Social Media Optimization

[Koz]

What is the definition of Social Media Optimization?

I know the aspects of it like increasing your linkability, diving into social networks and make tagging and bookmarking your blog/site easy.... but what is the definition of Social Media Optimization? And has anyone here had success with it?

[Chatmaster]

Have to go with Wikipedia here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Media_Optimization)
However, to me it is rather a marketing function than an optimization function. Although it is debateable both ways. Essentially doing RSS feeds and setting up profiles on other sites are marketing methods, attracting people from there to your sites. It is well targetted and can also benefit optimization.

Does it work? Well lets see...
I personally know of 3 members that got to this forum by myself using one of these methods, so I guess it does work...

[Afrovich]

You are faced with a corporate marketing official, in simple words how do you sell SMO to this guy?

[Koz]

Hi Afrovich! welcome to the forum.

Yeah I think Afrovich has a good point. Its all very well that you know it works, but what happens when you need to sell this to a client? Like SEO its not always tangible

[Tereza]

i think the first step of including SMO in an online/digital media strategy would be to identify how specific campaign objectives might be met through this format, i.e. which of these takes priority: brand awareness/building/recall, lead generation, increasing traffic volume or pre-launch awareness? this will form the basis of your research, analysis and recommendation for your client's media strategy

[Blazingpie]

Hmmmm...

SMO is optimising your site/blog to make it appeal to the target social group(s) and make it easier for them to tell others about it, so that more will talk about it and link to it.

How's that for a ' in a nutshell' definition? :) Am I missing anything important?

[Paz]

Welcome to the forum Afrovich :cheers:

That's pretty much it BP.... add links to every article/page with

Email this
Digg this
Add to delicio.us
Shoutwire this
Boing Boing
Slash Dot
Add to Furl

These are all social networks, which can drive traffic to your site.

Digg is a good one because it can bring something like 30,000 to 40,000 visitors a day. It takes a special article to get there though.

Also you should add a feed for popular RSS newsreaders so people can stay up to date via

RSS (plain feed)
Bloglines feed
MyYahoo feed
MyMSN feed
Newgator

Also if you have the type of site where people can interact, a comments feed is a good idea too.

[daniel]

glad to see you here Tebs

Howzit, glad you finally made it, i suppose you coming here is a form of SMO in itself.

Daniel

[Blazingpie]

yeah, except digg's conversion rate is crap and their userbase act like a bunch of whiney 15 year olds. Digg's majority userbase proves John Gabriel's Theory that contains swearing (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19)

Still, like i said, it must appeal to the target social group. An article on tractors probably won't make the front-page of digg unless its something like these tricked-out tractors (http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/08/farm_dragsters.html), however find a community of tractor-lovers...

In my opinion SMO can become a bit vague if you try make it's definition too broad as you start overlapping into things like PR management, viral marketing, etc

[Koz]

I wouldn't say that Digg is the be-all and end-all of SMO. But Digg can provide good consistant traffic if you have articles that are always excellent and always get Digged.

I've come to realise (correct me if I'm wrong), that Social Media Optimisation (not SM Marketing) comes down to two things, 1) it is optimising your web site / blog to maximise linkablity and 2) Designing your site in such a way that people talk about it and want to share it with others. Anything other than that is Marketing and not Optimisation

[Blazingpie]

No, you're right Koz, that's what SMO deals with: the optimisation part. However, SMO is still a rather new phrase so I wouldnt be surprised if people got a bit creative with the definition :p

[Chatmaster]

You might also want to read this blog post from Rand about Social Media Marketing (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/social-media-marketing-eh-lets-see-whats-in-our-bag-o-goodies)

[michellebarkley]

What is the definition of Social Media Optimization?

I know the aspects of it like increasing your linkability, diving into social networks and make tagging and bookmarking your blog/site easy.... but what is the definition of Social Media Optimization? And has anyone here had success with it?

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a way to optimize web sites so they would be more easily connected or interlaced with online communities and community websites, also called social media sites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds

Five Suggestions for Social Media Optimzation (SMO)

* 1) Increase your linkability
* 2) Make tagging and bookmarking easy
* 3) Reward inbound links
* 4) Help your content travel
* 5) Encourage the mashup

[Koz]

hey michelle! you hit the nail on the head. perfectly summed up. I think with all the social sites getting so much press coverage lately clients are now understanding SMO.

[michellebarkley]

What is the definition of Social Media Optimization?

I know the aspects of it like increasing your linkability, diving into social networks and make tagging and bookmarking your blog/site easy.... but what is the definition of Social Media Optimization? And has anyone here had success with it?

Social media optimization is a method of generating publicity through online processes, communities and websites.It is a crucial tool to increase the popularity and visibility of your website in the World Wide Web. Internet as we know it today is one of the biggest platforms for interaction and knowledge sharing. It is no wonder therefore that social media optimization is one of the most popular methods for enhancing the visibility of the site and giving it a higher ranking on the search engines.

[Chatmaster]

The true science of SMO is still in it's baby steps. I think in years to come, we will have a website architect similar to one's designing buildings. I think most people that only talk about it, will be amazed to see just how far technology has come through the years in SMO.

[regalwilliam1]

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a way to optimize web sites so they would be more easily connected or interlaced with online communities and community websites, also called social media sites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds

Five Suggestions for Social Media Optimzation (SMO)

* 1) Increase your linkability
* 2) Make tagging and bookmarking easy
* 3) Reward inbound links
* 4) Help your content travel
* 5) Encourage the mashup

Nice information.

Thanks.

[kavinpparker]

SMO is a technique to viral marketing.
Social media optimization is defined as a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, adding a "Digg This" button, blogging and incorporating third party community functionalities like Flickr photo slides and galleries or YouTube videos. Social media optimization is a form of search engine marketing.

Social media optimization is in many ways connected as a technique to viral marketing where word of mouth is created not through friends or family but through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites.

[Bobwilliams]

The concept behind SMO is simple: implement changes to optimize a site so that it is more easily linked to, more highly visible in social media searches on custom search engines (such as Technorati), and more frequently included in relevant posts on blogs, podcasts and vlogs. Increase your linkability : Think blogs, content, aggregation & linkbait. Make tagging and bookmarking easy : Include calls to action for users to tag, bookmark and Digg your stuff. I’d suggest the Sociable Plugin if you have a Wordpress powered blog. Reward inbound links : List blogs which link back to you via permalinks, trackbacks or recently linking blogs (like the Yahoo & Google blogs do). Help your content travel : Content diversification can lead to mobility of your content beyond the browser.

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Bobwilliams
social media marketing (http://www.drivenwide.com)