Why Disqus May Be The Best Social Network of 2011

Let's Disqus This Network
Let's Disqus This Network


Even if you are the least tech-savvy person since my mother, it is clear that you will see this company popping up in more places during 2011. The name, “Disqus” (pronounced as discuss) is spread far and wide across the Internet, and its exposure is growing quickly as top tech and news blogs implement the service.

In November 2010 TechCrunch reported that there were over 500,000 communities using Disqus for more than 160 million conversations between 18 million profiles. According to Quantcast, Disqus is moving up quickly. Maybe you are not so sure about its importance just yet, but I am, and I want to share why Disqus is quickly climbing my list of favorite social networking tools.

I named Disqus a while back in an article titled “6 Essential Blogging Tools for Bloggers and Non-Bloggers” and that is certainly worth a read. Since the time I wrote that back in March 2010, my opinion of Disqus is better than ever.

The idea of using Disqus as a networking tool may sound completely off the wall to the many people who never heard of Disqus or took the time to understand its greater value. Likewise, sending a bunch of Twitter updates sounded pretty absurd in 2007, but we all watched how Twitter took off. I suppose I don’t need to say much about Facebook. The 650 million Facebook users pretty well sum up the public interest in that platform. So, how can Disqus be placed in the company of these massively adopted networks? I will explain, and I think you will have a much different view of the service by the time I am done.

Something many people may overlook about Disqus is how seamlessly it pulls together a broad picture of a user’s interests, and how well it can connect people.

Disqus will not become the next Facebook, threaten Twitter, or replace LinkedIn. What Disqus can do is to tighten people’s existing networks and create many opportunities for new and stronger network connections.

In the face of social networking becoming “looser” than ever for a lot of people, tighter networks of like-minded people are not only important, but something many Internet users are begging for. Disqus delivers on this need, in a big way, for people who choose to use it.

Let’s take an under-the hood look at Disqus for a moment. A lot of people may simply see Disqus as the commenting system on some of their favorite blogs, but completely overlook its best assets. First, let me explain what Disqus is, on the surface, for people who are unfamiliar. Then I will move on to the reason that Disqus is useful for networking, far beyond just its value to blog administrators.

What is Disqus?

Disqus is a service that is used by many blogs for moderating and responding to readers’ comments. It allows users to comment on blogs the “old fashioned” way, by entering their name, email, website address, and comment, or they can choose to use their photo and information based on a variety of other profiles, such as Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, OpenID, or simply their Disqus profile.

Optionally, readers can choose to share their comment, on a comment-by-comment basis, with their extended network. This is good for readers to share their point of view, and also good for bloggers who enjoy their work being shared. It is a win-win relationship.

Disqus provides for real-time updating of comments. In an active discussion, this allows readers to see new comments without even refreshing the page.

Disqus also provides options for users to receive updates of replies to their comments by email, or simply within their “Disqus Dashboard” where there is a section titled “Replies to you”. It makes blog commenting more interactive than ever, and opens a lot of possibilities for people willing to look three inches beyond their nose. It is a lot easier than other methods of subscribing to follow a thread, and much tidier for monitoring replies.

Disqus Dashboard is Easy and Searchable
Disqus Dashboard is Easy and Searchable

Disqus Creates Deeper Conversations!

Maybe you have hoped that posting a link on Twitter or Facebook to an article that you read will give people a feel for what you like, what interests you, and what you read. The trouble with this is when it leaves them hanging without knowing what you thought of it. Believe me when I say that most people are not going to dig through the comments to see what you said about something. Most of the time, they will not even click to see the article, but rather draw conclusions and comment on the title.

Maybe you can add in a little bit of flair with your commentary, but then the conversation is all broken up between the article, the shortness of a Twitter post, and your Facebook comments versus the comments of the other people who read the blog. That all tends to create a lot of off-topic discussion, and dilutes what you and others had to say about the topic.

On the other hand, if somebody sees it in your Disqus profile and follows what you read and have to say on a topic, the whole character starts to change. Disqus makes it very easy to follow other people. It is a chance for others to be more involved in your conversations around the web. If they like communicating with you, it can give a good feel for who you are and your points of view. It can also help you to gain a closer relationship with the people you choose to interact with. For example, if you happen to come across my political views, you may find that I am feisty but fair. If you come across my business views, you may find that I read carefully, think a whole lot, and try to bring a my ideas to the discussion.

