Trust and Twitter - Thoughts from SAScon

SEO and social media bods flocked to the Bridgewater Hall on Wednesday for the very first SAScon event. The conference, set up by a number of companies, including Manchester SEO agency Push On and PR gurus Brazen, was an intellectual affair which saw a host of household names talk social marketing and search engine optimisation. And very good it was too.

One of the main themes flowing through the conference, particularly from the social media workshops, was the need for engagement; the importance of understanding and forming a relationship with an audience. It was a topic brought up in each of the three SM panels throughout the course of the day.

The point was repeatedly raised in one of the last sessions. During one of the most engaging panels, a number of business leaders, including Phil Jones, director of Brother UK, spoke about the various techniques employed by big brands in the social medium.

“Our mantra is 'time, attention and trust,” Jones commented.

Trust

Trust is the ultimate goal for anyone in social media. A single person wants their opinion to be trusted, while a company wants someone to trust in their products and brand.

But it isn't an easy emotion for brands to earn. It's a fickle concept and to gain the trust of an individual doesn't necessarily mean that you obtain the goodwill of the collective.

Trust has a face

Trust, according to a number of the panellists during the day, is a product which results from the authenticity of an account; consumers desire transparency.

Several speakers commented that users want to know the person behind the keyboard of an account, regardless of whether the author is an M.D or a customer service assistant. This tactic quickly establishes a human connection with the customer, theoretically making it somewhat easier to gain the trust of the user.

I'd argue that this is one of the most important factors when it comes to establishing a trusting relationship between brand and consumer.

Indeed, a number of social campaigns, particularly on Twitter, immediately make it clear who is operating the account – Kellogg's and Vodafone (both pictured below) immediately spring to mind. These profiles immediately establish a human connection.




Of course, trust cannot only be influenced by a picture of someone in a snorkel. It has to be earned through engagement, transparency and openness. Still, I'd say that a 'personalised company account' is far better at establishing a rapport with a consumer than an avatar of a corporate logo. A person has dreams, fears and bills to pay. You can relate to that.

Comparatively, a logo has sales projections and efficiency drives.

Which one would you rather trust with your money?

Digital Events In Manchester - SEO and Social Media Edition

Manchester has a thriving digital community and every month, regular events take place for those interested in meeting their peers, having a beer and maybe learning something new. Here's a rundown of the most popular social media, blogging and SEO Manchester meetups on offer.

Social Media Cafe

What is it: A monthly meetup, usually hosted at the BBC on Oxford Road, for those interested in social media. The regular format features two or three talks/discussions with a half-hour networking break between sessions.

The topics of these talks can vary – previous sessions have looked at the rise of hyperlocal news, an introduction to Google Wave and measuring ROI from social media campaigns. To see the upcoming panels, or to express your interest to host one, visit the site.

When: First week of the month
Website: http://socialmediamanchester.ning.com
Twitter hashtag: #smc_mcr
AOB: The BBC like to know who's coming in and out of their doors and attendees have to register their interest on the Social Media Cafe Ning in order to get through the reception checkpoint.

Manchester SEO

What is it: An informal gathering of Manchester SEO types. The event, which is attended by employees from a variety of SEO Manchester agencies, is a laid-back affair which usually involves a fair bit of tech-talk (and drinking).

Still, it's a great opportunity to meet other people in the industry and the attendees range from SEO copywriters to agency bigwigs; you'll get the chance to mingle with a bunch of friendly folk who really know their stuff.

When: Last week of the month
Website: http://www.manchester-seo.org/
Twitter hashtag: #mancseo
AOB: These events are normally held in public venues. If you don't know anyone attending, send out a flare on Twitter and someone will point you towards the Manchester SEO corner of the bar.

Manchester Blogmeet

What is it: Hosted by the charming Kate Feld of Manchizzle, the Manchester Blogmeet does exactly what it says on the tin. The event is open to anyone with a penchant for blogging, allowing the local online community to get together over a couple of beers. If you've ever want to pick the brains of the local bloggerati (wince), then this is your opportunity.

When: As and when
Website: http://manchizzle.blogspot.com
Twitter hashtag: N/A – Follow @katefeld for the latest news
AOB: The previous two blogmeets have been sponsored affairs with a free bar tab. Just putting that out there.

