The Edgy Entrepreneur

Who's Linking to You? Yahoo Knows!

Links back to your website are an important part of online brand management. And while many people engage in the practice of building links, very few actually understand the value that this brings to their brand.

Sadly, we have oversimplified the benefit of many SEO techniques. We have put them in the category of "higher search rankings" without understanding their larger benefit. And with backlinks in particular, we have become so one-sided in our application that we rarely, if ever, talk about its benefits for brand research. Today, I want to spend a bit of time helping you get started gathering information and analyzing your findings.

Let's start by pulling up a list of links back to my site. There are several ways to find this information, but Yahoo seems to have the best search options with the most user friendly interface. Let's walk through an example:

Here, I have entered a search string that will pull up outside links back to my domain. You can see that I have entered a "-site:edgyentrepreneur.com" phrase. Theoretically, that will exclude interlinks from one of the posts of my site to another. In practical application, some seem to sneak by...

Yahoo returns with a list:
This is just a portion of the links for my site...I have 500+, which is a really small amount compared to my other sites. This gives me my first bit of pertinent information: I have really neglected this strategy as a way to promote the Edgy Entrepreneur brand online.

Next, I see that many of the links are from social media sites: various profiles, microblog aggregators and social bookmarking sites. This is actually a good thing, since many of my posts are about using the web to build business. The other thing that I discovered is that each time a link is posted on some of these sites, it remains in place for a significant amount of time. This is important because it helps me prioritize my link posting efforts.

Finally, I see other blogs and websites that have linked back to me. Identifying other non-social media sites that are interested in my content is an easy way to do a bit of market research. It also gives me a sense of community allies and ideas for future partnerships. And, it alerts me to negative commentary/concerns on the horizon.

Yahoo's advanced search has the ability to be much more sophisticated in its results. If you feel like playing around with the features you can drill down to a much more specific level of information. But, it isn't necessary to use all of the bells and whistles to generate valuable brand management information. Analyzing your incoming links should be at least an occasional component in your web marketing plan. Give it a try, you will be surprised at what you learn!

Social Media: Following Across Multiple Platforms

Social Media is still quite a phenomenon. We, as a culture don't really have a clear definition for what qualifies something as social media. And we haven't come close to establishing the "rules of engagement".

One of my favorite ways of exploring its boundaries is through a Twitter Poll. In a Twitter Poll, I ask a question that I have been pondering and see who is interested in a conversation. I ask a couple of clarifying questions, then I create a post about it so we can all benefit from our shared knowledge.

Recently, we had a great conversation about following people across platforms. When you see the list of all of the sites that someone has profiles, how many can you add to boost your connections, increase resources and expand your community?

@jeanannvk Thinking about the complexities of the relationships across social media. When we "find" someone do we follow them across platforms?
@jeanannvk OK, so if you follow someone across multiple platforms, when does it become too stalker-like?

MattSearles  I often do, depends on the connection though
daddyclaxton There is value in that, certainly, but I dare say it'd not be possible for 1400 people. Pick and choose what makes sense!
melinor In terms of: Follow me on Twitter, then follow my blog? Like that? Often the people I follow here end up in my Bloglines
aleta yes, if I find someone I think is interesting I will follow them across platforms but they have to be REALLY interesting.
jantallent I do the ones who really interest me. For example, I do NOT want 2 join 100 networks but cannot resist "just 1 more" from my favs

@jeanannvk See, I am thinking there is some value to following people on muliple levels, but not "major sources". ie might follow on Twitter, stumble
@jeanannvk And delicious...what's the diff between that and an aggregator like friendfeed

fmll RE: Follow - Usually not, unless I aspire to be where they are. Otherwise it's a little stalkerish and the same info repeated.
melinor If an individual advertises their various endeavors, and they all coincide with your interests, I wouldn't call it "stalking."
melinor However, rarely do I follow more than one or two instances of a person's Web presence.
jmhelms  when you only follow one person across several networks? Perhaps?

