You’re doing it wrong

Posted in Observations,Social Media — by Don on 07/07/10

The post has a prerequisite. Please take a moment to read this. Here is the take away quote.

Manipulating social networks is easier still. There are firms that manipulate which stories are posted and which blogs are linked to, and for years there are firms that have worked to manipulate which links come up higher on the search results as well. As these signposts become more, not less, important, there’s a significant market opportunity for someone who can, as Billboard did, clean up the charts and make the payola worthless or at least more transparent. In the meantime, be skeptical.

By design, I’m a cynic. It has taken me many years of practice and getting burned or watching my customers get burned by fly-by-night outfits or independent contractors that just don’t get it. And nothing gets me more riled up than people that take advantage of others because they do not know what to look for.

Sure, you could employ the services of a black hat SEO wizard to boost your google ranking, but does that really help you out? Sure, short term if you have a website covered in Google ads and your only goal is to get as many clicks as possible. But should you?

I don’t think so.

It’s not always about the quantity of traffic, but also about the quality. Covering your pages with ads creates a bad user experience and draws away from your content. Your audience see that you are nothing more than a money grubbing whore and might not come back. Or they will use some kind of ad-blocking technology or Readability which makes all of those ads useless.

Why not create something that your audience enjoys or finds relevant? Interact with your audience via Twitter, Facebook or email and get them to come back? Everyone calls this Social Media best practices, but I call it basic customer service. It’s not rocket science, it’s just plain common sense that gets lost in a flurry of buzz-words spouted by very nice fellows with very white teeth, square-tipped shoes and a leased BMW in the parking lot.

If you rush, you’ll get the traffic you want. But you might not get it back. Take your time, take care of your customers and keep them coming back. Google might bring them to you, but it is your job to keep them!