2. Social media links are much more expensive in time/labor/money than other link types.

3. Social media traffic is worthless unless you are exceptional (which is what I think Aaron was referring to).

4. No damn person in the world is going to be loyal and socially commited to my viagra/diet pill/casino site, so unless you are making millions on SEO across numerous websites, I don’t want to hear about your “social media for SEO” crapola. Again, proving the point that those who know dont talk, and those who talk ….

This article is a superb example of why you’d make an IDEAL SEO.

Most of my clients who are on the first page of Google are there even with a smidgen of links. One of the reasons I am as successful as I am is because I come from a broader business management background. I’ve never given links the credit Aaron and half the SEO geniuses do because to me it’s always all been about the quality of the content, and the brand identity.

Like the dot-com bubble, and the economy bubble, focusing so much on links is a doomed strategy based on falsely believing “the tricks that work today work so well, I don’t need to consider whether the model will change tomorrow, and thus I can put all my focus on this one…”

Instead, the longer term history of business success, financial success, have always been about the core value. And the core value for any company on the web is their offerings and brand identity, which can today only be communicated through quality content and as of late, social media.

Properly evaluating keyword phrases goes so much futher because of that very fact- those phrases are a snippet out-take of what the offerings are or the brand identity is all about, and it’s going to take a massive paradigm shift in how the internet works (if ever) to get away from that reality. And social networking is to the web what out in the world events are from a brand building perspective.

You keep doing what you’re doing – or alternatively, if you want to one day become an actual SEO, call me – I’d hire you in a heartbeat!

First of all social media is a great means of building links. Now I don’t mean submit your site to Digg.com and you have an instant high PR backlink. The true link building value comes from when great content goes popularor goes viral on a sites like digg.com, reddit StumbleUpon, Twitter etc. and thousands of people are exposed to it. Then the links come naturally. So in other words I’m not concerned about the platform itself giving ma a backlink. The true link building value comes from people that are compelled to link to your content because the quality is high.

Now that being said I also agree that social media has enormous value other thank just link building. Such as building a brand, networking, getting your name out there and so on. I have so many great friends from around the world due to my involvement in social media. This is much more valuable to me than a high PR backlink.

In summary the benefits of social media can be enormous and many. I can’t imagine someone shunning a particular social site because it is no follow. I think that is a pretty narrow viewpoint. Not to mention even no follow links can hold some value. Maybe not from a page rank perspective but as you said the obsession with page rank has gone too far.

Great article! I tweeted to my 11657 followers just now. @the_gman ;-)

Well agree .. or hope … links have a declining influence on rankings.

As goes for Twitter the SEO people are really into this at the moment, and “spamming” with content and links to content.

Steen Ohman
Öhman Research – online marketing

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However, the SEs still rely very, very much on links to help them determine authority. As you know, authority is a huge overall metric for ranking well. So, you cannot blame people for wanting to grab links any which way they can. Personally, I do not have the time or passion to whore any link I can get. Rather, I find opportunities to acquire strong links via posting content that passively garners links and by reaching out to people for links. Again, all very social.

Social marketing is NOT new. The only aspect of social marketing that is new is the tools; RSS, Twitter, Status Updates and blogs, which help us to more easily become social with a larger like-minded audience.

With regard to Aaron’s post about social marketing being a waste, I would make the jump that he was really saying that it is a waste when it affects business in a negative way. We all know how much time is being wasted on these sites/tools.

I also believe that Aaron’s post was a bit of a confession to his own time being wasted on these mediums. He noticed that he was spending a bit too much time on things that were not driving revenue.

Thanks to the wider adoption of easy-to-use, new age social marketing apps and tools like Twitter, RSS and blogs we are seeing too much precious time being wasted following.

* Rants and blah blah blah about nothing
* Less productive employees now addicted to status updates instead of productivity
* Obsession with one’s “online coolness ratio”
* Obsession with being the first to post, tweet, digg, sphinn
* People are wasting time on these tools and missing out on face-to-face human interaction.

In conclusion, it would be insane to think that one would not want to use social marketing and the aforementioned tools to try to help grow and improve their business. The caveat, is that one should utilize these tools correctly and only when they can see a benefit to their business.

Note: This post was made thinking solely about the business side of the marketing equation. Obviously, I’m not saying these tools should not be used for one’s own recreational enjoyment.