It is noteworthy that commenting on a blog article reflects a greater commitment than most other social networking quips and snippets that people leave behind. Blog comments are commonly lengthier and more thought out about a specific topic than comments elsewhere. It really does generally allow for a closer sense of a person’s views on a topic. I invite you to see an example of this in my Disqus profile. If you click on “Activity” at the top, you can scroll through and see comments I have made here and on other blogs.

Turn Any Website Into a Blog

I can point out a lot of reasons that Disqus is growing quickly, and this is certainly a big one. Disqus makes it simple to add commenting to any existing website. With their simple “Universal Code” Disqus commenting system can be added to any web page.

Let’s say you have a boring old static website and you want to add commenting to a page, or a set of pages. There is more to a blog than the commenting features, but many people would consider comments the most obvious feature of blogs. Disqus makes it simple to add their commenting system to any boring old website, and has excellent code and documentation for many popular platforms. They have made it extremely easy, even for a relatively novice web developer.

Disqus Security Considerations

You can certainly post on blogs using Disqus with an alias, or anonymously, but the things you have to say are the things which interest people. It is really not much fun to have people like you for one reason, but then find out they think you are horrible when they dig a bit deeper. If you posted it anywhere on a blog and somebody wants to find it, they will find it. This is the Internet, and most bloggers do their best to be sure a lot of people will see it. I think of this in a way similar to my article titled “Facebook Privacy Fears Are Absurd!“. Living in the fear of your own shadow is something that will be there with or without Disqus.

I guess this realistic view of the Internet and social media is why “social media transparency” has become such an overused buzzphrase.

Disqus and SEO

I know that a lot of people wonder about how Disqus affects search engine results, whether as a blog administrator, or as a commenter. I would stop at simply pointing out that I use it here on my SEO and Social Media Marketing blog, but that may not be enough to comfort you.

Many people who comment on blogs really love those links to their website they leave behind. After all, more links is a good thing. Disqus still allows you to leave your link, and it is still as valuable from an SEO standpoint as any other commenting system … perhaps even better. I may write about this at a later time, but I can tell you that the comments are well-indexed in search engines, and the links associated with those comments are also just as valuable as any other commenting system.

What I think sometimes confuses people about Disqus links is in the layout for non-logged-in “Guest” users. Disqus simply shows a “post as” link, but once you type your comment, you have the opportunity to add your website link and your Gravitar.

Disqus creates multiple links. If you click on the thumbnail picture of a user, it will show you their Disqus profile information, including their other communities and even their most recent Twitter update, if they associated their Twitter account. If you click on their name, it will link directly to their website of choice. If they have associated their Twitter account with their Disqus profile and you click to share your comment on Twitter, it will also send a reply to their Twitter username.

Disqus Signup and Other Links

If you made it this far, you are probably pretty curious to look a bit closer at Disqus. Here are some links to get your started.

I could keep writing all day to help you understand the ways to get the most from Disqus. There are a lot of excellent potential uses. For example, you can search with an email address to see what a person is saying on other blogs … did you know that? I wrote a 140 page book about Twitter, but I don’t plan to repeat that with Disqus. Instead, I will share what they say in their own words, invite you to discuss this, and happily answer your questions and comments. Here is what Disqus has to say:

What is Disqus?

Disqus (dis·cuss • dï-sküs’) is all about changing the way people think about discussion on the web. We’re big believers in the conversations and communities that form on blogs and other sites.

Now what do you have to say? Here is your chance to use Disqus and jump in the conversation. Please add your comments and don’t be shy. Another great feature of Disqus is that if you screw it up, you can go back and edit the comment.

Facebook Advertisement Declined: Is Facebook Nitpicking?

Facebook Advertising Picking Nits
Facebook Advertising Picking Nits


I have heard people question how Facebook can support 650 million accounts and remain free to users. Some people have even held the absurd notion that Facebook will someday charge users.

Funding Facebook is something that most users don’t give a lot of thought to, as they connect and have fun with their friends. Most people will easily overlook the huge volume of advertisement dollars Facebook generates from their ads. Advertising is a very successful business model on the Internet (REF: Google, YouTube, Facebook, and etcetera). It is how Facebook makes money, and those advertisements facilitate Facebook’s bloated $50 Billion valuation in January 2011.

Internet users are very accustomed to seeing advertisements. Many of us became relatively immune to much of the advertising, years ago. Yesteryear’s ads were not very well targeted, and many still are not, but that is not because of the tools.

