Tag: Social media

Does Facebook Impact Google Rankings?

If you’re pushing content that doesn’t get shared much, Google may not be interested in it either.

checkify:

According to an annual report by SEOMoz titled “2011 Search Engine Ranking Factors”, there’s a significant correlation between Facebook shares and the ranking of that same page on search engines, particularly within Google’s US rankings. SEOMoz goes into detail to decide whether or not Google is using Facebook shares directly as a ranking signal, or whether or not search position and a popular shared page is merely a coincidence.

In their conclusion, SEOMoz has said it that they are unable to prove that a Facebook shared link will directly impact search engine rankings. The study shows that there is a strong correlation between rank and Facebook shares, however that could also come down to the quality of the content.

The bottom line really comes down to the beautiful phrase Internet marketers are used to hearing: quality content is king. Of course, especially with the recent Panda updates, Google is rewarding quality content when calculating rank.

So if we know that quality content will be rewarded, why do we care about the correlation between search engine rank and Facebook shares? For one, it’s great for publishers to have a metric to tell if they have quality content to begin with.

There’s a lot of talk about the quality content, things to look out for, the do’s and don’ts, but there’s no real way to tell if your content is true quality in Google’s eyes. We have ideas in terms of sentence complexity, uniqueness, relevancy, and keyword density, but there isn’t a whole lot more than that.

When looking at the strong correlation between pages that are shared on Facebook and those that rank well in Google, it’s important to consider what Google is considering quality, even if Google doesn’t use that share data as a part of its algorithm.

To keep it simple, if you’re pushing content that doesn’t get shared much, it may not be that good. If it’s not good from a human perspective, Google may not be interested in it either. If we consider Google’s algorithmic approach, they’re aiming to create a highly relevant and positive experience for their user. It will try to mimic what humans like.

Conclusion

This one is a no-brainier, but keep promoting your brand through Facebook! By sharing and generating user engagement through social media you’re only helping your brand, not to mention the other benefits that a social media marketing campaign can have, such as generating tweets or even links back to your site from users. More Facebook shares probably won’t improve your Google rank directly; however it’s important to consider various other positive effects and other signals that Google may pick up on. Aim to make yourself an authority.

So, given everything said, are you planning to add or revise anything from your Facebook or social media strategy?

Does Facebook Impact Google Rankings?

5 Tips To Make Your Startup’s Twitter Account Stand Out

Nice summary & tips from checkify.

checkify:

Along the way I have tried many different techniques and I believe the following 5 tips were most important to make things work for us:

1. Promote Others

The first piece of advice is to promote others?

Following the words of “If you want to get noticed, notice others” has proven to be the most important factor to grow our network on Twitter. Naturally, as you start taking notice in others tweets, they will start retweeting you too.

Now it is crucial not to retweet others for the sake of retweeting them. Be sincere and honest. Find the thought leaders in your niche and start retweeting thoughtfully if you believe it provides value for your following. It helps to add a short comment to personalize retweets and to show others you are truly engaged with that content.

In many cases this can simply mean to add the author’s Twitter handle and showing appreciation for the post:

2. Be Consistent In Order To Build Trust

I learned that building trust amongst your followers hardly happens if you can’t commit to a regular presence on Twitter. This doesn’t need to take up much of your time. Use simple Tweet scheduling tools to pre-write a few tweets to be sent spaced out over the whole day.

As you grow, you can increase your frequency and become even more active. Creating a consistency of content tweets is fantastic, because you can provide value for others beyond your product. It allows you to be very active the space you are in, without referring to your own startup all the time

3. Be Focused On Your Niche

A mistake I made early on is to start tweeting about every topic you could think off, starting with Social Media, startups, design and whatnot. Doing this left me faceless in the space, where no one could recognize what I was all about.

In order to get noticed I suggest you start tweeting about topics that are tightly interconnected with your products’ focus. The major benefit of doing this is that as you become known as an expert voice in your space. I found that if someone now learns about your product it can make a huge difference, as you have already provided them with knowledge about a very related topic beforehand.

