Social Media Marketing – 5 Steps Bloggers Should Take To Achieve Results Easily

Social media marketing should be a part of your blogging activities, if you plan to see success in the long run. It doesn’t take one arm of marketing to earn a living, but multiple arms can yield greater results. Majority of blogger are into social media marketing, but only a few are seeing the results. We often wonder what’s going on around the blogosphere, when all efforts we put in proves abortive.
I’ve been there before; I know what it means to be on the downside where it seems as though time is being wasted.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can still get the full benefits of Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin if you persevere. Success often doesn’t come overnight, it takes sometime but the time of waiting is never a waste – at least when you’ve a clear direction.
I want to show you how you can easily multiply your success using social media marketing, even when your blog is pretty new. Everyone can succeed online, once the right steps are taken. I want to share the right steps, get ready to take action.

1. Define “Social”

You’ve to give that word a meaning. What do you think “social” means? Even a 10-year old knows the meaning. “Social” mans to network, to connect, and mingle with others who share the same feelings, taste and discipline like you.
You see, until you know why you’re there in the first place, you won’t get any tangible result from been there. I’ve read a lot of reports and articles that promise to make you thousands of dollars, from twitter.
How possible could it be?
Anyone can make money online, using social media networks as a marketing channel, but it’s not the way we’ve been spoon-fed. You need to know the reason why you’re there. You’re there to connect and share your expertise with others. Connecting is the first, selling is not the second, but the fourth.

2. Designate Tasks

Like I said above, you don’t sell immediately on social media networks. When you connect with someone, a lot of things could be moving in their minds at that point, your role is to channel their thoughts and bring it under control. How?
By designating tasks properly!
That sounds weird believe me, but I’m here to make it a lot fun. We are all here to teach and learn. The mind is able to accommodate 10s of ideas at a go, but only one unique idea has the ability to produce result. You’ve to gum the exact idea you want for your prospects, right inside their minds.
Present them with the right solution, in an interesting way. By approaching social media users this way, you would be seen as a care-taker who understands how tenants feel.

3. Dare To Ask

We all know that the right questions always produce the right answers. If you are not creative enough, why should you be nailed on the cross? There are alternatives to knowing the minds of your prospects and that is by asking questions.
But when you ask questions, ask open-ended questions. Give enough room for diversification.
An example of an open-ended question is: what is your favorite color?
A closed-ended question goes thus: Is blue your favorite color?
By making your questions open, your prospects can be able to supply the right answers without you forcing them or giving options. Dare to ask questions today – the right answer for your next product launch is around the corner.

4. Design a Product

Whenever someone gives you feedback of what they want, it becomes easier to package the right solutions for them. You asked a question above (open-ended), now is the right time to create a product.
You need a product to succeed as a social media marketer.
It’s going to be your channel of networking, connecting and problem solving. If you don’t have a problem, your prospects would perceive you as an average entrepreneur. People don’t buy from an average person; you need to be the best in your chosen niche before you can be trusted.

You can create a short report, software, a membership site and market it to your social media followers.  The conversion rate was awesome. Just make sure your report is superb, informative and interesting – you’ll sell and make more money guaranteed.

5. Discrete Tracking

You need to track your success-rate with social media marketing. Whatever effort you put into converting any fan into email subscriber, and eventually into a customer ought to be tracked. This helps you to know what’s working for you and what should be relegated to the bottom.

Discrete tracking makes use of different marketing channels to deliver the product. If you use article and video marketing to distribute your product, you should track to determine the campaign that works well.

Source: Michael Chibuzor is a Social Media examiner. He also writes about coupon blog that shares free discount deals. 

