Take a look at any given day’s headlines in the world of social media, search engine optimization and online marketing and you’ll see plenty of stories like these:

Google Changes How Twitter Appears In Search Results

Google’s Algorithm Tweaks Pushed Down “Two-Thirds” of Yahoo’s Contributor Content

10 Tips For Marketing On Redesigned Facebook

Are you sensing a theme yet? As Isaac Asimov famously said (though I doubt he was the first): “The only constant is change.”

Which creates quite the problem for online marketers and communicators, not to mention the clients and businesses for whom we all work.

Because a blog post like this one comes along that describes the essentials of integrating SEO and social media and it seems to provide a solid strategic roadmap. But then Google changes its algorithm. Or Facebook changes its layout. Or Twitter adds a new feature. Or some other change is made to one of the online giants that affects everyone’s online content, and those essentials wind up changing in one way or another, sometimes fundamentally.

Here’s the thing: Those changes happen all the time. And here’s the other thing: You can spend all your time planning and conniving and strategizing and positioning to try and beat the system and outrun your competitors — and no matter what you do or how much time and money you spend, you’ll never master the system to such a degree that you can claim to have a command of all the moving parts and elements of online communication better than anyone else out there.

Look at it this way: Absolute and unequivocal mastery of knowing exactly and precisely what to do to in the world of online communications is the carrot at the end of the stick that’s attached to your head, and the stick is about a foot longer than your arm. The reality is that you’ll never be able to grab it, no matter how hard and how long you try.

So where does this leave us all?

With the best strategy there is: Concentrate on the basics. Develop a solid message. Engage in great customer service. Provide valuable content. You know the drill.

Which do you think deserves your limited resources: Delivering valuable content for your Web site, or trying to optimize the content and frequency of your Twitter feed so that you show up a space or two higher in the Google Realtime search results for specifically optimized keywords that may or may not be relevant a week from now?

Because when you’re chasing trends and trying to grab carrots, you’re wasting a lot of equity that could otherwise go toward serving your customers and building your business … goals that are actually attainable.

Takeaway for marketers: Forget the carrot; as tempting as it is, you’ll never catch it. Assuming you plan on being in business for the long run, focus on developing and maintaining solid marketing communications fundamentals.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 8th, 2011 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Internet Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Marketing Takeaways, Rants 'n' Such, Social Media.