It seems that if you are logged in to Google and then navigate to http://www.google.com/friendconnect/ that you will be able to add the friend connect widget to your website or blog.

I had been waiting for an invite, requested it twice. Today I went there (I was logged in to my Google account) and then I was able to add the widget (see the block to the right).

I would be honored to have you join my site just click the ‘join this site button’ in the Friend Connect widget to the right. Now we are on to figuring out how this thing works and the benefits of using it.

I would also like affirmation that Friend Connect has opened up to everyone with a free Google account. Leave your comments below and let me know.

Thank you

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By now everyone should understand that high visibility in the search engines as well as higher rankings is dependent on incoming links to your website or blog. What’s changing right now is the fact that incoming links are not the only part of the equation.

There are two ways that search engines can judge the popularity of your content:

• Incoming links
• Social buzz

Incoming links are easy to understand, the more “quality” links from relevant or theme centric sources, the better you will rank. The other part of the equation, social buzz, is a relatively new kid on the block.

Any search engine (or any person for that matter) can gauge the popularity of content by looking at the social popularity surrounding it. For example, you can easily go to Digg.com and see which stories rank the highest through votes (diggs). You can go to Delicious.com and see how many times certain content has been saved (bookmarked). This voting and saving can be tracked and is a good gauge to determine “human interest”. Gauging human interest is of high interest to search engines because their success or failure rests on it.

Anyways, long story short… There is value to generating a social buzz surrounding your content. Here are just a few benefits:

• Higher search engine visibility through multiple listings under single key terms
• Higher search engine rankings due to incoming links from other blogs/websites
• Traffic from all the social buzz that leads to more of the above

We are also seeing evidence that Google is paying attention to a few core sites such as:

• Reddit
• Digg
• Delicious
• Furl
• Facebook

We get this unconfirmed intel from the Google Shared Stuff project:

You can find out more about the Google Sharing Stuff Project here.

Now, from a technical SEO perspective, the value of generating social buzz surrounding content is a good move because the major benefit comes in the form on inbound links from others that find the content valuable.

In short … Generating social buzz lies at the very core of social media success. If you take everything else away, the ONE thing that causes success or failure in social media is the Social Buzz Factor.

The big question is…

“How do you generate social buzz and do it consistently for all your best content?”

This is the subject matter of a new blog series that begins with this post.

How do you generate social buzz for your content?

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Related Content:

Blog Commenting For One Way Links « Create A Blog Guides

How Do You Check For Incoming Links? | Direct Sales Web Marketing

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Here are 3 vitally important points to consider in regard to social media initiatives…

1. Is there any ROI in Social Media?

I am asked this In short, there is ROI in social media IF you understand the dynamics involved and leverage them to produce traffic, action and sales for your business.

There is also another measure of ROI called Return On Influence, a term coined by Michael Goeghegan. Return on influence is the art of rallying people to your message, channel or website/blog through pure social influence.

Whether you produce return on investment or return on influence… There IS a return IF you understand the 10 points I made in a previous post.

2. Never let someone else tell you which networks to use

We have been exploring the technical side of social media for quite some time. Testing, testing, testing. We were trying to locate the “magic” combination. We did not begin this exploration on a whim. We were literally inundated with strategy after strategy. As a service to our private membership we were obligated to explore these strategies to see if they held any merit.

Bottom line… There is no “magic” to social media initiatives. Just like any other business, It takes dedication and hard work providing “real” value to people. The only difference between social media marketing and Internet marketing is that social media focuses on people and two way communication where traditional Internet marketing does not.

When choosing your networks there is a system for determining which networks YOU should use. Basically choose your networks (just a handful of them) that best support your effort in establishing relationships with your target audience. Never let anyone tell you any different.

The actual process for choosing your networks is a bit involved but well worth the effort if your intent is sincere.

3. Focus on high quality content and the rest happens automatically

When you set up your social media network “the right way” then all you need to focus on is producing high quality content for your target audience. When you are “networked correctly” then the release of high quality content fosters immediate growth of your brand, reach and exposure through direct social interaction, new followers and increased search engine visibility through SEO 2.0.

SEO 2.0 is a new paradigm that is born from social media. When you focus on your community with laser targeted, high quality content then your search engine rankings, reach, exposure and growth will happen without any effort on your part other than the quality content you create and the interactions you have with your community.

What other elements do you consider important when considering a social media initiative?

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When you engage in short term strategies you build nothing. You can’t count on it for retirement because it WILL go away. I like building things of value (to real people) that survive, compound and grow over time. I don’t like going back to the drawing board over and over again to re-create my income.

I count on my business to support my family and my employees so I am not here to BS you, or pump sunshine down your throat. I am here to be 100% real, open and honest with you.

After building business online for over 10 years, I slowly reached an understanding that I want to share with you…

Any business in which you are involved that does not “center” its focus on “people” (customers) is and always will be a SHORT-TERM strategy that will die. This will force you to seek another short-term position or go out of business. This is a vicious cycle, get out of it now… It’s wasting your ambition, your time and pulling you away from your family because you are always “busy”.

