SEO and Comment Spam: A Cautionary Tale

If you’re SEO and social media strategies run afoul of best-practices, you might have a bigger problem than diminished Google rankings: Your brand's reputation might take a very public hit. That's what happened after Adam Singer received this comment at his Future Buzz blog:

"Small businesses should focus more on the quality of their marketing campaigns because consumers are, indeed, conducting more research now than ever before. [Company] has tools that can help you monitor your results and offers insight on your campaign success! Here is a link to some of the [products] from [company]." [Editor's note: We've redacted the company and product names; Singer did not.]

Singer wasn't pleased. "It is inappropriate of you to leave a comment like this when the discussion section is respected by everyone else who contribute thoughtful, valuable comments and not simply try to push their wares," he noted. "You are trying to take but not give."

He approved the comment to make his point, and—hoping to begin a positive conversation—sent a snarky-but-friendly tweet to the offending company. "Thanks … for link spamming my blog comments. You'll provide a great example of what not to do for readers tomorrow."

The company's social media manager sent Singer a conciliatory email about "working to find the right balance between authentic social media engagement and SEO best practices."

It soon became clear, however, that the company was using a "shady" SEO vendor that operated independently of its in-house social media team. "Their separate digital teams clearly have no idea what anyone is doing," says Singer. "Except the Web, of course, sees it all."

The Po!nt: Engage with caution. No matter who makes your SEO decisions, or why they're made, social media

32 Ways to Use Facebook for Business Marketing

Facebook’s not just for keeping tabs on friends and filling out quizzes — it can also be used as a highly effective business tool. It’s great for marketing your products, landing gigs and connecting with your customers.

32 ways to use Facebook in your business.

Manage Your Profile

1. Fill out your profile completely to earn trust.
2. Establish a business account if you don’t already have one.
3. Stay out of trouble by reading the Facebook rules regarding business accounts.
4. Install appropriate applications to integrate feeds from your blog and other social media accounts into your Facebook profile. (Although you should be careful before integrating your Twitter feed into your Faceboook profile, as a stream of tweets can seem overwhelming to your contacts.)
5. Keep any personal parts of your profile private through Settings.
6. Create friends lists such as “Work,” “Family” and “Limited Profile” for finer-grained control over your profile privacy.
7. Post a professional or business casual photos of yourself to reinforce your brand.
8. Limit business contacts’ access to personal photos.
9. Post your newsletter subscription information and archives somewhere in your profile.

Connect and share with others

1. Obtain a Facebook vanity URL so that people can find you easily.
2. Add your Facebok URL to your email signature and any marketing collateral (business cards, etc.) so prospects can learn more about you.
3. Post business updates on your wall. Focus on business activities, such as “Working with ABC Company on web site redesign.”
4. Share useful articles and links to presentation and valuable resources that interest customers and prospects on your wall, to establish credibility.
5. Combine Facebook with other social media tools like Twitter. For example, when someone asks question on Twitter, you can respond in detail in a blog post and link to it from Facebook.
6. Before traveling, check contacts locations so you can meet with those in the city where you’re heading.
7. Research prospects before meeting or contacting them.
8. Upload your contacts from your email client to find more connections.
9. Use Find Friends for suggestions of other people you may know to expand your network even further.
10. Look for mutual contacts on your contacts’ friends lists.
11. Find experts in your field and invite them as a guest blogger on your blog or speaker at your event.
12. Market your products by posting discounts and package deals.
13. Share survey or research data to gain credibility.
14. Use Facebook Connect to add social networking features to your web site.
15. Suggest Friends to clients and colleagues — by helping them, you establish trust.
16. Buy Facebook ads to target your exact audience.
17. Read up on Facebook Beacon to see if it might be useful for you.

Use Network, Group and Fan Pages

1. Start a group or fan page for product, brand or business. Unless you or your business is already a household name, a group is usually the better choice.
2. Add basic information to the group or fan page such as links to company site, newsletter subscription information and newsletter archives.
3. Post upcoming events including webinars, conferences and other programs where you or someone from your company will be present.
4. Update your group or fan page on a regular basis with helpful information and answers to questions.
5. Join network, industry and alumni groups related to your business.
6. Use search to find groups and fan pages related to your business by industry, location and career.