Internet Marketing, Social Media, Business | StuckInTheFunnel

Company Sold Michael Jackson Twitter Followers

The guys over at Mashable got an interesting news tip today. 

Apparently the company uSocial:

1. Sold Twitter followers which is a clear violation of Twitter’s terms of service.
2. Claims to have sold a whopping 25,000 followers to Michael Jackson.
3. Sold votes on Digg.com despite a cease and desist order that was issued to them.

Mashable was shocked to receive such a press release since it is obviously some risky PR. However, I have seen been seeing more and more of these risky press releases lately and they seem to…work. Think of KFC’s new “Unthink KFC” campaign that promotes their new grilled chicken. It obviously attacks their brand, but works at capturing consumer interest.

Tags: Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson Illegal, Twitter, Usocial

How Google Calculates Twitter Page Ranks

As many already know, Google began indexing Tweets and Twitter profiles not to long ago. Since then a lot of Search Engine Optimization experts have been trying to find the secret behind Google’s ranking algorithm for Twitter content. While observing my Hoot Suite panel today, I was steered torwards an interesting video released by Matt Cutt, a Google Engineer.

Despite speculation, it turns out that Google does not actually apply any special ranking factors when indexing Twitter content. The rules that apply to any web page also apply to Tweets and Twitter profiles. The number and quality of inbound links to specific Tweets or Profiles dictate how well they rank against others.

Google does not provide additional weight to profiles with  a large number of followers due to the ease of gaining followers and the questionable tactics used by marketers on the site.

Bottom line: optimize your Twitter profile and Tweeted content for Google the same way you would any other web page.

Tags: Google, seo, Twitter, Twitter Page Rank