Very few websites have seen the meteoric rise of interest and engagement that Pinterest has, and – as you might expect – this rapid adoption offers plenty of potential for website owners to get their content noticed.  But what is Pinterest, and how can you use this innovative new website to promote your own content in the increasingly noisy digital environment?

Let’s take a closer look at how to use this fun new social bookmarking program to promote your website effectively…

Essentially, Pinterest is a visual way to organize your internet bookmarks.  Instead of simply saving interesting links to your browser’s bookmark menu or making use of list-based social bookmarking services, Pinterest allows you to create image-heavy “boards” where you can capture and sort interesting links by group, as well as share your curated links with your followers.

The first step to using Pinterest is to score an invite, as the program is not yet open to general registrations.  The Pinterest website allows you to request an invitation, but since this process may take several weeks, you can also ask friends who are current members for an invite or post your request to the Pinterest Facebook page for an immediate response.

Once you’re inside, you’ll likely find the site’s set up to be overwhelming at first, as your first login will greet you with every item your Facebook and Twitter contacts have pinned recently.  Don’t panic – once you spend a little time exploring the site, you’ll find that the way it’s set up makes intuitive sense.

To really understand how Pinterest works, start by installing the “Pin It” button to your browser’s bookmarking toolbar and creating your first board.  Keep the topic of your first board relatively narrow – for example, “Recipes to Try” or “Styles I Love.”  Remember, you can always expand the subject of your board, but ultimately, you’ll likely find that narrowly-defined board topics are most useful to you and your followers.

Let’s walk through an example to get an idea of how Pinterest is used…  Say you keep a list of inspirational blog posts that you like to read when you’re having a rough day.  In this case, consider creating a Pinterest board titled, “Inspirational Blog Posts,” which will provide you with a visual collection of these posts that you can reference when you need an extra kick in the pants.

To load your Pinterest board with the posts you’ve already collected, visit each post on your list and click the “Pin It” button from your browser’s toolbar to add it to your newly created board.  Pinterest will automatically grab an image from the post and add it to your board, where you can reference it at a later date.  As you continue to come across inspirational blog posts, you can make sure these pages are tracked by clicking the “Pin It” button again to store new posts on your Pinterest board.

By now, you should be starting to see how a site that enables readers to share web pages amongst each other in this way offers some interesting opportunities for site owners.  In fact, the power of Pinterest as an SEO and social bookmarking tool comes from two specific elements:

1. The fact that Pinterest users can quickly and easily share “Pins” amongst each other (contributing to an effortless, viral expansion of brand awareness), and
2. That every image used as a Pinterest pin retains a source link back to the original page from which the image was collected – no matter how many times it’s shared.

Basically, when one of your followers sees a pin you’ve posted and likes it, she has the opportunity to “re-pin” it, making the pin accessible to all of her followers as well.  If a pin is interesting enough, it’s possible for the content to go viral as it’s shared amongst different groups of people.  This has substantial implications for the use of Pinterest to build your brand and increase awareness of your offerings across a wide network of users.

In addition, every time you create or share a Pinterest pin, you’re forming a back link to the original site, which can then be spread throughout your social networking connections.  As of right now, these links are still “do follow”, lending a tremendous amount of authority to links from the site, although there’s speculation that the company may convert these links to “no follow” in the future due to the potential for link spam (as in other social bookmarking sites).

Here’s how to use Pinterest in order to safely and ethically promote your website on this new social networking site:

1 – Share your own content via Pinterest

If you run a blog, you can create a board that’s specifically related to your blog, as well as Pinterest pins for your favorite pieces of content from your site.  Your Pinterest followers can then subscribe to this board and “re-pin” your posts to their own profiles, allowing awareness of your content to spread virally and result in a steady stream of new back links to your site.

Of course, you shouldn’t create a pin for every single post you write.  This looks “spammy” and may cause people to stop following your board if you pin too often and clog up their profiles.  Instead, create pins for only your best content to increase your chances of getting shared.

2 – Position content on your site for easy sharing on Pinterest

Just as you’ve added social sharing buttons to your site to enable readers to easily upload your content to Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, you can also optimize your content for effective sharing on Pinterest.

The first thing you’ll want to keep in mind is that Pinterest is a visual network.  If you don’t incorporate images into your posts, your content can’t be automatically shared on Pinterest (although users can add it manually if they’re so inclined).  For this reason, it’s important to add an aesthetically-pleasing, relevant image to each post to make your content as attractive as possible on your readers’ Pinterest boards.

Depending on your niche, you may also find it valuable to integrate a “Pin It” button directly onto your pages.  Adding this feature to your product pages, best blog posts or other important pieces of content will increase the number of times your content is shared on Pinterest, as well as give you control over the specific images, descriptions and links that are associated with your pins.

3 – Increase back links by “reclaiming” pins

Occasionally, you’ll find content from your site shared on Pinterest without a link back to your site, which can occur if your content is syndicated to other sources like blog directories, Google Shopping and other aggregate sites.  By searching Pinterest for relevant brand and product keywords, you can find these pins and contact the owners to request that the link be modified, dramatically increasing the number of Pinterest links pointing back to your site.

Because Pinterest has mostly been used to share personal interest items (like recipes, home décor ideas and shopping lists), there’s a tremendous opportunity for webmasters to obtain a “first mover” advantage by being among the first to showcase their content on Pinterest.  If you haven’t already, take a look at this fun new site and get started pinning – you’ll be amazed at the amount of traffic and interest this seemingly-simple site can generate!

However, they can be a powerful tool in increasing your Twitter following – as Single Grain found out when the strategic use of these tags boosted our number of followers by 13.4% – which makes it worth spending time to learn how to use them correctly. Today, let’s take a look at what Twitter hashtags are and how you can use them effectively in order to grow your business and increase your presence in the social media space.

First of all, as mentioned earlier, Twitter hashtags are indicated through the use of the “#” sign, which may be appended to the abbreviations, initials, single words or phrases that represent a common interest. Let’s look at a few examples to demonstrate how hashtags are used in real-time:

In a post a few weeks ago on unconventional Twitter strategies, we referenced the humorous use of the Twitter hashtag “#snakeonthetown, which followed the fictional exploits of the Egyptian cobra that escaped from the Bronx Zoo in March 2011. Anyone who wanted to follow along with these funny messages simply had to search for the snake’s hashtag to stay tuned.

