Social Media & SEO – Lisa Merriam

Teaching Social Media for the Columbia Business School Executive MBA Program

It was my honor to teach social media planning for the Executive MBA program summer session at the Columbia Business School. Professor Emeritus of Business Marketing Don Sexton leads a lively class of fresh thinkers with insightful questions. The curriculum I presented as guest lecturer provided an historical overview of social media, with a strong

Teaching Social Media for the Columbia Business School Executive MBA Program Read More »

Pro Trump or Anti Trump–American Opinion on Firing Comey

Democrats favored firing Comey before they were against it. Republicans scurried to avoid taking a position. The White House was leaking in torrents. Washington insiders roiled the swamp with eddies of spin. The press hyperventilated in major scandal mode. But what did regular Americans make of it all? Not so much, it turns out. Data

Pro Trump or Anti Trump–American Opinion on Firing Comey Read More »

Search Engine Optimization and Brand SEO Mistakes

Brand SEO mistakes are surprisingly common. A shocking number of companies miss a critical opportunity to communicate in search engine results–and thus with customers. If they can’t find your brand, it may as well not exist. What you say in Google, Bing and Yahoo! impacts traffic to your site and your brand image. Yet, too

Search Engine Optimization and Brand SEO Mistakes Read More »

Marketing Sherpa Case Study: SEO for 308% Increase Web Traffic

How to increase Web traffic is the subject of MarketingSherpa’s latest case study of Knockout Pest Control‘s local search and digital marketing work. Marketing Sherpa is a research company that tracks and shares “what works in all aspects of marketing.” They selected our client Knockout Pest Control to profile on how to build business–and better

Marketing Sherpa Case Study: SEO for 308% Increase Web Traffic Read More »

Don’t Drop the F-Bomb…And Other Good Social Media Advice

“Don’t use the F-Bomb” is a seemingly common sense rule when using social media for corporate purposes. But, common sense is not as common as you might hope. A purported social media expert working for a leading social media agency tweeted this for Chrysler: “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the Motorcity

Don’t Drop the F-Bomb…And Other Good Social Media Advice Read More »

Social Media Forces Candid Truth from Brands

Today, truthful brands who speak the truth are a necessity. Rance Crain has an interesting post in Advertising Age: “Back in the Mad Men days, when the “pioneers of advertising,” as my old boss Stan Cohen calls them, ruled the roost, it was commonly held that a little exaggeration was not unreasonable to accentuate the

Social Media Forces Candid Truth from Brands Read More »

Facebook Connect’s Brand Trust Disconnect

More and more Web sites are offering the “Connect with Facebook” option–but could the initiative suffer brand trust issues? It appears Facebook Connect is succeeding where others have failed (most notably Microsoft’s Passport product). They are becoming the default internet ID card, saving users from having to create user names and passwords for every site

Facebook Connect’s Brand Trust Disconnect Read More »

How Google Uses Brand Names for Search Results

“Brands are how we sort out the cesspool.” This famous quote from Eric Schmidt, President of Google, gives us insight into the importance of brands and how Google uses brand names when determining what search results to offer in response to customer queries. How do you know a word is a brand? Google codes up

How Google Uses Brand Names for Search Results Read More »

You Can’t Buy a Good Brand Reputation-Negative Conversation

A good brand reputation is not a service you can buy and can’t be gained by a clever stratagem. Still, reputation managers at companies trying to do damage control or damage prevention always seem to be on the look-out for shortcuts that can shut down any negative conversation about brand. Preventing Negative Conversation Is Impossible

You Can’t Buy a Good Brand Reputation-Negative Conversation Read More »

Things Not to Do on Social Media Sites

The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur has some interesting (if sometimes contradictory) observations, tips and advice for businesses and individuals in this post: Things Not to Do on Social Media Sites UPDATE: Since this post was written, the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur site stopped publishing. The ten social media mistakes remain social media mistakes, but are now on

Things Not to Do on Social Media Sites Read More »