Conan O'Brien - The New Face of Social Media?

So, I just ran across this article: Social Media and Conan O'Brien on sitepronews.com... Since I`m a huge fan of Conan and have closely followed the controversy around the whole Late Night fiasco between Conan, Jay Leno and of course NBC, the title caught my eye and I couldn`t help but read the whole piece... 

So, what does Conan have to do with Social Media and viral marketing? The article says:

"I sincerely believe that Conan knew exactly what was going to happen, and used the internet to his advantage. Many of his writers and publicity team are very young, having grown up on the internet. They knew that if they needed good publicity they would only have to turn to the internet in order to get the point across.

They used social media to secretly create "I'm with CoCo" groups while at the same time constantly making sure there was new "buzz" to pass around on twitter. From posts on Craigslist of Conan selling himself to the highest bidder for favors to late night tweets from the writing staff to their fan base, they knew that they could always win the war with an audience - that frankly is a lot more internet savvy than the Leno fan base.

Anyone engaged in social media marketing, needs to look closely at how Conan did this, how he made it seem to be organic and natural and then allowed it to seemingly take its own course. He knew how to create buzz, but more importantly content for internet buzz fodder. He knew that the one-liners that could be posted on Twitter were a thousand times more powerful than any ten minute monologue that could be spoken by ...urhmm... that other guy."

This definitely got me thinking... When it comes to viral marketing and link bait, let us all take a note from CoCo.... 

Controversy creates buzz... buzz generates traffic, increased followers and even free links...  I`m not saying you should get yourself into a mess for some free links, but if your subject is, shall we say, not that exciting, you might want to think about putting a unique spin on it. Funny, controversial, risky, taboo, outlandish and over the top videos, articles, blog posts and websites get a lot more traffic and free links than "the other stuff". 

Just look at the Conan bandwagon results: 

Type "I`m with CoCo" in your Google search bar, 27,400,000 results! (That`s almost double the results you`ll return if you just search his name, "Conan O'Brien")

Check out his new Twitter account: http://twitter.com/conanobrien  created just 2 days ago, and only 2 tweets later, 374,482 followers! 

I can`t login to Twitter, Facebook, Tublr and now even the popular SEM sites without seeing something about Coco.



Maybe you should think twice about going viral and what social media really means to your brand....


Nutshell: If you aren`t participating in social media and using humor, controversy or unique concepts in your marketing efforts, you`re missing out on a bigger audience!


P.S. Go team Coco!

How to Check Indexed Backlinks

So, earlier today I ran across a blog where the blogger told his readers he was unsure how to check indexed backlinks. He said he "Googled it" and found http://backlinkwatch.com. I used to use that tool as well, but now they spammed it out (I HATE pop up ads) and they don`t give you the option of exporting the results! What`s up with that?

So, for you newbie’s who need a few shortcuts, here they are:

If you haven`t downloaded the Google Toolbar, go do it! Be sure to check the box that displays PageRank (PR). Once you have this installed, click on the PageRank button, it should give you options:

Google Links
Google Cache

By selecting "Google Links" you are giving Google a command to display all indexed link to that page ONLY. So, if you are on the homepage (HP) then you are only going to see the indexed link to the HP, not the entire site!

This same command can be manually done by simply going to Google.com and typing in the following:

links:_____________________(Domain URL here)

No spaces.

Let`s try it together using Nike.com:

Ask Google:
links:http://www.nike.com

I get: Results 1 - 10 of about 3,830,000 for links:http://www.nike.com

That tells me 3,830,000 links are indexed to the HP - http://www.nike.com

WOW! That is a lot! But how do you know how many the entire site has? Good question. By installing and using the Google webmaster tools, for your own site, you can see quite a bit more.... but for the public, short of literally doing that link command on each page of the site, there is no way to ask Google for a list of all indexed backlinks.

So, now what? Why not try Yahoo! They allow the same commands, but it`s easier to follow these instructions:

Go to Yahoo.com
Type in site:_____________________(Domain URL here)
Again, no spaces.

