Twitter "Share" Button Most Common Among Top Blogs

Many blogs depend on the practice of sharing for survival, or at least profitability; they can’t count on millions of people to find their own way to every article.  And it turns out that, when it comes to "share" buttons, popular blogs depend more on Twitter’s than any other option out there.
We’re going to skip the causation/correlation debate (do popular blogs turn to Twitter because it’s great, or is Twitter popular because great blogs promote it?) and move straight to the facts: Pingdom employees looked at which share buttons are used by the Technorati Top 100 blogs, and Twitter’s button made 66 appearances.
That’s rather impressive, considering that the second- and third-place options – Facebook and "general share" – tied, showing up only 58 times each.  Then there’s even more of a drop-off as you move down to Digg, which made just 49 appearances.
Interestingly, six of the top blogs offered no sharing options whatsoever.  Also, although Pingdom didn’t track email-related buttons, a blog post admitted, "Had we included them, they would have been among the top sharing options."
So there’s some info about the current state of social media as it’s being utilized by the Technorati Top 100.  Feel free to address the chicken-and-the-egg matter in the comments section.

New Digg Buttons Keep Traffic With Publishers

Digg has launched some new Digg Buttons and a widget generator for publishers, which the company refers to as updated tools to improve speed, usability and flexibility of integrations for publishers. A representative for Digg tells WebProNews the updated tools are "one of the many steps we’re taking in advance of the official release of the new version of Digg to make the user experience more inviting and the publisher experience more customized and measurable."
The new version of Digg was recently unveiled at SXSW.

Features of the new buttons include:
- Dynamic display of live Digg count (a feature Digg says statistics have shown to increases likelihood of user interaction)
- The buttons no longer take users to Digg (traffic stays on the publisher’s domain)
- Faster load time
- Customizable look and feel (includes new "medium" button size and an unstyled option so a publisher can create their own custom designed Digg button)
- Related stories from the publisher’s domain to users that click the button
Existing Digg buttons will auto-upgrade over the coming weeks, Digg says, but they recommend that publishers review the new documentation for optimization tips.
With the widget, headlines now link directly to publisher content with the Diggbar, as opposed to Digg’s own page. There are more customization options that don’t require publishers to use the Digg API. There are tabs and columns that let publishers add multiple columns to a widget, as well as make a double column widget. Thumbnails are attached to each story, when available, and if there isn’t enough content to display, the widget will backfill with other relevant content from the same domain.

What if Facebook Added a "Blog" Tab?

Facebook wants to keep users on Facebook. So far, they are doing a pretty good job of that. More and more people are spending more of their online time on Facebook, not to mention, spending more time connected to the web in general (at least partially due to rising use of smartphones).

How much time do you spend on Facebook in a month? A week? Let us know.
Facebook recently made it a point to show users how to use the social network to keep up with the news. Users can simply become fans of their favorite news organizations’ pages (feel free to include ours in your mix), and group them in a "news" list just as they would create a group for friends or co-workers. The bottom line is; spending more time on Facebook getting news headlines is spending more time on Facebook period. There is also talk of Facebook  working on its own web email service. Again, more time spent on Facebook.
One way Facebook could capture even more of its users’ time, is if it introduced a "blog" tab. Facebook currently has a "notes" tab, and quite a few people do use this. It’s a similar concept, but what if it was given more prominence and renamed "blog?" A blog tab might keep Facebook users even longer. First of all, the users blogging with it would obviously be sticking around to write their posts. In addition, their friends and fans would be sticking around longer to read those posts, which would generally be much longer and require more time than the average status update.
Would more people become bloggers?

