We talked about the importance of quality content and how that’s the key to combining social media and long-term SEO benefits for increased traffic. Today let’s explore some simple ideas in content marketing (yeah yeah, another stupid social media related buzzword tossed around). We’ll look at things you can do to improve your site’s content to build more organic links both inside and outside of social media, leading to better rankings and more traffic. Let’s get to it.

What is “Content?”

Sometimes the issue of quality content is a simple one — people don’t have a full grasp of what that content includes. Some, for example, limit their view of “content” to mean the text on their sites. But it’s much more than that. Your content might include:

• Web copy
• Blog posts / Articles
• Audio
• Video
• Apps / Software downloads
• Games
• Comics
• White Papers
• E-books / Reports
• Forms / Worksheets / Templates

I’m sure you can think of more. Your “content” is everything that appears on your site.For example, on my freelance writing blog we feature a blog with several contributors, an audio play series, a new job board, forums, free downloadable worksheets and templates, online calculators and tools, and e-books. We’re also planning to launch a podcast series based on the blog posts (audio versions readers can take with them) and a screencast video series for tutorials.

I turned a basic blog into a “resource site.” And that’s one of the best tips I can give Damon or anyone else when it comes to improving social media sharing and SEO at the same time.

Why Resource Sites Work

The old digital brochure type of website just doesn’t cut it anymore. The Web gets more competitive every day. In both SEO and social media, it’s therefore important to stand out. Converting your website into a resource site can help you do that.

People love to bookmark, share, and link to resources they find useful or entertaining. The more of this content you provide, the better your chances of ranking well in search engines and getting visitors to interact with you via social media outlets. A typical website or blog can be just fine for some niches. But in others a more comprehensive resource site allows you to reach a broader audience.

Remember, people don’t only learn in different ways. They’re also entertained in different ways, and they make buying decisions based on different factors. The more people in your target audience your content can appeal to, the better you’re likely to rank in search engines and the more they’re likely to spread the word via social media.

Pick and choose from the list of content types I’ve included here, or add your own suggestions in our comments. What works with your website’s audience? What kinds of content can you add or improve? As promised, in our next post, I’ll offer some specific suggestions for Damon’s website.

The only way I was willing to bring back Social Realist was to push back. This isn’t a blog centered around industry commentary. I’m going back to the site’s roots instead, with an emphasis on people who want to use social media for themselves or their businesses in a more independent way.

While you’ll still find some occasional social media commentary here (because let’s face it, there’s an active stupidity cycle in social media) it won’t be the main focus. You’ll instead find many more tutorials, resource suggestions, the occasional review, and answers to reader questions. The site will also still touch on PR issues, but will not look at social media exclusively through a PR practitioner’s eyes. It’s about personal networking, marketing, customer service, PR, sales, and so much more. And we’ll look at all of it in time, starting this week as we dive into the issue of driving traffic through combined social media and SEO without coming across as just another spammy schmuck.

So there’s your heads up — what you can expect here at Social Realist moving forward. It might not be the right fit for all of our readers, but I hope to see most of you stick around. And don’t worry. Less commentary doesn’t mean I’m going soft. My bullshit tolerance meter stands firm at zero.

I’m still moving a few other sites over in coming days, but assuming no major problems, we should get back to a regular post schedule here next week after all of this maintenance is complete.

I mean, I know you tried really really hard to create an awesome alternative retweet function, but you failed miserably by cutting out the ability to add our own commentary and haven’t yet addressed the issue. Until you do, I can’t blame anyone for using old school RTs.

Still, when I block someone it’s for a reason. I don’t need fake, conniving, desperate little twits appearing in my feed after they’ve been blocked — at all. People don’t need to see their exes, former clients and employers, or former friends showing up either. A block should indeed be a block — cutting off all connection.

Please don’t tell me Twitter’s only answer is that third parties can only be “friends” with one or the other in a blocked relationship. That’s so high school. So saying we can just unfollow people who retweet things we don’t want to see is not an answer.

So pretty pretty please with five whole cherries on top, Twitter will you finally make your “block” feature work 100%? Even 95% would be honky dory.

Sincerely,

Me

Today I want to share a few of my favorite examples of the lies I’ve seen through social media. Then I’d like to hear your thoughts. Does social media make people more likely to lie, or does it just attract those who are already full of shit? And what kinds of lies do you see most often via social media outlets?

