Kyle Lacy hates Twitter.

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I had a geat time last Wednesday attending the Confluence Networking blogging pannel.  Among the panelists were Doug Karr from Compendium Blogware, Rhoda Isrealof from Say it For You, Roger Johnson from YourPRGuy.com, Kevin Hood of Fusework Studios, and Brandswag’s own Kyle Lacy.

One recurring theme of the panel discussion was that the key benefit of business blogging is that you will generate a lot of search traffic.  So, why is this post titled ‘Kyle Lacy hates Twitter‘?  Well pull up a new browser window, go to google.com and type ‘I hate Twitter’ into the search box.  Go to the top of the second page and you’ll find an article that Kyle wrote about how he hates Twitter’s auto-response feature.  A few weeks ago it was #1 on the first page.

Here’s the kicker… Kyle gets more search traffic from the phrase ‘I hate Twitter’ than any other search term!  The reason for this is that Kyle has lots and lots of content which means he wins lots and lots of searches for nearly anything he writes about, even if it’s not necessarily relevant.  This will happen to anyone if they blog every day for a long period of time.

Let me regroup and pose a question.  If you’re trying to market a B2B product or service, how valuable is a search lead?  I’ll go ahead and assert that it’s not all that valuable.  Most B2B sales are generated by referral.  If they’re contacting you after finding you by search, chances are you’re being brought in as a second opinion to the guy that’s actually going to get the business. 

Let me challenge you to ask yourself a few questions…

  1. How can I use my blogging and social media activities to generate more referral business?
  2. How can my blog increase buzz and brand awareness of my product offering?
  3. If everyone in town knows that I’m the expert in whatever it is I do, how am is that going to affect my bottom line?
  4. How do I use my blog to establish myself as an expert?

Kyle Lacy doesn’t hate Twitter.  He actually loves it, yet lots of people who apparently DO hate twitter are finding him anyway.  Think about how you really want to build your brand.  If your customer found you through search, why would they buy from you again?  What if the next time they search your competitor is at the top instead?  

If you blog a lot you will win a lot of searches.  If you get some business out of it that’s awesome, but it shouldn’t be the whole reason you blog.  It’s your job to think about the big picture.  How can you use blogging and social media to build a brand that will create loyal customers for life?

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  • http://www.robbyslaughter.com/ Robby Slaughter

    Doesn’t this Google result actually demonstrate how incredibly primitive search engine results are today? If searching for “i hate X” takes you to the site of someone who actually loves X, this an indictment of the search engine, not praise for the blogger.

    By your theory, someone should simply blog about every possible concept basically all of the time to maximize traffic. One day, the search engines will get good, and stop pushing content to the top of the heap based solely on frequency and freshness. This strategy might work today, but eventually, quality will be more important than quantity.

    @robbyslaughter

  • http://www.robbyslaughter.com/ Robby Slaughter

    Doesn’t this Google result actually demonstrate how incredibly primitive search engine results are today? If searching for “i hate X” takes you to the site of someone who actually loves X, this an indictment of the search engine, not praise for the blogger.

    By your theory, someone should simply blog about every possible concept basically all of the time to maximize traffic. One day, the search engines will get good, and stop pushing content to the top of the heap based solely on frequency and freshness. This strategy might work today, but eventually, quality will be more important than quantity.

    @robbyslaughter

  • http://www.robbyslaughter.com/ Robby Slaughter

    Doesn’t this Google result actually demonstrate how incredibly primitive search engine results are today? If searching for “i hate X” takes you to the site of someone who actually loves X, this an indictment of the search engine, not praise for the blogger.

    By your theory, someone should simply blog about every possible concept basically all of the time to maximize traffic. One day, the search engines will get good, and stop pushing content to the top of the heap based solely on frequency and freshness. This strategy might work today, but eventually, quality will be more important than quantity.

    @robbyslaughter

  • http://indyawesome.com/ Colin Clark

    Yeah I agree. The problem with search engines is they give you results based on keywords. Human interaction gives you results based on intent. That’s why people will typically ask someone they know when making a big buying decision.

    I use search primarily when I need a quick, ‘free’ solution to a small problem. Search works great for this. I type ‘I’m trying to …’ and Google finds the answer. However, if I’m buying a car, I’m not going to google ‘car’, I’m going to go to a dealership I trust or one that’s recommended to me by someone I trust.

  • http://indyawesome.com/ Colin Clark

    Yeah I agree. The problem with search engines is they give you results based on keywords. Human interaction gives you results based on intent. That’s why people will typically ask someone they know when making a big buying decision.

    I use search primarily when I need a quick, ‘free’ solution to a small problem. Search works great for this. I type ‘I’m trying to …’ and Google finds the answer. However, if I’m buying a car, I’m not going to google ‘car’, I’m going to go to a dealership I trust or one that’s recommended to me by someone I trust.

