For week 5 of analytics, we dug deeper into social media with a focus on the value of Google+. Although Google+ may seem less intuitive to use, you need to evaluate its use in terms of your goals. Specifically, if you want ROI or engagement, Google+ may be well worth the time it takes to set up because it controls ‘who’ sees what you share by controlling how high your organization comes up in Google searches. Sofia showed us a couple of examples from her own business, when she posted on Google+ and how it boosted the company’s online prominence. I thought this was effective and drove the point home. With my senior project, I think it may be worthwhile looking into Google+ ‘communities’ that pertain to senior care but also I think it will be important to have a presence on Google+ so that might key words and organization will be found.
We also learned than ‘not all links are created equal.’ A key way to optimize search engine results to your site (SEO) is by having links from other website’s connect to yours. However, we learned the strength of these links varies according to various criteria, such as:
- Authority or credibility of each site linking to you. (It’s better to have links from established, high profile sites like Buzzfeed or the Huffington Post than a blog run by one person with a few subscribers)
- Number of other sites each site links to. (If it links to a high number of other sites, its link is of less value.)
- Where your link appears (The Jackpot to have your link in the title or anchor text but this is rare.)
- Relevance of the sites linking to you. (If you pay for links from an essentially ‘content-free’ site or link farm, there is little value)
- Authority and Page Rank of the linking page
I also learned the word ‘Social Signals,’ which is when someone likes, recommends or shares your post. So with my senior project, I ideally want many ‘high value’ inbound links, ideally from relevant healthcare/senior care sites and to generate many ‘social signals.’
Interactive4Good 