Social Media

Empowered with SMO

Mar 1st

Posted by admin in Social Media

No comments

The acronyms the online community has come up with nowadays already number in the thousands. For online marketers though, two of the most important would have to be SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMO (Social Media Optimization). Given their similarities, SMO differentiates itself through its demand for active involvement, mediums of information communication, and key audience. The million-dollar question begging to be asked is, of course, “What is it for?”

The principle of SMO is grounded on the power of making information yourself (company, brand, unique selling proposition, individual, etc.) easy to share. We live in networks where re-tweeting, re-blogging, stumbling upon and Facebook posting drives people to impact the online presence of organizations with critical SMO strategies.


Beginning is always the most difficult step, but it can be made easier with the following pointers:

  1. Know that SMO and SEO, albeit extremely powerful when effective, function primarily as drivers and not directly as sales converters. Therefore, compelling content, targeted marketing, and a convenient sales process will be crucial most especially for e-commerce sites.
  2. Keep the end in mind — what are your goals and performance indicators? Will an increase in site visits, registered members/subscribers/followers/fans, page comments be the main metrics of success? Holding community-exclusive promotions (raffle, refer-a-friend, print-a-coupon, and crowd sourcing) are also an excellent means of making full use of SMO.
  3. Pick your weapon of choice. A shotgun approach to SMO might not be the best way to go about conquering the online sphere. Spamming is a big no-no especially when it comes to niche networks. These are communities, not just a gathering of people. They do not take it lightly when people try to take advantage of that. On the other hand when one provides the community interesting and relevant pieces, the group also tends to respond with an unimaginable swell of support.
  4. Make sharing instinctive through content worth spreading and ease of bookmarking/forwarding/re-posting. Constantly visible icons to the most common social media tools: Twitter, Digg, Facebook, Del.i.cio.us, Stumbleupon will increase the likelihood of your word being spread. But this is only second to the most critical factor — having content that people will want to share with in the first place.
  5. Participate! Commitment to being involved is the key distinction in SMO. Companies who harness this potential are able to make it a win-win situation. Now “knowing your customer” has become quite possible, accurate, and up-to-date. Also, press releases and other big announcements can be coursed through these networks, thereby ensuring that they reach the people for whom it matters most. On a bigger scale, industry news/developments can more easily be picked-up by keeping abreast with the field’s authorities. Niche communities also make the social media sites a gold mine of innovative ideas and consumer insights.
, , , , ,

16 Things Experts Say About Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Jan 28th

Posted by Sam Harbison in Social Media

5 comments

Within the past year alone, there have been a considerable number of resource materials that sound like the social media subject equivalents of self-help books.

What remains to be one of the most comprehensive and effective lists, however, was created back in 2006. As to be expected, within the next four years the game has been changing dynamically — but the fundamentals have proven to be the same. The 16 Rules for Social Media Optimization as penned by five of digital marketing’s go-to professionals are an excellent springboard for review and innovation of strategies.

Rohit Bhargava, who has been credited for terming Social Media Optimization or SMO, outlined the bulk of the list with:

  1. Increase Your Linkability. The key performance indicator of any social media campaign revolves around link building. The simple commitment to maintaining a blog for one, can do wonders for increasing linkability.
  2. Make Tagging and Bookmarking Easy. Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon are names to be recited by online marketers as sacred. The easier it is to share your content, the likelier it is to be spread.
  3. Reward Inbound Links. Positive reinforcement works in most cases, but in building your credibility, also bear in mind that not all inbound links ought to be automatically reciprocated.
  4. Help Your Content Travel. Through RSS feeds, newsletters, social media updates, and downloadable files, content that can conveniently be communicated expands your reach.
  5. Encourage The Mashup. The fact is, your content will be available for most of the world to see. Encouraging your followers to add their own take on the matter will make for an entirely productive interaction.

Enumerating two important points, Jeremiah Owyang, emphasizes the need to:

  1. Be a User Resource, Even if it Doesn’t Help You. Well, doesn’t help “directly” — it will return in the form of recognition as the go-to authority for information on your field of expertise.
  2. Reward Helpful and Valuable Users. Following the Pareto Principle of 80-20, forming relationships with your influential VIPs are a valuable investment.

Four things that Cameron Olthuis shares never to underestimate are the value of:

  1. Participation. Being involved, belonging to a community to which you significantly contribute to — that is what social media is all about.
  2. Knowing How to Target Your Audience. To ignore this piece of advice would be folly.
  3. Create Content. Real content is different from space-fillers in being relevant, informative, and reliable.
  4. Being Real. Sooner or later the truth will prevail. Fakers, scammers, hypocritical identities will backfire no matter the short-term advantages.

Creating a difference is simplified by keeping in mind the two things contributed by Loren Baker:

  1. Don’t Forget Your Roots, Be Humble. Do not forget the people who have one way or another brought you where you are today.
  2. Don’t Be Afraid to Try New Things, Stay Fresh. Be critical, yet open-minded about opportunities to constantly improve.

Lee Odden completes the list by focusing on Social Media Optimization with the easy to understand advice to:

  1. Develop an SMO Strategy
  2. Choose your SMO Tactics Wisely
  3. Make SMO part of your process and best practices
, , , , , ,

Link Building for Blogs: Not Just Winning by the Numbers

Jan 1st

Posted by Sam Harbison in Reciprocal Linking

1 comment

Successfully maneuvering the dog-eat-dog world of link building takes a blogger with an eye for opportunity. Link building companies know the tricks of the trade, but what a number of bloggers fail to realize, is that they have the power to start working on this as well. Therein lies one of the most amazing things about the online community – an individual’s voice can be as loud as he shapes it to be through link building popularity.

