Jeremy Blanton – Page 35

Social Search Becomes Even More Important To Search Engine Rankings

Online Consulting, Social Media Advisors, Twitter

Today Google is starting to roll out some new features in it’s Social Search rankings. The use of social search isn’t a new feature, it has been around for a while and has been a part of your searches. If you had not noticed them in the past, they were usually showing up in your searches towards the bottom of the first page. You would notice that the results were of those you had connected to on social media networks like YouTube, Twitter, etc.

According to Search Engine Land, Google’s new roll out will take your connections via social networks and make them even more important starting today. From what I read in their post, you will now see your social connections showing up in the results just like an organic result would. This means that using services like Twitter are even more important now to your business as they too can start to be ranked in the search engines.

The one thing I found interesting in their post was that Facebook Likes were not going to be indexed yet into the search results. In Fact, they referred to Twitter as “The new Facebook Like.” By this I believe what they mean is that you will see more and more using Twitter to help share content. As we all know, Facebook has special connections with Bing, so I think this might be a way for Google to snub Facebook some.

The other point I wanted to bring a little bit of emphasis to is that the size of your sphere is going to play a little great role in how people find you. Each consumers social search results are going to be based on who they are connected to. So if I have only 70 connections that I interact with and you have 700 that you interact with on a regular basis, then you are going to have a much larger net to connect to.

The other part I see with social search is that the more interactions and things you share with your sphere, the more likely you are to show up in their search engine results when one of your connections search for something. The beauty of this type of ranking is that you do not need to have a vast knowledge of SEO, or pay someone a bunch of money to get ranked. You simply need to share links and talk about topics that are of interest to you. Also, talking about topics related to your brand/business will help you to show up within your connections search results when they are needing assistance with things that your business handles. The one caution I would add though, is make sure you still continue to connect and engage consumers regularly and not just turn into a serial spammer. You know you don’t want to become hated on Twitter.

So if you aren’t using social networks like Twitter, you may want to start today!

Too Many Gurus, Not Enough Workers

Online Consulting, Social Media Advisors

I will start this post today with a fair warning that I am about to rant. So if you aren’t wanting to read this, click here. This morning I was doing my normal routine of talking with people on Twitter when I noticed one of my local friends sending a tweet calling out a local “Social Media” Agency to see if they would respond since they didn’t to his previous tweets over 24 hours ago.

Here’s exactly what the tweet was he sent. As many of you know, I wrote about 7 ways to be hated on Twitter a few months back. And as you can see by Paul’s tweet, they obviously got him a little unhappy. In fact, as I went on reading the discussion that took place, Paul was not alone. Several from around the area chimed in with their displeasure of these types of companies.

After reading his tweet, I immediately took off to investigate this a little bit further. I love the term gurus and love it when companies call themself it. So the first thing I did was open their Twitter account to see how they had been using it. I was very shocked to see they were following at least three of the seven things I had mentioned before about using twitter wrong.

Here Comes the Rant

All of that above was said to get to this point. There are many companies out there that call themself experts and gurus on a subject. Before you hire them based on a flashy presentation or a fancypants website that has glitz and glamour, take a moment to do some investigating of the company. Ask them to show you how they are personally using social media for their own business. Don’t be duped into signing up for a service where they create your accounts & will run them for you. If this happens I can almost guarantee you that the accounts will be set up on automation and no engagement will take place with consumers.

Even more importantly than this, make sure you at least see if they have accounts themselves for their company. Paul started looking more closely at local companies and found three other major businesses in our area that sell “social media packages” that do not even have Twitter accounts set up for their personal business. I find it very diffficult to call yourself a guru and sell a product if you are not using it yourself.

Part II

The second thing that really gets under my skin are those who are wanting to be experts and gurus in social media just because they have used it for a bit and find it enjoyable. What many do not realize is that those brands and businesses that are having success with social media is because they work the various platforms hard and put in countless hours to make it profitable. I know personally for 210 Consulting, I spend anywhere from 10-20 hours a week collectively working on content for our blog, engaging consumers on Twitter, and interacting on Facebook with my connections. While it takes a good amount of time to do this stuff, it has paid off very well for me over the last year as our business has continued to grow each and every month.

Companies who set up accounts and never do anything with them and expect them to create business for them are drinking some special formula Kool-Aid that isn’t going to produce. Too many times everyone wants to have the title, but are unwilling to put the work. Over half the clients I talk to ask me how to automate everything in a coaching session. My response is always the same. You can automate and syndicate your stuff out to everywhere, but it’s basically pointless to do so if nobody reads it and you aren’t there to interact to those who comment.”

