Social media measurement was the hot topic last week on our sister site, Sphinn. A discussion about measuring social media influence picked up the most comments during the week, while an article about social media marketing ROI was our most popular content among Twitter users. Separately, an article about Matt Cutts’ live web chat was the most liked/shared item among Facebook users.
The “Discussion of the Week” asked, What’s the best way to measure social media influence? And back for a second week in a row with our best comment of the week is Sphinn member Michael Martinez of SEO Theory, who said this about measuring influence:
There is a certain brand value to being the point of discussion in social media (without necessarily obtaining any links or traffic). An influencer in this context would be someone who starts a conversation that takes on a life of its own (lasts more than a few minutes or hours, captures responses from more than a handful of people, including multiple responses from individuals).
Below is a look at all of last week’s hot articles on Sphinn.
Most Comments
- Discussion: What's the best way to measure social media influence? – Klout score? Number of Facebook friends or page fans/likes? RSS subscribers? LinkedIn connections? There are all kinds of stats and tools available to learn about social media users and/or find the people that are most influential. For our "Discussion of the Week," we want to know: What's the best way to measure social media influence? The floor is open!
- Panda Pushback Links – While most of the focus about Panda has been on content, Debra Mastaler makes the argument that it was about links: "So yeah, this Panda update is about the role good content plays in your search results but it’s more about the links it takes to make that content sing." Really interesting read.
- How Google Might Choose High Quality Reviews to Display for Products and Businesses – If you want to write a review that more people might see, and that might be selected by a search engine as a “representative review” to display for a business or product or service, there are probably a few things that you might want to keep in mind while writing. At least according to a patent filing from a couple of Google employees. It isn’t officially assigned to Google at this point, but it lists a Google patent application that I wrote about last November onReputations for Reviewers and Raters as a related filing.
- SEO Content – If You Hate to Write It, People Will Hate to Read It – The mindset you're in when you sit down to write plays a major role in what your readers will think of it. If you hate to write, you'll produce SEO content that other people hate to read.
- Hacked Canonical Tags: Coming Soon To A Website Near You? – Google recently alerted website owners of a recent trend involving the hacking of websites to insert acanonical tag and point it to the hacker’s site
Most Tweeted (not already listed above)
- You Can't Measure What It Is You Do Not Value – From Brian Solis: "ROI is as popular an acronym in social media as OMG or LOL are in TXTING. No matter how much you believe in social media, the reality is that management needs to know, what’s the ROI of Tweets in “the” Twitter or Likes in “that” Facebook thing that all the kids are talking about? Kidding aside, the future of social media within your organization and the value your customers experience in their networks of relevance is in your hands."
- A Practical Guide to SERP Profiling – Part 1 – From Greg Boser: "If you’ve ever happened to hear me speak on the topic of organic search then you are probably aware of the fact that I’m big on the idea of taking the time to learn everything there is to know about your space before making a single strategy related decision. Unfortunately, I have found over the years that most companies don’t invest the kind of time necessary to properly research their space. Instead, the most common approach has been to grab an obvious keyword list, and start cranking out links. And to some degree that approach has worked in the past. But the organic landscape has changed pretty dramatically over the last year, so I think it’s a great time for me to renew my“research first” campaign."
- EU based sites have 12 months to "get their house in order" – For all Internet marketing companies that haven't fled to the Caymans yet, or which haven't pockets deep enough to pay fees like £500,000 for storing cookies on their visitor's machines, Shaun Anderson explains the "orderly transition" of websites to compliance with one of the most ridiculous laws on this planet, the new "EU Privacy Directive On Cookies", in layman terms.
- 25 reasons a site will link to yours – Good tips from Ken McGaffin on 25 reasons a website will link to yours.Includes a slideshow presentation, and the comprehensive list.
Most Liked/Shared (not already listed above)
- 15 Takeaways about Google and SEO from Matt Cutts – Nick Roshon recaps 15 points he thought were important in Matt Cutts' live video chat. He covers some topics not mentioned on other sites. Well-written recap for an impromptu event.
- How To Succeed At Facebook Advertising – Forget theory, lets get real. BlitzLocal provides a huge amount of information on Facebook Advertising using a real-life campaign.
