SEO Mentor

With the influx of new Web 2.0 sites online there is a growing concern with businesses both online and offline and how to benefit from Social Networking and Media sites that are currently rocking the online world.

The president of the company I used to work for asked me the following,

“How can Social Media help my company and why should I waste time with it.”

I went through a couple examples of how social marketing would help his business grow and showed him a couple of sites that I thought he should check out like Facebook.com, Squidoo.com, Twitter.com, and Stumbleupon.com just to name a few. Once I said ‘Facebook’ his eyes lit up and he said how fun he has had on Facebook and how he has come across old friends that he hasn’t talked to for years. I then saw a light go on in his head realizing the power of Social Media and Social Networking sites.

A recent article called “Why is Social Media So Hard For Businesses?” by Mark Collier of SearchEngineGuide.com stated:

“More businesses than ever are exploring the possibility of using social media tools and sites to help grow their business. But many of these efforts aren’t very effective, and I think that is due to many businesses simply misunderstanding what social media is, and why it’s so important.

First, what exactly IS social media? Asking 10 people might result in 10 different answers, but for simplicity sake, lets say that social media is a group of tools and sites that let you easily create and share content online. Blogs, social networks, and podcasts are the common forms of social media that most of us are at least somewhat familiar with.

The problem that I think many businesses have, is how they view social media. I believe many businesses (of all sizes) see social media sites and tools as new channels to publish content into. In order words, they view social media as being marketing channels.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Notice in the above definition of social media, I said that these sites and tools are ways to create and share content. Why use the word ’share’ instead of ‘publish’ or ‘distribute’?”

I totally agree with Mark and believe that not only businesses but in general people are misunderstanding the purpose of these social media sites that are now getting more pageviews than even the major search engines. Think of a search engine as a quick search for something and then leave. With these social media sites people are not only viewing more pages on the sites but they are also staying on these sites up to 5 times longer than they stay in the search engines, meaning you as a business owner now have five times as long to catch your viewers attention. THIS IS POWERFUL!!!

With this being said what we need to remember is that these sites were made for being social and for sharing ideas, images, videos, and much more. If a business owner goes into this atmosphere not knowing this and just starts promoting his/her products or services then there is going to be a huge problem with the way they will be treated in the future. This is why everyone must understand not only how each of these social media sites work, they must also understand how to go about marketing and placing content. This is something that others and I like to call Social media Optimization

Here are 5 tips I would give to anyone that is thinking of marketing or promoting their products or services through the Social Media avenue:

1. Always research the community of the social site that you plan on working with! For example if you plan on advertising with Sphinn.com then you need to realize that this a very tightly nit community for those in the SEO and SocialMarketing niche so if you are posting articles about “Real Estate” you will probably be kicked out as fast as you can say “SOLD”.
2. Once you have come to the conclusion that the social media site is somewhere you can relate to the users and groups you need to learn how to use the site and study the top users. An example of this would be to visit the Top Stumblers at Stumbleupon.com and see why they have been successful and become their friends.
3. You must remember that the term “Social” means being communal you need to be friendly and join groups and add or request friends. You need to be funny and have a sense of humor or you will fail. A perfect example of this is David Harry of Huomah.com. Not only is this guy hilarious but he is a great friend somebody you would want to be around.
4. If you fail to provide valuable content to the users you will fail to succeed. Lee Odden of TopRankblog.com is the ideal example of someone that provides valuable content to those that stumble upon his content through these social media and networking sites.
5. Lastly, keep in mind that you must not be selling your stuff through these social networking sites, this will turn people off. Trust me, if you provide great and valuable content and strategically place links to your money sites, people will find you. And one more thing. Please commit to yourself that you will not spam these sites. The more people that spam the more these sites will become ineffective.

This is just the tip of the iceburg on what social media can do for you as a business owner or if you are just trying to become the “Social Expert” in your market/niche.

Here are some excellent articles that will also help you stay focused with your Social Marketing Online:

Social Media Optimization is a New Way to Promote Your Website …

What is Social Media Optimization or Social Media marketing strategy and how does it drive traffic to your website and promote your product?

The Importance of Social Media Optimization

Social media optimization is any method used to raise your website’s online visibility through meaningful communication. Read to know more.

What is Social Media Optimization?

SMO basically stands for social media optimization. You may have known about SEO but SMO is a new word in the online dictionary.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 3:20 am and is filed under Social Bookmarking, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Tags: David Harry, Facebook.com, huomah.com, Lee Odden, Mark Collier, Searchengineguide.com, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Optimization, Social Networking, Squidoo.com, Twitter.com, Why is Social Media So Hard For Businesses