Mack is famous! A lesson on community building

What we have for you today is a brief (as brief as we here at Mack Web Solutions ever really get) lesson on community building in action.

For better or for worse (though we think it’s for better), the example we’ll be using today is…(dramatic drumroll, please)…us.

Yep. Prepare for a tale of Mack Web Solutions in all its glory. (Which is a lot of glory).

Necessary background

So, if you’ve followed our blog at all, you know that we are big fans of a little company called SEOMoz. Moz, as we and, um, everyone else ever affectionately call it, is more or less the place for SEOs to gather and connect and learn. They have some of the best SEO tools and resources as well as two highly active and informative blogs.

The first of these is the YouMoz blog. This is a blog that displays posts created and submitted by members of/subscribers to SEOMoz. These posts, reviewed and edited by SEOMoz staff, must leave the audience with something of value.

The second (and more prominent) is the Daily SEO Blog. Though simply named, this is the real resource of the Moz site. The posts are a combination of staff-created articles or videos, industry experts, and YouMoz posts that, through community acclaim and popularity, have been deemed worthy of promotion to the main blog. Its reach is global.

Ok? Got that?

On with the show

So this story starts a few months ago when, acting upon the sage advice we hand down to our clients from on high, we decided to work on building our online community. We began to comment on blogs, to like and follow the authors we found helpful and inspiring. To reach out.

Mack went to LinkLove and started meeting some of our heroes in person.

Then a few weeks ago, we got the idea into our collective heads that it was high time we generated a little content.

By which we mean a ten-page, highly informative and actionable article on social media and content marketing, complete with pretty graphics. When we were sure that it was accurate and chock-full of value, we submitted it to the YouMoz blog, crossed our fingers, and held our breath (for, like, 10 seconds. Then we agreed that four passed-out Mack Web people would not go well with our office decor and started breathing again).

A few days later there was whooping and clapping and other signs of hoopla and general revelry as they informed us that our post was going to be, well, posted.

We were honored and humbled (by which we actually mean straight-up bursting with pride) at how well received the post was. Lots of comments and compliments and likes and shares and all the lovely things that we tout and lust after.

We followed best practice and responded and interacted with those who had questions (and not even just to those who said nice stuff).

The revelry got kicked up to delirious joy two days later when the beautiful, beautiful people at Moz promoted us to the main blog! (You didn’t hear it from me, but, Mack was screaming like a little girl).

At the time of this posting, that blog has been kicking around for about three days.

In that time, daily traffic to our website has more than tripled.

The post has been tweeted more than 750 times (778 at time of publication, but who’s counting?).

We’ve had eyes (and comments) on it from all over the world.

Mack has invitations to meet up personally with some of our idols when she travels to MozCon (the SEOMoz annual conference…look for a post on this coming your way soon) later this month.

All from getting one little (or, y’know, not-so-little) article posted on the right forum.

This, friends, is why we so consistently and possibly irritatingly preach the virtues of community building and content marketing.

The moral of the story is…

…never talk to muffin trees

No…that’s not it. Uh…always do what Mack Web tells you to (so long as we say, “Simon says”)?

Not exactly that either. Though it’s not bad advice.

No, the moral here is that, hard work though it may be, we don’t ask you to commit to content generation and marketing because we get a kick out of watching you struggle. It’s because this stuff actually works. That’s why we do it ourselves. Practice what we preach, lead by example, and all that jazz.

‘Cuz that’s just who we are. Practically preaching by-example leaders. With jazz hands. Or something.

This just in: SEOmoz article status update

Mack Web is proud to report that as of late, Mack’s SEOmoz blog post has been around the world a little bit more. We’re super excited to boast that this article has been tweeted 1,119 times, liked on Facebook 149 times, and +1′d on Goolge+ 111 times.

What’s even cooler than that is our thought leaders are referencing the post in their blog posts. Now that is awesome.

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2012 at 9:47 pm and is filed under Social Media, Web Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.