seobridges.com

Last week, I read this blog. It inspired me to think about the value of social media, e-readers, and e-publishing. As writers and thinkers, we have a responsibility to the future. Or more accurately, we have a responsibility to preserve history. We must make published documents accessible for future generations.

Do you think they’ll use the same technology in 2511 we use now? Is publishing our most valuable information in such a way that is likened to thousands of authors 500 years ago writing a trillion documents on papyrus, shredding each document into 10,000 pieces, and strewing those documents across the earth the best way to preserve our history?

In that blog, the author jokingly theorized that perhaps future generations might study Kanye West’s tweets. Do you think civilizations 500 years from now will consider what he tweeted, in the midst of zillions of gigabytes of information, that valuable? I’d argue that in the 26th century Kanye West and Lady Gaga will be celebrated, if they are known, in the same way we celebrate minstrels. Do you consider lyrics of a minstrel from 500 years ago valuable? Do you know any?

I theorize ancient civilizations had better means to preserve their most valuable documents. Though, just as we publish in a way that is the most convenient and cost saving for us, perhaps they published in the same way.

What do you think? Is e-publishing likened to thousands of authors, writing trillions of documents, shredding each of those docs into ten thousand pieces, and strewing them across the earth? Or is e-publishing likened to the advent of the printing press? I’d love to know your thoughts.

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

No matter whether you’re a social media novice, aficionado, or expert, there is bound to be something in this book you can glean from. It’s a great resource for teachers and students, and it covers all of the basis from blogging to the importance of a social media plan.

If you’ve read this book, let me know your thoughts. I’d love to glean from you, and learn what has and has not worked. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, you can buy it below.

The Social Media Survival Guide by Deltina Hay

You can learn more about Deltina by visiting her website, Social Media Power, or following her @Deltina.

Stay social, my friends!

Erick

In the restaurant industry, a good dining room manager will ensure the entire staff’s trained to take ownership. That means if a guest’s water glass is empty or nearing empty, whoever sees it and makes note of it should either fill that water glass or escalate it to the right person (the server). Social Media Monitoring works in much the same way, in that whichever person in a company sees a specific tweet or comment, should either respond or let the right person know so they can respond.

Now, on the social media initiative side, that is sending out Tweets, such as promotional Tweets or posting comments to blogs and Facebook, it should also be a collaborative effort. Companies that choose not to hire one or more people to handle their social media should consider setting up a social media task force that consists of one person from every department to head up the social media initiative for that department. Larger companies can assign one executive to act as liaison or Chief Social Media Officer to head up that task force and speak on behalf of the company.

If your company has a specific social media department, or a department assigned to handle social media, and that works for you, great. If you have one employee who handles all your social media, and that works for you, great. If you outsource your social media, and that works for you, great. Though, if your company’s large, and you are in social media limbo, consider a social media marketing committee.

I’d love to know your thoughts about what has or hasn’t worked for your company.

Stay Social My Friends!

Erick

If there are two things you like, it’s free and it’s lists. Blogs with lists of free stuff always get the most views. I try to write my blogs in list or bullet point format as much as possible, but I don’t list free resources (i.e. other sites) as much as I once did. If I list a social media or related start-up and that start-up goes under or is acquired by a larger company, I am left with a broken link. And that’s not good for SEO.

Recently, someone contacted me about trying their site and writing a review. Someone else asked me to review their book on social media marketing, which I will post within the next week or two (e-mail erick @ seobridges . com if you’d like me to review your book, site, or product).

I stopped focusing on posting lists of free resources because while it is great for my initial SEO because it attracts visitor, it is potentially bad for my overall SEO because those sites may cease to exist or the URL may change.

While I may post the occasional review of a social media or social media related site, which has been around for a while, that’s not my focus. My focus is to help you understand the principles of SEO and social media marketing. Yes, I will continue to give you tools, when it’s appropriate; but understanding those principles will prove of higher value to you over time.

What do you find most valuable about my blog?

Stay social my friends!

Erick

You can make your #blog attractive to #search#engines by making it attractive to potential readers. That means adding keywords but not too many.  Stuffing your blog or article with keywords is like wearing too much makeup.

Along with keywords, you want to maintain a conversational flow. That could mean starting your paragraphs with strong transitional sentences, offering links to other resources, or engaging your readers in conversation by asking questions.

Here are ten more tips:

1. Include keywords in the title that draw readers in and allow search bots to categorize Web pages better.

2. Use short paragraphs, lists, bullet points, or other devices that allow readers to skim.

3. Link to blogs, articles, or other online resources that offer valuable content and/or resources.

4. Don’t offer information 500 other bloggers offer.

5. Your description (this appears in search engines below the title) should pose a question or challenge, offer something free, or otherwise draw people in.

