In an attempt to justify (in my opinion) a way over inflated valuation of $15 Billion Mr. Zuckerberg must continue his foray into cloak and dagger marketing techniques. Angry over the alignment of opting in versus opting out a percentage of Facebook users have struck back through the auspices of MoveOn.org. It is reassuring though to know that the same group that gave us General BetrayUs earlier this year is now after Mark Suckeredusberg.

At the heart of the issue is the assertiveness of Facebook’s willingness to air everyone’s laundry whether it is dirty or not. With Microsoft looming large over Zuckerberg’s head an effective advertising channel needs quantifiable ROI. So sure Facebook ruined everyone’s Christmas this year. But how else would you be able to complain about it to your friends if not via Facebook. Myspace? I don’t think so.

Although Facebook continues to be the social network of choice there are only so many aggressive pushes users will accept until they finally pull away for good. Although the American entrepreneurial spirit is one of two steps forward one step back. I believe Mark Zuckerberg has out paced himself on this one. Beacon was four steps forward, resulting in five steps back. It will take time to see if users are willing to accept such an aggressive approach to divulging personal content. In the interim if anyone knows of a good alternative to Facebook, friend me, please.

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here’s a breakdown of this session…

Rand Fishkin – SEOMoz.org

• Linkbait evolution
• • “new” SEO – social media optimization – these sites attract natural visitors
  • leverage the web’s most powerful linkers into sending traffic, links, & higher rankings to your site
• What is Linkbait
• • Getting content on the web that is worthy of being seen
  • Viral worthy content + link savvy audience = lots of links to your sites
• Linkerati
• • You have bloggers, researchers, journalist
  • They provide you with links – they dominate the linking on the web
  • You have to target them, ahead of people that convert (customers, visitors)
• Links to any page on site, helps whole site because of this or these links
• Trusted domain, all pages rank high even without links to direct page
• Articles about popular search terms can get incoming links fast
• Content Strategies
• • Lists (best, worst)
  • Tips, problems, benefits
  • Teaching
  • Humor
  • Controversy
  • Interviews
  • Breaking news
  • Product review
  • Poll results/data results
  • Tools
• Launching Portals – need to send a large amount of traffic
• • Need high visibility
  • Right demographics
  • Potential to go viral
• Digg – 2mil visitors a day.  Tech and web centric
• • With featured on Digg home page, seeing 1000+links posted
• Reddit – 500K visits daily, 20 -40 votes to hit home page. 600+ links after 2 – 3 weeks
• Netscape – news centric.  250K visits daily.  Get 300+ links after 2 – 3 weeks
• Del.icio.us/Popular – 1mil daily visits – 20 – 30 votes to hit home page
• StumbleUpon Toolbar – 3mil visitors
• Popular Blogs and Sites
• • Techcrunch
  • Boingboing
  • Slashdot
  • Techmeme
  • These create viral buzz, many copycat post off of the popular ones
• Linkbaiting rules
• • Votes from same IP bad, don’t get your company to all vote at once, will get caught

Cameron Othius

• Improving your own rankings
• Content (games, video, text), widgets, mashups
• Widget – portable code that people can install on any html page
• • This tracks back to your own page by creating a viral widget
• Mashup – combines content from more than one source
• Reputation Management – contain the negative buzz before it goes viral
• Monitor – social media sites, blog search engines, comment trackers (follow conversations in case you need to participate)
• • URLs, company name, product name
• Participate – so you can keep the good buzz going, respond positively
• • This can lead to more links
• Ranks social media pages – myspace, youtube, wikipedia

Jennifer Laycock – Search Engine Guide – talk about viral marketing

• Linkbaiting is great for launching a new site, quick rank boost
• Viral Marketing great for building a brand
• Why Viral?
• • Increases credibility
  • High response rate
  • no placement cost, cost is in the idea
• How do you create this idea
• • What sparks passion in customers
  • Something that hasn’t been done before
  • Don’t let audience risk reputation on it
• Works through relationships, existing and new
• How to spread
• • Launch through thought/opinion leaders for that subject
  • Trickle effect, will spread
• Make it easy to spread
• • Cafepress, social bookmarking
  • integrated Ad in hotmail
  • Place icons for bookmarking
• Exploit motivators
• • Ex: Gmail – has limited access, need invite
• Use existing networks (mybloglog)
• Take advantage of others’ resources
• Even nasty conversations – big company battles small company, can be very helpful – utilize this to write a perfect story
• • Humor will help
  • Limited time when buzz hits
  • Use buzz worthy hook
  • Call to action at end of post – “contact everyone you know”, remind users they have a job to do to go out and spread the word
  • Add section “here’s who is covering it” – scratch other peoples backs, drive more links

Q&A

• Metrics: segment traffic out – actions, shoppers/buyers, social media, searchers
• Metrics: track brand perception, referring domains
• ETSU.com