In a video post this morning, my good friend Colin “Google” McDougall reveals Google's plans to eradicate the value of inbound links from social media sites.
Like Colin, I've never been an avid user of MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter exactly because it was inevitable that Google would eventually have to turn that traffic off due to abuse by backlink hungry Internet marketers. Most of the ‘content' is pure time-wasting rubbish anyway. Seriously, who cares if I'm running off to Starbucks to get tall non-fat moccha? Good grief.
Colin also emphasizes that you can still garner benefit from social media sites when used for the purpose of real networking and sharing content of value.
Hmmm… gaining backlinks and therefore site traffic through the sharing of valuable content. What a novel concept!
Hi Ros
I’ve been monitoring these sites because my daughter thinks there is some value to these backlinks. However to me I too believe they are a waste of time. I just can’t see spending 2 to 3 hours a day on this.
We’ve been looking at these “social” sites for months trying to figure out the benefit of them to legitimate affiliate marketers like ourselves, and to be honest, we agree with you. I don’t really care if some guy in New Zealand likes crabs and walking his dog on the beach! So while we use these sites sparingly we still go at backlinking the good old fashioned way! If it ain’t broke – why fix it!
I see from an above post how they are like me with Twitter pet peeves. I know from some friends it can work but in a B2B market, too many of us are too busy during to follow anyone, post what we are doing and I know my clients could care less.
Finally google took notice of whats been going on with the social media site being manipulated by spammers and many more. but I’m not dumping social media sites yet because thay still bring enourmous amout of traffic to me.
Hi Joyce,
Yup, make it work while it works, especially when it’s a free source of traffic.
Cheers,
Ros
well its a good thing I found this post before I start my own twiiter or other social sites for networking and building traffic. I will provide valuable content and not tweet my every move I make! lol thanks Rosalind and look forward to your emails!
Hi Mike,
Valuable content will always be King and NOT tweeting bathroom breaks is also appreciated. I do however find that using Twitterfeed to tweet regular blog posts is helpful from a traffic generation point of view. 🙂
Cheers,
Ros
Ros-
My email is full of spam but somehow I read yours and that led me here.
Twitter is full of spammers but I’ve had traffic spurts that I can relate directly to having something useful and meaningful to say at that social media site.
Buzz will get you traffic. And that traffic begets permanent links.
Google can stomp the social sites, however…..their search algos perpetuate the status quo as incoming links are everything. So what once was popular will always remain popular in their algo, no matter how wrong or right, relevant or irrelevant the content was, is, or remains.
Best wishes,
Lowell
Thank you for this post. You have made me see that I still have so much to learn about this business.
Yea I can see that happening as everyone is abusing the social media websites to their own benefit..
Twitter is my guilty pleasure, but not for backlinks (since they’ve been no follow for several months). I am not sure about the status of other social networks as I don’t use them.
I also don’t drink Starbucks, but you still get to hear about the mundane parts of my day if you follow me. Funny, some people find it interesting. 🙂
Hi Alice,
Tweeting can definitely be useful and fun (except maybe on certain nights which I won’t go into detail about here but YOU know what I’m talking about 🙂 ) and you’re one of the few that uses the direct message feature which makes it even more fun… and we always love to hear about your day. 🙂
Ros
I think if you give good content usually, interspersed with the odd ’emtpy’ bits and pieces, it’s acceptable.
Some people usually give lame content and nothing else – that’s what gets on my nerves.
Rosalind,
We (internet marketers) knew it was coming at some point, Google would discount the backlinks from social sites.
Will they give them less weight? Will they give them no weight? I am preaching to the choir.
As you have pointed out, and a few others, Seth Godin comes to mind, the best way to ensure longevity and to make money on the web is quality content.
At our company, have already begun adding video and podcasts to our sites and blogs.
Great article….
Mark
PS: BTW…Could you give me a one way back link to the site above?….Just kidding.lol
I found this post from one of those worthless social media links.
Short sighted marketers look for ways to scam the system.. forgetting that Google has more Phd’s on staff than you could count.. working to create a good experience for the user.
Comments on blogs, tweets and social media interaction is not about getting backlinks (though I’ll gladly take them if they get picked up). So far this year, I’ve seen tens of thousands of URLs with my name, going up rapidly and down suddenly as Google sorts out the indexing algorythm.
