 Facebook's in business to make money. Google's in business to make money. Twitter's in business to make money. And so, when we think about their algorithms, we have to think about are we helping them make more money or are we making it more difficult for them to make money? Welcome to the We Are Slam Show where you'll learn marketing agency insights, best practices, and ideas to help your business grow. You know, we've been doing this show for over two years now. And last week, we completely changed up the format. So, if you're listening to us on a podcast network, first of all, thank you. But second of all, go find the video because what we're doing now is we're showing you, we're visualizing all of these concepts and all the things that we're talking about on the whiteboard that's here behind me. So, if you can't see me right now and you're just listening, then do me a favor. Go to IGTV, YouTube, or to our website at slamaggc.com and look for this episode because there's a lot of really good insights that are on the board that you just have to see it in order to receive it. And so, here we go. Today's topic, I'm super excited about this topic and I'm excited about it because this is a question that I get asked all the time. But today's topic is how to beat the algorithm, whether that's the Google algorithm or the Facebook feed algorithm, whatever it is, this applies to any social network, to any search engine, to any type of site where there's an algorithm that is deciding whether or not to show your content favorably. You probably have heard of people that have kind of pushed the boundaries and have been successful at least for a time, whether it was in the early to mid-2000s where people were doing Black Hat SEO and actually were having making major impacts and making a lot of money doing that because they were beating the Google algorithm. Or maybe it's PPC arbitrage where people would buy traffic for a penny and sell it for two pennies or more. And so, they were doing this PPC pay per click arbitrage where they were making lots of money. That was almost 20 years ago and in internet years, that's ancient history. Today, it's much better. You're going to be much better off. Instead of trying to beat them, join them. Help them achieve their objective so that you can achieve yours. Let's get into it. So, what is an algorithm? Well, an algorithm is a set of rules or a process which is carried out by a computer in order to achieve certain objectives. But here's the thing. That set of rules is written by human beings. And so, if you're trying to figure out how can I join with the algorithm to help the algorithm achieve the goal, achieve the objective, then the first question you should be asking is, what is the objective? What are they trying to achieve and how can I, as a business, as a web presence, as an individual, how can I help them through my content, through my resources, help them to achieve their goal? Because if you can help them to achieve their goal, what happens? They're going to help you achieve your goal. The wrong way to look at algorithms is to look at them as like, okay, what are the nuts and bolts? What are the specific rules? What are those little things that I can do or not do and try to work my way around? Because when you look at those, you have to realize, Google algorithm, it changes almost daily, sometimes more than once a day. So if you're trying to follow and keep up with the rules, which by the way are never published, then you're fighting a losing battle. As soon as the rules are changed, which they are from time to time, then all the things that you were doing are no longer effective. So rather than trying to figure out each rule, figure out what is their objective? And I'll help you out here. Their objective is the same as your objective as a business, because they're for-profit businesses. It's to make money, just like your goal is to be profitable, to drive revenue, to increase your revenue, so that you can achieve your mission and your vision for the world. There's just the same, no matter how lofty and how inspiring your mission is, your vision is, your purpose in this world is. It's going to be very difficult to achieve that without resources. And so when we think of for-profit businesses, the first thing we want to realize is that we're in business to be profitable, to make money. And so are they, Facebook's in business to make money, Google's in business to make money, Twitter's in business to make money. And so when we think about their algorithms, we have to think about, are we helping them make more money? Or are we making it more difficult for them to make money? And you know, this is the beauty of business, especially if you're in the service business where you're helping people to get what they want. As Zig Ziglar said, you can have everything you want if you just help enough other people get what they want. I mean, this at its essence is business. It's providing a service for someone in exchange for monetary value. So how do you help the Facebook's and the Googles of the world increase their revenue, achieve their objectives of driving more revenue? Well, the answer is you have to create content that captures and keeps your users, your customers, your Facebook followers, attention. Because attention, as Pete Cashmore of Mashable, C-E-B-L Mashable says, attention is the new currency. Attention, we spend it, we use it. It's valuable. You know, I heard in the social dilemma, this idea that if you're not paying for the product, then you are the product. And you know, that's kind of scary, kind of eerie. But the thing is, I think what they really are referring to is this idea of attention, where you place your attention, you create value. So for instance, right now, if your attention is on Facebook, if you log in there and you're doing stuff on there, then your attention is obviously there, then Facebook has value. As soon as you take that your attention away from Facebook, then Facebook loses value. Same thing with Google, in the search results, if your page pops up and it's relevant to the search result that it's on, then immediately somebody places their attention there. And that's good, because they'll come back and use Google again. But as soon as those results are no longer relevant to the search, if it's just spam, then what happens? You're going to look for another way to find that information. And if you do that, then you're taking your attention away from Google. So attention is how brands like Google and Facebook and Twitter, it's how they drive revenue. It's how they can increase the price of their views and impressions. It's how they can increase the advertising that they charge. And this is important because as Dr. Thales, Texjera, which I'm sure I butchered