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What is Twitter? Is it a social network or a content distribution platform? CEO of Twitter Evan Williams doesn’t seem to think it’s a social network.

A social network is a piece of technology that facilitates communication through existing social connections. You can share messages, photos and events with your friends, people you already know. Facebook is designed for “strong” connections, people you actually know well in real life.

A content distribution platform is a system that provides users with relevant information and links, and that gives content publishers a way to get their content to interested consumers. TV is probably the most obvious example, but RSS is a web-based version.

Twitter as a Distribution Platform

The argument for Twitter as a content distribution platform is obvious. With media companies like CNN posting their links to over a million users, tweeting is certainly an effective way for publishers to disseminate their content.

Twitter as a Social Network

The argument for Twitter as a social network is also quite obvious. Twitter emphasizes “weak” connections or people you know only a little from real life or even purely online friends and allows you to keep track of what they’re doing and engage in conversations.

And the Data? 

The data we uncovered in the second version of the State of the Twittersphere shows both sides of this debate. On one hand, many accounts on Twitter either have no followers or have never posted a tweet, meaning that many users are simply following their favorite celebrities or media outlets to get content.

On the other hand, over 30% of all tweets are replies. This means that when people do start actually using the service, they are using it to converse with their “weak” connections. Active users are leveraging the social network aspect of Twitter.

What do you think? Is Twitter best used as a social network or a content distribution platform?

Webinar: Twitter for Marketing and PR

Become a Fan on Facebook Get inside info and advance notice of HubSpot’s free marketing webinars, ebooks and more. Click here –>

Episode #45 – June 19th, 2009
(Episode Length: 23 minutes, 29 seconds)

Intro

• How to interact on Twitter – @mvolpe @karenrubin
• Remember to subscribe in iTunes – http://itunes.hubspot.tv/
• InboundMarketing.com – new site where you can post questions, learn about inbound marketing, meet others, find and post jobs or sign up inbound

Mail Bag

• @LevelTen_Colin on Twitter: hey @mvolpe, quick question – what’s
  your opinion on the sub-domain vs. directory folder #seo debate? notice
  that hubspot uses sub-domains
• SEO – Are Subdomains or Folders best for search engine optimization?

Doing it Right

• Reynolds Golf Academy – www.ReynoldsGolfAcademy.com  
• “He wanted the Golf Academy’s website to be an interactive
  destination where web visitors could learn about his “New Rules” of
  golf instruction through YouTube videos and his free downloadable
  e-books.”
• Proper Way to Throw a Golf Club
• Increased traffic and lead volume by over 50x

Headlines

Search Advertising Companies Have 50% Churn

• “Roughly half of businesses that buy search ads directly from
  Google and other Internet search companies don’t come back the
  following year…”
• The Bottom Line Of Local Search
   
• Marketing Takeaway – Advertising is expensive, and has little leverage.

Search is Getting Jiggy With It

• Everyone is talking about search these days, does it matter?
• Bing.com – Microsoft’s newest search engine
• Hunch.com – The Answer Engine
• WolframAlpha.com – A computational engine
• Marketing Takeaway - There is some movement going on in search. Don’t worry about it. Google has ~70% market share, that’s all you need to know.

Iran and Social Media

• Has the Iranian revolution be organized through the Twit-o-sphere?
• Officials: Social networking providing crucial info from Iran
• Iran Protests: Twitter, the Medium of the Movement
  
• Tweet fightin’ Iran? Maybe not    
• Marketing Takeaway
  - Everyone in your market does not need to be using a tool to make it
  worth your time. A few influential people can make all the difference.

Facebook Edges out MySpace

• Facebook Beats MySpace in the US   
• Marketing Takeaway - If you aren’t using Facebook check it out, it’s growing by leaps and bounds. If you need help, check out this webinar!

Where in the World is Mike Volpe?

• Driving ROI on Twitter    
• Twitter Boot Camp   
• Marketing Takeaway – Focusing on any one tool exclusively is a BAD marketing strategy.

Forum Fodder

• Thad Peterson -
  I’m trying to work through whether it’s best to try to keep your
  private and professional personas seperate when using social media.
  Anybody else grappling with this? What conclusions have you come to?

Marketing Tip of the Week

Follow in the footsteps of Charlie King and become your own media mogul.

