Unlike the 100% voting based social aggregation sites like Digg and Reddit, the website Fark.com (Fark) has articles chosen by editors, not the Fark members. Much like Search Engine Land’s social news site, Sphinn.com, Fark allows for users to submit articles for consideration, and the best submitted are selected. With a monthly traffic ranging between 700,000 and 1 million unique visitors, Fark is a social site can help to drive traffic and links. Unlike many of the up-and-coming social sites, Fark is tested and true, operating since 1999 and still staying strong. So how can you b [...]

Related Topics: Beginner | Channel: Social | How To | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

Every month, I get a reminder email from the team at Search Engine Land to tell me that my post is due. Most months I already have a clear idea of what I want to cover, but some times I find myself staring at the screen, not sure where to start. And in many ways, that's a similar situation to the one that marketers find themselves in when asked to start integrating social into the communications mix. It's for this reason that we at Mindshare developed a very simple process for planning, implementing and reviewing social marketing, with each step handily beginning with the letter A. Aim [...]

Related Topics: Beginner | Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

News was broken this weekend about new Facebook "like" functionality that will replace the traditional Facebook share buttons. The change beefed up the visibility of people's "likes" by adding thumbnails, and meta data form Facebook's Open Graph Protocol: This means that getting a page on your website "liked" will now be featured in the stream of users and now act exactly like a "shared link" used to, complete with relevant images and descriptions. So How Can This Be Optimized? With this change, Facebook is now giving webmasters control of how their listings show up in the stream. So test [...]

Related Topics: Beginner | Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

Get An Active Twitter Account This is clearly the first step and sounds very obvious - but many people will be disappointed to discover that simply opening an account and tweeting their own content doesn’t miraculously fire their pages up the rankings! Your Twitter account cannot exist in isolation if it’s going to achieve anything - so you need to connect with relevant friends and industry peers. That means doing more than posting links to your own website. You need to enter conversations, respond to questions and queries, talk to customers who mention your brand, and interact. It [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | How To: Twitter | Search & Social

Whenever I talk about Facebook at a conference, I am amazed at how many people come up afterwards and are still confused with the differences between profiles, pages, groups and the other types of entities on Facebook. Even more frequently, I see examples of corporations simply doing it wrong on Facebook and I would like to use this post to try and clear the air on these issues. This post will break down the different objects on Facebook and a high level overview on how they can (or cannot) be used for marketing. What Is A Facebook Profile? The Facebook Profile is meant for one thing and [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Facebook | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

Most businesses either already have a Social Media Strategy, or know they need one. But what makes a good strategy? And how can you set – and measure – success in terms of bottom line business benefit?

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

About a year ago, (October 2009) Google inked a $15 million Twitter deal to include tweets in search and finally, the day has come where AdWords advertisers can take advantage of real time Twitter feed access in their Google display ads. Google Twitter Ads Twitter ads follow a standard Google display template for all supported display sizes (though I think 300x250 is clearly the most popular in terms of getting the most impressions served and rendering best.) Advertisers can customize a default message, their username (e.g., Twitter.com/ViatorTravel) and some color components. The latest twe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC | How To: Social Media Marketing | In House Search Marketing

While advertising on social media makes sense for advertisers, the owners of 'free' sites like Twitter and Facebook still need to make money. Ad banners have been the answer for many social media sites for a long time. However, banner blindness has created a large problem for advertisers since they are paying for impressions, but people are more and more frequently ignoring the banner and the typical website template locations in which they're shown. So how do businesses combat ad blindness, especially when users are going out of their way to install plug-ins to block ads? The answer comes [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

Social media is all about engagement. Because of this, it is the perfect tool for outreach marketing efforts. Outreach marketing is the practice of seeking out individuals or organizations that have a shared interest in what you or your company has to offer. Sometimes, it is used in conjunction with direct sales, but often times it is used for more larger goals such as branding. Generally speaking, when planning an outreach marketing campaign online there are two main areas that are important to define before you begin; your target audience, and your method of engagement. Picking the right [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

Need authority links? Twitter is one of the best ways I’ve found to get your site (or yourself as the case may be) on the radar of the journalists who decide what topics and websites are discussed (and linked to) in mainstream media. Interacting with the folks who report on your chosen industry on Twitter – through being conversational, helpful and never overly promotional – is one of the quickest, and most cost effective ways to get noticed by your industry media. All you need to do is find them. And here are a few ways you can do so.. here's how. Twitter Directories You can eas [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | How To: Links | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

