SEO and social media campaigns – Philippines
As part of strengthening the service delivery of the Philippines Business Support Organization Philexport Cebu, we implemented a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social media campaign with the Philexport team.
We started in the 3rd quarter of 2009 with setting up a Facebook Page, Twitter page and YouTube channel together with process descriptions on the effective and integrated use of the social media. At the same time, we also worked on a SEO program. Apart from including the proper tags, improving link popularity, content and submission to popular directories, we also converted the dynamically generated URLS with query strings into Search Engine Friendly (SEF) URLs. Within a few months, site traffic increased by around 50% and listings in Google improved superbly.
As an example, if you search in Google on e.g. ‘export services cebu’, the BSO will be listed number 1. Search on ‘cebu eporters’: number 1. Try ‘Philippine export coaching’….. You guessed it. Now if you search on ‘market highlights philippines’, the Facebook page of the organization is listed number 1…. (note: the search engine result page listings were measured monthly in thefirst quarter 2010). A case that demonstrates that SEO and Social Media campaigning can definitely pay off.
Leave a Comment March 18, 2010
It has become a world-wide phenomenon: Breakfast meetings. We see very successful cases from Norway in the North to Argentina in the South. In some countries it takes the shape of a lunch meeting or tea or coffee meeting. But the concept is similar: Snappy events in which key information is exchanged and networks are fostered, in a social and informal gathering. In a fast world, where time has become one of the most precious resources and information flows continue to flood the receivers, the short breakfast meetings are a welcome solution to many businessmen. For business support organisations it provides an ideal platform for cross selling and soft selling of value added services.
Philexport Cebu, successfully set-up an export training and coaching centre. The ETCC as it is dubbed, is managed by Philexport while the coaching and training activities are conducted by CBI trained local experts. The local experts tender for assignments and are committed to a code of conduct. A considerable number of the trainers and coaches is regularly active in the field of conducting market research for individual companies and organizations, strategizing for the export sectors, conducting value chain analyses and conducting training on total quality management, and export marketing management. Among the clients are governmental bodies, individual companies, sector associations and international organizations. More information can be found at: 
The Instituto Boliviano de Comercio Exterior (IBCE) has introduced a “Friends of IBCE” loyalty programme. The objective is to generate a sustainable revenue stream from a core group of members, providing them premium, value added services for free or at discounted rates, against a fixed annual membership fee.
Social media are top of mind with marketers in the private sector. So why not with business support organisations (BSOs)? Some of the leading trade promotion organisations in the world, like the United Kingdom Trade and Investment organisation have actually started campaigns with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. And, looking at the number of fans, followers and views, in a successful way. Recently, we also started to use these social media with BSOs in developing countries like the Philippines and Bolivia. 
Philexport Cebu has successfully launched a Market Intelligence service including customized alerting by email and SMS. The service, dubbed iSearch, operates on a sustainable basis, since it has been launched as a value added service for which membership dues have slightly increased. The increase in membership dues allowed the organisation to attract an experienced market researcher to provide the new service.