The Myths About Social Media And Backlinks
Everywhere you turn these days you cant help but hear the talk of Social Networking and Social Media or as the Internet Savvies would put it “Web 2.0″
With the popularity of these socialising networks where millions upon millions of people from all walks of life and every corner of the globe converge to chit chat and have a banter, some marketers have jumped on the bandwagon of selling “shovels?” to the newbies or unsuspecting “Traffic Gold” diggers with the promise of receiving not only traffic but back-links too.
Yes its good to have your link on as many places as you can get it on out the on the www and even better if in turn those links actually carry some “PR juice” with them. The unfortunate thing is the vast majority of the social networking sites have a “nofollow” on links placed at their sites and therefore carry no weight in terms of the value of a back-link.
If you are spending hours upon hours setting up pages on the so called “back-link and traffic gold mining” sites then stop right now. You are wasting your time, time you could be spending on your blog building it up with unique content thus feeding the search engine who in turn send you organic traffic. The only thing you are doing is giving those sites content hence why they are loved by the search engines.
Why do you think they carry so much weight in terms of having high PRs? Why do so many people frequent them on a daily basis. Apart from a light hearted banter why do we all go to places like facebook, myspace and twitter? We are all information seekers, if we don’t get it on one place we will try another and at the same time we post our own content out there building up these sites even further while our own sites and blogs suffer.
Then we wonder why oh why are we not getting anywhere with hour blogs/sites. Shouldn’t the aim be to build sites of high quality and value so that a proportion of those people come to us too? Look at the top bloggers and marketers around you, especially the ones pushing the shovels into our hands – how many of them do you see posting frequently on twitter or facebook? I follow a number of top bloggers and marketers and I can tell your this much, I don’t recall the last time I saw a tweet from them.
Social Networking/Media sites are not for building back-links, well at least not the valuable ones that will help you in ranking high on search engines or get your PR up. Use them for what they were meant for, to socialise and make friends. Build a rapport, trust and good communication with fellow networkers and only then will your realise the true potential of Web 2.0 in terms of Social Networks/Media.
I might get my knuckles wrapped for this, in-fact am sure I will but ah who cares. Anyone who is selling you a product based on building links, getting traffic, attaining high PR or high search engine rankings he/she is ripping you off. Anyone who promises you gold by just holding a shovel in your hands is lying to you. They are the equivalent of GM contamination of the Internet.
Top bloggers didn’t get where they are by employing such tactics, oh no they didn’t. They are where they are because of Sheree hard work, true grit and determination to succeed. As the saying goes, follow those who have gone before you and you shall arrive at the same destination as they have. Deviate from the path and you shall be left wondering in the wildness in endless circles that always return you at point A, only to start all over again!
At last! More and more people are starting to realize that social networks are just getting content from the subscribers and not sharing its PR juice to them. I’ve been wondering about a thing that what if these social media sites have “dofollow” links instead?
@Jannice@Enterprise Micro Blogging – I think since its content from people like you, me and million others who use these site that has helped propel them to such heights, its about time they gave something back in way of dofollow and PR juice for the active users.
Imagine indeed if they did eh! The whole social media, network web2.0 would shift into the next generation gear beyond imagination.
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Great info. Thanks
@MySpace Developers – You are welcome.
Wow, I really learned a few new things at your site. Notably, just how many people are truly misunderstanding the purpose (and hidden functionality) of the social media sites. And, all the more impressive your sharing some great knowledge and insight FOR FREE.
Thanks so much for setting the record straight about using social Media for SOCIALIZING – and making friends first. This is exactly what the emerging, so-called social media gurus are preaching.
And, you know what when you treat people fair and square with all your social media stuff … the golden rule often kicks in … no need to try too hard to sell something it just turns people off.
Thanks again – I’ve bookmarked your site and I’ll check back.
I’ve heard a lot of newer bloggers saying that it’s tough to Link Build yet at the same time they feel they are above commenting. Comments, while slightly lower in value, still give you some link power, one-way link power. Do 10 comments a night and after a year how many extra links do you have (on top of the many natural ones you should have gained via great content). It will add up if you do the Work.
I agree in your post. Successful marketers and bloggers are not dependent on microblogging. They still prefer adding fresh and informative articles.