Tools, Tips and Tricks on Being a Great SEO, Social Media Expert, or Internet Marketing Specialist

In the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex, we are fortunate to have access to some brilliant minds in the way of social media, SEO and internet marketing. Recently, I attended two events filled with days-long information overload on those topics. Looking back on them, however, I found a few things in common.

A couple of weeks ago, Social Media Club of Dallas (SMC Dallas) hosted Unmarketing’s Scott Stratten. Stratten was promoting his latest book, The Book of Business Awesome/The Book of Business Unawesome. His presentation was thoughtful, funny and engaging. The book was more of the same. The premise is to stop marketing and be awesome instead. The book does the convincing with examples of both awesomeness and unawesomeness. It is a fun read.

Yesterday, I attended the Dallas Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing (DFWSEM) group’s State of Search conference. The conference featured tracks on SEO, PPC and Social media with special keynotes by Chris Brogan and Bing search engine/webmaster tools evangelist Duane Forrester. Each session was filled with more information than my little fingers could tweet. (But I certainly tried!) Chris Brogan signed copies of his new book, co-authored with Julien Smith, The Impact Equation. I read a bit of the book last night and this morning. Again, the premise of the book isn’t really “marketing” as much as a reminder to be creatively great and different at what you do so that your message rises above the noise.

For those who want the down and dirty, here are a few nifty tools that were discussed yesterday:

For Keyword analysis, SEO, Search, analytics:

Bing Webmaster Tools - Forrester said the data from Bing’s tools show more organic results than the other guys
Compete.com
Spyfu
SEOMoz
WebCEO
Raven
SearchMetrics
ComScore

And a few others for competitive analysis, targeting, guest blogger search, content generation, link building, etc:

Social Crawlytics
Zemanta
Contently
IAcquire
Knowem - good for brand reputation
Newsle
Tagcrowd
Ubersuggest
Follwerwonk

Is your head spinning yet? Imagine me trying to take all of this down! As of this writing, I (obviously) haven’t tried out all of these tools but I will be checking in on them in the next few days.

All in all, I’ve found that being in this internet marketing business means that things are changing all… the… time. More tools get released with every single day. The best thing that I can recommend, as a person who does this for a living, is to try to find the tools that work for you. It is too overwhelming to try out the latest this or that. Figure out what you’re looking for by way of metrics, analytics and research tools and stick with that.

The take away from these events and books for anyone who wants to “market” themselves or their clients can be broken down in a few points as well:

• Find what makes you different and be good at it.

• Find the best targeted audience for your message.

• Remember that it’s not all about you. Or if it is, remember that your readers, followers and those that consume your product/content/service also believe it’s all about them too. What do you offer them? Are you listening and responding to what they say?

• Quit marketing and be human instead. People are too wise, cynical and jaded to fall for a one-way conversation. If you can appeal on a human level, if you do actually care, if you know who you're talking to, if you're authentic and transparent, ears will perk up. Remember, it's still a relationship and the relationship rules still apply.

• In conclusion: Pick your niche, become the expert, listen and respond.

There have been too many tips and tricks used by SEO’s and marketers in the past that are now being sniffed out by search engines and the regular internet user. Tell a great story that involves your potential listeners … and you’ll be a winner.

Have you tried any of these tools?

Have any other favorites?

If you have any other thoughts to add, please leave a comment below.