When link building for blogs, content has been declared “The King” when it comes to this industry, but for it to rule, the site requires a number of strategies to improve its following:

  1. Back link analysis on one’s benchmarks and competing sites. No blog is an island; choosing the right blogs to be linked to on their blog roll and vice-versa is a must. Contribution writing for good causes and nonprofit organizations often dedicate links in their donor pages as well. Another proven tactic in improving a blog’s search viability is through link baiting. As another link building service, this helps generate traffic to a blog by showing how it can be a win-win situation for both the blogger and the interested webmasters.
  2. Submitting to press release distribution sites. The basic rule is to include the blog’s URL whenever possible and proper: articles that prove useful and re-blog worthy, author profiles for guest writing exposures, social media site biographies, content sponsorships and so much more.
  3. Using connections to get the client on mainstream media. Whenever involving other parties (be it blogs, websites, press hubs) through cross sharing content, sponsored writing and exchanging links, the standard of quality writing should be raised higher. Nothing is more damaging to a relationship than obvious self-serving articles that prove to be non-beneficial to the other partner. Think of everyone in your online network as a professional partner – which is why a simple “thank you” recognition is a given as well.
, , , , ,

Blog Commenting The Right Way

Dec 18th

Posted by Sam Harbison in Social Media

4 comments

Surely, you have heard of how posting all kinds of content can get traffic for your blog and contribute to link popularity. As an established rule in SEO, search engines love content. High quality and relevant content guarantees a string of readers or blog followers who are interpreted as authority by search engines. The more authoritative a site is viewed, the higher value the search engine attributes to a page. This explains why many business owners hire a link building company or subscribe to link building service in order to develop quality and relevant content for link popularity.

In addition to creating useful content, there are several link building tactics that prevail when it comes to building link popularity for your site. One of them is blog commenting. Exactly how it contributes to link popularity and what blog owners can do to maximize this tactic is what this article is all about. In the past, the use of blog commenting in getting free links was obvious. People get instant inbound links just by leaving comments on a particular blog entry. Once they post something on the comment field, they leave a name and a URL, and voila, an instant backlink. In the interest of fair play, there is now a “right” and “wrong” way to comment on blogs. While some of the comments may be legitimate engagements on an issue presented by the weblog owner, some do it purely to get some link juice and hopefully, a boost in their site’s link popularity.

As the search engine ranking methods evolved and SEO techniques moderated, many blogs now utilize the nofollow feature to ensure that inbound links from comments are not unjustly rewarded by the search engines. Of course, genuine expressions of opinion should be valued higher as opposed to comments solely made for the purpose of getting free links.

Effective commenting requires honesty and sincerity. When you leave two-word comments such as “I agree” or “Nice post” followed by your URL, this is blatant hunting for link juice. Your post will end up getting deleted by the weblog owner. Effective comments include personal opinions, a related experience, tips, or some interesting facts that are connected with the discussion. Comment this way and you may end up getting a link pointed to your site. Lengthy posts must also be avoided.

Blog comments build traffic. Despite the nofollow feature, blog comments are still a great way to get some exposure for your site and direct traffic toward you. When you post quality comments on high-traffic nofollow blogs, it can increase your chances of having some of that traffic trickle down to your site.

With these in mind, there are a few rules to observe when considering blog comments as a link building method.

  1. Never spam. Spamming the blogs is a definite no-no. Such a display of unprofessional behavior is likely to get your comments deleted. Any link building effort using spam is doomed to fail.
  2. Avoid mass commenting. Posting one comment each on several posts in a single website will be interpreted by search engines as link spamming. Link spamming hurts your link popularity. Although your comments may be useful and relevant to the topic at hand, you run the risk of being booted out or banned by the search engines.
  3. Do not repeat comments on blogs. Posting the same comments on many blogs will get them deleted.
  4. Give comments that are valuable to the post. Comments can only be effective if they support the content on the blog entry. Post something constructive such as a narrative, findings on a similar topic, an elaboration, or some tips. In addition, it is important for blog commentators to post something that is free or errors in grammar, spelling, or unethical language.
  5. Be prudent. There is a place for everything in the blog. Never input your URL on the comment field. There is a field for the URL. Similarly, do not use keywords on the Name field.
  6. Circulate. Just like discussions offline, online forums such as blogs are a great way to interact with people and build networks. Effective commenting in order to gain some link popularity also requires that you circulate. Engage the blog owner, as well as other commentators, when you post comments.

Blog commenting can only be an effective link building tactic if done the right way, meaning that is it used in the manner it was originally designed. First and foremost, comments are a way of promoting free expression. Blog owners post content in the hope of getting readers’ insight, ideas, and suggestions. Quality comments are deemed valuable, and blog owners reciprocate that by giving a link back. Just like in the offline world, effective comments are those that are honest, relevant, sensible, and constructive. Any link building campaign that aims to use blog commenting to build link popularity should take the rules associated with this tactic seriously.

It is important to understand that comments are a fringe benefit. There is a great deal of difference in commenting blogs for the sole purpose of link building from a sincere articulation of opinion. The latter has more value in terms of interaction and probability of getting an inbound link. When inputting something on the comment field, the aim should be to contribute to the discussion. Getting a backlink out of it is a perk to the practice itself.

, , , , ,