It’s not me it’s you.

No but seriously, it’s you. It’s your fault. You’ve lost that lovin’ feelin’.

Since Twitter went mainstream, I can’t seem to figure out if I LOVE or HATE Twitter. The value for me is fading. I get so tired of going through the crap trying to be shoved down my throat, not to mention the always pleasant automated DM’s.

Don’t get me wrong, Twitter has it perks but it also has it’s downs.

If you’re reading this, how are you using Twitter currently?

Is it valuable?

Or becoming annoying?

This mouth watering & appetizing SEO goodness is another component to the “Rockstar SEO Series” brought to you by JR Farr. If you’re loving it, be sure to share it to everyone you think would find value in it!

Now let’s dive right in!

Are you Paying Attention to What’s Happening Off your Site?

If you’re not, you should be. If you are, well… good on ya With the emergence of Social Media, anyone and everyone can talk about your brand or product. This can be looked at in a negative or positive way. I think it’s all positive.

For one, you now have the customer feedback you’ve always wanted at your fingertips and you can interact with them in seconds. Secondly, it’s now making it possible for anyone to build up one of the single most important aspects of SEO. What am I referring to? Drum roll please…

Backlinks my fellow Rockstars, Backlinks.

Most people that have danced in the SEO arena would argue that “backlinks” (sites linking back to your site) are in fact, one of the single most important aspects to your SEO campaigns.

Why are backlinks so important?

For starters, backlinks are important because search engines like Google, will give more credit to websites that have a good number of quality backlinks. Google then considers those websites more relevant among the results of any given search query. Just remember it’s not always the quantity but the quality of the backlinks your site has. Getting links back to your site does a number of things:

• Raising your page rank.
• Building your site as an authority.
• And of course, gives you more exposure.

So how does Social Media Create Backlinks to my site?

Well in a way, your readers use Social Media to sort of guide the search engines to what content is really unique & fresh.

With the new social media component, your readers now have a vote in telling the search engines if your content is all that and a bag of chips. When you create something valuable, those votes (e.g. links, tweets, bookmarks) really get your SEO efforts cookin’.

In other words, your readers have loads of platforms to re-syndicate your content in a viral way.What are these platforms?

• They can use social bookmarking sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, Delicious and more to share your content with more viewers. Creating a link back to your original content and giving you exposure to thousands.
• They can tweet or re-tweet it via Twitter.
• Bloggers & publishers can link to your article from their site, blog or forum. Gotta love that

Ok, so what control do I have in using Social Media do to boost my SEO efforts?

Well here’s a live example. From a personal branding standpoint, look what happens when you Google “JR Farr”. Starting from the first ranking, my brand name is fortunately taking up the entire first page of Google. Now, I know that example was pretty simple but even Social Media at it’s simplest form can be very powerful.

There’s more backlinking strategies that this Rockstar SEO Series will cover so I don’t want to go too far off subject.

What about you? Have you seen a boost in SEO rankings from Social Media?

I sure hope you’re already enjoying the Rockstar SEO Series. Don’t be afraid to chime in or leave feedback on how you’re using Social Media to boost SEO. Remember to Follow JR Farr on Twitter or Subscribe to my RSS Feed so you don’t miss a post!

This is what really busting my chops… over the last few months Twitter has hit mainstream and it’s off the chain. Along with Twitter, there’s also Facebook, YouTube and every other social network out there that are growing bigger and bigger everyday. This is all fine and dandy but now we’ve got every person on Twitter claiming they’re social media expert. Really? You’re kidding me right? So after a few months of “tweeting your tweets” and setting up a Facebook account you’re now a Social Media expert!?

I’m no expert that’s for sure and I’ve got plenty of learning to do still. If you want to see an expert in Social Media go read Chris Brogans’ blog.

Maybe I’m being a bit too harsh but if you agree with me can you let me know so I don’t think I’m crazy.

The point is, I think there’s a different Twitterer in all of us.

So why type of Twitter User are you?

When I asked this question on Twitter, here are a few of the responses I got:

I think it’s important to know this. With the power that is behind Twitter it is important to continue your social interaction with Twitter. If you’ve setup an account and you’re not using it then you’re missing out.

Here’s my take on the different Twitter Users

The Observer

You tend to sit back and watch the conversations take place. You occasionally update a new tweet or even reply to someone. This is not effective and of course, it’s not social. You’re wasting your time by doing this. Get in the conversation and make some new friends. You’d be surprised how many cool people are out there.

The Socializer

This is the type of Twitter Follower everyone loves. They’re responsive, always have great tweets throughout the day and for the most part they are a good Twitterer. Just beware, you give your fellow Twitterers some breathing room. There are some Socializers that update and reply so often, that they begin to take up your first 2 pages of your tweets. All in all the socializer is a great Twitterer.

The No Follower

The Twitterer that wants everyone to follow him/her but doesn’t feel the need to follow you back. I understand it to a certain extent. Once you get to a certain amount of people you’re following it can be difficult to maintain your profile. This is your “Results not typical” Twitterer. Unless you’re some amazing human being or have a huge brand don’t count on this happening to you. You’re fellow Twitterers will eventually start falling off and you’ll regret not following them.

The Replier

I enjoy having “The Replier” as a follower. It’s nice to be able to ask a question for genuine feedback and know you’ll get some answers. If this is you, just don’ forget the either side of it. Are you leveraging Twitter the same way. Don’t be afraid to use your Twitter followers as your feedback team. In fact, if you are a replier, chances are your fellow followers will be more inclined to “return the favor” for always being social with them.

