The debate over the potential value of linkbait rages on! Throughout the last few years, the argument over linkbait/viral content strategies and whether or not the use of these tactics will result in rewards from search engines has been on the tip of everyone’s tongues. I believe this methodology will remain profitable in the long run for a number of reasons I’ll get to in a second.

First, for the newbs, a handy definition of linkbait as it pertains to SEO practices:

“Linkbait/Viral Content: The practice of crafting web content to attract attention and awareness in the form of natural links given by bloggers, news media, researchers, forum posters and other website contributors. This content can include any combination of static or interactive elements, but is almost always targeted at a specific subset of web audience members who have the ability to influence/create links, share content and spread a message virally (see Linkerati).”

But why talk about it? Pictures are worth, um, thousands of words I once heard. Here are a couple helpful infographics.

(SOURCE: Forrester Research via the Groundswell Blog)

Just a few years ago, three to be exact, linkbait users were targeting 30-50% fewer people than today. This doesn’t mean it’s easier, per say, but it does mean the opportunity to influence has risen dramatically. In short, your audience pool has widened.

So why does linkbaiting carry so little risk of penalization or devaluation?

1. Viral content works hand-in-hand with the functioning algorithms of search engines. Since these engines sprung forth in the early 1990s, they have been attempting to use the web’s link graph to identify content that people have found fundamentally interesting and worth sharing. Doesn’t this sound a lot like viral content?

2. Devaluing your linkbait content carries with it a high risk. There is a slippery slope here for these engines. An argument could be made that every piece of content on every website is technically designed to be linkbait and thus, every natural link should be “suspect.” This is, of course, supposing linkbait is considered to be a manipulative tactic which it is not always the case. Creating web content and creating linkbait are one in the same. Quality content attracts eyeballs. Why penalize this?

3. Search engines have always touted the profitability of so-called “natural links.” This means the links are independently created and editorially minded, and thus serve as an honest recommendation for a URL’s worthiness. These are exactly the kinds of links linkbaiting attracts. After all, why linkbait something nobody is going to like? That defeats the entire purpose.

4. Not to beat a dead horse here, but linkbait is simply great content. These are the kinds of links engines and engineers are constantly recommending as the core strategy for good SEO. When a linkbait is heavy on the bait and light on the link, then people simply tune it out. It has to be good content in order to attract the, well, links.

However, there are high risk ways to go about this and there are low risk ways. Popular blogger Matt Inman wrote a post highlighting some of the most dangerous implementations of manipulative link attraction, but these are most definitely the exception rather than the rule. Let’s take a look at a scale of low-to-high risk quantification:

* No Risk – Production of relevant (on-topic and with the site’s offerings) viral content with no manipulative link schemes. These are promoted ethically and organically on and off the web.

* Low Risk – Production of relevant viral content with potentially manipulative promotion (paying those with powerful social media accounts to help “push” the content into visibility).
This is low risk because the links are still created and given organically and editorially. Even if you managed to, for example, bribe Digg into promoting your story on the homepage, if that story attracts natural links from bloggers, writers, journalists, website owners, etc. it’s still fulfilled the search engines’ principles of high quality content that naturally derived editorial links. Not entirely ethical, but still low risk.

* Moderate Risk – Production of somewhat “off-topic” linkbait that is only loosely tied into the content of the site. These links probably won’t be devalued but it’s possible that they won’t provide as much help to the other sections of the site or it’s overall domain authority and ability to push up the rankings universally across the domain. So, not risky per say but potentially a waste of time.

High Risk – The combination of off-topic linkbait and manipulative push practices, possibly with other less-than-honest tactics like manipulative or irrelevant anchor text pointing to the content’s “sponsor” or “creator.” Typically, this is fine to do, but when employing certain types of “off-topic” anchor text, you need to be careful.

Extreme Risk – Creating content that attracts natural adoption of link code that recommends or points to something other than the original piece intended by the link creator. This could happen by crafting micro-sites on a topic, attracting links and redirecting them to off-topic, commercially focused pages/sites; embedding links into a “copy + paste this code” piece that visitors may not realize links to a location they didn’t intend to endorse etc. Basically, this is bad form so why are you doing it anyways? Stick to quality links that go where it says it’s supposed to go.

