Extensive keyword research is the first step to any search marketing campaign. Keyword research is the framework on which your entire campaign is built, whether you’re using search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, or both. If you don’t get your keywords right, your efforts will be wasted.

If you’ve started on the wrong foot, there’s still time. Good keyword research is an evolution. The world of search is constantly changing, and your keywords should, too. The terms that people are using today may not be the most successful six months from now.

Whether you’re putting together your first keyword list or adapting your current list, here are some tips to get you started.

Don’t use the same keyword list for your SEO and PPC campaigns.

SEO and PPC are complete different, and they require different keyword lists. In fact, most of the keywords you use for SEO probably won’t even end up on your PPC list. PPC keyword lists are highly targeted — you’re looking for keywords that will target a very specific audience to ensure you’re not spending money on clicks from tire-kickers. For SEO, your keywords should be relevant, but much broader to reach a larger search audience.

Never build a keyword list based on assumptions.

No matter how well you know your target audience, the truth is that as a business owner you think differently than your consumers. Many marketers and business owners create keyword lists based on their knowledge of the business instead of search volume. They’re surprised to discover that consumers are searching for a completely different list of terms. Your technical knowledge may be preventing you from finding the laymen’s terms for which your customers are searching. While a good knowledge of the terminology in your business is a great place to start your research, you need metrics to back you up. Use a keyword research program like Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, Google AdWords’ Keyword Tool to ensure that the keywords are the right ones.

Break long keyword phrases into pieces.

For SEO, try breaking your keyword phrases into smaller pieces to maximize your reach. For example, while “new houses for sale” may have a decent search volume, you might have better results with something like “new home listings,” because it works as a stand-alone keyword phrase, two separate shorter phrases (new home and home listings), and home has a higher search volume than houses. Create power phrases by ensuring that each and every word in your keyword phrase packs a punch.

Choose your keywords wisely.

Once you’ve built a long list of potential keywords, it’s decision time. For PPC, you can test a long list of keywords to find the most successful. For SEO, you need to be a little more selective. The most successful optimizations use a very short list of keywords — no more than 3 for each page. Don’t just choose the keywords with the highest search volume. Look deeper to create longer keyword phrases that will garner search volume without being too competitive. Find a balance between search volume, competition, and relevance.

Constantly update your keywords based on analytics, conversions, and traffic.

Good keyword research can create a pretty powerful initial list, but you’re not finished. You need to make constant adjustments. With PPC, the changes will most likely be daily, especially in the beginning. Watch your click-through rates and conversions to ensure that your keywords are driving relevant traffic without costing too much, and keep an eye on your analytics to find negative keywords.

SEO is a long-term process, so you’ll want to give your site some time to collect data before making changes. Monitor your analytics constantly to determine which keywords are driving the most traffic to your site. If you’re not getting the results you wanted after a month or two, it may be time to make some changes, shift your focus, or find new keywords.

As part of their “Life’s for Sharing” campaign, T-Mobile gathered 13,500 people in London’s Trafalgar Square, handed out microphones throughout the audience and asked them to sing in unison. The result — a video of the crowd “simultaneously” singing “Hey Jude” together — has been viewed on YouTube over 55,000 times in two days. The success of the campaign will likely grow as the viral video makes its rounds on social networks and blogs throughout the work week.

The stunt is a great example of how companies can use viral marketing to position their brands front and center in the social media world in a positive light. I’m sure the undertaking wasn’t cheap, but hopefully it will pay off as the video continues to be passed around the Web.

And because it made my Monday a little brighter, here it is:

This week, a disturbing YouTube video posted by two disgruntled Domino’s employees quickly went viral. The video, titled “Disgusting Domino’s People,” shows the employees doing gross things to the food they would eventually serve.

The implications for the Domino’s brand are catastrophic. Though it was an isolated incident in one store, it spread throughout the country through various social media channels. Domino’s franchises on the other side of the country will most likely feel the fallout of this incident. It’s a scary reminder of the power of viral marketing.

While the impact is unavoidable, Domino’s acted swiftly to respond to the incident on YouTube. Today Domino’s posted this personal response from the company’s president, Patrick Doyle.

What can we learn from Domino’s response?

Act fast.

Domino’s issued a press release immediately, but it was two full days before they responded to the video directly on YouTube. Two days is a lifetime when it comes to viral content. The faster you respond, the faster you can steer the conversation.

Viral content lasts forever — so should your response.

The most effective response will reach out directly to the viral audience that spread the damaging content. Today’s YouTube statement was much more effective than Tuesday’s press release, and it will continue to reach customers even as the press coverage dies down.

Viral content lasts forever, but a press release only lasts through one news cycle. To ensure that the video will continue to reach their customers affected by the damaging content, Domino’s wisely included the title from the original video in their response and added “Domino’s Responds.” When people search YouTube to find the video they’ve heard so much about, they’ll also find a direct response from the company. Like the damaging viral video, this response will last forever.

