With the ever rise of new social networks, blogs, social bookmarking and other social media related channels, it has created a new source of traffic to your website and blog.
A top story on Digg can drive much more traffic to your website than a top search engine ranking could ever do. This has created a new process to this trend called SMO (Social Media Optimization).
Social Media Optimization
SMO is a form of word of mouth marketing through the use of media sharing (photo, video), social bookmarking and social networking sites. The essence of Social Media Optimization is giving people a reason to visit and link to your website because of its great informative and original content.
You can use social media to build your reputation and brand, never to sell products. Brand yourself as the leader and become the expert in your industry. Your brand is what you represent and stand for. You can be the persuasive and unique voice in your market. The goal with social media is to build a cultural following.
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is quite different from Social Media Marketing (SMM). With social media you can market directly to targeted audiences and with SEO you are marketing to the search engines. SEO is a slow process and can usually take a long time to get good results as you have to wait for the search engines to discover your content. There are ways to speed up this process but with SMM, you can market directly to every corner of the world. SEO is about building good rankings on the search engines while social media is about building relationships and a community.
The online shift towards social media
We live in a world where we cannot hide anymore. The online business world has become more transparent. There is really no more lurking in the shadows. Social media shines a light on everybody and everything as most content and news can be shared immediately without using traditional marketing methods.
The online world where marketing plays a big role has changed tremendously in the last few years. It is really getting increasingly chaotic. The old style of controlling and owning your market is dead. It is now all about conversing and interacting with your market directly.
by
Francois Muscat
WSI representative for south Africa