10 Easy Steps for Twitter Beginners

 

1. Set up your profile

The first thing you need to do is to set up that profile. See that bar on top of your twitter page? Click Settings and start filling up your profile. The notable areas in here are URL, bio, picture and design. Put up a link to your site or blog in here along with a brief description. Upload a picture to differentiate yourself from the others and then tweak your Twitter design. Like any other social networking site, it is important to completely express what you are or what you stand for in your profile. Example: http://www.twitter.com/icreativeedge

2. Follow people with similar interests

Now that you have a profile, start following people. You can find these people in Twitter directories. I use Twellow and JustTweetIt. These sites can introduce you to Twitter users that have the same interest as yours. Follow these people and observe their tweets. You may also try following who these people follow but read up their descriptions and visit their blogs to make sure you’re still on the right niche. Being on the right niche will make it easy for you to build a community with a similar interest.

3. Get into the conversation

So now that you are following people, you will now see some tweets on your board. Read up on what the people your following are up to and reply if it interests you. For example, a person narrates how he is going to conduct a meeting. You may then reply with ideas. When someone asks a question, don’t hesitate to answer if you know it. Don’t be afraid to interact.

4. Don’t spam

Spam is the cause of many unfollows on Twitter. There is a character limit for a reason. Do not send repeated messages to people. Do not constantly direct message (DM) them with links.

5. Update daily

Alright so you’re blending in the community. Now update daily if possible. I know some Twitter users who unfollow because of inactivity. Reply to people and update people with what’s going on with your life. Soon you’ll be recognized and you’ll get some follows.

6. Find the latest buzz and contribute

Now it’s your time to contribute. Find a topic that will interest your niche and tweet it. Since you have established relationships with your followers (through replies), you will get more attention. It’s a nice strategy to always append “please retweet” at the end of your tweet. There will be some people who will be so interested that they will retweet. There are others who will reply to you about the link you tweeted. But you are not a “nobody” anymore. You are not just talking to yourself. People are now responding to your tweets.

7. Help other people out

The famous saying “Do unto others what you want others to do unto you” holds here. Before you can receive retweets, you must help others first by retweeting their messages. Help the people in your niche. One day you’ll be surprised on how eager they are to help you back.

8. Create relationships

Now it’s time to create constant connections. Soon you will find that some users are more active than others. You will get to talk with the same group of people at the same time every night. But don’t get bored. Interact with these people and create relationships. Ask how they are doing and try to touch on their interests.

9. Integrate Twitter with other social networks

Have a blog? Then post to Twitter when you have a post that will interest your niche. Have a Facebook profile? Then ask people to add you. Twitter is really a vital part of web 2.0. It can serve as the core. It can let you build relationships that can branch out to other social networks.

10. Establish relationships even outside Twitter

Have a lot of friends on Twitter? Then take it to another level. Ask for their messenger and talk to these people on a more intimate level. Call them through Skype or even arrange a meet-up. Twitter can create real relationships.

Congratulations! You are now an official member of the Twitter community. You talk, act, think and breathe like us. Perhaps you find yourself spending every five minutes updating Twitter on what you are doing. But I guess I’ll save Twitter addiction for next time.

For more information visit our website: http://www.creative-edge.in 

7 Ways to Improve Your Event Planning With Facebook

      The Facebook Marketing Series is supported by Buddy Media. Now that Facebook will no longer allow your brand to hide comments from your followers, knowing the right strategies for moderating is paramount. Download our guide to Facebook publishing and moderation now.

      From professional event producers to volunteer committee members, event planners see Facebook as must-have tool in their belts. How can Facebook give a boost to your next event? 

      We spoke with a few experts on using the world’s largest social network for event planning. Read on for their pro tips and let us know how you use Facebook for your events in the comments below.

1. Get Inspired

Looking for some creative inspiration? Facebook to the rescue. Adrianne Mellen Ramstack, owner and principle planner at Adrianne Elizabeth LLC, uses Facebook to discover new, innovative ideas.

“I use Facebook a lot for inspiration,” she says, “I ‘Like’ The Knot, Real Simple, Rose Bredl Flowers, La Jeune Mariee and Big Rock Little Rooster (to name a few) to stay up on inspiration and new trends in wedding and event planning.”

