social media explorer

In an industry that is ever changing all the time, and eventually we will be pushing into the Web 3.0 world, any suggestions on how to better inform one on learning more about the other? I am slowly learning more about social media techniques from a marketing perspective, and would love to increase my awareness on SEO and link building, although I have to put it on the backburner for now. Do you have any suggestions on where to start with the basics of SEO?

By the way, Fallsaleizer is terrible, make sure Jason doesn't rip off Scobleizer. How about WebItNow? A corny take off the 90's song Whip It.

Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com

Meant to type 80's song

Please allow me to assure you “Fallsaleizer” is Kat's attempt at being funny. If I rename the website anything it will be, “Jason Falls's Gooey Goodness,” with the tag line, “Don't get any on ya!”

I can see both sides of this argument, frankly, since I think of myself as one of those shades that passes between both worlds. It comes down to understanding two things:

1) You can't write copy, like any fool SEO would do. The Social crowd can spot that from very far away, and since they're the ones that bestow all of those Diggs and follows, they can break you. Stop writing copy and actually take part in the conversation.

2) You can't bust on people for wanting to promote something. No one can say a “real conversation” doesn't, at times, involve someone saying, “this is a really great product and you should try it.” If that someone happens to do this with a properly anchored text link, so be it.

In fact, anyone who says another group is “gaming” something online is in fact saying they alone have devined the true purpose of the Internet, and you'd better listen up. It's a bit like saying, “if you don't recognize the truly open, free, utopian nature of the Internet, I'll throw your ass in the Gulag.”

Ciaoenrico
Off Madison Ave

Great post Jason. I think SEOMoz does *alot* of Good at covering the intersection of social media and SEO. The thing is that 'gaming the system' in social media doesn't work long term.

Also, I do agree with you that “Webmaster” is kind of a dated term. I'm pretty weary of anyone who even calls themselves a webmaster anymore.

You nailed it with this post. If you compare what's being said/written by the pragmatists in both camps, there's not that much difference in their recommendations or methods. Using Charlene Li's terminology, the tension is really between the social media purists (i.e., the “ClueTrain as a religion” set) on one side and the corporatists on the other (SEO blackhats).

The reality is that off-page factors are the biggest driver of search engine ranking performance and google's ability to detect “bad links” keeps improving (i.e., paid links, exchanges, etc). This is going to push people towards legitimate link building strategies. There are a limited number of link building tactics and the two that provide the biggest opportunity for competitive advantage are social media participation and SEO PR. Given this, I think it's almost a given that the PR, social media marketing and SEO disciplines are increasingly going to bleed into each other and the people who can master the different skills are going to be highly sought after.

Keep the gooey goodness coming.

Egads! Someone thought the “Fallsaleizer” comment was serious? Well, that's what I get for taking off the pocket protector and trying to lighten up…

Exactly–when you step away from the extremes, both camps are generally occupying the same space, making the same recommendations, because they work.

I take exception to your statement that you can't write copy, but mainly it's a semantic argument. A really good writer can “take part in the conversation” in such a way that they're being extremely persuasive, but it's subtle and soft-handed enough that it doesn't feel tactical or manipulative–even if it is tactical and manipulative!

I agree–I've been a participant at SEOmoz for over a year, and have contributed a couple of posts to YOUmoz. And if you want a really good breakdown of how gaming social media for SEO is an epic FAIL as a long term strategy, check out this post from Naomi at IttyBiz.

[...] French of Social Media Explorer blogs about the long relationship between social media and SEOs, while pointing out that those who master both circles is likely to find the best [...]

Feel free to take exception, but we both know most SEO writing is not expertly crafted copy. In many cases, if, say, a search marketer wants to do well for golf bags, you can tell in the golf bags quality of their golf bags writing that they don't give a golf bags about what others think of their golf bags copy. Just so long as they mention golf bags.

“Copy,” as I use the word, means writing that is a monologue about product. Talking about products shouldn't be verboten, but since social is at its core about dialogue, prepared, one-way writing isn't the way to go.

[...] Page Rank is the ultimate way to measure online influence“, and Katrina says, “search and social are…intrinsically linked.” So if you believe that the goal of PR is to get influencers to bring attention to your [...]

[...] inbound links due to content quality and variety. There of course additional factors at play, but effective blogging can start generating organic search traffic within a few [...]

[...] Which brings me to my last tangent: I’m going to be getting the opportunity to do some of that real world socializing next week.  I’ll be attending my first Pubcon in Las Vegas on behalf of Doe-Anderson and Social Media Explorer.  In addition to getting to meet and talk with some of the folks I’ve so far only met online, I’m completely excited about getting to pick the brains of internet marketing geniuses in the sessions. (And I think that the “Is Social Media & Search a Love Story or a War Story” may cover similar ground as a previous post of mine.)  [...]

You seem to have a decent following on this blog. Why aren't any of them on Twitter and tweeting this post? C'mon people, hop on the social media bandwagon! There's no reason this post should have 0 tweets!

Hey Ravm. Thanks for the encouragement. This post is over a year old and I don't think the Tweet tool we have installed goes back and shows Tweets from before it began measuring. That's all. I'm sure it was tweeted well. But thanks again for the affirmation!

Hey Ravm. Thanks for the encouragement. This post is over a year old and I don't think the Tweet tool we have installed goes back and shows Tweets from before it began measuring. That's all. I'm sure it was tweeted well. But thanks again for the affirmation!

[...] Exploring The Relationship Between Social Media & Search – Social Media Explorer – Oct ‘08 [...]