Posts

,

Speaking at SWMO PRSA’s Digital Media Power Lunch

1 week of work in 1 minute!

Highlights:

  • Solar Eclipse on Monday.
  • Speaking at the SWMO PRSA event on Tuesday.

The solar eclipse was very beautiful and I’m really glad I had the opportunity to see it, but speaking at SWMO PRSA’s Digital Media Power Lunch was the highlight of the week for me.

The Digital Media Power Lunch was a great event and a lot of fun, but it was especially meaningful to me. It was the first time I spoke at an event in roughly a year. The last time I spoke publicly, I wasn’t even talking about digital marketing. I was talking to a small group of men on a weekend retreat. Speaking publically about personal moments can be stressful, but I was prepared. I didn’t have to memorize anything because it was all about me personally and things I had experienced. I was even able to write it all down and just read it — but it was still one of the most challenging public speaking moments I’ve had. No matter how prepared I am, I am always nervous before speaking publically. Usually, the nervousness dies down after the first few moments. It didn’t. So I looked down at the papers I had with me. I would just read them, word for word. That’s when I first truly noticed I couldn’t read. I was just staring at the paper. It was well-lit and close enough to me that I could see every letter, but I couldn’t put the words together. I was able to fight my way through it all and at the end, I just blamed the tough situation on being nervous. 6 days later I would wake up in the hospital after having a grand mal seizure.

That’s how it all started and here’s more about what happened if you’d like to read more about it:

From the blog post, Why I Film Myself Working…
“I’m always nervous before speaking events, and now I’m scared. […] I’m not going to let my fear stop me from doing what I want to do. I was scared to start speaking, but I gave it a shot and started despite my fear. I didn’t let my fear keep me from starting, I’m not going to let it stop me either.”

Speaking at the SWMO PRSA event was meaningful to me because it represents a win. It went well and I beat my fears.

Music:
Under The Sun by NOWË
www.instagram.com/nowemusic/

/by

Brad Wester SEO Tips

If you’re looking for some SEO tips you’re in the right spot. Before we get into Brad Wester SEO tips, let me quickly explain why I’m writing this post.

Hi, I’m Brad Wester

…I’m writing this post, Brad Wester SEO Tips, for a few reasons.

My number one goal is to share valuable SEO tips with you. Following the advice from Brad Wester SEO Tips will help the content you create to be seen by more people. The SEO tips I share will improve any content you create; whether it’s a full website, blog post, your LinkedIn profile, or even some of the Pins you are sharing on Pinterest.

I’m also writing this post because I’m speaking at the 2017 Digital Media Power Lunchnext week. I’ll be discussing how you can use search engine optimization (SEO) to grow your business.

When attending conferences, I’ve always disliked taking notes. I’d much rather live in the moment, take in as much as possible and ask questions. So I’m writing my thoughts out now so no one has to take notes. It’s all here on the Brad Wester SEO Tips post, free and open to everyone.

The last reason I’m writing this post — I have some search engine optimization tactics that I want to test. My goal is to get this post to rank highly and quickly!

I’ve started writing this post on Tuesday, August 15, 2017. My plan is to have it finished and published tomorrow, Wednesday, August 16, 2017. Will I be able to get this post, Brad Wester SEO Tips, ranked on the first page of Google? And will it be ranked before my talk at the 2017 Digital Media Power Lunch? That gives me 6 days to get it ranked… I better get to work! 🙂

*UPDATE: “BRAD WESTER SEO TIPS” WAS RANKED #1 ON GOOGLE IN UNDER AN HOUR!*

This even surprised me. I knew this post would rank #1 on Google. I knew it would happen quickly, but I thought it would take a few days. I was nervous that this post wouldn’t rank #1 on Google before the event, I thought it was going to be close.

Here’s what really happened.

  • Post published at 9 PM on Wednesday, August 16, 2017.
  • Ranked #1 on Google by 9:48 PM on Wednesday, August 16, 2017.

Next Steps: continue testing.

I was able to get a great result once, for a very targeted search term (Very Low Competition). That doesn’t make this a proven result. Not even close. Now it’s time to take it a step further. I’ll be doing this again; using a different website, writing about a different topic, and using a more competitive long tail keyword.

What is SEO?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a digital marketing strategy.

The goal of search engine optimization is to get your digital content to appear early (or rank highly) in search engine results. SEO is focused on getting traffic to your website organically, or without paying for it.

Why is SEO important?

  • 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine.
  • 75% of people never scroll past the 1st page of Google Search results.
  • There are over 1 trillion searches every single month.

