The 2014 Grammys came and went last night. On top of great performances like “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk, Stevie Wonder, Pharrell Williams, and Nile Rodgers, the Grammys led this writer to ask, “How many great songs and/or artists went unnoticed this year?” What newly discovered songs and artists will the Grammys celebrate next year?
Discovery is an incredible emotional experience that binds people to that moment and leads them to share the experience with others. I love the moment when I discover something new, whether it‘s a song, a new hobby, an inspiring book, or, yes, an exceptional product or service. I remembered it vividly and tell my friends and family.
As much as we like to discover, people and businesses enjoy being discovered just as much or even more. It’s not a narcissistic thing but validation. Everyone knows that in the digital age that it’s cheaper and easier to be discovered. But how can your harness that potential and get your business discovered, shared and celebrated.
There’s no magic bullet of course, but for all the content online, search queries center on the topic de jour, or even hour. This leads us to a simple, yet very effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategy—cover to discover—that is building off what internet users and already looking for.
(Writer’s Aside: I did not coin the term cover to discover, although I wish I had. It’s catchy. I did and do utilize a similar method.)
Aspiring musicians and businesses need to take note and some are. The following clip from CBS News in Boston highlights Berklee College of Music’s efforts to not only teach students how to play, but how to get discovered using the cover to discover technique.
And as this writer used at a former digital media company (Self-promoting plug: I increased search traffic over 500%), Google Trends is a great tool to know what the hot searches are in real-time. Using that insight, a business blog can tap that potential to immediately increase traffic.
I must mention one vital caveat, and that’s that your cover to discover content—blog, video, etc.—must somehow actually have a correlation between the cover and what you want discovered. Siphoning traffic using deception page titles and the like has no value.
If you can tie in your service/product in a relevant way to the search query de jour, the visitor is rewarded by, you guessed it, discovering something worthwhile. You too will be rewarded as that person shares the discovery with friends, family, social media networks and on and on.
Call it a symbiotic discovery or, good ‘ole fashion collaboration.
