For Halloween I am Going to be Seth Godin: A Story of Social Media and the Long Tail

It's an unlikely tale but I assure you it is all true. It all started when Darin went out and bought this odd contraption to cut his hair. Sunday morning he announced he was going to give it a go out on the patio and cut his hair all on his own. "What do you think?", he asked. "Sure", I grabbed my coffee, shielding it from potential flying hairs and sat up wind to watch the show.

It was actually going quite well. All the tension had left my body and I was resigned to see a normal looking hair cut at the end of this process. Then I heard a click and saw the huge chunk of hair sliced right out of the middle of Darin's head.

It was the point of no return. He had to shave the remaining hair.

We laughed. I said, "You look like Seth Godin." We took his picture. We laughed again. He said, "I should be Seth Godin for Halloween."

Then Darin does what Darin does every time he gets a hold of a goofy picture of himself. He posted it on the internet. Actually, he posted it just once, to ping.fm, titling the post "For Halloween I am going to be Seth Godin". Ping.fm is a new service which will deliver posts to a long and growing list of blogs, microblogs and social sites.

The next day we googled "for Halloween I am going to be Seth Godin". The results are interesting.

"for Halloween I am going to be Seth Godin" with quotations filled the first page with results from his social sites.

for Halloween I am going to be Seth Godin (with no quotations)
Out of 4,190 results 3 of the first page results point to to Darin's social sites.

Our intention was not to rank for these keywords, but what these results illustrate and remind us is that by using the "long tail", optimizing for keyword phrases we can build traffic sources with our blogs and social sites by titling our posts with keyword rich phrases.

For those who would like a little more information on the theory of the long tail and how it applies to SEO here is a video from one of my favorite experts in the field, Avinash Kaushik.

When you are posting to your social media sites and writing blog posts remember the long tail. Your blog titles are important and over time can develop into a key component of your online success.

• What is the single question or problem your customer might be posing to Google?
• Are you using the language of your customers?
• Can you formulate an interesting story around it?

Your social media sites serve as another entry way to your website and by titling your posts with keyword rich phrases you can grow a nice long tail.

I will be waiting for Darin's hair to grow back. For more niche specific advice for how you can grow your long tail with social media contact us at Webconsuls.

The Battle for You: In the Age of Digital Convergence

"Genuine intellectual curiosity is the attribute established brands need to be successful in the blogosphere."
- Geoffrey Moore

With every second that passes the world changes, something new and exciting is created or an idea is set into motion that will forever alter how human beings live their life and interact with each other. In the past sixty years a flood of, what would seem to most, irrational ideas have been used as stepping stones to create the most rational and useful technologies that we enjoy in our life. Radio started the information age, followed by television, and now the world world-wide-web; but, kindred spirits either join together or they kill each other, leaving yesterday's trend behind.

I believe the biggest complaint about television is the lack of interaction in every respect; both commercial and entertainment aspects of television have a human element missing. Human beings have a drive to be involved in everything they lay their eyes on. Internet has provided the ability for the consumer to have a say in what they see and do, the Internet is a means for people to be a part of a growing network with limitless possibilities. It was hard to see at first with the early Internet, but the possibility has always been there waiting to bloom; for a long time the Internet (WEB 1.0) was like T.V., it was just something to look at with many more channels. WEB 2.0 is a totally different ball game, we the people are the players and the umpires - It's About You!

Social Media is what the Internet is all about, a global village of people sharing ideas, information, and art. Not only individuals, business' (large and small) are working towards going interactive; through blogging and social networks the world is getting smaller and the possibilities are becoming greater. This revolution has forced television to jump on the train or be left behind; the fact is that people can meet their communication and entertainment needs from one central location. The Internet has given everyone a voice and audience to listen, companies can advertise, sell, and interact with the consumer in a way that T.V can't provide.

Today, your computer is a portal for all of your day to day media and communication tools to connect with the web. The time has come to join up with social networks and blog circles, this will increase your presence and network; whether for business or pleasure, I believe it will be worth your time to move with the Internet and not against it. Experience the world in the way that you want, at your desired pace; the Internet is no longer growing with you, transversely you're growing with the Internet. The Internet has already started anticipating your next move and remembers what you are interested in; your computer is no longer an extension of you, rather you are an extension of your computer!

Meet the chef: Aaron Helfand

Our very own Aaron Helfand is interviewed by the Tucson Citizen.

Not only is Aaron a Great Chef, he is also a cutting edge social media user!

Congrats Aaron! Great Article!

We love social media and it runs in the family.

6 Basic Social Media Activities that can Give a Static Website New Life

From the post Social Media is Giving Static Websites New Life is the following list of how social media is becoming the natural complement to static web pages.

1. Opens up the Lines of Communication between Customer/Clients & Website Owner. You can do this in many ways. Such as Forums or adding a Blog to your Static Website.

2. Let your Customer/Clients know via a Blog about Sales, Promotions, New items, Recalls, etc. Adding a Blog with a RSS feed to your website is a great way to let your customers and readers know about important updates.

3. Adding a Blog to your Website can add new content / web pages to your site. This causes more entrances to your Website for Serps and for Viewers.

4. Add Social Bookmarking buttons to your static pages and let viewers bookmark them. This can add extra traffic to your website when their social bookmarks are shared with others.

5. Using Social Media can let your website compete with other websites/blogs that have larger marketing bank accounts.

6. Using Photo sharing for your Product Images can bring traffic in to your website.