Social media, in its purest form, is not the best way to use Social Media. After months of research, I now realize that social media websites like Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Propeller, and Mixx are good for search engine optimization, but not ideal. A gun is good for hitting people over the head, but they can be used much more efficiently if used for their proper purpose.
For several months, I have used this blog to go after both facets of internet marketing that I hold dear to my heart and paycheck. I've branched out.
Social networks, social media, and social bookmarking are turning into big business. First, they were exploited for marketing, but not properly. Then, the search engine optimization benefits became clear. Now, we're back to marketing, but companies are doing it a little differently this time. So, I built Social News Watch, a blog dedicated to finding the best articles on the internet about social media, as well as writing some of my own observations about this growing trend.
Actually, "trend" probably isn't the right word. It implies temporary status, and I believe that "the social web" is here to stay in one form or another. Companies such as Ford, IBM, CNN, and others are starting to get more into the segment. There are new products such as YouTube marketing, social media news releases, and viral blogging that are starting to take form and take hold.
Heavy hitters such as Facebook, Digg, and Google are applying countless hours and dollars into finding the best ways to leverage their positions smack dab in the middle of the segment. It's worth a watch, and that's what this blog will be about.
Watching social media.
There are other blogs out there that discuss the topic. What we'll do here is sort through the hundreds of articles posted weekly on the subject and offer them to the public with a brief synopsis. Not a scraper blog, but rather a compilation of quality news broken down to their simplest form, almost like a human edited news feed reader that eliminates the bad and highlights the good.
We want to highlight the startups that just might make it as well.
We will be posting like crazy for a while to catch up, but once the dust clears, it should be a true social media resource. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Social Media News
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Monday, November 12, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Agalychnis callidryas - zaimsaleembatsu conspiracy
????????????????????
Are Zaibatsu and MSaleem sharing the same brain?
Or are they the same person? Come to think of it, I've never seen them together in the same place. The Drill Down -- could it be one person disguising his (or her) voice? Is MrBabyMan part of the conspiracy?
Were they hacked? By a tree frog?
Whatever is happening, it's clear that Agalychnis callidryas, the supposedly innocent red eyed tree frog, is hind-leg deep in the middle of it.
Digg Blog
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Pownce for Marketing? SEO? Social Bookmarking?
Pownce. Some call it Digg social. Some call it Twitter 2. I call it a potential website marketing goldmine.
Well, at least a silver mine. Maybe bronze.
Okay, so it doesn't have all of the things that you look for in a link-building social network or bookmarking website. The pages are not indexed regularly, but this can be fixed. There is no ability to plug in anchor text on the links. The links are not contextual. It's hard to build a theme of relevance.
With the negatives aside, here are the positives:
1) Nofollow -- Not there! Just like with Digg, the links are valid. No redirects, no nofollow attribute, just good, clean links.
2) Control -- You can plug in whatever you want and delete whatever you want. If you look at Automotive Marketing on Pownce, you'll see that I have been able to start slow and build up from there.
3) FUN -- It can be enjoyable building links, marketing, and interacting at the same time. Sometimes, promoting a website can be very tedious. Pownce makes it a bit less mundane.
4) Direct to Friends -- The interface to build friends is very easy. Not TOO easy, where whoever you add is a friend automotically, but easy enough to get a nice long list in a short amount of time. You might be able to get some traffic after all from your efforts unlike many of the other link-building techniques.
5) Fast -- It takes about 15 seconds to build a link on Pownce. Compared to directory submissions, articles, soliciting, etc., it's faster. Not as fast as a BM button, but not bad at all.
6) Indirect -- Here's a thought. Build up links to the pownce profile that will draw traffic to it. This indirect sort of marketing can allow the profile itself to place in the SERPs if done well, not to mention the direct traffic and the increase in the quality of the pownce links themselves.
7) No Risk -- There is nothing worse than working on a website that eventually gets banned, a BM profile that gets banned, or anything that gets banned for that matter. From what I can tell, as long as you follow the rules, you won't get banned as a spammer.