his last name, I apologize, but he's a professor at the Harvard Business School. And he said that attention has increased over the last 20 years, seven to nine fold, the value of attention, seven to nine fold. And so he in his study on the economics of attention, he really outlines how attention is the new currency like Pete Cashmore says. So it's super important to know that if you want to help an algorithm, if you want to beat an algorithm, you have to figure out how can you drive more attention. And really the way to do that is with your content. And so the last thing we have to figure out is how can we create content that captures attention? Well, here's the formula, relevancy equals the right message for the right person in the right place. And at the right time, when you have all of this, you are able to capture and to keep your users, your customers attention. And as you know, before anyone can buy anything before anyone can, you know, take an action or complete an offer, they have to first be paying attention. And so, you know, right message, right person, we've heard this a lot. This is this is the these are the elements of the what I call the Holy Grail of Marketing, right message for the right person, right place, right time. And if you've been in business for any amount of time, then you probably have figured out at least I hope, the right message for the right person, i.e. your customer. But what's more difficult, and really when we're thinking about relevancy for search and for social networks, what's more difficult is figuring out the right place and the right time. I mean, you have to have all four, it's not relevant if you don't have all four ingredients. And so, I want to share with you in closing two illustrations. Super important when we think about right place and right time. Obviously, if you've done your homework on your consumer, on your customer, then you should know where they are, meaning where they are on the internet, where they hang out, what groups are in, what social networks they belong to, what types of searches they're searching. So that's right place, but there's an element to right place which involves timing. And without timing, you're really going in with an arm tied behind your back. So let's talk about timing just in closing for just a second. I have two illustrations here. One is the buyer's pyramid. Buyer's pyramid is super important because you have to remember that not everyone is a buyer right now. In fact, only 3% of people are buying now. 6% to 7% of people are open to it. 30% aren't thinking about it right now, but as soon as you can get them to think about it, then guess what? They're going to be a potential buyer. 30% are not interested right now, and they're not interested right now because they don't know they have a problem that you can solve. And 30% aren't interested now, and they'll never going to be interested because they're just not your buyer. And so what you have to do is you just have to cross these people off your list and promise that you're not going to try to create solutions for them. They're just not your buyer. The second illustration I want you to see is that of the consumer journey. And this is my favorite way of describing the consumer journey. It was created originally by a guy named Eugene Schwartz. And this is his stages of awareness. You got to think about it. As a buyer, you go through different stages of awareness. As a marketer, you have to understand when we're talking about timing, which stage of awareness that people are in. Now we've done a full show on this very topic, and so what I'll do is I'll put that in the show notes on slayamagency.com. But quickly, I want you to realize that a lot of people are not aware of a problem that they might have or that they might have in the future. And so those are the people that they're not interested right now. But then they become problem aware. They have a problem. And then they go to Google or to YouTube or to Facebook, and they begin to ask questions, questions that they hope they can get an answer for. The answer being, what is the solution to my problem? I've discovered this problem, and I'm looking for a solution. There might be more than one solution, but eventually they're going to come to a point to where they discover the solution that's right for them. When they discover that solution at that point, they're going to go look for a product or a service that provides the solution. Then they're going to come across different companies, different brands that provide the product that presents the solution to their problem. And this is what you see here. Now, this is illustrated in a funnel because I want you to see how people flow just naturally through this consumer journey. But in digital marketing, too many times we think that this happens on our website. And friends, it doesn't happen on our website. As a matter of fact, as you know, 70% of the buying decision is made before they ever even come to your website or before they ever pick up the phone and call you or walk through your door. And so where's this decision being made? Well, it's being made in Google and Facebook on the social networks through all these different touch points. It takes 77 touch points for somebody to come to a decision to take an action with your company if they're not familiar with your company, 77 touch points. And so you have to think about where are all the places where people are getting information about my brand and how can I be in all those places with a positive impression with a positive first impression about my business with information about my business for these people in each of these stages of awareness. So when we think about the formula, the formula for creating relevant content that will capture and keep attention there by creating revenue for you and for the networks which are on. When we think about that formula, we have to remember that timing is crucial. And so let's go through it one more time. Releamancy equals right message plus right person plus right place plus right time. And when you have all that right, you have content that captures and keeps attention, attention that drives revenue. Thank you for tuning in. I hope that you found value in this show and in this new format. Here's the deal. If you did, let me know IGTV, Facebook, YouTube, slamhc.com, let me know in the comments, send me a message. If you're a business owner or a marketing director and you need help in any one of these areas, go to slamhc.com, click on the free consultation button at the top of the page. It's the big pink button or as my designers say magenta button. And from there, you can request a free consultation where you'll talk directly with me. Okay. Thank you for tuning in. I will see you next week.