Vanessa Fox Presentation: SEM Hot Seat

About Vanessa Fox: I’m currently Features Editor at Search Engine Land and a moderator at Sphinn. I’m also working with Ignition Partners as an Entrepreneur in Residence. I write a lot. You may have seen me speak at the last conference you were at. Sometimes, when I have extra time, I consult, particularly on building online communities. I also host a weekly show on Webmaster Radio about search called GoodKarma with Greg Niland.

Topic: Navigating Social Search

Act 1: Browsing The Web.
Act 2: Searching The Web.
Act 3: Browsing The Web (again).

Browsing by way of voting—not asking a question but have a topic of interest.

Social media value still depends on conversion.

Different kinds of browsing: Browsing by voting, browsing by sharing, browsing by way of community, and browsing by way of voyeurism (audience laughs): Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Forums.

Social search is strictly vertical search—search engines trending to vertical search and trending to blended search.

So what changes? Nothing.

Basics: keyword research, create compelling content, ensure content is relevant, pay attention to title tags & headings, and make the content scanable.

What’s different? Get involved in the community, get to know the community, blog authentically, read & comment on other blogs, be active in forums, create & use relevant social networking profiles, and let your audience get to know you.

Know your own audience & know your social media audience. What’s a good conversion rate? Social media converts at a lower rate than search visitors. Provide explanation & links. Don’t neglect your profile for effective reputation management. Don’t forget old school sites. Link effectively but not in an annoying way. Treat social media & networking as traffic opportunities and ways to strengthen your brand and customer interactions.