2. Stay Connected

During the event planning process, organizers often need to share updates with the planning committee. A “closed” or “secret” Facebook Group can be more collaborative and interactive than countless emails going back and forth. As the event organizer, use this space to share event updates, solicit input or delegate tasks to volunteers. Selling tickets? Ask group members to share what approach they’ve found most successful. Looking for sponsors? Throw it out to the group to see if someone can facilitate an introduction.

Groups can also help attendees connect with each other in advance. For example, NASA hosts #NASATweetUps to offer a behind-the-scenes experience to @NASA followers. A closed Facebook group connects attendees leading up to the events. According to the group description for the STS-135 tweetup, members “discuss travel plans, organize group housing, and generally GEEK OUT about the amazing opportunity they have been given.”

Remco Timmermans, who attended the STS-135 tweetup found the Facebook group to be a helpful resource. He appreciated the direct interaction with participants and the helpful resources housed within the group, such as lists of hotels. The private group provided a forum for attendees to reminisce and relive the excitement by sharing post-event photos and videos.

3. Scope Out Vendors

Vendor selection is critical to the success of any event, so as you’re researching caterers, photographers or entertainment, take a peak at their Facebook pages to read feedback from previous customers. If you notice negative feedback from unsatisfied customers, think twice before hiring that company for your event.

4. Increase Attendance

According to recent Eventbrite data, 10% of those purchasing tickets through Eventbrite share the event on Facebook. Including social sharing options at the point of purchase is helpful, however, event planners may find more value by following Eventbrite’s step-by-step guide to creating a Facebook event that syncs up with Eventbrite’s ticket-selling platform. Friends and contacts can view event details on Facebook and then register by clicking on the event link, which takes them back to the original Eventbrite page.

In addition, developing exclusive offers for Facebook communities can spark new sales. According to Ramstack, the Central Ohio Capital Area Humane Society has generated additional ticket sales for its upcoming fundrasier by offering a Facebook-only discount. Tickets, normally $80, are available to Facebook “likers” for $60.

5. Recognize Sponsors

Kelly O’Donoghue, an event planner in Tampa, FL, suggested offering Facebook recognition as an additional perk for sponsors. A few ideas:

Create an album to feature sponsor logos

Tag status updates to show appreciation to sponsors and help them expand their Facebook community

Invite sponsors to write a “guest note” on the organization’s Facebook page

Post a video interview about why sponsors support the event

Share sponsors’ relevant updates/news on the organization’s Facebook page

6. Share Real-Time Updates

During the event, don’t forget to continue to offer as-it-happens updates through a brand or organization’s Facebook page. Bringing the event to Facebook can help create additional interest in the event (and future ones). Posting photos, sharing video clips and livestreaming are a few opportunities to spark interaction with your Facebook community.

7. Post-Event Follow-Up

After the event, use Facebook to increase online engagement. Provide an event recap with photos and video. Thank people for participating, collect feedback by posting “Questions” or a survey link, and invite them to stay connected by subscribing to the company’s blog or e-newsletter.

Now, let’s hear from you. What other ways can Facebook help event planners?

Google Announces Reclassification Of Backlinks

Last week Google announced a change to the way they classify internal and external links in Webmaster Tools. The update shouldn’t change the number of links, but should report your links in a more accurate way in regards to where they are coming from.

In the past, links from sub domains (ie: example creative-edge.in) were classified as external links. Even a link from the non www version of your site was classified as external. With the changes, links from these types of domains will now be considered internal links, as long as you also own the root domain.

With this change you may notice your total number of external links go down, but this is only because some of your links that were previously classified as external are now being classified as internal. Your total number of links should remain the same.

Most people think of example.com and www.example.com as the same site these days, so we’re changing it such that now, if you add either example.com or www.example.com as a site, links from both the www and non-www versions of the domain will be categorized as internal links. We’ve also extended this idea to include other subdomains, since many people who own a domain also own its subdomains—so links from cats.example.com or pets.example.com will also be categorized as internal links for www.example.com.