Social Media Lies: 5 Examples

I’m not even talking about major corporations or politicians here. I want to focus more on everyday folks — my own colleagues in some cases. With that in mind, here are some examples of lies I’ve seen in social media:

1. Post and Comment Deletions — I’ve seen colleagues in the freelance writing, PR, and social media world all be guilty of this. For example, one colleague used to delete old posts sharing an opinion, and then in new posts they’d claim they never said those things in the first place. Others delete things like negative blog comments and then act like everyone agrees with them. Both are a crock. And both are easily caught. Remember, readers can subscribe to comments or posts including via email. You never know who still has an archive of your old material.
2. Mysterious Changing Stats — Some people are attention-seekers. Others constantly seek validation. In one case there was a colleague in the latter group. They posted in a comment on a popular blog that they spent X hours per day on something for their own readers. When they didn’t get the oohing and aahing responses rolling in, within days that story changed. On another site that number magically increased. They were suddenly doing more, and “deserving” of more praise and adoration. I guess they forgot when you post on sites in the same niche chances are good the sites or blogs have shared readers.
3. False Identities — I don’t generally consider handles themselves to be lies, especially when your handle can be tied to your real name in some way or at least you use it consistently as your online identity. But the same colleague I mentioned above took that a step further. On another colleague’s blog they were being criticized. So they commented. And that’s fine. They were invited to do just that. But then they went too far. They commented again, this time anonymously. I’ve had people do this on my own blog and have tracked down this variety of troll on more than one occasion. It’s often the people you’d least expect, and it can be pretty disappointing when you find out how dishonest even well-known people in your social network can be. The idea is simple. If people aren’t backing up their point, they comment anonymously or under another handle or name to provide false support for their post or previous comments. That’s dishonesty plain and simple. And it always makes me stop reading a person’s blog. After all, if they would lie in that way on someone else’s blog, who’s to say they don’t do the same thing on their own to make it look like they have more readers, commenters, or supporters? Pathetic.
4. False Credentials – Lying about credentials isn’t new to social media. People have “embellished” resumes for ages. But it does seem more widespread now. Just consider the wave of self-proclaimed social media gurus for example. People twist something small (like follow-spamming their way to 10,000 Twitter followers) into an expert status in social media. I had one colleague use a social community to blatantly lie to prospective clients claiming they had a degree when they didn’t. They were called out on it and tried to say they never claimed that in the first place. Funny thing about the social Web is archives are usually still publicly available somewhere. After being exposed, this person practically dropped off the face of the earth. And really, is it worth potentially permanently damaging your career for a quick buck? Never. Another example was pretty laughable. Someone publicly advertised in a community offering press release writing services. They claimed major corporations flew them all over the country to write their releases. You can call bullshit right there. But forgetting that others in the community can see their public ad (beyond their prospects) this person messaged me privately since they knew I also offered the service. They admitted they were a kid working out of their parent’s place, and they practically begged me for advice on getting started. Um, yeah. Why people lie like this is beyond me. They will be found out, even if not usually through their own stupidity of admitting it.
5. Claims of Uber-Success — Sometimes these lies are rolled up into others, like false credentials. It’s a popular one in the freelance game. One time, for example, I came across a writer claiming they earned six figures. No big deal. Plenty do. But this person was using that as a way to attract more readers, attention, and business. So I looked at their business site. It never hurts to see what other successful colleagues are doing. Imagine my surprise when I saw their rate list and their “claim to fame” was $10 articles. That comes to more than 27 articles every single day — no weekends, no holidays, no sick time, no nothing. Yeah. Right.

The thing is, many people don’t check on claims. One of the biggest repeat liars I’ve seen in the blogosphere still has a loyal following because people just don’t pay attention. Others, like me, haven’t exposed them yet because we don’t want to deal with the shark-like following where any negative comments turn into you-bashing, claiming you’re just jealous. It’s juvenile. It’s also amusing though when they think other colleagues don’t exchange these stories and see what’s going on. In the end, it does catch up to you. In my experience thus far this seems to be a bigger issue in the blogosphere than anywhere else.

And that’s just looking at the professional side of things. I know marriages that have broken up over social media enabling lying and cheating. Yikes.

So what about you? What kinds of lies in social media bother you the most? What seem to be most common these days? Do you think one outlet supports liars more than others? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

I came across an article this morning on Twitter that discussed how companies are overvaluing Facebook “likes.” And I agree with that completely. In the end a “like” doesn’t equal a customer. It doesn’t even mean you have a lead. Hell, I could “like” a $40 million dollar mansion or a $10,000 designer dress or the new 2011 Porsche 911. It doesn’t mean I’m in the market for it. I could “like” a website after reading one good article, and not give two shits about ever going back there. In the end, a “like” means very little.