Don’t just apologize, take action.

Instead of playing the victim and placing all the blame on the employees, Doyle clearly outlines the actions Domino’s will take to protect their customers in the future. Not only does he assure customers that the specific store has been sterilized, but he assures them that Domino’s is working to prevent this from happening again. “We’re re-examining all of our hiring practices to make sure that people like this don’t make it into our stores,” he says.

Make the last word a good one.

The last minute of the Domino’s response is devoted to displaying the brand in a positive light. Your response is your opportunity to get the last word in. Don’t waste it rehashing the negative press. Use it to remind your customers why they should trust you.

Unfortunately, social media and user generated content have made it much harder for brands to shield themselves from this type of damage. That’s why it’s more important than ever that you know and understand how to use social media channels to promote your company positively and protect your brand from damaging viral content. Through smart use of social media, you can shift the conversation to correct the damage just as quickly as it was done.

Usability is one of the most important (and often overlooked) elements of search engine optimization. If your website is designed for the end user, you’ll reap the benefits in your search engine rankings and your customers will be more likely to interact with your website in the way that you desire.

Keep these usability best practices in mind as you design your website to ensure a good user experience and better search engine results:

Navigation

• Include a clear navigation bar that links to every page on your website and appears consistently on each page.
• Link to pages on your website internally throughout the copy using relevant, keyword-rich anchor text.
• Use breadcrumbs to show users where they are and where they came from.

Accessibility

• File sizes for your pages should ideally be smaller than 200KB to optimize loading time and search engine crawling.
• Place copy in the first 100KB to ensure that your keyword-rich content is being crawled and indexed.
• Keep pages as close to the root as possible. Users and search engines should be able to reach each page on your site from the homepage in two clicks or less.
• Utilize permanent 301 redirects for known deleted pages to land users on a similar page and maintain links.
• Use a custom 404 page to redirect users and search engines that have reached a page that no longer exists on your site back to the most useful content on your site.

Readability

• Don’t use fancy fonts for your body copy. Simple fonts, preferably sans serif, are easiest on the eyes and most likely to display properly on all browsers.
• Write clear, concise content for each page. Web users get overwhelmed with huge blocks of text, so limit the amount of text on each page.
• Break up large blocks of text into bite-sized pieces with headers.

Simplicity

• Keep your on-page code as clean as possible by moving JavaScript and style sheets into external files.
• Use animation and Flash sparingly. Too much animation can be distracting for users, and while search engines are getting better at indexing Flash, it’s not perfect yet.

Optimization

• Focus on one page at a time in your optimization, and optimize it for no more than three highly relevant keywords. This will tell users and search engines what the page is about quickly and easily.

Finally, be sure to test run usability tests with several user types likely to visit your site to catch problems that normal users may encounter. Be sure to run tests on all of the major browsers (Internet Explorer 7 & 8, Firefox, and Safari). What works on one browser may not work on another.

This morning Sage Island CEO and creative director Mike Duncan participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Greater Wilmington Business Journal on leveraging the power of the Internet for business. More than 500 community members and business leaders attended. Mike and the five other panel members — including Chip Mahan, president of Live Oak Bank; Brett Martin, president of Castle Branch; Fred Meyers, president of Queensboro Shirt Company; Justin Queen, president of Blu Zeus Interactive; and Debbie Elliott, president of Talk Inc. — answered questions from the audience about online marketing and social media.

For those of you who couldn’t attend the event, here are the CliffsNotes:

Talk to your customers, not at them.

Social media has changed a lot about the way that businesses market themselves online and offline. But most of those changes can be summed up with one simple idea: the practice of talking at your customers through your marketing has been replaced by conversation. Talk to them through social media, blogs, and other interactive sources. The conversation is happening with or without you. Your customers are probably already talking about your business, reviewing your services, and recommending you (or complaining) online. By participating in the conversation, you’ll build a stronger relationship with your customers and put yourself in a better position to control your brand.

User generated content is the new king.

According to a recent Forrester survey on how technology decision makers in business utilize social media during the buying process, 69 percent of the 1,200 respondents “read blogs, forums and reviews, keep track of podcasts, and watch video from other users” before making purchasing decisions. People trust these sources, because this content is coming from users just like them.

Becoming a participant in blogs, forums, and review communities where your customers are likely to partipate can help stimulate conversation. Seek opinions about your business and your services, and listen carefully to what they’re saying about you. Monitoring the conversation allows you to respond quickly to complaints and make the situation right with the customer — and potential customers who may see the negative review. But remember, transparency is essential. Be clear about who you are, and seek engagement with your customers honestly.

In social media, you are your business.