Linkbait is quality content that people want to share or link to due to its engaging layout, ideas, and concepts. Although the name ‘linkbait’ sometimes carries a negative connotation, the fact remains that it is a great way to drive traffic, get links, contribute to the web, and share ideas. For bloggers and writers that create linkbait with the intent of educating their readers and increasing site traffic, linkbait can be a great way to establish credibility and increase reader loyalty. Linkbait can take the form of many different types of content. The most common types are: Artic [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

For newer Facebook marketers, finding the right tone and messaging can be tough when looking to attract fans. Facebook users are different than the normal website visitors as physical customers, in that they react to specials/offers very differently. However, if done right, special information or deals can make your Facebook page flourish.The key is that with so many companies flocking to Facebook, it is so important to actually have your page provide value to customers. Recently, there have been quite a few creative promotions that are textbook examples of how to offer value and to customers. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

It often seems like a rare occasion when offline marketing efforts blend with social media. One of the best ways to use social media to aid offline efforts is to gauge the public's perception with social media monitoring tools. By using monitoring tools, companies can monitor public opinion about a specific offline campaign. Probably one of the most publicized efforts to gauge offline marketing with social media monitoring was Brand Bowl 2010. Here we saw Mullen and monitoring powerhouse Radian6 teamed up to monitor the public's response to Super Bowl ads in real time. While this example wa [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

Internet users are already notorious for fast browsing and scanning content by nature. It's been long known that most people scan content and don't actually read it word-for-word like a book. This behavior greatly intensifies when Internet users are browsing through content on social media sites. A user going down the front page of a social news aggregation site, like Digg.com, will be cherry picking content they want to read. They are so overwhelmed by the variety of content that catches their interest that they are eager to consume one piece of content and move on to the next. Creating [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

While Social Media is definitely the hot topic of conversation this year, most of the tools focus on consumer centric business, and improving communication. If you provide B2B consulting, services or products, your options for social media are fairly limited, let's be honest you probably won't find many fans for your Facebook Legal Incorporation Services page. For these types of businesses, LinkedIn is a much better alternative. Here is a collection of tips I recommend using. Update your profile If you or anyone on your key executives, creative talent, or sales staff doesn't already have [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

Last month, Facebook dropped the news about their "Open Graph" or new Facebook Platform that brings content into Facebook  - and of course expands Facebook’s web reach out to a more granular level. Since the announcement, there have been two questions asked quite frequently: Should I put this on my website? How do I put this on my website? Luckily, this post will answer both of the above questions.  To question 1: unless you have content that isn’t interesting, isn’t social in nature or you have privacy concerns, adding this is new functionality to your original content is rec [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

To many, the process of developing a successful product can be a mystery. Sometimes companies will spend months of development time to create a product that doesn't reflect the needs or the scope of its intended market. And other times, successful products are developed completely on accident. Because of this, it can often seem impossible to develop successful products. However, if one takes the time to listen to their marketplace and plan the development process accordingly, they are more likely to succeed. In my last post, I talked about how to use social media monitoring tools to build r [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

Promoting content in social media is only half the battle. Once it is in the face of thousands of visitors, there needs to be some sort of emotional and psychological drive to get them to share that content with others. This is key in creating a "snowball effect" that will build perpetual motion to reach a much more pervasive audience. I covered creating emotional "hooks" to lure people in to viewing content in The Anatomy of Linkbait, but that doesn't necessarily provide a visitor with the same kind of emotions to want to pass the content along to an individual or mass audience. Seven t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Search & Social

Websites like Sponsored Tweets and Ad.Ly were created with the hope that famous and popular social media users will be willing to start sponsored conversations online. And with clients such Kendra Wilkinson and Kim Kardashian ready to spread any advertiser's message for the right price, participating in social media has finally become profitable. Even Google has began to monetize YouTube for users, gradually accepting popular users and companies into their advertising AdSense program that runs Google ads over streaming videos. Users posting videos that Google runs ads with receive a profit for [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing

To successfully promote a business through social media means walking the finest of fine lines. To market without intruding, to advertise without offending; these things are not easily done. This week, I was thinking about online marketing opportunities using Facebook. And nowhere is the line finer than on Facebook. On that platform, you need to entice your audience to become fans, use your apps and share your content. You need to achieve this on a platform that is all about friends and family—people are not on Facebook to blog, to chat to strangers or to publicize themselves—th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | How To: Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing