What is Social Media Optimization?

Posted by Limelight Department | Posted in , , , , | Posted on 2:49 PM

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What can Social Media Optimization do for me?

Unhappy customers talk to other people about their experiences. Happy customers talk too. But as the saying goes, the unhappy customer will tell 10 people how bad your company is while the happy customer only tells one person. Whether it’s in your favor or not, the fact is people will talk and that is powerful marketing that can make or break a reputation.
Social Media Optimization allows you to lead the conversations people are having about your brands by interacting with your current and potential clients.

What is Social Media Optimization?

In general, Social Media Optimization, or SMO, is generating publicity and interest in your brand through social networking sites and resources. SMO utilizes news sites, RSS feeds, blogs and blogging networks, videos, and image sharing, just to name a few aspects. The sharing nature of social media means that it is an ongoing, open dialog between you and the rest of the world. It strengthens connections between yourself and your customers and clients, and provides an increased opportunity to strengthen your search engine optimization efforts.

Creating profiles in social media communities such as MySpace and Facebook is an example of current social media efforts, as is blogging, either by creating your own or participating in someone else’s, by leaving comments or as a guest writer. Sharing your expertise through article marketing using RSS feeds, and posting videos to YouTube and photos to Flickr all create opportunities to other people to engage with your brand and share the content.

Social Media Optimization takes search engine optimization to the next level, the “Web 2.0” level, if you will. In other words, the second generation of web activity that is much more interactive than the way the web was originally—web-based communities and services such as the social-networking sites, wikis and tagging and classification technologies which make collaboration and sharing fast and easy. By participating in all of these opportunities where others in your industry aren’t, you position yourself as the expert and increase your online visibility in a tangible way.

Social Media Optimization is most effective when the good content is created to exploit its viral nature, meaning that it is quickly and easily shared and that people want to share it. A big part of this is building a trustworthy reputation for yourself. There is a sense of trust among the sharing communities online that shouldn’t be taken advantage of.

Eventually, the social media optimization will take on a life of its own, as the content you have created is continually shared. But the ongoing communication aspect of SMO means that people will constantly be holding you accountable for every piece of your content that gets shared online. Violating this trust or using questionable techniques will be unappealing to the online communities you are seeking to court, and will very likely result in a backlash that is the opposite of the positive attention you were hoping to achieve.


Gain and keep their trust

The goal of marketing online is to build communities with similar interests. People want safe places to share their thoughts where they know others will have a similar mindset. You should not be chasing down every single person online to be their “friend.” Without a group with similar interests, there will be no cohesive to spread your message.

Of course, it’s perfectly fine to belong to different communities and have different groups of friends within those communities. The goal should be to remain active by building friendships with people with similar interests and contributing relevant content in those communities. Highschoolers can compete with one another to have the most friends on communal sites like Facebook and MySpace, but the small business owner should be concerned with quality, not quantity. Online groups are like planned communities—people join because they already like and agree with that going on, so a savvy online marketers knows there’s no need to do everything “in bulk.”

In fact, conducting business “in bulk” in these communities (by friending anyone, sending unsolicited bulk messages, and contributing only link heavy advertisements) is the equivalent of spam. But spamming in the context of a social network is even more unwelcome, because the user can’t get rid of it or hide it like they can when it appears in their email inbox. It’s visible to everyone and decreases the enjoyment of the site for everyone. If you don't have something useful or relevant to say in the case of social networks, don't say anything at all.

How To leverage social media opportunities

There are many different ways to generate social media content, so don’t feel like you have to engage in each one. Find two or three that resonate with you and focus on those. If you put more interest into what you’re doing, it will be more well-received.

News sites such as Digg, Propeller, and Newsvine allow users to submit news articles. If you discover a breaking news story, share it or comment on a news story that someone else found. Giving fellow submitters a “thumbs up” for finding something interesting is a good way to encourage them to give you a “thumbs up” when you find something to share.

YouTube and Flickr are sites that allow users to upload and share different media files such as photos and videos. The benefit of these sites is that they are easily found in search engines, easily searchable, and direct people back to your primary website. Utilize them by filming or photographing your products or services in action.

Wiki sites like Wikipedia, WikiAnswers and WikiHow allow users to contribute content and edit the content that was provided by other users. There are numerous wikis available that are about specific topics.

Networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Virb and many others allow users to create profiles and join and create friend networks with others according to similar interests.

Bookmarking sites such as Stumble Upon, Technorati, and Del.icio.us allow users to bookmark sites they find interesting or informative. The bookmarked collections can be shared publicly. The more often a site is bookmarked, the higher it is ranked within the site, making it easier for additional people to find it.

Is SMO right for you?

While many businesses can benefit from social media, SMO might not be right for some others. These are some guiding questions to consider before embarking on a social media campaign:

• Social media involves sharing some personal information and developing online personas that reveal a bit of the personality of the people behind the brands. Are you comfortable with sharing specific information about you and your company?

• Does your company already have a blog or news feed that is regularly updated? If not, is there potential for your company to begin releasing regular updates?

• Social media operates most effectively when it is about something very specific. Would your products and services benefit from a specific content-driven marketing approach?

• While the pool of users of social media sites is growing and changing, most users are young and technologically sophisticated. Would your company, product, or service appeal to them?

Summary

Social media optimization has the potential to cross-pollinate with sectors of the market you never thought your message could reach. It does work. But like any other marketing campaign, go into it with your eyes open, and having thought through your strategy with as much throroughness as is possible.

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About Limelight Department
Limelight Department in advertising agency that specializes in Internet marketing for businesses across the US and Canada. Our experts utilize proven strategies of website development, media design, search engine optimization, pay-per-click, copy writing, content distribution and many other services to send targeted, ready-to-buy traffic to your site. Visit LimelightDepartment.com for more information.

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Abed's Limos make an appearance at King Estate Winery

Posted by Limelight Department | Posted in , , | Posted on 1:20 PM

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The other day we took some time to drive out to King Estate Winery to do a photo shoot for a client website, Abed's Limousine & Town Car Service. The beautiful day allowed for truly terrific photos of our clients limousines. The pictures look great and we can't wait to get them up on the website. Website coming soon for Aded's Limousine & Town Car Service at www.eugenelimo.com
Below is a photo of Shaylor, Zack and Jonathan enjoying the view at the winery