Here is our weekly link round-up for the week. I especially enjoyed the ‘Who Uses Social Media More, Men or Women?’ article because it brings up the point of who uses social media and for what purpose.

A Vibrant Culture of Food Blogging
Real-time updates get turned on for millions of Blogs around the world
Hot SEO Trend for 2010:Getting Back To Basics
SEO without the SEO
Ballmer’s Right: Google Owns Search
Pretty Huge: Twitter ‘plans move into search engine marketing’
Search engine marketing industry ‘must cooperate to protect data’
Who Uses Social Media More, Men or Women?
Social networking not enough for good customer service
The Educationalization of Social Media
Why the social-media aggregator has croaked

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the brother of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)- they are both attracting customers to their website content, except SMO is attracting visitors to a company’s web site by using its social media pages or profiles on sites like Twitter and Facebook. In addition, creating a SMO-friendly website means making social media a core component of how users interact with content.

There are several different things companies can add to their site to make it SMO, thus increasing traffic and building links. Some of these include:

1. Adding RSS feeds and making subscribing to RSS feeds by email easy (like the Feedburner Subscription box on the sidebar of The Social Robot.)
2. Adding social media share buttons (like those found on addany.com or sharethis.com)
3. Plugins and components that allow users to rate and comment on posts and content
4. Widgets that pull in company tweets or facebook updates
5. Easy customer engagement, like the ability to upload videos with their company feedback and thoughts.

In addition, there are also some social media optimization tactics that work as a ‘pull’ method to get users to come to the site.

1. Guest blogging on other’s blogs with a link back to company website
2. Commenting on relevant blog articles and including website address in the URL or comment itself (but only if it is topically relevant- otherwise would be spamming)
3. Answering questions related to company’s industry on LinkedIn Answers or Yahoo! Answers, in addition to forums and message boards. Include link to company website in signature, if applicable and allowed.

Here’s some great posts on social media optimization from around the internet:

13 rules of SMO
social-media-optimization.com
16 rules for SMO revisited
The beginners guide to SMO

New, real-time, up to the minute search has become the next big thing in both Google and Bing. While many people are concerned that this may ‘cheapen’ the quality and value of regularly indexed search results, having tweets and Facebook profiles crawled almost immediately after their conception will not be detrimental to search engine results. And here’s why:

By Aaron Couch

With some blogs and videos getting hits in the hundreds of thousands, you’re probably wondering, “how can I get in on the action?” To get your content to go viral, all you have to do is create something so unique and earth-shatteringly interesting, that others will be compelled to share it with their friends. Sounds easy, right?

Okay, maybe it’s not that easy. But, there are ways to improve the likelihood your content will get the adoring attention you’d like it to receive.

Viral content tends to be:

Unique. Content you just can’t get anywhere else.

Easy to understand. Contains writing that connects with people by using a conversational tone and real world stories.

Informative. Full of helpful information or breaking news (especially a good scoop).

Below are more specific ways to increase your content’s viral potential.

The forwarding factor

Create content that will make people want to share it with their friends. Word of mouth is incalculably valuable, and can attract thousands of visitors to your blog or article.

Studies have shown asking your readers to pass your page along greatly increases the chances they will. Encourage your readers to forward your link in an e-mail, and give them the option to add it their facebook or twitter accounts.

And don’t forget to tell your friends about your latest work. “Stuff White People Like” creator Christian Lander insists he never did anything to publicize his funny blog, save for sharing the link with 20 friends when he first launched it. In turn, those friends forwarded the link their friends, and so on. The blog blew up from there, and millions of views and a publishing deal later, the rest is history (watch Landers talk about his blog’s success).

Write for your audience

While it might seem like making the most general, wide-appealing blog or article is the best way to attract visitors, it’s actually better to tailor your content to a specific audience. Make your reader feel like an “insider,” and they’ll be more likely to return and pass on your link.

Are you a parent and a musician giving people a look at what it’s like to raise your children in a tour bus? Do you have a blog chronicling the mishaps and mischief of your overweight cat? Whatever your content is about, find your niche, and run with it!

