Rand Fishkin is on the podium, got here a bit late because I was talking with Apostolos Gerasoulis of Ask.com, the inventor of Teoma. Social communities don't like SEOs. Because they perceive an SEO role as a type of spam. In many cases they are right. But SEO helps these social communities grow. Trick, act like you are not an SEO. Control your brand before other people do. He showed off a Wikipedia entry that went totally against that individual policies.
Social media helps build awesome link popularity. He said, look for photos and Flickr and comment at the popular ones - hint, they don't use the nofollow tag.
He then showed search results for randfish, and shows how he rules the SERPs.
To create a successful profile you must be consistent. Build out a robut profile, comment, contribute and share. He showcases HD at Flickr.
Site to Target include a ton of places like Yahoo 360, LinkedIn, NEwsite, etc, they have an article at SEOmoz on it.
Neil Patel from ACS is next up to talk about Digg and StubleUpon. The audience at Digg is babish, and explains - not that it is bad. He then gives examples of an article about taxes but how to use your tax refund to build geeky stuff. Important factors include; number of votes in times, by specific voters, who the submitter matters and who your friends are. You get up to 200 friends, so he only adds friends who friend him and then sends it to all his friends with the send to friend feature in. Do not use self-promotion in these submissions. Do not add biased information. Do not pay for votes. Do not break community rules. Do not spam.
He decided to break all the rules. He submitted his own site, create 30 accounts on same IP, used the same domain and he paid for votes. It didn't work and he was banned.
What to do? - Add friends - Participate in community - Use great titles and descriptions - Become a top user - Submit during the right time
Andy Hagans from AndyHagans.com
He is a professional baiter. He approaches it differently than others. He uses social media to get links. Here is a case study...
Network Security Journal....
Their strength is a tech oriented subject. The weakness is a dry topic most people aren't into. He said the most important aspect is the title of your submission. Rule of thumb, can you imagine it on a magazine cover? For this client they came up with "The Fight Against Phising: 44 Ways to Protect Yourself."
Then they write the content based on the title. The title is a promise to the reader, so the content needs to deliver on that promise. Make sure it is focused. Make sure its "Lifehacker good." Make sure it is pretty and link out generously in your article. He talks about articles that get buried and it is a horrible feeling, he said it happened to him several dozen times.
The hit list: - Digg, Netscape, StubmleUpon, Reddit, Delicious - The second tier is Yahoo! MyWeb and Furl - Top sites in the industry such as Slashdot and Lifehacker
Old fashion link begging - Make a spreadsheet with first name and other details - Personalize every email
Going Live - Submit to bookmarking sites via a trusted account - Cram all promotional efforts into a few hour window - Links lead to links, traffic leads to traffic
Results: - 40,000 visitors - 3,244 backlinks according to Yahoo - Trusted links from industry sites such as OReilly.com, LinuxSecurity.com and Lifehacker
