Archive for August, 2006
Using RSS Feeds For SMO
One of the stated goals of social media optimization is “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)”. One of the best ways to do that is through the use of RSS feeds.
To many web site owners and marketing professionals, using RSS feeds is synonymous with having a blog. For a lot of companies, because of regulatory or personnel constraints, publishing a blog is just not an option that is open to them. So what options do they have if they want to utilize RSS feeds to distribute there content to a wider audience?
Filed under SEO, Social Media Optimization : Comments (2) : Aug 31st, 2006
Brands, Politicians and SMO
I am amazed at the number of brands who have abdicated their brand names in the social media space.
For example, Merck has has spent a lot of time and money building its brand both online and offline. It’s website is optimized for the search engines and I am sure that the PPC budget for Merck is considerable. So why would Merck’s Internet strategy not include social networks? On Myspace, http://www.myspace.com/merck is “owned” by an 18 year old from Massachusetts. Merck’s drug Vioxx has made a lot of headlines over the last year, but its MySpace account http://www.myspace.com/vioxx is owned by someone else.
Filed under Brand Marketing, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization : Comments (0) : Aug 30th, 2006
SEO is not SMO
There is a lot of chatter recently in the SEO (search engine optimization) world, that SEO and SMO (social media optimization) are basically the same. While both SEO and SMO both have similar desired outcomes (increase revenue, build brand awareness, etc) I believe that the two are fundamentally different.
At its most basic level, SEO is focused on driving traffic to your web site via the search engines. SEO specialists focus on finding the right keywords to optimize for, develop content for these keywords and then generate incoming links to the web site based on these keywords. From an SEO perspective, everything is focused on driving traffic to one URL (having multiple domains can cause indexing issues for the search engines).
Filed under SEO, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization : Comments (0) : Aug 30th, 2006
Law Firms and SMO
Wikepidia defines Social Media Optimization (SMO) are a way to optimize websites so they would be more easily connected or interlaced with online communities and community websites. There are a lot of terrific blogs focusing on the concept of SMO, and we have no desire to repeat the great work that they are doing. Instead our focus is on how SMO relates to the other areas of online marketing like Word of Mouth Marketing, Viral Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization. In order to be successful, SMO must move from the concept to a marketing tactic that can be utilized by businesses across industry groups. SMO cannot be niche tactic foe only technology companies. It needs to be embraced by the business community at large.
Filed under Social Media Optimization : Comments (0) : Aug 28th, 2006
Ice Cube uses Social Media Optimization to Promote Album
Going through some old issues of Fortune magazine ad I came across a great article on how rapper Ice Cube had uses social networking to make his recent album release a success. One of the most interesting points in the article was how Ice Cube got DJ’s to tell listeners to check out the rappers singles on his MySpace site. As a result the number of Ice Cube’s “friends” soared from 2,000 to 150,000.
My takeaway from the article was that social media optimization is not restricted to the Internet. That the most successful social marketing plans utilize both on-line and off-line marketing.
Filed under Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization : Comments (0) : Aug 27th, 2006
Moving from SEO/PPC to SMO
One of the biggest challenges that website owners face is driving traffic to their web site. Traditionally this has been done via either search engine optimization (SEO) or Pay-per-Click marketing (PPC). The problem with SEO is that competition is usually very high for more main keyphrases and that your strategy can be turned on its head by the latest algorithm changes at Google, Yahoo or MSN. The problem with PPC is that the cost per click has been steadily rising, and it is becoming a lot more expensive to use PPC than it was a year or so ago. Social Media Optimization (SMO) allows you to drive traffic to your web site from a variety of different sources. There are many web sites that are getting huge amounts of traffic from web 2.0 enterprises like MySpace, Flickr, Squidoo, and Technorati. Look at the demographics of your customers and see where they spend their time online. You will be amazed at how many of them belong to at least one social network. Then develop a plan on how to market to that specific network. Done successfully, you will find a target market that is a lot less competitive than the one that the search engines target.
Filed under SEO, Social Media Optimization : Comments (0) : Aug 24th, 2006
What is Social Media Optimization?
Social Media Optimization is a concept developed by Rohit Bhargava. In his 5 Rules of Social Media Optimization, Rohit explains that:
“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.”
SMO is the bringing together of the SEO/SEM world, and the social networking world (blogs, MySpace, etc) and is in my view the future of Internet marketing.
Filed under Social Media Optimization : Comments (2) : Aug 24th, 2006
