Occasionally we read something so brilliant we have to digest it twice. Jared over at Technotherapy just dissected the current ratings arm race that pits bloggers and web sites against each other. His point, to do it severe injustice, is that using social media to chase numbers -- a Top 150 Ad Blog ranking, or massive site traffic -- is the wrong objective.
Perhaps it's more important to connect with people in meaningful ways. We mean, just think of the irony; we all now have amazing tools to text thoughts, share photos, post comments, author essays, and send video ... and yet many internet users are so obsessed with fame that they spend more time trying to game the system to be perceived as popular than they do actually connecting socially with other minds.
The current ratings race also creates huge problems for marketers. It's a bit of the tragedy of the commons; if your web site isn't frantically trying to game the system with SEO content stuffing and link farming, you better believe your competitors are. This eats into the common good of quality sites, as consumers have more difficulty finding relevant content -- and your poor brand gets lost in all the clutter.
The best solution we've seen, and frankly try to practice, is to set up a blog or two related to your brand category -- but to make the content truly meaningful. Rather than tout your services, analyze trends in your industry. Provide helpful tips. Readership and interest will build more slowly, but in social media, it's not about hunting, it's about helping. Right, Jared?
2 comments:
Like steroids, everyone’s doing it.
The rankings will come if you focus on other stuff first, like, um, good content? Value of some sort, whatever that may be, etc. Pursuing rankings as an end in and of itself means people will game the system any way they can because it’s happening now on the Power 150.
Should SEO blogs that don’t talk about advertising at all really be on that list to the extent they are?
Yes, Ben--you've got it right! (just caught this today, sorry for the delay)
It IS about helping and about using the incredible away of tools we have to communicate more effectively...rather than to deceive by gaming the numbers.
I wish I could say I were perfect. I caught myself recently working harder to get some numbers up and I realized that not only was it untrue to myself but it didn't really work. Clay Collins has a really nice analysis of this thought in his post here, as well.
Thanks for sharing my article and I appreciate your adding to the discussion!
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