SEO can help you meet your goals.

Are you trying to grow your business? The proper use or search engine optimization can help you get more sales.

Are you looking for a new job? Apply some SEO tactics on your LinkedIn profile and your profile will appear more often to recruiters and companies searching for new talented employees.

How can I get my website on the first page of Google?

I have some bad news. Getting ranked on the first page of Google can be extremely difficult. It isn’t impossible, but there’s only so many links available on the first page. Competition is high and often tough to beat.

SEO takes hard work. It takes time. — Get creative. Stay positive. Stay focused.

Search engine optimization can be very complex. If you read up on Google’s Algorithm Updates, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. If you’re just getting started with SEO – don’t try to understand it all. It’s so easy to become overwhelmed. Instead, focus on following the SEO tips I leave in this post.

When teaching myself search engine optimization, there were a lot of trial and error moments. I wrote Brad Wester SEO Tips to highlight the beginning steps of search engine optimization. These are the steps I use to start every SEO project. These SEO tips have been the most powerful for me.

Here’s how I get content to rank highly…

Remember who you’re writing for.

How many times have you heard “the customer is always right”, “always keep the customer in mind”, or “the customer is always the focus?”

Well, I disagree – especially when it comes to search engine optimization.

When I’m writing content to improve a website’s search engine optimization, I picture myself physically speaking with the target audience. Right now, I’m typing this post out on a computer in a quiet room – but in my head, I’m picturing myself speaking, not writing, directly to a specific person. In my mind, it’s a one-on-one conversation.

Having this mindset helps me stay focused on what my target audience is interested in, what questions they may have, and what I need to do to truly help them. I want to write content that will truly be useful for them. I want them to enjoy reading my content and find worth in the “conversation” we are having.But it’s not all about them, I’m viewing a conversation, not a speech – so I’m in it too and I’m looking to gain something as well.

But it’s not all about them, I’m viewing a conversation. I’m in it too and I’m looking to gain something as well.

We speak with others to learn more about them, to help them with what they need or sometimes just for entertainment, but there’s a reason we speak with others. In the best conversations, both members gain something by being a part of it.

As a business, your content shouldn’t just be focused on giving a potential client what they want. Yes, you want happy clients – but as a business, you also need to make sure you’re getting what you need.

So before you start writing, set a goal.

Don’t just say my goal is to create content that will rank on search engines. That’s great, but why do you care about ranking high? Having a high ranking page will get more traffic to your website. What do you want that traffic to do? Do you want them to buy a product or service? Schedule an appointment? Click to more pages of your website, reading more content and see more ads (making you more money)?

Your goals always need to be on your mind and a part of the content you’re creating. Sometimes business growth comes with a simple ask, don’t be afraid of the ask.

So keep your audience happy and stay on the topics they are interested in but don’t forget about yourself. There’s two of you in the conversation, but you need to focus on three. Yes, there’s a third person in the conversation you’re having.

  1. Your target audience.
  2. You.
  3. Google. (and other search engines)

You can’t just keep your customer happy, you have to keep Google happy as well.

Google isn’t looking to be your client. Google isn’t looking to be entertained by your writing. Google isn’t at all like your target audience, but Google connects you with your target audience – so you need to keep Google happy as well.

How do you keep Google happy? Well, there are two ways. You can buy ads, but that’s SEM (search engine marketing) or PPC (pay per click advertising). Or you can make sure your content appeals to Google by having the correct structure. There’s a lot that can go into this, but I’ve found the steps listed below in Brad Wester SEO Tips to be the most useful in helping me get pages to rank and at the same time, keep target audiences happy. It’s a win-win.

Choose the right keywords.

Don’t start writing yet. It’s time for research – keyword research. What are the most popular ways your product or service are searched for? What are questions commonly asked by your target audience?

You’ll want to learn as much as you can about how your target audience is searching for you. How are they phrasing their searches? Google’s Keyword Planner can quickly help you learn more about your target audiences’ searching habits.

When it comes to choosing the best keywords, don’t look directly for those with the highest searches per month. Those keywords not only have high monthly searches but usually a high competition – making it more challenging to rank highly for.

Focus on long tail keywords.

Long tail keywords are the search terms that consist of several words placed together to create the searched for phrase. Long tail keywords are more specific to what your target audience is searching for. Long tail keywords are not only less competitive than generic keywords, but they are also more likely to meet your set goals (convert to sales or leads).

Use keywords correctly.

