Well, not all the points mentioned in my last post were covered (a lot were, but we didn’t get to all of them) however a lot of other great stuff was discussed and (in my humble opinion) the night went really well. The following info may not flow perfectly as I’m trying to recollect some of the more interesting/important things before I go to bed and forget.

Questions started with:

Q. Is it better to get links from relevant websites that relate to my business?
A. Most definitely

Q. Is it better to get links from .edu and .gov domains?
A. Yes, when relevant… but even if not entirely relevant, they’re still very good to have. The reason that these types of links are so well trusted is because most .gov and .edu sites just won’t link-out to anyone.

We discussed linking out to authoritive sites as being a good thing.

The topic of ‘no-follow’ links came-up and if you’re really keen on learning more about this (as well as how to use it to sculpt PageRank, have a look at Matt Cutts’ article (for those of you who don’t know this guy, Matt Cutts is the head of Google’s Search Spam devision)… now here’s the article: PageRank sculpting. Also, don’t avoid using forums, blogs or other social media sites that use no-follow because even though they may not pass any linkjuice, the content is often syndicated on other sites that DO follow.

For those wanting to know how to view their own PageRank, it was recommended to try downloading Google’s toolbar.

Also using internal links (ie. links to pages within your own site) can be a great way of maximising keyword-rich anchor text.

If you’re going to have a blog, host it on your own site and don’t use externally hosted blog systems like Blogger or Wordpress.com. Also microsites have their place, but if you really want to get the greatest benefit for all your online efforts, keep everything on your own domain.

On the point of blogging – blogs rank far faster than any other standard website content. This is due to a concept called ‘Query Deserves Freshness‘. To take advantage of this you can blog or keep your general website content fresh (although if you’ve got a site that is ranking well with the current content, it’s better to ADD new pages or content instead of just replacing the old stuff).

While obvious paid links should be avoided, some paid links are beneficial such as links from the Yahoo Directory are helpful and Google actually endorses Yahoo’s services in this instance. Another good directory to be listed with is Dmoz, but make sure you choose the right category to list in and be prepared to wait.

For linkbaiting, there are 5 major hooks that are most commonly used:

- resource
- contrary
- attack
- humour
- news

The example Matt used was SEOmoz’s Web 2.0 awards (a prime example of the resource hook plus an additional hook later mentioned – flattery)… and now they have another link to add to their 6000+ links.

To view some of the more influential links to a site, Andy introduced us to Yahoo’s Site Explorer.

Embedding relevant YouTube vids to your site is yet another way to add flavour and if you’re the one who created the vids you can use this as a technique to have the vid appear in the search results. This is when Andy pulled-up the Will It Blend example. On a side-note, when videos and other items like this are blended into the general search results, this is referred to as Google’s Universal Search.

Flash and splash pages should be avoided because the search engines have trouble reading them, they can be slow to load, cannot be viewed on mobile browsers and in many cases (other than looking kinda cool the first time you look at it) they don’t really give any great value to your customers.

The concept of deep linking was mentioned a few times through out the evening but not really clearly defined – so deep linking basically means getting links to your internal pages as well as links to your homepage. While most links you gain will point to your homepage, getting deeper links pointing to your internal pages will have a much greater impact on your overall SEO performance.

P.O.S.T. method should be used if/when you decide to embrace social media:

People – find the right people to connect with (and then actually communicate and connect with them)
Objectives – decide why you want to use social media and what you want to get out of it
Strategy – prepare a plan of how best to connect with the right people in order to achieve your objects
Technology – then determine the best technology and social media networks make this all happen

My explanations for the POST acronym probably aren’t 100% perfect as Matt explained it far better than I could. Matt also went on to discuss how well Dell use social media and their philosophy that there is no traditional marketing anymore, only adapting marketing. Dell’s many twitter accounts were mentioned along with their site: IdeaStorm.

The night was finished with Andy re-enforcing how crucial it is to have great content, Matt saying that as well as inbound links, you should also ensure your site architecture is perfect to get the greatest value from all the inbound links… and I closed the last question about how you shouldn’t trust SEOs that guarantee top rankings.

Overall it was a brilliant night – lots of really great questions were asked and hopefully we answered them adequately.

If you were at the event and believe I overlooked anything, please let me know via the comments.