A more serious example of how Twitter hashtags can be used can be seen in the role the “#jan25” tag played in allowing Egyptian citizens to plan the Arab Spring protests that would eventually lead to the overthrow of the country’s government. Because congregating in public places for political activities was forbidden, Egyptian citizens used Twitter and other tools to coordinate a series of effective public protests from the digital realm.

But while these two examples certainly highlight effective uses of Twitter hashtags that allow observers to follow the issues that interest them, how can they be used to increase your business following?

The key lies in increased exposure. By carefully monitoring and tracking trending hashtags in your industry, you can provide expert commentary and capture the conversation on pertinent business issues that lead more people to follow your brand. Check out the following strategies to learn more about how Single Grain used hashtags to dramatically boost our number of followers…

1 – Post to the hashtags that are popular in your niche

The first key to promoting your business through the use of hashtags is to identify the tags that are already popular within your community and post to them, putting your message in front of everyone who follows that hashtag.

To do this, navigate to a hashtag directory like Tagdef.com, which allows you to search for the meaning behind existing hashtags you may have seen on your followers’ Tweets, identify trending hashtags and locate the hashtags that are already popular in your industry. For example, entering the search phrase “SEO” on this site turns up a number of already-existing hashtags that cater to this community, including #seo, #sem and #seohop.

Once you’ve identified these niche hashtags, observe them for a few days to get a feel for the types of posts that are shared to them. If most Tweets using the hashtag are funny jokes or observations, mimic this style instead of coming in with self-promotional messages in order to build your company’s reputation in a positive manner. If you see people asking lots of questions, answer them with the hashtag threaded in your response to increase your perceived authority.

2 – Post to trending hashtags

Utilizing trending hashtags to promote your business is a little trickier, as most of these tags revolve around pop culture and celebrity topics. The last thing you want to do is to try to co-opt a trending tag with an overly aggressive, irrelevant post that’s forced in for the sole purpose of cashing in on a popular topic.

However, if you commit to monitoring trending hashtags on a regular basis (using a site like TagDef or other hashtag directories), you’ll likely come across at least a few that have some connection with your business. Getting in early on a trending topic can boost your exposure dramatically, which makes this effort worth some serious consideration if you’re hoping to significantly increase your Twitter following.

3 – Create your own hashtags

If you don’t find an existing hashtag to use to address your target community, why not create your own? This is easiest to do if you’re planning a major upcoming event or product launch (basically, something that people will be buzzing about anyways), but you can create hashtags just to share company or niche information as well.

For example, in the first strategy listed above, I mentioned the #seohop hashtag. In fact, SEOHOP is a company that uses a branded hashtag to disseminate messages to its followers in different ways. It can take more of an effort to gain traction with this strategy, though, so if you hope to introduce a new hashtag, you’ll need to be prepared to invest time in seeing that it’s used correctly and consistently.

4 – Host a Twitter chat

Twitter chats function like “old school” chat sessions, but instead of logging into a separate program that allows interested those who are interested in a common topic to communicate with one another, Twitter chatters use common hashtags to keep tabs on the conversation.

A good example of this is the weekly “#blogchat” which occurs every Sunday night. People who are interested in talking about the week’s topic post Tweets containing this tag and monitor others’ responses in real-time. This enables groups to quickly source information and answer questions efficiently by allowing for multiple viewpoints to be expressed at once.

If you’re new to Twitter, watching your first Twitter chat may seem overwhelming. With so many posts flying back and forth, it can be difficult to keep track of sub-threads within the conversation in order to figure out where to interject with your opinion. To participate in a Twitter chat effectively (which you’ll want to learn how to do before you consider launching your own chat), consider downloading a tool like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, which will allow you to set up a separate column or feed for chat-specific hashtag posts. Separating your Twitter chats from your main feed should help to minimize confusion.

Once you’re feeling confident in your ability to participate in Twitter chats (and believe me, that won’t come right away), you can consider launching your own group Twitter session. Ask members of your industry what topics they’d be interested in hearing more about, choose the right hashtag for your new chat and share your subject and meeting times on Twitter chat directories.

Managing your own Twitter chat – as well as any of the strategies described above – will require some extra investment, but if you’re confident that you can convert your Twitter followers into prospects or buyers, dedicating time to expanding your following on the site using these techniques can pay off big for your business.

Image: communityelf

However, they can be a powerful tool in increasing your Twitter following – as Single Grain found out when the strategic use of these tags boosted our number of followers by 13.4% – which makes it worth spending time to learn how to use them correctly. Today, let’s take a look at what Twitter hashtags are and how you can use them effectively in order to grow your business and increase your presence in the social media space.

First of all, as mentioned earlier, Twitter hashtags are indicated through the use of the “#” sign, which may be appended to the abbreviations, initials, single words or phrases that represent a common interest. Let’s look at a few examples to demonstrate how hashtags are used in real-time:

In a post a few weeks ago on unconventional Twitter strategies, we referenced the humorous use of the Twitter hashtag “#snakeonthetown, which followed the fictional exploits of the Egyptian cobra that escaped from the Bronx Zoo in March 2011. Anyone who wanted to follow along with these funny messages simply had to search for the snake’s hashtag to stay tuned.

A more serious example of how Twitter hashtags can be used can be seen in the role the “#jan25” tag played in allowing Egyptian citizens to plan the Arab Spring protests that would eventually lead to the overthrow of the country’s government. Because congregating in public places for political activities was forbidden, Egyptian citizens used Twitter and other tools to coordinate a series of effective public protests from the digital realm.

But while these two examples certainly highlight effective uses of Twitter hashtags that allow observers to follow the issues that interest them, how can they be used to increase your business following?

The key lies in increased exposure. By carefully monitoring and tracking trending hashtags in your industry, you can provide expert commentary and capture the conversation on pertinent business issues that lead more people to follow your brand. Check out the following strategies to learn more about how Single Grain used hashtags to dramatically boost our number of followers…

Strategy #1 – Post to the hashtags that are popular in your niche.

The first key to promoting your business through the use of hashtags is to identify the tags that are already popular within your community and post to them, putting your message in front of everyone who follows that hashtag.

To do this, navigate to a hashtag directory like Tagdef.com, which allows you to search for the meaning behind existing hashtags you may have seen on your followers’ Tweets, identify trending hashtags and locate the hashtags that are already popular in your industry. For example, entering the search phrase “SEO” on this site turns up a number of already-existing hashtags that cater to this community, including #seo, #sem and #seohop.

Once you’ve identified these niche hashtags, observe them for a few days to get a feel for the types of posts that are shared to them. If most Tweets using the hashtag are funny jokes or observations, mimic this style instead of coming in with self-promotional messages in order to build your company’s reputation in a positive manner. If you see people asking lots of questions, answer them with the hashtag threaded in your response to increase your perceived authority.