Just look at the popular series of youtube videos, “Hi I Am Marvel…and I’m a DC.” Using action figures and funny voices, its creator parodies the bickering that goes on behind the scenes of superhero films. While perhaps only funny to those who follow the comic book world, these videos have received over 5 million views, real proof that having a niche is a great way to success.

Link to great websites

It might seem counterproductive to send your readers away, but linking to high quality sites will establish you as someone who can point readers to interesting places. Your article or blog could even be just a list of links. For example, how many aspiring writers do you think have consulted lists of places to be published online?

So maybe there’s no guarantee your blog or article will go viral, but don’t lose heart. With a little work and planning, you just might have the next big thing on your hands—or at least something someone will like enough to share with their friends.

References From CopyBlogger:

5 Steps to Going Viral on Twitter

Viral Marketing With Blogs

5 Social Media Lessons I Learned from Working with a Hollywood Actress

Guest Blogger Aaron Couch is a freelance writer and musician from Kansas City.  He has experience writing and designing press releases, as well as planning publicity campaigns. Check out his band at www.myspace.com/anotherholiday

You’ve spent countless hours trying to create a business that you want the world to know about. You’ve hired the best SEM firm in town, ran PPC advertising, and created back links to entice people to visit your site. You’re hoping that with more visitors, you’ll get to that coveted position of the first search page of search results on Google.com.

However, all of your hard work, sweat, tears, and dollars are riding on Google to present your business in a way that is professional and fair…and unfortunately, Google doesn’t seem to be getting the message.

From PDQ to pdq: Capitalization Issues

Your name is Paul David Quentin, a name that has been passed down through your family for years. You bear the name proudly and you want your business to bear the name as well. Unfortunately, there are several other businesses with the same initials, so what do you do? You use all capital letters in order to differentiate between yourself and the other businesses. Problem is Google Maps doesn’t like business names in all caps.

There are several instances in which business have registered their names with Google Maps in order to bring in more business, but when they go in search of the business name, the name has been reduced to lowercase letters. Why? Google Maps flags business names that use all capital letters and makes them all lowercase letters.

What does this mean for your business? People tend to overlook businesses written in lowercase letters because of the idea that lowercase means less important. Of course, this isn’t the case, but many businesses still fall victim to this misconception.

What used to be a proud family name has been reduced to a bland line of letters that no one seems to notice despite the amount of time and energy you’ve poured into it.

From McDonalds to Mcdonalds to McDonald’s: Lettering Inconsistency

Another problem with Google Maps is that it can’t seem to decide what to do with business names that have capital letters in the middle. McDonalds turns into mcdonalds or Mcdonald’s. McAfee turns into mcafee or Mcafee. Honestly, will an entire line of lowercase letters grab your attention on a page littered with business names and information? It’s doubtful.

Problems that Make a Business Suffer

So how does the inconsistencies in Google Maps cause problems for business listings? In order for their business names to appear as it does in advertisements, letter heads and other business literature, businesses have had to literally change their names. Example: PDQ turned into pdq on Google Maps, so the owner changed the name on the Google Maps listing to P.D.Q. in order to keep the lettering from turning into a blob of uninteresting blah.

So is Google Maps dealing with the present issues? Not in the foreseeable future- but businesses can adapt by changing the spelling of their names, adding spaces between letters or not using the Google Maps service at all.

This post was written by Danica Sorber, owner of DSorber Media Works.

By Michael Bennett Cohn

In online publishing, one of the most commonly discussed metrics is “engagement,” which usually means “quantity and quality of user comments.” So, if you write a blog post, nobody comments on it, then that’s low engagement. If a hundred people comment on it, then that’s high engagement (assuming they are substantive comments).

Engagement is not necessarily the most important metric in determining the success of a piece of content; just the most obvious one. A brilliant essay may be read by a thousand people, only five of whom leave a comment. Those five people might just happen to have the right combination of characteristics: Interest in the subject, desire to have a personal connection to the author, agitation that their own point of view wasn’t considered, or a sense of responsibility to give public praise, or criticism.

