Social media marketing can turn the mild-mannered site marketer into an energy-wielding superhero, infused with the pure power of link love and heavy traffic.
murdok will have stories and videos from Danny’s inaugural Search Marketing Expo titled “SMX Advanced” in Seattle this week. Stop by our site or sign up for our free newsletter and follow the search marketing news.
Mmm, site traffic. More of it can be attained through social media marketing, as a variety of search marketing and optimization pros attested at SMX: Advanced.
Rand Fishkin talked about differences between social media marketing and viral marketing. The key difference comes in building authority. Social media links can be a big authority boost.
He noted some examples of what’s out their in social media. The very popular Yahoo Answers has its topics place well in the SERPs for Google as well as Yahoo. A site publisher with quality content for a given category should try being active in the relevant section of Answers.
Comments from photo sharing site Flickr don’t place a nofollow attribute on their outbound links. As for blog search site Technorati, site publishers should definitely tag their content to take advantage of its recently updated properties.
Viral media, especially when video sharing site YouTube is in the conversation (and virtually defines it) can boost search rankings and site traffic thanks to the growing fan base. Other viral sites that can push a flood of traffic include Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and NewsVine for those who reach the “top of the vine.”
Neil Patel chatted about the rules for social sites: don’t pay for votes; don’t create multiple accounts for voting purposes; and don’t submit illegal content.
He put those tenets to the test on one such social media site, creating 30 accounts from his IP address while submitting illegal content and paying for votes. The result: he was banned within hours.
In Patel’s experience, the young and frequently chippy audience for many of these social media sites can be a problem. A site publisher who participates in the community, and submits comments and content of value, can build a valuable social brand in turn.
Seeking social media superpower requires intelligent, focused effort. The rewards for that work can be, well, super.