Closing

Webinar: Blogging for Business

Want to learn more about publishing a blog on your business website? Download the free webinar to learn how to create a thriving inbound marketing blog.

Become a Fan on Facebook Get inside info and advance notice of HubSpot’s free marketing webinars, ebooks and more. Click here –>

Right after we mentioned in our previous post that one of Bing’s strengths is its travel vertical, here comes an interesting post by Epicenter on the striking resemblance of Bing with that of Kayak travel search portal. As I was not familiar with Kayak I immediately checked out the site for awhile while opening Bing Travel in another browser tab to compare their look and feel.  Indeed there’s a resemblance in the way both travel search portal presents travel search related results.

Even the Kayak people noticed the striking resemblance of Bing Travel to their site. Kayak’s chief marketing officer Robert Birge told Wired.com that they have brought the issue to Microsoft. But a Microsoft official deny Kayak’s claim saying that the technology they are using on Bing Travel was based on a collaborative effort between Farecast and Microsoft.

While Kayak can elevate this matter to proper authorities as there are existing copyright laws applicable to the matter, it would however be a long and tedious process and would be harder to prove.

So for now, Kayak might as well be contented with the fact that a major Internet player might have copied their travel search portal or at the least looks a lot like theirs. After all, this similarities may not affect Kayak’s travel search market share at all since they have established themselves as a major player in that niche.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Did Bing Copy Kayak’s Travel Search Portal?

Has Michael Jackson died or is this another social media and Internet hoax? Social Media is reporting his death. CNN is reporting he’s in a coma. And the search engines don’t have a clue what’s going on.

Social Media : Twitter Coverage of TMZ

According to Twitter and Facebook users all over the world, Michael Jackson died today from a cardiac arrest after being rushed to the hospital. However, there is no major news network announcing his death, except for one unconfirmed “EXCLUSIVE” on AOL’s TMZ blog.

In addition to TMZ, the only other real sources reporting that Michael Jackson has died are celebrities on Twitter, and Twitter users retweeting the TMZ story and celebrity tweets.

Lindsay Lohan: NO OMG … sending my love and prayers out to Michael and his family … i feel sick..

Marlon Wayans: My prayers, my love, my heart goes out to michael jackson and the entire jackson family. I pray so hard for them. I’m crushed! Please pray.

Only in a social media controlled world would we see a Twitterized “revolution” in Iran, and the breaking news (or perhaps a hoax) of Michael Jackson’s death. Again, no news outlets have reported on Jackson dying from the heart attack as of 6:20 pm EST.

So How Are The Search Engines Reporting It?

In terms of search relevance and breaking news, even with conflicting news amongst various media outlets and social media, Google has not caught up to the rush of Michael Jackson news. Google is showing only ONE headline in its Google News Universal Search Onebox about the rumored passing of Jackson, with others about his jewelry and one about Lou Ferigno training Mr. Jackson.

Yahoo Search News Shortcuts, on the other hand, is right on top of the news.

Is Google Search lagging in breaking news coverage? Indeed it is. Microsoft BING however, has ABSOLUTELY FAILED in their coverage of the passing of Michael (scroll down).

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Michael Jackson Dead : Microsoft Bing FAILS in Coverage, Twitter and Facebook Break News

Posted by great scott!

This week, Rand is joined by one of our in-house data geniuses, Ben Hendrickson, to talk more about some of our recently released correlation data to support guidelines for SEO best practices.

While correlation doesn’t always equal causation, it’s still very interesting to look at the attributes and features high ranking sites tend to have in common.  Comparing this data to known and accepted SEO practices can help to reinforce widely held notions or give us some insight into how the algorithms are changing; both important areas of analysis for successful online marketers.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Correlation, Causation & SEO from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

Want to learn even more about what Ben discovered in our data correlation analysis?  He’ll be presenting his detailed findings at our SEO Training Series Seminar right here in Seattle, August 24th & 25th.

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Posted by Sam Niccolls

(NOTE FROM RAND: Please welcome Sam Niccolls, SEOmoz’s newest addition to the consulting team – we hope you all like him as much as we do!)

A lot a marketers focus optimization efforts at the bottom of their conversion funnels. One effective way to examine conversion rates at the bottom of the funnel is to create a custom segment that excludes visitors who bounce. As this segment gives you a view of your engagement data that only shows interested visitors, this is a great way to inform site changes. After all, these visitors are the ones who are most likely to convert into paying customers.

