The Social Component of Social

Social media is the number one form of communication on the planet, and Facebook itself is one of the largest websites on the planet. Social media has changed the world literally on a communication level and even on a political level. Social media has been the catalyst in revolutions and even in perpetuating regime changes around the world. No one can deny the power of social media on a social level. Social media has also revolutionized the entire advertising and marketing industry.

The marketing potential of sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram (just to name a few) is tremendous. The ability to interact in real time with your current and past customers as well as prospects and fans is incredible. However, we're not going to talk about any of those things here. Right now, we're going to go into the effects that social media has on the search engines. Then why even mention it at all? Because I think it is important for you to know and respect the full power social media can have for your overall strategy. I could write an entire book (and might) on social media. This book is about winning the game of Googleopoly, and a large part of that strategy is going to be utilizing social media search (engine) optimization, also known as SMO.

For many, it's their secret weapon. Because so few people or businesses are using social media for its tremendous SEO benefits, those who are properly utilizing it are achieving incredible success.

It really comes down to four aspects, which we'll cover here.

Sharing Means Attention

For years, the search engines were all trying to figure out how to apply social media to their ranking algorithms. Google purchased several social media sites that all failed (other than YouTube, of course) before finally deciding to build its own in the form of Google+. Microsoft went so far as to buy directly into Facebook itself and currently still owns a large portion of the largest social network in the country.

The search engines had the data. They could read the pages. They could judge the links coming in from other sites. They could tell how long people would spend on sites and whether they were finding what they were looking for based upon people bouncing back to the search to look at other results.

The one thing they couldn't understand was sentiment. They had no way of telling if people really liked what they found on the other side of the click. This is where social media comes in. Social media sites know what we like. They know our tendencies. They understand that if we share a piece of content, whether it's an article on a news site, a video, or a helpful page on a website, that we likely found value in that page.

The search engines coveted this information, and today they have a way to measure it. We'll discuss that component later because it's an extremely controversial topic, but there's one thing that is not in question: They like the attention that social sharing gives to web pages.

If content on your site is worthy of being shared on Facebook, tweeted on Twitter, or pinned on Pinterest, it likely has an opportunity to get other people to like it. The search engines take that portion of the data—attention—and measure it based upon other signals.

For example, if a video gets shared on Facebook by a lot of people, it's very likely that some of the people who see it on Facebook will like it as well. If they happen to own a website that is relevant to the topic of the video, they can embed that video on their website.

It goes further than that. Links play a major role in the way that search engines rank pages. By sharing on social media, you'll be able to get more people linking to your content because they're able to find it. The more that you expose your content on social media, the more likely it will be that someone will link to it. This is the way that Google's own employees place value publicly on social media sharing. They embrace this portion of it and do not try to hide it. The other aspect is something they do try to hide, but first let's discuss the people sharing the content.

Social Signals

Earlier, I discussed a controversial topic regarding social media and its effects on search engine rankings. That controversial topic can be summed up as social signals.

Microsoft acknowledges that Bing looks at Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Google acknowledges only that it looks at Google+. They both look at these and many other social media sites, but they will likely never admit it. Why? Because they want to get organic data. They know that with social media, it can easily be manipulated.

If the search engines let the cat out of the bag that social signals had an impact on rankings, there would be businesses and marketing agencies around the world trying to figure out how to game the system. It already happened once. From 2006 to 2012, Google acknowledged that inbound links from other sites affected search rankings. As a result, search engine optimizers started figuring out ways to generate more and more inbound links. They would exchange links with each other. They would buy links. They would go “link farming,” a practice notorious both for its effectiveness and its eventual cataclysmic decline.

On April 24, 2012, Google put an end to low-quality links with the release of the Penguin update. This had a major effect on the rankings, taking websites that once dominated on search and making them plummet down the rankings. Companies got mad. SEO firms shut down. It was an apocalyptic end to a very easy way to optimize.

Today, social signals fall under the same category, but the search engines will do whatever they can to hide this fact. They do not want to make the same mistake they made with links by letting the cat out of the bag. Instead, they will say that social signals don't exist until they're able to come up with a method of understanding how to read them properly.

Social signals are the actions themselves between a web page and social media sites. Anything that happens on social media sites that pertains to a web page is monitored and understood by the search engines. They know if a page has been shared. They know how many times it has been liked. They can see how many comments were attached to it, how many times it was retweeted, and even where it was shared. This is especially useful for local optimization; if your page is about Atlanta sushi bars and it's shared 10 times in Atlanta, those shares will have more of an impact on the rankings than if it were shared 100 times from various places around the world.