In order to succeed at social media, it’s essential that you put a human face on your company. People talk to people. Be prepared to get personally involved in your social media campaigns. It’s important to remember, though, that you’re representing your business. Don’t get too caught up in the personal aspect of social media. Many users have gotten into trouble for various degrees of oversharing. Think carefully before you post anything, and remember that the Internet is forever. Would you shout it or share it in front of a roomful of people at a professional networking event? If the answer is no, then don’t post it on your social media profile.

Adapt early for maximum benefit.

By the time an online marketing method has gone mainstream, it’s already old news. Early adapters reap the most benefit from new methods, because they have more time to learn about it and test new ideas. By the time it reaches the mainstream, the early adapters are already pros with a solid grasp of how best to utilize the latest technology. Stay up to date with new ideas, work with interactive marketing professionals who can guide you in new technology, and stay ahead of the curve.

Be innovative.

Mike Duncan closed the panel discussion with a word of advice: “Be innovative.” The world of online marketing is changing so rapidly that there’s no telling where it will go next. If you want to stay ahead, you have to be open to new ideas and willing to try new things. Emerging technologies and interactive marketing methods may seem foreign, but marketing hasn’t changed. The tools are just a little different now. It’s impossible to predict where online marketing will go next, so the best way to stay ahead of the game is to be ready for anything.

Have you seen the new Skittles website? Whoa. Talk about embracing social media.

The homepage lands you on the Twitter search stream for Skittles. Anytime a Twitter user mentions the word “skittles” in an update, it will show up on the homepage.

The navigation is a simple widget that directs users to Skittles’ YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook pages. When you click on a specific product, you’re redirected to the Wikipedia entry for individual Skittles products.

The new site is essentially an aggregator of all Skittles’ social media channels. It’s a great idea, and it’s certainly paid off this morning. Everyone is talking about it, and the Twitter stream is full of commentary on the new site and great press. For now.

But what happens when the chatter dies down? I applaud Skittles’ willingness to open themselves up to consumers this way, and for right now it’s working, but what happens when the Skittles Twitter updates become more sporadic? Will the Twitter stream homepage remain relevant? What will happen to the site when the novelty wears off?

I guess we’ll find out. For now, I’m enjoying the experiment. An approach this extreme may not work in the long term, but Twitter has earned some invaluable publicity for their bold move and hopefully cleared the way for more brands to integrate social media into their websites.

Regardless of how well the strategy works long term, we can definitely learn something from them about cohesive branding across multiple social media channels. Each profile fits together as part of a whole to create an identity for Skittles on the Web, which is how all social media profiles for a brand should work. Skittles has just taken it one step further by linking them directly to their website.

This week, Tropicana made waves with the swift failure of a massive rebranding effort.

PepsiCo, owners the well established Tropicana brand, sought to capitalize on the economic downturn through marketing. They hired New York ad agency Arnell to implement a complete redesign of the Tropicana logo and packaging. Arnell is also responsible for the recent Pepsi logo revamp, which was criticized for its striking resemblance to Barack Obama’s campaign logo.

The$35 million rebranding effort backfired big time. Fiercely loyal customers fired off angry emails and blog rants complaining about the new packaging. PepsiCo and Tropicana quickly announced that the old, familiar packaging will return to the shelves by next month.

So what happened? According to the New York Times assessment of the debacle, social media factored into the equation in a big way:

Such attention is becoming increasingly common as interactive technologies enable consumers to rapidly convey opinions to marketers.

“You used to wait to go to the water cooler or a cocktail party to talk over something,” said Richard Laermer, chief executive at RLM Public Relations in New York.

“Now, every minute is a cocktail party,” he added. “You write an e-mail and in an hour, you’ve got a fan base agreeing with you.”

That ability to share brickbats or bouquets with other consumers is important because it facilitates the formation of ad hoc groups, more likely to be listened to than individuals.

The Tropicana debacle is reminiscent to the “Motrin Moms” disaster last November. Angry moms took to Twitter to complain about a Motrin ad campaign that offended them. Within 48 hours, Motrin executives had publicly apologized and scrapped the expensive campaign.

What could Tropicana have done differently to successfully rebrand without throwing their most loyal customers into an uproar? If they had used social media to involve their most loyal customers in the process, it would have been a powerful tool in their rebranding process. Instead social media worked against them as customers joined forces to increase the fallout.

What if they had given customers a vote on the new packaging? They would have enjoyed the benefit of months of publicity leading up to the unveiling. Most importantly, they wouldn’t have faced the bad press, the outrage of their loyal customers, or the cost of undoing the $35 million rebranding campaign.

Marketers can learn a valuable lesson from Tropicana’s mistake. Social media has forever changed the way that consumers interact with brands and marketing tactics. If you don’t converse with your customers, it could cost you.