By Li Evans

As a social media “junkie”, I get a lot of questions thrown my way. From “Why can’t I succeed on Digg”, to “Why can’t I get my page stumbled?”, to “What the heck is the value of this social stuff?”. There are a lot of people that look to social media as a way to boost SEO rankings, and gain links into their sites. However, if that’s all that you are looking at social media for, you’re missing a whole boat load of added benefit.

Social media is about interaction and conversation about something. That something could be a video, a photo, an article, a web page, a podcast, a game or even a song. The possibilities are endless for what that interaction and conversation could be about. So you are now probably wondering, “So why should I care if they talk about me?” You should care because its YOUR brand, YOUR product, YOUR service, or YOUR company. It’s amazing how things on the internet can get so turned around so quickly, and social media tends to increase that rate of speed tremendously, and if you aren’t paying attention to that conversation before you know it you could have a surprise situation on your hands.

Here’s a few reasons why you should care about these conversations going on:

• Are They Getting it Right?
  A lot of misinformation is out there, has your company or brand fallen victim to it? Did someone misinterpret what one of your company spokespeople said at a conference or in a presentation? Is what is being linked to, to describe your product or service correct?

  If you aren’t keeping an eye out for these type of situations, before you know it, you could have a mess on your hands that even your Public Relations team will have a hard time digging you out of.

• Stalkers & Trolls
  Lets face it, companies will piss off someone at one point or another. In some way shape or form, someone will be angry with the service they received, quality of a product or receiving an answer that isn’t to their liking. With today’s day & age of technology, it’s even more easy to tell the world about your grievances than ever. That’s when you need to approach with caution, and figure out if they really do have a legitimate gripe, or they are just being a “Troll” for the attention.
• Jackpot! Evangelists!
  On the opposite of the Troll Spectrum lies the Evangelists. These folks LOVE you! They talk about how great your product / service / brand / company is. They lavish links and traffic to your website. They unload heaps of praise on your efforts and guess what, they tell their audiences that you are Awesome! So, now you say “Great!” and just walk away? Wrong! Capture these Evangelists’ enthusiasm and use it. Thank them publicly, heap your own praise back. Remember it doesn’t take much to turn your most loyal evangelist into someone who can turn the world against you.
• Who’s Talking About Me?
  Not only should you care about what’s being said, but you should be mindful of WHO’S saying it. Is it a newspaper columnist, is it your industry publication, is it your fan base, is it a troll, is it your grandmother? All of these people (and more) have varying degrees of influence over their own audiences. Knowing who’s saying something, whether it’s an article, a forum post, or a comment on a social site, is just as important as knowing what’s been said.

There’s a lot more to social media than links and page rankings. Understanding that and knowing how to capture and utilize it, is a whole different strategy all together. Is your social media strategy reaching its full potential? If not, maybe you need to rethink who’s handling it!

By Li Evans

If you didn’t know, I’m a huge advocate of Twitter. Some of you are probably thinking Twitter? What’s that?

Twitter is a great way to communicate with the people who “follow you” all at once, with one simple message (or “tweet” as twitters call them). Twitter is similar to instant messaging in that you are doing this in quick snippets, and online, however, instead of doing this in a one to one situation like you do on AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ or even GoogleTalk, with Twitter you message once and it goes out to all of those people who are following you and wish to receive your updates.

Twitter aims to answer the question “What are you doing now?” within a 140 character allotment. Since it’s early adoption, this medium has flourished and grown so far beyond just “What are you doing now?”. As an avid user, I’ve met new friends, I’ve learned about new events, I’ve discovered new blogs and I’ve even bought a Roomba through Twitter (btw, his name is Meryl)! So as you can see, Twitter has grown much further than a way to chat with all your friend at one time, it’s grown into a way to reach a very captive and very attentive audience.

So now you’re wondering, how can I use this “Twitter” to help reach my audience? Well here’s 5 Quick Ways:

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By Liana “Li” Evans

Lately there’s been a lot of fuss about Social Media. There are conferences dedicated to it (such as SMX Social) and different aspects of if (such as the upcoming Blog World Expo). There are blogs dedicated to it such as Pete Cashmore’s Mashable, and there are portions of forums dedicated it to it as well like on Cre8asite Forums. All of these talk about Social Media and their individual parts, however it’s rare that any of these actually talk about incorporating Social Media as part of an overall strategy for online marketing.

To look as Social Media as a boost for you SEO, quite frankly, is foolish. Social Media touches so many other aspects of an online marketing strategy. It isn’t just about gaining links to raise your PR or even your ranking in the results on Google, Yahoo, Live or Ask. If that is the sole reason to use social media, you might want to start thinking about finding another “quick fix”. Soon enough, the search engines will probably take a hard look at the effect of social media and will start devaluing the power links from places like Digg have (there are some reports that this has already begun to happen).

So if the search engines start devaluing the links from these big well known social media hubs like Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon, what is and SEO to do. Well if you are just and “SEO” and not an online marketer, it’s off to make sure that website is fully optimized. If you are an online marketer, you probably have already seen the value beyond SEO for Social Media.

Beyond the mass amount of links that a successful social media campaign can provide there are several other areas that Social Media touches within an internet marketing strategy.

	PPC - When Social Media is strategically combined with PPC it can effectively reduce the cost of some campaigns. If you are advertising in the content network, utilizing social media can help you cut back on some of those costs. It’s a matter of watching your analytics closely in this case, as Social Media is not a replacement for PPC, it can certainly help to reduce some of the costs.
	Reputation Management - Social Media can be a help or a loss. There are some companies who don’t have a clue about the effect of Social Media on their reputation (i.e. Comcast & the sleeping cable guy), and then there are companies who embrace it (i.e. Blendtec’s “Will It Blend”) and in turn have amazing success stories to tell. In Comcast’s case, the sleeping technician video ranks in the top ten for the term Comcast - the video itself has been viewed over 100 times has links galore to it and as the thumbnail shows, represents Comcast in a negative light. Blendtec on the other hand has an over all positive reputation with its use of social media - a success story as people really engage in a positive manner with the brand/
	Acquiring Links (aka Link Bait) - Social Media can be used to acquire links. I’m speaking of thinking beyond that site that consists of 16 year old girlfriendless boys who have temples to Kevin Rose in their basement. To have something be truly successful, the links have to come from a broad variety of sources, not just from Digg. Digg can be the place where it’s seen, but acquiring the links from other sites is another strategy all together and one online marketers need to really strategize on. (think about Mentos, Coke and the Eepy Bird guys)
	Branding - Social Media is a great place to work with branding measures. If your company is new, and you need to get the word out in a cheap, efficient way, social media is the place to start. Talking to your audience, participating in a niche community, speaking to people who are already interesting in the type of product or service your offer all are a great way to get the conversation started.

The list above demonstrates just a few ways that shows Social Media isn’t just a stand alone strategy. It needs to be worked into an full online marketing plan if you want to have the successful results you are hoping for. Understanding how every aspect interrelates is just as important with social media as it is with working PPC and SEO together. Having an experienced online marketer who understands all aspects is going to be key to your strategy, the last thing you want to do is leave this in the hands of an intern. So take the time and not only plan, but budget for social media, make it a part of the strategy all on its own, not just a part of SEO.