Myspace, Squidoo and more social experiences

[juliemarg]

I cross posted this on another thread - but wanted to alert everyone to squidoo so I'm reposting here.

I wanted to update on my experience with social marketing.

I've continued with targeting people with like interests on myspace with great results. I have over 800 friends (isn't that a funny way to describe them ;^D) and have received messages with suggestions on things to add to my website etc. Nice comments, bulletins and private messages. I immediately delete someone if they send wierdo stuff or sparkly messages & spam. My niece (the brilliant 28yr old engineer) advised me to watch out for fembots. These are myspace accounts that are not real people set up to attact webcam subscribers.

I use my real age but have considered saying that I'm 100. I'm getting responses from people of all ages from all over the world.

http://myspace.com/thingsyoushoulddo

I also found a site called squidoo that is fun and easy to use. My site Irish Film Festival was picked as the Lens of the Day and I got some positive vibe and a little uptick in traffic. Best of all when you search on google for Irish Film Festival my squidoo lens is on page one (#9) out of one million plus choices.

http://www.squidoo.com/irishfilmfestival

Mybloglog seems like a networking meeting with all takers and no givers. So far it doesn't feel like a community.

Is it all worth it? I think so. My website traffic is up about 25%. My previous high traffic day was just a little over 600 and this week I went above 800 visitors twice. My logs don't show too much of that traffic coming from the social sites, but I've received a few links and on some of the google servers I'm now a 3/10 on my home page.

Can anyone else share any detailed results?



juliemarg
aka
the irishlass

[philena30]

I love Myspace as well. As I too have over 1000 friends. And I always get adds from people trying to improve my layout. I'm a pretty ok webmaster and made other people's layouts so I don't need help with it or CSS. If I wanted to have mine look like everyone elses than I would. *wink*

But squidoo was a problem for me. The loading time is terrible and I always get an error and have to click again. I made a page/lens, but I don't really focus on it as much as myspace. I just started social bookmarking with Delicious, but not sure what to do with it. I just uploaded all my favorites and that was it.

[ditto]

MySpace can work wonders for any promotions or marketing you're doing. Although you should be aware that marketing on MySpace is against their terms and conditions.

One of the best places to start is to forget the comments, friend adding and bulletin posts and look at groups related to your market... ;)

[simonmohr]

I love www.myartprofile.com which is a sort of MySpace just for visual artists. The sense of community and quality of art displayed on the site is fantastic. I think that we are going to see more and more niche networking sites like this one.

[webstage]

I own a company called Simon Solutions (links at bottom). We developed a social type site for Churches. It's called Oikos Community Console. It's part web application and part web site in one.
In addition to our paid marketing we have a few people in-house hitting up blogs and running our MySpace site.

Our best option is the MySpace bulletins.

We've had success hand picking our friends and staying on top of all the 'fembots'. (there's plenty)

We've also had success with blogs. We have one on our site and our myspace. We have seen spikes in our traffic here and there, also, all around traffic is up.

We're not on Squidoo yet but I have looked at it. We have tried to get on StumbleUpon and a few others.

So I guess we're looking more on how to market a social web site of our own instead of how to use them for marketing - even though we're doing both.

our website:
http://www.simonsolutions.com

our demo:
http://demo.oikosconsole.com

our myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/simonsolutions

James Wright
Marketing Manager
www.simonsolutions.com

[nexternal]

I too am a fan of the marketing possibilities of MySpace and Squidoo. I think myspace has already reached the critical mass and will start dying soon. However, for web marketers, Squidoo provides a super easy way to put topics, links and clients in the spotlight instantly.

[ergobob]

But how well do the MySpace type sites work for SERPS?

If your target audience is businesses, would there be any sense in generating friends and links to a business site for the purpose of SERPS improvement?

Thanks,

Bob

[nexternal]

Bob,

That is a good question. I was thinking in terms of building a brand or driving traffic. If you are looking for SE improvement, then you are in the backlinks crowd. I think MySpace allows "follow" backlinks within posts and things. So it would most likely be favorable to befriend users with high ranking (PR) profile pages and commnet with backlinks. Like http://www.myspace.com/foxdeluxe is only a PR1, but a backlink is a backlink.

