Social Media Optimization (SMO) - new marketing channels

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What is social media? 

Before launching into the world of social media optimisation it is worth stopping to discuss what is understood by social media.

Wikipedia describes social media as:-

“online tools and platforms that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other. Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. Popular social mediums include blogs, message boards, podcasts and wikis.”

SMO and SEO – natural partners

SMO sits very well with search engine optimisation (SEO) as the two processes aim to get the same results – increased web traffic and visibility.

While they have the same goal they use two different channels – SEO concentrates on search engines and social media optimisation uses the platforms listed above.

The synergy doesn’t stop there… SMO is seen as an integral part of an online reputation management or search engine reputation management for companies, brands or individuals who care about their online presence.

Social media all the buzz

There are no hiding places from social media. It is everywhere and Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other leading brands are fully ingrained into our everyday personal and work lives. We all “google it” and social media brands will themselves soon become new additions to our daily language.

Social media – share don’t sell

Of importance however is a word that will always appear with or certainly very near to social media… share.

Social media takes a very different approach to traditional processes in that it is driven by the theme of sharing and engaging. Gone are the hard sale marketing techniques, social media is much more omnidirectional and replaces one way marketing. Wikipedia’s definition encapsulates the mentality behind social media in that users “share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other”.

As a marketing channel, social media is an excellent arena but due care is needed, hard marketing is gone and engagement is a must.

What to do?

For any website, brand or company, social media engagement is almost certainly a must. Naturally there are going to be sectors or products that will not be suitable for social media optimisation and social media marketing, you wouldn’t really want to be tweeted on discount funerals or the like.

However for the majority, SMO has to be added to their action plan for now

Next big thing? First, master the last big thing

Some may argue that it is hard to master the next big thing while still trying to master the last big thing.

This is where the WebMarketing Group has a unique perspective. We are already experts at SEO and are now quickly building our social media optimisation skills. As mentioned above there is a clear synergy between the two and we can run an effective campaign that combines all SEO and SMO aspects and works to the same collective goal – increased web presence and visibility.

Doing nothing is not an option – don’t get scared by the scale of the job

Launching into social media is a daunting prospect. The blogosphere is now so huge and there are so many communities that it is hard to know what approach to take.