4. Be Creative With Your Tweets

A technique I love to share is to genuinely see your Twitter account as a micro-blog. This means you think carefully about the wording of tweets posted. Of course, I wouldn’t suggest to tinker for hours. Yet tweeting something different than the headlines of posts that everyone else is tweeting about can help you to stand out.

Try rewriting post headlines or adding your thoughts next to them. Another way to do this is to find a quote from a post you enjoyed and turn that into your headline for the tweet. Doing this can spice up your tweets and shows your followers that you are truly engaged with the content you are tweeting about.

5. Be Fast

Twitter’s fast paced nature makes it perfect to be used as a great support channel. What I found is crucial here is to answer tweets in a short time window of receiving them. In general leaving less than 1 hour between your response might be a good timeframe.

In order to manage your time well, collaborating and sharing the work on who is online can help a great deal. In our case, we change who is “on duty” every 3 hours. Providing such a fast customer service has led to great praise and happy customers many times in the past for us.

5 Tips To Make Your Startup’s Twitter Account Stand Out

Social Media Trifecta for Small Business

If you’re like a typical “small business”, you’re looking for new ways to bring in customers. My advice = Use Social Media. Most “small business” have little or no resources to hire a full time Social Media manager. If this is the case, then my recommendation would be to concentrate only on these 3 Social Media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp). Take an hour a day (or night) and network/add content to these Social Media sites.

Yelp

This is a great site and becoming a force in small business marketing. Yelp is your chance to give customers the scoop, right on your Yelp business page. Once logged into biz.yelp.com, build out a rich profile under the “Business Information” tab. You can share the history behind your business and what you do best. Also, add a little something about yourself and your employees so that Yelp users can get to know you. Let people know your business is on Yelp. Add a button (Yelp link) to your email signature file, website, and all marketing collateral

Get photos of your business up on Yelp, ASAP. If your business is a restaurant, add a picture of your menu. Own a boutique? Add a shot of your great new merchandise. It’s a simple, fun and effective way to illustrate your story. Finally, ensure a photo of your storefront is included so people know what to look for when they decide to visit you offline and in person.

TwitterTwitter

Twitter is also for small business owners looking to build new local customers. To sign up for a twitter account, go here www.twitter.com. The first thing to do is set up a proper “Profile”. Make sure you fill out your twitter profile to include your website URL, business phone #, and specific keywords related to your business or service that will help potential people to follow you. Follow people in your field of business such as peers, customers, and competitors. Follow your competitors followers as well. Run twitter contests, give away special online twitter discounts or offers. Always include “Add Follow Me on Twitter” in email signature file, website, and your other social media accounts.

Make sure you don’t mix your twitter business account with a personal account, keep them separate as well as the messages. Engage in related business conversations. Look up conversations that will help drive customers to your twitter account using keywords in twitter search. DO NOT go overboard and follow too many people that follow you or you will risk looking like a spammer. If you have a blog on your small business website, always reference a new blog post on your twitter account. Stay with it everday and be patient, the ROI will pay off in due time. Retweet others relevant to your field or business. This helps establish credability and you will pick up more followers.

Facebook 

Get on Facebook now! Facebook pages tend to work better for businesses while Facebook “groups” do well for non-profits, interests and causes. If you’re a one-person business, rather than creating Facebook pages for your name, consider setting up a Facebook page for the company, product or service name and add keywords to it. People may be more likely to subscrbe to your Page (become a “fan”) when they see the topic that follows the company name.

Content is king for a Facebook business page. Facebook is a great place to share tips on how to do things faster or more effectively with your product or service. Post “how-to” videos or screencasts. Announce free upcoming events or webinars. Mention if you or someone from your business will be attending an event for a potential meet up. Its always a good idea (content-wise) to import your twitter feed and business blog posts.

Make sure you use Facebook to connect with your existing customers AFTER they’ve already bought from you – rather than trying to use Facebook to mine for leads. This is the path of least resistance. Since they already know you, they are more likely to interact with your page – crucial for organic growth on Facebook.