Introducing Our New Series Where You Have All The Answers!
Not long ago we had a weekly series on Hot Blog Tips called “Quick Blogging Tip Thursday” which has been moved to our newsletter and is now run by Ben Barden (It’s free to subscribe and receive those weekly tips). In the spirit of new ideas and a weekly series I thought it would be fun to ask you, the reader and subscriber, a weekly blogging question.
To kick off our new Blogger’s Question of the Week, here’s this week’s question:
How Important Is Social Media?
Social Media is widely thought of as an invaluable tool that mixes social interaction and clever marketing and has become an absolute necessity for online business. Almost every successful online business has taken advantage of social media in one way or another.
But…
Every now and then we see credible statistics that seem to contradict conventional thinking and point to unexpected results that may prove social media marketing is a waste of time. Two recent example of that thinking were discussed on Performance Marketing Insider:
Your Thoughts On Social Media For Blogging?
I’ll hold my opinion for now and leave the question for you, How Important Is Social Media for your blogging business?
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seeing as Google have just turned up how much importance they give to social interactions with your site/blog I would say they are very important. We also have sites/blogs which receive the majority of their traffic from mentions, likes, posts, comments etc on other blogs. So I would say that, maybe not for all sites, but for some sites the social network around that site can be very important.
Great point Tom, that’s exactly what I’ve been preaching for months. Google seems to put a lot of weight on real social sharing. I guess ‘real’ is the keyword there.
Almost all the traffic to our blog has come from social media. Twitter specifically!
You must be working some Twitter magic with less than 300 followers Dara.
Social media are extremely useful. No one can ignore them anymore. It is like letting everyone know about what you wrote or about a product. I like them a lot!
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Rashmi Sinha recently posted..Google PR – very fast for Your Blog
Thanks Rashmi, we do have a lot more tools today.
Facebook is my second best traffic after Google.com. I am still trying to figure out how to get traffic from Twitter. Ignoring social media will mean that you’re ignoring the fact that most people nowadays login to their social media frist when the start their PC.
It’s true Ahmad, some people don’t even leave Facebook. As far as Twitter, check out one of the various Tribes where groups of people get together and share each other’s posts.
Well I agree Google is paying much attention on social signals and natural links than other facts such as page rank. I have been researching a lot and to my surprise all the website that rank on the first page of Google have thousands of shares on social media websites especially Google + and Facebook
I’m not surprised Usman, it seems that social sharing may someday overtake traditional SEO.
I see social media as a great way to complement traffic brought by search engines. In addition, social networks are a great way to build closer relationships with our readers.
I’m glad someone mentioned relationships Jack, that’s what it’s all about. Thank you
Social Media is a great place to build your brand and spread awareness about your business, services and products. Though lead generation from social media is a tough work but yes you can build relationship with your followers which certainly going to help you in coming time.
Lead generation and branding are two big factors many businesses fail to achieve in social media but it’s catching on fast.
Social Media is the marketplace to sell or showcase your content and only a fool will ignore it.
Well don’t hold back Adeline. LOL I do agree though.
It cannot be ignored but I wonder if we spend too much time on it at the same time? I also read Google+ appears to be helping SEO more than the other social sites. I find Twitter to generate the most leads and shares for my blog and even retail website.
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Lisa recently posted..Do You Go Mobile?
Hi Lisa, Twitter is a big one for me as well. I’m not surprised G+ would help more than the other social sharing sites considering the owner.
More and more people are active in their social media sites. In that case, it is important for bloggers to take advantage of it. Since the more connections they have, the more chances of them getting better opportunity.
I know it make sense that there would be strength in numbers George but that’s not my experience.
Hi Brian,
Social media has received a bigger space over the years and very important to Google what is written there, but I think Google will devalue the information and links from these in the future as it has become apparent that much is just rumors and gossip that circulate in the social Medias.
HI Lennart, you could be right, check out this article by Performance Marketing Insider: http://performinsider.com/2012/04/study-facebook-likes-are-junk/
I think that social media is important for building relationships for people rather than for SEO. I think that if you are simply trying to use social media for SEO, then your efforts may be spent better elsewhere. However, if you use social media as it was intended, then it can be a powerful tool for building relationships with your community.
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richard recently posted..Choosing the Right Host for Your Blog
That’s sounds like a healthy way to look at it Richard.
I must say that social media really hits us as this helps us to get connections everyday.
I know what you mean Isabel, it takes a while to feel it’s effect.
For me, it’s very important,most of my traffic comes from social media sites. Especially StumbleUpon, it’s the best site I’ve seen and traffic sometimes increase for 50%.If the blog post is unique then the views are just pouring in.
Then there comes the twitter and on the last place facebook. But still social media sites for me are like spare tire, it helps in bad times and low traffic but I can drive without her whenever I want because I have my good tire on, which represents niche related blogs and communities.
So I would recommend not making yourself relaying only on social media, always have plan b.
StumbleUpon was one of the most innovative plugins for Firefox. When i started using it i was obsessed with it! So i guess it is no surprise you can get traffic from it!
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Rashmi Sinha recently posted..Google Pagerank Matters:- TechInitio is PR2!
Yes it is the surprise, because other social media sites like twitter and Reddit or Digg are getting all the lights but their users are not as engaging like the ones from stumbleupon and even pinterest.
Great analogy James, a spare tire seems to fit.
StumbleUpon was doing great for my but has dropped big time. I don’t know if it’s from recent changes or just the people I follow and share with.
Hi Brian, You make a lot of great points about social media. Why social media is important to me is that the quality of my visitors from social media tends to be much higher than the visitors from search engines. The bounce rate for visitors from search engines tends to be high. The readers come and go pretty quickly. They generally don’t share or comment. But visitors from social media generally have some connection to you so they are more likely to comment, share and come back.
I have a question for you. What is your theme?
I’ve noticed the exact same thing when it comes to bounce rates Carolyn, we have a lot more “targeting” control in social media.
Hi Brain,
I can’t say that social media is completely waste of time but also it is not the everthing. We should use this platform wisely and don’t waste alot time in promoting our business to social media.
Hi Pete, I think you hit the nail on the head by not “promoting our business” on social media sites. Social media requires a little “social influence” by developing relationships and that takes time. Add in the all addicting “fun stuff” and there’s no time for anything else.
Social media is a necessity these days for any Blogger. I use social media as it not only brings lot of traffic to my site but also gives me an opportunity to interact with lot many people. And yes it is almost free of cost.
Ah, the cost… you’re the first to bring up that it’s free Rayna and that’s an important part. Thanks for that.
Thats a nice move Brian. Loved this new series. thanks. I will be asking few questions. Thanks for this amazing start up.
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Atish recently posted..Boost Your Online Business With The Strength of Facebook
Thanks Atish, I think this is going to be a fun series.
hellow I alos agree Google is paying much attention on social signals and natural links .but after that i also have big issu to get fast trfic on my blogs. thanks
Social media is much sure thing for every blogger in terms of popularity , traffic generation in link building with the pros in your niche.
Even Google is paying much attention to Social networks. After the launch of G+ its becoming more important then SEO in Google eyes that hows the response on G+ of Ur blog..