- Stop Giving it Away For Free and Start Creating Brand Value – A really interesting (and smart) perspective on what branding and marketing is really about as well as the rightful place for deal/coupon/freebie based promotion.There's a place for it, but it definitely shouldn't be at the core of your marketing strategy.
Hot On Sphinn: May 23 to May 29, 2011
- How Google Killed Category Killer Domain Names – Aaron Wall explains how the domain bubble grew & ultimately popped. Search has moved away from relevancy toward promoting brands. As SEOs we don't control Google. We can only focus on promoting that which they reward. The smart money is now saying that domain names are generally significantly overpriced, especially as an asset class valued based on SEO potential.
- How to Close an Online Community Without Hurting Your Brand – With all the advice out there about how to start your online community, it's time to give out some about how to handle it when your brand needs to shut down an online community.
- How SEOmoz Gained 1000s of Visits from Google News (You Can Too) – Get more visists from Google news today.
- How to Use Google Places New RSS Feed To Automate Your Review Spam Farm – Mike Blumenthal shows how you could use the new Google Places RSS Feed for black hat purposes.
- Bin Laden and The IT Crowd: Anatomy of a Twitter hoax – Rumours circulating on Twitter that Osama Bin Laden was a fan of The IT Crowd sitcom were an elaborate new media hoax. Here comedian Graham Linehan explains how he organised the ruse.
- A Campaign Prep Checklist For Link Builders – A really awesome planning document for anyone undertaking a serious link-building effort.
- Why I Will Never, Ever Hire A 'Social Media Expert' – Peter Shankman writes: "Being an expert in social media is like being an expert at taking the bread out of the refrigerator. You might be the best bread-taker-outer in the world, but you know what? The goal is to make an amazing sandwich, and you can’t do that if all you’ve done in your life is taken the bread out of the fridge."
- Are You Giving Your SEO Consultant The Bird Without Even Knowing It? – Nick LeRoy highlights a few cases where the client-SEO relationship can break down without equal effort put forth by both parties.
- The Coming Tide Of SEO Tattletales – Adam Audette offers the current state of affairs in reference to "narc'ing" out competitors for unethical SEO techniques.
- Google Research Paper on Online Reviews for Merchants and Products – Do those ratings and reviews influence in some way whether or not particular businesses show up in Google Places search results? Do they influence searchers choices in where to visit, after seeing the ratings and the numbers of reviews?
- 90 Days Later, J.C. Penney Regains Its Google Rankings – J.C. Penney appears to be back in Google’s good graces after a 90-day penalty that removed the retailer from appearing prominently in Google’s search results for both short- and long-tail phrases.
- How Page Layout Can Affect Link Placement and Search Engine Rankings (SEO) – Not surprisingly, where links are placed on a website can have an effect on their link value and how the website can improve (or harm) search results. This is because certain blocks, or areas, of a website carry more weight than others.
- Doctors and dentists tell patients, "all your review are belong to us" – When I walked into the offices of Dr. Ken Cirka, I was looking for cleaner teeth, not material for an Ars Technica story. I needed a new dentist, and Yelp says Dr. Cirka is one of the best in the Philadelphia area. The receptionist handed me a clipboard with forms to fill out. After the usual patient information form, there was a "mutual privacy agreement" that asked me to transfer ownership of any public commentary I might write in the future to Dr. Cirka. Surprised and a little outraged by this, I got into a lengthy discussion with Dr. Cirka's office manager that ended in me refusing to sign and her showing me the door.
- 10 Unorthodox Ideas For Local Citations & Links – Obtaining citations and links for a local business are important components of local search engine optimization. Yet, many businesses struggle with how to get links and mentions of their place. Here are 10 unorthodox ideas that could help you nab a few more valuable links.
- Technical Site Audit Checklist – Excellent list of items that must belong in every site audit.
- By The Numbers: How Facebook Says Likes & Social Plugins Help Websites – In his latest article, Danny Sullivan, talks about the benefits of using social plugins on websites, all based on stats from Facebook! There is a list of great examples! Read through it you can also find some useful tips on making "like" button more likeable and generally making your site more social friendly.
This is the latest in a weekly look at the stories that were “hot” on Sphinn in the past week. We’ll post these recaps every week.
Related Topics: Channel: Other | Features: General | Sphinn
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