social networking

Does Using Social Networks Impove Ranking

March 24, 2011 By carl Leave a Comment

You’ve just created a new web site (or we created it for you) and you want it working NOW. You want those search engines showing your site at the top of the listings when somebody searches on Google for it. Amazingly, this can be done and we’ve done it. It’s all in knowing the rules of the game.

Let’s look at one of many of our stories that illustrate this. A group of local community activists wanted to stop the construction of a bridge over a local park. (OK, Carl was one of them.) Someone in the group had built a free web site with a blog and the group wanted me to get the site working quickly in the search engines.

The FIRST step for the web site, I told them, was to get as many links as we could into the web site that evening from other quality sites. I put a link into the site from a blog on one of my web sites. I also went into Twitter and put a posting in Twitter with a link into the web site. Others went in and did similar things.

The next morning, the top listing for a Google search on the subject was the blog posting I did in my site with the link to the new web site. The second listing in the search results was the actual web site. The third listing was to a newspaper article about the issue.

The next day the listing for the new web site was not there, but the top listing again was my blog post pointing to the web site. My posting in Twitter with its link to the web site began showing up soon. Eventually, after a few more days, the web site again was showing up in the listings.

What did this teach me?

Links from blog postings in quality sites seem very important to the Google algorithm.
Links from major social network sites are also important to Google’s algorithm.
Although the listing in Twitter did not show up immediately, Twitter indexes any listing you put there immediately. As soon as you post in Twitter, Twitter indexes it internally immediately and searches within Twitter on the subject will find it.

This isn’t a unique story. In another case, we took a slow moving web site and added extensive social networking. In fourth months, visitor traffic had increased 400%.

Summary: Google loves social networking sites, including blogs.

Here is a comment on this from Google’s own Matt Cutts:

Social networking (including blogs) is becoming increasingly important in getting your message out. Making this strategy work, however, requires professional help. Contact us for more information.

Filed Under: Search Engine Optimization, SEO, social networking

Creating Social Change with Networking

March 23, 2011 By carltown 2 Comments

We recently launched a website for a political PAC for a city (http://www.protecttualatinparks.org/) as part of a larger agenda to add an amendment to the city’s constitution. We used the Econoweb model, which gave us a very dynamic website in a week that cost very little. The content and news on the website could quickly follow the evolving events. The opposition could not. Newspaper reporters were watching, and soon there was plenty of media coverage (three newspapers). To quote one reporter, our own website was better than the website the city had. The work, however, was really a community effort – what Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith in their book called “the dragonfly effect”.

What makes a website work? YOU do. The website is only a tool. Look how we used this concept with a project.

The Problem

The problem in our city is the same problem that can occur in other cities and often does. Business interests are pitted against residential interests and the parks become a land bank for businesses to get the land at near zero cost for their roads.

To resolve this, as industry expands in a community, transportation must be planned as an integral part of this expansion. That wasn’t done in our city, and industrial traffic now became a massive congestion problem as trucks and related traffic moved through on our main street. The city leaders then decided to first build up the industry, enjoy the tax income, and solve the transportation issue later. Doesn’t work. To solve it now, the businesses wanted to build a major east-west transportation bridge across the local park. At the same time, plans were started for another north-south extension of a road that would split the park (with the bridge) into quadrants. The whole plan, of course, was kept secret until some people got word about it. Then the local council meetings exploded, with the citizens planning to take the issue to the voters.

Definng the Goal

In our case, the goal was to force a voter-approved amendment to the city charter that would mean any non-park addition to a park had to be approved by the voters. We didn’t say they couldn’t have a bridge, only that the local voters would have to approve it. The amendment wording was done by a lawyer and approved by several other lawyers in independent organizations. An intermediate step was to get approximately 2200 signatures on a petition to force the vote (we got 40% more than that.). In addition, whether we won or lost the vote, to force the city council to listen and respond to the needs of the residents.

The leader leads from a macro and micro goal. Leading from the macro goal can overwhelm followers and can create discouragement. In our case the macro goal was to change the process in which city decisions were made. The micro goal was the park vote. The leader focuses on the micro goal. And there should always be some way of objectively measuring progress. On the website component of our plan, we could see stats on visitor traffic as well as buy-in from the residents on the larger program.

Getting Attention

We drove everything with facts. We had a small group with leadership that had been following the issue for years. The secrets became public as we collected the petition signatures and shared what we had discovered with others. We also started our website at this point, using Twitter and Facebook to draw traffic to our own website and its blog. Both the website and blog were content management systems that were quickly developed, cost very little, and could be updated quickly as the opposition began their work. Soon the noise level got so high that three newspapers were interviewing and following us. In addition to the website, we had yard signs, car signs, fliers and mailers for the voters. We stayed with the facts, driving everything with facts.

Engaging Others

Networking for Change

Our web site included videos from other cities where the problem existed. We networked with other local organizations that had similar goals that were close to our own. We threw a party for our supporters as they began to work with us. We encouraged people to comment on our blog posts, and when they did we engaged in dialog with them. Our three newspapers continually ran articles and tracked the letters that came in to the newspapers. The articles were posted on our website. We engaged people to distribute fliers, help with the mailing, and put up yard signs.

