Search Engine Optimization Help

Social media marketing is pretty tricky - but it is too tricky to ever roll out international campaigns? Where do you start from when you’re targeting international social networks - success at home or do you need to start all-over?

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Is social media better than a 60-second ad spot that costs around $3 million. Pepsi thinks so which is why they chose to launch a viral campaign at RefreshEverything.com instead of advertising in the Super Bowl this year. Pepsi plans to give away $20 million in grant money to fund projects in various categories. People can go there now to submit ideas and vote on other ideas.

From the Yahoo News article:

The problem, say marketing experts, is mixing the medium with the message. “The Super Bowl is just too extravagant for something like this,” says Lee Clow, chief creative officer and global director of media arts at TBWA Worldwide, the agency that created Pepsi’s campaign. “It’s seems like a contradiction to say you’re going to set aside $20 million in marketing dollars for a worthy cause, then turn around and spend $12 million on two 60-second spots for the Super Bowl. Couldn’t that money be put to better use?”

It’ll be interesting to see how skipping on the Super Bowl TV advertising will alter Pepsi’s sales as compared to the previous years. One thing is for certain is that large companies are starting to see the value of social media marketing and will continue to pull their ad dollars away from traditional advertising to turn over to search engine & social media marketing.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Social Media Better than a Super Bowl TV Ad Spot?

Apple clearly recognizes the importance of the mobile web, but did they get trigger happy and launch the iPad too soon? The launch of the new Apple device has lit up the internet with all sorts of criticisms, praises, questions and opinions. A question remains for those of us in the search marketing and social [...]

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You’ve lost your account…it’s gone. You can’t log in. All your activity has been erased. You didn’t get an email, not even a warning. You’ve emailed the site a number of times, and nobody will tell you why you’re now a blacklisted member of your favorite social media network.

This is a common tale… all too common, in fact. Some social sites are better than others, but the truth is: most administrators don’t have the time to explain why they deleted your account. You’d be lucky if they even know the reason in the first place. Most likely it’s not a single act, but a number of user submitted complaints that puts your account beyond some threshold they’ve set as a matter of policy. Reach this threshold, and you’re gone…no research to determine the validity of the complaints, no explanation, and a snowball’s chance in hell of getting your account back.

Ok, so while it’s not completely impossible to get a banned account back, certain social sites just don’t bother. And depending on what you did to get banned, you might be wasting your time. In either case, it’s much less frustrating to just play it safe so you don’t get blacklisted in the first place. So here are 9 things that will get you banned that you should try to avoid:

1. Break the terms of service – Let’s start with the obvious. If you don’t want to get banned, the first thing you need to do is read the terms of service. Read it for serious. Done? Ok, now read it again. My point is: make sure you really understand what they’re trying to prevent.

    

   Legally, most terms of service allow social sites to remove your account for any reason, and they (usually) directly say as much. But they’ll also go into some specific items that they’re actively looking for. Break any of these, and you’ll find yourself starting from scratch. I’ll cover many of the more common items below, but if you want to know what your favorite social network is specifically looking for, I highly recommend starting here.

2. Spam – Another obvious one, but somehow people don’t quite get it. Attempting to automate submissions, Votes, Reddits, comments, Diggs, etc. will almost always end up in a banning. If there’s one thing people hate more than human generated spam, it’s computer generated spam. That goes double –no triple for social sites.
3. Self Promotion – I’m not talking about submitting or linking to content you’ve created. I’m talking about going on to other social conversations or threads and trying to cross promote or garner attention to your submission when it isn’t relevant. Link dropping is SOMETIMES ok (read the terms) if it’s directly related to the conversation, but rarely tolerated when it’s not. And it’s DEFINITELY something that can get you banned.
4. Submitting Link Bait or Promotional content – Link bait is a (double) 4-letter-word in the social media world. People hate it, and if you’re caught being a marketer, or worse yet: an SEO, there’s nothing that can inspire someone to report you as a spammer quicker. Just be sure you are careful what you submit and if you’re doing it for the links and/or promotion, take great care to be sure the content is worthy of the votes.
5. Un-natural voting/promotion – A common story (you might have heard) is the “clever” marketing agency with 200 employees all voting for a submission from the same office at the same time. If you think large sites like Digg and Reddit don’t have filters to identify geo-locations of your IP (and other un-natural indicators), you’d be wrong. In fact, if you’re involved in any schemes like this, you’re making it too easy for them. Nothing can get 200 accounts simultaneously banned easier than this scenario.
6. Submit/link to inappropriate/offensive content – Nudity and explicit violence are rarely tolerated, and whenever you feel compelled to use the acronym “NSFW”, think twice before you submit it or link to it. More than likely, someone will find it offensive and report you as such. If an admin gets enough reports like this, the next time you sign in, it’ll be under another user name.