But what about the top of the funnel? Are too many of your visitors leaving on arrival? If so, delve deeper into which pages are causing you the most bleeding. And don’t get too far ahead of yourself with site changes before you first identify your highest volume SEO entry pages. To make site changes without looking the top of your conversion funnel is to rent a tux before finding a prom date. It costs a lot and it leads to embarrassment.

Yet many sites still don’t think of pages other than their homepage as landing pages. It is not just pimple popping amateurs making this mistake, either. Numerous startups and online retailers, who get 80% of their overall traffic from Google, fall into the trap of designing individual product pages that rank well, drive 50-60% of their overall traffic, yet have bounce rates over 75%.  

Avinash Kaushik, Google’s Analytics Evangelist, always says your homepage is not a golden door through which all your visitors will pass. And he’s right. Search engines have flipped the funnel. Every page that drives traffic is a landing page. But just because Google decides your homepage doesn’t mean you can’t optimize the performance of your lower level pages. Do you have underperforming product listings, profile pages, articles, or other entry URLs?

If so, here’s a quick checklist to revamp your lackluster landings:  

1) Reassuring Policies
If you have reassuring polices, whether they are privacy assurances, guarantees, rebates, returns, or whatever else, tell your first time visitors about them. These don’t have to be flashing lights or neon arrows, but look at how scannable your "deep content" pages are. Two things that can be tremendously effective are graphics and icons. In the absence of any images, however, a single line saying "We never sell your personal information" can do a lot. And don’t bury these reassurances at the bottom of the page. Put them at the top of the page, or next to your e-mail collection field (if you’re collecting e-mail from the page).  

2) Testimonials
You have raving fans, right? I’m sure there are at least a couple in the woodwork. Why not let them sing your praise as part of your introduction to your visitors? Landing page optimization is not a cocktail party. It’s okay to brag a little. Especially if it means improving your bottom line. Amazon does a great job of prominently exposing five star reviews on their product level pages, as does Yelp. Both are good examples to look at.

3) No Credit Card Forms
Single page forms are one thing if you are running a free trial period. Just last week I saw some massive returns for an e-commerce site off of some landing pages they created for an SEM campaign where they offered a 14-day free trial. But SEO landing pages are different. They are typically part of your internal site navigation. Plus, they are really more like first dates than "take it or leave it" offers. For this reason, don’t be too forward. Show some leg and entice your visitors to click a second time, but save the credit card forms for further down the funnel. I am not saying you can’t open the kimono later, but buy your visitors a drink first.     

4) Email Collection
If you have a newsletter, blog, or another way that you maintain an ongoing conversation with customers, you should offer a field for people to subscribe via e-mail and RSS. This might not impact bounce rate significantly, but this type of e-mail collection is inexpensive and it is a great way to increase user retention. Several websites whose sign up button treatments I like are Futurenow, Mint’s Blog and Fred Wilson’s Blog. As you can see, Mint doesn’t show a graphic for "sign up by e-mail," which is a wasted opportunity. More than likely e-mail will comprise the majority of your subscribers. So make e-mail sign up as easy as possible. 

5) Look at Bounce Rate by URL
Unless the volume warrants it, don’t analyze individual URLs; analyze URL structures. For example, say you have an article subfolder on your site –  http://www.yourdomain.com/articles/title-of-post. Rather than looking at each individual article, run a landing page report and look at your pages in aggregate. As a sum, what pages are hurting or helping you the most? Where are you retaining visitors? Where are you losing them? If you can learn anything from your most effective pages, apply those learnings to your least effective pages. Whatever your RegEx writing tells you, focus on making the most global changes possible. In other words, change things that will have the greatest, most immediate impact such as headers, persistent a or c columns, and first time user treatments.  

Whatever you glean from your landing page analysis, abandon the myth of the golden homepage. And if you are not thinking of your "deep content" pages as landing pages, identify your biggest opportunities and let your design team go to work. There is probably a lot of low hanging fruit. Besides, if you don’t, you might find your website dateless at the conversion prom, and nobody wants to be standing in the rain with a wilted dandelion boutonniere. That’s a fate I wouldn’t wish on the worst of websites, not even Danny Dover’s favorite domain.

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