Social signals have been an important factor for web ranking since at least December 2010 when Matt Cutts confirmed in this video that Google was looking at social networks like Twitter and Facebook for evidence of social approval of content created and published on websites.
The problem is that someone who creates great content is not necessarily a great content marketer or may not have a large network of online friends who can help them get work noticed.
Social Signals the Hard Slog
In my experience, the best way to get people to share your content online and to create Google approved social signals is to spend a long time nurturing relationships with like-minded people who are never happier than when you share their content.
Eventually, people who you connect with whose content you share will return the favour and share your content and with any luck, their friends will share your posts, too.
If that sounds like a lot of hard work, it’s because that’s exactly what it is. The process of tweeting and posting your friend’s work is time-consuming and you are forever online. Plus, for every twenty or so people you nurture a relationship with, only one of them will reciprocate and that’s if you are lucky.
So how can you guarantee your work gets the recognition from search engines it deserves?
From Zero to Famous at 20mbits
The best way to ensure people share your content across social networks is to put it in front of people who are:
- A) interested in your topic and have followers, friends or colleagues who are the same and
- B) Expect something in return for their efforts.
The best way I found of skipping the months of hard work, rejection and annoying one-way relationships with unappreciative people on Twitter who have more followers than you, is to use JustRetweet.com.
JustRetweet allows you to build up your Twitter following by tweeting content from categories that interest you and your followers. In return for sharing, the person whose content you shared awards you credits.
When you have sufficient credits, you can offer them to other users for retweeting your messages. It’s a no brainer and anyone can build enough credits to push their tweet counter to places it has never been before by simply spending five minutes on the site
How I Use Just Retweet
I’m sure there are people who retweet content just for the credits you offer, but that’s why it’s important to include hashtags in your message so that people interested in your contact will be able to identify it on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
I forgot to mention that JustRetweet should really be called NotJustRetweet because you can choose to have your message shared on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ or all three, if you like.
I’ve only just started using it to broadcast my message on Facebook, because I didn’t seem to get much traffic from there before, but the hashtags feature that Facebook eventually introduced has given me second thoughts about the platform.
I’ve always elected to have my content shared on Google+ as well as Twitter for the obvious reason that Google will notice that as much, but probably more than other networks.
My Opinion of JustRetweet
I have no doubt that JustRetweet is an amazing tool and quite-frankly, I couldn’t do without it because I now use it to boost all the links I build for my clients. My outreach work is much more valuable now that everywhere I post seems to get much more reader interaction and that helps my client’s link profiles. In terms of off-site SEO, it doesn’t get much better than this.
Shaun Thomas is an experienced content writer who spends his days working on outreach and inbound marketing for TheWriteProvider.co.uk.