The Automated Robot

Now, there are 2 scenarios how the automated robot twitterer interacts with his/her followers.

1. When you follow him/her you get the automated message right in your inbox. Usually it’s something like this. “Hey thanks for following, now check out my blog. (Insert Link to blog)”
2. You know what their tweets look like. The ones that take the 140 characters of the post and add the link to the rest of the post. They didn’t take the time to write out an interesting title to have you click the link. If you don’t have time to write 140 characters and paste a link then you need to really look at your schedule.

Why do I care what type of Twitter User I am?

The truth is, there is no right or wrong way to use Twitter. I think all of the different types of Twitter users are great in their own ways. If you can focus on all the different ways to leverage Twitter as a “Twitter User” then that is when you can get the full power out of Twitter. You become intriguing to follow, you provide feedback, you get feedback, people enjoy reading your tweets, etc.

So possibly taking a little bit of all the different types of Twitter users is a good thing.

• It’s good to observe, but don’t forget to join in the conversation
• It’s good to not take on too many followers but still be curtious
• It’s good to reply but don’t make that all that you do.
• It’s not good to be automated. This is a social network, knock it off and start being social.

I know there are plenty of different variations of how people use Twitter but I think this post covered a big portion of them.

What are your thoughts? Don’t you think it’s important to work on being a better Twitter user?

“What is the point of Twitter?”

Hopefully this helps shed some light on that question and shows you just how cool and powerful Twitter really is.  Hope you enjoy!

Please leave any feedback!

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P.S. Follow Me on TWITTER

My main goal of this post… How these 2 are connected and why they are beneficial.

I don’t want to assume that everyone knows what a Lifestream is, or what Social Media is.  So, I thought I would do a brief post about what the foundations are of Social Media and what a lifestream is.  By the end of this, I hope you see why it’s beneficial.

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It’s all centered around Social Sites

Click to view LARGE IMAGE

Photo Credit – Brian Solis

So you’ve probably heard of several types of social networking sites such as:

• Digg
• Stumble Upon
• Flickr
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• And 100′s More…

All of these sites are some way or another considered social sites.  Each consist of thousands of members that have the ability to interact with each other in several different ways… from a social standpoint of course.

Let’s look at a few examples…

Facebook – Allows you to interact with people all over the world.  You create a profile of yourself and basically create your personal brand.  You can share all types of info as you wish.  Share photos, personal info, your business info, etc.

Flickr – Allows you to interact with other members of the site but through pictures.  Say you’re a photographer and you post your portfolio work on your Flickr account.  You work is now scattered throughout millions of people on Flickr and is literally in front of thousands of eyeballs.  It’s quite fascinating when you think about.

Digg – How Digg works. Everything on Digg — from news to videos to images — is submitted by the community (that would be you). Once something is submitted, other people see it and “Digg” what they like best. If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of our visitors to see.  Thus, creating loads of traffic to your website

When focused, this is considered Social Media Optimization

Basically, when you interact with several different types of social networks you are promoting your personal brand or your company. These social sites have thousands of visitors a day and with how granular they are you can have instant qualified traffic.

Here is a detailed explanation of Social Media Optimization from Wikipedia.

Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, adding a “Digg This” button, blogging and incorporating third party community functionalities like Flickr photo slides and galleries or YouTube videos. Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily the focus on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO.

Social media optimization is in many ways connected as a technique to viral marketing where word of mouth is created not through friends or family but through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites. In a similar way the engagement with blogs achieves the same by sharing content through the use of RSS in the blogsphere and special blog search engines such as Technorati.

Social Media optimization is considered an integral part of an Online Reputation Management (ORM) or Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) strategy for organizations or individuals who care about their online presence.

Lifestream takes all of your social efforts and combines them

If you take a look at my lifestream, you’ll see that it displays all types of updates from what I have done in any given day.  Based off the social sites that I have accounts setup with, it displays my day in reverse chronological order.  Visitors to your site/lifestream will get a sense of what interests you, what your promoting and start to see your personality.

Here is another example of a good buddy of mine – View Aaron Dommer’s Lifestream

What’s the outcome of it all?

On a personal level

When creating a brand, whether it be personal or a company there needs to be a foundation.  People want to know the origin of where you came from or what you stand for.  As people follow you or connect with you on these social sites, it gives you the opportunity to bring out your or your companies personality.  This allows each visitor to engage with what you’re doing.

They become familiar with your face, see what your interests are and are more intrigued to follow you and what you’re doing.

As far as traffic and SEO efforts

Using Social Media to gain leverage on your website traffic and SEO is a must nowadays.  These social sites again have authority throughout the search engines and again bring in thousands of visitors.  Add the 2 together and you’re creating backlinks to your sites and gaining more exposure to your site.

Lifestream is a reciprical

On the flipside, when you bring a unique visitor your site, you can have the process run the otherway.  People can instantly follow what you’re doing and gather a sense of who you are.

I sure hope this shed some light

Social Media is something that can be very powerful.  You can promote anything and everything.  Use these social sites to give exposure to your companies products/services, your business partners, friends and family.  They’ll praise you for it and it will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside

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If this did help or if you have any other suggestions about the benefits of Social Media leave some feedback!

It’s much appreciated

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P.S. – You can Follow Me on TWITTER.