You have now asked Yahoo to explore that domain. Google allows a site command as well, so if you are curious how many pages are indexed in a site URL with Google, simply use the site: command in Google instead of Yahoo (this works for Bing too)... but, the Yahoo site explorer functionality is going to make this task a LOT easier...

So, let`s do it together again:

Ask Yahoo:
site:http://www.nike.com

You should land on the default page that shows you a number of indexed pages:
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nike.com&bwm=p&bwms=p&fr=fptb-&fr2=seo-rd-se

I see 22,114 indexed pages. Next to the pages button you should see InLinks, click on it. I see 698,853 indexed links.... but wait! These numbers include ALL links, which means I`m getting the internal links, and, if you look to the right, we are only looking at THIS URL. So, again, we haven`t asked Yahoo to give us the indexed links to the entire site, but only to this specific page. However, Yahoo, unlike Google, gives us the option to select all pages! YAY! Be careful though, if you are looking for unique links only, you should also select "except from this domain" in the next drop down, otherwise you will be getting all of the internal links as well.

So, let`s try this again. We are already on http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nike.com&bwm=p&bwms=p&fr=fptb-&fr2=seo-rd-se

No, to the right of the InLinks button, you`ll see two drop down options, for the first one:

Show Inlinks: select "except from this domain"

For the second one:

to: select "entire site"

Now what do you see? I see:

http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nike.com&bwm=i&bwmo=&bwmf=s

1,409,131 other pages are linking to Nike.com according to Yahoo! WOW!

If you want to know if a particular link is indexed in Google, find out what page it points to and give Google a link command to that specific page. Concerned you don`t see your link? Worried this means your links aren`t "working".... well, before you get too worked up, a couple of things to know:

Google NEVER displays 100% of any sites indexed backlinks (they can`t give away all their secrets!)

It takes Google 3-6 months and often times much, much longer to fully index a link, so check for the frequency of the cache instead (cache:_____________________(Domain URL here)). If the page is caching, your link is getting seen!

If you really want to get a particular link seen, link to the page that is linking to you! This ensures the spider will crawl the page and boosts the authority of the site hosting your link as well!

The Nutshell:

If you want to know something, ask the engine! Just remember these commands:

site:_____________________(Domain URL here)
links:_____________________(Domain URL here)
cache:_____________________(Domain URL here)

Questions? Need help? Ask me!

Top Video Sites for Businesses

If you have a video, what are you doing with it??

Get yourself into as many of the top 50 video sites as you can:

According to:  http://www.fridaytrafficreport.com/list-of-29-free-video-sharing-sites/

Here`s a few you should check out:

Video Sharing Site	Page Rank
Google Video	9
BrightCove	8
PhotoBucket	8
YouTube	8
DailyMotion	7
iFilm	7
Myspace	7
Vimeo	7
BuzzNet	6
Flixya	6
GoFish	6
Kwego	6
Lulu	6
MyHeavy	6
PutFile	6
StupidVideos	6
Vmix	6
ZippyVideos	6
CastPost	5
Dotv	5
Famster	5
MeraVideo	5
Porkolt	5
VideoWebTown	5
Vidmax	4

I personally recommend:

YouTube

Google Video

Yahoo Video

MSN Video

MySpace Videos

MetaCafe

Break.com

AOL Media

Daily Motion

Veoh

i2tv.tv

Blip.tv

Revver.com

Blinkx

Imeem

PutFile

Heavy.com

Eyespot

MotionBox

JumpCut

Do yourself a favor and think about your Title, Description and Tags. Each one is an opportunity to not only capture an audience, but drop keywords and links! Simply write about your favorite keywords, the ones you want to come up in Google for! This is a free and easy way to optimize your videos and ensure that you get the kind of traffic that converts! Always include a call to action....

Promote! Yes, you can build links to a video! Yes you can get your friends and family to comment, review, view, subscribe! I`m just sayin...

The more activity on your video, the more of an authority it becomes to Google.

In a Nutshell:

My Business SEO tip of the day:

Get a video, submit it to every video site you can, optimize it and help make it popular! Think about your audience and base your video from that!