Automation is an option and you can use it if you want, but it is so ineffective that I wouldn’t dare use it. It’s the lazy man’s way of doing social media. The person who does their social media marketing this way will eventually turn into the person who sits on the couch all day eating chips watching TV. Eventually you will get to the point where you will be so lazy that you won’t be able to even get up and will mess yourself. Consumers are smart, they are watching and they are paying attention. They know if your brand isn’t actually interacting with consumers. If that happens they aren’t going to connect with you and definitely don’t want to buy your products or services.

So, before you go and hire a guru take some time to check them out & see what they are doing on a regular basis. If you want to see what we do here at 210 Consulting, here’s links to all our profiles:

If anyone would like links to any of our other social media profiles, feel free to ask in the comments below and I will be happy to share.

Making Facebook Connections Personal

Facebook, Facebook For Business, Online Consulting, Social Media Advisors

We all heard the big fuss this week about Facebook changing the layout on Business Pages. I saw at least 10 different people write about it. As usual, my first stop was over at my buddy Mike Mueller’s blog as he is my Facebook Guru whenever I want to know the real details. However, this isn’t what I wanted to discuss in this post. Instead I wanted to talk about one of my absolute favorite tools on Facebook. This is a tool that allows you to connect on a one on one level with others and make your Facebook Friends a personal friend once again.

Who Cares? I’m All About Quantity

I understand that some of you are probably thinking to yourself right now, “who cares? I am trying to make as many connections as possible!” If that is your mindset, I get that. I personally have over 1,400 friends on my Facebook profile and accept just about any & all friend requests. (Unless I know it’s spam.) But here’s my question: What good is 1,400 friends if I never interact with them?

Now don’t get me wrong, there are ways to connect with people through leaving Happy Birthday wishes on their wall with 300 other people. But to me that isn’t that personal. In fact this last birthday of mine I looked and some that came by to wish me Happy Birthday. Several had not left a comment, or anything on my wall since my bday before. So how does that make me want to be a consumer of their product or service? I could also try tagging them in photos that they aren’t in to help promote by business, but that doesn’t seem too personal but rather more like spam. Instead, my favorite way of connecting with friends on Facebook is through Chat.

Facebook Chat For Personalization

When I start each day of work, one of the first things I do is sign onto Facebook and open up my chat. I do this for several reasons. The first is that I am connected to many of my previous and current clients. They like using the service to ask me a quick question about their custom WordPress sites, or to schedule a coaching call. It’s a fast easy way for them to get a response from me. On my end, I like it because I can talk to multiple clients all at the same time. It’s not uncommon for me to have at least four different Facebook chats running at the same time. I also like the rest this gives my voice as I already talk anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 minutes a month on the phone. Which is my second reason for using Facebook chat. I can multitask phone calls, multiple chats and save my voice all at once.

The second reason I love using Facebook chat is that it is a great way to connect with past clients. We all know that after a few months down the road your clients can start to forget who you are. They don’t remember that while you helped them with one service, you also have a list of other things you offer. Sometimes just the simplest conversation with them can drum up new business. Over the past few months this has been one of my most productive ways of stirring up new business. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t start a conversation with “Hey do you need any of my services?” The art of the soft sell is definitely needed here in full force. Instead I may ask how their family is doing, or how they like their new site, or share an article that might help increase their business. By offering something of value, they are more likely to remember me in a positive light.

The third way I use the Facebook Chat is to answer questions of those I am connected to. I regularly see friends of mine on Facebook asking for assistance with an issue on their wall. I could send them a private message and wait for a response to see if I answered the question properly, but that can take a lot of valuable time. Plus normally when you answer a question for someone there are three other questions you may have to get answered to get to the correct solution. If they have their chat enabled, I simply send a message. After a simple conversation and quick solution, I have instilled trust in them and that person will think of me the next time they might need to hire someone to handle a task related to my business. As with any type of networking, the key is getting your brand and name in front of consumers as much as possible in a positive manner that they will remember you in the future.

This leads me to the last way I use Facebook Chat to personalize my connections and expand my business. When time permits, I will start conversations with friends that I knew from many years ago and try to reconnect. This may be old high school friends, people I grew up with, or college buddies. Once again, I don’t necessarily start these conversations with the mindset that if I talk with them it will bring me business. I genuinely am try to reconnect with past friends that I have slipped out of touch with. If we don’t talk about what I do for a living at all, that is fine. Why? Because now that we have talked about our kids, shared photos, and reminisced of times of old, I have now gone from just someone they knew in the past to an old friend that is back on their radar. They are no more likely to pay attention to my status updates, photos & videos. All of this means more opportunities for business.

I am sure there are many other ways to connect on a personal level with people on Facebook. For me, I am a fan of the Facebook chat and will continue using it. So, the next time you are logged on, find me and let’s start a conversation!