There’s a lot of craziness surrounding the search industry at the moment, and a lot of it’s caused by Facebook. Will the well known social media platform take Google’s dominate position in online search? And should we (SEOers) be worried? I believe that we should be, but only in part, and I am going to explain to you why.

First, let’s talk about the direction in which Facebook is heading. With the implementation of the “like” button, and other features such as automatic page creation on just about any thing that is likeable, Facebook is not just taking over the internet, but they are becoming their own smaller version of it. Here’s what I mean…

If I add to my profile that I work for Melbourne SEO Services for example, instantly, an optimised page is created on Facebook for that business. This leaves this page open for “liking” and the second that I declare that I work for this company, the promotional rollercoaster starts all on its own. This information is then sent your your friends, appearing your their activity feed. In effect, users now receive up to date recommendations from their friends for products, services and just about anything you can think of.

Now, before you go assuming too much, keep reading!

Now, if we look at what Google does. Google simply delivers the best possible result per query based on their own algorithm. If you search for something, then it will query its own index, and produce the most relevant results, not judged on your friends. There is no “like” button in Google, there is a simple measure of link popularity and other on and off page factors that will deem a website being more relevant for a particular keyword or search query.

Which would you consider more relevant to the user… something a robot services up or recommendations from your friends and family? Are the way of recommendations the way for the future? Should we all give up SEO? Short answer is no. SEO still works and provides a positive ROI… that said, we (as SEOers) should be placing more emphasis social media marketing since there is a change brewing.

As I am sure you would most likely be aware already, Google buzz has arrived. So, what is this new social media application, and how can it work for you? Naturally, when something new arrives in the form of a social media application, I spend some time trying to work out how it can work for me, and for my visitors.

More social media means more social interaction, especially if you are able to talk to your visitors where they hang out. The pure genius of Google buzz is in that statement alone. Think about it for a moment. Since Google has become such a large part of our life on the web, almost everyone has a Gmail account, and out of most people online, a very large portion of them will check their e-mail at least once a day. Since Google buzz is built into your Gmail with notifications being sent directly to your inbox, if someone is following what you do on Google buzz, they are always going to be aware of what you are talking about. And unlike other social media websites, when you are logged into Gmail, you are logged into buzz, and can read a buzz with only one click.

How Can Google Buzz Work For The Webmaster?

This is where it gets a little complex, and the use of RSS comes into play. By now, if you have been using social media for some time, you might be aware of a great little service called TwitterFeed. This is a service that takes RSS feeds, and breaks them down into a format that can be delivered to Twitter, and to other services such as Ping.fm.

For those who are unaware of the standard form of the Google buzz RSS feed, here is the form of the Google buzz RSS:

http://buzz.googleapis.com/feeds/{user}/public/posted

In this case, you simply need to replace user with your gmail ID, test the feed in your browser, then submit this to TwitterFeed so that you can start automatically tweeting from Google buzz. Of course, you can also send notifications out to other services using Ping.fm

What Can Google Buzz Do For Me?

A lot of people at this stage will be sitting back waiting to see if this new social media platform will really take off or not. The bottom line is that if you don’t give it a shot, you are only going to be left in the back of the queue when it actually does take of. Other social media platforms have generally stayed quite separate from e-mail based services, and for Google to incorporate buzz into Gmail, this pretty much says that this is going to work well from the start.

Imagine this. You have something important to say to your followers who live on the other side of the planet and in a different time zone. With Facebook and Twitter, most people tend to look at the most recent status updates and tweets. With Google buzz, they are siting right in your inbox ready for attention to be paid.

Along with this, you can also add connected sites to Google buzz so that if your site updates, it can automatically be fed into your buzz feed for others to find. This is included in your profile setup.

How Can I Start Using Google Buzz?

Buzz is still in the roll out stage, meaning that it is not available to everyone just yet. When it is ready for you, you will be asked when you sign into Gmail if you would like to start buzzing. Simply agree, and you will notice that your buzz will appear underneath your inbox link.

So, are you convinced of the potential of Google buzz yet? If so, do yourself a favor and start buzzing!

Make Social Media Work With Automated Social Media Content Distribution…

Automated social media interaction can go either one of two ways. There are those of us who can’t get enough of social media, we like to tell our story every day, and a little bit more, and at the same time share our content that we have created with our potential visitors. There are those of us who also like to simply automate the entire process, who simply don’t want to deal with that aspect of marketing our site or product.

The truth is that a major part of creating a persona online is to be that persona. This doesn’t mean that you automate everything and sit back and watch the money roll in, because that never happens. You need to be one with your audience, associate with them, feel their pain, and only then, will you begin to sell. Let me explain a few ways that you can automate content distribution on Social Media, whilst staying in touch with the needs of your visitors.

Ping.fm Automates Content Distribution!

Ping.fm is a tool that really should be used sparingly. Set it up, forget about it, and then focus on interacting with your audience. For those who are unaware of what this tool is, simply put, it is an automated social media feed that will spread your content across various social media platforms.

Personally, I do not use Ping.fm for interacting. Think about it, a friend asks you a question, and you respond the same answer to that question across multiple social media profiles, it just doesn’t seem authentic does it? Instead, respond directly to the question on the social media profile where the question was asked, then use Ping.fm to spread your own created content that further answers that question through an RSS feed that is fed in using a service such as TwitterFeed.

