15 Ways SEO = Political Consulting

  1. As opportune, SEOs train clients to adopt keywords not originally their own. Approaching target audiences using their own words is important in building empathy and trust:

    To speak to the people, speak like the people.

    ...Sometimes in bearing that message we have to remind folks to please not shoot the messenger.

  2. We also train clients to use still more keywords, others that are their own, as soon as possible but often only once we've verified the client has established some authority. Pushing original messages when nobody's listening much yet or anymore tends to be an uphill battle.
  3. We're all about managing clients' tone, vibe and poise. These are all critical to successful social marketing and engineering.
  4. We're not populists in terms of courting the lowest common denominator - at least not always. We are however, always interested in the crowd and in volume, even if we do break it down into niches and mega-niches.
  5. Those of us who think big think globally, moreover we apply localization best practices to some of what we do.
  6. We help clients learn and understand what issues and topics the audience is concerned with; what matters to them and why. We care about hooks, buzzwords, hot buttons etc. and measured responses to such.
  7. We sometimes will analyze a ton about the target audience(s) for our clients, actually. Important considerations and related metrics can include but are hardly limited to
    • How long and how deeply people are paying attention
    • Understanding their level of loyalty
    • What makes them convert
    • Where they're from and/or are located
    • How they get their information; what their media consumption habits are
    • Demographics and socio-economics
  8. We often practice our core chops and learn the basics of our trade under the employ of underdogs.
  9. We do sometimes work pro bono and/or on a volunteer basis for a cause.
  10. We have a wide range of specialties and no two of us are alike. For example, one of us might particularly excel at crunching numbers and distilling meaning from it, whereas another one of us might excel in inciting controversy or noise.
  11. As in many industries, in ours prospective clients are urged to learn that they
    • will normally get what they pay for, despite how consultants rates can be all over the map upon comparison.
    • should beware of a few persistent con artists in our space (they continually come and go... watch out for big talkers making big promises).
    • should know what levels of risk they're willing to accept and pay close attention to our tactics respectively, as some of us can fight dirty.
    • will find that how far they can go often depends largely on how far they've come already, and/or how much they're coming in prepared to invest. Generally, the more budget one has the more can be accomplished.
  12. We aren't easily affected by traditional or mainstream media and instinctively treat it with skepticism. However, we do sometimes bear witness to glimpses of the world from unique perspectives, i.e. have eagle's-eye visibility into a few topically dark corners of life. Perversions, fetishes, addictions... Hell, some of us make our living deeply preoccupied with nastiness. So that some of us have developed certain healthy cynicisms and/or twisted senses of humor is hardly without reason. Ain't no thing though; most of us are quite harmless.
  13. We can be competitive, aggressive and defensive, and sometimes make it our business to dig up details on parties blissfully unaware that anyone's looking - but all this is all just in a day's work on behalf of our clients, of course (right?)... 😉
  14. Fundamentally our job is supposed to be about staying behind the scenes, despite how opinionated we can often be ourselves. Most of us abide by that, however some of us assume positions of visibility some of the time and to some degree.
  15. We thrive on the network and networking and can be quite social despite our own special breeds of geekery. Some of us travel a lot, others hardly ever get out from behind our computers. But many of us relish a lively party... or at least a lively conversation.

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