The Pownce experiment is on. I will try to see how hard it is to get indexed. I will contribute to the cause, meet people, be friendly, build links, and promote the page itself. I'll let you know how it goes in a few weeks.
Social Bookmarking
Optimization
Well, at least a silver mine. Maybe bronze.
Okay, so it doesn't have all of the things that you look for in a link-building social network or bookmarking website. The pages are not indexed regularly, but this can be fixed. There is no ability to plug in anchor text on the links. The links are not contextual. It's hard to build a theme of relevance.
With the negatives aside, here are the positives:
1) Nofollow -- Not there! Just like with Digg, the links are valid. No redirects, no nofollow attribute, just good, clean links.
2) Control -- You can plug in whatever you want and delete whatever you want. If you look at Automotive Marketing on Pownce, you'll see that I have been able to start slow and build up from there.
3) FUN -- It can be enjoyable building links, marketing, and interacting at the same time. Sometimes, promoting a website can be very tedious. Pownce makes it a bit less mundane.
4) Direct to Friends -- The interface to build friends is very easy. Not TOO easy, where whoever you add is a friend automotically, but easy enough to get a nice long list in a short amount of time. You might be able to get some traffic after all from your efforts unlike many of the other link-building techniques.
5) Fast -- It takes about 15 seconds to build a link on Pownce. Compared to directory submissions, articles, soliciting, etc., it's faster. Not as fast as a BM button, but not bad at all.
6) Indirect -- Here's a thought. Build up links to the pownce profile that will draw traffic to it. This indirect sort of marketing can allow the profile itself to place in the SERPs if done well, not to mention the direct traffic and the increase in the quality of the pownce links themselves.
7) No Risk -- There is nothing worse than working on a website that eventually gets banned, a BM profile that gets banned, or anything that gets banned for that matter. From what I can tell, as long as you follow the rules, you won't get banned as a spammer.
The Pownce experiment is on. I will try to see how hard it is to get indexed. I will contribute to the cause, meet people, be friendly, build links, and promote the page itself. I'll let you know how it goes in a few weeks.
Social Bookmarking
Optimization
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Adjusting to the New Digg
Okay, it isn't that bad. It took forever to make it to the homepage (12 days) but once there, I realize that it isn't that bad. Here are the adjustments that I made:
1) Getting 30, 60, 90 Diggs isn't as easy as it used to be. Before, having a ton of friends and doing a ton of Digging was enough to ensure that you could get a bulk of Diggs to anything. Now that people actually have to click on to the page, there is a chance that they will read it, which means that spam submissions is out, for the most part. This is a HUGE plus for Digg users, especially those who hate the spam. Will it continue? Of course. But the chances of a spam submission getting more than the initial Digg is greatly diminished.
2) Shouts don't work for most. I've been tracking some of the "shout spammers" out there and it just isn't an effective way to get Dugg. Sure, you'll get some, but for the most part, you might as well email spam and get the same results.
3) Quality of submissions is ever more important. Catchy headlines will always play a major role in the quest to make it to the homepage, but the story needs to be a good one.
4) Keep it up. Like I said, I wasn't a power Digger by any means, but I used to be able to count on at least one story making the homepage every few days. Now, it seems that the gap is growing. As much as I want to dump the efforts, I just can't. If you are thinking about it, keep going. It'll happen if you stick with it.
5) Fans are nice, but most are meaningless. There are "Fans" out there who never Digg your stuff. Because there doesn't have to be the same gap in time between adding friends, many are trying the bulk friend approach. This may actually work, but you can't just befriend them and go. Digg their stuff, keep digging their stuff, and hopefully you'll get noticed, added, and Dugg.
6) The time it takes to make the homepage seems to have increased. Where before, 24 hours was usually the cutoff, there are more and more popular stories that approach 2 days before becoming obsolete.
7) Submit less. Before, submitting a ton of stories every day would land you somewhere with something on the homepage. I've examined some of the mass submitters and seen literally hundreds of submissions in a row without going popular. Submitting good stories is much more important.