   Note: Some sites like Reddit and Stumble Upon do allow adult content, but there are specific sections for it. Make sure to use these sections and/or mark it as adult content if what you are sharing is too racy or NSFW.

7. Trolling – It usually takes a lot for comments to get you banned. Down votes aren’t generally enough, but they’ll certainly make you look like a troll to the rest of the community. While joining in on the social conversation (in comment boards and threads) can be a great way to network, try not to be offensive, abrasive, and definitely don’t get involved in a “flame” war. It’s too easy for someone who didn’t like what you said to simply report you as offensive. Even if it isn’t true, trust me, you’d rather just not go there. Also, remember: just because you think you’re being funny doesn’t mean others will. “Offensive” (in terms of comments) is a matter of interpretation.

8. Consistently submitting or linking to low quality content – While you probably won’t get banned for having too many down votes, some members of your social network believe it’s their job to take the “bury” button one step further and report you as a spammer. A single report probably won’t get you banned, but if you get enough of them, you’ll cross that threshold and it’s over.

   If you’re submitting content from commercial sites make sure that A. the content is worthy, and B. you’re submitting high quality content from elsewhere on a regular basis to dilute any of such reports that may happen.

9. Be too good at Digg or Reddit – Don’t worry, most sites won’t get banned for being a power user…that’s an unfortunate myth. What happens, however, is when you’ve become noticed as being “too good” you’ll get away with a LOT less. In effect, all the above points become more important to avoid. Make one slip and the bury brigade will be all over you.

   Another problem with being a power user is: you might be able to use the power of your network to promote “less than worthy” content to the front page. When this happens, not only will the submission get buried, but it’ll usually cause an influx of those nasty spam reports. If you’re finding yourself on a list like this one, it’s time to tread carefully. You may also want to have a back-up account…just in case.

If you’ve been banned and you were looking for a way to get your account back, my advice is this: email the site administrator and beg for forgiveness. You can use this email as a template:

Dear [Social Website] Admin,

I’m having trouble logging into my account. It looks as though it may have been removed???

I’m not sure what happened, but if I have done something wrong I truly apologize. I have read the terms of service and am very careful to follow them to the T.

I don’t know if there is anything I can do to get my account back, but I’d love to at the very least know what I did so I can be sure to avoid that activity in the future.

Please let me know if there’s anything I can do!

Thanks in advance,

[BannedUser]

If you’re lucky: they may tell you what you did, send you to the terms of service page again so you can re-accept it, and you’ll get your account back. Just know, this is pretty rare, and if you’re lucky enough to get an account turned back on, it probably won’t be a recurring event.

Have a story about being banned? Tell it in the comments; I’d love to hear it!

Todd Heim is CEO, co-founder, and SEO manager of Essential Internet Marketing, LLC, an SEM and Social Media Marketing company based in Albany, NY.  You can find Todd on twitter at: http://twitter.com/ToddHeim/

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

How to Get Banned on Social Media Networks

Super Bowl. It’s that special time of year where long lost friends and family members are drawn together to eat wings and pizza, while jumping out of their chairs cheering for each touchdown their team makes and giggling over this year’s outrageous commercials.

It’s also the time for companies to participate in the Super Bowl’s competitive advertising environment; pushing the boundaries for the viewers and making a long-lasting (serious or funny) impression. Millions of viewers tune in to the Super Bowl. A suprising 51% for the commercials alone.

Audi Green Police

Lately, a new trend has been emerging. With the rising popularity of viral videos and social media, many companies are taking the stage on YouTube and Facebook prior to Super Bowl, to build up anticipation for the long-awaited advertisements. Audi, for example, has launched a social media campaign by the name of “Green Police.” Protecting and conserving, they have been launching YouTube short videos, using examples such as simple arithmetic to demonstrate how we can keep the landfills free of excess napkins, ending with a catchy theme song reminiscent of Captain Planet.