Strategy #2 – Post to trending hashtags.

Utilizing trending hashtags to promote your business is a little trickier, as most of these tags revolve around pop culture and celebrity topics. The last thing you want to do is to try to co-opt a trending tag with an overly aggressive, irrelevant post that’s forced in for the sole purpose of cashing in on a popular topic.

However, if you commit to monitoring trending hashtags on a regular basis (using a site like TagDef or other hashtag directories), you’ll likely come across at least a few that have some connection with your business. Getting in early on a trending topic can boost your exposure dramatically, which makes this effort worth some serious consideration if you’re hoping to significantly increase your Twitter following.

Strategy #3 – Create your own hashtags.

If you don’t find an existing hashtag to use to address your target community, why not create your own? This is easiest to do if you’re planning a major upcoming event or product launch (basically, something that people will be buzzing about anyways), but you can create hashtags just to share company or niche information as well.

For example, in the first strategy listed above, I mentioned the #seohop hashtag. In fact, SEOHOP is a company that uses a branded hashtag to disseminate messages to its followers in different ways. It can take more of an effort to gain traction with this strategy, though, so if you hope to introduce a new hashtag, you’ll need to be prepared to invest time in seeing that it’s used correctly and consistently.

Strategy #4 – Host a Twitter chat.

Twitter chats function like “old school” chat sessions, but instead of logging into a separate program that allows interested those who are interested in a common topic to communicate with one another, Twitter chatters use common hashtags to keep tabs on the conversation.

A good example of this is the weekly “#blogchat” which occurs every Sunday night. People who are interested in talking about the week’s topic post Tweets containing this tag and monitor others’ responses in real-time. This enables groups to quickly source information and answer questions efficiently by allowing for multiple viewpoints to be expressed at once.

If you’re new to Twitter, watching your first Twitter chat may seem overwhelming. With so many posts flying back and forth, it can be difficult to keep track of sub-threads within the conversation in order to figure out where to interject with your opinion. To participate in a Twitter chat effectively (which you’ll want to learn how to do before you consider launching your own chat), consider downloading a tool like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, which will allow you to set up a separate column or feed for chat-specific hashtag posts. Separating your Twitter chats from your main feed should help to minimize confusion.

Once you’re feeling confident in your ability to participate in Twitter chats (and believe me, that won’t come right away), you can consider launching your own group Twitter session. Ask members of your industry what topics they’d be interested in hearing more about, choose the right hashtag for your new chat and share your subject and meeting times on Twitter chat directories.

Managing your own Twitter chat – as well as any of the strategies described above – will require some extra investment, but if you’re confident that you can convert your Twitter followers into prospects or buyers, dedicating time to expanding your following on the site using these techniques can pay off big for your business.

Image: Marc_Smith

By now, you’ve probably heard the same Twitter strategies repeated over and over again so many times across the internet that you could recite them in your sleep. Yes, it’s a good idea to follow the thought leaders in your industry, and yes, it’s still important to post a mix of informative, inquisitive and promotional messages from your account.

But what should you be doing if you really want to stand out on a once-innovative, but now common place social network? Consider any of the following fun and effective Twitter strategies:

Strategy #1 – Lead Your Own Twitter Chat

If you really want to reach out to and engage with your Twitter followers, consider moderating a Twitter chat. Not familiar with the concept? Essentially, Twitter chats function through the use of a shared hashtag. A time and topic for the Twitter chat is set, and then anyone who wishes to participate can join in by adding the chat hashtag to their posts.

Before you jump in and form your own group, it’s a good idea to watch a Twitter chat in action, as they can be difficult to understand at first (pro tip – consider downloading a program like TweetDeck or Hootsuite and setting up a dedicated area for the hashtag feed to make the chat easier to follow). Once you get the hang of it, poll your followers to see what topics they’d like to chat about and then set a time and date for the launch of your new Twitter chat.

Strategy #2 – Expand Your Reach with Triberr

One of the most difficult parts of expanding your reach on Twitter is simply getting new followers signed up amidst all the noise on this popular social networking site. So if your Twitter stream isn’t standing out enough to get noticed, consider teaming up with likeminded Twitters to promote each other’s tweets via Triberr.

Triberr is a free service to use (although premium features are available for a price or for extra social promotion), but you’ll need to be invited in order to join. To get an invitation, search the site’s existing tribes and contact the ones you’d like to be a part of. Once you’re in, every new post that you publish on your site will be automatically tweeted out by all members of your tribe – multiplying the number of Twitter users who see your message dramatically.

Strategy #3 – Tweet as a Fictional Character

Back in March, following the escape of a venomous Egyptian cobra from the Bronx Zoo, a new Twitter user appeared – @BronxZoosCobra, tweeting with the hashtag, #snakeonthetown. Although the account was humorous in nature, the fact that it amassed over 10,000 followers in less than 24 hours should clue web marketers in to the power of this strategy.

For example, does your brand or company have a mascot that could be the “voice” of your Twitter stream? Could you Tweet company news from the point of view of the cat asleep on your laptop keyboard? Of course, you’ll want to keep your tweets business-oriented in nature, but utilizing the power of a fun fictional character could help your brand to quickly attract more followers.

Strategy #4 – Empower Your Followers

Much has been said about the power of Twitter to increase engagement between brands and their followers, but how much are you really improving this connection by posting the same old, tired promotions as you always have? Instead, why not give your Twitter followers the chance to make a real difference in your business?

Mashable highlights an interesting case study in which beverage giant Mountain Dew gave up creative control of their next product launch and allowed their social networking followers to pitch and select the next soda flavor to be launched:

“As part of Mountain Dew’s DEWmocracy campaign, the soda company empowered Flavor Nations — fan communities for new Dew flavors — to own a flavor of soda that the company is now testing on the market. Mountain Dew literally ceded control of the go-to-market strategy for each of these flavors to the consumer communities.”

And while you might not have the ability to let Twitter fans decide the fate of your next national product launch, why not give them the opportunity to chime in on the next product you’ll carry in your ecommerce store or the next topic you’ll write about on your blog? Giving your fans the opportunity to provide input that leads to tangible results will help them feel more connected to your brand.

Strategy #5 – Offer Rewards for Retweets

Users who share your messages by retweeting them to their own followers are doing you a huge favor by promoting your message beyond your reach – so why not reward them for their help?

