Why should
I care about Social Media Optimization?
You should care about Social Media Optimization (SMO), because you care about
your company's image. There's an old saying that goes something like, "A
happy customer will tell one other person about his good experience. A
disgruntled customer will tell ten people about his bad experience." Good or
bad, that's powerful marketing. Social Media Optimization gives you the power to
take an active role in managing your brand by interacting with your current and
potential clients by discussing your products, their comments and concerns and
continually promoting your brand.
Social
Media Optimization Defined
In its most basic form,
Social media optimization is any method used
to raise your website's online visibility through meaningful communication. SMO
opens a dialogue between you and your clients, using the power of popular
opinion to fuel your marketing campaign. The open format strengthens your search
engine optimization efforts by fostering a mutual connection with your clients
through the myriad of online communities, also called social media sites.
Current examples of SMO include:
-
Creating profiles in
social media communities such as MySpace, Facebook, and VIRB.
-
Participating in
and/or creating blogs.
-
Disseminating your
blogs or articles using RSS feeds.
-
Creating and sharing
content through community based sites like Flickr, YouTube, and more.
Not to
incorporate unnecessary buzz words, but SMO is a very Web 2.0 approach to Search
Engine Optimization. Of course, Web 2.0 merely refers to the perceived second
generation of Web-based communities and hosted services - the social-networking
sites, wikis and folksonomies, which facilitate collaboration and sharing
between users. SMO allows you to become an active member of your online
community, quite an important aspect of marketing your brand. Through
participation, you establish yourself or your company as an industry leader and
improve your online visibility.
As you can imagine, Social Media Optimization is most effective when the viral
nature of the technique and its communities are utilized in a positive manner.
Creating legitimate content, building relationships and instilling trust in your
community is the very backbone of SMO. You may initiate the process, but
effective SMO will take on a life all its own. A true forum is bred through the
act of continual communication between your company and your online audience.
Of course, not everyone plays by the rules. In every aspect of life, you will
find those who would cheat the system to receive short term gains. Like most
schemes, the underbelly of SMO may seem attractive to anyone looking for a quick
fix, but don't make that mistake. Just as it's true with SEO, erroneous SMO will
backfire. Using questionable techniques will very likely yield the exact
opposite results you were hoping to see.
SMO
Etiquette
Legitimate SMO techniques are centered on sharing information and exposing your
community to your interests. As such, you want to focus on promoting proper SMO
etiquette. The MySpace super fríend, the guy or gal who adds anyone and
everyone, would be a good example of improper Social Media Optimization. The
whole concept behind Social Media is to create a community with similar
interests for meaningful discussion and let the power of popular opinion grow
your online visibility. Of course, you may belong to several different
communities and you may even have some of the same friends in those different
communities. That's perfectly fine. The idea is to remain active in your
communities by adding friends and contributing relevant content. Adding friends
in bulk, for no reason, is no way to optimize.
Communal sites like MySpace and Facebook, or even YouTube and Flickr to some
extent, are indeed popularity contests. However, simply trying to catalog
massive amounts of unrelated, uninterested "friends" is totally
counterproductive. Let the high school kids worry about who's got the most
friends. For the purpose of SMO, you should concern yourself with quality, not
quantity.
Using unsavory SMO techniques is the Web 2.0 equivalent to spam. Unfortunately,
we're all far too familiar with spam. Unsolicited bulk messaging and link heavy
advertisements instead of useful comments are two of the more prevalent methods
of Social Media spamming. However, Social Media spamming is even more atrocious
than email spam, because the offending text is visible to everyone on the site.
It doesn't hide in your inbox, so it can really dilute the appeal of the site.
Your kindergarten teacher was on the right track. If you don't have something
relevant to say, don't say anything at all.
Is SMO right for my firm?
There are many different types of Social Media sites currently available. To put
it in perspective, think about all the different interests you have in life.
Now, consider the possibility that there's at least one Social Media site for
each of your interests. Of course, you're not the only person on the Internet,
so it's a safe bet there are literally millíons of sites dedicated to countless
interests around the globe. Believe it or not, there's a group out there looking
for your company, product or service. You just have to make it available.
Therefore, understanding how to submit to and maintain your content on each
community is absolutely crucial when developing a successful SMO strategy.
A few examples of the different Social Media genres include:
• News
- These sites allow users to submit news articles. Once an article is published,
users can submit their comments and vote to promote the story and/or author.
Examples
include: Digg, Propeller, Newsvine
• Media
- These sites allow users to upload and share a variety of different media
files. The overwhelming majority of these sites are dedicated mainly to photo
and video files.
Examples
include: YouTube, Flickr
• Wiki
- These sites allow users to add and edit informational articles as determined
by the individual users.
Examples
include: Wikipedia, WikiHow, Million Dollar Wiki
•
Networking - These sites allow users to create profiles and network with
others according to similar traits, tastes, and interests.
Examples
include: MySpace, Facebook, Virb
•
Bookmarking - These sites allow users to compile public bookmark collections
of sites they find interesting, informative, or helpful. The more a site is
bookmarked, the higher the ranking.
Examples
include: Stumble Upon, Technorat, Del.icio.us
When
executed properly, Social Media Optimization can be quite a beneficial marketing
tool. However, SMO may simply not be the right fít for your organization. Some
questions you might like to consider before launching your SMO campaign are:
-
Most SMO sites share
very specific information. Would your products benefit from this type of
content specific market?
-
The audience for most
Social Media sites is more of a young, tech savvy group. Would your company,
product or service appeal to their fickle nature?
-
Does your web site
contain a blog, or similar media outlet, you can regularly update with
relevant content?
-
Given the fact that
community based sites focus on individual profiles and commentary, are you
comfortable with developing unique profiles across multiple sites?
In summary
Social Media Optimization has become a successful marketing tool for one simple
reason. It works. The gap between old media and new has gotten smaller and
smaller with the majority of the prominent television and print media outlets
finally embracing the Internet by launching sites of their own. The different
Social Media sites, like MySpace and Facebook, have exploded with profiles for
everything from 8th graders discussing their favorite bands to full scale ad
campaigns for Blockbuster movies.
If done correctly, SMO can expose your brand to markets you didn't think
possible. Whether it's used alone to drive a campaign or in conjunction with
your current interactive marketing strategy, Social Media Optimization offers
you a significant advantage.
About The Author
Brian Easter is the CEO of
NeboWeb. As CEO, Easter has led NeboWeb to
explosive growth, attracting Fortune 500 clients and driving strategic
partnerships which have fueled NeboWeb's expansion.