So, as always, viral content is a good thing when handled and used appropriately. Just stay on the up-and-up and you’ll do fine. To help inspire you, here are some particularly impressive viral content projects:

• Viral Video Done Right
• 10 Facts Every Westerner Should Know about the Middle East
• A Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis: The Bailout
• Web Development Project Estimator
• Economic Recovery Dashboard
• Infographic of US Swine Flu
• Amazon Acquisitions and Investments Leading up to Zappos
• How Different Groups Spend their Day
• Military Spending Worldwide
• Information is Beautiful
• The Booze Death Calculator
• Tim Series of Reported Occupations in the US (AKA Job Voyager)
• Online Dating Advice: What to Say in a First Message
• Modern Mugs and Creative Mug Designs

Meme marketing is a phrase you probably don’t even need explained. It sits there in our brains like it’s always been there. It just seems, right. Anyways, if you need a primer: A meme is born, defined in its traditional sense here, and then pushed to market something. This push is not always done by the creator of said meme.

Now, meme marketing can be really annoying when overdone. A good meme marketer doesn’t care about search results like this: their website is their story. And then they sell that story to for a couple of million bucks. Sounds silly, for someone to pay a couple of million bucks for some random pictures of cats. Still, it has happened and will probably happen again.

Let’s get something straight. The icanhazcheezeburger.com guys didn’t invent the meme whereby cats are captioned with silly phrases: the meme’s most famous early days took place on the magnificently debauched Something Awful forums and 4chan message boards, although some will argue that lolspeak originated earlier than that in the online gaming world. No matter the beginnings, it was co-opted and ultimately sold by the guys who ran that website. Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebasami did quite well for themselves and ever since the race has been on to duplicate their financial gains. This has met with varying degrees of success.

The thing is, it’s hard for a meme to catch on big enough for that to happen. Anecdote time, once I created one. Or tried to. It was based off of a minor character from hit TV show “LOST.” His name was Keamy and he was a hardened mercenary, so I took a picture of him looking especially menacing and I’d Photoshop it in to various historical and pop culture scenarios. It actually caught on. It was in USA Today, various blogs, some other places. Still, even with a minor press push, nothing became of it. We didn’t sell the website for two million at any rate. Heck, I’d have settled for a hundred bucks.

But also, that’s not the point. Not every meme becomes (or needs to become) a huge hit to elicit some commercial success. Success can be found within niches. It can always be successful in some niche of Internet marketing. Meme creation follows a lot of the same rules as regular viral marketing, but it requires a bit more patience and a lot more tact.

You do not want your memes to get annoying. The “been there done that” danger of creating a meme is large. You have to be careful. As far as is possible, a meme marketer must achieve a tolerable level of niche saturation. You gotta walk that fine line between everywhere and, well, nowhere. It can be tricky.

Take, for example, blogger Martin Bowling. Martin Bowling has become rather infamous for his supposed like of the alcoholic beverage Zima. I’ve never tried the drink and probably never intend to, but somehow, a story developed whereby Martin was linked with the drink. What apparently started as a silly joke on Twitter has developed into a plan to possibly create a URL shortening service. On a niche level, the idea has really taken off, the meme is gaining weight.

This works, as far as I can see it. Martin’s blog has attained some popularity and the zi.ma domain name encompasses the traits of the best URL shortening sites. Most of all, the idea works because it developed organically. Nothing is worse than some forced meme marketing. Everyone knows, believe me everybody knows.

I’m sure you’ve seen what I’m talking about. Some company somewhere trying to turn some sad little penguin into a meme. Or just mentioning the same word over and over again all over their online presence, and in print. Memes don’t work unless people want them to. Memes, first and foremost, have to capture people’s imagination. Take away that and you got nothing.

Less than nothing, actually. When companies try to force their memes on the unsuspecting public, it turns into a net negative. Not only does it fail to advance their cause, it actually goes in the opposite direction. No company wants their brand to become the object of ridicule and derision. This is all too possible with a failed meme marketing approach.

However, this is all null and void if you are a really talented marketer. They can make it appear natural and sometimes that is enough to launch your meme into the marketing stratosphere. They don’t have to come about by accident, they just have to look that way. Remember that and it will give you a leg up.

To equate this to something truly SEO-related, think of the theory of keyword over-optimisation. In a way, us humans are search engines. We are acutely aware of keyword or keyphrase over-optimisation, and we rate a person or a brand lower if they think their pushing of certain keywords is unnatural. The best meme marketing takes place on its own and simply needs a good eye to pick which ideas are likely to become viral phenomena.

