Trends 2007: SMO Over SEO
In 2007, look for Social Media Optimization (SMO) or more aptly Social Media Marketing (SMM) to overtake Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as the primary concern of businesses looking to generate web traffic and positive dialog about their brand.
Linking strategies and search optimization should be on every marketer’s ongoing to-do list. However, it is unwise to ignore the influence the vast and ever-shifting voice of online social media continues to have on products, services, perception and commerce.
Driven by human nature and a desire to connect rather than by revenue streams, the growth of social networking shows no sign of waning. Today’s marketers must look for ways to provide ease of connectivity and to integrate seamlessly with emerging online communities and their websites.
But It’s All So Overwhelming
It can be disconcerting to dwell on the potential impact this sea of fickle discourse could have on your business or industry. Instead, strive to monitor and understand its significance. Strategizing methods to harness and utilize the influence of SMM will prove invaluable.
Find your Audience
Submit and extend your content to recognized social media sites with audiences relevant to your industry. Implement strategies to get your brand seen as often as possible on well-known, relevant blogs and optimize for high visibility in social media-specific search and content delivery arenas.
Social Media Marketing Sites
To get you started, here are links to some popular social networking, media, search and content delivery venues:
- Digg | Get noticed
- Del.icio.us | Get tagged
- Wikipedia | Make history
- YouTube | Share video
- Technorati | Blog central search
- Reddit | Get read
- Newsvine | Get published
- StumbleUpon | Stumble upon commonalities
- MySpace | Socialize
- Facebook | Stay in touch
Other social networking sites include: Flickr, LinkedIn, Yahoo! Answers, Squidoo, Furl, Frappr, Shoutwire, Slashdot, Second Life.
Each of the sites on this abbreviated list has its own niche within the world of social media. For example, Facebook focuses on social interaction between college and high school students; LinkedIn provides a sophisticated professional networking model; Digg’s community of users determine the relative importance—by category—of a given news item; Second Life is a world unto itself, replete with its own economy, currency (relative to the dollar) and influx of real “first life” corporate investment and brand presence.
Spend some time learning about the nuances of different social media networks, their potential relation to your industry and how to integrate them into an SMO/SMM strategy. Look for ways to incorporate communal RSS feeds, third party links like pushed Flickr images, social bookmarking links, YouTube videos and communication submissions into your 2007 marketing plan.
May 7th, 2007 at 3:31 am
Hello dear author,
Your article is interesting as well as informative, thanks for such a great information about SMO, SMM and oscourse the listing of Social Bookmarking Sites. This is Richard Cannon from NJ, USA and i ruu the business of wholesale jewelry manufacturing and supplying - I found some drastic changes in SERPs in Goolge for my jewelry website [ http://www.rcjewelry.com/ ].
According to me Digg.com is the most useful in both the ways to get listed in SERPs as well as getting users for your website.
Early in this morning, i notice some Ranking improvement in Google SERPs and also got notice that my posting on Digg.com is also listed for the targeted keyword son the same page where my website is listed [ Reference URL : http://www.google.com/search?q=wholesale+gold&hl=en&pwst=1&start=20&sa=N - Digg.com listing is on no 28 and my site is listed at 24 ]
February 16th, 2008 at 3:38 am
i am using youtube ind wiki, and very good results!
July 17th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Well this is just great. 13 years going with the flow to learn all this stuff I use and now social nedia networks become a factor and I have to learn some more. [I'm pretty lazy albeit successful.]
I am now running rss feeds in html on 3 of my clients pages. I really like them. But I guess that’s just the tip of the iceburg.
Thanks for the heads up. See you on the net with higher rankings maybe.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:07 pm
It seems that Social media marketing isn’t moving as fast as your opening statements would claim.
However, I am impressed by how much of an impact it has had! I don’t understand it yet. Guess I better get up to speed. I’m not even sure what an iPhone is.
September 16th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
It’s interesting how each person views seo (search engine optimization) in a different perspective.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Thanks! Really a good one.
November 30th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Your post is helpful. Thank you for all of the good information about SMO, SMM and OScourse the listing all of primary social bookmarking Web sites.
This is Mike Fleischner from Robbinsville NJ. I run a couple of websites. I found some drastic changes in SERPs in Goolge for my ebook site [ http://www.marketingscoop.com/ ] with additional bookmarking. Thanks for the tips.
December 15th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Interesting post, thanks Ed! Can’t believe it took me 2 years to find it! Not sure I’m convinced that SMO will overtake SEO just yet, though. Surely, a problem with SMO is that it has to be advertising driven rather than need driven, in the sense that users Googling something are at the point when they need it, whereas users in a social network site are probably just having fun?
December 19th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
This post is right on. Today, it’s all about social media. SEO is blending with Social Media. As Google moves towards universal search, we are seeing more and more search results being tied to our facebook, ning, and hubpages accounts. This is going to be a continuing trend. Our blog http://goodmarketingtips.blogspot.com is now appearing as part of our myspace and google image accounts. This is evidence of results being more based on the weight associated with social media than traditional html pages.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so! really nice post.
February 24th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
“Клёвая статейка! Сразу видно, что автор знает о чём пишет, не то что некоторые “ассы” мировой паутины. Vito beritto! “
March 31st, 2009 at 11:29 am
It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their is a problem in the first place