Microblogging vs. Traditional Blogging (Why Social Matters)
There are several reasons for the demise of traditional blogging.
For one thing, writing a blog post takes time, energy and grammar skills. The cycle of sharing of ideas and thoughts, has in many forms, outgrown blogging, or evolved beyond the concept of blogging. The ability to share a recommendation or a vote of confidence for thoughts, interests and predictions within the online marketing industry in a more instantaneous way is more gratifying for some bloggers.
Someone using Twitter can became less interested in the traffic and ad impressions, but more engaged in the conversation. Does this mean that blogging is not as fun or influential as it once was? No. Blogging is still a powerful medium. But in the same way blogging once complemented established websites and news vehicles, microblogging – or micropublishing – now complements blogging.
Social Media Equals Social Proof
Links no longer need to be uploaded to a server using poor dial up service. Now a link can be shared from a phone in only seconds. What Facebook, Twitter and Google+ do is bring authenticity to content because these social networks are transparent, as user interests, likes, groups and followers all can define the intent and relevancy of the user. When someone shares a link that is associated with a “like” it’s a vote of confidence. By adding a like button to a website or blog post, that same vote of confidence and authenticity is attributed to its source.
Almost anyone can become an influencer on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Google+ and some even have without knowing they have. Incorporating social media metrics into SEO is powerful.
It’s true that the bulk of an SEO algorithm is still very dependent upon a style of linking which has been around for many years and involves publishers. Yet, with social network based Instapublishing, the people who never wanted to blog, and never really were exposed to it, are getting to be almost as influential as publishers.
Are Social Signals Equal to Crowd Sourced SEO?
According to Bing, they look at the social authority of a user and Google confirmed that the sharing of information via retweeting and sharing is influential in organic web search and Google News. These confirmations are heavy reasons to get started utilizing the social web and microblogging as ways to grow your site or business in the eyes of the search engines.
Google & Bing are looking at more than the coded link and on-site content to rank and file web search results. Essentially they are looking at how the microbloggers of the world, share and process information. By embracing and engaging the world of insta-publishing, businesses and publishers can gain an upper hand on their competition.
The link has evolved over the past decade and ultimately search has evolved along with it. We’ve gone from hand coded HTML to blogging to tagging and now tweeting, reblogging and recommending. Push button publishing and voting is now a part of the normal online lifestyle and whether Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr users know it or not, they are part of a publishing migration that the search engines are slowly adapting to.