SEO World:

I visited search marketing illuminati Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman this week, the power drivers of the SMX Search Engine expos in the USA and, now, internationally (SMX Espana coming up).

Their social media-related sessions, expert panelists and conference support staff were really attentive to detail and provided in-depth, real case studies of success (and not!). And even though the show in Long Beach this week on social media was small (if 200 people is tiny?), I enjoyed having a chance to meet many new people, including the above, and rock star SEOs Rand & Michael.

I was thinking of a great way to introduce social bookmarking to readers of my blog and discovered this cool video–commoncraft actually has many more, if you want to get more creative and useful videos.

Check out the below social bookmarking video explained, and come back next week for more tips on how to reach a wider audience with social media marketing strategies and tools. A quick way to bookmark across many platforms is the tool Socialmarker.

I also suggest checking out Marketing Pilgrim Social Media Marketing Guide for more 16 great ways to Social Media Marketing.

I’m working on a project where not only on-page (html/content) and off-page (links) factors are key to success (traffic in this case), but also crucial is generating more or less a rising buzz factor. Buzz by definition is like the “jungle-telegraph” model–where people start talking about something and naturally share among their friends and social networks.

Just this morning, I heard about the new Papaya Dance, the “next Macarena” (Note: currently, only about 300,000 pages are returned in Google in that search–this will grow).

The idea that generating buzz or natural sharing is easier now than ever may be true from a technology standpoint–just see this screenshot (from 10e20):

… but solid content–quality, that is–with maybe a slight bit of controversy, a fun factor or simply informational pieces–still is just as important. You must learn to use it all.

One place to start your social buzz trek: Learn some related (to your business) tools at go2web20. 

OK, a seed term from Speed, the first movie in a series with Keanu Reeves. “Pop Quiz, Hot Shot: What do the top 2007 winners within the new social media realm have in common?”

Do you know who they are (?):

• “New addictive microblogging platform”;
• “Top personalized web portal”;
• “From desktop computing to working in the cloud”;
• “At 23, Mark has built one of the world’s leading online destinations that has recently been valued at $15 billion”
  ** (you should know; watch out for this in 2008);
• “Saves the world from blog spam”;
• “Change the way people find health information online”;
• “$1.5 million investment in 2005–bought by eBay in 2007 for $75 million”; and
• “XBox live for casual games.”

All the winners and more answers are found here.

What they have in common are:

genius, timing, resources/people network, usefulness, uniqueness, filling a need and creating top positions within an emerging technology platform explosion: social media.

Are you thinking about social media this year?

Social Media, Web 2.0, Social Marketing, Social Search, Social Networking, Gadgets, Apps, Widgets, Ajax, Web Services, Open Social–what does this all mean for your online business in 2008?

From 2004-2007, I spent serious time in search engine optimization, product research, technical application development and online marketing (SEO, PPC, link building, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, landing pages, copywriting) and delivery. What I learned is that there really are no secrets, just hard, continuous work: changing, tracking, monitoring and not ever giving up, no matter how frustrating (yes it is!). This work has helped me immensely. I wrote about many aspects of this and more than 15 years of learning in the Ultimate Guide to SEO, coming out in the spring.

However, without the work of other people and the networks I belong to, I would not be where I am today. The headline of this post references research from a group of people that I consider to be leading the online marketing space. Not only have these people made a serious dent in the online marketplace themselves, but their goals are similar to mine: educate, and provide stellar information that you can use for yourself.

Therefore, a combination of all the strategies you’ve learned should be included in your internet-marketing and search-marketing work (which includes search engines). But do not miss out on the single most important aspect of growth online: the social medium.

Look at the stats on this traffic graph. Can you see how fast Facebook has risen in 2007? Look at the red line–this is compelling data.

The toughest part is not understanding the importance of this data. Rather, it’s understanding how to execute within this fast growing, social media space.

For example, if you are in the B2B space, how can you leverage and take part in this huge growth and future explosion? Is it only meant for B2C? For example, does the ad network in Facebook even matter to a corporate business, since most believe it’s only for kids and teens anyway?

You may have it all wrong, as I am learning as well.

I wrote an article on social search and social media optimization awhile back, updated for 2008–I felt the movement, but had really no clue.

The proof of 617 million people that may help navigate the online chaos in 2008 is found below.

Click to download and see the controversial, but proven, results.

It might make your strategy and thinking change drastically for 2008.