::BUT::
Beware the potential SE Algo update that negates backlinks on spammed out social sites like squidoo and MySpace.[/code]

[webstage]

-"Beware the potential SE Algo update that negates backlinks on spammed out social sites like squidoo and MySpace."

I totally agree.

Myspace can only get worse. It has become a corporate ad infested networkers wet dream.....
but it can only get worse. Right now...it's pretty good at helping you if you do it right, and then keep up with what's 'right' in the future.

But someday in the future someone will come into the picture with something better. Because the web evolves constantly, we'll continue to gather here for some knowledge and wisdom.
This social network rocks! (webproworld)

James Wright
www.simonsolutions.com

[ditto]

>Beware the potential SE Algo update that negates backlinks on spammed out social sites like squidoo and MySpace

It won't happen because G will not and cannot be seen to offer favouritism to one site over another, for wont of a better way of putting it, if a site is popular G will reflect that.

That's their business model after all. ;)

>But someday in the future someone will come into the picture with something better.

I agree and you can already pick up better social network software. MS is a monster of a site that falls over much more than it should.

Wait until you see what Web 3.0 has to offer, it's genuinely shocking. ;)

[ergobob]

Thanks for all the information.

Given that SERPs are the main objective for a business, what is the correct way to create backlinks from MySpace?

I am talking aboutabout getting backlinks from MySpace but "doing it right." What is the correct procedure?

Thanks,

Bob

Thanks,

Bob

[webstage]

adding friends by hand, then going to the most trafficked friends and comment, leaving a link to your myspace....
(i think myspace allows outlinking right now, just not in a flash file)

bulletins and groups

We do bulletins (HTML based) about one a week.
The most follow-through clicks have come from the adding of friends and the commenting.

James Wright
www.simonsolutions.com

[caromero1965]

Originally Posted by ditto

It won't happen because G will not and cannot be seen to offer favouritism to one site over another, for wont of a better way of putting it, if a site is popular G will reflect that.

Of course they can offer favouritism. If a site becomes too much of a "bad neighborhood" (i.e. they figure out that they are getting bad-quality info from the pages/links there) then, while they probably would not impose a blanket "Myspace.com" penalty, they'll figure out, algorithmically, what makes myspace.com bad, and de-emphasize any links from any sites that have those myspace-like qualities...

[SemAdvance]

Originally Posted by caromero1965

Of course they can offer favouritism. If a site becomes too much of a "bad neighborhood" (i.e. they figure out that they are getting bad-quality info from the pages/links there) then, while they probably would not impose a blanket "Myspace.com" penalty, they'll figure out, algorithmically, what makes myspace.com bad, and de-emphasize any links from any sites that have those myspace-like qualities...

Favoritism... and a filter for artificial link building, are not the same thing.

Next myspace will not be filtered in any way shape or form since it is nearly impossible to spam the search results via myspace or any other social networking site.

It is wise not to forget links are seen by c class server and after the first link to a websute, others are likely devalued.

[juliemarg]

The only links that have shown for me on technorati are ones that come from a myspace blog. A couple of my myspace friends have copied my comments and reposted on their myspace blog. Others have posted links on their regular websites. Those all show in my results.

I don't believe that a link in a comment or a bulletin is counted.

[ditto]

>I am talking aboutabout getting backlinks from MySpace but "doing it right." What is the correct procedure?

The absolute best way to approach this is to find
profiles featuring your keyword, with a high PR
and a low friend count and drop a relevant keyword
anchor text link in a comment.

The great thing is it's a one way link where you get
to choose exactly what text you would like and how much
text you would like to drop in the comment.

So add further keywords around the link to enhance
it still further. But DON'T stuff! ;)

<blatant plug> www.socialprbooster.com </blatant plug>

The reason for choosing a profile with a low friend
count is that it will receive less comments and so
allow your link to remain for much longer.

With all the fuss about MySpace over the last few
months millions of people have signed up, created a
profile linked to it from their main site (and pushed
some PR) then forgotten about it.

That PR is just begging to be 'borrowed' especially
if you can find these profiles with your keywords.

And when your comment finally does drop of the
bottom of the page simply add another but...

...this doesn't have an immediate impact anyway.
My comment has gone from at least one of the
profiles I link to below but G is still counting
it. ;)

>I don't believe that a link in a comment or a bulletin is counted.