Spammers

So some terrible Chinese spammers left a comment on my blog - all in Chinese. So, Google placed Chinese Ads in my GoogleAds on my HP, here.... I guess they think the Chinese that my spam commenter garbled into at lest 20 different hyperlinks, was more relevant to my users than the subjects in my actual blog content! Haha.... Oh Google, you don`t know me or my user at all! Who is trying to make money here?

Would you pay someone to place comment links on blogs for you, knowing that they are probably 95% not relevant and so spammy looking that they would likely get deleted?

Would the owner of the site the paid Google ads are linking to (in Chinese) really want their "paid clicks" to end up on a page where the only person who would even click on them is probably just a Chinese link spammer?

I mean, really! Who is managing this stuff?

Or is the web just going to hell?

SEO 101:

• Pick your keywords (if you don`t know how to do this, hire a pro - trust me, it`s worth it).
• Make your top keyword your first Title Tag, Meta tags, Content and even your URL where possible.
• Make your site ALL ABOUT your keywords - this is all Google knows about you.
• Content is KING! Write, write, write!
• Don`t over stuff.... that is so 1990... now only spammers do that!
• Update your site frequently. If your site becomes stagnate, what reason do you give Google - or your readers/customers - to keep coming back? GIVE THEM A REASON AND THEY WILL!
• Focus on what sets you part from your competition! Why should I buy from you instead of the other 1 billion results Google, Yahoo and Bing returned?
• Consider descriptions your 2 sec. opportunity to catch your next client... Quick, you have 2 sec. what makes you so special? (Price, timely deliver, 100% money back guarantee, custom solutions, specialized counseling, insider info, legitimacy - think BBB, certifications, etc.)

Now, take a look at your site. Make sure your site set up to please your client first, the search engine second!

Now, go get some links! You need lots of links, from different places. You need relevant links, quality, volume, variety.. but you need links! If you have a site and it`s not ranking, it`s because your competition has more links than you! It`s really is simple as that!

Nutshell: GOOGLE want 2 things: Content and (you guessed it) LINKS!

P.S. If you have no idea what I`m talking about - hire a professional! Be good at your business, let us be good at ours :-)

Google PR Update Time..... AGAIN!

Since my last post was about a Google PR Toolbar update, I`ll keep this short and sweet... (well, as sweet as I can, this is Google after all)...

This update came as a bit of a surprise to me as we just had one around the end of Oct./early Nov. so I wasn`t expecting another until the end of Jan. however, as I`ve mentioned previously, Google seems to be less consistent than they used to be, they like to keep us SEO`s and webmasters on our toes. 

If you have not checked your PR yet, you might want too. Many of the sites I have been working on have increased in PR! Thanks for the New Years Eve gift Google.... I hope the rest of you experience an increased PR. If not, don`t worry, as I said in my last post, Toolbar PR is NOT a direct reflection of your organic placement in the SERP`s, so don`t get too worked up about it. Just keep getting quality links and adding fresh content and maybe you`ll increase your PR on the next update.

Happy New Years.... wishing you and your business a prosperous 2010!

Google PR Update Time!

Hello SEO Friends!

It appears to be that time again! Google is updating their PR toolbar. Expect to see fluctuations (no freaking out if your PR goes down during this time) and inconsistencies for a few more days at least... sometimes it takes weeks or even months before the "dust" settles.

If you`ve been building a heavy amount of links, you might see an increase in PR.... but if your PR doesn`t change, I wouldn`t worry too much, Google toolbar PR and organic placement in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) are two different things. If your PR is average, but you have good organic placement for your target keywords, who cares what the PR is?

Now I realize if you are trying to sell links on your site, or you are an SEO company or other high profile business that needs to display higher PR for the site user, that`s one thing... but otherwise I wouldn`t worry too much about the toolbar PR and keep focusing on building quality links and adding more content to your site.

P.S. A site DOES NOT have to have Toolbar PR in order to pass value. If you want to know if a site pass value to you by linking to you, check the cache. If they seem to be caching and the site is clean (think not too many OB links, no "bad neighborhood" links or other spammy elements) then it still had the ability to pass value.  Remember, Google likes to show us one thing and do another.... so if you think that the toolbar PR is a good way to value a site, think again...