It’s a catchphrase that has been used by most in the Internet marketing industry. Whether you’re talking about social media marketing, search engine optimization, or lead conversion, the idea that “Content is King” rings out as a mantra amongst most who are trying to drive traffic, links, leads, or all three to any given website. For the most part, this is correct, but…

In many ways, it’s a naive cop-out. Why? Because behind almost every King, there’s the people who really call the shots.

Content In Social Media

If a Twitter update falls in the woods and nobody is following that account, did it really make a Tweet? If a Digg story is submitted by someone who gets no Diggs to it, can it hit the front page? If a Facebo…

You get the point.

You can have an exclusive video of Barack Obama dancing with Marilyn Monroe in the White House and post it on your site, but if the right people aren’t there submitting it to Digg, posting it on Facebook, Stumbling it, or Tweeting it, it doesn’t have a chance.

Meanwhile, a picture of a guy standing next to Mark Wahlberg can go viral and get over 80,000 views on Flickr if the right people Digg and Tweet it.

In social media, having strong accounts, a sound strategy, and a little luck can go 90% of the way. The last 10% – that’s where the content comes into play. Having strong content in social media is extremely important, but by itself it won’t make a difference.

Content In SEO

Back in 2005, content was truly everything when it came to search engine optimization. You could stuff keywords, hide keywords, magnify keywords — if you wanted to rank for a particular keyword, it just wasn’t that hard.

Google and the other search engines soon figured this out and started going in a different direction. While the content was and is still important, they decided that offsite factors such as inbound links would need to be used to determine the true relevance of a page in relations to their keywords.

The theory is easy. If trusted websites link to a web page and anchor the link with particular text, the search engines see this and believe that the link must lead to an authority for that keyword. It’s like a vote. Not all votes count the same; a link from the New York Times is counted as a much stronger “vote” than a link from justinandhisspamblog.blogspot.com.

While content is still read and helps tremendously with rankings, it’s the inbound links that have the real juice. It’s possible for a site to rank without links, and it’s possible for a site with links to rank without content, but combined the two provide tremendous power towards achieving strong search rankings.

Don’t Stop with Content

That’s the moral of the story. You can put out the best content on the Internet but without a proper strategy to shine the right lights on the content, it will go nowhere.

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Read more about Internet Marketing Strategy on Hasai.

Just about every social media marketing firm in the world includes Facebook as one of the primary tools that companies large and small should use in promoting their brand, websites, products, and services. With about a trillion users joining daily and more time spent on Facebook than with family, it only makes sense.

It’s the buzz.

It’s also very difficult to do well from a marketing perspective.

Rather than reinvent the “Facebook Tips” wheel, we have compiled dozens of articles that seem to offer the best advice out there for prospective Facebook marketers and promoters. Each article has been read and “vetted” by our staff. While we may not agree 100% with every article’s conclusions, there is definitely something that can be gained from them.

• Jacob Cass put together a detailed tutorial-style article on How to get more brand exposure, traffic and sales using Facebook.
• Becky McCray offers 6 big Facebook tips for small business.
• Paul Dunay asks With Facebook pages, who needs a website?
• Joel Turner goes into the fundamentals of optimizing in Facebook page marketing tips.
• Ron Jones takes a look at Facebook marketing 101.
• Amanda G. Watlington brings us 5 tips for promoting your business on Facebook.
• Macworld demonstrates the basics on Facebook usage itself with Top Facebook etiquette tips.
• John Jantsch touches on 5 tips for getting more from Facebook.
• Mari Smith discusses Top ten tips for creating buzz with Facebook events.
• Liz Baron offers Facebook marketing tactics.
• Steve Coulson put together 5 tips for optimizing your brand’s Facebook presence.
• Soft Sailor has Top 5 coolest Facebook tips, tricks and hacks.
• Greg Finn breaks down SMX East: Facebook marketing tactics.
• Justin Smith talks search in 10 key SEO strategies every Facebook page owner should know.
• Marty Weintraub had the same idea with some different strategies in 10 SEO tips for maximizing Facebook visibility.
• Christina Warren examines Facebook marketing: IKEA’s genius use of photo tagging.
• Even CNN takes a decent stab at it with 5 tips for fixing your Facebook page.
• Ian Paul lists Ten Facebook tips for power users.
• Ryan Dube gets more advanced with 6 Facebook hack codes & tips to show off your geeky skills.
• Richard MacManus shows us How to use Facebook: 5 tips for better social networking.
• Hongkiat challenges us with 20 Facebook tips/tricks you might not know.

As more stories, tutorials, and how-tos come out, we’ll add to this list.

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Read more about social media strategy at Hasai.

Over the last several months, we’ve worked with some, interviewed others, and came to the conclusion that there are some out there that are real. Some. The rest, probably 95 out of 100, know very little about how to truly design social media campaigns and manage a proper social media strategy.  This is a huge problem as several corporations and small businesses we have talked to lately are skeptical of anything relating to social media.

They tried it with this company or that company and they didn’t see the results.

Before we join the chorus of “we’re the best” that makes it seem like we’re just like everyone else, let me state something very clearly. Our results are predefined. Our methods are discussed openly and honestly. We do not collect a penny until AFTER the results are rendered.

Do I have your attention?

For the first year of existence, Hasai chose to stay hidden. Social media and its many components are sensitive topics. Companies do not necessarily want their customers or competitors knowing that they have hired a social media firm, so we decided to “not exist” except through referrals and word-of-mouth.  As the company expanded over the months, it became clear – there are ways to protect our clients without staying in the shadows.

Too many companies are popping up that offer the same thing that we offer. Then again, a Daewoo and a Bentley both drive down the street. They both have 4 wheels, doors, windows, and an engine.  The difference is that one does it right and one did it wrong.

Read through the site. We are carefully crafting what we can and cannot say in a way that will protect everyone involved while still offering the opportunity for companies to find us.

You’ve found us. You’re already ahead of your competition.

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Read more about Social Media Strategy.