6. Use black font on a white or light background. No white font on a black background.

7. Use Arial, New Times Roman, or another easy to read font.

8. If you use a CMS such as WordPress or Drupal add something personal, link to other blogs, and allow people to comment. Unless you’re Seth Godin, your content alone won’t grab people’s attention.

9. Spell and grammar check with a tool like PaperRater. You’re going to misspell words and use improper grammar. Don’t lose sleep over it.

10. Embolden or underline important text to let readers and search engines know what information you consider the most important.

Can you think of any other tips to give blogs sex appeal?

Stay social my friends,

Erick

When you present yourself and your company, your book, or services online, it’s important to be authentic. People do business with people, and blogs are a good way to let people know who you are. But your readers don’t need to know about all of your dirty laundry. Some may consider this “spin” without an authentic ring to it, but I think of it as putting your best foot forward. It’s the difference between what you would tell someone you just met, and a dear friend you would vent to over a glass of wine. Though you may have regular blog readers, more than likely they are not the same people you love and trust. And remember, things can spread quickly and you’ll be hard pressed to take it back once it’s out there on the internet.

So now I know you’re remembering that last week I said it’s okay to be human, to admit your mistakes, and I still stand by that. But how much you need to tell is where it gets tricky. Especially if you’re mad because someone other than you messed up big time. This happens a lot with vendors; but it could just as easily happen with editors, agents, publishers, and others.

A while back we made some pretty pointed comments on our company blog about a manufacturer with whom we no longer had a business relationship. The comments were not in any way flattering, and we promptly received a letter from their lawyer claiming libel. Now the comments were true, so more than likely a case could not be made for libel in court. We opted to edit the post, and not spend our time, energy and money with our lawyers, but rather on growing our business. We then used the experience as an opportunity to create guidelines for ourselves on what we would—and would not—post about in future editions. Ultimately you’ll have to decide for yourself, but here’s some questions to ask yourself:

Will telling the tale benefit you and your business in anyway? I’m not talking about will it make you feel better to get something off your chest, but will it cause a change in the relationship with your vendor– a change for the good? Will it bring you more business? Will it elevate your status or improve how others perceive you?

Will telling the whole truth, names and all, benefit your customers (those folks reading your blog) in any way? If not, don’t do it. Turn the story into something beneficial for your customer base. Your tale of woe could become a post on Ten Tips for Working With A Vendor (or editor or publisher). In our case, once we made the edits, it was a pretty good post about quality and what our expectations are, which in turn let our customer base know how we do business.

So if your only reason to tell the story is to get something off your chest, I would recommend instead that you write a letter (but don’t send it), scrawl your anger in a journal, or share your frustration with a trusted friend.

Truth be told, we initially wrote our post in anger. And it backfired because you get back what you put out there world.

–
Jennifer Simpson, aka Je Sais (I know)
DID I BLOG YOU?
http://akajesais.com/

As I mentioned in my introductory post, I blog utilizing several personas:  JeSais for my personal blog, Carmen Electrode is my work affiliated online persona, and Joe Welder for my boss.  It sounds more complicated than it is.

I won’t go into too many details about my personal blog–  mostly because it’s not really relevant to search engine optimization.  I started it learn more about blogging.  I would note, however, that if you do blog, keep in mind you are not necessarily as invisible as you think you are.  My own personal rule of thumb is to never post anything online that you would not want your mother or future employer to read.

The company I work for, Arc-Zone.com, sells welding accessories. Primarily an online business, we serve a variety of clients from independent fabricators to industrial manufacturers around the world. For work I manage the two company blogs:  CarmenElectrode.com and JoeWelder.com.

One way that I distinguish the voice of Carmen Electrode from Joe Welder is by selection of topic.  I use the CarmenElectrode.com blog to (hopefully) dispel some myths about the kind of work that welding is, and the kind of women who actually weld.  I also write about equality in the workplace, and other issues of importance to women welders.  And Rosie the Riveter–I blog about Rosies.  I repost articles profiling the original Rosies, stories about the Rosie the Riveter Parks, statues, and memorials, and I also write regular profiles of women in the industry for a section I call “The New Rosies.”

The Joe Welder blog is primarily my boss’ platform (who is the owner of Arc-Zone.com) so the posts are topics that reflect his history in the racing industry and as a master fabricator as well as his personal interests:  So Cal culture, cars, mountain biking and green manufacturing to name a few.  One regular feature is Ask Joe for write-ups of technical inquiries, and the solutions our company experts provide.  We also post about customer service, new products in our webstore, and how we differentiate ourselves from others in the industry.