Seattle-based wiki website Wetpaint has always marched to the beat of it’s own drummer. Compared to most wiki providers, their user-interface is mega-friendly. This is why Wetpaint is so great for users new to the world of people-created websites. The sites, which are of course all wikis, can either be hosted at Wetpaint or on a separate domain. The company isn’t big enough to take their message to television airwaves yet. However, they have bee getting the word out via a series of viral videos that have been appearing on YouTube. They use professional teams and feature the same quality look that big budget television commercials have. This is a relatively new concept for viral videos, but it’s one that continues to grow with each passing year.

You know it is usually with viral videos. Wonky camera work. Bad lighting. Maybe a cat or two. They are usually so bad that it becomes impressive when small things like cuts and fades are done adequately. Most of the professional “viral” videos were planned for television first and then thrown on the net later on as an afterthought. Wetpaint, however, has deliberately filmed TV-quality content for the Web. If your company can afford to do this, it may be a good route for you as well.

Sure, there are lots of Mac/PC parodies out there. That doesn’t make this one any less effective though. What’s good is good, you know? Sure, the joke may be a bit old but the points they make about the difference between traditional wikis and Wetpaint are totally valid. Of course, one major complaint of companies relying on viral videos is the absence of ad breaks on most traditional video venues. This is, of course, changing. Youtube has forced ads every now and again, and many other venues have followed suit. Still, being forced to watch an ad on a place that is rife with ads already(The Internet) can be frustrating to your garden variety consumers. With that in mind the importance of creativity is more valid than ever. Gotta wow them to get in the door.

Believe it or not, America isn’t particularly known for their commercials. Europe,Japan and many other countries long ago took that mantle and they’ve been running with it ever since. Competition drove this market up. For instance, there was quite an advertising war in Australia and New Zealand in the 1990s that ended up driving a lot of creativity. This stunner of a commercial brought an antiquated swear word to the mouths of every Aussie and Kiwi. In a number of ways, commercials in many other countries are like thirty second movies. Mainstream television in America hasn’t quite caught up to that but the Internet sure has. Use that to your advantage.

This is because, with global outreach, the need to be competitive and different online is more important than just about anything else. Ads are everywhere and easy to ignore. For instance, when was the last time you clicked on an Adsense link? I clicked on an Adsense ad this morning, but it was only to find out what “BUI” meant, in relation to “DUI” (FYI, it means “boating under the influence”). This is not the norm. We’ve become accustomed to tuning ads out. Wetpaint’s campaign, while not totally original, is a smart move that makes their videos(and thus their Website) accessible to a myriad of potential customers. Also, they are not paying big bucks for a television slot in which ninety percent of viewers won’t even know what a wiki is. Something to consider for niche businesses out there.

Now, if you’ve made it this far without aimlessly toying around Youtube searching for cats eating pizza, then kudos. You are well on your way to making your business go viral in a big, big way.

Social media sites can mean big business for your, um, business. After all Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and those crafty blogs have all become a part of the daily machinations of the business world. So how do you keep track of all of your accounts while on the go? With an iPhone of course! Apple’s megapopular multitasking device has a boatload of social media-related applications you can download. Too many, actually. Hundreds upon hundreds. We took it upon ourselves to narrow it down to an essential 14 apps. These are the 14 “must have” applications to keep your business flying in the age of the social media. And as always, they are all available at the Apple Appstore.

Official Apps

These are official applications available for download from the bigwigs, the cream of the crop of the social media world. No funky upstarts needed here. These are all must haves.

Facebook – Free

The official Facebook app provides easy and simple access to your trusty Facebook acount. The grid interface makes browsing and posting extremely user-friendly.Push notifications let you know when you have new messages or other details. This is a great functional app for managing your primary Facebook account. Great for single-account holders.

Twitter – Free

Twitter functionaly on the iPhone used to be handled by a handy little app called “Tweetie 2.” Well, Twitter bought them out and now what used to be known as “Tweetie 2″ is simply known as “Twitter.” Easy and functional are the names of the game here. Login to your account and post away, or read those you follow. All on the go. This is what Twitter was made for.