I suspect that the word "notes" doesn’t quite resonate the same as the word blog in the minds of many Facebook users, although for all intents and purposes, the feature operates like a blog. You can post longer-form content for your friends and fans to see, and they can comment on it, while it all remains in tact in one spot for future reference. Not only could the addition of a "blog" tab keep Facebook users around longer, but it could have a significant impact on the Blogosphere. Simply calling it a blog and having it available right from any user’s profile page might just inspire.
Is social media killing blogs?
No, but it’s hard to say that use of sites like Facebook and Twitter (and now Google Buzz) don’t lend to less blog posts being created. If nothing else, it’s simply a time issue. It is easy to push out a quick status update if you have something to say. It’s easier than blogging. For longer-form content, blogs are generally the better option, which is one reason they are still alive and well. But if Facebook had a blog tab, the social network could cut into the Blogosphere even more, given its huge userbase, while establishing itself as a go-to place for blogging (another area in which Facebook could compete with Google, I might add. Don’t forget that Google owns Blogger).
If Facebook did this, it is very unlikely that all current bloggers would immediately go running there to do their blogging, but Facebook users who may not already be blogging may find the urge to do so when that tab is right in front of their faces. And frankly, I’m confident many current bloggers would go running there. Facebook is a powerful tool for building an audience or expanding upon one. 
It works on MySpace. Look at director Eli Roth’s blog, for example. He gets a lot of engagement there (although he hasn’t updated in several months). Facebook is another animal altogether, and its growth is unprecedented. Just look at Facebook’s latest round of stats.
Facebook is frequently adding and changing features, as any user can certainly attest (for better or for worse). It is not hard to imagine them doing something like this. For the record, the company has made no mention of going such a route, to my knowledge. There are currently ways to blog within and around Facebook if you look hard enough, but if Facebook made blogging a focal point, I think it could take off, and perhaps lend to the concept of Facebook as a news source, and even add greatly to the Blogosphere by encouraging more blogging. 

social media and search

Back in the “dark ages” of search engine optimization, way back a few years ago, actually, we created content on our websites. We then paid attention to on-page optimization, like optimizing our title tags, our body copy, and we mentioned our keywords in the copy. Linking campaigns were important, and we used to get lots of links from website directories and we did link exchanges. Do you remember that time?

Also, in the “dark ages” of search engine optimization, we used to buy links for the PageRank benefits. We wrote articles and submitted them to article directories. We even started creating “link bait” type of articles and content. The problem was, though, getting that link bait noticed–getting people to link to it.
We are now in the age of the “new social media SEO”.

In this new “social media SEO” age, we still create our content on our site. We still need to be (a little bit) concerned about our on-page optimization. But our links need to be from “authority directories” like Yahoo!, DMOZ, and Best of the Web. We no longer write articles and submit them to “article directories”. Those articles need to be on our own sites. Furthermore, they need to be unique articles and unique content. If you so desire, those articles need to be on industry authority sites, as well.
Put your link bait on your own site so people will link to it. Use the social media sites to “get noticed” and “get linked to”.
Success in social media means that you’ll get noticed in the organic search results. The search engines love fresh, unique content–and they love to find new URLs and links. If your site gets a link on a social media site, it will get noticed and crawled.

Keys to Successful Social Media Marketing
There are several things you can do, but here is a list of what will help you be successful on the social media sites:
– participate on a regular basis
– vote and comment often
– add friends
– put your site in your profile
– social media has niches, submit only to the appropriate sites
– use the social media to “get noticed”
– use social media to get the “marketshare of links”

Market Share of Links
What is the market share of links? Generally, it’s having more links to your site or topic than anyone else. Being the first to have the marketshare of links to your site, to your blog post, or to your article or page on your site will give you an advantage in the organic search results. You will get noticed by humans, you will get noticed by the search engine crawlers, and it’s the humans who have the ability to link to you.

Getting the Market Share of Links
So, how do you get the marketshare of links? Watch your industry closely. Always be on the lookout for newsworthy content. React quickly, post add the content to your site quickly. Quickly submit to the social media sites…then go back and edit, update your content as necessary.

RSS Feed Promotion
And, finally, take advantage of RSS feeds. That’s a no-brainer if you have a blog. But, if you have an ecommerce site you may be able to make a RSS feeds of your product categories using your site’s product names and descriptions.
Generally speaking, promote the RSS feeds that will help you. Take advantage of all RSS feeds that are available. Not only is there an RSS feed on your own site, there are RSS feeds typically available of your social media submissions. Using technorati, there’s also an RSS feed available of those who link to you. Promote the sites, and promote the RSS feeds of those who link to you. And remember, a link to you is more powerful if the page that links to you has more links.