Actually, a “like” is just another way of whipping out your trusty litter ruler to see who’s bigger than who. It’s not new. It’s the same thing we see with Twitter spammers — the type who follow tens of thousands of people they know they can’t realistically follow because they’re hoping to either get or keep followers of their own. It’s all about who appears to have more friends, fans, followers, or whatever you want to call them today — who has the biggest list. And in the end, it doesn’t really matter.

Large generic groups of people “liking” you or “following” you aren’t nearly as valuable as a smaller group of people with a genuine and regular interest in what you have to say, sell, or do. But somewhere in this social media mix we lost the concept of targeting. And over the years we’ve failed to get it back.

At this point I’m little more than embarrassed for the “social media professionals” that participate in these popularity contests or convince their clients that they should care about them. It’s no wonder social media’s taking so long to be adopted fully as a normal part of business. They’re still missing the mark. And who’s actually benefiting from the hype around these popularity-based lists, “likes,” and such? The social media sites that came up with (or stumbled into) friggin’ amazing linkbait tactics to drive their own traffic.

1. NakedPR.com Redirects — All old NakedPR.com links (or at least all posts and pages) should be redirecting properly to their new homes here on the Social Realist blog. If you still come across any errors, please let me know so I can update those redirects.
2. Closed Comments on Old Posts — When Social Realist was still NakedPR, the blog went into a nearly year-long retirement phase. During that time I closed comments on old posts because I simply didn’t have the time to monitor them anymore. I plan to slowly re-open comments on some of those old posts, but I want to let you know up front that they will remain closed on a few. More specifically comments will remain closed on any particularly heated posts (or ones attracting particularly heated comments), because I don’t have the patience to deal with new comments on outdated posts, given my experience that people rarely look close enough to see something might no longer be valid. So if you’re new to this content because you weren’t familiar with the blog under its old brand, comments should be open on most old posts over the course of the next few weeks.

That seems to be one of the most popular social media strategies out there, especially with small business owners. I mean, they hear about this online-face-book-thing and how it can drive mad traffic to their site, so they sign up. They spend a few minutes setting up a profile. Maybe they update it for a while or hire someone to do it for them.

Then they hear about this thing with the birdie and how typing short messages in 140 characters or less can send them even more traffic. And it must be great for marketing if Oprah’s on there, right? So they set up a Twitter account. And they post a few tweets. They stick with it for a while, or again maybe they hire someone to do it for them.

But they forget something — the plan. What are their goals? Are they looking for direct sales conversions? Subscribers to their site or blog? What?

I’ve had clients and prospects alike talk to me about managing their Twitter accounts. In most cases I refuse. And it’s for the same reason — they have no plan, not even a clue as to what they hope to get from it. They just want to wing it. They want to throw money at social media and “see what happens.” Then they’re always disappointed.

Now I don’t do social media consulting anymore, so I don’t have to deal with a lot of this thankfully — not anymore at least. But it feels like the same “let’s just wing it” strategy so prevalent a couple of years ago hasn’t changed all that much for the little guys. And I have to wonder, in all the effort to land the big corporate clients and pull them on into social media, are small (especially online) businesses being left behind?

I’m sure there are some great case studies out there. But they don’t represent the overall trends I’ve seen. As a professional dealing with social media issues, have you witnessed something different?

Grow the f*ck up!

And now onto some lighter topics in social media land.

I wanted to bring NakedPR back with its usual frequent focus on social media issues, but minus the PR-specific focus. The old brand wouldn’t make that easy. So I’ve decided to rebrand the old blog as Social Realist.

The style will remain much like that of NakedPR — blunt, assertive, and with a take-no-crap attitude. We’ll look at both the business and personal sides of social media, from news to how-tos to good old fashioned rants when I see something happening that I feel I need to speak out about.

If you were already subscribed to NakedPR, the feed was automatically forwarded to the new domain. You can choose to subscribe to the current feed via the links in the sidebar if you prefer for whatever reason. If you were actively linking to NakedPR, please update your links. While I will redirect everything from the old site to its new home here shortly, I make no promises that those redirects will last indefinitely as I haven’t yet decided what I’m going to do with the NakedPR brand in the more distant future.

If you have questions about the change or run into any trouble with the new site, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment on a post here, email me at jenn@socialrealist.com, or hit me up on Twitter @queryfreewriter. (Note that my Twitter account is predominantly for personal use and networking with freelance writing colleagues — I don’t heavily discuss social media issues there.)

If you’re interested in hearing more of my thoughts on social media issues, I’m also the Editor and primary blogger at SocialImplications.com. You can find recent posts on these topics from me there.

Welcome to SocialRealist.com! We’ll kick some discussions off next week with one of the more dangerous sides of social media — social media’s role in extreme cyber-bullying among today’s youth.