Connecting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY

A fairly recent viral video made by a young man by the name of Gary Turk that is still doing the rounds on social media sites does bring up some interesting points. The imagery and poetry of the video are clear and very well done. The overall message being that we should not be so addicted to social media. We should get out there and experience the world without staring at our phones all the time. Fair enough Gary.

Surely this is quite a different world we are living in even compared to 10 years ago. People are constantly sharing, tweeting, pinning, instagraming, tumblring, stumbling upon, and using various other newly created verbs to let everyone on the internet know what they are eating and how awesome their gym/yoga/spinning class/latte/sandwich is.

But does this detract from the experience of actually experiencing these things?

Does the fact that I shared a picture of my amazing sandwich on facebook make the sandwich less amazing?

Quite the contrary in my opinion. Whenever there are large amounts of people in a public place, they will always find a way to distract themselves from their commute. Even now some people still read print media like books, magazines, and newspapers in public! I have seen it!

The fact that I can share the awesomeness of my sandwich actually makes the sandwich even more amazing. I want to share the amazingness of the sandwich with the world and by golly I can and I will.

There is another talking point in the video that mentions how kids don’t go to the park anymore because they are stuck inside playing video games or playing around on an ipad. Kids will be kids. It is ultimately up to parents to engage their children and show them all the fun ways that they can spend their time. It is not fair to blame technology and social media for bad parenting.

Literally millions of views on Youtube, who knows how many likes and shares and tweets about a video that says stop using social media. Hm. “Look up” is the title of the video. Maybe look up irony Gary.

Back to basics

Social Media Optimization or SMO for short, is quickly becoming the most effective tool in any company’s marketing toolbox. The intrinsic value of connecting with your new and existing customers using different social media networks is obvious. From promoting new and existing products to effectively expanding your current client base, Social Media Optimization has changed the way business owners spend their marketing budgets. If this is not true for your business I’d like to point out a few key facts about Social Media Optimization.

As I said, SMO can help you to gain a deeper connection with your new and existing customers. “But how?” you might ask. Well it is a simple concept really. Most people around the world are on Facebook or Twitter or both or at the very least have heard of them and know what they are for. Creating a Facebook page for your business is a great way to reach out to your customers as there is a good chance that a majority of them are using the service. So you have a Facebook page, you tell all your existing customers to “like” your page which many of them will do, and then everyone in your customers’ networks see that they are using your company to get their products and services! Great! Now what?

Twitter is a bit trickier. Regular twitter users are very active and are usually posting or at least checking on their twitter accounts several times a day. This pretty much goes for Facebook as well. Therefore it is vital to not only get your customers to “like” your Facebook page and “follow” your Twitter account, you have to continually create new and enticing content for your customers and the people on their networks to see without coming off as spammy.

Youtube is a great resource as well. Using video-blogging you can put a face to your business which will only enhance the connection you are building with your customers. Promotional videos for your products and services can be produced and posted on Youtube to further engage customers in your marketplace.

Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. These are the big three. There are many other social networks out there that provide a wealth of customer gold that is ripe for the mining. LinkedIn, Foursquare, Pinterest, Tumblr, Stumbleupon, Delicious, Quora, the list goes on.

When used in conjunction with one another, you will not only be creating content that allows your customers insight into your new and existing products and services, you are also creating relevant content that is being viewed by hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or possibly even millions of people! “Why is this so great?” you might ask. Well, what you are doing is creating tons of relevant content which is in turn viewed by tons of people, which in turn is getting indexed by search engines, which in turn is increasing your organic results in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)!

Okay, you have to admit, it is pretty exciting. You are connecting with new and existing customers by simply promoting your products and services and at the same time you are actually doing Search Engine Optimization (SEO)!

This is why SMO is now the most effective SEO technique. A while ago, Google rolled out its “Panda” algorithm which took the focal point of the search engine crawlers away from metrics such as PageRank (PR) and focuses more on the amount of content out there and how many people are viewing it. This is why Social Networks saw such a huge ranking increase after Panda was rolled out.

Traditional SEO techniques are still viable, but it is obvious that SMO can be used according to “White Hat” standards and arguably much more effectively.

Is Social Media Optimization right for your business?

The answer is always yes!

Where is it all going?

Is SMO the beginning of the end for traditional SEO practices such as link exchange?

 

It seems that way!

 

About a year ago, Google rolled out its new Panda algorithm in an effort to move away from traditional indexing metrics such as PageRank and increase the position of higher quality content websites in the SERPs. Shortly after roll out, Social Networking sites saw a huge increase in rankings. This goes to show you that the more people looking at your content, the more relevant Google’s algorithm deems that content thereby giving you better search results. All-in-all it is a pretty simple formula for a successful marketing strategy. As we have already spoken at length about, implementing that strategy may not be so simple.