Links for www.google.com	External links	Internal links
Previously categorized as...	www.example.com/ www.example.org/stuff.html scholar.google.com/ sketchup.google.com/ google.com/	www.google.com/ www.google.com/stuff.html www.google.com/support/webmasters/
Now categorized as...	www.example.com/ www.example.org/stuff.html	scholar.google.com/ sketchup.google.com/ google.com/ www.google.com/ www.google.com/stuff.html www.google.com/support/webmasters/

If you own a site that’s on a subdomain (such as googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com) or in a subfolder (www.google.com/support/webmasters/) and don’t own the root domain, you’ll still only see links from URLs starting with that subdomain or subfolder in your internal links, and all others will be categorized as external links. We’ve made a few backend changes so that these numbers should be even more accurate for you.
Note that, if you own a root domain like example.com or www.example.com, your number of external links may appear to go down with this change; this is because, as described above, some of the URLs we were previously classifying as external links will have moved into the internal links report. Your total number of links (internal + external) should not be affected by this change.

Resource: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/

6 Keyword Research Mistakes You Might be Making

Keyword research is an all too often under-appreciated aspect of SEO.

 For any successful SEO Campign following tips are very useful.

Here are some of the more common mistakes that I see people make with their keyword research.

#1 – You're being Unrealistic

"It is better to have a bigger slice of a few smaller pies rather than not getting even a slither of a much bigger pie."

Keyword research appears to be a very straightforward task. You fire up your keyword research tool of choice and find the keywords that relate to your industry with the highest search volumes. Sadly, that's not the way to do it if you want to see real results.

To many businesses, high-competition keywords are simply out of reach – at least in the short and medium term. Part of good keyword research is about being realistic and selecting appropriate keywords for targeting that take into account the site's age, current authority and any future optimisation that will take place.

Targeting one word keywords is quite often unrealistic but it may also prove unprofitable – someone searching for 'Toshiba l670 laptop' is likely to be much further along in the purchasing process that someone who searches for 'laptops' – think about which searcher is likely to have their credit card out already.

There's nothing wrong with targeting generic keywords, I'm simply saying that if your campaign has limited budget and you need results in the short to medium term then targeting less trafficked, less competitive keywords is a much better way to utilise resources.

Lower traffic but lower competition keywords might not seem as exciting to target but if your website can dominate these areas fairly quickly then you are going to see far more traffic from the search engines than failing to effectively target a much more competitive term.

#2 – You're looking at broad match instead of exact match

A seemingly simple mistake but one which many people continue to make...

Search volume is of course a very important metric when it comes to keyword research but all too often people make the mistake of looking at broad search volumes rather than the exact match figure when using tools like Google's Keyword Tool.

There can be a huge difference between broad match and exact match search traffic for example:

There are 135,000 broad match searches each month in the UK for 'dog kennels' but only 14,800 exact match searches for the same keyword. Still, this wouldn't prove particularly problematic as this is obviously still a keyword worth targeting – it would knock traffic and ROI projections way off kilter if you do these kinds of things though.

The real problem comes when you choose to target a keyword like 'ladies leather handbags' which has a broad match search volume of 2,400 but an exact match search volume of only 260 – failing to base your research on exact match data might mean you think you are targeting a reasonably well-trafficked keyword when in actual fact, once you've factored in data inaccuracies, you could be looking at a very low search volume keyword indeed.

It is widely accepted that Google's Keyword Tool isn't entirely accurate when it comes to search volumes but using exact match gives you the best data available when assessing how viable a keyword is to target.

#3 – You're targeting plural instead of singular

It is very common to see a website targeting the plural version of a keyword but in most cases, it is the singular version of a keyword that people are searching for.

I see this most often on eCommerce websites where the site owner optimises category pages and because they sell more than one product, they naturally focus on the pluralised keywords for example "tablet PCs" which actually gets 91% less searches than "tablet PC".

