Internet Marketing Consultants – SEO and SMO
Search engine optimization and internet marketing have changed dramatically in recent years with the advent of social media and social networking. Although SEOs have embraced it and used it to improve their existing practices, SMO and all that it stands for is undoubtedly the future of internet marketing…
It’s time to make your content count and start building natural authority in your marketplace by connecting and reacting to your customers and sharing with your peers. Find out where social media optimization and traditional search engine optimization are headed and what it means for your future online strategies.
What is social media optimization?
Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating advertising through social networking sites, online communities, and niche/community websites. Popular SMO techniques include
RSS feed syndication
merchandising articles
blog
Contribute to forums and online communities
Share content via social bookmarks
Embedding third-party media, such as videos and images.
Press releases
Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in a number of ways, primarily because it focuses on generating traffic from sources other than direct search engine results, though improving ranking and search authority are direct benefits of a successful SMO.
Social Media Optimization is essentially a form of viral marketing where ‘word of mouth’ is doubled through networking on interactive social sites.
The real trick is connecting these accounts together, producing fresh content, and using it to leverage your online exposure and ultimately drive targeted visitor streams to your main site. This is where search engine optimization techniques come into play, but usually the focus is on content promotion and reputation building.
interaction is the key here, there are no instant results (are there ever?), social media is all about networking with your peers online, just like you would at an industry event offline. Business forums are a great place to start by answering questions and sharing your experiences with like-minded people. Don’t try to promote yourself right away (or leave tacky irrelevant links everywhere – it’s tacky!) Just be… yourself and share what you know.
If you have articles, conference materials, or research papers saved, this is a great way to publish content, promote your business, and build authority for your company’s site. New material encourages natural linking and helps with your search engine rankings. You can use this to expand your keyword range to incorporate a wider range of phrases to attract more traffic.
Social media optimization allows you to drive quality, relevant traffic without worrying about your search engine rankings, which Google likes as it reduces spam and promotes good, natural content.
Social networks for marketing and customer interaction
Consumers are so bombarded by marketing and corporate jargon that they no longer pay attention to conventional advertising, and why should they? How often do you accept a new product or service only to be disappointed in customer service/support as soon as something goes wrong? We’re all fed up with cold calling and general mail campaigns, and as a result, our direct marketing friends have seen a rapid decline in conversions from traditional media.
Social media optimization allows businesses to connect with existing and potential customers on a neutral platform while gaining valuable insight into how they are perceived and where they need to improve. Think of it this way… what are you more likely to trust…a corporate campaign telling you to buy something or a recommendation from a trusted friend?
The internet moves at a terrifying pace and most marketing decision makers don’t have the time to keep up with the latest Web 2.0 developments let alone sort out what is a fad and what will show you. a good ROI and will generate long-term business. This also means that internet marketing consultants have to evolve at a rapid pace to keep up with the most effective techniques, so it pays to know a thing or two when looking for providers.
Common questions about SMO
-How do I find prospects online?
-How do I attract prospects?
How do I engage them and keep them interested?
-My ‘decision makers’ are not going to use Face Book or Myspace, so how can you help me?
-How do I use social networks to generate local leads?
Interaction is the key here, there are no instant results (are there ever?), social media is all about networking with your peers online, just like you would at an industry event offline. Business forums are a great place to start by answering questions and sharing your experiences with like-minded people. Don’t try to promote yourself right away (or leave tacky irrelevant links everywhere – it’s tacky!) Just be… yourself and share what you know.
If you have articles, conference materials, or research papers saved, this is a great way to publish content, promote your business, and build authority for your company’s site. This authority and fresh material encourages natural linking and helps with your search engine rankings. You can use this to expand your keyword range to incorporate a wider range of phrases to attract more traffic. This includes long tail phrases and geographically specific keywords.
Social media optimization allows you to drive quality, relevant traffic without worrying about your search engine rankings, which Google likes as it reduces spam and promotes good, natural content.
Summary
SEO is often divided into ‘white hat and black hat’, also known as ‘good’ and ‘bad’. However, the ultimate goal of all SEO tactics is to trick search engines into achieving higher search engine rankings, which has led to internet spam. What do we understand by spam? Joining a forum and leaving meaningless useless posts for the sole purpose of getting a link back to your site is a good example.
Search engines are wise about this and with this in mind, the way to optimize your site, improve search engine rankings and connect with your market will be to create useful content that serves your market by creating a loyal and genuine following. Optimization will be a more personal and personalized process where the company will focus on using internal marketing documents to leverage the authority of the web side.
We might even see a shift in the traditional job roles associated with internet marketing consultants as internal departments take control of their SEO content production and design. This would certainly give them more control while rewarding visitors with more relevant material.