Emphasis is on the fact that as great a tool as Ping.fm is, use it sparingly. It is a great tool to spread content far and wide, however it can easily be spun the other way when used as a primary method of interaction.

HootSuite For Link Sharing

This is another tool that I am still quite new to using and have generated great results from. In a nutshell, HootSuite is a web based Twitter client that will feed content into Ping.fm, and automatically sends to Twitter by default.

Before I go into describing the benefit of this tool, I would like to ask you a question. In your opinion, what is one of the greatest benefits of sharing other user generated content with your visitors via social media? Now, I know that a lot of you are going to be a bit confused by that question, I mean, the majority of us want to get the word out about our content, not content created by someone else, right?

Here is a different way to think about it. Imagine that you can collect data based on what content is more popular amongst your users, what content is generating interest, and then, create your own content based on the statistics that you have gathered? So, not only are you engaging with your friends on social media by giving them something that they may find interesting, you are gathering information about what they want, and what you can provide to them.

Hootsuite has incredibly easy to use in built analytics so that you can monitor in real time, out of everything that you have shared, what is generating interest, and what is not. On top of that, the extremely easy to use “Hootlet” allows for instant sharing of links without even having to log in, or install an application. As with Ping.fm, this is not a tool that is to be used too frequently, this tool is purpose driven, and may not drive traffic, but it will give you an idea of what content you can create in order to drive traffic.

There are many other methods of automating some aspects of social media interaction, however, as I have mentioned, this needs to be done sparingly. In The SEO Method, the impact of Social Media on your audience is detailed in full, and how to create an online brand using social media, one must remember though that interaction is highly valuable, and in order to successfully market your own personal brand, you need to embrace that.

• Are You Creating Blog Commenting Spam?
• The Simple Way To Increase Your Conversion Rate
• A Simple Search Engine Optimisation Technique To Target The Right Keywords
• Will Social Media Trends Kill SEO?
• Our Gradual Link Building Strategy

Here’s a Snapshot of How Posterous Might Just Transform Your Social Media Marketing

But this is only the beginning, let me explain…

When a new social networking web site or blog provider starts rolling out their services, there is always a high risk that it will simply be a flash in the pan. Posterous has much more promise than this. Yes, it is a blogging platform, but more on the level of being a content distribution service for social media marketing. Think of what Tube Mogul does, but change that into a more interactive process that includes social networking websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and other blog providers such as Facebook, TypePad, and even self-hosted Movable Type blogs.

Imagine Having All Your Social Media Efforts Fully Integrated and Being Able to Publish Everywhere Instantly…

That’s what’s at stake. So, let’s say that I have a Posterous account. I would like to post a blog. There are two ways that I can do this. I can either use the web interface in my blogs admin panel, or I can simply e-mail a blog post no matter where I am, and this will be published. I can also attach images to this e-mail, along with video and audio, however this is only the beginning of the process. I can also notify Posterous what other accounts I have elsewhere, and Posterous will automatically update statuses on Twitter, and Facebook. Not only that, but I can also have my blog posts re-posted at other hosted blogs such as WordPress and Type Pad, and even update status messages on YouTube, send images to Picasa, and much more. Currently there are 28 services that are supported, plus the rare feature that allows updating on a custom page that you have created on FaceBook. Normally this is a difficult process, however Posterous have developed an application for doing just this, and it is literally within the click of a button.

Why are so many people talking so highly about Posterous? From an SEO standpoint, if you have a product that you are trying to sell, social media is one of the best-selling tools that you can possibly use. Social Media is a means of creating an online persona that the consumer can relate to, and ask questions. You can also ask the consumer questions, which will in turn result in more interaction. This can be a lengthy process, and a lot of SEO Experts do tend to outsource their social media interactions to other people. Posterous allows for at least 50% of this interaction to be centralized. You write a blog post, all of your followers on Twitter are notified, as are the followers of your other blog on WordPress, and the same for those who are fans of your page on Facebook. This of course can also result in the domination of the front page of your keyword results in Google if you effectively use the right keywords, and can generate valuable back links as well.

Of course, there are many blogging platforms out there such as WordPress, TypePad, Moveable Type, Blogger, and many more. These are all great platforms, which probably plays a good part in the deciding factor as to why all of these platforms are supported by Posterous. The level of control within Posterous is second to none, with custom domain names being allowed, not just in the form of a top level domain name, but also in the way of a subdomain, which is great for those who want a blog sub domain to help boost the credibility of their main domain. Built in analytics is something that is also available, not in the way of their own custom reporting such as what is available with WordPress, but more in the way of Google Analytics. Feedburner is also supported. If you have people who would like to contribute to your Posterous blog, you can also sign them up as a contributor, which will allow them to post as well via e-mail.

Why not give it a try. Simply send an e-mail to post@posterous.com using your title as the blog headline, and the body of the e-mail as your blog content, and you should get an immediate reply with your new credentials. Told you it was that easy!

We’ll be trying out Posterous more and more over the coming months and will give everyone an update once we know the full story.

• Are You Creating Blog Commenting Spam?
• The Simple Way To Increase Your Conversion Rate
• A Simple Search Engine Optimisation Technique To Target The Right Keywords
• Will Social Media Trends Kill SEO?
• Our Gradual Link Building Strategy