Last week, Rand discovered that an article we'd written quite some time ago had never been launched. "How to Leverage Web 2.0 & Social Media Sites to Market Your Brand & Control Your Message" covers thirty sites that you can use for marketing. Obviously, the list is far from extensive: we went for a more general overview of what's out there than a comprehensive guide (that's called the Web 2.0 Awards).
Ranked loosely in terms of usefulness, we looked at a range of factors, such as whether the site's pitch or "About Us" section bore any resemblance to what it actually does. We also looked at whether the site is tailored to a small niche or to the general public and whether it disallows engines from spidering its pages or nofollows links.
In addition, there's some information as to what you can achieve on each of the sites in terms of uploading your content, controlling your image, gaining ground in the SERPs and attracting customers. It's meant to be informative and yet fun at the same time. Enjoy!
By: Jane Copland
Social Media Marketing Article
Mobile
The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
Nice work, a great collection and highly useful. No question on the effort and work that went into this. Looks like you've earned a trip to Paris ;) and no sad looks or shrugs needed!
I really haven't focused heavily on this area, but this is exactly the kind of resource needed to really get the ball rolling.
Yeah, but Jane's not allowed to leave the country, so Rebecca and I went on her behalf.
How did this article stay unpublished for so long? Jane this is a great overview of these social media sites and while I'm certainly familiar with many of them, quite a few are brand new to me.
There are so many social media sites and only so much time to get involved with them. This article will serve as a very useful resource to help me decide which sites I want to become more involved with.
Thanks! I don't know how it remained sleepily dormant for so long. I guess we were lauching other stuff... I'm glad it has been set free now!
Now that you've gone through all these sites did you find yourself enjoying a few more than the others? I find myself enjoying checking out what other people bookmark at del.icio.us and Stumbling the most regardless of their respective use when it comes to marketing.
Like most people, I probably enjoy StumbleUpon the most. There's probably something entertaining and / or interesting about every site... Yahoo! Answers always provides a few laughs; Shadows was astounding due to the amount of spam.
I haven't spent any time with Yahoo answers, but I've been meaning to. The biggest struggle with all the social media sites is having the time to get to know them.
I'm amazed at how well StumbleUpon delivers sites that I like. Very rarely do I stumble on a site that I don't care for at all. Most at the very least provide some entertainment and more than expected have found their way into a bookmark.
Based on what I've seen the SU community appears to like pages that are low on text and high on images and 'wow'
I love Stumbling as well. I think it gives my mind a nice break by choosing the next destination for me. Especially nice at the end of a long day. :)
Ask Mr. "Hey, I think I'll try to propose to my girlfriend on national television!" Fishkin. During that time, a couple of things slipped through the cracks. (e.g. the social media marketing article, our paychecks, my car that Rand borrowed and would "totally return tomorrow"...)
You mean 'Mr. I think I'll try to propose to my girlfriend on national television and then I'm going to travel the globe' Fishkin? Has Rand been in Seattle a full week since proposing?
And c'mon doesn't he have his own car? Rand what's the deal with those paychecks too?
The "traveling the globe" thing isn't anything new. He'd been doing that before he proposed.
One of several odd facts about me - I've never owned a car. :)
Another odd fact: he has no nipples.
Ok now who's sharing too much.
You got to break in those yellow shoes somehow I guess. An aversion to cars? I couldn't wait to get one as soon as the lisence came home with me from the DMV.
A few years ago after a car died I spent the year riding a bicycle around. I don't know if you've ever been to Boulder, but at certain times of day you can probably get around town faster pedaling than driving. I also got into pretty good shape since I worked at the top of a hill and biked up it every morning.
Good one Jane :)
As Christine_SA said, it sure saves us a lot of time.
Thank you.
Thanks for the list of marketing sites from the old article. Though it is far from comprehensive, it gives many people a starting place when seeking better marketing strategies for their dent repair or other business.
[removed inappropriate link]
Jane, great article. You guys do good work. Does your #9 spot for Wikipedia take into account its recent decision to add "nofollow" tags to all entires (on the English site, at least)?
https://www.seomoz.org/ugc/wikipedia-seomoz-and-bad-link-building-practices
I did move Wikipedia down a couple of places once they nofollowed their links, but the fact that they rank so well still means that information on their pages can benefit or harm a company or brand. I should go in and add some information about the fact that their link-lovability is now zilch...
Wikipedia is definitely still a great traffic source for certain subject matters. I have one client whose traffic increased by about a 1/3 (on a fairly small but not tiny base) from one Wikipedia link.
I think Wikipedia benefits from the fact that many people have no idea that users control the content. That's a pretty impressive increase in traffic from a WP link. On the other hand, I bet some people have seen drops in their business and harm done to their reputation from a bad write-up on the site, even if the information is vengeful or just plain false.
Digg and the rest of them hate IMs that add useless content to their sites. If you continueously add junk you will be banned. Be careful how you use these services. They were never intended for SEO purposes and to raise their competitive profiles they are becoming more vigorous at blocking URLs and IPs.
This is very true. Marketing something on Digg requires really good content because of this very fact. Who hasn't seen Diggers fall for linkbait? If the submission is good enough, even the SEO / IM haters out there will Digg it.
I have one site to add to this and it is really effective. Please see this site.
https://www.prlog.org
Great article Jane! I think it still holds pretty true. Great take on it, I definitely got some good ideas out of it!
All I can say is "wow". That article is great - I don't know if there is a better, single resource compiling all of that information online today.
This is a great resource for social media, thanks. Of a whole marketing campaign for a Website, what percentage would you say represents social media marketing the way things are today. Is this going to be a growing tendency?
I imagine that social media is going to take up more and more of people's time in online marketing campaigns. Obviously, the number of social platforms that a site appeals to depends on its content and whether its targeted at a small or large audience, but if you choose which sites you submit to carefully, it doesn't take much time and the traffic can be astounding.
Good job Jane! But seriously dude, you gotta get your deliverables out the door faster than one ever 4 months ;)
Aw, Jeff. I know you've been waiting ever-so-patiently for my article. FOUR months? I think it's been more like five...
I love this article, Jane. It's long, but it not only explains how marketers can leverage each of these sites (links, branding, control of SERPs, etc.) but also has an entertaining tone and voice. I think a lot of my material can be valuable, but it's often dry. Congrats on the nice work.
Excellent, thank you. Saves us a whole lot of time going to all these sites to ascertain whether or not they are worth considering for the market one operates in, so thank you very much.