LinkedIn – Free

This is the only app we use for LinkedIn. Check out new messages, import addresses from address books located on other devices, or just browse around. Anything you can do on the website you can do here. Manage your professional contacts with ease. Of paramount importance for you freelancers out there. Don’t want to miss any jobs, do you?

Multi-service & Multi-account Feed Management (Twitter and Others)

If you run a business, or even do something creative like play in a band, chances are you have more than one account on social networking sites. After all, one does not want to mix apples and oranges. Here are several applications that are perfect for managing many accounts on the go.

TweetList for Twitter – $1.99

A simple Twitter client that manages multiple twitter accounts. The interface is ultra-clean and the UI makes it the perfect app to manage the newest and best feature on Twitter’s roster, lists.

Seesmic – Free

This iPhone app is great for quickly navigating between several Facebook, Twitter and Ping.fm accounts. It features a minimal design that may be low on extras but is great for, you know, actually getting the job done. Quick and works like a charm every time. What more could you ask for?

Brizzly – Free

Brizzly is the hip, new social media kid on the block. It simplifies all of your social media accounts into one simple to read feed. Guess what? The iPhone version does the exact same thing. Perfect for those who hate to type in those pesky urls all of the time.

HootSuite for iPhone – $2.99

This iPhone app gives you easy-to-use access to all of your Twitter feeds at once. It really is the gold standard for this kind of thing. It’s clean, minimal and easy to use. You’ll be multitasking in no time, managing dozens of accounts and making Ashton Kutcher look like a rank amateur. Well, that last one you could probably do anyway. 

Handy Apps for Facebook

Facebook is a repository of contact information, media content and simple brainfarts. It’s number one for a reason, after all. Here are some applications for your iPhone that make getting the most of the site as easy as pie.

VideoUp for Facebook – $0.99

So you wanna upload video content to Facebook from your phone? Of course you do! Then get this app. It does exactly what it purports to do. Handy for you would be Spielbergs out there. Everyone knows he started on an iPhone camera. Time loop.

SmartSync for Facebook – $4.99

Sync all of your friend’s information to your address book, including their profile pictures. This makes it easy and, dare we say, fun to keep your ducks all in a row.

Facebook PixSter – $0.99

So you wanna upload pictures to your Facebook account? Of course you do! This is the app to get, then. It’s easy and that’s all it does. Why mess with a good thing?

Blog Management on the Go

What happens when that great idea strikes and you are nowhere near a computer? Do you risk it? Hope your brain will remember the perfect wordphrasing until eight or nine hours later, after you’ve had a few drinks and exhaustion has set in? No way! Get one of these iPhone apps and start posting on the go. Your readers, or customers, will thank you.

WordPress – Free

The official WordPress app gives you access to any WordPress blog that you have access to. This application allows you to then post something straight to the web. However, it’s been our experience, it is better suited for drafts. Darn these fumbly hot dog fingers!

TypePad – Free

The official TypePad app, if your blog is on the TypePad platform then this is the one for you. Similar to the WordPress app. Post right to the web or set up drafts for later posting. Easy and quick.

iBlogger – $9.99

Yowch. This app sure is expensive, isn’t it? However, if serious blogging is the name of your game, it might be worth it.  iBlogger gives you the capability to do just about anything with a blog post that you can do on a computer. The most comprehensive on-the-go blogging tool out there. Highly recommended. Come on, live a little. Then blog about it.

That’s it for now. As always, leave us some emails or comments with what apps you think should have been on this list. Stay on the go and keep the social media home-fires burning!

Corporations. They need a strong brand identity. They just can’t hang around all hully gully and hope consumers notice them. That won’t do at all. How to amp up the brand, though? One way is a snappy logo or design. You know, get the heads turning. Below are 20 usable examples of corporate graphic design intended to turn those noggins. Feel free to do with them as you wish. They might not reinvent your company over night but they could just give you a new idea or two:

20 Corporate Graphic Design Samples

Private e-mail addresses that many Facebook users obviously wanted to keep hidden were revealed publicly last night on a multitude of Facebook profiles, Gawker reports. The glitch lasted about 30 minutes before Facebook went ahead and sealed the gap.

An anonymous tipster let Gawker know of the breach in a message riddled with expletives: “6:46PM: I cannot [bleeping] believe it. Everybody’s email has been turned on to the public for at least the past 30 min. I tried going into my account to remove my email b/c I have an issue with a crazed stalker. But I wasn’t able to. God I [bleeping] hate FB!! When will they ever learn?!”