The Green Police campaign is a catchy and gentle way to highlight the importance of adopting a green lifestyle in order to take care of our environment. The model in the commercial, the Audi A3 TDI, reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 30% and was presented the 2010 “Green Car of the Year” award by Green Car Journal. They are not only helping to educate the public but are following their own advice as well.

Audi has also made use of the social media phenomenon known as Facebook. If you were a fan of the Audi fan page as of Thursday evening, you had access to an early sneak peek of their Super Bowl XLIV commercial, along with bonus extras such as a downloadable  “Green Police Remix” made exclusively by the rock band Cheap Trick. They’ve certainly done a good job of adding multiple viral elements to this campaign to make it a hit. One video alone from the Green Police campaign was the “9th most viewed video” on YouTube from Canada today.

E-trade, who is best known for their humorous talking baby commercials, has a 360-degree campaign running, utilizing Twitter, Facebook Fan Pages and YouTube. E-trade alone has 18,000+ Facebook fans and the Fan Page for the baby has 12,000+. Over 3,000 users follow the baby’s tweets on Twitter and 10,000+ subscribers on YouTube, where they’re putting up fresh commercials along with funny outtake s you won’t see during the Super Bowl.

My personal favorite? Outtake number 2.

America loves getting a sneak peak of things to come, so getting an inside look at the new babies that will be airing during the Super Bowl is certain to draw more viewers to the actual event. Some have been speculating that E-Trade’s baby campaign is overrated, but thanks to the solid numbers of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, we can see that the speculation is far from true. Not to mention the amount of fans that are posting their own versions of the E-trade commercials with their own babies. That shows the true amount of love viewers have for them.

Gone are the days where simply having a new (and hopefully humorous) advertisement on deck for an event as large as the Super Bowl will suffice for a company. Viewers and consumers of the product want it all; they want to live, eat and breathe your campaign. Spinning off into social media to turn a company’s commercials into live personalities and making them accessible will keep consumers engaged. If done right, we’ll be amused and constantly looking for new content and sharing it with the people closest to us. Sometimes even strangers via Twitter. This is why viral marketing and social media are such strong additions to any campaign. Companies that are adapting and changing by harnessing this new age marketing to build anticipation for their advertisement on the Super Bowl will attract an extraordinary amount of viewers, including those who may not enjoy watching those guys in funny tight pants throw around a football!

If you’re interested in more of the aforementioned videos, please visit the Green Police YouTube Channel and the E-trade YouTube Channel.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Green Police & eTrade Up Super Bowl Ante w/ Social Media

Facebook has come out with a new page redesign which in my opinion, more and more simulated the web browsing experience moreso than just the social mapping experience. The only problem is, with Facebook constantly referring its users to Facebook fanpages and other controlled content within the walls of Facebook, the overall findability quotient resembles something more of a late 90’s AOL than a 2010 social media world changer.

That being said, what really garnished my attention this morning with the new Facebook design was not necessarily the browser aspect of its UI, but moreso the centering of the Facebook Search Box.

What makes the realignment of Facebook Search more and more intriguing to me is that expanded search assists Facebook with multiple goals :

• Facebook is a search partner of Microsoft Bing, so the more Facebook searches equals more Bing searches, a revenue generator for both Facebook and Microsoft, which owns equity in Facebook. So even if Facebook does send people off of their platform, they at least do so via Bing.
• Facebook will have more search data on its users, to add to its lifestyle and behavioral data for ad targeting
• Facebook users will search more often for their friends, making connections and tagging connections, assisting Facebook with further knowing more about its members, and incentivizing its members to give Facebook more personal data
• Facebook searches on product or service oriented keyterms default on the relevant Facebook pages and events for those terms, further connecting users with fanpages and companies and making its interface more valuable for marketers
• In the same way that Google has spread worldwide with its simple cross cultural search box, Facebook and its investors, which include Microsoft and its other big investor, Digital Sky Technologies of Russia which runs the incredibly popular Russian social networks of vKontakte (Facebook Russia) & Odnoklassniki (Classmates).

