Social Media Questions For Andy Hagans

This week Andy Hagan steps into the interview chair as part of our ongoing series of interviewing the top people in the social media marketing space.

Andy is well known in the SEO field and is a frequent speaker at conferences like Search Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld and South by Southwest Interactive.

1. Andy you are one of the early evangelists of social media optimization, especially for link building. Can you tell me about your decision get involved in this market?

Basically, it’s by far the most cost-effective way to get editorial citations, which lead to organic search rankings. Social media has been a profit driver for us, so we’ll ride it as long as it continues to be.

2. Social media marketing has really taken off over the last 12 months. What has been the biggest surprise to you about the growth of social media?

Biggest surprise? How weak Digg’s anti-spam team is. Compared to Netscape—Netscape is much more aggressive.

3. What do you see as the biggest opportunity in social media over the next 12 months?

I think you’ll see niche sites start to take off. Sites like Ballhype, Sphinn, Hugg, Tweako, etc… smart webmasters will submit to the niche sites regular and take advantage of the small—but highly targeted, and growing—stream of traffic.

4. What social media sites do you see rising and/or falling over the next 12 months?

Will Netscape just die already please?

5. What are some of the opportunities in social media that you see that marketers are not taking advantage of?

Scale. One link bait success is a shot in the arm. One per week is a huge competitive advantage in organic.

6. Link baiting is a tactic that you are well known for. Can you explain what it is and how a company can use it?

Sorry no ? Here’s a link though to Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and SMM

7. Tell me about the biggest blunder you’ve seen in SMO?

Getting a bunch of sites banned from Delicious and Netscape hurt for a little while. We have many sites though ?