New Digg Buttons Keep Traffic With Publishers

Digg has launched some new Digg Buttons and a widget generator for publishers, which the company refers to as updated tools to improve speed, usability and flexibility of integrations for publishers. A representative for Digg tells WebProNews the updated tools are "one of the many steps we’re taking in advance of the official release of the new version of Digg to make the user experience more inviting and the publisher experience more customized and measurable."
The new version of Digg was recently unveiled at SXSW.

Features of the new buttons include:
- Dynamic display of live Digg count (a feature Digg says statistics have shown to increases likelihood of user interaction)
- The buttons no longer take users to Digg (traffic stays on the publisher’s domain)
- Faster load time
- Customizable look and feel (includes new "medium" button size and an unstyled option so a publisher can create their own custom designed Digg button)
- Related stories from the publisher’s domain to users that click the button
Existing Digg buttons will auto-upgrade over the coming weeks, Digg says, but they recommend that publishers review the new documentation for optimization tips.
With the widget, headlines now link directly to publisher content with the Diggbar, as opposed to Digg’s own page. There are more customization options that don’t require publishers to use the Digg API. There are tabs and columns that let publishers add multiple columns to a widget, as well as make a double column widget. Thumbnails are attached to each story, when available, and if there isn’t enough content to display, the widget will backfill with other relevant content from the same domain.

However, FeedFlare is a great addition to any FeedBurner feed as it builds interaction and social media links into each post

FeedBurner is the only service (that I know of) that will re-publish a blogs feed in order to get feed stats. Being such a great service, many users use it only to figure out how many readers their blogs have.
However, FeedFlare is a great addition to any FeedBurner feed as it builds interaction and social media links into each post.

FeedFlare allows publishers to easily build “interactivity” into the content they create, making it simple for subscribers to tag, email or share their content with others. Publishers can include a variety of services including a live display of the number of comments to each post, the ability to email the author directly and show the number of blogs that link to their item.

To enable FeedFlare, login to your FeedBurner account, go to the Optimize tab then choose FeedFlare from the left column. You can then check items that you want to display in your feed.
I suggest adding at least the following:

• Email This – Send the post via email to a friend or a co-worker.
• Comments Count – You may be able to increase click thoughs if people know there are comments on your post.
• Save to del.icio.us – Del.icio.us is one of the biggest social bookmarking sites, lets make it easy for readers to save your posts there.
• Digg This – Ahh Digg. Everyone is obsessed with getting in Digg. This nice part about this button is it also shows you the number of Diggs and if there are any Digg comments.
• Stumble It – StumbleUpon is quickly becoming a great way to find new sites. If a users bookmarks your post in StumbleUpon, you’ll have a better chance of getting additional StumbleUpon traffic.

There are many other FeedFlare choices too. The trick here is to pick the 5 or 6 that will best work for your blog. Don’t go overboard and put as many as you can as it might deter people from reading the feed. Also, don’t just put the Digg button on because everyone else does. If you don’t feel a FeedFlare will work well for your blog, don’t add it.
By adding FeedFalre to your FeedBurner feed, you are making it easier for users to interact with your posts. Visitors don’t always make it to your site to read comments or hit one of the social bookmark buttons. Brining the options to the readers will increase the chances of them sharing one of your posts and getting you additional exposure.

Tracking Blog Effectiveness

There are a lot of data points that can be meaningful for tracking blog effectiveness.
That is, tracking what happens when visitors arrive at and engage with your blog content. It really comes down to the purpose of your blog. Metrics for a blog that’s focused on making a web site more search engine friendly by adding crawlable content and attracting links is quite different than a blog that’s meant to build thought leadership or brand credibility.
Many of the metrics tools used for blogs are also used for basic web site analytics. That makes sense because many blog initiatives do not have the same kind of budget as web site marketing programs do. Therefore, the analytics employed tend to be low(er) or no cost.
Regardless of the purpose, I’ve assembled a list below of the various tools we use, or have tested to report onsite blog metrics. Pick the service or tool you like the most from the list below or something new for your unique purpose and please share in the comments. The list is in no particular order.