In conclusion, I was completely against the new Digg. I've changed my mind. The quality is improving, and after all is said and done, that is really what will make Digg great again. It was getting too easy to post crap and make it the homepage, or at least get a ton of Diggs for it. Now, you have to submit good stuff to have a chance. This is a great thing for serious Diggers, and even a greater thing for those who read Digg for the news itself.
Digg SEO
1) Getting 30, 60, 90 Diggs isn't as easy as it used to be. Before, having a ton of friends and doing a ton of Digging was enough to ensure that you could get a bulk of Diggs to anything. Now that people actually have to click on to the page, there is a chance that they will read it, which means that spam submissions is out, for the most part. This is a HUGE plus for Digg users, especially those who hate the spam. Will it continue? Of course. But the chances of a spam submission getting more than the initial Digg is greatly diminished.
2) Shouts don't work for most. I've been tracking some of the "shout spammers" out there and it just isn't an effective way to get Dugg. Sure, you'll get some, but for the most part, you might as well email spam and get the same results.
3) Quality of submissions is ever more important. Catchy headlines will always play a major role in the quest to make it to the homepage, but the story needs to be a good one.
4) Keep it up. Like I said, I wasn't a power Digger by any means, but I used to be able to count on at least one story making the homepage every few days. Now, it seems that the gap is growing. As much as I want to dump the efforts, I just can't. If you are thinking about it, keep going. It'll happen if you stick with it.
5) Fans are nice, but most are meaningless. There are "Fans" out there who never Digg your stuff. Because there doesn't have to be the same gap in time between adding friends, many are trying the bulk friend approach. This may actually work, but you can't just befriend them and go. Digg their stuff, keep digging their stuff, and hopefully you'll get noticed, added, and Dugg.
6) The time it takes to make the homepage seems to have increased. Where before, 24 hours was usually the cutoff, there are more and more popular stories that approach 2 days before becoming obsolete.
7) Submit less. Before, submitting a ton of stories every day would land you somewhere with something on the homepage. I've examined some of the mass submitters and seen literally hundreds of submissions in a row without going popular. Submitting good stories is much more important.
In conclusion, I was completely against the new Digg. I've changed my mind. The quality is improving, and after all is said and done, that is really what will make Digg great again. It was getting too easy to post crap and make it the homepage, or at least get a ton of Diggs for it. Now, you have to submit good stuff to have a chance. This is a great thing for serious Diggers, and even a greater thing for those who read Digg for the news itself.
Digg SEO
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
"I Support Bush" and 9 other reasons this won't make the Digg homepage
1) Bad title. It mentions a top 10 list and doesn't bash the Republican party in any way. Plus, it's too long and doesn't say [pic].
2) Nobody important in Digg visits this blog, so it will probably be submitted by a loser (or me if nobody submits it at all by tomorrow, which they probably won't).
3) It doesn't fit into any category other than "Offbeat News" but it's really not that offbeat and it's definitely not news.
4) The Ron Paul Online Army doesn't know my blog exists. If they did, they would spam it, so I prefer the anonymity.
5) It is posted on a free blog that was created a few months ago, so it would take 150 Diggs and 50 comments to get it past the Upcoming section.
6) I'm broke -- can't buy Diggs.
7) The story description will probably be really bad. In fact, they'll probably just cut and paste reason number 7 (if the digger reads that far down).
9) It will be buried as inaccurate since I skipped #8, thus, there aren't "9 other reasons this won't make the Digg homepage". (did that make sense?) Plus, there is a mispelling somewhere in this post.
10) The picture in the story is boring -- just a list of the top Diggers according to votemoojj.com.
Social Bookmarking Blog
2) Nobody important in Digg visits this blog, so it will probably be submitted by a loser (or me if nobody submits it at all by tomorrow, which they probably won't).
3) It doesn't fit into any category other than "Offbeat News" but it's really not that offbeat and it's definitely not news.
4) The Ron Paul Online Army doesn't know my blog exists. If they did, they would spam it, so I prefer the anonymity.
5) It is posted on a free blog that was created a few months ago, so it would take 150 Diggs and 50 comments to get it past the Upcoming section.
6) I'm broke -- can't buy Diggs.