I will readily admit that Google is much better at determining that a singular and plural version of a keyword are one and the same, but in many cases there are still differences in the search results. Failing to target the singular keyword can be the difference between your search listing being highlighted in the SERPs (=higher clickthrough) and it can also mean your website appears lower (even slightly) than marginally better targeted pages – that could be the difference between making a sale and not.

#4 – You're ignoring conversion

This one could easily turn into a rant for me because so often I come up against clients who want to rank for [insert trophy keyword] when in actual fact they'd do better (financially) targeting a different keyword or set of keywords. I try to explain that a keyword that brings in traffic is wasted bandwidth if that traffic doesn't convert. You don't hire my company to get traffic for traffic's sake...you presumably hire us to help you ultimately make more sales.

The online world is competitive and it's only going to get more competitive, therefore making the most of every penny being invested is vital.

This makes conversion and language analysis a vital part of keyword research. The human mind is the only software capable of performing a good quality 'conversion audit' of a keyword list because whilst there are programmes out there that can filter and sort keywords to make your life easier, there's no real substitute for industry experience and SEO knowledge.

There are some very basic indicators for example prefixes such as 'buy' might be a clear indicator that the traffic from this keyword is going to convert.

A keyword conversion audit is more complex than that however since each situation and market is individual. I find existing data to be a very useful way to determine which keywords are likely to convert well. If you have goal tracking setup with Google Analytics, you can easily determine the highest converting keywords your site currently gets traffic from, try to identify patterns in your highest converting keywords and then translate and apply this knowledge to other areas of keyword research.

#5 – You're selecting keywords that are out of context

This is yet more rationale to further humanise the keyword research process because most keyword tools struggle to compute words and their meaning in the way a human would.

For example, a searcher looking for 'storage' could be looking for a self-storage centre, boxes and other storage furniture for the home or even professional storage solutions for a warehouse or office.

Opportunities for confused targeting are abundant which is why it is essential the keywords you decide to target are highly-relevant and laser-focused towards what your business offers.

A good way to do this is to search manually for the keywords in Google and see the kinds of results that come up, you will likely be able to get a feel for whether the keyword is applicable to the product or service you intended to target.

#6 – You're failing to conduct keyword reviews

It is accepted that SEO is an on-going process but rarely are target keywords reviewed and audited. If a marketplace is shifting over time then you would also expect customer search behaviour to develop and evolve over time too – this makes regular keyword reviews essential.

In most markets, I find an annual review is perfectly adequate. Any time period shorter than this and there is a risk that targeting becomes a bit chaotic with efforts focused on new keywords before results on old keywords have been achieved or evaluated.

That being said, in some competitive and very fast moving markets a more regular keyword review may be required.

The aim of a keyword review is to:

• Weed out poor performing keywords
• Identify opportunities and areas for growth
• Shape your SEO strategy for the future

To do a strategic and actionable keyword review you can use this adapted version of the Boston Matrix that I like to use.

Large brands use the Boston Matrix to assess the health of their product portfolio and to identify where to concentrate their resources.

You can do the same thing for your keyword portfolio.

Sort your keywords into four categories in order to better shape your search strategy for the future.

• Question marks – these are keywords in areas where growth is likely but at present you're not getting the performance you'd expect. These are very often untapped keyword opportunities and you should plan how you are going to improve performance on these kinds of keywords.
• Stars – high-performance keywords and loads of room for growth – find ways to capitalise on growth. My advice is to focus your resources of gaining results in these areas for maximum ROI in a short period of time.
• Dogs – the poor performing keywords with little or no chance of growth – bin these in favour of other keywords, reallocate any resources to other areas.
• Cash cows – the high performing keywords that show little opportunity for growth – look for ways to enhance and maintain performance whilst identifying patterns and translating this learning to other areas or verticals.