And yet, engagement is the metric most likely to have a real effect on the author. Its presence demonstrates beyond all doubt that another human being, and not just a browser, has processed what was written. Putting something you’ve written online, and then watching the pageview count increase while nobody leaves comments is frustrating and daunting. Sure, people are loading the page, but are they even bothering to read the whole thing? Did they love it so much that they didn’t want to sully the conversation with their banal praise? Did they not understand it? Did they get bored after the first few words, or did they read the entire thing? Did they catch the references? Was the piece even read by the type of people for whom it was written?

There is a time-tested and true way of getting quality comments on one’s own posts:

• Write comments on other people’s posts on the same site. Your fellow writers will appreciate the attention, and repay it by paying more attention to your own stuff. This also creates a snowball effect, wherein the engagement rate on the site as a whole goes up. This is a good thing, even if the majority of the comments on the site were written by other contributors to the same site. That’s because, when a new user, who has no personal ties to the site, sees it for the first time, they are much more likely to get involved and start commenting if they perceive that a lot of other people are already doing so.
• Write comments on other people’s posts on other sites. More and more, comment systems allow the commenter to attach a URL of their choice to their comment. Usually, this URL is where a user will go if they read your comment, want to know more about you, and click on your name. Nobody is more likely to do this than the person who wrote the post on which you’ve just commented. The identities of the people who leave comments may seem random and diverse, but the truth is that many of them are returning the favor I did to them by commenting on their own blog. It happens quite frequently… I leave a comment on a new blog that interests me, and then, less than 24 hours later, ping! There’s a comment on miconian, by that same blogger, thoughtful and respectful, even though the two posts in question are usually on completely different subjects. It’s as if they’re saying: Thank you for validating my existence. I will now repay the favor by validating yours.
• When you do get comments, respond to them, giving the readers the sense that what they have to say matters and is being taken seriously.
• When you comment on others’ posts, say something of substance. This can be difficult. Your time is valuable, and as you struggle to formulate your thoughts, you are simultaneously doing a cost/benefit analysis. Is there really a point to leaving this comment? Will anyone actually read it? Won’t someone else come along and say the same thing that you were planning to say, but better, if you just leave well enough alone? An hour from now, will you even remember this website? And yet, the truth is that, when you bother to go through the trouble of demonstrating that you take another person’s work seriously, you quite often create a fan of your own work. Suddenly, to the person on whose work you have commented, you are no longer just one of a million authors in the abstract. You are an author with a personal connection to the reader. When that person reads your comment, they’re going to wonder who you are, what your story is, how you find your way to their work, and what else you like. They’ll click on your name, go to your blog, and check out your own stuff. Maybe they’ll subscribe to your RSS feed, or start following you on Twitter. And so, when you write something else, and you promote it, they’ll be back to read it again.
• Actively seek out sites that are already popular with your intended audience, and leave comments there. Not only may the popular author bless you with a return comment, but their readership may be intrigued by what you have to say, and follow you back to your own blog.
• Add to the conversation in a genuine way. Saying “I agree with this” or “This really resonated with me” is actually the weakest, least helpful kind of comment, if that’s as far as you get. (Similarly, saying “This sucks” is a waste of everybody’s time, including yours.) Some of the best comment threads I’ve ever seen grew and grew because a few commenters used the original post as a jumping-off point for telling related stories of their own, linking to other work that they’ve been reminded of, etc. And then, best case scenario, commenters start responding to each other. When this happens on a regular basis, the site comes alive in a whole new way. Users start leaving comments on new posts, and those comments are directed at other readers as much as, or more than, they’re directed at the author. A great example of this can be found on every single post on Making Light, where commenters are so eager to engage in a positive and intelligent way with each other that they will do so, by the hundreds, in response to absolutely anything that’s posted.

Engagement has a bit of the prisoner’s dilemma to it: Most relationships start out with both parties feeling cynical, and one person has to actually rise above immediate self-interest. But the biggest fans you get will be the ones who feel like you’re paying attention to them too.

Guest Blogger Michael Bennett Cohn is the Publisher of Revolving Floor, a interactive online literary magazine.

Everyone seems to think that everything you put online is assessable by anyone at anytime via a simple search query on a search engine like Google or Bing. This is scary when it comes to personal or private professional information. So what do you do to keep something online ‘off limits’ to the unwanted? Ever hear of a robots.txt file? No? Well here is a bit of information on this amazing little innovation.