If it happens on social media sites, it is likely indexable by the search engines. This is where they get tricky. Google will say, “We can't index much of Facebook,” which is true, but that's not what it is really seeing. It is looking at the page itself and social sharing buttons that are on a good chunk of pages on the Internet. This data gives Google an idea of the public sentiment toward a page. That's the data that it covets—Google wants to know what content we like.

As a basic strategy, try to make sure your content is “shareworthy.” Use images often—social media is visual. Embed videos. Make sure your text content is long enough to be useful but not so long that nobody will read it all the way through. Lastly, make sure that if content should be shared, that the page has easy-to-use sharing buttons to encourage the social signals.

The Most Important Component: Page One Domination

The search engines are always changing. Today, social signals are important. Tomorrow, other forms of sentiment might be more important. One thing that will remain a constant for the near future is that social media sites can rank well on the search engines, giving you more pages that you can use to dominate the search engine results pages.

Every time you have one of your pages ranked for a search, it means another page (possibly a competitor) is ranked lower. You want your social profiles to rank for branded searches as well as unbranded searches.

The search engines already love to rank them, so this isn't hard. The biggest mistake that so many businesses make is that they try to do too many social sites. They hear that there are dozens, hundreds, even thousands of social media sites, and they figure that they should be on all of them, but that's not the case. In fact, by focusing on the right ones, you'll be able to maintain the highest chance of dominating on search.

The important networks today are as follows:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Google+
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• Flickr

There are others that are rising, such as Instagram, Tumblr, and Scoop.it, but use these only if you have the available bandwidth. The only thing worse than missing out on a social network is to have one that's abandoned because you couldn't keep up with it.

It is important to note that not all social media sites are equal, and not all social media sites have the same SEO value. Just like in the game of Monopoly, not all of the properties have equal value. The same goes for social media and Googleopoly. As mentioned previously, there are so many choices to choose from. Here is the list (and order) that I suggest you follow as you implement your strategy.

I won't be able to go over all of these here, because the subject of social media could take up an entire book. If I don't elaborate on each of the different platforms, don't worry. The strategies and advice I detail in these platforms will be applicable for all of the social media platforms. There is no need to be redundant in this chapter.

• Google+
  • This is obvious, because Google owns Google+ and is going to use all the data that you generate from your Google+ Business or Personal account to determine your SEO relevancy on multiple levels. First, as mentioned with social signals, what happens on your Google+ page will influence Google's decision on where and how to rank your content. Also, Google Reviews is tied to your Google+ Local Business Page. Online reputation is one of the most import factors in people's choice of product, service, company, brand, etc.
  • Google gives prominent placement and visibility to Google Reviews (a future chapter will go into this).
• Facebook
  • Facebook is the largest social media site in the United States (and world for now). It has major credibility on the search engines, so if you build a strong Facebook business page or personal page and develop it properly, you will be able to get your Facebook page to rank on the first page of Google.
  • The social signals from people checking in at your local business are great SEO juice.
  • Facebook is a great place to post:
    • Coupons for your business
    • Embedded videos
    • Client or fan reviews/testimonials
    • Pictures
    • Infographics
    • Tips
    • Advice
    • Subject matter expertise
• Flickr
  • Flickr is to images what YouTube is to video. Flickr is considered a social media platform, but it can also be considered an image (or picture) search engine.
  • Image optimization is almost as powerful as video SEO and it is as quick.
  • You can optimize individual images on the Flickr channel and potentially get those individual images to achieve Google page one domination.
  • The Flickr channel itself is also search engine optimizable for Googleopoly.
  • Flickr also allows for video upload as well as video SEO.
• Pinterest
  • Pinterest is another very popular image SEO platform with the same capabilities as Flickr.
  • Pinterest also allows for video upload as well as video SEO.
• LinkedIn
  • LinkedIn is a “professional” social community. But it has all of the functionality of a traditional social media platform, including social signals SEO value.
  • You can post articles and blog posts to LinkedIn that can and will get ranked if you optimize properly.
• SlideShare
  • SlideShare is to PowerPoint what YouTube is to video.

Having the pages and profiles is one thing, but now you have to get them ranked.

To accomplish this, you'll need to do two important things. First and foremost, make sure your company's social media pages and profiles are robust. It doesn't take much time to fill out your address, website, and other important parts on your social pages. Some websites are even attaching websites to social profiles. Google+ and Pinterest allow users to verify their ownership of the company website. This gives them higher relevance, and they will be more likely to rank on branded searches.

Once your pages are complete with all of the relevant information, it's time to get active. Post—often. You don't have to overpost, but be sure to post often enough to keep your page in the conversation. If you stop posting, your page has a greater chance of falling off the search results pages.

