Successful entrepreneurs have always had an intuitive knack for how to generate word-of-mouth buzz for their products an services. And yet, many struggle to apply what they know to their online marketing. This presentation explains social media and search engine optimization (SEO) simply through the lens of word-of-mouth.

1. Online Word-of-Mouth
Presented by: Josh Braaten of Rasmussen College

2. Who is Josh Braaten?
Rasmussen College Sr. Online Marketer
@jlbraaten on Twitter
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3. Who is Josh Braaten?
..originally from North Dakota
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4. Small Businesses Know How to
Create Word-of-Mouth Buzz
Copyright Rasmussen, Inc. 2011. Proprietary and Confidential.

5. Some Businesses Have a Knack for Word-of-Mouth Buzz
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6. Amazing Products Create Buzz
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7. Amazing Service Creates Buzz
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8. Entertaining Customers Create Buzz
(or Educating/Engaging)
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9. What Does This Have to do with the Web?
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10. Why Does SEO Come Across as Difficult?
• Search engine optimization (SEO) theories
• Shady SEO agencies with spam tactics
• Google’s Pandas and Penguins
• Keyword targeting and on-page optimization
• 301 redirects and sitemaps.xml
• Indexation and robot spiders
• Canonicalization of URLs
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11. Why Does Social Media Come Across as Difficult?
• Facebook • Ping • Angie’s List
• Twitter • Tumblr • Yelp!
• LinkedIn • Last.fm • Google Places
• Google+ • So.cl • Quora
• YouTube • Reddit • Formspring
• Pinterest • StumbleUpon • Slideshare
• MySpace • Yammer
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12. You May be Looking at it all Wrong
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13. SEO and Social Media
Explained Simply for
Small (and Large) Businesses
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14. How Traditional Word-of-Mouth Works
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15. How Traditional Word-of-Mouth Works
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16. How Traditional Word-of-Mouth Works
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17. How Social Media Works
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18. How SEO Works
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19. Why Didn’t Someone Just Say That in the First Place?
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20. How to Earn Word-of-Mouth
Buzz Online
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21. Offer an Amazing Product
Example: http://bit.ly/StarWarsDecals
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22. Any Product can be Amazing
Visit: http://www.rasmussen.edu/accelerated
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23. Is Your Product Amazing?
Source: http://www.kissinsights.com/
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24. Do Customers Think Your Product is Amazing?
The Internet is kind to great products.
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25. Offer an Amazing Service
Book: http://www.deliveringhappiness.com/
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26. Is Your Service Amazing?
Source: http://www.surveymonkey.com/
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27. Do Customers Think Your Service is Amazing?
The Internet often rewards great service.
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28. Entertain, Educate, Engage
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29. 11 Tips to Start Online
Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Copyright Rasmussen, Inc. 2011. Proprietary and Confidential.

30. 1. Locate the Places Where People Talk
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31. 2. Claim and Complete Online Identities
• Website
• Blog
• Facebook
• Google+
/Local
• Others?
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32. 3. Use Common Sense to Help People Find You
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33. 4. Create and Share Interesting, Helpful Content
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34. 5. Pick a Schedule and Commit. Revise as Needed.
Online Property Frequency Action
Write one 200-800 word article that
Blog Weekly
entertains, educates, or engages customers
Facebook: daily 7:2:1 Ratio:
Twitter: 2-5x/day •7 = Other people’s helpful content
Social Media
Google+: weekly •2 = Your content
Pinterest: weekly •1 = Your products or service
Send an email newsletter full of the month’s
Email Monthly
content and send it to customers
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35. 6. Ask Your Customers for Their Thoughts
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36. 7. Fix What’s Broken
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37. 8. Surprise Your Customers
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38. 9. Then Request Credit Where It’s Due
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39. 10. Ask Your Customers for a Review
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40. 11. Engage, Engage, Engage
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41. Ok, Now I Just Have to Find the Time
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