ABC News affiliate interviews Designated Editor’s Suzanne McDonald on Hurricane Irene’s impact on social media and smartphones
ABC6 Anchor John DeLuca interviewed Suzanne McDonald, Founder and President of Designated Editor about social media and smartphone usage while some 370,000 Rhode Islanders struggled with no power 4 days after Hurricane Irene hit.
Social Media Helps Rhode Islanders Stay Informed
ABC6: Tweets. Status updates. As Hurricane Irene plowed her way up the East Coast, social media was used in full force. The storm provided some of the best examples yet of the emerging role of social media. Joining us now live in studio to talk more about that role is Suzanne McDonald, president of Designated Editor. Suzanne, thanks for joining us.
Suzanne McDonald: Thanks for having me.
ABC6: Really a shining moment for social media, as people who lost power were able to use their smartphones to get up-to-date information on what’s happening.
Suzanne McDonald: Absolutely. The key of social media really is a smartphone when you are without power, as so many Rhode Islanders and people in southern New England are. The great thing about social media is it allows very local real-time information.
ABC6: Do you think this will help some people start to discover that it’s not some “evil thing,” and it’s not so hard, it’s not so difficult? And maybe this’ll start to encourage more people who are older, who are reluctant to get involved with it?
Suzanne McDonald: I would say so. Obviously I have a different perspective than older people, but for myself, during the storm on Sunday morning, I was able to log on to Twitter and check to see that there was a possibility for tornado activity in Newport County. And that was really crucial to know even before I did anything else, like turn on the radio or TV. I had to have that information, which was very important for me to know and was direct to my area.
ABC6: So you really see things mushrooming, maybe, because of the storm, or just overall?
Suzanne McDonald: I think so. You see a lot of people online using Twitter and Facebook just to keep in touch. It was a great way to let friends and family who live farther away know that you were OK, that there was no loss of life or major damage, especially on Facebook.
ABC6: You mention Facebook, and a lot of people look at that and say, “that’s not for me,” but as you saw, the role of social media in this case with the storm, it really did provide a great service. More than just a social gathering.
Suzanne McDonald: I think it also played a great role in keeping people sustained in all the difficult times. Now that people have been without power for a long time, to be able to post updates, letting people know “I have power” or “I don’t have power,” “come to my house, take a shower.” It’s been a great tool for people.
ABC6: It really has. Alright, Suzanne McDonald, unfortunately, we’re
out of time. Thank you so much for joining us today. We appreciate it.
Suzanne McDonald: Thank you.
More on post-Hurricane Irene sentiment in Rhode Island: Anger rises at Hurricane Irene power outages
Designated Editor’s SEO Meetup presentation key take-aways on Google’s Panda update
Content After Google Panda Farmer Algorithm Update at Boston SEO Meetup
Rather than reiterate my presentation at the Boston SEO Meetup, I asked my friend Nancy Wolff Leary to offer her take-aways from my talk “Panda-monium: How to Panda-proof your content now & for future algo-evolution.”
By Nancy Wolff Leary
I attended Suzanne’s recent presentation “Panda-monium: How to Panda-proof your content now & for future algo-evolution” at the Boston SEO Internet Marketing Group. I am a passionate advocate for online usability, so Suzanne’s recommendations to focus content on the user were music to my ears. She said that finding the best SEO is essential for your site, she gave a great list of SEO in Mississauga. It comes to great help if you were to learn and gather information from https://sites.google.com/view/white-label-seo-company-review and sites that are similar. This would greatly impact your website positively and also help your site reach greater heights.
As a small business owner, I can’t afford to gamble on risky techniques, even if such methods might occasionally reap big rewards in terms of my online visibility. As algorithm changes, such as Google’s recent Panda update show, those risky approaches can land you in the bottom of search engine listings.
I advocate use of disciplined professional SEO services and content-building techniques that will continue to work even when Google decides to flex their search algorithm muscle. Creating a process to provide an ongoing source of interesting, original, user-focused content for your blog, website, and social media profiles will keep users engaged and your traffic growing. Go through https://www.adam-seo.com/ site to know more about the SEO Malaysia Services.
Suzanne discussed use of quality content tools
Building quality content means creating fresh, relevant, and useful information for your users. It can be a challenge to keep the creative juices flowing.
By establishing Google Alerts for relevant terms – including your competitors’ products – you create an idea stream to employ in your social media comments and blog posts.
Another way to engage users and create a dialogue is to ask questions of your users, perhaps using the new Facebook polling feature.
If you aren’t sure what questions to ask, try using LinkedIn Answers – yet another of Suzanne’s suggestions. See what questions are being asked on LinkedIn, answer them, and then build blog content around topics of interest to your target audience.
Quality content tactics
Another area of Suzanne’s recent presentation that really resonated with me was the use of quality content tactics. By creating an editorial or content calendar, you can extend the life of a story, both repurposing content effectively and leveraging it in social media to broaden the online reach of the story.
Just as a traditional newspaper continues reporting on a story for days, providing new tidbits of content, you can use techniques to extend the life of your social media or blog post:
Tease the story, tell the story, ask for (and respond to) opinions and tell about the outcome of an event or story.
Engaging keyword use
Use of relevant terms, or keywords, can help boost your search engine results, but you need to maintain a user-centric focus. As Suzanne mentioned in her presentation, it’s important to not keyword-stuff your content.
Here’s a technique to balance the need to maintain a user focus with the use of relevant terms for the search engines:
Try using your website analytics to see which terms customers are using to find your site, so you can create content that is both keyword-relevant and customer-focused.
By using quality content tools and tactics, you won’t have to worry about aggressive pandas who want to chase your company off the search results pages.
Follow Nancy Wolff Leary on Twitter
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