More Facebook Redesign Coverage

• Mashable : Facebook’s Major Redesign Emphasizes Search and So Much More
• Huffington Post : New Facebook Redesign 2010: PICTURES Of The New Layout

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Facebook Learns from Google : Centers Search Box on Redesign

Most of us have accounts at dozens of social networking sites and are active at minimum 3 of them. Therefore aggregating this activity is such a good idea: you want to keep your friends updated on all news and stories you share.

There are quite a few tools that unite several social networks for you and today I am sharing a new-comer:

Flavors.me is a sleek tool for aggregating your social medial life. The tool is in private beta but you can go ahead and request the invite (or try using the one I am sharing at the end of the post).

After the instant sign-up, you will need to follow these steps:

1. Add your basic info:

• Provide your full name;
• Describe yourself and what you do (basic HTML is supported):

2. Add social media services:

This is where you will need to authenticate your social media accounts to connect them all in one place. Services supported:

Currently supported services:

• Flickr;
• Tumblr;
• Twitter;
• Vimeo;
• Last.fm;
• Facebook;
• Blogger;
• LinkedIn;
• Any RSS
• A few more:

3. Customize the page look and feel

Just go to your page at flavors.me/yourusername and click through:

• Available layouts;
• Backgrounds (upload any background image there);
• Available fonts;
• Available color palettes (each of them can be further edited)

In the end you get a totally branded personal page updating on your social media activity. Here’s what I got in the end (also some of my friends report that the page is not mobile-/iPhone-friendly and also looks not very nice in Google Chrome, but the tool is in beta so let’s bear with them )

Note: the service is still in beta; if you need an invite code, MUO has some.

The tool was reviewed under SEJ policy.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Aggregate Your Social Media Life with FlavorsMe

On Christmas Eve, December 24th, Facebook garnered 7.56% of United States internet traffic market share, whereas Google had 7.54%. Subsequently on Christmas Day, December 25th, Facebook’s piece of pie ballooned to a whopping 7.81% while Google dropped a bit to 7.51%. The day after Christmas, December 26, Google regained its stature as most visited site [...]

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On Christmas Eve, December 24th, Facebook garnered 7.56% of United States internet traffic market share, whereas Google had 7.54%. Subsequently on Christmas Day, December 25th, Facebook’s piece of pie ballooned to a whopping 7.81% while Google dropped a bit to 7.51%. The day after Christmas, December 26, Google regained its stature as most visited site [...]

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Haven’t I told you SEJ Toolset is a one-stop destination when it comes to all types of your web campaigns? This week I’ll show how to monitor your online reputations from the same handy dashboard.

Social Media Monitor is a service which lets you track what people are saying about you, your client, or your brand. It aggregates user generated content from across the Internet into a single stream of information.

Step 1: Add a search to track social media mentions

To track social media mentions you will need first to set up a search. For that click on “Media Monitor” which hides behind SOCIAL tab and then “New Search”. What you do next is:

1. Enter a keyword or phrase for your search. It could be a client’s brand name, a competitor, or simply a service the website provides.
2. Select the sources. The default choice is All Sources. However, you can refine your search results by selecting any of the options in the Source select menu. For example, selecting Microblogs will only alert you to new mentions on microblogs like Twitter.
3. Turn on update alerts. If you want to be sent daily alerts for new mentions, click on the Yes radio button.
4. Save your search by clicking “Add Search” button:

Step 2: Research social media mentions and analyze the sentiment

Based on your settings, the Social Media Monitor aggregates as many relevant results as possible. However, it’s designed for human interaction and requires the user to apply sentiment and filter out (and in some cases blacklist) sites that are irrelevant.

In the search results, you can:

• Scan and visit mentions (Each mention includes a title of the referenced Web page with a link to the page. If you click on the title, it will open a new tab in Firefox and take you to the page),
• Apply sentiment to a mention (You can use face icons to do that: if you want to designate a mention as negative, click on the frowning face. If you want to designate a mention as positive, click on the smiling face. When you click on a face, the background color of the mention row will instantly change and the Sentiment meter will be updated.)

• Hide a mention if it’s irrelevant (If a mention is not relevant, but the site itself could be relevant in the future, click on the Hide link.),
• Add a mention to the Link Manager (If a mention has a link to your website, you can quickly add a link record in the Link Manager by clicking on the Add Link link.),
• Blacklist sites that have mentions that are spammy or irrelevant (If mentions appear once or several times from a website that is spammy (scrapes content, auto-generated, etc…) or from a site that you do not want to see again, you can click on the ignore all results link. That will keep the website from appearing in future search results).

