SMOjoe.com

‘Anyone that watched Smojoe present Story Funnels to Buckstops came away with too much new information. Rob’s scatter gun approach gives audiences a glimpse into the mind of a madman.’ Anonymous attendant.

That review is from a friend of mine who said he would publish it on his blog, if he had one. I laughed and copied it and now that document has evolved into this blog post. I’m publishing it on my blog because I’m my own worst critic, and clearly there’s a lesson to be learned. I’ve just got to get better at presenting thoughts and ideas in a linear progression.  Perhaps I do need to lay it out on a boring old power point, and practice it alone at home in front of my pals? Rehearse the material, going slow and steady and explaining everything in great detail…

Smojoe sprang in action this week at the Spoke Club on Tuesday Feb 2nd downstairs in the gallery at night. That occurrence came courtesy of Deb Lewis and her City Events team. She’s Toronto’s best event producer with an obsession for details. Deb is constantly pushing technological boundaries and at this event she debuted new social technology that puts YouTube videos in emails. City Events has a powerful newsletter with over five thousand subscribers and Deb’s bi-monthly blasts enjoy a 25% open rate.  Deb’s events are always packed with devoted followers as I discovered when I rudely interrupted her on the floor to indicate that she should speed up, or better yet wrap it up; the audience feedback was very critical of my behavior… but in my defense it was only so I could have the full hour and half that was promised me in order to slow down and present my linear ideas…

On the evening of Feb 2nd 2010, Deb Lewis and I discussed How To Market Events in Toronto and of course I got a little too specific on how to use the toolbar in a Wordpress blog to craft beautiful keyword rich articles and Craigslist advertisements etc and what 3rd party event marketing widgets are most effective on your blog sidebar and why.. I think people came to learn secrets and discover new high tech magic wands they can use to magically bring traffic to their events.

The next morning Gary Puppa of Epixome twittered about joining EventPeeps which looks terrific and I wish I could have imparted that web address to the audience. But I did tell them to read my blog, and follow me on Twitter @roberrific

Smojoe with Rapport Communications in the National Yacht Club Feb 4th

Two days later on Feb 4th 2010 I wore my other pair of fancy pants to The National Yacht Club in Toronto. In this venue, at 12:00 noon I worked with the team at Rapport Inc specifically Bill Tibbles and Denise Breen and I followed Faith Seekings on stage to hold the floor for two and half hours discussing exactly how to write compelling content for humans and robots, and how to make story funnels to buckstops work for you, and how to feed search bots juicy keyword sandwiches. It was my own brand of madness from start to finish.

Here’s Faith and Will Web setting up a fancy new digital projector at the National Yacht Club.

Presentation Points – Secrets of Smojoe Social Media Marketing

Its no secret that Smojoe believes the blog is central to good social media; it’s a really fertile field where great content can be easily made, and harvested. It’s cheap to make content here and good posts accrue more and more value over time. The blog is the cornerstone of good social media marketing, and the sidebar is a content catalyst that’s too often neglected.

The blog is at the center of every story funnel because it connects so nicely to all other components, and the keyword rich crops grown here are quite often the most compelling, information rich threads in your social net – the blog is the source of daily content and soon becomes every expert’s most powerful influence tool. If your business were drawn as a stick man, the blog would be the mouth.

Story Funnels To Buckstops

Don’t put the whole story on just one page. Fragment your media so curious clickers have to travel to multiple platforms as they assemble the adventure in their heads.  Break your content into chunky bits and leave hooks in photo descriptions, articles, blogs and in discussion forum posts.  Make each piece of media link to another piece; some should link up to articles, but most will link down to your Buckstop.

You buckstop is your conversion form, and incoming links should be embedded under keyword rich text to tell robots what you are offering.

Writing Content for Humans and Robots

When bloggers take advantage of all the ways that Wordpress and other content submission platforms can index content ie headlines, subtitles, alt text under pictures tags and categories they can make truly information rich packages.

