Breaking Down Walls with TANDBERG

Late last year, I wrote about the success TANDBERG was having with its public sector blog from an SEO perspective. The client had a strategy, and stuck to it. We had helped them launch the blog, had attracted a large readership through the consistent publishing of quality content and were ranked #2 in organic search results. (Update — now #1)

In other words, TANDBERG was ready for the next step. So today, TANDBERG public sector launched the social media portal Break Down the Walls.

What do I mean by the next step? Transitioning a blog to a social portal is part of Strategic’s methodology that has been proven out for clients like Microsoft, BT and Sun Microsystems. Launching a social media portal gives the loyal audience that’s been built up more choices on how to interact with the company, and do it in a less formal environment than the main corporate site.

TANDBERG is experimenting with ways to turn very interested readers into potential prospects, primarily via resources that require registration to access. We also are planning webinars specifically focused on how to implement video conferencing in the public sector, with registration happening within Break Down the Walls.

Obviously, this next step needs to be done in ways that respect the audience we’ve built. We’ve already achieved a great deal of success with the blog, including expanded press coverage of TANDBERG’s federal leadership in video and the SEO ranking I discussed last year. Now it’s critical to establish a measurable ROI that directly supports TANDBERG’s business objectives, by giving readers easy ways to self-identify as potential prospects. This can be done without weakening the editorial mission of the site whatsoever.

Social media initiatives must demonstrate measurable value to earn their place in marketing budgets during tough economic times. Grounded in strategy and executed properly, social media can build audiences that directly support the bottom line of an organization.