If you’re realizing you need Facebook (and Twitter and LinkedIn and so on) marketing now, you’re a little late to the game…
Just a few weeks ago it was “officially” announced by both Google and Microhoo that they really do look at social media data to help determine the rank of a web site. Google claimed they use data such as how many times something was retweeted, followed on Twitter and liked or linked to within Facebook. With the recent focus on all things social, the fact that it’s beginning to affect organic search really kinda comes as no surprise. It just solidifies exactly how important and mainstream social media has become. Let’s face it – as far removed from “actually social” as we may be sometimes, thanks in part to technology, we still live in a hyper-social, complicatedly connected world.
At a recent SMX meetup (a kind of SEO geek-fest) SEOmoz reported that they had studied the top 30 organic results for more than 10,000 keywords to determine what factors correlate with SEO success and, perhaps not surprisingly, social was huge.
So should we all go out and go social media nuts? Not exactly, but you will need to incorporate a social media strategy for 2011 and beyond if you want to succeed in the SEO world. Search and social marketing teams need to collaborate, even join forces permanently. The new reality is that everything is now interrelated under a common umbrella of “inbound marketing.”
For now we’re left with very tactical action items:
1) Create engaging content that is capable of being easily shared across social sites;
2) Share that content across your own social sites;
3) Encourage followers/fans to engage with, and comment on, your content;
4) Remain current and try to avoid appearing out-of-date with the pulse of the marketplace.
Social Media Optimization dominates today’s social search conversation and perhaps foreshadows that a seismic shift is occurring in the space…
Using this post to do a quick test of using Widgetbox.com to create an embedable widget from an RSS feed. This content is coming from the Join Together blog on The Partnership at DrugFree.org website. Enjoy.
You know what they say: work hard, play harder! Last week the SD family did just that at Il Vagabondo Restaurant & Bocce on E. 62nd Street. This venue was the perfect location for our group since it allowed us to partake in three of our favorite activities: drinking great wine, eating delicious food, and horsing around.
Any SD veteran knows that where there’s Savino, there’s vino (and plenty of it!) Of course his selections paired nicely with Il Vagabondo’s classic Italian fare. As for the horseplay, Coach Steinberg organized a competitive bocce ball tournament which was very entertaining for those of us on the sidelines enjoying dinner. There are some great action shots and video footage on our Flickr page; take a look!
A big “thanks” to everyone at Il Vagabondo who took care of us! The food and the service were both amazing. Oh, and sorry about those dents in the ceiling… some of us are still trying to perfect our bocce ball tosses. Guess we’ll have to come back and practice!
We’re excited to share our latest website redesign project for ELMA Philanthropies.
ELMA funds programs that provide humanitarian relief to children and communities
around the world.
Our team is especially proud of the custom interactive map that we designed and built to meet the specific needs of this organization. It presents ELMA’s projects in both a graphic format and a list that can be filtered by foundation, type, year of inception, and country.
Many thanks to those at ELMA Philanthropies who collaborated with us on this venture!
We’re proud to announce that one of our recent website projects—www.drugfree.org—has been nominated for a Webby Award!
There were over 10,000 submissions to The Webby Awards this year; our design is one of five nominees for the Family/Parenting category. Nominations are judged on the site’s content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity, and overall user experience. Check out our case study on The Partnership at Drugfree.org redesign to learn more about how we addressed these criteria.
In addition to this award, we are also eligible to receive a People’s Voice Award based on the number of votes we receive from the public. Please show your support and vote now! We promise to thank you in our acceptance speech.