• 103bees – Free web stats (ad supported) up to 100k visits per month, then it’s $9
• Enquisite – Free, extremely detailed web stats
• Hittail – Provides suggested topics for your blog by keywords used in referral traffic
• Crazy Egg – Provides overlay, list and heat map web stats
• RobotReplay – Lets you record visitor actions on your site and play them back
• Clicky – Web stats plus feed and Feedburner stats
• Google Analytics – Web stats, not really the best for blogs but it’s free
• StatCounter – Free web stats
• Co.mments – Track comment threads starting on your blog and follow them elsewhere in a feed
• Blog Tracker – Free from IceRocket but limited functionality
• Performancing Metrics – Basic is Free, or $3.99 to $16.99 per month for more features
• Site Meter – Basic Free and Premium versions $6.95 and up
• Mint – Popular web stats with bloggers for $30 per site
• MyBlogLog – Basic blog visitor stats and social networking. Free and paid versions.
• Feedburner Stats – StandardStats Free, TotalStats $4.99/mo
• WordPress Stats – Free basic blog stats plugin for WordPress blogs
• Google Analytics and Feedburner Stats – Free plugin for WordPress blogs
• eXTReMe Tracking – Free web stats with a paid version for $4.50 per month
• Web Stat – Many web stats features for $5/mo
• TraceWatch – Free but you need access to your server which should be running PHP/MySQL

What are your favorite analytics tools for blogs?

Utilizing Social Networks to Make Your Posts Viral

This article talks about how social networks can make a post go viral – or spread like crazy.

It focuses specifically on the biggest social networks – MySpace and Facebook. Facebook tends to be a bit more technical – allowing you to utilize apps to spread the word. They also attract different types of people.

Social networks and related sites can be an excellent way to drive traffic to your blog. Twitter alone has sent a lot of traffic my way and I think it’s the easiest to use. Once you build a network of friends, just craft a compelling headline and link to your post. It takes a bit of dedication (time) but it can build your trust, visibility, and reputation along with links to your blog.

5 Ways to Make your Blog Posts Viral with Social Media.

1. Contribute, don’t Spam.

Warning sign: if you’re pushing your story or product rather than sharing it then you’re stepping over the line. Also, send the post to your network (or friends), not to everyone everywhere (that’s spam). I liked how I heard this explained.

Avoid thinking that because there is a crowd gathered it’s a good time to promote yourself. This is applicable in the offline world too. Once I heard someone announce their store’s grand opening at a church meeting, which was in very poor taste. We can probably all think of our favorite network marketer who manages to weave information about their products into every conversation. Keep it relevant.

Remember this, from Rand Fiskin of SEOmoz:

    “…People are more likely to be your friend [when] they believe you are offering them good, trusted content from which they can benefit.”

2. Create your own Facebook Application.

I haven’t heard of this but there is a new Facebook App Creator for Bloggers from BlogFuse. It walks you through the process of creating an app that feeds your blog posts onto your profile. It’s not free though – prices start at $5/month, but it has a free trial.

3. Join Related Networks & Groups.

If your product or blog is regional, make sure your Facebook network is set to the city you want to target.

For example, I know someone who owns a web site for tourists in Wisconsin. Even though he doesn’t live in Wisconsin, his Facebook page could be targeted to Door County. He also found a group of people from Door County so he introduced himself on the group’s wall with a link to his site. This way you can leverage an existing network of like-minded people and it will help expand yours. MySpace also has groups.

4. Create a Profile Page for your Blog.

Then promote the page on your blog or web site. Here’s yours truly – Marketing Pilgrim’s MySpace profile.

5. Create Quality Blog Posts.

Brent Csutoras suggests these ideas for creating posts that everyone loves to share:

    Top 10 lists
    How-To tips
    Current events
    Offbeat or Extreme content (make it edgy)
    Humor
    Tools

Should Google Buy Twitter, Yahoo Merge with AOL?

There is a lot of talk going on about what should or shouldn't happen among prominent Internet companies (as opposed to what actually is happening). For example, a lot of people have been saying Google should buy Twitter. In many ways, such move would make a great deal of sense for Google, who is looking to up the ante on the social front. Twitter combined with YouTube would be huge for such an initiative. John Battelle makes a case for why this is pretty unlikely though.

