SEO is a Social Activity :)

Thanks for the video, I like how you talk about the internet needing more real good information and real conversation. I have always kind of looked at SEO in a more technical way, now that has changed, if you have real good useful stuff to put in front of people, then just put it out there and that's what I'm trying to achieve now.
the hard part is to try to sell directly using SEO.
How would you tackle that if you have a store and would like to use mainly SEO to promote it?

I have an answer but would like to see other people's perspectives on it:
I would go about creating some crazy campaign using all sorts of mediums, like distributing press releases (these should be about news concerning my industry), creating a dedicated blog (build the brand, start some sort of a community of followers and most importantly promote the store), a systematic link building campaign (this one not too aggressive). Again, I'm trying to build a natural campaign, I believe all these mediums will result in inbound links back to the blog and the store. Also create a content rich website with very useful information that will try to upsell to customers (not the main goal though).
Let me know what you think Aaron, and if you could please write about this in a separate post, that would be even better.

Thanks

Popularity Breeds Popularity: I got in the game as the method of thinking behind SEO was beginning to make this shift. SEO's are more like those Alicia Silverstones who give clueless a makeover tutorial so she'll get voted into prom court. Of course it makes no sense to write "prom queen" "best prom queen" and "buy online prom queen" all over her body, right?

If you found the advice in the Tipping Point useful and valuable, you might want to check out a new book called 'Yes!' by the author Robert Cialdini. Cialdini wrote an excellent book 'Influence: The Power of Persuasion'. Both books analyse why people make the decisions they do. The insights he shares are very useful for website owners, particularly as online marketing moves away from mechanical to social activity.

The Amazon link to the book is: http://www.amazon.com/Yes-Scientifically-Proven-Ways-Persuasive/dp/14165...

Great post! I think we need also esteem toward each other.

Wiep wrote a good piece on research that gives a little more detail on doing research on social communities; it meshes nicely with your video:
Researching and Brainstorming for Linkworthy Content

On a related note, re: popularity breeds popularity. When I posted that I'd crossed the 200 subscriber mark, 68 more people subscribed from that post's subscription link, to date (using Click Audit clicktracking to measure). Similar good things (like Lee Odden's adding me to his Top List) also happened recently as I've gotten positive attention from different sources. Popularity DEFINITELY breeds popularity (and I'm at 700+ subs now ;D

Aaron, nice voice. Let's see the picture!

Are you going Social?

I think Google is history, today it is all about social media networking!

Just do not become Shel Israel the news guy, but be Shel Israel the Muppet!

Great job Aaron but I have a doubt concerning the low quality links. Aren´t they useful at the beggining of a new site? I believe in selective linkbuilding, but I guess that first we have to go to the basics, and in linkbuilding, isn´t it having a lot of inbound links?

Hi Aaron,

Just thought you'd like a translation of that Russian page but when I looked it was cut off and hard to read -- can you post the URL I'll let you know what they're saying (from what I can tell it's 100% positive).

Cheers
Michael

Erm...I don't know whether its only me....but I don't think the links on the presentation are click able.

Why does the video ends all of a sudden?... without the usual 'thank you stuff'? Is it the complete version?

I loved the whole presentation! It would be gr8 to see some more videos soon.

Aaron, your video is great content, thanks. I especially appreciated the reminder about Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. It's been some time since I've read it, but the content is very valuable as it applies to SEO and the online community.

I think your video is great and goes over a lot of good points. Web 2.0 is the new and hot thing and the biggest sites are social based i mean myspace facebook wikipedia. People naturally like a place to fit in and what better place to do it then in online communities. Wikipedia is so big because it has users contribute information and so the database is like a person's brain it keeps getting bigger and having more input daily.

excellent video Aaron, I can't believe I missed that post about the leaked google docs.

Hey there!

Congratulations for the video! Pretty good information.

I'd only like to mention that some "Mechanical SEO" is still worthy. Like Writing relevant titles (for title tags and h1 tag) and writing good anchor texts for links.

Successful SEO as an outcome of social behavior, a/k/a "~social link building", parallels "social link building" of the pre-Web era.

Before there was the WWW marketers and business development consultants advised people to "Get involved". By joining a Kiwanas, Rotary or Lion's Club, joining Cub/Boy/Girl Scouts, running for public office or "getting politically involved", attending religious services, posting an "letter to the editor" in the local newspaper, pamphletting, etc. people developed or accumulated "social links". Clearly, those links or connections had value and utility in life and in business. People have always been link builders, some moreso than others.

Before the WWW people wondered to themselves: "Is this person here, shaking my hand, here because he/she really likes me or wants to get to know me or befriend me OR is this person simply gunning for my vote or trying to sell me something?" The very same "link building issues" hold true today online.

There are very few internet marketing discoveries or insights that, to my aged mind, are anything more than pre-Web behaviors reinterpreted through the eyes of internet marketers. Everything new is old. Everything old is new. Social link building online tracks social link building of pre-Web generations. We've just expanded and/or reinterpreted ideas, such as proximity and community.

In social settings I will still be drawn - and likely to "link to" - intelligence, insight, character, wit, honesty, etc. I will still do my best to intuit other motives in social engagements. And, as we are slowly realizing, there are limits to the actualization of social intent that require clarity to "live" authentically online. There is my friend from college, whom I haven't seen in years but I would still trust him with the keys to my house. Then there are those who count their "friends online" in the 100s or 1000s who might not be as welcome in the real house.

For all the coaching about "getting involved" with social media there are still cues and qualities that will help clarify who is involved for their own gain and who is participating as an expression of principals of their "better self".

Quality links. Quality relationships. Qualities of human beings we encounter. There is and always will be a connection.

Interesting topic - SEO as an online social behavior. Evokes issues of web reputation management and the "~fact" that unlike link building in the real world news travels farther, faster and tends to stick around a lot longer on the WWW. Social SEO may be as much a hazard as a utility to the SEO, SMM, etc.

Thanks for the great comment Webwork. Exactly what I was trying to say, but with insights from the marketplace before my day. :)

The mixing of antiques and modernity can sometimes make for more interesting "living spaces". ;-P

Your all videos are very simple and very easy to understand. Thanks!