We
all know how critical it is to have a content-rich website. Promoting these
sites on the Internet has included everything from search engine optimization
to paid keyword referrals to link popularity campaigns in the past. However,
one of the most effective and relatively new ways to promote content-rich web
sites these days is through social media promotion. The role of
social media marketing packages and
promotion to drive content is a constantly expanding field. Even an examination
of the main sites mentioned above does not cover the viral social content
impact of such popular social media mechanisms such as YouTube videos or Flickr
photo slides and galleries.
Part of the Web 2.0 revolution; Another catchphrase
describing the new generation of web sites consists of users who submit their
text, video, and picture content; Social media promotion can take many forms.
Typically, these techniques and practices have
non-search engine forms and may include technologies such as chat forums,
message boards, blogs, podcasts, and wikis. Simply, social media can be
considered anything that you can use to build a community. A well-run social
media campaign can drive massive amounts of traffic to a website and determine
whether a new idea, website or startup eventually stops.
Today there are dozens of social media sites active
on the Internet. Below are brief descriptions of the five most popular things I
will consider:
Digg (digg.com/) - the big guy on social media
sites. Digg was formed initially with a technical focus and is still the end
for all tech or computer-specific content items you want to pull among the
general public. Digg, however, has become so popular that its scope has now
expanded to cover any item of interest.
del.icio.us (del.icio.us/) - Second close to Digg in
the field of backlink generation. The primary purpose of Del.icio.us is to
store your bookmarks online; In that respect, it is more community-centric then
Dig. The ability to store your bookmarks online and add more than anywhere in
the world encourages cross-linking between site members who share similar
interests. This, in turn, allows you to promote your content to a shared
community with similar interests, which produces much-needed backlinks for site
promotion purposes.
Technorati (Technorati.com/) - The recognized
authority on what is going on in the world of weblogs. Technorati's core strength
is the ability to monitor your online visibility. The site allows you to tell
who is linking with you, where you are being referred to online, what kind of
progress your site is making and how your competitors are doing in comparison.
The site can be unavoidable if you regularly visit a lot of blogs and want to
be updated on them when their content changes.
Wikipedia (wikipedia.org/) - Online since 2001,
Wikipedia is now the world's largest reference website on the planet.
Wikipedia's content is written free and collaboratively by people around the
world. This site is so popular that most word searches will display the top 5
Wikipedia results in Google. It is worth noting that if your website is not
already one of the strongest entries on the web, a list on Wikipedia can really
"out" your website. Therefore, make sure that this result is indeed
true and complimentary, whenever possible.
Facebook (facebook.com/) - Mainly run by young
adults, this social media site now numbers more than nine million users and is
still growing. Facebook helps you keep track of members' profiles, at least you
can reach them. If you want to promote a college-friendly product for you,
recent changes to the site have made it very marketing friendly and in use.
Members can purchase "Facebook Flyers", which start at $ 5, can be
displayed 10,000 times pop. Pricing increases based on the frequency and number
of days shown. Facebook groups are also very popular and very loyal, find
something that connects to your group or site and the results can be highly
viral.
Getting your content on these sites is not easy, but
there are ways to tailor your content in a way that is considered
"optimizing social media". This SMO approach is becoming a new
concentration area for current SEO firms and can incorporate any of dozens of
different approaches.
Here are five effective SMO rules that you can implement
immediately when preparing your content for future social media campaigns:
Make Your Site Linkable - Also known as increasing
your linkability, make it easy for external parties and social media sites to
link to your content. This can be done in the easiest way to set up a blog on
your site. If blogs are not your thing, then maintaining free white papers,
content-rich articles and resource pages with lots of useful links in one place
are great ways to enhance the linkable nature of your website.
It is easy to bookmark or social tagging, adding the
bookmarking button has been around for a while. This format is shown to be the
most effective for generating votes for your content.
Join the conversation on your site today or on your
site. Start blogging on your own or make a point to visit leading forums that
target your audience and join the discussion.
Reward helpful users or valuable users to your site
who contribute exclusively to the site's content and audience and should be
recognized and rewarded. This can take the form of a simple PM thank you or
note on the forums.
The more inbound links you have to your blog and
site, the better. It is still the singular method by which a site increases in
search ranking. In return reward them for linking sites by providing a
Permalink to use and listing on your site. This simple act of acknowledgment
provides a return gift of visibility and is never a bad thing.
