Generating social proof of value). The above message is never stated in the various "correlation analysis" charts that aim to prove the value of social media to SEO. Given how easy it is to manipulate social media, even if they are not doing well it is easy for someone like Ellory Bennette to sell the image of success. Noise vs Signal There are loads of ways to create a core baseline social "signal" on the cheap. Newt services & tools out there targeting all the social networks & free hosts: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Blogspot, Wordpress, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg, Pligg.

And even Pinterest. Given how Newt got "called out" for having fake followers, I wouldn't be surprised to see some marketers buying fake followers for other convenient targets to create a story to sell. Selling a Bag of Smoke While composing this, a spam email hit my inbox stating the following: It's a fact: more Phone Number Data people find out about your business on Facebook or Twitter than on search engines. Making these sites work maybe tricky for you, but it s business as usual for us. Let us improve your visibility and enhance your image. It s part of our complete Internet Marketing package. We ll be more than your friends --- we ll be your partners." Social metrics are easily gamed. If you just want numbers not only are they sold by the social networks as ad.



Units, but they can be had in bulk on sites like Fiverr. Probably the best comment I have ever read about the "bag of smoke" concept was from Will Spencer: SEO's like to sell social signals as ranking factors because social media marketing is an easy product to deliver while collecting good profit margins. The fact that it doesn't work... doesn't seem to bother those people. The "good guys" in the SEO business aren't the people who parrot Google's lies to a wider audience; the "good guys" in the SEO business are the guys who make their clients money. Ignorance of Relevancy Search engines may put out research about social networks like Twitter, but would Google count Twitter as a primary relevancy signal without owning Twitter? Color me.