Question

Topic: Social Media

Impact Of Duplicate Content In Social Media

Posted by lstevens on 8/8/2011 at 3:20 PM ET 25 Points
I have observed several business that I work with are using the same service to update their Facebook pages. These businesses are brick and mortar retailers selling the same products, but in different markets so they are not in direct competition with each other. This service is recycling the same content on multiple client pages. Could this cause a problem for these retailers? Syndicated promotions / content is something that works for direct mail, circulars and TV spots, but I worry that it could be more problematic in social media. Is it no big deal or could it be more of a minus than a plus?
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  • Posted by mgoodman on 8/8/2011 at 3:29 PM Moderator
    Presumably each of these businesses is only displaying ads in their own local market. If not, they're spending/wasting a lot of money. And if they are, there shouldn't be much of a problem with "duplicated" content.

    We have a very successful campaign for one local merchant, and we're looking for customers in the same business in other areas where we can utilize the same content and marketing strategy. I'm not sure why that would be a problem, as long as everything is geo-targeted.
  • Posted by lstevens on 8/8/2011 at 4:33 PM Author
    I have seen articles that say that Google is starting to penalize duplicate content for websites (useful for weeding out content farms that just republish articles that appear elsewhere), but I didn't know how relevant that would be here.
  • Posted by peg on 8/9/2011 at 3:18 AM Accepted
    Google can penalize websites for displaying content that is identical, or virtually identical, to the original source. It is a serious concern and you are right to raise the question, because Google can blacklist a site that uses duplicate content, without informing the site or justifying the blacklisting. Google has, I hear, a very active on-going site review process dedicated specifically to this issue.

    However, Google has provided legitimate businesses a way to display duplicate content without drawing the dreaded blacklist penalty. On any page that uses duplicate content, the website operator can install what is called a "canonical" link. This is a link in the page code that says, "The original (canon) of this content is online at the following location." By doing this, you are telling Google that you are engaged in legitimate use of the duplicate content and you are giving credit to the originator.

    Of course, the search engine weight for that content is then directed principally toward the original source that you have identified; so you exchange some search engine "juice" for the vital benefit of remaining indexed in Google's search engine. Put another way, "ORIGINAL content is king."

    The good news is, it's not hard to do. To learn more, here's a video from Google's expert, Matt Cutts, plus instructions for how to use the canonical link element:
    https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=139394


  • Posted by lstevens on 8/9/2011 at 8:44 AM Author
    Thanks for the information!
  • Posted by jeepzia on 8/10/2011 at 11:53 AM Accepted
    There are a lot of issues with duplicate content, but as far as FB, auto-posting (via a service) can lower your Edge Rank Score, or where your post appears in your fans' FB news feed, esp if your fan IS getting content from others using the same posting service - even if it's for a different product... A lower Edge Rank can cause the post to get lost in the clutter.

    Here's a thought too - even though the other retailers are in different areas, what if the consumer did research on the product -- saw the same message over and over -- and decided to "like" a competitor's business because the marketing message was unique and more relevant to him?

  • Posted on 10/31/2011 at 8:03 PM Member
    Duplicated content is okay if it is adding value to the end user. I think companies that say sell sell sell and no giving they are going to have a problem with conversion.

    I think making things relevant to the individual is the most important.

    Best,
    Erica
    CoupSmart.com
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