About Vanessa Fox: I’m currently Features Editor at Search Engine Land and a moderator at Sphinn. I’m also working with Ignition Partners as an Entrepreneur in Residence. I write a lot. You may have seen me speak at the last conference you were at. Sometimes, when I have extra time, I consult, particularly on building online communities. I also host a weekly show on Webmaster Radio about search called GoodKarma with Greg Niland.
Topic: Navigating Social Search
Act 1: Browsing The Web.
Act 2: Searching The Web.
Act 3: Browsing The Web (again).
Browsing by way of voting—not asking a question but have a topic of interest.
Social media value still depends on conversion.
Different kinds of browsing: Browsing by voting, browsing by sharing, browsing by way of community, and browsing by way of voyeurism (audience laughs): Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Forums.
Social search is strictly vertical search—search engines trending to vertical search and trending to blended search.
So what changes? Nothing.
Basics: keyword research, create compelling content, ensure content is relevant, pay attention to title tags & headings, and make the content scanable.
What’s different? Get involved in the community, get to know the community, blog authentically, read & comment on other blogs, be active in forums, create & use relevant social networking profiles, and let your audience get to know you.
Know your own audience & know your social media audience. What’s a good conversion rate? Social media converts at a lower rate than search visitors. Provide explanation & links. Don’t neglect your profile for effective reputation management. Don’t forget old school sites. Link effectively but not in an annoying way. Treat social media & networking as traffic opportunities and ways to strengthen your brand and customer interactions.
Todd Mintz knows PPC…knows Social Media…knows SEO…knows Blogging…knows Domaining…and knows them all real well. He runs growth marketing for )and is also a Director & Founding Member of SEMpdx: Portland, Oregon’s Search Engine Marketing Association, and he can be found here on Twitter and Facebook.
Vanessa’s presentation was spot-on. My clients are asking me every day “what is this web 2.0 stuff?” and “why do I need it?” Recent videos on Stomper.net and expansion into more social “marketing” make social search much more important in the B2B search engine optimization/marketing arena.
Scott