Thought Leadership & Marketing Your Startup

*all image and fact credits in the last slide

Distilled NYC MeetupJune 27th 2012

Hooz dis guy

@dan_shure

the musician – circa 2006

@dan_shure

The SEOSince circa 2008

“Shurelock” Holmes

Let’s Talk About“Thought Leadership”

New-ish term (1994)

NOT a new concept…

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”

-Da Vinci

1500’s

“Disneyland will never be completed. It will grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.”

- Walt Disney

1950’s

3 Startup Thought Leaders

CD Baby

Derek Sivers

2008 Derek Sivers Sold CD Baby(for $22 million)

Good-bye [CD Baby] search volume…

…hello [Derek Sivers] search volume.

Musician’s Resources

cdbaby.com circa 1999

Order Confirmation Email“Dear [Name]

Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan…. “

Etc…Read the whole story here: http://searchengineland.com/how-cdbaby-built-20000-citations-with-one-e-mail-84357

62,000 Citations

Source: http://searchengineland.com/how-cdbaby-built-20000-citations-with-one-e-mail-84357

“Leave the poetry in what you make. When something becomes too polished, it loses its soul.”

-Jason Fried

Satire (with a point)

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1941-press-release-37signals-valuation-tops-100-billion-after-bold-vc-investment

Business Philosophy

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3124-give-it-five-minutes

Rand Fishkin - SEOmoz

Comprehensive & Transparent

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/mozs-18-million-venture-financing-our-story-metrics-and-future

But… we have a problem.

Size of the

INTERNET

Size of the

INTERNET You

70 Million WordPress Blogs

39 Million Tumblr Blogs

250 Million Tweets a Day

Three Solutions

1.What to talk about2.How to get attention3.Ways To Measure

“I Don’t Know What To Talk About”

1. Find Things To React To.

http://www.quora.com/Startups/group_open

Then KILL IT with passion.

http://www.quora.com/Startups/What-does-it-feel-like-to-be-the-CEO-of-a-start-up

2. Continue a social conversation on your blog

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/aaron-wall-and-i-debate-the-open-discussion-of-webspam

3. Use social to gauge interest in a topic.

http://www.evolvingseo.com/2012/06/20/art-of-empathy/#axzz1yuaurQ41

4. Turn blog comment into post

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-increase-the-odds-of-your-content-going-viral-whiteboard-friday#jtc167420

4. Turn blog a comment into post

http://mz.cm/seo-titles

“How do I get attention?”

1. Write better headlines - CTR!!

http://mz.cm/seo-titles

2. Do A Weekly Series

YNAB (You need a budget)Whiteboard Wednesdays

3. Optimize Personal Profiles https://twitter.com/#!/dremeda

https://twitter.com/#!/dremeda 3. Optimize Personal Profiles

https://twitter.com/#!/dremeda 3. Optimize Twitter Profile

4. Keep A Consistent & Professional Avatar Everywhere

http://en.gravatar.com/

4a. But unique enough among members of your team to keep distinguishable.

(unlike Joel and Leo)*Disclaimer: I LOVE bufferapp and their content – just think this one tiny thing could be better

5. Borrow an existing audience

The Art of Blog Commentinghttp://www.seomoz.org/blog/comment-marketing-as-an-inbound-tactic-whiteboard-friday

http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/02/21/an-advanced-guide-to-an-effective-seo-commenting-strategy/

http://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/a-guest-posting-process/

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-evaluate-guest-post-opportunities

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/guest-blogging-strategies-whiteboard-friday

5. Borrow an existing audience

Guest Blogging

Measure

crowdbooster.com

crowdbooster.com

Top retweeters

How many new Google visits does my name bring to company

website?

Stop measuring bragging about # of followers

DO Brag About Measure

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/best-social-media-metrics-conversation-amplification-applause-economic-value/

What THIS guy says to measure.

Avinash’s 4 Social Media Metrics

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/best-social-media-metrics-conversation-amplification-applause-economic-value/

1. Conversation2. Amplification3. Applause4. Economic Value

truesocialmetrics.com measures those four things

truesocialmetrics.com

truesocialmetrics.com

BONUS PRO TIP

BONUS PRO TIP

JUST FREAKIN’ START

March 30th 2007

March 31st 2012

@dan_shure

*Credits

• Walt Disney - http://www.superstock.com/stock-photos-images/1895-13883 • Jason Fried - http://www.jeremyperson.com/jason-fried/ • Derek Sivers - http://mayhem-chaos.net/photoblog/archives/000565.html • http://www.studosfera.net/piar/2012/06/23/cd-baby-or-how-to-make-millions-with-a-silly-e-ma

il/

• Truck - http://carfails.com/huge-vehicle-falls-off-a-bridge/ • Twitter Bird Costume -

http://www.thesnowjunkies.com/2011/01/12/new-ticket-deals-feature-the-tsj-twitter-hotline/ • Sherlock - http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1890 • Internet Stats - http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/01/17/internet-2011-in-numbers/ • http://www.xs-party.co.uk/products/ras4006354-rasta-imposta-mens-tape-measure-funny-fan

cy-dress-costume-one-size-new.html• http://www.paperlessinfo.com/paperless-office-tips