• The future of the web
• Search engine optimization
• The idea of brand control

The conversation regarding the future of the Web focused on thoughts expressed by industry analyst Jeremiah Owyang from Forrester Research. Owyang outlined a vision for the future of social networks and portable identities on the Web. Codella and Polson shared perspectives from their respective backgrounds in public relations and website design.

In their discussion regarding search engine optimization — which Codella also referred to search engine marketing and inbound marketing — Polson and Codella discussed ways to approach Web design so as to maximize search benefits. Although they disagreed on the percentage of weight given by Google to specific tactics, they are in agreement that a multipronged approach is better than a single one.

Polson offered a tip to know how many sites are linking to a specific site:

Do a Google search for link:URL

This shows you a listing of websites that are linking in to the URL you specify.

Regarding brand control: Codella blogged earlier this week in response to a question posed by the Social Media Club with his take on whether or not a company is really in control of its brand. Polson offered the analogy of a brand being a ship at sea and the wind being social media. Although the wind can blow, there’s still a captain on the ship that steers the rudder.

Resources:

• The Future of the Social Web: In Five Eras
• Brand control – is it possible?
• In the era of social media, what do you do to control your brand?
• Brand control? Hah!

Thank You

Thanks for listening. Since we’re just getting started here, we’d sure appreciate your input and sharing this resource. Please subscribe to this site’s RSS feed to receive notifications of new podcasts and feel free to subscribe in iTunes to receive automatic downloads to your MP3 player of choice.

We appreciate your interest in the Online PR Podcast and look forward to hearing from you here, on Twitter or Facebook.