Networx Panel – Updated Info on ‘How to win links and influence people’

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When chatting with a friend recently, it made me realise that social media works in a very similar way to a Rube Goldberg Machine.

Before I explain the relationship between the two, it’s important to note a few small things about social media.

From my experience, a lot of businesses don’t quite grasp the concept of social media. Some will create a Facebook page or a Twitter profile and think simply by creating it, they’ve done their part and can cross ’social media’ off their list of things to try… and then they wonder why it doesn’t appear to be working for them.

Then there are the companies that go to the other extreme. The ones that tweet everything that happens from arriving at the office, saying good-morning to the staff, making a coffee, reading emails etc. While they may technically be ‘using’ the social media tools, they aren’t really sharing anything beneficial – and they too will wonder why they aren’t achieving the results they were hoping for.

Every social media platform is different and subsequently requires different approaches to gain the best results, but one commonality between all the social media tools is that you need to connect with others and most importantly, share relevant and useful content that your target audience will be interested in.

Once you find the right mix of information to share and how to best interact with your community (which can take some research, testing and time) you’ll find that your community will start working with (and for) you.

This is where the Rube Goldberg Machine analogy comes into play.

First off, you should set a simple goal. It could be to gain readers for a new company blog you’ve just started or perhaps to promote a particular range of products that you have on sale in your online store or any number of other things.

Now that you know what you want the machine to accomplish, you need to work-out the steps required to get there.

Anyone new to social media often finds that getting the perfect mix of readers/followers/fans can be difficult. The best way to find the perfect mix of followers is to look towards those who are already using social media effectively within your niche. These people shouldn’t be too hard to find as they’ll be the ones sharing the most relevant info, have the most followers, engaging in conversations with others and using the various social media sites on a regular basis.

Befriend these social media celebrities and start interacting with them. When doing this, don’t just say “hi” – share something useful that they may find interesting. Make positive comments and feedback on conversations and use their influence as an opportunity to leverage some exposure of your own. This will take some time and you should try and utilise a range of social media networks to help with the process.

Once you’ve made some connections and you’re starting to establish a social media presence, you need to keep the conversations happening and sharing useful items, but now you can slowly start to promote some of your own work. Don’t plaster your site over every tweet, post and comment you make, and when making reference to your own work, ensure that it’s fitting with the current discussion.

Be sure to keep sharing other items of interest external to your site, keep the conversations flowing and don’t spam people with ongoing shameless self-promotional plugs. If you follow this approach, people will be a lot more accepting of you mentioning your own content allowing you to start focusing on the initial goals that you set.

By this stage, you should have a reasonable amount of trust and respect so that you can start approaching some of those social media celebrities within your niche and asking if they’d be willing to look at some of your work (be it blog posts, specials or other promotions you might be running or anything you think they will find particularly interesting). If the content is good enough and you haven’t been too pushy or annoying, you might be lucky enough to gain some endorsement boosting your exposure even further.

So as you can see, like a Rube Goldberg Machine, it may have taken a number of convoluted and seemingly time consuming steps to achieve some simple results, but the connections you’ll make and exposure received when you finally crack the social media space is most definitely worth it.

Social media has been around for a while now and it just keeps evolving and growing – so what are you waiting for – get your Rube Goldberg Social Media Machine started now.

Social Media – The Rube Goldberg Machine of the Web

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Not online? I hear you thinking… If something isn’t online, then how can it possibly gain me links… and why is a Search Marketing company telling me to do stuff outside of the Interweb?

They say we come in contact with over 3000 product endorsements every day – be it billboards, magazines, radio, TV, etc. Some of these endorsements stick with us, others don’t.

The ones that do stick, are often talked about, blogged about, Twittered, shared on Facebook and throughout all sorts of other social media networks because that’s how we share interesting and relevant information in this crazy, online society we live in.

And it’s not just individual’s sharing this information – the media is really not that different. If something is newsworthy (which in today’s standards could mean anything) it will be mentioned in multiple news sources – radio will quote something from TV, TV will quote newspapers, and inevitably, it will end-up online.

So you’re probably thinking – I know how word-of-mouth and general media works, but how is that going to help me get links?

In its simplest form, a link is really just a citation or recommendation connecting you to the relevant location where you can find more information about a specific topic. So following that logic, link building should be treated no differently to branding.

