Twitter Chat with A.J. Ghergich @SEO on Running a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) #VCBuzz

Post on by VC Bee

twchat-ajThis week we have a very specific topic to discuss: Being in the spotlight of Reddit Ask Me Anything section. It’s no secret it looks like an awesome personal branding tool!

So we asked our today’s guest, A.J. Ghergich @SEO, who did great with his Reddit AMA session to share his experience today!

**To join us please sign in here -> Twchat.com/hashtag/vcbuzz

About A.J.

A.J. Ghergich, founder of Ghergich & Co. He has been in SEO industry since 2004. Having founded a few successful companies, A.J. has lots of experience and wisdom to share with us!

Questions we discussed:

First two questions are about A.J. and his SEO career..

Q1 How did you get into SEO and Internet Marketing Industry?

I pretty much started in college. While I was earning my BFA in Digital Art I fell in love with the marketing of websites more than the making of websites. Back around 2002/2003 I started reading anything SEO related I could get my hands on and asking a million annoying questions. However, the most important thing I did during this period was TEST what I read for myself. I always advise anyone new to SEO to read a lot but test and implement MORE! You will learn twice as much by DOING SEO than by reading about SEO

Q2 Ok, I know how you got this cool Twitter handle (you just asked Twitter support team if you can have it :)). So I won’t be a 1001st person to ask about that… But I have more questions about that:

Q2a Was changing the username hard? What did you do with the older one?

It was very seamless to switch. My entire account was ported over along with tweets, followers etc. I stupidly waited a day to try and register my old account name and someone already took it. That was my bad though.

Q2b Do you feel “SEO” word is under attack nowadays (Ann is always asked if she needs to drop “SEO” from “@SEOsmarty” for example). What are your thoughts / plans?

SEO is under attack but that’s fine. Let the so-called “SEO” experts flee to their new shiny titles. We won’t miss you! Those who stay and continue to embrace SEO will have a bigger say in how it evolves and how SEO is perceived in the future.

Q3 Ok, now to the main topic of our chat: Reddit AMA. First, how does it work?

You pretty much open yourself up to a million questions from strangers. What could go wrong? At first it is scary but it becomes fun once you get into a rhythm.

Q4 Best advice for the person who wants to try it out being in the spotlight? Is it hard to go “hot” there? Were you promoting yours or did it just happen naturally?

  • AMA Tip 1: Clear your schedule! An AMA is going to take up WAY more time than you think it will.
  • AMA Tip 2: Your 1st post should be to prove who you are. If you don’t people will ask you to prove it. A tweet from you linking to the chat usually is enough.
  • AMA Tip 3: Answer every question someone asks you. This seems simple but I see a lot of AMA’s with very thin response rates.  If you are not down to answer a ton of questions, don’t do an AMA ?
  • AMA Tip 4: Know how Reddit formatting works. reddittext.com is a great start. Also Reddit: A Beginner’s Guide is a decent primer. When I first started answering I panicked because I realized I had no idea how to make a link in a comment.
  • AMA Tip 5: I highly suggest grabbing redditenhancementsuite.com it will really help you monitor replies and messages.
  • AMA Tip 6: Reddit values AUTHENTICITY. People are going to ask you personal questions. Try to be as REAL as possible.
  • AMA Tip 7: Promote your AMA. I personally reached out to 15 high level influencers & asked them to participate or share. Once activity started showing up I emailed my mailing list and invited them to join in the discussion.

If I do an AMA again I will be more aggressive with outreach. Since this was my fist one I was frankly a little nervous to promote it too loudly.

Q5 What were your personal results? Do you think it was worth your time?

I was actually shocked to receive 6 or 7 quality leads from my AMA. Something I did not expect at all.  A few of those leads have turned into clients so the ROI was pretty impressive & unexpected.

I also made some really nice industry connections, which I value as much as the leads/clients. So yes I would do it again in a heartbeat.

WHY did you decide to give it a try in the first place: inspired by someone? Or just a random idea?

I was actually contacted to do it…I almost didn’t but then I thought what the hell…glad I did. I was worried it would devolve into an SEO is evil discussion but really it did not. People just wanted advice.

 

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