Cameron Olthuis

Todd has been on a roll lately with one good post after another. One of the posts that really caught my attention was the SEO Marketing Manifesto. All 10 of the points Todd lays out are great but I wanted to bring special attention to #7.

7. Social media can be optimized
Optimization does not mean manipulation. Optimization is examining the rules of the game and using them to your advantage. Social media increases both exposure - as well as the level of public scrutiny. People appreciate when bias is disclosed, and conversation is HUMAN.

The other day I came across this other post from Brian Oberkirch, where he says there’s no such thing as Social Media Optimization. I obviously disagree with Brian and have been wanting to post a reply for a couple days now. Once I saw Todd’s post I figured I would just quote what he said because I don’t think I can say it any better myself.

I don’t think Brian understands the concept of SMO, just like he doesn’t understand SEO.

You drag that bullshit practice of SEO into the social media world

I realize a lot of people hate SEOs and it’s obviously the few bad eggs that we can blame for this. But the people making the accusations are also to blame because they don’t do the research to understand what they are really talking about. SEO is by no means a “bullshit practice”, in my opinion you’re a “bullshit marketer” if you really think that and ignore search.

When we say that we optimize sites for social media that doesn’t mean we spam it. It just means we fine tune it. That can mean something as simple as improving usability or something such as creating viral content.

A few months ago the SEO world had its panties in a bunch with the news that Danny Sullivan was no longer going to be a part of Search Engine Strategies or Search Engine Watch.

Today, Danny announced that he worked out an agreement with Incisive to stick around another year. While he’s still leaving Search Engine Watch at least Danny will a part of SES for one more year. He’s also planning a couple events of his own and a new search blog. Congrats Danny!

One potential problem with social search could be in the long tail. If the majority of searches are only performed a couple of times there won’t be enough human participation to make for good results.

Social search is already occuring on Google but people are “voting” with clicks instead of knowingly, and Google can even do this with the long tail.

What do other people think of this?

Danny Sullivan is leaving Search Engine Watch and most likely the Search Engine Strategies conference series as well. This news is creating quite the buzz around the web.

First let me echo what many have already said; Incisive Media is pretty much retarded for not moving mountains to keep Danny around. Search Engine Watch and SES are what they are because of Danny.

As the “Godfather” of search, Danny has played a big role in shaping our entire industry to what it has become today. I wish Danny the best of luck wherever this new path takes him. He will undoutably be successful and the industry will gladly follow wherever he goes.

There is a lot of good link building resources floating around right now.

Todd Malicoat’s great list of 12 different kinds of links and how to get them.

Aaron Wall and Andy Hagans listed 101 ways to increase your link pop.

Neil Patel breaks link building down into a 5 post series.

Matt Inman from SEOmoz puts on the blackhat and shows us how to get 20 .gov links in 20 minutes.

Aaron Pratt crowns the winner in the Linkbaiting 2006 Awards. Aaron I’d really like to see this taken to the next level. Good stuff.