When building a brand, the aim is to interest people and get them talking. Social media’s most basic definition is ‘people communicating/interacting with each other’ so an offline branding exercise can quite easily turn into an online discussion, and if the offline component was done well, links are sure to follow.

So how can I do this?

One method is getting quoted in a news story and or even issue your own news/press release (which has the benefit of being printed or may lead to getting you quoted in other sources). These types of articles are great to send to local journalists for their offline publications (knowing that many of these have online equivalents) and if they don’t, a topical news story will often be picked-up by other news channels. If that fails, you still have the rights to the articles you’ve written and can quite easily submit them to article/PR websites which is another good way of getting the odd link.

If you do manage to get the odd news article printed, stay in contact with that journalist/publication. If you come-across as being authoritive in your field, when a breaking news article pertaining to your industry goes hot, the journo may call on your expertise to make a comment/statement.

When people see a quote about how “the current economic climate is affecting online marketing trends by Peter Newsome, Search Marketing Director of SiteMost”, they are likely to go searching for this ‘SiteMost’ company and who this character ‘Peter Newsome’ is.

When others make reference to this news item, they’re making reference to you as well. This could result in a link, but even without the link, the offline endorsement has triggered a search to your website – it has driven traffic from someone interested enough in the topic and wants to find-out more.

This is just as (if not more) beneficial than some random link in a blogpost.

So next time you’re thinking about starting an online marketing campaign, don’t forget that the offline efforts are equally as important as the online ones, and if done well, will yield links and exposure that you may not have been able to achieve if you had just stuck to a purely online approach.

Linkbuilding Offline

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Basically Ben comments on a thread over at WMW which indicates that social media is a waste of time and doesn’t yield a great deal of SEO value.

I both agree and disagree with this.

But before continuing, it’s important to understand what SEO is and what it isn’t.

In previous years SEO was all about doing keyword research, applying a few tweaks to the site and then getting some inbound links and presto, you’d be
ranking at the top.

As the Internet and search engines have evolved, many companies are now starting to use the web more effectively, (many still haven’t, but that’s really a whole nother post) so competing with such sites requires better quality content (and more of it), an intuitive and easy-to-use site navigation, regular updates to keep people coming back and a site that looks reasonably aesthetically pleasing.

Now I’m not saying that you can’t rank well without these things, but it only takes 8 seconds for someone to develop a first impression and if your first impressions aren’t great, then you’re fighting an uphill battle to convert that visitor into a sale.

As a result of this, some SEOs started encouraging clients to improve their site’s design, layout, content etc. because all of this would make for better conversions at
the end of the day. This extended the craft of SEO into online usability, which technically isn’t SEO, but it helps immensely with the whole process.

The same comment can then be applied to marketers who focus on viral material or linkbait. These types of promotions, if done well, can drive substantial traffic and work wonders for (or destroy) a brand, as well as attracting links in the process. Once again, not technically SEO, but also a useful means of gaining traffic with the added bonus of some links. Now, one could then go on to argue about the SEO benefit gained from such links, and I’ll agree that some social media links aren’t particularly helpful in passing link juice (take blog comments, twitter, wikipedia and everything else that utilises the ‘nofollow’ attribute). But the goal for a viral campaign is really more about gaining awareness on a global scale, so it really can’t be measured using the same metrics as conventional old-school SEO.

Which leads me to using social media for business purposes or to help promote a particular site or product. This also isn’t specifically SEO, and can be a huge waste of time if you don’t do it properly. The whole purpose of social media is to share and connect with others – to be social. The challenging part then becomes – how does one be social, while still trying to promote a website?

Blogging is a great way to share and demonstrate your knowledge in a certain area. Take this SEO blog – I try and discuss various SEO related topics that I think people might be interested in and share tips and information that they can help people improve their rankings. By sharing this information, I’m hoping it also shows I have a reasonable knowledge of the industry and if those readers find the SEO process too challenging, they’ll hopefully employ my services to help them out.

The key is to provide information that is interesting and helpful and written with passion. If you can achieve this, there is certainly a benefit to start blogging. The same then applies to other social media tools.

Take Twitter for example – if you only share information like “making a cup of coffee” or “replying to some emails”… it isn’t particularly engaging, nor does it give anyone a reason to follow you. But if you were sharing info about your industry by making comments like “just read this great article about….” or “new legislation for… what does everyone think” etc. You’ve just turned the tool into another platform where you can demonstrate your knowledge while connecting with others who also share a similar interest.

