Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web....

About 25 days ago I announced the next Israel SEO/SEM conference. SphinnCon Israel is coming back in 2011, it will be taking place on Sunday, January 9, 2011. I wanted to let you know that we are now accepting speaker...

Last week, Google announced they are now indexing SVG, Scalable Vector Graphics. As a searcher, you can now find SVG documents in the Google index. Google said they will index it as a standalone file or embedded directly in HTML....

Ever since the weekend, when I do a search at Google, Google is returning 20 or more (I am seeing 30 results) search results on the page. I checked my Google search setting preference and it was set to show...

After 10 years of preaching the merits of search engine optimization to sceptical business owners, I’ve found there’s a new challenge in online marketing and it’s a funny one.

Nearly all business owners I meet think they should use social media marketing to promote their businesses, but a good number have a real aversion to using social networking channels.

I am finding many people are afraid that if they don’t start using social media they’ll end up behind their competition – or even that they are just going to be missing out on this ‘next big thing’. I’ll be called in for a consultation on using social media for a business, and after discussing the ins and outs of a successful social media campaign, I see there’s something not quite clicking — but as averse to using social media the client may be, he still feels that he must use it.

Do you convince such people that they need to push on, as social media marketing is a necessity these days, or is social media just not for everyone?

Whilst we’ve all heard the benefits of using social media to promote businesses, the dilemma is that using social media as an effective marketing tool also requires:

• some technical ability (albeit pretty basic);
• time, when you may already have issues with time management;
• putting yourself ‘out there’, the social aspect of social media is intimidating to many;
• creative writing skills;
• buy-in from management that may be concerned about dealing with unfriendly comments, time and money spent, etc.;
• a budget to hire a professional to get started or run your campaign, if you just cannot manage it internally.

Even after discussing the ways of managing all of these issues – sometimes over and over again – I still get resistance in many cases.

“I can’t see myself telling the world what I’m having for breakfast.”

“I just don’t get Facebook.”

“It’s just not ME!”

So I’ve become a Social Media Marketing Evangelist, and I’ve been able to convert nearly all of those ‘with little faith’ through:

• inspiring with case studies of related businesses that have shown real results through social media marketing;
• brain storming content ideas related to the areas of the business that the client is most passionate about;
• using channels that are most suited to the clients skills and interests – videos for YouTube may really excite a person less inclined to write blog posts;
• working out a time management plan that fits with the clients’ other responsibilities;
• identifying others that may assist the client (at no or low cost) – teenage children are a good resource for sole traders, while using a variety of staff members works in larger organisations;
• looking at the higher cost of alternative ‘traditional’ offline or PPC advertising;
• showing how to set a realistic budget for social media marketing in case professional assistance is needed on a regular basis;
• setting up tools for integrating accounts and automated posting;
• discussing the other benefits of using social media – communicating with and retaining existing customers, networking, keeping tabs on competitors, etc.;
• meeting the sceptical parties in an organisation to get their buy-in and discuss setting up a social media marketing plan and policy.

Usually at some point along this path I see the client become more comfortable with using social media.  Most become full converts after signing on new clients and making more sales through their social media efforts, for example:

• a small business owner, who barely used email a year ago, is now happily chatting with prospective clients on Twitter on a daily basis;
• a sole trader that couldn’t see himself ‘rattling on about my daily habits online’, has a popular YouTube channel showing off his services;
• a marketing assistant that had to struggle with the business owner for the okay set up a social media campaign, now amazes him with the number of sales they get through their Facebook page and Twitter.

There are still those who just don’t get it and may never get it.  They may have heartedly set up a Facebook Pages that is only posted to once a month, or Twitter accounts that have just the very first post from a training session. They are not going to see much result from such efforts and this will probably confirm their fears that Social Media Marketing is NOT for them or doesn’t work altogether.

Perhaps the super sceptics will have to take their chances using more traditional marketing methods, but as there has been such a shift in marketing practices toward using social media, they may very well fall behind their competitors and will have to come to terms with it sooner or later. In this case they are probably best off hiring a professional social media consultant to run their campaigns for them.

Social Media Marketing may not suit everyone initially, but it’s definitely something that business owners, marketing and sales staff do need to come to terms with to be competitive in the business world today.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Social Media Marketing – NOT for Everyone?

Many by now have seen the "try also" section under some of the AdWords results on a Google search. Google started testing them in March and went forward with them months ago. A new Google Web Search Help thread has...

