Thursday (check out the microsite, innerjockey.com). A major component of the campaign is two pre-roll video commercials that challenge users to listen to their “Inner Jockey.”

While being a part of this process I picked up a few tips I wanted to share with all of you junior account people or any reader who is new to the process of shooting a commercial.

1. Choose the Proper Talent (Actors)

The talent can make or break the quality of the commercial. It is therefore paramount that the agency and director find the best available actor(s) to bring to life the vision of the commercial.

For the Inner Jockey shoot, I was able to be a part of the digital casting session, which was quite a surreal experience as we watched actor after actor interpret the roles in the spots in their own unique ways. No matter what your seniority on the project, I would encourage all involved in the casting session to be open minded and forthcoming with their opinion because it will narrow down the choices and identify the perfect fit.

2. Understand Talent Contracts

Talent contracts are crucial to the commercial process, because an agency must secure the proper buy-out rights from the talent in order to ensure that the commercial can be legally played in all the desired mediums. For example, if you want to show the commercial on TV and online, then you need to pay the talent for the rights to show the spot in these mediums. Another tricky, but fundamental piece to any talent contract is the length of usage rights. Will this commercial be on air for one year, two years or does your client wish to be able to use it indefinitely? Each of these time frames require different contract verbiage and demand various pay rates.

Keep in mind that a standard buy-out is for two years and you should acquire rights for all advertising mediums that a campaign may grow into. Negotiating after a spot has already run will most likely be much more expensive.

Additionally, don’t forget to run your talent contracts by a lawyer. Legal language is often difficult to understand, and a professional’s opinion is highly recommend to ensure that your agency and client are getting exactly what they required from the talent.

3. Coordinate with the Producer

The producer is an account person’s best friend leading up to the shoot and during shooting because he or she will make sure that all the details are in place for the shoot.

During the two weeks leading up to the Inner Jockey shoot, I shared over forty emails and a handful of phone calls with the producer making sure that everything was perfect and would be ready for the shoot. Together we had to coordinate items such as travel arrangements, talent contracts, wardrobe approval, talent approval, shoot location, pre-production, and more. So, remember to stay on good terms with the producer and utilize their knowledge and skill set to ensure that everything is ready for the shoot.

4. Next Time

Just as with all projects, deadlines for this commercial came fast and furious. I would advise any account person to be aware of the below items and to make sure that you lock these down as early in the process as possible:

• Talent contracts
• Travel arrangements (if necessary)
• The collection or creation of wardrobe assets
• Payment for all parties involved

5. Enjoy the Moment

Last but not least, it’s important to remember what we do as advertisers is fun and exciting – sometimes we forget to sit back and enjoy the moment. Take pictures, Tweet about the shoot and be proud of your finished product. Hopefully, your next commercial will be a powerful marketing tool for your client and a strong addition to your portfolio and your agency’s.

Here is our final product for the “Inner Jockey” campaign – hope you enjoy.

Inner Jockey Pre-Roll

P.S. Don’t forget to take advantage of the craft services.

Do I have the job for you! We’re looking for a public relations intern who is willing to create results for some pretty amazing clients and work along side our fun and creative team- all with enthusiasm, ambition and previous PR skills.

We’re looking for:

• A college graduate OR senior working on a public relations, communications, journalism or English major
• Ability to work at least 20 hours/week
• Outstanding communications skills (verbal and written)
• Thrive in a fast-paced, energetic, highly creative setting
• Previous PR/media experience is highly preferred
• An enthusiasm for and knowledge about the strategy behind social media.

Here’s what you’ll get hands-on experience doing:

• Direct media pitching
• Writing media releases and alerts
• Upkeeping digital clipbooks
• Blog and social media correspondence
• Brainstorming
• Research
• Creating and updating media lists
• General account support

And working for us isn’t so bad either. You’ll be working with clients like Tiffany & Co., Sycuan Casino, Seaport Village and many others. We’ll provide college credit. The experience is invaluable and we take the time to teach, support and provide you with responsibility all while having a blast.