The problem is that most businesses and website owners will do one of three things with social media:

• they’ll create profiles on all the latest social sites and then think “well, that’s social media taken care of… hey, why aren’t I getting any traffic from it?”
• they’ll create a blog/twitter/facebook account but forget that they created it for business purposes and start making posts about the weather or what they had for breakfast that morning… and then wonder why it isn’t helping them with their branding
• they’ll create a blog/twitter/facebook account and spam the crap out of it by pushing their brand and website to anyone and everyone which just pisses people off

So, to sum-up, I think that all forms of online marketing (be it organic SEO, viral, social media, pay-per-click etc. etc.) all has its place and can be beneficial if used properly. Not all of these are technically SEO, but still important when marketing in the ever-changing online world.

Most importantly though, goals need to be set for each marketing method and different metrics need to be applied to measure the performance of each campaign. If you try and track the performance of social media using SEO metrics, you’ll find that it doesn’t yield brilliant results – but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile – it simply means that social media is different to old-school organic SEO and subsequently can’t be measured in the same way.

The blurred line between what is SEO and what isn’t

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Normally this is great because many of the clients that approach us have no idea of any of these things. This means you end-up spending just as much time (if not more) educating and explaining the SEO process and terminology as you do actually optimising the site.

But for this particular client, it simply confused the matter. See, after reviewing his goals and doing a little research into his industry (the outdoor adventure / travel industry), I felt he would gain greater success through Social Media Marketing (SMM) instead of conventional SEO.

What’s the difference between SEO and SMM?

Both SEO and SMM will drive traffic to your site (if done correctly) and both techniques are very popular forms of online marketing, but that’s about where the similarities end. The two methods are so different, it’s like comparing Gridiron / American Football to European Football / Soccer – sure they might share the name ‘football’ but really they are two totally different sports.

For instance, an SEO campaign would consist of keyword targeting, on-site optimising title tags, headings and link building. The ultimate goal of all this is to reach the top of Google’s search results as a means of pushing your products in front of as many people as possible, hoping they’ll make a purchase.

SMM on the other hand is more about connecting with people through posts and articles – instead of keywords you’re more focused on tags and categories, instead of on-site optimisation you find yourself working on killer headlines and pillar posts and the manual process of link building is replaced with linkbait.

The goal of an SMM campaign is to get your site noticed by the major social networks, connect with other bloggers and the Linkerati which will ultimately attract clients by forming relationships/friendships through conversations. The idea is that by openly communicating with people you build trust and rapport.

So back to my client… Why did I think SMM was better for him?

Brand-name products sell themselves – if you want a new TV you probably already have a fair idea which brands are good and which ones to avoid. If you want a new dress, you’ll often have a set style, colour and maybe even fabric in mind so you’ll know as soon as you see what you’re looking for.

Product-based websites are usually perfectly placed for traditional SEO because people have an idea of the product, brand, design, make or model they want and if you are at the top of their local search results (and you’re pricing is good) you’ve just secured a sale.

Service-based industries are different because most potential clients will want to know what makes your services better than the next guy. The best way to demonstrate this and make them feel comfortable with your business is through communication. This is where tools like blogs, forums and other social sites can really help, making them the perfect candidates for SMM.

Our suggested solution

As this client had never managed a blog before, we steered him in the direction of a few prominent blogs and a forum within his niche. Tasks were set for him to regularly follow the posts and threads and start commenting as soon as he was comfortable with it.

Once the client understood the importance of keeping a blog updated regularly, we helped him setup a blog of his own. Since he was already commenting and engaging with other bloggers, it didn’t take much work to attract a few regular readers – and those readers increased after we helped the client submit two guest posts on other industry specific blogs.

While the client was blogging, commenting and guest posting, we submitted some of his articles to a few niche social media sites which helped the guys traffic increase even further. Our next step will be to teach him about linkbait

The most important thing to remember with social media

Social media is about connecting with others, creating online conversations, building relationships and networking. If you take this approach, you will see the benefits such as links and traffic (all of which can convert into sales and improved organic search rankings).

But if you start a campaign purely with the intention of links and traffic and you have no interest in connecting with others, then you should stick with a pure SEO campaign because social media will only work if you are SOCIAL!