As the Internet grew smarter, ad targeting platforms became smarter. Advertising targeting and reporting is vital to a campaign’s success, and so the tools have evolved to meet the challenges. Facebook has done extremely well in this area, and I commend them. Their system provides for excellent demographic, geographic, and psychographic modeling and targeting, and should not be underestimated.

Facebook advertising can be an excellent tool for business. Make no mistake about that! The information you can learn from Facebook’s ad reporting can provide great insight to a marketing campaign. I explained more about the value and usage of Facebook advertising in a previous article titled “Facebook Marketing: Pages, Customer Modeling, Promoting, and Awesomeness“. That article is great reading for anybody who wants to understand the value of Facebook marketing.

I like Facebook, and I even like the new Facebook profile.

An Unqualified Rant About Facebook Ads

Here is my unqualified rant. OK, maybe it is a little bit qualified, but I realize that some people will whine, snivel, and argue that I am wrong. I do that to people. I give them something to talk about.

I know Facebook ads well. I have used the Facebook ad system for client projects of many types, and I have had a mostly great experience with it. Facebook reviews each ad submitted to their system, and either approves or declines it, and they are doing a good job of it. When a friend recently complained of having his ads declined by Facebook, I thought he must be doing something wrong. After all, I never had an ad declined, but now that has changed.

I finally had my first declined Facebook ad a couple days ago. At first, I thought it was no big deal. Then I realized how silly their reason was for declining the ad. I will show you the ad, explain why it was declined, and also why I think it was nit-picking on Facebook’s part.

First, I will explain that this ad was intended to reach a targeted group of people as a part of my campaign to stop providing marketing consulting services. You see, I am not-so-secretly tired of selling what I do. I love doing what I do, but I do not enjoy the short-sightedness and lack of strategy that I witness with so many companies when it comes to their marketing. I said it well when I wrote “When I Go to Hell, They Will Have Me Selling SEO“. That is because selling the kind of marketing services I provide often makes me feel like I am trying to explain quantum physics to third graders. Perhaps more to the point, it feels like explaining the color blue to blind people.

This ad was targeted at headhunters. You know, those executive recruiting folks. It was to lead them to my aWebGuy Facebook page. Specifically, it was to lead them to the “My Tools” tab of the aWebGuy Facebook page.

I am not applying to companies for open jobs, but I am interested in a long-term objective outside of independent consulting. I know, it may sound like a big step backward. I just want to enjoy my work without having to feel like a third grade teacher while talking with new clients.

I moved far beyond the typical marketing job ages ago, and the type of work that I am qualified for is often not advertised on job boards. It takes a slow-burn approach, and so I want to be sure that headhunters recognize my name when they find themselves seeking to place a new Director of Marketing or VP of Marketing.

Strategy and Creativity Facebook Ad

The image above is my proposed ad, and Facebook’s reason for declining the ad was explained as follows:

“The image included in your ad is not suitable to appear on Facebook. Before resubmitting your ad, please visit our Help Center for additional tips and examples compliant with our Advertising Guidelines.”

At first, I thought “It is just a picture of my birthday cake. How could that be so offensive?” Then I realized that it was declined for a violation of Facebook Advertising Guidelines section 5 d iii. You may wonder, “What is 5 d iii?” Well here you go:

5. Prohibited Content

d. Ads cannot contain, facilitate, promote, or reference the following:

iii. Tobacco products;

Stand Up for Facebook Ad Rebels!

Here comes the silly part. Based on the targeting criteria, and Facebook’s advertising guidelines, I could have used a couple hookers and a bottle of Scotch, but not my birthday cake. I guess I must just be a real life badass if my birthday cake is banned from Facebook ads, but that’s how I roll!

I love marketing for clients, and I serve them very well, but there is a unique challenge to marketing myself and my future. When it comes to marketing myself, the approach is quite long-sighted. That is because I must be selective about the buyer. This is where you come in, and I am asking you to stand up for my rebelion. Do you know any of those headhunters who should be aware of me? Pass my name along, will you?

If you think Facebook was nitpicking, please click my “Like” button and share this to show that even the rebels have a place on Facebook. Otherwise, you can “Lump” it and just keep reading my blog.

One More Thing! Do you find my birthday cake to be offensive? Go to the aWebGuy Facebook page to see the entertaining back story.