  • http://indyawesome.com Colin Clark

    Yeah I agree. The problem with search engines is they give you results based on keywords. Human interaction gives you results based on intent. That’s why people will typically ask someone they know when making a big buying decision.

    I use search primarily when I need a quick, ‘free’ solution to a small problem. Search works great for this. I type ‘I’m trying to …’ and Google finds the answer. However, if I’m buying a car, I’m not going to google ‘car’, I’m going to go to a dealership I trust or one that’s recommended to me by someone I trust.

  • http://kevinhood.com/ Kevin Hood

    You should have stole a mic and said this during the panel!

  • http://kevinhood.com/ Kevin Hood

    You should have stole a mic and said this during the panel!

  • http://kevinhood.com Kevin Hood

    You should have stole a mic and said this during the panel!

  • http://indyawesome.com/ Colin Clark

    Ha! Yeah maybe. I don’t like to be an argumentative in public. I’m more of a “I should write an ebook comparing these two points of view” kind of guy.

  • http://indyawesome.com/ Colin Clark

    Ha! Yeah maybe. I don’t like to be an argumentative in public. I’m more of a “I should write an ebook comparing these two points of view” kind of guy.

  • http://indyawesome.com Colin Clark

    Ha! Yeah maybe. I don’t like to be an argumentative in public. I’m more of a “I should write an ebook comparing these two points of view” kind of guy.

  • http://www.yourprguy.com/ Rodger D. Johnson

    Colin, thanks for the shout out here. And thanks for following on Twitter. I’m following you too. Now to my point:

    I had a conversation about organic search today with a colleague of mine. She’s manning our SEM and I’m doing the social media. We agreed that organic search is the way people find solutions on the web.

    Later in the evening, I was advising a client of mine that his blog entries were not getting much attention because he’s writing them the wrong way.

    I pointed to file cabins in his office and said, “There’s the writing you should be doing. For every client you’ve worked with, you’ve solved a problem. Each one of those problems is a potential case study to demonstrate your know-how. Without naming names, explain each problem, illustrate each solution your created, and show your blog readers results.”

    His eye brow raise. “You’re right,” he said. Then I reminded him to use the keyword I found for him.

  • http://www.yourprguy.com/ Rodger D. Johnson

    Colin, thanks for the shout out here. And thanks for following on Twitter. I’m following you too. Now to my point:

    I had a conversation about organic search today with a colleague of mine. She’s manning our SEM and I’m doing the social media. We agreed that organic search is the way people find solutions on the web.

    Later in the evening, I was advising a client of mine that his blog entries were not getting much attention because he’s writing them the wrong way.

    I pointed to file cabins in his office and said, “There’s the writing you should be doing. For every client you’ve worked with, you’ve solved a problem. Each one of those problems is a potential case study to demonstrate your know-how. Without naming names, explain each problem, illustrate each solution your created, and show your blog readers results.”

    His eye brow raise. “You’re right,” he said. Then I reminded him to use the keyword I found for him.

  • http://www.yourprguy.com Rodger D. Johnson

    Colin, thanks for the shout out here. And thanks for following on Twitter. I’m following you too. Now to my point:

    I had a conversation about organic search today with a colleague of mine. She’s manning our SEM and I’m doing the social media. We agreed that organic search is the way people find solutions on the web.

    Later in the evening, I was advising a client of mine that his blog entries were not getting much attention because he’s writing them the wrong way.

    I pointed to file cabins in his office and said, “There’s the writing you should be doing. For every client you’ve worked with, you’ve solved a problem. Each one of those problems is a potential case study to demonstrate your know-how. Without naming names, explain each problem, illustrate each solution your created, and show your blog readers results.”

    His eye brow raise. “You’re right,” he said. Then I reminded him to use the keyword I found for him.

  • http://indyawesome.com/ Colin Clark

    Awesome reply! It seems at times that we get out of balance. I’m guilty of writing too many posts that are great entertainment that generate buzz and forgetting about some of the basics of blogging ROI (like keywords).

    Like so many things, blogging requires good fundamentals. It’s important to know those fundamentals and use them in every post. From tagging to linking to keywords to buzzworthy content, it’s very important to get it right.

  • http://indyawesome.com/ Colin Clark

    Awesome reply! It seems at times that we get out of balance. I’m guilty of writing too many posts that are great entertainment that generate buzz and forgetting about some of the basics of blogging ROI (like keywords).

    Like so many things, blogging requires good fundamentals. It’s important to know those fundamentals and use them in every post. From tagging to linking to keywords to buzzworthy content, it’s very important to get it right.

  • http://indyawesome.com Colin Clark

    Awesome reply! It seems at times that we get out of balance. I’m guilty of writing too many posts that are great entertainment that generate buzz and forgetting about some of the basics of blogging ROI (like keywords).

    Like so many things, blogging requires good fundamentals. It’s important to know those fundamentals and use them in every post. From tagging to linking to keywords to buzzworthy content, it’s very important to get it right.

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