For visualization purposes, the search results contain a buzz graph that shows the frequency of recent mentions, a sentiment meter, and a list of results based on your keyword phrase and source.

Step 3: Get Alerted

For you to never forget to check the social media monitor, the tool will be sending system notices inviting you to go ahead and view the mentions:

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Track Your Brand Name Across Social Web with SEJ Tools

Social Bookmarking sites aren’t a huge mystery.  If you think there’s some “special formula” to the Digg and Reddit algorithms, for the most part: you’d be wrong.  Sure, there’s an algorithm at work there, but before you make that attempt at the front page, you need to work on the 2 major pieces necessary for success: great content, and a network of users to help promote it.

The need for great content is self explanatory, and if you still need help with yours, there’s plenty of articles on the topic.  But why is having a network so important?  If you’re one of those people that thinks Digg power users hit the front page so often because their submissions “count” for more than others’, again: you’d be wrong.  That success is based on a loyal following of literally thousands of users that follow their submissions and vote them up with and without being asked to.

Building a network goes far beyond finding and adding users to your friends list.  You need to participate in a variety of ways that both gets your account noticed and shows you’re willing to reciprocate by voting for, spreading, and commenting on others user’s submissions.  And believe me, it’s a lot of hard work that you need to keep up on.
Below is a basic guideline of some dos and don’ts roughly based on the regular habits of power users:

Do: Friend, IMvite, and Follow power Users
Don’t: Be a pest.

If there ever was a starting point to creating a network for social bookmarking sites, making friends with the power users would be it. They have hundreds (if not thousands) of followers & friends, and a vote from them can often turn into a number of additional votes from their faithful. Also, once you’re seen in their company, people will ideally start coming to you.

What you have to remember, however, is these people are super busy. They don’t have time to digg, vote, and retweet 100 links for you every day. They also don’t want to answer newb questions like: “How many diggs does it take to hit the front page?” Friend them, add them to your IM list, and follow them on twitter, but don’t ask too much of them. In fact, don’t ask a thing unless you’ve started giving first. Vote up their submissions, retweet for them on twitter, and if they IM you for a vote, make sure they know you got it for them.  After a while, they’ll take notice, and before you know it, they’ll start voting up your subs without asking. If not, a simple IM request isn’t totally out of the question, but remember: once a day is plenty.

Do: Participate in the SOCIAL side of social bookmarking
Don’t: Be a Troll

Most social bookmarking sites allow comments…use them! Commenting and participating in the social conversation isn’t just about being funny or witty. It’s about being noticed and showing that you actually took the time to view a submission. Being the first to comment (hint: especially a power user’s submission) is a great way of being noticed. Making a great comment can even get you attention far beyond the person who submitted the post, too. Sometimes great early comments get up-voted as much as the story itself…you just need to know how to appeal to the community.  Spend some time reading comments to find out what gets up-voted, and what gets buried.

While commenting is great way to network, here are some things to avoid: Don’t be too controversial (especially if you disagree with the article/submission) unless you’re sure the community agrees with your take..even then, your comment may end up buried. Don’t reply to comments to disagree…a flame war is not networking. Being funny is great, but remember not everyone has your sense of humor. Finally, don’t be offensive. In other words: don’t be a troll.

Do: Embrace Multiple Social Networks & Technologies
Don’t: Spread yourself too thin

Facebook, Twitter, Instant Messaging, Skype, and the thousands of additional social media networks out there can be your best friend. Finding power users and your closest, most loyal contacts on these networks is a great way to keep multiple lines of communication open. As you network and add new friends you’ll find while most people have accounts on a number of networks, many stick to their few favorites. Twitter is a no-brainer if you want to expand your social network, while Instant Messaging ranges from AOL, Yahoo!,G-chat, and more. Using a program like Digsby can help you consolidate multiple instant messaging accounts into one simple application.  Just make sure you keep a separate account for your personal or business life.  If you succeed in building a strong network, you’ll likely get hammered with IMs every time you sign on.