Summary:

  • Use keyword in post title
  • Use keyword in post permalink
  • Use keyword in the first paragraph
  • Use bold, italics or underline for emphasis on keyword once
  • Use keyword in anchor text
  • Use keyword in Heading 1, 2 or 3
  • Exact keyword should be mentioned 2-5 times
  • Use variations of the keyword

Post Title:

Your post title should be written to create interest and entice clicks while using your exact keyword if possible. Your keyword should be placed near the beginning of the title, ideally in the first 5 words. Typically, words appearing before your keyword are similar to “How to…”, “What is…”, “The Best” or “Top 5…”. Placing your keyword at the beginning of your title helps search engines identify the subject.

Post Permalink:

Permalinks are the permanent URLs of your individual blog post or page on your website. Use your keyword in the post’s permalink with each word separated by a hyphen. Leave out any stop words such as, “a”, “and”, “the”, etc.

Example: http://www.stlsocialmediaconsultants.com/seo-template.

Only change these before the post is published. Once the post is published, you’ll want to leave these alone. If you change them after the post is published, you risk having broken links to your post.

First Paragraph:

Using your exact keyword early in the first paragraph helps quickly identify the topic of the blog post.

Bold / Italics / Underline:

In the first paragraph or two of your blog post add emphasis to your exact keyword by using bold, italics or underline. This formatting uses HTML codes which will help search engines identify the important words for your blog post – your keywords. If you use these emphasis tags too frequently, it may cause confusion about which words are important in your post.

Anchor Text:

Anchor Text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. It is often underlined and set as a custom color from the rest of the text. In general, adding links to your content shows you have done research on your topic and search engines like that. Try to add links to other posts/pages of your website as well as a few external links (other websites). Include your exact keyword in anchor text of one of these links, but make sure it is relevant.

Bad Anchor Text: “If you’d like to learn more about anchor text, click here.”

Good Anchor Text: “Learn how to write SEO friendly anchor text.”

Heading 1 – 3:

Using the heading tags are important for both users and search engines. Your website viewers will appreciate the appropriate use of headers so they can quickly scan your blog post. Search engines appreciate them for the same reason; their crawlers will quickly scan over your post and including your exact keyword in H1, H2 or H3 Heading will help define your topic.

Keyword Density / Variations:

It is important to use your exact keyword a handful of times in your blog post. However, over using your keyword can harm your search engine optimization. Overusing your keyword is a common signal for Google and other search engines that you may be simply keyword spamming. Search engines want to ensure they provided value to their users, so blog posts should always be written with the users in mind – but formatted to appeal to both users and search engines.

Thank you for reading Brad Wester SEO Tips!

Thank you so much for reading my post, Brad Wester SEO Tips. By simply reading through some of this post, you’re helping me test some search engine optimization tactics – thank you! I hope that you’ve found some of my search engine optimization tips to be helpful as well. The tips I mentioned above truly are the first steps I take when performing SEO for myself and my clients. I truly believe in the advice that I’ve shared in Brad Wester SEO Tips. Following these tips alone has often been enough to get web pages ranked on the first page of Google!

/by
,

Nonprofit Marketing | Engaging Donors Panel

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing a few nonprofit marketing techniques on the Engaging Donors Panel Discussion at IMPACT Funding Symposium hosted by The C2 Initiative. I’ll be sharing my advice for nonprofit marketing techniques with 50 organizations that range from social services, environmental, education, health & wellness and economic empowerment.

Other Panelists on the Nonprofit Marketing Panel

Laura Rossman, Moderator
Bethany Booher: 618 Creative
Dana Workes, Dana Workes Creatives, LLC

When speaking at the PRSA St. Louis Career Development Day, I took some time to prepare and decided to write down and share some of my thoughts and share them as a blog post. I received a lot of feedback for that post, and will continue to do the same for upcoming events, including the IMPACT Funding Symposium.

Nonprofit Marketing Techniques

What are the best marketing tools for nonprofits in order to share their mission?

Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Buffer, SproutSocial and all the other social media management platforms help make managing social media easier… but, by far the best marketing tool nonprofits can use is their smartphones. Take photos, take videos, use Facebook live video, use Snapchat, use Instagram and Instagram Stories to show how donations really do make an impact. The transparency of the behind the scenes content will serve as constant reminders and visual proof of donations making a difference. This will encourage people to donate for the first time and continue to donate again and again.

How important is the website in encouraging donors and what things do I need on my site?

It’s not important. Your website doesn’t need to convince people to donate. People don’t search for ways online to donate money. You have to reach out to them and motivate them. Spend your time creating content and distributing it through social media and other influencers.