For example, if a user retweeted ten of your articles, why not offer him or her a $10 coupon to use on your next product? You’ll want to keep your rewards reasonable, of course, as it wouldn’t make sense to take a big financial loss in the event that a follower has a limited audience by which the RTs are received. But if you’ve taken the time to calculate the ROI of your social networking efforts and understand what the value of a new customer generated through Twitter is, you should be able to quickly put together a promotional offer that makes sense for your business.

Strategy #6 – Turn Your Twitter Feed Into a Puzzle

Have you ever turned on the TV or radio and heard some version of the following – “Catch the mystery word we’ll share in the next hour and you could win our giveaway prize!”? TV broadcasters and radio DJs use this technique all the time in order to keep people on the air and listening to their stations.

So what if you turned this strategy to your advantage on your Twitter feed? Announce to your followers that sometime between 10:00am and 2:00pm on a given day, you’ll share a “mystery word” and that listeners who correctly report the word back to you will be eligible for a special prize or entered into a giveaway. During the four hour window, you’ll have a captive audience who will see not just your mystery word, but your marketing messages as well.

Strategy #7 – Get Personal with Live Tweet Sessions

One of the biggest concerns consumers have when making purchases online is whether or not they’ll be able to get the support they need from an internet-based retailer. Whether you’re selling products or services, it’s safe to say that people have questions about your offerings and are afraid you won’t be around to answer them.

So why not allay their fears by offering regular live tweeting sessions? Think of this as “office hours” for the digital world – basically, you set aside a regular time (weekly is best) when you’ll be on Twitter to answer questions. Anyone who sends a question to you during these hours will receive an immediate response, as well as the subconscious assurance that you’ll always be around to support them after they buy.

As you can see, Twitter isn’t simply a venue for promoting your blog posts or sharing your sales messages. With a little creativity, you can turn the medium into an exciting tool that regularly pumps visitors back to your homepage.

Image: xotoko

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last week, you’ve probably noticed that Facebook has made a few teeny, tiny little changes… Maybe you’ve noticed from seeing them on your own Facebook profile, but it’s just as likely that you picked up on these alterations from the hordes of angry users screaming, “Bring back the old Facebook!”

Of course, Facebook has the right to make any changes it deems fit, and it’s likely that most users will pipe down and accept the new format in a few weeks time. But it is possible that this latest round of revisions – which, by and large, don’t seem to offer anything new or useful to the user experience – could alienate fans and push Facebook into the dreaded MySpace territory? Let’s consider a few things…

First of all, it’s worth remembering that the widespread reaction of frustration regarding Facebook’s changes isn’t just a bunch of whining. There’s actually a psychological reaction to change that takes place, given the time and energy users must invest in relearning a tool they previously found satisfactory. As Zack Whittaker, writing for ZDNet, points out:

“When a radical change is made to something ‘already useful’, but does not fundamentally change the experience, people rebel – and they rebel quickly.”

Millenials and younger generations who see technology as second-nature will be able to adapt more quickly, but Facebook’s recent expansion into Generations X and Y, as well as the Baby Boomers, puts it at risk of abandonment from users who have

But even if these older generations are willing to invest time in relearning this new setup, it’s also worth mentioning that what we’re seeing right now – a News Feed populated by both “Recent Stories” and “Top News” articles, as well as the first introduction of the Ticker – is only a single stop in a line of changes that represent the biggest facelift Facebook has seen since its inception.

At the F8 conference, held on September 22nd, Facebook titan Mark Zuckerberg announced even further changes that will be coming to the world’s largest social network over the next few months. Of these changes, the most interesting will be:

* The debut of “Timeline” – The profile page, as we know it, is out, and Timeline’s in. The Timeline will perform like a scrapbook and present a condensed version of your history on Facebook (versus only your most recent history). While real-time updates will be relegated to the new Ticker, the Timeline will provide a chance for users to craft a clear message about who they are and what matters to them.

* Increased permissions and functionality given to Apps – Facebook Apps will be more integrated into the new Timeline than ever, allowing your friends to see – up to the minute – what you’ve been watching on Netflix or Hulu or listening to on Spotify. You’ll also be able to use these apps from within Facebook, creating a “closed garden” effect where you’re accessing the web without ever leaving your profile.

* More real-time sharing – The introduction of the Ticker and the increased permissions given to apps means that every single action a user takes will be broadcast in real-time. As Liz Gannes of AllThingsD notes, “It’s not hard to imagine Facebook sharing more than doubling after the f8 launches. Millions of tiny little actions are going to move from implicit to explicit.”

Assuming this current vision for Facebook’s future pulls through despite what are sure to be numerous privacy challenges, the result will be a totally new Facebook. While some users will welcome and adapt to these changes, others will be left wondering why the company can’t stop fixing things that weren’t broken in the first place.

Well, keep in mind that what was working for users wasn’t necessarily working for Facebook, who has two major concerns – managing the data capacity needed to allow 800,000,000 users the opportunity to post status updates about changing their socks, and keeping advertisers happy with the quality and amount of data they have access to in order to better tailor their promotions.

The introduction of Timeline should help to minimize the amount of data stored on user profiles by presenting a compressed view of a person’s time on Facebook, versus a constant stream of updates. And there’s no doubt that advertisers stand to benefit from increased app usage and better visualization of the information a user finds relevant.

As Douglas Rushkoff notes in an opinion piece on CNN’s Tech Blog:

“Facebook’s real customers are the companies who actually pay them for this data, and for access to our eyeballs in the form of advertisements.”

Of course, this statement has been true since Facebook first realized that it could cash in on its massive stores of personal data with personally-relevant advertisements. Surely the more widespread recognition that Facebook’s true concerns lie in maintaining profitability and pleasing advertisers isn’t enough to cause a mass exodus a la Myspace in the late 2000s?

That’s hard to say, although it’s certainly no coincidence that on the day Facebook rolled out the widespread changes that whipped its users into a frenzy was the same day that Google’s Plus social network opened its previously “invitation only” doors to the world.

Truly, Facebook’s biggest competitor in the social space – the one that could doom it to the same fate as Myspace or Friendster – is Google’s recent entry to the social networking market. Although adoption of the network hasn’t been widespread yet, there’s growing evidence that this is changing. Anton Perlkvist, a noted Swedish technology entrepreneur who likened the new site to a “house party with no alcohol” little more than a month ago, recently revised his past statement, saying:

“Update: it’s improving. A lot. Things are happening. NOW.”

And it’s true – Google+ does have a number of advantages over Facebook, including ease of use, enhanced privacy controls that put Facebook’s numerous stumbles in this area to shame and sharp integration with Google’s search services that give users more flexibility in finding and sharing recommended content.