What Is It?

A robots.txt file is a very useful file that keeps the grubby fingers of search engines from getting a hold of specific information on your domain. When a search engine ‘spiders’ (methodically searches the internet for up-to-date information), a well placed robot.txt file will prevent that pesky little internet arachnid from seeing anything you don’t want it to see.

Consider it a spider proof “web”.

What Are Some Examples?

Here are some simple examples of ways to insert robot.txt files into your domain.

>If you’d like to keep those pesky spiders from even entering your domain you would write the information below into the robot.txt file:

User-agent: *

Disallow:  /

If you want to keep the search engine spiders out of a certain area or directory on your domain you would enter the following information into the robot.txt file:

User-agent:  *

Disallow:  /aboutme/ (or whichever directory you would like to exclude)

If you’d like to add more directories to the list, you would just add another line of:

Disallow:  /stats/

Disallow:  /account/

Etc…

All in all, it’s pretty simple and very useful.

What Are The Benefits?

If your business runs on creating spam files, emails and other unsolicited communications, creating a robot.txt file for that particular area of your domain will keep that information from spreading. Businesses all over the globe run using methods that aren’t always appreciated by the general public, and if the general public were to learn these classified things, these businesses might very well go under. Who wants that for their business?

A robot.txt file will keep the search engine spiders from crawling all over your business’ sensitive information.

What Are The Warnings?

The effectiveness of the robot.txt file depends solely on whether or not that particular search engine recognizes the ‘authority’ of the file. Basically, the robot.txt file is only as good as the search engine doing the crawling. Not every search engine in operation will heed the ‘off-limits” status present in your domain. Keep that in mind.

Overall, robot.txt files are incredibly useful in today’s world of wide open information. Keep what you want kept secret and away from the prying multi-faceted eyes of the search engine spider.

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This post was written by Danica Sorber, owner of DSorber Media Works.

Due to the explosion of social media, SEM, and internet marketing efforts online, there are tons of exciting and informative conferences coming soon around the country that offer great ways on how to develop and integrate your business through the internet.

Here’s a few to get you started:

140tc (@140tc): http://parnassusgroup.com/twitterconference
September 22-23, 2009, Los Angeles, CA. $299 for registrations before Sept. 6 (a killer deal! Psst….we’ve heard that the code F16LA at the checkout process will also shave 10% off that price, making it $30 cheaper!)

This conference is all about Twitter, which speakers and panelists ranging from Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter), Tony Hawk, Joel McHale, Loni Love, and many more.

SMX East (@smx): http://searchmarketingexpo.com/east
October 5-7, 2009, New York City, NY. All-Access Pass: $1,245 for registrations before Sept. 11 (there’s other types of pricing and tickets available)

This conference features 3 tracks: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced, and offers a no-nonsense approach to SEM that all SEM professional will find useful.

Blog World & New Media Expo (@blogworld): http://www.blogworldexpo.com
October 15-17, 2009, Las Vegas, NV. Full-Access Pass: $895 for registrations before Sept. 14

This giant conference and expo features NINE tracks and has sessions on social media, affiliate blogging, podcasts and much more.

Have any more to add to the list? Comment below.

The 10-year deal between Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo! to use Bing technology to power Yahoo searches is a big deal for those of us in the marketing world. Even though each company will keep their own display advertising businesses, the SEM side of advertising will now go though Microsoft’s Ad Center for both Bing and Yahoo!

In addition, according to the official press release, Yahoo! will allow Microsoft access to its “core search technologies” and Microsoft will give Yahoo! 88% of all revenue produced from searches on their website. The press release link also offers videos of both Steve Ballmer and Carol Bartz speaking about the partnership and what it means to their customers.

With an estimated boost in cash flow revenue of over $275 million for Yahoo!, it’s certain that both companies are gearing up to provide a brute force in which to challenge He Who Should Not Be Named (in the video, at least): Google, who controls the majority of the search market.

Take our poll to let us know what if you think this will affect SEM and PPC Campaigns.

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Image Courtesy of: http://www.physorg.com/news166768568.html