Today let’s start things off with a self-affirmation a-la Stuart Smalley. You are not a number. Like a beautiful, intricate, and fragile snowflake you are as unique online as you are in the real world, and that’s ok… so step back from your Klout Score and take a look at the ways, rather than the amount, you are engaging with your networks online.
In the past few years, Klout has quickly risen to social media stardom as a provider of analytics measuring a user's influence across social networks (primarily focusing on Twitter, Facebook and Google+). By measuring data from social sites, the size of a person's network, and other factors, Klout gives users an influence rating (Score) on a scale of 1 to 100. Most Klout Scores are in the 20’s, and reaching the 30’s and 40’s tends to show a good amount of social engagement. This can create, as John Scalzi puts it, “status anxiety” and social insecurity, but the credence you put to what your Score says about you remains up to you.
Like any startup, Klout is still growing and developing. Even though recent adjustments and evolution have brought controversy, Klout as a measurement tool remains an interesting data point for social media... Read more
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Content Before Klout – Why Social Influence Is More Than A Score
Tags: brand marketing, digital, Facebook, google, Klout, kpi, measurement, online marketing, product manager, Social Media, social media marketing, social networks, twitter
Posted in Emerging Platforms, Web Analytics | No Comments »
What is your SEO Social Signals Strategy?
If search engine optimization (SEO) is already part of your digital marketing mix or you are thinking about adding it, then you are likely familiar with the concept of a backlinking strategy. That is, what is the overall long-term plan to increase the number of other websites on the Internet that reference and link to your website? This is a “backlink” and search engines view a backlink as an indication of relevance.
But are backlinking strategies starting to take a back seat to social signals as they relate to SEO? Is your time better spent investing in a “social signals strategy”?
In this blog post discover:
How Google’s algorithm changes impact both backlinking and social signaling.
How to build an SEO social signals strategy.
How your SEO backlinking and social signals strategies come together in your content strategy.
How to measure it all.
Google’s Recent Algorithm Changes Impact both Backlinking and Social Signaling
First off, yes backlinking is still important and yes you still need to build backlinks. Remember a backlink works similar to an academic citation. In academia, the more frequently a piece of work is cited, the more relevant it must be. Apply this to the web – the more frequently your website is linked to... Read more
Tags: content marketing, Facebook, google, online marketing, Search, seo, Social Media, Strategy, twitter, web presence optimization
Posted in Search, Social Media, Web Analytics | 1 Comment »
Santorum’s Google Bomb – A Lesson In Digital Crisis 101
What do businesses and brands have to learn from the Santorum/Savage “Google Problem”? Unwanted search results will always be alive online, and it takes an active approach to keep them managed as much as possible. With the right tactics, it’s possible to minimize reputational threats, but simply complaining about them will not find a resolution.
(Author’s note, this post is not meant to advocate for one political party or any single politician vs. another.)
Without getting into the frothy details (which you can find out about through the article links that follow in this post), Rick Santorum has become a high profile example of a common problem for many brands, businesses, and business leaders dealing with unfavorable search results that stray WAY off-message. Essentially, the candidate is dealing with a competitive attack page aimed at undermining his campaign and throwing a wrench in his own messaging.
What Santorum has NOT been doing over the past 8 years of the existence of columnist Dan Savage’s rogue page, is deal with it by creating more relevant content and employing even basic SEO tactics. Instead he has protested to Google (no word if he has also complained to Bing) to remove the page in question from its search rankings. ... Read more
Tags: brand managers, brand marketers, crisis communications, crisis management, dan savage, google, PR, product managers, public relations, rick santorum
Posted in Search, Social Media | No Comments »
6 Reasons Why Adding Google+ to Your Web Presence & SEO Strategy is a Good Idea
Google first introduced its social network, Google+, in June 2011. Just six months later it reportedly had 62 million users and is on track for 400 million users by the end of 2012. That will be half of Facebook’s total current user base in a fraction of the time, and double Twitter’s!
Just recently, Google announced Search, plus Your World, which is Google+ content appearing with traditional organic search results. This is proof that the lines between social networking, social media and SEO are indeed thinning and that social networking and social signals are becoming more important to the practice of SEO.
Google+ is a social networking force to be reckoned with and it is forcing marketers’ hands. I guarantee you that Google+ is not a fad. It is here to stay.
So why is it important to incorporate Google+ into your web presence, how do you do it, and how will it positively impact your organic search strategy?
With the introduction of Search, plus Your World, when your prospects search in Google for the keywords you want to be found for, relevant results will be returned in that searcher’s “Personal Results” from their “Google+ Circles”, as well as related “People and Pages from... Read more
Tags: content marketing, google, online marketing, Search, search engine optimization, seo, Social Media, web presence optimization
Posted in Search, Social Media | 1 Comment »
Did Google Goof?
Google’s decision to weight its +1 button and display Google+ results has created a very interesting contretemps. On one hand, Google is puting its thumb on the scale they invented. On the other hand they are monetizing their unique IP and stitching together their own technology, ostensibly to serve us better.
Google presents and spins these changes as a consumer benefit. Google transforms “into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships,” they claim. The three new features are: personal results, profiles in search and people and pages. The so-called benefit is that your Google search results will be even more personalized, thanks to information shared on Google+.
Predictably Microsoft is crying foul, arguing that Google unfairly weights its own stuff above everyone else’s and in so doing skews the real value of search engine results. They have begun to aggressively use this move to switch pitch users and advertisers.
Google streaked to success by offering a different way to categorize and rank search engine results based on inferred popularity and usefulness. They’ve used this mantra to cloak every subsequent move. At the same time, they’ve taught us all how to search. Google is both a verb and an... Read more
Tags: google, Microsoft, Search
Posted in Search, Social Media | 1 Comment »
