What are some of your favorite examples of creative link building projects?
@tannerpetroff: Search Engine Land’s Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors takes the top of my list. It’s a valuable tool for a lot of people. <a hre
f=”http://ow.ly/dRK13″>http://ow.ly/dRK13
@dan_patterson: I know it wasn’t a “link building” project per se, but I still LOVE what Old Spice did with the response videos.
@bloomreachinc: Infographics that are informative eye candy are working well these days.
@mitchmonsen: Creative linkbuilding: Infographic embed codes that generate infographic embed codes.
@mitchmonsen: Infographics are like Nickelback… Everyone likes to hate on them, but they’re still successful.
@Ravenjeremy: I don’t think you can picture successful creative link building without looking at @theoatmeal. Another example would be http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/102s61/we_are_glove_and_bootspuppeteers_videomakers_and/ the AMA on Reddit by Glove and Boots @marioglove -VERY Successful
@scottkrager: I love offline things that often turn into links (meetups, t-shirts, etc).
@mitchmonsen: Always been a fan of @PointBlankSEO’s “linkbuild like a bartender” post: http://bit.ly/T94LGW
@shuey03: Mozcation was excellent linkbait and a very creative way to attract links and generate additional subscriptions. I think we can all agree that @paddymoogan is one of the most creative link builders out there: http://bit.ly/MHriYp .
@tannerpetroff: I have one last creative link building idea to share. A ‘map of the internet.’ I spent an hour looking at it. http://bit.ly/RGHMQo
@SEObryan: Great SEO = creating unique quality content + promoting that content + engaging with your users about that content.
@mitchmonsen: Engagement scales almost linearly with effort. Put a few weeks into something really awesome and you’ll see the (link) returns.
@tannerpetroff: Which creative link building blogs do you follow?
@tannerpetroff: I think @pointblankSEO has one of the best creative link building blogs out there. That kid seems to be made of creativiy.
@Rebekah_AM: for blog recommendations @debramastaler offers creative link building advice in her blog http://ow.ly/dRKTk
@roidna: As to link building – how about videos? More candid interviews or something more polished that needs more production time?
@bloomreachinc: Depends. Candid is great for customers and influencer interviews. But polished can work for ‘viral’ (think Old Spice)
@FraniePalaschuk: I follow google webmaster tools & matt cutts
What are some of the common components of successful creative link building campaigns?
@scottkrager: One thing that’s worked shockingly well for me: the phone. The most successful SEOs I know work hard. A lot of SEO work is just grinding once you have strategy.
@dan_patterson: They’re easily sharable. Drives me NUTS when I have to put forth effort to share something that’s cool.
@shuey03: they are creative. They are somewhat unique and often times hard to replicate.
@Ravenjeremy: You need to have a target audience in mind, medium of delivery and how you plan to promote your effort.
@mitchmonsen: They’re frequently tangentially related to the producer’s industry. Great linkbait seems to jump between a few topics/ideas.
@tannerpetroff: For me, valuable to target audience, and shareable.
@bloomreachinc: Give content a headstart with exclusivity to influencers with large megaphones.
What metrics do you measure to determine if a campaign is successful?
@TechLH: conversions. what else is there?
@tannerpetroff: Working in ecommerce, revenue from referral traffic, and social shares are big ones for us. Of course, a ‘link building’ campaign would be a misnomer if you weren’t going to measure links, right?
@SEObryan: I’d say value is based off link value (both web and social) and pure revenue standpoint.
@bloomreachinc: Depends on the goal. Links, traffic, revenue all have different metrics.
@VRBAnalytics: nice choice. I like to know how people get information; what sites they read, who they follow; inspiration insight.
@dan_patterson: Really depends on the purpose of the campaign. Some campaigns are really for awareness/branding. And let’s face it, some really are just to get links. Conversion best, but there are other goals to consider.
@Ravenjeremy: You need to know how your chosen medium interprets to contacts, leads, views, engagement, links and revenue. For direct example, the benefit of this chat is not direct to revenue. It’s a community building exercise. It’s much more valuable to built a CRM and manage relationships that yield more than 1 link.
@scottkrager: I actually like rankings. They often move first before traffic/other metrics. Good early indicator.
@tannerpetroff: Rankings can be a good indicator, but it depends on if you’er trying to rank for a specific term with your campaign.
@scottkrager: Yes. Also overall rankings lift across say 100+ keywords. When we get a solid link and all rankings go up, success!
@DerekOstler: Conversions and sometimes the number of social shares we get.
How is your creative link building outreach strategy different from outreach on regular projects?
@mitchmonsen: I’d say for the creative ones I’d rather get the piece in front of a few key people rather than blasting to a list. Also a good litmus test for the quality of your content; if you give it to a few influential people and it spreads, win.
@tannerpetroff: Definitely. A lot of times we won’t push a big project until we know it can be shared by key people.
@tannerpetroff: We try getting our content in front of the people in our industry who are likely to share it with others. Easier said than done.
@tannerpetroff: Involving the community in the process can be a huge win for everyone. More people share because they feel invested.
@Ravenjeremy: You want to find value points for your contact outreach to make it worth their time to retweet/repost. Don’t undervalue getting participation from your contacts IN YOUR project, vanity is a great tool.
@tommy_landry: yes, because it is easier to show a finished creative piece and have someone “get” it than written. Less effort = easier.
@tannerpetroff: Anyone know of some good examples where a community was sourced to complete a project?
@mitchmonsen: Every “X Expert Industry Survey”. Appeals to vanity, sources high quality information, uses community.
@bloomreachinc: In a sense, wikipedia. Community built it, feels invested and…dominates many kw’s from SEO perspective.
@dan_patterson: About the community sourced thing, both @davidmihm’s and @seomoz’s yearly reports are great examples.
@FraniePalaschuk: the early days of Napster may be an example. The book written by Alex Wipperfurth called Brand Hijack has great example of this.
What do you do before you start brainstorming to be as creative as you can be?
@mitchmonsen: Watch stand-up. No kidding, always puts me in a creative/humorous mindset. Helps a lot.
@tannerpetroff: May sound silly, I usually take a few minutes and listen to music I’ve never heard before, and think about how that artist might have gone about creating that music. That always seems to put me in the ‘generating new ideas’ mode.
@dan_patterson: I ask a bunch of people for any ideas they have, then I sort them out based on what I think will share the best. I think it’s also valuable to look around at what’s already been done either by your own company/client or someone else. Then look at how you can tweak it or make it fresh again without flat out copying it.
Does anyone already have a ‘process’ in place for generating creative link building ideas?
@emcgillivray: Part of my personal brainstorming includes getting out of my SEO bubble & doing other stuff.
@scottkrager: Shower. Best ideas always happen in the shower. Strange, I know. I keep a notepad close.
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