But at the same time, it’s important to remember that many of Facebook’s 800,000,000 users have invested significant time in the site in terms of connecting with friends and building their profiles. It’s one thing to complain about changes that the network has made to its platform – it’s another thing entirely to abandon that effort and start fresh on a new social media site.

So although there are a number of variables that aren’t clear yet – including when the next wave of Facebook changes roll out, how well they’re received and how well privacy concerns are handled – it’s safe to say that Facebook isn’t in any danger of going under, given the level of investment of its users and their reticence to change. However, the key to ensuring a mass exodus to Google+ doesn’t occur will be to put a greater emphasis on helping users to understand the benefits of future updates and rollouts.

As an example of how widespread the impact of these programs are, consider the major role that social media and social networking websites played in the 2008 election of president Barack Obama, who won the popular vote by the largest margin in recent history.

Certainly, there are a number of different elements that came together to result in Obama’s victory, including a political climate that favored new blood versus the old guard, frustration with Republican economic policies and the waning presence of US diplomacy abroad. But besides these political elements, the Obama team brought a new ingredient to the mix – a robust, multi-faceted social media campaign.

And while it certainly wasn’t the sole reason for the success of his candidacy, there’s no arguing with the fact that Obama created a more effective web presence than any other candidate in political history. As you can see, the President’s success gaining followers far outpaced his Republican rival, John McCain’s efforts:

In terms of numbers, the President’s use of new media ended up, “raising over half a billion dollars, registering over 2 million voters, and enabling 3 million phone calls to be made in the final four days of the campaign,” according to online strategist Dan Siroker, who lead the team of engineers, web designers and social networking experts who made this achievement possible.

To see the difference that Obama’s extensive online presence made in terms of fundraising, consider the following chart:

In a speech given at Stanford University on May 8, 2009, Siroker shared his experiences working with the Obama campaign, as well as several of the lessons he and his staff learned from studying, analyzing and ultimately responding to internet data usage. These revelations have plenty of applications website development from a broader business prospective and are absolutely still relevant to business owners today.

The following are the five major lessons Siroker identified in his speech, along with parallels for how these campaign-specific examples can translate to traditional websites:

1. Define quantifiable success metrics

For the Obama campaign, key metrics to track included the clickthrough rate of various advertising methods used to get visitors onto the site, the opt-in rate that converted visitors into email subscribers and the average amount of money each subscriber generated for the campaign.

By setting these metrics early on in the campaign season, Siroker and his team were able to make adjustments based multivariate testing of specific website and follow-up email elements.

Lesson: What gets measured, gets managed. If you haven’t set specific goals and metrics to track within your own website business, how will you know whether you’re on track to succeed or if you need to adjust course? Invest some time in determining which variables contribute most to the success of your website and then implement tests designed to optimize these metrics.

2. Focus on your weakest links

Perhaps the most interesting part of Siroker’s Stanford lecture is the examples he gives of actual experiments run during the campaign that were designed to eliminate weaknesses. In one particularly compelling example, Siroker shares four sets of button text and a combination of six images and videos that were used on the splash page for the Obama website.

After polling the audience on their favorite combinations, Siroker revealed that the most popular choices – of both lecture attendees and members of the Obama staff – were actually the least successful in live tests. By making changes based on their split testing results, campaign strategists were able to increase the number of email subscribers and volunteers by over 40%!

Lesson: When you design, build and run a website, it’s easy to assume that the choices you’ve made are the best possible decisions. But the truth is, you won’t know if your site is performing as well as it could be if you don’t test for and eliminate weaknesses. Split testing is an absolute must when it comes to improving your target metrics.

3. Never over-generalize

It’s a very rare situation indeed when you’re targeting and speaking to a single demographic. On most websites – and on President Obama’s campaign websites, for sure – you’re going to be addressing multiple constituencies at once, and all of these people might react to a set of circumstances differently.

For example, in another test run by the Obama campaign staff, five different variations of the “Donate Now” button were tested against one another. The results were surprising:

As you can see, different groups responded to different buttons differently, based on whether they had never signed up, signed up but never donated or previously donated. If the campaign team had simply gone ahead with the first round of testing, instead of breaking the test out across multiple demographics, they would have risked alienating entire groups of potential donors.

Lesson: Test for as many variables and demographics as you can. Once you’ve conducted a few successful tests to eliminate weaknesses, break your testing out across multiple demographics to see if your results hold true across the board.

4. Take advantage of your circumstances

At one point, the Obama campaign was handed a golden opportunity when Sarah Palin, speaking at the Republican National Convention, used the line:

“I guess a small town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities…”

Because the groundwork had already been laid to communicate with potential donors electronically, campaign manager David Plouffe was able to fire off an email to outraged Democrats asking for help fighting out-of-touch politicians and raise over $10 million for the campaign in under 24 hours.

Pretty powerful stuff, right

Lesson: You never know when opportunities will come along for your website’s message to click with your readers. Stay up-to-date on industry news and look for opportunities to share your thoughts on current events on your website in order to take advantage of your circumstances.

5. Question assumptions

In his Stanford lecture, Siroker shares the results of another study that tested the use of a campaign store in terms of bringing in donations. Visitors to Obama’s website were given four different options, two of which involved purchasing items from an online store and two that required visitors to simply make a donation and receive a gift in return.

Yet again, Siroker’s team was surprised to find that the online store – which was assumed to be the better option given peoples’ familiarity and comfort with ecommerce – performed significantly worse than just asking visitors for a donation.

Lesson: No matter how advanced of a website owner you are, you don’t know everything about what your website visitors are thinking and how they’ll respond to different options. Test, test and test some more in order to uncover the truth and achieve maximal success with your website.

However, just because social networking is enjoying its newfound status as a legitimate business tool doesn’t mean that it should be approached willy-nilly, without a concrete way to measure its ROI. To ensure that the time you invest in your social networking campaigns is well-spent, it’s important to identify key metrics to track in order to analyze your returns.

If you haven’t yet implemented a system to determine whether or not your investment is paying off, consider adding the following social networking metrics to your regular analytics check-ups.

Referring Sites

One of the easiest metrics to track when it comes to social media involvement is the traffic your site receives from referring sites, including Facebook, Twitter and other social networking platforms. To find this information, simply log in to your Google Analytics account (you do have one set up, right?) and navigate to the “Referring Sites” report in the “Traffic Sources” section.