Compared to the years before the Labor Day logos are lacking this year. Ask.com is the most dressed up for the day. Google has a small flag, which fades in, which is more than what they normally have. Cre8asite Forums...

People are resistant to change.  We find solace in our daily routines.  And because social media sites have become a part of that routine (for better or worse) even small changes to those services can effect us.    So while not every change is bad, and most (if not all) will have their naysayers, some changes are just harder to swallow than others.  Here are 4 recent (and very public) examples of changes that caused the respective communities to lash out.

Betray your users’ trust

Example: Facebook’s Privacy Settings

It’s no secret that Facebook privacy policy is complicated.  In fact, it’s longer than the US constitution.    Late last year, however, Facebook rolled out a privacy settings update that made users (previously private) friends lists public, and gave no ability to make it private again.  Gawker called this ‘Facebook’s Great Betrayal’.

While this wasn’t the first time Facebook was under fire for its privacy policies, it is arguably the worst example by the social media giant.  Outraged bloggers became concerned news outlets which eventually evolved into a main stream media fire storm of concerns over Facebook & privacy.  A storm that is still going strong today.

Create a feature that people want, but ruin it

Example: Twitter’s Re-tweet Button

In retrospect, the addition of a one-touch retweet button made a lot of sense.  The format RT @username: became such common use, that to NOT add a button seemed more of a slight than to screw it up.  Well screw it up they did…

The problem with what Twitter released last year wasn’t about functionality, but rather the format. Instead of simply adding “RT @username” before the tweet as your own, the re-tweet would instead show up in your followers’ feeds as it originally looked, avatar and all.  Additionally, the button didn’t allow for users to amend the original tweet in any way.

While this wasn’t the worst thing that Twitter could do, it was widely criticized by the community.  Almost a year later, people continue to use the original format and manually RT instead of using the button.  In fact, in my own twitter feed, I had to go 3 pages deep and pass over 10 manual re-tweets before finding a Twitter generated re-tweet.

The lesson here: if you’re going to add a feature based on common user activity, keep it as similar to that activity as possible.  Twitter still hasn’t listened.

Take away core features

Example: Sphinn announces they’re removing voting

In case you hadn’t heard, just a few days ago, Sphinn announced it was doing away with user voting.  The social media news site for the SEO and Internet Marketing community will now be completely editor hand picked content.  The decision came just a couple weeks after the announcement of a more strict editorial policing of content to prevent sub-par submissions from reaching the front page through group voting.

It’s not hard to imagine why people would be upset by this news.  No longer will the community have the power to vote on what content is featured on the main page.  Criticism that Sphinn will become more of an “old boys club” and that editors will only promote content by their peers are wide spread and (perhaps) valid.  Danny Sullivan himself even admitted the site would no longer be a “social media” news site.

While it is yet to be seen if the decision will pay off in the long-run, many loyal users are upset by this prospect and don’t see why they would continue to participate in the site.  So even if this improves the quality of the content on Sphinn, the backlash will likely carry a price in the short term.

Completely change the entire way the site works (including breaking it)

Example: Digg v. 4

Just over a week ago Digg made major changes reflective of a new era for the social media news giant.  The problem is: nobody likes it.  There have been enough articles about what changes people hate the most and what features that are no longer available users are missing the most, so I won’t go into the gory details.  In order to truly appreciate the differences between the two versions you simply needed to experience it.  In short: the site practically stopped being Digg and became a whole new idea altogether.

If change is bad, then Digg just committed a mortal sin.  At least that’s the feeling when you talk to some power users about it.  Many are begging for features to come back and (even as I write this) conducting boycotts of the service to make their points heard.

What’s worse: the service seems to be completely unreliable as of late showing a “broken axle” (Digg’s “fail ox”) for sometimes hours at a time.  And even when it is working, angered users (in protest) have promoted popular stories that point to the competing (and growing) reddit instead of the original article making for a very poor user experience.

Digg’s creator and former CEO (who stepped down this week) Kevin Rose promised that they were working to bring back many of the removed features, but the damage has been done.  The site has lost over 1/3 of it’s traffic and devout users have already started migrating elsewhere.  What will become of Digg?  It’s anyone’s guess.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

How to Piss off an Online Community – 4 Recent Examples

Despite the fact is that I hang out at LinkedIn less than on Twitter or Facebook, LinkedIn is my favorite network: less clutter and more sense than anywhere else. LinkedIn is perfect for building your resume and networking for business purposes.