The wild west days of the Internet are numbered. With the explosion of social participation on the Web, these “non human” driven tactics are beginning to fail on a massive scale… MASSIVE!

It is time to re-evaluate your value proposition to the public… Do you have one? If you don’t you need to start seeking it now and then build on it or you will never quit your day job, or your online business will die and you will have to go back to a day job … I guarantee it with 100% certainty.

You see, Internet marketers that don’t understand the point of this post generally busy themselves with traffic tactics, link building, old school SEO tactics, spammy blog commenting, etc. Most of their effort is spent on self centered marketing tactics for the purpose of gaining revenue for themselves.

I hope you see the fundamental flaw in these tactics… They are self centered and not focus on the community (people) that would BUY their products or services. Their only interest is in their self, their bank account, their success. They forgot that the customer is a real person and never address any of their effort, day in, day out on the “people” that would ensure their success if they only changed their strategy.

Here is a brief list of Internet marketing tactics that DO NOT focus on people and require a CONSTANT reinvestment of time, money and optimistic energy.

• Traffic exchange systems
• Link building to increase search rankings
• Mass email (spam) marketing (not to be confused with quality opt-in email lists)
• Systems that use a loophole in other systems
• Or any other black/grey hat strategy

Black hat strategies never focus on people. If you never focus on people, you’re in a short term business. Some may argue that empires have been built on black hat strategies. Show me one that did not have to re-invest man hours and revenue to keep what they have and I will eat my words.

People have money, you want money, provide value to people and they will share their money with you.

The problem in the Internet marketing industry is the fundamental misunderstanding of how business is built online. My advice is to unsubscribe from every mailing list you are on right now and stop “looking” for information in the Internet marketing sector. Instead, start looking for information about engaging the target audience (the people) in your market to build a long-term business.

Would you rather spend 5 years “sticking and moving”, chasing your tail, rebuilding and maintaining or 5 years compounding a community of loyal customers and followers that will buy from you for the rest of your life?

Do you want to work for limited results or do you want to build a retirement plan?

Which 5 years is a better investment of your mind share and time?

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In my last post I brought a point to light … It’s not the size of your friends list that counts but the reach or pull you have with your communities that is meaningful from a business perspective. Zara Lockwood had shared a glimpse of a very interesting perspective in a comment on my last post. I then asked her if she would be willing to expand on the idea.

This is all about content strategy (or lack of) and why it is important to determine your content strategy before you begin your social media initiative. A failure to plan your content strategy could be the single item that kills your return on influence (ROI).

From Zara:

What I am doing is probably much the same as any other person on-line - i.e customizing a system of marketing strategies and ideas that have been tried and tested over the years combined with understanding the current mood of the web, the technology that shapes the flow of communication, the people, like yourself which influence it..

*Knowing which way is North*

Like the optin list that leads a potential customer from being a stranger in the “virtual high street” to to a person that is regularly introduced to a range services and products that are of interest to them via e-mail, blog, website, social network or where ever they hang out.

People gather in lot of places and are interested in a lot of different things (this ‘bubble’ of interest expands and contracts with trends, finances, social awareness etc. and it occasionally pops to be replaced by a new bubble) - which is why I’ve tried to narrow down my options to 5 different areas of interest for me (personally) to sort people I meet into.

Each channel has one main niche, maybe two sub niches and main mailing list each - with Zookoda I can see the possibility of refining (or specializing) further into a niches using customized newsletter/blogs and parallel promotions, but I’m not at that stage yet.

The process I’m in at the moment maybe the one you are interested in.

*Signposts directing people, rather than getting them (or you) lost*

I’m using the basics of attraction marketing, which is a bit of a half way house (in my opinion) from the ‘old skool’ of IM that is hard sell, “me seller!, you customer!” linear thinking, where as now with social networking people want to choose and interact more with the buying process - to the point where customers are asking to see into the till, the business plan etc. without sticking to the customer side of the counter.

- Problem is - as you may have seen, if you let a potential customer decide/see everything ALL the time it pulls the focus away from the actual sale or direction the seller really needs to get that person to go in - and it gets messy - the cyber friend or lead question is a good example.

- Maybe I’m talking about direction and focus of the seller too to maintain control, as sense of direction (or lack of) is picked up on by the customer.

So the seller needs to focus on how they are going to guide a person from point A to point B rather than run about after the customer - just like in a bar you don’t get the bar person chasing you around all night trying to sell you drinks

- promotional materials/trends (hyperlinks and participation) do that and you go to the bar knowing roughly what want already - so that’s where personal or corporate branding and a link to your offer/optin comes in.

All I can really say is that I have had better results since I focused on building niche lists driven by participation in networks, groups and organizing regular content that people are looking for. Using keyword tracking has helped too.

I have to agree with Zara, she makes some good points in her post. I have always seen better success when I have planned my content strategy in advance so that people can follow specific sign posts based on their place in the buying cycle. It also eliminates confusion and gives both you and your followers a clear direction.

Are you taking the time to plan your content strategy or are you pushing content out just for the sake of putting out content?

What is your take?

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