The second thing you can do to get your pages ranked is to link to them from your website and blog. This is easy—there are plenty of buttons available to create these links. If it's a direct link, you have a better chance of having it rank.

For certain businesses, it's harder to get these pages ranked. If you do these two things and your pages are still not showing up on page one, you can try to link to them from other websites as well. This should be rare. If you have an active page or profile and you link to it from your website, there's a great chance that it will rank for important keywords, such as your name.

By utilizing social media to take up real estate on the search engines, you're not just helping to push down competitors. It can be beneficial for pushing down other things, such as bad reviews, negative press, or third-party sites trying to make money off of your business name.

Social media is an important part of the search engine game. Regardless of whether you believe in social media as a valid marketing venue for your company, one thing is certain: it's definitely beneficial when it comes to controlling what people are seeing on the search engines.

Let's break down some of the main social media platforms for SEO.

Google+ Local Business

Google+ is the most important social media platform. It is owned by Google and links to other important tools and platforms that you are going to need, like Gmail, Google Analytics, AdWords, Google Reviews (for your business), and YouTube! That is right—in order to use the powerful video SEO strategies on YouTube that you learned in the last chapter or the SMO strategies for Google+ in this chapter, you are going to need to have a Google account—a Gmail account. Once you create a Google account (Gmail), you will be able to access all of Google's tools, including Google+.

The next step after creating your Google account is to claim your business page. That means that you need to validate that you are the owner of that business and are allowed to be the manager of that business listing. You can authenticate by validating via a phone call from Google, or they can mail you a PIN, which you can activate on receipt (this is how I had to validate Dealer Synergy).

Here are some powerful tips to maximize Google+ for SEO.

Facebook

You need to use your Facebook for more than social interaction. Facebook is an SEO incubator for your business. When someone searches for you or your business, you want to make sure that your Facebook page shows up. For example, if you Googled Dealer Synergy, on the first page you will find www.facebook.com/DealerSynergy.

Pinterest and Flickr

Flickr and Pinterest are image search engines as well as social media platforms. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, a lot of the top posts on Google+ as well as on most of the search engines are pictures and images. There are so many people searching for the following:

• Pictures
• Graphics
• Logos
• Stock photos
• Infographics
• And more…

You have the ability to organize all of these assets in one place as well as optimize them for individual and platform ranking on Google page one.

Flickr and Pinterest are to pictures/images what YouTube is to video. You can optimize both the platforms as well as the individual images within the platform. And the same strategies that you learned in Chapter 5 for video SEO are applicable here for image optimization.

Here are the areas you want to focus on when optimizing your Flickr and/or Pinterest platforms, as well as the images within those platforms:

• URL/domain name
  • Make sure that you create a URL that has a focus—the name of your brand, product, service and/or a geo-target.
  • For example:
    • www.flickr.com/dealersynergy
    • www.pinterest.com/seanvbradley
    • (not real) www.flickr.com/DetroitFlorist
• Title
  • It is important to make sure that you create the title by anticipating what someone will type into Google. When someone types something into Google, you want your Flickr and/or your Pinterest platform or the images on the platform to rank on the first page of Google.
• Description
  • This is similar to the description in a YouTube video or the meta-description on a traditional web page:
    • Make sure that you describe the image and details surrounding the picture.
    • Be sure to use keyword relevancy and keyword density in your description.
    • Make sure that you add a couple of links in the description to add more SEO value to the image.
    • Be careful not to embed links to a monetized site from Flickr, like your website or a shopping cart. This is strictly against Flickr's guidelines. It will delete your account—I found out the hard way. I optimized a recording artist's Flickr account that had over 1.5 million views, and the account got deleted with no warning whatsoever. This was my wife's account (Karina Bradley). It is clearly stated in Flickr's user policy that it forbids using the platform to try to monetize. However, using Flickr to win the game of Googleopoly is totally okay!
    • There are no such restrictions with Pinterest. As a matter of fact, Pinterest is a great resource for creating a backlink haven and SEO relevancy (with the right content to the right links). If you have backlinks in your description that go back to your main website or a product/service page and someone repins your pin, that will be good for SEO.
• Tags
  • Make sure that you follow the same rules and strategies when filling out the proper keywords/tags on both Flickr and Pinterest.
  • Make sure that you are not keyword stuffing. Focus on what that particular strategy is for that particular image.
  • Always begin with the end in mind. Ask yourself, “What do you think someone will type in Google that will lead them to this particular image and ultimately me?”
• Geo-target
  • Similar to YouTube's geo-targeting capabilities
    • Make sure that you attach a specified geo-targeted location to each and every image within the platform
    • Geo-target strategy is for:
      • Where you or your product or service is located
      • Where you want to “conquest” from

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the number one “professional” social network. Most people utilize LinkedIn to create business opportunities, find employment, or advertise a job opportunity. There are multiple opportunities within LinkedIn for content to be ranked favorably by Google:

• LinkedIn groups
• LinkedIn articles or blog posts
• LinkedIn careers

If you Google “career Philadelphia,” out of 154 million results on the first page of natural Google is a LinkedIn job directory that was updated only four hours ago! (See Figure 6.1.)