Northern Digital

What is it: Popular gathering for anyone working in the digital sector around Manchester and the North West. Usually hosted in the Northern Quarter (The Northern seems to have been the venue of choice for a while now), Northern Digital offers an evening of mingling for those working for design, development and SEO Manchester companies. It's a great networking event, purely based on the sheer variety of professionals and businesses in attendance.

When: First Thursday of the month
Website: http://twitter.com/northerndigital
Twitter hashtag: #northerndigital
AOB: The May event has moved to the second week of the month to cater for the General Election.

Social Media Surgery

What is it: Organised by Chi-chi Ekweozor from Real Fresh, social media surgery is a free event which sees local businesses pose their SM woes to a group of the leading marketing and SEO minds in Manchester.

Hosted at Manchester Metropolitan University, the evening offers free advice for those struggling to get to grips with social media. Those wanting an answer to a specific question can post their queries online before the evening.

When: Second week in the month
Website: http://socialmediamanchester.ning.com/events
Twitter hashtag: #mansms
AOB: The event normally runs from around 5pm-7pm.

There Will Be Blood

What is it: Despite its ominous title, There Will Be Blood is for those working in the digital content arena. The event, which held its inaugural evening yesterday, sees online writers from Manchester gather to discuss all content-related matters.

Haven't had the chance to visit this particular evening, but judging by the feedback on Twitter, it's set to be one of the more popular events in Manchester. If you attended last night, drop a comment below!

When: T.B.A
Website: N/A
Twitter hashtag: #twbb1
AOB: The free tickets for the previous event went like fresh muffins. Book quickly if you want to go.

Teawitter

What is it: A social event which encourages Manchester's Twitter community to put names to avatars in a relaxed and informal setting. Now in its second month at Madlab, it offers guests cake, coffee and conversation. What more could you want?

When: As and when
Website: http://madlab.org.uk/content/teawitter/
Twitter hashtag: #teawitter
AOB: A £3 donation is suggested for attendees.

If I've missed out any events or gatherings, drop me an email and I'll edit accordingly.

SEO and online marketing in an election - Canvassing for votes on Google

It's election season; a time for political leaders of all parties to venture from their Westminster caves and stump for votes across the country. Still, this isn't a battle that will be waged on the streets and pavements. This is an internet election. Apparently.

Today, Gordon Brown announced that May 6th would be the big day. No sooner had the PM revealed the worst-kept secret in modern politics than the SEO and online marketing teams of each camp jumped into action.

Here's just some of the PPC campaigns the parties reeled out this afternoon.

Search: UK election



Good spread here. Labour and The Conservatives both make an appearance. Labour take a wishy-washy approach to their online marketing, while the Tories go for the throat.

Search: General election UK



Kudos to Marmite here. The love-it-or-hate-it spread have done an Ann Summers and nicely hijacked the election trend. I'd vote for them.

Search: UK election 2010



More throat grabbing stuff from the Tories. If you're interested, the link, rather than whisking you to a blue sea of policy, goes to a YouTube video of David Cameron giving a St. Crispin's Day speech. If you were worried that this election would be about policy, you'd needn't have panicked.

Search: Gordon Brown



The Scot takes a similar whacking on his own front porch. Considering the massive search volume for the PM (below), it would probably be worth running a counter advert.



Search: David Cameron



No surprises here either. Still, it's all very negative. Where's the hope? Where's the movement for change? It seems strange the advert would continue to hammer the PM, especially on Cameron's home turf.

The Lib Dems have been quite quiet so far. Let's see what they have in the PPC armoury.

Search: Liberal Democrats



No presence here. Damning stuff.

Search: Nick Clegg



Either the Lib Dem leader has a very eclectic music taste or there's another Nick Clegg roaming the planet. The Liberal Democrats aren't really au fait with this PPC and SEO malarkey are they? Note that The Tories are still running the same advert.

Polling day

As grabbing as it may be, the entire Tory PPC campaign smacks of unoriginality. Still, they're more on the ball than the other pair and both Labour and the Lib Dems need to step up their game if they want to win over the sponsored search constituency.