That being said, your website needs to do one job that is very important – and it must do it perfectly. Process donations and capture user information. Your website should be branded to match your social profiles, everything should match in terms of color, photos, call to actions, etc. Make sure that when a donation call to action is clicked on social media, it is obvious they have found the proper website. The donation process needs to be quick and work flawlessly. Be sure to ask for email addresses, phone numbers and mailing addresses. Any information that will help you with future marketing efforts. Avoid demographic information, it is already available to social media and Google analytics. Don’t make the donation processes longer than it needs to be. In fact, you should always be trying to make it shorter and faster.

How can we effectively use social media to create outreach for our organizations?

Use your smartphones to capture the behind the scenes moments. Share how donations truly do make a difference. Be as transparent as possible. People want to be sure their donations are being used to support the mission and not being misused to benefit others.

What’s the best ways to create a brand for our nonprofit?

Always focus on the mission. To be perfectly blunt, people don’t care about you. They care about the mission. Create a branding style book that will help you with creating matching social profiles, website, mailers, etc. That way your audience can quickly identify your pages. Outside of that, just stay focused on the mission and let the rest of your brand grow organically.

How can I make the most of the annual giving day campaigns…nobody knows about us?

Don’t focus on those days. Annual giving days are overrun with posts from nonprofits both big and small. Everyone is releasing content and competition on social media is crazy high. Social media algorithms are forced to pick and choose what content to show and what to push to the side. Annual giving days are the perfect time to repurpose and reuse content. On those days pick your top performing content from the last year, and reuse it. Post every hour and try to push through the noise – but keep in mind there’s still 364 other days to get donations.

What can nonprofits do to create content that make people want to give to our organization?

Content that shows transparency and connect donations with real success of the mission. Focus on engaging content. You’re competing for attention against all kinds of other brands and updates from friends and family. Keep an eye on social media trends and what the platforms are pushing. The more content of a certain type your seeing in your newsfeed (live video, etc.) the more likely it is to be performing well in Facebook’s algorithm. Use that to your advantage. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel, just be observant and keep an eye on what works for others.

Featured Photo is from one of my favorite nonprofits, The Foundation for Photo/Art in Hospitals.

Mission

The unique mission of the Foundation is to place large, framed photographs of nature and beautiful places from around the world in hospitals to give comfort and hope to patients and their families, visitors, and caregivers. Studies show that nature art has a beneficial effect on relieving a patient’s stress and anxiety. The photographs are intended to provide color and an atmosphere of compassion where healing is encouraged.

/by

Why I’m Excited For This Week

  • It’s Monday. I love Mondays as much as I love Fridays. Transition days are the best.
  • I had a truly awful dream last night. I woke up incredibly happy because it isn’t real.
  • Nicki’s blog was featured by Stitch Fix over two weeks ago. We’re still seeing a boost in traffic from it.
  • I’ll be talking with other public relations and marketing professionals about How to be Successful in Digital PR on Tuesday at 6PM on the #PRSASTL Twitter Chat.
  • On Wednesday I’ll be speaking with non-profits about best ways to gain donors and increase the outreach of their missions through digital marketing at IMPACT Funding Symposium hosted by The C2 Initiative.
  • Thursday night I have my next Christ Renews His Parish (CRHP) meeting. I missed last week’s meeting, and I’m really looking forward to getting back to it this week.

Featured Image (top of post) is a photo I took at Busch Wildlife a few weeks ago. I took the photo on my Samsung Galaxy s5. I used the phone’s stock camera app and an add-on fisheye lens. A few quick edits were done using Snapseed and Instagram.

/by
,

SEO Templates | Speaking at the PRSA and IABC Event

Remember how I said I was going to create a list of things that make me happy? Well, I did that. I just chose not to share it. Instead of sharing the list, I’ll share a few things I learned from that exercise.

  1. I enjoy teaching.
  2. I like to push myself to be uncomfortable (personal growth).
  3. I like to help others.
  4. I love digital marketing (I find it fascinating, and it often combines helping or teaching others).

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to combine a few of these. I was the speaker at the PRSASTL & IABCSTL members only event.

 


I wanted to share my knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO). After working with many clients over the past few years, I realized that SEO is often pitched as a complicated and often expensive process. The truth is, it doesn’t have to be. A lot of search engine optimization is simply learning how to properly write for search engines. So I created SEO templates for blog posts, LinkedIn and Pinterest and shared those with the members of St. Louis Chapters of PRSA and IABC.

