SEO Meet SMM (Social Media Marketing) was the most information-dense seminar that I attended at SMX Advanced, a multi-day conference geared for advanced web marketing professionals. As a result, it has taken a while to view my footage and pick out all of the best tips to share with you. The SEO Meet SMM seminar was paneled with an all-star cast of Rand Fishkin, Neil Patel and Cindy Krum. Between these three incredibly bright people, and my own experience and research I have put together this whitepaper on how to use social media marketing (SMM) to your advantage. I believe this is the most current (timely), accurate and cutting edge information available for those who want to start marketing in this field.
The Concept Social media marketing is a method of promoting your brand (be it yourself, a product, a service, or a company) by strategically making your presence known across various social media networks (such as Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Myspace, etc). This may seem overly elementary but “making yourself known” is the kicker because each category of social media has a different, sometimes intricate method for effective promotion.
Business from Social Marketing is Indirect A key concept to social marketing is that it is not designed to immediately provide business but instead it provides the visibility your brand needs to ultimately convert fans into buyers. I often get clients saying “I don’t think being on MySpace will sell anything”. The truth is that often they are correct. Having a commercial presence on MySpace that provides great content and interesting free tools (aka. widgets) serves to raise the awareness of your brand so that users remember your service for later and/or provides you with a podium to share the benefits of your brand. In short, it is important not to forget this essential concept: social media marketing drives brand awareness which later translates into sales.
Social Media Categories and Associated Strategies Here is an introduction to the various top portals segregated into their appropriate categories and mated with a recommended strategy. Please keep in mind the following is only a partial listing of some social media sites. If you want a more comprehensive (but unorganized) list check out this list of web 2.0 sites which includes social media properties (very extensive list).
I have organized Social Media Marketing into the following categories or themes:
A) Social Networking Sites The following social networking sites experience a volume of activity unrivaled in the social media marketplace. These sites provide it all; personal blogs, videos, music, classifieds, mail, and much, much more.
MySpace: this site offers the widest variety of tools and social networking capabilities.
Facebook: great for connecting with old classmates and creating a personal profile.
Associated Marketing Strategy Each of these sites allow you to create a powerfully diverse and engaging web presence complete with photos, articles, and bookmarks. MySpace even provides the ability to ‘skin’ your profile! In other words you can actually brand it to make it totally unique; a powerful marketing capability (To view a great example see Starbuck’s MySpace account). Assuming the site is already done it is best to then start linking to the site from key areas of the Internet so the search engines will have no problem finding and indexing it. You can do this by linking to it from a social media section of your website; a section that I believe will be part of the status quo structure (as ubiquitous as the About Page) of all new websites in the near future.
I have been hard at work writing a white paper that we will be releasing today on do it yourself social media marketing. As a result, my blogs have been rather infrequent - my apologies. Here, however, is a quick list of some of the articles that have piqued my interest over this past week and I expect you will find worthy of a read as well:
Rand Fishkin posted a hair-raising live example of the repercussions of a Google penalty on a real estate agent that had been using manipulative linking practices.
Facebook is acquiring widget startups in a manner that is very Google-esque and Josh Catone of Read/Write Web wrote a great article discussing the virtual 'Facebook Economy'.
Lastly her is an interesting interview with Eric Peterson, web analytics guru. Note the background noise is a little annoying.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 9:08 AM
The big search engines are spending money like crazy these days. From the many new multi-billion dollar acquisitions taking place over the past several months, to the second $600 Million data centers under construction by Google.
Microsoft is also expanding further with a 6000 employee research and development center currently under way in Shanghai according to Forbes.
The new center will be located southwest of Shanghai in Zizhu Industrial Park expected to open later this year. This will be the largest of Microsoft’s R&D facilities. The focus of this center will evolve around server, data management, and Windows Live services.
Back in January of this year Microsoft also announced the construction of a $550 million data center in San Antonio TX expected to open late 2008, early 2009.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 9:07 AM
The spring of 2009 will see the grand opening of a new $600 million data center for Google in Council Bluffs Iowa. News was announced yesterday by Gov. Chet Culver and Google in Council Bluffs.
This announcement comes just 6 weeks after an announcement for a $600 million data center in Pryor Creek OK, expected to open a year sooner in Spring of 2008.
Three parcels of land totaling 1185 acres will be used to house the massive project including two facilities, and once completed it is estimated that Google will employ 200 workers at the new location.
