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Social Media Optimization: The Power Of Popular Opinion
By Brian Easter (c) 2008 

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
(http://www.neboweb.com/social-media-optimization.php) 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 increase 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
friend, 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 increase 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 millions of
sites dedicated to countless interests around the world. 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 fit 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
never thought 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.
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Brian Easter is the CEO of NeboWeb (http://www.NeboWeb.com).
As CEO, Easter has led NeboWeb to explosive growth,
attracting Fortune 500 clients and driving strategic
partnerships which have fueled NeboWeb's expansion.
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