Social media, by definition, is the creation and exchange of user-generated content. The unveiling of Google+ is a clear signal that the search engine is wising up and now using the social aspect as an important factor in how it indexes, ranks and presents information to the millions of users that go through it every day. User generated content is now what drives the search and browsing experience, and the experience on Google properties like Shopping and Hotel Finder. Search for an item these days, and Google links to reviews and comments on the product.
When visitors leave comments in your public forums or on your blog posts, they use your terms for your products and services. This is tremendously helpful when you’re looking at things from a keyword researching perspective.
How do you capitalize on this phenomenon as a website owner, then? Creating quality content is a given, but slapping some text together isn’t going to cut it anymore. You want to engage your users into generating the content that will boost you to the top of the search engine results. Having a blog helps in the sense that you’re already ahead of the game – your users will leave comments, which Google will then pick up on.
Specifically asking for opinions is another great way to leverage your website. You’ll be surprised at the amount of people willing to provide feedback for free. There’s no need to be long-winded about it, either – simply present a thought-provoking, relevant poll, and watch the comments roll in as people justify and argue their choices, or even provide options that you didn’t list down. After the poll closes, write a post about the results as a follow-up, creating more interest and hopefully more engagement.
You can also install a comment-rating system. Amazon uses user-generated content beautifully: searching for a specific item also gets you linked to the “most helpful favorable review” and “most helpful critical review”. While believing in the word of another person on the Internet is sketchy at best, it does provide a realer view on what a product or service is like – better than just looking at the advertorial product description.
Think about how to get your users to write for you by providing them viable options they can express themselves in. Take the time and effort to figure out what kind of strategy will add value to the user experience on your website, be it an interactive forum, a standalone chat widget, or offering guest posts.
You can also use social media to this end. If you’ve built up a strong social network, that’s a whole other audience you can feed your polls and posts to and get a decent response. You can also ask your social media audience for tips on how to use your product or service. Use this data to improve your website in a vast array of ways.
The most important part to remember here is to engage your audience enough for them to willingly offer their contributions over. Put yourself in the shoes of your visitors and try to think about what kind of information they want to see on your site. Get it, use it, and implement it. Don’t just throw up huge text walls that no one will read. The hard part is figuring out what the masses want, but once you’re over that little setback, you can kick back, relax, and watch them little critters boost your search engine ranking for you. Hit a snag? Believe it or not, asking the people what they want is always a good idea.
Later,
Andy