7) The story description will probably be really bad. In fact, they'll probably just cut and paste reason number 7 (if the digger reads that far down).
9) It will be buried as inaccurate since I skipped #8, thus, there aren't "9 other reasons this won't make the Digg homepage". (did that make sense?) Plus, there is a mispelling somewhere in this post.
10) The picture in the story is boring -- just a list of the top Diggers according to votemoojj.com.
Social Bookmarking Blog
Friday, August 31, 2007
Anchor Text: Switch it Up
From time to time, I check the bookmarks of SEOs who are using SB sites for link building. One thing I've noticed that is a big no-no -- you're not alternating the tags.
Anchor text is one of the most important indicators that Google and MSN use to determine what a website is about. Having the same tag, or anchor text, associated with a link on all of your SB sites will diminish their own effect, plus minimize the possible advantages granted for the link itself.
There is always a temptation to use onlywire or one of the other automated bookmarking tools. If you do use them, make sure to split it up amongst 3 or 4 different submissions. In other words, use the tools, but submit a site once with only a few SB sites checked, then resubmit with another set, and on and on.
Google doesn't like it when the same anchor is used constantly. They want websites rankings and link building to be natural. They don't want googlebombing or any other form of SERP manipulation.
It will take more time, but it is worth the effort.
Anchor text is one of the most important indicators that Google and MSN use to determine what a website is about. Having the same tag, or anchor text, associated with a link on all of your SB sites will diminish their own effect, plus minimize the possible advantages granted for the link itself.
There is always a temptation to use onlywire or one of the other automated bookmarking tools. If you do use them, make sure to split it up amongst 3 or 4 different submissions. In other words, use the tools, but submit a site once with only a few SB sites checked, then resubmit with another set, and on and on.
Google doesn't like it when the same anchor is used constantly. They want websites rankings and link building to be natural. They don't want googlebombing or any other form of SERP manipulation.
It will take more time, but it is worth the effort.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Creating a Social Network for Links (oh, and networking)
MySpace. Facebook. LinkedIn.
Yesterday's news from an SEO point of view.
The use of redirection, no html in posting, nofollow, or whatever other methods that these and similar social networks are using is making them less valid for search engine optimization. They still draw some traffic depending on what you're using it for, but in reality, they don't help making your own websites rise in the rankings.
Social bookmarks are still currently strong, but it's time to to hedge bets and go somewhere between the blogs and the social bookmarking sites. It's time for personal social networks.
What is it? A personal social network is one that is created by an individual or company using Ning, Goingon, or one of the many emerging websites that offer the service. You create a site, formatting it as a blog, an RSS site, a commenting or forum site, or just about whatever you want from it.
You invite people or get found on its own merits. People can join, post photos, videos, articles, or whatever you want your people to be able to post.
I will show you Ning in this post. I created a few myself, but my focus is on Automotive Network. Searches for "Car Dealer Social Network" or "Auto Dealers Social Network" on Google will show that it is currently #1 as of the time of this post. The site itself has only been up for a couple of months.
Through the blog posts, through the editable text boxes, a good SEO can really create some strong, relevant links on a separate server that are under the website owner's control. It's a brilliant method from the perspective that it serves two purposes -- you can create the links with ideal anchor text and you can find like-minded people who can become partners, collaborators, contributors, or even customers.
Car dealers like Toyota Portland and Glendale Nissan will be able to connect with their customers and connections in return by building their own social networks.
Any business, automotive or not, will be able to have their own website that can rank well for their brand name (if optimized) and push down any negative blogs or reviews that also show up for the company name.
Of course, there is a cost. Time. From a financial perspective, it's perfect. It's free.
SEO with Social Media
Yesterday's news from an SEO point of view.
The use of redirection, no html in posting, nofollow, or whatever other methods that these and similar social networks are using is making them less valid for search engine optimization. They still draw some traffic depending on what you're using it for, but in reality, they don't help making your own websites rise in the rankings.
Social bookmarks are still currently strong, but it's time to to hedge bets and go somewhere between the blogs and the social bookmarking sites. It's time for personal social networks.
