Aspects of Social Media Optimization

Most Web marketers are familiar with Search Engine Optimization (SEO); the practice of structuring web pages to make them "crawler friendly" to Google and other search sites.  But with the proliferation of Web 2.0 capabilities, intrepid marketers are becoming fluent in Social Media Optimization (SMO).  Tom Pick discusses the various aspect of SMO on his blog, including Discussion Forums, Social Bookmarking, Wikis, Video and Social Networks.

(Discussion Forums)…are a place to showcase your expertise in a non-promotional way. For example, in an SEO forum, telling everyone how great your agency is at SEO is suicide; but displaying your knowledge by offering expert tips on title meta tag creation or non-spammy link building is brilliant.

(Social Bookmarking)…sites like Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Mixx and Searchles are great places to spread the word about your own thought leadership content as well as, and even more importantly, positive coverage your company gets from other bloggers, journalists or analysts.

A wiki is another place to share your knowledge of a particular topic with a community or the world. You can do this by either writing an encyclopedic article about a topic; adding to or editing an existing article; or adding links to your own thought-leadership content as supporting material.

Business video production is growing exponentially because video is engaging, repurposable (for example, you can use a video on your website, at tradeshows and in presentations; post it on YouTube; use it as an asset for blogger outreach or a channel sales tool; add it to social media press releases; etc.), potentially viral, and increasingly searchable.

At the least, social networking services like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Konnects provide increased exposure for your company (and your "personal brand") while also providing SEO and reputation management benefits. At best, these sites can help you make valuable new business connections.

The end result ultimately would enable you to have the top search page which would be a great way to get the word out about your particular industry and get feedback at the same time.