Networking in the Cloud
SMO Strategies for the Small to Medium Sized Business
What is SMO?
Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, social news buttons, blogging, and incorporating third-party community functionalities like images and videos. Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily the focus on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO. 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. In a similar way the engagement with blogs achieves the same by sharing content through the use of RSS in the blogosphere and special blog search engines. Social Media optimization is considered an integral part of an online reputation management (ORM) or Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) strategy for organizations or individuals who care about their online presence
Why Use Social Marketing
No Cost or Low Cost For Most Services.
Variety of Service Providers and Resources Make It Relevant for Every Business.
The Impact Potential is Very High.
It is Easily Matched to Other New Media Marketing Activities (web site (se0), email)
Forms of Social Marketing
Networking and Connecting (LinkedIn, Naymz, Plaxo, Merchant Circle, Facebook, etc.) Blogging (Blogger, Wordpress, etc.) Micro-Blogging (twitter, Pownce, Tumblr., Jaiku, identi.ca, Flickr, etc.)
Resource Sharing (Del.icio.us, SlideShare, FriendFeed, StumbleUpon, Etc)
Others (Technorati ,
SMO Rules
Know Who You Want to Know – Suspect Marketing
Be Original and Creative
Provide Value Before You Expect Value Give People a Reason to Link to You Be Active and Participate in Networking Regularly Make Connecting With You Easy – RSS, public profiles, links, links, links.
Executing Your SMO Strategy
Decide On Your Message – Who Cares?
A Long Term Strategy – Plan on 3 to 6months of consistency to produce lasting results. Stay focused – Don’t get caught hanging out with your friends and family.
Use an integrated approach – networking, blogging, micro-blogging, resource sharing.
Content and Design
Make Your Message Work
10 Second rule
Titled with care
Focus on Value before Sales Establish Great Design Rules
Spend the Extra to Have Your Own Domain (no gmail, no yahoo, no msn, etc.) Use a .Com domain Name No Hyphens or Numbers in the Domain Name
Avoid Direct Sales or Advertizing on the Social Sites
Keep the Content Fresh and Valuable
Reader Focused Content
The average reader reads about 240 words per minute, where as a diagonal reader ‘reads’ (actually scans) closer to 15 words per second or about 900 words per minute. Optimize for diagonal readers:
1. The title or headline of your post. 2. The subtitles or subheadings within the post. 3. Any bold, underlined, “quoted”, or otherwise highlighted text. 4. Pictures, graphs, charts, images, videos, flash/interactive, rich media of any nature. 5. A summary of the article.
Titles that Work
• •
Write content first, create title last. Focus on 4 main elements:
‣ ‣ ‣ ‣
Lists (numbering) Adjectives (superlatives) Figures, Numbers (presentation of fact) Indicating media type (pictures, audio/video, interactive) [Number] [Adjective/Superlative] [Key Phrase] [Media Type]
The viral content formula:
Being a Community Member
Share with Your Community
Post often, but post meaningfully
Groups, Groups, Groups No Spam – EVER
Share Freely and Openly
Don’t Share Just to Be “Out There.”