Brands need to adopt social media to prosper

Roll back a few years and the main piece of advice for companies seemed to be “get a website”.

We we told that any company that couldn’t be found online would go out of business. That’s not strictly true, of course — it depends a lot on the business — but what is happening is that the stakes are being raised.

Now, it’s not enough to have a website. You need a social media presence and a strategy to drive it.

With Google and Bing incorporating social network data into their search results, there’s an even more compelling argument for brands to capitalise on the power of social, according to Reality Digital.

With the rise in social media comes the need for reputation management — seeing what people are saying about a company or brand and communicating positively with both fans and detractors.

Robert Proctor at Reality Digital said, “Those brands that employ brand focused social networking applications will stand to benefit from these deals hugely, as through this they not only have the benefit of heightened consumer interactivity, but they may also start to see some of the great content from their networks appearing within search engine results.”

Facebook is not killing blogging…

After yesterday’s post on social media being key to blog marketing, there’s a certain irony in reading an article which suggest that Facebook is killing blogging.

Of course, this is just one opinion amidst many, and the “x is killing y” argument is eternal, but it’s an interesting point of view.

What seems to be happening is that people maintaining personal blogs are blogging directly less, but sharing more via Twitter and Facebook.

After all, although personal blogs can build up a large following, many are most avidly read by closer friends — the sort of people who are likely to be Facebook contacts.

When it comes to professional blogging, though, the POV in yesterday’s article suggests that social networks are in fact a vital method of drawing people to blogs, not away from them, and building loyalty. [Read more]

Blog marketing: Do social networks outrank search engines?

An interesting article over at Promotion World declares why search engine traffic is not vital to blogs, outlining the strategies bloggers should already be using to drive traffic and, eventually, loyal readers to their blog.

At first I jumped to a conclusion, thinking that the author (TJ Philpott) was saying that search engine ranking and traffic is not important at all.

In fact, that’s not what’s being said — more that SEO (search engine optimisation) and ranking in itself isn’t a necessity for a successful blog.

This should be music to the ears of most bloggers — in fact, any web site publisher — because anyone who has been publishing online for even a modest amount of time knows how fickle search engines can be. One day, you’re riding high on Google, the next you’ve been mysteriously dropped (you probably didn’t do anything wrong, either).

It’s probably fair to say that most passing traffic comes to blogs from search engines — and the majority of that from Google — but the article suggests that spending a bit more time focusing on social networks and social media can pay real dividends.

It does depend to a certain extent on the purpose of your blog, of course.

If you’re merely trying to get footfall in order to increase revenue from advertising, then search engine ranking equals better traffic and more profit.

If, however, you want to build reader loyalty and sense of community (and in turn, perhaps, sell via affiliate marketing, which tends to do better once a level of reader trust has been built up) then SEO may not be enough.

Inbound links from other blogs certainly help, but they can be hard to achieve.

The article suggests that using social media to encourage visitors to your site may not only increase repeat visitors, but can give you a better insight into what readers actually want as you “socialise” on these sites.

It’s interesting food for thought, but the main take-home point for me is that, like income, diversification of visitor sources is vital for the success of most blogs.

I personally don’t think one type of marketing is better than the other, but both should be used in balance to bring visitors to your blog.

What do you think? Are you switching more towards social media marketing, or is SEO still very important?

Australian Court Gives Permission to Live-Tweet Proceedings

In what could be an important development in how social media affects just about any industry and field, an Australian court was recently reported to have allowed live tweeting of proceedings. Judge Dennis Cowdroy states that tweeting was fine as long as it did not disrupt court proceedings. He believes that the public “has a legitimate right to be fully informed of proceedings, particularly proceedings such as (the iiNet case), which have attracted considerable public interest. Twittering can serve to inform the public in a more speedy and comprehensive manner than may be possible through traditional media coverage.”

This has precedence in previous cases in the US. While live reportage of legal proceedings are usually at the discretion of the presiding judge, not all jurisdictions might allow direct discussion of ongoing court cases.