Another way to expand your reach is to join multiple social bookmarking sites. Digg and Reddit are great (and obviously the largest), but many (if not most) power users and users with larger networks are members of a number of the smaller sites as well. Being noticed on other networks (like Mixx, Propeller, and Stumble Upon) will really help you stand out, especially to users with large & powerful networks. Just be careful not to stretch yourself too thin. Maintaining a number of profiles on multiple social sites is a lot of work, so manage your time wisely.

*Quick tip: remember to list and/or interlink your other social profiles when you can, and keep your user name & avatar as consistent as possible.

Do: Submit content from community favorite sites
Don’t: Submit commercial content

As a member of a community, like Digg or Reddit, you’re likely to notice a trend when it comes to certain sites that produce front page content on a regular basis. It’s largely because they consistently break news or produce killer articles/videos/images/etc., and as a result, a large number of users regularly check these sites to submit and/or vote up their content. Being the first to submit breaking news or great new content from these sites is a sure-fire way to get noticed. It’ll also help build your profile with a fast track to hitting the front page (social networking pay-dirt). Be sure to add these sites to an RSS reader that you check regularly.

On the other side of the coin, one of the quickest ways to fail in the social bookmarking world is to submit content that has no place in the community you are in. Commercial content, marketing (and yes SEO) articles, and poorly written content not only won’t achieve results, it will diminish your networking efforts. Just remember: most people hate marketers. (GASP!) They’ll down vote you, remove you as a friend, block you and even report you as a spammer. So do yourself a favor and make sure everything you’re trying to promote is WORTHY of the votes. Because even if you’ve built a strong enough network to push just about anything to the front page, it probably won’t last, and if you’re really careless, you even risk losing your account.

Do: Submit content from a variety of sites
Don’t: Consistently Submit content from a single site or short list of sites

This concept may seem obvious to most, but you’d be surprised how many users submit their own content and nothing else. Oh sure, they’ll vote for other stuff every now and then, but their intentions are pretty clear: they’re in it for the marketing. In other words: you need to make sure you don’t LOOK like a marketer. The best way to do this is to submit content from a variety of sources. That way, when other users visit your profile (say, to add you as a friend) they don’t only see a single site* (or short list of sites) that you’re trying to promote.

*This is especially true of Stumble Upon where one of the goals is to attract subscribers of your discoveries and up votes. Seeing the same site over and over on SU creates a bad user experience for your subscribers, and as a result, you’ll likely lose them.

Do: Sign in, Vote up, Retweet, and Comment regularly
Don’t: Leave huge lapses of activity in your accounts

Even power users can’t afford to be away for too long…perhaps ESPECIALLY them, but I digress.  If you take too much time away from social bookmarking activity, you’ll soon find that all the hard work you’ve done networking will start to go to waste.  It’s not that you can’t take a week or two vacation if you like, but the more inactivity you have, the more you’ll find your influence dwindling.  Basically, the more available you are (or at least appear to be) to vote and spread the submissions of your network & friends, the more influence you’ll have with them to push your own.

Do: Perform favors (like submitting content) for friends in your network
Don’t: Ask too much of your friends & contacts without giving back

It’s a karma thing: the more you do for others, the more they’ll be willing to do for you.   Don’t be afraid to submit content for others (as long as it’s appropriate and worthy of votes).  Vote up your friend’s submissions without being asked, retweet it, and be a regular commenter of their stuff even when they simply asked for a vote.  Go out of your way for them and they’ll go out of their way for you.
If you start asking too much of someone, they’ll probably avoid you or simply ignore your requests from then on.  So what’s asking too much?  Basically asking anything of someone that isn’t a simple vote request (unless they’ve offered otherwise or owe you a favor) can be considered too much.  So if you need someone to submit something for you, make sure that A) you’ve built a strong enough relationship with this person first, and B) it’s TOP quality content.  Otherwise, you may never hear from them again.

Do: Be a human being
Don’t: Be anti-social or a computer

What’s the point of “social” media if you’re not going to be social?  If you want a network of “friends” or followers to fulfill some ego driven goal based on a number, by all means, automate as much as you can.  But if you’re looking for contacts and friends who will be willing to do favors for you and can help you consistently reach the front page of your favorite social bookmarking sites, then you need to act like a human.  Be friendly and don’t be afraid to have conversations once in a while.  If the only IM-ing you do is “Can you digg this for me? Thx!” and “Dugg, can you hit this for me?”, then you’re missing a vital part of social media, and your networking efforts will probably suffer as a result.

