Search 3.0: Susan Boyle Links Her Way to Stardom
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Written By Noah Mallin | April 20, 2009 | Share This
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Yep, I got Susan Boyle’s name in the headline of the post – and now the first paragraph. I’ve now joined hundreds of thousands of bloggers who have done the same, illustrating one of the most interesting new principles to emerge from Search 3.0.
In Search 2.0, optimizing for search engines was achieved in part by link building and sharing with other websites. While this is still a valid part of strategy in Search 3.0, the new wrinkle is that the platform size and strength has moved up a level from individual websites to social media sites, interlinked and connected loosely with each other and directly through well-optimized profiles.
Thus, I saw the video of Susan Boyle singing on Britain’s Got Talent through Twitter, but four days later my wife saw it on Facebook. Other people were exposed to it on YouTube first (where a single clip has received an astounding 33 million views, with several other clips cresting the million view mark) or via blog posts like this one. Add to this the plethora of coverage about her that has sprouted up in media on and offline - which are spawning even more links.
The spread of the video was organic for the most part but the lesson here for marketers is the flipside of what we talked about with social media slosh and the Domino’s Pizza debacle last week. Marketers can take advantage of the growing symbiotic relationship all of these social networks have with each other to promote their brands and their message.
Social media profiles are one of the most important building blocks to achieve this. Brands need to have a visible presence in Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and on relevant sites where people are likely to talk about them in forums.
The next step is often overlooked: Link your profiles together. Crosslinking them increases their cross-platform power and helps profiles to rank higher on search engine reply pages. Remember, engines are ranking social media profiles in results in part based on the power and quality of the links coming in and out. Increasingly, social media profiles are ranking in the top searcg engine results pages for brands as well.
Once brands have a sturdy, crosslinked network across social media sites they are ready to push out content in a more powerful way than ever before. Twanging multiple strings of the spiderweb ensures that you reach folks along each strand and set up an echo chamber that hits influencers hanging out right in the middle.
Granted, it helps to have something interesting to say – don’t expect that narcolepsy-inducing video of your CEO’s sales meeting presentation to become the next online sensation. On the other hand don’t only use your profiles to push out individual campaigns. Ultimately you should view them as part of your branding strategy and keep some level of engagement on at all times.
That way when you do have a big story, message or new product to shout about, you will already have a multitude of voices ready to shout along with you. Or sing, as the case may be.
Questions or comments? Feel free to leave them here or check out Reprise Media folks on Twitter.
Topics: Blogging, Facebook, SEO, Search 3.0, Search: How-To, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube |
Susan Boyle’s meteoric rise to fame is so engaging not simply because her success illustrates the need to open books regardless of their cover, but because it is undeniable confirmation of the power of the internet to influence the way fortunes are made and lost.
susanboylewebpage.com