Things that make you go SMM

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In the off-line world, you’ll usually notice traffic increases for a number of reasons:

• It could be because a particular area has become increasingly popular – the ‘cool’ place to live
• It could be due to the area offering ideal living conditions – nice sized yards, friendly neighbors, a great community, low crime rate etc.
• It could be due to excellent facilities – close to shops, public transport, schools and hospitals
• It could be thanks to affordable pricing

There are plenty of other reasons, but the list above gives you a pretty good idea why certain areas are better to live than others and that means that the traffic to those areas increases.

Now, why am I talking about regional economic growth on a SEO blog? Because the exact same concepts apply in the online world.

Image is important

When you drive through a sought-after residential area you’ll notice the houses all look rather nice, they are well maintained and the lawns are well manicured. If there was a run-down, poorly maintained house that needed a new paint job, some windows fixed and a whole lot of other work – it would really stand-out from the rest (and in a bad way).

Don’t let your website be that run-down looking house – keep the design fresh, make changes to the design (at least) every couple of years, make sure everything works (no old broken links floating around) and keep the content up-to-date.

Reputation can go a long way

The ‘cool’ areas to live are popular because people know about them – they aren’t tucked away at the back of a town that no one has ever heard of and the same is true for websites.

If your site is sitting not being noticed by anyone, you’ll never become the popular online destination that people want to go to. The best way to gain exposure and build an online reputation is through social media… the more you interact (as long as you aren’t insulting… unless that’s how you want to be perceived) the more popular you’ll become.

Bad Neighborhoods

It’s never a pleasant experience walking down the street in a bad neighbourhood – you’re constantly checking over your shoulder, you don’t feel comfortable or safe and one wrong move could end-up being quite costly.

Websites that link with bad online neighbourhoods also fail to make your users feel comfortable – if there’s lots of pop-ups, links to adult sites, pharmaceuticals and gambling pages, more advertising than actual content etc. your website will become the street that people don’t want to walk down.

Great Facilities

In the list above I also mentioned that areas within close proximity to a selection of useful facilities will always attract people because they know they won’t have to go far to get everything they need.

By incorporating online tools, links to useful sites, having a really easy-to-follow navigation structure and making use of sitemaps you reduce your clients need to search around and go elsewhere. Turn your website into a place handy to all the facilities your users would want.

Plan Ahead

When an area becomes too popular all the traffic can start to cause congestion. If you don’t want this to happen with your website – do what your local government planners should do and plan ahead. Find a web host that is capable of supporting decent amounts of traffic or a hosting plan that can be easily upgraded. Make sure you’re using your own domain name and that all the domain contact details are kept up-to-date so if you have to move, you can do so without running into unnecessary challenges.

Same, Same but Different

As you can see, there are a lot of similarities between the online and offline worlds (there are also a lot of differences), but if you try and keep things simple and apply everyday logic to your website, hopefully you’ll be able to create a location that people will want to ‘virtually’ live at.

Web traffic – an offline example

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Celebrity Endorsement

Most major companies will pay good money to have celebrities endorse their products, and as consumers, we’re constantly sucked-in to believing a product is good simply because a sporting star or actor said it was.

Social Media Endorsement

Social Media is the same (well with one minor exception which I’ll go on to explain a little later). If you can reach some of the Social Media Celebrities, the ones who submit the most articles, vote and comment on the most posts and are highly regarded in their social media niche, then you’re chances of making it to the top are significantly increased.

Why? Simply because all the other users of that network trust what that person says, and if they said you were worth reading/subscribing to… then you’re IN.

I’ve personally tested this theory by submitting a great article I found, only to discover that not long after my submission, another user had submitted a very similar post which discussed and referenced the article I had found. My article never received any more than a few votes, but the other article (which was written by a slightly better known blogger and submitted by another well known social media celebrity) hit the front page within a few hours.

Appealing to Social Media Celebrities

The one thing that separates conventional product endorsement and social media endorsement is that in the off-line world – companies have to pay the celebrities money before they’ll endorse a product. In the online world of social media, the only thing you have to pay the top social media celebrities is a little attention and have something that’s worth promoting.

It’s important to understand that no one likes being spammed – so I’m not saying that you should simply start voting for every article that person submits and then email them a list of your own articles for them to promote… it doesn’t work like that.

