Digging into Social Media Optimization - Content Stays King
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Social media optimization is complicated. And like anything complicated, plans for it should be kept simple. New things do not have to be created. Internet marketing already has strategies for attracting people to another web site. Whether it be through SEO or social media or blogs, it is called relevant themed content! In other words, content that attracts links will win in every way when it comes to Internet marketing, whatever acronym it may have.
With readers looking to digest large chunks in small bits, content has to be arranged in a simple form that can be easily absorbed. The format of your content is more important than ever (lists, how-to's, videos, pictures, and even slide shows). This content, properly arranged, can be leveraged in websites to ensure that they attract attention.
The Power of a Shocking Title
A shocking title will get you far with news aggregators. Here are a few I found on Digg: "Meanest Mom On The Planet," "The Ten Most Dangerous Foods," "How To Make a Billion Dollar Burrito." Definitely not Albert Einstein stuff, but they all made it to the top page of Digg. Of course, some pretty tame titles also made it (probably insiders if you ask me). Some day we will all be insiders and will be able to submit an article called "How To Squeeze Lemons" and get two thousand Diggs. But until then, we better do all that we can to ensure that the content stays deep and useful and that topics are engaging enough to make people laugh.
Staying Away from Spam
In my other article on social media optimization, I mentioned that a blatant advertisement is considered spamming. Social media is gradually getting commercial, with businesses buying (oops, I meant hiring) members with 100+ friends. A sock puppet agent on Facebook is still going for bargain basement prices.
Nevertheless, if you want to build an honest network, consistency and honesty actually work wonders. Do things like add a few friends every week on your network, PM major users to share tips or comment on a post, become a known contributor on a particular topic, and focus on niche industries that fit your profile. Don't just hyperventilate over MySpace and Facebook.
Spam is a huge problem on community sites, wiki pages, and even forums. Since spam does not offer value to the readers of a site, most community sites are getting rid of spam posts, keeping their website spam free and hiring moderators and administrators by the bus load.
Basically, stay away from spam. Don't troll; focus and contribute. This is pretty important because people do try short cuts and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But on sites like Digg it does not work. Chris over at www.10e20.com contributed an article to Search Engine Land listing a few things to do for social media in 2008. These include putting in a "2007 in review" for a particular industry. Picking your topic, your theme, and your timeliness will go a long way in determining how attractive you are to news aggregators.
An overlooked tool is a poll (the more controversial the better). The good thing about polls is you don't always have to be politically correct. You can then let your inner prejudices out (for example, is Yahoo ever going to catch up with Google's stock price? Pick yes, no, or maybe). Chris has his article here on Search Engine Land.
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