With all these new expansions one must wonder, is Google simply beefing up its current infrastructure, or are there plans for something bigger in the future? Only time will tell.
Written by Scott Van Achte and published at 9:05 AM
According to the Globe and Mail, Microsoft has taken a step back and will now allow for third party search applications to be used in the new Windows Vista operating system.
Microsoft’s decision came a week before a government review of Microsoft’s 2002 antitrust settlement compliance demanding the use of such third party apps.
All of this comes after Google’s 49 page document was filed back in April with the Justice Department. Google’s antitrust complaint stemmed from Vista’s built in desktop search tool causing Google’s free desktop search to run slowly, and that it was very difficult for a user to turn off, or replace Microsoft’s desktop search.
"Microsoft's current approach to Vista desktop search clearly violates the consent decree and limits consumer choice," said David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer. "These remedies are a step in the right direction, but they should be improved further to give consumers greater access to alternate desktop search providers."
Upon release of the first service pack, expected late this year, Vista users will be able to view links to other possible default search applications including Google’s Desktop Search.
A company by the name of CambrianHouse got some free press by getting 1000 pizzas to Google employees on the Google campus - bypassing security. So it looks like CambrianHouse has set the bar on outrageous press stunts in the social media industry. Now... I wonder who will try to one-up them? I look forward to finding out. Check out this video, it is a bit long but a lot of fun.
In the first week of June Google launched a program called "Google Gears" that expands the already impressive capabilities of Google Reader (Google's free news reader) to allow offline viewing. Here is a quote from Google's related blog posting:
"Now, you can read these updates whether you're on or offline. It's easy to read today's financial news from the New York Times on the train, or catch up on your favorite blog while on a plane 35,000 ft. above the Atlantic.
Once you've installed Google Gears, you can download your latest 2,000 items so they're available even when you don't have an Internet connection."
I can't believe I missed this piece of news. I am an avid user of this program but I have always found it sad that I couldn't use it without an Internet connection... now we all can. Great work Google!!
What is Google Gears? Google Gears is a new open source browser extension that allows developers to create web applications that also extend to offline use. Gears provides three key features according to the Google Gears FAQ:
A local server, to cache and serve application resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, etc.) without needing to contact a server
A database, to store and access data from within the browser
A worker thread pool, to make web applications more responsive by performing expensive operations in the background
Above that description the details are beyond me but more information is available here. It definitely sounds like a very useful initiative.
PS. they note within the blog post that because this is a developer release there are likely to be some bugs in the short term.
At the moment the roll out will provide each site with localized (country-specific) content such as featured videos, director videos, and promotions. Over time each site will feature more and more localized content as each site draws in more active participants.
This update is seen as both a necessary move from a growth perspective (why not expand into different languages?!) as well as a competitive one; some countries have their own rival brand of localized video sharing sites that, over time, could jeopardize YouTube's entry potential if it doesn't get its foot in the door immediately.
This week the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog announced an addition to Google's spam reporting form for people to report sites that appear to be buying paid links in order to influence search engine rankings. This addition ties in with Matt Cutt's none-too-subtle warning at a recent SMX Advanced interview with Danny Sullivan. Matt essentially reinforced to the audience that buying links is against Google's guidelines and that those who are buying links may feel the heat soon as Google tries to patch this chink in its armor (see the video below).
Does this Mean Buying Links Has Become Too Dangerous? I expect Google will follow through on its threats to take a more forceful approach against buying links but at the same time I am betting that buying links won't be gone anytime soon. After all, buying links is not JUST used by companies to garner link popularity. The fact is that some buy paid links for the clickthrough traffic and Google must be careful not to penalize anyone for that. Google's point of view on legitimate link buying is that such links should have a nofollow attribute on them or the landing page should be blocked from robots.
What Might Google Do? I am no mind reader but I see two approaches that Google can take here:
Shock the Community - The Strong Arm Approach: Google could tweak its algorithm to penalize any website with purchased links that clearly don't conform to guidelines (i.e. no 'nofollow' tag). In this scenario Google would have to find some way to identify paid links as accurately as possible before checking them for guideline conformity. One manner would be to look for links found alone within tables or cells that specify "Sponsored Links" (or other phrases with the same connotation). The resulting Internet-wide impact would shake up the community enough that paid links would get some seriously negative press and many who profit from this field would feel the hit. The end result of this action would be an immense Floridian backlash on Google - but the Google Guidelines for paid links would be more likely to get some respect in the short term.