As with any discussions held on Twitter or any social medium, readers are advised to check and verify the information and the veracity of the sources before retweeting, blogging or otherwise helping spread information online.

What Are Your Favorite Social Media Tools for Mobile?

Bloggers are relatively mobile individuals. Some of us who earn directly or indirectly from blogging or writing most probably are not stuck in an office all day. Instead, we usually go about town looking for interesting things to write about, attend events, or just simply get ideas and inspiration from our environment. In some cases, we’re constrained with not being able to bring our laptops around, but there are a lot of alternatives to being connected.

Inspired by a recent Blog Herald post by Darnell Clayton on iPhone video blogging tools, I’m now listing a few tools I use myself in getting connected while on the move. [Read more]

Why Forums Have Stood the Test of time

Forums pre-date blogs, microblogging services, social networks and other social mediums as we know them. I remember the first forums I joined in the mid 1990’s, which were about mobile phones. The bulletin boards are still up today. I’m not as active, but I got to meet some new friends (face to face) from those forums.

If you aren’t strict with the software or method of content distribution, I can even say forums pre-date the Internet as we know it. For my part, I was active in bulletin board services of old–where you manually login to an online service by dialling in to the host computer, and with interfaces that command-line junkies would surely appreciate.

These days, I still visit my favorite forums, with topics including cars, notebook computers, social media, and the like. I especially like how passionate some forum members can be about the topic. Here are a few reasons why I think forums will last the test of time.

Community

Forums are usually about topics that like-minded individuals love to talk about. Be it mobile phones, netbooks, social media, marketing, or just about anything, people will flock together. And it’s not just about sharing the same passions that makes a community. It’s also about genuinely extending a helping hand to those in need. I’ve experienced a few times when I had real-world troubles, and posted my problem on the forum, and just a few minutes later responses came trickling in. Some members would even be willing to physically assist you when in need!

Longevity

Forums usually stand the test of time because of the rich archive of content they have. And forums are not personality-driven like blogs are. Forums are not friends-driven like social networks are. As long as the topic is still interesting, there will always be people who will carry the torch. Even if founding members, moderators or even the owner tire out, other people will be willing to continue managing the community.

Social structure

Forums usually have social structures. There are the managers or moderators. There are the “senior” members. There are the newbies. Forums have rules, and everyone is encouraged to contribute positively. Sometimes, it’s not just the metrics that give a member credence and seniority. At times, it’s the quality of your contributions to the community. And bad eggs are usually weeded out. Even if a recalcitrant user can just come back using different aliases and IP addresses, forum members usually police each other, making sure that everyone is acting good.

Return readership

Most blogs have about 40% return readership or so. Most would have 80% of its audience coming from the search engines, and many of these are just one-time readers (looking for some information, perhaps). Forums, on the other hand, are often checked by its members for new posts. And members often stay online for hours at a time, just to be part of the active discussions. Sure, this can be bad for monetizing through pay-per-click campaigns, but it can be a good way to earn from brand advertising.

For more than a decade, perhaps it’s the software that has changed form and functionality. In some cases, “bulletin boards” have also taken the guise of usenet groups and even e-groups. But the concept of online forums has remained the same. And as long as there are people who share an interest in any particular topic (and there’s someone willing to manage and maintain the forum), then these will go on and on. Do you think other social mediums will stand the test of time in a similar way?

5 Social Media Tips and Tricks That Work

Since social media is such a powerful tool for increasing the traffic to your blog, I’ve tried many different social media tips.  Here are five of the best tips that have worked for my sites and our clients’ sites.

1. Befriend power users.

Power users are the users that exert the most influence on social media sites.  These users regularly submit content that gets popular and they have many people that follow them.

Check out the popular content in your niche and see who is submitting them.  You’ll often find a select group of people who submit the bulk of the popular content.

Vote for their stuff, send them interesting links, link to their site if they have one, guest post on their blog, interview them.  Basically, do whatever you can to help them and get on their radar without being overbearing or obnoxious.

Once you’re developed a relationship with them, you can send them your best stuff and ask them to submit it if they like it.