By looking at this chart, you’ll be able to see which social networking sites are sending you the most visitors. For example, if you see that Facebook has sent you 300 visits, while Twitter has only sent a handful, it’s logical to assume that your audience spends more time on Facebook. This means that you should increase your investment in this service over dedicating more time to Twitter.

Of course, this is something of a simplistic look at understanding the value of referring sites. In our previous example, it makes perfect sense to increase investment in Facebook based on the amount of traffic the site sends over. But what if visitors from Twitter are converting into buyers at a much higher rate than traffic from Facebook? Say 20% of your Twitter visitors wind up buying your products, while only .1% of Facebook readers do.

In this case, we need to consider the conversion value of social networking traffic as well…

Conversion Rates

The best way to determine what percentage of visitors from social networking sites are performing your desired action (whether that’s buying a product, subscribing to an email list, contacting your for more information or so on) is to use the new Google Analytics Event Goals feature in combination with their advanced segment tools.

A complete, step-by-step guide on how to set up a system that tracks conversions by social media traffic can be found on Unbounce, but more advanced Google Analytics users can take the following steps to start tracking this data right away:

Step 1 – Set up an Event Goal for the specific type of conversion you want to track. You’ll need to use the new version of Google Analytics to access this feature, and once there, you’ll need to provide information about the specific action you want to measure as part of your conversion testing. For example, if you want to track product sales by visitors from social networking sites, you’ll need to enter the URL of the landing page that a buyer reaches after completing a purchase.

Step 2 – Create a custom segment to define visitors that arrive on your site from social networking sites. Within each custom segment you create, you’ll be able to set up the segment based on the source of the traffic, so it’s possible to set up a custom segment for visitors from all social networking sites or to create separate segments for each individual social networking site. If you’re trying to determine which social networking site provides the best ROI for your time, set up a separate segment for each site you want to compare.

Step 3 - View conversions data within the Goals Overview screen. Navigate to Conversions -> Goals -> Overview, and then adjust your view settings to analyze only the conversions that can be attributed to the specific custom segments you defined in Step 2. This will allow you to quickly see which social networking site is providing the best ROI for your time.

Brand Recognition

Of course, you may not be using social networking sites to drive conversions, but instead to build your brand awareness by actively participating in conversations in your niche. This type of benefit is much more difficult to quantify – or, at least, it was until the introduction of the Klout system.

Klout allows business owners to connect their social networking profiles together and assigns a score based on their spheres of influence. Scores fall on a range of 0-100 and, according to Klout:

“…measures influence based on your ability to drive action. Every time you create content or engage you influence others. The Klout Score uses data from social networks in order to measure:

• How many people you influence (True Reach)
• How much you influence them (Amplification)
• How influential they are (Network Score)”

Now, there are a couple of different ways this information can be used. For example, on a base level, if you were trying to determine if your investment in social networking is paying off in terms of brand awareness and influence, a quick glance at your Klout score would tell you if you are achieving this goal or if you aren’t connecting with the right people in order to share your message.

However, if you find that your number isn’t as high as you’d like, you can use Klout data in a different way. Because Klout also tracks the most effective influencers in any given niche, one of the fastest ways to expand the reach of your message would be to connect with the most influential people in your niche. According to Jason Keath, writing for Social Fresh:

“Browsing influencers by topic is one of the real untapped opportunities of Klout. Saying someone has a high potential for influence is nice and as Shankman said tells us they are passionate about something. But if we know who is the most passionate about snow skiing or cooking or New York City, we have much more relevance.”

Obviously, in order to determine which social networking metrics are most important for you to track, you’ll need to invest some time in understanding exactly what you hope to get out of these programs. Do you want your time spent on social media sites to pay off in terms of sales? If so, tracking specific referring sites and their relative conversion sites is essential to determine whether or not your campaign is paying off.

On the other hand, if you’re simply involved in these sites in order to spread your brand’s message, you may not need to devote time to implementing a detailed metrics tracking system. Instead, simply looking at measures of influence, like the Klout score, may be sufficient to determining if your investment in social networking is paying off.

But first, a little background information… “ROI” stands for return on investment. Typically, ROI is measured as a percentage change, but the basic goal is to show that your investment in a given product or opportunity has a demonstrable, measurable benefit. To understand what this means in the real world, let’s look at an example:

Say Gary typically earns $5,000/month from his retail store. One month, he decides to run an advertisement in his local newspaper (using a unique code so that he can track which coupons can be directly tied to this promotion, of course). The coupon costs $200 to run, and he receives $1,000 in new sales as a result.

In this case, Gary has made a 400% return on his investment, which is calculated by subtracting his initial investment from his returns, then dividing by the initial investment. If Gary had only received $100 in new sales, his ROI would have been -50% – meaning that he lost money on the promotion.

Of course, this example is fairly straight forward and doesn’t account for indirect variables, like the amount of time it took Gary to create the ad or any extra overhead expenses that resulted from his increased sales. But hopefully, this general example is enough to show the importance of tracking the return on investment that’s generated by any major commitment of time or money.

Now, measuring the ROI of social media is a little more complicated, as social media campaigns often deal with intangibles – things like increased brand awareness, viral traffic opportunities and an increase in “followers,” compared with hard dollars or sales. However, the basic principle remains the same – whether you’re investing money in working with a social media consultant or committing the time to do it yourself, you need to be sure that you see some sort of return from your campaign.

To help determine the ROI of your current or future planned social media campaigns, consider the following evaluation framework, designed by Katie Paine of the KDPaine &Partners Social Media Research Firm:

1. Define the “R” -Define the expected results?
2. Define the “I” –What’s the investment?
3. Understand your audiences and what motivates them
4. Define the metrics (what you want to become)
5. Determine what you are benchmarking against
6. Pick a tool and undertake research
7. Analyze results and glean insight, take action, measure again

Before launching any social media campaign, it’s important to understand what you want to get out of it from the start. Simply saying, “I want to get more involved in social networking because some blog told me I should be,” isn’t going to cut it!

Instead, consider what specific changes you want to occur due to your campaign. Are you hoping to make more sales on your main website? If so, how many sales? Which product lines do you want to grow as a result of new media involvement? Or, are you engaging in social networking to increase brand awareness? If that’s the case, how will you track whether you’ve been successful? Will a larger number of backlinks work, or would you consider a greater number of Twitter mentions a success?

Once have an idea of what you want to get out of a new media campaign, the next step in ensuring you get a good ROI for your involvement is to determine what you’re willing to invest in the project. If you’re paying a social media consultant to improve your company’s online image, the specific amount of your investment is clear. But if you’ll be doing the work yourself, you’ll need to figure a price to account for time invested, missed opportunities and any other overhead expenses you’ll accrue during the project.