Be SMART and Just Negate Links: If Google wanted to soft-slap paid link abusers they would simply negate the benefit of the links. For example, they could start by identifying the most obvious paid links and literally ignore their weight. The resulting drop in rankings for sites that have depended entirely on paid links would be practically equivalent to removing them from the index; their rankings would plummet.
All in all I can only hope that Google chooses #2 but knowing the ego that is Google they will combine the two approaches and make an example out of a few companies. Sad yes, but it rings true to me. I would certainly not want to be investing in any link brokerage company startups any time soon.
How to Minimize Paid Link Risk If you have to buy links then be sure that your links are not all using the exact same link and descriptive text. In fact, I highly recommend working with your paid link vendor to implement a rotation script that switches the content of your paid link(s) on every page reload. In addition it would be best if the link vendor did not blatantly identify your link as paid by placing it in a "Sponsored" table or cell within the layout.
If you want to be completely safe then I recommend requesting a nofollow tag be added to your backlinks ASAP. After all, following Google's guidelines is always the safest approach. On the bright side, if paid links become devalued then many people will be pushed toward making better content that naturally generates backlinks which is never a bad thing.
The SMX Advanced conference was jam-packed with info that I know many site owners and webmasters who could not make the show are dying to see. There have been a large number of summaries published from other attendees including those who blogged in real time; great resources for truly detailed reports. In my case, I want to provide StepForth readers with a concise list of the news and tips that really stood out from the rest. In part one of the SMX Advanced summary I discussed duplicate content issues and some other tips that I felt deserved immediate attention. In part two, I will tackle tips for efficient marketing and search engine optimization and a list of the top SEO tools including my own favorites.
Tips for Efficient Marketing and Search Engine Optimization I loved this seminar! There was a whole host of SEOs on the panel that I really respect and it is always great to hear about new tips for speeding up the process of SEO – or at least to make the work more accurate. Here are some of the tips supplemented slightly with my own feedback.
Cost Effective Promotions: Socially promote your website and build links using interns. It is a great way to affordably promote a company and train potential long-term employees. After all, the interns will get to know your brand very well and become extremely familiar with the social marketing avenues.
Accurate Keyword Analysis: Where accuracy is absolutely vital (most cases), when conducting keyword analysis you should check to make certain that your keyword data is consistent across multiple research tools such as Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, Yahoo Keyword Suggestion Tool, MSN Adlabs, Google Adwords Keyword Tool, etc. This is especially important when you are suspicious of the keyword order from a specific provider. Note that MSN Adlabs was a tip within itself at the conference; it offers a wonderful toolset! (Google please copy this!).
Write Headlines that Work: One of the presenters (I think it was Danny Sullivan) recommended reading an excellent article by the New York Times called “This Boring Headline is Written for Google” which gives valuable insight into how headlines that work in print and on web differ so greatly. Here is an excerpt that sets the tone of the article: "Part of the craft of journalism for more than a century has been to think up clever titles and headlines, and Google comes along and says, 'The heck with that,' “observed Ed Canale, vice president for strategy and new media at The Sacramento Bee.
Go Google Local or You’re Loco: Getting a free local listing with Google should be a no-brainer for everyone because it can provide your company with a free listing above all other organic listings. For example, just type in “Victoria BC tours” on Google and you will see the first 3 rankings are local. These rankings were free and I am sure have paid off immensely by usurping the official organic rankings by 3 crucial positions. For more info learn how to add your company for free in Google Local.
Excellent SEO & SMM Research Tools The SEO panel provided a few examples of the great widgets and applications they use to make their life easier. Here are a few, including my own favorites:
SERPH: track the ‘buzz’ of yourself and your competitors using this handy social search tool
XENU Link Sleuth: a popular tool for many SEOs, XENU can quickly analyze your own or a competitor’s site.
Groowe Search Toolbar: install this toolbar and you will have access to at least 10 search engine bars within one application.
Note: Here is where the SMX tips stop and my personal recommendations begin.
Compete: this great free tool can provide a statistical comparison of up to 5 different websites. Excellent for competitor analysis.
Alexa: Alexa is the granddaddy of sources for competitor analysis data. Check out your own website’s profile and see where it stands in comparison to your competitors.
