Since the opening of Google+ to brands, and the ingenious creation of the Direct Connect feature, internet marketers have swarmed to the adolescent social network. The technology adoption lifecycle is clearly in the “Early Majority” phase, with no peak in sight. What this has led to, however, is an overwhelming number of spam-like pages designed as authority builders for company’s websites.
What that means is that some internet marketing firms are phoning it in.
The way that Google ranks website is through an algorithmic authority calculation. Google looks throughout the entire internet for various keywords and ranks, among other things, the number of links to your website. This creates an authority measurement. Google also takes into consideration the authority of the sites that are linking to yours. Therefore, a link from www.google.com would be pretty valuable. That’s exactly what they think, too.
Here’s where the trouble is. Internet marketing firms are attempting to cheat the system by setting up Google+ pages for their clients, punching in a couple links to their clients website, and leaving the page be. This lacks the fundamental understanding of what Google+ does.
SEO Experts tend to drift away from social media and content marketing, unless there is a specific ranking opportunity involved. The problem with that method of thinking is that it takes away from the true value of a company’s brand. Perception is the most misunderstood aspect of marketing, from my experience.
Say for instance we have a popular restaurant as a client. Our SEO team decides to implement a Google+ page for the client, but as a link building measure, not for the purpose of outreach to prospective customers that use Google’s social network. As a part of the implementation, the SEO team adds the Direct Connect feature available to brands. Direct Connect pushes the Google+ page’s search ranking to just below the client’s website under the searched keyword, “Orlando Restaurant.” Now, a prospective customer that is looking for a restaurant in Orlando, sees the Google+ link and decides to check it out. Upon arriving at the page, they see nothing on it. No updates in weeks. No conversation with customers. No real reviews. That prospective customer is now turned off from that client, and a sale is lost.
To those that misunderstand social media and the content marketing responsible for maintaining a consistent brand image, the only hope is that they become educated in public perception. For years now, major brands have engaged customers with questions, sale opportunities, new merchandise, and exclusive materials only available on social media. This is what John Q. Public has come to expect. This is the perception that must be rewarded.
A full-time social marketer or social marketing team like major brands use is completely outside the realm of feasible, but that doesn’t mean that social marketing can’t be employed in a strategic, cost-effective, and publicly-accepting manner.
Don’t let SEOs take over social media as a link-building exercise. That pollutes the internet with the carcasses of misrepresented brands, hurts public perception, and unknowingly kills sales.
About Robert Sloan
