Who is the extreme kings here, or how do they become internet marketers?

Nowadays, the concept of a career becomes decisive in the professional field. In order to feel confident, we need to clearly realize at what stage of the career ladder we are standing and which posts are highlighted in perspective - if this is not the case, there is a feeling of a dead end. Accordingly, for your own peace of mind, any specialist should be guided in the professional network of which he is a part. Today we will talk about the career landscape of SEO-optimizers.

SEO specialists do not accidentally receive the title of "human orchestra": their field of activity is extremely wide and diverse. And each of its individual elements can, if desired, be turned into a career opportunity - say, go into copywriting or full-time layout. However, for someone who wants to remain a generalist and use all the accumulated skills, there is only one way - to internet marketers. Opinions about how exactly these two professions relate differ in the web space: some do not see any difference between them, others do no connection. In this article I want to dwell on this topic in detail, to outline the essence of each of the specialties and, based on personal experience, to outline how the process of becoming an internet marketer based on an SEO specialist takes place.

To begin, we define the terms.
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An internet marketer is a specialist who promotes a brand on the Internet using all aspects of traditional marketing in order to get the maximum effect from the potential audience of the site.

An SEO optimizer is a specialist optimizing network resources for search engine queries in order to attract maximum traffic and convert it into sales.

What do we see by comparing these two definitions? There is a lot in common: here and there we are talking about popularizing the product on the Web and the ultimate goal is sales. The profession of SEO-optimizer implies more specifics in the methods: in website promotion, the emphasis is on search engine optimization. An internet marketer operates with a wider arsenal of tools to perform global tasks and relies more on business strategies. There is a difference. But this does not mean that we should perceive employees in the field of SEO as narrow specialists, locked in a few tasks, and Internet marketers as the “white bone” of web promotion experts who deal exclusively with abstractions. In fact, these two areas are not just adjacent, they practically flow into each other. Moreover, it is impossible to achieve a good level in SEO without having to advance in web marketing (and vice versa, but more on that later).

I will rush ahead and make a reservation right away so as not to cause a wave of indignation: I do not lead to what is possible, without having noticed it myself, inadvertently become an internet marketer. If you want to move in this direction, you have to make targeted efforts anyway: after all, SEO promotion is only part of Internet marketing. It’s more about how these two professions overlap and how the experience of performing SEO tasks sets the stage for your career growth. Let's see what internet marketing skills you may have already mastered.

1. Management and SMM
Now the maintenance of pages in social networks can be considered part of the standard package of services that are expected from the optimizer. In vacancies, SEO and SMM are indicated, if not separated by a comma, then in adjacent points. From one side it is logical (the goal is to attract traffic - these directions coincide), from some - not quite (in fact, these are two diverse types of activities, each of which requires specific knowledge and talents), but in a long-term career perspective - quite profitable. Working with social networks by definition implies a comprehensive, analytical approach and provides an opportunity to work out the skills of Internet marketing in a kind of sandbox. You have a target audience with which you need to interact effectively, you need a coherent, thoughtful concept based on global trends, and a clear idea of ​​exactly how you want to present your brand. What is especially valuable is that you are most likely doing all this yourself; at least, I have not met SMMs who would receive detailed instructions from above on any little things - only general recommendations and criticism. So appreciate this part of your work. In the summary it, of course, you will not specify, but it is any training project.

2. Web analytics and critical thinking
Anyone more or less savvy SEO-specialist at least once in his life mentally exclaimed: "But others do it somehow!" And opened Google. At the same time, many did not even suspect that this is exactly how the whole web analyst begins. If you show the slightest curiosity, try to monitor your niche, compare the site entrusted to you with the competitive ones and evaluate them in relation to them - you can assume that you have already mastered the initial level. If you have already formed your own list of usability criteria, which is periodically updated to reflect new trends, even more so.



3. Project supervision and project involvement
One of the unpleasant features of the profession of SEO-specialist is that the boundaries of his powers and responsibilities are blurred. On the one hand, it is the optimizer that is responsible for the site as an end product: does it correspond to user requests, or will it pay for the resources spent. On the other hand, many aspects that affect the success of the project in the long term - layout, design - are engaged in other team members. Simply put, the optimizer is often forced to interfere in someone else's work, since its results affect its own tasks in the most direct way. A good SEO specialist makes a conclusion from this: for a meaningful dialogue, you need to understand the essence of everything that happens on the site at least at the most basic level. Few people bury their heads in codes — there is simply no time left for such self-development — but at least picking up the tops in various adjacent areas is quite real. This is not only useful for the outlook, but in principle helps to look at the project in a different way, from the position of the curator - the ability, without which the Internet marketer can not do.

4. Promotion and external PR
The company's image is shaped not only by the directed efforts of the PR team. It consists of a huge number of components, many of which at first glance seem trivial. In particular, such components include practically everything that we put into the concept of promotion. The tasks of SEO and SMM are to bring the product to the widest possible range of users - in other words, they imply direct communication with the user. And naturally, how widely, creatively, appropriately and successfully the product is popularized cannot but affect the image of the company, which is formed by the users. To take care of all this, to think carefully, and what impression this or that action will have on the user is not a PR campaign, but something close.

5. Theory and practice
Above it was said that Internet marketers should not be perceived as specialists in working with abstractions. Recently, this recommendation is increasingly addressed to the marketers themselves: speculativeness and irrelevance have become a real scourge of the profession. Too many experts believe that in order to build and implement the concept, it is enough to master the tools, not too delving into the material itself and all the stages it goes through, transforming into the final product. Naturally, in this case there is no question of any effective management.
The SEO specialist has an advantage in this respect: he is so immersed in the product that, with all the desire, he cannot abstract from it. It is more likely that the bias in the opposite direction is dangerous - naked pragmatics without a theoretical basis - but as we found out in the previous paragraphs, this is a rare case in modern realities, when optimizers are loaded to the maximum. So keep in mind: you have a good practical base that many experts have to feverishly turn out in the process.

So what do we end up with? To the fact that the SEO-optimizer, faithfully performing their duties, really immersed in the process and working on the end result, willy-nilly, begins to move into the field of Internet marketing. Career hierarchy in the field of promotion actually looks like an "SEO-specialist>> good SEO-specialist> Internet marketer". So believe in your strength and rise above your own level - then it will be much easier to climb the career ladder. I can speak about this with confidence, since the whole year has passed the whole chain. In connection with the restructuring of the company, our team of seven people, which was primarily engaged in SEO-optimization, gradually began to impose additional responsibilities - first analytics and monitoring, then PR campaigns. Questions and doubts, of course, arose, but at no stage of this process did I have a feeling that we had gone beyond the boundaries of our field. Everything that we had to learn along the way, we have already somehow affected the optimization, although, of course, more superficially. I would advise ambitious colleagues who already see themselves as internet marketers to tune in first of all to the leap in duties and responsibilities and not to worry too much about the gain of knowledge - it happens more or less organically. Good luck in all kinds of promotion!