WWW or Not?: Is link popularity split between two versions of a domain name (i.e. http://domain.com vs http://www.domain.com)? If so, this tool will tell you. This is valuable if you want to see if your own website has extra link popularity sitting on the sidelines from other sites that have linked to the ‘wrong’ address. Learn how to fix this situation for your website.
PR Prowler: although PageRank is not nearly as transparent as it once was PR Prowler is serves as a helpful method for finding the best sites to get links from or to advertise on.
Check Server Headers Tool: although slightly technical this tool, provided free by SEOConsultants.com provides valuable insight into the setup of yours or your competitor’s servers. For example, StepForth uses this tool to verify that our clients have properly set up their server redirects (301’s) so that duplicate content issues are avoided. It is also used extensively within our competitor analysis reports; it is useful to see how your competitors might have an edge over you.
DomainTools.com: Domain Tools is one of my favorite sites for competitor analysis. The most useful component, the Reverse IP Tool, allows me to plunk in a single competitor’s domain and then see every other website that is hosted on its server. In rare instances where the co-hosted domains are owned by the competitor I can get a hint at any future marketing plans my clients should be made aware of.
Robots.txt Syntax Checker: There is nothing worse than making an error in a Robots.txt file and accidentally dropping a site out of the search engines. The free Robots.txt checker will review your Robots.txt file; ensuring it is properly created and it will provide you with the rules within the file in plain language to ensure everything meets your approval. This is a valuable tool for avoiding serious indexing issues.
All of these tools are listed on my Recommended SEO Tools page for future reference.
More to Come! I can’t believe how much info I have to write about from SMX and the latest related news! As I write down more information about SMX I come up with my own ideas and comments so this series is going to span at least one more article. I hope you are enjoying it. Next we will discuss Social Media Marketing.
I have long been a fan of Google Earth because I find it so thrilling to see the world from my desktop. It is especially cool that with a flick of my mouse I can zoom right in to my neighborhood. Unfortunately Google Earth's resolution has been getting a bit too clear for comfort for some users.
The picture on the right is that of a cat called Monty, sitting on a perch in his window. This image was found by Monty's owner by using a new zoom function on Google Earth called StreetView which allows a 360 degree, street-level view of an area. Needless to say this has Monty's owner a little creeped out.
Here are some related articles that are likely to make your hair stand on end:
Google Product Manager Vanessa Fox posted her notes from the Duplicate Content Summit at SMX Advanced. She discusses some of the recommendations from the audience members and some of the questions and answers from the audience. It is worth a read if even just want to reassure yourself with words from a bonafide Googler.
The details have yet to be released but on June 5th Google reportedly acquired PeakStream Inc.; a firm that appears to specialize in leveraging the power of software on next generation computers.
Google is tight-lipped about the actual size of its monolithic computer network but as you might imagine Google just can't get enough computing power for its lofty aspirations. I did a little digging and it appears that PeakStream has had at least one pretty amazing breakthrough as of late which might have 'peaked' Google's interest.
On June 7th the San Francisco Chronicle published an article about the growing privacy concerns related to the planned Google and DoubleClick merger. According to the article a coalition of privacy groups have requested that federal regulators "prohibit the merged companies from compiling detailed dossiers about users' online behavior."
It would be a rare case for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to consider privacy implications when ruling on the merger (since they usually deal with fair trade concerns) but this precedent may be worthwhile due to the considerable personal dossiers expected to be combined by the two companies.
How Big is Too Big? One question is ever present in my mind when considering Google's continued acquisitions spree - at what threshold does a company get so big that government involvements (i.e. regulation) is unavoidable? I don't like the idea of any part of the Internet being regulated but if Google keeps this growth up, at some point it will call this unfortunate reality upon itself. For all I know Google's immense growth may provide the various governments with exactly the excuse they need to get involved and muddle it all up in bureaucracy. Am I being alarmist? Perhaps, but it really doesn't seem all that far-fetched to me.
Reading Tip! Here is my favorite Google article from Business Week which I highly recommend everyone read: "Is Google Too Powerful?" (released in April, 2007)
Akamai, which claims to route 20% of the Internet's traffic through its platform, has used this data to create a very interesting real-time view of Internet usage for news, retail, and music. What I found most intriguing was another report that shows real-time Internet usage data; just drag a viewing box over specific sections of the world to see where the most Internet usage is occurring. It is interesting how these statistics mirror the regional traffic statistics for many of StepForth's clientele.
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Y! MyWeb
I have long been a fan of 