Five things I learned about Social Media

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And you might not know!

Let's be reasonable, most of us are bloggers, and want to increase our numbers! Take these tips to help out yourself, and others! Its a wide social world out there, and some of our activity has catches!

#1 Facebook likes MUST come from your personal page!
Meaning- If you are participating in a Facebook hop, and you 'like' someones page, it will not increase their numbers if you are 'using Facebook as your business page. This is what hops are all about, right?


#2 Comments are for more than just getting a follow back!
Google your blog, and soon you will find that your comments appear in search results. We WANT to appear in search results! Spread your name around, and not only will you be 'doing a solid' to your fellow bloggers by READING their post, and leaving RELEVANT comments, but increasing your own exposure too!

#3 'Do unto others' is not old school!
The truth remains as it did thousands of years ago, that you will get what you give. The blogs that I return to are those who've returned to mine. Leaving a comment for something other than a hop is always welcome, and makes us all feel good. A twitter mention does a soul good, and a stumble or plus one brightens your day. If you think about the blogs you pass through, how long would it take each of us to add in these extra steps!

#4 Klout scores...
Although there have been a number of articles predicting the future of Klouts impact, I am still unsure what relevance it has on our cyber presence, but I have learned this...as with everything else, I LIKE to see my numbers go up, so must others enjoy this too! And how does Klout score us? The algorithms used to determine scores, take into account your Twitter and Facebook followers, mentions, and re-tweets, (among other things that are beyond my technical knowledge) So I then refer you to #3. Do unto others applies!

#5 Alexa- the basics
Alexa, the mother of website ranking. If you have recently participated in an 'Alexa Hop', there are a few things you should know.

a. You MUST have the toolbar installed! Alexa traffic is only inclusive of visits from users WITH the toolbar installed. What does this mean? If a visitor does not have the toolbar installed, it WILL NOT count towards your ranking. If you are looking for reviews and giveaway on your site, it is likely that your business partners will check into your Alexa ranking, to see what kind of traffic their product will receive. Better ranking, better reviews and giveaways. It would SERIOUSLY behoove us all to have the toolbar installed! Get it for Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Google Chrome. (It's a small, non intrusive toolbar, and better still, you can see your own ranking every time you are on your site without visiting Alexa.com)

b. Also taken into account is your bounce rate, and time on site. Simply stopping by someone's site after having installed the toolbar is nice, but it is even nicer to click on another page. I've considered inserting a "Read More" on every post, thus forcing visitors to click another page to continue reading.

Check out my ranking, and see the difference since I installed the toolbar, (July 6) and began participating in Alexa Hops! Check out the search percentage graph...Hmmmmm

Coming soon....My take on StumbleUpon, and what kind of impact it can have on your traffic