Manchester in 3D - Google Maps takes us to the IMAX

Quick blog post:

It appears that Google Maps is now offering 3D vision. Here's a picture of Manchester's Oxford Road with the new feature (as marked by the cheery icon on the left-hand side). It would seem that this was rolled out on the 1st April, although I can't seem to find much in the way of coverage online.



My IMAX glasses don't really seem to make much of a difference, so I'm presuming you need one of the traditional green-red goggles to really feel the benefit.

Psycholinguistics and SEO

The study of how an individual chooses which word to say in what circumstance is known as psycholinguistics. It is a discipline which investigates the way we categorise and use language. Incidentally, it also offers the strongest argument as to why an SEO copywriter should never optimise a website for just one keyword.

It is estimated that there are over 750,000 words in the English language. Naturally, only Stephen Fry can remember them all and the rest of us have to put up with knowing only a small proportion of the dictionary.

Still, we don't all use the same words and each of us has a completely different armoury of lexical choices to choose from in daily life. There are a number of factors which can influence the vocabulary range of an individual, such as education, location and experiences. Users do not all use the same words and lexical choice widely differs from person to person. It can be be as individual as someone's choice of clothes, music and favourite films.

How people choose words

One of the main psycholinguistic theories stems from the belief that every person chooses individual words from a self-defined network of categories; different words are grouped into a number of mental boxes depending on the personal views of the speaker.

Imagine a collection of CD's – they can be arranged alphabetically, by genre or by the colour of the album cover. The categorisation depends on the owner. The same principal applies to words.

For instance, jeans can be categorised as clothes, clothes which cover the bottom half of the body, or clothes which have buttons. Each individual decides which mental box to pull the term 'jeans' from, depending on their personal views surrounding the item.



How does this relate to SEO copywriting?

An SEO copywriter needs to be aware that users after an identical item, a pair of jeans for example, may not always use the same keyword. Internet browsers may use a different search phrase depending on their unique semantic network; one individual can prioritise certain qualities of a product in a search in relation to which mental box they place the term in.

Indeed, a user looking for a pair of jeans may do any of the following searches:

• boot cut
  
• straight leg
  
• denim trousers
  
• trousers
  
• men's trousers
  

Not all users apply the same words in order to get to the same objective. An awareness about semantic networks and a knowledge of how users express concepts, offers SEO copywriters the opportunity to spread their keyword net.

While the majority of users search for the key generic, there are always going to be those searchers who use different words and phrases. Concentrating your SEO copywriting efforts on one term may get you a proportion of browsers searching for that particular term. But where do you rank in searches for the other 749,999?

SEO blog comments - how to spot a spammer

As an SEO blog, Manchester SEO has had its fair share of comment spam; posts by other authors for the sole purpose of procuring a link to a third-party website.

Here's a guide to the five main types of blog spam (All examples are taken from comments submitted to Manchester SEO and posted verbatim).

The fame (spam) monster

Some spammers are starstruck. Faced with an SEO blog of such fame and celebrity, they go weak at the knees, suddenly turning into those screaming teenagers you see clambering over railings outside a premiere for a Robert Pattinson film.

They're so overwhelmed with emotion, they can only express how amazing your online work is. A bit like this. (00:43 for full effect)



Still, they're able to regain their composure towards the end of the comment and kindly include a link to their own site. Bless their little socks.

"Hey. I don’t normally leave comments, but I just wanted to say thanks for the great information. I have a blog too, thoughI don’t write as good as you do, but if you want to check it out here it is. Thanks again and have a great day!"

I'm the saddest blog spam in the world

Pessimistic SEO blog spam knows it isn't going to see the light of a Google spider. It's had a few bad experiences in the past and, quite frankly, it doesn't even want to be a comment on your blog. It would rather be at home watching Come Dine With Me.

This kind of comment is quite easy to spot. It hasn't made an effort, it's full of typos and incoherent sentences. Occasionally it even forgets to put on its keywords. It knows that it's not going to get past the admin process, so it doesn't even bother.

"simple looks simple yet can reach out lots of people there in just a single twit.."

The 'I love lamp' spam

This blog comment likes stating the obvious. It thinks that 'SEO copywriting is good' and is adamant that 'Google likes keywords'.



Its bowel-shattering insights are award-winning; boiling complex 500-word essays down to six-word sentences and summarising a blog post for the reader as if they were a drooling monkey.