What mistakes do you see happening in the keyword research process? Please share them in the comments section below...

Resource: By Creative-Edge, founder http://creative-edge.in

How Search-Like Are Social Media Sites?

Like search? Who doesn’t — great traffic, huge brand value and an audience ready to convert. Like social media? What’s not to like — huge growth, tons of buzz and an entire new marketing frontier that is opening up. For the search marketer looking at social media, how does it measure up? Which social media sites are most “search like?” This article looks at the issue and tries to chart it all out for easy comparison.
To answer, let’s start with some definitions. The terms “social media” and “social media site” are often used to describe web sites and online services that can be radically different from each other. Facebook gets grouped with Flickr because they’re both “social.” Social, yes — but there are subcategories that are important to know.
This is how I breakdown social media sites, based on watching the space and talking with social media marketers over the past few years:

• Social News Sites (such as Digg, Reddit, Yahoo Buzz)
• Social Bookmarking Sites (such as Delicious, StumbleUpon)
• Social Networking (such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn)
• Social Knowledge (such as Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers)
• Social Sharing (such as YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Urban Spoon, Yelp)

I’ll define these further as I go along. But the key question is this. How do these sites measure up against search?
I like charts, so I wanted to see if I could somehow graphically illustrate where the sites overlap with search in various ways. To do so, I considered three metrics:

• Traffic: How many visitors do they drive?
• Demand/Search Intent: How likely are those visitors to be after something specific?
• Branding: How can these sites influence branding by appearing in search results?

Start Your Charting: The Search Engines
For a baseline, the chart below starts with Google and search engines themselves:

For these charts, the bigger the circle, the more traffic a type of site (search, social bookmarking, etc.) sends. The circles aren’t precise — they just give you a rough idea if something will send lots of traffic or not. Google drives tons.
As for demand, the beauty of search is that people go to search engines in search of something specific. They’re ready to convert, which is why search visitors are so highly valued. On the charts, the more a source sends people with strong “search intent” or “demand,” the more the site will be shown to the left.
Finally, branding. Various studies show search can have branding value. There are few stories of entirely new brands being built from search, but brand lift has been shown in various ways. More important, brands can be hurt by bad reviews that show up in search and helped by positive references. Since every search listing on a search engine has brand potential, search is very high in brand value — and so shown at the top of the chart.
Social News Sites & Search
Social news sites are where people go to share current news topics or information. Digg is the classic example, where stories are voted on by others. Reddit is another example. For internet marketers, we run our own Sphinn social news site. How do these chart against search?

There’s no question that social news sites can drive huge amounts traffic. The Digg Effect is when a site gets so many visitors from Digg that it crashes. So on the chart, a big traffic circle for social news sites.
Social news also has some degree of search intent. That because people do go to social news sites in search of something — news. They just don’t necessarily know exactly what news they want. Rather than exhibiting search behavior (“I know exactly what I want”), they’re in discovery mode (“I want something in general, but I don’t know exactly what that is”).
If you have news content that matches the serendipity of someone’s interest, you may have a good converting person. Having said this, visitors from Digg are notorious for driving down ad conversion rates. They may be interested in your content, but your ads? Not so much.
So for demand and search intent, I put social news sites about midway down the line. How about branding? Well, content at social news sites can rank well in search engines. When I looked recently, I wasn’t finding that this was so much an issue for brand names. For example, a search for apple wasn’t getting me a page from Digg that outranked the official Apple site. But for product “issues,” it’s more noticeable.

Consider this story at Digg:

It appears in the top results at Google for a search on poison cup of noodles:

If someone does that search, curious about what happened, then clicks over to the Digg story, they find brand inspiring comments like this:

Remember when Apple dropped Firewire from new Macbooks? That hit Digg, which a few weeks ago put Digg in the top results on Google for apple firewire (right now it’s on the second page of results):

What do those who click from Google over to Digg discover?