What is it? A personal social network is one that is created by an individual or company using Ning, Goingon, or one of the many emerging websites that offer the service. You create a site, formatting it as a blog, an RSS site, a commenting or forum site, or just about whatever you want from it.
You invite people or get found on its own merits. People can join, post photos, videos, articles, or whatever you want your people to be able to post.
I will show you Ning in this post. I created a few myself, but my focus is on Automotive Network. Searches for "Car Dealer Social Network" or "Auto Dealers Social Network" on Google will show that it is currently #1 as of the time of this post. The site itself has only been up for a couple of months.
Through the blog posts, through the editable text boxes, a good SEO can really create some strong, relevant links on a separate server that are under the website owner's control. It's a brilliant method from the perspective that it serves two purposes -- you can create the links with ideal anchor text and you can find like-minded people who can become partners, collaborators, contributors, or even customers.
Car dealers like Toyota Portland and Glendale Nissan will be able to connect with their customers and connections in return by building their own social networks.
Any business, automotive or not, will be able to have their own website that can rank well for their brand name (if optimized) and push down any negative blogs or reviews that also show up for the company name.
Of course, there is a cost. Time. From a financial perspective, it's perfect. It's free.
SEO with Social Media
Monday, July 30, 2007
Using Social Media to get Pages Indexed Quickly
Sometimes I laugh at the ads posted through banners and links on different web pages.
"We'll submit your website to 65 trillion search engines for $29."
Sometimes I just shake my head, not because it's such a scam, but because I know that people do it. That's their $29 SEO. The pay and go and wonder a few weeks later why Google has not indexed their page yet.
There are a few things you can do to get your pages indexed if your site is new. You can submit it to the search engines. This takes a while and by the time Google and the others get around to indexing submitted sites, you've probably given up on it.
There is the link purchase, where you buy a link on a PR 6 or higher websites. It works, but it costs quite a bit, especially if you're smart enough to search for relevancy.
The easiest way to get you pages indexed is to "AddThis" or whatever widget you use for social bookmarking. If you submit your site to Digg, Furl, Reddit, etc, you have made the second step towards getting your website indexed.
The first step? Be active and make friends on Digg, Furl, Redd1t, etc. There are many people who have these accounts on the SB sites, submitting their own work in a few seconds, and never exploring or making friends or anything that will actually help them. It is a time investment, but the rewards can be tremendous.
If you can make enough friends (and by friends, I mean those who mutually befriend you) by Digging their stories, the right people will befriend you and Digg your stories back. This is the key. Hoping that your one single Digg to your page or website will be enough is a stab in the dark. It may get indexed, it may not.
Friends allow you to get 10, 20, 30 or more Diggs on a story. If it gets 30 Diggs, Google will index it. If somehow it is able to go Popular, prepare for the storm of traffic.
A case in point is Portland Toyota Dealers. They are a new site that was having trouble getting indexed. Using my SB sites, I was able to get it indexed and start a nice flow of backlinks pointing to it.
If you do not want to spend a few hours per week with social bookmarking to help your SEO, you shouldn't spend any time at all.
Social Internet Marketing
"We'll submit your website to 65 trillion search engines for $29."
Sometimes I just shake my head, not because it's such a scam, but because I know that people do it. That's their $29 SEO. The pay and go and wonder a few weeks later why Google has not indexed their page yet.
There are a few things you can do to get your pages indexed if your site is new. You can submit it to the search engines. This takes a while and by the time Google and the others get around to indexing submitted sites, you've probably given up on it.
There is the link purchase, where you buy a link on a PR 6 or higher websites. It works, but it costs quite a bit, especially if you're smart enough to search for relevancy.
The easiest way to get you pages indexed is to "AddThis" or whatever widget you use for social bookmarking. If you submit your site to Digg, Furl, Reddit, etc, you have made the second step towards getting your website indexed.
The first step? Be active and make friends on Digg, Furl, Redd1t, etc. There are many people who have these accounts on the SB sites, submitting their own work in a few seconds, and never exploring or making friends or anything that will actually help them. It is a time investment, but the rewards can be tremendous.