2. Create more comprehensive content.

One of the things I started realizing is that much of the content that does well in social media is pretty comprehensive.  The content was longer than your average post and it covered a subject with depth.

Therefore, I started creating longer posts filled with a lot of value and I’ve done better on social media sites as a result.  Now each of your blog posts doesn’t have to be 1,500 words, but it’s a good idea to regularly publish longer, in-depth posts that stand out from the crowd of your typical 2oo-5oo word posts.

3. Add images and video to your best content.

Another thing that has worked out well has been adding multimedia to content.  This is another thing  I noticed about viral content. Much of this content is highlighted by images and video.

It only takes a little bit of  time to go to sxc.hu or flickr.com and find relevant images that will improve your content.

And I think video is the next big thing in blogging.  I know many people have made the same prediction that it seems cliche but it’s definitely true.  More and more people are making web video a part of their routine.   Many of us are already chronic TV watchers so it will only take time before we get used to watching videos on the web.

Therefore, if you have any video skills, use them!  Also, the cost and learning barrier for producing videos has come down with discount equipment, software, and training courses.  I’m actually trying an experiment of shifting one of my blogs to mostly video instead of text and seeing how that works.

4. Try niche social media sites.

Most bloggers just focus on the big general subject sites like Digg and StumbleUpon but there is a lot of opportunity in niche social media sites.  Here’s a great list of these type of sites.  These sites won’t send as much as traffic as the big general subject sites, but the quality of their traffic is often much higher.  You’ll get a higher percentage of repeat visitors, a lower bounce rate, and more time spent on your site because of the more targeted traffic.

Also, it’s easier to network with the power users because of the smaller user base.

5. Use social media widgets at the end of each post.

Widgets are a great way to encourage your visitors to submit your content to social media sites.  Visitors may like a post but without the prompting of a submission button, they won’t think to submit your content.

We added a StumbleUpon button on one blog and we’ve seen a big increase in submissions and traffic from StumbleUpon.

Performancing offers social media marketing services if you need help in this area.

Facebook Pages, Short-lived Fad or Still Useful?

Ever since Facebook launched the new design earlier this year one of the most interesting features was the new power given to Facebook Pages. Every item posted to pages showed up in fans’ news feed and I have been a fervent promoter and user of these pages, there where before I hardly ever used the platform for social marketing. The possibility to constantly drop links to blog updates without filling my own Facebook profile was a god send. I have managed to launch a blog almost entirely based on its Facebook page as sole and only promotion platform, but the future might be different and the social network could become useless as a promotion engine.

[Read more]

Do You Ride the Wave of Twitter Trending?

Among the trending topics on Twitter earlier this week was keywords related to the late Corazon Aquino, who was a former president of the Republic of the Philippines. Hailed as an icon of democracy, the former head of state passed away on August 1st, and tens of thousands of citizens flocked to the streets to escort her funeral cortage. The expression of support was also shown online. For a few days, Filipino citizens from all over the world sent messages of support through blogs and other social media, including Twitter.

In fact, “Cory Aquino” was among the top trending topics for a few days. Users have been talking about the events at the wake and funeral, and about her contributions to her country from the 1980’s up to the present, often attaching the #Cory hashtag. However, I’ve also been noticing some irrelevant tweets containing the #Cory hashtag. That made me wonder about how people will ride on the popularity of trending topics in the hope of getting their share of the limelight. It also makes me wonder how easily groups of Twitter users can game the system.

Irrelevant posts tagged with a certain hashtag can do one of two things. First, it will make your tweet appear on search results for that hashtag. So if you’re out to get attention, it might be a good idea to attach popular tags to your tweet, no matter how trivial or irrelevant. Secondly, it adds to the volume of tweets with that hashtag attached. So you could imagine that a keyword could trend if a ton of people wrote unrelated tweets, but with the same hashtag.

This could be one way the system can be gamed. It’s akin to keyword stuffing, which was one of the ways website owners optimized their sites for search engines. This practice is now frowned upon, of course, and could cause penalties from the search engines. But with Twitter, weeding out unwanted tweets from trending counts might be difficult, if not impossible. Granted, Twitter can exclude certain hashtags from their trending topics list, particularly if these violate terms of service, or if these constitute content not applicable for general consumption. They have done this before.

