In SEO, I find that too many people get lost in link building, nofollows, dofollows, anchor keywords, page ranks, ect. I think we need to step back and really understand how powerful hyperlinks really are. In a matter of a click, we can have access to so much information. Why aren't marketers more excited about this? My guess is because hyperlinks are so embedded in our daily life that we forget about them.
In traditional marketing, say advertising for instance, people would see your ad and the experience stops there. The internet and links allow that person to go further. Imagine if every billboards were clickable? Marketers would make sure that the public receives the full branding experience. That same feel that display/merch teams create for customers when they walk into a retail store.
Imagine: A customer is able to "click" on a billboard ad and he is instantly transported inside the store in the exact aisle where the product advertised is located.
That is called online marketing. The difference is that, let's be honest, online banner ads suck. They are mundane and not creative. So people do not click (pun intended). I am not very interested in PPC or banner ads so I will keep that discussion for another blog post.
I want to bring you even further. Imagine that rather than clicking on a billboard ad, you can click a video or a book or even an experience your friend has recently been exposed to?
That is social media marketing. I believe content marketing is at its best through social media marketing because it is the most effective form of word of mouth. The anchor for its effectiveness is in the hyperlinks.
I want to leave you with a great video @olegr shared with me. This Youtube clip is created by Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. It offers great insight about the power of hyperlinks and content. It discusses Web 2.0 and the future of the web.