If you fit the bill, please send your resume, cover letter and references to erika@baileygardiner.com or call (619) 295-8232. And, don’t forget to read my post on how to land an internship at Bailey Gardiner for some insider tips.

So this little thing called the Internet is starting to make a big push into brand’s pocket books. Not only are we hearing more companies investing in the display category (total revenue spent was up 15% last year) but now the advent of branded video content continues to push the space.

That’s right, TV — be scared…be very scared. Broadcast has traditionally been the mainstay and money maker in the media realm, but in my humble opinion this will change drastically in the next few years and I’m not the only one who is seeing trends of brand budget migration. This is just the beginning.

YouTube is pushing the envelope online by developing opportunities for original content development through its YouTube Creators institute. It is offering $35,000 grants to help up and coming producers on YouTube become the next big thing with its YouTube Next Up program. So what does this all mean? Well first, if you think you can create a bad-ass video in your garage that will generate a viral following, you should probably apply to one of these programs. Second, it means that original content generation on platforms such as YouTube has value to more than just dorks sitting at their computer watching web vignettes all day. People are watching this content.   Millions of people. Everyday. And that means that brands want to pay for the content and the space around the content. This will become a viable career.

It is time to recognize that online video is forever shifting how we consume content. Obviously my laptop hooks up to my TV. Yes, I have streamed Netflix and yes, there is a reason Blockbuster is going out of business people. I look at YouTube (who in addition to investing in content is also getting into the rental game) and I smell an opportunity for new media and advertisers. It’s only a matter of time until we see brand dollars pour into this space. I can’t wait.

And no I don’t work for YouTube. Google is just awesome.

At this year’s Online Marketing Summit, the talk was all about content and linking. Gone are the days of tricky Meta data or a high number of inbound links, no matter the relevancy. The search engines are getting smarter, so are we, and SEO is getting more and more organic. That means that in order to rank well, our websites must be technically flawless, with a host of quality inbound links.

Currently, the four most important elements of SEO are as follows:

Freshness (how often new content is posted or the website is changed)

Links (quality not quantity)

Server response time (meaning how quickly the server hosting your site can respond to the request for the site)

Keyword in the URL

In this post, I’ll focus on the importance of links and content, by highlighting some of the results of a study put together by Covario and discussed at the Online Marketing Summit. Their whitepaper can be found here, in which they evaluated 100 top sites for their compliance with a series of SEO best practices in the categories of technical construction, content usage and link strategy.

The first item of note is that very few leading websites had any issues with the basic crawl-ability of the sites. This means that web marketers and IT departments are putting a lot of emphasis on SEO, a new development, and an important one. All the more reason to be sure that YOUR site is ranking well.

What some of the major companies struggle with is content. Many sites do not use keywords frequently enough or they do not include them in the URL, their header tags or the “alt” attribute tags. I like to think this is because we are not blind-sided to the user experience. While it is known that Flash websites are not a good SEO decision, I see many new websites built in Flash. It’s hard to let go of the user experience, and in some cases, it’s not worth it either.

Lastly, high quality links – meaning those from authoritative websites – carry MUCH more weight than a high number of links. We are seeing top ranking websites with a high number of quality links, meaning that people are catching on, AND it’s getting easier. I like to think that with so much activity on social media and so much content on the Internet, it’s getting easier and easier to share links.

So how do you make sure that your site complies with the four most important elements of search? Focus on content.

• Quality content will earn you quality links (or at least make the gathering of links a bit easier).
• If you can put strategy behind your content and optimize it with strong keywords, people searching for your content will find it.
• If you create content regularly, your page will be fresh, making it stronger in the “eyes” of search engines.

As far as your website’s server response time, you can nerd-out and use some online tools to figure it out, but I suggest leaving it to the programming experts.  Make sure it takes no longer than 1.5 seconds.

Having your keyword in the URL is self-explanatory but I’ll drive home the point that in order to do this, you need to take SEO into consideration at the very beginning stages of your website. Make sure you don’t exclude an SEO strategy from your overall picture.