If you can make enough friends (and by friends, I mean those who mutually befriend you) by Digging their stories, the right people will befriend you and Digg your stories back. This is the key. Hoping that your one single Digg to your page or website will be enough is a stab in the dark. It may get indexed, it may not.
Friends allow you to get 10, 20, 30 or more Diggs on a story. If it gets 30 Diggs, Google will index it. If somehow it is able to go Popular, prepare for the storm of traffic.
A case in point is Portland Toyota Dealers. They are a new site that was having trouble getting indexed. Using my SB sites, I was able to get it indexed and start a nice flow of backlinks pointing to it.
If you do not want to spend a few hours per week with social bookmarking to help your SEO, you shouldn't spend any time at all.
Social Internet Marketing
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Social Bookmarking Profile: Shadows
What is it?
Social bookmarking community, with the last word stressed. It does't have nearly the benefits that can be achieved through Digg or some of the others, but it is more enjoyable and the conversations are engrossing.
Strengths
It is extremely well organized. The pages, groups, and profiles are interesting. There are 4 links that can be placed on the profile, plus more links can be added into the biography itself. The profile page can be made into a strong linking page with enough room for lots of content.
Weaknesses
It takes a while to get indexed often and even longer to get the links page itself indexed. You can put a ton of links on the link pages, but the ones on the profile, if it is updated regularly, are the ones that can have the most effect because the profile will be indexed more often and can gain a stronger relevance through content.
Nofollow
No nofollow yet. Until the spammers find it, it should stay that way for a while.
Conclusions
Shadow takes the mundane out of social bookmarking. There is a strong sense of internet community here, so there can be real fun in doing it. I suspect it also throws some small measure of traffic towards its sites, though nothing like going popular on Digg.
Here is my Shadow Profile.
Social Bookmarking for SEO
Social bookmarking community, with the last word stressed. It does't have nearly the benefits that can be achieved through Digg or some of the others, but it is more enjoyable and the conversations are engrossing.
Strengths
It is extremely well organized. The pages, groups, and profiles are interesting. There are 4 links that can be placed on the profile, plus more links can be added into the biography itself. The profile page can be made into a strong linking page with enough room for lots of content.
Weaknesses
It takes a while to get indexed often and even longer to get the links page itself indexed. You can put a ton of links on the link pages, but the ones on the profile, if it is updated regularly, are the ones that can have the most effect because the profile will be indexed more often and can gain a stronger relevance through content.
Nofollow
No nofollow yet. Until the spammers find it, it should stay that way for a while.
Conclusions
Shadow takes the mundane out of social bookmarking. There is a strong sense of internet community here, so there can be real fun in doing it. I suspect it also throws some small measure of traffic towards its sites, though nothing like going popular on Digg.
Here is my Shadow Profile.
Social Bookmarking for SEO
Sunday, July 22, 2007
An Outside View -- Social Bookmarking Sites Rated
In my attempts to rate and classify the best bookmarking sites and ability to be used in search engine optimization, I was searching to see how my blog was ranking on the subject when I found another site that was similar.
Mine (of course) ranked higher for the term that I searched, but this is more of a generic, loosely focused site that delves in depth with one article on the ideas and concepts presented on this blog.
While I want to be known as the expert on the topic and a pioneer in the field, it never hurts to give credit to those who have also worked hard to determine the validity of this before it becomes more of a trend.
So, I will submit my first external link to a site with which I am in mild competition. Those versed in SEO will balk at this, as there are many reasons to now want to link to a "competitor", but after reading this article and others on the site, I felt it was definitely a resource for readers of this blog.
There is no shame in accepting that someone else is also doing a good job.
To read their article, please click HERE.
Social Bookmarking SEO
Mine (of course) ranked higher for the term that I searched, but this is more of a generic, loosely focused site that delves in depth with one article on the ideas and concepts presented on this blog.
While I want to be known as the expert on the topic and a pioneer in the field, it never hurts to give credit to those who have also worked hard to determine the validity of this before it becomes more of a trend.
So, I will submit my first external link to a site with which I am in mild competition. Those versed in SEO will balk at this, as there are many reasons to now want to link to a "competitor", but after reading this article and others on the site, I felt it was definitely a resource for readers of this blog.
