Somebody said, “Your resumé can only get you thru the front door.” So can the SEO also.
Of course, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) still has its value. However, Google and other search engines know most, if not all, the “tricks” that we pull out of our programming bags to put us on the coveted Page One. Still, it can only get us the first click of the mouse. The next clicks depend on our content.
That, in a nutshell, is one of the great lessons I gleaned from the recent WordCamp Philippines 2012 held by the Filipino WordPress Community last October 27, 2012, at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati City.
In his inspiring talk, “The Power of Your Story through WordPress,” motivational speaker Kimanzi Constable declared, “The only reason anyone spends any time on your website is: THE CONTENT. The content makes people keep on coming back.” (Constable is a best-selling author of two eBooks that sold over 60,000 copies, an international speaker, coach and consultant.) Constable pointed out that the most visited page in our blogs and/or websites is the “About Me.” People want to connect with us. They want our story, not anyone else’s.
It is because people are 100% emotional. We buy with our hearts, not with our minds. That’s why we need to connect with people on an emotional level. We can only connect with them when we dare to bare our hearts and our lives through our story. Then and only then can we have a real connection with them. Blogger Jayvee Fernandez agrees. “The greatest factor is the blogger’s trust equity. Look at issues and take a stand.” (Fernandez is the Senior Manager for Online Assets at ID8, a SMART consultant and an AIM Faculty.) People easily spot that which is authentic and smell that which is fake. When you are genuine, people will trust you and your opinion. He also exhorted bloggers to expand or to grow. “You can’t give what you don’t have. Make your life interesting. You can’t teach what you don’t know.” When I heard that from Fernandez, I tweeted (@pastor_ey): “Stop learning today. Stop blogging tomorrow. Be a learner for life.”
It is also encouraging to know that what matters is not how many followers we have on Twitter, for example, or any other social media. What matters is how many of them are quality followers. And we can have quality followers when we engage them. Fernandez revealed that, “The number of followers does not automatically equate to a strong influence. A blogger with a small but strong following is sometimes better because of the quality of engagement.”
Constable himself modeled it for us. As soon as I followed him on Twitter (@KimanziC), he tweeted to thank me for following. Also, when I tweeted quotes from his talk, he retweeted it and again thanked me for doing so. That’s how he builds his following.
That’s why we need to really search our hearts and ask, “What’s the core message of my life?” Our core message is our content. No more. No less. This makes our story stand out from the rest.
Wow, I SUPER honored to be featured, this is great. I'm blown away!
WordCamp by WordPress 2012 was attended by our resident LifeCoach.. check Eyriche Cortez article below.