Hopefully soon, FB, hopefully bleeping soon.

For a while there, the amount of Spam was getting a bit out of hand. How many times had you gotten follow requests only to find out they weren’t a real person, rather an ad for erectile dysfunction or pornography? Well, the folks at Twitter got on that and are now reporting their successes.

Twitter boasted that the number of daily junk tweets and blatant spam profiles have been reduced to almost one percent. In a blog posted Tuesday Twitter displayed a graph that spans from February 2009 to February 2010 showing the rise and fall of garbage tweets clogging the micro-blogging site.

“Posting harmful links to phishing or malware sites, repeatedly posting duplicate tweets, and aggressively following and un-following accounts to attract attention are just a few examples of spam on Twitter. Like it or not, as the system becomes more popular, more and more spammers will try to do their thing. We’re constantly battling against spam to improve the Twitter experience and we’re happy to report that it’s working,” Twitter wrote in its blog.

The graph, it should be noted, contains no actual numbers.

The FBI in cooperation with the French Police this week arrested the alleged Twitter hacker known only as “Hacker Croll. The 25 year old suspect allegedly stole corporate documents from the social networking giant in 2009. He also hacked into several notable Twitter accounts, including Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher.

Little is known about Hacker Croll’s actual identity, but he is reportedly a 25 year-old unemployed man from the French city of Claremont-Ferrand who lives at home with his parents. Croll is due to appear in French court on June 24.

Croll conducted an interview with TechCrunch last year in which he indicated he did not hack Twitter out of malice, rather merely to show the company how easy it was to do in the hopes they’d patch up security holes.  And the Ashton Kutcher thing, well, he did that just for fun.

The AFP is reporting that Croll may face up to two-years in prison.

Last year, there was something of a minor uprising when it seemed as though location tagging had wormed it’s way into the Facebook community. Protests were staged. Facebook President Mark Zuckerman even issued a public apology. Well you know what they say: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Location tagging has reared it’s pseudo-ugly head once again in the Facebook-verse. This time, the company hopes to stave off protests and public outcry by announcing it ahead of time.

In a post on Friday, Michael Richter, Facebook’s deputy general counsel, said the changes specifically allow Facebook to collect location information and permit sharing general information about users with “pre-approved” Web sites using Facebook Platform. (Users can choose to block that sharing.)

The tweaks will “make way for some exciting new products we’re contemplating,” Richter said. “Not all of these products have been finalized and many aren’t yet built at all.” Facebook users have until April 3 to comment on the proposed changes.

While it’s not entirely clear what Facebook intends, Richter said the possible additions to the site amounted to “interesting opportunities to improve the way you share and connect with the people and things in your life.”

One section of the new privacy policy talks about being able to tag Facebook friends by “place,” not just by name in photos or videos. The New York Times reported earlier this month that a location-based feature will be announced soon.

Another option is Third Party Facebook apps will begin gathering your location data for their nefarious Farmwille purposes.  However, sources indicate this will be up to the particular user.

File this under “Holy crap. People can be that evil?!”

Reports are flooding in that a variety of hucksters and unsavory individuals have taken it upon themselves to fatten their wallets by offering up Haiti relief Facebook pages. The catch? They are fake. No Haiti relief organizations see this money. Some horrible d-bag gets to buy a big screen television, though.

The hoaxes come in as simple Paypals, requesting money but having no real affiliation with any organization. Additionally, people have begun spreading rumors that if people link to these pages, or write about them, then Facebook themselves will donate $1 to the cause. This is simply not true and just an attempt to get viral in addition to being super shady.

“Beware of scams and hoaxes and ensure that your donations for Haiti get to the right places,” the social networking company wrote on its blog.   Contrary to a current meme, Facebook is not donating $1 for statuses, however we are sharing reputable resources via the “Other Pages” tab on the Global Disaster Relief on Facebook Page.”

Later, Facebook began outright blocking the status update.  When users come upon a page with the bogus update, a warning message pops up which says, “This message is fraudulent. For legitimate ways to help those in Haiti, please visit the disaster relief page.”

So there you have it. Humanity has some real issues. If you are a kind-hearted person and want to help with relief efforts, do not expect others are the same. Use officially sanctioned organizations. Concerned users can easily donate money directly to the Red Cross at http://RedCross.org