Required Reading For Those New To Social Media

My friends continuously ask me what they need to do to get their website/blog up and running. In my next post I am going to give step by step instructions. Before you can jump into the online world it help if you have context. The following is my required reading/doing list so you are in touch with today's Internet.

Be familiar with these sites/Have an account with these sites:

Myspace: Myspace is the wild west of the Internet. Its where teen and the pedophiles that stock them, come together. Myspace has become a news entertainment industry favorite. I believe that the stores about kids getting in trouble on Myspace are more a product of lack of education that people out to do harm. Someone entering the SEO world need to be familiar with Myspace and its history. It is important to note that you can use code to edit your Myspace profile, while that is not allowed on may other social networking sites. Google seems to sporadically crawl Myspace.

Facebook: Facebook is Myspace's biggest competitor. The users of Facebook should feel more secure in knowing that they are not being watched by pedophiles, but Facebook itself. Facebook has gotten itself in trouble for tracking it users a little to far. While some of their features have beencontriversial, they seem to be the social networking technology leader. If you have been watching the changes to Myspace's UI, you will know they have been taking pages from Facebook's book. It is important to note that Google does not crawl Facebook in a way that would be useful to a SEO.

Linked In: Facebook for professionals. Linked In much like Digg and Sphinn seems to have a special relationship with Google. Your public profile will get crawled and when your name is Googled, you will get greatSERP (search engine results page) rankings.

Digg: This is the most popular social bookmarking site on the web. Digg's categories cover a broad range of topics but mostly the stories appealing to geeky boys get Dugg (if that is the right way of spelling it). Digg is very important to SEO. Google seems to index its content continiously. When I submitted the first Anzel Online posting to Digg, Anzel Online was in Google's index in under an hour. There are tons of sites like this StumbleUpon is another. Flicker is like Digg but for photos.

Sphinn: This is a nitche social bookmarking site. They are mostly focused on search marketing. If you need to learn a lot about search marketing fast, this is the place. Try not to get bogged down in the endless discussions on SEO celebrity and [insert number here] [insert SEO task here] lists.

Be subscribed to these podcasts:

Diggnation: This is two guys who sit on a couch, getting wasted and talking about stories on Digg. This podcast is incredibly popular. This is a great example of how a home grown podcast can get big. In addition this podcast is seriously entertaining. It took me a while to get into it but now I am hooked.

Wine Library TV: Guess what this podcast is about. Try not to turn him off in the first thirty seconds. This guy took his family business from a $5 million to a $45 million business and the podcast is a large part of that. Obviously the guy is a great business man.Insted of attempting to use the podcast to (as Diggnation does) to sell products for other people, Gary is out selling his own business. Another good item to note: I watch WLTV through iTunes , Gary prefers that people watch the podcast on his website and does a great job of encouraging that behavior (watch is and you will see what I mean). He also does a truly stellar job of community building. Gary is you ever read this: what percentage of you community members purchase from your online store? I would bet that that number is a lot higher than other online retailers.

Start Using these online tools:

Blogger: You want a blog? Start here. So easy and with a little work can be integrated into any website. If you must host your own service check out WordPress. Blogger is owned by Google.
Feedburner: FeedBurner is another Google property. Feedburner is packed with tons of cool features that help promote and analyze you posts.
Google Analytics: Google Analytics is one kick ass analytics program. By placing tags on all your pages (or just one on your template, if you are using Blogger) you can see exactly where people are going and what they are doing.
Google Reader: Start using a RSS reader and subscribe to blogs. This blog might be a good start. At work I read over a hundred posts a day that relate to my industry.
iTunes: iTunes is a great tool for watching podcasts.

Search Engines:

Google: The search giant. If you don't already use Google you probably live is a cave. Where Google goes, the search industry follows. If you are thinking of doing business with Google it is worth while to understand their culture, it truly effects everything they do.
Yahoo: Yahoo is the only player still standing on its own (although that could change as Yahoo is acquisition bait) from the PG (pre-Google) world. They are number two and there are differences between Yahoo and Google. It would be a good idea to try to understand the history.