There's lots of evidence that Google is actually
ranking MySpace profiles very well right now. Witness
the profiles that appear high in search results for one.

Here's proof using my own software in a little
test I dropped a few links on MySpace profiles
a few weeks ago pointing to one of my sites.

Now if you do a backlink check for this site
3 of the 10 pages returned are MS pages with
a PR, they're also featured at positions 2,3 and 4
higher than other results from pages with a
higher PR -

http://www.google.com/search?q=link:...e=off&filter=0

[nexternal]

Originally Posted by ergobob

Given that SERPs are the main objective for a business...

Bob,

I was under the impression the main objective was to make money.

OK, all snobbery aside, this is a great thread. What I'm saying, and hearing a lot of echoes of, is that SERPs are no longer the end all be all. Still VERY important for most organizations. However, some business are capitalizing on the critical masses surrounding individual online communities.

It seems like ditto is handing out tested advice... Good Luck!

[ergobob]

Hi Nexternal,

I sell consulting services in a vertical market. The customer is an executive level person.

Most of my site consists of a directory to technical information and 99% of the visitors are other professionals in my field. They are not potential customers but they do link to me and add to my SERPS.

My objective is to stay high in the SERPS so when that 1% of executives are looking for help, they see me at the top.

So I continue to try and appeal to other professionals in order to maintain my top 5 in the SERPS. But I am really after that executive who wants help. That is what results in the sales. Also, my projects are big ticket - $20,000 to $100K. This results in only 10 contracts per year.

So I wonder if getting a lot of friends on MySpace, who are probably unrelated to my field, would be helpful in the SERPs.

Bob

[nexternal]

Bob,

I hope you didn't take it that I meant anything by my comment.

I also think you may have answered your original question.

Cheers

[amabaie]

So I continue to try and appeal to other professionals in order to maintain my top 5 in the SERPS. But I am really after that executive who wants help. That is what results in the sales. Also, my projects are big ticket - $20,000 to $100K. This results in only 10 contracts per year.

So I wonder if getting a lot of friends on MySpace, who are probably unrelated to my field, would be helpful in the SERPs.

The answer is "yes". If you pick your friends well or can do it shotgun style in a big way, you just never know who is on MySpace. The corporate exacutive might not be, many of the underlings through who you have to make your way -- the junior assistant who checks to see what is there in the field, the mid-level assistant who narrows down potential suppliers, the next level up who reviews and does triage, the junior executive who evaluates them and maybe makes a recommendation...i am sure you know what I am saying.

[juliemarg]

Originally Posted by ditto

>I am talking aboutabout getting backlinks from MySpace but "doing it right." What is the correct procedure?

The absolute best way to approach this is to find
profiles featuring your keyword, with a high PR
and a low friend count and drop a relevant keyword
anchor text link in a comment.

The great thing is it's a one way link where you get
to choose exactly what text you would like and how much
text you would like to drop in the comment.

So add further keywords around the link to enhance
it still further. But DON'T stuff! ;)

<blatant plug> www.socialprbooster.com </blatant plug>

The reason for choosing a profile with a low friend
count is that it will receive less comments and so
allow your link to remain for much longer.

With all the fuss about MySpace over the last few
months millions of people have signed up, created a
profile linked to it from their main site (and pushed
some PR) then forgotten about it.

That PR is just begging to be 'borrowed' especially
if you can find these profiles with your keywords.

And when your comment finally does drop of the
bottom of the page simply add another but...

...this doesn't have an immediate impact anyway.
My comment has gone from at least one of the
profiles I link to below but G is still counting
it. ;)

>I don't believe that a link in a comment or a bulletin is counted.

There's lots of evidence that Google is actually
ranking MySpace profiles very well right now. Witness
the profiles that appear high in search results for one.

Here's proof using my own software in a little
test I dropped a few links on MySpace profiles
a few weeks ago pointing to one of my sites.

Now if you do a backlink check for this site
3 of the 10 pages returned are MS pages with
a PR, they're also featured at positions 2,3 and 4
higher than other results from pages with a
higher PR -

http://www.google.com/search?q=link:...e=off&filter=0

The links that show on google are from comments? I should do well then, because I just commented like crazy about st patrick's day ;^D

Do you think these will eventually show in the serps?