Of course, while analyzing these two things, it’s important to keep your audience in mind. For example, if your target visitors don’t spend time on social networking sites, you likely won’t achieve the same results as someone whose audience frequents these sites regularly. It’s also important to manage expectations and be realistic at this point. If, as an example, you’re selling a high-end or unique product, you’re going to need much more than a few Tweets to increase sales.

Based on the answers you’ve come up with from these first three steps, your next task is to determine exactly what metrics you want to see a change in. Any of the following social media engagement metrics could be considered when planning a new media campaign:

• Overall number of website visitors
• Average time on site
• Website visitor conversions/sales
• Email newsletter signups
• Number of Facebook fans or Twitter followers
• Number of backlinks pointing to your site

But beyond the obvious items listed above, consider some of the following new metrics the Mobile Marketing Association suggests tracking as a result of increased social networking engagement:

“The number of eyeballs, shakes and finger swipes. The number of blogs, articles, tweets and diggs. The number of acquisitions, conversions, calls, responses or purchases. Total basket size, consumer recall, loyalty and recommendations. Check-ins on foursquare and check-outs on Amazon.”

Obviously, the metrics that matter to your business may be different from the data that are important to another company. If you’ve been active with web analytics and measurement before, you should have a good idea which metrics contribute the most to your website’s success. If this is your first exposure to data-driven decision making, you’ll likely need to spend some time determining which metrics it makes the most sense for you to track.

The last three steps of Paine’s process will be pretty intuitive to anyone who’s worked with data analysis before. Understand what your baseline results are (so that you have something to compare the results of your campaign to), implement tests and make use of tools that allow you to track measurable results, and then analyze what you’ve come up with. Be sure you run a long enough test to ensure that the results you’re seeing are valid and not just an anomaly in a too-small sample.

If you don’t like the results you’re seeing, change course and another approach until you find the right combination of social media engagements to meet your goals. As each industry is different, it may take some time to find the best social networking sites to engage with and the right messages to send to your potential visitors. However, if you’re willing to invest the time and money to conduct a good social media campaign, there’s a good chance you’ll see a solid ROI from your project.

Sure, the internet marketing world has been abuzz with the launch of Google+, the web’s most recent – and most promising – social networking site. But there are hundreds of other social networking sites out there. You aren’t really expected to maintain a presence on all of them, are you?

Well, yes and no… In this article, we’re going to look at effective ways to balance your investment in all of these different social networking sites, including how to identify the sites that are a best fit for you, how you can double-up by posting to multiple networks at once and how to manage all of your different company’s social networking campaigns without going crazy.

First of all, it’s important to remember why social media investment is so important. If you’re a long-time website owner, it’s possible you’ve been doing fine on your own – so why add yet another new-fangled element into your marketing mix?

For starters, Google has made no secret about the fact that it’s been giving more and more preference to links from social networking services in its ranking algorithms. Consider the following quote from Matt Cutts on the Google Webmaster Help Channel:

“We do use Twitter and Facebook links in ranking as we always have in our web search rankings, but in addition we’re also trying to figure out a little bit about the reputation of an author or creator on Twitter or Facebook. I filmed a video back in May 2010 where I said that we didn’t use that as a signal, and at the time, we did not use that as a signal, but now, we’re taping this in December 2010, and we are using that as a signal.”

Simply put, if you aren’t actively engaging in social networking, you’re missing out on this major potential benefit. But you’re also limiting yourself in the ways you’re able to connect with people. Social networking sites allow website owners to interact with their customers in real-time, which is an especially powerful way to build a brand when compared with regular posts on traditional websites.

Of course, knowing that you should be active in social media and actually doing so are two completely different things… If you’ve struggled to gain a foothold in the ever-growing social networking community, consider the following advice.

The first key to utilizing social networking effectively is to determine where your “community” hangs out, as that’s where you’ll want to focus your efforts. To get started, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Are my target visitors actively involved in social networking? You might be surprised to find that, if your website is in a non-technical niche, your community doesn’t participate in social networking at all! Of course, it would still be a smart move to at least set up accounts on the major social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Google+), although you might need to be more active in other online hangouts – like forums, message boards and chat groups – if that’s where your audience is.

2. If your visitors are active in social networking, what sites are they most active with? Again, this will vary widely from one niche to another. Some communities may be very active on Twitter, while others rely more on Digg, Reddit or LinkedIn. If you find that your target customers are most active on one or two sites, focus your social networking efforts there.

3. How do your target users interact with these sites? Are they posting links or sharing text responses? Do they seem to be most active during the day or at night? If your community is active on Twitter, do they use any particular hashtags or participate in any regular chats? The more information you have about your users, the better you can tailor your social networking strategy to their preferences.

“Every year the Web offers up hundreds of new experimental services and ideas, and while you don’t have time to try them all, if you’re able to pinpoint the applications with the most traction, your early adopter status will come with long-term rewards. Jennifer Van Grove, web strategist”

After doing your due diligence, you should have a rough model for how your community engages with social networking sites and you can use this as a guide to implement your own strategy.

For example, if you notice your target customers post on Twitter roughly every four hours, use that as a baseline for your own participation. If the people you’d like to engage with share pictures, text messages and video clips on Facebook, be sure you’re sharing a range of media files as well.

The key is to be consistent with your efforts. It’s far better to spend 10-20 minutes each day on your chosen social networks than to spend a few hours all at once each month. Social networking is about day-to-day interactions, so if you aren’t present, you’ll miss a major part of the benefit of this type of marketing.

However, that doesn’t mean you have to drive yourself crazy by spending hours a day monitoring your newly-created social profiles. Instead, consider the following tips for managing social networking engagement in a sane and productive manner:

1. Use social networking plugins and add-ons to improve your productivity. For example, the AddtoAny plugin lets you make recommendations to your community on the fly by allowing you to quickly and easily share pages on your social profiles. Or consider the Buffer app, which allows you to schedule tweets and other social networking messages ahead of time.

2. Set time limits. Schedule time for social networking, just like you would any other important business task. When you’re first starting out, aim for at least 10-20 minutes a day. If you find that your efforts pay off, increase the amount of time you spend connecting with your community in this way.

