Social Media Optimization Basics

We've all heard of search engine optimization, but the new buzz word is social media optimization (SMO).

SMO refers to the tools and techniques you can use to increase your website, or blog's, popularity using social networking, bookmarking, and online community websites.

There are a number of social networking and bookmarking sites that have the potential to drive thousands of visitors to your website. RSS feeds and the use of sites like YouTube and Flickr all fall under the definition of social media.

The most important steps you can take to SMO your website are to

1. find out where you target audience hangs out and
   
   
2. create great content and
   
   
3. distribute your content as far and wide as you can

Inbound links, in case you don't already know, are what most search engines look at when ranking sites. You'll find that most people only care about getting the link. Content isn't a factor because the link is all that counts.

Yes, while it's true that links are good, I know for sure that not all links are helpful. In fact, a lot of not so good links doesn’t do much good at all. But, creating content that gets links naturally is what it's all about. It also forces you to focus on content. Imagine that, content that's for users and not search engines!

If you have quality content, the next step is to get out there and get it noticed. Web 2.0 offers a number of tools to help you do this. Add social bookmarking buttons to all your content, send out RSS feeds and press releases, and add related articles to article directories.

You should also learn about and make use of what's been known as the mashup. A mashup is where you combine the content from a number of websites and present it in a useful way. A mashup works both ways, you can make your own mashup and present it as useful content or create content that gets used in other mashups.

Web 2.0 and SMO is about communication between web users.

Don't limit yourself to writing about your chosen niche and posting articles on your blog or website. Get out there and participate with helpful advice on related forums, blogs and social groups. If you do this in a helpful and genuine manner, the marketing will take care of itself.

SMO works both ways. If you find visitors to your websites giving valuable advice or linking to you regularly, let them know it is appreciated and help them out.

SMO requires that you engage users. You can longer hide out and rely on static information. You have to identify your niche, identify your target market, identify their problems, and then offer solid solutions.

 

Written by: David C Skul - CEO

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