There is no shame in accepting that someone else is also doing a good job.
To read their article, please click HERE.
Social Bookmarking SEO
Monday, July 16, 2007
Social Bookmarking Profile: Newsvine
For the intellectuals of the world, Newsvine is your Digg.
What is it?
Newsvine is a community of "Citizen Journalists" whose work rivals the mainstream news media sites. This group is not exclusive, but to have a successful "Vine" of stories and seeds, it is necessary to have an eye for news, a willingness to speak out, and a strong grasp of the English language.
Low quality work will never rise up the Vine.
Strengths
For high quality work, the rewards can be many. Because everyone gets their own sub-domain to post their work, it is possible to create a very strong stand-alone website with posts and seeds to others' work.
While it is strong at building high quality backlinks, the real benefit is the earnest traffic that can come from it. Though it won't shut down your servers, if you post something that is high-quality and thought-provoking, you can drive many people who can recognize greatness and may bookmark your site for future visits.
Unlike Digg, it is possible for a great story to work its way up the vine without having to build up a stock of friends to help it build momentum. Great stories rise of their own merits, regardless of the person who seeded or wrote the story.
With that said, longevity and having that stock of friends built up still helps.
The spam filters (i.e. self-policing Viners) are very sharp. This is great for someone who really wants to write and disastrous for spammers. A spammer can spend a lot of time and effort working their way up the vine, only to find that they were caught, deleted, and banned from the Vine forever.
Weaknesses
The competition is tight. Because so many of those who post articles are journalists with professional credentials and strength in their eloquence, it isn't easy to present the type of work that moves up quickly.
For those who are just looking for backlinks, this is not the place to go. It takes much more effort to get a story indexed and get a backlink than Digg, Furl, or some of the other "spammer friendly" websites.
Nofollow
Newsvine has no need for nofollow. Its very nature and the nature of its community does more to fight spam than a nofollow attribute could ever hope to achieve.
Conclusions
As a social bookmarking tool for SEO, Newsvine is not worth the expenditure of time and effort. For someone looking for good, quality stories and a community that rewards good, quality contributors, Newsvine is perfect.
Social Media Optimization
What is it?
Newsvine is a community of "Citizen Journalists" whose work rivals the mainstream news media sites. This group is not exclusive, but to have a successful "Vine" of stories and seeds, it is necessary to have an eye for news, a willingness to speak out, and a strong grasp of the English language.
Low quality work will never rise up the Vine.
Strengths
For high quality work, the rewards can be many. Because everyone gets their own sub-domain to post their work, it is possible to create a very strong stand-alone website with posts and seeds to others' work.
While it is strong at building high quality backlinks, the real benefit is the earnest traffic that can come from it. Though it won't shut down your servers, if you post something that is high-quality and thought-provoking, you can drive many people who can recognize greatness and may bookmark your site for future visits.
Unlike Digg, it is possible for a great story to work its way up the vine without having to build up a stock of friends to help it build momentum. Great stories rise of their own merits, regardless of the person who seeded or wrote the story.
With that said, longevity and having that stock of friends built up still helps.
The spam filters (i.e. self-policing Viners) are very sharp. This is great for someone who really wants to write and disastrous for spammers. A spammer can spend a lot of time and effort working their way up the vine, only to find that they were caught, deleted, and banned from the Vine forever.
Weaknesses
The competition is tight. Because so many of those who post articles are journalists with professional credentials and strength in their eloquence, it isn't easy to present the type of work that moves up quickly.
For those who are just looking for backlinks, this is not the place to go. It takes much more effort to get a story indexed and get a backlink than Digg, Furl, or some of the other "spammer friendly" websites.
Nofollow
Newsvine has no need for nofollow. Its very nature and the nature of its community does more to fight spam than a nofollow attribute could ever hope to achieve.
Conclusions
As a social bookmarking tool for SEO, Newsvine is not worth the expenditure of time and effort. For someone looking for good, quality stories and a community that rewards good, quality contributors, Newsvine is perfect.
Social Media Optimization
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