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SEO and the Social Networking Happy Place
By Kimberly Bock | January 4, 2008
I am not going to talk about learning SEO keyword strategies, internet tools to jump page rank, or how to write good copy to pump up your site’s placement with the almighty search engines today.
Sure, I want the SE’s to praise me with a #1 spot.
Sure, I want my readers to see my pages and jump up and down demanding that I write more because they just can’t get enough of SEO because I’ve ’shown them the light’.
Sure, I want the glam and validation of my voice being heard as if I am a real SEO somebody. A winner and all that jazz.
But today is a great day to enlighten you about SEO’s and Social Media pro’s.
It’s a day when you give yourself a break from strategy and technical implementation to learn practical application by means of the social median.
Knowing our target market is essential in SEO but if we are overlooking the benefits of getting to know our ‘Brotherhood’ of marketers and SEO’s, we miss out on more than website traffic and conversions. We miss the dream we once had of being a success at something we enjoy. It then remains ‘just another job’ that brings home the bacon and feeds the mouths that hang open at home. Mundane.
Learning SEO has been one of the most exciting endeavors of my life and internet experiences. Not just because it has great future potentials for career endeavors or because of the glam of getting first page attention in the SERP’s. It is because my interest in SEO led me to forums and online social communities as a means to find more SEO education. What I have found in my quest has been more fulfilling to me than collecting a paycheck or building somebody’s bank account.
There’s many fun friendships that can be acquired as a direct result of the forums that you attend during your learning process. Learning and applying what you learn can be a matter of being a child again that doesn’t realize insecurities yet and allows the more fulfilling pleasures to evolve from within yourself.
Many SEO’s actively take part in building social network profiles in an attempt to seek out those who share the same endeavors and passions in life. Not just SEO/M, analytics, or professional news alerts.
I’m talking about passionate people that express parts of themselves that they choose to share with those that follow them as well as those they follow. SEO’s are not SEO’s. They are real life people, with real life drama, cares, debts, children, families, illnesses, and mental stresses. They are learning tools and support to us as we strive to attain what they have overcome and accomplished in life which makes them the successes that they are.
They are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts, teachers, friends, lovers, and mentors to the masses that they connect with on an international divide.
They are sometimes known to be psychotic (ok, me), angry, controversial, opinionated, driven to the point of insanity, insomniacs, brainiacs, partiers, party-poopers, fickle, sex-crazed, prudish, liberal, fanatical, militant, did I say angry?, introverted, sexy, playful, argumentative, naggy, annoying, team-working, eccentric, discreet, boisterous, mouthy, and tyrannical.
Yup, just like family. (At least my family!)
Drawing closer to them, not as some sort of tactical measure, but as a student and friend, is the best way to open yourself up to what makes them tick, therefore allowing you to feel more comfortable in learning what it is they offer. As an observer, you have an advantage of feeling your way around the Social Network maze to figure out where and with whom you fit.
Today, Social Media and networking has skyrocketed off the charts. It is quickly becoming a powerhouse that many small businesses and corporate environments are buying into . They’re overcoming their doubts and fear of diving into this once scarce phenomena due to seeing the flourishing influx of thriving accomplishments that result in it’s use.
My community of friends and mentors are not fools. They have been around a long time. If you think about sliding into these networks with Spamming on your mind, you’re going to lose future opportunities to gain lasting footing in their world. They have x-ray vision my friend. You won’t get very far. You’ll end up becoming a dismissed heap of road-kill and a disregarded IP.
Some of the most beneficial site’s that make learning and socializing networking fun are:
Sphinn (Internet Marketing News Forum - profile info on participants provided when you click on their names - including where to locate them elsewhere!)
My Blog Log
StumbleUpon
Facebook (you can throw sheep at people in there! How fun is that?!)
Digg
Twitter
MySpace
Linked In
Technorati - Keep track of your new friends blogs here!
Kalena Jordan (read her impressive background here) of Search Engine College has a blog called, Ask Kalena, that enables persons to ask SEO/M questions in which she provides prompt answers to. Even with SEO/M under her belt, she had yet to experience the wonders of the social spectrum until this very morning. After a blog post had been submitted to Stumbleupon by one of her students (gosh, I wonder who did that?) her traffic jumped from 480 visitors to a raping 25, 321 visitors! The influx was so great that it crashed her server! But as a result of that influx, she received new RSS feed subscribers and potential conversion flow as well.
I am not claiming glam poses here. (I barely take compliments without blushing) My point is, when you build relationships and enjoy them from the bottom of your heart and embrace what you do as a learning experience while introducing yourself to the Social Networks, it opens the door to so many targets that may have otherwise been overlooked because it’s no longer ‘Strategy’. It’s friendships and respect for others well-being and cares that inevitably leads to kudos for you and your needs.
SEO and Social Networking can be your happy place. It doesn’t have to be your job.
Topics: Social Media |
January 5th, 2008 at 3:50 am
Great Post! Social networking has become my job of late. But now that I think about it somebody pays me to go to my “happy place.”
It is nice to see someone recognize the personalities of the blogsphere.
January 5th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Hi Chris, my StumbleUpon partner in crime
Thanks. I enjoyed writing it. And I’m glad to know someone else also feels it is a “happy place”. Cya in our Stumbles!
January 6th, 2008 at 1:47 am
After reading this post, I just want to say “Let’s be friends”
January 6th, 2008 at 1:55 am
After reading your comment, I just wanna say “Yippee - WooHoo!”
(I love it when that happens)
January 6th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
The only thing I hate about facebook is all the application requests. Apart from that it is a great networking tool.
Look forward to keeping in touch!
January 6th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I know! It seems like there’s been an application request for every interest I have.
Look forward to keeping up with you too.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:33 am
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