Link Value of Social Media

OverviewPros of Social MediaCons of Social MediaFormulaOur ProblemsThe Competition is AheadExamplesFinding the Best SitesLocating Influential LeadersUsing your ResearchROI and ConversionsPlaying it SmartQuestions to Ask Resources

Pros of Social Media Relationship building with industry insiders you may never meet. Find a niche market, you'll find valuable traffic (if you become a reliable source).Announcing new links, articles, sites, specials, news across various outlets can be fairly easy which gains:Exposurepotential for faster crawlingeasy sharing among followers, friends, peersPotential for finding links in new areas. Emotionally fulfilling

Cons of Social Media Time consumingDifficult to break into the noiseSo many options, where to start?Must develop a plan first.Becoming a community “voice” requires commitment, dedication, and quality resources. ROI can be difficult to measure

FormulaSocial Media Network + Linkbait = Inbound Links Linkbait has limitations. Great for:Inbound links (if you have an effective piece)Search engine rankings (if you can achieve the aforementioned links)Publicity (people will start to know who you are and remember your brand after seeing your site several times through social media)Branding (growing awareness and a reputation)Getting the Attention of InfluencersNot Good for: CTR-based adsConversionsSupportive, emotionally sensitive commentsPositive re-inforcement (in most cases)Instant subscribers http://www.seomoz.org/blog/social-media-traffic-isnt-useless

Our Problems Problem #1 – Time ConstraintsProblem #2 - Creating Linkbait Solution - build relationships through social media to get email/phone interviews, guest articles, etc. Use Spezify, gather data for infographics or other useful graphs, or create content around popular discussions in your niche markets.Communication = Engagement = Reach/Traffic/Link PotenitalProblem #3 – No Reciprocal LinkingSolution - content sites allow us a way around this, if necessary.Problem #4 – Measuring Value / ROI & Lead GenOne solution – utilizing the Search Marketing tools in Raven to track time, progress, etc.

Finding the Best Sites Lots of options, articles and opinions are out there. Figure out your angle and work it. 1. Bookmark / tagging sites - Digg, Del.icio.us, Flickr (niche), StumbleUpon2. Article / content submission sites - eHow, Ezine, RSS feeds3. Profile pages - WikiHow, 43 Things 4. Persona Builders - Yahoo! Answers

Locating Influential LeadersHere's where Twitter comes in:WeFollow.com helps you locate Tweeters who are "most influential" and those with the "most followers" based on a specific keyword. Locate these, follow them, find out what they link to/tweet about and create it. Twitter Local can also help find local influencers, either local to you or to your school.

Twitter Usage on the Rise115% increase in usage from Jan 2010. Our best option is to find niche areas within this to drive traffic and attract users who are more likely to “retweet”, post backlinks on their other sites, and refer our services/products to their followers and friends.

Using your Research1. Create pages that provide links back to your site (i.e. Squidoo Lens) - this provides both traffic and link popularity.2. Create pages that will rank well in search engines for low-moderately competitive terms/phrases - check your Raven tools, use a thesaurus/Wonder Wheel/Search Suggestions for ideas. 3. Build profiles on sites that can attract links, attention and contacts from other members, like Digg, Reddit, Wikipedia or on industry blogs.4. Contribute to the growth and value of social media sites (i.e. don't spam, influence)

ROI and Conversions, Part 1Redefine “i” in ROIReturn on engagement – the duration of time spent either in conversation or interacting with social objects, and in turn, what transpired that’s worthy of measurement.Return on involvement – similar to participation, marketers explored touchpoints for documenting states of interaction and tying metrics and potential return of each.Return on attention – In the attention economy, we assess the means to seize attention, hold it and as such measure the responses activities that we engender.Return on trust – A variant on measuring customer loyalty and the likelihood for referrals, a trust barometer establishes the state of trust earned in social media engagement and the prospect of generating advocacy and how it impacts future business.

ROI and Conversions, Part 2To measure ROI effectively we need to determine what it is we are measuring.First answer, “What is it we want to change/improve/accomplish/incite/etc?”Then we can establish goals and objectives that specifically tie activity into:Sales / RegistrationsReferralsLinksReduction in costs & processesLead genConversionInbound activity

ROI and Conversions, Part 3Forecast for SM Metrics 2010Many CMOs 89%, tracked the impact of social media by traffic, pageviews, and the size of their social graph or communities [in 2009]. However, 2010 is the year that social media graduates from experimentation to strategic implementation with direct ties to specific measurable performance indicators.Top 3 metrics to study for 2010333% surge in tracking revenue174% escalation in monitoring conversion150% increase in measuring average order valueBased on study by Bazaarvoice and CMO Club on MarketingProfs recently.(http://www.briansolis.com/2010/02/roi-how-to-measure-return-on-investment-in-social-media/)

Play it Smart“If you want to play in this space you need to pick a social community that’s going to give you the biggest bang for your buck and work it.” Debra Mastaler of the Link Spiel

Questions to Ask1. Does this site have good traffic?2. Is it quality traffic (niche)?3. Is the community/site active?4. How spammy is the site?5. Can this site tie in to other sites so they're all updated at once? (Yahoo/Twitter/Facebook/Digg)6. What is my focus for this site (traffic, reputation builder, content syndication)?7. How much time will this take to gain results?8. Are there other, better options to meet my goals?

Resources Spezify http://www.spezify.com/ We Follow: http://wefollow.com/Twitter Advanced Search http://search.twitter.com/advancedSocial Media Traffic isn't Useless http://www.seomoz.org/blog/social-media-traffic-isnt-useless Photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/4everyoung/313308360/#/photos/4everyoung/313308360/lightbox/

Link Value of Social Media

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Link Value of Social Media