I was hoping the live blogging plug-in would be ready to use this week, but there are a few tweaks being ironed out with the application. As such, here’s my attempt to emulate a live discussion with a snapshot of today’s discussion…
Is Social Media the sizzle that’s fading? (definitely a loaded question for a group like ours)
Thoughts from the group…
Non-RE – a watched pot never boils, Long term investment, news source, branding tool,
Sizzle fads when the work comes in. Reality settles in. Maintaining the relationships established is where this comes in.
Can’t be everything to everybody=fail
Social Media Similes:
Social Media is like a Chamber of Commerce meeting – just a way to meet a lot of people. More people in one place (ease of accessibility). Still need to meet them in person, get them in the door
Social media is like life: Some things will remain in existence and others will become extinct. It is all one big experiment!
Book Recommendation: Switch by Chip and Dan Heath (Thanks @melaclaro!)
Social Media Analogies:
People are scared to experiment – they don’t want to be a guinea pig.
Elephant v. Rider
Elephant – emotional, pictures (show them)
Rider – Logical
Social Media isn’t always just about one person - it’s more of an organizational change.
Side Note: A few people have the new EVO….everyone is very excited! (My iPhone is not looking so great right now…)
SEO Discussion:
Hyphens in SEO – the use of dashes? Not the greatest approach. Our brain doesn’t necesarrily think in terms of hyphens.
Things to consider – PR Ranking with Google, value of links coming into the website and linking out from the website.
Page Ranks – Trivia question
Q: Where does page come from?
A: Larry Page – Google’s founding CEO
Out of 1 Trillion sites on Internet only 150 are PR 10 .
Areas that can increase your PR:
Fresh content all on similar topic
People linking to you = domain authority
No follow and canonical links?
No-Follow Links: Very important if you have a lot of content on your site that isn’t directly relevant to your site. Use the following no-follow link: A rel=”external nofollow”. For example, I used the following for the Larry Page link above: a rel=”external nofollow” href=”http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#larry”
Canonical Link: Include this when working with content that may appear on another site. Engines, in turn, note this URL and apply link popularity and authority to the canonical version instead of applying them to duplicate URLs.
Example: <link rel=”canonical” href =”http://www.example.com/product”/>
Importance of monitoring who you are linking to. If they suddenly started placing spam on their site, you’re site’s Page Rank could be affected.
Don’t use cross-linking strategies? Link to me, I will link to you. Although this may sound appealing, it is never a good thing.
Social Reputation = $ = SEO
Investment – acutally like working with currency. Social – retweeting people care about (building currency) SEO= linking and writing relevant content.
The Idiot Principle: No way to people who don’t know what they are talking about…now there is! People call people out on Twitter – it’s actually part of our “responsibility.”
How to handle combative comments posted to blog or Facebook?
Do you remove these? React with words? Let other members of the community self-manage?
I will be heading out of town this weekend for RE BarCamp St. Louis, so SMMOC meeting minutes will resume Saturday, June 19.
Hope to see you then!