If you’re concerned about your brand, you have to be concerned about social news sites. You’re being discussed on them, and even those who aren’t social news “regulars” may be driven to these discussions via search engines.
Social Bookmarking Sites & Search
Social bookmarking sites are very similar to social news sites with one key distinction. Content doesn’t necessarily have to be new. Plenty of stuff on Delicious or StumbleUpon isn’t new in general — it’s just new to someone who recently discovers it and shares with others. How do social bookmarketing sites plot against search?

In general, the sites can send tons of traffic. Delicious isn’t known for crashing servers like Digg, but it still can generate a noticeable traffic spike. StumbleUpon can produce for a one-time spike and be the gift that keeps on giving, sending lots of people to a site over time. Given this, I feel a big circle for traffic makes sense.
As for search demand, I see that as low. People aren’t even interested in a particular topic — news — but rather what’s being shared in general and may have no particular burning desire for that. There are exceptions. Places like StumbleUpon and Delicoius both have categories that allow people to narrow their browsing into interest area. But overall, I wouldn’t say these sites are heavily “search-like.”
As for branding, I’ve not typically seen these types of sites showing up in results to the degree content from social news sites has (and even they feel like they’ve had declining visibility over the past year). Potentially, data from social bookmarking sites might be used to enhance listings similar to a test that Yahoo ran last year:

Social Networking Sites & Search
Social networking sites are where people are connecting with other people. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn all have a variety of features, but at their core, they allow you to network with friends, family, coworkers and people who want to be your friends, family and coworkers. How search-like are they?

As you can see, I’ve rated their traffic as very low. It’s not that you can’t find lots of people at these sites. Heck, our own Facebook group for Search Engine Land has nearly 3,000 members. Over at our LinkedIn group, we have over 4,000 members. Social networking sites are hives of activity. But that activity seems to stay within the network, rather than flowing outward to external web sites. No one talks about “The Facebook Effect” having crashed their web server. For a search marketer, this may mean adjusting to the fact that you have to maintain a presence within these networks to fully tap into them.
In terms of search demand, I think the social networking sites have very low levels here. There is some sense of discovery that goes on. People share interesting news items or discussions in these places. You can have high search intent when they are used to find someone or learn more about a particular person. But when that water pipe breaks, and you need a plumber? You’re probably not hitting Facebook immediately looking for help.
Let me add that I visited Facebook last month and had a good discussion about how their ads can flow into search intent. As said, people might not immediately turn to a social networking site to find a product or solution. But one story they told me resonated, about how a moving company targeted college freshmen, sophomores and juniors with ads. Down the line, when these people inevitably needed a moving company, the ads apparently had created a strong awareness, and the company had a good success.
It’s something to consider. But for that immediate search demand that a search marketer is after, I don’t think you’ll find it on social networking sites. Instead, adjust your expectations and tactics, so that you can tap into the less immediate desire.
As for branding, again, there can be strong branding opportunities within these networking sites. But externally, I’ve yet to see them register much of an impact in search results. I don’t see Facebook or LinkedIn discussions about products coming up regularly in the searches that I do, nor do I tend to see pages within these sites coming back on searches for brand names. This might change over time, as the networks open more and more of their internal pages up to search engines.
Social Knowledge Sites & Search
Social knowledge sites are places where people are sharing answers. Wikipedia is the classic example, and Yahoo Answers is another good one. Where do they sit compared to search?

In terms of traffic, I give them a medium circle. This comes from having seen and heard marketers over time say that these places drive noticeable amounts of traffic. They don’t crash your servers, but they do show up on the radar screen of traffic drivers.
As for search intent, these places all register high to me. People go to them seeking answers to questions they have. That’s the core of what search provides. If you’re one of the lucky answers, that puts you in front of an audience prequalified to convert.
They also have high branding value. I always get a laugh when talking search to audiences, showing a Wikipedia page in the top results at Google and joking that by law, Google’s required to show Wikipedia in the top ten. I’m far from the only one to make that joke. Do a search, you’ll bang your knees against a Wikipedia entry. Yahoo Answer results often come up, as well, especially for searches that are phrased as questions. In both cases, this means your brand might be discussed at these sites — with searchers flowing over to them — so it’s something to be monitored.
Social Sharing Sites & Search
Social sharing sites, to me, are places where people are — well — sharing stuff! You share video at YouTube, pictures at Flickr and whatever’s on your mind (for better or worse) at Twitter. How do they stack up against search?