"twitter is one of the most used social networking sites nowadays :) it's easy to use."

Wham, blam, thank you blog spam

Some spammers don't have time for foreplay. They're not really interested in getting to know you or taking you to the cinema; they just want you for your PageRank. All they're after is a quick and dirty link.

If you let them into your house, they'll take advantage of your hospitality. They'll selfishly use your precious blog for every single keyword and once they've got what they came for, you'll never see them again.

"This is very useful blog for all. SEO: SEO Services, Best SEO Company (Search Engine Optimization Company), Expert in SEO/SEM services, SMO, Pay par click services link building services, offering professional website promotion services include local search marketing organic web promotion services and SEM services."

An officer and a generally good comment

Occasionally though, you'll come across an irresistible blog comment. Posts which are insightful, thought-provoking and crucially, prove that the author has actually taken the time to read the blog before sharing their musings.

These comments tick all the right boxes. They're presentable, charming and insightful; the kind of blog comment your mother wanted you to marry. Yes, they may just be using you for a link but, by gosh, it's hard to say no to that fine piece of comment.

"Brilliant! I love comparisons like this that bring theories back to reality with a bump. I did start watching Lost but gave up halfway through series 2, think I will have to get the boxed sets and catch up."

Geotagging Twitter - where do we go from here?

Last week, Twitter gave its web users the opportunity to geotag their updates.

While the concept is nothing new to those using third-party applications on their mobile (such as Tweetdeck and Echofon), tweeters chained to their desktop computers will now find they have the choice to include a location with their message.

Biz Stone, head tweet at the company, summarised the new feature:

“People who choose to add this additional layer of context help make Twitter a richer information network for all of us—location data can make tweets more useful.”

No doubt team blue bird will be hoping that geotagging becomes common practice across the site. Location sharing is entering its salad days and the successes of Gowalla and Foursquare have probably influenced Twitter's decision to roll out the feature to its web users.

Still, while the geotagging option for Twitter users may make the service 'more useful', it's arguable (if popular) that companies will be the overall beneficiaries from the mass use of location sharing.

You are here. So are we.

Much like SEO copywriting, a Twitter campaign revolves around keywords: targeting users who transmit relevant phrases and queries. It's not a new marketing tactic and as a strategy, it can be a bit hit-and-miss.

If you're automatically following individuals who use a certain word, there's a strong chance you're going to connect to a number of irrelevant people; particularly if your keyword phrase is a heteronym.

Geotagging (or more specifically, an increase of users opting to share their location) opens up the door for laser-sighted social media strategies. Knowing where a user is at any given moment offers the opportunity to target and advertise to individuals with greater accuracy.

Take this fictional tweet:

“Waiting in town for a friend. Hope she hurries up. I'm starving.”

Three minutes later, a nearby restaurant replies to the user with a link to its menu. Inspired, the customer travels to the restaurant, eats the food and pays the bill. Smiles all round.

We know where you live

The opportunity to use the service for consumer research may be just as fruitful. Theoretically, a series of geotagged tweets could be used to create a refined marketing campaign; using Twitter updates to form a coherent advertising and social media strategy based on a collection of locations.

For example:

Twitter user A goes to bar B, buys groceries from shop C and lives in D. Company E wishes to attract more individuals like A. The business refines its marketing strategy based on the locations tagged by A and other individuals.

Facebook adverts, which target the interests and hobbies users submit to the site, are dependent on the honesty of the consumer (and how many of us have listed War and Peace as our favourite book to seem intellectual). The chance to base a social media campaign around the actual activities and interests of a user is, I suspect, too tempting to pass up. If only because the data is truthful.

Where do we go from here?

There are a few websites which offer local maps of real-time tweets. Twittermap and Twittervision provide a service of sorts, but both have various failings which reduce their effectiveness for those wanting to incorporate geotagging into a campaign. The iPhone Echofon app probably gives the best visual example of how useful location-based updates could be.


If geotagging takes off on Twitter, I'd be surprised not to see more tools designed to pull in location. Indeed, sites such as tweetalarm and twilert, which send Google Alert-esque emails when keywords are mentioned in tweets, could be modified to include tweets from specific areas. Of course, this is all conjecture.

It all depends on if enough users choose to share their daily lives with the rest of the internet.