SEO Mentor

With the rise of Social Media and the ability to converse real time with people you have never met before, it seems that things are changing almost daily for both the good and the bad. Lets focus on the bad for just a bit and then end with the good.

BAD:

Before social media the only area people in the industry would interact was maybe a couple times a year at conferences and the majority of this was when they were at the bar and totally relaxed. Now we have the opportunity to talk all day long via micro-blogging, live online TV, etc. We never had to interact in this setting before, we now know exactly what each other is doing not only on a daily basis but on a second by second basis (e.g. Twitter, Plurk, Friendfeed, etc.).

So you are asking, “Garrett what is the problem with this and why would this be bad?” Well it is simple, have you ever had a best friend that you loved to be around and then you moved into a apartment together and wanted to kill each other after a couple weeks. Well I see the same thing happening online these days, if you haven’t noticed lately there has been a lot more back and forth. In my opinion this is due to Social Media. Now you can argue my opinion all you want and that is fine really it is just an observation that a good friend of mine had and I happen to totally agree. So that wasn’t so bad lets get to the good!

GOOD:

Well the good items list is endless but here are just a couple of things that I think are totally awesome due to Social Media.

• Making new friends you would have never met any other way
• Building Relationships of trust
• Networking B2B and B2C
• Building Social Equity
• Instantly Communicating to Clients and/or Customers
• Reputation Management
• Being engaged in something (I see people being less depressed)
• Introverts becoming extroverts
• Conquering Social Fears
• Giving Value faster & more efficiently
• Building Brand Awareness
• Free marketing (if you do it right and give valuable content)
• Search engine rankings (Just search “SEO Mentor” and you will see what I mean)
• Last of all FUN FUN FUN

Again the list could go on and on and if you want to add to it simply comment below. Over all I think the Good wins over the Bad but I think we need to be aware and careful as we all share our lives online and talk about others. It all comes back to the ethic of reciprocity or the Golden Rule,“treat others as you would like to be treated.”

In todays Social Media News & Tip Podcast there was some quick news items and a great tip. Here are some of the items that I talked about when it comes to social media and networking:

Facebook Redesign To Go Live Tomorrow

Initially Facebook announced they were working on a redesign earlier this year. In May, a glimpse of the redesigned was released to developers in the developers sandbox. Tomorrow evening the redesign will be open to the public. …

Google Maps Offers Walking Directions

If you visit Google Maps today, you may notice a new feature called Walking Directions. It could definitely come in handy, especially if you live a city where having a car is just not efficient. Google Maps lists the driving directions …

Serious YouTube test of copyright law

A woman who posted a home video on YouTube of her 13-month-old son dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” squared off Friday against entertainment giant Universal Music Corp. in a federal court case that tests copyright law. …

I recently had a question from Mike Florence about Universal Search and what it is. Blended Search or Universal Search, whichever you call it; both are changing the online world. Google was the main pioneer of Universal Search and of course all the Major Search Engines (of course I mean Yahoo & MSN) soon followed.

Here are a couple things changed in the search engines when Universal Search came to fruition:

Digital Content syndicated in search results such as -

• Video Content
• Images
• Press Releases
• Articles
• News
• Local Listings
• Books
• etc.

Let me show you a quick image example of what I am trying to explain in words:

As you can see from the screen shot above, images and video are part of the organic search results. I don’t see any better explanation of blended search than the above image.

So how is Universal Search effecting the SEO and Search Engine Marketing industry? Well think of it this way, at one point you were competing with 10 other results to be on the first page of Google. Now with universal search, if there is a news and video result within the search query your website now only has a 80% chance to be listed on the first page of the search engine.

So you might be asking, “What does this mean for me and my business?” Well no need to worry. IF!!! You are taking advantage of video, press releases, image optimization, news, etc. Sites such as the well know YouTube.com, PRWeb.com, and Flickr.com just to name a few will help you take advantage of Universal Search.

Now you also need to know about the latest Social Media, also called Social Marketing, Social Networking. Search engines are picking up content from Social Networking sites such as Hubpages.com, Zimbio.com, and Gather.com, and these are just a few examples. Stay tuned for more about Social Marketing in future posts and podcasts.

Hope this answers your question Mike!