Friends with Benefits

All knowledgeable website and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firms include Social Marketing as an intricate part of any website solution.  A website that is not properly Search Engine Optimized is useless and any Search Engine Optimization campaign is incomplete without Social Marketing.  The key aspect of Social Marketing is communicating 'socially' to engage, entice and interact with others rather than simply pushing a message out through a one sided conversation.

Online or offline it is important to connect and make 'friends' with others of similar interests, in the same industries and market to the proper prospective customers.  In either situation a one sided conversation will result in lack of results and likely loss of friends or connections.  The key to success is making 'friends with benefits' who will connect, communicate and produce online success.  Facebook separated the 'News' and 'Most Recent' last year to determine which items are considered important while others are simply 'updates'.  The reason Facebook changed this was to determine what information will be fed to Search Engines and what information is simply shared with only the people directly connected to each other.

Facebook is the # 1 source of referrals on the Internet today with more daily usage than all other websites and search engines including Google.  Search Engines have adopted their criteria and ranking algorithms to include information from social networking websites and online classifieds such as Craigslist in search results in real time.   The way information posted on Facebook is determined to be NEWS or just a Recent Update is determined by a simple hierarchy of criteria with the basic principles being:

1. How many friends or connections you have
2. How much interaction your friends or connections have with what you post
3. How much interaction do your friends or connections have with others
4. Is the post made on a Personal account or properly setup Page
5. The format and content of what was posted is important

This means that no matter how much you post on facebook it will not matter unless your 'friends' interact with what is posted.  If you have one 'friend' who constantly comments or likes your post it will dilute the interaction leading to lack of results thus you must have several 'friends' who interact on a regular basis to see real benefits.  Everything posted must be properly formatted and ideally done through a Page setup for your business, product or service.  Pages receive higher value ratings than personal accounts do and how the Page is setup affects how well it will rank when people search.

Facebook is the # 1 source of referrals today, buyers are using Facebook to connect with sellers but the most important aspect is the effect on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  Content and posts from Facebook will show up on Search Engines when setup and marketed properly providing a double benefit if you have the right friends.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
Internet Builder Consulting - Building BETTER Websites, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing and Virtual Tours since 1995
816-842-7774 Office