How To Make Keyword Sandwiches

When blogging, its possible to make tasty keyword sandwiches for robots by following this precise writing ritual: 1) in the back of your wordpress blog import a picture as URL from your Flickr account that has a proper headline, description and tags, and insert it in your blog. Then put keywords in all the right places on the picture as title, alt text and if possible tags.  2) Write a good rich media blog post around the picture using the same keywords in headline, subtitle, tags and categories, and then publish the blog post. 3)  Bookmark your post using Digg, Delicious, Reddit or StumbleUpon to add the same search terms to the package again -  that’s how you create a keyword sandwich, and this rich media is exactly what search bots most love to eat!

On Thursday November 19th, Rob Campbell the Smojoe ventured west down Lakeshore Blvd to meet Michael Cayley the thought leader behind the Social Capital Value Add (SCVA) and professor at Humber College.

On that day (National Fearless Day), I was asked to give a presentation to Micheal’s Humber PR media class. Much to my delight, I was actually encouraged to get specific about how I start brand conversations and distribute sponsored content on the web.  This particular subject is my greatest passion, and I was happy to oblige. My own thoughts, lists and processes have culminated in the creation of several varied and powerful online resources which I like to show strangers, much as a florist likes to show off his prize winning chrysanthemums.  Indeed I have a garden full of social media marvels and I employ these properties to drive traffic in advanced Smojoe social media tactics.

You may have noticed that the old website for Smojoe is gone. It will be replaced by a new site presently. The new domain will explain many things to many different types of readers using the same text.

Writing that text is the challenge. I’m concentrating on composing new page copy to vastly improve the offering, and speaking aloud at Humber about the fundamental precepts of my business helps me refine those short sweet critical messages. Like this little nugget,

Smojoe is a web savvy choir of bloggers and skilled idea sneezers that write compelling stories for humans and robots.

Bloggers are like farmers. Every post they publish plants two hundred keywords in the fertile soil of their domain. With more time and content and incoming links the keywords mature into search terms to bring traffic to the enterprise.

Story funnels to buckstops is a brand message distribution system that uses interesting hooks to tempt readers across multiple social media platforms and into conversion tools on the client website.

There is a method to the madness of telling stories on the internet. The first rule of thumb is never give the whole story in one place. Its far better to fragment the media and draw curious clickers to multiple platforms en route to an informative and aesthetically pleasing buckstop. When I tell stories on the internet, my practice starts with exclusive articles to which I link blogs and discussion forums. I bookmark the best media on Digg, Delicious and especially StumbleUpon. Here’s Smojoe getting creative on the white board in front of dozens of curious Humber PR social media students at precisely 1:35pm on Thursday Nov 19th 2009 in room 105 building F of Humber College Lakeshore campus.

Photo by Brandie Blackier of Artistic Tendency in Barrie, Ontario. And thanks to Will Webb of Innate media Group for working my laptop and fielding some difficult SEO questions. This individual has become a big part of Smojoe fulfillment because he does such a capital job creating effective buckstops.

I can’t say enough good things about The Spoke Club, at 600 King Street West in Toronto (416) 368-8448. The layout is excellent, the prices are affordable and the staff is exceptional. They’re super accommodating. These people really try to help their members get the most out of their memberships.  I’ve been impressed with this organization every single time I visit.

Deb Lewis of Toronto City Events also deserves the strongest accolades in preparing and executing another flawless event. The Smojoe Social Media Workshop at the Spoke Club went off without a hitch on Tuesday March 31st 2009. Over twenty people attended the two hour workshop where I spoke nonstop about basic, and advanced social media marketing from the blog up.

Because I maintain that blogging is only 1/3 of the job, I focused my presentation on blog widgets and community building exercises, and used a power point presentation in combination with a printed and professionally bound 36 page Smojoe social media manual to hammer home some fundamental concepts. The search for experts drives the internet, and keywords unlock the door to SERP traffic - an hour later I was explaining to how to use blog friends, comments, discussion forums and articles to make yourself an expert, and how to write and create rich media for better keyword ranking.

Thanks to everyone who stuck around and joined us after the workshop. The round table discussions over a beer in the lounge of the Spoke Club are the most enjoyable aspects of the event (for me). That’s when I usually learn something, and Tuesday was no exception; thanks to Gary Puppa of Epixome who schooled me in the business of owing and operating a dot com start-up.