Like social knowledge site, I give them a medium circle on the traffic front. They send noticeable amounts of traffic but aren’t crashing servers. Note that this can vary within the services themselves. A YouTube video might get thousands or millions of views from those watching a clip at YouTube itself, rather than embedded on a site.
Search intent is high. People are often actively seeking a photo, a video or something at these places. Even at Twitter, search provides a way to seek out news and buzz.
Branding? These sites do very well in the search engines. Consider a search for jetblue, where currently the company’s official site is listed, along with its Twitter account and its YouTube channel. That gives the company control of 30% of the search results page — more ways for people to find them and potentially pushing out negative comments (though not always — there’s still a news article about a man who is suing over accusations he had to sit in the toilet for 90 minutes on a flight).
Consider also a search for diet coke on Google:

The screenshot above shows how video content shows in the top results. Neither is from Coke itself. Instead, both are about mixing Diet Coke and Mentos, video content from non-Coke sources.
Now, I seem to recall that Coke wasn’t that found of the Diet Coke-Mentos mixing craze. I couldn’t find a reference about that, so I might be wrong. But if so, I’d say get over it. Produce the biggest Diet Coke-Mentos experiment ever, one that is so amazing that the video of it will gain links and jump over into the top listings at Google.
That would give Coke more control over its brand — a pretty good thing when you consider the current search results features for negative articles about Diet Coke and health impacts (makes me glad I took my diet from Diet Coke!). Social sharing sites provide an opportunity for brand owners to tap into search — you’ve got to consider them.

Resource: http://searchengineland.com/

Info for Video Publishing on Your Own Sites

Video Publishing Guidelines for your Own Sites:

We'd like to highlight three best practices that address some of the most common problems found when crawling and indexing video content. These best practices include ensuring your video URLs are crawlable, stating what countries your videos may be played in, and that if your videos are removed, you clearly indicate this state to search engines.

• Best Practice 1: Verify your video URLs are crawlable: check your robots.txt
  
  • Sometimes publishers unknowingly include video URLs in their Sitemap that are robots.txt disallowed. Please make sure your robots.txt file isn't blocking any of the URLs specified in your Sitemap. This includes URLs for the:
    
    • Playpage
    • Content and player
    • Thumbnail
    More information about robots.txt.
• Best Practice 2: Tell us what countries the video may be played in
  
  • Is your video only available in some locales? The optional attribute “restriction” has recently been added (documentation at http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=80472), which you can use to tell us whether the video can only be played in certain territories. Using this tag, you have the option of either including a list of all countries where it can be played, or just telling us the countries where it can't be played. If your videos can be played everywhere, then you don't need to include this.
• Best Practice 3: Indicate clearly when videos are removed -- protect the user experience
  
  • Sometimes publishers take videos down but don't signal to search engines that they've done so. This can result in the search engine's index not accurately reflecting content of the web. Then when users click on a search result, they're taken to a page either indicating that the video doesn't exist, or to a different video. Users find this experience dissatisfying. Although we have mechanisms to detect when search results are no longer available, we strongly encourage following community standards.
    
    To signal that a video has been removed,
    
    1. Return a 404 (Not found) HTTP response code, you can still return a helpful page to be displayed to your users. Check out these guidelines for creating useful 404 pages.
    2. Indicate expiration dates for each video listed in a Video Sitemap (use the <video:expiration_date> element) or mRSS feed (<dcterms:valid> tag) submitted to Google.