The afternoon session at LinkLove started with Rand Fishkin giving us tips on how your CEO can be a link building and social sharing machine. Being the CEO of SEOmoz and the fact that the company has built a lot of their success with Rand blogging every single night, there is no one better to talk about the role of CEO in link building than Rand Fishkin.
SEOmoz was built on many of traits and attributes that Rand had. Every one company takes on the passion and the attributes of their founders. It is not a good or bad thing. The CEO has the opportunity to move this needle.
What is the CEO’s job?
1. Sets the mission, vision and strategy
This is irreplaceable, no one else should be having the final say.
2. The CEO should live, breathe and spread the core values
If you are at a company that does not have core values, you need to be aware of them and recognise what they are. The reason we join companies and build companies is that we want to contribute to something greater than ourselves. WE want to accomplish something that we cannot achieve on our own.
3. Hire and manage the executive team
At SEOmoz, there are four main teams, the engineering, operations, product (all designing etc) and marketing. These people set and determine how the company operates
4. Allocate the company’s resources
5. Be the brand’s chief evangelist
This is very important. When you don’t see this, a lot of companies do not have good marketing. A lot of times we are marketers take this blame on our shoulders, but it rests with people in charge.
Why should the CEO do Marketing themselves?
- No one else will ever know the company as well as you do
- No one else has the CEO’s reach of coverage
- No one else has the CEO’s authority
- Much of what makes leaders great also makes them great marketers.
- For these reasons and plenty more, the CEO’s job has to include evangelism and marketing
The 3 Kinds of Great CEO Marketers:
- The Richard Branson
Branson markets through celebrity, intelligent use of press and a willingness to try new media. A good example of Branson is Ben Huh, founder of Cheezburger. He does not fear the press.
- The Danielle Morrill
She is a very participatory CEO. She is an active blogger and active in social media.
- The Jeremy Stoppleman
What if you can’t be this type of CEO?
Option 1 – Delegate to an Internal Marketing Leader
Option 2 – Rely on your product, your personal and your paid marketing to take you viral
Option 3 – Accept that inbound marketing (SEO, social, content etc) won’ be a competitive advantage
Make a conscious decision about this.
10 Tactical tips for CEO
#1 Understand and evangelise how your funnel works
If you do not know how your funnel works, stop doing any marekting now. It is just a mess.
#2 Be a proactive industry competitor
#3 Leverage the press wisely
#4 Empower your marketing team with devs
#5 Get good at one or more forms of content
#6 Recognise, Marketing Accomplishments the way you do product, engineering and financial milestones
As a CEO you have this unique power, should leverage it wisely
#7 Optimise your online bio (&update it, too)
#8 CEOs Amass favors. ask for links and shares
A lot of favours can be cashed in, can my team do a licencing deal wih you.
#9 Leverage your contact so amplify messages
Go through Followerwonk to see who is following you and who you can outreach to
#10 Embrace Authenticity
Authenticity wins over the corporate world that we need. Rand hopes you can take some of this back to your own CEOs. if they are not listening to you, email Rand.
[slideshare id=17094334&doc=ceo-as-marketer-130311015548-phpapp02]
