Social Signals & Search PubCon Hawaii 2012

Social Signals & Search Impacting Your Search Visibility Using Social Media Presented by: David Wallace CEO/Founder - SearchRank Twitter: @DavidWallace Hashtag: #pubcon

Evolution of Search Marketing
In the Beginning…
On-Page Optimization - title tags, meta tags, header tags, optimized content,
image alt attributes
Twitter: @DavidWallace Hashtag: #pubcon

Addition of Google
Birth and Prominent Growth of Google necessitated the need for inbound links –
Link Popularity Building

Google Trying To Be Facebook
Now that Google wants to be a social site, social signals are an integral part of their search algorithm (Google+, SPYW).

Where We Are Now
SEO / Link Building + Content Marketing
While On-Page Optimization & Link Building are still essential ingredients, they alone are often not enough.
Google moving away from PageRank & focusing on social signals makes Content Marketing via Social Media another essential ingredient.
Content Marketing Examples - white papers, free guides, case studies, widgets, videos, and Infographics
Twitter: @DavidWallace Hashtag: #pubcon Image courtesy of SEOmoz

Infographic Marketing
While a relatively new term to Internet marketing, Infographics have been used
throughout history, even dating back to the cavemen.

Infographic Marketing – The Idea
It All Starts With a Great Idea
Every great piece of content has
to have its origin in the quality of
an idea which can be:
Time Sensitive (news / trends)
Resourceful
Entertaining
Historical
All of the Above

Infographic Marketing - The Idea
infographicjournal.com/at-the-heart-of-valentines-day/
Time sensitive (today is Valentine's Day), it's resourceful (statistics on spending), it's entertaining and it's even provides some history .

Infographic Marketing – Research
Once you have a great idea in place, it’s time
to gather the research.
Depending on the nature of the
piece, your research may contain
Historical Facts
Current Data/Trends
Creative Ideas
If your Infographic revolves around historical
information or data/trends, you’ll want to
make sure you reference your citations in the
footer of the Infographic itself.

Infographic Marketing - Design
While I feel that a good idea itself is most crucial in the creation of Infographics,
the actual design is not far behind in importance.
Do you want your Infographic to stretch horizontally or vertically?
Will you display a smaller version of it or crop a section out?
Make sure format loads relatively quickly (.bmp, .png and .tiff bad idea)

Infographic Marketing - Publishing
What Is The Best Platform?
Publish On Domain You Wish To Benefit
Wordpress Blog – Best Platform
No Wordpress Blog? Make Sure Social Media Voting Buttons Are Included
Include “Embed This Code” To Help Earn Natural Links
Text or No Text?

Infographic Marketing - Promotion
How and Where?
The best days to promote - Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The general nature of the piece will determine which social networks it will do best on. Most do very well on StumbleUpon .
Use StumbleUpon Paid Discovery to draw more attention to your Infographic.
If content is interesting, time-sensitive or controversial, it should do well on Reddit .
Share on Facebook & Twitter ; consider utilizing Facebook Ads & Sponsored Tweets.
Send an optimized press release via online PR sites such as MarketWire & PRWeb.
Beyond that, there are dozens of bookmarking sites including Infographic sites.
Having a large network of followers (influential status) will help promotion efforts.
If you lack influence, it might be wise to hire someone who does to share content.

Infographic Marketing - Promotion
Infographics Archives/Directories
Infographic Journal – http://infographicjournal.com/
visua.ly - http://visual.ly/ (self-serving)
Pinterest – http://pinterest.com/ (self-serving)
InfographicsArchive - http://www.infographicsarchive.com/
Submit Infographics - http://submitinfographics.com/
OMGInfographics - http://www.omginfographics.com/
The Infographics Showcase - http://www.infographicsshowcase.com/ ($100)

Infographic Marketing - Measure
Measure 3-4 Weeks After Publishing
Use Google Analytics or similar to see how many people visited the Infographic, learn where they came from and even discover what they did after landing on the page.
Utilize backlink checkers such as Raven Tools’ Backlink Explorer and SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer to discover who has linked back to the piece.
Finally you’ll want to see how the content did on the most popular social networks . How many stumbles did it earn? Did it go “hot” on Digg? How many retweets or Facebook shares?

Social + Search Study Case
Pinterest – Online pinboard that allows users to organize and share graphical content which can include photos, cartoons, graphics, and even infographics.
Top Ten Reasons To Use Pinterest:
1. It’s super fun
2. It’s free
3. It’s really easy to post (bookmarklet)
4. Viral activity is primary to usage
5. Has a more “general audience” than say Google+
6. A top 100 site on the Internet
7. It’s extremely sticky (super addictive)
8. Content within boards is “followed” (for now anyway)
9. It drives traffic (a lot of it)
10. Has grown faster than any other web site in history *
* http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/07/pinterest-monthly-uniques/

T Twitter: @DavidWallace Hashtag: #pubcon

Key Takeaways
Social signals are now integral to the ranking algorithm. SEO and link building still essential but you need social signals as well!
Infographics are one of many ways to generate content that draws social signals
Infographics that are well thought out, well designed and marketed aggressively can do very well across social media platforms .
If you are not yet on Pinterest , what are you waiting for?

Thank You!
David Wallace
SearchRank www.searchrank.com
Twitter: @DavidWallace Facebook : SearchRank Pinterest: SearchRank Google+: bit.ly/A4JQfW
Search & Social Media Marketing Since 1997

Social Signals & Search PubCon Hawaii 2012

by David Wallace

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