We Took Action

The whole process was an active process – nothing passive about it. Our research team had to constantly monitor secret meetings and emails that were a part of the opposition. Some of our members were hitting a hundred houses a day with fliers and related information. When reporters wanted more information, we referred them to our website and then met with them, answering their questions and giving them stories and facts. We used Facebook, Twitter, blogs, the web site, and email,

You want a website that can help you change things? Contact us. Our strategy was based on the book The The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to use Social Media to Drive Social Change, and the website is here. The vote was March 8, 2011 – WE WON! The process, though,is still broken The issue is still there. At least for now. There is more work ahead. To quote the late Robert Theobald – “Think Global, act Local”.

What do you think of this strategy? Do you have a story of using a similar strategy in your city? What happened? What did you learn?

Filed Under: econoweb, social networking, web design

Tips for Using Twitter

March 6, 2011 By carl Leave a Comment

Remember that when you enter a posting, or tweet as they are called, to Twitter that you are broadcasting information to anyone that meets either of these conditions unless you have secured your tweets on your profile.

Those who are following you will see the tweet as soon as they go to Twitter and log in.
Others will be able to see it if they search on the relevant subject area.

You will receive only the tweets from people you are following unless you are searching on a subject. When doing that, you receive the tweets relative to that subject.

Security Issues:

You should exercise caution when entering your posts if your postings are not secured – the default mode. If you are leaving on a trip, don’t advertise it on Twitter. There are those who scan Twitter to see who won’t be home for awhile and take advantage of that. DO tweet about your trip when you get back. If you are getting a divorce, one of the first things your lawyer will do is scan your postings to see what you have been doing online. If you are looking for a job today, there is about a 50% chance the prospective employer will scan the Internet for information about you. In the same way, it is not wise to post company information or your concerns about your employer.

Many people violate this rule. I try to honor it. Even if I’m out for the evening, I tweet about it AFTER I get back.

You can set the security of your tweets so that only those who follow you can see them from your Settings option. If set to private, only followers can see your tweets and Twitter will not index them.

More tips:

Setting Up Your Account

In setting up your account, use some variation of your first name. Using a variation of your last name is not personal enough on something like Twitter. And keep it short, which gives you (and those that reply) more message space. And your Twitter account name is important in the optimization of your tweets in the search engines.

Use a picture that shows a close-up of your face is normally best for your avatar. Smiling face, of course. With only the default clipart picture Twitter uses, don’t expect people to follow you.

Be sure to fill out your bio information. Use your full name. Use keyword phrases there that will trip those you want to meet. Share your personality here. You have 160 characters.

If you set the tweets to private, only your followers can see them. In addition, Google and Twitter Search will not index them.

When twittering for a company, these rules still hold. Use the logo as the background. Use a personal photo as your avatar. Let the bio show the company’s identity. Post as a person, not a depersonalized organization. Be sure to follow company policies on your tweeting for this account.

Using Twitter

Click the Reply button in the lower right of a tweet to reply only to that individual. Click the Retweet button if you wish to tweet their tweet to all your followers.
You have only 140 characters for a posting. Use them wisely. Tease and motivate the reader, then lead them to Facebook, your blog, or your website. To save characters, use web sites such as http://bit.ly to shorten the URL for the destination.
Use your cell phone as an extension of your computer postings. The twitter address is 40404;. For example, to send an direct twitter message from your phone to another Twitter account, you would enter: (To) 40404; and (body): d accountname message. Great for keeping up with friends when traveling! You can also send to a list.
You will quickly learn the abbreviations your friends are using: great becomes gr8, before becomes b4, you becomes u.
Keep your postings interesting. Who cares what you had for breakfast? If something relational happened at breakfast, you should tweet on that.
When someone tweets that they are following you, send them a thank-you, you will see this in your normal email. Reply to them direct mail from within Tweeter. (Remember you cannot direct mail someone unless they are following you.)
You will notice that some of your followers occasionally will tweet a posting that is a thank-you to a list of friends. Looks boring, but it is important. Scan their list in their post – you may find a new friend there and you can click and follow. The reverse is also true. If someone helps you on Twitter, thank them.
How often to tweet? Everyone has their own answer on this. Don’t tweet just to be tweeting or your people will quite following you. If you don’t tweet for a day or two, watch your visitor traffic fall off to your account, the web site, and your blog. Keep your life interesting and tell people about it.
Save tweets you wish to explore or use later. To do this, click on the time line that is under the tweet that shows how long ago the tweet was initiated. This brings up the tweet. The URL that is displayed now in the browser is the URL for that tweet. Save it in the browser Favorites. Another alternative is to save that tweet URL in an external program such as delicious.com or related tool.
To find if someone is on Twitter from Google, search on firstname lastname Twitter. Use caution here. The results returned may not be a real person (C. S. Lewis, for example, is no longer alive but has a fan page.) Or it may not be the person you expect. Or a fake account on a real person.
There are lots of good plug-ins for your Twitter account, but use caution. Some plug-ins are malware. Check with friends and get reviews first.
Here’s a good URL to find tools for Twitter: http://oneforty.com/. Twitter’s mobile web site is http://m.twitter.com.
If you are running a conference on Twitter, Have everyone agree to a hashtag (#) and tweet against that using an application such as TweetDeck.
Link your web site to Twitter. Link Twitter to your web site on your Twitter profile page.
Check your “grade” on twitter at http://twitter.grader.com.
Use Twitter to tease people into your blog. Twitter entries are indexed immediately.