Why Buzz Bugs Me: Remember Google Caffeine?

As the esteemed Ron Burgundy once said, “Boy, that escalated quickly… I mean, that really got out of hand fast.”

Usually playing the part of media darling, Google’s new foray into the social sphere got the swift response usually reserved for Microsoft. If you are on the Google Buzz team, pick your poison/complaint: lack of privacy controls, lack of a grassroots campaign, lack of immediate blog/plugin integration, etc.  Whether or not Buzz can be a Facebook or Twitter-killer is important, but should not be an online marketer’s new focus. Buzz is still a tactic, not a strategy.

The phenomenon known as Caffeine, not to be confused with Social Search, is still hanging out there. First unveiled by the GOOG in August, the update is supposed to make search results come together faster. It’s not a visual change as much as a retooling underneath the Google search hood.  And as others have mentioned, Google Caffeine may already be affecting your search results.

In order for your profiles to be more relevant than your competition, social media and digital asset optimization should be an increasingly important part of search strategy. As many have said before me, if it can be written, it can be optimized. Here are five things you can do to help prepare your offsite assets for Caffeine.

1. Are you optimizing your assets with keywords? This may sound elementary, but that cute two-sentence branding statement won’t help people find your Twitter account or video. Be specific and strategic.
2. Are you tracking your offsite properties? Beyond basic referral traffic, determine which offsite properties are better at conversions in order to better prioritize time and efforts. Additionally, some sites give pretty swell analytics (like Tubemogul, Feedburner and Facebook).
3. Are you cross-promoting? What this is not is tying all of your social accounts into Ping and spamming everyone with your music updates. Ask yourself how you are integrating other online marketing (email, social, PPC, SEO). Achieving marketing synergy can increase the likelihood of success.
4. Do  you have a content strategy? Offsite assets are too important to update on a whim. Develop an editorial calendar as soon as you can to organize workflow and responsibilities. Updated and timely content is going to be crucial moving forward.
5. Are you adding calls to action in your offsite properties? Your digital assets should be funneling people to a specific goal. Period. Don’t miss out on your one chance to convert someone.

Have any other tips? Chuck them into the comments section.  Better yet, visit our search engine optimization page and learn more how we can help your company.

Flickr photo courtesy of eltinero1