Do: Keep at it
Don’t: Give up

This list isn’t some secret sauce that will put you on the fast track to success. Building a network for social bookmarking sites takes a lot of work.  This is simply a starting point and guideline for you to succeed and (frankly) not waste your own time.  And while it’s a lot of work, the good news is you don’t need to spend all day every day on social media in order to be successful.  You just need to find a rhythm that you’re comfortable with and stick to it.  Persistence is everything.

Todd Heim is CEO, co-founder, and SEO manager of Essential Internet Marketing, LLC, an SEM and Social Media Marketing company based in Albany, NY.  You can find Todd on twitter at: http://twitter.com/ToddHeim/

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Building Social Bookmarking Networks 101

Content marketing is one of the most powerful tools for B2B marketers, most of whom likely have content development as a substantial part of their 2010 marketing plans. But before you get started with developing more content marketing assets, take a step back to assess your efforts to date. Below are six steps to help [...]

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When the clock struck midnight on January 1st, I began running. It was a 5k run in Philadelphia, along the Schuylkill River, to be more specific.

During this run, I passed a homeless man. Rather than running past him, I stopped. I gave him $100.

Later that day, I stopped to think in greater detail about that incident.

What was it that compelled me to engage him?

I think the answer to that question, in this case, should be fairly obvious.

The night was cold and rainy. No person should be outside and homeless, regardless of how they got there.

How does this story relate to my thoughts on many folks on Twitter?

Before I continue, please understand I am in no way making light of the homeless. I’m simply offering background as to what inspired the following thought:

Many individuals all around the social media world are simply asking for handouts.

Think about that for a second.

How many people do their best to be placed prominently in front of you, but really do very little to offer a value proposition?

How many individuals clamor daily about social media strategies, and the need for engagement, yet fail to offer an answer to the simple question of why you should contribute to their success?

I find more and more redundancy invading my personal space.

Less substance, less value, less originality, more noise.

While there is overwhelming concern about those that are not participating in social media ‘correctly’, there is a disproportionate lack of concern for those that are considered social media ‘geniuses’ and really offer minimal value.

If you’re going to be successful long term using social media, you must be certain that your product can back up your mouth.

With that in mind, follow along and below you’ll find a small list with tips to help you, or your product, offer a compelling value proposition.

10 Ways to Translate Social Media Success into Real World Success

1. Represent yourself, or your product, honestly.

While you may be able to lure people to you by appearing to be something you’re not, it leaves a bad taste.

2. Impact people in real life.

Until you leave a tangible impression on someone, keep in mind that you very well may be an untrusted, tiny little avatar just like everyone else.

3. View yourself as others view you.

Try to understand that people who don’t know you will view you exactly how you represent yourself. It may not be who, or what, you actually are, but it’s the virtual reality you must understand.

4. Be respectful of others.

Being respectful of others does not mean being afraid to unleash an ‘f-bomb’, if that’s who you are. Attacking others publicly is unnecessary and cowardly. Expressing yourself, however you see fit, is human. As long as you understand how your emotional outbursts will impact how you are viewed, it’s ok to let them fly.

5. Be unique.

The world has enough of the same. Be yourself, and you’ll be unique. If being yourself is not a good option, consider that a much deeper problem.

6. Don’t follow the pack.

The pack is the epitome of mediocrity. Strive to lead them, not be one of them.

7. Embrace your competitive advantages.

Just as it’s acceptable to recognize flaws, don’t be afraid to celebrate your assets. There is nothing wrong with being objective about yourself when it may be positive.

8. Listen to feedback and improve.

Don’t view criticism as an attack. View it as an opportunity to improve, or at least something to consider.

9. Stand your ground.

If you believe you are right, and have valid reasons for believing it, don’t back down to opinions.

10. Stay consistent with whatever path you choose.

People will begin to know you for what you appear to be. Changing yourself mid-stream will cause them to feel deceived or tricked. This goes along with being yourself.

These are only 10 ways to help make yourself, or your product, more attractive to the social media community. If you have others, please feel free to comment below.

Matt Leonard currently directs SEO, SEM and Revenue Management for Cruise Critic, the world’s largest cruise site and part of the Trip Advisor Media Group. You can follow Matt Leonard on Twitter to keep up with his updates.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

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