How to connect with Social Media Celebrities

Caveat: The following techniques have worked for me, but I cannot guarantee that they will work for everyone.

The first, and most important step is to find a community that:

1. You are interested (or even better, passionate) about
2. Will help you reach your goals (be it: more exposure, more authority, more subscribers, more links etc. etc.)

Social media can take-up a lot of time (if you let it), so you need to be sure that you enjoy what you’re doing and know why you’re using it in the first place.

Once you’ve chosen a social network that you’re interested in, start participating. Read what articles others are contributing, read the comments people are adding, see what people are voting for, see what seems to get the community talking etc. etc.

Start contributing by voting and adding comments of your own. If you think someone has said something interesting, then give them positive feedback about it. Credit the author or submitter of articles you’ve particularly enjoyed.

After you’ve spent some time getting used the the community, start asking for some help – send messages to some of the top users introducing yourself and asking for advice on the best way to submit articles, how to interact with other users in the group, what types of things are acceptable and what does the group tend to dislike… and anything else you would like to know.

The great thing about a social media community is that the users do tend to be quite social and are generally willing to give help and assistance to newer users.

Now that you know what the community likes/dislikes, start to look around for some appropriate content to submit (and try and submit other people’s content before your own).

If you’ve been commenting and communicating with some of the community members, there’s a very good chance that they will give you a few votes. Don’t expect your first few submissions to hit the front page – it will take time.

Depending on the social media site you’ve chosen, will depend on how much time, how many friends and how much effort it will take to reach the top.

After you’ve achieved some success and exposure, you can start testing the waters by asking other users to vote for your articles. Do this with discretion, do it politely and never make the person you are asking feel like they HAVE to vote on your post.

Some social media sites will bury a story if you submit something you’ve written yourself – other communities won’t mind so much if the article is of decent quality.

I personally wouldn’t suggest promoting your own work until you have a strong foothold in the community, if even at all. Often the reputation you’ve built for yourself will be enough to encourage other users to submit your work for you.

Which sites do I recommend?

If you’re reading this, then you’re most likely interested in search marketing, social media and other such online technologies… so chances are, we probably both frequent similar sites.

If you are interested in connecting, you can find me at Sphinn, StumbleUpon, SEOMoz, Twitter, Facebook and Digg… I don’t really do much Digging to be honest, but the other sites I’m on daily.

So drop me a line and say ‘Hi’ and if you have any other social media advice / suggestions or even just to share your feelings or experiences you’ve had with social media… add a comment or two below.

Social Media Celebrity Endorsements

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Have you been blaming your non-existent love life on commitment phobics, obsessive types, or the fact that you just haven’t met “the one” – when it could just be that you’re not ready? Emotionally ready, that is.

If you want to charm your way into the hearts of others, you might first need to deal with what could be driving love away in the first place. Here’s how…

Even though I’m in a happy relationship, I didn’t read the article for love advice, but instead it got me thinking about social media (which in itself is kinda sad). You see, both seeking a partner and interacting with social media require a certain level of commitment, communication and compromise for the relationship to work.

To explain this better (and so you can see how similar the two really are) I’ll paraphrase parts of the article, but apply the content directly to social media…

The process starts with you

It’s great that you want to become involved in social media, but if you’re expecting the experience to make you feel complete, or instantly grant you popularity and rockstar status, then you’ve got the wrong ideas and you really aren’t ready.

Think about it – if you’re wholeness relies solely on others, you’ll find that whenever you approach someone online (whether it’s to request to be included in their social media friends list, promote an article or just to ask for assistance) you’ll come across desperate and potentially drive them away.

Feeling good about yourself is your responsibility. If you’re not happy with your blog, your website, your online profile within your particular niche etc. it’s up to you to change that. Once you are confident (without being arrogant about it) you’re far more likely to appeal to others in the online world. Which will subsequently gain you votes and accolades.

Don’t try and be someone you’re not

Stop comparing yourself to the top Digger’s, Stumbler’s, Sphinner’s etc. Each one of these people have achieved such rankings slowly, but more importantly, they’ve done it by being themselves and by providing a quality contribution to the community they’re involved with.

Instead of spending your time trying to be like them – focus more on your reading and writing. Find articles that you think are particularly good and promote them. Then try and figure-out what drew you to that article, and try and incorporate some of those aspects into your own work. I’m not saying to change what or how you write – but sometimes simple things like incorporating images with your text can make huge differences.

