The Virtual Handshake

Sanford Dickert
notes from Virtual Handshake conference

You can download the slides from this presentation here: Dickert

Google’’s algorithms value freshness and relevance. It’’s about interaction.

Blogging is about defining a ‘’space”, even if others are already there.
75m Americans (37% of adult population, 61% of online Americans) use Internet to get political news & info

After ”Black Friday” comes ”Online Monday”

Backbone Media did extensive survey of corporate bloggers. Asked, why do they blog?
83% saw traffic increase due to blog traffic to the site.
Search engine keyword traffic increased with posts relevant to keywords.

Rod Smith case study: on home page, they link to conservative blogs/other sites. Why? To have a conversation.

They also used blog recruitment.

Results: google from 19th to 3rd
Yahoo: 10th to 3rd
MSN: already at 1st

Traffic: tripled
Signups: doubled

Keyword cost: reduced paid click thrus due to highe SE placement
All within 30 days; launch was Nov. 9

Sanford is also working with CentralPodcasting.com. He’’s working with law firm that wants to own space of employment law.

Create the interaction by conversing on what you are about ; create the honeypot.