It is confusing at times though and some of its really cool features are either hidden or unclear. This post explains the two powerful networking tools inside LinkedIn:

1. Groups

I am sure you are aware of the feature: anyone can start a group at LinkedIn to give your brand more social media exposure and participating in groups created by others is a great way to become known and heard. I have compared a LinkedIn Group to a Facebook Group – so if you are wondering how LinkedIn groups work I highly recommend checking out that post.

The exposure part is clear: participating in LinkedIn groups:

• Lets you discover more influencers in your niche and connect to them;
• Allows you to get an idea what business people in your niche discuss and talk about and gives you more context to speak up and get noticed.

However another powerful advantage of joining relevant LinkedIn groups is that it gives your second- and third-tier contacts to add you to their networks.

LinkedIn is very strict about why you add a person “to friends”: when sending a friend request you need to specify the reason why you want to be connected. Being part of one LinkedIn group is the powerful reason of getting in touch and possibly building strong partnership:

Of course, joining too many groups at LinkedIn may result in flooding your email inbox with various group updates. However few people are aware of the fact that this can be configured from “My Settings” of each group (located behind the “More” tab in the group nav bar):

2. Tweets!

Tweets is a cool LinkedIn application that lets you integrate your Twitter power with your LinkedIn network (and vice versa). Once installed, the application allows you to grow both the networks simultaneously (and consequently, get to know your contacts closer):

• Use “Connections to Follow”module that recommends new people for you to follow, based on your LinkedIn connections (Your LinkedIn connections you are not following at Twitter yet).
• “Connections” tab allows you to see all of your LinkedIn connections who have added Twitter accounts to their LinkedIn profiles. Simple navigation is provided to make it easy to see who you are and aren’t following on Twitter.
• One of the most useful features of the Tweets application is the ability to save your LinkedIn connections as a dynamic Twitter list.

When you click the link to save your connections as a Twitter list, LinkedIn will create a private Twitter list for all of your LinkedIn connections who have added Twitter accounts.  More importantly, LinkedIn will automatically keep this list up-to-date, adding and removing Twitter accounts to the list daily based on your LinkedIn connections.

This makes it extremely easy to keep track of what your LinkedIn connections are tweeting about in any Twitter client that supports Twitter lists.

How do you grow and expand your network at LinkedIn? Please share your tips!

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

2 LinkedIn Networking Tips You Should Be Aware of

If I were to sit in a meeting with a big client now and tell them to slash a little of their traditional SEO budget and instead spend more time optimising the top 30 SERP’s for variations of their brand names, they would literally laugh me out of the room.

People and big companies have only these last few years got their heads around SEO, they now know that in order to get more traffic, more sales and more revenue, you need to optimise your site and make its targeted keywords appear as high as possible in all the major search engines.

But moving forwards more and more independent SEO’s are going to be jumping onto the scene, as well as this more and more SEO companies opening up shop. So with even more SEO’s and more companies competing for the same term(s) every sector is going to be a battle field, but there are a few options:

1. Optimise for long tail terms and drive traffic through with ranking for quantity terms rather than the quality ones. (Again this will start receiving huge amounts of competition).
2. Optimise for local terms and then slowly optimise for all the locations that you cover, you will have a lot less competition, but will the search volume and customers be there?
3. Finally and this is what I see expanding rapidly in the next few years, especially for mid sized companies and large companies that are already advertising by other means and already get a lot of direct traffic.

If you look at some of your client’s analytics data you will see that, some of the terms that actually bring the most visitors are their brand terms. As an example, do you know how many people actually go to Google and type in Facebook rather than just typing it in the browser?…….  1,680,000,000 that’s how many!

Now that is not even including mis spellings, so now imagine your client getting a fraction of brand searches, or for the rich and famous reputation searches. Currently there are not many SEO’s concentrating on this factor, but let’s just think about what happens if you do not own the rest of the sites, in the Top 5 or the Top 10? You are basically going to be losing traffic that you could have easily grabbed and converted.  But what is even worse is imagine that Top 10 for your branded term had 3-4 bad experiences or false negatives about your clients company or image, you could potentially be missing out on lots of click throughs even though you are number one for your brand term, because people are seeing the negatives about you.

Brand and reputation searches are on the increase, just take a look at the above graph, this is persistent with most brand terms.

Over the next few years Brand management SEO and reputation management SEO will literally have to be offered as a separate service to clients, because although you may be number 1 for your brand. Is that really enough? What do you think?

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Why Brand and Reputation Management SEO are the Way Forwards