New Facebook Profile Employer Information Catches Users Off Guard

Update Facebook Employer Information
Update Facebook Employer Information


Facebook recently made a big move with their latest profile updates, but it seems that a lot of people are slow to accept the change. Without a doubt, Facebook’s new profile design includes some pretty significant changes which will impact businesses. The impact can be very positive, but only for people who are paying attention.

Many people are reluctant to adopt the new Facebook profile, but what they often do not realize is what each of the people who did make the change see when they look at a profile. Whether you have updated yours or not, users of the new profile design will see your profile in a way that you, or your company may regret.

I wrote about changes and things to be aware of in a previous article titled Facebook Profile Changes: Updates to Make Before Switching! with cautions of what users should know. Yes, some people listened, especially about the tagged images displayed at the top of the profile, but there is an even more profound matter at hand for businesses.

If you are unfamiliar with Facebook’s new profile changes, I suggest that you see what Facebook says, and also discover how many of your friends have already updated. To date, only 100 of my Facebook friends have updated their profile, but the only view that I have for all friends is the new version.

New Facebook Profiles Display Employers Prominently

The latest update of our favorite social network comes with significant implications for businesses. I think this was a really smart move for Facebook’s reach into business networking, but it will also come with some “growing pains” for users. Those pains can affect employees and employers, alike.

Whether you have updated to the new profile or not, if you have an employer listed with Facebook, it is likely being misrepresented to users of the new profile design. I see examples of this all day long, so if you care how your employment or your company is being represented, you should really pay attention to this matter. The new profile has been made optional, but we will all use the new profiles very soon. You should also note that once you switch, you cannot change back.

Facebook Employer Display in New Profile
Facebook Employer Display in New Profile

In the new design, Facebook places your employer information just below your name. It also includes a link to that employer, and this is where a problem arises for many users. The link, which is automatically created from the employer name listed in your profile, points to a Facebook page which is generated based on the company name. Since it would be worse if Facebook guessed at whether it is the right company, it cannot just link to the actual Facebook page of a company.

Imagine how bad it could be if they linked all of the people who listed an employer name to a given page, and it was the wrong page. Somebody at First National Bank in Spokane could have their employer’s link point to the Facebook page of First National Bank in New Orleans. That would be really bad, but what happens instead is a page that is inaccurate, rather than the company’s existing Facebook page.

When I noticed that my wife’s employer link listed her cakes and confections work as “Owner / Chef at Mad Eliza’s”, I clicked on it to discover that, although we already have an existing Facebook page, there were a few people who had clicked “Like” on the made-up page created by Facebook. Now wouldn’t it be a shame to not take a moment and fix that?

The best way to fix the employer link is to delete the employer(s) and re-add them. Facebook will then allow you to select your employer’s Facebook page, and link to it accordingly. Here is the link to edit your employers. If you have already updated to the new profile, but you are not quite certain about this, just try clicking on the link listed as your employer. If it does not actually link to your company Facebook page, you should probably change that. It is a common mistake, and I have actually even seen this on a respected Facebook marketer’s profile.

If you are an employer, you would be wise to point this out to employees and encourage them to update their profiles. It may benefit both employee and employer to do so. This is especially true in cases where employer and employee are the same person.

How to Change the Employer Listed on Your Facebook Profile

For people with multiple jobs listed, Facebook does not provide an option to select which employer is displayed below your name, but it can be changed. I will give an example of what I found when I updated to the new profile.

Like a lot of people, I wear multiple hats. Yes, I work a bunch of jobs, and while you sleep, I am here keeping this Internet thing we all love up and running. When I switched to the new Facebook, my profile showed things all wrong. Not only did it reflect one of my “less important” jobs right at the top of my profile, it also linked to a non-existent page that Facebook created to represent the company name I had listed in my profile.

To explain how I encountered it, I will explain my jobs. I am the CEO of a wholesale Internet services corporation (2001-present), I am the co-owner of a cakes and confections company (2009-present), and I independently provide marketing consulting services to people who appreciate my marketing talent enough to pay me for it (2000-present). Before that, I was the bearded lady in a circus, but I didn’t include that.

Facebook looks at the most recent employer that is listed as current, then uses the text entered as the employer’s name and represents it as a link in the new profile view. Since Facebook’s system will use the most recent employer as the one to list just below your name on the main profile page, it may not be what you want. In my case, they are all present employers, but Facebook will use the one which started most recently. This makes perfect sense, in a résumé, but what if you want your favorite job represented on your profile home page?

