Lessons Learned from Bacon Salt

One question a lot of people are asking is how to use Web 2.0, social marketing, and the elusive phenomenon of viral growth to enhance conventional online marketing and brand-building strategies such as SEO/SEM and email marketing. I recently came across a blog post that details how one improbable brand's Web 2.0 efforts helped build a groundswell of awareness and trial that led to getting scarce shelf space in crowded retail chains. The brand is Bacon Salt, a humble food product with the seductive premise that "everything should taste like bacon."

It turns out that Bacon Salt was the brainchild of a couple of internet guys whose marketing instincts naturally gravitated to the web. They set up a web site and blog for their product, put it on YouTube, created Bacon Salt groups in MySpace and Facebook, promoted it on Twitter, and of course, sold it online. They didn't have much money, which dovetailed well with the web-based approach; online, many of the best strategies are free.

Within three months Bacon Salt was gaining significant buzz, including a mention in The New Yorker. Users began requesting it in local supermarkets; soon it claimed coveted shelfspace in major grocery chains.

The Bacon Salt story is a Web 2.0 marketing primer. If you're eager to rev up your online marketing efforts, start with the Bacon Salt checklist. Watch your analytics closely to see what works best in your market; that's where to focus followon efforts.

Want to learn more? Read details on the genesis of the Bacon Salt brand here; check out the Bacon Salt website; and follow the official Bacon Salt blog.

Another New Skill: SMO

In the last few years search engine optimization (SEO) has become an important function for every online business. Now get ready for the next wave: social media optimization (SMO).

Part of the challenge of working in an emerging new industry is that rules, to the extent they exist at all, are written in sand, not stone. Tomorrow's critical skillset may not have existed six months ago. To succeed, you need an open attitude and an eagerness to learn. Complacent satisfaction in past accomplishments won't take you very far.

Less than ten years ago, web site owners increasingly noticed how great performance in search engines could drive a tremendous increase in business, and the SEO industry was born. As search technologies have evolved rapidly, SEO techniques continue to change and search engine marketing (SEM)--where advertisers choose where they want to appear in search results and pay for the privilege--has matured as a complementary strategy.

In the last couple of years social media has ramped up exponentially. Now companies looking for greater online visibility see tremendous potential in tapping into that popularity with techniques such as RSS feeds and links into sites such as Digg that can drive lots of traffic. Effective capture of social media opportunities has become so valuable and complex that, like SEO and SEM, SMO is being offered as a professional service by specialist firms.

Affirming the importance of SMO, it even has its own Wikipedia entry. However, the definition presented here isn't complete--for example, it doesn't touch on the important ability to utilize tools such as FaceBook widgets to gain more exposure.

So brush up on your SMO skills or hire a professional; it's today's hot online marketing tool and one that's likely to remain important for the foreseeable future.