Search Engine Marketing Pros around the globe are going to have to start changing the way they do business very soon if they want to keep up with the most effective technologies in this industry. Even the guy with the whitest hat will have to hang it up and move on to the SMO world. And we will welcome him in with open arms!

On to the next

Getting your customers to “Like” your Facebook page, follow you on Twitter and +1 you on Google plus is essential. Make sure you have plenty of opportunities for them to do these actions on your website by adding buttons in many strategic areas.

After getting started with Facebook, Twitter and Google+ there are a considerable amount of social networks that you can also utilize to your advantage.

Youtube is probably the best choice to move onto next. Putting a face to your business is an important step to connecting with your customers both new and existing. It is never too late to start a video blog on Youtube about your company and its products and services.

Foursquare offers a great opportunity for existing customers around the globe to share the positive experience they had dealing with your company with other people close to them. It is also a great tool to use while at trade shows or other events to promote your business to people in the area.

There are many, many more networks out there. Let’s discuss some other networks we haven’t talked about yet next post.

Feel free to share some of your Social networking adventures with us!

What do you say?

Like SMO?
Hate SMO?
Use SMO?
Never used SMO?
Want to know more about SMO?
Know more than me about SMO?

We want to hear from you!

Contact us today

How do I get started!

By now you should have a good understanding of the basics of SMO and the hows and whys relating to helping your business grow.

You could do it yourself.

You could utilize one of your existing employees to handle your SMO.

You could hire a Digital Marketing Company to handle your SMO.

You could hire a passionate and knowledgeable individual to handle you SMO.

There could be many more options out there that may or may not be more right for your overall marketing strategy. That is something that you have to decide for yourself based upon your wants, needs, and budget.

At least now you are asking yourself the right questions.

Why SMO?

Social Media Optimization is a great way to find new customers and to stay connected to those customers to ensure repeat business.

Letting your customers hear your voice makes them feel closer to their service provider.
More connection with customers = Happier customers
Happier customers = Positive reviews
Positive reviews = More customers
More customers = More connection with even more customers

See where I’m going with this!

Also there is content generation
More relevant content in more places on the internet = More search engine relevancy
Higher search engine relevancy score = Better search engine rankings
Better search engine rankings = More connection with customers
This never ending loop of happiness will get your customers sharing their positive experience with your brand across all their social channels.

Where to begin??

So where do all the pieces to the puzzle fit in? And what piece do we glue down first?

Start with the basics. Facebook and Twitter alone could potentially put you in touch with millions of new customers so they are a great place to start. Getting the right kind of exposure on those networks can be tricky and take constant upkeep and maintenance. There are certain Twitter Enhancement Services that could net you tens of thousands of followers in less than a week. These techniques can also be applied to other social networks.

Getting loads of Twitter followers, Facebook friends and Google+ circles is all fine and dandy, but if you don’t maintain your relationships, you will start to lose them.

A good example is Lady Gaga who recently surpassed 20 million followers on twitter making her the Queen of Twitter. How did she get more followers than anyone else on Twitter? Simple, she participates. She tweets several times a day. She pays attention to her followers. She operates her own twitter account. She is setting the example that not only other celebrities should follow, but businesses as well.

After getting a good start on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, you could then get started with some of the other social networks such as Tumblr, Delicious, Foursquare and even Squidoo!

When do I get rich using SMO?!

Okay, let me first say that there is no magic bullet for success in business. But with SMO you have a great opportunity to get your products and services seen by as many people in as many places all around the world that you could possibly want. If that doesn’t increase your bottom line then there are possibly other areas in your company that need attention.

A company with a great marketing department but sub-standard sales and customer service will not be as successful as a company where the opposite is true. That equation may not always balance out but lets just remember that a marketing department is only as strong as its company’s reputation allows it to be. This gets back to the concept of Brand Reputation Management. If you allow one area of your company to falter, it could bring the whole ship down.

As it is said: If one leaf falls, autumn has come to the celestial empire.

Getting back to the question at hand, you could potentially see results within the first month of a well structured and well executed SMO campaign. After a few weeks, you should be targeting tens of thousands of new potential clients and getting exposure that will only increase exponentially. As I said, if this isn’t getting you more business, you may want to take another look at how your offering of products and services is presented.

What’s going on here?

So by now you may be saying to yourself, “SMO sounds great but what in the heck is SMO, really though?”

To answer this question as straight forward as possible, SMO is the utilization of various Social Networks to connect a company with new and existing customers in an effort to increase business productivity and maintain a healthy ROI for the company’s marketing strategy.

By connecting with more and more people on Social Networks such as Google+, Facebook and Twitter you will get more eyes on your webpage, your products and your services. You are also creating loads of relevant content, most of which search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing can find and index. The more relevant content you create, the better your search engine ranking is, the easier and easier it is for new customers to find you!

This is not something that happens overnight. You must create a conversation in the minds of your potential customers. You must work hard to earn their trust.