But along the way, I started hearing from real people, bloggers reviewing my book, guest on my radio show, and referral through Facebook (multiple five figure clients).
The best SEO has always been “Good experience for readers that will last for years” When you do this, you rarely have to worry about a slap.
Better still.. you may make a real, meaningful connection with buyers and partners, create a new income stream, and have a lot of fun.
Warren Whitlock
Co-Author “Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online”
I’ve seen so many people drink the kool-aid of social media marketing and fail to grow their businesses – I’ll be glad to see social networking no longer held aloft as some kind of Holy Grail – easy to understand, fun to do, and profitbable.
It’s nice as a long term strategy for increasing one’s influence but the traffic from it is largely from non-buyers… people in “surfing” mode – not “searching” mode. The lie that’s been foisted on us is that all traffic is somehow equal while testing reveals it isn’t at all.
I never took social media backlinking seriously anyway. I’m glad I was correct in the intuition not to bank on assumption that the links would be worth much in the legit Search results.
Got to agree with you about the coffee.
I’ve stopped following a few people for what amounts to silly posts.
Like you say, who cares what they’re drinking?
Give us something real to read.
I’ve been saying for years that social media is great, but social marketing is just atrocious and amounts to spam about 95% of the time.
I’d love to see Google drop-kick social media spammers!
Exactly. Weed out the spammers and the good guys (us) can get back to business as normal… whatever ‘normal’ might be in this industry. 🙂
Social media isn’t all about the inbound links. You can create some communities and followings with drive traffic. I have some traffic sources that more than double my daily traffic I get from google. It’s a nice trickle of income if you can make it work correctly. Who cares if google likes this or not if it makes me passive income from DIRECT traffic?
Working it correctly is exactly right, Dan. It’s ‘the cheese’ (as James calls it below) that will suffer – not those who don’t abuse the privilege.
It’s interesting because it seems like people either “get it” or they don’t when it comes to social networking.
If you “socialize” like you would if you were hanging out with someone in person or were trying to get to know them then everything is cool.
If you don’t, you come across like the pushy person at a seminar that just says “Hi, my name is John Doe, here’s my business card, let’s do business”.
And I know that YOU don’t do that at conferences, Stu. 🙂
Hope all is well!
Cheers,
Ros
Google is a smart company and can build an algorithm to give some significance to social media back links. They can easily find a way to filter out the manipulation and yet keep social media in the mix. Because they should want marketers to stay connected in multiple ways with the public. Can you say “social good”. Google seems to operate with a touch of this.
Maybe more important is for many of us the reason we came to social media, was business. Being relevant and willing to mention my good information is why I am using social media. I needed the mix of business, lots of folk, and social to be compelling. Just being social could not get me onto Facebook and Twitter.
Business relevance did take me to LinkedIn, but has not yet been compelling as a social area.
I found this on Twitter when Dr. Kilstein ReTweeted this message. on Thanks Giving day. Now that I am social, there is lot more to it than just business.
Because this is Thanks Giving I am hosting a Gratitude Call. We are all connect by Social, Physical, Emotional, and Energetic components and because of all of this we are currently obsessed with Fear and Distress. You fill in what you are focused on. What factors and feelings do you see are dominant for you? Today, is a day to focus on that which we can be grateful for.
Every motivational source I have ever read suggests that focusing on what we are Grateful For wil transform us, put us in a more positive place. That is what this call is all about. Do your own or join ours. Either way you will be in a better place afterward. Even write you Gratitde and I will read it for everyone-you can combine your social and personal and business today.
Warmest Regards,
Edward Philipp (@EdLovesSumo)
Rosalind – You have hit on one of my Twitter pet peeves, although I too am a Starbucks junkie, I really don’t need to be alerted every time one of my friends runs out to get a fix. Social sites like those mentioned and especially Twitter are great tools for getting a relevant message out to your followers or post a “tiny-URL” to announce a new blog post or video, etc Just as you did today – I love the immediacy of this feature.
Google does seem to continue to move the cheese which is ok because it’s there sandbox. We entrepreneurs always welcome a challenge and we will come up with a work around or two.
Thank you – I always learn something from you!
James
My pleasure James and I love your ‘move the cheese’ turn of phrase. Indeed.