The more confident you are with your writing and voting the more chance people will listen to what you have to say. However if you spend all your time promoting articles that you think others will like instead of being yourself, you’ll never make it to the top.

Also, remember that not every community is perfect for everyone. I personally don’t do a lot of Digging, but I do spend a fair bit of time on StumbleUpon and even more time on Sphinn.

But I’m shy…

It can be intimidating adding comments to blogs and promoting articles to communities with tens of thousands of users/readers. It can be daunting writing your own blog posts and asking others to have a look to see if they like what you’ve written.

If you’re terrified that everyone will hate what you have to say, start small – find local blogs or smaller communities and gradually start contributing. One of the beauties of the online world is that things move so quickly, and there is so much stuff out there that a silly comment is generally forgotten about very quickly (if noticed at all).

The more you contribute, the better you’ll become and less daunting it will seem. If you are particularly concerned, find of the more respected people within your chosen social media community and ask for their advice on how to contribute and be involved.

The one thing that many of these Social Media Guru’s have in common is that they are very open and approachable. I know this from experience as I have messaged many well respected people in the communities I’m involved with and received some great feedback and advice.

Twitter can be another great tool to communicate with some of these people as well.

This is also a good way of starting a relationship with them and in time (if you don’t spam them constantly) they will probably even help you promote an article or two of your own.

Social media happiness

If you can follow the above advice, be involved, be friendly, don’t expect people to vote on or like everything you submit, write with passion and find communities that appreciate this… you shouldn’t have too many problems in the social media world.

It can take time, and on your way to the top you’ll often wonder why others seem to get more of a mention than you do, but the more you read, write, interact and contribute the better you will become and others will probably start thinking the same about you.

Relationship advice for Social Media

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The problem is that the moment is now gone and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Now imagine that conversation was taking place online. Perhaps it was a comment you were making on a blog or replying to a forum post.

If this were the case, things would be very different for the following reasons:

1. For starters you would have plenty of time to prepare a good response.
2. You can incorporate links to other useful resources that further re-enforce your opinion.
3. It’s a lot easier to add humour if you don’t have to worry about timing and/or delivery.
4. Others can provide feedback on your comments allowing you to further clarify your opinion and go into further detail where required.
5. Once you’ve stated your opinion it remains online for others to read long-after the initial post which can work very well in helping improve your authoritative status on a particular topic.
6. If it’s a topic that you are not an expert in, you can always do some online research before replying.
7. Your contributions in forums, blogs and other social media websites can help add further value to that community as long as you put a little time and effort into your responses.

A lot of businesses don’t see the benefit of becoming involved in such online communities but as you can see from the seven points above, it can be a very valuable tool (especially if you are like me and your face-to-face interaction could do with a little work).

7 Reasons To Embrace Social Media

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This is very true but the one thing that they often don’t mention is that all the best content in the world isn’t going to do you much good if no one knows your site exists.

So how do you tell the world you have great link-worthy content? The answer is Social Media.

A few weeks ago there was some controversy caused by Google taking away the ability to easily view supplemental results, so we built a little tool that addressed the issue. It was topical and well timed so we submitted an article to SEOmoz’s User Blog as well as the SEO Social Media Site Sphinn. Unfortunately, Google did some further updates causing our tool to stop working (further details on our Supplemental Results page), but whilst it was working, the article submissions generated both links and traffic.

Seeing the true benefits that Social Media can have, we wrote a Beginners Guide to Social Media and once again submitted this to Sphinn as well as StumbleUpon. Because the article was informative and somewhat educational, it generated even more interest, links and traffic than the supplemental tool.

A few days later we were playing with some keywords and for a bit of fun we managed to rank my personal blog for the search term Sexiest man in Brisbane. Even though the search term was completely non-competitive and generated very little traffic, it provided a unique and humorous approach that generated more buzz and interest than we anticipated. Because of the initial interest we gained, we put together an article talking about the success and submitted it to SEOmoz’s User Blog – Sexiest Man In SEO. This helped us learn that it is quite possible to generate traffic from non-competitive sources.

Each of the above examples shows ways that we managed to generate traffic, links and interest by writing good content and then utilising Social Media to spread the word.

How can your business take advantage of Social Media?

Link building – What they don’t tell you

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