Likable = Linkable

I know sad that I must blog my own quotes…

As Shakespeare so put it, “Brevity is the soul of wit.”

Apparently this tweet was liked, as I received some mentions on it. This concept is the summation of a key element in search engine rankings and therefore the core of gaining search engine rankings.

Is Content King?

The search engines want to believe that the best content on the internet will win. They gauge this by links. If you like something then you will share it with others by linking to it. Who hasn’t gotten an email with a link in it to a funny video. Funny is almost always likable. Who doesn’t like things that are funny?… Okay maybe its not best to crack a joke when in a heated argument with a wife. But let’s not get into timing right now. The idea of the search engine tallying up links is to find the sites that are most liked by all. Content should incite people to like you. Content should give people a reason to link to you.

Offline Likability = Online Linkability

To expand this concept one step further, I believe your offline likability is also proportionate to your online link-ability. This is going beyond what the search engine would expect. Search Engine’s believe that people more likely to naturally link to an awesome hotel’s website after having a fantastic weekend of sterling customer service. Hence the best hotel wins. I ..Perhaps. But popularity of lesser hotels may out weigh the likability of awesome less known hotels. I believe we are now taking this one step further. I am more compelled to share articles from individuals that I know and like. I win more links from people I meet and establish a relationship with. Take for instance Dennis G., he’s likable and thus linkable. I am much more likely to link to Ebay after having met Dennis.

We could even Expand this chain to:

 Likable = Linkable = Tweetable = Diggable = Stumbleable = Remarkable = Rankable

As one comment I received stated… “Wow, thanks for that. I have to summarize today why losing links is a big deal, ane explain why they are going to lose their rankings.”

Glad I could help. =)

“So this is good and dandy for individuals but what about businesses. Are we in business to be friends with people?”

If you have not figured out the new online order, YES, YOU NEED TO MAKE FRIENDS.  Granted, being likable does not mean being buddy-buddy. You don’t need to be a BFF. But as a business you do need to serve a purpose and people need to like you doing that service. Disney probably puts it the best:

“Do what you do so well, that the people who see you do it, will want to see you do it again, and will bring others to see you do it.“

Adding a smile to your service helps bring them back for more. Being friendly helps them share your business with their friends. In today’s online world this is amplified over several thousand social connections. Social media works best for those that know how to act socially acceptable and be sociable. I am a pest control guy. My first priority is to get rid of bugs, my second is to make you smile a little longer.

Now go out and be LIKABLE!

Social Media Monitoring and Scoring – #SocialMedia

Klout vs Peer Index

Very cool post about a new monitoring tool for social media influence.  But wait, doesn’t this take out some of the genuineness of social media? Clearly the power behind social media is that individuals can influence one another. Typically its a peer. Kind of like that class on “peer pressure” that we took in middle school, but now being the peer that can pressure others is a good thing. <Dangerous>

My comment:

This is all very cool and people like to see how they score and ultimately how they measure up. But when is someone going to produce a tool that will not only rank you and score you but then give you advice on how to improve your scores.  While this should be self evident, people that like to game want the rules of the game.

Either way, I still must wonder if Klout scores and social influence scores are more damaging then they are helpful.

Thanks for the comparision and info.

So what do think? Do social media scoring systems destroy the social media platform or do they help people realize “hey, I am big doofus so I need to chill on the twitter-thon”?

And get this, right now you can go find which U.S. cities are the most social media savvy. Social Media Rankings .

And apparently “The average New Yorker has nearly twice as many total friends across all social networking sites as business people in Houston.”