Advantages of Social

1)      Social improves SEO. Just like backlinks are such a huge part of SEO, Google’s algorithm is learning to recognize social sharing much more. Social is on the rise in its importance to search.

2)      You’ll build strong relationships. Gen-Y is a vastly more social generation than previous ones. Connecting and communicating well with customers is increasingly important.

3)      Social content can be repurposed. It can be used across multiple sites and, as it grows old, can be refreshed.

4)      More targeted networks means more customers. Social is great for targeting. On a broad scale, Facebook leads in number of B2C customer acquisitions (77% of companies on Facebook have acquired a customer there) while LinkedIn leads in B2B, with 65% of companies having made an acquisition.

5)      Social media provides the user generated content needed to drive sales. Over 80% of Gen-Y is influenced by user generated content. Many won’t make a large purchase without consulting user generated content.

Disadvantages of Social

1)      Social needs content to succeed.

2)      It can take months, even years, to grow your social media presence successfully. Building a list that will drive traffic, like any marketing effort, takes time to reap a reward. If you choose to speed that up, it is going to cost you money and time to invest in paid-for ads.

3)       Content expires quickly. It should be updated regularly, but be careful, because people are not fans of having their feeds clogged with your posts.

4)      Monitoring is time intensive. You have to watch your SM every day. Not getting bogged down with responding is a challenge.

So, which is better?

In today’s world, they feed off of each other more so than ever. Both rely on great content and the lines between both are blurring (as Google pays more and more attention to nodding its head towards social sharing). Hubspot endorses mutuality, but recognizes you may have to choose. They propose that you must choose between investing in a social media manager or a technical SEO expert.

However, the trend of Google’s increased recognition of social sharing seems to imply that social’s importance will continue to grow. This means that the work done for social will inevitably increase offsite SEO. With that in mind, it would seem that the best investment would be to learn the ins-and-outs of social now in order to stay abreast this trend. Fresh, relevant content, pushed through social networking, the blogosphere, and PR sites, will do most of your SEO work for you. What do you think?

(Source: Hubspot, “SEO vs. Social Media: Which is Best for Your Marketing?”)

Search has traditionally been driven by SEO, or search engine optimization. However, since social media has emerged on the scene, it has been making headway in importance to online business. The problem is that, because of how new it is, people are still trying to figure out how to best leverage its power. So which is the best investment of your time, money, and energy? Online marketing expert Hubspot chimes in with their analysis.

Advantages of SEO:

1)      Content creation. Content is the core of any SEO strategy. Utilizing keyword rich content will always provide a boost to search-ability. And the content created for SEO can be repurposed for other business needs, such as email, lead generation, etc.

2)      Long term gains that don’t diminish. Search engine indexing means that a page has the potential to return in search engine results pages for any amount of time (assuming the content remains relevant). This implies long-term ROI.

3)      Long-tail search yields targeted traffic. If you are optimizing for long-tail search (long keywords that are more targeted) your traffic will be more easily convertible.

4)      Inbound links help your website and reputation. One of the best ways to get inbound links is to serve as a guest blogger. This provides links and relationships with others in your area.

5)      SEO gives an edge to local business. Using SEO for mobile will put your brick-and-mortar ahead of the game, as you will be targeting people traveling in your area who are searching for what you offer, on the go.

6)      SEO is easier than it used to be. Google’s algorithm is getting smarter, meaning it’s focusing more on content designed for readers, not search engines. Coming back to the first point, it is more and more coming back to creating amazing content.

Disadvantages of SEO:

1)      It takes a lot of time. Simply put, good content creation takes a lot of effort and time. For some, it is overwhelming.

2)      You still have to invest in technical SEO. Unless you are an SEO expert yourself, you will need to hire someone to handle redirects, site structure, meta tags, etc.

3)      You have to worry about multiple search engines. Google is not the only one out there. Particularly in the case of niche engines, you may find yourself having to deal with SEO on multiple levels.

4)      Too much is out of your control. Offsite SEO is the biggest part of SEO. But this also happens to be the part that is most difficult to control.

5)      You can’t measure everything. After some changes in 2011, marketers lost serious insights into their sources of organic traffic. This has impacted anywhere between 11.36% to over 50% of searches.

6)      Requires long-term upkeep. You need to be constantly updating your content in order to maintain your placement. This once again brings us back to the first point: you need to be constantly creating new content.

(Source: Hubspot, “SEO vs. Social Media: Which is Best for Your Marketing?”)

YouTube is reworking their ranking algorithm.  Videos that can capture their audience’s attention longer will get higher rankings than those that just have more clicks.  The logic behind it is simple: Holding someone’s attention is more important than just getting it.

That logic also has some important implications for entrepreneurs trying to leverage the internet, and more specifically, the viral video to their advantage.  Here are 7 tips on creating stronger engagement:

1. Don’t waste your time trying to beat the system

Instead of spending valuable time trying to hack into the ranking algorithm, dedicate your time to making a better video.

2. Know your audience

This seems simple, but what might be funny or interesting to you and your peers might be completely irrelevant to your target market.  Do your research.

3. Give them a reason to stick around

Just like a good story has to capture the reader’s attention in the first sentence, the first 5-10 seconds of the video are crucial in keeping the viewer’s attention.

4. Plan ahead

Great videos don’t just spontaneously appear.  Put in the time to do a story-board, gather materials, and present a decently polished video.  Just because the video is short doesn’t mean that it won’t take any time to create.

5.  Have energy

No one wants to watch a stiff performance.  The more dynamic your presentation, the better (without crossing into being obnoxious).

6. Take risks

You’re an entrepreneur, so put those unconventional thinking skills to the test.  The best part is, the most you have to lose is some time.

7. Pay attention to the headlines and descriptions

Your video might be great, but without the correct keywords, no one will be able to find it.  Use Google Keyword Analytic to see if your word choices are popular.

One of the main things to remember is to be consistent in producing videos and don’t give up too soon.  Building a strong and loyal audience takes time and dedication.

A rapidly-growing section of the Internet is videos. Google owns YouTube and also has its own video search, so obviously they’ve caught onto this trend. Because of this, it’s pretty easy to figure they use videos in the ranking algorithm – and they do.

But how can I optimize a video for search?? It’s easier than you think… For example, YouTube already provides a way to add a title,  keywords, and a description to your video when you upload them, so simply take advantage of those in the same way you take advantage of headings and content on your pages. Simply by doing this, you will help your videos be found on both YouTube and Google.

But what should I put in my video description? Well, a simple summary of the content and maybe a quick site promo would be a good start. The next step would be a transcription of the video. If your video is a lesson or promo, it probably has tons of relevant keywords already in it. Simply harness that in your description.

What about videos embedded on-site, not just YouTube?

Alright, so your site is running and you’ve tried to build some links. But how do you check who is linking to you? LinkPopularity.com is a website which searches the web for sites that link to a given URL. By tracking links, you can see who is linking to you correctly, and who is linking to you in a harmful or useless way.

Check your link popularity now!

In case you didn’t know, links are extremely important to SEO. Ok so now you know that… but what’s that even mean?

Google’s algorithm counts inbound links to your site. That is, it counts how many times someone on another site links to something on your site. Based on the reputation, ranking, content, and relevance of the site Google will actually increase your ranking for being linked to. Linking is a not-surprisingly powerful SEO tool. By simply getting a few reputable sites to link to you, your Google ranking will significantly increase – especially in low competition keyword segments.

Links from your site to others have little-to-know effect on your ranking, but can be helpful in the actual site content.

When optimizing, be sure to try to get lots of good links from other sites, simply adding a bunch of links to your page don’t mean much.