@jeanannvk Anyone following peeps across platforms because it helps them find likeminded people?
RichHopkins A cross between interaction level and intent. I follow joelcomm, & wld xplatform him, cuz he is a marketer. But I don't KNOW him


@jeanannvk ok, but hear me out...right now, I follow no one on delicious, but I want to find other entrepreneurs...can't I follow 2x?
RichHopkins  but xplatforming those I just 'peoplewatch' would be more stalker like, or at least meaningless application of those platforms.
@chloevdc well, I think maybe that's the case...can one do it without being too creepy? I think so
chloevdc If people are out there, follow wherever. Can get diff info from same person on blog v. FB v. twitter, helps to follow all, no?
RichHopkins I was thinking more LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, etc - haven't logged into Delicious in months. less intrusive than others IMO.
bluerose0907 @JeanAnnVK It depends on the person I think whether I would follow them across several platforms.

I think the results of the poll show that we still aren't sure if it is ok to follow someone on multiple social media platforms. Still, I think we are on the verge of discovering that we can optimize social media following like we can search engines. We leverage our contacts to find new information and other contacts, and we follow people we "trust" or "like" into new parts of the web.

In reality, I don't think that is much different than what we do in life outside of the web. Do I join a certain sports club or eat at recommended restaurants because my friends recommend it? Of course! And am I a member of professional groups that appeal to my mission? Sure. And I am more likely to use a particular product/service or connect with other people that are friends of my friend than I am to try something unfamiliar.

We need more research on this topic...and no doubt there will be many more conversations about it. We are still at the very beginning of understanding social media and its part in our lives...

LinkdIn Facebook Research Update

Time for the weekly update of the LinkdIn/Facebook Social Media Research effort...this stage of my research is qualitative as I am trying to get a handle on what applications are used to build business and in what ways...later, I will start working on quantative measures of actions...that's if we conclude that either application would be valuable for businesses.

Last week, I discovered ways to connect on both LinkdIn and Facebook, met new people and found out why these applications are so attractive... They essentially allow us to find and connect with people in a really targeted way. An incredibly efficient way to network and advertise. That alone may make it wise to spend a bit of time on these sites.

This week, I discovered a couple of things about Facebook...First of all, it is incredibly easy to create a contact group and to start an interactive conversation. The thread appears on your profile and all comment participants (by the way, there are 14 of you in this group) can interact with each other...a great feature for my purposes and definitely has social application potential. There is currently a conversation about uses for Facebook in a business context...and so far, everyone is drawing a clear line of distinction  between work and social, LinkdIn for the former and Facebook for the latter.

I also used the search feature to find other foodies or local people...but I found it to be hard to use and not incredibly accurate with results...still found three people to add and sent messages. I also joined 5 larger groups, none of which are in my home city of Portland. In the next week or so, I plan on adding my business to Facebook to see what results I will get.

If you would like additional reading on FB, check out Managing the Gray and Face Reviews.

LinkdIn was a bit more productive...There are 15 folks participating in LI, and I joined 6 groups, all of which are local. LinkdIn actually offers suggestions about how to use their site. I searched and found this...

Leveraging Your Group Membership

I've joined my group on LinkedIn, now what?

You now have access to a tool that allows you to fully leverage your entire personal and professional network in one simple step. Click on the link on your homepage to browse or search your fellow group members’ profiles. Information you learn about your peers’ backgrounds and expertise will be highly relevant to your professional needs and inquiries. When you have searched and found a fellow group member you wish to reach out to, you can contact that member on a 1-to-1 basis, rather than sending your requests to a mass email list.

This seemed like a great idea...so I answered a question on nonprofits and social media and made a cool connection to a nonprofit group called We Are Media. I also asked my 92 connections this question... "I am trying to understand the value of groups in LinkdIn, will you tell me your experience?"

Out of 92, I had 17 answers...which was way more than I thought I would get. An awful lot of people had no idea what to do with groups, except find college friends...some people had other ideas, like:

• Use it to research potential employees or potential contract relationships
• Building references
• Using the groups feature to connect around a specific event

Also, Micah Elliott left me a great link to his take on being a LinkdIn newbie...check it out!
I have heard that LinkdIn is in the process of adding new features...so we will see what else comes about.

I can tell you I discovered a couple of things...One, the ask a question feature, whether it is to the whole of Linkd In or your contacts, is really great. It is a prompt for interaction, one of the very few I have seen on this site. Second, I am really ambivalent about the "don't add people you don't know well" advice that is frequently offered. I mean, if I am not going to connect with people I DON'T know, why am I using this service at all? That's what Outlook is for...

More next week...