However, it might be different with tweets with irrelevant tags. The most they can probably do is not count a particular tweet under a particular hashtag if it is found to be irrelevant. But through what mechanism can this be done would be the question. Twitter staff cannot monitor every tweet and trending topic manually, and it might not be as easy to determine relevance without human intervention. Maybe Twitter can implement a report/feedback mechanism so that users can point out improperly-tagged tweets, and when the number of reports reaches a critical level, then those hashtags or posts would be looked into–something like a “bury” or “vote down” mechanism.

I think the best way to deal with this is to tweet responsibly. I’ve always advocated the idea of being careful with what you say online, be it on a blog post, video, tweet or just about any medium. Social media is powerful, and as such, it should be wielded with care and responsibility. And so, the next time you feel like adding an irrelevant hashtag to your tweet just to get attention, think again. Are you contributing positively to the Twitter community with what you are doing? Or are you just adding pointless drivel?

Understanding Social Media Traffic

Online communities have been around since the dawn of the Internet, even before the World Wide Web made its appearance. People have used computer to computer communications for the same reason they’d use a telephone or, prior to that, the postal service – to interact with each other across distance. Today, what appears to be an emerging market, social media, is actually not new at all. Sites like Facebook, YouTube, Myspace, Digg, Twitter and others are all actually evolutions of the founding ideas that the Web was based upon. We’re just beginning to get good at connecting people with each other and only now are business people realizing the untapped potential of interacting with their customers on the more personal level that social media provides.

If you run any kind of business venture online you definitely need to have a social media presence. One of the big ways to gain traffic these days is through social bookmarking services. These include sites like Digg where users submit links or stories. Those submissions are then voted on by other Digg members.

The higher the number of votes, the higher that article or site rises in within the Digg ranking system. Links that Digg members love can get massive traffic sent to that particular site so pleasing Digg users is definitely a good thing! But be careful, because there is also a phenomenon known as “the Digg effect” where a site will take so much traffic that it actually crashes. That’s not hard to imagine when you realize Digg gets over 236 million visitors annually.

Reddit is another social bookmarking site that focuses on news, rewarding users who submit particularly popular links with karma points. A site called del.ico.us takes an approach that encourages people to comment on each others links and build a strong sense of community. With this site, a wiki adds a more collective slant to the offerings and it’s become a real source for viral Internet memes and other popular Web items. These are only a handful of the social bookmarking sites available to those who want to dive into the social media sea of opportunities.

The thing you need to remember is that with social media sites, the key word is social. You do not want to leap into these communities and start flinging your links and promotions around. You need to keep in mind that like any community, and social media sites are very much communities, there are those who are obnoxious individuals and there are those who add value. To gain a true level of popularity, you need to add value. Find out what’s hot and offer bookmarks that others in the community will love. Leave valuable comments and feedback for other users. Make friends and use the social angle to your advantage by creating a positive reputation for yourself and your business activities. For those who match their business acumen with polite, constructive social interaction, there are no limits to the success that these social media sites can bring you.

If you find yourself confused, do what you’d be advised to do in an unfamiliar situation offline. That’s right, ask others around you for help. Learn all that you can about each community that you participate in and show that you care about more than simply the next visitor or sale. Positive word of mouth is what you want from social media, you want people to spread your links based on their own desires rather than because you harassed them into it. Pay attention to emotional cues that people give off in online communication and if you sense people are becoming annoyed, immediately back off and try something else or even apologize. You need all the help you can get to keep your site attractive to visitors and the more popular folks in the social media scene can either help or hurt your reputation and the traffic that goes with that reputation.

It’s not that difficult to succeed when it comes to social media and using social bookmarking sites. By letting common sense, fair play and the same politeness you learned in grade school be your guide, you’ll find that it’s an easy, efficient and productive way to do business on the web. And you might just have a lot more fun than you bargained for finding your way towards the success you’ve been wishing for.