In the previous article we chatted about Social Media Optimization. The next couple of articles will focus on some of the more popular social media networking websites, starting with Facebook in this one.
From a link building perspective Facebook offers little conventional value. It is a closed community that is completely hidden from search engines, apart from the official blog, some about pages and the help menu. One can consider Facebook to be a little mini internet world all on its own where optimization can take place, but in a unique way.
Inside this mini world reside a huge community that is really passionate about their online world. Facebook users tend to rally together when encountering things they don't agree with. They also tend to enthusiastically adopt features that they do like.
Facebook was originally targeted at college users in the United States, and you needed a collegiate email address to register. That has changed but the core group is still pretty much youthful, middle-class and connected, the prime consumer market.
The Facebook neighbourhood is more professional and clean than its competitors, making it an ideal space to establish a professional presence. The best way into this community is by developing Facebook Applications. The key here is to be creative and to ensure your facebook application page contain a link back to your website, which will be good for directing traffic only, as application pages aren't visible to search engines as such.
Facebook groups are another way into this online community, with the option of creating a sponsored group where you can choose your viewing audience, so as to eliminate unnecessary expense. For small companies the regular groups are available, with the only drawback being the difficulty marketing these groups to anyone who isn't directly connected to your profile as a friend.
Then there is Facebook flyers that appear as banner ads on users sidebars. This is a relatively affordable means of targeting specific types of users, also allowing for links back to your website or specific Facebook profile.
A good way of conducting marketing research is via Facebook polls, where industry specific polls can confirm or negate what your business believes to be true about public opinions or needs. Creating a poll and asking end users for their input is an invaluable marketing tool.
Although Facebook is invisible to search engines, it's the hottest commodity in the world of social networking media at present. In the next article we'll explore StumbleUpon.
Although Facebook is invisible to search engines, it's the hottest commodity in the world of social networking media at present. In the next article we'll explore StumbleUpon.