To get the order the way I wanted it, I actually had to put a more recent starting date on my marketing consulting work, and even delete my cakes and confections company from the list. Yes, I lied by shortening my time on the job and deleting a couple of companies I own or have owned … I feel awful, just awful! The truth is that I really only feel a need to go back a decade, except in my formal résumé.

In my case, the most recent addition was Mad Eliza’s Cakes and Confections, which is a company my wife runs, but I am just a co-owner and taste-tester. I don’t want to represent myself as a cake guy … I am a web guy.

It is still important to leave some of the other jobs there, but I don’t want them staring everybody in the face. I just wanted my new Facebook profile to say what it does now: “Marketing Consultant at awebguy”, but it took a little tweaking.

It brings up a few questions for me. Have you had to deal with this, too? If so, what did you do? If you have not already switched to the new Facebook profile, do you know what people are seeing? Let’s discuss this … add your comments and let’s see what others have to say about it.

The Best SEO and Social Media Tools Are Not As Expected!

Best SEO and Social Media Marketing Tools
Best SEO and Social Media Marketing Tools

It seems that a lot of people talk about the mechanical aspects of marketing these days. When the Internet is involved, people seem to get really hung up on the technical issues … the mechanics of marketing. Sure, it matters, but the mechanics of today’s marketing starts to seem like the equivalent of marketers of the past calling a printing press their best tool.

I am a marketing guy, and a web guy. I write a lot of articles about SEO and social media marketing, and it is something that I know well. I write about topics such as SEO tips, blogging tools, social media measurement, marketing strategy, and much more.

I work hard to teach people how to help themselves, and when they need some extra help, I provide services for hire. Now I want to share an important tip that may very well help you more than any other!

I have expressed this before, but I want to say it again: “The Best SEO and Social Media Tools Are Not What You Think!” Some people will find this to be shocking, but the best SEO and social media marketing tools are not at all what you have likely been led to believe. I want to clear this up for you, and share what I know, without a doubt, to be the best tools for improving your online marketing efforts.

In order to best express this, I offer you this short video titled “Best SEO and Social Media Marketing Tools”.

Coffee and Cigarettes?

Yes, there is my answer … Coffee and cigarettes are my favorite tools for building a brand and for improving search engine optimization and social media marketing. I am crazy, right? It is a challenging concept for a lot of people, but it is often much easier than explaining every nut and bolt that makes a marketing machine run smoothly.

You see, coffee and cigarettes are a part of my brand. I even published it in a book, and I have said it a squillion times: “I take coffee and cigarettes and turn them into better social media marketing and SEO.”

The real truth is that the mechanics of marketing are of considerably small consequence when compared to marketing creativity and talent.

When I call coffee and cigarettes my best tools, it is because they help me to work longer hours, without sleep. They keep me functioning during those long hours of trying to discover something genius about a client’s products or services, and what makes them more attractive to their model customers.

My tip for the day is to consider the tools which are not so obvious. Try something less mechanical and be ready to get creative.

Do you smoke cigarettes and drink coffee? Talk to me … your comments are well-appreciated!

Social Media Measurement Tools: What Do They Know About You?

Social Media Measurement is Big Business
Social Media Measurement is Big Business


How much do people know about you? This is an important question to a lot of people, and particularly businesses. Another perhaps even greater question is “how much do they know about you that gives false indications about you?”

Opinions are very important, and also very easy to forge in social media. At least the bad opinions are easy to create, and so it becomes important to address things which may give early impressions about you, or your company.

There are millions of companies hot on the trail to compiling data about you online. It is easy to imagine that all of the data is just aggregate data which applies to you and millions of others like you, but there is also a shocking amount of data about you, specifically. This is not always a huge security risk, such as people stalking your social media usage to know when you are home and away, or anything so threatening as that. However, a risk that it may impose is an early impression that people or companies may create about you, or insights to your weaknesses.

Whether you are in the business of social media, or using it to promote your business, there are a lot of ways for people to make early, and perhaps false judgments about you. This is not limited to subjective statements about you or your company, and it is often presented with objective data.

I will point out a handful of the social media ranking and measurement tools that people may use to gather an opinion of you. Some may appear as little more than tools to allow people to boast, and promote themselves as being greater than reality. Others may cause a greater impact, especially when used to form a composite view.

