Posts Tagged ‘social media marketing’

Social media enthusiasts still haven’t agreed on a definition for “social media optimization,” but if we are to call it “optimization,” there must be some basic science behind social website design.

The vast majority websites are designed as billboards out in cyberspace with which the user has almost no interaction, other than to view, comprehend the site, and possibly buy something or to be directed to buy something somewhere else. The most common entrance to these websites is through a search engine like Google.

Social media optimization is concerned with getting the most out of your visitors by harnessing their influence. Rather than simply reading your content, alternative options for your visitor could be to:  ... Read This »

1. Subscribe to your content via email newsletter or RSS
2. Link out to your website from one of their websites (provided that your visitor happens to be a webmaster or blogger)

Matt Cutts, the head of “web spam” at Google, says that you should focus on creating great content, and that people will naturally link to your website over time, which will eventually help your search engine rankings. That’s nice, and I would like to believe him, but there is a mountain of data compiled by SEO experts that suggest otherwise. Off-page SEO – the solicited acquisition of links pointing back to your website – still works and is big business. There are ways to not only increase your link-ability, but to increase your online influence by leveraging major social networks.  ... Read This »

Twitter and Facebook are about to go head to head in a grueling evaluation of their effectiveness as blog syndication channels. At the end of three standard paragraphs there will be only one declared winner, one declared loser and ultimately two options that aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, but for comparison sake: the following is brought to you by Smobot – “the social media optimization guide.”

First, we have to assume a level playing field. Let’s examine a situation where you’ve got an equal number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, and both options will each only receive one status update per blog post, the content of which shall be, again, assumed equal. Facebook enables users to comment, “like this” or something, share content, and invite friends to “fan” that Facebook page (fan: v. – the act of becoming a fan of a person, place or thing’s Facebook page). Twitter enables users to @reply and retweet content. Overall, retweeting occurs more frequently than Facebook sharing (refer to Mashable’s home page), but Facebook enables users to easily suggest the Facebook Page to their entire network of friends. Round one is a draw.  ... Read This »