Image courtesy of zest-pk.

If you’re writing blogs, press releases, and other content to promote yourself online, you may fall into the trap of writing like a reporter. As the old cliche goes, reporters ask “Who, What, Where, Why, When and How?”

The next time you sit down to write a post for your blog, instead of thinking like a reporter, think like an owl. Owls only ask one question – “Who?” No matter how much media changes, you can rest assured that people will always care about the “Who” in any story.

I can think of no better example of this than the Summer Olympics. For a week, everyone is suddenly fascinated by the sport of swimming. Then for four years, most people won’t watch a single event. Why is this? People are fascinated by the personal stories that are covered so excellently by the networks. Very few people out there are dedicated swimming fans. But many people are captivated by the stories of Michael Phelps and all of the other interesting and dedicated people who participate in these event.

Your business is a lot like the Summer Olympics. You might have a small group of dedicated fans; these are your best customers and evangelists. Everyone else doesn’t have a strong feeling one way or the other. But they do like a good personal story. So give them one. When you talk about your company, don’t talk in terms of facts and the bottom line. Talk about your story, the stories of your employees, and the stories of your customers. Think like an owl, and talk about the “Who.”

Last month, Hyundai owner Todd Jamison was the victim of some very bad luck. His 2004 Hyundai Elantra was the victim of one of the worst parking attempts of all time. As you can see in the following security camera shot, a large SUV pulled into the gym parking lot in which his Elantra was parked, and inexplicably drove right on top of it:

Pretty much the worst luck you can imagine, right? Well the folks at Hyundai heard about this little mishap, and presented Jamison with a brand new Hyundai to replace his crushed car. Here’s the video, from Hyundai’s YouTube channel (Awesome!):

This is really marketing at its finest. Building brand loyalty isn’t about spending the most money – it’s about making an authentic gesture to your customers. As with gift giving, it truly is the thought that counts. Hyudai took this opportunity to show that they care about their customers – for a fraction of the cost of a 30 second TV spot. Not only has Jamison surely become a loyal customer, but lots of people like me will talk and blog about Hyundai’s goodwill. Congratulations Hyundai, job well done.

It’s the biggest debate in Web marketing right now, and it all started with a blog post from Rand Fishkin at SEOmoz titled, “Terrible SEO Advice: Focus on Users, Not Engines”. To briefly summarize, Rand argues that anyone who advises you to focus on user experience and let the search engine rankings take care of themselves is tragically misleading you. Tactics like title tags, meta tags, sitemaps, etc., are still extremely important, he states, even if the folks at Google tell you to focus on your users.

Seems fairly reasonable, but this post set off a big debate in all the places SEO people hang out. It prompted responses like this one from Jill Whalen, who claimed Rand’s post “could potentially set SEO back at least a decade.” Others claimed that a balance between engines and users needs to be struck, and in fact, Rand added an update to his post that stated this was his point all along.

At the end of the day, Rand’s post and all the responses to it served as good linkbait, and I think everyone was being a bit over-dramatic to make for good reading. But what’s a frazzled small business owner or website maintainer to do? Here’s my two cents: SEO is one way to drive traffic to your site. Social media, branding, and online word of mouth is another. Do both, and you’ll have the best chance at the most traffic. Franky, there’s enough competition out there that you need to excel at both to be successful.