He says Twitter won't sell, and that they're in it for the "immortality", not the money. He writes:

Those who decide whether Twitter goes to Google pretty much come down to a handful of folks: Founders Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, and Biz Stone, with COO Dick Costolo and Twitter's investors and other Board members (Fred Wilson, Peter Fenton, and Bijan Sabet). I know most of these guys well enough to say this with confidence: They don't want to sell, and even more importantly, they don't need to.

Now, sure, Google can write a ridiculous check, and perhaps, that might sway the key folks (management). But I doubt it. Why? Because nearly all of them have already sold a company to Google - Blogger (Evan and Biz) or Feeedburner (Dick). And, well, they didn't stick around, did they?

He also says Google won't buy Twitter because Google's learning to be patient.

According to a post from Michael Arrington, Yahoo might as well be dead (and is "the ugly girl at the dance"), because nobody wants to do deals with them. By nobody, we mean Yelp and Foursquare. In reality, Yahoo is far from dead, and they do continue to make strategic deals with other companies. A certain search and advertising deal with Microsoft comes to mind. He's certainly not wrong in that the company has its problems, but it might be a little premature to write its epitaph. Yahoo still has millions of users.

Should AOL and Yahoo merge? Henry Blodget at Silicon Alley Insider makes another interesting case for why the two "struggling Internet giants" should (and says "Big Investors" are calling for it).

Among the reasons he gives are that the two companies run very similar businesses with various similar products. "Yahoo and AOL are both basically media companies," he writes. "They both use technology extensively, but their core competency is producing content to attract an audience and then selling display ads against that audience. They also both operate duplicative mail, instant-messaging, sports, finance, news, maps, and other services, all of which currently compete with each other. That is senseless. By combining, Yahoo and AOL would achieve greater scale and reduce duplication."

Should Google Buy Twitter, Yahoo Merge with AOL?

There is a lot of talk going on about what should or shouldn't happen among prominent Internet companies (as opposed to what actually is happening). For example, a lot of people have been saying Google should buy Twitter. In many ways, such move would make a great deal of sense for Google, who is looking to up the ante on the social front. Twitter combined with YouTube would be huge for such an initiative. John Battelle makes a case for why this is pretty unlikely though.

He says Twitter won't sell, and that they're in it for the "immortality", not the money. He writes:

Those who decide whether Twitter goes to Google pretty much come down to a handful of folks: Founders Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, and Biz Stone, with COO Dick Costolo and Twitter's investors and other Board members (Fred Wilson, Peter Fenton, and Bijan Sabet). I know most of these guys well enough to say this with confidence: They don't want to sell, and even more importantly, they don't need to.

Now, sure, Google can write a ridiculous check, and perhaps, that might sway the key folks (management). But I doubt it. Why? Because nearly all of them have already sold a company to Google - Blogger (Evan and Biz) or Feeedburner (Dick). And, well, they didn't stick around, did they?

He also says Google won't buy Twitter because Google's learning to be patient.

According to a post from Michael Arrington, Yahoo might as well be dead (and is "the ugly girl at the dance"), because nobody wants to do deals with them. By nobody, we mean Yelp and Foursquare. In reality, Yahoo is far from dead, and they do continue to make strategic deals with other companies. A certain search and advertising deal with Microsoft comes to mind. He's certainly not wrong in that the company has its problems, but it might be a little premature to write its epitaph. Yahoo still has millions of users.

Should AOL and Yahoo merge? Henry Blodget at Silicon Alley Insider makes another interesting case for why the two "struggling Internet giants" should (and says "Big Investors" are calling for it).

Among the reasons he gives are that the two companies run very similar businesses with various similar products. "Yahoo and AOL are both basically media companies," he writes. "They both use technology extensively, but their core competency is producing content to attract an audience and then selling display ads against that audience. They also both operate duplicative mail, instant-messaging, sports, finance, news, maps, and other services, all of which currently compete with each other. That is senseless. By combining, Yahoo and AOL would achieve greater scale and reduce duplication."