3. Double up and reduce your effort. One way to reduce the amount of time needed to maintain your social networking strategy is to use services that post your updates to multiple profiles simultaneously. For example, here’s how to connect your Facebook and Twitter profiles so that updates posted to your Twitter feed are automatically piped through to your Facebook wall:

Once you’ve set up your Facebook and Twitter profiles separately, navigate to www.facebook.com/twitter/ and click on “Link a Page to Twitter”. (Note – only pages can be connected to Twitter at this time, not personal profiles.)

On the next screen, ensure the page want to connect to a Twitter feed is the one that’s selected, then click on “Link to Twitter”.

Clicking this button will take you to Twitter, where you’ll be asked to authorize Facebook to use your account. Be sure that the correct Twitter profile is active in the upper right corner, then click on “Authorize app”.

After this, you’ll return to Facebook, where you’ll be able to select the specific types of content that will be shared between the accounts. Once you’ve made your selections, click on “Save Changes”.

Congrats – you’ve now linked your Facebook and Twitter profiles together, effectively cutting the time needed to post to these two sites in half! For even more social networking automation, look into tools like Ping.fm or Sendible that will allow you to post to even more social networks at the same time. By spending a little time upfront to set up your social networking sites correctly, you’ll save both your time and your sanity.

When Google first debuted its “+1″ button in March 2011, the critical reception was somewhat cool. With a stylization that was strikingly to Facebook’s “Like” button, the “+1″ feature had most SEO and internet marketing analysts labeling it a cheap rip-off, destined for the obscurity of Google’s ill-fated Wave and Buzz projects – in large part due to the seemingly restrictive requirement that users have a public Google profile activated in order to participate.

However, the recent launch of Google’s full “Plus” social network has many of these experts reconsidering their earlier stances. If recent reviews and early adopters can be believed, it’s looking more and more likely Google’s tight integration of social networking and search results – in addition to the inclusion of features that Facebook has long been lacking – could take off, leading to significant changes in the way people find and digest information online.

As you might expect, these changes could have a major impact on the traditional SEO industry. To see what’s at stake and what could change in the future, let’s start by looking at how people have interacted with search engines and their results in the past. From there, we can imagine what a fully-integrated social search network might look like, as well as how website owners can prepare for this new world of SEO.

Search Engine Interaction in the Past

For much of the last two decades, search engines and social networks have existed in isolation. Web visitors used specific web services (including forums, chat rooms, Friendster and other Facebook predecessors) in order to connect with friends, family members and web users with shared interests. Although some content recommendations may have been made in these settings, the process of seeking out particular bits of information was largely left to the search engines and the algorithms they utilized to provide results to search queries.

In this case – which largely persists today – users rely on the results generated by the search engines in order to identify the information that’s most relevant to their search queries. In this environment, the only thing a website owner needs to do in order to be considered the most relevant result by the search engines is to comply with a set list of SEO criteria, including domain age, keyword density and other factors. Although the exact weight given to these factors has never been known for certain, it’s safe to say that social recommendations haven’t played a large role until now.

Certainly, some websites have attempted to bridge this gap before – most notably, “real person” search engines like Chacha.com, which touted live experts answering questions and making content recommendations. However, for a number of reasons, none of these human-powered search services have come close to earning the widespread recognition and trust given to the major search engines.

Google Plus: Connecting People and Search Results

Given the size of the Google search engine and the number of existing users, Google Plus and its corresponding “+1″ button may be the web’s best chance to integrate social recommendations with search results in the foreseeable future.

So what does search look like inside this newly integrated world of social SEO? For starters, instead of simply seeing the pieces of content that meet the most SEO criteria, Google searchers might first see recommendations for web articles that their contacts have rated, using the “+1″ button. Alternatively, they might identify new articles through the Google Plus “Sparks” module, which promises to notify users of “stuff” (aka – web content) they might like.

As you might expect, SEO experts are more than a little peeved by this change in the structure of the Google SERPs. After all, how dare Google devalue the work that website owners have put into optimizing their websites by giving priority to content simply because a contact has “liked” it! To spend hours and hours implementing SEO best practices only to be knocked down the rankings by one person’s recommendation certainly would be frustrating.

However, instead of getting mad, internet marketers and website owners would be wise to take this opportunity to expand their social presences and grow along with Google’s new services. Google has made no secret of the fact that it’s giving increased weight to websites with strong social profiles (including Facebook fans, Twitter followers and other social networking indicators), so there’s really no better time to take advantage of these benefits than now, at the start of Google’s foray into social networking.

How to Engage in the New World of Social SEO

Image: Anne Helmond

Step 1 – Actively engage. For a long time, the default advice has been that you need to have a Facebook page or Twitter profile – just to have one. But odds are, this won’t be true for long. If Google is indicating a trend towards prioritizing links and sharing from social networking sites, it’s reasonable to assume that, just as with standard websites, they’ll be able to tell an active social profile from an inactive one (or, worse, a scam profile set up to manipulate the system).

So instead of simply setting up your social networking profiles, get more involved with them. Post regular content, share thoughts and actively communicate with followers by providing personalized advice and recommendations. It’s a little more work, but it may ultimately be worth it if existing trends continue.

Step 2 – Publish good content. Don’t publish articles just to publish articles – instead, share meaningful, interesting and exciting content with your readers. No one’s going to “+1″ the boring, keyword-driven article you posted to your website in order to satisfy some SEO requirement. In the world of social search, you’re writing for actual people – not just the search engines – so it’s important to focus on writing content that satisfies both.

Basically, if you can’t say, “I’d absolutely share this article with a friend or colleague,” it’s time to go back to the drawing board…

It’s also important to keep in mind that we just saw a major smack down on sites that publish loads and loads of content as part of the recent “Farmer’s Update.” While the specific reasoning behind which sites were slapped and why is still subject for speculation, it’s worth keeping in mind that the sites that were targeted (for example, Ezine Articles and Hubpages) don’t serve their readers as much as the people who were publishing on them.

Step 3 – Don’t ignore traditional SEO. Although the debut of Google’s Plus service certainly has the potential to change the way people interact with information online, it isn’t likely to trigger an overnight revolution. Not everyone will sign on to use the service (even those who do may not adopt social-integrated search features for one reason or another), which means that a percentage of the population will continue to see the old, SEO-driven results pages.

So continue to target worthwhile keywords. Continue to make use of keyword rich title tags and quality backlinks from reputable sources. But don’t be left behind as social search gains traction in marketplace. Users are becoming more and more engaged with social networking, so even if Google’s Plus network doesn’t take off, there will likely be another competitor on the horizon touting a similar integration. Take the time to implement solid social media strategies now in order to stay ahead of the curve on social SEO.