The Plight of the Social Media Eskimo

The Tale

Once upon a time (earlier this year, actually), a young Eskimo lived where you might expect her to live - in some rural, secluded place that is below freezing 24/7/365. Despite her seclusion, she wasn't completely alone. Every day, for several weeks, a small airplane flew overhead and dropped a gift in front of her igloo. Each day, she eagerly opened the present, only to find some sort of refrigeration device within each box. One day, it was a large freezer. Another day, it was a small refrigerator. Yet another day, it was a portable cooler. No matter how often the airplane dropped its gift in front of her door, it was always something the young Eskimo obviously didn't need, and had absolutely no interest in whatsoever.

She didn't know who was sending the gifts to her, but she decided one day to try to influence the sender's gift-buying, in hopes that she might receive something more useful. So she gathered up lots of brightly colored objects lying around her igloo, and used them to form letters in the snow. The next time the airplane flew overhead, the pilot saw her "wish list" spelled out for him. "I like solar-powered gadgets and warm clothes," he saw from overhead. She never again received a refrigeration device. Instead, her gifts always contained exactly what she asked for and was interested in receiving.

One day, she received a solar-powered, internet-enabled laptop (which connects to the internet via satellite). She began surfing the web and signed up to a social site which asked her to specify her interests. She typed that she liked solar-powered gadgets, and the site assured her that from then on, she would receive links to web pages on the subject of solar-powered gadgets. The next day, she eagerly awaited her first shared link on the topic of solar-powered gadgets, but instead she received a link to a sunscreen product. How did that happen, she wondered?

A little investigating revealed that a member of the same social site was the first to share that link, and therefore, he was assigned the task of placing the sunscreen link in a category. He quickly scanned through the long list of categories and interests, and when he saw Solar-Powered Gadgets, he decided that was close enough. After all, sunscreen was for protecting oneself from the sun, and the sun is solar, so rather than spending any more time looking for a better match, the member simply chose that category.

Because the young Eskimo was expecting to read about a solar-powered gadget, she was disappointed. So disappointed, in fact, she gave a big THUMBS DOWN to that shared link, and everyone else in the world who was equally disappointed did the same. In reality, there was nothing WRONG with the shared link. It was a perfectly good web page with a detailed review of a sunscreen product. It just wasn't placed into the right category, so before long, that link was algorithmically marked as "bad", never to be shared again. The poor webmaster who took the time to write a long, detailed review of that sunscreen product was punished unnecessarily because of one person's mis-categorization of his page.

Your Tale

How many of your web pages are being miscategorized on social sites such as StumbleUpon, or bookmarking sites such as Delicious? How many times are your great web pages being given the old THUMBS DOWN because of that mis-categorization by someone else? What can you do about it? You can do the same thing the Eskimo did with the airplane pilot. The Eskimo created a wish list, giving suggestions as to what she would like to receive. You as a site publisher can give suggestions to your readers as well. A simple line of text at the end of a blog post or web page that says something like "If you are the first to discover this page on StumbleUpon (or other social site), might I suggest using one of the following categories: Choice 1, Choice 2, or Choice 3". Of course, you'll have already taken the time to look carefully through the social site's list of categories and chosen one or more that makes the most sense.

Don't worry about sounding "bossy". You are actually making it easier for your readers, and saving them a fair amount of time. They will appreciate not having to scan through hundreds of categories, trying to find something that fits. You've made their job of sharing easier, you've prevented untold numbers of social site users from being disappointed, and you've kept your hard work from being banished due to a simple error in judgment.

P.S. Don't make the mistake of actually being the one who discovers all your own posts or pages. You WANT others to discover them, but you should offer to help "guide" them to place it into the right category or to use the best tags..

Moral of the Story

Pre-classify your web pages so Eskimos don't receive refrigerators as gifts and your hard work won't be mis-classified and given a thumbs down.

This post was written by DazzlinDonna, who is an SEO, an ebusiness coach, and a web entrepreneur.

Note: If you like to guest post on Social Alerter, please contact me with an idea for a post. If we haven't talked before, please also tell me more about yourself and your sites. Hey it's a start of a friendship :)