July 14, 2008

YOU are an asset!

by Brian Turner

Your websites are assets, the wider internet is a galaxy of assets.

But among all of these stars, there is no greater asset than yourself.

This is a fundamental truth in the social web.

It’s taken me a long time to realise it – every facet of marketing depends on your asset value, and your asset value is not determined by your ability to make a site search friendly, your ability to build links, or even your ability to create great content.

At SEO Class I made a presentation about publishing as a marketing model, but even this is a limited approach.

As I stated then, this model depends on developing marketshare through developing mindshare.

And the development of that mindshare depends on your communications with the web.

What it’s important to realise is that your grapple for mindshare is dependent on your wider interaction with the web, and this is where you develop your asset value.

Recently I’ve begun a complete overhaul of my web strategy – I’m blogging these days for clients, and becoming an asset for them by way of how I communicate for them to their customers.

It’s not about the content or the links anymore – it’s all about the communications strategy, of which content and links are merely a part.

As a marketer, I’ve realised the need to be an ambassador for clients not by trying to manipulate, but by trying to communicate – by trying to be their voice on the web. By trying to develop and audience who voluntarily seeks to listen to what I say.

No matter what business you are in, you can do this too – everything in promotion is communication, but I don’t think many marketers realise just how subtle and fundamental all forms of communication are in marketing. I think a few very savvy ones also realised this years ago.

So forget about having to blog for blog’s sake, and interacting with social media for social media’s sake.

Everything you do online is communications – develop a strategy around communications, and centre yourself as an asset in this.

Only then will the true power of the social web begin to unfold before you, and the symbiotic way in which you need to give to it.

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Story link: YOU are an asset!

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