Tweets From The Event

 

 

 

 

/by
,

PRSA St. Louis Career Development Day – Building Momentum Part 2

If you’ve read my first post about PRSA St. Louis Career Development Day, you already know that I’ll be speaking on the young professional panel tomorrow. (Actually, I spoke earlier today because I’m going to schedule this post to publish just after the panel discussion, but I’m writing this the night before.)

Our moderator, Nicole Halpin, sent out a preview of some of the questions we will use to get the discussion started tomorrow. While preparing tonight, I decided I should summarize my answers to a few questions. Not only will writing my answers out help me think through them more thoroughly, but sharing them may help someone else out as well.

#PRSASTLCD

“I myself worked through my senior year and graduated without relevant internship experience. What would you suggest for those in this room that have never had an internship?”

Work on developing your portfolio. Find a way to create your internship, take on small freelance projects. The experience you gain from developing your leads, pitching your ideas and managing client projects will be valuable no matter what direction your career takes you. Make sure you track as much data as possible and create case studies to include with your resume as work samples.

“How did you personally stand out in the resume pool?”

I included as many numbers as I could. I talked about doubling the number of social media followers, increasing click-through rates by X percent or even better, revenue generated by my tactics.

“When applying for your first job, how do you pitch yourself when you lack the 3-5 years industry experience that we typically see in job postings?”

I completely ignored it and focused on the quantifiable results. In my opinion, real proven results mean more than the number of months or years spent sitting in an office, and I did my best to talk about results instead of how long I’ve worked where, etc.

“As a PRSSA graduate that quickly became involved in the St. Louis PRSA chapter, I understand networking is key in growing as a young professional. How can students utilize networking to its fullest extent without seeming desperate for a job?”

The best networking isn’t the typical networking. It isn’t chamber of commerce meetups or grabbing coffee with other industry professionals. The best networking is volunteering. Pick an organization you believe in and start donating your time and knowledge. You’ll meet a lot of people, prove you know what you’re doing and add some interesting projects to your portfolio. Always track the data and write up case study summaries. Those results will be the best additions you can add to future job applications.

“I heard at my first Career Development Day that HTML is a great asset to have in your portfolio so I took online introductory courses to make myself stand out when applying. Are there other skills you would suggest to our audience to learn and add to their personal portfolio?”

HTML for sure. I’d learn everything you can about Excel, not just the basics, everything. I’d also learn as much as you can about writing for search engine optimization. Once you know how to write for search engines, you’ll be able to start optimizing everything – especially your LinkedIn profile. Once I optimized my LinkedIn profile, the number of times my profile was viewed doubled and I began receiving messages from recruiters wanting to discuss potential career opportunities. It only took me a few hours to optimize my profile, and I ended up getting a job offer when I wasn’t even searching for one because of it.

I’d also look for as many free certification courses as you can; such as Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing Certification, Google Adwords Certification and Google Analytics certification.

/by
,

PRSA St. Louis Career Development Day – Building Momentum

In April of 2013, I attended my first social media conference, Social Fresh. Attending the conference was an incredible experience and at the end of the two-day event, I remember thinking about how fun it must be to speak at conferences. I decided to make it one of my personal goals.

Just under a year ago, I nervously spoke at my first digital marketing conference, WordCamp. Shortly after, I was asked to be the social media marketing speaker at a real estate conference. I was so excited to have the opportunity to speak again. Unfortunately, the date conflicted with another larger opportunity, starting a new full-time position. I was disappointed that I was unable to speak at the event and naively worried that the small momentum of speaking opportunities I had would quickly halt.

Starting my full-time position, without a doubt, slowed the momentum I had on a lot of projects and personal goals. My calendar started to fill and my schedule quickly became more strict. I adapted to my new schedule and started working on my personal goals again, starting with the small and easy to accomplish. It took me several months, but I feel as though I’m building momentum again.

Not only does professional development play a large role in all careers, it also is the foundation for many of my personal goals. This Friday, February 26, is Career Development Day for PRSA St. Louis. I wanted to attend, so I started planning to take the day off work and it’s a good thing I did because I’ve since been asked to be on the young professionals panel.

Lately, I’ve been all about momentum because it is easier to keep moving than to start again if you stop. I’m really looking forward to being a part of this panel, and to keep building momentum to achieve my goals.

It’s short notice, but I’d like to invite you to join me and many others at PRSA St. Louis Career Development Day. Unfortunately, there’s only one day left to register. If you can’t join us in person, be sure to follow along on Twitter, #PRSASTLCD.

/by