Social Media Optimization, Before You Kill Yourself
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Social media optimization -- what a mouthful! Some have already started wondering whether social media optimization (SMO) will become a "separate" Internet marketing model, separate from paid search and from SEO, and they may very well be onto something.
First off, I do "Digg it" and I do "Slashdot it," I occasionally "Wiki," but Facebook and MySpace are not my favorite haunting grounds. However, "bidness is bidness" and I had little choice. I had to learn SMO and in this respect the website www.searchengineland.com was extremely helpful for learning how to build viral applications for community sites, or how to design them and have a programmer build them.
One thing I noticed way before I started reading the helpful columns in Search Engine Land (especially with Digg.com and Wikipedia) was the contempt they had for deliberate attempts to gerrymander their site. Most of the time Digg buried any Digg they felt was being manipulated. Even the "Tails" that wag the Digg dog were not safe as they set up systems to ensure that Digging was as democratic as possible.
I call this article "Before You Kill Yourself," since sometimes a foray into SMO leads to a figurative "death" if it fails. The SMO campaign just goes nowhere and you end up with 21 people "friending" you, 9 Diggs, and little or no idea how to "raise" your campaign from the dead. And activity does little to help. SEO seeks to manipulate an algorithm, while SMO seeks to do what advertisements do on television, which is manipulate (for want of a better word) real people. We will look at social media in general, then share specifics on Digg, Wikipedia, and Facebook.
Before You Begin
Do you know what the site is about? Have you studied the community website? Do you know the needs of the users or the major theme of the website? A restaurant website has little hope on Digg (which predominantly carries technology-related news).
Is there really any point in registering and applying optimization techniques in a community website? This is especially true for community driven "news aggregators," because all have the same modes of operation, but all the sites have different niches. You have to know whether you fit into the site or you will find yourself moving from community site to community site. Bungee jumping enthusiasts typically have no turf on tech sites -- but niche community sites in other industries apart from technology and the Internet are slowly arising.
If all you want to do on the site is promote yourself and you have little to offer the users, you can be sure it has been tried before and that the website that has tried it is wallowing in obscurity (death?) with a limited profile in the website. The web and community web sites have a name for constant self promotion, its called "spam." Then you get to be some bodies medal of honor when they get tagged "top spam buster" (a coveted position in communities). Just avoid it and don't sign up for the site if you have nothing to offer. All sites have mechanisms in place to detect and penalize spam.
Follow the Rules
All communities have a set of rules that ensure experience and participation in a healthy manner are rewarded. These rules are sometimes posted and sometimes not. Behaving like a troll is not a good idea. Just doing things to generate activity is generally not good. In fact, there are a lot of things that are not good.
Participate normally and build a reputation in the community so that when controversy arises, you are in a position to head it off. A lot of times controversies concerning a web site's or product's integrity are discussed in forum threads, and if the creator of the web site is a respected member of the community, his defense is more likely to be listened to and heard. Being a good member is very, very good and has limitless PR potential.
Gather a Following
Be a good member and participate honestly and before you know it, you will have a small network of other users who will follow and comment on your posts. Beware of the rule of reciprocity! If you do not reciprocate, you will (very rapidly) lose your following. Once you gather a following by posting and commenting (no spamming), stay consistent and don't whine if your content does not always get high ratings or high visibility.
Next: Niche Sites >>
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