1. Jobs in Philadelphia, PA | LinkedIn
2. www.linkedin.com › Jobs › Pennsylvania
3. Cached
4. LinkedIn
5. Loading…
6. Four hours ago - Apply to 10832 jobs in Philadelphia, PA, on LinkedIn. Sign up today, leverage your professional network, and get hired. New Philadelphia, PA…⁴

Private Label Your Own Social Network!

Now that you see the tremendous power social media has for your business, I am going to give you even more amazing information. You can create your very own “Facebook,” “Google+,” or “LinkedIn”! That's right—you can create your own social network. There are two easy resources that you could utilize:

1. Ning: www.ning.com
2. BuddyPress (WordPress plugin): www.buddypress.org

Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn are worth billions of dollars, and you can create your very own full-blown social community or social network for virtually nothing or for less than $100 per month. There are additional customizable social platforms besides Ning and BuddyPress, but they are the easiest and most cost-effective solutions on the market today.

There are numerous reasons why I would highly suggest that you create your very own social media network and add it to your overall marketing and advertising strategy. To have your very own social community platform where you can interact with your current clients, past clients, and all of your potential prospects is amazing. To have real-time interaction and the ability to identify clients' wants, wishes, and needs is priceless. However, as it relates to winning the game of Googleopoly, having your own social network is phenomenal for SEO. I have discussed how much SEO “juice” Facebook, Google+, Flickr, YouTube, Instagram, and the rest of those social platforms have. They have a tremendous number of people on those platforms who are constantly uploading content. So, imagine if you had your own platform!

One of the best things I ever did for my core business at Dealer Synergy, which provides training, consulting, and digital marketing for the automotive sales industry, was to create my very own social and professional network called www.AutomotiveInternetSales.com (AIS). (See Figure 6.2.) Here is the breakdown of AIS:

• Over 10,000 unique visitors per month
• Approximately 4,000 members
  • Members have to create a full-blown profile, like with Facebook, Google+, or LinkedIn
• Over 2,000 articles and blog posts
• Over 900 videos
• Over 2,000 images/pictures
• Over 150 public and private groups
• Dealer of the Month
• Vendor of the Month
• Free resources
• Make Money Mondays
• True Vendor (vendor rating system and directory)
• Blog
• Forum
• Events calendar
• And much more…

I created www.AutomotiveInternetSales.com on the Ning platform, and it costs me less than $100 per month. My vision was to create the most powerful social and professional community in the entire automotive sales industry. I wanted it to be like Facebook, LinkedIn, CNN, and Google+ combined, specifically for the automotive sales industry. And that is exactly what I did! We are ranked as one of the best automotive sales professional communities in the entire industry.

I seriously could write an entire book just on Ning and creating your own private professional community. But the bottom line is that AIS is phenomenal for SEO! If you Google “Automotive Internet Sales” out of 76 million results, in first-position, natural Google is www.AutomotiveInternetSales.com.

It is very important to remember that it is not merely enough to have your own private social platform like Ning or BuddyPress. Once you have established your social community, you want to make sure that you follow the rules of engagement for SEO. The most incredible aspect of your own social media platform is the fact that you and all of your members will be able to create unique and relevant content that can be optimized:

• Blog posts
• Pictures
• Videos

And all of the content that is created on your social platform can be syndicated to all of the traditional social networks, like Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and so on.

You want to make sure that you map out a strategy of which social media platforms you want to utilize. Once you have mapped out each of the platforms that you want to utilize in your overall Googleopoly strategy, then you should clearly map out what type of content you are going to have on each of the platforms, as well as what your SEO content focus will be. To be specific, you do not want to simply sign up with 5 or 10 social media platforms and try to just wing it. There is obviously a lot going on and a lot of opportunities to go in multiple directions. I feel that if you do not do a good job of mapping out your wants, wishes, expectations, and a detailed road map, your strategy might get compromised. You can't build a brand-new house from scratch without blueprints; the same goes for your SMO strategy.

Remember that social media is a moving target. It is evolving at quantum speeds, and there are always new, awesome social media platforms popping up. Part of the extra value of buying this book is that you have an incredible resource at www.GoogleopolyBook.com for free. I will be updating important details, facts, strategies, and new social platforms to keep you and your Googleopoly strategy on the cutting edge of technology.