It should be noted that each of these services are subject to errors, and often have network limitations imposed by their sources. The data should never be presumed as completely accurate, but again, when a composite is created, it begins to paint a clearer picture.

Klout: “The Standard for Online and Internet Influence”

Klout has some pretty compelling data collection and measurement metrics (see Klout website). Klout measures influence of users across the top social networks, Twitter, Facebook, and soon to include LinkedIn. The service seems to be making a lot of progress with improvements such as daily score updates, which used to be limited to every six days.

On the surface, Klout may just appear to be great for producing bragging rights. However, the emphasis is for discovering others who are measurably influential within given industries or topics. This gives it huge potential for networking as people seek influencers. On the other side of the coin, it could also show competition where you are lacking.

I like Klout’s idea, and with a large group of developers working on their service, it seems they are putting significant effort into it. Since the release of a recent plugin, users are able to view Klout measurement in the popular desktop social media tool, Seesmic Desktop. This makes it clear that people are viewing this data, and most certainly forging opinions.

I believe that Klout has some real potential to add value and move their service forward. I must also say that, although they may be completely wrong about this, I am definitely flattered by their assessment of me as a “Celebrity”. Heck, roll out the red carpet … the Murnahan limo tweeted from 48th Street and is headed this way!

Roll Out the Red Carpet!
Roll Out the Red Carpet!

HubSpot Grader Tools

HubSpot has created a suite of individual tools for social media and website measurement, including a Facebook grader, Foursquare grader, Twitter grader, and more. I generally place much lower value on any singular social media signal when compared to aggregate data across multiple sources, but people are using them. The number of people using these tools to discover other influencers or forge opinions, as opposed to seeking bragging rights, is unclear.

Out of 8,213,218?!
Out of 8,213,218?!
In my experience, most ranking services which only grade based on individual services are extremely easy to “game”, and especially with Twitter. I have seen my name at the very top of each of them when I wanted it there, and it often only takes a very short time (hours, not days). Twitter is a pretty challenging place to numerically assign accurate and meaningful values to users, but services like HubSpot’s Twitter Grader, Twitalyzer, TweetLevel, and many others are trying very hard. I have previously pointed out that any algorithm to measure Twitter can be cheated, and often with ease. Here are some reference points for that statement:

PostRank Measurements are Useful, but Flawed

PostRank measures social media engagement of blogs. Yes, blogs are social media. If your company does not have a blog, please stand up and hold out your wrists for a good slapping. Didn’t you read “10 Really Good Reasons to Blog“? Your competition probably did.

PostRank pulls data from many sources, which makes it far less fallible than others which only measure single points of data. PostRank is still limited to restrictions of networks, and simply cannot aggregate all pertinent data. However, it is more compelling than many measurement tools because it aggregates and assigns measurements from an impressive collection of data points.

The image below shows an example of a PostRank score for a given article which shows what PostRank knows about it. Again, I must emphasize that PostRank data can still be flawed, due to network restrictions and the sheer volume of data which is to be reported.

Example of PostRank Measurement
Example of PostRank Measurement

Advertising Age’s “AdAge Power150” Accuracy Through Composite Data

Advertising Age gives a great example of increasing relevance and accuracy by producing a composite view across more data points. The “AdAge Power 150” shows that if you selectively merge some of the many social media measurement tools together, the outcome can become more accurate and compelling.

In the example of AdAge Power 150, they have implemented measures of Todd Points, PostRank, Yahoo InLinks, Alexa Points, and Collective Intellect. Their calculations are explained on the Advertising Age website, and I think it makes a useful example of how social media measurement can be used to form a composite view. To further the depth of the data, most of their sources pull from multiple other data sources.

Summary of Social Media Measurement

Social media influence and authority of a company or individual is not easy to measure, but many people are seeking this data to make estimated guesses about you. This is becoming more prevalent as measurement tools are integrated with other services. It is easy to let down your guard and assume that nobody actually uses this sort of information, but they are, and in huge numbers.

If your online representation is weak, competitors can key in on that weakness and use it against you. On the other hand, if your online branding stands tall and reflects industry authority, it can lead to furthering your network and growing your business opportunities.

One common fact about each of these measurement tools is that in order to be viewed as relevant, you must make consistent efforts.

P.S. One of those measures of PostRank is comments. Strangely, my blog scores sky high, even with a considerably small number of comments, but you can still do your part! Tell me what you think, and how you feel about all of this measuring? How might it affect your business? Do you have a favorite?