Another tool I use to distinguish voice is diction and word selection. For Carmen Electrode I tend to use more flowery, “feminine” language… a voice that is probably closer to my “real” voice (though maybe a bit more hip and fun!).  Jim (my boss, aka Joe Welder)  writes many of the posts himself, though I do edit them for him. I strive to maintain his diction and his use of words like “dialed in” or “check it out” or “bitchin” even when writing posts as “Editor.”

Whether I’m online as Carmen or Joe, because these are business blogs there is a level of professionalism that we always maintain.  It is one of our company’s core beliefs that in order to flourish, we must maintain a positive atmosphere.  The blogs are not places to dish dirt on the industry, on our competitors, or on vendors that let us down. Instead they are places to celebrate the industry that we contribute to and benefit from.  I’ll talk about this in more depth in my next post on maintaining integrity.

–
Jennifer Simpson, aka JeSais
DID I BLOG YOU?
http://akajesais.com/

SEO content is like a martial arts duel.

Here’s some rules martial artists fight by:

1.     Be aware of your surroundings

2.     Adapt to changes within those surroundings

3.     Use what is available to you in those surroundings

4.     Recognize your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses

5.     Use your strengths to exploit your opponent’s weaknesses

There are more rules, but those five apply best to writing Web content.  How?  Let’s review the rules again and apply them to your efforts to rank well in the search engines.

1.     Be aware of your surroundings.

Search Engine Application: Check your rankings in the search engine’s

2.     Adapt to changes within those surroundings

Search Engine Application: When search engines introduce a new innovation like Google Instant, adapt your SEO strategy to those changes.

3.     Use what is available to you in those surroundings

Search Engine Application: This is where you need to go viral by blogging, using social media, and learning what does and does not work.

4.     Recognize your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses

Search Engine Application: Know who your opponent is, watch them in the search engines, watch them on the social Web, and adjust your strategy if need be.

5.     Use your strengths to exploit your opponent’s weaknesses

Search Engine Application: If your opponent doesn’t have a Facebook profile, make sure you launch one.  If your opponent only Tweets twice a day, Tweet five times a day.

Check out this fight between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris.  Notice how Bruce Lee changes his fighting style to use these rules.

Stay social my friends,

Erick

So, first thing’s first.  I owe TweetDeck an apology.  I said in yesterday’s blog they don’t allow users to schedule Tweets.  Their latest version, which was never updated on my computer, does allow users to schedule Tweets.  So, I apologize for the misinformation; though, if my computer did not automatically update TweetDeck, there are probably millions of other computers operating outdated versions.

Moving on . . . . If you want to drive traffic to your website, try writing a blog.  It doesn’t have to be everyday, but write one at least once a week.  Don’t just let it sit there.  Tell the world.  If you just write your blog and expect search engines to do all the work for you, you won’t get many views.

Various social bookmarking sites and niche social networking sites integrate with sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  That makes it easier for social media gurus, ninjas, and connoisseurs to let the world know about their blogs and other pertinent information.  Also, those Twitter clients I mentioned yesterday integrate with larger social networking sites.

Think of it like standing on a stage in the center of an NFL football stadium filled with tens of thousands of people.  The football stadium represents Twitter, Facebook, and whatever other social networking sites you use to attract your audience.  The audience . . . well, they represent your audience.  You can shout your message and a few hundred people may hear you, but several thousand won’t.  You’d have a much easier time getting your message out to those tens of thousands of people if you set up microphones and speakers.  Social bookmarking is like those microphones and speakers that allow you to get your message out to a wider audience.

Any thoughts?  How do you use social bookmarking?

Stay social,

Erick

For those who take the time to learn how to navigate it correctly, Google Analytics can be a very effective social media monitoring tool. Here are four ways to use Google Analytics to monitor the sentimentality of how people are engaging with your site. These four methods monitor bounce rate, but don’t forget to monitor exit pages.

1. Traffic Sources >> All Traffic Sources >> View Full Report (Located at the bottom of top traffic sources): Check your site’s bounce rate from people coming from social networking and social bookmarking sites. Stop posting to social networking sites where your bounce rate is the highest and more often where it is the lowest.

2. Traffic Sources >> Search Engines: Click on the search engines, and you’ll see which words people are searching for that are causing a high or low bounce rates. Change your blogging style according to your bounce pattern.

3. Content >> Content by Title: Look at which blogs people are going to most often and which blogs have the lowest bounce rates, and change your blogging style accordingly.

4. Visitors >> Visitor Trending >> Bounce Rate: On the right side, above the graph, select the clock: See what hours people are less likely to bounce from your site and post links to your blogs in social bookmarking sites at those times.

Are there any other ways you use Google Analytics as a Social Media Monitoring tool? I’d love to hear your suggestions.

Stay social,

Erick